Manager Uses Urban Dictionary to Defend UFC Fighter’s Gay Twitter Slur — What would Oscar Wilde and George Orwell say?

Educational attainment, the schools we attend, the neighborhoods we grow up in, and the family that shapes us, all represent the context which gives our language meaning, its connotations.  But the dictionary and the official meanings in it is an important shared frame of reference; or is it?  In search of meaning, intentions and aggression, we often find ourselves in front of the proverbial mirror of shame.  There always seems to be plenty of blame to go around when people are mean to one another.  But to complain about UFC culture seems to go beyond reason to a place where words or meaning may no longer hold much substance.

Life in today’s diverse America is becoming quite interesting and the language to explain it increasingly seems to fall short.  Public behavior, especially public behavior tied to corporate profits and corporate values, has ramifications beyond colloquialisms and local vernacular.   Because the spoken word is usually magnified and made more powerful when it is repeated by those who have the means, people who speak to the wrong person (s) or in the wrong place, or at the wrong time, get crucified.  Someone is always ready to listen and to register a complain for all the good people to weigh in and render a collective judgement.  What passes for conversation, if inelegant or far from eloquent, in the confines of comrades and buddies in local corners or man caves, can be quite the consternation in a public setting–even when it is said in a spectacle of violence, and mostly indecency, displayed for the public palate.  Apparently it is ok to beat another human being nearly to death but it is not okay to call them names?  What ever happened to sticks and stones will break my bones, etc., etc. etc.  We have reached the day when the tongue is mightier than the sword and the public sense of decency is measured by what Oscar Wilde himself may have seen as ironic and inane.

Tell us here at The Policy ThinkShop what you THINK???

“UFC fighter Nate Diaz (above) was suspended by the mixed martial arts body on Thursday night for earlier in the week using a gay slur against another fighter. That’s typically where a manager or someone else would step in and get the athlete to apologize and …”

via Manager Uses Urban Dictionary to Defend UFC Fighter’s Gay Twitter Slur.

Filed under: News, Public Policy, Discrimination, Civic Engagement, Racism, Blogosphere, Literature & Literati, Intolerance, Demographic Change, WeSeeReason, Mass Media and Public Opinion, social protests, symbolic uses of politics, symbols as swords, Parenting, consumers, regulations, ideology, Culture Think, Changing Media Paradigm, Language, Sports, Policy ThinkShop Comments on other media platforms, Minority Males, The Audacity of Reason:, Political Facts and Fiction, Racism, discrimination, sexism; heterosexism; gender politics; feminism; old boy network; patriarchy;, homophobia; homophobic; Not funny!; Don't make fun of me!; Curb your passion with compassion;, class warfare, sexism, classism, elitism, violence, sports and violence, violent spectacles

Pentagon chief vows to ‘fix’ military’s sexual assault problem | Reuters

The army has relied mostly on brawn for the greater part of its existence.  Its culture has been shaped by a resilient gender segregation that the dependence on male power has perpetuated.  However, today’s army is increasingly computer and technologically driven–gender may be mattering less and less.  Drones are replacing the boys but the boy culture changes much slower than the technology.  The values and psychology of today’s army boys is tethered to the attitudes which their parents have embedded in them.  Those ties cannot be broken.  They can be mediated by rules and incentives (negative and positive), but they cannot be completely eradicated in the average soldier who joins a tradition of male discipline and aggression honored and admired by the women in their lives and expected by their male heroes.

To be sure, today’s army would look like camp scouts compared to the savage herds that define the  history and origins of war itself.   But it is an uncomfortable place for young heroic women who grew up in an age that promises them equality in all areas of their lives.  Ironically, the fight to change the deep male traditions that form our fighting forces may be more difficult than field combat itself where they can pull a trigger or a button and wipe out a dozen men they may not even get to visualize or even hear.  Such is the challenge for today’s army–we have technological power and intellectual power beyond our enemies but the real enemy our army faces today is our inability to get along as fellow patriotic Americans or simply human beings.  Of course, that is also the reason we go to war against other nations in the first place.

“Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel ordered top military chiefs on Friday to redouble their effort to address the problem of sexual assault, saying the frequency and perceived tolerance of the crime was …”

via Pentagon chief vows to ‘fix’ military’s sexual assault problem | Reuters.

Filed under: Blogosphere, Culture Think, Demographic Change, Discrimination, drone attacks, Gender, Gender Policy, Intolerance, News, regulations, Women's rights, Army and gender, gender relations in the Army, Men in the Army, war and men and women, women in the Army

Blacks Voted at a Higher Rate than Whites in 2012 Election — A First, Census Bureau Reports – Voting – Newsroom – U.S. Census Bureau

The American electorate is changing and so are our voting patterns.

This is especially interesting since there appears to have been a voter suppression strategy promoted by some Republicans in various parts of the country.

“About two in three eligible blacks (66.2 percent) voted in the 2012 presidential election, higher than the 64.1 percent of non-Hispanic whites who did so, according to a U.S. Census Bureau report released today. This marks the first time that blacks have voted at a higher rate than whites since the Census Bureau started publishing statistics on voting by the eligible citizen population in 1996.

These findings come from The Diversifying Electorate — Voting Rates by Race and Hispanic Origin in 2012 (and Other Recent Elections), which provides analysis of the likelihood of voting by demographic factors, such as race, Hispanic origin, sex, age and geography (specifically, census divisions). The report draws upon data from the November 2012 Current Population Survey Voting and Registration Supplement and looks at presidential elections back to 1996. Using the race definitions from 1968 and the total voting-age population, whites voted at higher rates than blacks in every presidential election between 1968, when the Census Bureau began publishing voting data by race, and 1992.

Blacks were the only race or ethnic group to show a significant increase between the 2008 and 2012 elections in the likelihood of voting (from 64.7 percent to 66.2 percent). The 2012 increase in voting among blacks continues what has been a long-term trend: since 1996, turnout rates have risen 13 percentage points to the highest levels of any recent presidential election. In contrast, after reaching a high in 2004, non-Hispanic white voting rates have dropped in two consecutive elections. Between 2008 and 2012, rates for non-Hispanic whites dropped from 66.1 percent to 64.1 percent. As recently as 1996, blacks had turnout rates 8 percentage points lower than non-Hispanic whites.

Overall, the percentage of eligible citizens who voted declined from 63.6 percent in 2008 to 61.8 percent in 2012.

Both blacks and non-Hispanic whites had voting rates higher than Hispanics and Asians in the 2012 election (about 48 percent each).”

MORE via Blacks Voted at a Higher Rate than Whites in 2012 Election — A First, Census Bureau Reports – Voting – Newsroom – U.S. Census Bureau.

Filed under: News, Discrimination, Election 2012, Blogosphere, Intolerance, Demographic Change, African American, ethnicity in politics, Culture Think, Vote, New Electorate, New American Electorate, voting rights; right to vote; voter suppression; limiting civic engagement; old voting tricks; one man one vote; obstacles to voting; making voting harder;, vote, Voter participation, Civil Rights

Heritage Foundation Cuts Ties to Jason Richwine – from The Atlantic Wire

What do barbie dolls and the Heritage Foundation have in common?  Barbie dolls are to sexism as the heritage foundation is to racism —  they both used to be bastions of each ideology but today they appear increasingly useless and irrelevant.

The Atlantic Wire reports that the Heritage Foundation is running for cover as the facts come out about one Jason Richwine, a former Harvard student who wrote his Ph.D. thesis exploring the presumed intellectual inferiority of Hispanics in America.  The Heritage Foundation used the controversial Harvard former student to publish a recent report arguing about the so called costs of immigration for America.

The Heritage Foundation is a conservative think tank born in the aftermath of the Nixon era when America saw itself through the eyes of a popular media, government and academia largely of European ancestry and xenophobia towards all things not “White” or of European origin.  This world view was forged at a time when civil rights at home and Vietnam abroad crushed the former American dream which was forged in a 1950s America which was being torn asunder by hippie kids and non-White civil rights marchers.

Today the modern expression of these reactionary movements are anti immigration, states rights and anti affirmative action diatribes that fly in the face of the facts of an America that needs every once of talent and muscle from its growing “brown majority.”

Recent demographic reports show that Rodriguez is now the most numerous last name held by new born babies in our country.  Tomorrow is here and the Heritage Foundation seems to be trying to cover the overwhelming historical truth with an increasingly ineffective ideological argument about the size of a broken barbie doll umbrella.

 

“Jason Richwine, co-author of a controversial report from the Heritage Foundation that criticized the potential cost of immigration reform, has resigned from the organization. The resignation follows revelations that Richwine’s college dissertation argued that …”

via Heritage Foundation Cuts Ties to Jason Richwine – Philip Bump – The Atlantic Wire.

Filed under: Blogosphere, Culture Think, Demographic Change, Discrimination, ethnicity in politics, ideology, Immigration, Intolerance, Latinos, New Electorate, News, propaganda and spin, symbolic uses of politics, symbols as swords, WeSeeReason, Racism, National Identity; voodoo economics; The Republican Play Book; the race card; racism; ethnocentrism; bigotry; cultural competence; haters, ideology, Heritage Foundation

Most Muslims in Region Reject Violence Against Civilians – Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life

The Pew Forum on Religion continues to bring us facts and figures to enlighten our view of the religious world which is often clouded by a sensationalist media and the rose colored lenses of young ambitious journalists trying to move up the career ladder or older ones stuck in yesterday’s phobias and mired in a short and myopic view of a changing modern world where the acts of the few motivate and move the masses through the loud megaphone that is our entertainment driven media establishment…. Read the Pew article and tell us what you think…

“A new Pew Research Center survey report finds high levels of concern about religious extremism among Muslims in the North Caucasus area of Russia and the neighboring Central Asian countries of Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan. The survey also finds that few Muslims across the region support the use of violence against civilians in the name of Islam, though there is somewhat more support for suicide bombing and similar violence among Muslims in Kyrgyzstan than in Russia or Kazakhstan.”

via Most Muslims in Region Reject Violence Against Civilians – Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life.

Filed under: access to education, Blogosphere, Changing Media Paradigm, Culture Think, Discrimination, ethnicity in politics, faith-based, ideology, International Relations, Intolerance, Mass Media and Public Opinion, News, Policy ThinkShop Comments on other media platforms, propaganda and spin, Pundits, Racism, Religion, symbolic uses of politics, WeSeeReason, American Muslim attitudes; American Muslim public opinion; Studies show American Muslims don't support extremist muslims;, discrimination, European Muslims, Muslims, perceptions of Muslims, public opinion of Muslims, Religious bigotry

Social policies: Time to scrap affirmative action | The Economist

Affirmative action rears its ugly head once again as the usually intellectually rigorous London Economist magazine publishes an article (link below) making an argument on the deleterious effects of affirmative action policies for beneficiaries, institutions and societies in general.

The main problem with the article is that it sees people of color (or ethnic minorities) as both the “weak classes” and the beneficiaries of these policies.  The article writer fails to understand that a good number of people belonging to the so called “majority” or “white” as the article calls them, are also tremendously disadvantaged and cyclically in poverty by region and sometimes by religious group or region of the country (Catholics compared to Episcopalians and people from the Appalachia region compared to New Yorkers).

The overwhelming majority of people in America are so called “White.”   Poverty is not simply a skin color problem.  Affirmative action is not perfect and plenty of examples can be found of cases in which it is abused or inappropriately taken advantage of.  This does not mean that there’s no need to address historical differences between groups that have experienced circumstances which precluded their development in the educational and business fields, for example.

When  society invests in the children of the poor to ensure that future generations can continue to prosper and contribute to society in greater ways we all benefit.

When specific groups have been locked out for so long that lack of education, sophistication or opportunity defines their relationship to society, then society has a responsibility to address that condition.  Whether we see that “responsibility” as a moral or as a self interested proposition, does not really matter.  The fact is that when societies invest in their citizens they benefit all of society and improve their lot vis a vis other societies who experience the drag and social dislocation caused by an underclass.  The following article in the Economist fails to understand this simple logic.  Read it and tell us what you think?

“ABOVE the entrance to America’s Supreme Court four words are carved: “Equal justice under law”. The court is pondering whether affirmative action breaks that promise. The justices recently accepted a case concerning a vote in Michigan that banned it, and will …”

via Social policies: Time to scrap affirmative action | The Economist.

Filed under: African American, Blogosphere, Children and Poverty, Culture Think, Demographic Change, Discrimination, Education Policy, ethnicity in politics, Feminization of Poverty, Gender, Gender Policy, ideology, Intolerance, Latinos, Minority Males, News, Policy ThinkShop Comments on other media platforms, Affirmative Action, growing American minorities, race and poverty

Malden woman attacked by man accusing Muslims of Marathon bombings – Metro – The Boston Globe

No one ever talks about it.  It is taboo.  Or perhaps, it is not important in our mostly Western European culture.

As we have developed a culture of fear, xenophobia, and antipathy towards foreigners, we have begun to kill our American Dream.  We dislike people who look poorly dressed, “dark,” or otherwise not like “us.”  We forget, or perhaps our history books don’t explain and our grandparents did not share, that most people who came through Elis Island came here with few  belongings, lived in very modest quarters and felt as isolated and alienated as today’s monolingual and “lost in America” recent immigrant population.

Mexicans, Haitians, Pakistanis, Egyptians, Puerto Ricans, many, many, groups are portrayed as “less than American” and continue to be seen as different from the mainstream ideal.  An ideal that may now be shattered after the savages who attacked innocent people in Boston.  The facts are developing at this time.  But the monsters in the two FBI photos are nothing like the “dark guy” ridiculously and irresponsibly described by CNN’s John King with Wolf Blitzer supporting.

“I want to be very careful about this, because people get very sensitive when you say these things,” King said Wednesday. “I was told by one of these sources who is a law enforcement official that this is a dark-skinned male.”

America is now more diverse than ever.  It’s mainstream leadership is woefully out of touch with the silent growing segment of the population that is destined to inherit our tomorrow.

The Boston Globe reported a story that confirms the damage mainstream media does to our fabric when they echo the fears and phobias suffered by less educated Americans…  By less educated we don’t mean did not go to College–we mean people who were raised and educated by parents and schools that failed.  Some of these people have high degrees and are millionaires who lead our nightly broadcasts…

“Every day, Heba Abolaban of Malden checks on her family in war-strafed Syria, where water, bread and electricity are in short supply. She was far more worried about them than about herself on Wednesday morning when she put her baby daughter in a stroller and headed into the sunshine to a play group with a friend.But as they strolled down Commercial Street, an angry-faced man charged toward the petite woman, his hand balled into a fist. He punched her hard in the shoulder and screamed curses inches from her face. Then he pointed at her and …”

More via Malden woman attacked by man accusing Muslims of Marathon bombings – Metro – The Boston Globe.

Filed under: Africa, Blogosphere, Civic Engagement, Community Tragedy, Crimes and Misdemeanors, Culture Think, Demographic Change, Discrimination, ethnicity in politics, ideology, Immigration, Intolerance, Maternal and Child Health, News, Parenting, Political Violence, propaganda and spin, Pundits, Racism, Religion, Religious freedom, The Western Imagination, WeSeeReason, Women's rights, Islam and the media; muslims on TV; portrayal of Islam in American media;, Muslims, National Identity; voodoo economics; The Republican Play Book; the race card; racism; ethnocentrism; bigotry; cultural competence; haters, racist language; the race card; bigotry; propaganda; the play book; manipulating the masses; race; racism; Barak Obama; national decency; political discourse

Pew Hispanic Center – Chronicling Latinos Diverse Experiences in a Changing America

Some of the descendants of today’s native Americans are also the descendants of today’s Mexican Americans.  For thousands of years there has been a natural migration from well below the Rio Grande to cold northern parts of what is today’s “Upper Midwest.”  The region today that is loosely made up of the Dakotas, Michigan, Wisconsin and Illinois. Ironically, even the then pilgrims were considered “illegal aliens” by the then natives.  The same natives who “hosted them” and welcomed the pilgrims in what we now call “Thanks Giving.”  Certainly the then natives must have thought of the pilgrims as “illegal aliens” but gave them quarter and kindness nevertheless.

But “my oh my” how times have changed and how the Thanksgiving tables have been turned.  The immigration debate promises to change how we all define America and maybe even begin to tie together a North American Continent that continues to play a role for new comers.  We may yet get the facts straight and muster up some of that native hospitality that made that long cold winter of immigration survivable for the original pilgrims.  

We may yet repair the growing divisions in our country and continue to be a beacon of giving, welcoming and building for future generations.  Like the Statue of Liberty, a symbol with open arms, allowing our culture to continue to welcome and thank all of us who were here before the next comers, like the native Americans who taught us that Thanks Giving lesson.

Get the facts at Pew.  The Pew Hispanic Center continues to provide resources and leadership in this important area:

“The nation’s total immigrant population reached a record 40.4 million in 2011, according to an analysis of Census Bureau data by the Pew Hispanic Center. Over the last decade, the number of immigrants in the U.S. has grown by more than 9 million. The number of unauthorized immigrants living in the U.S. grew in the early part of the decade before peaking at 12 million in 2007. It is now at 11.1 million as of 2011, the last year for which an estimate is available.”

Related:

New Data: Statistical Portrait of the Foreign Born, 2011

Report: Unauthorized Immigrants: 11.1 Million in 2011

Report: Net Migration from Mexico Falls to Zero

via Pew Hispanic Center – Chronicling Latinos Diverse Experiences in a Changing America.

Filed under: Blogosphere, Civic Engagement, Culture Think, Demographic Change, Discrimination, ethnicity in politics, Immigration, International Relations, Intolerance, Latin American Alliances, Latinos, Minority Males, News, Philanthropy, Policy ThinkShop Comments on other media platforms, Public Policy, Racism, The Western Imagination, WeSeeReason, America's image abroad; American economy; economics USA; transatlantic alliance; our European friends; drone attacks; international law; national sovereignty; integrity of national borders and nationa, American Culture, congressional leaders, immigrants, Immigration, Immigration & National Identity, immigration policy; human cargo; trafficking in people; US borders; Mexico's poor; Mexican economic woes; US magnet of opportunity;, Latin America; US Policy in Latin America; Latin American social change; Political Economy of Latin America; The Americas; South American Politics;, Luis Gutierrez, native Americans, racism; ignorance; national identity; President Obama; birthers; birth; U.S. Citizenship, Thanks Giving

Israel and Gaza: Edging closer to war | The Economist

The Obama victory and the Arab spring have ushered in a new era for the Middle East as the extremes write the next chapter …  What’s next?

“IF THE latest round of violence between Israel and Hamas, the Palestinian Islamists who run Gaza, were to end this weekend, everyone involved—except for the families of the …”

More via Israel and Gaza: Edging closer to war | The Economist.

Filed under: Arab Spring, Blogosphere, Death and Dying, drone attacks, Election 2012, ethnicity in politics, faith-based, geopolitical, human offal, International Relations, Intolerance, Masacre, Mass Media and Public Opinion, Middle East Freedom, News, political plots, Political Violence, propaganda and spin, symbolic uses of politics, symbols as swords, waging war, WeSeeReason, Give peace a chance; peace talks; Israel and Palestine; Middle East Peace;, Israel News

State of denial | The Economist The Policy ThinkShop Proposes that there is now a “NEW AMERICAN ELECTORATE”

The London Economist provides some sober analysis on the Republican meltdown that represents the Presidential Election of 2012.  The Republican disconnect between the young, women and Latinos could spell a new era of demographic consequences that are now clearly irreversible and that will mandate Republican philosophical change that may not be possible for another generation.  Millionaire money, gerrymandering and voter suppression is clearly not enough to the blossoming diversity and generational succession that is now apparent in the “NEW AMERICAN ELECTORATE.”

“FOR conservatives casting about for comfort, there are plenty of plausible reasons to dismiss talk of a crisis. Mitt Romney could have run a better campaign. He reacted slowly when Barack Obama defined him as a heartless plutocrat, and flip-flopped on policies so frequently that even campaign allies struggled to keep …”

 

This Economist article is only one soul-searching conservative attempt to explain the current state of the Republican mind.  It may take Conservatives, Tea Party stalwarts and Right Wingers another decade to figure it out.  By then, the NEW AMERICAN ELECTORATE may have moved on.  America is moving forward right past the right, its billionaires and its antiquated vision of “a real america”.

More via Lexington: State of denial | The Economist.

Filed under: African American, analytics, Blogosphere, Civic Engagement, consumers, Culture Think, Demographic Change, Discrimination, Election 2012, Energy Policy, Environmental Policy, ethnicity in politics, faith-based, Gender, Government Works?, Healthcare Reform, ideology, Immigration, International Relations, Intolerance, Latinos, Mass Media and Public Opinion, Middle East Freedom, Minority Males, New Electorate, News, Philanthropy, Policy ThinkShop Comments on other media platforms, Public Policy, Racism, regulations, Right to Choose, social protests, States Rights & Poverty, symbolic uses of politics, symbols as swords, Tax Policy, Teacher Power, Technology and You, The 47%!, The Audacity of Reason:, The Western Imagination, Unemployment, Vote, waging war, WeSeeReason, NEW ELECTORATE, Republican failure, Romney blunders, US Demographics

How Do You Raise a Prodigy? – NYTimes.com

Wonderful article from the NYTs on child prodigies! The article is a wonderful overview of the parenting experience and how a child’s “difference” presents unique challenges in the parenting experience for good and bad …

The educational system and our own ability to deal with outliers is an obstacle to human progress and perhaps love itself…

Read this article today to enrich your perspective on raising kids or perhaps on how you were raised yourself…

 

“Drew Petersen didn’t speak until he was 3½, but his mother, Sue, never believed he was slow. When he was 18 months old, in 1994, she was reading to him and skipped a word, whereupon Drew reached over and pointed to the missing …”

via How Do You Raise a Prodigy? – NYTimes.com.

Filed under: News, Behavioral Health Outcomes, Blogosphere, Literature & Literati, Intolerance, WeSeeReason, access to education, Parenting, Child Abuse, Culture Think, Teacher Power, Kid Power, Maternal and Child Health, Parenting: Loving and living with our kids..., genious, parenting, child prodigies, prodigy, intelligent kids

States Vote on Same-Sex Marriage : The New Yorker

There is one unavoidable fact about American voters and same-sex marriage: every time the people have had chance to speak on the subject, they have voted it down. Over the past decades, voters in twenty-eight states have …

More via States Vote on Same-Sex Marriage : The New Yorker.

Filed under: Blogosphere, Civic Engagement, Culture Think, Demographic Change, Discrimination, Election 2012, Gender, Gender Policy, Intolerance, lobbying, Mass Media and Public Opinion, News, symbolic uses of politics, Vote, Gay news; Gay research; gay health; health policy; diversity; gay rights;, Gay; marriage; gay marriage; legal battles; politics of marriage