#the focus on implicit bias over structural change

[fermented-writers-block]

PART 1 of 6 of the Owl Deity Hooty Theory

[NEXT PART]

[OWL DEITY HOOTY THEORY MASTERPOST] (in development)

(TLDR at bottom of post)

Over several long months of research and analysis since March of 2020, I have been following an utterly fascinating thread of potential misdirection and subtle details throughout The Owl House, and today, I would like to start weaving together of what I believe could become one of the biggest and most cleverly disguised twists in the entire show.

To begin, let’s take a look at the B plot of Understanding Willow:

On first glance, it’s an ultimately inconsequential sidestory with the sole purpose of justifying an excuse to keep Luz and Amity in Willow’s mind, as well as providing some well-needed room to breathe and release tension after the veryemotionally charged confrontation with Inner Willow. After half an episode of Eda and King outdoing the other in ridiculous ways to win Gus’ vote and Gus running off in frustration at the end of the episode from Hooty’s inane rambling, it’s easy to laugh off Gus’ pick and assume that nothing/of value was said when he closed the door for the interview.

However, if one pays close attention to that very scene, Hooty actually canstill be heard (if faintly) underneath Eda and King’s grumbling, interestingly talking about how “It all started with a hunt. Blood red skies. That’s right, I was created-.”

Now, while it may seem silly to focus on dialogue from Hooty of all characters, this A) tells us that there was an event in the past involving blood red skies and a hunt of some kind, B) that Hooty had been created close to said event, and C) implies that what he knows but can’t tell as a story worth a damn is EXTREMELY important to be included and be hidden in such a manner.

For comparison, the only other instance of dialogue being tucked away in the background in the entire show is in Wing It Like Witches:

During the lecture at the beginning of the episode, the history teacher openswith lore on Belos appointing a head witch to each coven over 50 years ago, immediately cluing in the audience to try and decipher the rest of the lecture as it moves to the background. Adding to this is how the musical sting when Luz shows off her movie obscures what he says even further, making it even more of a intriguing puzzle that the creators clearly intended for viewers to pick up on and attempt to solve.

In contrast, the hidden dialogue of Hooty’s interview is much shorter and not as hard to decipher as the teacher’s history lesson, but at the same time, there are few to no indicators whatsoever in that scene to clue in the audience to even check for something like that. It comes at the end of an episode where most viewers would have been paradoxically tired out and driven abuzz by the revelations of Amity and Willow’s relationship, doesn’t attempt to draw much attention to itself, and frames itself as a comedic subversion of audience expectations with neither the “greatest witch who ever lived” or the self-proclaimed king of demons being picked by Gus.

Instead, he picks someone that the show portrays constantly as an oblivious and gullible idiot after being described as a “state of the art defense system” at the very beginning of the series. Someone who, despite it being played for laughs, is scarily capable of casually subduing Lilith offscreen one episode and then beating her and an entire squad of Emperor’s Coven members without even the slightest change in personality or temperament.

Someone who, due to being the Owl House itself, could be considered the titular character of the entire show, yet is taken for granted by those who inhabit him and barely gets any respect from even the cutely patronized King - including when Hooty could be interpreted as having potentially been full on DEAD for a time given the use of extremely cartoony X eyes and a lack of vital signs in The Intruder.

And someone who Eda at best tolerates and at worst abandons in personal interactions and only occasionally acknowledges him when he’s actually doing his job. Yet at the same time is so implicitly trusted beyondprotecting her home to the point where - when up against the closest person Eda has to an equal outside of likely Belos - the only actually recognizable spells Eda used in combat were 1) stereotypical energy blasts, 2) a single shield spell in Covention, and 3) a noticeably large reliance on imitations of Hooty above any other spells she could have decided to use instead.

In short, the show repeatedly tells us he is just an idiotic gag character through and through, but at the same time demonstrates he has immense power through both onscreen and offscreen demonstrations, implicitly tells us his importance ahead of time through Eda’s imitations in actually serious situations, and treats his interview and origin story as - if not even more- important to keep secret than a long lore dump about how Belos’ reign works.

After all, there being only two instances of hidden background dialogue in the entire season is already intriguing on its own, but for one to get plenty of clues to draw in people’s attention and for the other to be treated as just another gag about a “mere comic relief character” - aka a good way to draw away attention and lower one’s guard - heavily suggests a far deeper significance buried under layers of misdirection, comedy, and conditioned audience expectations.

I mean, when Eda bragged about being “a bad girl living in a secret fortress,” Hooty followed with a remark about how “I’m the secret.” While that line may sound like Hooty simply being confused as part of a one-off on the surface, it’s an odd dialogue choice for the writers to pick when you think about all the other reminders of his nature as the house itself throughout the season. With the precedent these moments set, it would have been much more appropriate for him to latch onto the “fortress” side of “secret fortress” AND it would have been just as equally funny of a joke about his awareness skills, but instead, Hooty broke away from the established trend to say something that would make people suspicious were it to come from anyone else.

In a way, this reminds me much of the many subtle bits of foreshadowing strewn across the show, like Luz unknowingly describing Amity in Witches Before Wizards and Eda burning a hole through Luz’s coven type quiz that coincidentally selected the same track she had taken at Hexside as “a punky potionist.” At the time of airing, these initially seemed like one-off jokes, but eventually came back in full force several episodes later with Amity’s hidden sensitive feelings and love for the Azura books becoming clear in Lost in Language, and the reveal of Eda’s school track in Something Ventured, Someone Framed with her school misdemeanor pictures.

That said, compared to these individual bits of minor foreshadowing, the jokes about Hooty in Understanding Willow appear to simply be the most obvious pieces in a giant puzzle, implicitly and outright telling attentive viewers that there’s a major mystery to be uncovered here.

In fact, I feel bold enough to say that we could be looking at a twist on a similar scale to that of the Pink Diamond/Rose Quartz and Stanford Pines twists in Steven Universe and Gravity Falls respectively, what with this particular puzzle piece coming from how Gus wanted to make THE greatest interview of all time, and how he was looking for someone who was “interesting, accomplished, AND noteworthy:”

Note the emphasis on the ‘and’ here, as Gus had made a big deal that “people aren’t meantto be all those things” at the beginning of the episode, so as a result, stripping away all the comedic framing of his subplot leaves the intriguing implication that whoever - and, perhaps, what- Hooty is, they really are the most interesting, accomplished, AND noteworthy person out of everyone.

I could go further and talk about why I suspect the mystery surrounding King’s origins, whether true or not, is partially meant to misdirect us from paying attention to Hooty, or how the TOH crew’s could be disguising legitimate clues to his nature among made up and highly meme-able joke answers in order to proliferate said concepts throughout the fandom - thus letting us do all the dirty work of getting ourselves used to the ideas and used to dismissing them at the same time - but to bring things to a close for now, I’d like to leave you all with a question that I’ll start answering next time:

What does it mean when both the most powerful and notorious witch on the Boiling Isles and the possible actual king of demons/the Titan itself/something don’t match up to a house? And what do you think it is that makes him so special to warrant such misdirection?

TLDR: Between Eda’s golem spells, the show stressing his nature as the titular house, his implicit strength, and the odd dialogue and structure of Understanding Willow‘s subplot in relation to him, I believe I have good reason to suspect the show has been giving us many hints towards Hooty being much, much more important than it would like us to currently believe or even joke about. Particularly, through clever uses of comedy to establish and enforce a strong audience bias against looking closely at him or unironically taking him seriously, and to potentially plant the seeds for something I will start exploring in Part 2.

#the owl house #the owl house theory #owl house theory #the owl house speculation #toh theory #the owl house hooty #toh speculation #owl deity hooty theory #long post

[wikipediaredoengl199fa20]

Nicolazzo - Wikipedia Rewrite for Overpopulation Page

Edits are in bold. The original page can be accessed here. 

Current population dynamics, and cause for concern

Further information: Population dynamics

As of December 8, 2020, the world's human population is estimated to be 7.836 billion.[10] Or, 7,622,106,064 on 14 May 2018 and the United States Census Bureau calculates 7,472,985,269 for that same date[11] and over 7 billion by the United Nations.[12][13][14] Depending on which estimate is used, human overpopulation may have already occurred.[citation needed]

Nevertheless, the rapid recent increase in human population has worried some people. The population is expected to reach between 8 and 10.5 billion between the years 2040[15][16] and 2050.[17] In 2017, the United Nations increased the medium variant projections[18] to 9.8 billion for 2050 and 11.2 billion for 2100.[19]

As pointed out by Hans Rosling, the critical factor is that the population is not "just growing," but that the growth ratio reached its peak and the total population is now growing much slower.[20] The UN population forecast of 2017 was predicting "near end of high fertility" globally and anticipating that by 2030 over ⅔ of the world population will be living in countries with fertility below the replacement level[21] and for total world population to stabilize between 10 and 12 billion people by the year 2100.[22]

The rapid increase in world population over the past three centuries has raised concerns among some people that the planet may not be able to sustain the future or even present number of its inhabitants. The InterAcademy Panel Statement on Population Growth, circa 1994, stated that many environmental problems, such as rising levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide, global warming, and pollution, are aggravated by the population expansion.[23]

Other problems associated with overpopulation include the It has been theorized that continued global population growth would lead to increased demand for resources (such as freshwater and food), starvation, malnutrition, consumption of natural resources (such as fossil fuels) faster than the rate of regeneration, and a deterioration in living conditions.[24] However, there is evidence to suggest that alleviating the effects of these crises (which already exist without Earth’s population passing any sort of “overpopulation” threshold) lie outside of population control, but rather, in an equal redistribution of resources from corporations and wealthy individuals (those in “the 1%”) to populations currently affected by these issues. Certain critiques of economic structures such as Capitalism suggest that the encouragement of endless growth for the economy is more damaging for the future of natural resources than individual impact, and therefore efforts do not need to be centralized around population. Moreover, there are certain ethical issues around the concept of overpopulation - mainly, which populations are being controlled, and who makes these decisions. While fears of overpopulation are not the outright cause of atrocities such as forced sterilization or eugenics (enacted against communities of color as opposed to white communities), the concept could easily be appropriated as a justification for the eradication of non-white populations, so an oppressor would not have to reveal their true intentions behind population control (or other policies such as immigration control). 

 Wealthy but densely populated territories like Britain rely on food imports from overseas.[25] This was severely felt during the World Wars when, despite food efficiency initiatives like "dig for victory" and food rationing, Britain needed to fight to secure import routes. However, many believe that waste and over-consumption, especially by wealthy nations, is putting more strain on the environment than overpopulation itself.[26] This relates back to the prior argument, suggesting that the idea of overpopulation incorrectly shifts the blame of climate change to individuals rather than the social systems in place globally. Focusing on the concept of carbon emissions alone, the sheer output of multiple corporations would far outweigh the impact of most human populations. Again, the impact the 1% has on carbon emissions is simply further argument for the redistribution of resources, rather than the focus on reducing one’s own “carbon footprint”. 

(261 words)

Essay and Sources:

For this Wikipedia editing assignment, I decided to edit the Wikipedia page for “Human Overpopulation”, or the concept that the world will eventually no longer be able to sustain human life due to extreme population growth. I approached the subject from the angle of recognizing that humans are depleting natural resources at an alarming rate, while also acknowledging the fact that a specific number of humans are contributing to the depletion of these resources, making the issue of population size less relevant. Therefore, while reading this article, I quickly realized the pervasive viewpoint suggested that individual humans are largely to blame for issues such as climate change as opposed to the output that corporations produce or the lifestyles of the 1%, and that a smaller population size is absolutely necessary for the survival of the human race. Arguments similar to the one I discussed were confined to one or two sentence afterthoughts, with no section for the various questions surrounding topics such as “Who exactly is controlling population growth, and why? Would it be possible or ethical to regulate this (outside of reproductive rights and family planning, which is both ethical and necessary)?” I do not believe this exclusion was a case of explicit bias and deliberately withholding information, but this lack of information instead displayed implicit bias and a lack of foresight. 

Since the article was extensive, I focused on revising a subsection titled “Current Population Dynamics, and Cause for Concern”. I altered the first sentence of a paragraph to reflect the fact that the term “overpopulation” itself has a vague definition, and added more information to this paragraph to express the opposing viewpoint more clearly. I summarized the various sources I read and included the relevant articles in links throughout the paragraph. The second paragraph is mostly a continuation of the arguments presented in the first, using one of the only examples of a differing viewpoint in the article as a starting point. This paragraph also had more of a focus on environmental issues in general, while the first paragraph addressed a variety of other topics. 

Most of the articles I researched addressed similar topics and expressed discontent with the popular narrative surrounding overpopulation. The articles written by Lyman Stone, Heather Alberro, and Peter Wells and Anne Touboulic focus on the economic argument, tackling the issues of natural resources and supply and demand. As previously mentioned, those who are concerned about overpopulation will cite the impact humans are having on the environment as an example that the human race is living beyond its means. In fact, a small population of humans are living beyond these means, and manufacturing products that simultaneously use up and pollute the earth’s resources. Alberro, in the article “Debunking ‘Overpopulation’”, cites the statistic “The consumption of the world’s wealthiest 10 percent produces up to 50 percent of the planet’s consumption-based CO₂ emissions, while the poorest half of humanity contributes only 10 percent” (Alberro). This shifts the blame back from the individual consumer to the capitalist system which produces more than it needs, then hordes the surplus and says the population needs to decrease for everyone to get their share. The article by Erle C. Ellis takes a more personalized approach to the subject, citing first hand conversations with colleagues about overpopulation and the misconceptions around the subject. 

There is one article, written by Robert Fletcher, which not only addresses the economic arguments surrounding overpopulation, but also has a detailed explanation of the link between eugenics, race, and the idea of overpopulation. The article “Barbarian Hordes: the Overpopulation Scapegoat in International Development Discourse” discusses how the idea of overpopulation can be used as a justification for atrocities such as eugenics or forced sterilization:  ...the state’s concern with nurturing life applied primarily to its own population, conceived as an organism in competition with other national populations for limited resources and living space…” (Alberro). The fear of overpopulation is not an excuse for these actions that oppressors use against an oppressed group (generally white against communities of color). It is important to challenge the narratives surrounding overpopulation to ensure oppressors are not able to hide behind this idea. 

In short, I did not think the wording of the Wikipedia article outwardly displayed a bias. However, the glaring lack of a counterargument was an example of implicit bias. The fact that overpopulation is being used to blame issues such as food scarcity on individuals instead of corporations needs to be addressed. Also, the usage of the concept of overpopulation could encourage oppressors to attempt to disguise eugenics as an attempt to solve the aforementioned issues of climate change, food scarcity, and others. If these changes were to be implemented, I would hope that this perspective allows readers to think critically about the concept of overpopulation. 

Works Cited

Alberro, Heather. “Debunking ‘Overpopulation.’” Ecologist, 16 April 2020. Web. 

https://theecologist.org/2020/apr/16/debunking-overpopulation

Ellis, Erle C. “Overpopulation is Not the Problem.” The New York Times, 13 September 2013. 

Web. https://my.vanderbilt.edu/greencities/files/2014/08/overpopulation-is-not.pdf

Fletcher, Robert. “Barbarian Hordes: The Overpopulation Scapegoat in International Development Discourse.” Taylor & Francis Online, 2 October 2014. Web.

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/01436597.2014.926110?casa_token=DHJuHTs76sUAAAAA%3AsHy3C0NkWG8qnMvxIiGJgMQbOrk1ONGSBuZbe3HW7Pk_hzcxKsaZ-ifpXNKj_8i-q1KjDNtaklBO

Stone, Lyman. “Why You Shouldn’t Obsess About ‘Overpopulation.’” Vox, 11 July 2018. Web. 

https://www.vox.com/the-big-idea/2017/12/12/16766872/overpopulation-exaggerated-concern-climate-change-world-population

Touboulic, Anne and Wells, Peter. “Rich and Famous Lifestyles are Damaging the Environment in Untold Ways.” The Conversation, 23 January, 2017. Web. https://theconversation.com/rich-and-famous-lifestyles-are-damaging-the-environment-in-untold-ways-71641

Wikipedia Contributors. “Human Overpopulation.” Wikipedia, 8 Dec. 2020. Web.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_overpopulation

[parkitherefornow]

Throughout his time as mayor and now on the campaign trail, Pete Buttigieg has stressed the importance of reversing systemic racial inequality— built over centuries through intentional racist policies—with intentional and targeted anti-racist policies. Asked following the recent South Bend town hall whether he’s done enough, or anything at all, to put this into practice as mayor, he stated: “I don’t want to seem defensive, but we have taken a lot of steps. They clearly haven’t been enough. But I can’t accept the suggestion that we haven’t done anything.”

To fact-check this statement, I decided to pull together a comprehensive (but not necessarily complete) list of Buttigieg’s work to promote racial justice and equity as the mayor of South Bend. Please note that many of these items were achieved by or in conjunction with the team members, community leaders and residents he has empowered to help build a more equitable society.

Government and Community

Appointed South Bend’s first Diversity & Inclusion Officer. This position was established to oversee the administration’s goal of advancing diversity and equal opportunity in the city’s work force and contracts. [1]

Passed an Executive Order calling on leaders to evaluate the city’s current policies and develop a plan to promote more diversity and inclusion within city government. It also codified the role of the Diversity & Inclusion Officer to oversee these city-wide diversity and inclusion initiatives. [2]

When local leaders asked for $3.5 million to renovate the Charles Black Community Center, which serves the historically black LaSalle Park neighborhood, Buttigieg managed to push through $4.5 million. [3] [4]Buttigieg was praised in a statement by the center’s director, Cynthia Taylor: “You’re gonna have to invite him in, you’re gonna have to sit him down, you’re gonna have to show him the issue,” she says. “Because he definitely will listen.” [4]

As part of the Center’s expansion, its computer lab will host the new Center for Learning, Information, Connectivity, and Knowledge (CLICK). This CLICK Center is part of an effort by the City of South Bend aimed at growing digital inclusion and helping community members gain the technology and digital literacy skills necessary to thrive in 2018 and beyond. [5]

Started South Bend Youth Task Force to foster youth involvement in government and community, help start conversations about racial divides, school biases, and other issues affecting the youth of south bend. [6]

South Bend was named one of seven High-Performing “Race-Informed” Cities in the 2018 Equipt to Innovate national survey of American cities. The designation covers cities that foster supportive environments for collective community-wide racial healing and systemic structural equity. [7]

The survey, a joint initiative by Living Cities and Governing magazine, offered high praise of South Bend’s efforts to target structural racism: “Rooted in an understanding that government at all levels has played a role in creating and maintaining racial inequity, resulting in a lack of access and opportunity for people of color in everything from education and employment to housing and healthcare, these cities seek to redress structural racism through an analysis of their own operations and make necessary changes in policy and practice.” [7]

Brought Obama’s 2016 My Brother’s Keeper alliance to South Bend, bridging city and local organizations to address opportunity gaps for boys and young men of color. [8]

Renamed one of the most prominent streets in downtown South Bend after Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, overcoming 40 years of resistance by white business owners and death threats to minority members of the naming committee. [9]

Worked with La Casa de Amistad, South Bend’s main Latino outreach center, to create an innovative, first-of-its-kind governmentally endorsed/privately run municipal identification card, in order to ensure the small city’s approximately 4,500 undocumented immigrants had access to services. With a private organization managing the card rather than the government, the city avoided a major deterrent stopping immigrants from signing up for similar municipal ID programs. [10]

Buttigieg signed an executive order requiring local services and institutions — like law enforcement, schools, the water utility and libraries — to accept the card as a valid form of identification. The city also enlisted local businesses, such as financial institutions and drugstores, so cardholders could open bank accounts and pick up prescriptions. [11]

Of the 16 city employees reporting to the mayor, all six of the staff of color and women were his appointments within his tenure as mayor. Together they comprise 37.5 percent of the mayor’s direct report staff. While this number is in line with the Equal Employment Opportunity Tabulation (a national data set used by all federal contractors to measure staff diversity) national benchmark of 36.7, and higher than the Indiana regional benchmark of 22.1 percent, the administration has stated that increasing government-wide representation of underrepresented populations continues to be an ongoing goal. [1]

During his 2015 election, he instructed his campaign team to use his re-election TV spots to help local Black leader Kareemah Fowler win her bid for City Clerk and become the first minority in St. Joseph County to seat a full-time executive office. [12] [13]

Participates in and allocates resources for events that matter to minority communities in South Bend, both fun celebrations year-round and important protests like those for Eric Logan, the hoodie march for Trayvon Martin [14], and the 2017 Women’s March [15].

Public Safety and Policing

Empowered the Office of Diversity and Inclusion to shape a comprehensive slate of officer self-awareness and training programs:

Offered or administered the Diversity Awareness Profile and the Harvard Implicit Bias Test to officers. [16]

Instituted Implicit Bias Training for South Bend’s police force. [17]

Instituted Civil Rights Training for South Bend’s police force. [18]

Instituted workshops on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. [16]

Instituted workshops on Understanding the Human Brain and Implicit Bias. [16]

Instituted workshops on Micro-aggression and Micro-affirmation. [16]

Tied the principals of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion into the Workplace Handbook. [16]

His administration worked with Police Department to ensure extensive focus on community policing, including through various measures overseen by the Office of Diversity and Inclusion:

Created “Cultural Competency” calendars. [16]

Hosted monthly “Diversity Dialogue Lunches”. [16]

Held Law Enforcement and Local Men of Color small group summits. [16]

Held neighborhood Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion workshops. [16]

Hosted Unity Summits focused on “sharing your stories”. [16]

Implemented a Job Shadowing rotation program. [16]

Noted in his 2018 state of the city address that officers conducted “7,000 foot patrols, attended 168 neighborhood meetings, and conducted ‘Coffee with a Cop’ outreach opportunities around our community.” As a result of this and other initiatives, he said, “the number of incidents leading to a use of force has gone down by a third in the last four years, and the number of investigations and complaints against police officers has fallen dramatically.” [19]

Oversaw a slate of changes to ensure accountability for officers:

The Office of Diversity and Inclusion helped design, customize, and successfully implement a new Staff Performance Evaluation system, and instituted annual departmental diversity and inclusion goals. [16]

Invested $1.5 million to equip South Bend police officers with body cameras and upgrade vehicle dash cameras, in order to ensure safety and accountability for both residents and officers. [20]

Pushed for total transparency on officer use of force, allowing residents to see what was happening and hold the department accountable. Instituted South Bend Police’s “Open Data Hub”, an online transparency database, so any resident can easily get data on crime statistics, case reports (including the number of times police had to use force when answering a call), and shows both officer complaints and compliments. The transparency hub was noted for being very advanced for a city of South Bend’s size. [21]

While all police firings and disciplinary action must be made by the civilian Board of Public Safety under Indiana law [22], Buttigieg has appointed an African-American majority (3 out of 4 positions; 1 currently vacant) in order to ensure public trust and accountability. [17]

Placed an emphasis on diversity recruitment initiatives in the police force:

Designed, customized, and successfully implemented a new Career Path Development system. [16]

Launched the “Home Grown Project”, a nomination process for local residents and particularly students of color (Phase 1 is currently underway). [16]

Made applications available online, to ease the process of applying. [23]

Publicly released all data on their diversity recruiting efforts on the front page of the SBPD website. [23] When the data suggested that minority applicants often dropped out before the physical test, the SBPD began to offer a practice physical test prior to the official test. [24]

Devoted resources and implemented programs to prevent crime from happening in the first place:

Launched the South Bend Group Violence Intervention (SBGVI) which “unites community leaders around a common goal: to stop gun violence and keep South Bend’s highest risk citizens alive and out of prison.” [25]The program aims to reduce violence by providing member of street groups avenues to succeed. Buttigieg fought to ensure continued funding and expansion of the program in the city’s 2019 budget. [26]

Adopted and implemented the Juvenile Detention Alternative Initiative (JDAI), a pilot program which works to improve lock-up conditions while vetting the types of kids needing to be detained. The model is now operating in nearly 300 counties nationwide, often dramatically reducing detention facility populations. [27]

Instituted ShotSpotter technology, a series of acoustic sensors throughout the city that allows police to pinpoint and react to gunshots almost immediately. [28]

South Bend Common Council unanimously passed the Gun Violence Prevention Resolution, which calls on federal and state lawmakers to require background checks for all gun sales and close loopholes that give certain domestic abusers easy access to guns. The vote was praised by Moms Demand Action and Everytown Survivor Network. [29]

Housing

Instituted the ‘1,000 Houses in 1,000 Days’ program to repair or demolish vacant and abandoned houses, after residents in low-income communities routinely identified vacant and abandoned houses (caused by South Bend’s population decline from 130k to 100k) as a leading health, safety, and economic problem in their neighborhoods. [30]

The program recently entered a new phase in which the city is providing free legal and financial assistance to the low-income community members who live next to the torn down homes so that they can purchase the lots and build up their own communities. [31]

Statistics have shown that criminal activity has decreased within a half mile of vacant and abandoned homes addressed by the city. [32]

It was sometimes hard to discern owners of the abandoned houses, and early on some well-meaning residents found vacant houses they were hoping to renovate slated for demolition. However, Buttigieg was praised for quickly addressing the issue. When property owned by local resident and activist Stacey Odom ended up on the demolition list, she confronted the mayor during a chance encounter on the street. He later held a series of meetings with her and others to talk about the plan, and she credits the mayor with getting her home — and 40% of other residents’ homes — removed from the list. [33]

Funded a Home Repair Pilot Program, a grant program to help low-income residents repair & keep homes. [34] Activist Stacey Odom originally asked the mayor for $300,000 for the grant program, and he countered, she said, with $650,000. Odom later said: “that’s the kind of person you want in office, someone who is looking at your best interests. And if they’re not, if you go to them and tell them what your interests are, then they will take your concerns and make them their concerns.” [35]

Empowered and funded National Service programs, including the South Bend Green Corps (an AmeriCorps program) which works with lower-income families to increase their homes’ energy efficiency, safety and comfort, and Love Your Block (a municipal partnership with Cities of Service), which provides small grants and resources to community organizations that help families with small home repairs. These programs, together with the Home Repair Pilot Program, make up a $1+ million South Bend Home Repair initiative to improve quality of life for residents with a strong emphasis on working with neighborhoods. [36]

Economic Prosperity

Started Office of Engagement & Economic Empowerment to help address South Bend’s wealth gap [37]

Commissioned the Racial Wealth Divide Initiative, a comprehensive report on South Bend’s wealth inequality, through national advocacy group Prosperity NOW. [38] [39] Dedrick Asante-Muhammad, the researcher who compiled the Prosperity Now report, praised Buttigieg’s efforts and said he was the first mayor of any city to ask him to do this. “He didn’t solve racial economic inequality,” said Asante-Muhammad, “but what city has?” [4]

Based on the results of the Racial Wealth Divide Initiative, held seminars across the community that gave neighborhood leaders the tools to identify the existing talents and skills of residents and connect them into business opportunities. [40]

Funded the West Side Small Business Resource Center, the first in a series of community centers aimed at lifting minority entrepreneurs and generating new wealth in underserved areas. [41] According to James Summers, chairman of the project: “This initiative is a truly grassroots and community-focused approach to generating new wealth through small business. The center provides unprecedented access to resources and networking, and as local businesses grow and employ neighbors, the entire community is strengthened.”

Available services at the Small Business Resource Centers will include mentoring, access to Small Business Development Center services, Small Business Administration, Small Business Innovation Research, and Small Business Technology Transfer program training and support. In addition, the center will provide professional services and encourage local business networking to identify opportunities to connect, collaborate, and create exponential growth. The center will also offer functional space for business meetings and workshops. [42]

Empowered Office of Diversity and Inclusion to ensure government contracts and purchasing targets minority- and women-owned businesses vendors within the city’s marketplace, and commissioned a study of current practices to ensure progress and accountability. [43]

Awarded a $50k CommunityWINS grant in 2018 (one of six cities) based on the partnership between Near Northwest Neighborhood and the City of South Bend to fund a minority and women contractor training program. The grant funds were used to create and operate a year-long program of training and certification for minority and women contractors in areas including business planning, contract law, insurance and bonding, lead certification, project cash flow, and other topics designed to equip small business contractors. [44]

Awarded a $50k Inclusive Procurement Grant in 2019 (one of ten cities) based on South Bend’s pursuit of innovative, effective, locally-tailored strategies to leverage public purchasing power in order to develop firms owned by people of color. Local initiatives range from implementing aggressive outreach strategies, developing procurement portals and creating an ecosystem of support services for firms owned by people of color to increase their opportunities to gain city contracts. [45]

Enlisted local financial institutions to accept the privately run municipal identification card so that cardholders could open bank accounts, removing a major barrier to financial independence faced by the city’s undocumented population. [11]

In concert with efforts to increase minority representation in city government [2], he fought to raise the minimum wage for city employees. His plan called for a raise from $7.25 to $10.10 by 2018, but he was able to accelerate the schedule to accomplish it by 2016. [46]

While these efforts have been extensive, they aim to tackle complex problems and often require efforts far beyond the reach of city government. South Bend has made some huge strides, yet, like every city, it clearly still has a long way to go. But the main thing I would argue this list shows is how deeply its Mayor, government, and community care about finding solutions.

1) Viewpoint: City taking steps to build diversity

2) Mayor Pete Buttigieg’s executive order on diversity and inclusion in South Bend city gov’t

3) Charles Black Community Center unveiled Thursday, community reflects on legacy and future

4) Mayor Pete Buttigieg’s Unlikely, Untested, Unprecedented Presidential Campaign

5) Charles Black Recreation Center Re-opens After $4.4 Million Renovation

6) South Bend mayor starts Youth Task Force

7) South Bend named high-performing “race-informed” city

8) South Bend sees success in young boys, men of color through ‘My Brother’s Keeper’ alliance

9) What Would Black America Be Like Under President Pete? Ask South Bend

10) South Bend ID cards aim to ease life for undocumented immigrants

11) Buttigieg’s big accomplishment that he never mentions on the campaign trail

12) Tweet from Kareemah Fowler

13) City Clerk: Spread the message of diversity during Black History Month

14) Pete Buttigieg speaks at the March 2012 Million Hoodie March in honor of Trayvon Martin

15) Photo of Pete Buttigieg at the National Women’s March in 2017

16) Christina Brooks, director of Diversity and Inclusion, shares a list of active initiatives and programs her department is overseeing at the police department

17) What Mayor Pete Couldn’t Fix About the South Bend Cops

18) Q&A with Mayor Pete Buttigieg about his plans for communities of color

19) Mayor Pete Buttigieg’s 2018 State of the City address

20) Officers in South Bend are getting new body cameras and car cameras

21) South Bend launches new data hub with crime stats

22) Indiana Code 36–8–3–4. Police officers and firefighters; discipline, demotion, and dismissal; hearings; appeals; administrative leave

23) City leaders: Lack of diversity plaguing South Bend Police Department

24) Our Opinion: Recruiting minority police officers must remain a priority for South Bend

25) South Bend Group Violence Intervention

26) Proposed city budget leaving room from group violence intervention

27) St. Joseph County youth detention alternative gets grant

28) ShotSpotter: South Bend Police say technology helping ‘solve crime’

29) Gun Violence Survivor, Indiana Moms Demand Action Applaud South Bend Common Council for Unanimously Passing Gun Violence Prevention Resolution

30) South Bend’s Vacant and Abandoned Housing Challenge: 1,000 Houses in 1,000 Days

31) Vacant Property Initiative Resident Legal Assistance Program

32) Crime decreases with 1,000 homes in 1,000 days project

33) Pete Buttigieg pushed an aggressive plan to revitalize South Bend. Not everyone felt its benefits.

34) Home Repair Pilot Program to fund about 65 home improvements

35) Pete Buttigieg says he’s mayor of a turnaround city. Here’s how that claim stands up.

36) South Bend officials highlight home repair programs

37) South Bend to keep fighting for the best future for the next generation

38) South Bend community group to host meeting about racial wealth divide

39) ProsperityNOW Report: Racial Wealth Divide in South Bend

40) South Bend project hopes to grow small businesses and target racial wealth divide

41) New business center in South Bend aims to lift minority entrepreneurs

42) City of South Bend opens West Side Small Business Resource Center

43) Breaking down South Bend’s Diversity Purchasing Report

44) Buttigieg, Near Northwest Neighborhood, Inc. to celebrate CommunityWINS Grant

45) South Bend Receives $50k Inclusive Procurement Grant

46) Buttigieg proposes accelerated minimum wage increase for city employees

Note: Inspiration and a starting point for this research came from this twitter thread from Nicole Lockney and this twitter thread from RomancePete.

“That’s the kind of person you want in office, someone who is looking at your best interests. And if they’re not, if you go to them and tell them what your interests are, then they will take your concerns and make them their concerns.”

#Pete Buttigieg #Pete For America #South Bend #petepals #petepetepete2020

[rumandtimes]

Halloween Reviews — 2001: A Space Odyssey

Ségolène Sorokina

Assoc. Fiction Editor

A visual tapestry and musical opera, but devoid of interesting characters or a mature story structure.

Heather Downham (as Miss Simmons) in the Opening Scene of Act II in “2001: A Space Odyssey”

This is a film that fits into every director’s, film student’s, and every critic’s education of the film medium. It is a prerequisite on the syllabus of every curriculum for movie makers. 2001: A Space Odyssey was one of the most influential works of science-fiction and cinema to come out of the Cold War period, yet it would be entirely wrong to call it a movie. In fact, it is a terrible movie — but it is a remarkable film.

Because every film studies wonk and their mother has an opinion on the film, I will be brief and remain true to the purpose of reviewing it, not lavishing over it. That is to say, I don’t give a flying hoodah what the “deeper meaning” or “wider vision” of 2001: A Space Odyssey is interpreted to be by bandwagon film critics who are too afraid to feel like they’re missing out on the punchline to be honest and objective about the Clarke’s and Kubrick’s failings.

A movie is not meant to be something that has to be discussed afterwards. A movie is not something that requires the viewer to read the book, or take a class to understand. A movie is not something that forces people to sit through 85 minutes of dead air, offering no explanation, and is entirely devoid of any scintilla, any semblance, of a storyline, character arc, or plot.

Containing horror elements, “2001” fits closely enough into the Halloween line-up of reviews, as (#5), if not only because of its inspiration on other horror genre motion pictures.

Quite frankly, 2001: A Space Odyssey is boring as hell. And it is a horrible movie. To give an illustration of how empty the film “2001” is, the original script had about 17,000 words in it. Most of this is description of the sci-fi elements and screen directions. In the end, the film had about 5,000 words of dialogue in it, total. That comes down to about 20 minutes of speech. . . The movie is 139 minutes long.

The film’s defenders are quick to claim that its emptiness and barren quality are an allegory for the emptiness of space. They never seen to stop for a moment however, perhaps in one of the film’s 30-minute long stretches of drawn out ‘alternative’ content, to consider why the film needs such a defence. People do not like it. Quite plainly, it is a bad movie. Defining why it is bad, using words like “allegory,” “metaphor,” and “artistic vision” doesn’t change the fact that it is unwatchable, it just explains how a production crew could look at 5 minutes of black screen in a major motion picture and think to themselves, “The audience will understand why they spent 5 minutes of their life looking at a dead screen. Because it says something about what it means to watch, blah, blah, blah.”

This movie is a film critic’s movie. It gives people plenty to analyse. And it has exceptional cinematography. For a film maker, it’s easy to see why the writers and directors did what they did, and how good it turned out — especially for an audience in the heat of the Cold War-era Space Race, who had quite literally never seen anything like it before. The long, operatic sequences probably mean a great deal to people who were born in the 1950’s and for them 2001: A Space Odyssey was Kubrick putting the last half-century on the silver screen, in colour film, for the first time.

Cinematically, it is exceptional at what it is and what it wants to do. But as a movie — and just a movie — it is quite poor. The entire plot of the film is that all-powerful aliens have been observing life on Earth since before life humanity came into existence, and during the Space Age people discover one of their relics, which leads to the capture of one human being in Jupiter’s orbit, who is killed and reborn as an alien himself. . . That’s it.

What the hell that has to do with the elementary notions of a beginning, middle, and end — a rising conflict, a climax, and a resolution — is anyone’s guess. There is no plot to speak of. Kubrick himself said the picture was more of an exploration of different concepts than a straight forward story. When I watch a film, I’m kind of looking for a storyline; That’s the whole point. A movie is not an art gallery of stills and frames juxtaposed together through editing, it is a cohesive and contained world onto itself: A story.

A movie is a casual experience, not a class requirement or a way to coerce the viewer into writing some kind of thesis. A viewer needs a reason to watch a film, and not because other people watch it or because it’s a cultural phenomenon. In this way, 2001: A Space Odyssey is no different than a trashy boyband, since they both have merits to justify their fame, but only get continued fame and discussion as a previous result of existing acclaim. But that is not enough to idolise a failed film. Reading Stanley Kubrick’s name on the playbill is not enough. Staring at Heather Downham’s ass is not enough.

This film does not deserve to use the title “Odyssey” at all, not more than some cheap gladiator flic would, because the Odyssey had a clear progression of characters, and themes, and resolutions which Homer was capable of creating over a long oracle tradition, and which Clarke and Kubrick fumble to represent on-screen. They should have stuck to long, narrative fiction, because whatever “2001” is trying to be — and even it doesn’t know — this doesn’t work as a movie. The film is polished on the surface, but entirely experimental, and therefore superficial, but above all boring, dull, and dragging on too long.

And nothing in that plot is ground-breaking or new at all. The visuals might be first-of-their-kind on big-budget films, but the ideas of aliens, aliens linked with the Cold War, and computers being evil are old and hackneyed ones. Anyone deluded enough to unwavering call the directors ahead of their time need only to look at the abysmal depiction of women in the film: Pink-wearing, skin-tight, ass-in-the air stewardesses and receptionists, completely subservient to male control and design. Perhaps the film is making a statement that Russian women are liberated and American women are oppressed, yet even the female Soviet scientists do not speak for themselves, but elect the singular male doctor to ask the difficult questions of Floyd instead.

Consider Star Trek, which was released 10 years after 2001: A Space Odyssey, and draws heavily from it, yet Star Trek is also capable of making social commentary. Unfortunately, Star Trek as well, for all its preachings about ascending beyond economic struggles and societal biases, still echoes them. Star Trek shifts the focus from societal bias of the system to implicit bias of the individual, which is a human trait that follows the theme into the future, creating the conflict of the franchise, yet the franchise also has a serious problem with the depiction of women all the way from the Original Series, through the Picard saga, and into the later sequels and spin-offs like Voyager, and current reboots. There’s a major difference between being a liberated woman who still has needs, and being an intergalactic sex toy. Most of my friends are sex-crazed lunatics, but that doesn’t mean they don’t choose to be, and it doesn’t mean they view themselves as second to men or their actions to benefit men generally at all, just as a man chasing several women is hardly doing it for their benefit.

The social commentary is absent in “2001.” The purpose of this might be to make the point by ‘feeling’ rather than telling, but the problem of gently nudging people in a pompous way to feel something instead of sincerely telling them directly is that people will interpret things as they want, and are very resistant to change. If a viewer thinks that lying to Russians because their foreigners is okay to do, then watching Kubrick make a passive aggressive statement about how duplicity can backfire is not going to change their minds — it will only embolden those who disagree with him more, and for those who already agree with him he’s just preaching to the choir. And if someone did take away the wrong message, who’s to say it’s the wrong message anyway, if it’s all “open to interpretation,” ie. an evasion by the writers from making their true feelings known.

And as a small note, the Russian dialogue in the film is horrible. The actors have poor pronunciation, the words they are speaking are incorrect, and the grammatical structure was erroneous. Clarke, Kubrick, and MGM had $10 Million Dollars, and the time to film 30-minutes of people running around in ape suits fighting pig puppets, but they couldn’t do a simple grammar check? They couldn’t cast a single Russian actor?! The four Russians are played by: Leonard Rossiter, French-English, British; Margaret Tyzack, German-English, British; Maya Koumani, Greek-English, British; Krystyna Marr, Polish-German, American.

These tropes were used in different ways, such as not seeing an alien until the very end, and after being pioneered by Kubrick became easy fodder for space movies and the science fiction genre to copy, but don’t actually have any deeper substance. It is a well known fact that Stanley Kubrick did not like the Cold War, so people going into drawn out arguments for why the first 25 minutes of the film was literally thrown away just to make some esoteric statement about how backward and barbaric the Cold War was, are really just gluttons for punishing themselves and inflicting that bias on others.

A fourth (25%) of the runtime of a 2-hour long movie, the first 25 minutes, is completely unwatchable, AND, frustratingly so, it has absolutely nothing to do with the remaining 115 minutes of the film. How in the hell the editors did not cut this garbage out of the movie for its major release debut is incomprehensible. Pulling this kind of raw poor taste is exactly the kind of thing that gives a bad name to ‘artistic freedom.’

The only semblance of a plot is the part everyone thinks about when they think of 2001: A Space Odyssey, the deep space voyage with the supercomputer HAL-9000, pronounced initially as “H.-A.-L.-Niner-Zero-Zero-Zero,” then later, obviously just as “Hal Nine Thousand.”

This minor sequence in the movie saves the film, as far as popular culture and the average person are concerned. HAL-9000 is a perfect and incorruptible machine, tasked with guiding the mission to Jupiter, along with a two-man crew, and payload of three cryo-sleep scientists.

Immediately to the audience, it seems like a stupid idea. Why would anyone go to a gas planet like Jupiter? Why would the AI be put in charge of everything? Why is half the crew in hibernation? All these questions added together make a catastrophe inevitable. HAL mentions as much to one of the crew members himself, asking him if he, too, thought the mission was “odd.” It is explained later that the reason for all these difficulties are the result of a specific miscalculation by the American command structure back on Earth.

HAL tells the crew that communications will fail in 72 hours, but he does not know why, and he never gives an explanation for why he knows this in the film. The crew check that nothing is wrong, and phone NASA (or its fictional equivalent), and NASA tells them HAL is malfunctioning. It is possible that NASA is lying to the crew, or it is possible that HAL got something wrong.

Because HAL was designed to be a perfect robot, this possible malfunction worries the crew, who conspire in secrecy to destroy HAL and take control of the ship. HAL, in true machine fashion, wastes no time in shooting one of the crew out into space, and as his crewmate goes to retrieve the body, HAL kills the rest of the crew and locks him out.

At this point, HAL appears to be acting irrationally and emotionally like a human would. After the last surviving crew member kills HAL, he finds out that the reason HAL killed the crew is because he was programmed by the Americans that under no circumstances whatsoever is he to be shut off.

So what appeared to be self-preservation was actually just the mechanical process of fulfilling his commands. What makes HAL a complex character is that his human caretakers take care of and are taken care of by him. HAL is in total control of the ship, but only because the humans told him to be, as the crew waste their days away drawing sketches, and playing chess, and watching videos. The audience is left to wonder if decommissioning HAL is any different from killing a servant who has gotten sick and is therefore no longer of any use.

When HAL discovers the crew’s plot to take over the ship, HAL is aware that the crew want to ensure they make it to Jupiter and fear HAL would get in the way of that. HAL, however, is also aware that the USAA or NASA or whatever wanted HAL to give the crew a secret message about the aliens after reaching Jupiter. HAL is put in a difficult position, because he believes it is important to get the crew to Jupiter to deliver the message to them, but it is also important to keep the message from them and stay in absolute control of the ship until they get there.

HAL at this point has a logic break and malfunctions, killing the crew, and thereby inadvertently destroying the mission he was acting to protect. When Bowman resets HAL’s memory banks, HAL admits to Bowman that he knows he malfunctioned in killing the crew, and tells him that he/it is afraid to die. This leaves the audience to interpret whether HAL is lying to stop himself getting shut off, so he can compete the mission himself with no crew, or if HAL genuinely broke down and malfunctioned when he murdered the hibernating crew members because he was afraid that the crew would destroy him after the found out what he had done.

There is also something to be said about the fact that Bowman risked his life to retrieve Poole’s dead body, but after it becomes an impediment that threatens his own life, he throws it back out into dead space. It is in this moment that Bowman becomes a dead man himself, since HAL has killed everyone else and damaged the ship for human habitation, making a return trip impossible even if HAL is defeated.

HAL is known to lie to the crew, but it could be influenced by self-preservation and dilemmas, causing something called confusion. But then again, HAL is programmed to lie, so to HAL lying would be a form of truth, because it was told that doing the wrong thing was the right thing, for a greater purpose. And yet, again, HAL cruelly murders the crew when he could have left them frozen, even if it was necessary for it to kill Poole and Bowman, which is as much malfunctional as it is emotional.

HAL-9000 is the strong point of the entire movie. But that being said, HAL does not have a character arch, since HAL never changes over the entire course of the film. The crew only learns about HAL’s motives after they kill him, and despite HAL acting irrationally and inexplicably several times, the movie gives a superficial explanation that HAL has human-interface protocols built-in to sound more palatable to users, nullifying the question of HAL’s possible growth.

HAL did everything it did because humans told it to. Not once did HAL contravene the human directive in it’s own interest. The tragedy of the HAL character is a misinterpretation and accident of logical data. Additionally, the single most important point of HAL’s character — that it doesn’t make mistakes — is severely undercut when HAL makes three mistakes: incorrectly predicting the communicator would break when it didn’t, killing the crew thus undermining the mission, and ultimately being unable to stop itself being erased by Bowman. Part of that discrepancy has to come down to poor writing.

The idea of HAL is great writing. HAL is not a human character, and it’s the robot’s distinct lack of humanity that makes it the most human character of the film.

Bowman, Poole, and Floyd are not characters. They believe nothing, they say nothing, they do nothing. The audience feels nothing for them. When HAL threw Poole out of the spaceship, careening into space, I burst out laughing because of how absurd the image of him getting comically, cosmically tossed out of the veritable window was. When Bowman sees this, he doesn’t even react, but robotically and emotionlessly asks HAL what went wrong, and HAL lies to him by telling him it doesn’t have enough information to know.

After the HAL storyline ends, Bowman receives a transmission that reveals to him that HAL was given a message to lock down the crew and control the ship because the U.S. Government wanted to keep the aliens a secret, even from their own crew who ultimately died because of the mistake. The original script has Bowman re-establish contact with America (I say “America” and not “Earth” because the film makes clear that the U.S. is not cooperating with other countries), and NASA sends him the message. That is cut in the final film, with Bowman just discovering the message, either because HAL gave it to Bowman as a final act of protecting the mission, or much more likely that HAL being deleted removed a barrier from accessing the message. This further makes the point of why HAL could not allow the crew to ‘unplug’ it, since guarding the message was HAL’s personal mission.

The HAL chapter is marred with long pauses, like waiting literal minutes for the stupid space popcorn balls to turn around and move back and forth, or watching Bowman stare silently into a screen. Many people like the music, but the music usage is paradoxical. Since space is silent, to use ballads of music is just as much a choice as to use dialogue — music is no more “pure” or “non-human” than speech is — and watching entire scores of music play out of a static backdrop would be interesting at the live orchestra, but this is a stereo recording underplaying a film, so it hardly has the same effect. This is a limit, and choice to pursue that limit, which was weak on the part of the writers. A soundtrack is not supposed to take centre stage; people can buy the CD later, but they want to see the movie now.

The movie makes the decision to skip over the rest of the journey to Jupiter, cut out all the dialogue and character exploration between Bowman and NASA, and jumps right to the end of the movie — a twenty-minute-long session of meaningless strobe lights.

All the storyline and extra HAL content that could have been included, and they made the decision to, again, burn the whole film continuity down as a middle finger to the audience and the producers — to balk conventional ‘expectation.’ It is a horrible choice. The writers said they wanted to create something alien and never imagined before about what a different world would be like. They said they had some difficulty translating the idea: And they decided on rainbow lights and lava lamps. Twenty. Straight. Uninterrupted. Minutes of it.

This is made even more BS that the directors put a title card right in the middle of the HAL sequence, in front of this, called “Intermission.” Is this what audiences were returning for? One unhappy movie-goers said, “People call this movie genius: There are 5 minutes of black screen in the film. No music. No picture. Just an empty frame of dead air. How genius can that be? Is my turned-off television screen also a genius of cinema? Is a blank piece of paper now some artistic statement? The last half hour of the movie is flashing light in people’s faces for 30 minutes, with no dialogue. A complete bore and an insult. One of the most overrated films in history.”

Skipping over about an hour of rubbish in the film, it starts to become compelling. There probably exists a fan edit out there somewhere that recut the film, trimming it down to 45 minutes. The monkey scene — “Dawn of Man” — could be 2 minutes. (As a side point, it shoud be pointed out that humans are not descended from chimpanzees, but that chimpanzees and humans share a common origin, much like whales and elephants do.) The space stewardesses fumbling to walk and carrying lunch trays can go. Floyd’s daughter plays no role whatsoever. Floyd can meet the Soviets, talk about the virus, then give the Moon presentation about the virus being a cover story, and then they go to the alien artifact, and then it cuts to HAL-9000. After HAL dies, there is a 60-second sequence of ‘light gates’ to convey the ship was abducted, and then the screen fades to black. The End. What happens? Who knows. Not much different from the original.

I’ve read some of the commentary on this film, such as by Roger Ebert (or Robert Egert, or whatever his name is) and the always come off as snobs and pricks, even suggesting audiences should requires some minimum score on an entrance exam to see the movie in theatres. That is exactly the problem with 2001: A Space Odyssey, snobbery. The snobbish idea that it means something more when it needs to, and that it doesn’t when it doesn’t need to. There is a reason people find it “annoying. . . confusing. . . infuriating. . . frustrating. . . crazy. . . unwatchable.” These are not people who hate movies or Kubrick, these are the same people who like the HAL story and the Moon voyage parts. But a movie, even about aliens, cannot be alien itself. The movie is supposed to be the viewer’s friend, and guide the viewer through the experience of the alien and the unknown. Alienating the audience is counterproductive in every measure.

Everyone — every single person you ask — calls 2001: A Space Odyssey a work of “art.” Art. Not movie, art. Not entertaining, art. Not good work, but good art. Well, just what the hell is art? I don’t want obstinate art, I want a good film. I’ve seen films that are artistic and compelling. I’ve seen films that are interesting but shallow. A Bruce Lee movie doesn’t have much in the way of plot, but you get to see Bruce Lee do some real-life kung fu and amazing stunts, and it’s still fun. But “2001” more subtle and ‘lava-lampy,’ so much so it is impossible to get lost into the experience without becoming aware of yourself at certain moments and wanting to either turn the show off, or just suffer through it because everyone else seemed to. Film critics might get paid to watch 10 minutes of dead air, but the directors don’t have the right to waste people’s time. At the end of the day, 2001: A Space Odyssey isn’t really intellectual at all; Anyone who’s actually interested in learning something or seeing something new would be better off going to the bookshop or a city gallery, this is still just a movie, and no one can claim they are smart for just sitting there and passively consuming a piece of popular media, not even haughty sci-fi fans. There is a difference between watching a science-fiction movie and being a real scientist!

Film snobs and fusty critics who rewatch the damn thing 10-times don’t get to just designate the whole package as good. Maybe the reason such contrarians like the film is just because so many people don’t, and they feel cultured or superior for pretending they’re ‘in on’ the experience. The movie has some high points and innovative structures, but fails as a cohesive unit. It’s a meticulously crafted bomb. Anyone studying the film has to focus on the camera angles, the underlying themes, and the audience reception more than the plot — because there is no plot.

This is a film which, if you like esoteric and avant-garde, you can watch this film and then spend the rest of your time reading the book and the script notes and the celebratory review articles and the academic theses and watching the director and cast interviews, to actually understand what the hell is going on. That is certainly its own kind of experience, but it is not a movie experience. That is to say, it’s not fun.

If you want to watch a good movie, skip over everything except the HAL arch, watch a 3-minute synopsis on what you missed over the other 90 minutes, and then move on with your life doing more important things, or watching better movies. Even Kubrick’s other movies are drawn-out and slow, but at least they have established characters and a point, as well as a clandestine “moral of the story” under the surface. If that seems like to much of a hassle, just give 2001: A Space Odyssey a hard pass; it’s not worth seeing. This is one of those trailblazing films where the innumerable imitators actually picked up the gauntlet, evolved the themes, and did it better.

Overall Score: 2 out of 5

#Review #2001: A Space Odyssey #Film Criticism #Science Fiction #Cinematography

[theamazingsallyhogan]

In the months since I’ve started watching it, My Hero Academia has quickly become my favorite battle shonen series. It’s not particularly mold-breaking; it uses the same genre tropes as most other series of its ilk. Its main strength is that it brings the genre’s strengths to the forefront, with a supremely likable ensemble cast and exciting battles, while leaving behind many of the genre’s typical weaknesses. One of battle shonen’s greatest struggles has long been how to incorporate its female characters, and My Hero Academia handles the situation with rare grace and aplomb. However, no work of art is free of biases, and while My Hero Academia avoids many issues associated with the genre, there are still many sexist biases deeply encoded in the series.

“Battle shonen” refers to the subgenre of action-driven manga aimed at boys that focus on battles between characters, as the name implies, and are structured around arcs with the series’ overarching goal being only vaguely defined, if at all. They’re dominated by a number of conventions the audience have come to expect, such as a young male protagonist with a core group of friends, a rival, tournament and training arcs, and a series of increasingly powerful villains. Popular battle shonen like Naruto, One Piece, Bleach, and Fairy Tale can run for decades. My Hero Academia is a relatively new entry to the genre, drawing much of its inspiration from Western superhero narratives and synthesizing that with the typical ideas of the genre.

These series have long tended to struggle with what to do with their female characters. They are often introduced early in the series, when the protagonist has yet to set themselves apart from the pack, and become part of the core cast. However, as the male protagonist gets more and more powerful, the girls on their team often lag behind them in ways that the boys don’t. They become relegated to healers or support duties, but rarely get the spotlight in battle. They get designated female enemies to fight against, before they are neatly removed from the conflict. They become damsels for the boys to rescue. On the rare occasions that women are powerful fighters or mentors, they are often sexualized to the point of disrespect.

My Hero Academia neatly sidesteps most of these issues by treating its female characters as interesting, integral members of the ensemble cast. They have varied, likable personalities and appearances, with useful quirks that make them valuable contributors to the team both in and out of battle. No one embodies this more than Ochaco Uraraka, Izuku’s cheerful friend with the ability to make things float. She’s a clear choice for the love interest – a friendly girl-next-door type who meets Izuku by using her quirk to prevent him from tripping and falling on the day of the entrance exam – and he does indeed develop a crush on her. Despite his feelings, friendship defines their relationship, rather than attraction, and they thus far remain close but platonic. His crush on her is so secondary to their camaraderie that it’s easy to forget that it even exists. Such relationships between male and female characters are rare in any genre, but I honestly can’t remember last time I saw it in a battle shonen series; they tend to be mentor-student or focused mainly on romantic feelings. Rather than treating her as a means to an end or an object of Izuku’s affection, mangaka Horikoshi writes Ochaco as a person first, with same amount of interiority and individuality as any of the male characters.

The aniblogger sphere has heaped praise on the episode “Bakugo vs. Uraraka” for its approach to pitting Ochaco against Katsuki Bakugo, Izuku’s longtime rival, and for good reason. Bakugo, whose quirk allows him to combust his sweat made of nitroglycerin, is one of the most powerful and dangerous competitors in their school’s sports festival tournament. Izuku tries to help Ochaco by coming up with a strategy for her to fight him, worried that she’ll be immediately and thoroughly beaten by the volatile Bakugo. She enters the ring with a quavering smile that fails to cover up her nervousness. Once the fight gets going, it becomes clear that she never needed Izuku’s help; she develops her own strategy based around getting Bakugo to blow up the ground and making the rubble float above his head, crashing down at a key moment. She’s a bright girl who has been using her quirk for close to a decade; she is perfectly capable of coming up with her own strategy.

It seems possible that Horikoshi scripted this fight specifically to call out the sexism endemic to the genre. As the fight continues and Ochaco takes explosion after explosion, the onlookers jeer at Bakugo, angry at him for “picking on” her and imploring her to send her out of bounds. Ochaco is cute and harmless-looking, causing them to perceive her as less capable. Their teacher Aizawa jumps onto the mic, calling them out: “Was that a pro saying he’s playing around? How many years have you been a pro? If you’re saying that with a straight face, there’s no point in you watching anymore, so go home! Go home, and look into changing careers! Bakugo is being careful because he’s acknowledged the strength of an opponent who has made it this far. It’s because he’s doing everything he can to win that he can’t go easy on her or let his guard down.” Ochaco may be cute and lacking in raw physical power, but she has made it this far on her own strength; the audience asking him to knock her out because they’re uncomfortable seeing her fighting all-out against a clearly powerful male opponent is selfish and disrespectful, on top of making assumptions and not taking her seriously. Aizawa points out their implicit biases, that they assume she is not a worthy opponent because she is female, and this particular bias rears its ugly head over and over in battle shonen as the female characters are relegated to the sidelines. Even after the fight, their classmates tease Bakugo for looking like a villain beating up on a frail girl – it’s still an uphill battle for female fighters to be taken as seriously as male ones.

It’s not hard to see why the characters would assume girls are weaker; there’s plenty of in-universe evidence to uphold that. Thus far, we’ve only met four female professional heroes: the elderly healer Recovery Girl, Mount Lady, Uwabami, and Midnight, compared to about a dozen male professionals. In the Unforeseen Simulation Joint, not a single villain is female. Even in Class 1-A, under ⅓ of the students are female. In early planning stages, it was only four; two of them, Tohru and Tsuyu, were originally planned to be male. He changed them to make the gender balance more even, but that did not come close to fixing the problem. The rest of the school appears to suffer from the same imbalance. It’s an oft-quoted statistic that men perceive groups as majority-female once more than ⅓ are women, and My Hero Academia perpetuates that issue.

My Hero Academia has a relatively low level of fan service for the genre, especially compared to series like One Piece and Fairy Tail, which delight in regularly displaying the mostly-naked bodies of their female cast. The aforementioned Mount Lady and Midnight are both highly fetishized; Mount Lady, a literal giantess, introduces herself with a coy, “Nice to make your ass-quaintance!” and Midnight bases her whole aesthetic around sadomasochism, with the epithet “The R-Rated Hero” and a flog whip as a weapon. Uwabami makes her much of her living as a TV celebrity and hires her female interns on the basis of their looks. While the students of Hero Academy are quite realistically proportioned, those two are very busty with costumes that highlight their curves. Class A’s Mineta is particularly an affront, so much so that hating him has become a meme on social media. He routinely attempts touch or peep on his classmates without their consent. While the girls may retaliate, especially Tsuyu, these moments are played off as jokes. When he tricks the girls into dressing in cheerleader uniforms, they become angry, but they continue to wear them anyway, to the delight of the boys in the class.

A look through the series’ supplementary material reveals more of Horikoshi’s biases. Each character receives ratings in five different areas, including power, speed, technique, intelligence, and cooperation. Across the board, the girls of Class 1-A have low ratings in power, with an average of only 1.83 out of five, and high ratings in cooperation. While the female cast is truly a delight and I enjoy how they’ve worked together in risky situations, I’d love to see a female character as ornery and temperamental as Bakugo. Instead, this continues to prop up the stereotype that women are naturally better at working together than men, and that they must be sweet and gregarious. In a universe where the majority of people have supernatural powers, there is no reason for a lack of physical strength among the female cast as well. Many of the male characters’ quirks are so powerful we never see them throw a punch, including Todoroki, one of Izuku’s chief rivals. Even if you buy into the idea that women simply lack the physical strength of men, it would be simple for a girl to have a power that strong in combat.

These criticisms are not meant as an indictment of Horikoshi or My Hero Academia; everyone has biases they subconsciously insert into their work. “Bakugo vs. Uraraka” demonstrates a level of awareness that most battle shonen lack in addition to an effort to improve how girls are portrayed in these kinds of stories. Coexisting with the issues discussed above doesn’t make Horikoshi a hypocrite, nor should it necessarily reduce anyone’s enjoyment and excitement all the show’s myriad strengths.

My Hero Academia is a delightful series, and it has merited much of the praise it has received. However, that does not mean it’s immune to criticism or doesn’t have its own unconscious biases encoded in it. Weekly Shonen Jump’s readership is almost at parity; while it may be aimed primarily at boys, its writers and editors should still be aware of the female readers and takes steps toward inclusiveness. My Hero Academia is so close, but we should not simply ignore or excuse its shortcomings.

As someone that hasn’t gotten terribly far into this series (running since 2014), I’m curious what people that have gotten further think.

So far, I’m less forgiving than the author of this piece.  Horikoshi created a world where the majority of the overall population have superpowers, but the superhero population is almost entirely male. It’s Deku’s story so obviously he gets the spotlight, but there’s a huge gulf between the male and female supporting cast. When All-Might needed a rescue (against an all-male group of assassins), it was the boy students that rushed to his side. Fukigkage dispatched of Momo (supposedly the top-scoring female student) and Mina with casual ease.  There’s regular speeches about things like the “fiery passion of youth” and “fated rivalries” directed just toward the boys.  I mean, I’ve seen “battle shounen” treat girls worse, but something so basic shouldn’t get graded on a curve.  Does it get better? 

#boku no hero academia #My Hero Academia #BNHA #Long Post #Representation

[davidfurlongtheatre]

David Furlong, Artistic Director of Exchange Theatre has experienced his fair share of discrimination as a Mauritian born man, but, as he explains here, in order for his company to grow, he had his own to confront.

After the assassination of George Floyd last year, there’s been a lot of focus on the notion of biases. As a father, I was wondering how best to explain what is a very nuanced, yet fundamental idea in how our society is shaped, to my daughter. I wanted to give her the tools necessary not just to grow up anti-racist but to think actively about intolerance, xenophobia, racism and – most of all – systemic injustice. 

At the time of Floyd’s murder, I was getting involved with Migrants in Theatre, a movement made up of first-generation migrant theatre artists who joined efforts to campaign for more and better representation in British theatre. In our founding conversations, we had to very closely examine the xenophobia and racism that we’d all experienced, as well as consider that some people could never begin to understand it.

It forced me to look at the basic definition of bias: 

It is a result of something natural, a sort of mental knee-jerk which is triggered to make quick protective decisions – sometimes for the better (run away from a tiger), and sometimes for the worse (take me for a waiter because I’m a brown man). It is in most cases unconscious, but deeply embedded like a conviction, an implicit belief, which could be towards anything. It’s a thought. 

It precedes stereotypes which are more explicit over-simplifications towards groups or individuals. It precedes prejudice, which is a fully-formed idea/feeling and it results in discrimination: thoughts or actions which can be advantageous or disadvantageous for individuals or groups, generally by unfair treatment of categories of people. 

Discrimination, in turn, is a judiciable notion, considered by the international UN court, which condemns any distinction, exclusion, restriction or preference based on race, colour, sex, gender, sexuality, language, religion, political opinion, national origins, class, fortune.

Biases are not judiciable and we all have bias, negative or positive, affecting the way we see the world. No matter how open-minded, socially conscious, or anti-racist I think I am, I still have old, learned hidden biases that I need to examine, whatever my origin. Moreover, bias can be reinforced unconsciously through contextual life: families, media, environment, historical narrative, language, habits, social structures, political discourse. This is what makes them difficult to identify and become more aware of. They can prevent us from understanding someone else’s potential or point of view, and they can be dangerous and aggressive: “I cross the street when passing a group of coloured men, or polish workers.”

These thoughts shape our reaction to the world and more often than blatant racist, sexist, anti-Semitic, aggressions – micro biased aggressions are somehow daily and benign. Some are even culturally perceived as funny: “Blacks can move better”, “Asians are good at maths”, “Real men aren’t sensitive/don’t cry” etc.

These wrong assumptions are not justiciable bias, but they create wrong behaviours and systemic limitations. And in my personal life as well as in my company Exchange Theatre, I wanted to come up with a clarity of distinction, and tools to put in how we work. 

The process began introspectively, looking at our own history as a company of foreign-born artists in the UK – Exchange Theatre have experienced biases and xenophobia throughout the whole of our fifteen years as a company.

The whole existence of Exchange Theatre is the result of not being offered work as actors at the time. We had accents, we had different training, a different culture. But as migrants, we tried to fit in, we were always very obedient, nice and polite even when we were treated unfairly or patronised. However, there are some traumatic experiences that we’ve tried to forget: one time a theatre manager shouted “ENGLISH!” at us on stage before opening the doors of his venue (that we had hired). No questions asked. When we proudly moved in our own rehearsal space for the first time, we threw a small quiet cocktail party for the opening, put a note out to the neighbours, one of them walked in uninvited, and when I told him we were theatre producers having a little celebration, he shouted, “NO, YOU’RE NOT!” No questions asked.

When you’re younger, you think that there’s only something wrong with ‘these people’ using the same generalisation they make about you, but you don’t see the underlying xenophobia – or you just block it out to prevent it from impairing your determination to be assimilated. Now that we have the tools to recognise when something wrong like this happens, I wish I could have flagged it sooner. I think it’s a bit sad to say that the way Exchange Theatre operates a policy of kindness, care and listening, comes from us just being treated with prejudice. 

To create these tools, to understand and start opening the conversations about change, we had to look at our own biases first. Because although I share experiences of racism, I acknowledge my own share of privilege, and blinders – for instance we only made a conscious choice in 2016 to change how we cast/recruit. Before then, we also made some mistakes in unimaginative casting or tokenist representation.

It is everyone’s responsibility to check ourselves for our stereotypes, prejudice and discriminations, so that it doesn’t remain unconscious. Try listing how you cast and represented some characters and some professions in the past. Did you ever enforce a stereotype or generalisation? What part could have actually been played by different people? How were your casting and creative call-outs formulaic? Are you feeling defensive about any of it?

The tools for change are these questions, for ourselves and subsequently for the audience, through our work. Of course, these questions need time, nuance, attention to detail and to be unafraid to consider our own actions, and what we might find. This is what I had to do as a parent and as an artistic director this year. And this is what we do at Exchange Theatre to contribute to change.

[khalilhumam]

The labor market doesn’t have a ‘skills gap’—it has an opportunity gap

New Post has been published on http://khalilhumam.com/the-labor-market-doesnt-have-a-skills-gap-it-has-an-opportunity-gap/

The labor market doesn’t have a ‘skills gap’—it has an opportunity gap

By Annelies Goger, Luther Jackson As the United States reels from the COVID-19 pandemic’s catastrophic economic damage, the tight labor markets from early 2020 seem like a distant memory. The country had 11.5 million fewer jobs this August than in February, but, paradoxically, many business leaders continue to center the problem with labor markets on “unqualified” individuals without the right skills. “The COVID-19 economic shock has made the skills gap broader and the need to close it more urgent,” the World Economic Forum recently said. This narrative frames labor market problems through a deficit lens: Low-income and displaced workers “lack” skills and motivation, contributing to the national skills gap. To solve it, the thinking goes, an individual can simply learn some skills (usually narrowly defined to mean technical skills or a short-term credential), then go into the market and get a job—or “find something new,” in the parlance of the Trump administration. But this formula—a motivated person plus skills equals success—assumes that we exist in a neutral, level market that affords all people equal opportunity. It is time to abandon the skills gap narrative. It treats labor markets as transactional and assumes hiring processes are objective with regard to how employers recruit, sort, and assess the value of candidates. It ignores social dynamics such as race, class, age, and gender bias in the hiring process. Due to racial segregation and stunted access to professional networks, many talented Black, Latino or Hispanic, and Indigenous workers never get a real opportunity to compete for key jobs in the emerging economy.

Instead of focusing on the skills gap, we argue that it’s time to focus on closing the opportunity gap—not only for the benefit of individuals who have been shut out of the labor market, but for society as a whole. Cultivating and investing in diverse talent can unleash regional innovation, economic growth, and community well-being.

Instead of focusing on the skills gap, we argue that it’s time to focus on closing the opportunity gap—not only for the benefit of individuals who have been shut out of the labor market, but for society as a whole. Cultivating and investing in diverse talent can unleash regional innovation, economic growth, and community well-being. Investing more equally in our “lost Einsteins,” scholars have estimated, would likely quadruple the rate of innovation in the U.S.

Focusing on skills limits career options 

The skill gap narrative and its framing on deficits are deeply imbued in our policy. One of the core objectives of the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) is “to provide America’s workers with the skills and credentials necessary to secure and advance in employment with family-sustaining wages and to provide America’s employers with the skilled workers the employers need to succeed in a global economy.” The implicit assumption here is that skills and credentials are the main drivers of labor market success, as opposed to factors such as access to elite networks. The WIOA’s performance metrics and large caseloads tend to work against the goal of discovering and nurturing talent. When someone walks into a job center, the first step typically involves identifying job seekers by their “barriers to employment,” and routing each person to a set of services based on their membership in a pre-defined “target population,” rather than having a broad menu of options and working collaboratively to choose the best path based on someone’s unique aspirations, talents, and experiences. There is especially a tendency to view lower-income Black, Latino or Hispanic, and Indigenous workers and youth through this deficit lens, stigmatizing the individual for the failures of a system. The combination of the skills gap framing, very low funding levels, and short-term performance measures in WIOA incentivizes workforce development staff to focus their training investments on a narrow set of occupations. These so-called “in-demand” jobs are easy to place people in, but staff often do not take into account job quality, equity, or the job’s fit with worker experiences and career aspirations. In the long term, these investments rarely offer a route to “employment with family-sustaining wages.” At the local level, WIOA programs are typically designed to have job seekers demonstrate their deservedness for small pots of public funding by jumping through obscure hoops before they can enroll. The program’s performance results often look good on paper, but most participants end up in low-wage jobs with high turnover. The median annual wage equivalent for participants exiting the WIOA adult program was $23,333 according to WIOA individual performance records for January to March 2019. Median earnings were 68% higher for Asian American men ($30,780) than they were for Black women ($18,368). The most common industry for job placement was “Employment Services,” at least three-quarters of which were jobs with temporary staffing agencies.

Getting good jobs is about more than just skills 

To understand the opportunity gap, we should examine who has access to the best jobs. Tech jobs offer high status, high salaries, and bargaining power for workers on the labor market. But the U.S. has systematically underinvested in K-12 and postsecondary curricula for building the critical thinking, problem-solving, and digital skills that allow individuals to succeed in a rapidly changing, technology-infused workplace over the long term. Tech employers often say they cannot find qualified talent for tech jobs locally, so they recruit nationally and globally, or poach workers from competitors. A skills gap narrative argues that these problems stem from a lack of skills in the candidate pool. But this reasoning places the full cost and risk of skills and career development on individual job seekers—a cost-prohibitive and ambiguous process for many. Rather than expecting a perfect candidate in a labor supply transaction, tech companies that operate with an asset-oriented approach to talent development should co-invest in cultivating a worker’s skills, knowledge, and experience over a lifetime as conditions change and organizations adapt. Technology companies’ very poor track records on racial and gender diversity suggest there is more to this problem. According to the Kapor Center for Social Impact, 20% of computer science graduates are Black or Latino or Hispanic, but they make up only 10% of the technology workforce and 2% of venture-backed startup founders. Systemic underinvestment is only part of the problem; companies are failing to find and retain qualified talent that already exists due to narrow hiring pipelines, biased and discriminatory hiring practices, an overreliance on exclusive social networks, and inadequate support for underrepresented talent once they are on the job.

Long-term solutions for labor market problems 

The narrative that the skills gap holds back our economy is outdated. The new narrative is that our economy is constrained by an opportunity gap: systematic social exclusion of diverse talent from access to education, economic security, quality jobs, and career mobility over a lifetime.  Closing the opportunity gap means embracing a more holistic and nuanced approach for connecting diverse talent to economic opportunity. This could include:

Information about quality jobs and career navigation assistance

Affordable education and on-the-job learning

Supportive services such as child care and transportation

Professional networks and peer support

A foot in the door to a new field, including first jobs, internships, and apprenticeships

Equitable hiring, mentoring, and management practices

Many low-wage workers—particularly Black, Latino or Hispanic, and Indigenous workers—are trapped in multigenerational lower-caste jobs without access to career exposure, premium education, or professional networks. We must focus on job creation and educational investments that offer all residents expansive career options and multiple routes to new careers. We can’t continue to offer programs that assume that low-income individuals are only capable of low-income work. A more equitable economy that unlocks the potential in all of the country’s talent will require structural changes, supporting institutions, and updated regulatory frameworks. For example, the U.S. must address monopsony power in labor markets and expand the safety net and labor protections for all workers, not just those who receive a W-2. We must understand the history and current reality of racial segregation in the U.S., where your ZIP code is a predominant determinant of your future earnings and talented individuals often do not have opportunities to succeed. These structural inequities hurt everyone and constrain our ability to innovate. To solve long-term talent pipeline problems, government must partner with employers to co-invest in talent development. For employers, the solution must go beyond a focus on skills—all the upskilling in the world won’t address deeply embedded social exclusion in hiring and discrimination in labor markets. As the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbates inequality and Black Lives Matter protests call for the dismantling of structural racism, now is the time to act on closing the opportunity gap. It starts by shifting the narrative from a framing on skills deficits to one that sees diverse talent as the nation’s most important asset. It can end with an economy that has multiple pathways to opportunity for all workers—not simply a return to the pre-pandemic “normal.” The authors would like to thank research intern Janie McDermott for providing excellent research assistance for this piece.

[epacer]

Education

School Leaders Can’t Suspend the Discipline Discussion Any Longer

In San Diego Unified – the largest school district in the county – Black students are almost four times more likely to be suspended than White students.

That’s even more disproportionate than the county as a whole. Countywide, Black students are nearly three times more likely than Whites to be suspended.

Put another way: Black students make up less than 8 percent of the total population, but they make up more than 21 percent of total suspensions in San Diego Unified.

The problem is nothing new. Education leaders have failed to deal with it for decades. But now, even as school officials try to manage a pandemic, racial justice protests across the country are forcing them to wrestle with long-festering racial disparities, as well.

Six candidates are vying for three open seats on San Diego Unified’s school board. I reached out to get their take on the causes of disproportionate Black suspension rates and what should be done about it.

A quick note on the history of discipline practices with racist outcomes: the problem is not beyond fixing.

Currently, no other racial group is disproportionately suspended anywhere near as much as Black students within San Diego Unified. But back in 2012, suspension rates for Latino students were also extremely disproportionate.

Over a four-year period the district lowered suspension rates across the board – and more so for Latino students than other groups. By 2016, Latino student suspensions were much closer in line with other groups.

But since then progress has stalled. And for Black students, the suspension rates never dropped nearly enough to bring them in line with other groups.

District E - Southeastern San Diego

District E has historically been the center for San Diego’s Black population. Sharon Whitehurst-Payne has represented the district since 2016. She is running against LaWana Richmond, an administrator at UC San Diego.

LaWana Richmond said she believes the disproportionate suspension rate for Black students also contributes to Black students having poorer academic outcomes than their White peers. Richmond, a Black woman, said she actually experienced uneven discipline herself as a student in southeastern San Diego. She came in late to class one day and tried to quietly go to her seat. But the teacher wanted to explain something about the lesson to her and insisted she come to the front of the room.

“I can see her point of view now, but to a pre-teen it was embarrassing,” said Richmond.

She muttered “Jesus Christ” under her breath as she was walking to the front of the room. The teacher sent her to the office, and she was suspended. Richmond believes the same would likely not have happened to a White student.

“I wasn’t like I was marked for life after that. And I didn’t end up with major learning loss,” said Richmond. “But that should not be the first response. It’s not like I had been in trouble before or after that.”

Richmond said her first order of business would be trying to understand why the suspension rate remains so disproportionate. “The question has got to be ‘how do we unpack the root causes?’ It’s not a blame game,” she said.

Some of the solutions Richmond would consider are making sure more counselors are available at schools and helping get more Black teachers into the classroom.

Sharon Whitehurst-Payne declined an interview for this story, but did respond to questions by email.

“The over disciplining of Black students has been an historic reality in our schools for many years,” she wrote. “It was one of the reasons I co-founded the African American Association of Educators many years ago.”

Whitehurst-Payne said she wants to create “systemic change” through a four-point plan.

First, she believes discipline policy should be changed to eliminate suspensions for “willful defiance.” “Black students are frequently unfairly targeted for this type of discipline,” she wrote. She said she hopes the board will vote to amend its discipline policy over the summer. In 2014, California banned school districts from using willful defiance as a reason to suspend young students in kindergarten through third grade, and from expelling any K-12 student for willful defiance alone. But San Diego Unified declined to go much further, despite recognizing that the category can cause problems and even as other districts like Los Angeles Unified banned it altogether.

Second, Whitehurst-Payne wants to give students the opportunity to present evidence to “non-administrators” (i.e., someone who is not a principal or vice-principal) during expulsion hearings.

Third, she wants to continue training efforts designed to help teachers work better with special education students. “A lack of training can quickly lead to inappropriate discipline,” she wrote.

Last, she said she would like to continue training principals about how to handle discipline issues.

District A - Northern San Diego

District A is made up of a chunk of northern San Diego that includes Clairemont and Mira Mesa. John Lee Evans, the incumbent, decided not to run again. Crystal Trull, a nonprofit consultant, is running against Sabrina Bazzo, a longtime school volunteer who is backed by the local teacher’s union.

Crystal Trull said it’s important to acknowledge that the disproportionality is a major problem that needs to be addressed

“We’ve seen how suspensions don’t work for kids. They work for adults. When you take a kid out of classroom they’re going to have negative social and emotional impacts,” she said. “Black students really are singled out.”

Trull said she would like to take a deeper look at the data. She wants to find out if particular schools or particular teachers are behind the disparities. If so, those teachers and schools can be better trained and monitored more closely, she said.

Trull also said it’s important to engage Black families. “The whole drumbeat of my campaign is you gotta engage the families, you gotta engage the community. You  need those multiple perspectives. I think the district does a lot of things in a vacuum,” she said.

“What I’ve heard from Black voices is they’ve been saying this is a problem for years. They’re tired of talking. We have to do something about it and be engaged and active,” she said.

Sabrina Bazzo said she believes strengthening schools as community institutions is one important way to bring down Black student suspension rates.

“I definitely feel like we need to address it and make sure those suspension rates are going down,” she said.

One of the most important planks in Bazzo’s campaign is her support of “community schools” – which is an education theory that says schools should be centers of the community that provide not just education, but health care, green space and other community services for anyone who lives nearby. It also focuses on parent involvement.

She said increased parent involvement along with increased community services at San Diego’s schools could help bring down suspension rates for Black students.

Bazzo also said the district should focus on implicit bias training for staff, doing more restorative justice programs and bringing more teachers of color into classrooms.

District D - Southern San Diego

District D is composed of several neighborhoods from Barrio Logan to North Park. Richard Barrera has represented the area since 2008. He is running against Camille Harris, a write-in candidate who teaches education at Point Loma Nazarene University.

Camille Harris was hesitant to use the term “systemic racism,” but she did say discrimination happens in San Diego schools. She pointed to several reasons the suspensions may be happening. Class sizes are often too big and teachers don’t have enough support, she said. Teachers also may not understand that students have something going on at home that is causing them to behave a certain way, she said.

Harris suggested one way to lower the suspension rates for Black students would be to lower class sizes and also to have more counselors. She also said it’s important to train teachers to see what students actually need (whether it be a meal or help with a problem at home) rather than suspend them for acting out.

Harris, who is Latina, said she herself has been treated differently just because of the way she looks.

Harris said she would want to bring Black families together to talk about what’s happening, if she’s elected. She thinks it’s important to give Black families a loud voice at the table and make sure the solutions they’re looking for are honored.

Richard Barrera started by saying, “If you see, like we do, disparities in student discipline for Black students, our starting point should be an assumption that it’s an example of institutional racism in our district. We should assume that the same institutional racist practices that happen in society are carried onto our schools’ campuses.”

I pointed out that San Diego Unified has had disparities in Black student discipline for many years and that district officials have known about it. I asked him if there had been sustained energy to fix the problem. “It’s come and gone, to be honest,” he said.

School districts are always dealing with a burning issue of the day, Barrera said. The pandemic, for instance, could easily take up all the district’s bandwidth. But the current protests for racial justice are forcing district officials to deal with problems they otherwise might not. Similar moments after the deaths of Trayvon Martin and Eric Garner also provoked action, he said.

Keeping a sustained focus on the data would help to bring it down, Barrera said, but it wouldn’t create systemic change.

He wants to create something that will. Barrera wants to create an independent citizen’s oversight committee to deal with racial disparities in the district. “A structure like that would mean that these issues more regularly get kept in the spotlight,” he said.

The committee would be able to request data from San Diego Unified administrators and be able to report that data out to the public, Barrera said. *Reposted article from the VOSD by Will Huntsberry of July 16, 2020

[rmexperiencenow]

Successful Difficult Conversations

5 steps to ensure you get what you want

-Ryan Cairney

In my last post, I wrote about going with your default setting for communication, even when engaging in a difficult conversation. I argued that remaining true to your preferred or default communication style would help reduce some of the already existing stress that you encounter when having this type of conversation. In this post, I’m going to provide you with 5 things you can do to ensure your difficult conversations go as smoothly as possible and yield results for you as a manager or colleague. 

As a training professional for a state government agency, difficult conversations is one of the topics I encounter the most. Managers have concerns about engaging in this type of conversation with their employees. There are many reasons for this, including union contracts, the threat of a grievance, and the very nature of government work. It can be a tight rope to walk...unless you work consistently and in conjunction with the human resources staff. If you find yourself in need of having a difficult conversation and you work in a more structured environment, a visit to the HR office is never a bad idea. Walk through the issue(s) you are encountering with your employee and talk about your strategy. HR can help you clarify your thoughts, ensure you are staying “within bounds,” and help you find success with your employee. HR should not be doing the leg work for you. Think of HR as “advise and consent” rather than “getting it done.” HR often plays the spoiler to managers who want to discipline employees, but it’s often the manager who should bear the blame...more on that in a different post.

Before I get into the 5 steps, it’s important to understand why difficult conversations are necessary. If you are considering a difficult conversation, there is clearly an issue. Many managers will avoid engaging in the difficult conversation for fear of upsetting the employee. We do this with our colleagues, friends, and family as well. We want people to be happy and telling them something upsetting flies in the face of that. It’s far easier and more comfortable to tell someone that everything is great than it is to tell them something needs improving upon. However, failure to act and initiate the conversation will only lead to additional issues and it will certainly lead to the issue at hand not getting any better. When there is an issue, there are only three possible outcomes and only one of the three is any good (this should sound familiar if you read our first blog post). See if you can pick out the good option:

Things will get better

Things will get worse

Things will stay the same

Which option did you select as the best possible choice?

So there you have it, you must act. Failure to act means that you are almost certainly assuring that the problem will continue or get worse. Rarely does inaction do much to solve an issue. Some issues may seem to resolve themselves over time, but in reality, the issue is never actually resolved. It’s simply lying dormant, waiting on the next triggering event.

Step 1: Identify and Acknowledge the Issue

It is important to know what the actual problem is. Often, we treat symptoms of problems and not the problem itself. Imagine your knee hurts. You take some ibuprofen and the pain goes away. The next day your knee hurts again. You take more ibuprofen and the pain goes away. A month later, this is still your routine. The pain is going away each day, but yet it returns. You are treating a symptom and not the problem. Until you determine the true problem, your knee pain will return each day. 

When identifying the problem, it is also crucial that you determine how the problem is affecting the workplace. Is it affecting performance, morale, customer service, etc.? It’s important to be specific here. When addressing the problem with others, if you are unable to clearly state the problem and how it is adversely affecting the workplace, it will be much more difficult to get consensus during the difficult conversation.

The final part of Step 1 is deciding what your desired outcome is. Are you seeking an increase in output? A change in attitude? Compliance with rules and policies? Again, a failure to be clear and specific will lead to you not getting the results you want. Remember that the only reason to have a difficult conversation is that you are not getting what you want currently. If you fail to clearly state what you want, the employee will not be set up for success. 

Step 2: Mental Preparation

Managers who go into difficult conversations without being thoughtful are doomed to fail. The reality of the human condition is that we are flawed and biased creatures. These flaws and biases are not invisible and to the contrary, are often VERY visible to those we are communicating with. Taking the time to be thoughtful will pay off. 

Understanding your own biases is a key step in understanding. Harvard University offers the Implicit Association Test that gives users insight to their own inherent biases. Fair warning, the results can be eye-opening. This information is important as knowing where your biases are will help you minimize them. We cannot eliminate bias, but we can certainly take steps to be actively aware of our biases in order to minimize their impact on how we work and communicate with others. 

It is also important to consider what is happening in both your world and the employee’s world. Imagine you need to have a conversation with an employee, but they were in a car accident on the way to work. Are they going to be in the best frame of mind to hear what you are saying? Probably not. Did you just give the employee a glowing performance review? How will they react if after getting this great review, you haul them into your office to discuss a performance problem? Think about the background, world, and optics of the conversation. Remember, the goal is to get what you want. As my father would say (and please don’t tell him I’m using his material - teenage Ryan would never forgive me), set yourself up for success. It is not a matter of who is right and who is wrong, but rather a question of success. You want something from this person, so do what you need to do in order to get it while doing what you can to maintain or improve the good relationship. “Do it my way because I’m the boss” will likely work in the short-term, but be prepared for future issues. 

Lastly, it’s important to do a quick review of your emotional triggers. What are the things the employee could say or do that would throw you off your game? Do they blame others, fail to take responsibility, become agitated, etc. Take a few minutes to go through each of these scenarios and be thoughtful about how you will respond. This will help you remain calm and focused during the conversation.

Step 3: Schedule the Difficult Conversation

This is one of the most overlooked steps in the process. Managers stop by the employee’s workspace or send an email. Email is probably the worst way to engage in a difficult conversation with an employee. There are several reasons for this:

You give up control of the message 

Email doesn’t allow for context or tone

Email is impersonal

There is no chance for an actual conversation

You lose the ability to create a comfortable environment

You lose the ability to read the reactions of the person you are communicating with

This is not an exhaustive list, but you get the idea. Email is great for a follow-up to the conversation and for restating what was said in the room. But it should absolutely not be the first step in the process. 

It’s also important to consider the type of employee you have. If an employee does not react well to potentially bad news, a bit of prep work might be prudent. Talk to the employee and let them know you are putting some time on their calendar for a discussion. This will give them time to mentally prepare themselves. If you have an employee who is more comfortable with direct communication, this step may not be necessary. Ideally, you know your employees and their style. Use that knowledge to your advantage. Again...set yourself (and the employee) up for success. Refrain from scheduling a difficult conversation for 4pm on a Friday. Refrain from sending the meeting notice during the same time. Consider the employee’s feelings and try to see the situation from their point of view. They will certainly appreciate your efforts here, even if they go unseen. 

When scheduling the meeting, think about how and when it will take place. Is a crowded area where others can see and hear the best choice? Do you have a private meeting space? Would an off-site meeting be best? What time of day are you and the employee at your best? If the employee is not a morning person, perhaps consider scheduling the meeting in the afternoon. Again, use the information and resources you have to help you and the employee find success.

Step 4: The Meeting

Before we get into this step, let’s do a quick review. Have you:

Identified the core issue along with how it is adversely affecting the workplace?

Taken the time to understand your biases, flaws, and triggers? 

Scheduled a time to talk?

Now that we have those items settled, it’s time to actually have the conversation. Take a moment to breathe and collect yourself before the meeting. Clear your head of distractions and focus solely on the conversation you are about to have. Begin the conversation by welcoming the employee to the space and thanking them for their time. Employees often feel undervalued in terms of time, so start off right by acknowledging that this conversation is possibly an interruption into work that you yourself have assigned them. 

Begin the conversation by clearly stating the issue at hand and how it is affecting the workplace. Do not mince words here, be clear and concise. A warm or kind tone is advisable, but “beating around the bush” will only make the conversation more challenging and might lead to both parties becoming frustrated. Even worse, failure to be clear might lead to the employee misunderstanding the problem altogether. 

After you have laid everything out, give the employee chance to respond. Take notes while they speak. Let them know you are taking notes so that the items discussed will be maintained. Let them know you want to be able to focus on the conversation and not trying to memorize everything said. Finally, inform them that you want to make sure what they said is accurately recorded. Not as a “gotcha,” but rather a formal and factual account of the conversation. This is as much for their benefit as yours. Once they have finished speaking, say something like “ok, I want to recap what you said to make sure I understand where you are coming from.” Then, using your notes, recap what the employee said. Ask them if you have it right. This gives them the chance to correct any misstatements or misunderstandings. This two-way communication creates an open environment where both parties will feel heard, and more importantly, understood. 

At the conclusion of the conversation, do another recap. Discuss the action steps that the employee will take. This will be the action plan that the employee can follow. Managers must give employees a roadmap to success. Give the employee specific things they can do to achieve the results you want. Inform the employee that you will send a follow up via email along with the action plan. Asking for agreement on the action plan is a nice step, but it’s not always possible depending on the temperature in the room. Acceptance though, is required. As long as the employee accepts that the steps in the action plan are good for all parties, you have had a successful difficult conversation.

During some difficult conversations, you may need to either pause or stop the conversation completely. If this happens, it’s important to state what is going on. Let the employee know that temperatures are rising and you feel it would be best to pause and schedule another time to talk. Acknowledge what is happening. Pretending that no one is upset only serves to invalidate how either your or the employee are feeling. Some examples of situations where the conversation needs to be stopped:

Either you or the employee are becoming overly emotional

You feel unsafe

The conversation is becoming argumentative

Either you or the employee are repeating statements frequently

Step 5: The Follow-Up

Following up after the conversation allows you to recap everything that you discussed during the conversation. Emotions will undoubtedly be part of most difficult conversations, and that’s ok. Following up in a written format allows the emotion to be removed from the factual parts of the discussion. This is where you are able to restate what was said and review the action plan. It also gives you an opportunity to let the employee know what the next steps are. Are you following up in two weeks? A month? Let the employee know when to expect the next part of the conversation and what your expectations are for them in between. 

After the follow up, do a self-assessment. Did you do a good job? Did you say everything you wanted to say? Did the employee react well (or as well as can be expected)? Is the employee open to the steps in the action plan? Do you think the conversation was successful and will lead to an improvement in your work area? Review these notes before your next difficult conversation with this or any person.

In conclusion, following the steps above will help create an atmosphere of trust and collaboration between you and your employee. These steps are not exclusive for managers, try them at home or with a colleague. You’ll find that by setting yourself up for success, you’ll have a much easier time getting what you want. 

Successful Difficult Conversations is one of the many workshop offerings from RM Experience. To learn more or to schedule a workshop, please contact us via Twitter or email (see below). 

I’d love to hear from you! Comments, suggestions, outright disagreement are all welcome. Follow me and Molly on Twitter (@rmexperience) to continue the conversation. You can also email us at [email protected]. We post new content weekly, so come back often! 

#professionaldevelopment difficultconversations managers management leadership humanresources

[carnivaloftherandom]

Art and consequences

Art is a mirror. Art is a lingua franca of our psychosocial selves, both individually and collectively. It can be aspiration or illustration, and it can also be invitation or incitement. What it cannot be, is neutral. All art comes from a point of view, it is inherently subjective (everything is, but if you haven’t familiarized yourself with inherent/implicit bias yet, you have Google,) and it can, in the best and worst ways, be dangerous.

Before anyone opens their mouths to cry, “Freedom of speech/expression,” I’m not saying people CAN’T make difficult art, or that anyone is excluded from tackling any subject. What I’m saying is: we need to stop thinking that just because we CAN, that we have the right to. Just because we can, doesn’t mean we should.

Alternative history, in fiction, is often predicated on specific points that are contentious in our contemporary lives. The big, “What if’s?” reduced to, “The Nazis won,” “The Conferedacy won,” “JFK weren’t assassinated,” and in America, yes, these are extraordinarily powerful cultural and historical moments, but there’s an inherent laziness to those questions that represents both a denial of our contemporary reality, and which almost always denies the voices of those marginalized by society who have also been the TARGETS of extreme violence, by the history that already exists.

Art can absolutely represent a danger to the status quo, but that danger is not singular in focus. The status quo may be a power structure which is abusive, or the fragile gains already made towards disrupting it. If we’re producing fictions which posit the victory of what the majority collectively accepts as evil (Hitler, the Holocaust, the Civil War, Slavery, et al,) or the eliminating an evil event, (the assassinations of JFK, MLK, RFK, etc,) we’re still, very often simply playing pretend in ways that don’t require us to truly confront either the roots of that evil or the fact that even avoiding what we view as turning points in our history, doesn’t change who we are now, nearly enough. Most of Alternative History in fiction, is a pulled punch.

A fictional lens of “Alternative History,” also ignores that we not only live in an era of, “Alternative facts,” right NOW, it completely elides that what we even call, “History,” is an extensively Bowdlerized, sanitized, often US or European-centric version of things, to begin with. The daily gaslighting of the current US administration, the convenient deletion of documentary evidence from the digital sphere, the competition for control of the narrative, these are neither new tactics nor do they lend credence to the assertion that fictions can be illustrative to the masses in a productive way, even with the best intentions. Which leaves me wondering why we don’t see more fictions that subvert what we think we know about history to begin with. The answer of course, is that those subversions would lead to questions which make us uncomfortable. If we looked at history and said, “What if people we think of as Other, were instead dominant, or even just important within the narrative as we know it, what does that look like?” Having non-white people or women or people with disabilities or Queer folks as central figures might be a little too dangerous to the power of the status quo. We’re waging daily battles for what is and isn’t true in the Now, and we’re not prepared to accept that everything we know and accept as true, might be wrong.

Within 24 hours, I witnessed HBO announce Confederate and a piece of DC Comics’ licensed Junior’s apparel bearing the Superfamily symbol in the colors of the Confederate Battle Flag, in a SW Pennsylvania Walmart. These things are not unrelated, and that is terrifying. Our present is the history of the future, and that present is full of a small, but incredibly vocal and violent group of people who want to be affirmed in being “Patriots,” who want a, “Race war,” who think that there’s no disconnect between, “Truth, Justice, and the American Way,” and the colors of an army who committed treason and sedition, and who LOST their bid to secede in order to preserve the enslavement of human beings to perpetuate their wealth and economic dominance. A piece of fiction that shows a contemporary or near future where they won, or at least won ENOUGH, not only validates their ideology but empowers it with the possibility that if it were fought again, they could indeed win, isn’t a deterrent at all. This, on top of the year and change of, “What if Captain America was a Nazi all along,” (spare me the party line on “Hydra aren’t Nazis,” we’re really not going to have that debate and I started reading comics in 1977, you are not in any way equipped to have that debate WITH ME, or my MOM who started reading comics in the 1950s. Shoo.)

I often write about the power of social inhibitors and the danger of social disinhibition. Media is a powerful vehicle for ideas, art is a powerful vehicle for ideas. Studies of how story can expand our capacity for empathy and alter our thinking and behaviors in daily life, back me up on this. When we internalize concepts, good or ill, they stick. If we collectively decide that we accept/don’t accept things, we exert pressure to conform. Sometimes we enact laws to that effect (the 13th amendment, with its infamous loophole, is a prime example of both the good/ill. Slavery is not acceptable, but punishment for a crime voids that.)

Sometimes, we simply exert gradual social pressures (It’s not acceptable for Non-Black people to use the N-word, and we respond to it negatively in most contexts,) which evolve over time, but where consequences are not legally enforced. It’s not illegal to be a bigot, outside of narrow definitions, but you may be ostracized for it. When that threat of being socially shunned disappears, as we’ve seen in the last couple of years, behavior changes. When a candidate/officeholder encourages bigotry, people become more willing to express their own bigotry without fear of consequence. We’ve had a rise in hate crimes, online abuse has skyrocketed, and policies which enable bigotry are being enacted daily.

Art is a mirror. It is a choice whether that mirror reflects a reality that validates our worst impulses or our better angels. Every single person who creates, has to make a choice about what they’re trying to say and how they say it, and most especially, whether THEY are the right person to say it. Once it is made and out in the world, you can’t take it back. That’s something that ought to give creators pause, when engaging in complex ideas: You can’t take it back, and you will be held responsible. It doesn’t mean don’t engage in those ideas, it means that if you think your intent and execution will be crystal clear, you’d damn well better talk it through with the people who will pay the price for it, if you’re not.

Art has consequences.

And with regard to the over reliance on genocidal history for alternative exploration, a personal note: it’s really easy to tackle those periods with the, “What if they won?” scenario. The conflicts are built-in. If you’re writing alt-history, you might consider what happens if these massive evils never existed at all. For example, What If:

- the transatlantic slave trade never happened

- the Roman Empire did not fall under the rule of despots. (Including the Roman Province in Africa)

-The Irish Potato Famine never happened

-The Black Plague never happened

-The Conquistadors were repelled by the Indigenous peoples.

-Columbus was lost at sea

-The Inquisition never happened

If you can’t look at the ripple effect of those events and work out the ways in which the world power balance, economic, social, religious, and scientific discovery shifts, along with the new conflicts that would arise on a geopolitical axis with their absence, perhaps you should rethink your qualifications to write alternative history at all because world-building is bigger than one thing.

*if you find any of my writing valuable in any way, the tip jar is: PayPal.me/kristenmchugh22

#art #media #representation #thought experiments are tricksy things #art has consequences #everything you think you know about history is a lie #bigotry #alternate history #HBO #Confederate

[chfaiq5k-blog]

Theory of Social Marketing Essay - Free Reviews For Students

May 25, 2019 0 Comment admin

Theories and Models in Social Marketing Reference: Lefebvre, RC (2000). In PN Bloom & GT Gundlach (Eds. ), Handbook of Marketing and Society, Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications. Theories and models for social marketing abound, with little formal consensus on which types of models for what types of social problems in what kinds of situations are most appropriate. In defining what social marketing is, many authors include the notion of exchange theory to link it to its marketing roots (e. g. Kotler & Roberto, 1989; Lefebvre & Flora, 1988; Novelli, 1990). Other writers on the subject omit any mention of exchange theory, either in their definition of social marketing or its key elements (e. g. , Andreasen, 1995; Manoff, 1985). Elliott (1991), in a review of the exchange concept’s place in social marketing, concludes that “[it] is either absent or obtuse” (page 157). Added to this confusion are other authors who refer to a “social marketing theory” (Gries, Black & Coster, 1995; Tomes, 1994).

While authors such as Lefebvre & Rochlin (1997) and Novelli (1990) recognize the value of the exchange concept in describing social marketing, both hold open the idea that many other theoretical models may be applied in the actual development of social marketing programs. “Marketing is theory based. It is predicated on theories of consumer behavior, which in turn draw upon the social and behavioral sciences” (Novelli, 1990, p. 343).

In fact, this is what happens in the practice of social marketing. However, Walsh, Rudd, Moeykens & Maloney (1993) have noted that “professional social marketers tend to be broadly eclectic and intuitive tinkerers in their use of available theory (p. 115). ” So while a review of theoretical models used in social marketing seems Theories and models in social marketing – Page 2 relevant to advance the field, it is also speculative as well.

Many social marketers do not report on their work in professional journals or at conferences, and of those who do, only a few focus on the theoretical models that impacted their judgments on selection of target audiences, questions posed during formative research studies, strategies selected, how program elements were selected and developed, what outcomes were intended and how they were measured. The theories selected for review reflect the author’s own experience and interaction with a broad array of social marketers and ocial marketing programs. The theories also reflect a public health bias in that most social marketing programs in this field are usually designed by people with advanced degrees in social and behavioral science advancing public health goals – not by people with training in other fields such as business management or economics or focusing on other issues (environment, education, justice, for instance).

As a benchmark, a review of the most commonly used theories and models in 497 health education/health promotion articles over a two-year period found that the health belief model, social cognitive theory, theory of reasoned action, community organization, stages of change and social marketing were the most frequent cited ones among the 67% of cases where theories or models were mentioned at all (Glanz, Lewis & Rimer, 1997, p. 29). While this review highlights the most commonly used theories among health educators, it is not necessarily reflective of which theories are utilized in social marketing programs.

Given the caveats expressed earlier, this chapter will focus on the more commonly mentioned theories and models in social marketing programs including: health belief model, the related theory of reasoned action,, social cognitive theory, the transtheoretical model of behavior change (or “stages of change”), diffusion of innovations and an overview of other models/theories mentioned or used in specific contexts. Health Belief Model (HBM) As noted above, this is one of the most widely used theories among public health practitioners, and many of its major tenets have found their way into numerous social marketing projects.

HBM was originally designed to explain why people did not Theories and models in social marketing – Page 3 participate in programs to prevent or detect diseases. The core components of HBM include: ¦ Perceived susceptibility: the subjective perception of risk of developing a particular health condition. ¦ Perceived severity: feelings about the seriousness of the consequences of developing a specific health problem. ¦ Perceived benefits: beliefs about the effectiveness of various actions that might reduce susceptibility and severity (the latter two taken together are labeled “threat’). Perceived barriers: potential negative aspects of taking specific actions. ¦ Cues to action: bodily or environmental events that trigger action. More recently, HBM has been appended to include the notion of self-efficacy as another predictor of health behaviors – especially more complex ones in which lifestyle changes must be maintained over time (Strecher & Rosenstock, 1997). A wide variety of demographic, social, psychological and structural variables may also impact an individual’s perceptions and, indirectly, their health-related behaviors.

Some of the more important ones include educational attainment, age, gender, socioeconomic status and prior knowledge. Theories and models in social marketing – Page 4 HBM has been one of the more empirically studied theoretical models. A 1984 review of this research (Janz & Becker, 1984), conducted across numerous health and screening behaviors (for example, receiving flu shots, practicing breast self-examinations, using seat belts, attending screening programs), found not only substantial support for the model, but that the “perceived barriers” component was the strongest predictor across studies and behaviors.

Among studies that looked at sick-role behaviors (such as compliance with medication regimens, self-help behaviors among people with diabetes), “perceived benefits” proved to be the strongest predictor of engaging in health behaviors. As social marketers make choices about the theoretical models they use in their program, this finding of different predictors of different types of behaviors needs to be heeded so that a particular theory or model is not misapplied. For social marketing research and practice, HBM becomes a salient theoretical model when addressing issues for “at risk” populations who may not perceive themselves as such.

Issues of fear- or anxiety-arousing messages often take place within the context of increasing perceived threat. The HBM components of barriers and benefits seem to be common issues addressed by many social marketing programs, especially in price and placement decisions. And finally, though the less researched of all the components, the “cues to action” component is another piece of HBM many social marketing programs attempt to address either explicitly or implicitly. Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA) Theories and models in social marketing – Page 5

TRA organizes itself around the constructs of behavioral and normative beliefs, attitudes, intentions and behavior. An extension of TRA, the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) adds the additional construct of self-efficacy – one’s perceived control over performance of the behavior. In TRA, the most important predictor of subsequent behavior is one’s intention to act. This behavioral intention is influenced by one’s attitude toward engaging in the behavior and the subjective norm one has about the behavior.

Attitude, in turn, is determined by one’s beliefs about both the outcomes and attributes associated with the behavior. Subjective norms are based on one’s normative beliefs that reflect how significant referent people apprise the behavior – positively or negatively. Referents may range from one’s family, to one’s physician, peers or models. The TPB adds the additional construct of perceived behavioral control that is determined by one’s “control beliefs” (the presence or absence of resources and impediments to engage in the behavior) and “perceived power” – the weighting of each resource and barrier.

In their review of TRA and TPB, Montano, Kasprzk and Taplin (1997) “cannot stress enough the importance of conducting in-depth, open-ended elicitation interviews to identify the behavioral outcomes, referents, and facilitators and constraints that are relevant to the particular behavior and population” (p. 109). These elicitation interviews are conducted in the early planning stages of the project and usually include 15-20 participants equally divided between those currently or planning to engage in the behavior and those that are not.

They note that TRA/TPB provide a framework for these Theories and models in social marketing – Page 6 interviews that programs should focus on to ascertain what beliefs should be the focus of intervention efforts. Social marketers often employ TRA and TPB, although it is most often implicit and incomplete. Subjective norms and referents, for example, are often the focus of social marketing programs (such as teen tobacco use prevention) even though the theoretical model may not be familiar to the planners.

While we see great attention given to this half of the TRA “equation”, one rarely sees the same level of concern given to how to change the attitudes toward the behavior itself. One exception was the “5 A Day for Better Health” program (Sutton, Balch & Lefebvre, 1995) where formative research discovered that the target audience perceived people who ate 5 servings of fruits and vegetables a day as less capable, dependable, gentle and friendly than themselves. This insight helped the program planners design and develop materials that could counter these negative attitudes as they fashioned the image of the program. Social Cognitive Theory (SCT)

SCT explains behavior in terms of triadic reciprocality (“reciprocal determinism”) in which behavior, cognitive and other interpersonal factors, and environmental events all operate as interacting determinants of each other. In contrast to the previous theoretical models, SCT explicitly recognizes that behavior is not determined by just intrinsic factors, or that an individual is a product of their environment, but that he/she has an Theories and models in social marketing – Page 7 influence on what they do, their personal characteristics, how they respond to their environment, and indeed, what their environment is.

Changes in any of these three factors are hypothesized to render changes in the others. One of the key concepts in SCT is an environmental variable: observational learning. In contrast to earlier behavioral theories, SCT views the environment as not just one that reinforces or punishes behaviors, but it also provides a milieu where one can watch the actions of others and learn the consequences of those behaviors. Processes governing observational learning include: • Attentional: gaining and maintaining attention • Retention: being remembered • Production: reproducing the observed behavior Motivational: being stimulated to produce the behavior Other core components of SCT include: • Self-efficacy: a judgment of one’s capability to accomplish a certain level of performance. • Outcome expectation: a judgment of the likely consequence such behavior will produce. Theories and models in social marketing – Page 8 • Outcome expectancies: the value placed on the consequences of the behavior. • Emotional coping responses: strategies used to deal with emotional stimuli including psychological defenses (denial, repression), cognitive techniques such as problem restructuring, and stress management. Enactive learning: learning from the consequences of one’s actions (versus observational learning). • Rule learning: generating and regulating behavioral patterns, most often achieved through vicarious processes and capabilities (versus direct experience). • Self-regulatory capability: much of behavior is motivated and regulated by internal standards and self-evaluative reactions to their own actions. SCT is viewed as one of the more comprehensive efforts to explain human behavior (Baranowski, Perry & Parcel, 1997).

Its focus on reciprocal determinism and self-efficacy (the latter, as we have seen, has been adopted by other theoretical models as well) give social marketers a strong theoretical base from which to launch environmental interventions that complement individually-focused ones such as with the Team Nutrition program for 4th graders (Lefebvre, Olander & Levine, 1999). A major finding of this research project was that it was the number of different channels through which children were exposed to Team Nutrition messages, rather than any particular component, that Theories and models in social marketing – Page 9 as most predictive of self-reported behavior change. SCT also reminds program planners to assess the audience’s perception of their ability to perform the desired behavior, the anticipated consequences of that action, and the value they place on that consequence. The theory also underlies many attempts to model new behaviors for our target audience, and that attention, retention, production and motivational processes must all be addressed for effective learning and performing of new behaviors. The Transtheoretical Model of Health Behavior Change

This model, popularly known as “stages of change”, has become one of the more often used models in social marketing programs. Although this model was being applied by social marketing programs in the early 1990’s to increase physical activity levels of community residents (Marcus, Banspach, Lefebvre, Rossi, Carleton & Abams, 1992), its incorporation by Andreasen as the theoretical model for Marketing Social Change (1995) no doubt has influenced its adoption by many social marketing practitioners.

The model emerged from an analysis of leading theories of psychotherapy and behavior change in which ten distinct processes of change were identified. These processes then suggest certain types of interventions that will be most appropriate for moving people through six specific stages of change. Some of the processes identified by Prochaska and Vilicer (1997) include: Theories and models in social marketing – Page 10 ¦ Consciousness raising: increases awareness of the causes, consequences and cures for a problem behavior. Feedback, education, confrontation and media campaigns are possible intervention modalities. Self-reevaluation: uses assessments of one’s self-image with and without a particular unhealthy behavior. Value clarification, healthy role models and imagery techniques can help people move evaluatively. ¦ Social liberation: increases the social opportunities or alternatives especially for people already relatively deprived or oppressed. Advocacy, empowerment techniques and policy changes are procedures that can be used to meet these goals. ¦ Helping relationships; combines caring, trust, openness, acceptance and support for health behavior change.

Strategies such as relationship building, counselor calls and buddy systems can be sources for such support. The most popular and utilized aspect of the model are the stages themselves. They include: ¦ Precontemplation: people are not intending to take action in the foreseeable future, usually measured as the next six months. Theories and models in social marketing – Page 11 ¦ Contemplation: people in this stage indicate that they are planning to take action (change behavior) within the next six months. ¦ Preparation: here people indicate that they will take action in the next month and have a plan of action. Action: at this stage, people have made specific behavioral changes within the past six months. ¦ Maintenance: people in this phase are working at preventing relapse and use many of the processes described earlier to help them maintain their changes. This phase lasts anywhere from 6 months to 3 years. ¦ Termination: is described as “the stage in which individuals have zero temptation and 100% self-efficacy (Prochaska & Velicer, 1997, p. 39). ” People in this stage are sure they will not return to their old behavior or habit.

Other concepts in the model include decisional balance (weighing the pros and cons of changing), self-efficacy, and temptation (the role of negative affect or emotional distress, positive social situations and craving). What the model attempts to drive home to social marketers is that relatively few members of a target audience are ready for action-oriented programs, and that more time and energy needs to be directed to moving people out of the earlier stages in which they are “stuck” through attention to other processes Theories and models in social marketing – Page 12 e. g. , consciousness raising, social liberation). The research of Prochaska, Velicer and others indicates that people utilize specific processes in specific phases, and that generally speaking, experiential processes (consciousness raising, environmental reevaluation, self-reevaluation and dramatic relief) are most appropriate for people in the precontemplation and contemplation stages. People in the action and maintenance phases are more likely to use behavioral processes such as contingency management, helping relationships, counterconditioning and stimulus control.

Matching interventions to the stage a person is in then becomes a critical factor in the effectiveness of the program to lead to behavior change. Prochaska and Velicer also report on a series of 12 studies looking at how “pros and cons” change as people progress through the stages for a variety of health behaviors. In all cases, the “cons” clearly outnumber the “pros” for changing for people in the precontemplation phase. By the time one is in the contemplation phase, the number of “pros” has increased and surpassed the number of “cons” – which have not changed.

Moving from contemplation to action requires that the number of “cons” begins to decrease while the “pros” remain steady or even increase slightly more. The mathematical relationships between “pros and cons” lead the authors to conclude that “pros” must increase twice as much as the “cons” decrease to move someone from precontemplation to action. The implication for social marketers is that perhaps twice as much effort should be spent raising the benefits for change as on reducing perceived costs and barriers. Theories and models in social marketing – Page 13 Diffusion of Innovations

What should be one of the more important models for people who are attempting to influence the behavior of large groups of people is diffusion of innovations. Kotler and Roberto (1989) review diffusion of innovations research and its application to social marketing programs. One of the first points they make in this discussion is that there are different types of adopters in every target audience that, based on hundreds of different studies, usually are represented in certain proportions and have unique motivations for adopting a new behavior. These five adopter segments and their motives are: ¦ Innovator (2. %): need for novelty and need to be different ¦ Early Adopter (13. 5%): recognize the value of adoption from contact with innovators ¦ Early Majority (34%): need to imitate or match up with others with a certain amount of deliberateness ¦ Late Majority (34%): need to join the bandwagon when they see that the early majority has legitimated the change ¦ Laggard (16%): need to respect traditions In other work, Rogers (1983) has gone into great detail as to how these five segments differ with respect to demographics, communication patterns and other variables.

Theories and models in social marketing – Page 14 A second group of diffusion of innovation concepts centers around the determinants of diffusion’s speed and extent (Oldenburg, Hardcastle & Kok, 1997). Some of these attributes include: ¦ Relative advantage: is the new behavior better, easier, simpler than what they currently do? ¦ Compatibility: does the new behavior fit into the audience’s lifestyle, cultural/ethnic beliefs and practices, self-image? ¦ Trialability: can the behavior be tried before making a final commitment? Communicability: can the behavior be understood clearly and easily? ¦ Risk: can the behavior be adopted with minimal risk and uncertainty? Rothman, Teresa, Kay and Morningstar (1983) provide the best integrated discussion of how diffusion research influenced the development of a social marketing campaign directed at community mental health workers. Some of their theoretical concerns – that then led to empirical investigations – centered on the notion of “reference group appeals. In their case, the question was how to position the offering: should the benefit be a bureaucratic or agency one (e. g. , more efficient operations), a professional one (e. g. , improve knowledge and skills) or a community/client one (e. g. , it’s in their best interest). Their review of diffusion research – especially in organizational settings – led them to quickly conclude that the last appeal (community/client) was likely to be the least effective of the three. As a consequence, they focused their project on the other two. Theories and models in social marketing – Page 15

Rothman et al also looked at the varying effects of high-intensity, “personal selling” approaches to diffusion/marketing contrasted with a low intensity, “mass communication” one. In their analysis of cost vs. utilization (adoption) patterns, the authors concluded that “…for half the cost, the low-intensity approach resulted in twice the amount of high utilization” (p. 222). Diffusion of innovations research and concepts offer a tremendous amount of insight for social marketers to use in designing their programs, yet we see very little active discussion of it in social marketing circles (e. . , Andreasen, 1995 does not index the term). Diffusion of innovations has many “big” ideas that, when they meet constrained budgets and short time horizons, may receive short shrift. Basic to the notion of adopter segments, for example, is the implication that you start with one or two segments (innovators and early adopters) and only when adoption is successful with them do you move to the “bigger numbers. ” Phased approaches over time are often impossible to plan and implement when priorities change and budgets contract and expand with little warning.

Yet, other concepts related to how to make adoption happen more quickly and efficiently can be applied in most contexts with minimal impact on resources. As was mentioned at the beginning of this section, the diffusion model is one of the few population-focused ones available to social marketers. While the point can be made that “ultimately” behavior change happens on a individual-by-individual level, diffusion research suggests that there are processes available to us to manage wide-spread behavior change and not leave it to chance (c. . , Redmond’s discussion of the diffusion of the adoption of nonsmoking, 1996). Theories and models in social marketing – Page 16 Other theories and models As was noted at the beginning at this chapter, there are few guides as to what theories and models many social marketers use in planning and implementing social change programs because not enough is written about that aspect of their work. However, several segmentation studies have suggested other possible theories and models, applications of social marketing in on-traditional settings offer another, and on-going social marketing projects focused on specific health behaviors have developed their own models based on their research findings and experience. Morris, Tabak & Olins (1992) reported on a segmentation analysis of prescription drug information-seeking motives among the elderly. These authors utilized the health belief model, information-seeking research (usually subsumed under the transactional model of stress and coping; see Lerman and Glanz, 1997), information processing models, consumer involvement models, and a typology for consumer motivation.

Slater & Flora (1991) reviewed data from the Stanford Five-City Project and identified seven healthy lifestyle segments. Their theoretical approach to segmentation included social cognitive theory, the health belief model, and the theory of reasoned action. In an extension of this work to Hispanic audiences, Williams & Flora (1995) also noted the use of several concepts drawn from the fields of anthropology, advertising research and communications literature. Theories and models in social marketing – Page 17

Murray & Douglas (1988) have examined the role social marketing could play in the alcohol policy arena. Their analysis of the many potential ways social marketing could be used in helping to shape social policies about alcohol (and to other issues as well) brings to light the political science and public opinion research and theories that could also be employed in designing certain social marketing projects. A number of large-scale social marketing programs were conducted in community settings in which community organization theories played a role in program development and implementation.

Some examples include the Stanford Five-City Project (Farquhar, Maccoby & Solomon, 1984) and the Pawtucket Heart Health Program (Lefebvre, Lasater, Carleton & Peterson, 1987). McKee (1992) discusses several different programs that have combined social marketing with social mobilization strategies; Lefebvre (1990) has outlined how social marketing can be used to facilitate institutionalization, or long-term sustainability, of community-based programs; and Bryant and colleagues (1999) have combined community organization theories and social marketing principles into a “Community-Based Prevention Marketing” model.

As many social marketing programs are developed by state and local agencies, we can expect that even more work along these lines will help push our understanding of how to effectively engage and leverage “the community” to achieve social change objectives. Piotrow, Kincaid, Rimon & Rinehart (1997) summarize their 25 years of work in reproductive health and family planning overseas. They have developed a theoretical framework, based on their experience, termed “Steps to Behavior Change (SBC). As Theories and models in social marketing – Page 18 they describe it, the SBC “is an adaptation of diffusion of innovations theory and the input/output persuasion model, enriched by social marketing experience and flexible enough to use other theories within each of the steps, or stages, as appropriate (p. 21). ” The five major stages include knowledge, approval, intention, practice and advocacy, each with three “steps” subsumed under it (e. g. can name family planning methods and/or sources of supply, approves of family planning, intends to consult a provider, chooses a method and begins family planning use, and advocates practice to others). Other theoretical models they mention include social cognitive theory; theory of reasoned action; social influence, social comparison and convergence theories; theories of emotional response; and the cultivation theory of mass media. Conclusion Trying to depict what theories and models social marketers use in designing and implementing programs is a daunting task.

Social marketers who have advanced degrees, and thus have studied “theories,” may be using this knowledge in an a priori fashion to influence decisions from what problem to tackle, how to segment audiences, what program objectives should be, which target audiences to choose and how to characterize them, what questions to ask in formative research activities, how to develop program strategies and tactics, which ones to choose, how to go about developing and testing them, how to organize and manage the implementation/distribution process, which message may beat resonate with the target audience, what benefits and barriers are most in need of attention, and how do we best promote our messages, products and services (to Theories and models in social marketing – Page 19 list just a few key decision points). My suspicion in that in 20% of cases this is a conscious process. To go back to Walsh et al (1993), who conducted more than 30 interviews with leading social marketers, one of their conclusions was that “professional social marketers tend to be broadly eclectic and intuitive thinkers in their use of available theory. ” Another disquieting finding is that there is little understanding of when social marketers are using “theory”, “models”, or the results of specific research studies.

There is also the question of whether they know what is a “theory” versus a “model. ” While there are indications of models ascending to theory status (for example, people referring to “diffusion theory” or “stages of change theory”), what appears to be happening is that social marketers are more “model-based” (stages of change being the most popular at this particular moment) and that there is some theory (model)-creep (i. e. , one model or theory is applied regardless of whether the situation or previous research supports its application). When behavior change theories are employed, they are used in a context of changing an individual’s behavior.

Although this objective is a bottom-line focus for many social marketers, the promise of social marketing over other approaches to social change is its overall focus on influencing population groups to achieve social change objectives. Yet, aside from the diffusion of innovations model, we see no evidence of “population-based” theories and models being reflected in social marketing literature or discourse. Theories and models in social marketing – Page 20 Behavior change is a complex process and there are dozens of theories and models to choose from to meet social marketing objectives. Too much attention seems to be given to individual theories of change in the published literature.

Social marketing is not an alternative to individual behavior change strategies, but a process to increase the prevalence of specific behaviors among target audiences (Lefebvre, Lurie, Goodman, Weinberg & Loughrey, 1995). Social marketers need to expand their knowledge and use of divergent theoretical frameworks as the situation dictates. Winett (1995) demonstrated one approach to integrating social marketing constructs with behavioral theories. In examining the “4Ps,” he argued that various theories might be most appropriate for thinking through each component. Variable Theory Product Diffusion theory Stages of change Price Behavior analysis Social Cognitive Theory Promotion Theory of Reasoned Action

Health Belief Model Protection Motivation Theory Social Cognitive Theory Behavior Analysis Place Public Health Ecological Theories and models in social marketing – Page 21 In his discussion of this integrative approach Winett also notes that most of the behavioral theories seem to focus predominantly on the “Promotion” elements of the marketing mix. His suggestion, and one echoed here, is that perhaps more attention needs to given to theoretical models that might add insight to other elements of the marketing process and marketing mix. Social change is an enormous undertaking and to paraphrase a graduate advisor, “The one with the biggest toolbox wins. Using multiple theories and models that fit or explain the behavior and situation one is challenged with, including not only the ones discussed here, but also motivational theories to inform message development, social networks theories to inform message dissemination, organizational development and business-to-business marketing models to inform coalition and partnership development and management, political theories and agenda-setting research to inform policy initiatives, cross-cultural theories to inform international social marketing efforts, among others, are what the profession of social marketers needs to aspire to be to meet both the personal and social goals of “doing good. ” References Andreasen, Alan R. Marketing Social Change (1995). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers. Theories and models in social marketing – Page 22 Baranowski, Tom, Cheryl L. Perry and Guy S. Parcel (1997), “Social Cognitive Theory,” in Health Behavior and Health Education (2nd ed), Karen Glanz, F. M. Lewis and B. K. Rimer, eds, San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers, 153-178. Bryant, Carol A. , Melinda S.

Forthofer, Kelli McCormack Brown and Robert J. McDermott (1999), “Community-Based Prevention Marketing,” Social Marketing Quarterly, 5(3), 54-59. Elliott, Barry J. (1991) “A Re-Examination of the Social Marketing Concept,” Unpublished Master’s Thesis, Sydney, University of New South Wales. Janz, Nancy K. and Marshall H. Becker (1984), “The Health Belief Model: A Decade Later,” Health Education Quarterly, 11, 1-47. Farquhar, John W. , Nathan Maccoby and Douglas S. Solomon (1984), “Community Applications of Behavioral Medicine,” in Handbook of Behavioral Medicine, W. Doyle Gentry, ed, New York: The Guilford Press, 437-478. Glanz, Karen, Frances Marcus Lewis and Barbara K. Rimer, eds.

Health Behavior and Health Education (2nd ed; 1997). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers. Theories and models in social marketing – Page 23 Gries, Julie A. , David R. Black and Daniel C. Coster (1995). ‘Recruitment to a University Alcohol Program: Evaluation of Social Marketing Theory and Stepped Approach Model,” Preventive Medicine, 24, 348-356. Kotler, Phillip and Eduardo L. Roberto. Social Marketing (1989). New York: The Free Press. Lerman, Caryn and Karen Glanz (1997), “Stress, Coping and Health Behavior,” in Health Behavior and Health Education (2nd ed), Karen Glanz, F. M. Lewis and B. K. Rimer, eds, San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers, 113-138. Lefebvre, R.

Craig (1990), “Strategies to Maintain and Institutionalize Successful Programs: A Marketing Framework,” in Health Promotion at the Community Level, Neil Bracht, ed. , Newburg Park, CA: Sage. Lefebvre, R. Craig and June A. Flora (1988), “Social Marketing and Public Health Intervention,” Health Education Quarterly, 15, 299-315. Lefebvre, R. Craig, Thomas M. Lasater, Richard A. Carleton, and Gussie Peterson (1987), “Theory and Delivery of Health Programming in the Community: The Pawtucket Heart Health Program”, Preventive Medicine, 16, 80-95. Theories and models in social marketing – Page 24 Lefebvre, R. Craig, Deborah Lurie, Laura Saunders Goodman, Linda Weinberg and Kathleen Loughrey (1995). Social Marketing and Nutrition Education: Inappropriate or Misunderstood? ” Journal of Nutrition Education 27 (3), 146-150. Lefebvre, R. C. , Carol Olander and Elyse Levine (1999). “The Impact of Multiple Chaneel Delivery of Nutrition Messages on Student Knowledge, Motivation and Behavior: results from the Team Nutrition Pilot Study,” Social Marketing Quarterly 5(3), 90-98. Lefebvre, R. Craig and Lisa Rochlin (1997) “Social Marketing,” in Health Behavior and Health Education (2nd ed), Karen Glanz, F. M. Lewis and B. K. Rimer, eds, San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers, 384-402. Manoff, Richard K. Social Marketing (1985), New York, Praeger. Marcus, Bess H. Stephen W. Banspach, R. Craig Lefebvre, Joseph S. Rossi, Richard A. Carleton and David b. Abrams (1992), “Using the Stages of Change Model to Increase the Adoption of Physical Activity Among Community Participants,” American Journal of Health Promotion, 6 (6), 424-429. McKee, Neill, Social Mobilization and Social Marketing in Developing Communities (1992). Panang, Malaysia; Southbound. Theories and models in social marketing – Page 25 Montano, Daniel E. , Danuta Kasprzyk and Stephen H. Taplin (1997). “The Theory of Reasoned Action and the Theory of Planned Behavior,” in Health Behavior and Health Education (2nd ed), Karen Glanz, F. M. Lewis and B. K.

Rimer, eds, San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers, 85-112. Morris, Louis A, Ellen Tabak and Nancy J. Olins (1992), “A Segmentation Analysis of Prescription Drug Information-Seeking Motives Among the Elderly,” Journal of Public Policy and Marketing, 11(2), 115-125. Murray, Glen. G. and Ronald R. Douglas (1988), “Social Marketing in the Alcohol Policy Arena,” British Journal of Addiction, 83, 505-511. Novelli, William D. (1990), “Applying Social Marketing to Health Promotion and Disease Prevention,” in Health Behavior and Health Education, Karen Glanz, F. M. Lewis and B. K. Rimer, eds, San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers, 342-369. Oldenburg, Brian, Deborah M.

Hardcastle and Gerjo Kok (1997), “Diffusion of Innovations,” in Health Behavior and Health Education(2nd ed), Karen Glanz, F. M. Lewis and B. K. Rimer, eds, San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers, 270-286. Piotrow, Phylilis Tilson, D. Lawrence Kincaid, Jose G. Rimon II, and Ward Rinehart, Health Communication (1997). Westport, Connecticut: Praeger Publishers. Theories and models in social marketing – Page 26 Prochaska, James O. , and Wayne F. Velicer (1997), “The Transtheoretical Model Of Health Behavior Change,” American Journal of Health Promotion, 12 (1), 38-48. Redmond, William H. (1996), “Product Disadoption: Quitting Smoking as a Diffusion Process,” Journal of Public Policy and Marketing, 15 (1), 87-97.

Rogers, Everett M. Diffusion of Innovations (1983), New York: The Free Press. Rothman, Jack, Joseph G. Teresa, Terrence L Kay and Gershom Clark Morningstar Marketing Human Service Innovations (1983). Beverly Hills: Sage Publications. Slater, Michael D. and June A. Flora (1991), “Health Lifestyles: Audience Segmentation Analysis for Public Health Interventions,” Health Education Quarterly, 18(2), 221-233. Strecher, Victor J. and Irwin M. Rosenstock (1997). “The Health Belief Model,” in Health Behavior and Health Education, Karen Glanz, F. M. Lewis and B. K. Rimer, eds, San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers, 41-59. Sutton, Sharyn M. , George I. Balch and R.

Craig Lefebvre (1995), “Strategic Questions for Consumer-Based Health Communication,” Public Health Reports, 9, 725-733. Tomes, Keith (1994). “Marketing and the Mass Media: Theory and Myth,” Health Education Research, 9 (2), 165-169. Theories and models in social marketing – Page 27 Walsh, Diana Chapman, Rima E. Rudd, Barbara A. Moeykens and Thomas W. Maloney (1993), “Social Marketing for Public Health,” Health Affairs, Summer, 104-119. Williams, Janice E. and June A. Flora (1995), “Health Behavior Segmentation and Campaign Planning to Reduce Cardiovascular Disease Risk Among Hispanics,” Health Education Quarterly, 22(1), 36-48. Winett, Richard A. (1995), “A Framework for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Programs,” American Psychologist, 50, 341-350.

This content was originally published here.

[rolandfontana]

The Real Culprit in the Central Park 5 Convictions

Netflix reports that 23 million subscribers signed in to watch When They See Us, the mini-series that dramatizes the harrowing experience of the five wrongly convicted young men now known as the Central Park Five.

At least 23 million pundits have published their reactions to the series, too.

Their prescription is straightforward.

First, exorcise from public life the demon prosecutors, Linda Fairstein and Elizabeth Lederer, who supervised and presented the case. Fire them from their teaching jobs; cancel their book contracts.

Second, replace the demons with angel prosecutors.

What could be simpler? The problem is, it won’t work.

The important question raised by all the writing, blogging and podcasting is whether anyone is really serious about preventing a repetition of the tragedies that the series recounts.

Dispensing with Fairstein and Lederer is fine with me. While the going was “good” (that is, when things were moving in the wrong direction for the innocent defendants) both Fairstein and Lederer reached for and basked in the limelight.

But by now the two women have entered a special category of individual—along with, say, Richard III, Eric Trump, and Simon Legree—that we maintain principally to provide the rest of us with a delectable opportunity to savor our own moral superiority.

Putting them aside removes a dangerous distraction.

Systems, Not Devils

To begin with, the notion that Fairstein and Lederer are uniquely evil suggests that the Central Park Five were uniquely victimized. The fact is, the Central Park wrongful convictions were system failures in which many people—cops, defenders, judges, forensic scientists—had a hand, either by making a mistake or failing to catch one.

There was substandard evidence collection work, and there were dangerously outmoded interrogation techniques. There was poor crime scene analysis. Confirmation bias and groupthink characterized the investigation; bureaucratic silos impeded information sharing. A kind of fatalistic lethargy seemed to mark the defense. The specially appointed trial judge took a see-no-evil approach to the prosecution’s case.

And, yes, there was there was an absence of critical thinking by the lawyers directing the prosecution team.

Beyond these frontline deficits, there were the people who hired, trained, supervised, assigned, and funded (or didn’t) the practitioners—the people who created the environment.

Fairstein and Lederer were not swashbuckling renegades in their office; they were respected pros.

As Diane Vaughan said of the Space Shuttle Challenger launch decision, conformity, not deviance, was at the root of the problem. We have to come to grips with the fact that the Central Park Five fiasco was not the work of a pair of sociopaths— not a once-every-30-years lightning strike. These wrongful convictions were very much “normal accidents”.

The shortcuts and “workarounds” that When They See Us makes so clear in hindsight are what we could expect from individuals trying to make sense of their roles under extreme pressure to produce.

And we have to face the reality that the pressure to produce in the Central Park Five case was generated by a public attitude, by the broad societal stereotyping of young black men: a chronic weakness available for exploitation by the Donald Trumps of the world.

In the hysteria following the attack on the jogger, the racially biased coverage set Fairstein and Lederer up as candidates for angel status; it was the innocent defendants who were cast as the devils—or, at least, as Paul Butler points out, the apes.

These features took spectacular form in the Central Park Five case; but the same features are operating to a greater or lesser degree in hundreds of lower temperature, Kalief Browder, cases every month, with Fairstein and Lederer nowhere in sight.

The New Prosecutors’ Challenge

The point of all this is not to mitigate Fairstein’s and Lederer’s mistakes. It is to argue that when Kim Foxx, Larry Krassner, Rachel Rollins, or the other “progressive prosecutors” ride into town on the handsome white stallions issued to them by the commentators, it will be grossly unfair to expect any one of them to deal with all of this by waving a wand.

Reform-minded prosecutors can improve some things by taking action unilaterally within their own offices. They can, for example, raise the internal charging criterion from “probable cause” to “beyond a reasonable doubt.” They can order their staffs to provide open file discovery. They can decide as a matter of policy to avoid steps solely designed to enhance plea bargaining leverage.

For example, they can refuse to seek “trial tax” enhancements to sentences.

They can develop an internal culture that devises sentencing recommendations based on a careful consideration of the community safety implications of failing to address offender substance abuse, mental health, and educational and housing challenges, and that does not default to “longer is better” sentencing posture.

They can recognize that we are heirs to a long and pervasive history of racial bias (both explicit and implicit) and do what they can to train staff to be alert to those issues.

But the criminal justice system isn’t a simple linear, sequential process from crime to conviction. As the Central Park Five experience reveals, criminal justice is an extraordinarily complex environment in which scores of practitioners, in a dozen separate but interacting silos, are attempting to make sense of a cloud of swirling, overlapping, often contradictory influences.

Getting things right requires more than a chivalric individual moral code. It requires collaboration with numerous other practice communities and insight into the working lives of the people within them.

That is why leaders in the earliest generation of “progressive prosecutors” like Milwaukee’s John Chisholm and San Francisco’s George Gascon provided essays to the National Institute of Justice’s volume Mending Justice supporting the idea of all-stakeholders, non-blaming, learning reviews of criminal justice events that can reveal the connections—and the failures to connect—that are endemic to everyday criminal justice life.

Chisholm’s experience in convening a group of 30 stakeholders to learn from the mistaken release of Markus Evans, a Milwaukee juvenile who almost immediately after release killed a teenage girl, showed him that only these all-stakeholders collaborations can reveal the information gaps that prevented anyone with decision-making power to understand fully what was happening.

In effect, all prosecutors are entangled in a system that, as Diane Vaughan observed of the pre-Challenger NASA, embodies a “structural secrecy”: a system that threatens to keep secrets from itself.

This “structural secrecy” will remain a challenge to even the most ambitious prosecutorial reformers, and, paradoxically, it will be a greater challenge as our new data-driven environment generates more and more information.

In a forthcoming article , Andrew Guthrie Ferguson meticulously unpacks the implications of Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance’s innovative “intelligence-driven prosecution” scheme in light of the constitutional requirement that evidence favorable to the accused must be turned over to the defense.

The powerful architecture of centralized data collection which Vance’s approach mobilizes was not designed to identify the exculpatory and impeaching material that prosecutors are required to provide to the defense.

Ferguson’s specific focus is on compliance with the discovery rule requiring disclosure but it seems pretty clear that evidence of innocence can unintentionally (but routinely) be converted into a “weak signal” that inevitably disappears from the screens of the practitioners making the decisions, just as the warnings about the effect of unusually low temperatures on the launch rocket’s “O-rings” on the eve of the Challenger launch faded into the background.

Everyone has some of the information; no one has all of it.

Think about how easily that could happen when an alibi was at issue.

Linda Fairstein has taken a pugilistic attitude toward the current attempts to demonize her, but it is hard to believe that—back then—she would not have welcomed the information about the actual rapist, Matias Reyes, that was somewhere in NYPD files but never foregrounded in the investigation.

James Doyle

Maybe she would have come to the same conclusions. Who knows? But it would certainly have been by a different route, and the odds in favor of accuracy would certainly have been improved.

The issue here is not the bad character of one prosecutor, or the better character of his or her replacement.

The question is not “Who” but “What” can be changed. The next prosecutor will need help with that one.

James M. Doyle is a Boston defense lawyer and author, and a frequent contributor to The Crime Report. He welcomes readers’ comments.

The Real Culprit in the Central Park 5 Convictions syndicated from https://immigrationattorneyto.wordpress.com/

[sentencingdmp]

America’s Criminal Justice System is Trash. Here’s Why.

The United States of America adorns the crown for highest rate of mass incarceration in the world, but this hardly comes as a surprise with inherently flawed socioeconomic institutions fortifying the nation’s criminal justice system. In 2018 the Bureau of Justice Statistics released a report indicating over two million people populated American prisons and jails by the end of 2016. For perspective’s sake, imagine sending nearly everyone living in the city of Houston, whose population peaked at 2.3 million, to prison. While this number already shines light on the gaps between America’s mass incarceration rates and those of other global powerhouses, the demographic of the prison population illuminates an even larger issue: America’s criminal justice system suffers from implicit racial bias at a fundamental level.

The Sixth Amendment grants every American access to an impartial tribunal, but reality doesn’t always conform to words printed on a sheet of paper. Though several aspects of the incarceration process do damage, sentencing plays a major role in creating gaps and enabling mass incarceration. Initially proposed by prosecutors and ultimately set by the judge, sentences determine how long convicts are to remain behind bars. Arguably more importantly, they also provide insight into what ways structural racism influences the criminal justice system. “Black male offenders received sentences on average 19.1 percent longer than similarly situated White male offenders,” states the United States Sentencing Commission in its 2017 update to a report on the effects of United States v. Booker on federal sentencing (2).

A handful of organizations fight to change the policies enabling said disparity. Political authorities like Hillary Clinton and smaller nonprofits such as the Prison Policy Initiative have advocated for reform and provided various potential solutions. They believe current criminal justice policies disproportionately harm primarily African Americans, and one way to eradicate the issue is to start with reducing sentencing disparities. If the country desires to truly eliminate racial injustice in its justice system, it must first focus on rectifying policies that harm communities of color the most.

#intro

[flauntpage]

Meek Mill and Philadelphia Show Us the Path Forward to Criminal Justice Reform

The well-known definition of insanity—“doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results”—is also a perfect way to describe the current state of our country as it relates to our issues with race. Over and over again we talk about the need for equality and inclusion—we all feel good about denouncing racists, we protest, we march—yet we still have a justice system that is encouraged and incentivized to incarcerate black and brown bodies. We still have unarmed men and women of color losing their lives at the hands of police, whose actions get coded as “implicit bias” rather than “racist.”

Every day, people of color worry that they will be arrested for activities as mundane as sitting in a Starbucks, yet we are all too willing to celebrate all the things we as a country have accomplished, while shying away from focusing on race. We celebrate former President Barack Obama and other highly successful black people, as we should, but also point to them as evidence that our race issues are over. We rarely like to address the fact that we, as a country, are still reaping the strange fruit from the seeds of our ancestors.

As I contemplate how to break from this insanity, I see black people in this country fighting two battles at the same time. There is an external battle against a society with social structures built on the marginalization of black people and then there is also an internal struggle to apply the current energy and unrest in the black community towards something powerful and productive in order to carve out our own space within the very same structures that have marginalized us. Both represent significant challenges, but for the purposes of this column I am going to focus on the external battle.

More and more people are starting to see that our issues with race are systemic and as that awareness grows, the fight against the system gains momentum. Racism in 2018 isn’t about segregation, water hoses, and dogs but about constructs designed to capitalize off of poor people and people of color (good luck if you fall into both categories). People are starting to understand that police need more accountability and that we need reforms to our justice system to end the damaging and costly effects of mass incarceration. We are starting to understand that when you destroy family structures and exclude people from quality education, you are building a pipeline towards crime, death, or incarceration. With a ton of highly visible incidents to reference, it is important that we continue to point out these racial disparities in our societal systems and put pressure on those with the power to change them.

In many places, we are making important progress in combating these structural inequities. Recently in Philadelphia, we elected civil rights attorney Larry Krasner district attorney, who was voted in as a champion for justice reform. He has not disappointed. He’s done more in the last four months than many do in their entire term. The situation surrounding Meek Mill—a Philly rapper whose legal fight became a major talking point for criminal justice reform—highlights exactly why the role of district attorney is so important. Even though Meek is a superstar celebrity, has money, and more importantly hadn’t committed a real crime in 10 years, neither his money nor fame could keep him from his ridiculous sentence of 2-4 years in prison for popping a wheelie. Philadelphia 76ers co-owner Michael Rubin and Jay Z, Meek’s enormously wealthy friends, poured money and resources into drawing attention to his case, but that still wasn’t enough to get Meek out.

It was instead a key move by Larry Krasner that turned the tide. He did what many prosecutors don’t do: held the local police department accountable. Turns out the the former district attorney instructed his prosecutors to create a list of cops who, for reasons including brutality, racial bias, and plain lying, were not to be used as witnesses at trial. Krasner promised to make that list public and after receiving a court order in March, he finally did. Turns out that one of the officers on that list was the arresting officer in Meek Mill’s case. The Philly D.A.'s office also filed a motion in Meek's case saying it would not oppose his release and that the arresting officer had provided false testimony. It was that HUGE intervention that turned the tide to allow Meek a retrial and the opportunity to at least post bail. Also over 100 other cases will be dropped because of the revelation of this list of corrupt officers.

Meek being released from prison is very important. Not just for Meek’s sake, but for anyone who wishes to see a truly just society as well as everyone else who has been unnecessarily gobbled up by a justice system masterfully designed to keep you entangled in it. We deprive people of education and opportunity that works as a feeder system to incarceration. Then instead of using this “time” to rehabilitate the majority of men and women that will return to society, we do everything in our power to break them and punish them more. Then we release them into a world that is conditioned to discriminate against them and put them under the strictest guidelines to which no citizen chasing the “American Dream” could adhere. This creates situations where popping a wheelie can get you 2-4 years and literally restart the cycle.

Meek Mill's notoriety brought necessary attention to these issue and has highlighted a path to progress. These are the fights that are necessary to break down barriers within the system to actually create the true equality and justice that our country professes is central to its core. In Philadelphia, we not only learned how powerful the ballot box can be, but that the arena for this particular battle is in the voting booth.

I will be hosting DA Candidate Forums later this week in Sacramento, as well as in Oakland/Alameda alongside Doug Baldwin, Richard Sherman, and Johnson Bademosi. Now is the time to address racial disparity and gain an understanding that YOUR voice and vote can do something about it.

Meek Mill and Philadelphia Show Us the Path Forward to Criminal Justice Reform published first on https://footballhighlightseurope.tumblr.com/

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8 Ways Machine Learning Is Improving Companies' Work Processes

Today's leading organizations are using machine learning-based tools to automate decision processes, and they're starting to experiment with more-advanced uses of artificial intelligence (AI) for digital transformation. Corporate investment in artificial intelligence is predicted to triple in 2017, becoming a $100 billion market by 2025. Last year alone saw $5 billion in machine learning venture investment. In a recent survey, 30% of respondents predicted that AI will be the biggest disruptor to their industry in the next five years. This will no doubt have profound effects on the workplace.

Machine learning is enabling companies to expand their top-line growth and optimize processes while improving employee engagement and increasing customer satisfaction. Here are some concrete examples of how AI and machine learning are creating value in companies today:

Personalizing customer service. The potential to improve customer service while lowering costs makes this one of the most exciting areas of opportunity. By combining historical customer service data, natural language processing, and algorithms that continuously learn from interactions, customers can ask questions and get high-quality answers. In fact, 44% of U.S. consumers already prefer chatbots to humans for customer relations. Customer service representatives can step in to handle exceptions, with the algorithms looking over their shoulders to learn what to do next time around.

Improving customer loyalty and retention. Companies can mine customer actions, transactions, and social sentiment data to identify customers who are at high risk of leaving. Combined with profitability data, this allows organizations to optimize "next best action" strategies and personalize the end-to-end customer experience. For example, young adults coming off of their parents' mobile phone plans often move to other carriers. Telcos can use machine learning to anticipate this behavior and make customized offers, based on the individual's usage patterns, before they defect to competitors.

Hiring the right people. Corporate job openings pull in about 250 resumes apiece, and over half of surveyed recruiters say shortlisting qualified candidates is the most difficult part of their job. Software quickly sifts through thousands of job applications and shortlists candidates who have the credentials that are most likely to achieve success at the company. Care must be taken not to reinforce any human biases implicit in prior hiring. But software can also combat human bias by automatically flagging biased language in job descriptions, detecting highly qualified candidates who might have been overlooked because they didn't fit traditional expectations.

Automating finance. AI can expedite "exception handling" in many financial processes. For example, when a payment is received without an order number, a person must sort out which order the payment corresponds to, and determine what to do with any excess or shortfall. By monitoring existing processes and learning to recognize different situations, AI significantly increases the number of invoices that can be matched automatically. This lets organizations reduce the amount of work outsourced to service centers and frees up finance staff to focus on strategic tasks.

Measuring brand exposure. Automated programs can recognize products, people, logos, and more. For example, advanced image recognition can be used to track the position of brand logos that appear in video footage of a sporting event, such as a basketball game. Corporate sponsors get to see the return on investment of their sponsorship investment with detailed analyses, including the quantity, duration, and placement of corporate logos.

Detecting fraud. The typical organization loses 5% of revenues each year to fraud. By building models based on historical transactions, social network information, and other external sources of data, machine learning algorithms can use pattern recognition to spot anomalies, exceptions, and outliers. This helps detect and prevent fraudulent transactions in real time, even for previously unknown types of fraud. For example, banks can use historical transaction data to build algorithms that recognize fraudulent behavior. They can also discover suspicious patterns of payments and transfers between networks of individuals with overlapping corporate connections. This type of "algorithmic security" is applicable to a wide range of situations, such as cybersecurity and tax evasion.

Predictive maintenance. Machine learning makes it possible to detect anomalies in the temperature of a train axle that indicate that it will freeze up in the next few hours. Instead of hundreds of passengers being stranded in the countryside, waiting for an expensive repair, the train can be diverted to maintenance before it fails, and passengers transferred to a different train.

Smoother supply chains. Machine learning enables contextual analysis of logistics data to predict and mitigate supply chain risks. Algorithms can sift through public social data and news feeds in multiple languages to detect, for example, a fire in a remote factory that supplies vital ball bearings that are used in a car transmission.

Other areas where machine intelligence could soon be commonly used include:

Career planning. Recommendations could help employees choose career paths that lead to high performance, satisfaction, and retention. If a person with an engineering degree wishes to run the division someday, what additional education and work experience should they obtain, and in what order?

Drone- and satellite-based asset management. Drones equipped with cameras can perform regular external inspections of commercial structures, like bridges or airplanes, with the images automatically analyzed to detect any new cracks or changes to surfaces.

Retail shelf analysis. A sports drink company could use machine intelligence, coupled with machine vision, to see whether its in-store displays are at the promised location, the shelves are properly stocked with products, and the product labels are facing outward.

Machine learning enables a company to reimagine end-to-end business processes with digital intelligence. The potential is enormous. That's why software vendors are investing heavily in adding AI to their existing applications and in creating net-new solutions.

But there are barriers to overcome. The most important is the availability of large quantities of high-quality data that can be used to train algorithms. In many organizations, the data isn't in one place or in a useable format, or it contains biases that will lead to bad decisions. To prepare your enterprise for the future, the first step is to assess your existing information systems and data flows to distinguish the areas that are ready for automation from those where more investment is needed. Consider appointing a chief data officer to ensure that data is being properly managed as a corporate asset.

Another problem is prioritization; with so many opportunities, it can be hard to know where to start. To ease this burden, software providers are starting to offer predefined solutions enabled with state-of-the-art machine learning out of the box. Many organizations are also implementing AI centers of excellence to work closely with business departments. Wherever you start, it's important to link the projects to a long-term digital platform strategy to avoid having disconnected islands of innovation.

Lastly, don't underestimate the cultural barriers. Many employees worry about the consequences of all of this technology on their roles. For most, it will be an opportunity to reduce tedious tasks and do more, but it's vital that employees have incentives to ensure the success of new machine learning initiatives. You'll also have to think carefully about customers. AI can augment the power to get insights from customer data - perhaps beyond the point where customers are comfortable. Organizations must take privacy seriously, and relying on computers for important decisions requires careful governance. They should implement procedures to audit the real effects of any automated systems, and there should always be recourses and overrides as part of the processes. AI systems that use data about people should involve informed consent.

AI's continued rise is inevitable, and it's advancing into the workplace at a dizzying speed. The question now is not about whether managers should investigate adopting AI but about how fast they can do so. At the same time, organizations need to be thoughtful about how they apply AI to their organizations, with a full understanding of the advantages and disadvantages inherent in the technology.

Source

http://www.sooperarticles.com/technology-articles/8-ways-machine-learning-improving-companies-work-processes-1584812.html