Sexuality-based discrimination results in death of teen

On September 22, Tyler Clementi, an 18-year-old Rutgers University freshman jumped to his death after two classmates secretly recorded him making out with another man and posted the video on the Internet.

Tyler isn’t the only one – on September 19, Seth Walsh hung himself from a tree after enduring taunts that he was gay.

And still there are more.

In response to such incidents, Ellen DeGeneres speaks out, urging that we stop discriminating against gays, because “one death is tragic, four is a crisis”

Questions:

A prejudiced society is a society in crisis. Discuss.

Discuss the impacts of the media on the youth of today.

To what extent can the media be used to influence society?

Should universities use positive discrimination to increase diversity?

Affirmative action in education

Task:

Read some of the arguments for and against affirmative action in education, and give your view on the question, “Should universities use positive discrimination to increase diversity?”

“Why are indians so smelly?”

A shocking question?

How about this: “Why are black people so loud?”

These questions are, according to Google, the most common searches that begin with “why”:

The top searches beginning with "why " on Google Singapore.

Try it yourself: type in “why”, followed by a space, into the search box on Google Singapore, and see what common searches turn up in the prompts.

But Singaporeans aren’t at all unique in their racism – try this on the Google pages of other countries. Apparently, the world is united by racism.

HP computers are… racist?

Youtube comments:

jwolfenstein (1 hour ago)

There’s nothing to fix. Maybe an adjust in sensibility that would make white people not to be recognized. You can also try a different light, maybe from the side. I bet that a Korean with a strong white light straight from the front is not going to be recognized, and a Korean is not black skinned. Stop making this stupid allegations. HP may or may not be racist but it has nothing to do with a piece of software.

jwolfenstein (1 hour ago)

This is stupid. It has nothing to do with racism. The computer has to find out that there’s a face based on the differences from one pixel to the next. It doesn’t have human capabilities, it’s an algorithm. Take a picture of his face and analyze the color curve, then a picture of her face. You’ll see that the curve for the black guy is more flat. That’s not racism, that’s physics. His skin color with that lightning makes the picture less definite, there’s little contrast. More to follow.

caseyc82 (56 minutes ago)
@jwolfenstein Yes, it is computer error based on that, true. But this isn’t some shareware code written by a couple guys in their basement. This is a product released by a major corporation for the mass market. That means there were meetings upon meetings about it, testing and more testing, iterations and improvements made. And across the board, there was apparently neither a black person involved nor was that concern brought up. And THAT is racism.

(See this CNN report for the response from HP)

Think:
Is the racist claim a fair one? Why or why not?

Question:
Discrimination will never be eradicated from society. Do you agree?
Assess the claim that ‘advanced’ technology still leaves much to be desired.

Science, or discrimination?

Some blame it on discrimination – that whenever statistics show men earning more than women, holding higher-paying jobs or dominating certain industries (for instance, banking), this is evidence of discrimination in the workplace.

However, perhaps it’s not discrimination. Perhaps these results can be explained by hormones. In other words, that Science is to blame.

But are we merely shifting the blame to Science, so that we can guiltlessly continue discriminating against women? Or to justify employment decisions? Or perhaps to fuel societal stereotypes?

Tudung issue revisited?

A full-time National Serviceman was sentenced on five days’ detention on Friday under the SAF Act for conduct prejudicial to good discipline. His trespass: a refusal to cut his hair or consume SAF food because he was a practicing Brahmin priest. Read the whole article here from CNA.

Does this reaction from the SAF contravene any human rights articles you know of? Should the bureaucratic rationalization of ‘uniformity’–used so fervently in the 2002 Tudung issue–apply here?

(Thanks to Derek for this piece)

Have race relations improved since the election of President Barack Obama?

What do people have to say about this? Check out the discussion thread here.

The ‘unfathomable’ arrest of a black scholar

 [...] the recent arrest of Henry Louis Gates Jr., one of the nation’s most prominent African-American scholars, has stirred outrage and debate.

Jelani Cobb, an author and professor at Spelman College in Atlanta, says it’s troubling on many levels when “one of the most recognizable African-Americans in the country can be arrested in his own home and have to justify being in his own home.”

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‘Why, because I’m a black man in America?’

- Gates, in response to being arrested by a police officer in his own home

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‘You’re not responding because I’m a black man, and you’re a white officer.’”

- Gates

 

 [Full article here]

Question:

Comprehension: Punctuation

Why is the word ‘unfathomable’ in the title in inverted commas?

Foreign workers living in our neighbourhoods: yes or no?

The result is in: after debating whether Singapore should house foreign workers in a dormitory within a residential neighbourhood, the go-ahead has been given.

More than a 1,000 residents signed a petition against the dorm last year when they got wind of the Government’s plan to build it in the neighbourhood

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The key concerns residents raised included increased traffic congestion, security and safety, as well as competition for the use of common facilities such as parks and bus stops.

Wanting to ease the residents’ worries, changes were later made to the development plans.

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Maxi will provide a range of facilities, such as a mini- mart and canteen, to minimise the need for the workers to access amenities outside the dormitory.

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- ST, 15 July 2009

Question: Do you agree with this move? Compare the implications of providing separate facilities, and encouraging them to use public facilities.

 

But how did the public react to this news? Equal opportunities? Or are we prejudiced against having foreign workers as our neighbours? This forum may shed a bit of light on the perceptions of some Singaporeans.

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Are we born racist?

Do we really live in a “post-racial” society? Studies show that our prejudices have deep psychological roots; they may be wired into our brains. But research has also identified strategies for reducing and even overcoming prejudice. This issue of Greater Good explores how we can put this research into practice.

- Greater Good