spaces

4Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

IN OTHER NEWS

African Americans Have Long Celebrated Black Culture In Public Spaces Defying White Supremacy

From Richmond to New York City to Seattle, anti-racist activists are getting results as Confederate monuments are coming down by the dozens. In Richmond, Virginia, protesters have changed the story of Lee Circle, home to a 130-year-old monument to Confederate General Robert E. Lee. It’s now a new community space where graffiti, music and projected images turn the statue of Lee from a monument to white supremacy into a backdrop proclaiming that Black Lives Matter. This isn’t a new phenomenon. I’m a historian of celebrations and protests after the Civil War. And in my research, I have found that long before Confederate monuments occupied city squares, African Americans used those same public spaces to celebrate their history. But those African American memorial cultures have often been o...

Ultraviolet light can make indoor spaces safer during the pandemic – if it’s used the right way

Ultraviolet light has a long history as a disinfectant and the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which causes COVID-19, is readily rendered harmless by UV light. The question is how best to harness UV light to fight the spread of the virus and protect human health as people work, study, and shop indoors. The virus spreads in several ways. The main route of transmission is through person-to-person contact via aerosols and droplets emitted when an infected person breathes, talks, sings or coughs. The virus can also be transmitted when people touch their faces shortly after touching surfaces that have been contaminated by infected individuals. This is of particular concern in health-care settings, retail spaces where people frequently touch counters and merchandise, and in buses, trains and planes. As an e...

Seeing Color in Green Spaces: How to Increase Diversity in Conservation

Black Americans are underrepresented in conservation and outdoor retail careers. To change that, White employers need to apply their liberal values to the workplace. Angelou Ezelio has worked on public land and environmental projects for decades, and started the Greening Youth Foundation to engage youth in the outdoors and careers in conservation. In her new book Engage, Connect, Protect: Empowering Diverse Youth as Environmental Leaders, she describes how changing racial exclusion is harder when White people in organizations and companies are resistant to seeing the problem. Over the last couple of decades working in the environmental space, I’ve discovered that for many Black people, especially older generations, the outdoors conjures a lot of historical negativity that ...