Kai's Blog Postings
We Pick Our Health Battles—Unfortunately
The hubbub around the swine flu is entirely appropriate: It’s a fast moving, unknown virus that is proving to be deadly when untreated. That said, it also reinforces a frustrating truth: A whole lot of other public health problems persist only because we don’t care enough to stop them....
College-Educated Blacks Lose More Jobs than Peers
Our college degrees aren’t saving us, after all. Here’s a whopper from March unemployment data: College educated blacks have lost jobs at twice the rate of their white counterparts during the recession. According to the Economic Policy Institute, joblessness among the black educated class shot up 4.5 percent in the past two years, reaching 7.2 percent in March....
The New Four Rs: Reduce Reuse, Recycle—Recession
Reduce, reuse, recycle. That's the phrase. But what most of us forget is that it's an ordered list. In fact, most of us do it in exactly the wrong order. We gobble up our plastic water bottles and toss them into the recycle bin and call it green. But why are we buying packaged water in a country with universal access to clean drinking water? We've finally reached a point where going green feels both smart and cool—and I'm a late adapter myself, to be sure. But we haven't yet grasped the central point: we must consume less needless crap....
Fantasy and Fact Still at War on Pirates
Time for some pirating darts and laurels. TIME gets out in front of mainstream American media (and catches up with the Brits) by reporting the full context of the purportedly sudden pirating menace. High-seas trawlers from countries as far flung as South Korea, Japan and Spain have operated down the Somali coast, often illegally and without licenses, for the better part of two decades, the U.N. says...
The US Drug War Jails Fewer Blacks—But Rages On
The Sentencing Project has crunched Bureau of Prisons numbers and found some relatively good news, finally: a significant drop in the number of blacks locked up for drug offenses. Between 1999 and 2005, the number of black drug offenders in state prisons plunged 21.6 percent, by about 30,000 people. In a countering, negative trend, white incarceration for drug crimes shot up 42.6 percent. So what’s going on? Lots....
Let’s Cuff the Western Pirates, Too
Let’s be clear: Thugs hijacking relief supplies meant for communities starved by a genocidal despot is an awful, ugly thing. But I’ve watched with some amusement as Western shipping companies and the navies that support them have grown frustrated with Somali pirates in recent years. Pirates! But there’s more to the story than Johnny Depp jokes and calls for a War on Pirates....
Predatory Lending Sellout Watch: Rep. Luis Gutierrez Edition
Seems we’ve got yet another sell-out (literally) in the effort to rid the world of predatory lenders who swarm working-class and low-income neighborhoods. Earlier this year we learned that Magic Johnson is shilling for scammers who rip off low-income working people with tax-return anticipation loans. Now, Mike Illis reports for the WASHINGTON INDEPENDENT....
Obama Launches First HIV Media Blitz in a Decade
The Obama administration has made quiet but significant HIV prevention news. At a White House ceremony, officials announced two new initiatives: one supporting new black leadership on AIDS, and a media blitz aiming to “refocus national attention” on the epidemic. From a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention statement....
Can Public Boarding Schools Make Education Equal?
With the usual caveat emptor on me and education policy, I point you to an interesting article my friend Steve Gray wrote for TIME recently. Steve’s piece introduced me to a new idea: Public boarding schools for students from poor communities.
Magic Johnson Shills for Predatory Loans
You’d think by now anybody with sense would feel ridiculous promising fast cash through easy loans. Alas, not Magic Johnson. It’s tax season, and he’s shaking his enchanted moneymaker for one of the oldest, most predatory lending scams in the business: high-priced payday loans. “It’s money like Magic,” Johnson beams in TV and web ads...
