CNN's Black In America

[cui bono?]

Wow I have never had the desire or ever asked any of my balck freinds if I could touch thier hair.

<--- maybe I'm not a very good white guy freind?

lol.  nope quite the opposite, believe me. dont ask!  dont do!  u r a good white guy friend!  the exprience is not a good one for us...kinda lik being petted like a dog

[Matthies]

Wow I have never had the desire or ever asked any of my balck freinds if I could touch thier hair.

<--- maybe I'm not a very good white guy freind?

lol.  nope quite the opposite, believe me. dont ask!  dont do!  u r a good white guy friend!  the exprience is not a good one for us...kinda lik being petted like a dog

I think I'd have the same response if someone asked me if they could touch my bald spot on the back of my head. F YOU

[Special Agent Dana Scully]

Hopefully you all caught this yesterday and the day before.  If not they're re-airing this weekend.

http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2008/black.in.america/

For those who saw it - Thoughts?

To be honest I was quite disappointed with the woman one more than I was w/ the man one but I was disappointed in both.  The woman one didn't have very much variety. Therefore I could see some intellectual making the argument that all the problems they were having could be explained by something other than race.  But I think in all fairness I built it up in my mind too much before seeing it.  They made it seem like it was going to be this groundbreaking thing...and it wasn't.

Dyson and his bro was an interesting segment. Although I really couldn't get down with the whole dark skin light skin thing they were trying to do.  Bit of a stretch.

I watched the first one on black women and was sorely disappointed so I skipped the one on black men. I guess the target audience wasn't black people in the slightest. I can say, though, since it aired, white people have been less afraid to ask to touch my hair. 

Ask?  I went through a period in college where people felt the need to rub and or touch my head Every time I got it cut. Nothing peeved me more than that.

Word 7S-  at least you got asked!  I wouldn't even know what to do with myself if I got asked.  They just do.  But it's slightly better than my own ppl yanking the crap out of my hair and asking me "is that weeve"?

I'd agree that the bolded was a stretch if MED and his brother were trying to blame his dark complexion for his jail stay.  I did not see them trying to do that at all.  IMO, what they did was point out the different treatment that MED and his brother received from family and strangers they received because of their different complexions.  Even in 2008, it's not uncommon for lighter skinned blacks to get preferential treatment within their own families.  I'm friends with someone whose family is just like that--and pretty much uses the brown bag tests for her children's mates (though her children don't subscribe to that antiquated test).  Having divergent treatment was not the sole cause of the brother's bad choices--and I don't think they said it as such.  However, different treatment like that CAN have a negative effect on someone in some ways and that was what I got out of it.

[Eugene Young]

The woman who hosted it was pretty hot, even though I'm not sure if she was black, white, Hispanic, Asian, or Middle Eastern. 

Soledad O'Brien. Quite fine. I remember reading somewhere that she's Cuban and Australian.

Is she married to Miles O'Brien who used to be CNN's anchor?

Nope. Coincidental. According to wikipedia, she's married to an I banker.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soledad_O%27Brien

If wiki's right, this is him
http://www.tweisel.com/AboutUs/Leadership/investmentBanking/

i feel like a stan.

Damn and here I was thinking he was giving up to all us average looking white dudes that we too could marry up.

That too.

[Nowhere Man]

I feel asleep...

[pikey]

The woman who hosted it was pretty hot, even though I'm not sure if she was black, white, Hispanic, Asian, or Middle Eastern. 

Soledad O'Brien. Quite fine. I remember reading somewhere that she's Cuban and Australian.

Is she married to Miles O'Brien who used to be CNN's anchor?

Nope. Coincidental. According to wikipedia, she's married to an I banker.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soledad_O%27Brien

If wiki's right, this is him
http://www.tweisel.com/AboutUs/Leadership/investmentBanking/

i feel like a stan.

Her dad is an Aussie of Irish descent and her mom is Cuban of African descent.  Though I have to admit that I didn't know she was black until I saw this special (despite knowing tons of black people who look less black than she is).  I assumed that she was Hispanic (which she is).

Hopefully you all caught this yesterday and the day before.  If not they're re-airing this weekend.

http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2008/black.in.america/

For those who saw it - Thoughts?

To be honest I was quite disappointed with the woman one more than I was w/ the man one but I was disappointed in both.  The woman one didn't have very much variety. Therefore I could see some intellectual making the argument that all the problems they were having could be explained by something other than race.  But I think in all fairness I built it up in my mind too much before seeing it.  They made it seem like it was going to be this groundbreaking thing...and it wasn't.

Dyson and his bro was an interesting segment. Although I really couldn't get down with the whole dark skin light skin thing they were trying to do.  Bit of a stretch.

I watched the first one on black women and was sorely disappointed so I skipped the one on black men. I guess the target audience wasn't black people in the slightest. I can say, though, since it aired, white people have been less afraid to ask to touch my hair. 

Ask?  I went through a period in college where people felt the need to rub and or touch my head Every time I got it cut. Nothing peeved me more than that.

Word 7S-  at least you got asked!  I wouldn't even know what to do with myself if I got asked.  They just do.  But it's slightly better than my own ppl yanking the crap out of my hair and asking me "is that weeve"?

lol. I guess "is that weave" is the black girl specific to "acting white."

LOL and it pisses me of to no end when they assume that it is weave even when I tell them it's not.  I always want to say "yep and these are my very own teeth too"   LOL, they set us back a few decades!

When I cut of all of my (permed) hair one of my classmates told me that she loved my hair.  Than she asked if it was previously a weave!  I only have one person who likes to touch my hair without asking.  I'm not a fan.  I don't even let my dad touch my hair (and have told him point blank "Don't you know never to touch a black woman's hair")!

[cui bono?]

I'd agree that the bolded was a stretch if MED and his brother were trying to blame his dark complexion for his jail stay.  I did not see them trying to do that at all.  IMO, what they did was point out the different treatment that MED and his brother received from family and strangers they received because of their different complexions.  Even in 2008, it's not uncommon for lighter skinned blacks to get preferential treatment within their own families.  I'm friends with someone whose family is just like that--and pretty much uses the brown bag tests for her children's mates (though her children don't subscribe to that antiquated test).  Having divergent treatment was not the sole cause of the brother's bad choices--and I don't think they said it as such.  However, different treatment like that CAN have a negative effect on someone in some ways and that was what I got out of it.

I can def feel you on that one. But I appreciated the accountability on his part.  He did say he made some bad choices-  I respected the brother for that.  My older half-bro has been in and out for most of his life.  and if you heard him tell it, it's always some trumped up charge & asking me for legal advice when I haven't even graduated law school and I always wanna pull my hair out...and I wanna scream "it may be trumped up but there is some  underlying BS that you're doing!  I'm not an attorney but here's my advice-Stop doing dumb *&^%!"  So suffice it to say when the brother admitted that I found it refreshing.

And I was with them when they said that he was allowed to make those choices and given a vocab with which to voice those choices.  However, I really do not think the light skin dark skin thing applies to incarceration.  Forget light skin / dark skin...it's just black skin overrepresented in jail.  Are there really more dark skinned brothers incarcerated then light skin?  I dunno.  I think the brothers get the raw end of the deal whether they're dark or light.   Working in the court system, I did see brothers get treated differently & my heart went out to them since they never even had a shot to succeed in life  but I never noticed a difference in the treatment of lighter v. darker.  They all got skrewed!

[Miss P]

I'd agree that the bolded was a stretch if MED and his brother were trying to blame his dark complexion for his jail stay.  I did not see them trying to do that at all.  IMO, what they did was point out the different treatment that MED and his brother received from family and strangers they received because of their different complexions.  Even in 2008, it's not uncommon for lighter skinned blacks to get preferential treatment within their own families.  I'm friends with someone whose family is just like that--and pretty much uses the brown bag tests for her children's mates (though her children don't subscribe to that antiquated test).  Having divergent treatment was not the sole cause of the brother's bad choices--and I don't think they said it as such.  However, different treatment like that CAN have a negative effect on someone in some ways and that was what I got out of it.

ITA.  But see Jennifer L. Eberhardt et al., Looking Deathworthy: Perceived Stereotypicality of Black Defendants Predicts
Capital-Sentencing Outcomes, 17 Psych. Sci. 383 (2006) (concluding that in black-on-white capital murders, "stereotypically black" African-American convicts are more than twice as likely to receive death sentences as lighter-skinned and less "stereotypically black" African-American convicts).

[Miss P]

How is "stereotypicality" measured? 

IIRC, they had white and Asian-American Stanford students estimate stereotypicality after viewing pictures of the defendants for short periods.  (I don't remember for how long or how many students were involved.)   

Good citation form, btw!

I suppose you're an expert now. 

[Miss P]

I suppose she corrected for things like degree of gruesomeness, gang affiliation, etc. 

Yes.  This is one of the advantages of using the Baldus data.  (Did you read McCleskey in conlaw?)