Implicit racism in academia (Mindhacks, 7 September 2016): "Implicit bias" exists "where there is a contradiction between people's egalitarian beliefs and their racist actions." The question is, how aware is each of us of our own biased behaviour?

Millennials Are Less Racially Tolerant Than You Think (New York Magazine, 8 January 2015): "The fact ( Read more... )

Plagued by a scene from Neal Stephenson and George Jewbury's 1994 novel Interface, in which the character Eleanor Richmond delivers a stiff lecture over the phone to another Black woman who doesn't want to report her daughters' sexual assault to the police because their assailant has threatened to murder her if she does so. Furious, Eleanor tells ( Read more... )

The Hugos. Blog postings I've found particularly helpful in understanding what's going on:

The Psychology of Hugo Sad Puppies and Rabid Puppies

Guided by the Beauty of Their Weapons: An Analysis of Theodore Beale and his Supporters by Phil Sandifer. Long, hard, and satisfying. I learned much.

Also see: the remarkable short-short story If You ( Read more... )

It Is Expensive to Be Poor: "What I discovered is that in many ways, these [minimum-wage] jobs are a trap: They pay so little that you cannot accumulate even a couple of hundred dollars to help you make the transition to a better-paying job... in some ways, it is actually more expensive to be poor than not poor. If you can't afford the first month' ( Read more... )

This is a series of comments I made recently on Facebook which I wanted to share (lucky old you!). The context is the Daily Telegraph's recent "Slouchhats and Slackers" front page regarding the Disability Support Pension ( Read more... )

"We like that you peer through the bars of your cage to all that we have. We like that you think you can have it yourself one day. Because that illusion keeps you on our side." J. Michael Straczynski outlines The Rules of the New Aristocracy. Bill Moyers similarly warns: "We are this close to losing our democracy.". Of white women who went to court ( Read more... )

The Australian Red Cross defines food security as "a human right and exists when all people at all times have access to sufficient, safe, nutritious, culturally appropriate food to maintain a healthy and active life." They estimate that 5-8% of Australians "commonly" have no food and no money to buy it. Lack of food security contributes to the very ( Read more... )