Hello, JP here.  I comment from time to time at Pharyngula.  I’ll be posting here on a regular basis, I hope weekly, as grad student life allows.  (I’m in the Slavic department at the University of Michigan, getting a Ph.D.  I study late-twentieth century Russian and Polish poetry, primarily female authors, to put it in a very short nutshell.)

I’m interested in issues of race, social justice, and immigration.

Here are a few things that have been on my mind lately:

If you don’t already, please consider boycotting Driscoll’s, one of the largest providers of grocery store strawberries (and some other berries) in the US.  They have an atrocious labor record.  From the linked article:

Many of the San Quintin protesters are indigenous people from some of Mexico’s poorest states, like Oaxaca and Guerrero. Indigenous people make up more than half of Mexico’s agricultural workers.

The striking pickers initially wanted wages increased to 300 pesos a day, then lowered the demand to 200 pesos, about $13. Most of them earned $7 to $8 a day before the strike.

Protests turned acrimonious when demonstrators threw rocks at government vehicles and police responded with tear gas and rubber bullets, reported the Los Angeles Times. Workers also blocked 56 miles of the Trans-Peninsular Highway. By April, the strike had effectively ended after growers signed agreements raising wages 15 percent—far less than the pickers demanded.

The water situation in Flint is still, to put it very mildly, a mess.  In a just world, “Governer” Rick Snyder would be facing immediate criminal charges, but we’ll see.  Michigan politics, as far as I can see, are rotten to the core.  Here is an article listing places you can send donations.  Every little bit helps.

In the next week or so, I hope to have a post detailing the current situation of the Roma in Europe, which is not good, and hasn’t been for a very long time.

Until next time, take care, and keep on truckin’.