Race, cyberbullying and intimate partner violence

Though popular culture might suggest otherwise, cyberbullying isn’t just a white problem.
tommaso79/shutterstock.com

Over the past two decades, cyberbullying has become a major focus for parents, educators and researchers. Stopbullying.gov lists several effects of cyberbullying, including depression, anxiety and decreased academic achievement.

Judging from popular culture, the narratives surrounding cyberbullying tend to have at least one of two themes. One, cyberbullying is a mob-like phenomenon: Television shows such as “American Crime” depict a group of teens preying on a vulnerable individual by using social media and text messaging. Second, the face associated with cyberbullying is often a white one. Both in the aforementioned “American Crime,” for example, and in the television movie “Cyberbu//y,” the victim is white.

Without discounting youth bullied by groups of their peers or young white men and women who have been cyberbullied, there’s a missing piece of this equation. As a researcher of technology usage and racial inequality, I am interested in the racial differences in cyberbullying.

In Cyberbu//y, 17-year-old Taylor Hillridge is pushed to the point of attempting suicide when she’s harassed by her classmates online.
ABC Family

Why study racial differences?

Studies from the Pew Research Center have shown that African-American youth own smartphones at higher rates and use them more frequently than youth of other backgrounds. My own research has shown that young African-Americans have more positive views toward technology than other segments of the population.

Their frequency of use and willingness to engage with new technologies suggest that black youth may frequently find themselves in contexts that can lead to cyberbullying – both as victims and perpetrators.

Cyberbullying as intimate partner violence

One of those contexts is in digital communication within a current or past relationship. Although much media attention has been paid to the mob characteristics of cyberbullying, there’s ample opportunity for cyberbullying in one-to-one situations. In these scenarios, cyberbullying is a form of intimate partner violence, which the CDC describes as physical, sexual or psychological harm by a current or former partner or spouse.

Online harassment is likely to come from people close to the victim.
Samuel Borges Photography/Shutterstock.com

Cyberbullying and race: The data

I used survey data collected from September 2014 to March 2015 by the Pew Research Center to explore connections between race and cyberbullying.

I focused on the 361 teens in that study who replied “yes” to the question: “Have you ever dated, hooked up with or otherwise had a romantic relationship with another person?”

These teens were then asked a series of yes or no questions about their experiences with cellphones in intimate relationships. Nine questions were about their partners attempting to control or harass them through cellphones. These questions measure cyberbullying victimization. Six questions were about how the respondents themselves attempted to control or harass their partners. These questions measured offensive cyberbullying.

My analysis showed that African-American youth as a group responded “yes” to questions about cyberbullying victimization and perpetration more than other groups.



More in-depth analysis shows that common criminological and sociological explanations do not explain the racial differences.

For example, one common theory is that students who have unpleasant experiences (what are often called “strains”) are more likely to lash out and bully others. The Pew survey asked questions about unpleasant experiences online such as seeing people post events they weren’t invited to or feeling pressure to post things online that make you look good to others. However, African-American teens are more likely to be perpetrators and victims of cyberbullying – even when they report similar amounts of strain.

The difference in reported cyberbullying is also not a result of social class. Middle-class black teens are more likely to be perpetrators and victims when compared to their white middle-class peers.

Why are there racial differences in cyberbullying?

Given the relatively small sample size (361 teens), it would be unwise to jump to any major conclusions. Moreover, we don’t have sufficient data on Asian-American students, so African-American youth can only be compared to white and Hispanic youth. With these caveats, the results still warrant further explanation.

The CDC does not list race as a risk factor in bullying in general, and academic research has been inconclusive as to whether African-Americans are more likely to bully (or be bullied) than their white peers.

This suggests that the relationship between cyberbullying and race is not powered by a disproportional desire to bully per se, but instead by the interest and ease in using technology for social ends.

The high rates of cyberbullying among black youth are likely to be tied to a general cultural orientation toward using cellphones to navigate the ups and downs of a relationship. Black youth, because of their agility online, simply find technology more amenable to reaching their goals; they’re more likely to turn to technology when choosing to bully their romantic partners.

There is a correlation between rates of cyberbullying and frequency of technology use.
Monkey Business Images/Shutterstock.com

This unique adoption of technology appears in other aspects of life. The phenomenon of “Black Twitter” and its ability to influence the national dialogue is a prime example. My own research has identified several digital practices that distinguish African-Americans from other racial groups. For example, African-Americans are more likely to use social networking sites to make new professional contacts than other racial groups.

This explanation for greater rates of cyberbullying among African-American teens conforms most closely to the data. It also suggests positive recommendations. If black youth are simply more active in the digital environment, the answer for parents and educators may not lie in banning or restricting cellphone use. The answer instead may be to find ways to harness this interest and channel it in more fruitful directions.

Roderick S. Graham, Assistant Professor of Sociology, Old Dominion University

This article was originally published on The Conversation.

Violence erupts in Hout Bay as City attempts to reblock

Anti-Land Invasion Unit demolishes over 50 shacks

By Zoe Postman
20 July 2017

Members of the City’s Anti-Land Invasion Unit demolish homes in Imizamo Yethu. Photo: Ashraf Hendricks

Violence erupted in Imizamo Yethu informal settlement in Hout Bay on Thursday when the City of Cape Town’s Anti-Land Invasion Unit demolished shacks.

At the centre of the conflict is the issue of reblocking. The City and some residents want to reblock Imizamo Yethu so as to lessen the impact of fires, such as the devastating one of 11 March. But for reblocking to happen many shacks that have been erected since the fire have to be demolished. See Why did Hout Bay explode?

Despite ongoing negotiations between the City and community representatives, a mutually beneficial solution could not be agreed before the Anti-Land Invasion Unit was given the go-ahead to demolish the shacks.

Violence erupted when a group of young boys started throwing rocks at police officers. The officers retaliated with stun grenades and teargas. One of the boys told GroundUp that he wanted the City to provide them with materials and allow them to rebuild their shacks in peace.

The home of Kenny Tokwe, a community leader in Imizamo Yethu, was burnt down. Tokwe supports reblocking. He said it will help develop the community. Tokwe said that people who oppose reblocking came to his house while he was not there, but his children were. When they could not find him, they decided to burn down the house. He said his children are safe, and one of them managed to save his music equipment before the house was burnt. Tokwe has lodged a complaint of arson with the police.

ENCA has reported that another house was also burnt down.

Yolande Hendler from The South African Alliance of Shack Dwellers International (SA SDI) explained that reblocking (called super-blocking by the City) aims to create pathways and roads for better service provision. It would allow emergency vehicles to respond when a fire breaks out. The City of Cape Town committed over R90 million to reblocking Imizamo Yethu after the March fire, but the community has been split over how this is to be carried out. For example, community Leader Pamela Sofika, who has also been a resident of Imizamo Yethu for two decades, accuses the City of making little effort to speak to people on the ground.

A woman takes cover in a doorway as police and protesters confront each other. Photo: Ashraf Hendricks 

In April, Mayor Patricia De Lille announced that the City had been given the go-ahead for reblocking by the whole community. But Sofika disagrees, claiming that those present at the meeting held by De Lille were opposed to the idea. Sofika said that she owned a three-roomed shack where she resided with her son and daughter. After the fire, she kept rebuilding her shack when she could afford the materials. One of her concerns is that reblocking will provide everyone with a much smaller shack when she stayed in a relatively spacious one prior to the fire. “It is already degrading enough to live in a shack. Now I must be further degraded by staying in a 3x3 metre [squared] shack”, she said.

Noluthando, a 33-year-old resident who was affected by the fire, said: “My heart is bleeding, I have nowhere else to go”, as she watched the Anti-Land Invasion Unit demolish her shack. She said that she was still in the process of rebuilding her shack and now she cannot afford to live somewhere else.
Zara Nicholson, spokesperson for the mayor, said that police and other law-enforcement removed “52 illegally erected and unoccupied structures in accordance with an interdict and as per the agreement reached with the community leadership on Monday evening”. She said this was to progress with reblocking, and “installation of services for the fire-affected beneficiaries.”

She condemned the “ensuing violence as it will go against the spirit of this negotiated process”.

Protesters burn rubble. Photo: Ashraf Hendricks

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Published originally on GroundUp .

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Why the US doesn't understand Chinese thought – and must

Plato, Confucius and Aristotle. Ancient Greek philosophy is widely taught in American universities, but classes in Chinese philosophy are few and far between.
Public domain

The need for the U.S. to understand China is obvious. The Chinese economy is on track to become the largest in the world by 2030, Chinese leadership may be the key to resolving the nuclear crisis with North Korea and China has military and economic ambitions in the South China Sea and India.

Meanwhile, the Trump administration has shown (repeatedly) that it’s not even clear on the difference between the People’s Republic of China (the authoritarian state that occupies the mainland and that recently blacklisted Winnie the Pooh) and the Republic of China (the democratic state that occupies the island of Taiwan and that numerous U.S. presidents have defended against mainland Chinese shows of force).

Donald Trump and Xi Jinping at the G20 conference in Hamburg, Germany.
Saul Loeb/Pool Photo via AP, File

Part of what U.S. diplomats and informed citizens need to know is the basic historical background to contemporary China. However, as a scholar of Chinese philosophy, I believe it’s at least as important to understand how China thinks.

Unfortunately, very few universities in the United States teach traditional Chinese philosophies such as Confucianism or Daoism. Why not? And why should we care?

Why study Chinese philosophy?

There are at least three reasons that the lack of Chinese philosophy instruction in U.S. universities is problematic.

First, China is an increasingly important world power, both economically and geopolitically – and traditional philosophy is of continuing relevance in China. President Xi Jinping has repeatedly praised Confucius, the influential Chinese philosopher who lived around 500 B.C.

Like the Buddha, Jesus and Socrates, Confucius has been variously interpreted – sometimes idolized and other times demonized. At the beginning of the 20th century, some Chinese modernizers claimed that Confucianism was authoritarian and dogmatic at its core. Other thinkers have suggested that Confucianism provides a meritocratic alternative that is arguably superior to Western liberal democracy.

Thinking about these issues is important in understanding China’s present and future: How will the next generation of Chinese diplomats, party officials and presidents (not to mention ordinary voters) learn about Confucius and his role in China as a political thinker?

Second, Chinese philosophy has much to offer simply as philosophy. The late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia expressed a common misconception about Chinese philosophy, dismissing it as the “mystical aphorisms of the fortune cookie.” In reality, Chinese philosophy is rich in persuasive argumentation and careful analysis.

For example, Georgetown professor Erin Cline has shown how Confucian ethics can provide a deeper understanding of ethical issues regarding the family and can even inform policy recommendations. Confucians emphasize both the role of parents in nurturing children and the responsibility of government to create environments in which families can flourish. Cline demonstrates that practical initiatives like the Nurse-Family Partnership help to realize both goals.

Chinese philosophers like Confucius have much to teach us. So why are they being ignored in many American universities?
Bridget Coila, CC BY-SA

The third reason that it’s important to add Chinese philosophy to the curriculum has to do with the need for cultural diversity. As two philosophers recently pointed out in a Los Angeles Times op-ed:

…academic philosophy in the United States has a diversity problem. …Among U.S. citizens and permanent residents receiving philosophy Ph.D.‘s in this country, 86 percent are non-Hispanic white.

Both my own experience and that of many of my colleagues suggest that part of the reason for this is that students of color are confronted with a curriculum that appears to be a temple to the achievements of white men. We need to expand the philosophical curriculum to include not only Chinese philosophy, but also the other less commonly taught philosophies, including Africana, feminist, indigenous American, Islamic, Latin American and South Asian philosophies.

Just how bad is the situation?

Most philosophy departments seem unwilling to admit there’s philosophy outside of the European tradition that’s worth studying.

Among the top 50 philosophy departments in the U.S. that grant a Ph.D., only six (by my reckoning) have a member of their regular faculty who teaches Chinese philosophy: CUNY Graduate Center, Duke University, University of California at Berkeley, University of California at Riverside, University of Connecticut and University of Michigan.

Parmenides (center) and Heraclitus (right) are relatively obscure Greek philosophers, but their disagreement on the changing nature of the universe is still widely taught in the U.S.
Raphael via Steven Zuker, CC BY-NC-SA

In contrast, every one of the top 50 schools has at least one regular member of the philosophy department who can lecture competently on Parmenides, a pre-Socratic Greek philosopher. His only surviving work is a poem filled with cryptic utterances like: “for not to be said and not to be thought / is it that it is not.” Is this really more profound than the sum total of Chinese philosophy?

I was recently part of a panel at a major academic conference that was specifically advertised as an opportunity for nonspecialists to learn about Chinese philosophy. While other sessions at the conference had packed rooms, we lectured to an audience of fewer than a dozen people.

Empty room at the start of an American Philosophical Association panel on Chinese philosophy on Jan. 6, 2016.
Bryan W. Van Norden, CC BY-SA

In contrast, at Chinese universities, both Western and traditional Chinese philosophy are routinely taught. China is also heavily investing in higher education, while the Trump administration hopes to slash funding for education. I expect that China understands the U.S. better than we understand it.

What does the future hold?

At the beginning of this article, I cited some reasons that China is increasingly important on the world stage. Here’s one more: China is currently starting upon one of the most ambitious building projects in all of human history, the One Belt, One Road initiative. A modern version of the ancient Silk Road, it will expand and solidify Chinese economic and political power across all of Eurasia.

Can the U.S. really afford not to understand this country? As Confucius said,

“Do not worry that others fail to understand you; worry that you fail to understand others.”

This draws on material previously published in this article from May 18, 2016.

Bryan W. Van Norden, Kwan Im Thong Hood Cho Temple Professor, Yale-NUS College

This article was originally published on The Conversation.

Money has little to do with why South Africa's military is failing to do its job

A soldier with the 9th South African Infantry Battalion during a biennial training exercise with the US military in the Eastern Cape.
US Army/ Taryn Hagerman

Much has been said about the size of South Africa’s defence budget, the tension between commitments and capabilities, and the need to arrest the decline in defence. Despite the fact that the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) is still a major player in Southern Africa, it has real problems.

For one, directing vital peacekeeping funds, which should be part of the defence budget, away from the military to the
national budget, is a major problem.
But, it’s time for the SANDF to face some serious realities.

Firstly, it should not place its hope in the rollout of the current Defence Review. The review doesn’t provide an honest outline of the threats and vulnerabilities facing the country, defence capabilities needed, military organisation or the cost to taxpayers.

The review saw the light in 2014 when the country’s economic outlook was substantially better. It was deliberately drafted without considering the costs and threats facing the country. As nothing more than an honest internal analysis of the state of South African defence, the document is of little strategic significance.

Secondly, in view of the social, educational and other economic realities, there is no fat in the national budget for defence. It needs to accept the reality that it is not to receive a cent more than what’s already allocated. For the foreseeable future, defence spending will remain at about 1% of GDP. South Africa cannot afford the 2% of GDP that’s accepted for defence spending across the world.

In addition, the SANDF also confronts a number of critical political realities. It is, for all practical purposes, the face of South African foreign policy in Africa and is, to a large extent, functioning in a domestic political conundrum shaped by the policy and political cravings of the governing party and its elite.

It’s also subject to the political expressions of policy documents such as the National Development Plan, which aims to eliminate poverty and reduce inequality by 2030. The Force is also hostage to the factional battles within the governing African National Congress (ANC), as reflected in the fallout over such slogans as “radical economic transformation”. Like all sectors of the society, defence is also victim to the political manoeuvring, underpinning the current national executive’s need for survival.

Political whims trump strategy

For the SANDF, these realities unfold along the lines of a need to be everything for everybody, with little strategic guidance and priorities forthcoming from the political domain. In practice, this means that there’s no emphasis on defence priorities and that the demands for the Defence Force to “assist” unfolds through a process of adhocracy.

Generals, functioning in a self sanctioning institutional culture of misplaced political loyalty, stretch the defence capacity to please their political masters. In the process, they oversee the breakdown of the institution they command, because there are limits to what a defence force can do.

President Jacob Zuma and government ministers visit a border gate and temporary army base.
GCIS

Politicians don’t necessarily understand the borders of these limitations and, if not clearly outlined, this may have disastrous consequences for the military as an institution.

From a theoretical perspective, there are two broad approaches to deal with a problematic defence budget. The so-called interests-driven approach accepts the need to prioritise defence commitments in line with national interests, which the Force needs to extend or protect.

The priorities should provide a clear indication of what funding level is required to execute the defence function. This approach, though, has to be content with the reality that no country in the world has the capacity to fund all its defence priorities.

The budget driven approach, in contrast, takes the national budget as a point of departure. The question that drives this approach is what can be done with the money allocated for defence. This is the question central to South Africa’s defence budget woes.

An analysis of the structure of South African defence spending provides a better understanding of the military’s budgetary problems. As a guideline, defence forces around the world accept that the budget, irrespective of its size, ought to be divided between personnel, operational and capital expenditure, more or less in equal portions.

In reality this boils down to between 30 and 35% for operational and capital expenditures and 35 to 40% for personnel. This represents the first major challenge in South Africa’s defence budget: almost 80% of it is for personnel expenses.

The rest is allocated for operational expenditure, with only limited money available for any capital projects. It’s no surprise then that the Defence Force complains about the maintenance of equipment, infrastructure, training, administration and force preparation.

The truth is: if personnel are the problem; they are also the solution. The failure of the defence force over many years to implement an up-or-out personnel management system is very much at the heart of its budgetary problems. The nature of military work relies on the availability of young people. In a typical military hierarchical personnel system, most of them must be out by age 30.

The veterans burden

Another problem is the way in which the defence budget has been taxed with veterans’ affairs. Since the Ministry of Defence was renamed the Ministry of Defence and Military Veterans, the Veterans Act, Act 18 of 2011 has been adopted. The name change is significant.

This is to a large extent a reflection of the intimate link between the executive and the military veterans of Umkhonto we Sizwe, the former armed wing of the governing ANC. This is embodied in the appointment of Kebby Maphatsoe as the deputy minister of Defence and Military Veterans.

In line with the Veterans Act, a new body has been created to deal specifically with military veterans’ affairs. The new South African National Military Veterans Association is a public entity, state-funded, and accountable to the department. The SANDF is now increasingly financially and socially directly responsible for military veterans.

Time for hard choices

Thus, the problem is not in the size of the budget; the problem is how that budget is divided. A bigger defence budget is not the solution. Almost every problem in the SANDF is personnel related.

Money has very little to do with many of the challenges the military faces. Yet, its leadership sees the lack of money as its single most important challenge. Searching for the solution in the budgetary domain is the easy way out.

Blame it on a lack of money and no thinking is required; no innovation; no initiative; no dynamism; no drive. All one has to do is drift along. The solution is rooted in difficult political and strategic decisions about the future of the Defence Force. Decisions that will address, among other things, the professionalism and effectiveness of the organisation, the oversized bureaucratic corporate army in Pretoria, and the age brackets of serving personnel. More specifically, the SANDF should not be allowed to spend more than 40% of its budget on personnel!

Abel Esterhuyse, Associate Professor of Strategy, Faculty of Military Science, Stellenbosch University

This article was originally published on The Conversation.

Red Ants turf residents out of Johannesburg building

But legality of inner city eviction under question

By Steve Kretzmann
19 July 2017

Red Ant security guards remove belongings from Fattis Mansions on Harrison Street on Wednesday morning. All photos: Steve Kretzmann

An entire inner city block was cordoned off in Johannesburg on Wednesday morning as workers from the Red Ant security company hauled people’s belongings out of the decrepit 12 storey Fattis Mansions on Harrison Street.

Hundreds of security guards, dressed in their signature red overalls and helmets, lined the intersections in front of the building, while others heaped beds, furniture and a wide variety of household items in the middle of the street as evicted tenants and owners looked on.
The once grand apartment block built in 1937 is marked by broken windows and soot stains from fires and paraffin stoves. There has been no electricity in the building since 2010, said resident Edward Phetlhane, and tenants gathered water from taps (believed to be fire hydrants) in the corridors.

While the building was visibly unfit for habitation, with the stench of refuse and sewage wafting out the basement, it was nonetheless home to 168 people, according to a list held by Phetlhane, who represents the building’s tenants through Zwiegers Attorneys.

Although the administrators of the Fattis Mansions sectional title scheme, Jan van der Bos, and Fairvest Property Two, were granted an order by the Gauteng High Court on 25 April that all occupants were to vacate the property within 45 days (9 June), the order appears to be under appeal. That would make Wednesday morning’s evictions unlawful.

Fattis Mansions is in a terrible state but it is home to about 170 people.

A letter from attorney Howard S. Woolf, representing “various owners of units in Fattis Mansions” to the Johannesburg Central Sheriff, was stuck to the outside of the graffiti-scarred building.

In the letter dated 17 July, Woolf states: “It appears that an eviction is scheduled for tomorrow, irrespective of the order having been appealed and an undertaking from the applicant that the eviction would not proceed.”

In another letter dated 17 July, addressed to the law firm Von Lieres Cooper Barlow & Hangone (VLBC), Woolf, acting on behalf of 31 occupants, notes that a previous eviction attempt occurred on 9 July and that VLBC’s clients “undertook to cease and desist with his unlawful conduct” because an appeal had been lodged. Woolf demanded an undertaking from the building administrators, by 18 July, that they would not carry out an unlawful eviction or receive assistance from a third party such as the police. The demand was not heeded.

Zwiegers Attorneys sent a similar letter, dated 12 July, to VLCB, noting the “unlawful and illegal attempt to evict the owners of the sections and/or occupiers” on 9 July. Zwiegers also demanded an undertaking that the administrators would not attempt any further eviction pending the outcome of the appeal.

GroundUp tried to establish whether the appeal had possibly on Tuesday been finalised in van den Bos and Fairview’s favour, but neither Zwiegers’ nor Woolf’s cellphones were answered on Wednesday. VLCB partner Shaun Hangone said the attorney dealing with Fattis Mansions was on leave.

The High Court order being appealed allows for the administrators to rebuild the property, and is authorised to raise special levies to do so, with power to take legal action against members of the body corporate who fail to pay the special levy.

However, Justice Kometsi, who was one of the owners being evicted, said he bought his apartment in the building under a state subsidy in 1999 and has paid it off in full. He said he had not been given an eviction notice to move out of his own apartment. He said his wife called him while he was at work to tell him their belongings were being carted onto the street. He said the electricity was cut off by City Power in 2010 after the building management neglected to pay the bill, and although “a lot of crooks” moved into the building, the owners chased them out. “We took care of them,” he said.

Kometsi, along with a number of other evicted owners and tenants, also alleged the Red Ants stole belongings such as cellphones and other small valuable items as they carted them out the building. This has been a frequently made allegation against the Red Ants in recent evictions.

At least two women approached a Red Ant security official, who they addressed as Mr van Rooyen, to complain about the guards stealing their belongings. But van Rooyen, who would not provide his name to GroundUp, was dismissive, telling them: “Guard your own stuff”.

A number of evictees said they were also worried about the “nyaope boys” stealing their goods after the Red Ants had left.

Kometsi and his wife Maggie said they didn’t know where they were going to find shelter on Wednesday night. Midwinter temperatures were predicted to drop close to zero.

The ward councillor Nokuthula Xaba, when contacted on Wednesday afternoon, said she “wasn’t aware” of the ongoing eviction. “They (human settlements) haven’t spoken to me yet,” she said.

Spokesperson in the mayor’s office, Tanya Heydenrych, said the eviction was a result of a court order and the City was only involved in so far as organising the Johannesburg Metro Police Department to cordon off the streets.

Produced for GroundUp by West Cape News.

Residents’ belongings were dumped on the street.

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Published originally on GroundUp .

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