Apr

30

Things You Learn About Race From a 7 Year Old

Filed Under Black/African American Issues, Family Issues, Interracial Relationships, Original Essays and Analysis, Race and Racism, Sociology, Uncategorized | 13 Comments

A few weeks ago my partner’s son B was here for the holidays, and as usual he and I spent a great deal of time together.? I’m often curious about when and how kids learn about race, and I always observe how? B discusses race.? He is a dark skinned black child, and I am a very fair skinned white person, which makes it fairly obvious to any on-looker that I am not his biological mother.

In the past three years his understanding of race has changed.? At the age of 4, he was fairly clueless about race.? He knew people had different colors but had no concept of race.? At 5, he used the racial terms “black” and “white” to refer to people on some occasions.? However, his use of black and white didn’t necessarily follow with the rest of society.? He called both the East Indian girl? and the? Chicano boy? at the playground black.? Basically everybody who wasn’t pale white was black, and the deciding factor was skin color.? Anybody darker than honey was black.? (At 5, I also remember him asking? me why people were looking at us (he and I), but he never connected it to race.)

Now fast forward to our Easter Holiday this year.? He is 7, and his understandings of race? have changed.? They conform more closely to social standards.? His racial awareness is also heightened, when I am around him.? I think there were a few interaction and exchanges where this was very clear.?

In the first case, he and I had? taken the train to pick up daddy from work.? Since I have never ridden the train with a child, I was overcharged.? The conductor told me to exchange the ticket for the reduced family fair when we exited at our stop.? I went up to the counter, and said to the ticket agent, ? “I need to exchange this ticket for my son because I was overcharged.”?

He was standing right by me, and started laughing, “Why did you tell her I’m your son?”?

I said, “I know you’re not my son.? I was just trying to make it easier for her to understand.”

B replied, “But she won’t think I’m your son.”

I responded, “Why do you say that?”

B said, “She might think you? took me because I’m black and your white.”

I thought this whole exchange was revealing.? He already has the sense that blacks and whites are separated–that black kids and white adults don’t look right to others.

The second incident was even more interesting.? B and I were shopping at a drug store, and the? following exchange ensued.? When we went up to pay, he said,

“Why were those people looking at us?”?

Rachel: “What do you mean?”

B: “Were they looking at me because I’m black and you’re white?? They want to know if you are my mommy.”

Rachel:? “Why do you think that?”

B: (very matter matter of factly) “Because black kids have black moms.”

Rachel: “Can black kids have white moms?”

B: (laughing at what he thinks is a joke) “Black kids can’t have white moms.”

Rachel: “So if I have a kid,? will that kid be black or white?”

B: “White.”

Rachel: “If I have a kid with daddy, will that kid be black or white?” (For the record Daddy is black.)

B: “White.”

Rachel:? “But daddy’s black, and he would be the daddy?”

B: “So the kid will be black.”

Rachel: “But I’m white, and I’m the mommy.”

B: (Telling what he thinks is a really funny joke.) “It will be a purple alien baby.”

Rachel: “Not it won’t be an alien. It will be black and white. Did you know that some people are black and white?? And some people aren’t either black or white.”

B: “Really.”

Rachel: “Some kids have black mommies and white daddies, and some kids have white mommies and black daddies.? And sometimes a black kid can have a white mommy and a white daddy, or a white kid can have a black daddy and a? black mommy.? That’s like adoption. Do you know what adoption is?”

B: “When a black kid has a white mommy?”

Rachel:? “No, adoption is when a mommy has and child but asks another mommy to take care of the child.”

I think this was the end of the conversation, but I found it interesting how conscious he was of other people looking at him and me.? He very clearly connected it to race.? On a few occasions in the past, I have had children ask me if I was his mommy.? It was very clear that race had a factor in these questions because they were posed with a sense of doubt.? B even struggles with his interaction around me, frequently calling me mommy and then correcting himself or having me correct him.

These are the kinds of issues that frequently come up in mixed race families. They are also faced by monoracial families even if they don’t realize it.? The two white children who asked if I was B’s mommy were also confronted with their (mis)understandings of race.? I do wonder if it would be different if I was the black one and he was white.? Given that we live in a fairly rich area, where many upper middle class and upper class white parents have women of color as their nannies, it is not too uncommon to see black and brown women taking care of small white kids.? However, a white women taking care of a black child is almost unheard of, which is why we probably get some many stares.? To be honest I don’t notice the stares, but B does.? I think I don’t notice the stares because? having been in an interracial relationship for a while? I’m used to stares.? As a defense and coping mechanism, I tune out the stares.? I generally act like I don’t see people starting because I don’t have the time or energy to explain to them why it is annoying.? Moreover, you never know why people are staring. If the stare is the curiosity stare, I let it go, but if it is the hateful racism stare, I’m much more inclined to respond.? It will be interesting to see if B develops the same defense mechanism.? Hopefully, he’ll be here for the whole summer this year, which will give him time to get used to being with me

Personally, I think these kinds of conversations are important to have.? I don’t bring up race too much with B, but when he brings it up, I try my best to get him to understand that many of the common understandings of race are wrong. I haven’t taught him about racism, yet.? Well, I did tell him about Rosa Parks because he saw a book about her, but apparently at 7 Junie B. Jones and Captain Underpants are way more interesting than Rosa Parks.

Apr

29

Racial Differences in Traffic Stops and Stop and Frisks

Filed Under Black/African American Issues, Original Essays and Analysis, Sociology, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment

One of the great debates about racial discrimination revolves around? police and community relations and in particular racial profiling.? In response to such concerns the? federal government,? and some state and local governments? have started collecting data on police interaction with the public.?

The Bureau of Justice Statistics has released the 2005 data on contacts between police and the public.? Of particular, interest in the data on the racial make-up of police/public contact in traffic stops.? The? findings seem to be fairly consistent with past studies on racial differences in traffic stops.? Here is a summary of from the AP:

Traffic stops are the most frequent way police interact with the public, accounting for 41 percent of all contacts. An estimated 17.8 million drivers were stopped in 2005.

Black, Hispanic and white motorists were equally likely to be pulled over by police between 8 percent and 9 percent of each group. The slight decline in blacks pulled over from 9.2 percent in 2002 to 8.1 percent in 2005 was not statistically significant, Durose said, and could be the result of random differences.

The racial disparities showed up after that point:

_Blacks (9.5 percent) and Hispanics (8.8 percent) were much more likely to be searched than whites (3.6 percent). There were slight but statistically insignificant declines compared with the 2002 report in the percentages of blacks and Hispanics searched.

_Blacks (4.5 percent) were more than twice as likely as whites (2.1 percent) to be arrested. Hispanic drivers were arrested 3.1 percent of the time.

Among all police-public contacts, force was used 1.6 percent of the time. But blacks (4.4 percent) and Hispanics (2.3 percent) were more likely than whites (1.2 percent) to be subjected to force or the threat of force by police officers.

People interviewed described police hitting, kicking, pushing, grabbing, pointing a gun or spraying pepper spray at them or threatening to do so. More than four of five felt the force used was excessive, but there were no statistically significant racial disparities among the people who felt that way.

This does not deal with “stop and frisk” policies, only traffic stops, and since it is a nationwide survey, it would be difficult to see what municipalities exhibited the most and least discriminatory patters.

The stop and frisk issue is important in cities like New York where many people? do not drive.? The state Attorney General of New York released a report on stop and frisk searches.? For those interesting in the racial aspects of stop and frisk data, you can check out this section of the report.? The stop and frisk data is still contentious. Some worry about what is being done with personal information collected from stop and frisks, and others are concerned about delays in releasing information? and the racial make-up of the people subjected to stop and frisks. (If you want to read a white racist justification for racial disparities in stop and frisks; go here.)

When you combine the data, the result do show greater scrutiny of people of color by police officers.? However, that scrutiny doesn’t always occur in the ways that we expect.? With the traffic stops, the greater scrutiny comes after the stop is made.? The data on stop and frisks need a more thorough analysis that has a national level sample and more methodological sophistication before we can make find how and why racial disparities occur.

Admin’s Note: I’m crossposting this over at Allywork and leaving comments close on Rachel’s Tavern.? If you would like to comment go to Allywork.

Apr

29

Iranian Women Challenge Conservative Crackdown

Filed Under Gender and Sexism, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment

Although Iran was liberalizing under former President Khatami, the Ahmadinejad lead government is rolling back the pace of reforms that increased women’s rights.? Here are some examples of the rights women are fighting for:

The women say they have borne the brunt of the onslaught.

Abbasgholizadeh and other reformists have waged a lengthy battle against laws that permit death by stoning for women accused of adultery, the practice of polygamy, employment laws that favor men, and family laws that deny divorcees full custody of their children and entitle them to only half the inheritance a man can receive.

Far from backing down, Ahmadinejad’s government has turned its crackdown to colleges.

It is drafting a law to limit women students to half the places in college, instead of the 65 percent they now occupy. It is also restricting women’s entry to medical schools, arguing that they put a strain on limited and sexually segregated dormitory and transportation facilities.

Women working for the government must leave work by 6 p.m. to get home and tend to their families.

And once again, with the arrival of summer, authorities are cracking down on women for not covering up enough. Police say more than 200 women have been arrested this year and released only after promising to dress more conservatively.

On April 2, five activists were arrested in a Tehran park for collecting signatures calling for changes to laws that discriminate against women. Two of them, Fariba Davoudi Mohajer and Sussan Tahmasebi, are under sentences of six months and a year respectively, and are free pending court appeals. Another, Azadeh Forghani, received a suspended two-year sentence.

Under Iranian law, suspended sentences can be implemented if a judge determines that a defendant has broken any law during the next five years.

On June 12 last year, police broke up a gathering of more than 5,000 women demanding reforms in a Tehran square. Seventy people were arrested and five organizers were charged.

On Tuesday, the Revolutionary Court imposed prison terms on three of the women from that rally. Nusheen Ahmadi Khorasani, Shahla Entesari and Parvin Ardalan were ordered to serve six months in prison, with 2 1/2 years suspended.

Apr

27

I’ve Just About Had It With My Man Umar Lee

Filed Under Blogs Blogging Blogthropology, Gender and Sexism, Uncategorized | 55 Comments

Update: Umar has put up a response.? You can go over and check it out.?

I don’t have time to write a really long detailed post, but Umar is really exposing himself to be a gender bigot.? He needs to know that when I go over to his site, I feel the same way he does when he reads comments from those Jihad Watch or Little Green Footballs idiots.

I don’t know what his issue with women is, but his views have really been making me question his commitment to fighting racism.? I mean how can you work with someone who insinuates that you need to be cooking while? barefoot and pregnant.? Then he actually has some kind of good point–like materialism is bad–but he has to cloak it with misogynistic bull.? I can actually handle his position on abortion even though I think he doesn’t have a good understanding of biology, and I really don’t agree with him at all.? But, when you go over to his site and damn near every other post is a man trying to tell women their place, it gets old really quick.? We don’t need? men like Umar? to try to control us.

He’s driving me crazy, and it’s frustrating because I like much of what he has to say, but if you don’t respect women as your equals then how can you really be allied with us in the fight to end racism.? I guess our role is to go home and birth more anti-racist babies and cook his food.

Apr

25

“Interracial Couples Invest More in Their Children”

Filed Under Education and Academia, Family Issues, Interracial Relationships, Original Essays and Analysis, Race and Racism, Sociology, Uncategorized | 6 Comments

I saw a discussion of? a study from the American Journal of Sociology in the on-line magazine “Live Science.”? The study by two sociologists found that interracial couples invest more in their children than same race couples that include the two race of the partners in the interracial couple. (I know the writing is confusing, so go read the whole write up.)?

It does trouble me a little to see this in a science magazine, but I’m going to withhold judgement on this for the time being.? When I get to work, I’ll download the whole article.

I’ve known about this line of research for a while; in fact, I know one of the authors of the study.? That particular researcher is an expert in education, and race is a secondary area of his.? This is a common issue in the sociological research on intermarriage.? The articles published, especially in the more prestigous journals, tend to be what we call the race as a variable approach.? They use large scale quantitative surveys, and they do not speak directly to couples or children.? Furthermore, they study race, not racism or racial attitudes, and that makes a huge difference in what they find.

Apr

25

Amnesty International Reports on High Sexual Assault Rates For Native American Women

Filed Under Gender and Sexism, Race and Racism, Sexuality and Heterosexism, Sociology, Uncategorized | 64 Comments

Here is the page that includes the report summary and thinks to the full document and related resources, and here is a quote from the executive summary.

One in three Native American or Alaska Native women will be raped at some point in their lives. Most do not seek justice because they know they will be met with inaction or indifference.

Barriers to justice
The majority of perpetrators go unpunished as many Indigenous women never report the abuse committed against them, while those who do report it find other barriers to justice. The US government has created a complex maze of federal, state and tribal authorities. As a consequence, Indigenous women are being denied justice.

Failure to act
The US authorities have not only failed to respond adequately to the threats faced by Indigenous women, but federal policies and practices have actually denied Native American and Alaska Native women protections available to other women in the USA.

Urgent action is needed to stop sexual violence against Indigenous women in the USA. But action must be shaped by understanding, not prejudice; by fact, not assumption. Indigenous womens organizations and tribal authorities have brought forward concrete proposals to help stop the abuse against Indigenous women but the federal government has failed to act.

Apr

23

Women of Color, If You Have the Energy…..

Filed Under Black/African American Issues, Blogs Blogging Blogthropology, Class Classism and Economic Inequality, Gender and Sexism, International Racism, Race and Racism, Sexuality and Heterosexism, Sociology, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment

Can you please go over and comment on these two threads at Feministe?? I’m grading papers, and I would like to give a long response to each thread.? I think the commenters? and? Jill? are missing some very important points in the posts and discussions related to racism and imperialism/colonialism.? I especially think Black women’s voices need to be heard on the Mississippi thread.

Pro-Life Mississippi Has Highest Infant Mortality Rate in the Nation

Kenyan hospitals overwhelmed by women injured by illegal abortion. Thank a pro-lifer.? (Broken Link Fixed)

Warning: I know these threads may spark some serious anger and frustration on the part of WOC feminists.? You’ll see if you read them.? If you’re not in the mood to rehash the “white feminists just don’t get it” debate, you may not want to go over and stress yourself out.

Apr

23

Why Does This Article on Tween Girls and Shopping Bother Me So Much?

Filed Under Class Classism and Economic Inequality, Gender and Sexism, Media Praises and Critiques, Pop Culture, Sociology, Uncategorized | 12 Comments

I read this in the New York Times yesterday, and it didn’t sit well with me.? Here is a quote:

But on this day Ive come not to bury Abercrombie. I am here to observe my daughter and her two friends make their way around a suburban mall to help me understand why shopping seems to have become an acceptable hobby, even an obsession, among some young girls. And to see how stores like Abercrombie and American Eagle Outfitters, as well as luxury brands, successfully court these young girls and turn them into customers.

This is why it bothered me:?

1) It seems to be promoting the idea that girls are materialistic and superficial, and I don’t know that young girls are any more materialistic than boys.

2) These kids who don’t have a job or any money are getting designer clothes.? Why would any parent pay for a 10 year old to have “Juicy Couture”? Why?

3) It is the most class biased piece of writing I have seen in a long time, and the author seems utterly unwilling to acknowledge that.

There are other things that I just can’t put my finger on since? my brain is toast (always happens at the end of the semester).? BTW, I love Juliet Schor, the sociologist mentioned in the article..? Here is a really good article I have the students in my mass media class read on the politics of consumerism.

Go read it and tell me what you think.

Apr

23

Erase Racism Carnival #12

Filed Under Blogs Blogging Blogthropology, Race and Racism, Racism Round-Up, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment

The new Erase Racism Carnival is up over at Double Consciousness.? Go check it out!? The next one will be at Angry Black Woman.? For more info. about upcoming carnivals, you should check out Ally Work.

Apr

22

An Interesting Observation..Race, Categories, and the RT Blogroll

Filed Under Black/African American Issues, Blogs Blogging Blogthropology, Gender and Sexism, Media Praises and Critiques, Race and Racism, Sexuality and Heterosexism, Sociology, Uncategorized | 6 Comments

I lost several links on the RT (I’m getting tired of writing Rachel’s Tavern.) blogroll when I transitioned to a new server and a wordpress theme sometime last year, so today I’m going through trying to remember who I left out.? I realized somewhere along the way, I dropped Pam’s House Blend.? Not on purpose by any means, but in the shuffle I lost her.? (I’ve been loving her threads on Pandagon lately, which is what reminded me to go check her site, which lead me to the realization that I didn’t have her on the link list.)? Then, when I went to add Pam’s site, I had the proverbial debate of which category to put her site in–liberal feminist, multiracial feminist, or LGBTQ.? Truthfully, I feel like Pam represents all of those, but I put her in the LGBTQ section because it is so tiny.? I then added nunya, same debate again–LGBTQ or Multiracial Feminist.?

I had two realizations from this little blog updating exercise.? First, I realized the categorization process doesn’t do justice to folks who are really good with intersecting inequalities.? Unless they focus mostly on race and gender, and then I happily put the site in the multiracial feminist category.? (I’m also reminded that I am the only person whose blog, who uses the term multiracial feminism/feminist.) But if they focus on race, gender, sexuality, I get conflicted.? I see so few people blog about class as an intersecting inequality, I don’t even have this dilemma. Second, I realized that every single person in my LGBTQ blogroll section is a person of color, and I’m fairly certain they are all African American. Interesting…..

Ok, back to? grading papers.

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