Lower-income teens aren't getting enough sleep, researchers say - chicagotribune.com: African American high school students and boys in low- to middle-income families reported short, fragmented sleep, and that could play a role in their health risks, researchers reported Monday.
Anyone who’s ever lived with a teenager knows they often don’t get the eight to nine hours of sleep the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends. Researchers writing in the journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics looked at one group of young people — those in a lower socioeconomic community.
A sample of 250 students from western Pennsylvania, ages 14 to 19, took part in the study over a week. Based on a diary and a monitor worn by the students, most of the students slept around six hours a night during the week. They reported more time, about 6.8 hours, in their diaries, but the researchers said that included time they tried to go to sleep.
Wednesday, April 23, 2014
Racial Equality Loses at the Court - NYTimes.com
Racial Equality Loses at the Court - NYTimes.com: A blinkered view of race in America won out in the Supreme Court on Tuesday when six justices agreed, for various reasons, to allow Michigan voters to ban race-conscious admissions policies in higher education.
In 2003, the court upheld such a policy at the University of Michigan Law School because it furthered a compelling governmental interest in educational diversity. Opponents of affirmative action moved to amend the State Constitution to ban any consideration of race or sex in public education and employment. In 2006, voters passed the amendment by a wide margin.
Affirmative action supporters sued to strike down the amendment, arguing that by changing the rules of the game in a way that uniquely burdened racial minorities, the amendment violated the equal protection clause. A closely divided federal appeals court agreed.
In 2003, the court upheld such a policy at the University of Michigan Law School because it furthered a compelling governmental interest in educational diversity. Opponents of affirmative action moved to amend the State Constitution to ban any consideration of race or sex in public education and employment. In 2006, voters passed the amendment by a wide margin.
Affirmative action supporters sued to strike down the amendment, arguing that by changing the rules of the game in a way that uniquely burdened racial minorities, the amendment violated the equal protection clause. A closely divided federal appeals court agreed.
Baseball's Demographic Shifts Bring Cultural Complexities : Code Switch : NPR
Decline In Percentage Of Black Players
According to an article published this week by the Pew Research Center, the proportion of black baseball players in the major leagues has steadily declined in recent years. Jean Manuel Krogstad writes:
"The share of black MLB players reached a high of 18.7 percent in 1981, according to the Society for American Baseball Research. In 2014, 8.3 percent of players on opening day rosters were black. Before the most recent decade's decline, the last time baseball had such a small share of black players was 1958."
In Silicon Valley, Immigrants Toast Their Way To The Top : Code Switch : NPR
In California's Silicon Valley, some immigrant tech workers strengthen their voices by joining public speaking support groups like Toastmasters clubs.
Members usually meet once a week to practice giving speeches, which are timed to the second and judged for grammar and presentation. There's even a designated counter of ums and ahs.
At a recent meeting of the "ArtICCulators" Toastmasters Club in Milpitas, Calif., engineer Nidhi Agarwal confronted her fear of public speaking with laughter.
The Golden Arch Of The Universe Is Long ... : Code Switch : NPR
The Golden Arch Of The Universe Is Long ... : Code Switch : NPR: A member of the Code Switch team — who shall remain nameless, but whose name rhymes with Tatt Mhompson — was recently winding his way through the recesses of Amazon when he stumbled across an ad for McDonald's that appeared in Ebony back in 1972. (Don't trouble yourself trying to figure out just what Ma ... er, Tatt was searching for to come to this result. Your head will hurt.)
Here's what that ad looked like.
Here's what that ad looked like.
'Boondocks' Returns After Four Years To An Altered Comedy Landscape : Code Switch : NPR
Julian Chambliss is a professor at Rollins College. There, he studies and teaches comic culture and African American history. He says this season of The Boondocks re-enters a comedy world that is more crowded than it was in 2010, particularly by Black Twitter and Youtube.
"When you think about the digital landscape, now you have a lot more YouTube series created and produced and performed by African-Americans," Chambliss says. "We do have a social media universe that is fueled by black people." But he adds, "Despite the great sort of ... creative energy on a YouTube-produced series, how many of those are being translated into DVD? How many of those can you pick up at Wal-Mart? So, this program still does matter
Playwright Phillip Hayes Dean Dies At 83 : Code Switch : NPR
Dean wrote "Paul Robeson" to chronicle the life of the famed scholar, athlete, singer, actor and humanitarian activist. Robeson was best known for his thunderous basso profundo and his rendition of black spirituals and work songs. The play was controversial when it debuted on Broadway in 1978; James Earl Jones starred, and some of Robeson's relatives disagreed with his warts-and-all portrayal.
Book News: Gabriel García Márquez Left An Unpublished Manuscript : The Two-Way : NPR
Higher Ed Diversity Advocates Focus on Big Picture After Supreme Court Setback - Higher Education
The 6-2 decision by the nation’s highest court, upholding the legality of voter-approved state constitutional amendments, was the underlying issue in a case centered on Michigan voter approval in 2006 of a proposed constitutional amendment, known as Proposition 2.
The amendment, championed by Black California conservative activist Ward Connerley, was approved by 58 percent of citizens voting. It prohibits “affirmative action programs that give preferential treatment to groups or individuals based on race, gender, color, ethnicity or nation origin for public employment, education or contracting purposes.”
Tuesday, April 22, 2014
Evidence Of Racial, Gender Biases Found In Faculty Mentoring : NPR
Evidence Of Racial, Gender Biases Found In Faculty Mentoring : NPR: STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
Now, when preschoolers get to college, some will have professors who take sustained interest in guiding them. This often happens because a student reaches out for a mentor. Now let's hear how that time-honored process suffers from bias.
Our colleague David Greene sat down with NPR's Shankar Vedantam.
DAVID GREENE, HOST:
We should be clear of what we're talking about here. This is not professors who sort of help students acclimate to a university, give them directions. We're talking about professors who really invest in a student.
SHANKAR VEDANTAM, BYLINE: That's right, David. And perhaps the most important thing is this is intellectual guidance. This is guidance to say: Here's how you should best use your skills.
GREENE: And what's the bias you found?
VEDANTAM: The bias has to do with how faculty seem to respond to these requests, David. Group of researchers ran this interesting field experiment. They emailed more than 6,500 professors at the top 250 schools pretending to be the students. And they wrote letters saying, I really admire your work. Would you have some time to meet? The letters to the faculty were all identical, but the names of the students were all different.
Let me read you some of the names and you can tell if you can pick up a pattern.
Now, when preschoolers get to college, some will have professors who take sustained interest in guiding them. This often happens because a student reaches out for a mentor. Now let's hear how that time-honored process suffers from bias.
Our colleague David Greene sat down with NPR's Shankar Vedantam.
DAVID GREENE, HOST:
We should be clear of what we're talking about here. This is not professors who sort of help students acclimate to a university, give them directions. We're talking about professors who really invest in a student.
SHANKAR VEDANTAM, BYLINE: That's right, David. And perhaps the most important thing is this is intellectual guidance. This is guidance to say: Here's how you should best use your skills.
GREENE: And what's the bias you found?
VEDANTAM: The bias has to do with how faculty seem to respond to these requests, David. Group of researchers ran this interesting field experiment. They emailed more than 6,500 professors at the top 250 schools pretending to be the students. And they wrote letters saying, I really admire your work. Would you have some time to meet? The letters to the faculty were all identical, but the names of the students were all different.
Let me read you some of the names and you can tell if you can pick up a pattern.
Saturday, April 19, 2014
Arizona tribe set to prosecute first non-Indian under a new law - The Washington Post
“We would literally drive them to the end of the reservation and tell them to beat it,” Valenzuela said. “And hope they didn’t come back that night. They almost always did.”
About three weeks ago, at 2:45 a.m., the tribal police were called to the reservation home of an Indian woman who was allegedly being assaulted in front of her two children. They said her 36-year-old non-
Indian husband, Eloy Figueroa Lopez, had pushed her down on the couch and was violently choking her with both hands.
Friday, April 18, 2014
Fraternity closes chapter following vandalism of statue
"Sigma Phi Epsilon is committed to being a different kind of fraternity – one that recognizes the importance of the out-of-classroom experience and is committed to making that experience the safest and most empowering part of a college male's life," the fraternity's CEO Brian Warren, told members in a video conference Friday afternoon.
"Though it's always painful to close a chapter, these students' actions clearly illustrate a determination to perpetuate an experience based on risky and unconstructive behavior. In these cases, we have no choice but to close the chapter and return to campus at a later date." In the pre-dawn hours of Feb. 16, vandals placed a noose around the neck
of the statue and draped over its face a pre-2003 Georgia state flag with a Confederate battle emblem.
Salsa Legend Cheo Feliciano Dies : Alt.Latino : NPR
José Luis Feliciano Vega was born in 1935 to a working class family in the southern Puerto Rican city of Ponce. At 17 the family joined the massive Puerto Rican diaspora of the 1950s, and moved to New York. That's where Cheo started to train with the big Latin dance orchestras and develop the sound that would make him an icon in both New York and Puerto Rico.
Black students at Washington and Lee urge administrators to confront school’s past - The Washington Post
Black students at Washington and Lee urge administrators to confront school’s past - The Washington Post: A group of black law students at Washington and Lee University is urging administrators to atone for its Confederate heritage and what they call the “dishonorable conduct” of namesake Robert E. Lee.
The movement has struck a racial divide on the bucolic campus in Lexington, Va., where black students make up about 3.5 percent of the total student population.
Third-year law student Dominik Taylor, a descendent of slaves on his father’s side, said he felt betrayed by admissions representatives who touted the school’s diversity.
“They assured me it was a welcoming environment where everyone sticks together as a community,” Taylor said. “Then I came here and felt ostracized and alienated.”
The movement has struck a racial divide on the bucolic campus in Lexington, Va., where black students make up about 3.5 percent of the total student population.
Third-year law student Dominik Taylor, a descendent of slaves on his father’s side, said he felt betrayed by admissions representatives who touted the school’s diversity.
“They assured me it was a welcoming environment where everyone sticks together as a community,” Taylor said. “Then I came here and felt ostracized and alienated.”
Thursday, April 17, 2014
Gabriel García Márquez Quotes: 20 Sayings From Late Nobel Laureate To Celebrate His Legacy
In 2012, it was reported that García Márquez's health was on the decline. According to The Guardian, the author's brother, Jaime García Márquez, told students in Cartagena, Colombia that his brother is suffering from dementia and was treated for lymphatic cancer, which he was diagnosed with in 1999.
"Dementia runs in our family and he's now suffering the ravages prematurely due to the cancer that put him almost on the verge of death," said Jaime, reports The Guardian. "Chemotherapy saved his life, but it also destroyed many neurons, many defences and cells, and accelerated the process. But he still has the humour, joy and enthusiasm that he has always had."
Slave who helped build Capitol’s Statue of Freedom honored with historical marker - The Washington Post
A former slave who played a pivotal role in casting the giant bronze Statue of Freedom atop the U.S. Capitol dome, Reid now has a historical marker at the National Harmony Memorial Park in Hyattsville noting his contribution and that he died a free man.
The marker was unveiled fittingly on Wednesday, Emancipation Day, which commemorates the day in 1862 President Abraham Lincoln abolished involuntary servitude in the District. That is how the slave who helped construct the symbol of freedom over the Capitol gained his own freedom.
The marker, arranged and paid for by a writer trying to shed light on significant but overlooked moments in American history, is in a section of the cemetery where a garden will be planted and named for Solomon Northup, who wrote “Twelve Years a Slave.”
Excelencia in Education Report Reveals Latino College Completion Strides and Struggles - Higher Education
Excelencia in Education, the data-driven organization that aims to advance the success of Latino students in higher education, also noted in its report “Latino College Completion: United States” that Latinos will need to earn 5.5 million more degrees above current levels by 2020 in order for the U.S. to regain the top ranking in the world for college degree attainment. By reaching this goal, the organization said the U.S. can close the equity gap in college completion, increase the number of degrees awarded and scale up programs and initiatives that work for Latinos and other students.
Latino College Completion: United States | Excelencia in Education
Latino College Completion: United States | Excelencia in Education: For the U.S. to regain the top ranking in the world for college degree attainment, Latinos will need to earn 5.5 million more degrees by 2020.
To reach the degree attainment goal by 2020, the U.S. can: 1) close the equity gap in college completion; 2) increase the number of degrees conferred; and, 3) scale up programs and initiatives that work for Latino and other students. The following is a framework for tracking Latino degree attainment in the U.S.
To reach the degree attainment goal by 2020, the U.S. can: 1) close the equity gap in college completion; 2) increase the number of degrees conferred; and, 3) scale up programs and initiatives that work for Latino and other students. The following is a framework for tracking Latino degree attainment in the U.S.
Wednesday, April 16, 2014
Light And Dark: The Racial Biases That Remain In Photography : Code Switch : NPR
"In some pictures, I am a mud brown, in others I'm a blue black. Some of the pictures were taken within moments of one another," she wrote in a story for Buzzfeed , digging into an "inherited bias" in photography against dark skin.
She tells Tell Me More's Celeste Headlee that certain cameras and photographers who are unfamiliar with different shades of skin often distort the images and color of black and brown people.
McFadden is now a photographer herself. Though technology has improved and allowed her to capture the many hues of brown skin, she says photography still has a long way to go.
Interview: Ramachandra Guha, Author Of 'Gandhi Before India' : NPR
In Gandhi Before India, historian and writer Ramachandra Guha chronicles Gandhi's years in South Africa. He tells NPR's Renee Montagne about how white South Africans treated Indians, Gandhi's entrance into politics and his lasting legacy of non-violent protest.
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