Tuesday, June 30, 2020
Sunday, June 28, 2020
The 'Karens' of the World
An excerpt from Time -
How the 'Karen Meme' Confronts the Violent History of White Womanhood
BY CADY LANG
The historical narrative of white women’s victimhood goes back to myths that were constructed during the era of American slavery. Black slaves were posited as sexual threats to the white women, the wives of slave owners; in reality, slave masters were the ones raping their slaves. This ideology, however, perpetuated the idea that white women, who represented the good and the moral in American society, needed to be protected by white men at all costs, thus justifying racial violence towards Black men or anyone that posed a threat to their power. This narrative that was the overarching theme of Birth of a Nation, the 1915 film that was the first movie to be shown at the White House, and is often cited as the inspiration for the rebirth of the KKK.
“If we’re thinking about this in a historical context where white women are given the power over Black men, that their word will be valued over a Black man, that makes it particularly dangerous and that’s the problem,” says Dr. Apryl Williams, an assistant professor in communications and media at the University of Michigan and a Fellow at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard who focuses on race, gender and community in digital spaces.
“White women are positioned as the virtue of society because they hold that position as the mother, as the keepers of virtuosity, all these ideologies that we associate with white motherhood and white women in particular, their certain role in society gives them power and when you couple that with this racist history, where white women are afraid of black men and black men are hypersexualized and seen as dangerous, then that’s really a volatile combination.”
Williams says the exposure is challenging this position. “That’s part of what people aren’t seeing is that white women do have this power and they’re exercising that power when they call or threaten to call the police.”
https://time.com/5857023/karen-meme-history-meaning/
Leadership Matters
An excerpt from NBC News -
Why are similar countries experiencing COVID-19 so differently?
What do the United States, Russia, Brazil and India all have in common? Leaders who have downplayed the virus.
By Dante Chinni
The point is sometimes the data show that underlying economic and health factors have a smaller impact than you might think, even in a pandemic. One thing the U.S., Russia, Brazil and India share, however, is government leaders that have at times downplayed the impact the virus.
India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi told his people yoga could help build a “protective shield” of immunity against the virus as the country has loosened its rules to aid the economy. In Russia, Vladimir Putin declared victory over the virus this week and held a massive public military parade celebrating the 75th anniversary of the country’s defeat over Nazi Germany. Brazil President Jair Bolsonaro has belittled the virus and not worn a mask (though this week a judge ordered him to wear one or pay a fine). And, of course, President Donald Trump has begun to resume his large campaign rallies — which are mask-optional — as he mocks the virus.
None of this is to say those leaders are wholly responsible for their countries higher new-infection numbers. There is a wide range of societal factors in each country, from population density to the actions of local officials in each.
But as the pandemic continues and nations head down different paths, the politics and the data seem to be carrying a message. The voices at the top matter.
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/meet-the-press/why-are-similar-countries-experiencing-covid-19-so-differently-n1232358
Black Academics - A Rallying Cry
An excerpt from the Boston Globe -
#BlackintheIvory: a hashtag that became a rallying cry for Black academics
By Deirdre Fernandes
Since then hundreds of professors, graduate students, researchers, and doctors across the United States and around the globe have rallied around #BlackintheIvory, calling out their personal experiences of discrimination and racial inequality on college campuses. Their words and experiences are searing: Doctors and medical students mistaken for janitors. Researchers discouraged from focusing on issues related to the Black community. Tenure denials and assumptions from white colleagues that they earned admissions and funding because of their race, not their accomplishments. And the unpaid and underappreciated work of mentoring students of color.
https://www.bostonglobe.com/2020/06/27/metro/hashtag-that-became-rallying-cry-black-academics/
Frederick Douglass Speaking Truth
An excerpt from the Washington Post -
Frederick Douglass delivered a Lincoln reality check at Emancipation Memorial unveiling
By DeNeen L. Brown
In his speech at the 1876 statue unveiling, Douglass exposed Lincoln’s legacy. “Truth compels me to admit, even here in the presence of the monument we have erected to his memory,” Douglass said, “Abraham Lincoln was not, in the fullest sense of the word, either our man or our model. In his interests, in his associations, in his habits of thought, and in his prejudices, he was a white man.”
Douglass, who had met Lincoln on several occasions at the White House, said that Lincoln was not a president for black people and that Lincoln’s motivation above all was to save the union, even if it meant keeping black people in bondage.
“He was preeminently the white man’s president, entirely devoted to the welfare of white men,” Douglass said, according to the speech stored at the Library of Congress. “He was ready and willing at any time during the first years of his administration to deny, postpone, and sacrifice the rights of humanity in the colored people to promote the welfare of the white people of this country.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2020/06/27/emancipation-monument-in-washington-dc-targeted-by-protests/
MAGA = Pity for America
An excerpt from the Atlantic -
The Decline of the American World
Other countries are used to loathing America, admiring America, and fearing America (sometimes all at once). But pitying America? That one is new.
Story by Tom McTague
It is hard to escape the feeling that this is a uniquely humiliating moment for America. As citizens of the world the United States created, we are accustomed to listening to those who loathe America, admire America, and fear America (sometimes all at the same time). But feeling pity for America? That one is new, even if the schadenfreude is painfully myopic. If it’s the aesthetic that matters, the U.S. today simply doesn’t look like the country that the rest of us should aspire to, envy, or replicate.
https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2020/06/america-image-power-trump/613228/
Coach K's Response
Black Lives Matter pic.twitter.com/p14w8PFdhY
— Duke Men’s Basketball (@DukeMBB) June 26, 2020
Friday, June 26, 2020
NASA Headquarters Renamed After Black Female Engineer
Our headquarters building in Washington, D.C., will be named after Mary W. Jackson, the first African-American female engineer at NASA. She started in @NASAaero research and later moved into the personnel field, working to ensure equal opportunity in hiring and promotion. pic.twitter.com/eMandeaMyv
— NASA (@NASA) June 24, 2020
Monday, June 22, 2020
A Fascinating Discovery
From ESPN - (Faye's commentary: It's worth the read. I promise you. Don't cheat and watch the video first. It doesn't do justice to the story).
KC Chiefs RB coach Deland McCullough's jaw-dropping story behind the search for his family
By Sarah Spain
https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/29324031/kc-chiefs-rb-coach-deland-mccullough-jaw-dropping-story-search-family
Buy Black
From Buy Black The Movement -
This is the first “Buy Black” movement that quantifies how Black consumers and allies buy from Black-owned businesses as a collective. Our goal is to hold consumers who pledge to Buy Black accountable, while publicly demonstrating what happens when we follow through on supporting Black-owned businesses publicly. Black-owned businesses are at risk of going extinct with 90% of them not receiving Payment Protection Program Loans and 41% projected to close permanently as a result of COVID-related hardship. Our goal is to activate an army of consumers to support where systems have failed Black entrepreneurs.
Achieving Greatness @ 17 and Just Getting Started
An excerpt from Black Enterprise -
THIS 17-YEAR-OLD RECEIVED 24 COLLEGE OFFERS WHILE CREATING A COMPANY DEDICATED TO STOPPING GUN VIOLENCE
by Dana Givens
The spread of COVID-19, or the novel coronavirus, may have led to the cancellation a lot of major milestones like graduation or prom for young people but the viral outbreak isn’t stopping them from still excelling academically. In the case of 17-year-old RuQuan “Ru” Brown, his mission was always clear—excel in school and get into college. Not only was he able to accomplish both, but he also managed to do it all while running his own company to help stop gun violence.
https://www.blackenterprise.com/high-school-senior-received-24-college-offers-dedicated-to-stopping-gun-violence/
Sunday, June 21, 2020
Protest Photos
From USA Today -
Photos of protests around the world. View gallery about midway down the page.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2020/06/17/george-floyd-police-reform-hearing-turns-into-debate-over-black-lives-matter/3207310001/
Anti-Racist Teachers
An excerpt from the Atlantic -
What Anti-racist Teachers Do Differently
They view the success of black students as central to the success of their own teaching.
By PIRETTE MCKAMEY
Ask black students who their favorite teacher is, and they will joyfully tell you. Ask them what it is about their favorite teacher, and most will say some version of this: They know how to work with me. So much is in that statement. It means that these students want to work, that they see their teachers as partners in the learning process, and that they know the teacher-student relationship is one in which they both have power. In other words, black students know that they bring intellect to the classroom, and they know when they are seen—and not seen.
As the principal of San Francisco’s Mission High School and an anti-racist educator for more than 30 years, I have witnessed countless black students thrive in classrooms where teachers see them accurately and show that they are happy to have them there. In these classes, students choose to sit in the front of the class, take careful notes, shoot their hands up in discussions, and ask unexpected questions that cause the teacher and other classmates to stop and think. Given the chance, they email, text, and call the teachers who believe in them. In short, these students are everything their families and community members have raised and supported them to be.
https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2020/06/how-be-anti-racist-teacher/613138/
The Token Black Friend
An excerpt from Upworthy -
Reflections from a token black friend
By Ramesh A. Nagarajah
I am regularly the only black kid in the photo. I have mastered the well-timed black joke, fit to induce a guilty "you thought it but couldn't say it" laugh from my white peers. I know all the words to "Mr. Brightside" by the Killers.
I am a token black friend. The black one in the group of white people. This title is not at all a comment on the depth of my relationships; I certainly am blessed to have the friends that I do. But by all definitions of the term, I am in many ways its poster child. And given the many conversations occurring right now around systemic racism, it would feel wrong not to use my position as a respected friend within a multitude of different white communities to contribute to the current dialogue. I believe my story speaks directly to the covert nature of the new breed of racism — its structural side, along with implicit bias — and may prove helpful to many I know who seek a better understanding.
Growing up, I lived in the inner city of Boston, in Roxbury. I attended school in the suburbs through a program called METCO — the longest continuously running voluntary school desegregation program in the country, which began in the late 1960s. My two siblings and I attended school in Weston, Massachusetts, one of the nation's wealthiest towns. The place quickly became our second home, and alongside Boston, I would count it equally as the place I was raised. All three of us did very well by all standards. We had all been co-presidents of the school, my brother and I were both football captains, and all three of us went on to top-end universities.
For those wondering about the structural side of systemic racism, I'd ask you to consider a few questions. First: Why does METCO still exist? Segregation ended more than 60 years ago, yet there is a still a fully functioning integration program in our state. We haven't come very far at all. Many of our schools remain nearly as segregated as they were in the 1960s.
Second: What is the point? Weston improves its diversity. Without us, most of Weston's students would go through all those years seeing possibly three or four local black faces in their schools (and that's the reality for many white people in this country). As for the Boston students, most of whom are black, they receive a much higher-quality education. Property taxes, a structural form of racism meant to allow segregation to endure, have ensured that while schools have grown increasingly better in our suburbs, the inner-city schools continue to struggle with resources, attendance, and graduation rates.
https://www.upworthy.com/reflections-of-a-token-black-friend
Charts of Racial Disparities
From USA Today -
12 charts show how racial disparities persist across wealth, health, education and beyond
When people talk about systemic racism, they mean systemic: impacting institutions, policies and outcomes across all aspects of Black Americans' lives.
By Mabinty Quarshie, N'dea Yancey-Bragg, Anne Godlasky, Jim Sergent, and Veronica Bravo, USA TODAY
https://www.usatoday.com/in-depth/news/2020/06/18/12-charts-racial-disparities-persist-across-wealth-health-and-beyond/3201129001/
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