Texans 50 or over, get in line. New rules take effect opening up vaccine eligibility, the trouble? Finding enough doses. Coming up disputes between the feds and state officials over whether Texas is getting enough vaccine doses in its fight against COVID-19. Also, efforts by the republican legislature in Texas to curb the powers of the governor during a pandemic. Now a priority item in the house. We’ll hear why. Also more listener questions about COVID-19 and the vaccine , plus our conversation with Austin mayor Steve Adler, the power of the Black church in Texas politics and so much more today on the Texas Standard :
class
Poem For A Rising Freshman
Students are headed back to school. For many, that’s in a virtual way. For almost all, it’s different than last fall. That was the inspiration for this Typewriter Rodeo poem.
Texas Standard: March 7, 2017
The bathroom line gets long outside the senate chambers as lawmakers hunker down to take care of business, we’ll have the latest on a controversial move just ahead. Also is there something Texas democrats and republicans can agree on? Quite possibly. We’ll hear about rumblings over criminal justice reform. Plus 11 professors for how much? Why the governor’s plan bring the best and the brightest to Texas may be on the chopping block. And Aggies making school a safe place for former soldiers…how and why? Plus the white shaman of the lower Pecos arrives in the big city: could this be a sign? Those stories and so much more today on the Texas Standard:
Education with Dr. John B. Diamond (Ep. 48, 2015)
Dr. John B. Diamond, co-author of “Despite the Best Intentions: How Racial Inequality Thrives in Good Schools,” shares his thoughts on race, class and education in society, now and in our country’s past.
Race In America
Race in America
This month’s episode recognizes Black History Month by bringing together several scholars for a discussion of race in contemporary America. As we look back on 2014, we celebrate the achievements of African-Americans, but we also find racial inequality and abuses of power and privilege that continue to endanger and oppress non-white Americans. We must also ask ourselves: Where are we, as a nation, in our ongoing debates regarding race? Among other inquiries, host Rebecca McInroy asks these In Perspective discussants which conversations about race are most productive to pursue.
The Discussion
Cherise Smith is a professor of art history and Director of the John L. Warfield Center for African and African American Studies at The University of Texas at Austin. Smith reminds us that while the effects of racial discrimination are very real, race is also a social construction that gets piled onto other issues of power and identity, including gender, class, and education.
Rich Reddick is a professor of educational administration and Faculty Director for Campus Diversity Initiatives at UT Austin. Reddick argues that we need to have more general conversations about race, rather than rely on reactionary discussions, in order to help us work through and understand ongoing institutional racism.
Eric Tang is a professor of African and African diaspora studies and Asian American studies at UT Austin. For Tang, race is a set of practices, which assign values and power to certain bodies based on individual daily life, as well as policy. He brings to our attention the significance of race in how Austin has changed over time.
Regina Lawrence is a professor of journalism at UT Austin and author of The Politics of Force: Media and the Construction of Police Brutality. For Lawrence, conversations about race begin with a shared language and a greater sense of empathy—something she finds lacking in discussions driven by social media where earnest conversation can be foreclosed by a culture of shaming.
What’s your perspective?
Race is a sensitive issue in this country to say the least. It is a complicated social construction that keeps us divided through institutionalized means, via the daily reproduction of social conventions, and via the easy reliance on harmful stereotypes. While we engage in this discussion during Black History Month, it is clear that race impacts all our lives regardless of how we might identify and regardless of how others categorize us. When we understand race in relation to power and privilege, we begin to see how it plays out in our daily experiences. How does race impact your daily life.