Salon.com > diversity

Is the White House a boys’ club?

Thu, 27 Dec 2012 12:45:00 +0000

Political expediency can make a sudden feminist out of anyone, apparently. There was former Romney advisor Dan Senor on Twitter last week, expressing his distaste for potential Defense Secretary nominee Chuck Hagel: "Isn't it strange that the President dropped Rice but is dug in over #Hagel? Especially when he can nominate the highly qualified #Flournoy?"

Senor's main implication was that Barack Obama was suddenly showing his true anti-Israel cards by having "dug in" on someone he hasn't even nominated yet. The secondary suggestion, what with the mention of "highly qualified" along with the fact that both Susan Rice and former Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Michèle Flournoy are female, seemed to be trying to beat Obama with a stick his campaign successfully wielded against Romney's: Diversity.

Whites-only GOP meets its demographic destiny

Wed, 07 Nov 2012 19:48:00 +0000

"Obama wins because it's not a traditional America anymore," Bill O’Reilly said on Fox News last night. "The white establishment is the minority. People want things."

Just listen. That creaking, cracking noise you hear — not unlike a rusty forklift — is the sound of conservative straight white men trying to fight off change. But, as we saw last night, change is rolling over them.

The whoppers emerging from some candidates’ mouths were so outrageous I couldn’t even catalog, never mind rank, them all. A woman’s rape could be God’s plan, said Richard Mourdock. Todd Akin explained “legitimate rape” to voters. “I’m not concerned about the very poor,” said Mitt Romney, later dismissing half the country as “victims.”

Tempting as it may be, it's a mistake to scapegoat these hapless candidates or dismiss their unvarnished comments as aberrations. Rather, they speak to a reactionary confusion that is gutting the GOP, and to a larger conflict over the meaning of America.

Who’s to blame for NPR’s super-white book list?

Mon, 10 Sep 2012 21:13:00 +0000

NPR just wanted to ask its audience about their favorite young adult fiction. But this seemingly harmless gesture stirred up all sorts of controversy. Out of 100 books on the list, only three have non-white protagonists. Now people are angry, or at least politely clearing their throats.

Here's the question: Who is to blame?

Theory 1: The panel of experts is to blame
The panel of experts are suspiciously all white. NPR ombudsman Edward Schumacher-Matos wrote that “Much of the criticism was directed at the white panel of experts," but he added, "the censure is misplaced.” Panel member Pamela Paul, features editor and children's book editor at the New York Times Book Review, confirms Schumacher-Matos’ claim via email, writing:

Our role on the expert panel was simply to advise on how to make sure the readers' nominations fit the definition of "YA novel." Many of the readers' nominations were actually adult or middle-grade books, and we helped them weed out those titles. But I didn't make any judgment with regard to quality in determining the final list, which were all reader-generated.