Reader's Digest

I've been reading a lot of op-eds lately that have got me thinking...
This NYT article about how race factors into employment more so in the recession saddened me but made more determined to do what I can to make a meaningful difference. We individually do a lot of volunteer work on and off our day jobs, for instance, N works for an after-school youth program. That right there is affecting the lives of young people. Though the day-to-day activities could be tasking, I know that some of the things she says to some of the kids will stick with them for years to come. Among other things, she's involved with Loco Bloco who by the way, are putting on a fund raising event, so if you're in the Bay Area you should look into it. Over the years for me, I have basically looked for opportunities where I can work with kids and technology. I currently volunteer through a women-techies program to introduce middle school girls to engineering, I've coached for FLL, tutored high school kids for a math competition and I've been toying with the idea of teaching a financial literacy class though Girls Inc.

Back to the point I was trying to make, after reading that article and some of the comments, I am thankful I volunteered to be on my company's recruiting team we need more empathetic people to be involved in the recruiting process. I truly believe that it is so important to find ways to pay it forward when you have landed that job unfortunately not enough people do that and how easy it is to forget that you were once on the outside looking in.

I'm a part-time lurker at Racialicious and it was from there I got put on to Model Minority, she has written so many thought-provoking pieces that resonate with me, none more than this piece on Beyonce. I am not the biggest Beyonce fan, I'll listen to a song or two of hers when it's on the radio but you will be hard pressed to find any of her music in my mp3 player or doing her dances enthusiastically in the club. Most days I can half-intelligently explain to folks why I do not like her. All I have been able to say to people in my conversations about her is there is something disturbing about knowing that some dude can mute his tv and jerk off to your music video and you don't care because the numbers in your bank account increase exponentially every year. Some points that I have noted for future use which M.Dot points out are:

Why is a light skinned middle class Black woman from the suburbs of Houston perpetually singing about needing a baller when she made $87M in 07-08 and what role does this play in normalizing transactional relationships (money for sex) between young Black people?

...that's all folks, and now, back to the grind...