QVC video offensive?

A recent QVC session included two hosts showing off a handbag, and while talking about the handbag they made comments about not liking your hair. The camera panned to an African-American model, with beautiful natural hair. As a mother of two girls, both with natural hair, this video is offensive to say the least.

The two hosts would like to have us believe that their conversation was simply about the great purse and not about the young woman's hair. Do you believe that?

Facts Instead of Myths

Too often our ideas of other people are made up of stereotypes. Stereotypes are simply myths that seem to have at least a minuscule bit of truth or they are generalities that we want to see for a whole society, when it may be true only for a few.

Here is a welcome reminder that those myths are often misplaced. Do any of them surprise you?

This post originally appeared in this month’s issue of Mother Jones magazine alongside an article entitled “What If Everything You Knew About Poverty Was Wrong?”

1. Single moms are the problem. Only 9 percent of low-income, urban moms have been single throughout their child’s first five years. Thirty-five percent were married to, or in a relationship with, the child’s father for that entire time.*

2. Absent dads are the problem. Sixty percent of low-income dads see at least one of their children daily. Another 16 percent see their children weekly.*

3. Black dads are the problem. Among men who don’t live with their children, black fathers are more likely than white or Hispanic dads to have a daily presence in their kids’ lives.

4. Poor people are lazy. In 2004, there was at least one adult with a job in 60 percent of families on food stamps that had both kids and a nondisabled, working-age adult.

5. If you’re not officially poor, you’re doing okay. The federal poverty line for a family of two parents and two children in 2012 was $23,283. Basic needs cost at least twice that in 615 of America’s cities and regions.

6. Go to college, get out of poverty. In 2012, about 1.1 million people who made less than $25,000 a year, worked full time and were heads of household had a bachelor’s degree.**

7. We’re winning the war on poverty. The number of households with children living on less than $2 a day per person has grown 160 percent since 1996, to 1.65 million families in 2011.

8. The days of old ladies eating cat food are over. The share of elderly single women living in extreme poverty jumped 31 percent from 2011 to 2012.

9. The homeless are drunk street people. One in 45 kids in the United States experiences homelessness each year. In New York City alone, 22,000 children are homeless.

10. Handouts are bankrupting us. In 2012, total welfare funding was 0.47 percent of the federal budget.

Do "Christian" and "Diversity" go together?

The last paragraph of this article sums up what is often missing in our Churches. 

The only true solution is a change of heart, one person at a time. Jesus knew it. That’s why he talked to the Samaritan woman one on one. He revealed he knew her secrets, but he didn’t judge her for being a Samaritan, a woman or a prostitute. And, because he treated her with kindness and respect, she followed Jesus, told others about him, and they started to follow Jesus too.

The question begs to be asked ---- how do we do church differently? 

Thoughts?

The entire article can be found here: Can Christians Handle Diversity?

A republican talking about diversity?

Photo from Bloomberg.com

Very seldom will you see me write a post about supporting one political candidate over another ..... I don't campaign for anyone. Rather, what I will do is point out what some politicians say - positive and negative.

So, here is my take on a recent article about Jeb Bush. First, I had no idea that he was able to speak multiple languages. Just as I didn't know his family is multi-ethnic.

Both sources said that at the fundraiser Bush focused on how he's not only multilingual but also multi-cultural. He mentioned his wife, Columba, who's from Mexico, and how one of his daughters-in-law is of Iraqi descent, referring to Sandra Algudady, a native Canadian of Iraqi descent who married his son, Jeb Bush, Jr.

It is also refreshing to see a Republican candidate pushing for diversity in American culture.

On immigration, Bush argued that diversity is a strength and that immigrants have had a vital role in building the country through businesses and hard work.

The only question .......

Are we ready for another Bush? I'll let you decide that for yourself.

The entire article is here:  Jeb Bush talks diversity, foreign policy at fundraiser

 

Join Fit Oshkosh in a Movie Night and Chatback

This Saturday is a great chance to immerse yourself in a difficult conversation that may change your outlook on life.

Teens talk about diversity

During a visit to Washington, D.C., photographer Julia Barden decided to visit the city's monuments. While walking down the steps from the Lincoln Memorial, she spotted these two women taking in the memorials as well.

From USAToday  http://www.usatoday.com/picture-gallery/opinion/2014/11/07/around-the-world-displays-of-diversity/18443695/

Oshkosh Black Citizens Meeting

Reminder ----- Oshkosh Black Citizens is this Saturday.

Diversity?

I came upon this cartoon this week in another blog. This is exactly why diversity initiatives in many businesses and communities do not work.