July 2012
13 posts
Lens: A Radically Prosaic Approach to Civil Rights Images →
lens.blogs.nytimes.com
Gordon Parks’s photographs of blacks in the South at the height of the Jim Crow era showed African-Americans living “in a complete universe.” Many, however, were unpublished or unseen until now.
“Beat reporting—and the beat structure of a metropolitan daily—is what is dying here. Absent a fresh online revenue stream, newspapers can no longer sustain veteran reporters on institutional beats the way they once did; not in the numbers necessary to keep bureaucracies honest. And the blogosphere? Good luck. The day that a citizen journalist can summon the sources, patience, clarity and tenacity to uncover such backroom machinations, to sort and filter the implications and then land a careful critique of the dynamic—well, that will be the day that he or she has spent two or three or four years covering that institution or agency. In this case, that means two or three years of drinking beer in cop bars and taking prosecutors to lunch and saving home numbers of whichever disgruntled police commanders are willing to talk about the dirt. And the day such a citizen journalist devotes that much time to such a crusade, I’m willing to bet it’s because someone is paying them an honest wage to go to work every day. Which makes that person not a citizen journalist at all, but a professional reporter; which brings us more or less right back to the world that the Internet supposedly vanquished.”
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David Simon
the executive producer and writer of the HBO series Treme. He worked as a crime reporter at The Baltimore Sun from 1983 to 1995. After leaving the newspaper, Simon created the award-winning series The Wire and the miniseries Generation Kill.
more.
(via thesmithian)
For my journalist fryenzzzz
First Stirrings of Feminism
Although I have always believed that women should have the right to vote, deserve equal pay, should have the right to choose, etc. etc., I have never exactly considered myself a feminist. But lately, as in the past year or so, I have been more bothered by slights against women I hear about in the news or from people around me. But this summer those feelings have intensified a ton. I am currently in the last two weeks of a six week summer program for international studies where there are 10 guys and 5 girls. I don’t think the guys are intentionally or maliciously sexist (but I could be wrong), but I, as well as the other ladies are definitely feeling some sexist vibes. Mostly it is the expectation that we will do menial tasks like taking notes during group assignments instead of contributing to the dialogue. Or the expectation that we will do the work for group projects. Um, pause. We are not secretaries and we got into this program the saaaaame way you did, based on our qualifications. It’s an awkward situation because we all get along very well but at the same time we are not about to let these bustas walk all over us. We have started rejecting invitations to be the group scribes, and we are collaborating on an op-ed for the end-of-program brochure about what it’s like to be a woman in this program and by extension, a woman in politics. It will take a lot more than what we are doing to truly take on the battle against sexism, but I think this is a good place to start :)
- white girls twerking: omg they can dance!
- asian girls twerking: omg they're so talented!
- black girls twerking: ugh seriously this is so ratchet, where's their self respect? they're making all of us look bad. omg mlk didn't die for this, etc.
Sunday Evenings
I love those days where you can look back at the end of the day and say, wow, today was a good day. I had one of those days today, and it was the perfect way to relax before the start of another busy week. I attended a perfectly over-the-top church service, had surprisingly good hospital cafeteria food, took a walk, witnessed an awesome drum circle, watched a nine-year old girl lead a group in African dance, played some impromptu volleyball and attempted tight-rope walking. It’s amazing all there is to do in DC and all of the opportunities to participate in cultural activities. Here are a few photos from my (very sweaty) evening at Meridian Hill Park.
Film: Sin Nombre
I watched this incredible movie on a whim last night at 1 a.m. It was completely worth the sleepiness I now feel though. Sin Nombre is a film both about immigration and gang life in Mexico. The main character Sayra, is attempting to flee from Honduras to family in the United States, with her father and uncle. Through crazy circumstances, she crosses paths with Casper, a member of a tough Mexican street gang, and must end up relying on him to help her make her way across the border. I loved this story because it had so much emotion in it. It gives you a real taste of problems that people in Latin America and Mexico have to endure as far as immigration, poverty and violence. If you can endure subtitles, it’s another one I would definitely recommend!
