Wednesday, February 09, 2022

Anti-Racist Social Science Books and Articles

Published on 03/09/2021 By SAGE

This section of Social Science Space features some of the most important work across social science disciplines that has engaged with the ongoing need to understand, analyze, resist and dismantle the racism that continues to disfigure society and culture across the globe.

The list of most important works inevitably can be contested. Social science impact and importance has always been a source of controversy and contestation. More to the point the selection here may have had impact within the academy, in terms of citations, but insufficient visibility in society at large.

Of course, racism sits in a web of other forms of discrimination and disadvantage experienced by many other marginalized groups — a context much studied by social sciences across the disciplinary traditions, too. But here our focus is on racism and the important work in social science that addresses it.

To focus on social science is an artefact in that social science is not one thing. W E B Du Bois is described in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy as “an activist and a journalist, a historian and a sociologist, a novelist, a critic, and a philosopher.” To have a discipline focus is to reflect how most academic work is organized while recognizing John Brewer’s observation that “the world has problems, while universities have departments.” Equally, it is clear that powerful contributions to tackling racism have come from across the academy from STEM to humanities researchers and authors. And, of course, myriad voices from activists and campaigners to novelists have always been central in the fight against racism.

It also is important to say that social science has promulgated and strengthened racism and racist ideologies. Alongside ‘anti-racist’ social science there is also ‘racist’ social science. And this extends to the very nature of knowledge production including the lack of representation of Black voices in academia at all levels. These phenomena have resulted in a meta-level engagement by social scientists and some of this work is included here, too.

Ultimately, one can debate the list of titles provided below on many levels. They were generated through surveys of social scientists and by consulting expert advisors. My colleague Lina Ashour sets out some of what we learned from the answers to our survey in her blog post here.

So consider this list as a jumping off point and we welcome engagement and discussion and suggestions for additional titles to list. To curate and list some of the most important books and articles is a small effort to amplify these voices and to get policy makers, organizers, organizations both public and private as well as the general public to read and learn from these analyses, empirical results and recommendations.

Ziyad Marar
President, Global Publishing
SAGE Publishing

Anthropology	Critiques of Social Science and ‘Race’	Cultural Studies & Media
Economics	Education	Health
Organizations, Business and Management	Psychology & Counseling	Politics, Government & Law
Social Work	Sociology	Social Science Research Methods

Via the grid above, click directly to a field of interest, where pertinent books, journal articles, monographs and chapters are listed. We’d love to hear your thoughts on these choices and know what additional works or perspectives we should add to this list. Comment right here or email lina.ashour@sagepub.co.uk.

Selections highlighted in green are currently free to read. For SAGE books, free-to-view PDFs of key chapters are provided.

ANTHROPOLOGY

From Savage to Negro: Anthropology and the Construction of Race, 1896-1954 by Lee D. Baker (1998)

Black Metropolis: A Study Of Negro Life In A Northern City by St. Clair Drake And Horace R. Cayton (1945)

Living Black: Social Life in an African American Neighborhood by Mark S. Fleisher (2015)

African Images: Racism and the End of Anthropology by Peter Rigby (1996)

INTERROGATING RACISM: Toward an Antiracist Anthropology by Leith Mullings (2005)

CULTURAL STUDIES & MEDIA

Racism and Cultural Studies: Critiques of Multiculturalist Ideology and the Politics of Difference by E. San Juan Jr. (2002)

White Negroes: When Cornrows were in Vogue…and Other Thoughts on Culture Appropriation by Lauren Michele Jackson (2019)

White Balance: How Hollywood Shaped Colourblind Ideology and Undermined Civil Rights by Justin Gomer (2020)

The New Racism: Conservatives and the Ideology of the Tribe by Martin Barker (1981)

Racism and Media by Gavan Titley (2019) | Read chapters 1, 2 and 6

Race After Technology: Abolitionist Tools for the New Jim Code by Ruha Benjamin (2019)

Bearing Witness While Black: African Americans, Smartphones, and the New Protest #Journalism by Allissa V. Richardson (2020)

The New Racism: Conservatives and the Ideology of the Tribe by Martin Barker (1981)

After Empire: Melancholia or convivial culture? Chapter 3 “Has it Come to This?” by Paul Gilroy (2005)

“Old and New Identities, Old and New Ethnicities” by Stuart Hall in Culture, Globalisation and the World System edited by Anthony D. King (1991)

“New Ethnicities” by Stuart Hall in Race, Culture and Difference edited by James Donald and Ali Rattansi (1992) | View the full book

‘The Question of Cultural Identity’ by Stuart Hall in Modernity and its Futures edited by Stuart Hall, David Held and Toby McGrew (1992)

“Discourse and the Denial of Racism” by Teun A. van Dijk in Discourse and Society, 3, 87-118 (1992)

ECONOMICS

Black Wealth / White Wealth: A New Perspective on Racial Inequality by Melvin Oliver and Thomas Shapiro (2006)

From Here to Equality: Reparations for Black Americans in the Twenty-First Century by William A. Darity Jr. and A. Kirsten Mullen (2020)

“Whitewashing Capitalism: Mainstream Economics’ Resounding Silence on Race and Racism” by Tim Koechlin in the Review of Radical Political Economics (2019)

The Economics of Racism by Marcus Alexis (1998)

EDUCATION

Antiracism Education In and Out of Schools Editor Aminkeng A. Alemanji (2018)

Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? by Beverly Daniel Tatum (2017)

Anti-Bias Education for Young Children and Ourselves by Louise Derman-Sparks, Julie Olsen Edwards and Catherine M. Goins (2020)

Towards a Culturally Competent System of Care: A Monograph on Effective Services for Minority Children Who Are Severely Emotionally Disturbed by Terry L. Cross and Barbara J. Bazron, Karl W. Dennis and Mareasa R. Isaacs (1989)

The silenced dialogue: Power and pedagogy in educating other people’s children by Lisa Delpit (1988)

Pedagogy of the Oppressed by Paulo Freire (1970)

Minority education and caste: The American system in cross-cultural perspective by John U. Ogbu (1978)

Black British Intellectuals and Education: Multiculturalism’s hidden history by Paul Warmington (2014)

Racism and Education: Structures and Strategies by Dawn Gill, Barbara Mayor, Maud Blair (1991) | View full text

Rationing Education: Policy, Practice, Reform and Equity by David Gillborn and Deborah Youdell (2000)

The Colour of Class: The educational strategies of the Black middle classes by Nicola Rollock, David Gillborn, Carol Vincent, Stephen J. Ball (2014)

Education and Race from Empire to Brexit by Sally Tomlinson (2019)

“A Principal’s Approach to Leadership for Social Justice: Advancing Reflective and Anti-Oppressive Practices” by Miriam Ezzani in the Journal of Education Leadership (2020)

“From Oppositional Culture to Cultural Integrity: African American Students’ Perceptions of the Activity Structure and Physical Ecology of Classrooms” by Biko Martin Sankofa, Eric A. Hurley, Brenda A. Allen and A. Wade Boykin in Urban Education (2019)

“Building the anti-racist university: next steps” by Shirley Anne Tate and Paul Bagguley in Race Ethnicity and Education (2016)

“Preparing primary trainee teachers to teach children from Black, Asian and other minority ethnic (BAME) backgrounds or groups: participation, experiences and perceptions of trainee teachers” by Sarah Brownsword in Teacher Education Advancement Network Journal (2019)

“Reframing anti-colonial theory for the diasporic context. Postcolonial Directions in Education” by Marlon Simmons and George J. Sefa Dei (2012)

HEALTH

Closing the Gap in a Generation: Health Equity through Action on the Social Determinants of Health World Health Organization (2008)

Racism: Science & Tools for the Public Health Professional Editors Chandra L. Ford, Derek M. Griffith, Marino A. Bruce and Keon L. Gilbert (2019)

“Structural Racism and Supporting Black Lives — The Role of Health Professionals” by Rachel R. Hardeman, Eduardo M. Medina, and Katy B. Kozhimannil in New England Journal of Medicine 2016)

“Understanding Associations among Race, Socioeconomic Status, and Health: Patterns and Prospects” by David R Williams, Naomi Priest, Norman B Anderson in Health Psychology (2016)

“The Public Health Critical Race Methodology: Praxis for Antiracism Research” by Chandra L Ford and Collins O Airhihenbuwa in Social Science and Medicine (2010)

“Art, Anti-Racism and Health Equity: ‘Don’t Ask Me Why, Ask Me How!’” by Derek M. Griffith and Andrea R. Semlow in Ethnicity and Disease (2020)

ORGANIZATIONS, BUSINESS AND MANAGEMENT

Race in the Marketplace: Crossing Critical Boundaries Editors Guillaume D. Johnson, Kevin D. Thomas, Anthony Kwame Harrison, Sonya Grier (2019)

“Re-imagining the marketplace: addressing race in academic marketing research” by Sonya Grier, Kevin D. Thomas & Guillaume D. Johnson in Consumption Markets & Culture (2017)

“Reproducing inequity: the role of race in the business school faculty search” by Sonya Grier and Sonja Martin Poole in Journal of Marketing Management (2020)

“Marketing Inclusion: A Social Justice Project for Diversity Education” by Sonya Grier in Journal of Marketing Education (2019)

“White Allyship of Afro-Diasporic Women in the Workplace: A Transformative Strategy for Organizational Change” by Samantha E. Erskine and Dina Bilimoria in Journal of Leadership & Organizational Study (2019)

PSYCHOLOGY & COUNSELING

Culturally Sensitive Supervision and Training: Diverse Perspectives and Practical Applications Editors Kenneth V. Hardy and Toby Bobes (2016)

Counseling the Culturally Diverse: Theory and Practice by Derald Wing Sue, David Sue, Helen A. Neville and Laura Smith (2019)

The Nature of Prejudice by Gordon W. Allport (1954)

A Dying Colonialism by Frantz Fanon, translated by Haakon Chevalier (1965)

Black Skin, White Masks by Frantz Fanon (2008; new edition)

“Racism and Psychotherapy: working with racism in the consulting room – an analytic view” by Lennox Thomas in Intercultural Therapy edited by Jafar Kareem and Roland Littlewood (1992)

Fascists: A Social Psychological View of the National Front by Michael Billig

Mahzarin Banaji — Listen to Mahzarin R. Banaji on implicit bias at Social Science Bites.

“Understanding and using the implicit association test IV: What we know (so far) about the Method” by Kristin A. Lane, Mahzarin R. Banaji, Brian A. Nosek and Anthony G. Greenwald in Implicit Measures of Attitudes: Procedures and Controversies edited by Bernd Wittenbrink and Norbert Schwarz (2007)

Prejudice and Racism (2nd ed.) by James M. Jones (1997)

“The social identity theory of intergroup relations” by Henry Tajfel and John C. Turner in Psychology of Intergroup Relations (1986) edited by Stephen Worchel and William G. Austin

“Racial Inequality in Psychological Research: Trends of the Past and Recommendations for the Future” by Steven O. Roberts, Carmelle Bareket-Shavit, Forrest A. Dollins, Peter D. Goldie, Elizabeth Mortenson in Perspectives on Psychological Science (2020)

“Racial microaggressions against black Americans: Implications for counselling” by Derald Wing Sue, Kevin L. Nadal, Christina M. Capodilupo, Annie I. Lin, Gina C. Torino, and David P. Rivera in the Journal of Counseling & Development (2008)

“Aversive racism and selection decisions: 1989 and 1999” by John F. Dovidio and Samuel L. Gaertner in Psychological Science (2000)

“Stereotypes and prejudice: Their automatic and controlled components” by Patricia G. Devine in Journal of Personality and Social Development (1989)

“Fifty ways to leave…your racism” by Nimisha Patel and Harshad Keval in the Journal of Critical Psychology Counselling and Psychotherapy (2018)

“Cultural Humility: Introduction to the Special Issue” by Joshua N. Hook and Don E. Davis in Journal of Psychology and Theology (2019)

“Somebodiness and its meaning to African American men” by Phillip D. Johnson in Journal of Counseling & Development (2016)

POLITICS, GOVERNMENT & LAW

The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America by Richard Rothstein (2017)

Dark Ghettos: Injustice, Dissent, and Reform by Tommie Shelby (2018)

The Scar of Race by Paul Sniderman (1993)

Red Skin, White Masks: Rejecting the Colonial Politics of Recognition by Glen Sean Coulthard (2014)

As We Have Always Done: Indigenous Freedom Through Radical Resistance by Leanne Betasamosake Simpson (2021)

White by Law: The Legal Construction of Race by Ian Haney Lopez (2006)

Unequal Freedom: How Race and Gender Shaped American Citizenship and Labor by Evelyn Nakano Glenn (2004)

Disordered Violence: How Gender, Race and Heteronormativity Structure Terrorism by Caron Gentry (2020)

Empires of the Mind: The Colonial Past and the Politics of the Present by Robert Gildea (2019)

Racial Formation in the United States by Michael Omi and Howard Winant (2014)

With Stones in Our Hands: Reflections on Racism, Muslims and US Empire Editors Sohail Daulatzai and Junaid Rana (2018)

Inventing Latinos: A New Story of American Racism by Laura E. Gómez (2020)

Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption by Bryan Stevenson (2015)

American Apartheid: Segregation and the Making of the Underclass by Douglas S. Massey and Nancy A. Denton (1998)

A Tolerant Nation? Revisiting Ethnic Diversity in a Devolved Wales Editors Charlotte Williams, Neil Evans and Paul O’Leary (2015)

Policing the Crisis: Mugging, the State, and Law and Order, 2nd Ed. By Stuart Hall, Chas Critcher, Tony Jefferson, John Clarke, Brian Roberts (2013)

“Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity Politics and Violence against Women of Colour” by Kimberlé Crenshaw; appearing in the volume Critical Race Theory edited by Kimberlé Crenshaw, Neil T. Gotanda, Gary Peller and Kendall Thomas (1991)

Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism by Benedict Anderson (1993)

SOCIAL WORK

Anti-oppressive Practice in Health and Social Care by Viola Nzira and Paul Williams (2008)
FREE TO READ Chapter 1: Introduction to Oppression and Anti-oppression | Chapter 2: Useful Concepts in Anti-oppression

“Young African American Men and the Diagnosis of Conduct Disorder: The Neo-colonization of Suffering” by Sasha Atkins-Loria, Heather Macdonald and Courtney Mitterling in Clinical Social Work Journal (2015)

Race, Racism and Social Work: Contemporary issues and debates edited by Michael Lavalette and Laura Penketh (2013)

Teaching to Transform? Addressing Race and Racism in the Teaching of Clinical Social Work Practice by Rani Varghese (2016)

Anti-racism in Social Work Practice edited by Angie Bartolli (2013)

Asylum Seekers, Social Work and Racism by Shepard Masocha (2015)

SOCIOLOGY

The Authoritarian Personality by Theodor Adorno, Else Frenkel-Brunswik, Daniel J. Levinson, and R. Nevitt Sanford (2019)

Decolonization is Not a Metaphor by Eve Tuck and K. Wayne Yang (2012)

The White Racial Frame: Centuries of Racial Framing and Counter-Framing by Joe R. Feagin (2020)

Toward a Theory of Minority-Group Relations by Hubert Blalock (1967)

Modernity and the Holocaust by Zygmunt Bauman (1989)

Cartographies of Diaspora: Contesting Identities by Avtar Brah (1996)

Stigma: Notes on the Management of Spoiled Identity by Erving Goffman (1986)

White Man’s Country: Racism in British Politics by Robert Miles and Annie Phizacklea (1985)

Racism, 2nd Ed. by Robert Miles and Malcom Brown (2003)

“What is Racial Domination?” by Matthew Desmond and Mustafa Emirbayer in Du Bois Review (335)

Caste, Class and Race: A Study in Social Dynamics by Oliver Cromwell Cox (1948)

SOCIAL SCIENCE RESEARCH METHODS

White Logic, White Methods: Racism and Methodology Editors Tukufu Zuberi and Eduardo Bonilla-Silva (2008)

Researching Racism: A Guidebook for Academics and Professional Investigators by Muzammil Quraishi and Rob Philburn (2015)
FREE TO READ The History of Race | Race, Racism and Qualitative Methods

The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy and Race Edited by Naomi Zack (2017

Mapping the Language of Racism: Discourse and the legitimation of exploitation by Margaret Wetherell and Jonathan Potter (1993)

Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza by Gloria Anzaldua (2012)

Sista Talk: The Personal and the Pedagogical by Rochelle Brock (2005)

Critical Race Theory’s Dream Narratives – A Method for an Anti-Racist Social Science? by Joshua M Price (2004)

Critical Issues in Anti-racist Research Methodologies edited by George Jerry Sefa Dei and Gurpreet Singh (2005)

CRITIQUES OF SOCIAL SCIENCE AND ‘RACE’

The Mismeasure of Man by Stephen Jay Gould (1981)

Not in Our Genes: Biology, Ideology, and Human Nature by Leon J. Kamin, Richard Lewontin and Steven Rose (1984)

The Science and Politics of IQ by Leon J. Kamin (1974)

Racial Theories in Social Science: A Systemic Racism Critique by Sean Elias and Joe R. Feagin (2016)

2 in 3 Democrats and 2 in 5 Republicans Back Proposal to Waive COVID-19 Vaccine Patent Rights

Increase in overall voter support from May 2021 driven by uptick among Republicans

A person receives a COVID-19 vaccination dose during a free distribution of COVID-19 rapid test kits for those who received vaccination shots or booster shots at Union Station on Jan. 7, 2022, in Los Angeles, Calif. Just over half of voters are in favor of waiving patent rights for COVID-19 vaccines in a bid to shore up production of the shots in lower-income countries, according to new Morning Consult/Politico polling that comes ahead of a global ruling on the issue. (Mario Tama/Getty Images)

BY GABY GALVIN
February 9, 2022

About half of voters are in favor of a proposal for the World Trade Organization to temporarily waive patent rights for COVID-19 vaccines in a bid to shore up production of the shots in lower-income countries, according to new Morning Consult/Politico polling that comes ahead of a global ruling on the issue.

What you need to know:
Fifty-two percent of voters said they support a proposal that would allow the WTO to pause COVID-19 vaccine patent protections, up slightly from 48 percent who said the same in May 2021. The uptick was driven by an increase of 10 percentage points among Republicans, 41 percent of whom now say they’re in favor of temporarily waiving patent rights so developing countries can make the shots. Democratic voters remain more likely to support the proposal, at 66 percent.

About 1 in 3 Republican voters opposed the waiver proposal, virtually unchanged from May 2021, while 15 percent of Democrats said they were against it, a 5-point increase since last spring.

India and South Africa launched the waiver push in 2020, arguing it would help bridge gaps in global vaccine access by enabling lower-income countries to make their own COVID-19 shots, and WTO Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said the group aims to make a decision by the end of February. Scientists in South Africa have already developed a copy of Moderna Inc.’s vaccine that could begin human trials this year, after Moderna and Pfizer Inc.-BioNTech SE declined to share their recipes.

President Joe Biden reiterated his support for the waiver when the omicron variant emerged in late November, and Democratic lawmakers have urged him to reach an agreement with global leaders on a “meaningful waiver” to help increase COVID-19 vaccine production around the globe.

Republican lawmakers largely oppose the waiver, as does the U.S. drug lobby. Last week, the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America said that waiving patent protections wouldn’t solve vaccine production and distribution bottlenecks and would instead “undermine the ability to respond to both the current pandemic and future health crises.”

The May 7-9, 2021, and Feb. 5-6, 2022, polls were conducted among representative samples of about 2,000 registered voters each, with unweighted margins of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points.

Joe Rogan dispute shows Spotify limits of being hands off

By DAVID BAUDER

FILE - Neil Young poses for a portrait at Lost Planet Editorial in Santa Monica, Calif. on Sept. 9, 2019. Young isn't satisfied with urging his fellow musicians to join him in taking their music off the streaming service Spotify. Now he wants company employees to quit their jobs before it “eats up your soul." In a message on his website Monday, Feb. 7, 2022, Young said company CEO Daniel Ek is a bigger problem than popular podcaster Joe Rogan. (Photo by Rebecca Cabage/Invision/AP, File)

NEW YORK (AP) — Like Facebook and Twitter, Spotify is learning the limits of deflecting responsibility for what is said on its platform.

Podcasting has sprouted as an industry with few standards about policing offensive or misleading content. That has left Spotify trying to figure out how to keep podcaster Joe Rogan’s millions of devoted fans happy without further alienating artists and listeners angry about him amplifying vaccine skeptics and using racial slurs.

Spotify wants to be viewed as a technology platform that has limited liability for the material that others create and stream through its service — a position shared by many social-media companies. But experts say that is difficult to defend after Spotify reportedly spent $100 million to become the sole distributor of “The Joe Rogan Experience.”

“They are acting like they should get treated as a platform -- when they are acting like a media company,” said Jennifer Grygiel, a Syracuse University communications professor and an expert on social media. “You can’t have it every way you want.”

In an effort to expand scrutiny beyond musicians and listeners, folk-rock singer Neil Young urged Spotify employees late Monday to quit “before it eats up your soul.” Last week, Young pulled his music from Spotify after a group of doctors called out Rogan for his interview of a man who has spread COVID-19 misinformation.

After musician India.Arie revealed last week on Instagram that Rogan had repeatedly used the N-word, he apologized, and Spotify pulled dozens of past episodes from circulation. But Spotify’s CEO, Daniel Ek, has said that silencing him is not the answer.

Besides, Ek said in a letter to employees late Sunday, Spotify is not the publisher of “The Joe Rogan Experience.”

“But perception due to our exclusive license implies otherwise,” Ek said. “So I’ve been wrestling with how this perception squares with our values.”

As it does with music streaming, Spotify dominates podcasting. It has 44% of all podcast user market share — Apple, Amazon and Google are each less than half its size, according to Midia Research.

Podcast platforms have long struggled to moderate the shows broadcast on them. They have not followed the steps of other tech companies like Facebook or Twitter that attempt to detect, fact-check and label misleading or false information.

Meta, which owns Facebook, has enlisted the help of journalists, academics, thousands of contract employees and AI technology to detect misinformation. Even then, misinformation around politics and COVID-19 find big audiences in Facebook groups, on WhatsApp messages and Instagram.

Major podcast companies have largely escaped scrutiny about misinformation. Instead, they have taken down individual podcasts that get bad press for violating stated policies or spreading conspiracy theories. That has resulted in a messy patchwork of shows that have been banned on some tech platforms but are readily available elsewhere.

Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones is banned from Apple, Spotify, YouTube and Facebook — but not Google Podcasts.

Spotify, YouTube and Twitter kicked off Steve Bannon after he suggested Dr. Anthony Fauci should be beheaded. But you can still hear Bannon on Apple Podcasts.

Podcasts are difficult to moderate, said Valerie Wirtschafter, a data analyst at the Brookings Institute who has researched misinformation on the popular ones. They can run anywhere from 20 minutes to hours, and there are millions of episodes about everything from serial killers to cooking to politics.

“That is an unwieldy world,” Wirtschafter said.

Spotify has said that it takes down podcasts that violate its policies against hate speech and break laws. The company publicly revealed its guidelines for the first time following questions raised by Young’s action, and said it would add content advisories regarding COVID-19.

When companies start paying content creators, as Spotify does with Rogan and as other platforms do with other high-profile influencers, that can change the game. Facebook last summer announced a $1 billion fund for creators, wading further into “media company” territory even as it tries to shed that moniker.

Spotify “had to make a decision that other social media companies are well acquainted with,” said Jared Schroeder, a First Amendment scholar and associate professor at Southern Methodist University. “They were drawn into the war. I don’t know if there’s any going back for them.”

Rogan has particular appeal to conservative listeners, but by no means exclusively so. He endorsed Bernie Sanders for president. Like another popular media figure, Fox News’ Tucker Carlson, he often portrays himself as someone who is simply asking uncomfortable questions — and he’s most upsetting to people who don’t listen to him regularly.

Spotify is caught between artists and customers upset enough by Rogan’s language to quit the service, and the many fans who would claim him as a victim of “cancel culture” if the company were to make the expensive decision to cut him loose.

“Ultimately, this comes down to the issue of political polarization and how the big tech is caught up in the country’s culture wars,” said Weiai Xu, a communication professor at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

Spotify risks sending a chilling message to other podcasters that the company won’t have their back if it backs away from Rogan, besides putting a severe dent in its business plan.

“If Spotify ends up having to backtrack on Joe Rogan there’s a risk it’ll be seen as backtracking on podcasts,” said Mark Mulligan, managing director of Midia Research.

Spotify’s Ek said it could take months to know the impact of the controversy on the company. The market research firm Forrester polled people on Feb. 1 and found that most Spotify users had no intention of cancelling their subscription, but there were many who considered it.

___

Associated Press reporters Tali Arbel, Marcy Gordon, Matt O’Brien, Barbara Ortutay and Amanda Seitz contributed to this report.

BATTLING MACHO HOMOPHOBIA

Mexican skater is a rare Latin American at Winter Olympics

Carrillo said a cultural barrier also exists, as macho attitudes disapprove of male skaters in particular.

By SALLY HO

Donovan Carrillo, of Mexico, reacts after the men's short program figure skating competition at the 2022 Winter Olympics, Tuesday, Feb. 8, 2022, in Beijing. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)

BEIJING (AP) — They said he should play soccer. They said figure skating was for girls. They said winter sports made no sense in temperate Guadalajara.

But none of those naysayers deterred Mexican figure skater Donovan Carrillo, the rare Latin American athlete at the Winter Games, who has now become an even more rare Beijing Olympics success story – however relative – from that part of the globe.

Carrillo had a career-best performance in the marquee sport of the Winter Games on Tuesday at Capital Indoor Stadium, featuring a well-executed quad toe loop and difficult triple axel.

That allows him to advance to the longer free skate competition on Thursday — a first for Mexico, which hadn’t had an Olympic skater in three decades. It instantly made Carrillo the most successful Mexican figure skater in history.

“For me to have the opportunity to be one of the few Latin American athletes here at the Olympics, it’s really something that motivates me to do my best and to inspire more kids in Latin America and in my country to try to practice winter sports,” Carrillo said. “I used to talk this dream with people. They were always laughing or telling me that it was impossible for a Mexican to qualify.”

Donovan Carrillo, of Mexico, competes during the men's short program figure skating competition at the 2022 Winter Olympics. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)

In Beijing, Carrillo is one of 33 athletes from nine Latin teams: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Peru and Puerto Rico. There’s another 10 athletes from four other Caribbean teams, including Virgin Islands, Haiti, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago. None have ever medaled at the Winter Games.

Brazil — typically a Summer Games powerhouse — claims the most athletes but the 10 Winter competitors in Beijing are a fraction of their 302 that competed in the Tokyo Games last year.

Among the four athletes on the Mexico team, Carrillo is the only one who stayed in Mexico to nurture his talents, which he insists on doing. Two others have Mexican heritage but train in the U.S. and Canada, while a third — Sarah Schleper — joined the Mexico team after marrying a Mexican and retiring from the U.S. ski team.

Carrillo’s stronger-than-expected figure skating short program on Tuesday was steeped in national pride. His music was set to Santana, his father’s favorite band. Carrillo’s blade covers displayed the green, white and red colors of the Mexican flag. He wore a sparkly black and gold costume that was custom-made by Mexican fashion designer Edgar Lozzano, who offered it to the skater for free.

“It’s something that I always try to do with my performance, to involve the Mexican culture,” Carrillo said. “Carlos Santana is Mexican. I always try to take on different artists that could help me and motivate me to represent my country.”

The 22-year-old is originally from Guadalajara but moved with his coach to León when he was 13 because his hometown rink shut down. He dreamt of Olympic glory and idolized Spain’s Javier Fernandez, who took bronze at the 2018 Winter Games in Pyeongchang to become the first Spanish figure skater to medal.

Brenda Elsey, a sports history professor at Hofstra University, said win or lose, Carrillo’s debut at the Olympics can only be a good thing for Mexico and the rest of Latin America in terms of winter sports engagement. Mexico does not have a national professional sports league or competitive collegiate system for any winter sports. The Winter Games are also not a geopolitical priority for its government.

“The fact is they would have to go on the European circuit to be able to qualify. The process to get to the Olympics is more of a challenge than people realize, particularly because there’s not a huge culture necessarily within Latin America that is clamoring for this,” Elsey said.

Even at the popular ski resorts in Chile and Argentina, Elsey said the mountain snow sports are so cost-prohibitive that it’s effectively reserved for western tourists and locals with European roots who are already familiar with skiing.

The lack of a Latin American presence at the Winter Games is surely an issue the International Olympic Committee has taken note of. Elsey said winter sports themselves are rooted in Nordic traditions, which is also why Africa, Middle East and Southeast Asia are not well-represented.

“They would love to expand the market to increase the amount of money in marketing and broadcast rights,” Elsey said. “The IOC wants to be relevant to everyone.”

Back at home, it may take another televised round of skating for Carrillo to really break through soccer-crazed Mexico’s sports coverage, though national newspapers were plastered with photographs of a wide-smiling Carrillo on Tuesday.

Mexicans quickly got behind the young figure skater, expressing their pride and support on social media, though he’s not exactly a household name – yet.

Hours after his debut, Anette Tapia admitted she hadn’t been following the Olympics either but had seen something about Carrillo beforehand.

“He has a refreshing essence,” said the 26-year-old designer. “He has a lot of motivation.”

Figure skating is uncommon in Mexico and there are no Olympic-sized rinks in the entire country. Ice rinks are usually limited to attractions inside shopping centers.

In fact, it was on a small rink at the Plaza Mayor mall in the central state of Guanajuato where Carrillo trained in the run-up to the Olympics. His side hustle to afford this very expensive sport includes teaching ice skating lessons there.

Carrillo laments how he is snapped back to reality during his training: when people ask him to turn off his blaring music, when he has to practice his dazzling maneuvers while dodging kids and families on the ice for fun, and especially when he has to share half the rink with hockey players.

“The dream of every coach in Mexico is to have the right infrastructure, to keep the skaters training in the country…(so) that they don’t have to go out in order to improve,” said Gregorio Núñez, Carrillo’s coach for the past 14 years. “In our country, it’s very hard to have the infrastructure to practice winter sports.”

Carrillo said a cultural barrier also exists, as macho attitudes disapprove of male skaters in particular.

“Sometimes people think that the artistic sports are only for women, so that’s something I had to fight when I was a kid because many people at school told me ‘Oh you’re a girl,’ and they sometimes even think that to practice an artistic sport, it’s going to affect your (sexual) preferences as a person. I never thought that,” Carrillo said. “I think that’s one of the reasons of why we don’t have many male skaters in my country.”

Carrillo is proud to make history when he takes the ice for Mexico in the men’s finals on Thursday, though he’s under no delusion that he’s actually competitive with powerhouses likely gold medalist Nathan Chen from the U.S. team.

The Mexican skater is not deterred by this in the least. He’s already eyeing another run in Milan-Cortina in 2026, and sees Beijing as a good experience for his future aspirations. He knows simply that his very existence at the Olympic rink here is an achievement for his country.

“I had a great time on the ice,” an elated Carrillo said. “I didn’t want it to end. I wanted to keep skating and living the Olympic dream.”

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Associated Press reporter Christopher Sherman contributed from Mexico City.

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Seattle-based AP journalist Sally Ho is on assignment at the Beijing Olympics, covering figure skating. Follow her on Twitter at http://twitter.com/_sallyho.

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More AP Winter Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/winter-olympics and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports.

Elon Musk helping restore internet to Tonga, officials say

By NICK PERRY

In this photo provided by the Australian Defence Force, Australian Defence Force and Department of Foreign Affairs & Trade crisis response team personnel make a damage assessment operation in Nuku'alofa, on Atata island in Tonga, following the eruption of underwater volcano, on Feb. 4, 2022. (CPL Robert Whitmore/Australian Defence Force via AP)

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — Entrepreneur Elon Musk is helping reconnect Tonga to the internet after a volcanic eruption and tsunami cut off the South Pacific nation more than three weeks ago, according to officials, while repairs on an undersea cable are proving more difficult than first thought.

The tsunami severed the sole fiber-optic cable that connects Tonga to the rest of the world and most people remain without reliable connections.

A top official in neighboring Fiji tweeted that a team from Musk’s SpaceX company was in Fiji establishing a station that would help reconnect Tonga through SpaceX satellites.

SpaceX runs a network of nearly 2,000 low-orbit satellites called Starlink, which provides internet service to remote places around the world.

Fiji Attorney-General Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum tweeted about the SpaceX work, saying the volcano’s shockwave “shattered Tonga’s internet connection, adding days of gut-wrenching uncertainty to disaster assessments.”

A spokeswoman for Sayed-Khaiyum said Wednesday she was waiting for more information about the Starlink project before providing further details. SpaceX did not respond to requests for comment.

STRING OF STARLINK SATELLITES

Musk had earlier shown interest in Tonga’s plight. Less than a week after the eruption, he asked on Twitter: “Could people from Tonga let us know if it is important for SpaceX to send over Starlink terminals?”

New Zealand politician Dr. Shane Reti wrote to Musk asking him to help provide a Starlink connection. After the reports from Fiji emerged, Reti tweeted: “Very pleased. Elon Musk providing satellite to Tonga.”

Meanwhile Samiuela Fonua, the chairperson at Tonga Cable Ltd., the state-owned company that owns the crucial undersea cable, told The Associated Press on Wednesday that repairs to the cable might not be completed until the end of next week.

Fonua said the good news was that the crew aboard the repair ship CS Reliance had managed to locate both ends of the damaged cable. The bad news, he said, was the damage was extensive and his company didn’t have enough cable aboard the ship to replace a mangled section of more than 80 kilometers (50 miles).

Fonua said there was extra cable aboard the Reliance that was owned by other companies, and Tonga Cable was hoping to secure agreements with those companies to use it.

A U.N. team has provided small satellites and other telecommunications support to boost connectivity and communications, said spokesperson Stephane Dujarric, and more equipment was on the way.

As well as dealing with the aftermath of the tsunami, which killed three people in Tonga and destroyed dozens of homes, the nation of 105,000 is also in the midst of a two-week lockdown after experiencing its first outbreak of the coronavirus, which may have been brought in by foreign military crews aboard ships and planes that delivered aid.

Dujarric said that UNICEF had sent 15,000 rapid test kits and that the World Health Organization was sending 5,000 PCR tests.

Study: With humans, mosquitoes see red and prepare for the feast

By HealthDay News

In the eyes of mosquitoes, human skin gives off a red-orange color --

and this is what draws them in for a bite, researchers say.

File Photo by mycteria/Shutterstock

Mosquitoes see red when they look at your skin, and that brings them in for a bite, according to research showing that these insects find certain colors more attractive.

The findings mean that what you wear can reduce your chances of being bitten, but there's little you can do in terms of your skin.

That's because everyone's skin gives off a strong red-orange signal that's highly attractive to mosquitoes.

"I used to say there are three major cues that attract mosquitoes: your breath, your sweat and the temperature of your skin," said senior study author Jeffrey Riffell, a professor of biology at the University of Washington in Seattle.

"In this study, we found a fourth cue: the color red, which can not only be found on your clothes, but is also found in everyone's skin. The shade of your skin doesn't matter, we are all giving off a strong red signature," Riffell said.

Researchers found that when a common species of mosquito called Aedes aegypti detects carbon dioxide, or CO2, from our breath, it then looks for specific colors -- including red, orange, black and cyan -- to find its meal of blood.

But they ignore colors such as green, purple, blue and white, according to findings published this month in the journal Nature Communications.

"Mosquitoes appear to use odors to help them distinguish what is nearby, like a host to bite," Riffell said in a university news release.

"When they smell specific compounds, like CO2 from our breath, that scent stimulates the eyes to scan for specific colors and other visual patterns, which are associated with a potential host, and head to them," Riffell said.

That process is similar to when a person smells something good.

"Imagine you're on a sidewalk and you smell pie crust and cinnamon," Riffell said.

"That's probably a sign that there's a bakery nearby, and you might start looking around for it. Here, we started to learn what visual elements that mosquitoes are looking for after smelling their own version of a bakery," he said.

Knowing which colors do or don't attract mosquitoes may lead to better repellents, traps and other methods to ward off mosquitoes.

The study authors said further research is needed to learn how other visual and odor cues, such as skin secretions, help guide mosquitoes to their victims.

More information

Learn how to prevent mosquito bites at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

JITP JUST IN TIME PRODUCTION

Hyundai, Kia: Owners of over 485K cars recalled for fire risk should park outdoors

Hyundai's logo is displayed at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit, Michigan.

File Photo by Brian Kersey/UPI | License Photo

Feb. 8 (UPI) -- Hyundai and Kia have advised owners of over 485,000 cars to park outdoors due to fire risk.

The two manufacturers made the recommendation in safety recall reports over risk of an internal electrical short sparking a fire, potentially involving 357,830 Hyundai cars and 126,747 Kia cars.

Both companies recommended that owners park outdoors until the recall is remedied, according to documents provided to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

The recalled Hyundai models include 2016-2018 Santa Fe, 2017-2018 Santa Fe Sport, 2019 Santa Fe XL, and 2014-2015 Tucson.

"The subject vehicles are equipped with Anti-Lock Brake System modules that could malfunction internally and cause an electrical short over time," the recall report said. "An electrical short could result in significant overcurrent in the ABS module increasing risk of an engine compartment fire while parked or driving."

"Owners may continue driving these vehicles; however, Hyundai recommends parking their vehicles outside and away from structures until a remedy is completed," according to the remedy description in the recall report.

For Kia, the recalled vehicles include the 2016-2018 K900 sedans and 2014-2016 Sportage SUVs.

"An engine compartment fire may occur in the area where the Hydraulic Electronic Control Unit is located," according to the recall report. "The exact cause of the fire remains unknown. However, it is believed that the HECU may experience an internal electrical short circuit."

Similar to the Hyundai recall, the short circuit could increase of engine compartment fire, prompting Kia to also make the recommendation for owners to similarly park outside.

Hyundai and Kia told the NHTSA drivers may notice warning signs including illumination of ABS warning light, burning or melting smell, and smoke from the engine department.

Britain's oldest pub closes after 1,229 years

Ye Olde Fighting Cocks, a St. Albans, England, pub that purports to have been in business for 1,229 years, announced it is closing down due to financial problems that worsened during the COVID-19 pandemic. Photo courtesy of Ye Olde Fighting Cocks/Facebook

Feb. 8 (UPI) -- A pub purported to be the oldest in Britain is closing because of financial difficulties 1,229 years after it was established.

The Ye Olde Fighting Cocks pub in St. Albans, England, announced on Facebook that it was closing permanently after financial problems made worse by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The pub's website states the business first started pouring drinks in the year 793.

"Along with my team, I have tried everything to keep the pub going," pub manager Christo Tofalli wrote in the Facebook post.

"However, the past two years have been unprecedented for the hospitality industry, and have defeated all of us who have been trying our hardest to ensure this multi-award-winning pub could continue trading into the future."

Tofalli said the pub's financial problems predated the pandemic, but issues continually worsened until the team determined it no longer would be able to meet financial obligations.

"It goes without saying I am heartbroken. This pub has been so much more than just a business to me, and I feel honored to have played even a small part in its history," he wrote.

Mitchells & Butlers, the brewery that owns the building, said the pub could potentially reopen.

"We are currently exploring all opportunities for the site's future and hope to reopen the pub under new management as soon as possible," a spokesman told CNN.

Ukrainians on Russian border 'on alert' for last eight years

A Ukrainian border guard patrols the frontier with Russia, as tensions mount over fears Moscow could invade (AFP/Sergey BOBOK)

Germain MOYON
Tue, February 8, 2022

Wrapped up against the cold in a padded camouflage jacket, a Ukrainian border guard cradles his automatic rifle as he looks out over a barbed wire-topped fence into the expanse of Russia beyond.

While international tensions have soared in recent months over fears Moscow could stage a full-scale invasion, the looming threat of the Russians has been with the Ukrainian forces protecting the frontier a lot longer.

Eight years ago, before the Kremlin seized Crimea and sparked a brutal separatist conflict in the industrial east of Ukraine, the border barely existed.

Relatives in the two ex-Soviet countries crossed back and forth without thinking about it to visit one another, and business ties were close.

But then, as the Kremlin began fuelling violence and bloodshed in Ukraine in 2014, reinforcing the border in the country's northeast became a priority for Kyiv.

Now, even though nothing can be seen across the border except for snow-covered fields, the West is warning that over 100,000 Russian troops poised along Ukraine's frontier could be preparing to strike.

"We are constantly on alert," says border guard officer Mykola Feryn.

"We conduct training, especially with reserve forces trained in combat operations. In the case of Russian aggression, we will be the first to be involved."

- Observation tower -

Feryn points to an observation tower equipped with a video surveillance system that can scan the horizon up to 10 kilometres (six miles) away.

The fence was erected and a trench dug as part of the push to reinforce the border that started in 2015. Border guards huddle for warmth around a stove in a bunker.

The nearby crossing of Goptivka, once the region's main route to Russia, is quiet with few vehicles looking to enter Ukraine.

Just 40 kilometres away, the 1.5 million residents of Ukraine's second city Kharkiv have learnt to live with the idea that war may be coming -- even before the recent spike in tensions.

In 2014, pro-Moscow crowds took over Kharkiv's regional administration, and fears swirled that the largely Russian-speaking industrial hub some 400 kilometres from Kyiv might be taken over by separatists.

But local politicians and reinforcements from Kyiv helped claw Kharkiv back, stopping it from following two neighbouring regions as they plunged into a bloody conflict fuelled by the Kremlin.

A flow of traumatised people displaced by the fighting only served to highlight the grim fate Kharkiv had avoided.

Faced by renewed fears that their region could be plunged into violence, some in the city insist they are willing to fight.

At the weekend some 20 civilians learnt how to handle Kalashnikov rifles and pump-action shot guns at training for a territorial defence organisation set up by a former combatant.

Some civilians in the Ukraine's second city of Kharkiv, close to the border, have undergone weapons training as tensions rise (AFP/Sergey BOBOK)

- 'Prepare for the worst' -

"Weapon-handling is a skill that can be needed at any moment, especially if you live in Kharkiv. So it's good that they give an opportunity to shoot," said computer programmer Dmytro Bolshutkin.

"Somehow we were lucky in 2014, but we cannot be lucky every single time. We must be ready. We must hope for the best, but prepare for the worst."

While Ukraine's authorities have sought to play down the threat of an imminent invasion, President Volodymyr Zelensky did suggest Moscow could look to "occupy" Kharkiv.

After eight years of conflict, "life has certainly changed, but the first wave of fear and panic has disappeared", says local lawmaker Galyna Kuts at a Ukrainian "Unity March" Saturday, that saw several thousand people demonstrate against Russian aggression.

"We understand that we are at the front line and people like me will not leave Kharkiv, we will organise its defence."

The lawmaker says many residents have readied themselves to cope in case basic services -- water, electricity, phone networks -- are cut.

She says she has stopped buying high-heeled shoes in case she needs to flee at any moment and has taken first-aid training.

"Kharkiv is located on the border, Kharkiv today is the shield of Ukraine and all civilised Europe," says Kuts.

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FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES OF COMMUNIST PRODUCTION AND DISTRIBUTION

by Group of International Communists (Author), Hermann Lueer (Editor, Translator)

Format: Kindle Edition

5.0 out of 5 stars 4 ratings

The “Fundamental Principles of Communist Production and Distribution” emerged as a reaction to the negative development of the Russian Revolution. With this writing, the authors for the first time put up for debate the economic foundations for the construction and organization of a society in the sense of the “association of free and equal people”. At the same time, they took into account all the experience gained from the previous attempts of the labor movement, and by criticizing it were able to point out necessary new paths. A critique that has lost nothing of its original topicality to this day. The first edition of the Fundamental Principles, published in German in 1930, was confiscated and largely destroyed. A completely revised and improved edition in Dutch was first published in excerpts in 1931 and 1935 in book form in a second edition. The text of the German first edition was reprinted in 1970 and also translated into English and French. The completely revised and improved 2nd edition, on the other hand, remained largely unnoticed in Dutch for the following 85 years.

With this translation of the 2nd edition into English, the Sleeping Beauty has awakened.

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment