Does Race Matter? - 2

This is the second post with this title. Here's a link to the first, which is probably more thoughtful and in-depth than this one. Today I'm just adding some new examples.

We have a black President so it is clear that the US has come a long distance since I was in high school and segregation was the law in the South. But the fact that we have a black President has made those who still define themselves primarily by race feeling desperate. As I pointed out in the previous post with this title, White Supremacist groups are planning for a new civil war so they can be allowed to live with their racial compatriots.

While most people don't want to talk about it, I suspect everyone is expecting some crazy racist to take a shot at our President. The first thought I had, after the surprise of hearing Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize so early in his administration, was that perhaps they were afraid to wait too long since they only give Nobel Peace Prizes to living people. (There's an interesting account of how Gandhi did NOT win the Nobel Peace Prize on the Nobel site and how the decision was made not to award it posthumously.)

While most overt, "You can't come in because you're black" racism is gone, it's still buried deep in all our psyches. You can't have watched US movies and television and not come away with a feeling that blacks are, with some exceptions, not as good, not as desirable, and not as safe as whites. Even the most liberal whites, even blacks, have this buried deep in their souls. That's one of the reasons that Obama's election itself, even if he did nothing as President, was so significant. It symbolized that the US that elected Bush twice, was also capable of looking beyond race. I think the Peace Prize was justified simply because Obama's election changed world dynamics and the chances of peace in general. I had people in Thailand tell me that the fact that a black man was elected president of the US made them - as darker skinned people - feel more powerful and hopeful. Name anyone else who had a bigger impact on peace and reconciliation in the world.

If you doubt that racism still lives inside us all, consider your reaction to the idea of marrying outside your race, particularly if you are white and the other race is black. Yeah, it's ok for other people, but wouldn't you find some good, rational reasons why your daughter would be making her life far more difficult when she brings home her black fiance? Be honest. Even if you said, "No problem" didn't you hesitate just a little? If you didn't you're unusual.

Here's a study done by a computer dating company - OKCupid.

We’ve processed the messaging habits of almost a million people and are about to basically prove that, despite what you might’ve heard from the Obama campaign and organic cereal commercials, racism is alive and well.

My son sent OKCupid's report to me. Using their computer dating data base they studied how often people responded to others based on race. They controlled for other aspects and just focused on the race of the person sending the message. I'm trusting my son, who's far more statistically savvy than I am to have checked the data before sending it on. The tables of data are there for you to look at on the site. Here's the summary:

* Black women are sweethearts. Or just talkative. But either way, they are by far the most likely to reply to your first message. In many cases, their response rate is one and a half times the average, and overall black women reply about a quarter more often.
* White men get more responses. Whatever it is, white males just get more replies from almost every group. We were careful to preselect our data pool so that physical attractiveness (as measured by our site picture-rating utility) was roughly even across all the race/gender slices. For guys, we did likewise with height.
* White women prefer white men to the exclusion of everyone else—and Asian and Hispanic women prefer them even more exclusively. These three types of women only respond well to white men. More significantly, these groups’ reply rates to non-whites is terrible. Asian women write back non-white males at 21.9%, Hispanic women at 22.9%, and white women at 23.0%. It’s here where things get interesting, for white women in particular. If you look at the match-by-race table before this one, the “should-look-like” one, you see that white women have an above-average compatibility with almost every group. Yet they only reply well to guys who look like them. There’s more data on this towards the end of the post.
* Men don’t write black women back. Or rather, they write them back far less often than they should. Black women reply the most, yet get by far the fewest replies. Essentially every race—including other blacks—singles them out for the cold shoulder.
* White guys are shitty, but fairly even-handed about it. The average reply rate of non-white males is 48.1%, while white guys’ is only 40.5%. Basically, they write back about 20% less often. It’s ironic that white guys are worst responders, because as we saw above they get the most replies. That has apparently made them very self-absorbed. It’s interesting that white males do manage to reply to Middle Eastern women. Is there some kind of emergent fetish there? As Middle Easterners are becoming America’s next racial bogeyman, maybe there’s some kind of forbidden fruit thing going on. (Perhaps a reader more up-to-date on his or her Post-Colonial Theory can step in here? Just kidding. Don’t.)

That's the subtle racism - from people who wouldn't think twice about hiring someone of a different race and might never tell a racist joke. But despite how far we've come, out-and-out racism is still alive and well in little pockets, even among public officials who deny people their rights based on their race.

The LA Times has a short AP piece in the paper today which shows us that racism, in its most blatant forms, is still alive and well in the US. A government official, a Justice of the Peace, in Louisiana regularly refuses to marry mixed race couples. I found a longer version of the AP story on The Grio:

A white Louisiana justice of the peace said he refused to issue a marriage license to an interracial couple out of concern for any children the couple might have.

Keith Bardwell, justice of the peace in Tangipahoa Parish, says it is his experience that most interracial marriages do not last long.

"I'm not a racist. I just don't believe in mixing the races that way," Bardwell told the Associated Press on Thursday. "I have piles and piles of black friends. They come to my home, I marry them, they use my bathroom. I treat them just like everyone else."

Bardwell said he asks everyone who calls about marriage if they are a mixed race couple. If they are, he does not marry them, he said.

Go to the Grio for the rest.



So Obama is one of those children this guy is concerned with. He's concerned, what, that they may become president? Or the black and white blood is mixed inside them? Blood is red.

Race does still matter. For some barely at all. For others, only when it gets close to family. For some it's still an all consuming issue and while most still mask it with other issues (people opposed naming 9th Avenue in Anchorage because "it would disturb the numerical integrity of the street names"), but some, like the justice of the peace in the story above, still believe the races shouldn't mix.

Casa Sanchez

You can click on the yellow button with the black arrow to get into the mood.
Casa Sanchez Mariachi by AKRaven

We picked from among seven nearby Mexican restaurants tonight. Casa Sanchez seemed to be the one that stood out. It sounded like a bit more than the little Mom and Pop places we've been going to when it said to get reservations. It was seven and we got reservations for 8:30pm.

When we got there I didn't find out it was valet parking until I pulled into the parking lot from the alley. The waiting room was quite a different style from any place we've been.

We were seated pretty quick (we did have reservations).

About 9pm a band came on stage. (If you haven't pushed the yellow button with the black arrow, do it now." Since I'm running low on my startup disk, I just made and audio, no video.)










Then another band was recognized (they were eating in the restaurant) and then the musicians fanned around the room to tables where someone had a birthday. The violinist was at one nearby table and a trumpet at another.

Then the wait staff brought out the birthday cakes.







And the trumpeter posed with my mom for a picture. (It was pretty dark so it's quite grainy.)




And there was more dancing as we left.

The bill was 2 to 3 times what we've paid at other places, but the food was good and the atmosphere was great. This was more than the kitchy mariachi bands you hear everywhere.

Fence and Gate are Moving Along

Brian got a lot of work done today. I bundled the ivy and tree branches that were piled in the driveway for collection Monday. Tomorrow is a day off.





Here's the pole he was drilling in the section between my mom's house and the neighbors.



The picture on top goes to the left of the picture below. The old fence is leaning there against the house and will go up on the hill where Brian's working above. There's new fencing for fence and gate in the picture below.
You can see the earlier pictures here. It's amazing how you get used to a space and don't think about how it could look if you made a few changes. Just opening up the fence changed the look a lot. This evening I thought, gee, we could take out some of the hill and put a little table for breakfast in there. Nothing 'is' permanently and often problems force us to something better than we would have done. In this case the bad gate is offering new opportunities.

Capitalism: An Education

We did get to see two movies so far while we've been here. "Capitalism: A Love Story" and "An Education." I just don't feel like writing much on them, but I'll give you a quickie on each.

Novelists would be hard pressed to invent a character like Michael Moore. Frumpy and overweight, creative and fearless, Moore's take on the world seems pretty much on the mark. He's able to explain complex relationships clearly with his camera and his tongue and his juxtaposition of stories. We see working people being thrown out of their long term homes by heartless real estate agents with the help of police. Then we see a guy who talks quite openly about how he helps clients find foreclosures they can buy cheap. Republicans will see these folks as deadbeats who spent more than they had. Moore shows a story of predatory finance organizations luring people into unworkable agreements. We hear from Congresspersons and lobbyists who helped bail out the bankers. He keeps up the pressure and the camera antics til the very end when he surrounds Wall Street with yellow crime scene tape.

I know that people yell and scream that he's outrageous - and he is. But his take on capitalism, while not exactly what Jr. Achievement preaches, is probably far more accurate. Capitalism plays an important role, but like the circus elephant, it needs to be chained down lest it goes on a rampage. After all, capitalists say it works because everyone pursuing their self interests, keep each other in check. Unfortunately, pursuing their self interest part is right, but keeping each other in check isn't. That's why the chain needs to be there. But the ideologically impaired, seem to believe that capitalism is an integral part of Christianity.


"An Education" kept me uncomfortable through the whole movie. It wasn't long after we meet the older (30s?) gentleman, David (Peter Saarsgard) who offers the 16 year old cellist, Jenny (Carey Mulligan) a ride in the rainstorm, that it was clear this wasn't going to end well. I tend to question conventional knowledge and I suspect that not all older-younger romance has to be bad. But in this case the cad is lying early on and all the bells went off. This just wasn't a good situation. The acting was convincing, but I just felt uncomfortable throughout. Jenny was well developed, but we never saw more than quick glimpses behind David's facade. How had he become who he was? How did he deveop his charming facade and what caused him to be so totally without compassion for others? Was he a non-violent, gentleman sociopath? We don't know. And since he was the most troubling character, understanding him would have been more enlightening than understanding Jenny. A good movie for teenage girls to watch.

Tearing down fences

Here's the backyard gate at my mom's. It's been here nearly 50 years and it's no longer straight, doesn't really close, get's caught on the edging of the flower bed. This view is from the back yard.

Here it is from the front yard, propped open with a wire connected to the tree.

Here's the gate from further back with some of the stuff that's accumulated there. My mom likes to recycle. The Greeks did say, "Everything in moderation." But my mom could always find something here or in the garage that would suit what was needed.

Here's part of the same picture (right) and to the left you can see the ivy that covers the fence that goes between my mom's house and the neighbor's.

This picture is from yesterday, when Brian the WLA bikeguy, who also turns out to have carpentry skills and experience too down the fence and then later took down the dead tree that had been leaning against it.

Today we got some wood for new fencing.

And lumber for posts and cross posts.

Brian got some cement and post holders and got ready to put up four new fence posts.


The fence the ivy had covered came down. About 18 inches of soil had accumulated on the hill above and behind the fence. So Brian put in this treated wood to hold that up and keep the fencing from leaning directly against the wet soil.



So that's where we are after two days. The fence between the front and back yards is gone. The gate is gone. The cement for the posts is setting. It's nice to have someone who knows what he's doing and I help out as needed. Mainly today with the Visa card at the lumber yard. Brian had estimated $400 in supplies and when it was all totaled at the cash register it was $385. That's pretty good. There are still a few things - hinges, gate hardware - to get, but it shouldn't be much above $400.

Homeowners get a once a year extra pickup from the city solid waste department, so Monday we'll have a lot of extra piles of garden wastes, wood, and tree trunk.

Thai, Indian, Brasilian, Hungarian, and Persian

We've been eating well in LA. Last night I googled "Restaurants [zip code]" and we decided on the Brazilian place about a mile and a half away. The place felt right, though the Brazilian music made a strange soundtrack for the silent flat screens showing the Dodgers losing to the Phillies. And the vegie choices were not the specialties. The motel that was connected to the restaurant looked, from the outside, like stepping out of Los Angeles into a Brazilian enclave.

The Thai place was about a mile from home across the street from Hurry Curry. The Hungarian comes when we eat with relatives. There's a recipe at this site for the Hungarian Blintz Loaf (Palacsinta)

The Persian was the one in Beverly Hills.

I'm Glad You Like the Blog , But Shouldn't You Be Working?

We all know that people surf at work. I see ISP's from various worksites in Sitemeter all the time. About.com says

Employees spend between one and three hours a day surfing the Web on personal business at work, depending on the study reviewed. Since most studies depend on employee self-reported data, this productivity loss, combined with the concerns employers have for "where" their employees are surfing the Web at work, causes more employers to monitor employee use of the Internet.

But checking Sitemeter yesterday, I found this:



Now, I have to admit, I'm not completely sure how the Sitemeter counter works. I'm pretty sure that if someone leaves the blog on the computer while he goes to lunch, it could rack up an hour. Or it could just be an open window while he does other things. But not many people spend almost two hours here. The average is usually under a minute.

It's also possible this was all work related since much of this was looking up posts about ethics and corruption. Possible.

And an Australian study at WebProNews says surfing at work makes employees more productive:

Dr. Brent Coker, from the Department of Management and Marketing, says that workers who engage in "Workplace Internet Leisure Browsing" (WILB) are more productive than those who don't.

Increase Productivity

"People who do surf the Internet for fun at work - within a reasonable limit of less than 20% of their total time in the office - are more productive by about 9% than those who don't," he says.

"Short and unobtrusive breaks, such as a quick surf of the internet, enables the mind to rest itself, leading to a higher total net concentration for a days work, and as a result, increased productivity," said Coker.

Look, I'd rather know who is coming here, but if this wasn't legit work you were doing, I think you ought to look into some software that allows you to surf at work without your employer checking on your surfing habits. The State of Alaska might not put too much faith in that Australian report saying you are more productive because you are surfing.

Note: I did pass this by two people, both of whom were uncomfortable with me posting this. Is this a violation of privacy? No. I've got Sitemeter set up so that anyone can look at the information. And I've said that. I did that to be transparent. I also think people should be aware of the kind of tracks they leave when they surf the internet.

I think public employees should be working in the office. (The report above is not just about public employees.) I don't think there are enough employees to do all the work that is needed done. If they aren't assigned enough work to keep them busy, they should be creating projects to make the public's lives easier or make their agencies more effective and efficient. I recognize that sometimes their supervision isn't conducive to proactivity, but that's part of the challenge. Minimally, they can be studying how to be more productive in their down time. (And it could be argued that this person's readings on ethics here was very work related.) In deference to my advisers on this, I've smudged some of the information in the sitemeter data. If people want to comment on this but not publicly, they can email me.

Rain Washes LA

Mist to rain and back again from Tuesday through Wednesday in LA. Enough to release this rivulet running along the gutter of my mom's street.






In the yard this jade plant fat and wet and happy in the rain. From the University of Arkansas:

The jade plant [Crassula argentea] does flower in Southern California where it is sometimes used as a hedge, but seldom do blooms show themselves when grown as a houseplant. The blooms are white, star-shaped affairs which grow to a half inch across and are borne in dense clusters at the top of the plant.

Jade plants are desert plants and have evolved several strategies to tolerate extended droughts. Their very succulence is the main means of combating drought, but they also have other tricks up their sleeve. Jade plant -- and as later learned -- many other kinds of plants adapted to drought conditions have adapted a unique way of photosynthesis that helps conserve water. This is called CAM photosynthesis.

To find out what CAM stands for and how it works, click the University of Arkansas link.

And it's true, they do great in my mom's Southern California yard. You can see the flowers of this one in bud stage.


And this epidendrum was all bejeweled in raindrops. Another plant that thrives in my mom's Southern California coastal climate.


From John&Jacq's Garden in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia:

How enormous and diverse the genus Epidendrum L. is! It consists of about 1,100 species of orchids that are native to tropical and subtropical Americas and the Caribbean. Now though, it is widely distributed, naturalized and cultivated in many regions worldwide.

The more popular and captivating species are the commonly named Crucifix Orchids. They produce large clusters of attractive flowers, each flower displaying a significant three-lobed lip, adnate to the column and resembling a cross, hence the common name. The blooms are so varied, absolutely stunning and uniquely gorgeous in many colors and form!

Still with temps in the mid to high 60s (F or 18-20˚C) it felt plenty warm to me.

Cashew History

There's a reason Maddy's Ramblings is in my interesting blogs list. He's always writing interesting posts on some topic or another, often linked to Kerala, India. Here's a kernel from his most recent post on cashew fruit.

The book The world cashew industry – an Indian perspective,’ authored by J. Rajmohan Pillai and P. Shanta, unravels the stories of ‘the poor man’s crop and the rich man’s food. “Not many of us know that Keralite’s are the pioneers of the cashew industry in the country. It is believed that cashew was first discovered by the Portuguese travelers in Eastern Brazil. Brazilians devoured the fruit but discarded the nuts. It was again the Portuguese who brought cashew to Goa and planted it along the coast to check sea erosion. The country saw processing and trading of cashew kernels take off in Kollam, Mangalore and Vettapalem in Andhra Pradesh during the 1920s,” says Mr. Pillai.

And since we're talking about India, we had dinner at Hurry Curry last night. We've had take out from there, and last time realized they also have a dining room. It's fast, good, inexpensive, but not at all elegant. And the health inspector isn't, apparently, as enamored as we are. It's also close to my mom's place.

OK, so I was experimenting. Not all experiments work. But, I'll leave it so that when I actually do ones that work, you'll realize that not all do.

Why Wall Street Collapsed - Calvin Trillin's More Than One Sentence Answer

“IF you really want to know why the financial system nearly collapsed in the fall of 2008, I can tell you in one simple sentence.”

So begins Trillin's short piece in the NY Times which gives us one fairly plausible part of the whole puzzle. But the one sentence really needs a couple of follow up sentences.

“The financial system nearly collapsed,” he said, “because smart guys had started working on Wall Street.”

See, I said he needed more than one sentence.

“But weren’t there smart guys on Wall Street in the first place?” I asked.

He looked at me the way a mathematics teacher might look at a child who, despite heroic efforts by the teacher, seemed incapable of learning the most rudimentary principles of long division.

You can get the rest at the link. It's pretty short.

Of course, if the restrictions hadn't been lifted it would have been harder. And if these really are the smartest guys, then a lot of them will be doing interesting, creative, and socially responsible things with their money before long.