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The CEO of Black Girls CODE on the Importance of Self-Belief [Carlee Ingersoll, Nautilus]

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  • For the month of February, Nautilus’ Marketing Team will feature interviews with organizations and institutions working to increase opportunities for young Black people to imagine and succeed in STEM career paths—and donate 10 percent of all new member subscriptions toward their initiatives.
  • Black representation in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) fields totaled only 9 percent in 2021, as reported by The National Science Foundation.
  • The mission of Black Girls CODE is to increase the number of Black women and women of color in digital technology by introducing them to computer science, education, and STEM skills at a young age.
  • Black Girls CODE works to shape the narrative that Black girls and women belong in STEM spaces and builds self-belief, perseverance, and a sense of belonging through mentorship, leading by example, and skill building.
  • Black Girls CODE partners with schools and local organizations to facilitate relationships with girls and their families, and recently launched CODE Along, a free video-based coding academy.
  • When Black girls and women win, everyone wins, as it increases financial equity and economic freedom, and allows for more diversity of thought when solving some of the world’s biggest problems.

Published February 22, 2023
Visit Nautilus to read Carlee Ingersoll’s original post The CEO of Black Girls CODE on the Importance of Self-Belief

February 19, 2023 [Heather Cox Richardson, Letters from an American]

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  • The Advanced Placement course on African American studies changed between February 2022 and February 2023, when the word “systemic” was removed. The College Board says this was not in response to its rejection by Republican Florida governor Ron DeSantis.
  • The far right opposes the idea that the United States has ever practiced systemic racism, and Trump’s 1776 Commission sought to refute the 1619 Project. Since Trump left office, far-right activists have worked to remove books and prohibit teachers from talking about patterns of racism.
  • On March 2, 1942, General John DeWitt issued Executive Order 9066, which led to the forced removal of about 125,000 Japanese, German and Italian aliens, or persons of Japanese ancestry, from their homes and held in camps around the country.
  • This order was rooted in a 1790 law limiting citizenship to “free white persons”, and the 1923 Supreme Court decision in *United States v. Bhagat Singh Thind* solidified this. Asian immigrants were excluded from citizenship based on the argument that they were not “free, white persons.”
  • This exclusion led to Chinese Exclusion Act, the Gentlemen’s Agreement of 1907, and other laws discriminating against Chinese immigrants. Japanese-Americans were also discriminated against, and in 1942, were forced into internment camps.
  • The WWII changed U.S. calculations of who could be a citizen, as Japanese-American soldiers fought for the nation, and Congress overturned Chinese exclusion laws and made natives of India eligible for U.S. citizenship. Japanese immigrants gained the right to become U.S. citizens in 1952.

Published February 20, 2023
Visit Letters from an American to read Heather Cox Richardson’s original post February 19, 2023

Where Are the Black Female Doctors? [Kristen French, Nautilus]

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  • Rebecca Lee Crumpler became the first Black woman to earn a medical degree in the United States in 1864, providing medical care to former slaves in Virginia and later tending to the sick in her own private practice in Boston. She published a book of medical advice, the only known medical book written by a 19th century Black woman.
  • Jasmine Brown wrote Twice as Hard: The Stories of Black Women Who Fought to Become Physicians from the Civil War to the 21st Century to bring the hidden lives and contributions of outstanding Black female physicians to light.
  • When Brown began to pursue a pre-med track, she realized she had never met a Black female physician nor learned about any in school.
  • The book profiles nine Black female physicians and their stunning achievements amidst overwhelming obstacles—scarce mentors and financial resources, discrimination in schools, and even for those who graduated at the tops of their classes, few employment opportunities.
  • Brown chose the women she wrote about based on having lived at different points over the past 150 years, having retired and having enough information in the archives to give more depth to the story telling.
  • Having personal details about the women’s lives, their marriages and children, their emotional struggles was important to Brown to show the full arcs of their careers.
  • The connection between the book and the present political moment is the threat that affirmative action will be overturned by the Supreme Court, a decision that could lead to another significant dip in representation in the field of medicine.
  • Brown believes that if academic institutions taught more about the history of outstanding Black physicians who have been leaders in the field it could make a difference.
  • Brown hopes that her book will inspire more Black people to go into medicine, and will give people within academia insight into barriers to better representation in medicine.
  • Black History Month is seen by Brown as a catalyst for broader discussion, and if the book gets into more readers’ hands during this month, it can affect the way they think throughout the rest of the year.

Published February 18, 2023
Visit Nautilus to read Kristen French’s original post Where Are the Black Female Doctors?

Neuroscience Has a Race Problem [Jackie Rocheleau, Nautilus]

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• Jasmine Kwasa, a Ph.D. student at Carnegie Mellon University, noticed that EEG technology had limited functionality with thick curly, kinky, and textured hair types, leading to potential exclusion from research.
• Biases against physical characteristics like dark skin and thick curly hair are baked into all major neuroimaging technologies, including EEG, fNIRS, and MRI.
• Neurobiological datasets are overwhelmingly white, with 95% of the data collected by the UK Biobank corresponding to white study subjects and the Human Connectome Project (HCP) being 76% white.
• Carla Bailey, a neurophysiologist at Groote Schuur Hospital in Cape Town, South Africa, says she only encounters issues with EEG and Black hair when people don’t remove hair extensions that obscure the scalp.
• Precision Neuroscopics is perfecting the Sevo clip, which holds electrodes against the scalp between cornrows braided to accommodate electrode placement, and collecting evidence that it improves the quality of EEG data.
• A 2022 study found that machine learning algorithms trained on large neuroimaging datasets that favor white populations inaccurately predicted the behavior of Black Americans.

Published February 15, 2023
Visit Nautilus to read Jackie Rocheleau’s original post Neuroscience Has a Race Problem

Why Science Needs Diversity [Carlee Ingersoll, Nautilus]

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• Wilbur Walters, Dean of the College of Science, Engineering and Technology at Jackson State University, discussed his role as an educational leader and activist, the potential of AI to create a more equitable society, and how he sees greater Black representation in STEM fields as transformative to community empowerment.
• The National Science Foundation reported that in 2021, Black representation in STEM fields totaled only 9 percent.
• Walters believes that exposure is the most important factor in increasing Black representation in STEM fields, and that AI can be used for good to eliminate unnecessary jobs and open access to academic or creative labors.
• He also believes that historically Black colleges and universities have an important role to play in driving larger change in STEM fields.
• Nautilus will donate 10 percent of all new member subscriptions toward initiatives to increase opportunities for young Black people to imagine and succeed in STEM career paths.

Published February 15, 2023
Visit Nautilus to read Carlee Ingersoll’s original post Why Science Needs Diversity

February 12, 2023 [Heather Cox Richardson, Letters from an American]

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• On February 12, 1809, Abraham Lincoln was born in Kentucky, and 100 years later, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) was founded on the anniversary of his birth.
• The spark for the organization of the NAACP was a race riot in Springfield, Illinois, on August 14 and 15, 1908.
• William English Walling, Mary White Ovington, and Henry Moskowitz met in New York City in January 1909 to create a new civil rights organization.
• The group noted that Black Americans had lost their right to vote and were segregated from white Americans in schools, railroad cars, and public gatherings.
• W. E. B. Du Bois, a founding member of the Niagara Movement, became the NAACP’s director of publicity and research and edited the organization’s flagship journal *The Crisis*.
• The NAACP challenged racial inequality by calling popular attention to racial atrocities and demanding that officials treat people equally before the law.
• In 1946, NAACP leader Walter Francis White brought the story of World War II veteran Isaac Woodard, blinded by a police officers after talking back to a bus driver, to President Harry S. Truman.

Published February 13, 2023
Visit Letters from an American to read Heather Cox Richardson’s original post February 12, 2023

“Apartheid” in Jackson, Mississippi [Judd Legum, Popular Information]

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• Mississippi House, dominated by white Republicans, voted to create a separate court system and police force for portions of Jackson, Mississippi, the second-Blackest city in the US.
• Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba said the proposal “reminds me of apartheid” and is an attempt to “colonize Jackson.”
• The bill would expand the Capitol Complex Improvement District, covering about 50,000 people, and divert 18.75% of sales tax that would otherwise go to Jackson to a Capitol Complex Improvement District project fund.
• The lead author of the bill is Representative Trey Lamar (R), who lives more than 150 miles north of Jackson.
• The Capitol Police force has faced criticism for being involved in multiple shootings and deploying “overzealous tactics” with “little accountability.”
• Mississippi’s bill parallels decades-long efforts to deny Washington D.C. statehood, which is rooted in a desire to limit the power of Black voters.
• Congress has taken control of D.C.’s finances, debts, courts, and prisons, and retains the right to review and nullify any legislation passed by the district’s local government.
• This exclusion of D.C. residents from a voice in Congress contributes to the underrepresentation of voters of color in the American political system.

Published February 9, 2023
Visit Popular Information to read Judd Legum’s original post “Apartheid” in Jackson, Mississippi

Why There Was No Racial Reckoning [Wesley Lowery, The Atlantic]

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• In the wake of the deaths of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and George Floyd, the nation’s leadership class was presented with a crossroads: to radically rethink American policing, or to retreat to the safety of piecemeal reform.
• Tyre Nichols’ death in Memphis, TN in January 2021 is a reminder of the limitations of reform.
• Five officers were fired and charged with second-degree murder after the release of four video clips depicting the officers’ excessive use of violence.
• The race of the officers (all five were Black) sparked debate about the role of race in police violence.
• The timely release of information and forthright steps to hold the officers accountable likely prevented civil unrest.
• The Memphis Police Department had a Black woman police chief, a majority-Black workforce, body cameras, de-escalation training, and a duty-to-intervene policy, yet Tyre Nichols was still killed.
• The city had responded to a record-high 342 murders in 2021 by deploying the SCORPION unit, a task force of 40 officers instructed to “be tough on tough people.”
• Vice President Kamala Harris attended Tyre Nichols’ funeral, where his mother said she believed her son was sent on an assignment from God.
• The article discusses the legacy of James Baldwin and Derrick Bell, two influential Black American writers and activists.
• Baldwin wrote about the Atlanta child murders in 1979, and Bell wrote the foreword to the 1996 paperback edition of Baldwin’s book, Evidence.
• Bell developed a theory called “interest convergence,” which posits that America’s white majority takes strides toward racial equality only when white people see doing so as in their own best interest.
• The article also discusses the death of Tyre Nichols, a Black man killed by police in Atlanta in 2021.
• At the funeral, activist Amber Sherman outlined the family’s demands for accountability and reform.
• Sharpton discussed the need for legislation to end qualified immunity and make it a crime for a cop to stand by and watch another officer brutalize a civilian.
• He concluded that movements take time, but that he and other activists will continue to fight for justice.

Published February 8, 2023
Visit The Atlantic to read Wesley Lowery’s original post Why There Was No Racial Reckoning

Why the College Board watered-down its new course on Black history [Tesnim Zekeria, Popular Information]

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• The College Board released a revised framework for its new Advanced Placement (AP) course for African American Studies on February 1, 2021.
• The revisions address nearly all of the objections raised by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R) and other right-wing critics, including the removal of lessons on Black Lives Matter, the case for reparations, and queer studies.
• The College Board insists that any suggestion that politics played a role in the revisions is “a gross misrepresentation of the content of the course and the process by which it was developed.”
• In 2019, the College Board made over $1.1 billion dollars in revenue, and its CEO, David Coleman, took home more than $2.5 million in compensation in 2020.
• Nearly 600 African American Studies faculty from colleges and universities across the country signed a letter protesting DeSantis’ ban of the course in Florida, calling it “censorship and a frontal attack on academic freedom.”

Published February 2, 2023
Visit Popular Information to read Tesnim Zekeria’s original post Why the College Board watered-down its new course on Black history

How Ideologues Infiltrated the Arts [Rikki Schlott, The Free Press]

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• Lincoln Jones, a celebrated Los Angeles-based choreographer, faced backlash for not posting a black square on his company’s Instagram in support of Black Lives Matter.
• Jones faced an uphill battle for funding, as many grant-giving institutions started to insist that applicants abide by new diversity requirements.
• Kevin Ray is suing New 42, a performing arts nonprofit in Manhattan, for forcing him and other employees to take DEI instruction and read “racially-discriminatory propaganda.”
• Following the death of George Floyd, a petition called “We See You, White American Theater” was circulated, dubbing the theater community “a house of cards built on white fragility and supremacy.”
• Keith Wann, a sign language interpreter who worked on a production of The Lion King, alleged that he was removed from the production because he is white.
• Title VII federal law—part of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibiting employment discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, and national origin—means hiring people purely on the basis of race could be deemed “a potential violation.”
• Even some artists who are far in their career are too scared to comment about the new DEI demands.
• Renowned Broadway theater producer Rocco Landesman said he started noticing DEI creeping into the arts world around 2013 and has “no doubt” that “we’re seeing increasingly coercive guidelines.”
• Bari Jones, a ballet dancer and founder of the American Contemporary Ballet, has noticed a shift in the arts world towards a focus on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI).
• This shift has been noticed by Rocco Landesman, a former chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts, who believes that DEI initiatives are becoming increasingly coercive.
• Landesman was shocked when a San Francisco school board voted to paint over a mural of George Washington because it was deemed offensive to black and Native Americans.
• Many arts funders have made social justice the criteria for grants, and some require DEI statements or demographic data from applicants.
• The Ford Foundation has dedicated $160 million specifically to BIPOC arts organizations, and President Biden has signed an Executive Order on Promoting the Arts, the Humanities, and the Museum and Library Services.
• Bari Jones is still trying to keep the American Contemporary Ballet afloat without giving in to DEI demands, and Landesman worries about what is happening to the world of art.

Published February 1, 2023
Visit The Free Press to read Rikki Schlott’s original post How Ideologues Infiltrated the Arts

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