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The current board members pictured above include: Linda McManus, Ruthann Gostomski, Chris McKenney, Sally Robson, Anne Baumhover, Jean Herrity, Darlene Mashek, Joan Miller, Becky Pepper, and Carole Hays.
We would love to have you join Women's Guild! Click here for the membership form. You can either bring to your first meeting, or put in the Women's Guild slot in the church office vestibule. You can include the fee with the form.
As a member you can participate in any or all of the following: attend meetings and events, help plan and facilitate the service projects, and staff Guild social events and fundraisers.
The Annual Membership Fee is $20 and is due at the beginning of the membership drive in September. Members over the age of 80 pay no fee! To be a member, you must be 18 years of age.
If you have more questions, or would like to join, contact Sally Robson at (515) 250-6261. We look forward to adding you as one of our members!
We Have Funds To Help...
If your organization is interested in being considered for a charitable contribution from the Women's Guild, CLICK HERE for the form which must be submitted by the deadline of April 1 each year.
"God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us." Romans 5:5
The Sacred Heart Parish Women's Guild is a community of women who contribute to our parish, our surrounding community and those in need throughout the world. The objective of the organization is to provide an opportunity to become better acquainted with women of our parish and to support the parish through various activities and fundraising.
The list of activities extends throughout the year and offer something for everyone! Meetings are held each month, with two meetings each year combined with the Knights of Columbus. All meetings are held in the evening and include entertainment, food and beverages for a minimal charge.
Some of the activities include: Bunco; Fall Fashion Show; Movie Night; The Sweetheart Spa; and the Advent Dinner and St. Patrick's Day Celebration with the Knights of Columbus.
There are also several activities designed to give back to the parish and our community:
** Baptismal cloths are made for babies baptized at Sacred Heart;
** Bake sales raise money that is contributed to various organizations;
** Parish office luncheons are provided as a way to say 'thank you' to the parish staff;
** Hats and gloves are collected to give to those in need;
** Salads and cakes are provided for Sacred Heart funeral luncheons;
** Meals are provided and served to the Catholic Worker's House, for parish projects, and the parish picnic.
To be a member of the Sacred Heart Parish Women's Guild is to be a contributing member of the parish and the community.
Previous Events
* Chris Magruder and Julie Nelson spoke about their radio show Catholic Women Now.
* Colleen Murphy from the Iowa Tourism office shared ideas for great Iowa getaways, day trip destinations and tips for our upcoming fall color trips!
* Marilyn Lane provided a presentation of Medjugorje followed by a devotion to Mary (Roary and music);
* A Presentation by Diane Roupe, the author of the cookbook "Blue Ribbon country canning: State Fair & Award Winning Traditional and Modern Favorite Recipes;
* Celebrated St. Patrick's Day with dinner and music with the Knights of Columbus;
* Held bake sales to raise money;
* Collected mittens and hats to donate to those in need;
* Gathered boxes of baby items for Gabriel's Project;
* Had a holiday party with the Knights of Columbus;
* Enjoyed a night of bunco;
* Pam Douglas (Art and Environment) provided a brief history and tour of our church;
* Teresa Dunbar (Catholic Relief Services) shared her experiences from her trip to Haiti;
* Rosario Manzano (Hispanic Ministiries) talked about Hispanic Ministiries at Sacred Heart.
* February 14: Sweetheart Spa from 9 am until noon. Come spend a morning of pampering and shopping. Enjoy massages, facials, make-up consultants, hand pampering and vendors from Mainstream selling clothes, Scentsy, 31, Premier Jewelry. We will present door prizes every 15 minutes (last year we gave away over $800) with a grand prize of a one night stay at the Wildwood Lodge. Brunch will be served. Tickets are $20 or 2/$35. Groups of 6 or more can receive tickets for $15/ person. Contact Chris McKenney at 210-8230 or email@example.com for tickets. Tickets are on sale after all Masses the weekends of January 31-February 1 and February 7-8. CLICK HERE to see the flyer. CLICK HERE to view the vendors.
* March 3: Open to ALL parishioners. This Lent, come for a meal and fill your soul! The Women's Guild is excited to host Sister Marie Hesed. Soup will be served at 5:30 pm. Sister will speak at 6 pm. Sister met Mother Teresa and worked as one of the first members of the Missionaries of Charity here in the United States. Mother Hesed founded the first Contemplative houses in Mexico, Cuba and Kenya. She is currently in Iowa building a retreat center called Domus Trinitatis.
* March 16: St. Patrick's Day dinner and party with the Knights of Columbus.
* Reminder: Charitable Contribution forms are due April 1. See bottom left-hand corner of the web page for details.
* April 16: Eric Woolson, the Executive Director of St. Vincent de Paul, will be sharing the Society's story and works of charity serving those in need.
* May 7: Save the date!
* If you are interested in providing cakes and salads for funerals, please contact Mary Gallardo at 710-8381. You do not need to be a guild member to donate.
To see the minutes from past Women's Guild Meetings:
* April 2013
* May 2013
* October 2013
* November 2013
* April 2014
* May 2014
* September 2014
* November 2014
* January 2015
Sacred Heart Parish, 1627 Grand Avenue, West Des Moines, IA 50265 | Phone: 515-225-6414 | Fax: 515-225-0286 | firstname.lastname@example.com
Sacred Heart Parish, 1627 Grand Avenue, West Des Moines, IA 50265 | Phone: 515-225-6414 | Fax: 515-225-0286 | email@example.com
Sacred Heart Parish, 1627 Grand Avenue, West Des Moines, IA 50265 | Phone: 515-225-6414 | Fax: 515-225-0286 | firstname.lastname@example.com


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This Just In
A 17-million-year-old beaked whale fossil is helping researchers solve a puzzle about the likely birthplace of humanity in East Africa.
Some 80,000 years before our species arrived in Europe, Neanderthals there were making eye-catching jewelry.
The very first human dates to at least 2.3 million years ago, a new study concludes, suggesting that the origins of our genus could go back 3 million years ago.
Newly unearthed remains push back the origin of our genus by an incredible 400,000 years.
A single gene may have paved the way for the rise of human intelligence by dramatically increasing the number of brain cells found in a key brain region.
The remains of an ancient Israeli female strongly suggests that Neanderthals and Homo sapiens first met and mated in Israel.
The human history plot thickens with the discovery of a new archaic human from Taiwan that might have coexisted and interbred with our species.
Some of the earliest members of our family tree were able to do relatively sophisticated tasks with their hands.
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subset: commoncrawl


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Forced Loan
Let's not forget how money enters the market: through loans.
If you know about fractional banking, You know that a loan is given from a fractional of the reserve - that's right counterfeit/fake money.
Now if the US Govt. "Loaned" money under force to banks that didn't want it. What do you think the Govt was doing? Helping Banks?
The facts of fractional Banking tell the real story. Govt needed help. Force Lent fake money to all banks - and got back real money. It wasn't the banks at all that were in trouble. It was the Govt that needed the money. Notice how it didn't take long for banks to "pay-back" the loan. Banks don't like to spend money on interest, let alone give away real money to loans.
I don't recall any bank groveling for money from the Govt. US Govt Called the Banks. It held the meetings. Then Used the banks as the fall guy; not that I support their evil factional Banking Scams. Now you see how lies are built on lies are built on lies.
Fractional Banking - Quick Explanation: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fractional_reserve_banking
Stay Educated my Friends....
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Tag Archives: Simca costume
New Arrival on Mar. 28 – Air Gear Simca Cosplay Costume
By Sherry | Published: March 28, 2012
Today Air Gear Simca Cosplay Costume is reviewed. It features incredible comfort and wonderful accuracy. Available at $55.95, the Cosplay Costume surely can help you bring Simca into life at the show! You can take a closer look at the costume via the pictures below. This Air Gear Cosplay Costume for Simca is made from [...]
Posted in New Arrivals Costumes | Also tagged Air Gear Cosplay, Air Gear costumes, Simca cosplay | Leave a comment


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Photo Galleries
< MyNorthwest
Week in photos
Paula Deen cries, the ladies of 'The Heat,' keeping cool on the hottest days
44 of 46
The moon rises over Tall Ship Windy at Chicago Harbor, Sunday, June 23, 2013, in Chicago. The so-called supermoon appeared up to 14 percent larger than normal this weekend as our celestial neighbor swung closer to Earth, reaching its closest distance early Sunday morning. (AP Photo/Scott Eisen)
Photo by Scott Eisen
Photo by Scott Eisen
44 of 46
More Photo Galleries
Hundreds gather to commemorate one-year mark of Oso mudslide
A solemn crowd gathered to honor 43 people who lost their lives a year ago in the deadliest landslide in U.S. history.
Photos: Oso one year after deadly mudslide
Sunday is the one-year anniversary of the slide, and although most of the mangled cars and homes have been cleaned up, reminders of loss are everywhere.
Week in photos
Take a look at the best photos of the week from around the world.
Tuesday in photos
St. Patrick's Day, March 17, 2015.
Monday in photos
Monday, March 16, 2015.
Week in photos
Photos from around the world this week.
Friday in photos
The second of three Friday the 13ths in 2015; Friday, March 13, 2015.
Thursday in photos
Thursday, March 12, 2015.
Wednesday in photos
Wednesday, March 11, 2015.
Tuesday in photos
Tuesday, March 10, 2015.


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Venus Williams, Date-Krumm to meet for 1st time
The Court 1 lineup has three-time Wimbledon runner-up Andy Roddick, top-ranked woman Caroline Wozniacki and Robin Soderling.
The weather forecast for Tuesday was mixed. On Monday, rain began falling in late afternoon, resulting in the suspension of 14 matches in progress and the postponement of 17 others. Thanks to the retractable roof, play continued on Centre Court - including wins by Francesca Schiavone and Andy Murray.
Murray recovered from a one-set deficit to beat Daniel Gimeno-Traver 4-6, 6-3, 6-0, 6-0. From 3-3 in the third set, the fourth-seeded British player won the final 15 games of the match.
The roof was added to Centre Court before the 2009 tournament and was used once that year because of rain. It was used once in 2010 because of darkness - artificial lights go on when the roof is closed - and occasionally to provide shade from the sun, but not because of rain.
"The roof, it changes the conditions," Murray said. "It's not the same conditions. It's different. If anything, it's, like, almost too perfect. There's no wind, obviously no sun, no sort of elements to contend with."
With his parents watching from the Royal Box, defending champion Rafael Nadal went down a break in the first set before beating Michael Russell 6-4, 6-2, 6-2 in the opening match on Centre Court.
Nadal, coming off his sixth French Open title and 10th overall Grand Slam championship, could face an intriguing third-round match against big-serving 20-year-old Canadian Milos Raonic. Seeded No. 31, Raonic served 25 aces to beat Marc Gicquel in straight sets. Gicquel was a late replacement for Fabio Fognini, who pulled out with a thigh injury.
Raonic will next face Luxembourg's Gilles Muller, but looks forward to the prospect of meeting Nadal.
"It would mean a lot," he said. "First of all, it's a third round of a Grand Slam, so that's a plus. If it does get to that, I think it's a great opportunity, and I think it's something to look forward to."
First, though, Nadal faces 69th-ranked American Ryan Sweeting, who downed Pablo Andujar of Spain in five sets to reach the second round here for the first time. Nadal has beaten Sweeting twice this year, both time in straight sets, at the Australian Open and Indian Wells.
"He's playing better and better every time," Nadal said. "I have to play my tennis. I have to play aggressive like every day. That hopefully will be enough."
Follow Stephen Wilson at http://twitter.com/SteveWilsonap
The Associated Press


text: No recent wiki edits to this page. Suicide never goes on vacation, and our heroine can't seem to get a break, either. After a short time away, Misaki gets thrown right back into her work, attempting to exorcise a particularly nasty, evil presence from an apartment building, before it kills all the tenants!


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Trinity office space for rent
- Commercial Property
- November 12, 2014, 01:00
With a small number of high-quality office campuses in Dublin city now achieving rents of up to €45 per sq ft, Trinity College is hoping to secure €37(...)
Trinity postgraduate Ashley Bray took cyanide, inquest hears
- Courts
- November 10, 2014, 21:23
A Trinity postgraduate student found collapsed in a corridor and then moved by a security guard, thinking he was drunk, had taken cyanide, an inquest (...)
There will be blood at the Science Gallery
- Science
- October 23, 2014
A new exhibition at Dublin's Science Gallery is tapping into a challenging vein. It is called Blood, and it lives up to its subtitle, Not for the F(...)
TCD plans to demolish Pearse Street building for new student accommodation
- Education
- October 22, 2014, 01:00
Trinity College Dublin is planning a further rejuvenation of its Pearse Street facade with the development of a new business school and student resid(...)
Genetics research to revolutionise medicine, says Nobel laureate
- Science
- July 29, 2014, 01:00
The unravelling of the human genetic blueprint has delivered a revolution in the study of health and disease. It is having an impact on treatments (...)
Trinity institute raises €36 million for research
- Technology
- June 27, 2014, 11:55
The Trinity Biomedical Sciences Institute (TBSI) has created 119 jobs for researchers over the past two years and partnered with 76 companies to under(...)
Chewing over the fat issue
- Health & Family
- May 20, 2014
Blubber. Lard. Triglycerides. Call it what you like, but fat pushes our buttons. The term itself conjures up images of obesity, ill health, breakfasts(...)
A good sex life depends on good health, not age
- Health
- September 17, 2013, 01:00
The state of your health rather than your age is the greatest determinant of a good sex life, and an active sex life is associated with health in midd(...)
A surprising discovery about common table salt
- Science
- August 22, 2013, 01:00
Could table salt be used to make nano-wires? Scientists at Trinity College Dublin and the University of Cambridge have discovered that crystals of NaC(...)
Prof Roger Penrose to give lecture in October to mark Irish eureka moment
- Science
- August 8, 2013, 01:00
Sometimes inspiration can strike suddenly. On October 16th, 1843, while walking along the Royal Canal from Dunsink Observatory to the Royal Irish Acad(...)


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In the Nick of Time?
Pat Steinberg
October 12 2010 01:47PM
One day after his injury status was upgraded to week-to-week, Calgary Flames forward Matt Stajan was back on the ice taking part in full practice this morning. He traded in the yellow "no contact" jersey for a regular, black practice jersey and seems to be very close to making a full return to the Flames lineup.
Quick Injury Update
Pat Steinberg
October 11 2010 06:05PM
Happy Thanksgiving to everyone in FlamesNation. It's been a busy holiday Monday, with the earlier news of Flames defenceman Staffan Kronwall opting to return to Europe. and now the latest injury news regarding the team. Calgary defenceman Adam Pardy will be out indefinetely with a shoulder injury, while forward Rene Bourque is day-to-day with a head injury.
Flames Scoring Chances - Game 2 versus Los Angeles
Kent Wilson
October 11 2010 04:19PM
Scoring Chances for NHL Game Number 20025
Robin Brownlee
October 11 2010 03:43PM
The Edmonton Oilers are 2-0, but they could easily be 0-2. If it wasn't for Nikolai Khabibulin, who swiped a couple of points in a 3-2 win over the Florida Panthers Sunday, the mood around town might be considerably different today than what it is.
Kronwall Returns to Sweden
Pat Steinberg
October 11 2010 02:05PM
Calgary Flames and Abbotsford Heat defenceman Staffan Kronwall has opted to end his tenure with the American Hockey League's Heat, and instead return to his home club in Sweden. It's a decision that comes with the blessing of both teams, and is probably mutually beneficial for both sides.


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BHS selects Homecoming Royalty
Alle Bowman and Jake Urban were selected for the 2010 Bemidji High School Homecoming King and Queen. Other senior royalty are Sam Revering, Luke Upgren, Ben Hengel, Taylor McLean, Meghan Wannebo and Brooke Ross. Junior attendants are Kellie Morehouse and James Bofferding; sophomore attendants are Josie Spry and Craig Maas; and freshman attendants are Tarah Beregeron and Jay Ingails.
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text: It Follows Something wicked this way comes. But what exactly is it? now showing Wild Tales A compendium of outrageously bizarre stories, each more shocking and hilarious than the last. Academy Award Nominee for Best Foreign Language Film! now showing Gett: The Trial of Viviane Amsalem An Israeli woman seeking to finalize a divorce from her estranged husband finds herself effectively put on trial by her country's religious marriage laws. now showing Zombeavers An outrageously fun B-movie creature feature throwback, chock-full of good old-fashioned puppet-style beasties, gallons of gooey gore and a knowing sense of humor. now showing The Wrecking Crew What the Funk Brothers did for Motown… The Wrecking Crew did, only bigger, for the West Coast Sound. now showing WHAT WE DO IN THE SHADOWS What We Do In The Shadows chronicles the adventures of four vampire roommates trying to get by in a modern world that's not always hospitable to the undead. now showing Community Rentals Unravel the Clues for Optimal Health with Michael Greger, MD Join Healthy You Network in its fundraiser to support Dr. Greger and NutritionFacts.org! sunday, march 29 Special Events Free Screening The Fight in the Fields: Cesar Chavez and the Farmworkers' Struggle The first film to cover the full arc of Cesar Chávez' life. monday, march 30 Mondo Mondays The Killer Shrews Mangy mutant shrews with fearsome fang faces and empty tummies make life a living hell for folks stranded on a deserted island. monday, march 30 One Hit Wonders post-film discussion She's Beautiful When She's Angry This rousing, provocative documentary resurrects the buried history of the modern women's movement in America from 1966 to 1971. tuesday, march 31 The Films of David Lynch (Part One) Eraserhead This 1977 avant-garde classic introduced David Lynch to the world of feature films, going on to become a bona fide cult sensation and an iconic work of extraordinary, oddball beauty. weds., april 1 Special Events Dr. Who & the Daleks Fully restored for its 50th anniversary, Dr. Who and the Daleks is a fun romp filled with cool ideas, colorfully campy mid-'60s production values and a thrilling sense of adventure. thursday, april 2 First Friday Shorts First Friday Shorts Red Meat's Max Cannon hosts the biggest, baddest short film contest in town! Friday, April 3 Late Night Cult Classics Scream Aided by Kevin Williamson's meta-clever screenplay, Scream sees Master of Horror Craven reinvent the tired teens-in-peril genre. friday, april 3 & saturday, april 4 post-film discusssion Seymour: An Introduction Meet Seymour Bernstein: a virtuoso pianist, veteran New Yorker, and true original who gave up a successful concert career to teach music and help others develop their own gifts. starts april 3 Spring A beautiful, fluid genre-bender, Spring is an unforgettable romance of mythical, malevolent proportions. starts April 3 Kumiko, The Treasure Hunter In this darkly comedic odyssey, Rinko Kikuchi stars as Kumiko, a frustrated Office Lady whose imagination transcends the confines of her mundane life. starts April 3 Special Events post-film Q&A Giuseppe Makes a Movie In Ventura, CA, former child actor Giuseppe Andrews makes underground movies in his trailer park using an acting ensemble of neighbors and homeless friends. Filmmakers Adam Rifkin and Mike Plante in person! saturday, april 4 Community Rentals With David Yetman in person! In the Americas In the Americas with David Yetman takes a fresh look at the lands that make up much of the Western Hemisphere. Monday, April 6 Special Events Occupy the Farm The inspiring story of people taking direct action to create a healthier and more just food system and question the stewardship of a precious resource: publicly owned urban farmland. TUESDAY, APRIL 7 The Films of David Lynch (Part One) The Elephant Man Inspired by two books on John Merrick, the real-life Elephant Man, Lynch's second film recounts this severely deformed man's perilous life in Victorian-era England. weds., april 8 Community Rentals OR7 – The Journey Join the Center for Biological Diversity in celebrating the documentary OR7 – The Journey, an inspiring film about Oregon's famous wandering gray wolf. Thursday, April 9 Reel Pride Of Girls and Horses The latest feature from acclaimed filmmaker Monika Treut follows the slow rhythm of farm life in green and lovely Northern Germany. thursday, april 9 The All-Nite Scream-O-Rama! 12 hours of terror! The All-Nite Scream-O-Rama! Stay up all-nite at the sickest, scariest, most scream-errific cinematic slaughterhouse you've ever seen! friday, april 10 Late Night Cult Classics The Goonies Hey you guuuuyyyssss! Relive the totally awesome '80s adventure that convinced an entire generation of suburban kids that there was buried treasure in their backyards! friday, april 10 - sunday, april 12 While We're Young This sparkling new dramatic comedy from Noah Baumbach is a funny and open-hearted portrait of urban sophisticates and the pitfalls of straddling the generation gap. starts april 10 Merchants of Doubt Merchants of Doubt explores the shadowy world of professional skeptics, whose services are bought and paid for by corporations, think tanks and other special interests. starts april 10 Loft Jr. free admission! The Neverending Story This beloved '80s fantasy film is a grand adventure set in a magical world where the greatest power is imagination. saturday, april 11 Community Rentals Nuclear Weapons in Today's World Physicians for Social Responsibility present a free screening, followed by a presentation and panel discussion on this important topic. sunday, april 12 Essential Cinema The Night Porter One of the most controversial and hotly-debated films of the 1970s, Liliana Cavani's acclaimed drama The Night Porter is a dark and disturbing love story dipped in decadence. tuesday, april 14 The Films of David Lynch (Part One) Dune Lynch's infamous, psychedelic sci-fi tale of space, spice and sand worms. Based on Frank Herbert's cult novel, and produced by the legendary Dino De Laurentis. weds., april 15 Special Events director & star in person! Man from Reno A stranger in the increasingly strange city of San Francisco, Japanese crime novelist Aki is unsure of precisely what role she has to play in a real-life murder mystery involving ambiguous MacGuffins and amorphous identities. thursday, april 16 Late Night Cult Classics A Clockwork Orange Still one of Kubrick's most hotly-debated films, A Clockwork Orange is a chilling, shocking and endlessly fascinating look at humanity at its most monstrous. friday, april 17 & saturday, april 18 Community Rentals Presented by The Sierra Club Green Fire Green Fire is the first feature documentary about legendary conservationist Aldo Leopold's life and contemporary legacy. friday, april 17 3 Hearts Co-starring screen legend Catherine Deneuve and directed by acclaimed filmmaker Benoit Jacquot (Farewell, My Queen), 3 Hearts is a cleverly constructed romantic drama with a delicious French twist. starts april 17 White God An imaginative and strikingly visceral tale of an abandoned mutt's descent from man's best friend to rebellious threat. starts april 17 Backcountry Based on a terrifying true story, the gripping thriller Backcountry follows an urban couple who go on a romantic camping in the Canadian wilderness, only to find that the unimaginable beauty of nature sits alongside their most primal fears. starts april 17 Special Events The Pitch Perfect Sing-A-Long! It's time for the Pitch Perfect Sing-A-Long!, a totally interactive, totally aca-amazing evening of entertainment where making music with your mouth isn't simply encouraged, it's downright mandatory! saturday, april 18 The Rocky Horror Picture Show The Rocky Horror Picture Show A Loft tradition for 37 years and counting! With the "Heavy Petting" shadow cast live and in your face! saturday, april 18 Community Rentals Girl Scouts' Girls and Women of Distinction Ceremony Join us in celebrating Volunteerism and Taking Action in our community by recognizing the recipients of Girl Scouts of Southern Arizona's highest awards! Saturday, April 18 Loft Staff Selects Phantom of the Paradise Brian De Palma's wild and wacky musical is a glitter-dusted horror/comedy/rock opera that could have only escaped from the 1970s. sunday, april 19 Special Events Costume contest before the film The Breakfast Club Join the Brat Pack for this 30th Anniversary celebration of The Breakfast Club! TUESDAY, APRIL 21 & SATURDAY, APRIL 25 The Films of David Lynch (Part One) Blue Velvet Equal parts campy comedy, scathing social critique and demented horror film, Blue Velvet is a true original, and perhaps the iconic director's most enduringly influential masterpiece. weds., april 22 Special Events Special Earth Day Screening! Planetary Planetary is the follow-up to the award-winning short film Overview, which captivated audiences with astronauts' stories of what it means to see the Earth from space. weds., april 22 New York Film Critics Series The Water Diviner See the new drama The Water Diviner before its national theatrical release, featuring a captured-live post-film discussion with the film's Oscar-winning director/star Russell Crowe! thursday, april 23 Community Rentals Run Free: The True Story of Caballo Blanco A new documentary about legendary trail runner Micah True, who sparked a barefoot running revolution. thursday, april 23 Late Night Cult Classics Planet of the Apes It's Charlton Heston vs. the Damn Dirty Apes in the original sci-fi classic that had the whole planet going bananas! friday, april 24 & saturday, april 25 Loft Member Screenings Director Kirby Dick in person! The Hunting Ground From acclaimed writer/director Kirby Dick comes The Hunting Ground, a piercing, monumental exposé of rape culture on campuses, poised to light a fire under a national debate. starts april 24 The Salt of the Earth This stunning new Academy Award nominated documentary takes us on a breathtaking visual odyssey as we see the world through the eyes of one of the greatest image-makers of the last century. starts april 24 Community Rentals Step Up, Speak Out, End Bullying: PSA Showcase and Awards Event A free community event highlighting student-produced, 30-second public service announcements based on the theme "Creating a Safe Space for All." saturday, april 25 Community Rentals Featuring a Skype with director Andy Abrahams Wilson! Under Our Skin 2: Emergence The stirring sequel to the original shocking Lyme disease expose! saturday, april 25 Science on Screen 35mm print! Grizzly Man University of Arizona professor Daniel Sullivan will discuss the psychology of Timothy Treadwell at this special Science on Screen event! tuesday, april 28 The Films of David Lynch (Part One) 35mm Print! Wild at Heart Lynch's erotically-charged version of Barry Gifford's cult novel is oversaturated with saccharine lust, rollicking in grotesquerie and surreally influenced by The Wizard of Oz. weds., april 29 One Hit Wonders Deli Man At last, the deli documentary you've been waiting for! The charming and undeniably mouthwatering new film explores Jewish culture and cuisine as it reflects the heart of a vital ethnic history. thursday, april 30 Late Night Cult Classics Mad Max The future is now, and it ain't pretty in this nihilistic road-rage sci-fi action flick that turned the world on to the pleasures of life after the apocalypse. friday, may 1 & saturday, may 2 Clouds of Sils Maria Juliette Binoche, Kristen Stewart, and Chloë Grace Moretz light up this scintillating showbiz drama from acclaimed director Olivier Assayas! starts may 1 An Honest Liar An Honest Liar is a fascinating and revelatory documentary about the world-famous magician, escape artist, and world-renowned enemy of deception, James 'The Amazing' Randi. starts may 1 Roar Roar is the kind of deliriously gonzo moviemaking that will never be seen again. Miss this one at your own peril! starts may 1 Science on Screen post film Q&A Seeds of Time In Seeds of Time, agriculture pioneer Cary Fowler races against time to protect the future of our food. With Cary Fowler in person and a seed swap before the film. sunday, may 3 Late Night Cult Classics The Jerk Steve Martin stars in this hilarious, gag-filled comedy classic, a rags-to-riches-to-rags tale about one optimistic imbecile's journey through the American Dream. friday, may 8 & saturday, may 9 Dior and I Filmmaker Frédéric Tcheng follows up his previous fashion films, Diana Vreeland: The Eye Has to Travel and Valentino: The Last Emperor, with another masterful exploration of a towering fashion institution. starts may 8 Welcome to Me What happens when a young woman with borderline personality disorder wins the lottery? In the case of Alice Klieg (Kristen Wiig), she quits her psychiatric meds and buys her own off-the-wall talk show! starts may 8 Special Events Special Mother's Day Screening! Bringing Up Baby Perhaps the definitive screwball comedy from Hollywood's Golden Era, this is a delicious movie treat that can't be beat! sunday, may 10 Loft Staff Selects Richard III In Richard III, director, producer, and star Laurence Olivier brings Shakespeare's masterpiece of Machiavellian villainy to ravishing cinematic life. sunday, may 17 Tangerines Set against a beautiful landscape defiled by war, this poetic and heartfelt film (the first Estonian production to garner an Academy Award nomination) makes an eloquent statement for peace. starts may 22


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Lois Reitzes
The distinctive voice of Lois Reitzes has been heard over WABE's airwaves since 1979. Lois is Atlanta's favorite classical announcer. As host of the weekday program Second Cup Concert, which airs from 9 a.m. until noon, she selects music especially to complement your morning tasks. In addition to Second Cup, Lois produces and hosts WABE's Atlanta Symphony Orchestra broadcasts and Spivey Soirée series. She served as Program Director from 1992-2007, and became Director of Arts and Cultural Programming in 2007. Hosting arts features and interviews is an ongoing joy of her job.
Lois pursued graduate study at the Indiana University School of Music in Bloomington. She lists her favorite exercise as reading - preferably while eating! Her favorite island getaway is Manhattan. Lois resides in Atlanta with husband Don, who chairs the Sociology Department at Georgia State University. The Reitzes' have two children, Jackie and Michael, and a golden non-retriever named Rex.


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Special Correspondent
COIMBATORE: Siruthuli, a people's initiative in the district to conserve water resources, has initiated a watershed programme at Madhvarayapuram, more than 30 km west of the city, with assistance from the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD).
Siruthuli has already de-silted tanks in the city and is into a massive programme for reviving River Noyyal. The river flows through Madhvarayapuram.
The micro-level watershed programme has been sanctioned by NABARD to irrigate 1,300 h.a. of agriculture lands in the Madhvarayapuram Village Panchayat that is located at the foothills of the Western Ghats, near the origin of the river.
District Collector P. Umanath inaugurated the project recently and highlighted its benefits to the farm economy of the region.
Commissioner of Income-Tax-I Ashutosh Chandra, Thondamuthur MLA M.N. Kandasamy, Assistant General Manager of NABARD V. Suresh, president of Tamizhaga Vivasayigal Sangham K.C. Rathinasamy, Chairman of Siruthuli S.V. Balasubramaniam and Managing Trustee Vanitha Mohan were present.
Siruthuli said the project was a long-felt need of the farming community in Nallurvayal, Sadivayal, Alandurai, Madhvarayapuram and Kallipalayam areas.
Siruthuli had been interacting with the farmers of these regions and they were also taken on an exposure visit to the Kadavakurichi watershed project implemented by the Centre for Improved Rural Health and Environmental Protection (CIRHEP) at Nilakottai Taluk in Dindigul district in 2008.
A CIRHEP representative gave a presentation on various components executed in the project area and the distinct roles played by the community, the implementing agency and the funding agency, NABARD.
A village watershed committee had been formed with the beneficiary farmers for ensuring smooth and fruitful execution of works.
As per the norms of NABARD, shramdan works were carried out by the beneficiary farmers towards which they contributed 720 person days for the following activities: clearing the bushes, removal of blocks along the canal to ensure free flow of water, sectioning of a canal and desilting three check dams.
After the total implementation of the Madhvarayapuram watershed project, Siruthuli would take up a macro-level project for an area of 400 sq. km., west of Coimbatore. It would be implemented in five years.
Livelihood assistance was distributed to tribal women at the function at Madhvarayapuram.
Siruthuli said that the assistance and the watershed project constituted an integrated rural development programme.
A rope-making implement sponsored by Sanskar, a voluntary organisation, was handed over to a group of six tribal women.
Siruthuli said that the Collector had asked it to submit a technical feasibility report and arrive at cost estimates for increasing the water holding area of the Nandagarai checkdam.


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LITTLE BLACK BOYS AND LITTLE BLACK GIRLS: HOW DO MATHEMATICS EDUCATION RESEARCH AND POLICY EMBRACE THEM? Danny Bernard Martin University of Illinois at Chicago email@example.com Come round by my side and I'll sing you a song. I'll sing it so softly, it'll do no one wrong. On Birmingham Sunday the blood ran like wine, And the choirs kept singing of Freedom. That cold autumn morning no eyes saw the sun, And Addie Mae Collins, her number was one. At an old Baptist church there was no need to run. And the choirs kept singing of Freedom, The clouds they were grey and the autumn winds blew, And Denise McNair brought the number to two. The falcon of death was a creature they knew, And the choirs kept singing of Freedom, The church it was crowded, but no one could see That Cynthia Wesley's dark number was three. Her prayers and her feelings would shame you and me. And the choirs kept singing of Freedom. Young Carol Robertson entered the door And the number her killers had given was four. She asked for a blessing but asked for no more, And the choirs kept singing of Freedom...1 Preamble The theme of this year's conference is Embracing Diverse Perspectives. This theme clearly represents an invitation for scholars in the field to consider and appreciate a wide range of theoretical and methodological perspectives on mathematics learning and participation, including those perspectives that diverge from what might be called conventional or mainstream thinking. In my view, the conference theme also provides an opportunity to raise questions about how mathematics education research and policy have embraced and served the diversity of students who show up in mathematics classrooms, especially those students who must learn mathematics while simultaneously trying to negotiate the most difficult and oppressive life circumstances. These are often the same students who have been systematically and deliberately underserved in so many other societal and institutional contexts. In this address, I take advantage of the conference theme to do two things that rarely occur in mainstream mathematics education contexts. First, I put Black children and their experiences at the center of the 2 discussion. I share my perspective on how I believe mathematics education has and has not served these students. In many ways, Black children serve as canaries in the coal mine. If we have not, and cannot, do right by these children, it is extremely difficult for me to believe that we can accomplish the goals inherent in the conference theme. My focus on Black children is not an exclusionary move; taking a pro-Black-child stance should not be interpreted as a stance against any other group of children given my sincere interest in insuring that all children experience mathematics learning and teaching in relevant and meaningful ways. However, I do believe that, in the context of discussing diversity, we should never lose sight of particularity. So, while it is important to discuss the needs of Black children as children, it is equally important to prioritize their needs as Black children. Similarly, when discussing particularity, we should never lose sight of diversity. Regarding this last point, we should not lose sight of the fact that there is great diversity among Black children in the United States. There is no singular, essential characterization. They come from varied socioeconomic and family backgrounds and respond to schooling 3 and education in multiple ways. Yet, there is a collective history and collective condition of Blacks in the United States that is clearly distinguished from other social groups. It is this history and collective condidtion that gives partial meaning to what it has meant, and what it currently means, to be Black in America. My focus on Black children in the United States does not deny that they are forever linked to other Blacks in the African diaspora, including Afro-Latins in the central and southern Americas, Afro- Carribeans in the West Indies, the Sidis in India, the Aboriginals in Australia, Afro-Arabs in the Middle East, and so on. These diasporic relations remind us that Black children in the United States are also children of the world. It is unfortunate that some policy makers and education researchers often lose sight of this fact by confining black children's existence to poverty-ridden communities, broken families, and low-quality schools and easily dismissing the historical and structural forces that create and maintain those conditions. 4 Moreover, there is a disturbing trend in society, the media, and public policy that attempts to strip Black children of their childlike qualities altogether by using such labels as thugs, urban terrorists, predators, threats to society, and endangered species. Ignoring structural considerations, we are asked to believe that genetic, cultural, and intellectual inferiority account for these conditions. While it is true that disproportionate numbers of Black children in the U.S. and around the world continue to experience life conditions that not only limit their opportunities to learn but that also threaten their very lives, this is not the end of the story. It is equally true that, wherever they live and learn and no matter what their circumstances, Black children are also among the most resilient. We need more studies of this resilience in mathematics education. Black children in the U.S. are also growing up in a time when geopolitical boundaries are being blurred by technology and globalization. Social media such as YouTube and MySpace are not only responsible for exporting and importing culture, ideology, protest, and revolution but also for exposing the human condition and helping Black 5 children to contextualize their lives vis-à-vis the conditions in which other children live and learn. Black children can see that the struggle for a more humane existence is not confined to the boundaries of their own neighborhoods or cities. Within this global perspective, the implication for Black children's mathematical education is clear: … meaningful mathematics education for African-American children should not only help them function in their local contexts in U.S. society but should also help them function as citizens of the globe, to function across boundaries of difference, and to recognize similarities in human conditions among people who wage the struggle against oppression" (Martin & McGee, 2009, p. 216). This view on the aims and goals of mathematics education stands in sharp contrast to policy discussions that frame mathematics participation for Black children in terms of workforce participation and the preservation of U.S. international competitiveness. While these may be worthy goals, they still reflect crude commodifications and self-serving 6 concerns for Black learners, concerns that are typically couched in the easy-to-swallow language of equity and diversity. My own view is that even if larger numbers of Black Americans were to find themselves in the mathematics and engineering pipelines, they would only be absorbed into the workforce up to the point of not threatening the status and well-being of white workers. Examination of the public debate reveals the angst, resistance, and cries of racial preference that are often associated with the introduction of just one qualified African American into a given context, even when that context has been historically all-white. The second that thing that I do in this paper—in addition to centering the discussion on Black children—is to argue for racism and racialization as central concerns in mathematics learning and participation and as lenses through which to critique mathematics education research and policy. I do so knowing that discussions of race2 and racism are likely to produce knee-jerk, negative reactions from those who have adopted a color-blind ideology and who believe that we now live in a post-racial society in which race and racism are no longer 7 relevant, despite great evidence to the contrary. I do so also knowing that many discussions of race and racism are unproductive because they tend to result in overly simple framings of thee issues. In this discussion, I acknowledge the complexities of race and move well beyond the causal-factor approach utilized in mainstream research. As noted by Macedo and Gounari (2006), "Racism includes a set of ideologies, discourses, discursive practices, institutions, and vocabularies" (p. 4). This view is reiterated by Essed (2002) who stated: "Race" is an ideological construction, and not just a social construction, because the idea of "race" has never existed outside a framework of group interest. As part of a nineteenth pseudoscientific theory, as well as in contemporary "popular" thinking, the notion of "race" is inherently part of a "model" of asymmetrically organized "races" in which Whites rank higher than "non-Whites." Furthermore, racism is a structure because racial and ethnic dominance exists in and is reproduced by the system through the formulation and applications of rules, laws, and regulations and through access to and the allocation of resources. Finally, racism is a process because structures and ideologies do 8 not exist outside the everyday practices through which they are created and confirmed. (p. 185) These characterizations are important because they overcome the tendency to reduce racism to individual psychology. Instead, these characterizations acknowledge that racism operates at many levels— everyday, institutional, and structural—and involves all the actors, practices, and institutions in a given society. Acknowledging findings form sociology which suggest that race and racial categories are politically contested and re-created in any given sociohistorical and geopolitical context—through a process called racial formation3—and also recognizing that racism is a global phenomenon, my references to race and racism in this talk are to their everyday, institutional, and structural manifestations in the United States. These peculiar and particular manifestations have ranged from (a) native American extermination, chattel slavery, Jim Crow apartheid, Chinese exclusion, and Japanese internment to (b) post-civil rights color-blindness to (c) a so-called post-racial context that allows for the passage of the Secure Fence Act which calls for 700 miles of physical 9 and virtual fencing along the U.S.-Mexican border; a post-racial context that allows for the burning of Black churches and synagogues; a post- racial context that condones racial profiling of Arab Americans and Muslims; a post-racial context that allows a Republican activist to compare the First Lady of the United States to a gorilla and then issue a non-apology apology; a post-racial context that encourages a lunatic white supremacist to open fire in the Holocaust museum because of his hatred for Jews and Blacks; a post-racial context that results in more than 60 African American youth being turned away from a private swim club due to fears that their presence would "change the complexion … and the atmosphere of the club." The history and ubiquity of race and racism in the United States provide some evidence for law professor Derrick Bell's insightful claim that racism is permanent. This ubiquity also begs the question of how, not if, (mis)understandings of race and racism influence the ideologies and epistemologies found in mathematics education. I push this point further by asking how do race and racism structure the very nature of the mathematics education enterprise? 10 On one hand, there is the possibility that mathematics education is a race-neutral domain, free from racial contestation, stratification, and hierarchies, and different in character than all other racialized societal contexts. If so, how do we reconcile this neutral character with the racialized inequities faced outside of the domain by many of the students our work is intended to help? On the other hand, I suggest that a structural, race-critical analysis shows that mathematics education research, policy, and practice are deeply implicated in the production and reproduction of racial meanings, disparities, hierarchies, and identities. Not only do research and scholarly interpretations of children's mathematical behavior serve to inform societal beliefs about race, racial categories, abilities, and competence, but I would argue that race-based societal beliefs about children from various social groups also serve to inform the ways that mathematics education research, policy, and practice are conceptualized and configured in relation to these children. Beliefs in so-called racial achievement gaps and attempts to close of such gaps by raising Black children to the level of white children exemplify these beliefs. 11 Moreover, a structural analysis would reveal that the pervasiveness whiteness—represented numerically, ideologically, epistemologically, and in material power—which characterizes mathematics education research and policy contexts bears a strong family resemblance to the manifestations of whiteness found in other societal contexts. In my view, the enterprise of mathematics education is no different than other racialized spaces and should be subjected to the same anti-racist scrutiny, especially as it pertains to the well-being of Black children. It is in the ways just described that mathematics education research and policy can be implicated in New Right, conservative, liberal, and neoliberal racial projects that shape larger racial dynamics. According to the sociological literature, a racial project is "simultaneously an interpretation, representation, or explanation of racial dynamics and an effort to reorganize or redistribute resources along particular racial lines. Racial projects connect what race means in a particular discursive practice and the ways in which both social structures and everyday experiences are racially organized, based upon that meaning." As an 12 example, consider this partial history and characterizaton of the neoliberal racial project: In order to win the [1992] election and reinvigorate the once- powerful Democratic coalition, Bill Clinton believed he needed to attract white working class voters—the "Reagan Democrats." His appeal was based on lessons learned from the right, lessons about race. Pragmatic liberals in the Democratic camp proposed a more activist social policy emphasizing greater state investment in job creation, education, and infrastructure development. But they conspicuously avoided discussing racial matters such as residential segregation or discrimination. The Democrats' approach, which harked back to Kennedy's remark that "A rising tide lifts all boats," aspired to "universalistic" rather than "group-specific" reforms. Thus the surprising shift in U.S. racial politics was not… the Republican analysis which placed blame on the racially defined minority poor and the welfare policies which has supposedly taught them irresponsibility and dependency. The "surprise" was rather the Democratic retreat from race and the party's limited but real adoption of Republican racial politics, with their support for "universalism" and their rejection of "race-specific" policies.…. This developing neoliberal project seeks to rearticulate the neoconservative and new right racial projects of the Reagan-Bush 13 years in a centrist framework of moderate redistribution and cultural universalism. Neoliberals deliberately try to avoid racial themes, both because they fear the divisiveness and polarization which characterized the racial reaction, and because they mistrust the "identity politics" whose origins lie in the 1960s…. In its signifying or representational dimension, the neoliberal project avoids (as far as possible) framing issues or identities racially. Neoliberals argue that addressing social policy or political discourse overtly to matters of race simply serves to distract, or even hinder, the kinds of reforms which could most directly benefit racially defined minorities. To focus too much attention on race tends to fuel demagogy and separatism, and this exacerbates the very difficulties which much racial discourse has ostensibly been intended to solve. To speak of race is to enter a terrain where racism is hard to avoid. Better to address racism by ignoring race, at least publicly (pp. 146-148) Recent reform movements and policy documents in mathematics education can be analyzed for their contributions to these racial projects. Mathematics for All, as one of the most egalitarian movements in the field, seeks to reorganize and redistribute access to mathematics by appealing to liberalism. In the liberal project, there is an underlying 14 appeal to white middle- and upper-class consciousness to convince members of these groups that others must now share in the opportunities that they have long enjoyed. It also aligns well with the neoliberal racial project in that universal programs (i.e. Algebra for All) that work for all students are promoted in lieu of group-specific efforts and objectives. It is in this way that Mathematics for All rhetoric is about assimilation. In classical assimilation theory, assimilation is defined as "the decline, and at its endpoint the disappearance, of an ethnic/racial distinction and the cultural and social differences that express it" (Alba & Nee, 1997, p. 863). Viewed more critically, Mathematics for All is also about nationalism because it appeals to U.S. international standing in relation to real and perceived foreign threats. Like assimilation, nationalism seeks to erase meaningful cultural differences among social groups and to silence internal racial identity politics in favor of collectivism. So, while Mathematics for All has an equity-oriented veneer, it is clear to me that there are other ideologies at play that are not based on moral and humanistic concern for those who are marginalized in 15 mathematics. In a paper titled Hidden Assumptions and Unaddressed Questions in Mathematics for All Rhetoric, I offer additional critique of this movement. Similarly, a critical analysis of the Final Report of the National Mathematics Advisory Panel report reveals how it, too, contributes to racial projects. In this report, the learning of mathematics in U.S. schools is linked directly to the preservation of national security. The third paragraph of the Panel's Executive Summary is very clear in making this link: Much of the commentary on mathematics and science in the United States focuses on national economic competitiveness and the economic well-being of citizens and enterprises. There is reason enough for concern about these matters, but it is yet more fundamental to recognize that the safety of the nation and the quality of life—not just the prosperity of the nation—are at issue. (p. xi) Considering the political origins of the National Math Panel, these security concerns can be linked to conservative Republican ideology, 16 Islamophobia, anti-Muslim sentiments, and the globalization of U.S. racism and white privilege. Beyond the policy arena, the frequent use of a race-comparative approach to examine mathematics achievement differences among U.S. students makes its own contribution to racial projects. This race- comparative approach supports the normalization of whiteness and the subordination of poor, African American, Latino, and Native American students. Specifically, this approach has served to reify what I have been calling a racial hierarchy of mathematics ability that is now taken for granted by the general public and by many scholars and policy makers. This hierarchy contributes to interpretations and representations of race and racial categories by supporting negative societal meanings for what it means to be poor, Black, Latino, and Native American. For example, in most of the studies relying on such an approach, the resulting analyses often suggest that to be Black is to be mathematically illiterate and inferior relative to those who are identified as White and Asian. 17 Researcher Identity Having provided that extended preamble—where I offered some justification for my two goals—I do feel it is important to pause and provide a better sense of my motivation for raising these issues. Although this paper has been composed to address the conference theme, it is clear that I also have a political agenda. This goes against the idea that research and scholarship should not drift towards advocacy. However, all research and scholarship are political. Moreover, the production of knowledge cannot be disconnected from who we are as people, what we have experienced, and what we believe. My multiple identities—racial, mathematical, and otherwise—have informed, and continue to shape, my scholarly perspective. I am Black through self and societal identification although these asserted and assigned identities do not always overlap. My own experiences with mathematics both mirror and diverge from those of other Blacks in the U.S. Experiences with poverty and racism are not unfamiliar to me nor are experiences with academic and mathematics success. 18 I am also a scholar. I do not hesitate in identifying myself as a Black scholar in a field numerically dominated by white scholars. Identifying in this way does not limit or essentialize my perspective or discount the perspectives and experiences of others. Paraphrasing Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor: I would hope that a wise [African American man] with the richness of [his] experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn't lived that life…. [However,] I… believe that we should not be so myopic as to believe that others of different experiences or backgrounds are incapable of understanding the values and needs of people from a different group. Many are so capable…. However, to understand takes time and effort, something that not all people are willing to give. For others, their experiences limit their ability to understand the experiences of others. Others simply do not care. Hence, one must accept the proposition that a difference there will be by the presence of women and people of color. (http://feministlawprofessors.com/?p=10952) 19 Members of the audience who are familiar with my research and teaching know that my focus on Black children and issues of race and racialization is not a novelty for me. My efforts are not an attempt to jump on the equity and diversity bandwagons that have emerged in mathematics education over the last several years or an attempt to urbanize my research. Nor does my focus represent a sudden realization that it might be valuable to study the mathematical lives of Black children and to be explicit about attempts to construct them as less than ideal learners. My research and teaching over the last twenty years have focused exclusively on the life and mathematical experiences of Black children and adults in school contexts ranging from middle school to community college. In my work, I have detailed aspects of their racial and mathematical socializations and characterized the identities they co- construct in light of their experiences. Moreover, rather than studying only underachievement and failure in mathematics, I have devoted a great deal of attention to documenting success and agency among African American children and adults. Up until a few years ago, little 20 attention was given to this success and little was known about how students defined, achieved, and maintained it. My own studies have revealed a number of sociohistorical, community, school, and intrapersonal forces contributing to resilience and success in mathematics. This work has consistently highlighted issues of racism, racial identity, and racialization not because I impose these issues but because the participants in my research cite them over and over again as being both central and salient. In the remainder of this paper, I further explore Black children and mathematics and issues of racism and racialization by structuring my comments around four inter-related topics which, admittedly, will be devoid of mathematics content4 and may come across as sociological in nature, far afield of mathematics education. First, I further explore the meaning and significance of the title of this paper. Second, I offer more details on the representation of Black children in mainstream mathematics education research and policy so as to reveal the form and substance of these representations and to show how they 21 have contributed to the construction of Black children as inferior to other children. Continued rhetoric around the so-called black-white or racial achievement gap is one example where Black children are told explicitly and matter of factly that they are inferior to white children. Third, I briefly outline my own research theoretical perspective that conceptualizes mathematics learning and participation as racialized forms of experience, not just for African American children but also for all children. Within this perspective, I characterize mathematics education research and policy as instantiations of white institutional space; spaces where pervasive myths and stereotypes about African American children have their genesis and are allowed to persist as common sense. Finally, I present of a set of axioms for researching Black children and mathematics; these axioms have served as the foundation of my research and I believe they should inform all future work on Black children, helping to counter the masternarrative that has dominated discussions of these children. 22 Little Black Boys and Little Black Girls? My focus on little Black boys and little Black girls is simultaneously historical, present-day literal, and metaphorical. First, it recognizes the historical significance of this conference taking place in Atlanta, a key city in the United States civil rights movement as well as being the birthplace of reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the final resting place of Dr. King and his wife, Coretta Scott King. In his famous I Have a Dream speech, delivered on August 23, 1963, Dr. King envisioned a day when little Black boys and little Black girls would be able to experience full and humane lives, free from racism and subjugation and all that accompanies those oppressions. Yet, on September 15, 1963, less than one month after that clarion call for social progress, four little Black girls—11-year-old Carole Denise McNair and 14-year-olds Addie Mae Collins, Cynthia Wesley, and Carole Robertson—were murdered by a bomb placed under the steps of the 16th Street Baptist Church located in Birmingham, Alabama. The ground floor of the church collapsed, killing the girls and injuring 23 some twenty others. The lyrics that opened this paper are taken from the song Birmingham Sunday, which was performed by Joan Baez to mourn the girls' deaths. Robert "Dynamite Bob" Chambliss, a member of the Ku Klux Klan, was identified by witnesses, arrested, and charged with murder and possession of dynamite without a permit. Other Klansmen were also identified but not initially charged. In his first trial on October 8, 1963, Chambliss was found not guilty of murder but received a small fine and sentenced to six months in jail for possessing dynamite. It was later revealed that FBI director J. Edgar Hoover interfered with prosecutions in the cases. In 1971, the case was re-opened by the Alabama attorney general. A grand jury indicted Chambliss for the murder of Denise McNair on September 24, 1977. In November 1977, Chambliss was retried, found guilty of murder, and sentenced to life in prison. It was not until 2001 and 2002 that two of the remaining suspects were convicted. Although the murders of four little black girls punctuated September 15, 1963, two other murders of black children occurred in Birmingham on that day: 24 James Robinson, a black 16-year-old, became involved in a rock- throwing incident with a gang of white teenagers. As he fled from the scene, Robinson ran down an alley near the Sixteenth St. Church and was promptly shot in the back and killed by a white City of Birmingham police officer. A few hours later, on the outskirts of the city, 13-year-old Virgil Ware was riding on the handlebars of a bicycle with his older brother. From the opposite direction, a red moped, decorated with the Confederate flag, quickly approached the two boys. Without warning, the operator of the motorbike, a white 16-year-old, pulled out a gun and shot Virgil twice in the chest, killing him instantly. Why do I bring up civil rights history in a contemporary discussion of mathematics learning and participation? I do so because history reminds us that society has always had a high threshold for Black pain. Moreover, the lives of Denise McNair, Addie Mae Collins, Cynthia Wesley, Carole Robertson, James Robinson, and Virgil Ware were taken not because they were just any children. Their lives were taken because they were Black children. As I stated earlier in this talk, when discussing diversity, we should not lose sight of particularity. Any analysis of Black 25 children's behavior in the world, including mathematics education, that fails to contextualize or appreciate what life was like, or is like, for these children is shortsighted and bound to be limited in its explanatory power. There will be some who hear my words and say, "Get over it. Stop whining. Stop playing the race card. That's ancient history. Things have gotten better." and so on. However, these dismissals and resistance only amount to a desire to maintain the status quo and to avoid the work of understanding how society's laws, policies, and practices routinely continue to converge in subjugating and dehumanizing Black children.5 Representing and Constructing Black Children in Mathematics Education My focus on little Black boys and little Black girls is present-day literal because I contend that even in a post-civil rights, color-blind era highlighted by the election of a President with biracial African heritage and the identification of mathematics literacy as a 21st century civil right, there is little reason to believe that the well-being of little Black 26 boys and little Black girls is a priority in America or in mathematics education, in particular. We still live in a society where blackness and black life are denigrated. Just a few months ago, Bonnie Sweeten, a white woman from Philadelphia claimed that she and her 9-year-old daughter had been abducted by two Black men and thrown into the trunk of a Cadillac. In response to her 911 calls, massive local and national media attention was given to her abduction. Crisis intervention teams were sent to her daughter's school. Only after more careful police work was it revealed that Sweeten had faked the abductions and had flown to Disneyworld after withdrawing more than 12,000 dollars from her bank accounts. This is a repeat episode of earlier cases involving Susan Smith and Charles Stuart in which the villainous Black man was blamed for killing four white children and a white wife. In these two instances, Smith and Stuart were the guilty parties. Yet, in all these cases, society was quick to accept the accusations about Black men that were put forward. The media attention and concern for the well-being of white children, men, and women stands in stark contrast to the attention being given to 27 the alarming numbers of murders of Black children in my own city of Chicago. As of mid-May, 2009, a total of 36 schoolchildren, most of them Black, had been killed. National media attention was slow in coming.6 This is likely because in the eyes of many, each time a Black child's life is taken, it is just "another one gone." Consider the following mathematical analysis that appeared in a May 12, 2009 article by author Stacey Patton. I begin with six names: Megan Kanka. Amber Hagerman. JonBenét Ramsey. Elizabeth Smart. Caylee Anthony. Sandra Cantu. When these six cute, middle-class white girls, ranging from age 2 to 14, went missing or were horrifically murdered, national news outlets devoted hours, days and weeks of coverage to their cases. But when children of color are victimized in similar ways, the mainstream media often remains conspicuously silent or provides scant coverage at best. A quick GOOGLE news archive search illustrates this point. As of May 2009, there were 3,670 articles on the 1994 murder of 7-year-old Megan Kanka, who was raped and abducted by a twice-convicted sex offender who lived next door. The 1996 murder and abduction of 9-year- 28 old Amber Hagerman produced 2,570 headlines. An astonishing 13,500 news stories helped sensationalize the 1996 murder of JonBenét Ramsey, a 6-year-old beauty pageant contestant found bound and strangled in her home. Between June and November of 2002, 8,300 new stories were printed about the abduction and recovery of 14-year-old Elizabeth Smart. Between October 2008 and May 2009, a total of 1,570 stories discussed the murder of 2-year-old Caylee Anthony, whose skeletal remains were found a month later. And in the first month, 424 articles appeared on 8-year-old Cantu, who was raped, killed, stuffed in a suitcase and thrown in a pond in northern California on April 11. Do the math. Six young white girls. One abducted and later returned. Five killed. 30, 134 news stories and nearly two million total web hits. And with the exception of the Ramsey case, suspects have been captured, indicted, tried, and even sentenced to death for the brutal crimes against these innocent children. Each of these girls has her own Wikipedia entry, which discusses their lives, details of their investigation, and archives media references 29 and external links to various websites, talk shows, and made-for-TV documentaries and movies as well as child and victims advocacy sites. Now enter the names of the following children: Corey Hatter, Ordero Hillard, Marcus Washington, Andre Malcolm, Arthur Tyler, Sameer Conn, Shaun Brown, Shaun Bowens, Kiyanna Salter, Daniel Calderon, Ernest Williams, Julian King, Brian Murdock, Quentin Buckner, Devour Robinson, Dushawn Johnson, Isiah Stroud, Andre Stephens, Esteban Martinez, Itzel Fernandez, Johnel Ford, Rachael Beauchamp, Johnny Edwards, Kendrick Pitts, Raheem Washington, Carnell Pitts, Franco Avila, Gregory Robinson, Lee Ivory Miller, Rakeem Washington, Tommie Williams, Marquell Blake, Juan Cazares, Christina Campos, and Alex Arellano. All 36 of these schoolchildren, mostly black and a few Latinos, were killed in the streets of Chicago between September 2008 and May 2009, the span of a normal school year in Chicago. They were shot, stabbed, beaten with bats, kicked to death, burned and run over by cars. GOOGLE their names and you won't get a return of hundreds of national news stories or thousands of web hits discussing their deaths. 30 The only child of all these victims to gain a great deal of media attention was 7-year-old Julian King, the nephew of singer and actress Jennifer Hudson, killed last October by his mother's estranged husband. For the rest of the children, there are no Wikipedia entries. No documentaries. No made for TV films. And there won't be. They'll be remembered in a few grainy YouTube video tributes posted by friends and family members. And if there are more shootings, all of these children will be lumped together and described as statistics and tragic victims of urban warfare, even though most were not high school dropouts, gang members, or criminals. They were killed during day-to- day activities: walking to the store, playing in a park, waiting for a bus, or riding in a car with a parent. A cursory examination of the ways Black children have been researched and represented in mainstream mathematics education research and policy further shows how Black children are devalued. The dominant story line, or masternarrative, in these research and policy contexts is one that normalizes failure, ignores success, and uses white children's mathematical behaviors and performance as the 31 standard for all children. This masternarrative has helped to support negative social constructions of these children. Mathematics education policy reports dating back 25 years have explicitly labeled Black children as mathematically illiterate. More recently, African American 12th graders have been told, in a very public fashion, that they are only as skilled and demonstrate math abilities at the level of white 8th graders. After their comprehensive review of over 16,000 studies, the members of the National Mathematics Advisory Panel reduced their research recommendations specific to Black children to issues of motivation, task engagement, and self-efficacy. These areas are important but they focus attention on Black children as though they are unmotivated, inclined to disengagement, and lacking in agency. Institutional and structural barriers inside and outside of school, including racism, that affect student mathematics achievement, engagement, and motivation received little, if any, attention in the report. Resistance and disengagement among some students may, in fact, be rational responses to oppressive schooling practices. 32 In other research contexts such as the Second Handbook of Research on Mathematics Teaching and Learning, it has been claimed that poor children (often a euphemism for Black children) enter school with only pre-mathematical knowledge and lack the ability to mathematize their experiences, engage in abstraction and elaboration, and use mathematical ideas and symbols to create models of their everyday lives. Left unanswered is whether researchers who make these claims and report these findings understand, even partially, the "everyday lives" of Black children. As I have stated in other writings (Martin, 2009c): Because the tasks, assessments, and standards for competence used to draw these conclusions are typically not normed on African American children's cultural and life experiences, one could also argue that … the preferred ways of abstracting, representing, an elaboration called for in these studies and reports are based on the normalized behavior of white, middle-class and upper-class children…. Very little consideration is giving to exploring patterns in the ways that [poor] African American children do engage in abstraction, representation, and elaboration to determine if these ways are mediated by their cultural experiences in out-of-school settings and whether the preferred ways of engaging in these 33 processes serve useful functions relative to those experiences. (p. 15) Moreover, despite these claims about Black children's mathematical knowledge, the reality is that little is known about their metacognitive and racial awareness during mathematical problem solving, particularly in contexts that are meaningful to them and where they are likely to demonstrate a range of mathematical behaviors. Research in these areas would not only provide insight into Black children's reasoning processes and strategy choices but also about their awareness of how they are socially constructed, and how they socially construct themselves, as mathematics learners. Those who choose to study Black children in high-poverty contexts must first acknowledge, and understand, that ghettos and impoverished communities are not natural or normative contexts for Black children. Like slavery and Jim Crow, these are "race making institutions" designed to dehumanize and inflict material, structural, and symbolic violence on those who are forced to live in them. As noted by sociologist Loic Wacquant (2006): 34 The ghetto, in short, operates as an ethnoracial prison: it encages a dishonoured category and severely curtails the life chances of its members in support of the 'monopolization of ideal and material goods or opportunities' by the dominant status groups dwelling on its outskirts. (p. 101) In terms of new directions, only recently have researchers begun to directly examine the mathematical experiences and identities of Black children versus a narrow focus on their achievement. Researchers doing this work have explored several important areas related to these students' mathematics learning and development: (1) their beliefs about their ability to participate in various mathematical contexts, (2) their motivations to learn or do mathematics, (3) the ways in which they define the importance and value of mathematics knowledge and success in mathematics, (4) their mathematics socialization experiences in school and non-school contexts, and (5) the co-construction of mathematics identities and other social identities that are important to these students. Research in these areas supports the assertion made 35 Theresa Perry, Claude Steele, and Asa Hilliard (2003) in their book Young, Gifted, and Black: Promoting High Achievement Among African American Students: African American students face challenges unique to them as students in American schools at all levels by virtue of their social identity as African Americans and of the way that identity can be a source of devaluation in contemporary American society…. Before we can theorize African-American school achievement, we need to have an understanding of what the nature of the task of achievement is for African Americans as African Americans. (pp. vi-9) My own approach to studying Black children as Black children has led me to develop a conceptualization of mathematics learning and participation as racialized forms of experience. I claim that these learning and participatory experiences are shaped and structured by the meanings and representations of race and racial groups that exist in the larger society. 36 Aims and goals of Research, policy, and mathematics Conceptualizations of Conceptualizations of practice orientations education race learners to race research, policy, and practice Those who know mathematics. Those who do Close the racial Mainstream Races as biologically Resistance to realities not. Those who are achievement gap. mathematics determined. Race as a of racism. Color- mathematically literate. Maintain white education way to disaggregate data. blindness. Those who are privilege and research, Race as a causal variable Racial apathy. mathematically illiterate. United States policy, and for mathematics Solution on demand. Students belong to a racial international practice achievement. Interest convergence. hierarchy of mathematical competitiveness. ability. Consideration of the Consideration of negotiated nature of identity everyday, institutional, Mathematics Race as a sociopolitical with respect to and structural racism. learning and Empowerment and construction. mathematics. Asks what Mainstream participation liberation from Historically contingent does it mean to be African mathematics education as racialized oppression for nature of race. American, Latino, Native research and policy forms of marginalized Consideration racism and American, white, and Asian contexts as experience learners. racialization. American in the context of instantiations of white mathematics learning? institutional space. I argue that this conceptualization of mathematics learning and participation may be more relevant to the mathematical experiences of African American learners than the dominant perspectives which typically characterize learning and participation as cultural or cognitive because this conceptualization situates the realities of racism and racialization at the center of these experiences (Martin & McGee, 2009). 37 I have also utilized this race-critical perspective to address the production of knowledge about African American children and mathematics and to reframe the conversations about these children in several areas including mathematics teacher knowledge and teacher selection and assessment. I have addressed questions such as, What is the study of Black children the study of? What should the study of Black children be the study of? Why should Black children learn mathematics? Who should teach mathematics to Black children? What does it mean to be Black in the context of mathematics learning?, and What does it mean to be a learner of mathematics in the context of Black struggle? I urge you to consult the recent volumes Mathematics Success and Failure Among African American Youth (Martin, 2000), Mathematics Teaching, Learning, and Liberation in the Lives of Black Children (Martin, 2009b) and Culturally Specific Pedagogy in the Mathematics Classroom: Strategies for Teachers and Students (Leonard, 2008) for more details about, and examples of, the ways these questions are being addressed. 38 White Institutional Space Returning to the masternarrative on Black children, I contend that it is only within certain kinds of ideological and material spaces—contexts that sociologists have called white institutional spaces—that so-called racial achievement gaps and the mathematical illiteracy of Black children can assume common-sense status. The term white institutional space comes from the work of sociologists Joe Feagin (1996) and Wendy Moore, who, in her book Reproducing Racism: White Space, Elite Law Schools, and Racial Inequality (2008), examined the white space of law schools and how the ideologies and practices in these schools serve to privilege white perspectives, white ideological frames, white power, and white dominance all the while purporting to represent law as neutral and objective. White institutional spaces are characterized by (1) numerical domination by whites and the exclusion of people of color from positions of power in institutional contexts, (2) the development of a white frame that organizes the logic of the institution or discipline, (3) the historical construction of curricular models based upon the thinking 39 of white elites, and (4) the assertion of knowledge production as neutral and impartial unconnected to power relations. In a recent paper, I provide a more detailed discussion of how mathematics education research and policy contexts represent instantiations of white institutional space. For example, I offered a critique of the composition of the National Mathematics Advisory Panel as well as its failure to draw on the most insightful recent research about Black children and mathematics. My critique was not only directed at the Math Panel but also at scholars in the field who, from recognized positions of power, failed to object to the absence of African American math education researchers on the Panel. This kind of inaction, despite progressive rhetoric about equity and diversity, was noted by Macedo and Gounari (2006) as being characteristic of liberal approaches in white spaces: … many white liberals (and some black liberals as well) fail to understand how they can embody white supremacist values and beliefs, even thought they not embrace racism as prejudice or domination (especially domination that involves coercive control). 40 They cannot recognize how their actions support and affirm the very structure of racist domination and oppression they profess to wish to see eradicated….By not understanding their complicity with white supremacist ideology, many white liberals reproduce a colonialist and assimilationist value system that gives rise to a form of tokenism parading under the rubric of diversity… That is why many white liberals prefer to promote "diversity" to the extent that diversity as a cultural model not only fails to interrogate the white privilege extracted from a white supremacist ideology but also allows for white liberals to have blacks and other oppressed cultural groups as mascots in their Benetton color scheme of diversity. This form of diversity promoted through multicultural programs, for example, represents a mere reorganization of knowledge through which diversity is presented as a naturalization process whereby different ethnic and cultural groups (white groups are never associated with ethnicity, even though their ethnicity provides a yardstick against which all other groups are measured) are represented and their asymmetrical power relations with the dominant white group are never interrogated (p. 32) These sentiments were echoed by Liz Appel (2003) in her focused critique of liberal white participants in the movement against the prison industrial complex: 41 … many well-intentioned white folks wish to incorporate an anti- racist approach in their work. Seeking a quick resolve, the problem of racism is often superficially addressed, however. Focusing on tangible and visible solutions, they tokenize individual people of color, perhaps by bringing in a few nonwhite people into public spaces and circles of power (as board members, speakers, etc.), in an attempt to demonstrate the "diverse" nature of the struggle and those that make up the fight. This is not to say that every attempt to incorporate people of color is inherently racist and self-serving…. [But does] not the fact that whites are able to select people of color for inclusion… reaffirm our power and privilege? (p. 84) It is through my analysis of mainstream mathematics education research and policy contexts as instantiations of white institutional space, and my understandings of other such spaces, that my focus on little Black boys and little Black girls in this paper becomes metaphorical. Sociologists tell us that when someone or something is socially blackened, it or they are relegated to marginalized status and thought of as inferior. Similarly, when something is whitened, it or they are elevated in social status or importance. In terms of racial dynamics 42 of the United States, this has been documented in books with such provocative titles as How the Irish Became White (Ignatiev, 1996) and The Price of Whiteness: Jews, Race, and American Identity (Goldstein, 2006). This whitening has also been witnessed in the education arena where Asian Americans, collectively, have been given model-minority and honorary white status. Blackening, on the other hand, has most recently happened to Arab Americans and Muslims who are now are subject to racial profiling and other forms of subjugation. Blackening also explains how the diversity among those from the African diaspora is muted so as to create a singular perception and construction of these groups. Blacks from Caribbean, West Indian, and African backgrounds are all labeled by the dominant society as Black when they come to the U.S. So, it is interesting to ask the following about the United States mathematics education enterprise: Who are the little Black boys and little Black girls in mathematics education and how are they, and their perspectives, embraced? Are they the scholars who take up race, racism, and power; issues that only occasionally find their way into mainstream 43 mathematics education research and policy discussions? Are these scholars and their perspectives tolerated but also marginalized? Is it assumed that they are less-informed about mathematics content, teaching, learning, curriculum, and assessment to the degree that they are largely absent from key discussions in the field; called on only when issues of equity and diversity are considered? A recent example from my own experiences serves as an interesting data point in such a discussion. In the year 2000 my book, Mathematics Success and Failure Among African American Youth, was published. That book was based on my dissertation, completed three years earlier. The dissertation and the book fleshed out my early thinking on issues of mathematics socialization and mathematics identity. After nine years in circulation, one would think that my place in the literature on mathematics identity, particularly for Black children, would be well- established and somewhat secure. Several months ago, prominent white scholar authored a review-type article in a well-known mathematics education research journal. The article made reference to my book and the work of other scholars who 44 have been focusing on issues of identity. A few weeks after that journal article appeared, a prospective student phoned me for information about our program. During the conversation, the caller indicated that he had read the journal article and suggested that I was probably excited to have my work referenced by such a well-known scholar. In the words of the prospective student "You know you have made it when someone like professor X cites your work, especially in a journal like Y." It took some time for me to process the conversation but when I did, I realized that despite the book being in circulation for nine years and despite subsequent publications and dozens of presentations across the country, it was not until a white scholar validated my work that it was deemed important by the student. I could add to this stories about how the work has been consistently minimized and ignored by particular white scholars who also claim to do research on identity. I have also seen this in my reviews of other work in the field where Black scholars or scholars doing work in area X have been overlooked in ways that seem far from accidental. I do not cite these examples based on some sense of personal disappointment or because of a need for validation.. Those of 45 you who know me well also know that, although m work is deeply personal, my personal identity is not defined by my scholarly identity. I cite these examples to show that knowledge production is deeply political and that it is especially so in white institutional spaces, where what is true and what is of value is frequently determined by white scholars. Bringing this back to my focus on Black children, I ask why is that in a field that purports to be committed to equity for all children, why are there no explicit discussions of the pervasive whiteness in mathematics education research and policy contexts or discussions of the fact that the norms and values of these white institutional spaces are increasingly being applied to populations of other people's children? Why are there no discussions of how we continue to blacken some children by producing research that implies their inferiority? Is it that the characteristics of white institutional spaces are so strong that they lead us to believe this state of affairs is normal and acceptable? I urge others to undertake their own critical analyses of the mathematics education enterprise. Mine is only one perspective. 46 Where do we go From Here? Axioms for Researching Black Children and Mathematics In so far as Black children are concerned, I remain hopeful that mathematics education research and policy, if done right, can benefit these children. Clearly, what constitutes "right" is subject to much debate and my conception of right does not mean that all previous efforts are wrong. Yet, little that constitutes right for these children will emerge from an enterprise that fails to understand its own complicity in these children's subjugation and negative social construction. Moving forward, I want to propose adherence to a set of sociocritical "axioms" for addressing Black children, in particular. As most of you know, an axiom is defined as a self-evident proposition or universally recognized truth that is accepted without proof as the basis for argument. In mathematics, proofs of various conjectures and claims are essentially a function of the axioms upon which the system is organized. If you change the axioms, you change the system, and you also change what constitutes valid proof and what is regarded as true. My own 47 research, as well as the comments and analysis in this paper, are premised on these axioms7 and I believe they should undergird all future inquiry to the mathematical experiences of Black children: ! Axiom I: Black children are brilliant; researchers should not overly concern themselves with documenting how Black children differ from white children and reifying racial achievement gaps but with how black children can best attain and maintain excellence in mathematics; ! Axiom II: Black children possess the intellectual capacity to learn mathematics as well any other child; they do, however, often lack sufficient opportunities to engage in meaningful mathematical experiences; ! Axiom III: Race is not a causal variable in determining mathematical achievement among Black children or any other group of children; research and policy purporting to cite race effects should be dismissed as scientifically invalid; ! Axiom IV: Racism, racial identity, and racialization are important considerations in mathematics learning and participation; Mathematics education research and policy are deeply involved in the production and reproduction of racial meanings; ! Axiom V: Mathematics education research and policy are simultaneously sites of oppression and liberation for Black children. 48 These statements are not meant to romanticize Black children nor do they ignore their struggles. However, they require attention to Black children's social realities and how forces, discourses, and projects in the larger society influence those realities. They also require a reconsideration of the assumptions about the competencies and capacities of Black children in ways that move us beyond mathematical illiteracy and inferiority with respect to other learners. To show that it is hard for people to get past Axiom I, I would like to share a quiz that I have been giving to audiences of teachers, scholars, and policy-makers across the country. The quiz taps into the deep and contradictory beliefs that we have about Black children and the results that I see in the responses provides a partial explanation for the lack of progress on creating meaningful mathematics education for Black children. Feel free to answer the questions yourself while I discuss what I found in giving this quiz. Question 1: How many of you have heard of the racial achievement gap? 49 Question 2: How many of you have, or plan to, devote some aspect of your teaching practice, research, or policy-oriented efforts to help close the racial achievement gap? Question 3: How many of you truly believe in the brilliance of black children? As I stated earlier, Black children serve as canaries in the coal mine. If we cannot do right by these children, it is difficult to believe that we can accomplish the goal inherent in the theme of Embracing Diverse Perspectives. 1 Excerpted lyrics from the song Birmingham Sunday written by Richard Fariña and performed by Joan Baez. 2 Clearly, my focus on race does not diminish the importance of race, class, and gender intersections. 3 Omi & Winant (2005, p. 16) define racial formation as the process by which social, economic, and political forces determine the content and importance of racial categories, and by which they are in turn shaped by racial meanings. 4 Although studies of Black children learning specific mathematics content are critically important, I do not dwell on this topic because I do not wish to suggest that there is something peculiar about these children's learning or that some content is especially problematic for them to learn. The fact is that normal, healthy Black children can learn whatever mathematics they are given the opportunity and necessary supports to learn. 5 As pointed out by educational anthropologist, studies of education for Black children should consider forces at many levels: societal, community, family, institutional, school, individual. I acknowledge that there are many internal, community- and family-based forces to consider. Those forces are not addressed in this paper. See Martin (2000). 6 For an interesting mathematical analysis of media coverage on crimes against Black and White children see the Appendix to this paper or go to: http://www.thedefendersonline.com/2009/05/14/36-children-of-color-dead-in- chicago/ 7 It is true that these are not axioms in the strict mathematical sense. I am appropriating the term to serve sociological and political purposes. 50
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