1. Ebogjonson (via Prometheus 6) has this humorous/serious flow chart for people who want to put blackface on their blogs. It won’t fit all on your screen at one time, but if you follow the arrows you’ll figure it out.
2. Harlow’s Monkey has a follow-up to my transracial adoption post. She adds several other frames for TRA stories in mass media.
3. C.N. Le has a good post on retaining graduate students from racial and ethnic minority groups. This post sheds light on the important issue of campus and departmental climate and other issued related to retention. Often, professors have the “numerical critical mass perspective” where the entire focus is on increasing the number of students of color who enroll. Faculty members often forget that the problem is not only getting people in the door, but getting them through the program. It may surprise people to know where some of the best departments for graduating students of color are located. In 2004 Washington State University, which is located in a rural nearly all white area, was honored for it’s record by the American Sociological Association for its record in graduating students of color (I think they have fallen off in recent years, but at one point they had an amazing record.). The University of Utah is another place that seems to do well at recruiting and retaining minority faculty members; I have been particularly impressed with how many African American, Latino, and Asian sociologists are there (not all in sociology, but nevertheless at the university). One other sociology department that I think has a surprising number of African American graduate students is the University of Nebraska Lincoln, and they seem to be doing a decent job of retaining these students since at least three of the Black sociologists I have met from there are now graduates. Many departments use the excuse–“we are just not located in an area where a lot on minority students would want to be.” I’m absolutley sure that this does make a difference, but this also becomes a sort of lame excuse not to work to keep departments and Universities racially diverse.
4. Another Conflict Theorist has a great post on Barbaro and the extraordinary efforts to save him. The post is a fabulous dose of sarcasm and critical theory.
5. Feminist Allies has a good post, whose comments were highjacked by men’s rights activists, about what men can do to be perceived as non-threatening.
Pingback: feminist blogs
You borked the last link, but I guess you’re refering to this post.
Thanks Daran. “Borked” is that a techincal term?
Rachel,
In that Clinton-blogger-battle (with a paddle in a bottle on a poodle in a puddle and the poodle’s eating noodles… sorry–too much Seuss lately) the quota issue came up.
When people talked about quotas in the context of the blogger meeting, most people said quotas were bad: That it would be inappropriate to require ___ POC at the meeting.
But I note that in this post you are referring in a reasonably neutral/supportive fashion (link 3, above) of what essentially amounts to a quota in graduate school: “Often, professors have the “numerical critical mass perspective” where the entire focus is on increasing the number of students of color who enroll.” How do you decide what’s a “good quota” (graduate students?) and what’s a “bad quota” (bloggers?)
Great question, and probably requires its own post, “How do you decide what’s a “good quota” (graduate students?) and what’s a “bad quota” (bloggers?)”
Give me a few days because it brings up several issues related to affirmative action and diversity.
Just as a general statement, these professors don’t really advocate a quota per se. They believe that the more students of color they have the easier it will be to a attract more students of color.
Indeed it is. It’s also one of those wonderful words which, even if you’ve never seen it before, you know exactly what it means. :-)
Just as a general statement, these professors don’t really advocate a quota per se. They believe that the more students of color they have the easier it will be to a attract more students of color.
If they actually believe this to be true, then it is difficult to see the thinking behind everyone’s desire to have students of color. Or at least, it’s difficult to see why it’s considered “progressive”.
If each incremental unit of “production” (graduate students of the preferred ethnic groups) reduces the cost of producing more, then we should expect to see a monopoly; one institution would have all the desired students. (Or at least, monopolies being difficult to hold, there might be a steep hierarchy, with some institutions having lots of the most desired students.)
Instead, we see thousands of institutions, all competing for the desired students on more or less equal footing. This raises the “cost” of production for everyone. Since resources are finite, this means fewer ethnically preferred students overall.
So in behaving as they do, the professors are actually trying to increase their own advantage, at the expense of the students in question collectively.
Rachel,
I’d be interested to read your post.
I suspect there IS a quota, conscious or not. As it stands now, most graduate students make a concerted effort to recruit minorities. At some (undisclosed) percentage or number of POC, that effort would stop and all students would be treated equally, recruited equally, and supported equally.
That point is the quota.
So when you say
“these professors don’t really advocate a quota per se. They believe that the more students of color they have the easier it will be to attract more students of color.”
you’re hiding (unintentionally) behind the “per se” part. Quotas are rare. Functional quotas are common, as are minimums. (Show of hands: Absent a written agreement, given the clinton threads does anyone NOT think Clinton’s next large blogger meeting will have at least four POC?)
An easy way to think about functional quotas is this: colleges do not adopt their affirmative action programs in a vacuum. They adopt them with full knowledge of the programs’ effects. When a school makes the decision of how many “applicant points” to give to whatever category of race, they know full well what the effect will be on their entering class. They know how many extra POC will benefit and how many will not. It’s a quota in everything but name.
I found this blog surfing.
A good school, will consciously recruit minorities.