Collisions with Reality

It seems that in selecting his cabinet, Governor Kasich of Ohio has so far selected only white agency heads. The twenty agency heads consist of sixteen white men and four white women. Meanwhile, the state of Ohio is about 85% white. African-Americans make up the largest minority population in Ohio, at 12%, and have been very active in political and leadership capacities for decades, even though the state has historically been dominated by Republicans. (See the list of Cleveland mayors, for starters, as well as the note in the original article that this is the first all-white cabinet since 1962.)

What are the odds of selecting zero minorities in a sample of twenty people, in a state with a minority proportion of 15%? Our old friend the binomial distribution can tell us! I’ll work this out twice — first for the case of zero minorities in the sample of 20 people, and then for the case of 16 white men in the sample of 20 people. Read the rest of this entry →

Yesterday, I talked about the basics of breastfeeding. Generally, babies need to nurse all the dang time. Today I thought I’d elaborate as to why the freedom to nurse in public is essential, on a practical level:

It’s easy.

That’s it!

Whoops, I said I’d elaborate, didn’t I. Alright. Let’s do the math (I never promised there wouldn’t be any math!). If you’re lucky, during the day you might have an hour and a half between nursing sessions. How much can you get done in that hour and a half? Including travel time? Including packing up the diaper bag and/or stroller and/or car? Not much. Being able to nurse in public — and I mean public public, not just a fancy mother’s room at Nordstrom — is essential if you want to leave the house for more than ninety minutes at a time. If I’m packing up everything, it would be nice to go to the grocery store and the moms’ group on the same trip out of the house. Or maybe I’m tired of trying to prep all my lunches while the baby naps, and I’d like to get lunch out, even if it’s only a sandwich. If nursing in public isn’t allowed — or is discouraged — then these trips are impossible. I can guess, but not totally predict, when an infant is going to be hungry, and I can’t always time it so that I’m home for every single nursing session.

Then there’s the gear issue. You need the diaper bag, with diapers and wipes and a spare outfit. You need the stroller or some sort of wrap or carrier. You need a carseat if you’re going in the car. That’s all just for one baby — it’s even crazier with other kids in the mix. Nursing in public means not having to lug around bottles and a cooler of breastmilk (or formula), on top of all the other baby gear.

Nursing in public means being able to nurse at a playground while an older child plays. It means being able to meet someone for lunch, and nursing while waiting for the food to arrive (or while you’re eating, if you’re skilled and/or hungry enough). It means getting out of the damn house for more than ninety minutes at a time. It means that having an infant does not prevent me from being part of society — but now I’m getting ahead of myself. Tomorrow: a case study of a real day in my life!