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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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 Hera...

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!"...

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...

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...

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...