Unnatural Causes

The video Unnatural Causes: http://www.unnaturalcauses.org/

From: Martha Matlaw

Last night, my video group watched "Unnatural Causes" which is sort of like "Race: The Power of an Illusion" except that it looks at structural racism and its relationship to health care as opposed to housing/wealth.  If you've never seen it, the video is AMAZING.  There's a 29 minute clip specifically about the impact of race on health, but all of the dvd chapters are eye-popping. (ex: Another segment, "Place Matters," clearly demonstrates how health and longevity directly correspond to your street address.)

Anyway, it turns out that the Boston Health Commission has identified structural racism as the number one health problem in the City of Boston, and they have been doing AMAZING work with youth and the community in general.  Their staff receives ongoing antiracism training from ARC/Color Lines (see urls below), and a number of neighborhood health centers have organized youth to create multiracial "Race healing and reconciliation" teams.  This Thursday, one of the teams is facilitating a "a participatory activity that tests your ability to build an equitable community in the face of systemic obstacles."

This initiative reminds me of the work done by Deborah Prothrow-Stith in the 1990s (?or 80s), when she defined violence as the number one health problem and then provided violence prevention trainings and curriculum to educate and organize youth and the community.

 http://jamaicaplainforum.org/

Here are some good statistics about racial inequities relating to race and health in Boston:

http://www.bphc.org/chesj/resources/Documents/presentations/Center%20Presentations/Taking%20Action%20-%20The%20Boston%20Public%20Health%20Commission's%20Efforts%20to%20Undo%20Racism.pdf

http://colorlines.com/archives/author/terry-keleher/

http://colorlines.com/

 

I Am A Statistic

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HgVNsCLd8iY 

Additional statistics: Boston Globe 2/22/15 
9 out of 10 black people 12 or older currently don’t use illicit drugs 
93% don’t suffer from substance abuse 

7 out of 10 black fathers ages 15 to 44 who live with their children bathe, dress, diaper, or help their child use the toilet daily – the highest ration by race 

9 out of 10 young black ages 25 to 29 have completed high school or its equivalent – the same ratio as the national average

Among Boston area universities and colleges, Tufts, Harvard, MIT, Boston College, Boston University, Bentley, Babson and Emerson graduate at least 8 out of 10 black men enrolled

There are 59% more black men in postsecondary education than jail

Black high school graduates are 3X more likely to be in college or employed than unemployed

Black fathers ages 15 – 44 had the highest rates of helping children with homework and taking them to and from activities of any race

6 out of 10 black young adults 25 to 29 (compared to 18$ in 1971) have at least some college – the same rate as the national average 

4 out of 5 black fathers living with their children read to them

Urban public institutions which serve populations from tougher circumstances are know for lower graduation rates but UMass Boston has gone from 2 out of 10 black men graduating in 2004 to 4 out of 10 in 2010, one of the fasted rises in the nation.

FBI 2013 Hate Crime Report

See it here:
http://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/2014/december/latest-hate-crime-statistics-report-released/latest-hate-crime-statistics-report-released

Male Privilege

This Response to That Princeton Freshman Should Be Required Reading for White Males
http://mic.com/articles/88903/this-response-to-that-princeton-freshman-should-be-required-reading-for-white-males?utm_source=policymicFB&utm_medium=main&utm_campaign=social

Great article and videos.  Here is an excerpt:
He's partially right: Because of our life experience, we will make mistakes. I certainly have. But what's not mentioned is that women and people of color and LGBT folks are the ones running across this minefield while we white, straight men — impervious to social shrapnel — have reached the other side, only to wonder aloud — mockingly, condescendingly — why the rest of these folks can't hurry the hell up because how awful could bigoted shrapnel be, really?There's a mountain of statistics and studies I can cite, from the wage gap to the way professors respond to student inquiries, that exclusively benefit white men in our society. But this really hammers the point home: TIME magazine wound up publishing Fortgang's op-ed, in full, on its website, just a week after unveiling its predominately privileged "TIME 100," which excluded Laverne Cox, a transgender woman of color and star of Orange Is the New Black who finished among the highest in their website's fan poll.

To the Princetion Privileged Kid:  http://groupthink.jezebel.com/to-the-princeton-privileged-kid-1570383740/+violet-baudelaire

Domestic Violence

"Watching this public service announcement, created by Women’s Aid in the UK, was a jolt of harsh reality. Millions of women are violently ‘taken’ by surprise like this everyday, and live in constant fear. I commend Keira Knightly for filming this. The statistics at the end of the video, are sadly worse here in the U.S. The message, however, is universal.

http://samuel-warde.com/2013/07/keira-knightley-says-cut-cameras-keeps-rolling-in-this-powerful-womens-aid-video/?fb_action_ids=10151565623648261&fb_action_types=og.likes&fb_ref=above-post&fb_source=aggregation&fb_aggregation_id=288381481237582

Domestic violence is the No. 1 cause of injury to women. The incidents add up to more than all the rapes, muggings, and car accidents women experience each year. One out of every four women in the United States will be physically injured by a lover in her lifetime. That translates into a woman being assaulted every nine seconds in America. Immigrant women are beaten at higher rates than US citizens, and African American women are subjected tothe most severe forms of violence. Not surprisingly, a shaky economy just makes these numbers worse."

Why Our Students Need ‘Equity Literacy’

Why Our Students Need ‘Equity Literacy’ http://www.tolerance.org/blog/why-our-students-need-equity-literacy: 
An informational placard presents the chilling current statistics behind the display: “Today the net worth of the average African-American family is about one-tenth that of the average white family. Much of that disparity is due to differing rates of home ownership between these two groups and to the generally lower values of homes blacks own than homes owned by whites. The gap is perpetuated as wealth—or the lack of it—is passed down from parent to child.”

(cut article here)

People were shown three pie charts on wealth distribution. They were asked which one represented the current situation in the United States. The first pie chart was split evenly five ways; the second was less equal with the top quintile controlling 36 percent while the lower quintile controlled 11 percent; and the third, which showed the top quintile with 84 percent of the wealth while the bottom two quintiles controlled 0.3 percent combined. After making their guesses, participants were also asked which society they would most like to live in.

The report found that people dramatically underestimated wealth inequality in the United States, rarely choosing the correct pie chart—the most unequal. (Sweden represented the second pie chart; the first was hypothetical). At the same time, respondents—regardless or political affiliation—overwhelmingly expressed a desire to live in societies with even more equally distributed wealth. This suggests Americans may be more open to policies that support more equitable wealth distribution than our pundits and politicians proclaim.

This report and our encounter with students at the exhibit made me rethink how we, as educators, must frame our curriculum and pedagogy from a social justice perspective. Teachers must proactively position their work as responding to a disturbing gap in Americans’ knowledge base. We need to draw attention to how many people are un- and misinformed when it comes to social and economic inequality in our society. We also need to remind our neighbors how important it is that students learn basic facts, like those represented in the museum’s exhibit.

(cut article here)

I suggest that we call this knowledge base “equity literacy” and add it as the sixth element to Connie North’s definition of social justice education. We need K-12 students who are knowledgeable about the inequity that exists in our midst as much as we need them to know that two plus two equals four, that George Washington was the first president of the United States or that the earth is round. We need students to have a grasp of the historical trajectories of marginalized and privileged groups and to understand how those groups have been—and continue to be—framed. And we need them to be familiar with the many ways these facts are interpreted. Thoughtful debates about policy at the local and national level depend upon the people’s capacity to do so.

Half the Sky

 If you do any social justice work (and even if you don't), the statistics in this video are startling.  Also, the book, Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide by Kristoff and WuDunn is a must-read resource!


“Women are half the world’s population, yet they do two-thirds of the world’s work, earn one-tenth of the world’s income, and own less than one per cent of the world’s property.” (Source: World Bank) Let’s change that!

Half the Sky Movement:  http://www.halftheskymovement.org/



And, in case you don't think this happens in the United States, read this article about Oklahoma. http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2012/11/4/nation/12170205&sec=nation

It Gets Better (YouTube campaign)

Speaking out - Below are Dan and Terry and then President Obama.

See their website here http://www.youtube.com/user/googlechrome?v=7skPnJOZYdA&feature=pyv&ad=7478932977&kw=%252Bchrome%20%252Bit%20%252Bgets%20%252Bbetter%23p/c/5308B2E5749D1696/0/7skPnJOZYdA

STATISTICS jamey rodemeyer: http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/We_Find_Them/cyberbullying-/story?id=14675883
39% of sixth-graders report being bullied.
20% of high school seniors report being bullied.
90% of gay and lesbian youth report being bullied - percentage remains constant from ms throughout high school.

BULLYING & responses to Jonah Mowry

However you feel about the 2012 Superbowl (I'm a Patriots fan myself), it's nice to see a Major League team do their own "It Gets Better" video against bullying…