#because of the rampant internal racism running within our society

[ucflibrary]

Every October UCF celebrates Diversity Week and for 2020 it runs from October 19 – 23. The theme is Stronger Together: Unified! Connected! Family! This highlights how together we can make UCF and the surrounding community stronger and more connected with each other.  

One of the fantastic things about UCF is the wide range of cultures and ethnicities of our students, staff, and faculty. We come from all over. We’re just as proud of where we are from as we are of where we are now and where we will be heading in future. 

UCF Libraries is offering a full calendar of virtual Diversity Week activities from family friendly crafts to talks by area experts and film discussions. Don’t miss out on our community showcase which features UCF alumni and faculty and how they support the Knight community. We even have digital puzzles and downloadable coloring pages. And you can also add your voice to the 2020 UCF story by participating in our digital time capsule. To learn about the upcoming events visit: guides.ucf.edu/diversityweek 

Join the UCF Libraries as we celebrate diverse voices and subjects with these suggestions. Click on the link below to see the full list, descriptions, and catalog links for the featured UCF Celebrates Diversity titles suggested by UCF Library employees. These and additional books are on display in the new 4th floor Reading Room.

And thank you to every Knight who works to help others feel accepted and included at UCF!

 A Faithful Reading Partner: a story from a Hakka village by SuHua Huang A welcome addition to dual language literature, the story is about growing up among the Hakka people in Taiwan. In order to succeed, it is important for children to have a reading partner. But in this case, it is a dog with which the children develop deep friendships as they share their books with him. A sub-current to the main story is one of being a minority within a minority and success, which though longed for, inevitably contains sadness wrapped within its joy. Presented to UCF Libraries by the Chinese American Community in Orlando. Suggested by Sai Deng, Acquisitions & Collection Services

 Discrimination and Disparities by Thomas Sowell Challenges believers in such one-factor explanations of economic outcome differences as discrimination, exploitation or genetics. It offers its own new analysis, based on an entirely different approach--and backed up with empirical evidence from around the world. The point is not to recommend some particular policy "fix", but to clarify why so many policy fixes have turned out to be counterproductive, and to expose some seemingly invincible fallacies behind many of those policies Suggested by Cynthia Kisby, Administration

 Equality and Diversity: phenomenological investigations of prejudice and discrimination by Michael D. Barber Examples of prejudice against Jews, women, African Americans, and other minority groups are reported almost daily by the media. Despite educational programs to counteract prejudicial attitudes, this seemingly intractable problem remains an ongoing concern, not only in the United States but throughout the world. It is an interesting and often overlooked fact that the subject of prejudice has been the focus of major works by three prominent philosophers in the phenomenological tradition, works that still offer many insights into contemporary attempts to understand this social problem. Michael Barber examines this striking convergence of interests by these three philosophers and explores the significance of phenomenology for analyzing prejudice as expressed in anti-Semitism, sexism, and racism. Suggested by Sandy Avila, Research & Information Services

 Hacking Diversity: the politics of inclusion in open technology cultures by Christina Dunbar-Hester We regularly read and hear exhortations for women to take up positions in STEM. The call comes from both government and private corporate circles, and it also emanates from enthusiasts for free and open source software (FOSS), i.e. software that anyone is free to use, copy, study, and change in any way. Ironically, rate of participation in FOSS-related work is far lower than in other areas of computing. A 2002 European Union study showed that fewer than 2 percent of software developers in the FOSS world were women. This book is an ethnographic investigation of efforts to improve the diversity in software and hackerspace communities, with particular attention paid to gender diversity advocacy. Suggested by Megan Haught, Student Learning & Engagement/Research & Information Services

 Mothers Work: confronting the Mommy Wars, raising children, and working for social change by Michelle Napierski-Prancl Through a series of focus group interviews and an analysis of the media and popular culture, Napierski-Prancl explores the institution of motherhood and the arenas in which mothering occurs while analyzing how mothers feel about themselves, each other, and the culture that situates them against one another. Suggested by Megan Haught, Student Learning & Engagement/Research & Information Services

 On the Freedom Side: how five decades of youth activists have remixed American history by Wesley C. Hogan As Wesley C. Hogan sees it, the future of democracy belongs to young people. While today's generation of leaders confronts a daunting array of existential challenges, increasingly it is young people in the United States and around the world who are finding new ways of belonging, collaboration, and survival. That reality forms the backbone of this book, as Hogan documents and assesses young people's interventions in the American fight for democracy and its ideals. As Hogan reveals, the the civil rights movement has often been carried forward by young people at the margins of power and wealth in U.S. society. This book foregrounds their voices and gathers their inventions--not in a comprehensive survey, but as an activist mix tape--with lively, fresh perspectives on the promise of twenty-first-century U.S. democracy. Suggested by Megan Haught, Student Learning & Engagement/Research & Information Services

 Pippa Park Raises Her Game by Erin Yun Life is full of great expectations for Korean American Pippa Park. It seems like everyone, from her family to the other kids at school, has a plan for how her life should look. So when Pippa gets a mysterious basketball scholarship to Lakeview Private, she jumps at the chance to reinvent herself by following the "Rules of Cool." At Lakeview, Pippa juggles old and new friends, an unrequited crush, and the pressure to perform academically and athletically while keeping her past and her family's laundromat a secret from her elite new classmates. But when Pippa begins to receive a string of hateful, anonymous messages via social media, her carefully built persona is threatened. As things begin to spiral out of control, Pippa discovers the real reason she was admitted to Lakeview and wonders if she can keep her old and new lives separate, or if she should even try. Presented to UCF Libraries by the Chinese American Community in Orlando. Suggested by Sai Deng, Acquisitions & Collection Services

 Sexuality, Equality, and Diversity by Diane Richardson and Surya Monro Investigating the dynamics of identity and sexual citizenship in a changing world, this compelling text explores key debates around human rights and representation, policy and resistance. Incorporating theory with original research, this is a thought-provoking insight into sexuality and diversity in a global age. Suggested by Sandy Avila, Research & Information Services

 Shame: how America's past sins have polarized our country by Shelby Steele Part memoir and part meditation on the failed efforts to achieve racial equality in Americathis work advances Shelby Steele's provocative argument that "new liberalism" has done more harm than good. Since the 1960s, overt racism against blacks is almost universally condemned, so much so that racism is no longer, by itself, a prohibitive barrier to black advancement. But African Americans remain at a disadvantage in American society, and Steele lays the blame at the feet of white liberals. According to Steele, liberals have refused to acknowledge the country's progress over the past 50 years, in part because their notions of white guilt and black victimization help preserve their position of power over blacks. Suggested by Cynthia Kisby, Administration

 The Boy Who Became a Dragon: a Bruce Lee story by Jim Di Bartolo This book presents a biography of the martial arts legend, describing his childhood in Hong Kong and how it was shaped by World War II, and his success as an international star. Presented to UCF Libraries by the Chinese American Community in Orlando. Suggested by Sai Deng, Acquisitions & Collection Services

 This Promise of Change: one girl's story in the fight for school equality by Jo Ann Allen Boyce and Debbie Levy In 1956, one year before federal troops escorted the Little Rock 9 into Central High School, fourteen year old Jo Ann Allen was one of twelve African-American students who broke the color barrier and integrated Clinton High School in Tennessee. At first things went smoothly for the Clinton 12, but then outside agitators interfered, pitting the townspeople against one another. Uneasiness turned into anger, and even the Clinton Twelve themselves wondered if the easier thing to do would be to go back to their old school. This is the heartbreaking and relatable story of her four months thrust into the national spotlight and as a trailblazer in history. Suggested by Ven Basco, Research & Information Services

 We Rise, We Resist, We Raise Our Voices edited by Wade Hudson and Cheryl Willis Hudson What do we tell our children when the world seems bleak, and prejudice and racism run rampant? With 96 lavishly designed pages of original art, poetry, and prose, fifty diverse creators lend voice and comfort to young activists. Suggested by Ven Basco, Research & Information Services

#ucflibrary #featured #booklr #diversity in reading #suggested reading #diveristy week

[blockwarden]

A Modern Approach to an Age-Old Issue: Epidemics and Emergency Management

So, long time no see, y’all!  I know I promised I’d queue up some stuff after surgery, but life got very complicated very quickly. But I wanted to post something due to the growing concern of COVID-19 from an emergency management standpoint. 

The agency that I work for thankfully has not seen any cases, rumored or otherwise, of COVID-19, but we are expecting a portion of our served population to be returning from Florence, Italy in the next week, so with that comes a heightened sense of alarm within the community. Of course, I have the upmost faith in all agencies and parties involved to ensure complete and total safety, but planning for the worst is kind of the name of the game. 

To begin, I’d like to clear up some confusion I’ve seen online, and to set some ground rules. First (and this is the ugliest topic I’ll talk about tonight, I promise!) is the rampant, casual racism I’ve seen on social media and in person since the discovery of COVID-19 in late December. I won’t get into the details of things said, but, as with all epidemics originating outside of the United States, some incredibly sickening and bigoted things have been said, which is anathema to emergency management and public health and safety. When there is an emergency--be it a tornado, landslide, nuclear bomb, or epidemic--race should never be a part of the conversation, and emergency managers and responders alike should never take it into account. When people are hurt, sick, or dying, when buildings are crumbling, streets are flooding, or bullets are flying, there is no room nor justification for racism. COVID-19 honestly could have started anywhere. The next epidemic could start in Canada, or the UK, or the US. It just so happens that COVID-19 started in China and is largely impacting that area. 

Secondly, there is a lot of talk about the influenza versus COVID-19, and a lot of it is very misguided. While the flu is a dangerous virus, it only has a mortality rate between 0.1 and 0.5%. This mortality rate is measured over a year’s time. COVID-19, meanwhile, has between a 2-4% mortality rate measured between three to four months. For every 100 persons to get the flu, one with die. For every 100 persons to get COVID-19, 2-4 will die. The flu has vaccines, over-the-counter treatments like Theraflu, and is a very heavily-studied family of viruses. COVID-19, on the other hand, is extremely new. There is no vaccine, and we barely understand how it transmits, let alone if any mutations have happened with it. The CDC, The World Health Organization, Medicines Sans Frontieres, and etc agencies would not be responding to COVID-19 as strongly as they are if it was “harmless” compared to the common flu. It also should be noted that if the flu were new like COVID-19, these agencies would be responding much the same.  So now that that’s out of the way, let’s talk emergency management. 

Every single emergency management agency has plans in place for nearly every situation imaginable. Mine even has a plan for if a train on a nearby line derails while carrying hazardous waste. These plans follow (roughly) the Prepare, Respond, Recover, and Mitigate template. 

First, an agency must have proper planning in place. This including training, logistics, and equipment management. In the case of public health with something like COVID-19, this includes plans for dispersing at risk populations, providing temporary shelter to displaced people, maintaining the integrity of medicines and medical supplies, and transportation. The CDC has placed preparedness staff across the country to assist local EMAs in this, however, there are none of these Public Health Emergency Preparedness (PHEP) staff members in the states of South Carolina, Missouri, and Kansas.  When a state activates assistance from a PHEP, a stockpile of medications, vaccines, personal protective equipment, and other medically necessary items are deployed, along with federal medical centers that act as temporary hospitals and are staffed by experts who continuously travel between areas to assist when and as necessary. 

This PHEP program has been activated for hurricanes, Ebola, the Zika virus, 9/11, and the H1N1 epidemic, and has proven to be an effective organization for emergency management. 

Response isn’t just the CDC hearing about an epidemic and running out to investigate; response also includes laboratories around the country who mobilize to research the data of an emergency: be it water levels from a flood or a virus. Laboratories work to identity, diagnose, treat, and prevent chemical and biological emergencies as a part of the Lab Response Network partnership with the CDC. 

Response also falls on the shoulders of the emergency leaders, who face an extensive and rigorous criteria for the role as coordinator, director, and mentor. They are taught to “speak the same language” as the rest of the EMA and responding agencies in order to ensure clear and concise communication at all times. 

Recovery is the point after which the dust settles and focuses on the “return to normalcy” in population. It’s a joint effort between the CDC, FEMA, the Red Cross, and federal, state, and local assistance agencies, while mitigation is the “lesson learned” from it all. It’s the “what could we have done better” and “what can we take away from this”. Mitigation is the part of emergency management that really builds the planning, as no simulation or textbook will ever yield the kind of data an actual real-life situation could. 

So what would it look like if COVID-19 became a serious threat in the United States? 

It’s actually kind of hard to tell right now, with there being so many unknowns when it comes to the virus itself. Person-to-person transmission is handled very differently than community spread, and as we learn more about the virus and how to treat it, things will change. This is an incredibly fluid situation. But the tenants of public health, safety, and emergency management and preparedness stay the same. The plans in place will be deployed, but will change as the threat changes. Will people be dying on the street, will there be rioting, will there be martial law and a complete breakdown of society? No. But some things may change. We may see further travel restrictions. We may see mandatory curfews. We may see more and more public events cancelled, and more screenings done when travelling or entering a public space.  My agency’s emergency guideline for pandemic response looks like this:  

You’ll note that there’s no “WE WILL DECLARE MARTIAL LAW AND SHOOT ANYONE THAT LOOKS SICK” clause because that’s not what emergency management is, despite what the movies want you to think. But, you should note, that that good old “two weeks supply” standard that the Federal Civil Defense Administration started in 1951 still stands today, and really, preparing for a pandemic is much the same as preparing for any other emergency. You don’t need to be wearing a mask in public unless directed to by a medical professional, you don’t need to be locking yourself in a bunker, and you certainly don’t need to be avoiding drinking Corona beer (which is the best next to Blue Moon, if I should say so myself). You don’t need to disinfect your packages from China, and you don’t need to go out and buy everything CVS/your local drugstore carries. 

As of right now, the only concerns to the American public with COVID-19 are shipping delays and a potential shortage of prescription medications, as many pills and ingredients come from the affected countries. 

If you are still incredibly worried about COVID-19, the best things you can do are: 

 Wash your hands. 

 Avoid touching your face.

 Stay home if you don’t feel well.

The second best thing you can do is donate. 

These numbers you see on TV, the pictures of hospitals beds, the man that died on the streets of Wuhan, the old couple detained on the Diamond Princess cruise ship, these are all people. People like you and me. And while our agencies both domestic and foreign and international are doing all they can, there may come a time when they cannot do it all. 

In the spirit of this blog and civil defense--the homegrown, neighborly helping hand--I’m asking you to think with your heart in the case of COVID-19 and do what you can. To think before you say hurtful, bigoted things. To research the things you post lest you cause panic. To reach out to your neighbors of the world and stand with them. 

#articles #coronavirus #covid-19 #emergency management #public health #public safety

[kashif1550]

Post 1 - Multicultural America

 1.What is the subject of your film, program, or internet/social media selection? Provide a brief summary, describing your selection and how it relates to our course topics, readings, and screenings.

For the first post, I picked the movie District 9. District 9 is 2009 Sci-Fic action movie that is set in South Africa. The story starts off with a UFO, filled with aliens inside, touching base in a major city in South Africa.

Naturally, the entire world does not react well to the new arrivals. However, as the movie progresses, it becomes obvious that the aliens are a metaphor for a marginalized race. The location for the film couldn’t have been perfect enough, given the history of South Africa. Apartheid ended in 1994, a mere fifteen years before the start of this movie. It was not that long ago where segregation was a reality for South Africans. 

The reality for the aliens in the movie is not a far cry from the discrimination the South African government expelled on to their own citizens. Aliens aren’t allowed to enter certain areas, aren’t allowed to have intercourse with humans, aren’t allowed to eat in the same locations, and many other inhuman restrictions as well.

  The movie tries to end on a positive note, showing us there is a way for oppressors to understand the oppressed. Unfortunately, it was only because a human was mutating into an alien and subjected to the same discrimination. 

In a dark, pessimistic way, it is saying that perhaps we cannot see the true harm in the unfair power dynamic unless we’re no longer benefiting from it. It shows how things won’t change until those with the privilege step up and decide to dismantle the system they gain from.  

Comparing this movie to something from my reading, I would have to connect it to the Jim Crow laws in the United States. African Americans were faced with harsh treatment at every front. Obtaining a job was difficult, dating a white person could lead to being lynched and legal troubles, and the creation of a mixed-race child was a crime. 

Both the movie and the harsh factors of segregation show that the reason for their hatred, for their inhuman actions, and unjustifiable behavior came from ignorance. False narratives and stereotypes were used to justify the nature of the oppressive system they created, thinking that would bring order in their world. In the end, it only caused disorder until justice was served.  

2. Referring to related and appropriate readings and screenings from the course, describe how your selection represents racial and ethnic identities (and if applicable, intersectionality). In what ways does your selection for each of the journal entries generate a conversation regarding race, ethnicity, and cultural diversity?

For the movie I picked, you can see how it relates to racial and ethnic identities through the science fiction element of aliens. In their world, the grievances usually associated to immigrants and minorities is pigeonholed into one singular group: the new extraterrestrial life form. They are written off as violent, lazy, rampant in childbirth, and destructive in nature. The humans question their intelligence often, though ironically want the high-tech guns the aliens have brought along with them.

The way newcomers, arriving to the United States, have been treated throughout history has shown that it isn’t always pleasant. For Chinese immigrants, many faced push backs from gold miners, essentially forcing them into the laundry market because of the over taxation placed on the mines. A more comparable experience would be with indigenous people consider, for most of the plot of the movie, the South African government is trying to relocate the aliens to a new reservation. Similar to that outcome, Native Americans were also uprooted from their land and told to move to another plot of land. In the movie, the South Africans do not believe they can live in the same area as the aliens. And for President Andrew Jackson, he felt the exact same way about Native Americans.

“In Jackson’s view, Indians could not survive living within white society […] Drive by ‘feeling of justice,’ Jackson declared that he wanted ‘to preserve this much-injured race.’ He proposed a solution—the setting aside of a strict west of the Mississippi ‘to be guaranteed to the Indian tribes as long as they shall occupy it.” (Pg 81, Takaki) 

Andrew Jackson saw the relocation as essential for Native Americans for them to intergrade into American culture. He offered land for the Natives to farm on, believing that somehow that would encourage them to opt to a farming lifestyle like white settlers. What Andrew Jackson and the South Africans in this movie both struggle to grasp is this: consent.

No one asked Native Americans if they wanted to be uprooted from their homes and forced on to reservations. And same for those aliens, they were not given any say on their relocation. When it comes to the opinions of minorities and other marginalized groups, it’s common to see the trend of dehumanization and removing the ability of choice. 

When you strip a human from the ability to make choices on their own and use their voice, then do you even see them as an equal at all? No, of course not. People you make choices for are children, meaning that was what they saw in these individuals. They saw them as incapable, but not because they actually were, but because of ignorance and racism. For the movie, specism. 

3.How does your selection relate to the course readings, screenings and discussions?  Reflect upon the representation and circulation of racial and ethnic identities in popular visual culture. Your reflections should be attentive to the intersectionalities of race, ethnicity, sexuality, religion, socioeconomic class and gender.

As I have stated above, the movie District 9 connects to Jim Crow laws, segregation, and Native American removal. Aliens were limited from participating in activities humans were allowed to and prevented from prospering. They were negatively depicted in the media and rarely shown in a positive light. Media, as history has shown us, plays a vital role in perception.

In the earlier stages of Hollywood, the depiction of minorities was played by white actors, making a mockery of the ethnic group they were portraying. Due to years of boxing people of color into outrageous caricatures, it has left a lasting impression in media—even to this day. Some may brush off media as a fleeting set of pictures, unable to capture and captivate our lives, but one should not be so dismissive of the images that come their way. 

“People who have never interacted with a black family in their communities more easily embrace what the media tells them. […] In worst case scenarios, black boys and men actually internalize biases and stereotypes and, through their behavior, reinforce and even perpetuate the misrepresentations. They become victims of perception.” (Donaldson, The Guardian)

Naturally, since we were children, we internalize the images we see. There’s a great deal of impact on the content we consume. Because of redlining, it has made communities just as closed off to diversity as they were before. To this day, someone could live their life not truly being friends with someone from a particular ethnic or racial background. What exactly will that person think of said individual if all they have to learn about them are bad depictions from movies? The result is detrimental. That is why representation of all groups, races, religions should be embraced. When you show a narrow view on something, you are only hurting the viewers in the long run. 

For me, speaking as a Muslim, it’s surprises me how often people misrepresent my faith. It’s even more upsetting at how closely connected my own religion is to those who try to dismantle its existence. I have lost count of the amount of times I’ve heard my friends get shocked that I believe in Jesus, Abraham, and the same biblical stories they heard of growing up. The thing is, if they would only open their eyes and not accept the first negative thing they heard about us, then maybe they could see more similarities than differences. In the end, that is what everyone in a marginalized group hope for—acceptance and inclusion. 

Sources:

Page 81, Takaki

    A Different Mirror: A History of Multicultural America

   Takaki, Ronald

The Guardian

    Donaldson, Leigh

    Title: When the media misrepresents black men, the effects are felt in the real world (https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/aug/12/media-misrepresents-black-men-effects-felt-real-world)

[lesbian-ed]

I'm a lesbian and I learned about radical feminism about 2 years ago. At first I loved it. It really helped me thru alot of internalized problems but now.. I feel exhausted. Just knowing what all women have to go through and how much we are truly hated. Not only that but how lesbians basically have no support now. Everywhere I look i basically see mysogny or lesbophobia and honestly it's getting too much. I want to die and I don't know what to do. Things only seem to look more hopeless

Anon, listen to me. Hold on.

I know where this is coming from. Some days I want to give up too, just walk away from everything somehow so I don’t need to look at all this suffering and have my limbs tremble in impotence as the world drags us down to a dark pit where it is all violence and pain and despair. Sometimes it’s too much, some days are just too heavy, some crimes too horrible, some truths too perverse…

But we can’t give up. If we walk away, if we turn off the switch, what will be accomplished by it? Will our sisters cease to suffer? Will we be comforted in some way? I don’t think so.

The tricky part of opening your eyes is that you can’t close them again once you see the world for what it is. But here’s the thing: it doesn’t have to be as it is. Isn’t that one of the things we learn when we study radical feminism? That our sex should not determine our submission, that there is nothing natural about male supremacy or heterosexism or exploitation or racism? That our destinies are not set in stone? I think that it is in face of all this dreadfulness we see and live in that we should be the fiercest dreamers, the most resilient thinkers, the most dedicated activists. After all, radical feminism isn’t just about feeling better and liberating ourselves as individuals from societal constraint; it’s about freeing all women. The systems that control our lives are complex and powerful, so it isn’t easy, of course, to bring them down – patriarchy, racism, heterosexism, capitalism, they won’t be defeated in a day. So I get looking at all this work that needs to be done and feeling small and weak before it.

But that’s just the thing. Yeah, as lesbians, we end up taking the brunt of it, as if things weren’t hard enough already. Yeah, everyone else hates us, but then again, it’s because we can see more clearly that which they cannot or refuse to see. I once had a teacher tell us that it’s much easier for those who are at the margins of society to look into it and find what is wrong with it than for those smack-dab in its centre. And those people on the outside who have a clearer vision of what’s going on within? Those are us. Whether we like it or not. Of course those who benefit from all this bull don’t like us, we’re a threat to them, even when we aren’t doing anything or when we don’t want to be.

We have to have one another’s backs, anon. That’s our support, it’s one another, the lesbians of yore and those yet to come included. Things look bleak, they are bleak, but we can’t lose hope. I know it’s hard not to, as you said, lesbophobia and misogyny run rampant even in quarters where we would not expect them. Which is why I say we’re our own support, we have to depend on one another, because no one else will stand by our side. We can do good, we can make change, but we have to be brave. And we have to be radical.

And that takes a toll. So, after all this, anon, what I have to say apart from “do not give up” is that if you need to take a break from all of this, you should. If you have friends and family or a girlfriend who all love you very much, stay off the internet for a while, immerse yourself in them. If you have a passion (maybe you like dancing or painting, for instance), take some time off and invest yourself in it for a while. If you can avoid the news for one or two weeks if it helps you clear your mind, do it. A little bit of avoidance can bring you some peace. I don’t like being alienated from things, but sometimes we need to keep ourselves sane first and motivated to fight later. There’s also no use in being a martyr for a cause, since lonely sacrifices will not help us; we need the strength in numbers and we need to be well to do all this work that needs to be done.

I will not lie or sugar-coat reality. Things do look pretty terrible right now. That’s exactly why we, as a whole, can’t back away from all of it. And it’s also why we need to take care of ourselves – we need one another and we need to be together to face it.

Rest. Surround yourself with joy, if you can. Breathe. We can get through this. Our foremothers have. We’ve got to have some hope and some faith in ourselves. This dark moment cannot – shall not – be our eternity.

/Mod T

#Anonymous #answered asks #mod t #lesbophobia #radical feminism