I can't apologize to a blog better than this teacher did

The Grand Champion, instant classic, Hall of Fame apology for not posting regularly was on educator colleague Ms. B.'s blog a few days ago. She talks directly to the blog-- the readers are apparently independent sorts who can take care of themselves. And there is a critter cute enough to make a Sarah McLachlan SPCA ad run through your head all day long:

http://2blog2share2learn.edublogs.org/2010/09/02/sorry-for-my-neglect/

As I must relearn each and every semester, there will never be more time. Yes, the focus shifts, this cause or that, but the clock is really the same clock. This Paul Madonna illustration is now my desktop wallpaper (really):

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/01/24/PKMADONNA.DTL

Does wallpaper work?

"Next Blog" of the Week (April 25-May 1, 2010)

This is like this because that is like that.

   --Thich Nhat Hanh

I haven't been able to figure out the pattern (if any) for the Next Blog link at the top of Blogger/blogspot.com pages. Often enough I'm taken to photo collections of nice clean white-bread families (of any color) and there doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason.

On clicking through this morning, my first hit was along the lines of the above. My second hit (always from the TOTF home page, mind you) was more interesting for a couple of reasons, everything being somehow connected to everything else across the multiverses.

The Lost Albatross is a blog by Emily Mills of Madison, WI. The site layout and albatross logo held me just long enough to notice the Wisconsin connection. A substantial contingent of my family on the "black" side live in Milwaukee [if you can call that living, insert rim shot] and I do check on their environs now and then to see whether their reports align in the slightest with news from the rest of the state.

So Emily's latest post (as of this writing) is about warm weather, it finally being a facsimile of Spring up in them parts, and a rather nasty photo of a rather nasty blister. Compared with injury stories from my family it's not that impressive, but then they don't post actual photos of their boo-boos.

The next thing I saw on her page was a March 18 post that referred to her other writing, Emily's Post, at something called The Daily Page. I clicked through and read this article on the difficulties of getting a club license in Madison if they even SUSPECT you'll book hip-hop acts, and I recommend it. It's on topic for us here at TOTF, and a reminder that the North can be just as mean and sneaky as the South in race-connected matters, so I don't feel I'm leading you astray at this point.

Lastly, the serendipitous "whoa" aspect of this particular Next Blog, which was not the Wisconsin connection after all: The post that sent me off to The Daily Page also contained an embedded video of Amanda (f) Palmer. You may be aware that she's no Amanda Plummer. (Personally, I like Amanda Blake better than either of them. It's a generational thing.) My colleague over at after the flood just commented on Amanda Palmer the other day, combining a dream sequence and hipster racism in an interesting mash-up that ended up in an unfavorable review for Ms. Palmer.

OK, that's full circle for this Next Blog entry. Thanks for being here!

P.S. Hipster racism deserves its own linkout so here ya go.

The Pact, Episode 1: Those Pesky Digital Divides

The dilemma:

On January 1st, 2010, I broke with personal tradition and made a New Year's resolution about the level of blogging I'd achieve. I believed I would have time and inclination to keep this here blog going (fair enough) AND to post any off-topic, yet still interesting, items over at The Joshua Fit. You're welcome to click over and see how well that resolution worked out.

Meanwhile, over at After the Flood, my real and virtual pal RRP made a similar resolution on January 5th. That resolution worked out about as well as mine did.

We chatted a couple of weeks ago about this and decided enough is enough, let's do something about it.

The solution:

We signed a bilateral pact enforceable in the World Court (just kidding) that each of us would post something "substantial" once a week. There's a somewhat arcane set of ground rules, because we know each other well enough to ensure rules are in place and we're warped enough to ensure said rules are arcane. (We do have an escape clause for true family emergencies, and we left "substantial" loosely defined for now.) Oh, an immediate side effect-- add to the lexicon:

blagging = blogging + nagging

The post:

Lately, I've been hit upside the head with the Digital Divide, writ large and small. In March, I was given a change of perspective on this phenomenon by several personal experiences, as well as some news articles and blog posts. The "money quote" from the latter is from an article by Samuel S. Kang on March 24:

What we have, in effect, is not one, but two “digital divides”: Not only do many minority communities have less broadband access than their white counterparts – a problem that the NBP should help address – blacks and Latinos are far less likely than whites to be employed in high-tech fields.

Broadband access (and the proposed National Broadband Plan) got a lot of play in March thanks to media coverage of the FCC. To be fair, broadband access is an issue not just for minority, mostly urban communities but also for rural communities of any color. National, regional, and state efforts rightly focus on both. But I'll admit that the aspect of it that rubs me the wrong way is lack of access in urban (minority) areas that are geographically close to wealthier areas with access. This divide affects homes and schools.

The consumer end, whether people get to watch CSI or Law & Order reruns on eight channels, is not important to me. Hand-in-hand with that, however, is lack of access for educational and creative purposes at home and at school. Our kids are missing opportunities.

The result of not addressing youth access is readily manifest at the other end, where adults gather. Kang's quote above is specific to employment in high-tech fields and was addressed recently by research by the San Jose Mercury News. (See here for sure, and here. Also see here for the immigrant-vs.-native factor.) But even without considering direct employent, people of color participate very little in their own fates when major high-tech issues are discussed, networking (the human kind) takes place, and decisions are made. Our communities are represented most often by kindly emissaries who are familiar with the issues and who have honorable intent. But the lack of direct empowerment for the people being discussed, whose futures are in the hands of decision-makers, is plain to me.

My evidence is anecdotal but tell me if I'm wrong. I referred above to being hit upside the head with personal experience of the Digital Divide. Since early March, I've been on the research & education conference circuit, six events. Two about broadband. Two about increasing presence and quality of math & science teachers in high-needs schools. One explicitly about affirmative action in higher ed. (See my post about Hilda Solis dropping by.) And just yesterday, one involving technology, education, and design (check the initials). At each event I've played "count the black people." This is a visual pastime, kind of like Slug Bug (punch-in-the-shoulder game with Volkswagens) only with psychic pain.

Event A: 3 black people and I think one was Afro-Latino

Event B: 1 black person (me)

Event C: 5 black people

Event D: 1 black person (me)

Event E: 4 black people, 5 if you include a security guy

Event F: Maybe 20 but I lost count. Guess which event?

I'm not blaming the event organizers for the overwhelming whiteness of the attendees, and I should note for the record that the non-black, non-Latino rainbow was somewhat represented, and plenty of women were there but not many black women. It's not really the organizers' fault. It's a natural result of system design (few minorities into the pipeline, few out) plus our own responsibility to take care of our own professional and personal development by going to these things instead of always minding the store while our colleagues go.

Bottom line: Tune into and attend the all-black "summit" events (e.g. those held by people such as Roland Martin, Tom Joyner, and yes, even Tavis Smiley). Support the minority tech, engineering, and education organizations. But don't think that's enough to change anything. Go to the mostly-white events. Go until they aren't.