This week, Minnesota joined 12 states and the District of Columbia in legalizing marriage equality. We have an African American president serving his second term in the White House. Like many other Americans, I have perceived these recent events as evidence that our country as a whole is becoming more open-minded and less hateful towards minority groups.
So, I was unpleasantly surprised this week to stumble on the Geography of Hate map. Dr. Monica Stephens of Humboldt State University tracked online hate speech by geotagging hateful tweets across the US and mapped them on the county level from June 2012 through April 2013. The result is a colorful map that shows homophobic, racist, and anti-disability sentiments, primarily focused on the Mid-Western and Eastern parts of the country.
This map demonstrates that prejudice is commonplace. It is not just lurking in the stereotypical locations, like the deep South, but is prevalent all around us. To make it stop, it’s not enough to just eliminate hateful speech from our own vocabularies – we need to also take that extra step and speak out when our friends and relatives make prejudiced comments both out loud and online, and let them know that it is not okay.
By raising our voices, we can change the geography of hate in America.
Comment on this blog and let us know your thoughts and ideas for the elimination of hateful speech.
You have probably heard the remarks made by Abercrombie and Fitch (A&F) CEO Mike Jeffries that he doesn’t make women’s clothes in sizes extra-large because he doesn’t want uncool kids and larger women wearing his clothes. To quote this grand wordsmith “Candidly, we go after the cool kids. We go after the attractive all-American kid with a great attitude and a lot of friends. A lot of people don’t belong [in our clothes], and they can’t belong. Are we exclusionary? Absolutely.”
Additionally in an effort to keep the brand exclusive, A&F goes to the lengths of burning their damaged or unsold items. This not only keeps them off the backs of those who need clothing/our assistance/help the most, but it also disrespects the thousands of people who worked to make the clothes. This flagrant wastefulness further sucks the humanity out of a brand that is proving it does not have much soul left to lose.
In response Greg Karber has decided to rebrand Abercrombie and Fitch himself – as the brand for those in-need. Greg released the video above to start his campaign. The video features clips of Greg buying up A&F gear at thrift stores and handing them out to people who are homeless in Los Angeles. Now he is encouraging all those who have A&F clothing to donate it to their local homeless shelter.
While I don’t support making those who are less fortunate a pawn in a media debacle, I do think the sentiment behind Greg’s campaign is a worthy one. Not being a big fan of A&F from the start I don’t think I actually own anything made by them. However, I do have more than enough clothes that I wouldn’t miss. So in solidarity with this clever idea let’s all get to spring cleaning and donate our new or gently used clothing (whether it’s A&F or not) as well as toiletry items (such as sample or travel size shampoos, soaps, etc.) to those in need and turn the asinine words of one man into a call to action.
If you haven’t heard of the group FORCE, you are about to hear a lot more about them. In December 2012 they gained notice for their ingeniously timed mock Victoria’s Secret ‘Pink Loves Consent’ campaign during the Victoria’s Secret fashion show, which raised awareness about the importance of consensual sex. As a result, the campaign went viral.
Now FORCE has started a new multi-year campaign called FORCE: Upsetting Rape Culture. As part of this campaign the group is raising money for various projects including The Monument Project on Kickstarter. Their goal is to raise $25,000 to create a highly visible monument for survivors of rape and sexual abuse. FORCE sees ‘the monument as a necessary symbol for Americans to imagine a day without rape.’ Additionally the group plans to install temporary monuments on the National Mall in Washington, DC and is planning a Monument Quilt, similar to the AIDS Quilt installation, which would cover the entire National Mall to share the stories of survivors.
Want to get involved?
‘Like’ FORCE’s Facebook page to stay up to date on their activities and future events
Baltimore Citydetention center has made headlines after a scandal revealed the inmates were running the show and had been employing guards to smuggle in cell phones, food and drugs. Mother Jones recently produced a list of the top 10 worst prisons and the horrors that occur within their walls. In Louisiana, one in 86 adults is in prison. After release, ex-offenders are 38 times more likely to be unemployed than non-offenders.
Violence in prisons is nothing new; any TV show from OZ to The Wire will tell you that. In 2003, Congress enacted the Prison Rape Elimination Act, providing $60 million for a two-year survey of state and federal prisons to determine the pervasiveness of prison rape and creating various panels to offer remedies. So why is violence still so prevalent? With the barrage of information coming at you constantly about trouble with the prison system and the difficulties of making the transition to civilian life, it’s easy to feel helpless.
These programs, however, are fueled by our tax money. The inmates are the product of our communities and educational systems. This gives hope!
What can you do to help?
Education:
1 in 3 prisoners do not have a high school diploma (contrasted with 1 in 10 of the general population). Tutoring at your local elementary, middle or high school will keep more kids on the path to higher education and away from crime.
Employment:
Support ‘Ban the Box’ legislation in your area, this movement is to remove the check box that signals conviction of an offense. No matter how minor or irrelevant their offense oftentimes this check means an individual will not be considered.
Organize:
Practice non-violence and model the behavior in your community.
Recently on the Daily Show, John Oliver did a 3 part series examining gun reforms in Australia and their subsequent effects. The segments are not only hilarious; but also inspired me to learn more about Australia’s successful gun reforms, and our own country’s recent failure in this realm. So, I did some investigating and found that the statistics in Australia are quite astounding.
Australia had 13 gun massacres in the 18 years before the 1996 gun reforms, but has had no mass shootings since.
Around 650,000 automatic and semiautomatic guns were destroyed as a part of the Australian government’s gun buyback program, halving the number of homes with a gun. That would be the equivalent of 40 million guns in the United States.
I wish that these successes been held up more as an example that gun control laws can – and, in fact, already have – been having significant success in preventing and reducing massive gun shootings and other gun-related crimes. The fact that these reforms were passed by conservative politicians in the face of significant opposition should also be inspiring to some of our own less-than-inspiring politicians.
What do you think Americans, and specifically American politicians, can learn from Australia when it comes to gun reform? Please share your comments below.
As a female born on the cusp of Generations X and Y, I grew up firmly believing that women and men are equal. I’ve visited different countries and developed relationships with people who were not raised in in an environment that reinforced gender equality. Yet, I have always considered myself an advocate for women, never fully understanding why there would be any grey area on the issue.
Then, I started reading Betty Friedan’s The Feminist Mystique for a book club – thinking that this would be an interesting relic of the past – and it blew my mind. Here were interviews with real American women who truly believed that dropping out of high school or college to get married (half of whom were under age 20) fulfilled a major life goal.
After a brief hallelujah moment that I didn’t marry any of the guys that I dated as a teenager, I continued reading. The book paints a convoluted picture of American women with unequal say in homes that they were virtually imprisoned in, with little to do after their children were raised; a repetitive Groundhog Day of cooking and cleaning. This “home maker” was different than the empowered women who decided to stay home and raise their children in the generations after The Feminist Mystique was written – including my mother and mother-in-law – both of whom are strong equals in the household.
Later, while flipping through television channels, I happened across the old Bond film To Russia with Love, which coincidentally came out in the same year as The Feminist Mystique. True to the culture of the time, the Bond girl follows 007 around like a doe-eyed zombie chattering about marriage and children, complacent as he slaps her, asks her to model lingerie, and – unbelievably – throws her in the back of a pickup truck. The life of a 60’s era Bond girl does not seem very… fun.
I am not trying to insinuate that gender equality now exists in America. The right to use contraceptives to plan a family is still somehow a debate, and the culture of violence against women is disappointingly evident in incidents like the Steubenville rape case. However, among males and females raised in the generations after the women’s movement, there is a more pervasive sense of right and wrong on these issues. This mentality is clearly depicted in legislation, court cases, media coverage, and even articles in the same women’s magazines that Friedan critiqued in The Feminist Mystique.
Although we are still far from equal, it is important to note that we’ve come a long, long way.
Guns don’t kill people. People kill people. Or so the story goes. So what happens when it’s a 4-year old doing the killing? In two incidents last week two different 4-year olds were able to access a loaded gun and accidently discharge it, killing a 6 year old playmate and a sheriff’s deputy’s wife. The result is there are now two dead, two children who will never be able to forget the tragedy they were a part of, and several families in ruins.
There are so many arguments that can come from these tragedies. We need better gun control, better gun safety measures, or perhaps we need to ban guns entirely? The options are endless, but what is clear is something must be done and an open, respectful public discourse is needed.
How can you begin?
Ask the parents of your children’s playmates if they have guns in the home. Don’t be embarrassed. If they aren’t comfortable telling you whether they have them and how they keep them safe, then you shouldn’t be comfortable letting your child stay at their home. Half of parents in the U.S. have guns, and 98% of them do not lock them up. Most parents store their guns loaded or along with the ammo.
If you have guns in your home, lock them up. Purchase a gun safe and trigger locks. They are available at local police departments.
Amnesty International recently released their annual report on the countries with the most executions. With 43 total executions in 2012 the USA ranked 5th this year on Amnesty’s list for the worst offenders. Who else is on this cringe-worthy list? At the top is China followed by Iran, Iraq and Saudi Arabia. This is the company we keep.
This year Maryland made major strides when the death penalty was abolished. However, there are still 32 states that utilize the death penalty.
Source: Death Penalty Information Center
Why should we join the enlightened world and abolish the death penalty? Here are just a few of the many reasons:
Death penalties do not deter criminals. The murder rate in non-death penalty states has remained consistently lower than the rate in states with the death penalty.
Death penalty cases are often racially biased. A study by the Yale University’s School of Law in Connecticut found that seeking the death penalty often correlated with the race of the victim and the defendant, and not with the severity of the crime.
Death penalty cases inadequately address the complexities of mental illness. The National Association of Mental Health has estimated that five to ten percent of those on death row have serious mental illness.
Death penalty cases generally cost more. For example, in Tennessee, death penalty trials cost an average of 48% more than the average cost of trials in which prosecutors seek life imprisonment.
Most importantly having a death penalty means that we risk killing innocent people. The Innocence Project – one of Campaign Consultation’s Give 5 recipients – has exonerated 305 people through DNA testing, an astounding number.
Anxious to find out what the outcomes of the Supreme Court arguments on Prop. 8 and DOMA a few weeks ago will be? Take a look at some of the ‘more likely’ outcomes developed by the Human Rights Campaign below.
We vote with our wallets. We affirm organizational missions and business practices over and over again based on where we spend our money. This creeps up suddenly, and while we think we know the image and corporate and social responsibility efforts of a particular company, we can often be mistaken. Among my family and friends we eliminated consumption at retailers like Walmart years ago, and opted for Target instead. Yet, in 2010, when news broke of Target’s giving to an anti-gay political group, we were at a loss, “Wait, we can’t shop at Target now – why?”- came from those eager to do the “right” thing, but not aware of what had happened behind the scenes.
It can be easy to forget that there is always the other side of the coin. When Walmart first wanted to move into 25th street here in Baltimore, while most in the neighborhood were against it, some of my most progressive friends exclaimed, “Why can’t people who need to buy bread for a dollar?” – implying that for every stand we want to take on an issue, there is another side to the story.
Still, the fact remains, our choices, our purchases, our time, are commodities that only we are in full control of. Having information is powerful and it can give us the fuller picture we need to make such decisions.
Each year the Human Rights Campaign’s Corporate Equality Index rates companies in its Buyer’s Guide, similar to Diversity Inc’s Top 50, and countless other leaders on important issues of our time.When electric cars hit the market, while the Nissan leaf was more aesthetically appealing than its competitors, I was disappointed to learn that their practices for LGBT employees rated severely low. How would I have known? Particularly if I was in the dealership poised to make such a purchase. That’s why the HRC’s Buying for Workplace Equality App is one of the most practical and powerful uses I’ve seen for such technology.
Last week, HRC painted Facebook red, raising awareness about the swell of support for federal marriage equality. How many of you who changed your profile pictures in support of repealing DOMA, know where your favorite companies fall on the very same organization’s rating of truly equal workplaces?
Find out now, and support red with your hard earned green.
