I'm Always Discursive

 

I was a guest on Salim Muwakkil’s show on the internet.  Here are some of things a babbled about.

https://www.facebook.com/wiiftbpmedia/videos/361158342073458

 

Discursive: [ dih-skur-siv ]

passing aimlessly from one subject to another; digressive; rambling.

 

Marc Sims

Chicago

 

“Forbidden Black Love: America’s Hidden Civil Rights Issue” - Dr. Dianne Stewart @ Riverside Church

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CKhYrcx-KU8

 

America's War on African American Marriage: Dr. Dianne M. Stewart

Marc Sims speaks with Professor Dianne M. Stewart, author of Black Women, Black Love: America's War on African-American Marriage·

https://anchor.fm/marc-sims/episodes/Americas-War-on-African-American-Marriage-Dr--Dianne-M--Stewart-e134gh5

Black Women, Black Love: 400 Plus Podcast

Marc Sims speaks with Professor Dianne M. Stewart, author of Black Women, Black Love: America's War on African-American Marriage.

https://anchor.fm/marc-sims8/episodes/Black-Women-Black-Love-Dr--Dianne-M--Stewart-e134kcq

 

A Chicago Booster: Mary Pattillo

Marc Sims talks with Northwestern University Professor Mary Pattillo about remaining Black on the block.

https://anchor.fm/marc-sims/episodes/A-Chicago-Booster-Mary-Pattillo-e144qn9

Not Taught To Read: Just A Few Questions Podcast

Marc Sims talks with Emily Hanford Senior Correspondent for American Public Media Reports about the science of reading.

https://anchor.fm/marc-sims/episodes/Not-Taught-To-Read-Emily-Hanford-enc816

Discovering the Science of Reading: A Reporter’s Story

Emily Hanford

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GO4_S26gOkQ

The dirty little secret about education writ large; relative performance throughout life tends to be remarkably static.

A 3rd grade reading level is a strong predictor of college completion.

Clip by Marc Sims.

https://www.c-span.org/video/?c4616997/schools-college

Fewer than 10 percent of books feature characters of color or are written by non-white authors. And there's not a lot of variety in those books, she says. There are often historical narratives about slavery or civil rights.

https://www.npr.org/transcripts/661096501

I agree with Dr. Carl Bell; Black people (African Americans) are very relational, as opposed to being transactional. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zdt6ByGLhY0

 

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs

 

The Jewish Phenomenon: Seven Keys to the Enduring Wealth of a People

SO, THE JEWS VALUE EDUCATION. WHAT CAN I DO?

1. Build your child's self-esteem

2. Build the ability to defer gratification

3. Choose the best education possible

4. Develop and demonstrate informed and literate habits

5. Create the education expectation

6. Keep your skills up to date

Nurture the strong ego and self-esteem of the child.

Reduce the impact of peer pressure by maintaining close family
relationships and delaying independence from the home.

Set high standards for educational and professional advancement.

As a community, reinforce those high standards.

Chicago's Gun Violence

    

 

It would be great if Mayor Lori Lightfoot Blamed Chicago's gun violence on capitalism and racism. In the African American neighborhoods I partially blame gun violence on the legacy of slavery and the benefits of the Civil Rights Movement.  

Fewer police, more resources for education, training, WPA type jobs, and teaching a few Chicago residents how to stay calm are just a few ways Mayor Lori Lightfoot can reduce gun violence.

 

Marc Sims 

Chicago

 

Mayor Lori Lightfoot Blamed Gun Violence On Judges, But Emails Show Her Staff Knew It Wasn’t True

https://www.wbez.org/stories/mayor-lori-lightfoot-blamed-gun-violence-on-judges-but-emails-show-her-staff-knew-it-wasnt-true/f3b89c13-f72b-497d-8074-603e8bb9cc7e

 

Influencing Public Policy: 400 Plus Podcast

Marc Sims talks with public intellectual Salim Muwakkil about influencing public policy.

https://anchor.fm/marc-sims8/episodes/Influencing-Public-Policy-Salim-Muwakkil-e116jdj

WBEZ: Class segregation among blacks is higher than among both whites and Latinos. So when you measure, as you mentioned, the evenness of the classes within the predominantly black, Latino or white neighborhoods, you find that there is greater pull-away between poor blacks and upper income blacks than there is between poor whites and upper income whites and poor Latinos and upper income Latinos.

Mary Pattillo, the Harold Washington Professor of Sociology and African-American Studies at Northwestern University.

https://www.wbez.org/shows/curious-city/where-are-chicagos-poor-white-neighborhoods/37e96521-d730-43b8-b645-633aab318314

Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson defines the four classes of black America

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74QaYU320Lg

NPR: Eugene Robinson, the Pulitzer Prize-winning Washington Post columnist, in a new book about the increasing disconnect between America's African-American communities.

https://www.npr.org/2010/12/01/131695505/the-splintering-of-america-s-black-population

Public Policy & Working Class Americans

 

 

Here is a question I posted on social media, and one response.

Does the brilliance of public intellectuals, college professors, and noted book authors influence public policy where it improves the lives of working class Americans?

Marc Sims 

 

Salim Muwakkil

Yes it does. But the influence is through a cultural seep that is necessarily incremental. 

The New Deal of FDR's America, which ushered in significant social changes essentially creating the white middle-class, was based on the arcane theories of British economist John Maynard Keynes; supply-side Reaganomics can be traced to economists Robert Mundell and Arthur Laffer; LBJ's Great Society is a Galbraithian (John Kenneth Galbraith) production with help from John Hicks, Franco Modigliani and even some left-leaning stuff from Jurgen Habermas. Dr. Kenneth Clark's 60s' theories and pathbreaking studies on how schools socialize racial inferiority still inform some school curricula --though not nearly enough.

In short, ideas nurtured in academia are absolutely essential to governmental policies. Of course, the decision on what studies to value remains a political one.

 

Marc Sims

Chicago

 

Influencing Public Policy: 400 Plus Podcast

Marc Sims talks with public intellectual Salim Muwakkil about influencing public policy.

https://anchor.fm/marc-sims8/episodes/Influencing-Public-Policy-Salim-Muwakkil-e116jdj

https://chicago.suntimes.com/crime/2021/5/17/22441064/15-year-old-girl-shot-washington-park