Sunday, January 12

Tag: black

Legal Protections For Black People’s Hair Are Still Gaining Momentum, 2 Years Later
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CULTURE

Legal Protections For Black People’s Hair Are Still Gaining Momentum, 2 Years Later

Advocates of the CROWN Act reflect on its impact and the many remaining challenges on changing beauty standards. Candice Norwood Originally published by The 19th Two years ago, California became the first state to sign a bill expanding anti-discrimination protections to hair textures and styles like afros, braids and locs that reflect Black identity, turning a national spotlight on hair restrictions affecting Black people in workplaces and schools. The Creating a Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair Act, or CROWN Act, has since been passed in 12 other states and 29 municipalities. Legal experts and champions for such policies told The 19th that the new laws have led to important discussions about how White-centric standards of professionalism and beauty harm people of color. Stil...
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Behind Decisions To Deny Black High School Students From Being Recognized As The Top In Their Class Lurks Racism
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EDUCATION

Behind Decisions To Deny Black High School Students From Being Recognized As The Top In Their Class Lurks Racism

Jamel K. Donnor, William & Mary Two Black students – Ikeria Washington and Layla Temple – were named valedictorian and salutatorian at West Point High School in Mississippi in 2021. Shortly afterward, two white parents questioned whether school officials had correctly calculated the top academic honors. Ultimately, the school superintendent named two white students as “co-valedictorian” and “co-salutatorian” on the day of graduation. High school seniors with the highest GPA in their graduating class are chosen to be valedictorians and are often responsible for delivering the graduating speech. Salutatorians, who are high school seniors with the second-highest GPA in their graduating class, often give the opening remarks. The superintendent attributed the mix-up to a new school cou...
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In 1910 All Hell Broke Loose When A Black Boxing Champion Beat The ‘Great White Hope’
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VIDEO REELS

In 1910 All Hell Broke Loose When A Black Boxing Champion Beat The ‘Great White Hope’

Chris Lamb, IUPUI An audacious Black heavyweight champion was slated to defend his title against a white boxer in Reno, Nevada, on July 4, 1910. It was billed as “the fight of the century.” The fight was seen as a referendum on racial superiority – and all hell was about to break loose in the racially divided United States. Jack Johnson, the Black man, decisively beat James Jeffries, nicknamed “the Great White Hope.” Johnson’s triumph ignited bloody confrontations and violence between Blacks and whites throughout the country, leaving perhaps two dozen dead, almost all of them Black, and hundreds injured and arrested. “No event yielded such widespread racial violence until the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., fifty-eight years later,” Geoffrey C. Ward wrote in his biography...
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Across The Nation Closures Of Black K-12 Schools Threaten Neighborhood Stability
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EDUCATION

Across The Nation Closures Of Black K-12 Schools Threaten Neighborhood Stability

Jerome Morris, University of Missouri-St. Louis Residents of the St. Louis neighborhood known as The Ville have been fighting for years to stop the closing of Charles H. Sumner High School, the oldest historically Black high school west of the Mississippi River. Sumner High School has been under repeated threats of closure from the school board and the superintendent, who cite declining enrollment. The most recent such threat arose in December 2020. Established in 1875, Sumner High is named after a former U.S. senator who vehemently opposed slavery. The school’s alumni represent a who’s who of Black people, including rock stars Tina Turner and Chuck Berry, comedian and civil rights activist Dick Gregory and tennis legend Arthur Ashe. Throughout Black people’s history in the U.S., predo...
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Heading Back To The Battlefield Is Black Voters Matter
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SOCIAL JUSTICE

Heading Back To The Battlefield Is Black Voters Matter

Black Voters Matter is leading a coalition of national civil rights and grassroots groups on the Freedom Ride for Voting Rights starting Saturday. Errin Haines Originally published by The 19th Since helping to deliver Democratic victories in November and January, largely on the backs of Black voters, LaTosha Brown has barely had time to catch her breath. Normally after an election, people have the space to decompress, to really get ready for the next fight, explains Brown, co-founder of Black Voters Matter. But Brown and many of her sister Black women organizers say nothing about this moment in American politics is normal. “We haven’t had a break in four years,” she said. “Instead, it intensified. We have been fighting nonstop, because we are in extraordinary circumstances. This isn’t...
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Black Writers And Journalists Have Wielded Punctuation In Their Activism – Here’s How
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SOCIAL JUSTICE

Black Writers And Journalists Have Wielded Punctuation In Their Activism – Here’s How

Eurie Dahn, The College of Saint Rose Using punctuation and capitalization as a form of protest doesn’t exactly scream radicalism. But in debates over racial justice, punctuation can carry a lot of weight. During the Black Lives Matter protests of 2020, mainstream news organizations grappled with whether to capitalize the first letter of “black” when referring to Black people. Of course, writing “Black” was already common practice in activist circles. Eventually The Associated Press, The New York Times, USA Today and many other outlets declared that they, too, would capitalize that first letter. It turns out the push to capitalize “black” is only the most recent way Black writers and activists have pushed back against entrenched power through ostensibly bland elements of writing. As I...
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Schools Can Improve STEM Learning For Black Students In 3 Ways
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EDUCATION

Schools Can Improve STEM Learning For Black Students In 3 Ways

James Holly Jr., Wayne State University Black people make up just 9% of the STEM workforce in the U.S. As a scholar who studies how STEM educators can more effectively reach Black students, I want to help all people develop an understanding of how anti-Black racism is a significant barrier for Black students learning STEM. Many scholars have argued that our current ways of teaching STEM are bad for everyone because only the experiences and contributions of white people are discussed, but the negative effects are greater for Black people. Teachers frequently question the intellectual ability of Black students and prevent them from using their cultural worldviews, spirituality and language in the STEM learning setting. Still, Black people continue to boost STEM knowledge across the worl...
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The Rebuilding Of Black Wall Street
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IN OTHER NEWS

The Rebuilding Of Black Wall Street

Most of the story about the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre centers around the destruction of what was known as “Black Wall Street,” a bustling 35-square-block area with Greenwood Avenue running through the center. Those stories will tell you that a Black man named Dick Rowland tripped in an elevator, causing a White woman named Sarah Page to scream. Newspapers printed this interaction, framing it as an attempt at sexual assault, causing an angry mob to swell at the courthouse where Rowland was being held. Tension ignited after a group of armed Black men, mostly WWI veterans, arrived to defend Rowland, and the mob attacked. With a 26-to-1 advantage, the White mob burned, looted and killed their way through one of the wealthiest Black communities of the time, leaving an estimated 300 dead. Many ...
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Beset By Crime Colombian City Declares ‘Black Lives Matter’
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SOCIAL JUSTICE

Beset By Crime Colombian City Declares ‘Black Lives Matter’

Chaotic and deadly protests have for weeks rocked the Colombian port city of Buenaventura. In mid-May some demonstrators stormed the airport, and riot police responded with force, killing three. Buenaventura’s demonstrations are a part of the massive, violent national wave of protests over increasing poverty and incessant violence in Colombia. But they actually began well before Colombia’s broader upheaval. Since early 2021, people in this majority-Black coastal city have been rising up peacefully but insistently against rampant drug trafficking, political violence and cartel infiltration. Organized crime and illicit economies are both national problems in Colombia. But in Buenaventura, a history of state neglect has allowed both to flourish unchecked, according to my academic research ...
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Traumatizing Black People And Communities Across US The Pain Of Police Killings Ripples Outward
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IN OTHER NEWS

Traumatizing Black People And Communities Across US The Pain Of Police Killings Ripples Outward

It’s been one year since George Floyd’s murder by a Minneapolis police officer set off the largest protests in U.S. history and a national reckoning with racism. Beyond the protests, every police killing – indeed, every violent act by police toward civilians – can have painful and widespread consequences. Each year, U.S. police kill about 1,000 people, which equals approximately 8% of all homicides for adult men. This risk is greater for Black men, who are about 2.5 times more likely to be killed by the police than white men. The effects of these killings ripple from the individual victim to their families and local communities as they cope with the permanence of injury, death and loss. People victimized by the police have demonstrated higher-than-usual rates of depression, psychologica...
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