Who do you share your iPod playlist with?
Your lover? Your lover's husband? Your colleagues at the office? The strangely smelling man who sits next to you on the bus?
Well, researchers at the University of Cambridge have a message for you. It reads: "Don't."
According to these flatland boffins, your values, your personality, even your ethnicity, and social class (well, it is England, after all) will be judged by what you slip onto your iPod.
Jason Rentfrow, the chap who dreamed up this vital and surprising study at the university's Department of Social and Developmental Psychology, declared to the Telegraph that letting others sneak a peek at your Blondie and Mahler may "reinforce stereotypes and, potentially social prejudices."
He added: "This research suggests that, even though our assumptions may not be accurate, we get a very strong impression about someone when we ask them what music they like."
You will, I know, both fear and adore some of Rentfrow's conclusions. Those who have a predilection for jazz are, supposedly, liberal, friendly, and sociable. Well, of course. That's what pleasantly discordant music has always said about anyone. READ FULL STORYRead more…
Flor Olivo says she's tired of the stereotype that young single Latina mothers can't accomplish much.
Olivo, 24, is a divorced Latina mom with two kids who works and attends the University of Utah. She says she doesn't understand where people get off judging her or other Latinos without knowing their circumstances.
It's also one of the reasons Olivo and other young adults about six months ago started a West Valley City-based bilingual community organization called Ilumina Tu Gente (Enlighten Your People). READ FULL STORYRead more…
Forget counting sheep, ditch the sleeping pills and don't bother with a glass of warm milk, a good remedy for women who can't sleep is a happy marriage.
Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh have found that women who are happy with their husbands or partners have less trouble sleeping than their single, unattached counterparts. READ FULL STORYRead more…
Behind its bland, warehouse-like exterior, Comunidad Cristiana Hosanna on Sunday morning is a feast for the senses.
Little girls in white robes and sequined headbands twirl as guitar, keyboard and timbales pound out salsa, merengue and American pop rhythms at rock-concert decibels. The crowd sings along with the robed chorus: "Levanto mis manos" -- "I raise my hands." READ FULL STORYRead more…
Sharon Salyer and Alejandro Domínguez’s reporting on the mental health challenges faced by Hispanics is part of a health journalism program offered through the Annenberg-California Endowment Health Journalism Fellowships, administered by the University of Southern California Annenberg School for Communication. READ FULL STORYRead more…
Geraldo Rivera -- who has gone from TV showman to defender of la raza with his new book subtitled "Why Americans Fear Hispanics in the U.S." -- warmed up a Latino luncheon crowd the other day with the one joke he says he knows in Spanish.
"The only difference among us Hispanics is the color of our beans," he said in Spanish, to appreciative chuckles. "We're all in this together." READ FULL STORYRead more…
Hold the pavochón, the pasteles and the pumpkin flan.
In at least one Latino household in the city, this Thanksgiving will turn into a scene out of a Norman Rockwell painting.
The reason? The election of Barack Obama, and the born-again patriotism it has inspired even in the most cosmopolitan of New Yorkers.
“It’s cool for us to be gringos now,” says Vanessa Arce, 33, laughing. “It’s a bit of a joke, but it’s a joke everyone understands.” READ FULL STORYRead more…
When he was growing up in Mexico, Cesar Vera was fascinated with Thanksgiving, which he had heard about from television but otherwise knew nothing about. Today, having been in the United States for years, he has embraced the holiday wholeheartedly.
“For us, it is great, there is no religion involved and we are just grateful for it. We are completely converted. We look forward to this holiday. It’s a well-deserved break. We just go for it all the way, the traditional Thanksgiving,” said Mr. Vera, a photographer in East Hampton and New York. READ FULL STORYRead more…
Nearly two years after complaining that Chicago's 2016 Olympic bid was being spearheaded by an "elite, white man's club," minority aldermen learned Monday that not much has changed.
Testifying before the Finance Committee on the $86 million purchase of Michael Reese Hospital, Chicago 2016 Chairman Pat Ryan disclosed that minorities got only six percent of the contracts awarded by Olympic planners this year and that blacks and Hispanics hold only nine of 50 full-time Olympic jobs. READ FULL ARTICLERead more…
As it prepares to turn 100, the Boy Scouts of America is honing its survival skills for what might be its biggest test yet: drawing Hispanics into its declining — and mostly white — ranks.
"We either are going to figure out how to make Scouting the most exciting, dynamic organization for Hispanic kids, or we're going to be out of business," said Rick Cronk, former national president of the Boy Scouts, and chairman of the World Scout Committee.
The venerable Scouts remains the United States' largest youth organization, with 2.8 million children and youths, nearly all of them boys. But that is nearly half its peak membership, reached in 1972.
Its rolls took hits through the 1980s and '90s over a still-standing ban on gay or atheist leaders, and scandals surrounding inflated membership numbers. In addition, teenagers raised on TV and shoot-'em-up games had less use for learning to build a campfire or memorize the Scout oath.
The country changed too. One in five children under 18 is Hispanic, according to the U.S. Census. But they make up only 3 percent of Scouts. READ FULL STORYRead more…
Latinas Networking for Justice has been awarded a $25,000 grant by the Yakima Valley Community Foundation to provide 45 participants with civic and leadership development training.
Latinas Networking for Justice is a non-profit organization that works to remove barriers that prevent Latinas from accessing and participating in community life. It was founded in Granger last year by Ninfa R. Gutierrez, who is the board chairwoman. The grant will help the organization recruit leaders throughout Yakima County. READ FULL ARTICLERead more…
Some people have misconceptions of Latinos' level of civic commitment, according to a new Brown report.
A team of researchers, including some Brown faculty members, recently released a report that presents counter-arguments to commonly held myths about the opinions and attitudes of the Latino community.
Under the leadership of Evelyn Hu-Dehart, director of Brown's Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity in America, the project, entitled "Myths vs. Reality: Results From the New England Latino Survey," was an extension of the Latino National Survey. Conducted in 2005 and 2006 by a group of Latino political scientists, the survey, according to a University statement, was "a study of political and social attitudes of more than 8,600 Latino residents in the United States." For the New England-focused report released Oct. 30, the Latino communities in Rhode Island, Connecticut and Massachusetts were surveyed. READ FULL STORYRead more…
In 1963, at age 20, Lillian Aida Martinez came to the United States from Chile.
"Even though this country gave her a lot of opportunities, she still experienced setbacks," said Martinez's 37-year-old daughter, Linda Kelly.
Maybe it was because she didn't know anyone in the States or because she was a woman. It could have been her broken English and thick Chilean accent. No matter the reason, Martinez was met with challenges she never wanted her daughter, Linda, to face. That's why Martinez always made sure to encourage her daughter to learn perfect English and pursue a good education — while holding on to her Latin-American roots. READ FULL STORYRead more…
Despite the considerable and growing numbers of Hispanics living in the United States, little is known about their alcohol-beverage preferences. A new study of U.S. Hispanics belonging to four national groups – Mexican American, Puerto Rican, Cuban American, and South/Central American – has found that beer is their beverage of choice. READ FULL STORYRead more…
Sonia Espinoza crowded among a group of parents yesterday, darted across a room and raced to retrieve her shoe to get a gift for her son from the three wise men.
"It reminded me of when I was little," Espinoza said of a game she played as a girl in Puerto Rico when her family celebrated the day the trio is said to have visited the baby Jesus with gifts. READ FULL STORYRead more…
When Elena Rodriguez of Apopka buried her uncle, she felt grief -- and sticker shock.
For the native of Tamaulipas, Mexico, the funeral costs were more than she expected, and much more than they would have been in her homeland.
And rather than the customary three days for a vigil, she had less than a day to memorialize him before his body was sent to its final resting place in Mexico. READ FULL STORYRead more…
Marc Garduno faces a couple of obstacles as he sets out to recruit Boy Scouts from Delaware's Hispanic community.
First, the Scouts' traditional uniform, with pressed pants and insignia, might be off-putting to immigrants from countries where dictatorships thrive.
Second, the Scouts' Norman Rockwell image has for decades sent a message that it's a club for well-to-do whites. Statistics show that of about 3 million Scouts nationwide, 70 percent are white.
"Within the Hispanic-American community, there is an idea of the Boy Scouts as being a 'programa para los ricos' -- a program for the rich," said Garduno, 39, of Dover, whose parents are from Mexico. "That's what we're trying to change." READ FULL ARTICLERead more…
Edinson Volquez ate lots of fast food while working his way from the Dominican Republic to Major League Baseball, and not just because he had little money.
"In the minor leagues we always went to McDonald's, Subway," the Reds right-hander said. "You point at the number for what you want. You try to talk, but you're scared because somebody may be laughing at you."
Volquez, like most Latin Americans in the major leagues, arrived in the United States speaking little or no English. The language and cultural barriers, an afterthought to most U.S. baseball fans, are something Spanish-speaking players face throughout their careers. READ FULL STORYRead more…
Seafood processing is full of tough jobs, many of which are cold, slimy, repetitious - and even dangerous, for those wielding fillet knives.
Some tasks, such as extracting the cooked meat from Dungeness crab legs, are just plain tedious. But they need to be done fast to preserve the product and get it to the market quickly.
Highly-specialized local workers get the hardest jobs done swiftly - and somehow make it look easy.
At Bornstein Seafoods, many of those workers are Hispanics who have migrated to the North Coast for the high-paying jobs, which can yield $15 to $20 per hour.
Plant manager Anne Espedal said about 90 percent of the workforce at Bornstein's is Hispanic. READ FULL STORYRead more…
Although minorities have made tremendous strides in many other fields, African-Americans and Latinos make up only 1.7 to 1.8 percent of professional American orchestras. Rather than wringing its hands over the situation, the Sphinx Organization is addressing the problem directly. READ FULL STORYRead more…
