I’m back again, with news and views that you can peruse. It’s Weekly Reader time! And if you have a link that you want to share, give me a shout out in the comments!
How white women use strategic tears to silence women of colour (from the Guardian): “As I look back over my adult life a pattern emerges. Often, when I have attempted to speak to or confront a white woman about something she has said or done that has impacted me adversely, I am met with tearful denials and indignant accusations that I am hurting her. My confidence diminished and second-guessing myself, I either flare up in frustration at not being heard (which only seems to prove her point) or I back down immediately, apologising and consoling the very person causing me harm.”
We Saw Nuns Kill Children: The Ghosts of St. Joseph’s Catholic Orphanage (from BuzzFeed News Warning – the article in question deals with abuse. Tread lightly!): “Outside the United States, the orphanage system and the wreckage it produced has undergone substantial official scrutiny over the last two decades. In Canada, the UK, Germany, Ireland, and Australia, multiple formal government inquiries have subpoenaed records, taken witness testimony, and found, time and again, that children consigned to orphanages — in many cases, Catholic orphanages — were victims of severe abuse. A 1998 UK government inquiry, citing “exceptional depravity” at four homes run by the Christian Brothers order in Australia, heard that a boy was the object of a competition between the brothers to see who could rape him 100 times. The inquiries focused primarily on sexual abuse, not physical abuse or murder, but taken together, the reports showed almost limitless harm that was the result not just of individual cruelty but of systemic abuse.”
Being Freaked Out by Gay and Trans People Is Still a Legal Murder Defense in 48 States (from Vice): “Her case is striking not only for the lurid nature of her murder but for the fact that at trial, defendants tried to invoke a trans panic defense, a rare but indisputably toxic legal strategy. Similar in form to gay panic defenses, they seek to pin blame for violence and assault on one’s sexual orientation or gender identity. Though not often successful—two juries rejected its use by Araujo’s killers—they are troubling for the fact that in most states they’re allowable at all.”
WHAT HAPPENED AFTER SHE SAID NO (from Body for Wife Warning – this is a disturbing read, as it deals with sexual harassment. Tread lightly!): “It’s not all rape and murder. There are varying degrees of violation. Every single day a woman says no, and a man doesn’t accept it. He wheedles. He pushes. He buys her another drink. He pesters. He whines. He begs. He puts his hands where she doesn’t want him to, and she pushes those hands away, and he puts them right back. She says no again and again and again, and he just doesn’t listen. Eventually, she might give in.”
There is a Whole Cottage Industry of Doctors Helping Parents Skip Their Kids’ Vaccines (from Mother Jones): “Among the California patients in the Disney outbreak, at least 36 percent hadn’t received their MMR vaccine. Some were too young to have gotten their shots, but more than half were unvaccinated by choice. Despite school requirements, it was easy to skip immunizations: All parents had to do was sign a form stating that “immunization is contrary to my beliefs.” From 1996 to 2014, the rate of kindergartners with personal-belief exemptions more than quintupled. And this wasn’t just a California phenomenon: 47 states allow religious or personal-belief exemptions.”
Who’s Behind the The Truth About Pet Cancer? (from the SkeptVet): “The fact, for example, that the organizers and many participants are vehement advocates for alternative medicine is relevant to their claims about both conventional veterinary nutrition and alternative nutritional approaches. The repeated attacks on science-based medicine, the pet food industry, government regulators, and other groups made by many figures in these videos suggests an iconoclastic, maverick-outsider perspective that should be taken into account when evaluating the type of bias behind statements they make in these videos.”
U.S. is denying passports to Americans along the border, throwing their citizenship into question (from the Washington Post): “As he would later learn, Juan is one of a growing number of people whose official birth records show they were born in the United States but who are now being denied passports — their citizenship suddenly thrown into question. The Trump administration is accusing hundreds, and possibly thousands, of Hispanics along the border of using fraudulent birth certificates since they were babies, and it is undertaking a widespread crackdown.”
That’s all for this week. Drop by again for more articles and tidbits that you might find interesting. Until then, happy reading!
Iacon East 