community

17Jul

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

Network Science Uncovers The Hidden Structure Of Community Dynamics – From In-Crowds To Power Couples

The world is a networked place, literally and figuratively. The field of network science is used today to understand phenomena as diverse as the spread of misinformation, West African trade and protein-protein interactions in cells. Network science has uncovered several universal properties of complex social networks, which in turn has made it possible to learn details of particular networks. For example, the network consisting of the international financial corruption scheme uncovered by the Panama Papers investigation has an unusual lack of connections among its parts. But understanding the hidden structures of key elements of social networks, such as subgroups, has remained elusive. My colleagues and I have found two complex patterns in these networks that can help researchers better ...

A Historic Black Community Races To Save Its Future Six Months After Hurricane Ida

2Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

IN OTHER NEWS

A Historic Black Community Races To Save Its Future Six Months After Hurricane Ida

Briana Flin Residents of Ironton, Louisiana are rallying for their share of recovery funds. Audrey Trufant Salvant has deep roots in Ironton, a close-knit, majority-Black community 25 miles downriver from New Orleans. Her great-great-great grandmother, who had been enslaved, is buried here, and her descendents kept the unincorporated town in Plaquemines Parish alive, despite near-impossible circumstances. Founded by formerly enslaved people in the late 1800s, Ironton’s residents have since endured racial terror, segregationist parish leaders, and decades without even the most basic services. But they fought to survive. They gained access to running water in 1980 and rebuilt the town after Hurricanes Katrina and Isaac in 2005 and 2012, respectively. Today, residents say devastation from...

Isolated Success Stories Suggest Community And Officer Buy-In Might Be Key To American Cities Long Struggle To Reform Their Police

30Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

SOCIAL JUSTICE

Isolated Success Stories Suggest Community And Officer Buy-In Might Be Key To American Cities Long Struggle To Reform Their Police

The guilty verdicts delivered against Derek Chauvin on April 20, 2021, represented a landmark moment – but courtroom justice cannot deliver the sweeping changes most Americans feel are needed to improve policing in the U.S. As America continues to grapple with racism and police killings, federal action over police reform has stalled in Congress. But at the state level there is movement and steps toward reform are underway in many U.S. cities, including Philadelphia; Oakland, California; and Portland, Oregon. Many of these efforts are geared toward ending specific practices, such as the granting of qualified immunity, through which officers are shielded from civil lawsuits, and the use of certain police neck holds and no-knock warrants. Mayors and city councils nationwide have also pushed...

Offering A Chance For Community To Stand In Solidarity And Support – Trans Day Of Visibility

29Mar

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

LGBTQ

Offering A Chance For Community To Stand In Solidarity And Support – Trans Day Of Visibility

Visibility within the transgender community is often a Catch-22, especially for trans people of color, or those living in rural, conservative areas. Hiding one’s identity can be a damaging experience and increase feelings of isolation, stigma and shame. But standing out as a trans person can make someone a target for discrimination or violence. As a trans man who studies transgender health and well-being, I believe Trans Day of Visibility – celebrated annually on March 31 – is an important day that allows community members to come together and find support and solidarity by knowing they are not alone. A celebration’s history Trans Day of Visibility acknowledges the contributions made by people within the transgender, nonbinary and gender-diverse communities (hereafter referred to as “tran...

Community land trusts could help heal segregated cities

11Sep

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

POLITICS

Community land trusts could help heal segregated cities

American cities represent part of the nation’s long and grim history of discrimination and oppression against Black people. They can also be part of the recovery from all that harm. Some cities’ work can be symbolically important, such as removing public monuments that honor oppression. But as professors of urban sustainability and community development at Arizona State University, we see that cities can do much more to address inequality, starting with an area that was key to past discrimination: how land is used. Zoning rules, including requirements that prohibit duplexes or anything other than single-family homes on residential lots, have helped maintain class and racial segregation. Lending practices like redlining that discriminate mostly against people of color in specific urban ne...

How a Black Farming Community Found Justice

4Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

SOCIAL JUSTICE

How a Black Farming Community Found Justice

Black families in the South are doing important work to continue the legacy of Black farming communities. Shirley Sherrod co-founded New Communities, a Black farming community in rural Georgia. But at one time, she wanted to leave farming far behind. As a teenager, Sherrod dreamed of leaving the South. Her mind traveled North—away from the White sheriff, known as “The Gator,” who ruthlessly and violently patrolled the area’s Black residents. Away from her family’s farm and the backbreaking days spent picking cotton. Away from the segregated schools. “My goal was to try to get as far away from that whole system and as far away from the farm as I could,” she says. But in March 1965, her senior year of high school, Sherrod’s father was shot by a White farmer during a disag...

4Dec

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

Journalism

Black-Owned Banks Keep Community Money Where It Belongs

A national network of financial cooperatives is helping marginalized groups keep their money out of an extractive banking system. Me’Lea Connelly is from the Bay Area of California, but she has deep roots in Minnesota. Her mother’s family was one of the first to migrate to the state after slavery ended. When she was 15, her parents divorced, and she moved with her mother to Minneapolis. “I’ve always just felt more at home here,” Connelly said. “All my ancestors are just calling me home.” But that home, in Minneapolis’ Northside, has a severe shortage of shopping centers, grocery stores, and banks. In 2017, Minnesota was named the second-most unequal state for Black people in a study of Black and White inequality by 24/7 Wall St., a financial news and opinion website. Despite the ...

15Nov

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

Journalism

Why Co-ops and Community Farms Can’t Close the Racial Wealth Gap

Circulating local dollars can’t create wealth when there’s not enough to begin with. Residents of one Detroit historic neighborhood have been looking forward to next year’s opening of a food co-op. It will help bring to market produce from a community farm and is part of a larger community development project that will include a health food cafe, an incubator kitchen for food entrepreneurs, and space for events. The project expects to employ 20 people from the mostly low- to moderate-income area. Twenty jobs may not seem like a lot when unemployment in the approximately 80 percent Black city is 8.7 percent, twice that of state and national rates. But this is what economic progress generally looks like in many Black communities: cooperative ventures such as grocery stores and ...

Whose Fault Is It for the Black Community’s Downfall?

26Jun

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

Journalism

Whose Fault Is It for the Black Community’s Downfall?

The dollar lasts only 6 hours in black neighborhoods across America. Compare this to 28 days in the Asian community and 19 days in the Jewish community. Because of this lack of economic cohesiveness we can clearly see the decline in the black community for the past 60 years. The money situation only represents the mindset of the people using it. This lack of economic understanding has lead to high crime rates and deteriorating neighborhoods. However there is a blame game going on between black men and women as to who is at fault for this unfortunate circumstances. Visit YouTube and many blog sites and you will find videos and articles where black men and women are going back to forth blaming the other sex for this situation. This article seeks to answer this question once and for all. Do...

Part III – Is The African American Community The Victim Of Failed Leadership?

24May

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Journalism

Part III – Is The African American Community The Victim Of Failed Leadership?

As we have seen in Part I and II, the economic position of the African-American community is deteriorating instead of improving and dying instead of growing. The reason why this tragic decline is taking place stems from a lack of social consciousness and social cohesiveness. Social consciousness and social cohesiveness can only be achieved with intra-racial integration. It can not be achieved by any other means. Since 1865, not one African-American organization, group or religious body has deemed it necessary to advance the idea that African-Americans should integrate with themselves. This simple course of action has been neglected and intra-racial integration has been taken for granted. This oversight has plagued the African-American community for 142 years. For 142 years after slavery, ...