Blanket "Don't Go To Graduate School!" Advice Ignores Race and Reality?

Reblogged from tressiemc:

When I decided to return to graduate school I was about as devoid of prestige as one can be. I was old, from a no-name undergraduate university (worse, maybe, an HBCU!), I lacked social capital, my undergraduate performance was fine but not stellar, and I did not know the difference between sociology and anthropology.

Fortunately, I grew up with a library card and a mother who made it seem like the passport to everything I would ever need to know in life.

Read more… 1,902 more words

Brave indeed. Thanks to @tressiemc22 for this post.

Proud

Proud

My belated resolution is to give myself permission to post very short blog entries, so that…I can actually accomplish some blog postings!

With that, I’d just like to say that I am very proud of Supreme Court justices Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan for standing up to the bully Antonin Scalia during today’s arguments over the Voting Rights Act. You go, sisters. (Click above for linked article.)

Thoughts at the Claremont Super King Market

I went to the new Super King Market the other night to buy some snacks and magazines. Vons is my usual go-to for after-hours groceries, but I had been curious about this new place for a while.

The store was reasonably attractive and quite busy. I was happy to see the huge and colorful fresh produce section, with more quantity and variety than you’ll ever see at Trader Joe’s. No organics, but the state and country of origin clearly posted. Same with the seafood section: no doubts about whether a fish was farm-raised or wild. The new normal?

All in all, the market seemed like an above-average destination for penny-pinching people of color. Plentiful fresh veggies, meats, and seafoods bracketing numerous aisles full of processed junk. Mexican crema agria, imported coffees and teas, ceramic plates with warning labels about their toxic lead content, machete-shaped tequila bottles, on and on. I picked up my snacks, threw in a pack of Maria cookies, and started to look for the magazines.

Not one thing to read in that entire store.

Someone has decided that people who shop at the Claremont Super King are not looking for stuff to read. No newspapers, paperback romance novels, Lowrider Magazines, Soap Opera Digests, comic books, religious tracts, NOTHING in any language.

If I can find the time and energy, I’ll send a note to management and let you know what I hear back. In the meantime, please promise me that you are finding stuff to read wherever you can: libraries, school (ahem), Vons/Target/Walmart, the internet, the recycle bin, whatever.

READ, people!