color

5Dec

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

EDUCATION, Journalism

Children Of Color Often Omitted From Sci-fi Books From The Future For Young Readers

While visiting an elementary school library in 2016 to count the fantasy books for a graduate class on fantasy literature, I noticed there were hardly any science fiction books for readers under 12. This discovery prompted me to spend the next five years researching the shortage of science fiction books for children in this age group. I reached two big conclusions. First, I found that adults often think that kids can’t understand science fiction – but they can. Second, I found that authors and illustrators are not depicting characters from diverse backgrounds in children’s stories about the future. As a researcher who specializes in children’s literature, these findings make me wonder if the reason there is so little diversity in children’s science fiction is because authors don’t believe...

8 Gift-Buying Alternatives To Amazon That Support Communities Of Color

4Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

Journalism

8 Gift-Buying Alternatives To Amazon That Support Communities Of Color

Ditch the big companies for your last-minute holiday shopping and support these small businesses instead. It’s that time of year again! Retail stores across the country are decked with twinkly lights and tinsel, advertising “the best deals” to eager shoppers as they scramble to get the perfect gifts for their loved ones (to the tune of “All I Want for Christmas Is You” by Mariah Carey, of course.) This holiday season, shoppers are expected to spend an average of $1,536 per consumer. Giant corporations like Walmart, Target, and Amazon will take in a great portion of the $1.1 trillion retailers are projected to make. In 2017, during Thanksgiving week alone, Amazon made an estimated $15 billion. While patronizing these large corporations can get us the latest or biggest gadget at...

Schools’ Going Back To ‘Normal’ Won’t Work For Students Of Color, Here’s Why

4Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

IN OTHER NEWS

Schools’ Going Back To ‘Normal’ Won’t Work For Students Of Color, Here’s Why

National test results released in September 2022 show unprecedented losses in math and reading scores since the pandemic disrupted schooling for millions of children. In response, educational leaders and policymakers across the country are eager to reverse these trends and catch these students back up to where they would have been. But this renewed concern seems to overlook a crucial fact: Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, many schools were failing to adequately serve children of color. As a scholar of racial equity in K-12 education, I see an opportunity to go beyond getting students caught up. Rather than focus only on trying to close pandemic-related gaps, schools could seek to more substantially improve the quality of education they offer, particularly for students of color, if they...

A Dermatologist Explains – It’s A Myth That Sunscreen Prevents Melanoma In People Of Color

4Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

HEALTH & WELLNESS, Journalism

A Dermatologist Explains – It’s A Myth That Sunscreen Prevents Melanoma In People Of Color

Melanoma is a potentially deadly form of skin cancer that effects people of every racial and ethnic group. The risk factor most closely linked to developing melanoma is exposure to ultraviolet, or UV, rays from the sun. In fact, sunburns have been associated with doubling one’s risk of melanoma. Sunscreen can block UV rays and therefore reduce the risk of sunburns, which ultimately may reduce the risk of developing melanoma. Thus, the promotion of sunscreen as an effective melanoma prevention strategy is a reasonable public health message. But while this may be true for light-skinned people, such as individuals of European descent, this is not the case for darker-skinned people, such as individuals of African or Asian descent. The public health messages promoted by many clinicians and p...

Most Of The COVID-19 Workforce Were Women Of Color – What Happens Now As Those Jobs End?

4Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

HEALTH & WELLNESS

Most Of The COVID-19 Workforce Were Women Of Color – What Happens Now As Those Jobs End?

Since 2020, thousands of workers have done the difficult work of meeting people where they are — their car doors, front doors, community centers — to test, vaccinate and contact trace. They often did this work to stop the spread of COVID-19 in their own communities, among their neighbors and families. They worked in the heat and humidity, under tents in the rain, in clinics and from their own homes, through an onslaught of questions, despair and, sometimes, outright nastiness. Some had a background in public health, some came out of retirement to help, others had never worked in health care at all. While data on who these workers were is still being collected, one clear pattern has emerged, experts say: It’s likely most of the COVID-19 workforce were women of color. Historically, the ma...

Stopping White Supremacists From Killing People Of Color?

19May

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

SOCIAL JUSTICE

Stopping White Supremacists From Killing People Of Color?

The nation is in shock over yet another mass shooting—this time targeting Black people. Ten African Americans, six women and four men, were massacred on May 14 at the Tops grocery store in Buffalo, New York. Three other people were injured, one Black and two White, as the suspected shooter fired more than 50 rounds at shoppers and staff while livestreaming his attack. An 18-year-old White man was taken into custody unharmed, reportedly wearing military fatigues and body armor, after law enforcement allegedly talked him down from killing himself. As have many mass shooters before him, the gunman published a manifesto that espoused a fear that people of color are “replacing” White people, adding that he hoped his violence would spark a “race war.” Fox News hosts like Tucker Carlson frequen...

3 Ways Teachers Can Do Better With Students Of Color In Special Education Less Likely To Get The Help They Need

4Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

IN OTHER NEWS

3 Ways Teachers Can Do Better With Students Of Color In Special Education Less Likely To Get The Help They Need

When I was a special education teacher at Myrtle Grove Elementary School in Miami in 2010, my colleagues and I recommended that a Black girl receive special education services because she had difficulty reading. However, her mother disagreed. When I asked her why, she explained that she, too, was identified as having a learning disability when she was a student. She was put in a small classroom away from her other classmates. She remembered reading books below her grade level and frequent conflicts between her classmates and teachers. Because of this, she believed she received a lower-quality education. She didn’t want her daughter to go through the same experience. Ultimately, the mother and I co-designed an individualized education plan – known in the world of special education as an I...

Looking Through History May Help Explain Why People Of Color Have Been Missing In The Disability Rights Movement

4Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

IN OTHER NEWS

Looking Through History May Help Explain Why People Of Color Have Been Missing In The Disability Rights Movement

Jennifer Erkulwater is a professor of political science at the University of Richmond. Her scholarship focuses on the politics of poverty, Social Security and disability rights. Below are highlights from an interview with The Conversation. Answers have been edited for brevity and clarity. Jennifer Erkulwater speaks on her research about people of color and the disability rights movement. What is your research focused on? Erkulwater: My current work involves trying to understand why people of color seem to be missing in debates about disability rights. People of color, especially African Americans, are more likely to report medical impairments than whites, and yet popular media tends to showcase largely white people with disabilities. It’s an absence that’s been critiqued on social media ...

Tipped Restaurant Workers Especially Women Of Color Reported More Harassment During The Pandemic

25Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

Journalism, SOCIAL JUSTICE

Tipped Restaurant Workers Especially Women Of Color Reported More Harassment During The Pandemic

Nearly half of women working in restaurant positions where they receive tips said they have experienced increased harassment from customers or supervisors during the two years of the pandemic, according to a new survey first shared with The 19th. Seventy-three percent of all women and 78 percent of women of color in these jobs said they regularly endure or witness “sexual behaviors from customers that make them uncomfortable,” the report said. The survey was released by the advocacy nonprofit One Fair Wage in partnership with the University of California, Berkeley’s Food Labor Research Center. “I was shocked. I could imagine that things either would be getting better or that things are pretty much the same. But people are saying that it just keeps getting so much worse, particularly for...

Unlearning Racism As A Non-Black Person Of Color

20Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

Journalism

Unlearning Racism As A Non-Black Person Of Color

The first time I learned about the history of race and racism in America was during my first year of college, when I read Ta-Nehisi Coates’ book Between the World and Me. Before then, I had plenty of lessons on race, only none of them had ever happened in the classroom. Growing up as a mixed-race Iranian American girl in the suburban Midwest, being the target of racism was as integral to my education as learning how to read. As a kid, my skin was much darker than it is today, and in my mostly White classroom, I was usually one of the brownest kids and undoubtedly the most hirsute. My race has always been ambiguous, but my hairiness earned me the name “Bigfoot” from some of my classmates. Some who knew my racial background opted for more targeted insults, such as “terrorist” and “Muslim f...