“Racism is Over” in the US! December 4, 2008

If you don’t believe it, read the tales on the new blog, Racism is Over.   As they say, who knows how long this will last, so they’re getting the stories down quickly.

A lot  of it is very funny and it’s at least the beginning of a record of how racism permeates the society.   The sort of thing that students might find easier to take than a lecture from one of us.

I’m thinking of writing to say how my university, where white students are in the minority, is actually going to diversify its faculty.   This year!   It’s so exciting.  All those old white guys?  Hey, even the guy who assigned Gone with the Wind as part of black history is sorry now.

h/t to feministing

Depressing statistics

Reported here. 25% of the 14 year old girl respondants reported being forced into sex.

It said there was little research on the needs of teenage victims and perpetrators of domestic violence as under-18s were excluded from the government definition of domestic violence.

Two thoughts:

1. I’d previously wondered why some preferred to use the term ‘intimate partner abuse’ or some such, rather than ‘domestic violence’. In this instance, I think I can see why: ‘domestic violence’, perhaps, serves to conceal these cases of abuse that occur between people who don’t live in circumstances to which the term ‘domestic’ applies (due to being too young to cohabit, etc).

2. This proposal seems like a good idea:

The Department for Children, Schools and Families announced in October that sex and relationship education – including “how to develop mutually respectful personal relationships” to be taught in secondary schools – would become a compulsory part of the school curriculum