Saturday, January 11

Tag: black

With Harris pick, Biden reaches out to young Black Americans
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POLITICS

With Harris pick, Biden reaches out to young Black Americans

With his choice of Sen. Kamala Harris as his running mate, Joe Biden may have helped bring young Black Americans to his side on Election Day. Only 47% of those Black Americans under 30 years old that we surveyed recently planned to vote for Biden, the presumed Democratic presidential nominee. But by picking Harris, a Black running mate, support for Biden jumps to 73% in this age group, which is a significant increase though still lower than other age groups. Harris joining up with Biden may have made the Democratic ticket more attractive to younger Black Americans, who now comprise what we define as a critical set of swing voters. But these aren’t your grandparents’ swing voters. No longer working-class whites Most political analysts define “swing voters” as those who swing their suppor...
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Finding And Supporting Black-Owned Businesses
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SOCIAL JUSTICE

Finding And Supporting Black-Owned Businesses

Finally, we have the world’s attention, which is important for #BlackLivesMatter and Black-owned businesses. And the big question is “How do I find Black-owned businesses?” Yes, Blackout Day 2020, powered by OneUnited Bank, was a huge success. According to Yelp’s Economic Average Report, during the 2nd quarter 2020, there were more than 2.5 million searches for Black-owned businesses on Yelp, compared to only 35,000 in 2019, an increase of more than 7,000%. Searches for Black-owned restaurants increased more than 2,500% and Black-owned bookstores over 1,400%. Because of the surge, Yelp announced it will offer a new tool for businesses to identify themselves as Black-owned. So how do you find Black-owned businesses? Here are 7 ways to find Black-owned businesses that are owned and managed...
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What is intolerance fatigue, and how is it fueling Black Lives Matter protests?
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VIDEO REELS

What is intolerance fatigue, and how is it fueling Black Lives Matter protests?

Protesters remain on the streets demanding equality and justice for Black Americans. What they’re feeling, I believe, is something I call “intolerance fatigue.” As a race scholar, examining the history of social justice movements, the phrase is new, but the concept isn’t. In 1962, during the civil rights movement, activist Fannie Lou Hamer sought to register to vote in her home state of Mississippi. When she was allowed to address the Democratic National Convention in 1964, Hamer told how she and her fellow activists were shot at, fined, arrested and brutally beaten in jail simply for trying “to register to become first-class citizens.” Fannie Lou Hamer’s powerful testimony at the 1964 Democratic National Convention. She spoke for millions in another speech that year, in which she declar...
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Young Black Americans not sold on Biden, the Democrats or voting
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POLITICS

Young Black Americans not sold on Biden, the Democrats or voting

Most political analysts define “swing voters” as those who swing their support from one party to the other between election cycles – determining winners and losers in the process. According to this conventional wisdom, the “swingiest” voters are working-class whites in the Midwest, who supposedly hold the keys to the White House. Meanwhile, by contrast, pundits often portray Black Americans as an undifferentiated mass – loyal Democrat-supporting foot soldiers who will execute their mission for The Team on Tuesday as long as some preacher provides the right marching orders on Sunday. If these depictions have not already expired, they are certainly growing stale. Having studied electoral trends for decades, we can tell you that those undecided voters of the past are an endangered species ...
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Instead of demonising Black Lives Matter protesters, leaders must act on their calls for racial justice
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SOCIAL JUSTICE, VIDEO REELS

Instead of demonising Black Lives Matter protesters, leaders must act on their calls for racial justice

The intensification of the Black Lives Matter movement in the US in recent months has led to radical reform and action. The police officers responsible for the killing of George Floyd were all charged with serious offences, including one with second-degree murder. The city of Minneapolis voted to replace its police force with a “new system of public safety”, while other cities have slashed their police budgets. Demands for judicial and police reform in Australia The BLM and Stop First Nations Deaths in Custody protests across Australia since early June have similarly called for charges against police officers and prison guards responsible for deaths in custody, as well as an end to racialised police violence. Another major protest is scheduled for today in Sydney amid warnings from Prime...
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Black men face high discrimination and depression, even as their education and incomes rise
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SOCIAL JUSTICE

Black men face high discrimination and depression, even as their education and incomes rise

Are you a highly educated and relatively wealthy Black man in the U.S.? Studies that we have done and also those by others show that you are at increased risk of discrimination and depression. Our research on the intersection of race and gender in the U.S. shows that while education and income reduce the risk of discrimination and depression for whites and Black women, this is not so for Black men. This underscores other research we have done that suggests Black men are especially singled out as dangerous, threatening and inferior. The first author, Shervin Assari, is a physician and an associate professor of family medicine at Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science. Many of his studies have documented that black men still face depression, which could stem from discrimination,...
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New teachers mistakenly assume Black students are angry
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EDUCATION, Journalism

New teachers mistakenly assume Black students are angry

The big idea College students who are training to become teachers are 36% more likely to mistakenly believe that a Black child is angry when that child isn’t making an angry face than if a white child makes the same facial expression, according to our new study. We determined this by having a group of 72 Black and white child actors trained by experts to make specific facial muscle movements. For example, to come across as surprised, the children raised their eyebrows and widened their eyes. To convey anger, the children furrowed their eyebrows and tightened their lips. We designed our study this way to make sure that no one could say maybe the Black children were making angry faces more often than the white children. They absolutely were not. Then we had teachers-in-training watch vide...
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Black Lives Matter, LGBTQ rights, Trump: The risks and rewards of corporate activism
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Journalism

Black Lives Matter, LGBTQ rights, Trump: The risks and rewards of corporate activism

The big idea Companies and CEOs are increasingly wading into political issues. My latest research suggests that such corporate activism can come with high costs if it doesn’t align with the political values of a company’s customers, employees and local lawmakers — or big gains when it does. Dozens of companies have recently expressed support for Black Lives Matter. Jessica Felicio via unsplash, CC BY-SA The Research Brief is a short take about interesting academic work. In what we think is the first study to examine how corporate activism affects financial performance, three co-authors and I built a database of decisions by publicly traded companies that took a stand on polarizing issues such as LGBTQ rights, abortion, immigration and gun control over a five-year period. We then looked at...
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Black Lives Matter must avoid being co-opted by American corporate philanthropy
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POLITICS

Black Lives Matter must avoid being co-opted by American corporate philanthropy

US corporations including Walmart, Nike and Sony Music pledged up to US$450 million for social and racial justice causes in the wake of the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. The sudden outbreak of brand activism among major corporations in recent months is likely to be related to surveys which suggest consumers shift spending according to the political and social stands that businesses take. But this raises significant concerns in the wake of a longer pattern of philanthropy through foundations attached to American corporate wealth that has focused on racial equality and civil rights causes. Black Lives Matter emerged in 2013 but gained national attention from 2016 as the effective face of the Movement for Black Lives. It has expanded to local chapters across the US, Canada and the...
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Smartphone witnessing becomes synonymous with Black patriotism after George Floyd’s death
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POLITICS, SOCIAL JUSTICE, VIDEO REELS

Smartphone witnessing becomes synonymous with Black patriotism after George Floyd’s death

A flashbulb emits a high-pitched hum. A photograph of the legendary 19th-century abolitionist and newspaperman Frederick Douglass fades in on-screen. We hear the “Hamilton” alumnus actor Daveed Diggs before we see him. “What, to my people, is the Fourth of July?” Diggs asks in a plaintive voiceover, as a police siren and the opening chords of Jimi Hendrix’s rendition of “The Star Spangled Banner” clash aurally. ‘What, to my people, is the Fourth of July?’ In just two minutes and 19 seconds, the new Movement for Black Lives short film provides a highlight reel of African American oppression that spans 400 years. The juxtapositions are jarring in the Independence Day-themed video. A historic image of a Black toddler picking cotton slams into a modern picture of a masked Black boy marching...
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