Comments on: Richard Cohen on Racism: Not a Problem! http://www.fair.org/blog/2009/05/05/richard-cohen-on-racism/ The national media watch group Fri, 10 Feb 2012 06:11:32 -0600 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.2 hourly 1 By: Teach for America Is Great Because It’s Great - Fox News Watchdog http://www.fair.org/blog/2009/05/05/richard-cohen-on-racism/comment-page-1/#comment-81052 Teach for America Is Great Because It’s Great - Fox News Watchdog Wed, 02 Mar 2011 22:00:11 +0000 http://www.fair.org/blog/?p=8612#comment-81052 [...] Richard Cohen recently (FAIR Blog, 2/15/11) took to the Washington Post to argue that Teach for America is wonderful because…. Well, it just is. He predicted that the “best teacher in America” is likely to be drawn from the ranks of the program, which draws recent graduates from elite universities into the teaching profession. His only evidence of the greatness of this scheme was that the program is very competitive. [...] [...] Richard Cohen recently (FAIR Blog, 2/15/11) took to the Washington Post to argue that Teach for America is wonderful because…. Well, it just is. He predicted that the "best teacher in America" is likely to be drawn from the ranks of the program, which draws recent graduates from elite universities into the teaching profession. His only evidence of the greatness of this scheme was that the program is very competitive. [...]

]]> By: Richard Cohen’s Teach for America Column Deserves a Failing Grade - Fox News Watchdog http://www.fair.org/blog/2009/05/05/richard-cohen-on-racism/comment-page-1/#comment-77955 Richard Cohen’s Teach for America Column Deserves a Failing Grade - Fox News Watchdog Wed, 16 Feb 2011 10:01:08 +0000 http://www.fair.org/blog/?p=8612#comment-77955 [...] Post columnist Richard Cohen‘s Teach for America column today (2/15/11) demonstrates a real problem with logic. “Cut [...] [...] Post columnist Richard Cohen's Teach for America column today (2/15/11) demonstrates a real problem with logic. "Cut [...]

]]> By: FanOfZirin http://www.fair.org/blog/2009/05/05/richard-cohen-on-racism/comment-page-1/#comment-3885 FanOfZirin Fri, 08 May 2009 22:09:30 +0000 http://www.fair.org/blog/?p=8612#comment-3885 That Cohen thinks polls tell us how relevant racism remains demonstrates that he's defining racism strictly as personal attitudes--if it's all in our heads polls are how we find out how much it's still there. But it's a structural issue. It's built into the foundations of our financial system, our educational system, our "justice" system--all our institutions. Cohen doesn't have to look any further than the Racial Wealth Divide link over on www.faireconomy.org (United for a Fair Economy's site) to find statistics that show how racism continues to shape our economic lives. For example, reading Foreclosed: State of the Dream 2008 he could learn that Black and Latino borrowers *in all economic brackets* were disproportionately steered into subprime loans. Yep, subprime borrowers include a lot of people of color who were eligible for loans with better terms. A little research into any aspect of our lives will show Cohen a racial divide in actual outcomes. And that attitude that race no longer matters? If he'd ever heard a lecture by Tim Wise--or if he'd looked at historic results of similar polls--he'd know that we've been telling pollsters that racism is no longer a problem for decades. How well did the polls that showed that attitude prevailing in the 1960s reflect the reality of people's lives? That Cohen thinks polls tell us how relevant racism remains demonstrates that he's defining racism strictly as personal attitudes--if it's all in our heads polls are how we find out how much it's still there. But it's a structural issue. It's built into the foundations of our financial system, our educational system, our "justice" system--all our institutions.

Cohen doesn't have to look any further than the Racial Wealth Divide link over on http://www.faireconomy.org (United for a Fair Economy's site) to find statistics that show how racism continues to shape our economic lives. For example, reading Foreclosed: State of the Dream 2008 he could learn that Black and Latino borrowers *in all economic brackets* were disproportionately steered into subprime loans. Yep, subprime borrowers include a lot of people of color who were eligible for loans with better terms.

A little research into any aspect of our lives will show Cohen a racial divide in actual outcomes. And that attitude that race no longer matters? If he'd ever heard a lecture by Tim Wise--or if he'd looked at historic results of similar polls--he'd know that we've been telling pollsters that racism is no longer a problem for decades. How well did the polls that showed that attitude prevailing in the 1960s reflect the reality of people's lives?

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