0 National Geographic Photo Contest 2012

Part I (from September): here

Part II (from November): here

0 Thin Ice: Stereotype Threat and Black College Students

This is an old piece from The Atlantic in 1999 that detailed a study conducted at Stanford about black college students and their interaction with stereotype threat.  I am part-way through the piece right now but would certainly encourage folks concerned with social justice, education, psychology, and American Studies to read it.

Full article here

When capable black college students fail to perform as well as their white counterparts, the explanation often has less to do with preparation or ability than with the threat of stereotypes about their capacity to succeed. Educators at Stanford who tested this hypothesis report their findings and propose solutions 

In recent years this debate has acquired a finer focus: the fate of middle-class black students. Americans have come to view the disadvantages associated with being black as disadvantages primarily of social and economic resources and opportunity. This assumption is often taken to imply that if you are black and come from a socioeconomically middle-class home, you no longer suffer a significant disadvantage of race. "Why should the son of a black physician be given an advantage in college admission over the son of a white delivery-truck driver?" This is a standard question in the controversy over affirmative action. And the assumption behind it is that surely in today's society the disadvantages of race are overcome when lower socioeconomic status is overcome. 

But virtually all aspects of underperformance—lower standardized-test scores, lower college grades, lower graduation rates—persist among students from the African-American middle class. This situation forces on us an uncomfortable recognition: that beyond class, something racial is depressing the academic performance of these students.
Some time ago I and two colleagues, Joshua Aronson and Steven Spencer, tried to see the world from the standpoint of these students, concerning ourselves less with features of theirs that might explain their troubles than with features of the world they see. A story I was told recently depicts some of these. The storyteller was worried about his friend, a normally energetic black student who had broken up with his longtime girlfriend and had since learned that she, a Hispanic, was now dating a white student. This hit him hard. Not long after hearing about his girlfriend, he sat through an hour's discussion of The Bell Curvein his psychology class, during which the possible genetic inferiority of his race was openly considered. Then he overheard students at lunch arguing that affirmative action allowed in too many underqualified blacks. By his own account, this young man had experienced very little of what he thought of as racial discrimination on campus. Still, these were features of his world. Could they have a bearing on his academic life? 

My colleagues and I have called such features "stereotype threat"—the threat of being viewed through the lens of a negative stereotype, or the fear of doing something that would inadvertently confirm that stereotype. Everyone experiences stereotype threat. We are all members of some group about which negative stereotypes exist, from white males and Methodists to women and the elderly. And in a situation where one of those stereotypes applies—a man talking to women about pay equity, for example, or an aging faculty member trying to remember a number sequence in the middle of a lecture—we know that we may be judged by it.

0 What We're Reading Today (11-28-12): Herr Krugman, Palestinian Statehood Bid, Ukraine's Topless Activists

Republicans Begin Pivot on Immigration - The Nation
Ben Adler

When Domestic Workers Suffer, Our Economy Suffers - The Nation
Bryce Covert

Please, Herr Krugman, May I have Another?  How America's Favorite Liberal Stokes German Masochism - The New Republic
Cameron Abadi

Are Your Facebook Friends Stressing You Out? (Yes!) - The Atlantic
Megan Garber

Femen, Ukraine's Topless Warriors - The Atlantic
Jeffrey Taylor

Don't Expect Tzipi Livni to Shake Up Israel's Election - The New Republic
Ben Birnbaum

Palestinians win more European support for limited statehood - Haaretz
Reuters

Misguided UN Bid - Jerusalem Post
Editorial

Support Palestinian Statehood - New York Times
Yossi Beilin

Exhuming Yasser Arafat - National Post
Jonathan Kay

The 20 Richest Metros in America - The Atlantic
Derek Thompson

35 Amazing Graphs the Show how Your Spending Habits Change with Age - The Atlantic
Sam Ro

0 What We're Reading Today (11-27-12): Whiteness; "Most-Racial" America; Obama's Cabinet; Israel on Iran and Settlements

Whiteness in the Age of Obama - Huffington Post
Jedediah Purdy

Most-Racial America: Anti-White Bigotry goes Mainstream - Wall Street Journal
James Taranto

Obama's New Cabinet - New York Times
Joe Nocera

Bitter struggle over internet regulation to dominate global summit - Reuters
Joseph Menn

The Other Fiscal Fight - Politico
Carrie Budoff Brown & Jake Sherman

Is Hillel truly "the foundation for Jewish campus life" for all Jews? - Tufts Daily
Julia Wedgle

Israel's Iran and Settlements Switcheroo - The New Republic
Ben Birnbaum

0 What We're Reading Today (11-26-12): America & the (New) Mid-East, Mexican Mayor Abducted and Stabbed, FoxConn

Florida will Grade White and Black Students on Different Scales - Care2
Judy Molland

Mexico's Fearless Woman Mayor Abducted and Stabbed - Daily Mail
Sam Webb

Visualizing Palestine

America's Responsibility in the New Middle-East - The New Republic
Dennis Ross

Raymond Chandler's Private Dick - The Atlantic
Ta-Nehisi Coates

Back to FoxConn: Cameras, Clinics, Hoops - The Atlantic
James Fallows

What was it like to be a Woman at Goldman Sachs - The Atlantic
Marie Myung-Ok Lee

0 What We're Reading Today (11-21-12): The Most Badass Girl Football Player, Getting Laid, Israel vs Iran, and Thomas Jefferson's Slaves

Sam Gordon, Girl Football Player, Stars in Ridiculous Highlight Reel - Huffington Post

The Debate Over Thomas Jefferson's Slaves Rages On - Slate
Katie Kilkenny

Is Israel's Gaza Campaign Laying the Groundwork for a Strike on Iran - The Atlantic
Moran Stern

Eight Ways Obama can Jam through his Agenda without Congress - The New Republic
Timothy Noah

Conservatives: Who's Your Daddy? - Jacobin
Corey Robin

You Can Get Laid Without Being a Jerk - Good Men Project
Emily Heist Moss

A Gaza Family's Deja Vu - The New Republic
Sarah A. Topol

Where Obama and Romney Beat Their Polls - Five Thirty Eight
Nate Silver

0 What We're Reading Today (11-20-12): Anderson Cooper, Mohamed Morsi, and the War on Drugs

Anderson Cooper Shades Tweeter Over Gaza Comment - Buzzfeed

Stacy Lambe

Syria's Spray-Can Revolution - The Atlantic

James Harkin

The Israel-Gaza Conflict: A Guide to the Major Players - The Atlantic

Ron Synovitz

Exposed: UN agency rips IDF for video alleging Hamas uses Gaza schools to launch rockets - Russia Today

Mohamed Morsi in the Middle - The Nation

Sharif Abdel Kouddous

Rubio's Perplexing Punt on the Age of the Earth - The Atlantic

Garance Franke-Ruta

The Real Reasons You Waited in Line to Vote - The Atlantic

Richard H. Pildes

Assume Joke Dead - The New Republic

Alex Pareene

It's Time to End the War on Drugs - The Nation

Katrina vanden Heuvel

0 What We're Reading Today (11-19-12) #2: Freestyle Rap, Education Policy and Race, and Why You Shouldn't Talk to Strange White Folks about Race

Read a Book! Or, Why I don't Talk to Strange White Folks about Race - Black Girl Dangerous
Mia McKenzie

The Origin of the Phrase "Women of Color" - Loretta Ross

"People of Color (POC)" "Women of Color (WOC)" and "Men of Color (MOC)" are not biological destinies. These are political designations. So when we speak of POC, we are not talking about all racial minorities, we speaking with and to folks who are committed to "working in collaboration with other oppressed racial groups who have been “minoritized" by white supremacist institutions.  - Tabias Wilson (BlaQueerPoz)

Viewpoint: What's Behind Cornel West's Attacks on Obama - Time
Touré

Obama Won. Now it's time to change the system. - The Nation
Peter Dreier and Donald Cohen

Should Schools Set Different Goals for Children of Different Races? - The Atlantic
Emily Richmond

For Australian Aborigines, the Health Problems of Westernization - The Atlantic
Edward Small

The Neuroanatomy of Freestyle Rap - The Atlantic
Lindsay Abrams

New Research Shows African-American Cities are the Source of much Modern Slang - The Grio
Alexis Stodghill

Do Men Always want to Sleep Around - Slate
Amanda Marcotte

0 What We're Reading Today (11-19-12): Gaza, Education in Massachusetts, McKayala Maroney & Obama, and more Gaza

Finally, finally, finally, I have my laptop back. Props to Alex Kolodner of Tufts UIT for fixing it for me.  He and the crew at Tufts Online are saviors and also helped me save like $500 through their repair.  Many thanks and many beers to you all.

That said, let's get back into the swing of things.  Here is what we're reading today.

We in the Gaza Strip will not Die in Silence - The Guardian
Musa Abumarzuq

Geo-Politics and Dead Babies - The Daily Beast
Andrew Sullivan

Mashed Potatoes, Hummus, and Settler Colonialism - The Tufts Daily
Matthew Parsons

Turkey's Erdogan: Israel carrying out "terrorist acts" - The Daily Star
Reuters

A Report from Gaza Under Siege - The Nation
Mohammed Omer

Israeli Iron Dome Stops a Rocket with a Rocket - The New York Times
Isabel Kershner

Economic Costs of Gaza Fighting - Jerusalem Post
Felice Friedson, Linda Gradstein, The Media L

Small Arms, Big Problems - Foreign Policy
Damien Spleeters
** I only lightly skimmed this piece and think I need to revisit it.  I may have misread but some of the author's implications irked me

The battle between Israel and Gaza solves nothing - The Guardian
Jonathan Freedland

Report: Mass. Cuts Tuition for Illegal Immigrants - Politico
Kevin Robillard

Maroney: "Obama asked for 'the face'" - Politico
Caitlin McDevitt

Via Son of Baldwin (here)

0 What We're Reading Today (11-15-12): Gaza, "Premature Ejaculation", and the 50-Year Farm Bill

The 50-Year Farm Bill - The Atlantic
Wendell Berry

Study: We're Less Likely to Recognize Symptoms of Depression in Men - The Atlantic
Lindsay Abrams

Has Israel's Assault on Gaza Made Tel Aviv Vulnerable? - Time
Karl Vick

Study: Being a "Healthy" Degree of Neurotic Lowers Risk of Chronic Disease - The Atlantic
Lindsay Abrams

For Israel, Costs and Benefits of Striking Gaza - Christian Science Monitor
Dan Murphy

The Gaza Invasion: Will it Destroy Israel's Relationship with Egypt? - The Atlantic
Eric Trager

When is Ejaculation "Premature" and when should a Penis be made Numb? - The Atlantic
James Hamblin

How Vulnerable is John Kerry's Senate Seat? - The New Republic
Alec MacGillis

0 What We're Reading Today (11-13-12): 'Just Wars', Obama Photos, Evangelicals, and Macular Degenration

Rethinking the 'Just War' Part 1 - The New York Times
Jeff McMahan

Rethinking the 'Just War' Part 2 - The New York Times
Jeff McMahan

Some Awesome Pictures of Obama - img.ur

What Black Turnout for Obama in 2012 Means for the GOP in 2016 - The New Republic
Nate Cohn

Election 2012 Marks the End of Evangelical Dominance in Politics - The Atlantic
Jonathan Merritt

Study: In Macular Degeneration, iPads are Better than Print - The Atlantic
Lindsay Abrams

0 What We're Reading Today (11-12-12) #3: Radical Community, The Iron Man, The People of Color Majority

After the Love Has Gone: Some Thoughts on Radical Community After the Election - The Crunk Feminist Collective
Crunkadelic

A Letter to All My Dismal Allies on the US Left - The Guardian
Rebecca Solnit

The Iron Man - CounterPunch
Uri Averny

Red Versus Blue in a New Light - The New York Times
Andrew Gelman and Avi Feller

Cornel West: "Obama is a Rockefeller Republican in Black Face," Harris-Perry and Dyson are up for Sale - News One
Kirsten West Savali

Five Race and Gender Justice Lessons Learned From this Marathon Election Cycle - ColorLines
Akiba Solomon

A People of Color Majority Alters Politics. Movements Change the World - ColorLines
Rinku Sen

0 What We're Reading Today (11-12-12) #2: Political Racism in the Age of Obama, Progressive Surge, #Ninja Please, Latino Voters Expect Results

Political Racism in the Age of Obama - The New York Times
Steve Hahn

Latino Voters' Election Day Statement: "Give my parents papers." - ColorLines
Julianne Hing

A Progressive Surge - The Nation
The Editors

Bringing the Fight to the Billionaires - The Nation
The Editors

So What Now?  Five Racial Justice Thinkers Make Sense of the Election - ColorLines
Jamilah King

Yes We Can, Yes We Did, and Now Obama's Second Term is Our Responsibility - The Nation
Robert Scheer

The 'You're On Your Own' Society - The Nation
Katha Pollitt

Black Lacrosse Player Boycotts Racially-Charged Slogan, "#Ninja Please" - The Grio
Similoluwa Ojurongbe

0 What We're Reading Today (11-12-12): Venice, the GOP and White People, Electoral College is Dumb/Awesome

Grover Norquist: Mitt Romney painted as "poopy-head" - Politico
Kevin Robillard and Katie Glueck

Romney is President - The New York Times
Maureen Dowd

Republicans Have Problems with White Voters, Too - The New Republic
Nate Cohn

Defending the Electoral College - Slate
Richard Posner

A Rebuttal of Richard Posner's Moronic Defense of the Electoral College - Gawker
Hamilton Nolan

Venice Under Water - The Atlantic

Sanctions Have Crippled Iran's Economy, but They're Not Working\ - The New Republic
Christopher de Bellaigue

Stuff White People Like - The New Republic
Jonathan Cohn

0 In Honor of Brandon Lacy Campos

I met Brandon Campos last week.

He was the keynote speaker for Pan-African Alliance's annual Black Solidarity Day having achieved prominence through Queers for Economic Justice, his widely-circulated blog (My Feet Only Walk Forward), and the mentorship of one of my best friends.  I did not know Brandon as well as the hundreds of people who are collectively mourning his death on the internet -- through various forums, photographs, articles, and Facebook posts -- or his friends and family across the United States and other countries.  All things considered, I knew Brandon rather transiently but I feel moved to voice my thoughts on his passing and speak to the impression he left on me.

Brandon's remarks for Black Solidarity Day were a lifting and spirited ten minutes of poetry blended into prose blended with a sort of flair particular to Brandon's rhetorical style.  He called for a "radical redefinition of blackness," a sense of collective purpose and accomplishment through recognition of our unique experiences.  This speech, like many of Brandon's other writings, praised the necessity of self-love, community-love, and the power of mutually-beneficial growth.  He highlighted the importance of black feminism -- of the acceptance of feminism by black men -- and drew attention to the structural disadvantages people of color face but also challenged these communities to advance their own education and growth.

The speech stuck with me and with everyone else who came to Black Solidarity Day.  In 10 minutes Brandon had artfully struck a note with every distinct identity present.  We were all eager to "get to that mountaintop," and thankful that Brandon was present to help lead us there.

Before the evening portion of Black Solidarity Day, I drove with my friend, Lev, to Dorchester to pick-up Brandon from the house of a friend he was staying with.  After picking up Brandon we quickly found ourselves lost in Boston's tapestry of a highway system.  Poor lighting, crooked roads, and a lack of city planning has made Boston my nightmare as a driver; not to mention, the trip that was supposed to be 20 minutes each way was quickly becoming at least an hour on the road -- worse than anything, I knew the oxtails, cornbread, rice, and baked chicken we had ordered was quickly being devoured.

Listening to Brandon call his boyfriend in the backseat of the car as Lev and I tried to right the ship, it would have been impossible not to take note of the energy with which Brandon spoke, the vitality and thoughtfulness he placed in every word.  When he turned his attention to us, the energy did not recede.

Lev and I probed him about his upbringing in Minnesota, about his plans for graduate school.  We talked about Queers for Economic Justice and our own hopes and ambitions -- Lev's to be a writer and my own hope to break in to politics.  He told us that there is only one place to properly get a Juicy Lucy Burger in the Twin Cities and we would do well not to get it twisted.  Brandon listened and Brandon responded and Brandon was funny, really funny.  He joked with us about girls and told us that Suheir Hammad, the Palestinian-American spoken word poet and activist, was "fucking fierce," and that any man would be lucky to have her.  It was as if he knew Lev and I both have a soft spot for the women from that part of the world -- or at least knew that he and I both immediately fell in love with anyone who tanned like caramel, had a pair of well-groomed eyebrows and could be described as "fierce."  Brandon became our bro but not just a bro; Brandon was kind of everything in that car ride.  Imagine if both of the Wonder Twins were smashed into one person and had uncanny abilities to listen, advise, console, joke with, and chill.  Lev and I were so glad he had 14 more years of life under his belt than us but, if anything, would have loved nothing more than to have Brandon enroll at Tufts the next day and make memories with us.

I remember asking him about feminism, about black feminism, about black male feminism -- about black male feminism as a young, straight, black male who is going through a crisis of self trying to figure out how to live as a young, straight, black male who can't remember any examples of grown black men acting as mutually supportive and respectful partners to the women they were "in love with".  I think this was the moment I appreciated the most about the car ride with Brandon. He could have readily dismissed the question, given an uninspired answer, and gone back to the game on his phone.  Instead he listened -- listened as I tried to explain the spot I was in emotionally, intellectually, spiritually, in crafting my own feminism -- the crisis that Kiese Laymon so wonderfully expressed as this: I am a wannabe black male feminist who is really bad at loving women who are really good at loving me.

Brandon's advice was succinct and brief and I can't remember everything he said; I can't remember the majority of what he said, actually.  What I do remember though is that he recognized the difficulties inherent to trying to develop a practical feminism as a member of a community that has experienced the oppression that the black community has but also didn't let me off the hook.  Personal responsibility plays a huge part in that development, as he had explained earlier in the day, but also, Brandon said, you have to allow yourself to fuck up, "because you're going to."

Finally back at Tufts and with all the remainders of the oxtails and rice heaped on our triple-stacked paper plate, Brandon settled in to a seat toward the front of the lecture hall in which the open mic section of the night was hosted.  Sitting with Lev toward the back of the room, Lev and I watched Brandon read a poem from his book: It Ain't Truth if it Doesn't Hurt.  Consistent with his speech from earlier, Brandon's poem was a celebration of self-love, a chance to praise the self and the community that several selves acting in concert create.

So Friday night when I heard that Brandon had passed, I struggled to think of someone who stood as such an antithesis to the stillness of death.  Brandon was so very much that to speak of him in the past tense feels bizarre, unnatural -- and I came to this realization after a short jaunt around Boston.  Brandon was, "a black, white, Ojibwe, Afro-Boricua, HIV positive, queer man," but that was just the beginning; which says something because that is a lot of ways to describe yourself!  Brandon was a boyfriend and a scholar and a mentor and a knock-your-socks-off kind of cook and a role model and a leader and a symbol of how black, white, Ojibwe, Afro-Boricua, HIV positive, queer men (and everyone else for that matter) could live prosperous and healthy lives.  He lived courageously and as a counterpoint, an exception, to the false belief that living as an openly HIV positive individual was to surrender your happiness.  Brandon was self-love; he was self-love, not for his own aggrandizement and promotion but, out of the recognition that creating community and being supportive for others cannot be done to its maximum capability unless we all learn how to love ourselves -- and then turn that love out toward others.

I don't really know how to end this post aside from falling into a bunch of cliches about how the lost will never be forgotten, that they will live on in memory and spirit (and literature in Brandon's case, specifically). I want to stay away from those, though, because I want to leave people with the space to find closure about the loss of this impressive human-being in their own way.  Brandon was, undoubtedly, someone to behold and someone to aspire to.  He has left a legacy and a model and inspired and led.  In just a quick car ride, Brandon gave me a glimpse of the mountaintop he had realized, that we all hope to realize.  My thoughts, prayers, solidarity, and affection to all those affected.

Rest in peace, Brandon Lacy Campos.

More than peace, though, rest in love.

Ain't nobody in this world going to give us our liberation. We need to break those chains ourselves, and we have to start by holding each other close in a way that says clearly that I am you. You are me. And I will do the work to undo the legacy of oppression, racism, sexism, heterosexism, abelism, classism, immigration status, and skin privilege that keeps me from you and you from me and us from the mountaintop because I am climbing y'all, and I mean to take every one of you with me, if you'll just hold my hand. I need you, and we need each other.

Brandon's blog: My Feet Only Walk Forward
Brandon's Remarks at Black Solidarity Day: Here 

0 Mrs. Landingham, What's next?

I caught the politics bug when I was a young kid, sharing the couch with my parents watching the West Wing. The first four seasons with Aaron Sorkin writing are still the best thing ever to happen to television. For those who haven’t seen it, you should. For those who have, President Bartlett’s totally sweet show-closing line has been rattling around in my head all day.

What does come next?

If you look at the numbers and listen to more than a few pundits, you’ll hear them saying that this was a status-quo election. The Dems kept the Senate, and the House is still red. Obama’s still the president, and we’re still hurtling towards the fiscal cliff like Wile E. Coyote on rocket-powered roller skates. What comes next HAS to be compromise, and it has to be led by the President. It looks like Boehner sees the writing on the wall, but he’s up for a seriously tough fight. And it’s not just going to come from the Dems.

 

The Republicans lost. Bigtime. But why, when the economy had left the incumbent’s flank wide open and they’d just won the 2010 Congressional race in a landslide? And no, its not just about demographics, which are moving from bad to worse for the GOP.

Since the 2010 Tea Party victory in Congress, the currency of prestige in the Republican Party has been entirely based on how much they hate Barack Obama. Any hint of compromise with a Democrat is considered an excommunicable offense. Look at what’s happened to Dick Lugar and Olympia Snowe. The entire platform, starting with Mitch McConnell’s speech in 2008, has been to obstruct Obama’s agenda. Obstinacy and pettiness replaced new ideas and policy alternatives.

When it came to this race, the Republicans lost because of what ended up filling the vacuum. The Republicans lost because the premise of too many of their candidates was fear of the future. Too often was repeated the new Republican shibboleth: fear of gays, Latinos, immigrants, the youth and especially change.

I don’t really want to get into demographics, but on a side note the President won 70% of the Latino vote last night. Some people are saying that the fast growing population could make TEXAS a swing state by 2020. Not good if you’re a republican worried about the long-term.

The GOP simply threatened too many people with their tone and their vitriol. In a campaign, you can’t ignore Hispanics, women, and mainstream opinion on this many issues.  It’s one thing to take a hard stance when talking about more abstract issues like the economy, but it scares the living crap out of people when you start talking about abortion, rape, immigration, and vaginal probes.

Romney lost because he had to toe the line with these people to make it through the primary. And frankly, the Tea Party faction of the GOP has too much money and influence behind it to be ignored, and they’re not going anywhere. Their response to this election will likely be a call for even more ideological purity within the Republican ranks. They’ll dig their heels in, and we’ll have a showdown between Boehner and the moderates vs. Paul Ryan and the Tea Party. If Ryan is serious about running in 2016, do you think he’ll start by “looking weak” on something as high-profile as the fiscal cliff? The fact that Boehner is already moving to out-flank him 24 hours after the election speaks volumes. 

0 Election Night Photos

For a campaign in which the winner announced his victory via Twitter, these pictures say an awful lot.

Election Night 2012: Reactions in Photos - The Atlantic

Obama Election Night Photos: Chicago Celebrates Obama's Reelection
- The Huffington Post

Election Night Victory and Defeat - ABC News

Images: Election Night in America - Daily Herald

1 What We're Reading Today (11-7-12): Post-Election Euphoria, How the Election Changed Us, and Nate Silver's Victory Lap

I'm still letting the election results set-in.  I have the sort of electric self-awareness and glee of someone who just lost his virginity.

Yes, there was a War on Women -- and women won
Hindu-Americans have their first face in Congress in Tulsi Gabbard
Gay marriage continues its march toward acceptance in the United States
Marijuana legalization measures were met with success in Washington and Colorado and Massachusetts
Nate Silver slapped other pollsters across the face with his stellar predictions
Barack Obama will serve another four years in the White House

I know I'm forgetting something but there is a collective sense of "BOOYA!" as the reactionary, backwards, hateful, anti-good elements came out in force this year.

Seriously, I just --
#Forward

Photo credit of Grace Michaels

Yes, Obama Won a Mandate - The New Republic
Jonathan Cohn

How the Election Changed America - The Atlantic Wire
Jen Doll

At Romney Headquarters, the Defeat of the 1% - Washington Post
Dana Milbank

America's Chief Wizard, Nate Silver, has Best Election Night of Anyone and Here's Why: A Guide - Gawker
Max Read

2012 US Presidential Race: Who Owns the Candidates - Visual.ly
KyleKim

How Obama Won Ohio - The New Republic
Alec MacGillis

Twitter Racists React to 'That Nigger' getting Re-elected - Jezebel
Tracie Egan Morrissey

What the 2012 Election Taught Us - Washington Post
Chris Cillizza

Special Coverage: The 2012 Presidential Election - Five Thirty Eight
Nate Silver & Co.

0 Election Day #3: My Prediction for the Electoral Spread

I redid my NY Times electoral allocation tool that I posted about some number of weeks ago.  I haven't looked at any data for today aside from Nate Silver's blog post from earlier today.  As it stands, as of 3:46 pm on November 6, I have Obama winning with 303 electoral votes to Romney's 235.

Check it out here.

0 Election Day #2: The Referendum on Values, not the Economy

I wrote this kind of quickly and stream-of-consciousness but bear with me.  I still think it's coherent.


Yesterday I spoke at our school's Black Solidarity Day rally about this election and what it means for me, what it means for black America, what it means for people of color.  After having digested some numbers that show a marked increase in the prevalence of racist attitudes in the US since 2008 (here), I think this election offers much more.

The whole argument that we are somehow post-racial, post-racism, all thanks to Barack Obama's election has led us to talk less about race than we should -- in fact, we should be talking about race a lot considering the way the economy has affected minority communities (here).  There are a lot of hard conversations we are not having and I think the lack of candid discourse and the outpouring of racial animosity, xenophobia, and the crisis-of-identity that is plaguing the Republican Party as it realizes it cannot simply court angry white folks is putting us in a precarious moment.

If there was an election in which racial progress could be measured, I think it's this one more than 2008.  2008 was hype; it was excitement; it was wanting to be on the "right side of history" and being eager to participate in reaching this milestone. 2012 is a policy year, a vision year, a year in which we are being forced to think much more heavily about the attitudes and paradigms that should guide the United States moving forward.  Mitt Romney and Barack Obama offer widely contrasting visions and stand for very distinct demographics.

I feel like Fox News and the rest of the Murdoch progeny like to consider this an election that is a referendum on the President and how he has handled the economy.  I would agree with them to a certain extent but I frame the election entirely differently.  This is a referendum on American national identity, on the road we take to reach the American dream -- this is a values election more than anything else, I believe.  And that is why Obama remains the symbol, the face, the representation of a vision that means so very much to so very many -- even if he has not been the Progressive Messiah I had hoped for.  ObamaCare, the bail-out, student debt reduction, etc. -- I think this campaign cycle has emphasized the extent to which the President has been trying to fight for everyone so that they may fight for themselves.  This campaign has been a reminder that the legislation President Obama pushed for was predicated on values rather than economic theory.  And the quaintest twist to that is that American values are what made America great in the first place and Barack Obama has reminded us of that.  A strong middle class, affordable education, health care, the ability to take risks without fear of losing everything, we know we need these things to stay, "the hope of the Earth," as Mitt Romney likes to call us.

So 2012, if it is called anything, perhaps it should be called the referendum on American values.  Call it like we see it.  Mitt Romney is fighting for the entitled, for those who don't want a ladder to the top available for others, for practices that damage the credibility and health of the Union.  Barack Obama isn't fighting against those people; he is simply fighting for everyone.  He said so in New Hampshire when I saw him on Sunday.  He said so in 2008 when he brought the spirit of hope and change into the White House.  Go back to 2004 and look at his speech to the DNC:

It is that fundamental belief -- It is that fundamental belief: I am my brother’s keeper. I am my sister’s keeper that makes this country work. It’s what allows us to pursue our individual dreams and yet still come together as one American family.E pluribus unum: "Out of many, one." 

Are we our brothers' keepers?  Are we all in this together?  Are our futures and successes linked to one another for better or worse?  Is that a necessary condition for the American Dream, for the American identity?  I say yes -- and I think America does too.

So while he may not have been the love child of James Baldwin, Thurgood Marshall, Malcolm X, Tim Wise, Audre Lorde, Dr. King, Lyndon Johnson, Frederick Douglass, and Alice Walker, who I had dreamed of, perhaps this campaign season was good because it showed me this: for all the disappointment about what Barack Obama wasn't in his first four years, there is just cause for celebration of what and who he was.  I think it could and should be argued that, in this moment, despite what anyone else has to say: Barack Obama is the President we need(ed).

0 Election Day #1: Apologies & What We're Reading (11-6-12)

I'm calling this "Election Day #1" because I'm hoping I get to post a couple more times today.

My laptop took a nasty tumble a couple days ago and needs, essentially, a new head.  The screen is unusable.  So I have been off bad about posting recently which is a shame considering today is election day.

I'll pop a little What We're Reading below and offer some thoughts, too.

Nov. 5: Late Poll Gains for Obama Leave Romney with Longer Odds - Five Thirty Eight
Nate Silver

Why 2012 Turned Small - Politico
John F. Harris and Jonathan Martin

Campaign 2012: The Story in Photos - The Atlantic

Ask Dr. Popkin: The 3 Myths of the Romney Campaign - The Atlantic
James Fallows

How Mitt Romney Genuinely Fired Up his Supporters - The New Republic
Alex MacGillis

Eight More Years! The Case for Removing Term Limits - The New Republic
John B. Judis

The Most Important Election of Our Lives - The New Republic
Jonathan Cohn

9 Takeaways from the 2012 Election - Politico
Maggie Haberman

0 WrightAndLeft on Privilege and the American Presidency

Mr. Wright, bless his soul, answered my call from about a week ago to explore Barack Obama, the White House, and Black America.  He has offered up this post over on WrightAndLeft which explores the implications of electing Mitt Romney and why he thinks 2012 might be more of a milestone than 2008.

Read the full article here

With some distance, I think we will someday recognize that the 2012 election was the election that debunked the myth of American conservativism.  What started with a beautifully articulated lecture given by Bill Clinton at the Democratic National Convention led to the release of a plethora of nonpartisan studies that challenged the accuracy of conservative claims.  For decades, now, we have been entertained with the notion that high-income tax cuts spur on three major changes: smaller government, reduced deficit, and economic stimulus.  This has been the mantle of Republicans.  Tax cuts for the wealthy, we are told, are in the best interest of the nation as a whole because they offer the best access to these outcomes.

...

There was a telling moment during Romney's 47% comments that gave insight into these priorities.  Romney made a handful of jokes about how much easier it would be to win this election if his father, instead of just being born in Mexico, had actually been Mexican.  It got laughs like a joke, but there was that element of sincerity to his delivery, especially in his repetition.  He sounded a lot like that white high school kid who bemoans how much easier it is for minority students to get into college, fully incapable of recognizing the false reality required for such a statement.  Romney seems to have no concept of privilege.  His insistence that he is self-made--that giving his inheritance to charity negates the help his father gave to him--further supports his ignorance, but this isn't just the world from which he comes.  It is the version of America he is seeking to preserve--one that believes the greatest injustices come when the government seeks to empower those who haven't already earned those opportunities on their own.

 Hollywood couldn't have cast better actors to play out the choice in this election.  Romney fits perfectly the archetype of white wealth.  He looks like a television character from the fifties--an era that few non-whites see as ideal.  In contrast, Obama represents our impending biracial future.  As such, he is easily perceived as a threat to those that regret America's evolving norms.  This is all exacerbated by our changing demographics.  2011 marked a significant shift in our make up as, for the first time in our post-colonial history, the US welcomed a majority of non-white babies.  Pundits have declared this as the last election when a candidate can so unabashedly seek out the support of only one racial group.  The white majority is slipping away, and certain groups are desperately seeking to institutionalize their power and privilege before this shift is complete.  We can largely explain the Romney candidacy as a push back against these shifts, but we needn't let that fear push us backwards.