Post Your Interesting News Articles Here

[crazy8]

no Inquirer, that's my pt, I wouldn't send my kids to DC public school.  Unless I live in DC, they'll be in public school.  I'm a product of a public school education, and I think I turned out pretty well. 

What is the reason to have your kids in programs like Jack & Jill, to expose them to black people?  I'm sorry but I think that causes them to perpetuate the belief that black people are like them...privileged.

I think there are two different issues here, making friends and giving back to the community.  I want my kids to do both.  In your previous post, all of your examples were about giving back (tutoring, helping the homeless, etc), but you never mentioned anything about being friends with 'regular' black people until maybe college.

Kids can attend jack and jill and meet other 'privileged' black kids and attend church or volunteer with 'regular' black kids.  A kid from a 'priveleged' background will probably identify more with another 'priveleged' black kid, so it's important that they have exposure to people from all walks of life.

I was friends with a lot of white people growing up, but my closest friends were black.

[A.]

Oh okay, I guess I don't imagine the friends I have and the new friends I will acquire elite.  Though we're all doing the damn thing none of us consider ourselves elite/privileged.

Irrespective of what you consider yourselves, you are or will be elite.  And there are certain conventions that are difficult to pick up on if you're not regularly exposed to other people of your social class.

[crazy8]

Like I said ya'll for each his own.  One of my best friends (met in college) did Jack and Jill.  I love her to death but she's pretentious as hell, out of touch with the black community, and a Republican    She has very few black friends, and doesn't really know how to relate to them (would go as far as to say she thinks she's better than them).

I'm sure ya'll can tell from my personality that I'm not a fan of elitism and Talented 10th because it tends to make us more devicive as black people.  Ok I'm gonna finish reading the article.

Irrespective of what you consider yourselves, you are or will be elite.  And there are certain conventions that are difficult to pick up on if you're not regularly exposed to other people of your social class.

Not true if you have good parents who make sure you don't act a fool and that you speak properly.

[A.]

Like I said ya'll for each his own.  One of my best friends (met in college) did Jack and Jill.  I love her to death but she's pretentious as hell, out of touch with the black community, and a Republican    She has very few black friends, and doesn't really know how to relate to them (would go as far as to say she thinks she's better than them).

Lol, maybe Jack and Jill softened the effects, not worsened them.  She might not have talked to any black people without Jack and Jill .

Irrespective of what you consider yourselves, you are or will be elite.  And there are certain conventions that are difficult to pick up on if you're not regularly exposed to other people of your social class.

Not true if you have good parents who make sure you don't act a fool and that you speak properly.

Yeah, good parenting is key.  But I think there are some things you learn only by observing others in similar situations.

[Inquirer]

Yeah, good parenting is key.  But I think there are some things you learn only by observing others in similar situations.

I agree w/ that

[crazy8]

Ok I read the article in its entirety and one of the ladies had me when she said her son brought home a white girl    Now if my son ever decides to do that, it better be because he's seen more than enough black women and none of them seem to meet his mamma's standards 

I don't know what kind of neighborhood my kids will end up in, but I'll try my darndest to find a better way to expose them to blacks other than J&J. But I guess if push comes to shove (i.e., son brings home a white girl).....

[pikey]

Ok I read the article in its entirety and one of the ladies had me when she said her son brought home a white girl    Now if my son ever decides to do that, it better be because he's seen more than enough black women and none of them seem to meet his mamma's standards 

I don't know what kind of neighborhood my kids will end up in, but I'll try my darndest to find a better way to expose them to blacks other than J&J. But I guess if push comes to shove (i.e., son brings home a white girl).....

Lol, by then it'll be too late.   

[faith2005]

yeah jack and jill is weird. I knew alot of people in jack and jill, but my parents couldn't afford all of that stuff. the kids in it sorta looked down on me. most of them ended up going to hbcu's. my friend who went to prep school in boston had a similar experience. (which plays into my idea that hbcus are schools for elite black people, while the middle class/immigrants scrape their way into other pwis). and now they're really friendly. there is a sort of fakeness about it--like they didn't think i was good enough to commune with them and their ilk until i went to yale. there were some jj kids at yale (not necessarily acting that way though), but I knew more growing up. i don't know if i want my kids to act like that.

on another note I have two articles. first this one is about father's rights. does anybody remember that discussion on the main board? turns out there was a father's roe v. wade...

COUNTERPOINT: Respect a Man's Choice, Too
By Glenn Sacks and Jeffery M. Leving, AlterNet. Posted August 1, 2006.

Editor's Note: In her July 26 AlterNet article, "The Difference Between a Womb and a Wallet," writer Kai Ma agreed with the recent court dismissal of the "Roe v. Wade for men" case, in which Matthew Dubay fought for his self-perceived right not to financially support an unplanned pregnancy. Below, men's rights advocates Glenn Sacks and Jeffery M. Levin offer a very different view of men's financial responsibility toward unwanted offspring.

Kai Ma's recent AlterNet article "The Difference Between a Womb and a Wallet" applauds a U.S. District Court judge's quick, contemptuous dismissal of Matthew Dubay's "Roe v. Wade for Men" lawsuit. Dubay sought to wipe out the child support payments he is obligated to make to an ex-girlfriend who, he says, used a fallacious claim of infertility to deceive him into getting her pregnant.

In opposing "choice for men," Ma asserts that a "woman's decision to terminate a pregnancy is not the equivalent of a man's choice to financially opt out of fatherhood." She cites the pain and discomfort of pregnancy, and the way motherhood "may limit our mobility or careers."

These problems are very real; however, so are the problems created when men are saddled with child support obligations. According to Men's Health magazine, 100,000 men each year are jailed for alleged nonpayment of child support. Federal Office of Child Support Enforcement data reveal that 70 percent of those behind on payments earn poverty level wages. The "Most Wanted Deadbeat Dad" lists put out by most states are used both for police actions and to hunt and shame "deadbeats" through newspaper ads and publicity campaigns. These lists are largely comprised of uneducated African-American and Latino men with occupation descriptions like "laborer," "maintenance man" and "roofer."

Ma dismisses the burden of child support as being "a few hundred dollars a month." However, in California, a noncustodial father of two earning a modest $3,800 a month in net income pays $1,300 a month in child support. The money -- almost $300,000 over 18 years -- is tax-free to the custodial mother. One can reasonably debate whether this sum is appropriate or excessive. One cannot reasonably dismiss it as being insignificant. Ma portrays children as a mother's albatross, forgetting that parenting is also the greatest joy a person can experience in life. Yes, in single mother homes, the mother bears the burden of most of the childrearing, but the mothers also experience the lion's share of the joys and benefits of having children. Noncustodial fathers are not so fortunate -- they're usually permitted only a few days a month to spend with their kids. Once mom finds a new man, they're often pushed out entirely in favor of the child's "new dad."

Ma condemns men who "lie, deceive, break their promises, or pull a 180 … who agree to marry but don't," and laments that "millions of women" have been "trapped into single motherhood for life with, often, next to no recourse." Yet according to a randomized study of 46,000 divorce cases published in the American Law and Economics Review, two-thirds of all divorces involving couples with children are initiated by mothers, not fathers, and in only 6 percent of cases did the women claim to be divorcing cruel or abusive husbands.

The out-of-wedlock birth rate in the United States hovers around 33 percent -- given the wide variety of contraceptive and reproductive choices women enjoy, this can hardly be blamed primarily on men. Yes, in some of these cases the mother and father shared a relationship that the mother (and the father) may have expected would become a marriage. Yet these relationships fail for many reasons besides male perfidy. These include: youth, economic pressure and the lack of living wage jobs (how many couples fight over money?), and the mothers' post-partum depression and mood-swings. It's doubtful that many men really wake up in the morning and say to themselves, "My child loves me and needs me, my girlfriend loves me and needs me -- I'm outta here."

Ma says men "shouldn't be able to choose to abandon that child in the lurch." Yet 1.5 million American women legally walk away from motherhood every year through adoption, abortion or abandonment. In over 40 states mothers can completely opt out of motherhood by returning unwanted babies to the hospital shortly after birth. If men like Dubay are deadbeats and deserters, what are these women?

Whenever a child is born outside of the context of a loving, two-parent family, there are no good solutions. Ma overstates her case, but she is correct that "Choice for Men" is a flawed solution. However, the current regime, which provides women with a variety of choices and men with none, is also flawed.

Matthew Dubay's conduct is not particularly admirable, and he's certainly not a candidate for father of the year; however, he does have a point. Over the past four decades, women's advocates have successfully made the case that it is wrong to force a pregnancy on an unwilling mother. Despite the backlash against Dubay, hopefully his lawsuit will result in a greater societal awareness that it is also wrong to force a pregnancy on an unwilling father.

Glenn Sacks is a men's and fathers' issues columnist, commentator, and radio talk show host. Jeffery M. Leving is a family law attorney and author of "Fathers' Rights: Hard-hitting and Fair Advice for Every Father Involved in a Custody Dispute."

[2Lacoste]

Bush Grants Self Permission To Grant More Power To Self
August 1, 2006 | Issue 42•31

WASHINGTON, DC—In a decisive 1–0 decision Monday, President Bush voted to grant the president the constitutional power to grant himself additional powers.


President Bush announces announcement of the new power-granting announcement.
"As president, I strongly believe that my  first duty as president is to support and serve the president," Bush said during a televised address from the East Room of the White House shortly after signing his executive order. "I promise the American people that I will not abuse this new power, unless it becomes necessary to grant myself the power to do so at a later time."

The Presidential Empowerment Act, which the president hand-drafted on his own Oval Office stationery and promptly signed into law, provides Bush with full authority to permit himself to authorize increased jurisdiction over the three branches of the federal government, provided that the president considers it in his best interest to do so.

"In a time of war, the president must  have the power he needs to make the tough decisions, including, if need be, the decision to grant himself even more power," Bush said. "To do otherwise would be playing into the hands of our enemies."

Added Bush: "And it's all under due process of the law as I see it."

"The president can grant himself the  power to interpret new laws however he sees fit, then use that power to interpret a law in such a manner that in turn grants him increased power," noted Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez

In addition, the president reserves the right to overturn any decision to allow himself to increase his power by using a line-item veto, which in turn may only be overruled by the president.

Senior administration officials lauded Bush's decision, saying that current presidential powers over presidential power were "far too limited."

"Previously, the president only had the power to petition Congress to allow him to grant himself the power to grant more power to himself," Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez said shortly after the ceremony. "Now, the president can grant himself the  power to interpret new laws however he sees fit, then use that power to interpret a law in such a manner that in turn grants him increased power."

 In addition, a proviso in the 12th provision of the new law permits Bush the authority to waive the need for any presidential authorization of power in a case concerning national security, although legal experts suggest it would be little exercised.

Despite the president's new powers, the role of Congress and the Supreme Court has not been overlooked. Under the new law, both enjoy the newly broadened ability to grant the president the authority to increase his presidential powers.

"The only thing we can do now is withhold our ability to grant him more authority to grant himself more power—unless he authorizes himself to strip us of that power," said Sen. Harry Reid (D–NV).

"This gives the president the tools he needs to ensure that the president has all the necessary tools to expedite what needs to be done, unfettered by presidential restrictions on himself," said Rep. John Cornyn (R-TX). "It's long overdue."

Though public response to the new law has been limited, there has been an unfavorable reaction among Democrats, who are calling for restrictions on Bush's power to allow himself to grant the president more powers that would restrict the powers of Congress.

"This is a clear case of President Bush having carte blanche to grant himself complete discretion to enact laws to increase his power," Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) said. "The only thing we can do now is withhold our ability to grant him more authority to grant himself more power."

"Unless he authorizes himself to strip us of that power," Reid added.

Despite criticism, Bush took his first official action under the new law Tuesday, signing an executive order ordering that the chief executive be able to order more executive orders.

In addition, Republicans fearful that the president's new power undermines their ability to grant him power have proposed a new law that would allow senators to permit him to grant himself power, with or without presidential approval.

[faith2005]

this makes sense. apartment hunting was such a sad experience for me. i felt like people would hear my voice and immediately count me out. one guy said he needed my social to do a background check. another woman said that she wanted me as her tenant, she just "ran out" of credit check forms, then emailed me the next to say she'd rented it to someone else. i offered her the money on the spot too. i feel like racial and voice profiling had to play a role...

Testers Posing as Katrina Survivors Encounter ‘Linguistic Profiling’
by Lorinda Bullock
NNPA National Correspondent
Originally posted 8/1/2006

WASHINGTON (NNPA) – As the one-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina approaches August 29, displaced Americans from Louisiana and the Gulf Coast have been slowly rebuilding their lives and looking for a place to call home.

While Katrina’s Black victims shop the housing market, calling realtors and potential landlords, one thing may be standing between them and their new homes even before an appointment is made or paperwork filled out—their voice.

It’s called linguistic profiling.

A study of five states done by the National Fair Housing Alliance and linguistics expert John Baugh revealed in 66 percent of phone tests administered by White and Black testers inquiring about housing as Katrina survivors, “White callers were favored over African-American callers,” the report said.

“Yes, people do use the telephone as a screening device in many, many businesses,” Baugh said.

Shanna Smith, president and CEO of the Washington-based NFHA, said the organization’s report on “Housing Discrimination Against Hurricane Katrina Survivors” showed repeated bias in a number of areas, including Black testers not getting return phone calls, and being quoted higher rent prices and security deposits.

“In Birmingham, a White tester was told that a $150 security deposit and $25 per adult application fee would be waived for her as a Hurricane Katrina victim. She was also told she needed to make 2.5 times the rent to qualify for the apartment. The African-American tester was told that she would have to pay $150 for the security deposit and a $25 application fee for each applicant.
The African-American hurricane survivor was also told that she would have to make three times the rent to qualify for the apartment,” the report stated.

The testing took place in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Tennessee and Texas, and showed instances of White testers being offered free televisions and partially refunded security deposits.

But those offers were not extended to Black testers, who were often saddled with additional administrative fees that were non-refundable.

“It’s a different kind of behavior in discrimination from the 70s until now where they would just simply say we don’t have anything available. Now they try not to trigger suspicion so they may say when do you need it or I won’t know until the end of the month, when in fact, they may have three or four apartments available right now. But if you’re the caller that sounds reasonable,” Smith said.

Smith, whose organization has worked with Baugh since the early 1990s, said another tactic that is used is asking a potential renter or buyer for their name to be put on a waiting list and “Names that didn’t sound middle America White, they didn’t get the return emails about availability.”

The current trend happening with the Katrina victims is no surprise to either Smith or Baugh.

Baugh has logged thousands of calls, since 1987, using testers of different races and backgrounds, including himself.

Baugh, an African-American man, started studying the practice of linguistic profiling after his own personal experience when he was looking for an apartment in the San Francisco Bay Area.

“I was calling various landlords to go look at apartments and in about two or three cases, I got there and they told me there had been some mistake and the apartments had already been rented. And it just didn’t seem right to me and I speculated that they didn’t realize I was African-American when they made the appointment with me. But once they saw me in person they came up with some excuse. They didn’t say, ‘No, we don’t rent to Black people’ but they came up with some ‘unquote’ legitimate excuse,” Baugh said.

He found the questions from the landlords varied, depending on the voice they heard, but Baugh, who flawlessly uses three different voices—a “Latino rendition, modified African-American rendition and standard English”—always kept the opening line the same, “Hello, I’m calling about the apartment you have advertised in the paper,” he would say.

“It’s exactly the same phrase. The only thing I’ve done there is modify the intonation. So it isn’t like I used the word ain’t or be or anything. Even if you use a certain kind of intonation, it is possible that somebody might discriminate against you just based on the sound of your voice over the telephone,” Baugh said.

Baugh who just finished a five-year study with the Ford Foundation looking at the issue in the United States, has started a new two-year project with the Ford Foundation. This time, he’s examining linguistic profiling globally, for people of African descent in places like South Africa, Brazil and France. He is currently the Margaret Bush Wilson Professor in Arts and Sciences at Washington University.

Baugh has also used his expertise in civil and criminal court cases. Many of the civil cases dealing with linguistic profiling have settled out of court. As for the criminal cases, he is developing ear-witness testimony in hopes of having a similar impact of DNA testing used to exonerate the innocent and solidify proof against the guilty.

While Baugh says Black and Hispanic people in the U.S. are discriminated against heavily because of their voice, he also makes it very clear that linguistic profiling is not even limited to just those groups.

“They (southern Whites) think they need to show up in person so the people there don’t think they’re Black. Even within any racial group, there is enough linguistic diversity you get different prejudicial issues coming up,” he said.

But even Whites seeking diversity find that realtors and landlords are drawing the lines deciding where clients should live despite their wishes, said Smith, who is White.

“As White people we get those direct comments made to us. I’ve been doing testing where people say, you’re going to like it here. We don’t rent to Blacks. I’ve been told when I’ve asked for housing in interracial neighborhoods, real estate agents will say, ‘well who will your kids date?’ It’s not going to be safe for you. It’s going to be better for you to move here. White people hear this all the time. The problem is they don’t know they can do something about it.”

Smith said the Fair Housing Act strictly states that truthful information must be given to everyone who calls.

If people feel they are getting different treatment, Smith suggested they can call one of the 100 fair housing centers in the country or the national office in Washington. The fair housing centers can have a White tester call in as little as 30 minutes and will compare the results. Both Smith and Baugh suggest keeping detailed notes of the experience.

“We estimate there are close to 4 million instances of discrimination that occurs annually in the U.S. My members only report about 18,000 a year. HUD only gets around 3,000 complaints a year,” she said.

But the reported numbers are so low because there are only 100 centers and states like California, Ohio and Michigan have multiple centers leaving other states without centers at all.

“So you have thousands of cities that don’t have a private fair housing center,” she said.

While everyone “accommodates linguistically” depending on the situation, be it a job interview or joking with friends, Baugh said people should not have to hide who they are but shouldn’t be naive to society’s biases either.

“People should not feel they need to mask their linguistic background,” he said. “The United States should be the most linguistically tolerant nation on the face of the earth because our citizens come from everywhere. And because of the fact that all of our ancestors had to go through a transition where English was not their mother tongue… You should be free to speak in whatever way is comfortable for you and your fellow citizens don’t misjudge you.”