Some Links to Current Media and Issues

Some thought-provoking media shows hosted guests on two serious issues occurring in the U.S. and in North America. I include the internet links to those below.  I apologize in advance for any broken urls as the internet changes quickly and some of these links may not be available after I have posted this blog entry. 

Minnesota Public Radio’s Kari Miller on Mid Morning facilitated a discussion with immigration expert Professor Marcelo Suarez-Orozco and Telemundo journalist, Jose Diaz-Balart about the Arizona Law labeled the “Support Law Enforcement and Safe Neighborhoods Act.”  This name tries to hide that some law enforcement do not feel supported by this law and that the use of the word “safe” does not make everyone safe, in fact, it can work to jeopardize the safety of Latinos and those visually identified as Latino, those who speak other languages such as Spanish, and those who speak English with a hint of an “accent” assumed to be not regional to the U.S.  This radio discussion is interesting to listen to in juxtaposition to Raul Grijalva’s interview on National Public Radio.

Minnesota Public Radio (MPR)

Mid Morning hosted by Kari Miller

Interview with Prof. Suarez-Orozco and Jose Diaz-Balart

http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2010/04/28/midmorning1/

Interview with Raul Grijalva

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=126395057

 To move to another hot-button issue, Charlie Rose hosted Lloyd Blankfein, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of Goldman Sachs on April 30, 2010.  See http://www.charlierose.com/

This interview really shows examples of providing an interpretation to persuade viewers, that-is -just-how-the-system-works explanations, and how claims of financial illiteracy or economic illiteracy become a way for Lloyd Blankfein to lessen his transnational companies’ responsibility and systemic responsibility because these systems and his company serve a “social good”  and were just part of the daily workings of a capitalist system. Goldman Sachs provides the mechanism for transactions to occur in the world-wide economic  system, but not everyone democratically benefits from such transactions. The ideas in the book Mindful Economics: How the U.S. Economy Works, Why it Matters, and How it Could be Different by Joel Magnuson provide more solutions.  In the “Mindful Economics” framework,  Magnuson would agree on some levels with Lloyd Blankfein but goes further to explain that systemically the current world economic system is not democratic. He points out that it is just the opposite.  Magnuson goes further to explain how alternative economic organizations and processes can be put in place to co-exist with capitalistic organizations. He also claims that the goals of profit-making must be intertwined with democratic principles and regulation. This website contains an interview with Economist Magnuson: http://www.soundauthors.com/interview-with-joel-magnuson-sound-authors-radio.htm

One additional piece not covered in the Lloyd Blankfein interview was additionally troublesome aspects of “risk.”  One aspect being something that scholars in Critical Race Studies, Ethnic Studies, and Sociology examine: the way “risk” becomes code for “race” in specific situations. Law professor Patricia J. Williams in her essay “Of Race and Risk,” a commonly anthologized essay, explains her experience with getting a mortgage to purchase a house.  When the bank discovered she was African American they changed the terms of the loan to be less favorable than when they had thought she was “White.” Because they used the language of “risk” rather than race the institution deemed this “acceptable.”   You can read her essay here: http://www.li.suu.edu/library/circulation/Gurung/soc1020sgOfRaceAndRiskSp10.pdf

To bring the idea of risk into the current recession, recent scholarship investigates and shows how a disproportionate amount of racialized groups face home foreclosure related to balloon and inferior loan terms (with statistics showing that White buyers with the same incomes and credit received better loan terms).   

Thanks so much for reading!!! I hope you continue to peek in at my blog when you can.

Comments

[Lorraine]

I recently watched a movie titled "Sweet Land". Set in Minnesota after the first World War, an immigrant Norwegian farmer writes home to ask family to look for a bride for him. When the bride arrives she is German and the norwegian bachelor is ostracized by the community for not rejecting her. No minister or judge will marry them because "she might be a spy". An irrational fear is obvious 100 years into the future. What is not so obvious is that human beings have consistently engaged in this sort of behavior throughout history. There is some complex art of domination - through scapegoating, enslavement, racism, genocide, terrorism, McCarthyism. Hitler is never as far away as we would like to believe.

[margaret]

Thanks Lorraine for posting a comment! I especially found your last line thought-provoking.