national wear purple day

I found out from a friend about a movement to show support for GLBT youths by wearing purple today. There is a facebook group (at least one). There are events organized in Chicago, and other cities.

Much of the momentum comes from the 6 or more young men who have committed suicide in recent weeks after being bullied for their perceived orientation. At least one of the young men was straight, but peers labeled him and abused him (does/ should that matter?).

Today for a Journal Writing topic I'd like my classes to write about whether gay rights are civil rights. Why, or in what ways, are GLBT targeted? WHy do people react so strongly to homosexuality in you culture? Will there always be a scapegoat - or a socially condoned victim? Is our culture, community or school heterosexist? Issues of race get tied up with gender and sexuality all the time. I'm interested that the Root posted on wearing purple today. Why do divorce rates go up whenever/where-ever women get more rights?
What are the politics of the issue? What are the arguments for or against? For that matter, what is homosexuality? Some cultures consider it an act or behavior, for others (US) it is a fundamental question of identity.

The US Secretary of State speaks in support of an It Gets Better campaign, and the I Give a Damn campaign takes a direct approach.

And a shout out to the JCCC Queers and Allies - who meet Wednesdays at 2pm in CC212. The also have a facebook group.

Would our classes be interested in having a Speak Out panel come to class?

Linguistic integrity? Royal order of linguistic prejudice?

People often assume to know my position on English Only laws and proposals - but my take is nuanced and complicated. Linguistic integrity is an interesting idea - but it hasn't been tried yet.

WHY do Asian menus refer to squid by an Italian word? The picture comes from a Japanese restaurant - examples like it can be found in most Chinese menus. Is the assumption that Americans developed a taste for squid only because they don't know what it really is? Chinese menus should call it Yo Ewe, (乌贼 or "oil fish," which reminds you of the high cholesterol). I'd like to know what it's called in Japanese (FYI: Octopus is called "taco" in Japan). And do people who support English only legislation eat Mexican food? If so what do they call tortillas? Or tacos? Are there "English" words for these?

I suspect a royal order of linguistic prejudice. In America monolingual speakers code-switch according to a hierarchy of non-English languages: French and German come first, followed by other languages spoken by white WASPish countries, then Japanese, other Asian languages - the least popular language to gather words from is Chinese. This explains why there are so few cognates and why Americans use the word "Kangi" in the least appropriate circumstances.

"Kan gi" (or Kanji) - is Japanese language way to say "Chinese characters," as in (Kan = Chinese) + (gi = characters) - but American hipsters will refer to Chinese characters as "kangi," even when discussing texts in and/or from China! Boing boing - one of my favorite blogs - is a great place to find this. See comments - here - where if you scroll to comment #57 you can see where I have broached this issue , or here (scroll thu comments) where moderators and commentators alike use a Japanese phrase to say the word Chinese when talking about China. It amounts to China bashing.

Superbowl, gender diversity and the SRTOL paper

Absenteeism was up for my 2 classes on Monday. Some research shows this may be caused by the Superbowl. See a scholarly journal here, or see a more news magazine article here. It could also have been the weather.

Maybe people stayed home because they don't have a draft of the Students Right to Their Own Language paper.

I've had some ideas lately. Given arguments expressed in class and in videos on the wiki that fashion is a form of expression and analogous to style or "voice" in writing, could we treat body art as communication, and a type of language, and thereby bring discussion of tattoos, piercings and other body modifications into our discussion of students' rights to their own language? The chart at the bottom of the recent post on diversity notes generational changes in attitudes toward body art.

If students have a right to expression through body art, where does that leave us on transgendered issues? By the way JCCC has invited Donna Ross in GEB 233 at 2pm on Thursday. She's undergone the transition and will be answering questions.

Am I still on topic in asking, if students have a right to their own language, how do I as an instructor respond to the comment in a student paper, "I know it's gay, but my girlfriend gave me the Twilight books, and I read them."

I know the "it's so gay" comment is inappropriate - but as my guest speaker Miguel pointed out last semester - in certain situations and in certain audiences gay people use it. Is it exclusively the purview of homosexual groups, or are there times and places where anyone can use it, or is it a word any young person should be allowed to use because it means something different today than it did in the old days?

BTW: the Queer & Allies group meets Wednesday at 2 pm in CC 212. Maybe someone could take these questions to them.

Diversity and blogging: a brief look at research

Blogging helps expand community and can be a particularly powerful tool for diverse and minority populations. As I say in my dissertation, educators must look:

at the opportunities for instructional technology to not only enhance the linguistic power of individual students, but we need to also assess how that power can be used in constructive ways to strengthen local and global communities (Cummins). Literacy defines a person’s ability to communicate and creatively produce and use information (Jones-Kavalier and Flannigan, 2006) and is therefore required for full and active democratic participation.

Surprisingly, although it may seem counter-intuitive, less advantaged ethnic and linguistic minority students appear to be even more likely to own and/or use valuable instructional technology hardware (Lenhart and Fox, 2006; Madden and Rainie, 2005; Patten and Craig, 2007), though they may not use it for educational purposes or otherwise use it differently. Pew Reports indicate greater minority involvement in online blogging communities (Lenhart and Fox, 2006), and that minority students are more likely to own personal media players (Madden and Rainie, 2005). A poll by the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) cited in The Hispanic Outlook in Higher Education (Allen, 2007) reports additionally that Hispanic boys listen to portable media players longer and louder than any other demographic. The different use of technology by diverse groups may be because, as Troyka (1982) asserts, these students are more social and “more comfortable in an oral rather than a written mode” (p. 258).

I'll post the citation information soon, and add links as they become available - but I want to get this up ASAP in honor of Black History Month.

diversity

I wonder if the cartoon (from SMBC) has a point. If so, what bigotry will traditional (18-21ish) students reject? And what bigotry will they hold on to? Interestingly within a week or so of this cartoon the reputable Pew Research Center wrote on this topic in, "Millenials views ...not so different." The matix below the cartoon comes from their research. You likely will have to scroll down for it - but it's provocative.

I wonder if profs tend to unfairly assume their students are less open- minded? Maybe it depends on the academic discipline. Or, as a few former colleagues have put it, "everyone is prejudiced." That statement has bothered me in the past. What's that say about the speaker? What about Mother Theresa? The statement may not be wrong, but...

If you're interested in this topic check out some links collected at the social bookmarking site under these tags: diversity, gender, or race

TheDaily Show's Wyatt Cenac takes a funny look at the subject on the Jan. 12th 2010 show.

Transgender panel at JCCC

Friday, which is international day of rememberance, JCCC will be hosting a transgendered panel in Craig auditorium - on the 2nd floor of GEB. It should start at 3:00 pm.

This will be sponsored by JCCC Queers and Allies - who have a site on google groups with more information.

Sounds like an interesting and well informed panel - who will answer questions. I'll consider offering extra credit to those who attend and write up a page on the experience. Our text has led us to topics of gender - and feminism in particular has traditionally been concerned with diversity and all manner of sexual oppression. It would arguably be relevant.