Friday, January 10

Tag: american

George Floyd’s death reflects the racist roots of American policing
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POLITICS

George Floyd’s death reflects the racist roots of American policing

Outrage over racial profiling and the killing of African Americans by police officers and vigilantes has recently resurfaced following the death of George Floyd on May 25. Video footage a bystander took of Floyd’s death while a now-former police officer pressed his knee into the man’s neck quickly went viral. But tensions between the police and black communities are nothing new. There were many precedents to the Ferguson, Missouri, protests that ushered in the Black Lives Matter movement in 2014. Those precedents include the Los Angeles riots that broke out after the 1992 acquittal of police officers for beating Rodney King. That upheaval happened nearly three decades after the 1965 Watts riots, which began with Marquette Frye, an African American, being pulled over for suspected drunk ...
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How a tech-based program on health brought African American kids and parents together
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HEALTH & WELLNESS

How a tech-based program on health brought African American kids and parents together

The mere act of growing up brings special challenges to young African Americans, particularly those living in rural areas. Resources there are often limited, compared to what’s offered in the city. There’s more chronic poverty and economic stress, and less of almost everything else: employment opportunities, public transportation, recreational facilities, families with discretionary income, and health care, both physical and mental. There are bright spots, however, as I’ve learned from over 20 years of research. One was the caregiving practices of many African American families. That nurturing has helped their children avoid major problems, including behaviors that place them at risk for HIV/AIDS and unplanned pregnancies. With that in mind, I developed the Strong African American Famili...
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‘It don’t be like that now’ — the English history of African American English
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LIFESTYLE

‘It don’t be like that now’ — the English history of African American English

After students at a California high school were recently told to “translate” Black English phrases into standard English, a community member at a school board hearing said: “The last thing they need — our children — is to be forced to attend class and to be mocked and bullied by students because of a lesson plan used to highlight African American Vernacular English.” Few dialects of English have garnered so much negative attention. From the classroom to the courtroom, the place of African American Vernacular English is hotly debated. This is because people associate it with linguistic features now denounced as grammatically incorrect, like “double negatives” or verbs that don’t agree with their subjects. For example: You might as well not tell them, ‘cause you ain’t getting no thanks fo...
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IMPACT

What an American Terrorist Looks Like

Despite racist and anti-immigrant scapegoating, data shows that most American terrorists are resentful White men inspired by White supremacist and misogynist rhetoric.   “Invasion.” President Trump has used that very word about immigration at the southern border 19 times at rallies since he took office, according to a recent USA Today analysis. And six tweets between October 2018 and June 2019 use the word “invasion” that way. An arrest affidavit for 21-year-old Patrick Crusius, the man charged in the Aug. 3 mass shooting in an El Paso, Texas, Walmart that left 22 people dead and 24 wounded, reportedly says Crusius told police he was targeting Mexicans. Crusius allegedly referenced wanting to stop a “Hispanic invasion” of Texas in a statement on a right-wing online messaging...
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Journalism

As An African American Woman, I’m Your Most Unlikely Homesteader

Slavery forced a wedge between Black people and the land. But now the garden feels more like church—a place for my spirit to be renewed. On a crisp March 2015 day, in a D.C. suburb, my family and I stood in a fenced-in community garden, nestled behind a church, looking at a grassy, weeded over, 10-foot-by-20-foot rectangular plot, daring us to tame it. The overcast sky hung over us, and our shoes grew damp from the dewy grass. “What are we supposed to do with this?” This was not what I imagined when I signed up at my friend’s suggestion to join a community garden. I envisioned rich dark soil, in neatly arranged rows, waiting for us to sow vegetable seeds and water them with cute silver watering cans. But we dug in, and that day marked not just the beginning of my healing,...
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IN OTHER NEWS

The 20 most influential African-American chefs in the South today

It's safe to say that the work of chefs Tunde Wey, BJ Dennis and Michael Twitty has changed the way we talk about Southern cooking, and that New Orleans cuisine wouldn't be the same without Leah Chase. These chefs are only a few of the most influential African American chefs cooking in the South today. We've picked 20 of the most outstanding and influential African-American chefs across the South who we think have had the greatest influence on what we eat today. Some have dedicated their careers to teaching, others are television stars and still more are changing our culinary scene from behind the line. Tunde Wey, New Orleans Nigerian chef Tunde Wey has, until very recently, been traveling around the country serving pop-up meals as part of a series called "Blackness in America." Over ...
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Journalism

NAACP says American Airlines has made progress, but travel advisory remains

NAACP officials said Monday they are pleased that American Airlines is addressing concerns the civil rights organization raised about the airline’s treatment of African-American passengers, but it’s not ready to drop the travel advisory it issued in October. American announced last week, that it would take several steps to address concerns raised by the NAACP and other activists, including conducting a review of its hiring, training and career development policies to determine if improvements can be made. In January, executives said, American will offer additional anti-discrimination and implicit bias training to all its employees. In addition, American will overhaul how it handles customer complaints of discrimination, with the goal of responding to concerns within 48-hours of a compla...
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“Contradictions of African American Males”
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Journalism

“Contradictions of African American Males”

The Washington Post has published a very important survey on "Being a Black Man." This is fascinating, detailed and thoughtful enough an article to pass as a Master's Thesis in many sociology departments around the nation. Here are some basic contradictions underscored by the Post survey conducted on a random sample of 2.864 adults nationwide: 1) 56% of black men believe the SYSTEM is to blame for their economic difficulties. However 59% also acknowledge that there were things they have failed to do that would have made a difference in the outcome. 2) 79% of the black men surveyed were OPTIMISTIC about their own personal future. Yet 34% said, as a GROUP, black men were facing a worse future and 36% said the future would be the same. Only 29% said a better future was awaiting black men a...
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“Big Girls Don’t Cry” – It Takes a Tough Woman to Withstand Harassment in American Politics
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Journalism

“Big Girls Don’t Cry” – It Takes a Tough Woman to Withstand Harassment in American Politics

"BIG GIRLS DON'T CRY. The Election that Changed Everything for American Women." Rebecca Traister. New York: Free Press. In BIG GIRLS DON'T CRY, Rebecca Traister follows key women involved in the 2008 Presidential election, to tell the story "about the country and its culture, how we all reacted to the arrival of these surprising new figures on the presidential stage and what they showed us about how far we had come and how far we had yet to go." She does an extremely good job of reaching that goal for most of us. Traister basic contexts are gender politics (including but not narrowly defined by feminism and misogyny), race (including but not narrowly defined by racism), and inter-generational perspectives. She observes that Hillary Clinton, who would put 18 million cracks in the highes...
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