race relations

Diversity in news

A number of disturbing stories in the news this week have required analysis in terms of race and gender.

From the locker room “banter” that saw the suspension of a Miami Dolphins football player, to the Washington Post column criticizing interracial families, to the coalition of New York women’s rights groups whose viral game show video points out gender inequity in NY state law, SPAR has a lot to discuss.

Joining Jamila to analyze the way such stories are covered, and who is chosen to cover them, is Syracuse University educator and Ph.D. candidate Sherry Williams. Williams donned her media analyst cap to critique the manner in which hyper-masculinity and casual dismissal of the voices and experiences of women and non-white sources are routinely undervalued.

 

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Kerry Washington hosts SNL

Last Saturday night brought some relief for all who are tired of watching a man in a dress on SNL whenever the skit calls for a black woman character.

 “Scandal” star Kerry Washington brought her acting chops to the late night sketch fest, and unfortunately, left something to be desired. Arguing that the writers simply don’t know what to do with Black women characters, Washington found herself being symbolized as all that is lacking in diversity for the show. New York City comedian Leighann Lord from www.VeryFunnyLady.com makes her debut on SPAR with Jamila to talk about the brouhaha that has been the issue of black women on SNL for some time.

 

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Exclusive: Nebraska State Senator Ernie Chambers

Senator Ernie Chambers is a man without labels. If you have to call him anything, call him Ernie! Senator Chambers famously eschews in-person interviews, and has done so for a decade, until now.

In the first of an exclusive two-part interview, I sat down in Omaha with the legislator who sued god, has been a tireless advocate for those who are without power and influence, and has a legendary work ethic. His 38 years of easily predictable re-elections prompted opponents in Nebraska politics to impose term limits for the explicit purpose of removing him from office. (fear not–the law was overturned by the voters, and after four years, he’s back!)

Chambers talked long about his philosophy that informs his life, his legislation, and the hopes he has for this great nation.

In Part One, we talk about Chambers’ thoughts on race, the reasons he serves his constituents so faithfully, and why this country’s political system is in peril.

Next week, in Part Two, we’ll talk about Chambers’s disappointment in President Obama, the situation in Syria, and why race- and Americans’ inability to deal honestly therewith- is always going to poison both discourse and policy in this nation.

Part 1:

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Twitter as anti-racism tool

Newly Crowned Miss America 2014, Nina Davuluri, didn’t even get to bask in her glory before having to defend her triumph.

Haters took to twitter to slur her for allegedly being “Arab,” a “terrorist” and other ignorant abuses along the lines of “not being American enough.” Davuluri, who is of Indian descent, is the first woman of South Asian heritage to win Miss America. Blogger Ian Cromwell and media activist Dr. Kimberly Ellis joined Jamila Bey to discuss how social media has been helpful in coordinating mass opinion against such racist speech.

 

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A Syrian-American explains Syria

Dalel Khalil is a journalist, a reporter, and the author of the book, From Veils To Thongs: An Arab Chick’s Survival Guide to Balancing One’s Ethnic Identity in America.

Khalil joined the Sex, Politics, And Religion Hour to talk about the underlying history and culture of the nation that’s in such turmoil today. Dalel explained that the case US politicians have made to the American people to strike Syria is incoherent.

Apart from weaknesses in the evidence against the Assad regime’s purported use of chemical weapons, rebel groups in Syria are littered with al-Qaida forces.

Learn more about this guest at http://www.dalelkhalil.com.

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The State of the African-American Family

Kenneth Braswell, executive director of Fathers Incorporated, has published a look at the state of the black family.

In “The Moynihan Report Revisited”, published by The Urban Institute, Braswell considers how economic and other factors have made it such that a black family today may not be doing as well as a similar family 40 years ago.

Fortunately, Braswell says some trends are encouraging.

 

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Reince Priebus exclusive interview

The RNC held a commemoration of the 50th Anniversary of the March on Washington on Monday, and the chair, Reince Priebus, talked with me about the over-criminalization of Black youth and the over-incarceration of Blacks in this country.

VOR’s Carmen Russell-Sluchansky and I discuss the RNC’s messaging, and assess how effectively the “Party of Lincoln” speaks and connects with African-American voters.

Introduction:

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With Reince Priebus:

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With Carmen Russell-Sluchansky:

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National Congress of Black Women

Dr. E. Faye Williams leads the National Conference of Black Women, a DC-based organization dedicated to the empowerment of Black women and their families.

She joined me to talk about the state of black women, and the economy and politics that leave all women outside of the places of political power in this country.

And the segment begins with a wonderful bit of trivia that I only learned when Dr. Williams entered the studio.

 

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‘Stop and Frisk’ ain’t stopped yet

The recent ruling that NYPD’s “Stop and Frisk” program is unconstitutional was heralded in most circles, and opponents have been celebrating the end of a policy that’s been shown to negatively and disproportionally target non-whites.

However the celebrations of the complete demise of the program are mostly premature. Guest host Ed Brayton and Jamila talk with John Jay College of Law Professor Gloria Browne-Marshall about the ruling, and what the NYPD has yet to do to come fully into compliance.

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Medical experimentation on American children, then and now

During the Cold War, American scientists, pharmaceutical companies, and the U.S. military engaged in medical experimentation on children in the U.S. 

Allen Hornblum, author of the book, Against their Will: The Secret History of Medical Experimentation on Children in Cold War America, joins VOR’s Jamila Bey to discuss how children became human research subjects in terrifying experiments. Some were used to test vaccines, doused with ringworm, subjected to electric shock, given lobotomies, fed radioactive isotopes and exposed to chemical warfare agents.

The conversation also includes two men who were experimented upon as minors. Austin LaRocque was institutionalized in the early 1950’s in Massachusetts because he was deemed “feeble minded,” and as such, was abandoned to the facility.

Austin was worked as a field hand and a mailman on the premises, and after some years was fed oatmeal served with radioactive milk and observed over a three month period. The truth of what happened to him wasn’t revealed until a reporter unearthed the story decades later.

Ted Chabasinski was born to a mother with mental problems, and was institutionalized and subjected to sexual abuse as a boy of just six. He was forced to undergo electric shock therapy, and has campaigned against the procedure for most of his life. Chabasinski earned a law degree and managed to advance a ballot initiative to ban shock therapy in Berkeley, California.

Chabasinski and Hornblum express concern that even today children are subjected to unethical medical experimentation in the US. Because these children are poor and without power or advocates, their stories may be harder to tell.

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Berkeley scientist fights for equal treatment

University of California, Berkeley, Professor of Integrative Biology, Dr. Tyrone Hayes has a laboratory in which a number of the nation’s brightest scientific minds are helping him with research into herbicides and their effects on poor and minority people.

However, his funding has been discontinued.

He isn’t claiming that the herbicide company that has disparaged his research is the cause of the cuts, but he does point out what he sees as a disparity in his treatment at Berkeley, and he explains his discouragement over the whole affair.

 

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Solidarity is for white women on twitter

Tara L. Conley, the founder of Media Make Change, and Mikki Kendall, who started the hash tag #SolidarityIsForWhiteWomen, join the Sex Politics And Religion Hour to talk about how black women are crossing the digital divide to claim a place at the table of feminism.

Furthermore, they’re pulling no punches when it comes to talking about the anti-black women sentiments of media mogul Russell Simmons, whose imagined “sex tape” of abolitionist heroine Harriet Tubman had Twitter all, well, a-twitter in protest.

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