http://www.ala-apa.org/newsletter/vol4nospecial/recruitment.html#world
The World Is Changing: Why Aren’t We? Recruiting Minorities to Librarianship (v1n4, April 2004)
By Jenifer Grady and Tracie Hall
Few would argue that there is a need to recruit into the field of librarianship, at all levels. Several sources report the dearth of library workers, such as the 2001 survey conducted by ALA’s Office for Human Resource Development and Recruitment (HRDR).1 Respondents, members of the Library Administration and Management Association (LAMA) cited difficulty in filling positions in technical services, children’s/youth services, and managers. In the space given for comments, recruitment of diverse candidates was one clear theme. Increasing diversity in the ranks of the profession is of critical concern. Data collected over the last decade indicates that nearly 9 of 10 public, academic, and school librarians are White (ALA Office for Research and Statistics , 1998; National Center for Education Statistics, 1993-94). In 1991, racial and ethnic minorities comprised only 9% or 344 of the 4,032 graduates receiving accredited MLIS degrees. In 2001, they accounted for less than 13% or 504 of the 4,109 MLIS degrees awarded (ALISE Library and Information Science Education Statistical Report) an increase that woefully fails to parallel the combined 152% growth increase experienced by these populations between 1990 and 2000 (U.S. Bureau of the Census). It is clear that more assertive measures are called for within librarianship. Library support staff seems to be much more representative than the librarian ranks.
There is growing evidence of higher than average attrition among ethnic minorities in the librarianship due to limited opportunities for professional mobility and access to positions of leadership (Jones, 2003; Reese and Hawkins, 1999). In March, Tracie Hall, Director of ALA’s Office for Diversity, received startling statistics detailing the dwindling numbers of minority librarians in Kentucky. In 1980, there were 160 African-American librarians in Kentucky. Today there are less than 25. Recruitment without retention is folly, which will be discussed in a future issue of Library Worklife. The Census Bureau reported that the number of librarians overall diminished by more than three percent (3%) from 1990 to 2000, but for African-Americans, the number was nearly twenty-seven percent (26.7%). For Native-Americans, the drop from 904 to 700 represented a loss of almost twenty-three percent (22.6%). Rather than tangibly multiplying the numbers of librarians of color, existing minority recruitment and education programs have simply provided for the replacement of retirees and those leaving the profession prematurely.
Why Is This Important?
Demographers predict that by the year 2050, the United States will become a "nation of minorities" (U.S. Bureau of the Census). Population increases among African-Americans and Native-Americans, and particularly among Asian Pacific-Islanders and Latino/Hispanics are projected to result in a society more racially, ethnically, and linguistically diverse than ever before.
Why it is important to have profession that has representation from all ethnicities, nationalities, and cultures? Why should library workers be reflective of the communities they serve and the world at large? For some, that is reason enough, that the profession should look like and change like the demographics of the country. Others posit more concrete benefits. ALA is committed to raising awareness about diversity as one of its key action areas. Tracie Hall is one of proponents for increasing the number of diverse candidates in the profession. If libraries are to remain relevant, exceed existing capacities, predict and provide new service areas, they must work to build a workforce reflective of our shifting demographics. This is important for understanding how individual and intermingling forces like values, familial relationships, sociology, politics, economics, education, culture influence minority community participation in library programs. Besides obvious language differences, there may be cognitive and communication styles that are unique to a cultural group and relevant in library contexts.
There is also the concern of ensuring that minority librarians are afforded the same comfort level as their non-minority peers. There are many who wish to have mentorship and collegial relationships with librarians of color that will allow them to discuss issues that are particular to their minority experience in the profession. Teresa Y. Neely, co-editor of In Our Own Voices: the Changing Face of Librarianship, said the book of testimonials was conceptualized because:
We, the new breed of librarians, who happen to be librarians of color.tentatively enter graduate school and even more tentatively enter the profession, fighting our own private demons on the job and off. A number of new librarians are fortunate enough to have important mentors and role models before entering the profession and other receive mentoring while in school, and/or while in the first professional position. Still others have no mentors at all, and that is a tragedy.This volume is our Olive Branch.a tool that can be used to bridge the distances between classmates, professors, and colleagues; to reaffirm that they are not the only ones who are having difficulties and will not be the last.
Neely goes on to say that "library administrators, personnel librarians, department heads, search committees, and anyone with a hand or interest in the decision-making process to recruit.take note [of this book]."
What Is Being Done?
There are recruitment programs created by libraries, library schools, and associations across the country that target audiences at different age and educational levels. These programs offer a broad range of activities and some incorporate several components, such as giving interested candidates an opportunity to work in libraries, for a day or several years, scholarships, or attendance at conferences. For example, Philadelphia Free Library begins its recruitment with teenagers who are trained and paid to help students attending the LEAP after school program. Chicago Multi-type Library System invites Chicago high school students from predominantly minority schools for a Job Shadow Day, through Junior Achievement. It’s goal is to "demystify the profession and dispel stereotypes," according to Veronda J. Pitchford, CMLS Assistant Director. Oberlin College (OH) received an Institute of Museum and Library Services grant to establish a Diversity Intern Program to attract undergraduates into the profession. The Louisiana Library Association offers a scholarship for students attending library school at Louisiana State University. The State University of New York at Buffalo library offers a two-year post in the academic library for recent MLS graduates.
The ALA Office for Diversity is one of many forces working to bring racial and ethnic representation in librarianship into alignment with the changing face of the American public. Hall manages the Spectrum Initiative. Launched in 1997 by the American Library Association, the Spectrum Initiative disseminated its first scholarships the following year. Originally intended to last only three years, the Initiative exceeded early targets in recruiting students and raising diversity awareness in library schools and librarianship as a whole. Just two years after it had dispensed its first scholarships, noted library educator and researcher, Kathleen de la Peña McCook would write, "new energy fueled by the Spectrum Initiative.has been infused into the thinking about the kind of profession librarianship needs to become." Two hundred and fifty-four scholars have gained valuable leadership and research skills that many are now putting to use in managerial positions in libraries. In 2004, the ALA Office for Diversity launched the "Grow Your Own" campaign, an effort aimed at targeted recruitment of students and library support professionals on college campuses serving significant populations of ethnic and racial minorities. Inaugural co-chairs of this campaign are Khafre Abif, Columbus Public Library, who will direct the campaign’s recruitment efforts at Historically Black Colleges and Universities; John Ayala, Fullerton College Library, who will oversee the Hispanic Serving Institutions recruitment efforts; Joy Chase, Evergreen Valley College Library, who will focus on recruitment of Asian Pacific Islanders, and Richenda Wilkinson, Oregon State University, Valley Library, who will lead tribal college recruitment efforts.
What Can Be Done?
Gregory L. Reese and Ernestine L. Hawkins are two advocates who told the profession to Stop Talking, Start Doing in their book, published in 1999. They suggest small steps as well as major initiatives that libraries can take. Library professionals and libraries can both embark on a recruitment effort, since this can be an individual as well as an institutional commitment.
Once the commitment is made, the next steps are either who or how to recruit. For a public library, you might recruit minority junior or high school students who frequent the library. Reach out to them, noticing those who show an interest in reading, teaching others, or who have great leadership and organizational skills. Be purposeful and let them know that you see promise in them when you form a club for them, develop a volunteer program, hire them as pages/shelvers, or invite them to local library conferences. In an academic library, your efforts might be targeted towards undergraduates who work in the library, exposing them to how interesting and challenging the field can be and how their majors and minors will benefit them in librarianship, and show them resources for finding library schools and funding. In any library, the conventional wisdom is to look within and "grow your own." There may be minority support staff that would appreciate and take advantage of being encouraged to attain a master’s degree in library science.
Your marketing efforts might grow in stages, from one-on-one discussions and mentoring to a full public relations campaign. When marketing to minorities, Reese and Hawkins caution libraries against believing 5 myths:
Minorities are the same as Caucasians
Minorities are homogenous
Libraries and library professionals can effectively utilize mass media to reach all minority populations
Language isn’t important
Minorities are only interested in certain careers and services.
It is critical to research the cultures of the people you wish to recruit. It is as important as research the cultures of the people you wish to serve in your communities. The detrimental effects of stereotyping should be obvious to librarians, since they play a role in the reason we must work so hard recruit. Addressing and correcting personally-held negative stereotypes will make your efforts more genuine and make your message more likely to be heard.
As Judith Siess says in her article about becoming more visible, get out of the library and go to elementary, junior high and high schools where there are students of color. Make appointments through guidance counselors and teachers to speak to individual classes. Become a mentor. Make presentations across your campus. Volunteer to attend, or even host, job fairs and other career-related events in the community where minorities will be present. If you work at a library school, sponsor a talk with the larger body of support staff on campus.
One of the most important things to remember when working on a recruitment campaign, for anyone, is to BE EXCITED ABOUT THE PROFESSION! Your attitude, as well as your words, must convey your enthusiasm and heartfelt desire to bring more people of color into your field of choice.
Reference
www.ala.org/ala.hrdr/libraryempresources/alarecruitment.htm.
Recruitment Tools
ALA Office for Diversity—Planning for Diversity.
ALA Office for Human Resource Development and Recruitment—Careers in Libraries.
Association for College and Research Libraries Recruitment Page.
Become a Librarian (Central Jersey Regional Library Cooperative).
Ethnic Librarians Library Associations.
Neely, Teresa Y., and Khafre K. Abif, eds. In Our Own Voices: the Changing Face of Librarianship Lanham, Md.: Scarecrow Pr., 1996.
Reese, Gregory L., and Ernestine L. Hawkins. Stop Talking, Start Doing: Attracting People of Color to the Profession. Chicago: ALA, 1999.
Tracie Hall is the Director of the ALA Office for Diversity. Jenifer Grady is the Director of the ALA-APA.
Wednesday, June 13, 2007
Friday, June 8, 2007
Peer specialists
Mental patients find understanding in therapy led by peers
By Carey Goldberg, Globe Staff June 8, 2007
TAUNTON -- Years ago, Jess Zaller came to the Pathways mental health program as a day patient. In and out of institutions, he had fought mental illness since childhood. His life felt like a nightmare of chaos and despair.
Zaller, 45, was back in a Pathways therapy group last week, but this time as a leader, listening carefully as members laid bare the pain of their fears and compulsions. When he delicately pointed the way, it was often in the first person, using his own hard lessons learned:
"Our lives are at stake," he told members. "It takes a lot of courage to walk a path of recovery, and each one of us develops our own path."
Massachusetts is beginning to develop a corps of people like Zaller who have been through the depths of schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, or depression, and recovered enough that they can help others with mental illness.
Such comradely aid has long been exchanged informally, or scattershot at mental health venues. But now the state has launched a new job category -- certified peer specialist -- meant to formalize these relationships and gradually, they hope, get peer counseling reimbursed routinely by insurers and Medicaid.
"There's something about receiving support from someone who's gone through exactly what you're going through now that people find invaluable," said Michael O'Neill, the state's assistant commissioner for mental health services.
A few handfuls of Massachusetts residents, including Zaller, have completed the eight -day training session and exams to be certified as peer specialists. On Monday, they are to be recognized at a State House ceremony.
The new field must work through many possible problems, from the potential for relapse among specialists to the potential for resistance from more traditional mental health staffers. But O'Neill expects the state's corps to grow to hundreds.
Massachusetts is redesigning its mental health system to be more user-friendly, he said, and "peer support is a fundamental element of that redesigned system." In the coming months, Massachusetts will be setting up six regional centers where peer specialists will work with clients and support each other in their fledgling vocation, O'Neill said .
The concept has taken off in 30 states. In half a dozen, Medicaid, the public insurance program for the poor and chronically ill, pays for the services, said Paolo del Vecchio, associate director for consumer affairs at the federal government's Center for Mental Health Services.
"Over the past five years, we've really seen the development of a new mental health profession emerging," he said.
The growth of the peer specialist profession comes against the backdrop of a sweeping national shift toward greater optimism that those in dire condition may improve or recover, and toward giving people with mental illness more control over the help they get. People with mental illness are not passive patients, the thinking goes; they can help themselves and as they get better, they can help others .
In their work, peer specialists are expected to share their stories of recovery when relevant to their clients. They may have learned skills worth sharing, or simply inspire hope by being much better than they once were.
The work goes beyond a typical speaker at a 12-step meeting.
It can include helping a patient in a psychiatric hospital make the shift back to living at home, or supporting an emergency room patient in crisis. A specialist might remind a team of clinicians that their patient is in a kind of hell, or take a lonely client out for pizza.
Early research, which is just beginning to accumulate, suggests that peer specialists may be particularly useful with patients who would normally resist help from the mental health system, said Larry Davidson, a Yale professor who conducts studies on peer specialists.
People with mental illness sometimes feel disliked by the professional staff who treat them, he said; it appears that with peers, "they feel less disliked and more understood."
Studies show that "people in recovery can provide services at least as well as people who don't have that experience," Davidson said. Hard data are being collected now on whether they offer "value added," he said.
Anecdotal reports of successful work by peer specialists abound. In Georgia, which has 340, they have proven particularly useful in helping discharged state hospital patients build new lives at home, said Gwen Skinner, the state's top mental health official.
Though the new field is growing, resistance remains, Davidson and others said.
They worry that staff and clinicians without mental illness could feel threatened by the influx of newcomers whose experience with illness is considered an asset. Traditional staff could also worry about being replaced by peer specialists. Certified peer specialists are supposed to earn a typical mental health staff salary of $12 an hour to $15 an hour on an entry level, said Deborah Delman executive director of M-Power, the Massachusetts mental health advocacy group that runs the peer training courses. But some peer workers who are not certified may earn less, she said.
After they are certified, Massachusetts peer specialists will continue to be overseen by The Transformation Center, a statewide training organization that is supposed to ensure they maintain ethical standards and continue their education.
The peer specialists also pose staffing issues. What if, for example, a peer specialist works with patients at a state hospital, then has a relapse and is rehospitalized there, then resumes the job? Boundaries and definitions may get fuzzy; confidentiality may become a concern.
Also, Davidson said, if supervisors view their patients as problems, then adding peer specialists to their staff is asking for more problems. The challenge, he said, is for them to shift to thinking about all people with mental illness as "having assets and strengths to help solve problems."
Judging by responses in Zaller's small therapy group in Taunton, some people with mental illness immediately see the benefits of being helped by a peer.
"He's not looking at us through a book," said one group member, Diane Silvia. "He can relate to us, and we can relate to him."
Carey Goldberg can be reached at goldberg@globe.com.
http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2007/06/08/mental_patients_find_understanding_in_therapy_led_by_peers?mode=PF
By Carey Goldberg, Globe Staff June 8, 2007
TAUNTON -- Years ago, Jess Zaller came to the Pathways mental health program as a day patient. In and out of institutions, he had fought mental illness since childhood. His life felt like a nightmare of chaos and despair.
Zaller, 45, was back in a Pathways therapy group last week, but this time as a leader, listening carefully as members laid bare the pain of their fears and compulsions. When he delicately pointed the way, it was often in the first person, using his own hard lessons learned:
"Our lives are at stake," he told members. "It takes a lot of courage to walk a path of recovery, and each one of us develops our own path."
Massachusetts is beginning to develop a corps of people like Zaller who have been through the depths of schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, or depression, and recovered enough that they can help others with mental illness.
Such comradely aid has long been exchanged informally, or scattershot at mental health venues. But now the state has launched a new job category -- certified peer specialist -- meant to formalize these relationships and gradually, they hope, get peer counseling reimbursed routinely by insurers and Medicaid.
"There's something about receiving support from someone who's gone through exactly what you're going through now that people find invaluable," said Michael O'Neill, the state's assistant commissioner for mental health services.
A few handfuls of Massachusetts residents, including Zaller, have completed the eight -day training session and exams to be certified as peer specialists. On Monday, they are to be recognized at a State House ceremony.
The new field must work through many possible problems, from the potential for relapse among specialists to the potential for resistance from more traditional mental health staffers. But O'Neill expects the state's corps to grow to hundreds.
Massachusetts is redesigning its mental health system to be more user-friendly, he said, and "peer support is a fundamental element of that redesigned system." In the coming months, Massachusetts will be setting up six regional centers where peer specialists will work with clients and support each other in their fledgling vocation, O'Neill said .
The concept has taken off in 30 states. In half a dozen, Medicaid, the public insurance program for the poor and chronically ill, pays for the services, said Paolo del Vecchio, associate director for consumer affairs at the federal government's Center for Mental Health Services.
"Over the past five years, we've really seen the development of a new mental health profession emerging," he said.
The growth of the peer specialist profession comes against the backdrop of a sweeping national shift toward greater optimism that those in dire condition may improve or recover, and toward giving people with mental illness more control over the help they get. People with mental illness are not passive patients, the thinking goes; they can help themselves and as they get better, they can help others .
In their work, peer specialists are expected to share their stories of recovery when relevant to their clients. They may have learned skills worth sharing, or simply inspire hope by being much better than they once were.
The work goes beyond a typical speaker at a 12-step meeting.
It can include helping a patient in a psychiatric hospital make the shift back to living at home, or supporting an emergency room patient in crisis. A specialist might remind a team of clinicians that their patient is in a kind of hell, or take a lonely client out for pizza.
Early research, which is just beginning to accumulate, suggests that peer specialists may be particularly useful with patients who would normally resist help from the mental health system, said Larry Davidson, a Yale professor who conducts studies on peer specialists.
People with mental illness sometimes feel disliked by the professional staff who treat them, he said; it appears that with peers, "they feel less disliked and more understood."
Studies show that "people in recovery can provide services at least as well as people who don't have that experience," Davidson said. Hard data are being collected now on whether they offer "value added," he said.
Anecdotal reports of successful work by peer specialists abound. In Georgia, which has 340, they have proven particularly useful in helping discharged state hospital patients build new lives at home, said Gwen Skinner, the state's top mental health official.
Though the new field is growing, resistance remains, Davidson and others said.
They worry that staff and clinicians without mental illness could feel threatened by the influx of newcomers whose experience with illness is considered an asset. Traditional staff could also worry about being replaced by peer specialists. Certified peer specialists are supposed to earn a typical mental health staff salary of $12 an hour to $15 an hour on an entry level, said Deborah Delman executive director of M-Power, the Massachusetts mental health advocacy group that runs the peer training courses. But some peer workers who are not certified may earn less, she said.
After they are certified, Massachusetts peer specialists will continue to be overseen by The Transformation Center, a statewide training organization that is supposed to ensure they maintain ethical standards and continue their education.
The peer specialists also pose staffing issues. What if, for example, a peer specialist works with patients at a state hospital, then has a relapse and is rehospitalized there, then resumes the job? Boundaries and definitions may get fuzzy; confidentiality may become a concern.
Also, Davidson said, if supervisors view their patients as problems, then adding peer specialists to their staff is asking for more problems. The challenge, he said, is for them to shift to thinking about all people with mental illness as "having assets and strengths to help solve problems."
Judging by responses in Zaller's small therapy group in Taunton, some people with mental illness immediately see the benefits of being helped by a peer.
"He's not looking at us through a book," said one group member, Diane Silvia. "He can relate to us, and we can relate to him."
Carey Goldberg can be reached at goldberg@globe.com.
http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2007/06/08/mental_patients_find_understanding_in_therapy_led_by_peers?mode=PF
American Pastime
The Jilting of Japanese Baseball
In the shadow of the sports dramas Glory Road, Invicible and now Pride, Audience Award winning filmmaker Desmond Nakano strikes out with Warner Bros.Thursday, March 29, 2007 at 8:45 PMBy Pam Grady
Lyle Nomura (Aaron Yoo) has two loves: jazz and baseball. And with a sports scholarship to San Francisco State, at least one of those passions looks as if it might blossom into something much bigger.
But Lyle is also Japanese-American and after the Japanese bomb Pearl Harbor to usher in the United States' entry into World War II, he and his family discover just how little citizenship can actually mean when xenophobia sweeps the nation. Sent by government decree to the Topaz internment camp in tiny Abraham, Utah, Lyle's dreams turn to dust, but he, his kin, and his community do not simply surrender to injustice in Desmond Nakano's American Pastime.
Savoy Pictures Photo
A not entirely happy return to features
The recent silver anniversary edition of the San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival was very, very good to Nakano, who is probably best known for his screenplay adaptation of Hubert Selby Jr.'s cult novel Last Exit to Brooklyn. Not only did the festival host the world premiere of his first film since the John Travolta-starring White Man's Burden a dozen years ago, but he also came away with the Comcast Audience Award for Narrative Feature. During the festival, he and associate producer Kerry Yo Nakagawa expressed the hope that Warner Bros. would allow their movie a short theatrical run in advance of its May 22nd DVD release. Given the short window involved that seems unlikely, but maybe the prize will help their cause.
It is a little curious that Warners is not giving the film a proper release. It is true that Yoo is relatively unknown, but with roles in the upcoming Disturbia and Rocket Science that status is purely temporary. And while there may be no big stars among the supporting cast, there are certainly recognizable faces and names.
Leonardo Nam (The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants) is on hand in the role of Lyle's less hotheaded, older brother Lane; Everwood's Sarah Drew plays Lyle's love interest Katie Burrell; and Napoleon Dynamite's Uncle Rico, Jon Gries, plays the racist town barber Ed Tully. Starring opposite Yoo as camp guard Billy Burrell, a semi-pro ballplayer still dreaming of a shot at the big leagues well into middle age, is the always-awesome Gary Cole.
Steve Granitz/WireImage.com Photo
Co-star Gary Cole
Mainly, it seems odd that Warners is not releasing this, because sports movies are such a no-brainer when it comes to Hollywood. Granted, this one is more personal than most and does not quite follow the usual inspirational script, although it does climax with a ballgame (with a title like American Pastime, did you think that it wouldn't?) and a bit of an uplift. But with the more recent sports dramas built around basketball (Glory Road), football (Invincible), swimming (Pride) and even air guitar (another SFIAFF favorite, the wonderful documentary Air Guitar Nation), it has been a while since there has been a decent baseball movie in theaters. Nakano's little low-budget indie seems like a missed golden opportunity.
Perhaps the studio was a little afraid of it, because along with its sports drama is a history lesson that a lot of Americans would sooner leave buried. Unlike slavery, which defined the country's first century and still reverberates to this day, the internment of American citizens during the 1940s only lasted as long as the war did, making it far easier to sweep under the rug.
But Nakano's own parents were interred during the war. His father, the late actor and singer Lane Nakano, would go on to volunteer to serve in the 442nd Infantry Regimental Combat Team, a volunteer unit comprised solely of Japanese-American soldiers that became the most decorated squad in American military history for its actions in the European theater. Later, the elder Nakano would star opposite Van Johnson in the 1951 drama Go for Broke! that limned the Nisei soldiers' heroism.
Jemal Countess/WireImage.com Photo
Co-star Sarah Drew
Nakano admits the story, written with Tony Kayden, is loosely based on his own family, but while Lane Nomura joins the 442 (and is returned to internment when his service is complete, despite the fact that he is now a decorated lieutenant, a superior officer to the soldiers guarding him), the twin hearts of the story are jazz and baseball. It is the saxophone that makes life at Topaz bearable for Lyle (and is the instrument by which he woos music teacher Katie). For Nomura patriarch, Kaz (Masatoshi Nakamura), whose own prowess on the diamond was such that he played on all-star teams with the likes of Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig as a young man, forming ball teams is one way to keep morale going in the camp.
The prejudice the internees face is unceasing, driven by paranoia and a well of ignorance so deep that the guards and townspeople seem incapable of acknowledging that these strangers in their midst are their fellow Americans, whether immigrant or native born. And for some who have lost loved ones in the Pacific, the newcomers are convenient scapegoats for their rage and grief. Even after the 442 is formed and the gold stars that signal a fallen soldier begin to accumulate at Topaz, the shared sacrifice goes unacknowledged.
All of which serves to set up the main conflict between Lyle and Billy Burrell, a division made more grotesque in that they are both in thrall to the same passion for baseball. That Lyle is in love with Billy's daughter only deepens the guard's resentment of the young man with the wicked fastball. It would be easy to paint Billy as the standard, stick figure redneck but neither Nakano and Kayden in their script or the underrated Cole in his performance settle for such a shallow portrayal.
During the Q&A following American Pastime's screening at SFIAFF, Nakano observed that he approached issues of race in this differently than he had 12 years ago when he was making White Man's Burden, a drama which upended African-American and white stereotypes. "I was conscious of race as an issue then. This time was the opposite," he said. "This is really about two families."
Australian actor Nam, to whom this history was a revelation, concurred, saying, "I think it's really an emotional journey we can take together.”
Associate producer Nakagawa previously wrote about the internment in his book, Through a Diamond: 100 Years of Japanese American Baseball. During the making of American Pastime, he turned his attention to the 442's veterans (like Nakano, he has a family connection in an uncle who served), conducting interviews on camera and as oral histories.
Some of that footage will be on the DVD, one advantage the home video format has over theatrical release. Still, if American Pastime does turn up at a theater near you, it is well worth checking out, for the history, the moving family story, and the homage it pays to the boys of summer.
http://www.filmstew.com/showArticle.aspx?ContentID=15708
In the shadow of the sports dramas Glory Road, Invicible and now Pride, Audience Award winning filmmaker Desmond Nakano strikes out with Warner Bros.Thursday, March 29, 2007 at 8:45 PMBy Pam Grady
Lyle Nomura (Aaron Yoo) has two loves: jazz and baseball. And with a sports scholarship to San Francisco State, at least one of those passions looks as if it might blossom into something much bigger.
But Lyle is also Japanese-American and after the Japanese bomb Pearl Harbor to usher in the United States' entry into World War II, he and his family discover just how little citizenship can actually mean when xenophobia sweeps the nation. Sent by government decree to the Topaz internment camp in tiny Abraham, Utah, Lyle's dreams turn to dust, but he, his kin, and his community do not simply surrender to injustice in Desmond Nakano's American Pastime.
Savoy Pictures Photo
A not entirely happy return to features
The recent silver anniversary edition of the San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival was very, very good to Nakano, who is probably best known for his screenplay adaptation of Hubert Selby Jr.'s cult novel Last Exit to Brooklyn. Not only did the festival host the world premiere of his first film since the John Travolta-starring White Man's Burden a dozen years ago, but he also came away with the Comcast Audience Award for Narrative Feature. During the festival, he and associate producer Kerry Yo Nakagawa expressed the hope that Warner Bros. would allow their movie a short theatrical run in advance of its May 22nd DVD release. Given the short window involved that seems unlikely, but maybe the prize will help their cause.
It is a little curious that Warners is not giving the film a proper release. It is true that Yoo is relatively unknown, but with roles in the upcoming Disturbia and Rocket Science that status is purely temporary. And while there may be no big stars among the supporting cast, there are certainly recognizable faces and names.
Leonardo Nam (The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants) is on hand in the role of Lyle's less hotheaded, older brother Lane; Everwood's Sarah Drew plays Lyle's love interest Katie Burrell; and Napoleon Dynamite's Uncle Rico, Jon Gries, plays the racist town barber Ed Tully. Starring opposite Yoo as camp guard Billy Burrell, a semi-pro ballplayer still dreaming of a shot at the big leagues well into middle age, is the always-awesome Gary Cole.
Steve Granitz/WireImage.com Photo
Co-star Gary Cole
Mainly, it seems odd that Warners is not releasing this, because sports movies are such a no-brainer when it comes to Hollywood. Granted, this one is more personal than most and does not quite follow the usual inspirational script, although it does climax with a ballgame (with a title like American Pastime, did you think that it wouldn't?) and a bit of an uplift. But with the more recent sports dramas built around basketball (Glory Road), football (Invincible), swimming (Pride) and even air guitar (another SFIAFF favorite, the wonderful documentary Air Guitar Nation), it has been a while since there has been a decent baseball movie in theaters. Nakano's little low-budget indie seems like a missed golden opportunity.
Perhaps the studio was a little afraid of it, because along with its sports drama is a history lesson that a lot of Americans would sooner leave buried. Unlike slavery, which defined the country's first century and still reverberates to this day, the internment of American citizens during the 1940s only lasted as long as the war did, making it far easier to sweep under the rug.
But Nakano's own parents were interred during the war. His father, the late actor and singer Lane Nakano, would go on to volunteer to serve in the 442nd Infantry Regimental Combat Team, a volunteer unit comprised solely of Japanese-American soldiers that became the most decorated squad in American military history for its actions in the European theater. Later, the elder Nakano would star opposite Van Johnson in the 1951 drama Go for Broke! that limned the Nisei soldiers' heroism.
Jemal Countess/WireImage.com Photo
Co-star Sarah Drew
Nakano admits the story, written with Tony Kayden, is loosely based on his own family, but while Lane Nomura joins the 442 (and is returned to internment when his service is complete, despite the fact that he is now a decorated lieutenant, a superior officer to the soldiers guarding him), the twin hearts of the story are jazz and baseball. It is the saxophone that makes life at Topaz bearable for Lyle (and is the instrument by which he woos music teacher Katie). For Nomura patriarch, Kaz (Masatoshi Nakamura), whose own prowess on the diamond was such that he played on all-star teams with the likes of Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig as a young man, forming ball teams is one way to keep morale going in the camp.
The prejudice the internees face is unceasing, driven by paranoia and a well of ignorance so deep that the guards and townspeople seem incapable of acknowledging that these strangers in their midst are their fellow Americans, whether immigrant or native born. And for some who have lost loved ones in the Pacific, the newcomers are convenient scapegoats for their rage and grief. Even after the 442 is formed and the gold stars that signal a fallen soldier begin to accumulate at Topaz, the shared sacrifice goes unacknowledged.
All of which serves to set up the main conflict between Lyle and Billy Burrell, a division made more grotesque in that they are both in thrall to the same passion for baseball. That Lyle is in love with Billy's daughter only deepens the guard's resentment of the young man with the wicked fastball. It would be easy to paint Billy as the standard, stick figure redneck but neither Nakano and Kayden in their script or the underrated Cole in his performance settle for such a shallow portrayal.
During the Q&A following American Pastime's screening at SFIAFF, Nakano observed that he approached issues of race in this differently than he had 12 years ago when he was making White Man's Burden, a drama which upended African-American and white stereotypes. "I was conscious of race as an issue then. This time was the opposite," he said. "This is really about two families."
Australian actor Nam, to whom this history was a revelation, concurred, saying, "I think it's really an emotional journey we can take together.”
Associate producer Nakagawa previously wrote about the internment in his book, Through a Diamond: 100 Years of Japanese American Baseball. During the making of American Pastime, he turned his attention to the 442's veterans (like Nakano, he has a family connection in an uncle who served), conducting interviews on camera and as oral histories.
Some of that footage will be on the DVD, one advantage the home video format has over theatrical release. Still, if American Pastime does turn up at a theater near you, it is well worth checking out, for the history, the moving family story, and the homage it pays to the boys of summer.
http://www.filmstew.com/showArticle.aspx?ContentID=15708
Wednesday, May 30, 2007
A New Silent Majority
May 23, 2007, 6:11 pm
A New Silent Majority
By Mark Buchanan
Something seems a little out of whack between the mainstream media and the American people. Take the arguments of the past few days over former President Jimmy Carter’s remarks about the Bush administration and the consequences of its particular brand of foreign policy. Carter didn’t attack President Bush personally, but said that “as far as the adverse impact on the nation around the world, this administration has been the worst in history,” which can’t really be too far out of line with what many Americans think.
In coverage typical of much of the media, however, NBC Nightly News asked whether Carter had broken “an unwritten rule when commenting on the current president,” and portrayed Carter’s words — unfairly it seems — as a personal attack on President Bush. Fox News called it “unprecedented.” Yet as an article in this newspaper on Tuesday pointed out, “presidential scholars roll their eyes at the notion that former presidents do not speak ill of current ones.”
The pattern is familiar. Polls show that most Americans want our government to stop its unilateral swaggering, and to try to solve our differences with other nations through diplomacy. In early April, for example, when the speaker of the House, the Democrat Nancy Pelosi, visited Syria and met with President Bashar al-Assad, a poll had 64 percent of Americans in favor of negotiations with the Syrians. Yet this didn’t stop an outpouring of media alarm.
A number of CNN broadcasts — including one showing Pelosi with a head scarf beside the title “Talking with Terrorists?” — failed even to mention that several Republican congressmen had met with Assad two days before Pelosi did. The conventional wisdom on the principal television talk shows was that Pelosi had “messed up on this one” (in the words of NBC’s Matt Lauer), and that she and the Democrats would pay dearly for it.
So it must have been a great surprise when Pelosi’s approval ratings stayed basically the same after her visit, or actually went up a little.
Or take the matter of the impeachment of President Bush and Vice President Cheney. Most media figures seem to consider the very idea as issuing from the unhinged imaginations of a lunatic fringe. But according to a recent poll, 39 percent of Americans in fact support it, including 42 percent of independents.
A common explanation of this tendency toward distortion is that the beltway media has attended a few too many White House Correspondents’ Dinners and so cannot possibly cover the administration with anything approaching objectivity. No doubt the Republicans’ notoriously well-organized efforts in casting the media as having a “liberal bias” also have their intended effect in suppressing criticism.
But I wonder whether this media distortion also persists because it doesn’t meet with enough criticism, and if that’s partially because many Americans think that what they see in the major political media reflects what most other Americans really think – when actually it often doesn’t.
Psychologists coined the term “pluralistic ignorance” in the 1930s to refer to this type of misperception — more a social than an individual phenomenon — to which even smart people might fall victim. A study back then had surprisingly found that most kids in an all-white fraternity were privately in favor of admitting black members, though most assumed, wrongly, that their personal views were greatly in the minority. Natural temerity made each individual assume that he was the lone oddball.
A similar effect is common today on university campuses, where many students think that most other students are typically inclined to drink more than they themselves would wish to; researchers have found that many students indeed drink more to fit in with what they perceive to be the drinking norm, even though it really isn’t the norm. The result is an amplification of a minority view, which comes to seem like the majority view.
In pluralistic ignorance, as described by researchers Hubert O’Gorman and Stephen Garry in a 1976 paper published in Public Opinion Quarterly, “moral principles with relatively little popular support may exert considerable influence because they are mistakenly thought to represent the views of the majority, while normative imperatives actually favored by the majority may carry less weight because they are erroneously attributed to a minority.”
What is especially disturbing about the process is that it lends itself to control by the noisiest and most visible. Psychologists have noted that students who are the heaviest drinkers, for example, tend to speak out most strongly against proposed measures to curb drinking, and act as “subculture custodians” in support of their own minority views. Their strong vocalization can produce “false consensus” against such measures, as others, who think they’re part of the minority, keep quiet. As a consequence, the extremists gain influence out of all proportion to their numbers, while the views of the silent majority end up being suppressed. (The United States Department of Education has a brief page on the main ideas here.)
Think of the proposal to put a timetable on the withdrawal of troops from Iraq, supported, the latest poll says, by 60 percent of Americans, but dropped Tuesday from the latest war funding bill.
Over the past couple months, Glenn Greenwald at Salon.com has done a superb job of documenting what certainly seems like it might be a case of pluralistic ignorance among the major political media, many (though certainly not all) of whom often seem to act as “subculture custodians” of their own amplified minority views. Routinely, it seems, views that get expressed and presented as majority views aren’t really that at all.
In a typical example in March, NBC’s Andrea Mitchell reported that most Americans wanted to pardon Scooter Libby, saying that the polling “indicates that most people think, in fact, that he should be pardoned, Scooter Libby should be pardoned.” In fact, polls showed that only 18 percent then favored a pardon.
Mitchell committed a similar error in April, claiming that polling showed Nancy Pelosi to be unpopular with the American people, her approval rating being as low as the dismal numbers of former Republican Speaker Dennis Hastert just before the 2006 November elections. But in fact the polls showed Pelosi’s approval standing at about 50 percent, while Hastert’s had been 22 percent.
As most people get their news from the major outlets, these distortions – however they occur, whether intentionally or through some more innocuous process of filtering – almost certainly translate into a strongly distorted image in peoples’ minds of what most people across the country think. They contribute to making mainstream Americans feel as if they’re probably not mainstream, which in turn may make them less likely to voice their opinions.
One of the most common examples of pluralistic ignorance, of course, takes place in the classroom, where a teacher has just finished a dull and completely incomprehensible lecture, and asks if there are any questions. No hands go up, as everyone feels like the lone fool, even though no student actually understood a single word. It takes guts, of course, to admit total ignorance when you might just be the only one.
Last year, author Kristina Borjesson interviewed 21 prominent journalists for her book “Feet to the Fire,” about the run-up to the Iraq War. Her most notable impression was this:
“The thing that I found really profound was that there really was no consensus among this nation’s top messengers about why we went to war. [War is the] most extreme activity a nation can engage in, and if they weren’t clear about it, that means the public wasn’t necessarily clear about the real reasons. And I still don’t think the American people are clear about it.”
Yet in the classroom of our democracy, at least for many in the media, it still seems impolitic – or at least a little too risky – to raise one’s hand.
http://buchanan.blogs.nytimes.com/
A New Silent Majority
By Mark Buchanan
Something seems a little out of whack between the mainstream media and the American people. Take the arguments of the past few days over former President Jimmy Carter’s remarks about the Bush administration and the consequences of its particular brand of foreign policy. Carter didn’t attack President Bush personally, but said that “as far as the adverse impact on the nation around the world, this administration has been the worst in history,” which can’t really be too far out of line with what many Americans think.
In coverage typical of much of the media, however, NBC Nightly News asked whether Carter had broken “an unwritten rule when commenting on the current president,” and portrayed Carter’s words — unfairly it seems — as a personal attack on President Bush. Fox News called it “unprecedented.” Yet as an article in this newspaper on Tuesday pointed out, “presidential scholars roll their eyes at the notion that former presidents do not speak ill of current ones.”
The pattern is familiar. Polls show that most Americans want our government to stop its unilateral swaggering, and to try to solve our differences with other nations through diplomacy. In early April, for example, when the speaker of the House, the Democrat Nancy Pelosi, visited Syria and met with President Bashar al-Assad, a poll had 64 percent of Americans in favor of negotiations with the Syrians. Yet this didn’t stop an outpouring of media alarm.
A number of CNN broadcasts — including one showing Pelosi with a head scarf beside the title “Talking with Terrorists?” — failed even to mention that several Republican congressmen had met with Assad two days before Pelosi did. The conventional wisdom on the principal television talk shows was that Pelosi had “messed up on this one” (in the words of NBC’s Matt Lauer), and that she and the Democrats would pay dearly for it.
So it must have been a great surprise when Pelosi’s approval ratings stayed basically the same after her visit, or actually went up a little.
Or take the matter of the impeachment of President Bush and Vice President Cheney. Most media figures seem to consider the very idea as issuing from the unhinged imaginations of a lunatic fringe. But according to a recent poll, 39 percent of Americans in fact support it, including 42 percent of independents.
A common explanation of this tendency toward distortion is that the beltway media has attended a few too many White House Correspondents’ Dinners and so cannot possibly cover the administration with anything approaching objectivity. No doubt the Republicans’ notoriously well-organized efforts in casting the media as having a “liberal bias” also have their intended effect in suppressing criticism.
But I wonder whether this media distortion also persists because it doesn’t meet with enough criticism, and if that’s partially because many Americans think that what they see in the major political media reflects what most other Americans really think – when actually it often doesn’t.
Psychologists coined the term “pluralistic ignorance” in the 1930s to refer to this type of misperception — more a social than an individual phenomenon — to which even smart people might fall victim. A study back then had surprisingly found that most kids in an all-white fraternity were privately in favor of admitting black members, though most assumed, wrongly, that their personal views were greatly in the minority. Natural temerity made each individual assume that he was the lone oddball.
A similar effect is common today on university campuses, where many students think that most other students are typically inclined to drink more than they themselves would wish to; researchers have found that many students indeed drink more to fit in with what they perceive to be the drinking norm, even though it really isn’t the norm. The result is an amplification of a minority view, which comes to seem like the majority view.
In pluralistic ignorance, as described by researchers Hubert O’Gorman and Stephen Garry in a 1976 paper published in Public Opinion Quarterly, “moral principles with relatively little popular support may exert considerable influence because they are mistakenly thought to represent the views of the majority, while normative imperatives actually favored by the majority may carry less weight because they are erroneously attributed to a minority.”
What is especially disturbing about the process is that it lends itself to control by the noisiest and most visible. Psychologists have noted that students who are the heaviest drinkers, for example, tend to speak out most strongly against proposed measures to curb drinking, and act as “subculture custodians” in support of their own minority views. Their strong vocalization can produce “false consensus” against such measures, as others, who think they’re part of the minority, keep quiet. As a consequence, the extremists gain influence out of all proportion to their numbers, while the views of the silent majority end up being suppressed. (The United States Department of Education has a brief page on the main ideas here.)
Think of the proposal to put a timetable on the withdrawal of troops from Iraq, supported, the latest poll says, by 60 percent of Americans, but dropped Tuesday from the latest war funding bill.
Over the past couple months, Glenn Greenwald at Salon.com has done a superb job of documenting what certainly seems like it might be a case of pluralistic ignorance among the major political media, many (though certainly not all) of whom often seem to act as “subculture custodians” of their own amplified minority views. Routinely, it seems, views that get expressed and presented as majority views aren’t really that at all.
In a typical example in March, NBC’s Andrea Mitchell reported that most Americans wanted to pardon Scooter Libby, saying that the polling “indicates that most people think, in fact, that he should be pardoned, Scooter Libby should be pardoned.” In fact, polls showed that only 18 percent then favored a pardon.
Mitchell committed a similar error in April, claiming that polling showed Nancy Pelosi to be unpopular with the American people, her approval rating being as low as the dismal numbers of former Republican Speaker Dennis Hastert just before the 2006 November elections. But in fact the polls showed Pelosi’s approval standing at about 50 percent, while Hastert’s had been 22 percent.
As most people get their news from the major outlets, these distortions – however they occur, whether intentionally or through some more innocuous process of filtering – almost certainly translate into a strongly distorted image in peoples’ minds of what most people across the country think. They contribute to making mainstream Americans feel as if they’re probably not mainstream, which in turn may make them less likely to voice their opinions.
One of the most common examples of pluralistic ignorance, of course, takes place in the classroom, where a teacher has just finished a dull and completely incomprehensible lecture, and asks if there are any questions. No hands go up, as everyone feels like the lone fool, even though no student actually understood a single word. It takes guts, of course, to admit total ignorance when you might just be the only one.
Last year, author Kristina Borjesson interviewed 21 prominent journalists for her book “Feet to the Fire,” about the run-up to the Iraq War. Her most notable impression was this:
“The thing that I found really profound was that there really was no consensus among this nation’s top messengers about why we went to war. [War is the] most extreme activity a nation can engage in, and if they weren’t clear about it, that means the public wasn’t necessarily clear about the real reasons. And I still don’t think the American people are clear about it.”
Yet in the classroom of our democracy, at least for many in the media, it still seems impolitic – or at least a little too risky – to raise one’s hand.
http://buchanan.blogs.nytimes.com/
Tuesday, May 22, 2007
AAAFSA
Speaker series
CAAS (Madeleine)
Saheli/SafePlace (Lynn Westbrook?)
Work/Life Balance
Health Center/Mental Health Center (Joe/Shalini?)
EAP
Equal Employment Opportunity
Gender and Sexuality Center
UT Libraries (Bill, Peggy, Meng-fen?)
MIC (Mamta)
RecSports (Bonnibel?)
Retirement planning
Voter Registration / Political activism (Ramey)
NAAO?
CAAS (Madeleine)
Saheli/SafePlace (Lynn Westbrook?)
Work/Life Balance
Health Center/Mental Health Center (Joe/Shalini?)
EAP
Equal Employment Opportunity
Gender and Sexuality Center
UT Libraries (Bill, Peggy, Meng-fen?)
MIC (Mamta)
RecSports (Bonnibel?)
Retirement planning
Voter Registration / Political activism (Ramey)
NAAO?
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