The graph below shows the different results when using two different measures of joblessness (notice how the use of two different scales on these graphs–10% and 15%–visually interrupts a fair comparison). Visit the New York Times story that accompanied this image for a historically-grounded discussion of the problematics and politics of measuring joblessness.
How do we feel about this campaign, by Keep A Child Alive, to encourage people to donate money to Africa on the basis that we are all African? (Apparently we only care about ourselves, so if we suggest that Africa is ourselves, then we’ll donate?)
Do Americans, many of whom are white people with privilege based in race, class, and nation, get to claim Africa as theirs? Do white people now get to have blackness too? Is this insulting? Some people think so. Here is a larger version of the poster with Gwyneth Paltrow (scroll down for a response):
I borrowed this image from Blackademic.
NEW! Julie C. noticed that the Canadian Centre for Diversity put out a similar campaign. There’s something very interesting about it, but I’m having a hard time putting it into words. Click here to watch the short commercial. What do y’all think of it?
Found here.
Since we’re on a plastic surgery kick…according to members of the American Society of Plastic Surgery, breast reduction is the most common cosmetic procedure among 13-19 year olds (girls and boys combined). Members performed 17,269 in 2006. A set of photos available here shows is how trivial the difference is between the before and after pictures. These men were diagnosed with “moderate” gynecomastia. The belief that men are flat chested and women are breasted is not based in biology. In reality, there is a great deal more overlap between men’s and women’s bodies than we’re comfortable with… so off to the plastic surgeon.
Lisa Wade, PhD is an Associate Professor at Tulane University. She is the author of American Hookup, a book about college sexual culture; a textbook about gender; and a forthcoming introductory text: Terrible Magnificent Sociology. You can follow her on Twitter and Instagram.
Warning! These images may not be safe for your workplace.
Chris Uggen has a nice discussion of this graph (see here) showing the (it turns out more or less linear) change in drug use between 2001 and 2007. In particular, he offers a nice idea for how to use it to talk about the difference between cohort, age, and period effects.
Graph originally found here.
This is an ad for a diet pill called SlimQuick:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66oZY3NcxLA[/youtube]
If you have a pulse and exist in or near the liberal blogsophere, you have likely been told that the website Stuff White People Like is hilarious. I don’t share the love for the site, but it might be useful to bring it up in class in order to have a discussion about WHY people like it so much. What, exactly, is it tapping into?
The website, Black People Love Us, is, in my opinion, a smarter satire.
And my personal favorite, which I have successfully used in my Race and Ethnicity course numerous times, is Damali Ayo’s Rent-A-Negro. It packs a real punch. (Oh, and yes, people do sometimes think the site is real and fill out the order information, including their credit card numbers.)
