#miami herald

[mysharona1987]

[my-midlife-crisis]

[contemplatingoutlander]

Florida reviewers of AP African American Studies sought ‘opposing viewpoints��� of slavery

This excellent article from the Miami Herald, looks at some of the previously unreported objections Florida had to the AP African American Studies course.

“It’s not really about the course right? It’s kind of about putting down Black struggles for equality and freedom that have been going on for centuries at this point in time and making them into something that they are not through this kind of distorted rightist lens."

--Alexander Weheliye, African American studies professor, Brown University

When Florida rejected a new Advanced Placement course on African American Studies, state officials said they objected to the study of several concepts — like reparations, the Black Lives Matter movement and “queer theory.” But the state did not say that in many instances, its reviewers also made objections in the state’s attempt to sanitize aspects of slavery and the plight of African Americans throughout history, according to a Miami Herald/Tampa Bay Times review of internal state comments. For example, a lesson in the Advanced Placement course focused on how Europeans benefited from trading enslaved people and the materials enslaved laborers produced. The state objected to the content, saying the instructional approach “may lead to a viewpoint of an ‘oppressor vs. oppressed’ based solely on race or ethnicity.” In another lesson about the beginnings of slavery, the course delved into how tens of thousands of enslaved Africans had been “removed from the continent to work on Portuguese-colonized Atlantic islands and in Europe” and how those “plantations became a model for slave-based economy in the Americans.” In response, the state raised concerns that the unit “may not address the internal slave trade/system within Africa” and that it “may only present one side of this issue and may not offer any opposing viewpoints or other perspectives on the subject.” “There is no other perspective on slavery other than it was brutal,” said Mary Pattillo, a sociology professor and the department chair of Black Studies at Northwestern University. Pattillo is one of several scholars the Herald/Times interviewed during its review of the state’s comments about the AP African American Studies curriculum. “It was exploitative, it dehumanized Black people, it expropriated their labor and wealth for generations to come. There is no other side to that in African American studies. If there’s another side, it may be in some other field. I don’t know what field that is because I would argue there is no other side to that in higher education,” Pattillo said. Alexander Weheliye, African American studies professor at Brown University, said the evaluators’ comments on the units about slavery were a “complete distortion” and “whitewashing” of what happened historically. “It’s really trying to go back to an earlier historical moment, where slavery was mainly depicted by white historians through a white perspective. So to say that the enslaved and the sister African nations and kingdoms and white colonizers and enslavers were the same really misrecognizes the fundamentals of the situation,” Weheliye said. [emphasis added]

The entire article is well worth reading, and I encourage people to do so.

[weaponizedhorse]

‘Large’ creature — with 20 arms — found lurking in Antarctic sea. It’s a new species

Scientists aboard a research vessel near Antarctica pulled their nets out of the chilly ocean water. Among their catch, they found a 20-armed creature with a distinctive body shape. It’s a new species.

Researchers trawled the Southern Ocean on several research expeditions between 2008 and 2017, according to a study published July 14 in the journal Invertebrate Systematics. They were searching for a group of “cryptic” sea animals known as Promachocrinus, or Antarctic feather stars.

Antarctic feather stars are “large” animals that can live anywhere from about 65 feet to about 6,500 feet underwater and have an “otherworldly appearance” when swimming, researchers said. Although both are invertebrate ocean animals, feather stars are distinct from more well-known sea stars

During their surveys, researchers collected eight feather stars with a distinctive body shape and discovered a new species: Promachocrinus fragarius, or the Antarctic strawberry feather star.

The Antarctic strawberry feather star has 20 arms branching off its central “strawberry-like” body, the study said. It can range in color from “purplish” to “dark reddish.” Researchers did not provide measurements of the animal’s overall size.

Photos show the new species has two types ofappendages. Its lower, shorter arms appear almost striped and bumpy, while its upper, longer arms appear almost feathered and soft

A close-up photo shows the Antarctic strawberry feather star’s lower body. It has a roughly triangular shape, wider at the top and tapering toward a rounded bottom tip. The texture appears bumpy with circle-like indents likely left from broken-off arms.

Researchers named the new species after the Latin word for “strawberry” because of the “resemblance of the (body) shape… to a strawberry.”

[galerymod]

NFL star in handcuffs:

It remains to be seen what the consequences of the incident will be for the players involved.

Shortly before the start of the NFL season, superstar Tyreek Hill was temporarily taken into custody as part of a traffic stop. As a result, the pass receiver and his team were asked to take a critical stance towards the player. The police justify their actions.

The police had previously released video footage from bodycams documenting the stop. The published video footage shows Hill sitting in a black sports car. A police officer approaches his vehicle and Hill hands the officer something through the lowered window. The window is then rolled up again.

The police officer then asks him to lower the window again, but Hill does not do so. Another police officer then forcefully opened the driver's door, whereupon Hill was pulled out of the vehicle and pinned to the ground. An officer pressed his knee into Hill's back, whereupon he was handcuffed.

‘I still don't know what happened,’ Hill said after the NFL opener against the Jacksonville Jaguars (20-17) and criticised: ’What if I wasn't Tyreek Hill? God knows what those officials would have done.’

The Dolphins wrote in their statement that this was ‘a reminder’ that ‘not every situation like this ends peacefully, and we are grateful that it did in this one.’

There are ‘some officers who confuse their responsibility and dedication with misguided power’, it continued: ‘We commend the MDPD (Miami Dade Police Department, ed.) for taking the proper and necessary action and releasing this footage so quickly, but also urge them to take equally swift and decisive action against the officers who behaved so abhorrently.’

Hill uncooperative according to police

No, Power abuse in its purist form.

It's interesting how many cops turned up on the tray for a normal traffic stop!

Any non-POC citizen would have had no problem getting into his car and the traffic stop would not have happened, this is structural racism!

The black man with the big fat car fits the image of police officers abusing their power.

Throw them out, they have no place in the police force, at most as security guards in a shopping centre car park.

mod

Of course, first investigate properly and then throw them out, that's just our opinion, then jobs will open up for more capable people with a greater sense of responsibility and the appropriate de-escalation skills.

Cops on Steroids?

Is that the problem? It's interesting when a professional athlete looks like an untrained citizen against a normal patrolman, isn't it?

I can only puke for the steroid pumped up cops with their bullshit core spirit.

Do a test on steroids with one of them - I bet you'll be surprised.

[tkachuktkaching]

[dontmeantobepoliticalbut]

DeSantis administration aims to ‘curb’ diversity, equity, inclusion in state universities

BY DIVYA KUMAR

Florida will be looking to “curb” diversity, equity and inclusion efforts at the state’s colleges and universities, Lt. Gov. Jeanette Nuñez said Tuesday, offering a preview of what higher education leaders can expect from lawmakers during the upcoming legislative session.

Her statements, delivered at a state Board of Governors meeting at Florida International University in Miami, marked the first time the DeSantis administration has explained why its budget office this month requested a detailed accounting of how much colleges and universities spend on such efforts.

“I can give you a few insights as to what we’re working on coming this session,” Nuñez said before mentioning a statement last week from the presidents of Florida’s 28 state colleges. It pledged to root out any policy or practice that “compels belief in critical race theory or related concepts.” The lieutenant governor then suggested that effort would soon extend to the state’s 12 universities.

“I believe [the colleges are] looking at ways to curb those initiatives, and I think we’ll look at ways to more broadly curb those initiatives as well,” she said.

In a speech that earlier praised the university system for its high rankings and relatively low student debt, Nuñez said “real forces” were “undermining the good work taking place” at the state schools.

“These new threats that are creeping and taking hold are things that we need to face,” she said. “I believe one of the biggest threats that’s infiltrating our universities is a permeating culture — one might call it woke culture, one might call it woke ideology, one might call it identity politics. ... We don’t need to get into all the names, but I do believe that some of these issues are taking hold. The policies they advocate are based on hate and based on indoctrination.”

Nuñez also previewed proposals to review general education courses and give university presidents more control over faculty hiring.

“We want to further empower our presidents to make sure that they own the responsibility of hiring individuals to work in their campuses and make sure it stays in the hands of the leader of the institution more so than in hidden hiring practices and faculty committees,” she said.

The legislative session begins March 7.

In their responses to the governor’s budget office, the 12 public universities said they collectively are spending about $34.5 million this year on diversity, equity and inclusion efforts. About $20.7 million came from state funds.

The University of South Florida reported the highest expenses at $8.7 million, though only $2.5 million came from state funds. Money was spent on initiatives such the university’s supplier diversity program; non-mandatory trainings; a list of 10 courses including “Theatre Appreciation” and “Language in the USA”; and funding for its Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.

Florida A&M University had the highest amount of state funds used at $4.1 million. The school’s expenses included a research center and museum for Black archives and its Center for Environmental Equity and Justice, created by the Legislature in 1998.

Shortly after those responses were submitted, the governor’s budget office sent out a second request requiring universities to report details on any procedures and treatments they had offered related to gender affirming care since 2018. The request did not specify how the information would be used.

[subsidystadium]

The Miami Heat continue to screw over Miami-Dade County by refusing to follow through on their promised waterfront park

In 1996, the Miami Heat were losing the PR battle for a new basketball arena. The Miami Heat were trying to justify to the public why the team should be given a new sports arena on the public’s dime. As a former Heat political consultant wrote in 2004, as the referendum date got closer, the “arena project appeared to be doomed”. So how did they turn it around and win the vote? They did everything…

[derekhernandezfuentes]

I had the GREATEST Time in High School, College and University as a Teenager during Our United States Republican Florida Governor Jeb Bush’s Tenure during Bush-Cheney Eras! 🍟💵❤️🇺🇸☀️🌈🥞🍊🍋🍑🍉🍌 “Mangoes…” says George W Bush! I miss the Scents of Peaches and Mangos in my Family Home! Since Obama Era, I can’t find Peach Scents in Home Depot anymore… We must Bring Back Peach Scents for Happy, Family Memories! Cut Taxes so we All have many more Festivities and Fiestas! 🍣🍱🍰🍿🍪🍫 US Gay Men and Our Fellow Lesbians benefited SOOO MUCH from the Republican Tax Cuts from President George W Bush and Governor Jeb Bush that Our Celebrations and Gay Parades were filled with LIGHT — but now Lady Gaga’s, Lady Antebellum’s, and Rihanna’s Dark Gloomy Gravity Music have brought down Movies with Netflix’s Black and Bloody Red Logo and more terror. CUT THE TAXES!

[albertcapraro]

March 16, 1975 - Miami Herald Page 4-BW For big moments, you might want to waft around in, say, this cotton voile, quite bare when you slide off the jacket.  Casual but elegant, by Albert Capraro for Jerry Guttenberg and exclusively ours.  Fifth Avenue Shop.

[photo-roulette-wheel]

The news last week

[netalkolemedia]

Les autorités haïtiennes s'opposent à une visite en Haïti du président colombien

Le président de la République de Colombie, Gustavo Petro, ne pourra pas visiter Haïti ce week-end en raison du refus des autorités haïtiennes qui lui ont expliquées que le moment est inopportun en raison de la précarité de la situation sécuritaire dans le pays. Le chef d’État colombien voulait profiter de sa présence en République dominicaine à l’occasion de l’investiture du président dominicain…

[tachyonblu]

GameDiviner feared there would be violence against GamerGate at SPJ Airplay in Miami… then bomb threats got called in. He shares his thoughts on this, as well as the Gamers Are Dead articles, what he perceives as bias from Ren LaForme and laziness from the Miami Herald.

[savage-kult-of-gorthaur]

LEGGY LOVELIES FROM THE THURSTON MOORE FAMILY TREE.

PIC INFO: Spotlight on Eleanor Nann Moore (left), mother of musician and SONIC YOUTH co-founder Thurston Moore, poses with her twin sister Louise at their home in Coral Gables, Florida, in an undated photograph, possibly c. late 1940s. Courtesy of Thurston Moore.

Source: https://amp.miamiherald.com/entertainment/article287358050.html.

[minnesotafollower]

More Information on Cuban Entrepreneurs

As discussed in a prior post, a group of Cuban entrepreneurs recently attended a conference in Miami, Florida.[1] According to the Miami Herald, this conference provided the following insights into the current status of private enterprise on the island.[2] “In just two years, . . . the small and medium enterprises  have played a significant role in importing food and other basic supplies.” But…

[samiamisblog]

Miamiiiii