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November 8, 2011 | 3:32 PM | By

Anti-immigrant talk radio rhetoric is analyzed in new UCLA report

Photo by Ben McLeod/Flickr (Creative Commons)

A new UC Los Angeles study examines anti-immigrant rhetoric on talk radio, measuring its use on segments of popular conservative talk shows. Put together by the university’s Chicano Studies Research Center and titled “Quantifying Hate Speech on Commercial Talk Radio,” the report released today comes as several Latino groups in Los Angeles are pushing to get one one locally-produced talk show off the air.

The content of three talk shows was analyzed for the pilot study, including Lou Dobbs’ radio program, Michael Savage’s The Savage Nation, and the John and Ken Show, a Clear Channel show on KFI-640 AM that has drawn criticism since its hosts gave out the number of a Los Angeles immigrant advocacy group’s spokesman on air, subjecting him to a barrage of hate calls.

Transcripts of three individual shows, one from each program, were analyzed for their content. Especially interesting is an analysis of terms used in the samples, including what are termed “code words.” From the report:

Readers found that the speakers used indexicality in four ways in the sample segment: 1) the use of codes words to establish Latinos, immigrants, and immigrant rights advocates as “other” to the nation; 2) the use of rhythm, stress, and intonation (prosody) to emphasize nativist attitudes; 3) the reinforcement of nativist attitudes through word repetition; and 4) alignment between the hosts and guest.

Readers identified twenty passages in which indexical terms (code words) were used to identify certain groups as “other” to the nation. Terms such as illegal alien, gangbanger, killers, anarchists, calamity, and domestic terrorism indexed Latinos, undocumented immigrants, and immigrant rights advocates, thereby associating these groups with crime, terror, and a foreign enemy.

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FILED UNDER: Culture/Identity, Politics/Justice, John and Ken, Lou Dobbs, Savage Nation, Talk radio, UCLA, UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center
October 11, 2011 | 4:26 PM | By

Doctors who treat Latinos aren’t confident they can provide the best care

Photo by Seattle Municipal Archives/Flickr (Creative Commons)

Disparities in medical services have long landed minorities on the losing end of the health care system, with several studies documenting the lack of quality care experienced by many black Americans. And it’s no better for Latinos, new research out of UCLA and City University of New York shows.

The study, whose results are featured in the new edition of Health Affairs, focused on health providers who treat Latino patients. What researchers found is that physicians who treat primarily Latino patients, as compared with those whose patients are primarily non-Latino whites, are less likely than their peers to believe they are able to provide patients with high-quality care.

Among the reasons these doctors cited: inadequate time with patients, their patients’ lack of ability to afford health care, communication difficulties, a relative lack of available specialists, a lack of timely transmission of medical reports, and patients’ failure to adhere to recommended treatments, the latter not surprising for patients on a tight budget.

Another interesting finding: The doctors more likely to treat non-Latino white patients (the “reference group”) differed substantially from those who treat Latinos in terms of ethnicity, education, and how they derive their income. From the report:

Physicians in the reference group were more likely than those in the comparison group to be male, white, board certified, and US educated, and they had an average of eighteen years’ experience. Three-fourths of reference- group physicians worked in either group or individual practices, and more than half were in practices that they owned fully or in part.

A majority of reference-group physicians (52 percent) earned less than $200,000 annually, and 12 percent conducted business without a managed care contract (data not shown). Reference-group physicians received less of their income, on average, from Medicaid and managed care than from Medicare. Nearly two-thirds of them practiced in large metropolitan areas, and three-fourths of them perceived themselves to be working in a relatively competitive market.

Compared to the reference group, physicians with 50 percent or more Latino patients were more likely to be female and Latino, educated in non-US medical schools, and in certain specialties (pediatrics, other specialties, and obstetrics-gynecology); to work in a solo or two-physician practice, a health maintenance organization, or nonspecified (“other”) type of practice; to report a higher share of income from Medicaid and managed care; to work in large metropolitan areas with more than one million people; and to perceive no competition or some competition in the area where they work. Similarly, they were less likely to be board certified, to own the practice where they worked, and to treat patients with chronic conditions.

The report concluded that some of the problems behind the disparity could be alleviated by provisions in last year’s Affordable Care Act, which is being legally challenged and could be decided on by the U.S. Supreme Court.

 

FILED UNDER: City University of New York, Health affairs, Latino health, UCLA
June 28, 2011 | 8:17 AM | By

The Dream Act and the economy

Photo by sea turtle/Flickr (Creative Commons)

Senate Democrats speaking in support of a newly introduced version of the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act this morning have been bringing up economic reasons for passing the proposed legislation, which would grant conditional legal status to young people brought here before age 16 if they go to college or enlist in the military.

During a Senate subcommittee hearing on the bill, California’s Sen. Dianne Feinstein cited a report by the North American Integration and Development Center at UCLA, released late last year as the most recent version of the bill was being considered. The report concluded that if an estimated 825,000 now-undocumented youths who stand to benefit from the Dream Act were allowed to contribute to the economy, they would generate an estimated $1.4 trillion current dollars in income over 40 years. An excerpt from that report:

In this study, we examine two scenarios. In the first, we calculate the income that the lower-bound estimated 825,000 beneficiaries would generate over a 40-year period, representative of the work life of a 25- to 65-year-old employed individual. In our second scenario, called “No DREAMers Left Behind,” we analyze the income that would be generated in the same 40-year period if the entire group of 2.1 million potential beneficiaries could successfully meet the education or military service requirement.

By observing the educational attainment of the Latino population (which represents over 80 percent of the total potential beneficiary cohort, according to the MPI) and applying those trends to the 825,000 eligible individuals in the MPI scenario, our study concludes that the income generated over 40 years would be $1.4 trillion in current dollars (actual income would be significantly higher if inflation over 40 years is taken into account).

In the No DREAMers Left Behind scenario, 2.1 million undocumented immigrants would become legalized and generate approximately $3.6 trillion over the same 40-year period (also in current dollars).

The UCLA report also pointed out a potential advantage for U.S. taxpayers, with the legislation representing a return on “our current, and already spent, investment in youths that the public school system educates in their K-12 years.”

There were other assessments of the Dream Act’s economic impact last year as the previous version – only slighty different from the current one – came up for a vote. Among them was a Congressional Budget Office report that concluded that over the next 10 years, as the bill increased the number of authorized workers in the country, revenues would increase by $2.3 billion and the national deficit would decrease by $1.4 billion.

However, the CBO report also predicted that as beneficiaries’ conditional legal status gave way to permanent legal status, they would qualify like other U.S. legal residents and citizens for government programs, adding to the deficit in the long run.

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FILED UNDER: Health/Education, Politics/Justice, Dream Act, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, UCLA
April 6, 2011 | 5:04 PM | By

Introducing the cultural mashup dictionary: Our first term, 1.5 generation

Photo by TexasT/Flickr (Creative Commons)

Just like Southern California’s culture is shaped by immigrants and their descendants, so is its language. There is an evolving lexicon of words, terms and phrases coined here and elsewhere in the U.S. where immigrants have influenced the English language, and it has influenced them.

And it’s worth compiling into its own dictionary of sorts. Today I’m introducing the first entry, a term I use often: 1.5 generation.

Here’s how Wikipedia defines it:

The term 1.5 generation or 1.5G refers to people who immigrate to a new country before or during their early teens. They earn the label the “1.5 generation” because they bring with them characteristics from their home country but continue their assimilation and socialization in the new country. Their identity is thus a combination of new and old culture and tradition.

There’s a bit more to it than that. I use it rather loosely to describe people who, like me, arrived in the United States as children. But the term, and how it’s used, is rife with complexity.

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FILED UNDER: Culture/Identity, Health/Education, 1.5 generation, Cultural mashup dictionary, Language, UC Irvine, UCLA
March 23, 2011 | 5:34 PM | By

After the ranting anti-Asian UCLA student, three great music videos

Screen shot from Wallace's video

Whatever misguided creativity moved UCLA student Alexandra Wallace to post a video of herself ranting about Asian students in the library and utter her now-famous “ching chong, ling long, ting tong” line a week and a half ago fell far short of what she termed “an attempt to produce a humorous YouTube video.”

Wallace, who claimed afterward to receive death threats, has since announced that she’ll no longer attend UCLA. But during her brief infamy, she spawned a creative legacy of videos made in response to her rant, and these have continued to appear. Some have been funnier than others, some angrier than others, and not all have been high art.

But some, like these three music videos, have been nothing short of genius.

This week, Angry Asian Man posted the video and lyrics for a hilarious rap from the San Diego hip hop band afterschoolspecial, filmed, naturally, in a library. The video:

Last week, the talented Jimmy Wong sang his way to Internet stardom after turning his reaction into a folksy comic love song:

And then there’s the dance remix video, which is hard to describe in words:

Wallace’s rant also inspired a series of comic parodies, among them this early gem.

The humor has been one way of coping with something very un-funny. The video posted by Wallace angered so many people that UCLA Chancellor Gene Block’s Facebook page was flooded with comments for days. The university did not pursue disciplinary action against Wallace, who according to The Daily Bruin chose to withdraw on her own for “personal safety reasons.”

FILED UNDER: Culture/Identity, Health/Education, Alexandra Wallace, UCLA
March 23, 2011 | 10:04 AM | By

Angelenos/Angeleños speak out on who they are

Photo by Ron Reiring/Flickr (Creative Commons)

Our lovely, smoggy, sprawling town, looking west toward Wilshire Boulevard, December 2008

In a brief post yesterday, I mentioned that I’ll be moderating a panel next week at KPCC titled “Angelino, Angeleno, Angeleño: Who are we?”

It’s going to be a discussion on the evolving identity of Los Angeles, based on a popular post on the KCET website a couple of months ago by author D.J. Waldie about the disappearance of the Spanish consonant ñ (pronounced “enye”) from “Angeleños,” the original Spanish term for city residents.

I threw out a few questions yesterday: What is an Angeleno today? How does the culture we were raised in, and the part of the L.A. area we call home, shape how we define ourselves? In great polyglot Los Angeles of the 21st Century, do we still define ourselves geography, by area code, by ethnicity?

On KPCC’s Facebook page, several readers shared their thoughts. A particular line from one of the readers below resonated: “Angelenos are all a little Mexican, a little Korean, a little Jewish no matter where they’re actually from.”

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FILED UNDER: Culture/Identity, D.J. Waldie, Eric Avila, KPCC, L.A. identity, Los Angeles, UCLA
March 15, 2011 | 4:24 PM | By

UCLA student in anti-Asian rant video claims threats, apologizes – and inspires more parodies

Screen shot from Wallace's video

UCLA’s Daily Bruin reports that the student who posted a video of herself ranting against “hordes” of Asian students on YouTube last Friday has sought the assistance of campus police after claiming to receive threats, and that she’s issued an apology.

Alexandra Wallace’s statement was sent yesterday to the campus newspaper, which posted this:

“Clearly the original video posted by me was inappropriate,” she said in the statement. “I cannot explain what possessed me to approach the subject as I did, and if I could undo it, I would. I’d like to offer my apology to the entire UCLA campus. For those who cannot find it within them to accept my apology, I understand.”

The Bruin story described Wallace as a third-year political science student. The video, in which Wallace complains about Asian students in the library annoying her, complains about their relatives coming over, makes “ching chong” sounds while pretending to talk into a cell phone and ridicules them for checking on their families “for the tsunami thing” was condemned as “repugnant” by campus administration.

It set off an angry reaction on and off campus, with hundreds posting messages on the Facebook account of UCLA Chancellor Gene Block, including demands for her expulsion.

The video has also spawned a series of creative and very funny parody videos, even if Wallace’s rant is nothing to laugh at. Today’s pick:

The LA Weekly has posted a list of other angry/funny parody videos.

FILED UNDER: Culture/Identity, Health/Education, Alexandra Wallace, UCLA
March 14, 2011 | 6:23 PM | By

Quote of the moment: ‘Solitary confinement at a high security prison’ for ranting UCLA student

“In fact, I am so upset that I believe she should be punished by expulsion, public humiliation, and maybe even solitary confinement at a high security prison.”

- Facebook user Steven Lu, from a comment posted on the UCLA chancellor’s FB page today regarding a female student’s anti-Asian rant on YouTube

The Facebook account of UCLA Chancellor Gene Block was flooded with comments today over a viral video that the university has condemned as “repugnant” – and which, frankly, I was reluctant to post at first.

UCLA has confirmed that the woman is Alexandra Wallace, a student at the university, the Daily Bruin reported today. Her rant, which seems almost too bizarre to take seriously, has been spoofed to hilarious effect by now, though the overwhelming reaction has been anger.

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FILED UNDER: Culture/Identity, Health/Education, Alexandra Wallace, UCLA