“Teachers are often unaware of the gender distribution of talk in their classrooms. They usually consider that they give equal amounts of attention to girls and boys, and it is only when they make a tape recording that they realize that boys are dominating the interactions. Dale Spender, an Australian feminist who has been a strong advocate of female rights in this area, noted that teachers who tried to restore the balance by deliberately ‘favouring’ the girls were astounded to find that despite their efforts they continued to devote more time to the boys in their classrooms. Another study reported that a male science teacher who managed to create an atmosphere in which girls and boys contributed more equally to discussion felt that he was devoting 90 per cent of his attention to the girls. And so did his male pupils. They complained vociferously that the girls were getting too much talking time. In other public contexts, too, such as seminars and debates, when women and men are deliberately given an equal amount of the highly valued talking time, there is often a perception that they are getting more than their fair share. Dale Spender explains this as follows: “The talkativeness of women has been gauged in comparison not with men but with silence. Women have not been judged on the grounds of whether they talk more than men, but of whether they talk more than silent women.” In other words, if women talk at all, this may be perceived as ‘too much’ by men who expect them to provide a silent, decorative background in many social contexts.”

i just found out about this bird (scale-crested pygmy tyrant) trying to find the most biodiverse countries and i feel tears welling up in my eyes because its so cute

Those shockingly high “illiteracy” statistics that go around aren’t saying that like 22% of Canadians or 21% of Americans or whatever literally can’t read.

On this day, 18 July 1969, Black Panthers held a conference in Oakland alongside the predominantly white anti-racist Young Patriots Organisation and Puerto Rican street gang-turned-radical group the Young Lords. A KPIX news report described the event as an “unconventional convention” which was nevertheless “well-organised and orderly”, and explained that the Panthers’ motivation in holding it was to emphasise “class struggle” and “revolutionary unity”. The Young Patriots were a group of poor, mostly Appalachian migrants in Chicago. Although they opposed racism, they originally wore Confederate flags, which they believed were a symbol of rebellion. Leading Panther Fred Hampton played a key role in building links with them and other white working-class youth, until he was assassinated by police. In his speech, William "Preacherman" Fesperman of the Young Patriots, argued for armed self-defence against police brutality: "A gun on the side of a pig means two things: it means racism and it means capitalism and the gun on the side of a revolutionary, on the side of the people, means solidarity and socialism." Later, the Young Patriots abandoned the Confederate flag symbol as an irredeemable symbol of white supremacy. As former-Patriot Hy Thurman explained to Redneck Revolt: “As we grew politically and respected the Black Panthers and the Young Lords we determined that there was no place in the movement or the world for the Confederate flag. It symbolises a period of time when our Black brothers and sisters were mere property to be sold or destroyed at the white man's convenience. And that the Confederate flag was created to serve as a symbol of plantation owners to perpetuate slavocracy.” Learn more about the Panthers in these books by former members: https://shop.workingclasshistory.com/collections/all/black-panthers

Love, love, love reading more proof that everyone should encourage the children in their lives to write to elected officials--it teaches them about citizenship and can also be very funny.