goatee

°2022.03.13.Sun | Gulf Coast Sunset

Something that tickles me, as a New Englander, is an aquatic sunset.

°2021.11.02.Tue | Education, wealth, racism, and remedies

I’ve been skeptical of student debt forgiveness for the typical reasons: my own sense of frugality (e.g., going to a state school and paying off debt ASAP), concerns about moral hazard (i.e., increasing credential inflation and education costs), and even the ever increasing federal debt (i.e., a ponzi scheme that will one day fall).

That said, I know the world has changed since I was an undergrad. I also appreciate the U.S. has a stark wealth gap along racial lines that needs to be remedied. (And I recognize most conservatives seem to care about national debt only when social programs are being discussed, but lose that concern when considering military spending and industrial subsidies.) This discussion between Tressie McMillan Cottom and Louise Seamster in favor of student debt forgiveness gave me much to think about. This includes the policy issue of debt relief and the ethical issue of equity.

If equality is about ensuring equal opportunities, equity recognizes that neutral-seeming policies aren’t enough to counter historic and systemic biases: “The only remedy to past discrimination is present discrimination. The only remedy to present discrimination is future discrimination” (Kendi 2019, 19). I strongly support equality and removing that which perpetuates historic and systemic bias. But I dither on equity. I wish I could find a taxonomy of remedies, like those sketched below, with which to think about the ethics and pragmatics of remedying injustices.

• systemic reform
  • removing the white/wealthy advantage of preferential admissions
  • reforming drug policy
  • reforming policing policy
• reparation
  • Coates’s reparations
• equity
  • affirmative action: quotas
  • affirmative action: “preferences” (non-quotas)
  • Kendi’s Department of Anti-racism

I am a strong advocate of systemic reform: ethically necessary and practically achievable though distressingly difficult to achieve. On affirmative action, I am ambivalently moderate: cautiously supportive of the balance struck in Grutter v. Bollinger, though it is usually bureaucratically incoherent—often requiring doublethink—in practice. I am sympathetic to the obligation of reparations to those directly harmed (e.g., the internment of Japanese Americans), but the passing of time decreases its relevance. I dislike Kendi’s authoritarianism for many reasons. I wonder if there is there a comprehensive treatment on this topic that attends to the ethics and pragmatics of these and other options?

References

°2021.09.07.Tue | North Shore, South Shore

This labor day weekend, we got a car and explored the coast around Boston.

On Saturday, we explored the North Shore and happened across Gerry Island, for which there is a path when the tide is out.

Monday, we explored the South Shore, and enjoyed the rocky beach of Webb Memorial Park.

°2021.06.21.Mon | Watermelon and mint soba

Summer time is a time of cold salads. For lunch I’m finishing yesterday’s improvised sesame soba with tofu, watermelon, and mint!

°2020.12.21.Mon | What counts as meat?

Rebecca Schuman’s Schadenfreude, A Love Story reminds me of my favorite zines from the naughts, and I’m enjoying her stories of high-school angst and collegiate travel from that era.

Last night I laughed with recognition when she learned, as a vegetarian in Germany, that the little cubes of ham on her broccoli and cheese was not meat but ham (“Das ist doch kein Fleisch – das ist Schinken.”)

I’ve had similar experiences traveling the world as a vegetarian:

• In Europe and Asia, ham, chicken, and fish are not necessarily “meat.”
• In Asia, a “vegetarian” dumpling can have fish sauce.
• In Asia, asking for “vegetarian” food can also mean no onion or garlic because the diet is closely associated with Buddhist monastics who swear off pungent vegetables.

°2020.12.21.Mon | Winter rosemary

Winter pizza night
The rosemary is still green
Under the snow

°2020.12.14.Mon | Lunchtime sun at Breakheart Reservation

December lunch
the scarred winter sun
sits low but warm

°2020.10.24.Sat | Masks in the alley

°2020.09.27.Sun | Raising the flag at Powder House Park