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So what went wrong which led to this guy being arrested for breaking into his own house and being arrested for disorderedly conduct while on his own property? No doubt we will one day find out the details.
For now comment from two people who understand the complexities of race and how it can play a part in such incidents. First, Andrew Sullivan and second Patricia Williams who wrote an excellent pamphlet entitled ‘Colour Blind’.
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Submitted by karamat on Sun, 2009-07-26 22:31.
The TES had an editorial focussing on the fact that some schools are asked to help 30% of their pupils to achieve A*-C at GCSE. I recently came across the figure of 17% poor white pupils who did manage to reach this target. What about the rest. See another letter in the Times Educational Supplement
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Submitted by karamat on Thu, 2009-07-09 10:39.
Much has been written about the DWP sending out 2000 bogus CVs to test discrimination. This article from Jenny Russell provides an intelligent comment about names, what they mean to employers, why people change or anglicise them and the role of the workplace in integrating people.
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Submitted by karamat on Thu, 2009-07-09 10:38.
Fran Abrams has suggested that government review the funding targeted at ethnic minority students. The funding in question was known as ‘Section 11’ (of Local Government Act 1966) and had as its aim to help meet ‘special and additional’ needs of the ethnic minority pupils. Perhaps it has served its purpose and should be re-directed to others who need it the most such as white disadvantaged pupils.
According to my research this group are now the largest underachieving group across the country. This was referred to in a speech in Parliament by Richard Burden MP for Birmingham Northfield as recorded in Hansard on 19 May. In response, the government Minister agreed that underachievement by white pupils needed to be acknowledged. I can see no better way of doing so than for the government to provide funding for their needs.
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Submitted by karamat on Wed, 2009-06-10 19:15.
First there was Obama, now there is Young. As a black man, his victory as mayor in the town which was the focus of the film Mississippi Burning is revolutionary indeed.
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Submitted by karamat on Tue, 2009-05-26 08:28.
There was a time when almost all workplace bullying was by men against other men and some women who were in the workforce. The perpetrators were less likely to be women because there were so few of them and those who were there had little power. Also, women were more likely to look out for each other in the face of the common enemy i.e. men. All that has changed according to this article on Women bullying Women.
According to the writer, some of the cause is contextual: “If women business leaders act consistent with gender stereotypes, they are considered too soft...if they go against gender stereotypes they are considered too tough”
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Submitted by karamat on Tue, 2009-05-26 06:21.
After some five years of me banging on about the need for greater recognition of underachievement amongst poor white pupils, there does appear at last some acknowledgement of the issues and problems.
I wrote a report which was first published as a Word document in 2005. The report was recently published in a glossy format by Birmingham City Council.
On 19 May, it was referred to a number of times in a speech by Richard Burden MP, Birmingham Northfield. He also appeared to have used it as background for the speech. Moreover, the government minister responding to the speech also appeared to have read the report and accepted its main recommendation i.e. that there should be a national strategy on addressing white underachievement.
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Submitted by karamat on Wed, 2009-05-20 18:54.
One of the earlier practices established as a result of the equality legislation during the 70s to make sure that advertising did not use pictures to exclude women and ethnic minorities. And yet that is exactly what has just happened in 2009. It appears the government’s own Ministry of Defence has become embroiled in a controversy where they have supported the marketing and sale of model soldiers who are all white and all male. Oh dear!
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Submitted by karamat on Sun, 2009-05-10 19:55.
Probably my all time favourite quote is from the Mr Nelson Mandela, from his book ‘Long walk to Freedom’:
“Education is the great engine of personal development. It is through education that the daughter of a peasant can become a doctor, that the son of a mineworker can become the head of the mine, that a child of farmworkers can become the president of a great nation. It is what we make out of what we have, not what we are given, that separates one person from another.
Another one which I have used on numerous occasions is from Colin Powell, the black son of Jamaican immigrants who became the Chief of Staff in the US. It is from his autobiography ‘A Soldier’s Way’:
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Submitted by karamat on Sun, 2009-03-15 19:45.
Before its too late, probably the article that sums it all up for me was by Jesse Jackson, until recently a critic of the new president.
He reminds us that the victory was not only won by a coalition of communities and groups but more importantly on the back of the generations who struggled for decades before. When I mentioned this to a colleague in a school recently, he pointed out that it wasn’t just Obama who had succeeded as a result of others’ struggles but all of us have benefitted from those who have fought the fight for us in the past. How true!
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Submitted by karamat on Wed, 2009-02-25 20:09.
