In the clunkiest passage of his Gonzales decision, Justice Kennedy claims that banning late-term abortion is justified because he cares about women sooooo much:

Respect for human life finds an ultimate expression in the bond of love the mother has for her child. The Act recognizes this reality as well. Whether to have an abortion requires a difficult and painful moral decision. While we find no reliable data to measure the phenomenon, it seems unexceptionable to conclude some women come to regret their choice to abort the infant life they once created and sustained. Severe depression and loss of esteem can follow.

In a decision so fraught with emotional consequence some doctors may prefer not to disclose precise details of the means that will be used, confining themselves to the required statement of risks the procedure entails. From one standpoint this ought not to be surprising. Any number of patients facing imminent surgical procedures would prefer not to hear all details, lest the usual anxiety preceding invasive medical procedures become the more intense. This is likely the case with the abortion procedures here in issue. [...]

It is self-evident that a mother who comes to regret her choice to abort must struggle with grief more anguished and sorrow more profound when she learns, only after the event, what she once did not know: that she allowed a doctor to pierce the skull and vacuum the fast-developing brain of her unborn child, a child assuming the human form.

It is a reasonable inference that a necessary effect of the regulation and the knowledge it conveys will be to encourage some women to carry the infant to full term, thus reducing the absolute number of late-term abortions.

Read the rest of this entry »

From The New York Times:

Two female students at Virginia Polytechnic Institute complained to authorities about the behavior of Cho Seung-Hui, the killer in the shooting rampage there, when he contacted them in separate incidents in 2005. Police questioned Mr. Cho and he was sent to a mental health facility, but no charges were filed against him. [...]

Also in 2005, Lucinda Roy, an English professor, shared her concerns about Mr. Cho with the Virginia Tech police, but no official report was filed. The writings did not express threatening intentions, or allude to criminal activity, the police said today.

In the incidents involving the female students, the police said that in late November 2005, Mr. Cho contacted a fellow female student, by phone and in person, and she notified the campus police. She later declined to press charges, but officers spoke with Mr. Cho, who was referred to the University’s disciplinary system.

On December 12, 2005, a second female student complained to the police about an instant message Mr. Cho sent to her by computer. The police then spoke with Mr. Cho and asked him to have no further contact with the student. The police said the message was not threatening, and the student characterized it as “annoying.” [...]

Neither of the female students who complained about Mr. Cho were among the shooting victims, and the police said they did not know if they were in the vicinity of the shootings. [...]

Federal investigators said Mr. Cho — a South Korean immigrant who Americanized his name and preferred to be known as Seung Cho — left behind a note that they described as a lengthy, rambling and bitter list of complaints focusing on moral laxity and double-dealing he found among what he viewed as wealthier and more privileged students on campus.

It’s too early to know for sure, but it’s my guess that Seung Cho was not just an asshole but a misogynistic asshole.¹

Everyone’s noticed that these kinds of mass shootings are exclusively perpetrated by men? Just like rapists are almost exclusively male. I don’t think the parallel is a coincidence; I think both kinds of attacks are usually rooted in strong feelings of male entitlement, and in strong fears of failing to be a man. Whether or not that’s true of Seung Cho remains to be seen, admittedly.

1. As Myca said in comments, “What do you want to bet this guy was a misogynist twit?” I have to admit, though, that I was also expecting that he’d be white, and I was mistaken about that. (back)

Gonzales vs. Carhart, today’s Supreme Court decision upholding the Federal “Partial Birth” abortion (PBA) ban,¹ is a terrible decision for freedom and for women in many ways. But the most destructive element of the Court’s decision is a relatively obscure argument buried deep in Kennedy’s decision.

From Kennedy’s decision:

This is the proper manner to protect the health of the woman if it can be shown that in discrete and well-defined instances a particular condition has or is likely to occur in which the procedure prohibited by the Act must be used. In an as-applied challenge the nature of the medical risk can be better quantified and balanced than in a facial attack. [...]

As the previous sections of this opinion explain, respondents have not demonstrated that the Act would be unconstitutional in a large fraction of relevant cases. Casey, supra, at 895 (opinion of the Court). We note that the statute here applies to all instances in which the doctor proposes to use the prohibited procedure, not merely those in which the woman suffers from medical complications. It is neither our obligation nor within our traditional institutional role to resolve questions of constitutionality with respect to each potential situation that might develop.

What Kennedy is saying here is that if pro-lifers pass an abortion ban without any health exception, then women can successfully sue to have the ban overturned only in “as applied” cases. So a ban might not be illegal generally, but it still might be illegal in the case of Betty Smith of Memphis, who might be able to convince a court the ban “as applied” to women with her specific health circumstances is unconstitutional because it threatens her health.

But even if one lawsuit is successful in overturning the law “as applied” to the particular person who sued, the law could still apply to other women in other circumstances - meaning all those women would have to sue individually if they think the law is unconstitutionally being applied to them. The net effect could be to make it much harder for pro-choice activists to get Courts to consider whether or not new abortion-related laws are Constitutional.

Read the rest of this entry »

1. Here is an AP article reporting the Gonzales decision, and here is the text of the decision itself. (back)

Two days ago an All Black1 who had been discharged without conviction after he assaulted his wife, because if he did that would make it harder to travel and he wouldn’t be able to play in the rugby world cup. One fan said:

Fan Craig Clapson, at the match with his son, said Sivivatu should be able to play. “I can’t condone wife beating, but from what I’ve read, it was basically a domestic that got a little out of hand and they’ve reconciled.”

Yesterday, the NZ Herald used the following headline: “‘We thought first shooting just domestic,’ authorities say” (it has now been taken down, but Audra wrote about it). [Note this appears to be just paper assholishness and not necessarily the opinion of the university or the police, although it wouldn't surprise me]

‘Domestic’ is such a tidy way of saying ‘what men do to women who are in a relationship with them doesn’t matter.’

**************

World Socialist Website has an article: The Virginia Tech massacre–social roots of another American tragedy. Lenin’s Tomb covers some of the same ground

Do you want to guess what they don’t mention? Do you want to guess what they don’t think might be relevant?

It’s not actually that hard to include some feminist analysis, even if you’re a Marxist. It’s true that better minds than mine have been defeated in trying to understand reproductive labour within a Marxist economic framework. But looking at the history of school shootings, and some of the details that have come out about this one, you don’t have to rewrite any Capital to understand that maybe a deeply misogynist society might be playing a part.

Edited Updated to reflect more accurate information - bloody New Zealand Herald.

1. Member of the NZ rugby team & God of masculinity in these parts (back)

There’s an interesting discussion of “Alas” comments and moderation in an older post; the current round of discussion begins with comment number 297 by Mandolin. Here’s the complete text of Mandolin’s first comment in that discussion:

I know this has been said before, but I guess I feel the need to add my voice to the din. For whatever reason, Alas, which theoretically has an emphasis on civil discourse, seems to host more vile sentiments than any other blog I read regularly (note: I dropped Hugo from my reading list for similar reasons*).

I like being here, and I like reading the posts, but the way Ann and Pheeno have just been attacked — really, dramatically attacked — is kind of galling.

Why does the emphasis on civil discourse create this feedback loop? Is it because the posters on Pandagon, for instance, are more comfortable mocking the creeps before they get so creepy? Is it just a different bannination policy? Is it an illusion caused by the way comments thread here? Do the comments get as vile in other places, but the reaction of the population is just different, so the scary stuff isn’t as clearly delineated?

If no one else is interested in opening up this can of worms, it’s cool. And I appreciate that Chris has been asked to leave. But, it still happened.

–

(*Leading me to be curious about why it is that the feminist blogs hosted by men have such an infestation, but with a group of 2, it’s hardly a real pattern.)

There’s a lot more discussion there, which I’m not going to attempt to summarize. However, since loading over 300 comments is a pain for some folks, I’m starting this new post for continuing that discussion. (Admittedly, people will have to reload that page initially to read the discussion, but eventually we’ll be able to move the conversation over to this thread).

UPDATED TO ADD:

I do have several ideas of what we can do, some of which contradict each other.

1) Stop having comments on “Alas” at all.

This is actually pretty appealing to me, in some ways; I’d miss some of the discussion, but having comments is also a major pain in the neck. But I don’t think other people would love it. I certainly wouldn’t do this (or any of the other ideas, actually) if Rachel and Maia disagree.

2) Get more folks to moderate.

But they’d have to be folks who “get” the idea of the site, who don’t hate the idea of the site, and they’d have to be willing to volunteer. (Feminists only, natch.)

3) Put a “email the moderators about this comment” link with every comment that appears.

One thing pointed out in the discussion is that people tend to hesitate to report comments they’re concerned with — but in fact, I’d find it very, very useful if people emailed me right away when things go over-the-top. (Maia, Rachel, would you mind receiving such emails?) The problem, of course, is that I’m not online 24/7, and neither is Rachel, or Maia. This is an area in which having more moderators might help some.

4) Add a “progressive anti-racists only” condition to some posts, similar to the “feminists only” rule condition some posts have.

This will definitely happen — we just need to work out the wording. (Just saying “anti-racist posters only” won’t cut it, because everyone considers themselves to be anti-racist.)

5) More “progressive anti-racists only” posts. More “feminists only” posts.

6) Create an “Alas annex,” meant for polite debate between different idealogical views, and outsource most of the non-feminist, non-progressive comments to the annex.

That’s some of what I’ve been thinking. A number of folks suggested various technological solutions, but I’m not sure those solutions are things I’m technically capable of implementing.

I’ll post more later, but right now I’ve got to go get my teeth drilled. :-(

This discussion over at Pandagon reminded me of an article I wrote a few years ago. Here are a few quotes.

On criticism of Hip Hop:

Rap music has long been the target of criticism from the popular media, White politicians, and even some older African Americans. Often, antirap sentiments are thinly veiled anti-Black comments. Moreover, these antirap comments are often framed differently from those attacking White musicians, as Binder’s (1993) analysis of media accounts indicates. Her study indicated that White heavy metal fans were viewed as potential victims of the music, whereas predominantly Black rap fans were viewed by media outlets as potential victimizers. A small number of African American leaders have also criticized rap on similar grounds. C. Deloris Tucker and Reverend Calvin Butts have both argued that rap music promotes violence and misogyny and have publicly criticized rap music on these grounds (Ogbar, 1999; Rose, 1994). White media outlets, possibly in search of African Americans to make criticisms, have quickly picked up Black leaders’ criticisms. In the new millennium, critics from within the hip-hop community have argued that many contemporary artists have abandoned antiracism messages and focused instead on money and sexual exploits (Powell, 2000). They go on to say that corporate control and the desire to reach a “wider and Whiter” audience has led rap away from overtly antiracist sentiments. Although hip-hop artists have always been diverse and self-critical (Ogbar, 1999), criticism from within hip-hop seems to have increased in recent years.

Although many leaders have argued about the effects of rap on its fans, studies exploring effects of rap are few. This is partly because the small body of research on hip-hop focuses more on artists, lyrical content, and the history of hip-hop. Moreover, any social differences (gender, age, race, social class, etc.) in fans that could be correlated with influence are generally overlooked.

On race and preference for rap:

The most striking finding from this study is that the racial gap in preference for rap music is closing. Unlike the previous research (Epstein et al., 1990), this study shows that preference for rap was not significantly different for Blacks and Whites; however, this may be misleading. Black adolescents named more rap artists and were more likely to say that theywore clothes like rappers and used words or phrases similar to rappers. Moreover, African Americans were more likely to say that they listened to rap because it was truthful and taught them about life. Although White adolescents say they like rap, many of the White respondents in this survey had difficulty naming three rap artists, which indicated that they did not have a high level of commitment to the music. Rap may only be a fad and a phase…….

The responses to the open-ended questions on the survey support the idea that African Americans have higher commitment to rap. The wider variety of rap acts Black adolescents listed provides evidence that they have a broader knowledge of rap. Some of the White respondents’ answers to the question, “Why do you listen to rap?” indicated that Whites were listening to rap because it has a “good beat,” so the message of the music was not as important as the sound. This leads me to believe that although Black and White adolescents are saying that they like rap, they may be getting two different messages from the same music. Many young African Americans appear to be looking at rap for its messages about life and its aesthetically pleasing sound, yet Whites seem to be listening almost exclusively because of the aesthetically pleasing sound. In many ways, these findings support Berry’s (1994) and Martinez’s (1997) arguments that rap is a form of resistance. Although young African American rap fans are not arguing that rap leads them into social protest, they seem to be indicating that it offers a counterdominant message that they use as an affirmation of their experiences.

Not only are rap music and hip-hop culture a potential form of resistance, they may also have broad-reaching implications for identity development and maintenance. Although many may see music as a passing phase, it is often a source of information about one’s group (or other groups), and it can also be a (re)affirmation of one’s identity. This could be particularly true for young African Americans, who are less likely to have their experiences reflected in the dominant culture.

Therefore, future research needs to examine not just how much adolescents report they like to rap but their knowledge and commitment to the music. Furthermore, the extent to which Black and White adolescents are getting different messages from the same rap songs must be clarified.

On rap as an interracial socializer:

Because so many young Whites listen to rap, future research should also focus on rap as an interracial socializer. Whites in this study (who were fans) indicated that rap had affected their opinions about racism. The survey did not measure how rap had affected their opinions of racism or how it has affected their opinions of African Americans more generally. However, rap as an interracial socializer may be detrimental for many reasons. First, many Whites who listen to rap may be motivated by curiosity. Rap may allow White adolescents to satisfy their curiosities without ever having face-to-face contact or interpersonal relationships with any African Americans, so rap can be a way for Whites to vicariously learn about African Americans. They may be able to satisfy curiosities about African Americans and even mimic what they may see as African American life without having an understanding or appreciation of African American experiences. Second, rap music does not reflect the diversity of African Americans. Rap often operates from the perspectives of young, urban, Black men. White adolescents may get a picture of African American life that is not inclusive of those who are older, from rural areas, or female (or other important social characteristics). The third reason this could be detrimental is because it may perpetuate prejudices, particularly the view that African Americans are materialistic and hedonistic, which could inadvertently promote stereotypes more than it dismantles them. Although rappers themselves are not fully accountable for how their music is interpreted, many fans may not be accessing alternative sources of information about African Americans. In addition, many rap songs are fictional and do not even represent the artists’ true beliefs or those beliefs of African Americans in general. Rap, like any other cultural product, is also subjected to corporate control, which could potentially limit antiracist messages because those messages may not be as economically profitable.

I am not making the case that rap sends only negative messages to White adolescents. Many artists do have images that are less stereotypical (Ogbar, 1999); however, those voices are often less commercially successful. Rap would probably be best when combined with other forms of interracial socialization, particularly in a society that has been built on racism, sexism, and capitalism. Daily interactions or interactions that are not from media could be beneficial.

Bibliography

Sullivan, Rachel E. “Rap and Race: It’s Got a Nice Beat, but What about the Message?” Journal of Black Studies 2003; 33; 605-622.

Berry, V. (1994). Redeeming the rap music experience. In J. Epstein (Ed.), Adolescents and their music: If it’s too loud you’re too old. New York: Garland.

Binder, A. (1993). Constructing racial rhetoric: Media depictions of harm in heavy metal and rap music. American Sociological Review, 58, 753-767.

Epstein, J. S., Pratto, D.,&Skipper, J., Jr. (1990). Teenagers, behavioral problems, and preferences for heavy metal and rap music: A case study of a southern middle school. Deviant Behavior, 11, 381-394.

Martinez,T. (1993). Recognizing the enemy: Rap music in thewake of the Los Angeles riots. Explorations in Ethnic Studies, 16, 115-127.

Martinez, T. (1997). Popular culture: Rap as resistance. Sociological Perspectives, 40, 265- 286.

Powell, K. (2000, October 9). My culture at the crossroads:Arap devoteewatches corporate control and apolitical times encroach on the music he has loved all his life. Newsweek, p. 66.

Ogbar, J. (1999). Slouching toward Bork: The culture wars and self-criticism in hip hop music. Journal of Black Studies, 30(2), 164-183.

Rose, T. (1994). Black noise: Rap music and Black culture in contemporary America. Hanover, NH: Wesleyan University Press.

I can forward you a copy of the entire article if you would like to read it and don’t have library access.

This month’s Erase Racism Carnival is being held at Double Consciousness. You can submit a blog post for inclusion in the carnival through the blog carnival site by the 17th or you can send a post directly to the blog owners by the 19th.

If you want more info. about the Erase Racism Carnival you can check out Ally Work. The Erase Racism Carnival is published around the 20th of every month. Given the recent growth in the number of anti-racism blogs and the current events of the past few weeks, we expect to have many posters.

I’m vain enough to check the stats on my blog reasonably often. Not as much as when I first started writing, when ever reader was a victory, but a few times a week I check how people found me.

Usually they’re searching for Brad Shipton, Clint Rickards or Bob Schollum. That people who want to know about those men find what I’ve written satisfies me.

There are always some upsetting searches which manage to convey a weight of racism or misogyny in so few words. I think most feminist bloggers have it worse than I do; I don’t write much about pornography.

But a few days ago someone found my blog by searching for: “rape a woman” “get away with it”.

I’m on the second page. He hadn’t found what he was looking for in the previous 18 sites, so he checked me out. This is what he read:

For most rapists, there are no consequences, formal or informal. There are consequences for all too many women out there who try and pursue justice and safety.

So any men out there, know you can rape women with impunity, know that there is no need to treat women as human beings. I don’t know if you can imagine what it’s like to live as a woman knowing that, maybe you could try.

I’m scared he read my words and ignored what I was saying. I know that most men who rape face no consequences. I’m terrified that this man is now going to add to that number.

I’ve decided that the problem is that comics are too short. 24 pages a month is not enough, if you’ve been used to 42 minutes a week. A month is a long time between mouthfuls.

At the moment all I can say is that I’m enjoying the Buffy comic.¹ It feels foolish to pass judgement on any of the major plot-lines yet (although I’m not OK with any of the potential candidates for Buffy’s true love except Willow), since I don’t know where they’re going. Generally I’m excited by Giant Dawn, and the evil army, and everything else I’m going to wait and see.

It’s pretty cool to have the old characters back (and their dream sequences - I love a Joss dream sequence). I’m even beginning to like some of the slayers, which I never did with the potentials.² Although one of them has terrible taste in men.

The art bothers me more this issue. Mostly because Joss randomly set a scene while Dawn is washing in a water hole that won’t fit all of her. But apparently if Georges Jeanty ‘two women in their pyjamas attacking an intruder’ he thinks ‘butts, waists and thighs’. What he thinks when he hears ‘Buffy chained to a bed’ is even more predictable.³

1. Did you see Amp now has a ‘Buffy’ category - I’m so proud (back)
2. Except Milly from Freaks and Geeks, because Freaks and Geeks was awesome. (back)
3. I didn’t understand that at all actually, the bed looked like it had holes for her arms and what was this mystical protection that stopped her being stabbed, but didn’t stop her being tied up or enchanted? (back)

RH Reality Check notes that the Bush administration chose Friday — the traditional day to release news that you’d rather the public not hear about — for releasing a new, thorough, Federal study on the effectiveness of abstinence-only education. And they released it without issuing a press release or advisory. (The report is available online as a pdf document).

These abstinence-only programs cost taxpayers $87.5 million dollars every year. So how much of a difference are they making? I think the pictures tell the story. The blue columns show how the kids in abstinence-only programs did. The white columns show a control group.¹

No effect at all. None. Other than the fact that $87 million a year has disappeared from our collective pockets just as surely as if the money had been thrown into a furnace, the abstinence-only classes might as well have not existed at all.

No wonder the Bush administration is trying to bury these results.

1. ”The rigor of the experimental design derives from the fact that, with random assignment, youth in both the program and control groups were similar in all respects except for their access to the abstinence education program services.” (back)

This little girl totally cracked me up. Here on Youtube. Thanks, Bean!

Frankly, I have nothing to say about the latest example of Kos being an idiot that others haven’t already said better; others like Shakespeare’s Sister, Echidne, Feministing, Aimai, Majikthise, and I’m sure many others. (Updated to add: Such as Kip, and Chris, and Stephen.) (And Pandagon).

But I’ll say it anyway:

1) One can think that a “blogger code of ethics” is a stupid idea without thinking that death threats are no big deal.

2) There is no reason to accept that anyone should just have to put up with death threats as the cost of stating an opinion in public. Talk about lowered expectations! What next — should voters who are harassed at the voting site not complain, since they should have expected that sort of abuse?

3) It’s true that no blogger code of ethics will solve the problem of anonymous online idiots making threats.

But it’s also true that Kos’ view, if taken seriously, would actually make the problem worse. The only means most of us have of fighting back against these sort of attacks is to publicly call out the threat-makers. If people have to worry that fighting back will lead to one of the world’s most popular bloggers calling them an idiot in public, then that’ll be one more reason to just let it pass. And the standards of discourse on the internet, already disgustingly low, will be driven even lower.

As it happens, the threats against Kathy Sierra came in part on a online discussion board; in an environment like that, group social norms make a difference. If virtually everyone responded to posts that imply violence by saying “that’s disgusting! What’s wrong with you?,” threats like that won’t disappear entirely — but they will become less common. Contrariwise, if everyone responds to these sort of controversies the way Kos has here, by in effect calling people who object to such threats wimps and idiots, that will have the effect of encouraging threats.

4) Let’s not forget, it seems clear that female bloggers have to deal with more of this crap than male bloggers.

In honor of the passing of Kurt Vonnegut, I present the The Last Rites of the Bokononist Faith:

God made mud.
God got lonesome.
So God said to some of the mud, “Sit up!”
“See all I’ve made,” said God, “the hills, the sea, the sky, the stars.”
And I was some of the mud that got to sit up and look around.
Lucky me, lucky mud.
I, mud, sat up and saw what a nice job God had done.
Nice going, God.
Nobody but you could have done it, God! I certainly couldn’t have.
I feel very unimportant compared to You.
The only way I can feel the least bit important is to think of all the mud that didn’t even get to sit up and look around.
I got so much, and most mud got so little.
Thank you for the honor!
Now mud lies down again and goes to sleep.
What memories for mud to have!
What interesting other kinds of sitting-up mud I met!
I loved everything I saw!
Good night.
I will go to heaven now.
I can hardly wait…
To find out for certain what my wampeter was…
And who was in my karass…
And all the good things our karass did for you.
Amen.

That’s from my favorite Vonnegut novel, Cat’s Cradle. I invite “Alas” readers to let us know their favorite Vonnegut novel (or essay, or short story) in the comments… or anything else y’all would like to say.

Echdine quotes from Vonnegut’s God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater:

Hello, babies. Welcome to Earth. It’s hot in the summer and cold in the winter. It’s round and wet and crowded. At the outside, babies, you’ve got about a hundred years here. There’s only one rule that I know of, babies — “God damn it, you’ve got to be kind.”

There are more blog posts on Vonnegut’s passing then I could possibly link to, but here’s a few: Bad Astronomy, Pandagon, Muttering In A Corner, Chris Abraham has but together a brief biography, Because I Say So, Critical Mass, Lisa Rein, Crossroads Dispatches, Return of the Reluctant, and Boing Boing.

From the New York Times:

RALEIGH, N.C., April 11 — North Carolina’s attorney general declared three former Duke University lacrosse players accused of sexually assaulting a stripper innocent of all charges on Wednesday, ending a prosecution that provoked bitter debate over race, class and the tactics of the Durham County district attorney. [...]

“We believe that these cases were the result of a tragic rush to accuse and a failure to verify serious allegations,” Mr. Cooper said at a news conference.

“We have no credible evidence that an attack occurred,” he added.

Mr. Cooper said he had considered but ultimately rejected the possibility of bringing criminal charges against the accuser, who continues to insist she was attacked at a team party on March 13, 2006, and asked him to go forward with the case. Mr. Cooper said his investigators had told him that the woman “may actually believe the many different stories that she has been telling.” He said his decision not to charge her with making false accusations was also based on a review of sealed court files, which include records of the woman’s mental health history.

Mr. Cooper reserved his harshest criticism for the Durham County district attorney, Michael B. Nifong, at one point even depicting him as a “rogue prosecutor.” [...]

The North Carolina chapter of the N.A.A.C.P. released a statement saying it respected and accepted the work of the attorney general’s office. Irving Joyner, a law professor at North Carolina Central University, who had been monitoring the case for the N.A.A.C.P., echoed that theme, saying, “Based on my personal knowledge of him and high respect of him, I accept his conclusions.”

Likewise, the Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network, one of the largest such groups in the nation, released a statement saying it was satisfied with the attorney general’s decision to drop all charges.

A few points:

1) Race, Class and The Duke False Accusation¹

(This is rewritten from a post I wrote in February.)

It’s tempting to compare the Duke case to the Long Beach Beating case and the famous Central Park Rape case of the 1980s. In all three cases, a horrible crime was reported; in all three cases, there was enormous pressure from the public for arrests and convictions; and in all three cases, police and prosecutors used biased and unfair procedures to concoct a case against a group of young people.

But let’s not overlook one enormously significant difference: The Duke players were ultimately exonerated. That doesn’t make the unjust suffering the Duke players went through all right, of course. But what we’ve seen here is that the kind of railroaded conviction of poor, black suspects that happened in the Central Park rape case, and which I strongly suspect went on in Long Beach, simply doesn’t fly when the defendants are rich and white.

I’ve seen some conservatives imply that looking at these cases shows that white institutional power — and racism — are myths. But what I see is that the system pretty much works the way it’s supposed to for white defendants, or at least for white defendants with some money; for us, the system doesn’t convict without sufficient evidence. That’s simply not true for black defendants. And that’s why comparing these cases convinces me that institutional racism is still treating non-whites like crap, and still matters, and still needs to be fought.

2) I’m still not naming names.

I’ve already had demands that I blog the name and photo of the Duke accuser, as some other bloggers have done. I’m not going to do that.²

I certainly agree that a tremendous injustice was done to these three men by broadcasting their names and images all over the country. But publishing the name of their accuser will not undo that harm. As I argued a year ago, neither the names or faces of the accuser or of the accused should be made public in criminal cases.³

Obviously, some suffering is an inevitable result of being arrested. But having your names and images broadcast on network news is not inevitable; it’s a result of an irresponsible decision made by the news media. If someone is found guilty of a crime, then the harm done by deferring broadcasting their names and faces until the trial is over is minimal; but when an accused person is innocent, the harm done to them by having their names and faces made public is both avoidable and significant.

3) Why Does The “Presumption Of Innocence” Not Apply To The Accuser?

As Marcella notes, many commenters who, a year ago, were saying that it’s wrong for anyone to believe a rape accusation without a “guilty” verdict in a court of law, are now saying that the accuser made false rape allegations.

This is obviously a double-standard. If it’s wrong to conclude that someone is a rapist before he’s had a trial, then it’s also wrong to conclude that someone has made a false rape accusation before she’s had a trial.

1. Whether or not the Duke accuser was attacked, it’s clear that the three particular men put on trial were falsely accused. (back)
2. Nor have I ever blogged the names or images of the three accused players, that I can recall. (back)
3. I can imagine particular circumstances in which there’s a genuine public interest in knowing the name of the accused before the trial is over — for instance, if the accused criminal is a politician. But that’s not the case in the overwhelming majority of cases. (back)

Little Light and I met last month, and we agreed that it would be neat to hold a Portland Bloggers’ Dinner. Right now the target date is Saturday, April 21st, in the evening (6pm? 8pm?). Anyone who can make it is invited; bloggers, readers, comment-writers, whatever.

So: Where shall we eat? Someplace not too noisy, and with options for both vegetarians and carnivores, seems to be the minimum requirement.

Another one-photo baby blogging, I’m afraid; I’ll try and do a longer baby blogging next week.

This week it’s Sydney in an old-fashioned dress, which I think one of her grandmas found for her on Ebay. Being the master of cliche I am, I’ve put the photo in sepia. Sydney had a cold the day I took this picture, which actually worked out pretty well, in that she actually stood still for the camera for a change. The photo’s pretty big, so I’ve stuck it below the fold.

Read the rest of this entry »

That’s a quote from Don Imus.  Because he felt the women of the Rutger’s University basketball team were not sufficiently feminine, he felt it was ok to call them nappy headed hos.  This site has the actualy clip of Imus and his sidekick making racist and sexist remarks (For good measure the site also has edited in a clip of Billy Packer saying “fag.”).  The national Association of Black Journalists called for an apology from Imus.  Imus subsequently issued an apology, but is that enough?

Quaker Dave is calling for Imus to be ousted from MSNBC.  He also has the contact information.

Media Matters on the comments by Imus and his partners Sid Rosenberg and Bernard McGuirk.

[This is a comment left by Defenestrated in one of the male oppression threads. With her permission, I'm making it a post of its own. ¹ --Amp]

So, for example, if a young UU man likes a young UU woman, what he does is he goes over to her and tries really hard to be harmless. He doesn’t want to oppress anyone by expressing interest or desire, so he just hangs around and acts cooperative. The more he wants her to like him, the more submissive he acts. Not surprisingly, the young UU women find this boring, frustrating, incomprehensible, and just not sexy. He doesn’t understand why this doesn’t work, or why all the young UU women are off dating “bad” men instead of “nice” men like himself.

I think that in this particular instance, there’s something to be said for having had the experience of living on the opposite end of it. There’s a reason that there’s a Nice Guy™ moniker, and it’s not because women don’t dig actual kindness.

From the young UU woman’s perspective, there’s this guy hanging around her (or, more likely, multiple guys doing the exact same thing), pretending to only be interested in friendship when, from your description of the situation, it’s clear that his interest doesn’t end there. Even if the attraction is painfully obvious, since it’s never stated the woman can’t very well come right out and turn the guy down for something he hasn’t asked for. If she does, trust me, she’ll get torn to pieces for being so full of herself (after which the guy will probably resume the kicked puppy pose).

The specific male quandary you’ve described stems from a belief that by hanging around and being “nice,” a man is entitled to female affection. I have a lot of sympathy for a lot of situations that hit men, but being upset by not getting what they won’t ask for (and will thus often try to extract through manipulation, like pretending to be a friend when the friendship is treated as a tedious and insulting means to something else) isn’t one of them. Also, many - by no means all, but enough to make it a more than reasonable concern - of the kinds of guys who make this particular kind of complaint are only a step or two a way from outright stalking the object of their desire. The use of the word ‘object’ isn’t accidental.

I sympathize with the frustration and confusion, but that’s not the same as sympathizing with the reasoning behind the complaint. When I hear one of my own male friends voicing these kinds of concerns (or other anti-feminist thoughts that since we’re friends I know don’t come from malice or any intentional disrespect) I’m happy to help him see the opposite side of his experience and understand why things are that way. What I won’t do is agree that he gets to complain that his female friends aren’t all over him for being so cooperative and friendly. Especially if it comes along with a blanket disparagement of the judgment and tastes of said women (who says the men they date are “bad”? The men they don’t date? Is there a bias there?).

That doesn’t make me an unempathetic person. It makes me a person who knows that to actually relieve this form of “harm” against men without them changing their own behavior would have to mean taking the right to choose one’s own partners away from women. It’s empathy that makes me more interested in pointing out and clarifying the communication disconnect than commiserating about how selfish these independent women are for not being available for every man’s every whim. It’s also empathy that makes me understand that the situation you describe is also difficult for the woman involved, and likely provokes a (well-founded) fear that the man in the equation probably hasn’t faced, and usually doesn’t register.

1. The original disagreement turned out to be a misunderstanding, but Defenestrated's comments apply very well to several to self-proclaimed "nice guys" I've encountered, even if they were a little mis-aimed in the original context. (back)

This may have been one of the most overlooked stories of last weekend.  Historian Margo Anderson and statistician William Seltzer found evidence that the US Census Bureau participated in the Japanese internment by providing microdata to the Secret Service to help them identity individual Japanese Americans.  The law prohibits the Census Bureau from releasing data that would allow for the specific identification of individuals; however, the War Powers Act of 1942 temporarily repealed such protections.  The Census Bureau had previously admitted that it released neighborhood level data to government officials responsible for the Japanese internment, but Anderson and Seltzer found data indicating that the Census Bureau did, indeed release “micro” level data, which could be connected to individuals.  The researchers tracked down this information by searching documents from the US Department of Commerce:

A new study of U.S. Department of Commerce documents now shows that the Census Bureau complied with an August 4, 1943, request by Treasury Secretary Henry Morgenthau for the names and locations of all people of Japanese ancestry in the Washington, D.C., area, according to historian Margo Anderson of the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee and statistician William Seltzer of Fordham University in New York City. The records, however, do not indicate that the Bureau was asked for or divulged such information for Japanese-Americans in other parts of the country.

Anderson and Seltzer discovered in 2000 that the Census Bureau released block-by-block data during WW II that alerted officials to neighborhoods in California, Arizona, Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, Idaho and Arkansas where Japanese-Americans were living. “We had suggestive but not very conclusive evidence that they had also provided microdata for surveillance,” Anderson says.

The Census Bureau had no records of such action, so the researchers turned to the records of the chief clerk of the Commerce Department, which received and had the authority to authorize interagency requests for census data under the Second War Powers Act. Anderson and Seltzer discovered copies of a memo from the secretary of the treasury (of which the Secret Service is part) to the secretary of commerce (who oversees the Census Bureau) requesting the data, and memos documenting that the Bureau had provided it.

The Scientific American has a copy of the original document requesting “microdata” posted on its site.

This is relevant to our current political climate because because of post 9-11 concerns about the Patriot Act and because of technology changes that make data exchange much easier.  Apparently, the Census Bureau has already released neighborhood level data on Arab Americans:

The Census Bureau provided neighborhood data on Arab-Americans to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security in 2002, but the information was already publicly available, Jones says. A provision in the controversial Patriot Act—passed after the 9/11 attacks and derided by critics as an erosion of privacy—gives agencies access to individualized survey data collected by colleges, including flight training programs.

The Census Bureau has improved its confidentiality practices considerably in the last six decades, former director Prewitt says. He notes that census data is an increasingly poor source of surveillance data compared with more detailed information available from credit card companies and even electronic tollbooths.

Nevertheless, he says, “I think the Census Bureau has to bend over backwards to maintain the confidence and the trust of the public.” Public suspicion—well-founded or not—could undermine the collection accurate census data, which is used by sociologists, economists and public health researchers, he says.

“I’m sad to learn it,” he says of the new discovery. “It would be sadder yet to continue to deny that it happened, if, as now seems clear, it did happen. You cannot learn from and correct past mistakes unless you know about them.”

If they had learned from their past mistakes then, why did they release this neighborhood data in 2002?  And should we be concerned that micro level data has been released again? I don’t have any answers, but I worry about this happening again.

The ethnic-profiling of Arab Americans is not going to engender a positive relationship with minority communities, and the Census Bureau should know better.  One of the big concerns in 2000 was a Census undercount in minority communities.   Of particular concern was immigrant communities where residents did not have a legal status in the US.  Although the law prohibits Census data from being used to round-up undocumented immigrants, such actions (releasing microdata) do not allay such concerns in these communities.  The outcomes of not being counted affect such immigrant communities, but they also affect the larger communities when their funding for local projects is allocated based on smaller population projections.  Local level funding, voting, and other population concerns such as low income housing demands or educational needs are harder to meet when the Census Bureau undercounts population.  Unfortunately, the Census Bureau is not an apolitical scientific entity, so we do have to be vigilant about how political issues can affect data collection or subsequent data use.  It is imperative that people speak out about the misuse of such data.  I especially encourage my fellow social scientists, who rely heavily on this data to speak out against such misuses.

This wasn’t posed, honest! (Click on the image for a larger version).

Sydney had gathered up the bears herself (to keep Maddox from playing with them — “No, NO, Maddox, no!”) and then fell asleep like this.

By the way, I’m headed to Florida for a week to visit family (’tis the season to hold seders…). So I’m not sure how much I’ll be posting in the next week — we’ll see how it goes. And moderation may be slowed down, as well, so if you find that your comments are waiting longer than usual for approval please be patient.