Last night, I was biking home in Bed-Stuy when I saw lots of cop cars, barricades and hundreds of people waiting in line. I asked a cop what was going on and he said, “a party.” I asked for what and he said, “oh, it’s just a party.” This woman who was standing next to him said, “it’s not just a party! It’s for the anniversary of Biggie’s death. Puff Daddy is coming!” Then the cop turned to me, teacher-like, and said “well there was this rapper, named Biggie Smalls…” I cut him off, laughing and rolling my eyes. I said, “I might be white, but I’m not that dumb. I know who Biggie Smalls is.” I knew he used to live in Bed-Stuy, too. The woman laughed and the cop shrugged his shoulders.
First, this cop obviously has very few white friends. Second, I’ve heard multiple white friends between the ages of 22-28 mention in passing that an influence on their move to New York or specifically Brooklyn was Biggie Smalls. I’ve been shocked when I’ve heard white people reference Biggie Smalls in major life decisions, even if it is said sort of lightly. But there I was- a white college educated woman, wearing full soccer gear, on a road bike at 10pm in Bed-Stuy shocked that someone would think I didn't know who Biggie was. I think 20 years ago, Biggie would have been shocked to see me in his neighborhood acting like I knew him. This got me thinking about the individuals in the system of gentrification. What influences us gentrifiers?
What do you think?Are 20-something whites interested (or at least not as scared) to live in a black, lower income neighborhood, because they grew up seeing representations of the hood on television and in music? Has the mainstreaming of hip-hop and "black culture" had a significant influence on the pace and type of gentrification?
WARNING, this video has some adult themes and explicit language.
Among the other grim statistics in the FDIC report: 702 banks are in danger of failing, a 16-year high; more than 5 percent of loans are past due, the worst performance since officials began tracking data 26 years ago; and, according to FDIC chair Sheila Bair, the number of bank failures in 2010 is expected to exceed the 140 in 2009.
A few years ago, a colleague and I traveled down from New York to Washington, DC to talk to our elected officials about the critical need for child care facilities in our state. Our advocacy efforts were part of the work of National Children's Facilities Network (NCFN), a coalition of nonprofit financial and technical assistance intermediaries involved in planning, developing, and financing facilities for low-income child care and Head Start programs. Dave and I hoped to show them how investing in a federal child care facilities fund would positively impact the economy.
According to a report prepared by Cornell University, Investing in New York: An Economic Analysis of the Early Care and Education Sector, child care is vital to the economic success of New York state, where I work and live. It directly generates 22,000 small businesses, employs 119,000 people (more people than the hotel and lodging industry), and generates $4.7 billion in revenue. By allowing over 750,000 parents to be part of the workforce, its indirect impact on the economy is enormous. Yet as a field, it receives far less in public investments than other business with equal or smaller impact, stymieing its full potential as an economic engine.
Hypocrites in positions of power are the absolute worst. Sarah Palin told a crowd earlier this week that “...we used to hustle on over the border for health care …” and Republican Senator Roy Ashburn, who has voted against expanding anti-discrimination laws and a day to honor Harvey Milk admitted "I am gay..." This, after he was arrested with a sex worker leaving a gay club.
Atleast one person who was arrested this week isn't a hypocrite, though with his career basically non-existent, he also doesn't really have any power. D'angelo, R&B musician, was also arrested solicting a sex worker this week.
"Who am i to justify All the evil in our eye When i myself feel the high From all that i despise" - lyrics from D'angelo's "Devil's Pie"
"Devil's Pie" is an awesomely scary song about temptation.
Last night at the Oscars, Kathryn Bigelow broke a celluloid glass ceiling, becoming the first woman filmmaker to win best director. And that’s something to celebrate this International Women’s Day.
But every time we see a crack in the glass, we need to remember the people on the lowest rungs of our societal ladder, people who need our attention – if not the limelight. Like women. After all, women are more likely to live in poverty, face job and pay discrimination, and be abused. Not to mention that women are disproportionally affected by disasters, like Hurricane Katrina. And that’s just for starters.
Since they are avid readers of this blog, let me first congratulate all of last night's Oscar winners. While I was watching primarily at the urgent suggestion of my wife, I watched - and, with the rest of America, celebrated the Best Picture win by Not Avatar.
As has been noted elsewhere (Oscar pundits beat stories to death more than ESPN pre-Super Bowl) (but nowhere near NBC at the Olympics), it was a big night for firsts. Kathryn Bigelow became the first woman to win the Best Director award; Geoffrey Fletcher, the first African-American to win for adapted screenplay.
Oh, and of course - Christoph Waltz was the first father of a rabbi to win an Oscar for playing a Nazi.
Yes, that's right - the Austrian-born polyglot has a son who, according to Wikipedia, is a Haredi rabbi living in Israel. His reaction to his father's win is unknown.
Waltz was also the inspiration for one of the more amusing gags during the introduction by hosts Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin:
In all seriousness, Waltz's Hans Landa was a brutal, compelling character that absolutely deserved the Oscar. The rumors of Eli Roth mailing baseball bats to Academy members is likely untrue.
The Selah Leadership Program, which trains leaders in leaders in Jewish and secular organizations to be effective change agents, recently completed its eighth program cohort - passing the 200-participant mark over the program's history!
Selah was fortunate to be one of 10 grantees of the Slingshot Fund, which provided a grant of $40,000 to support this latest group (the Boston City Cohort) and our alumni work. As part of Selah’s mid-year report to Slingshot, we were asked to create a short video highlighting our work in real time. Using a Flip camera, Selah staff captured some short interviews with Selahniks (our participants) in the Boston Cohort and the Network.
Here’s what we know from the Great Housing Debacle of the Aughts: The housing bubble drove up the price of housing as people rushed to buy their segment of the American Dream. The more the prices of housing rose, the more people were forced to use creative financing mechanisms because the monthly payments on traditional 30 year amortizing mortgages were too high for many borrowers. The more people accepted exotic mortgages, the more banks and financing entities took crazy risks. The more risks banks and financing entities took, the more people could buy overpriced housing. The more people could buy overpriced housing, the more overpriced housing became.
In other words, when the housing bubble finally popped, many people realized that they spent way more money on their home than it is currently worth. The fancy financial term for this is underwater. As of November 2009, 25% of borrowers are underwater. But what does this mean?
Jessica Arons, the Director of the Women's Health & Rights Program at the Center for American Progress, has a sharp piece in The Nation on the logic behind the Stupak amendment, which prevents the goverment health care plan from providing even indirect subsidies for plans that cover abortion.
Our society recognizes the distinction between direct and indirect funding all the time. Indeed, if we did not, our government probably could not function. Religious organizations receive tax money to provide direct social services but are strictly prohibited from using that money for sectarian purposes. Nonprofit organizations obtain government grants that can be used for charitable activities but not for electioneering. And we already have a precedent with respect to abortion: family planning clinics get public funding to provide contraception that cannot be spent on abortion. No reasonable person sees this funding as subsidizing activities that have been deemed ineligible for government spending or views the accounting practices used to segregate funds as illegitimate or inadequate.
Anti-abortion politics breeds this kind of nonsensical legislating. If the Stupak irrationale catches on, Amy's list provides a preview of the possible implications.
