b. medusa 27 July 2007 12:30:22 pm
if you’ve wondered where all the recent xenophobic bias regarding Chinese imports was coming from (& if you haven’t you should’ve), wonder no more. Zuky provides perspective & history in Food, Racism, Capitalism:
Fear and fetishization of freaky food is among the most common expressions in the USA of anti-Asian racism. Schoolyard taunts about eating dogs, cats, and rats are as familiar to Asian American ears as “ching chong”, “flied lice”, and high-pitched kung-fu-movie noises (usually inexplicably accompanied by stiff flat hands which appear terribly ill-prepared for action). What I find rather amazing is that so many non-Asians continue to find these moronic clichés funny and/or fascinating, to the point that lurid stories about tainted Chinese food have been at or near the top of corporate fake-news for weeks.
…
I must say that it strikes me as a little surreal that the modern corporate culture that gave the world the Big Mac is actually talking gastronomical smack about the ancient culture that gave us noodles and dumplings and culinary contributions far too numerous to get into here. Is catfish from China really more of a threat to our national nutritional regimen than, say, hormone-pumped antibiotic-injected water-added nitrite-preserved meat-product accompanied by high-fructose corn-syrup, insecticide-sprayed artificially-colored produce and genetically-modified starch? Or could the ban on catfish from China — initiated in Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana before being backed nationally by the FDA — be somehow related to the fact that Mississippi, Alabama, and Louisiana are the three biggest US producers of farm-raised catfish?
quotes don’t begin to do this article justice. you really must read it in its entirety.
b. medusa 25 July 2007 8:15:54 pm
more from the boston globe (no registration required, thank you very much), via the ABW:
Deeply imbedded attitudes about race influence the way doctors care for their African- American patients, according to a Harvard study that for the first time details how unconscious bias contributes to inferior care.
Researchers have known for years that African-Americans in the midst of a heart attack are far less likely than white patients to receive potentially life-saving treatments such as clot-busting drugs, a dramatic illustration of America’s persistent healthcare disparities. But the reasons behind such stark gaps in care for heart disease, as well as cancer and other serious illnesses, have remained murky, with blame fixed on doctors, hospitals, and insurance plans.
In the new study, trainee doctors in Boston and Atlanta took a 20-minute computer survey designed to detect overt and implicit prejudice. They were also presented with the hypothetical case of a 50-year-old man stricken with sharp chest pain; in some scenarios the man was white, while in others he was black. full article
excerpted from “Tests of trainee doctors find signs of race bias in care” by Stephen Smith; Boston Globe, July 20, 2007
the tests are online @ implicit.harvard.edu/. i took a couple of them, it was fun & interesting. i encourage you to take one, or several. also visit the continuing conversation @ the ABW’s blog.
b. medusa 24 July 2007 3:13:20 pm
as mentioned in an earlier post, most of these are long overdue:
b. medusa 24 July 2007 12:33:07 pm
certainly not most poc, especially black folx:
Racism, other research suggests, acts as a classic chronic stressor, setting off the same physiological train wreck as job strain or marital conflict: higher blood pressure, elevated heart rate, increases in the stress hormone cortisol, suppressed immunity. Chronic stress is also known to encourage unhealthy behaviors, such as smoking and eating too much, that themselves raise the risk of disease.
In the 1990s, Harvard School of Public Health social epidemiologist Nancy Krieger pushed the hypothesis further. She confirmed that experiences of race-based discrimination were associated with higher blood pressure, and that an internalized response — not talking to others about the experience or not taking action against the inequity — raised blood pressure even more. A controversial finding at the time, it has since been replicated by other investigators: The suppressed inner turmoil after a racist encounter can set off a cascade of ill effects.
excerpted from “How racism hurts — literally” by Madeline Drexler; Boston Globe, July 15, 2007
read the full article here.
b. medusa 21 July 2007 8:39:37 pm
obviously, weekly roundups aren’t often enough. sigh. there were posts i meant to return to & comment on, as well as direct other folx to. by the time i finish reading & absorbing, there’s a ton of new stuff to read & absorb. a roundup @ this point seems like “why are you telling us about all this old shit? i’m not going to comment on a post that’s buried on page 5 or 10 @ this point.”
i still plan to continue doing roundups, even including some of the older stuff i wanted to share. the information/point of view is too good not to share, even if the posts have passed their “comment by” date (after all, if a certain well known alternative news medium can take several months before reporting on the Jena 6, i guess i can be forgiven for not mentioning a great post for a couple of weeks). that will prolly be my next post. for this post, since its still timely, i wanted to give a heads up to watch the discussion between Walter Moseley & Howard Zinn on book-tv (c-span2) tomorrow night @ 10 pm EDT. this is a rebroadcast of a live discussion that was held today @ the Harlem book festival. i doubt c-span will also rebroadcast the calls that came afterward, which is a shame because the callers were as insightful, if not moreso, as the two authors. this discussion was the high point of the festival (what was broadcast anyway). if you’re like me & don’t have cable or satellite, you can watch the stream from the c-span web site. unfortunately, they don’t archive the book-tv material (i hope they change that), so you have to watch it in real time.
CORRECTION: 10:30pm EDT
b. medusa 13 July 2007 9:01:27 pm
first the obvious one – i changed themes. i’d been wanting a “fluid-width, 2 column side-by-side sidebar, max use of page” theme; but hadn’t seen one that came close to what i wanted. finally! i’ll miss certain elements of the old theme, but this one seems more practical. whadiya think?
second – i updated the permalinks. fortunately there is a way to do that w/o breaking the site, or pulling out all your hair.
third – mnemosyne now has its own domain. AND the 5 or 10 folx who actually link here won’t have to update their links (unless you want to). yay!
whew, this geek shit wore me out. no wonder i don’t do this shit for a living anymore.
mojo 8 July 2007 10:41:40 am
guest blogger mojo coltrane
yeah, i’m a kitten. so what? mommy & daddy left me alone to go the aahf (african-american heritage festival) again, so i thought i’d make use of this time to hijack mommy’s blog. maybe i won’t get into any trouble this way.
so mommy got tagged w/ a meme, but she didn’t tag anybody afterwards. since i like being the center of her attention, i know i’ll luv all the attenion i could get from this. so, i thought i’d step up & do the 8 things meme. Continue Reading »
