tag:theconversation.com,2011:/africa/topics/racism-332/articlesRacism – The Conversation2024-03-20T13:59:10Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2254412024-03-20T13:59:10Z2024-03-20T13:59:10ZFashion needs stronger storytelling that is more inclusive, relevant and responsible<p>The fashion industry could not exist without storytelling. Compelling and aspirational stories conveyed through catwalks, campaigns and social media are the stuff that make garments fashionable, fostering a strong desire to be seen wearing them.</p>
<p>Fashion’s stories can spread positive messaging about issues that affect us all. In 2020, Stella McCartney’s Paris show featured models wearing cartoonish animal costumes. This humorous stunt emphasised a serious point about the “planet-friendly” brand’s <a href="https://www.elle.com/culture/celebrities/a31191131/stella-mccartney-mascot-paris-fashion-week/">pledge</a> not to use leather, fur, skins, feathers or animal glues.</p>
<p>But more often, the darker, more unpalatable truth is that fashion’s storytelling drives overconsumption. And it defines unrealistic beauty expectations that exclude many by perpetuating western standards about what is normal and acceptable.</p>
<p>As a cultural historian who researches fashion, I believe the industry has to do better to effect change, and this can be achieved through stronger, more inclusive and responsible storytelling. </p>
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<h2>Fashion and world problems</h2>
<p>According to recent fashion industry <a href="https://www.unep.org/resources/publication/sustainable-fashion-communication-playbook">reports</a>, storytelling is becoming more prominent as brands seek to demonstrate their social responsibility by forging deeper relationships with consumers. The increased significance of storytelling within fashion can be linked to two themes that have defined social and political debate about the world’s post-COVID recovery: self and society.</p>
<p>Consumers want more meaningful experiences that enable them to explore their identities and connect with others. Fashion is the ideal medium for this, especially during a time of social and political unease. The industry’s global reach means that visual cues and messaging conveyed through clothing campaigns can be easily shared and understood.</p>
<p>The Business of Fashion’s report, <a href="https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/retail/our-insights/state-of-fashion">The State of Fashion 2024</a>, links the increased importance of storytelling to consumers being “more demanding when it comes to authenticity and relatability”. People want to buy brands that share and support their values.</p>
<p>The consumer group most concerned to align their lifestyle choices and beliefs with the companies that clothe them is Gen-Z – people born between 1996 and 2010 – who “value pursuing their own unique identities and appreciate diversity”. </p>
<p>The increasing prominence of storytelling in fashion is also linked to the industry’s global sway and corresponding social responsibility. Organisations like the UN are <a href="https://www.unep.org/resources/publication/sustainable-fashion-communication-playbook">increasingly clear</a> that the fashion industry will only help tackle the global challenges emphasised by COVID if it uses its influence to change consumers’ mindsets.</p>
<p>The uneven social impact of the pandemic, which <a href="https://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/fandd/2021/06/inequality-and-covid-19-ferreira.htm">emphasised longstanding inequalities</a>, provided a wake-up call to take action on many global problems, including climate change, overconsumption and racial discrimination. This makes the fashion industry, which <a href="https://fashinnovation.nyc/fashion-industry-statistics/">contributes 2% to global GDP</a>, a culprit but also a potential champion for driving change. </p>
<p>The British Fashion Council’s <a href="https://www.britishfashioncouncil.co.uk/Innovation/Diversity-Equity-Inclusion--Belonging">Fashion Diversity Equality & Inclusion Report</a>, published in January 2024, highlights “fashion’s colossal power to influence, to provide cultural reference and guide social trends”. Similarly, the UN’s <a href="https://www.unep.org/resources/publication/sustainable-fashion-communication-playbook">Fashion Communication Playbook</a>, published last year, urges the industry to use its “cultural reach, powers of persuasion and educational role to both raise awareness and drive a shift towards a more sustainable and equitable industry”.</p>
<p>To do this, the UN’s report urges storytellers, imagemakers and role models to change the narrative of the fashion industry. They are asked to educate consumers and inspire them to alter their behaviour if it can help create positive change. </p>
<h2>Fashion’s new stories</h2>
<p>Since the pandemic, there is evidence the fashion industry has begun to change the content and form of the stories it tells, chiefly by putting a human face on current global challenges. Large-scale, entrenched social problems are being explored through real-life stories. This can help people to understand the problems that confront them, and grasp their role in working towards overcoming them.</p>
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<p>One example is Nike’s <a href="https://www.vogue.co.uk/news/article/nike-move-to-zero-sustainability">Move to Zero campaign</a>, a global sustainability initiative which launched during the pandemic in 2020. Instead of endless statistics and apocalyptic warnings about crisis-point climate emergency, Nike encourages people to “<a href="https://www.nike.com/nl/en/product-advice/product-care">refresh</a>” sports gear with maintenance and repair. Old Nike products that have been recreated by designers are sold through pop-ups. When salvage is not possible, Nike provides ways for people to <a href="https://www.nike.com/nl/en/sustainability/recycling-donation">recycle and donate old products</a>.</p>
<p>By encouraging relatively small changes that align the lifecycle of a product with consumers’ everyday lives, Nike’s campaign challenges the traditional idea of clothes being new, immediate and ultimately disposable by making change aspirational. </p>
<h2>Narrative hang-ups</h2>
<p>While some fashion brands are rethinking the stories they tell, my <a href="https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/hangups-9781350197268/">recent book</a>, Hang-Ups: Reflections on the Causes and Consequences of Fashion’s Western Centrism, explains that some of fashion’s most powerful and harmful stories are deep-rooted.</p>
<p>Concepts defined during the 18th and 19th centuries – civilisation, anthropology, sexology – still influence how the fashion industry engages with age, gender, race and sex. Its drive for newness and the way it pushes the idea that purchasing expensive brands brings automatic status is also based on traditional western social values that fit poorly with 21st-century perspectives and priorities.</p>
<p>The persistence of centuries-old attitudes is apparent too in Nike’s Move to Zero campaign, however well-intentioned. While the initiative is clearly conceived to influence consumer behaviour in a positive way, it still doesn’t fundamentally address what the fashion industry is and does. But at the very least, it accepts that fashion functions through high consumption and the sense of status that owning and wearing a brand confers.</p>
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<h2>Throwing everything out</h2>
<p>One of the key points I make in my book is that effective change will be more likely if we understand how the industry developed into what it is today. This calls for more audacious storytelling that critiques notions of normality, acceptability and inclusivity.</p>
<p>One example is Swedish brand <a href="https://avavav.com/en-gb/about">Avavav</a>, which commits itself to “creative freedom driven by humour, entertainment and design evolution”. In February 2024, the brand’s <a href="https://wwd.com/fashion-news/fashion-scoops/gallery/avavav-fashion-show-trash-photos-1236222394/avavav-runway-milan-fashion-week-womenswear-fall-winter-2024-2025/">Milan catwalk show</a> concluded with models being pelted with litter. This experimental performance explored prevailing social media stories by calling out online trolls and highlighting the hurt of hate speech, within and beyond the fashion industry.</p>
<p>Naturally, it <a href="https://www.dazeddigital.com/fashion/article/62036/1/avavav-aw24-fw24-beate-karlsson-milan-fashion-week-mfw-trash">caused a sensation</a> and was widely covered in the media. A stunt perhaps, but it got people talking and drew attention to designer Beate Karlsson’s message about online hate. Clearly, compelling and innovative storytelling has the power to change minds and behaviour.</p>
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Benjamin Wild does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Representing 2% of global GDP, the fashion industry must use its cultural reach to drive a shift towards a more sustainable and equitable industry.Benjamin Wild, Senior Lecturer in Fashion Narratives, Manchester Metropolitan UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2248352024-03-15T12:11:11Z2024-03-15T12:11:11ZWhat is the ‘great replacement theory’? A scholar of race relations explains<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/581774/original/file-20240313-22-a4q7ya.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=107%2C16%2C5406%2C3653&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Members of a white supremacist group demonstrate near the National Archives in Washington on Jan. 21, 2022.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/PatriotFront/3caaaf6fe498443da3305b2b4ffc7b94/photo?Query=2024%20white%20nationalists&mediaType=photo&sortBy=&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=748&digitizationType=Digitized&currentItemNo=NaN&vs=true&vs=true">AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The <a href="https://www.immigrationresearch.org/system/files/The%20%E2%80%98Great%20Replacement%E2%80%99%20Theory%2C%20Explained.pdf">“great replacement theory</a>,” whose origins date back to the late 19th century, argues that Jews and some Western elites are conspiring to replace white Americans and Europeans with people of non-European descent, particularly Asians and Africans.</p>
<p>The conspiracy evolved from a series of false ideas that, over time, stoked the fears of white people: In 1892, British-Australian author and politician Charles Pearson <a href="https://archive.org/details/nationallifeandc015071mbp">warned that white people</a> would “wake to find ourselves elbowed and hustled, and perhaps even thrust aside by people whom we looked down.” The massive influx of immigrants into Europe at the time fostered some of these fears and resulted in “white extinction anxiety.” In the U.S., it resulted in policies <a href="https://history.state.gov/milestones/1921-1936/immigration-act">targeting immigration</a> in the late 19th and early 20th century. </p>
<p>In France, journalist Édouard Drumont, leader of an antisemitic movement, wrote articles in the late 19th century imagining how <a href="https://www.marxists.org/history/france/dreyfus-affair/drumont.htm">Jews would destroy French culture</a>. In 1909, Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, an Italian poet and supporter of Benito Mussolini, argued that war and fascism <a href="https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/renaud-camus-great-replacement-brenton-tarrant/">were the only cure for the world</a>. <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2017/08/12/these-are-the-three-reasons-that-fascism-spread-in-1930s-america-and-might-spread-again-today/">Fascism</a>, then and now, worked to ensure white dominance. </p>
<p>This was followed by the <a href="https://www.nature.com/scitable/forums/genetics-generation/america-s-hidden-history-the-eugenics-movement-123919444/">eugenics movement</a>, an erroneous and racist theory that supported forced sterilization of Black people, the mentally ill and other marginalized groups, who were all deemed “unfit.” </p>
<p>The 1978 book entitled “<a href="https://archive.org/details/the-turner-diaries-andrew-mac-donald-william-pierce">The Turner Diaries</a>,” a fictional futuristic account of the overthrow of the United States government, further contributed to white nationalist ideas. </p>
<p>Collectively, these gave rise to a global movement that attracted a wide range of <a href="https://archive.org/details/passingofgreatra00granuoft">white supremacist, xenophobic and anti-immigration conspiracy theories</a>. These theories were formally codified <a href="https://archive.org/details/le-grand-remplacement-renaud-camus">in the work of Frenchman Renaud Camus</a>, first in his 2010 book “L'Abécédaire de l'in-nocence” and elaborated in his 2011 book “<a href="https://archive.org/details/le-grand-remplacement-renaud-camus">Le Grand Remplacement</a>.” </p>
<p>Camus argued that ethnic French and white Europeans were being replaced physically, culturally and politically by nonwhite people. He believed that liberal immigration policies and the dramatic decline in white birth rates were threatening European civilization and traditions. </p>
<h2>Why this conspiracy theory matters</h2>
<p>These false ideas promulgated the spread of white supremacy, which has <a href="https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/2022/05/17/racist-great-replacement-conspiracy-theory-explained?">contributed to terrorist attacks</a>, state violence and propaganda campaigns in the U.S and parts of Europe. </p>
<p>On Aug. 11, 2017, during a “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/11/us/white-nationalists-rally-charlottesville-virginia.html">white nationalists chanted</a> “You will not replace us” and “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/aug/16/charlottesville-neo-nazis-vice-news-hbo">Jews will not replace us</a>.” In spring 2019, Belgian politician Dries Van Langenhove repeatedly posted on social media, “<a href="https://time.com/5627494/we-analyzed-how-the-great-replacement-and-far-right-ideas-spread-online-the-trends-reveal-deep-concerns/">We are being replaced</a>.”</p>
<p>In recent years, <a href="https://www.psychiatry.org/psychiatrists/diversity/education/stress-and-trauma/undocumented-immigrants">nonwhite immigrants</a> have been the target of xenophobia. Migrants, especially from Mexico, are accused of <a href="https://immigrantjustice.org/research-items/report-legacy-injustice-us-criminalization-migration">bringing criminal activities</a> to American cities. Immigrants have also been falsely accused of <a href="https://www.npr.org/2022/08/18/1118271910/many-americans-falsely-think-migrants-are-bringing-most-of-the-fentanyl-entering">smuggling fentanyl</a> into the U.S. The reality is that immigrants commit <a href="https://www.npr.org/2024/03/08/1237103158/immigrants-are-less-likely-to-commit-crimes-than-us-born-americans-studies-find">far fewer crimes than those born in the U.S</a>. </p>
<h2>Impact of the theory and spread of hate</h2>
<p>In less than two decades, the theory has become a major idea, with as many <a href="https://www.rmx.news/france/france-poll-reveals-vast-majority-worried-about-great-replacement/">as 60% of the French population</a> believing some aspects of it. According to that survey, they are worried or at least concerned that they might be replaced. In the U.K. <a href="https://www.umass.edu/news/article/new-national-umass-amherst-poll-issues-finds-one-third-americans-believe-great">and the U.S.</a>, close to <a href="https://unherd.com/newsroom/one-in-three-brits-believe-in-great-replacement-theory/">one-third of those polled</a> believe that white people are systematically being replaced by nonwhite immigrants. Some in the U.S. fear that America might lose its culture and identity as a result. </p>
<p>Being aware of conspiracy theories and standing up to hatred, I argue, can help societies deal with the continuing fallout of extreme xenophobia, racist rants, the rise of white supremacy and the victimization of innocent people.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/224835/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rodney Coates does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>False ideas about the extinction of the white race, spread around the late 19th and early 20th centuries, gave rise to xenophobic and anti-immigration conspiracy theories.Rodney Coates, Professor of Critical Race and Ethnic Studies, Miami UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2243192024-03-15T12:10:14Z2024-03-15T12:10:14ZThe hostility Black women face in higher education carries dire consequences<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/581998/original/file-20240314-24-v5d9s0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C2110%2C1412&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Isolation can make opportunities elusive. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/young-woman-holding-a-highlighter-and-reading-a-royalty-free-image/1446120435?adppopup=true">fotostorm via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Isolated. Abused. Overworked. </p>
<p>These are the themes that emerged when I invited nine Black women to chronicle their professional experiences and relationships with colleagues as they earned their Ph.D.s at a public university in the Midwest. I featured their writings in <a href="https://cdn.theconversation.com/static_files/files/3150/AYA_THIS.pdf?1710504520">the dissertation I wrote</a> to get my Ph.D. in curriculum and instruction. </p>
<p>The women spoke of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1527-2001.2011.01177.x">being silenced</a>.</p>
<p>“It’s not just the beating me down that is hard,” one participant told me about constantly having her intelligence questioned. “It is the fact that it feels like I’m villainized and made out to be the problem for trying to advocate for myself.”</p>
<p>The women told me they did not feel like they belonged. They spoke of routinely being isolated by peers and potential mentors. </p>
<p>One participant told me she felt that peer community, faculty mentorship and cultural affinity spaces were lacking.</p>
<p>Because of the isolation, participants often felt that they were missing out on various opportunities, such as <a href="https://doi.org/10.9707/2168-149X.2388">funding and opportunities to get their work published</a>.</p>
<p>Participants also discussed the ways they felt they were duped into taking on more than their fair share of work.</p>
<p>“I realized I had been tricked into handling a two- to four-person job entirely by myself,” one participant said of her paid graduate position. “This happened just about a month before the pandemic occurred so it very quickly got swept under the rug.” </p>
<h2>Why it matters</h2>
<p>The hostility that Black women face in higher education can be hazardous to their health. The women in my study told me they were struggling with depression, had thought about suicide and felt physically ill when they had to go to campus.</p>
<p>Other studies have found similar outcomes. For instance, a 2020 study of 220 U.S. Black college women ages 18-48 found that even though being seen as a strong Black woman came with its benefits – such as being thought of as resilient, hardworking, independent and nurturing – it also came at a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-020-01170-w">cost to their mental and physical health</a>. </p>
<p>These kinds of experiences can take a toll on women’s bodies and can result in <a href="https://www.vox.com/the-weeds/24079547/weathering-black-health-outcomes-women-dr-uche-blackstock">poor maternal health, cancer, shorter life expectancy</a> and other symptoms that impair their ability to be well.</p>
<p>I believe my research takes on greater urgency in light of the recent death of <a href="https://www.highereddive.com/news/lincoln-university-candia-bailey-death-investigation/705101/">Antoinette “Bonnie” Candia-Bailey</a>, who was <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/nbcblk/lincoln-university-president-paid-leave-days-vp-student-affairs-dies-s-rcna133723">vice president of student affairs</a> at Lincoln University. Before she <a href="https://www.newsnationnow.com/us-news/education/lincoln-university-students-vp-dies-by-suicide/">died by suicide</a>, she reportedly wrote that she felt she was suffering abuse and that the university <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/feb/28/antoinette-candia-bailey-lincoln-university-death">wasn’t taking her mental health concerns seriously</a>.</p>
<h2>What other research is being done</h2>
<p>Several anthologies examine the negative experiences that Black women experience in academia. They include education scholars Venus Evans-Winters and Bettina Love’s edited volume, “<a href="https://www.peterlang.com/document/1118277">Black Feminism in Education</a>,” which examines how Black women navigate what it means to be a scholar in a “white supremacist patriarchal society.” Gender and sexuality studies scholar <a href="https://upf.com/book.asp?id=9780813032689">Stephanie Evans</a> analyzes the barriers that Black women faced in accessing higher education from 1850 to 1954. In “<a href="https://www.broadleafbooks.com/store/product/9781506489834/Black-Women-Ivory-Tower">Black Women, Ivory Tower</a>,” African American studies professor Jasmine Harris recounts her own traumatic experiences in the world of higher education.</p>
<h2>What’s next</h2>
<p>In addition to publishing the findings of my research study, I plan to continue exploring the depths of Black women’s experiences in academia, expanding my research to include undergraduate students, as well as faculty and staff. </p>
<p>I believe this research will strengthen this field of study and enable people who work in higher education to develop and implement more comprehensive solutions.</p>
<p><em>The <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/topics/research-brief-83231">Research Brief</a> is a short take on interesting academic work.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/224319/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ebony Aya received funding from the Black Collective Foundation in 2022 to support the work of the Aya Collective. </span></em></p>9 Black women who were working on or recently earned their PhDs told a researcher they felt isolated and shut out.Ebony Aya, Program Manager at the Jan Serie Center for Scholarship and Teaching, Macalester CollegeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2240652024-03-14T17:07:50Z2024-03-14T17:07:50ZNine years after #OscarsSoWhite, a look at what’s changed<iframe height="200px" width="100%" frameborder="no" scrolling="no" seamless="" src="https://player.simplecast.com/6e95de91-d1cf-4295-804b-8236faeb66fc?dark=true"></iframe>
<p>On Sunday, nine years after #OscarsSoWhite, millions of us tuned into watch the 96th annual Academy Awards — some to simply take in the spectacle. And some to see how much had changed. </p>
<p>The hashtag <a href="https://www.essence.com/news/nine-years-after-oscars-so-white/">#OscarsSoWhite</a> started after many people noticed that, for a second year in a row, all nominees for four of five major categories were white. The movement called on Hollywood to do better: to better reflect America’s demographic realities and also to expand its depiction of our histories. </p>
<p>The reason: representation in Hollywood matters. What gets put on screens and by whom has reverberating impacts on how all of us see each other and see ourselves. </p>
<p>So …. how did the Oscars do this year?</p>
<p>Let’s take a brief look at the evening, which started with the anti-war protests outside the theatre slowing down traffic and delaying the broadcast by a full five minutes.</p>
<p>Although there were only seven racialized actors up for nominations, there were some notable wins in that arena.</p>
<p>Cord Jefferson accepted his award for best adapted screenplay for <em>American Fiction</em>. When at the podium, he talked about how many people passed over the project — a Black film with a primary Black cast. To the producers out there listening, he made a plea to acknowledge and recognize the many talented Black playwrights out there that deserve similar opportunities. He suggested one way would be that producers fund 10 small projects instead of one $200 million dollar film. </p>
<p>Lily Gladstone, though she didn’t win, <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/player/play/2317306947668">was the first North American Indigenous woman to be nominated for best actress in its 96-year history</a>. </p>
<p>And Da'Vine Joy Randolph won best supporting actress for her role in <em>The Holdovers</em>, and made a memorable appearance and acceptance speech. </p>
<p>But one night at the Oscars doesn’t paint the full picture.</p>
<p>Just a few months ago, award-winning actor, Taraji P. Henson, broke down in tears <a href="https://variety.com/2023/film/news/taraji-p-henson-cries-quitting-acting-pay-disparity-hollywood-1235847420/">in an interview with journalist Gayle King</a>. She was exhausted from breaking glass ceilings as a Black woman in film. “I’m just tired of working so hard being gracious at what I do getting paid a fraction of the cost,” she said. “I’m tired of hearing my sisters say the same thing over and over.”</p>
<p>Henson explained that in 2008’s <em>The Curious Case of Benjamin Button</em>, she was paid significantly less than her co-stars despite having third billing on the call sheet. Henson nearly turned down her role in <em>The Colour Purple</em> for similar reasons.</p>
<p>The pay disparity for Black and Indigenous women in comparison to white women in Hollywood is nothing new.</p>
<p>Here in Canada, the problem is just as pervasive.</p>
<p>Despite some recent wins, a report from Telefilm Canada revealed that <a href="https://www.screendaily.com/news/report-shows-drop-in-number-of-canadian-women-in-film-tv-compared-to-pre-pandemic-times-exclusive/5185452.article">Black women have the least representation in TV and film</a>.</p>
<p>They also lead the fewest projects and receive the least funding overall.</p>
<p>To shed some light on the issue, we spoke to two women well versed on the challenges of Black, Indigenous and other women of colour in film and TV.</p>
<p>Naila Keleta-Mae, a playright, poet and singer as well as the Canada Research Chair in Race, Gender and Performance and associate professor of communication arts at the University of Waterloo said that while we need more voices at the table, Black female artists have not been waiting for scraps: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“We have been making the work all this time and will continue to regardless. While we insist on eating at the table, we will also simultaneously continue to nourish and feast on what we’ve been doing.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>We also spoke with actor and director Mariah Inger, the chair of ACTRA National’s Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Belonging Committee.</p>
<p>Inger warned us to remember that the Oscars represent only one per cent of those working in the industry. And that while many working actors, writers, directors may look to the Oscars as a dream, the reality is that they show up every day because this is where they feel most called to contribute to the world. And she says, in that everyday world, things are shifting.</p>
<h2>Listen and follow</h2>
<p>You can listen to or follow <a href="https://dont-call-me-resilient.simplecast.com/"><em>Don’t Call Me Resilient</em></a> on <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/dont-call-me-resilient/id1549798876">Apple Podcasts</a>, <a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/37tK4zmjWvq2Sh6jLIpzp7">Spotify</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL_mJBLBznANz6ID9rBCUk7gv_ZRC4Og9-">YouTube</a> or wherever you listen to your favourite podcasts. Full but unedited transcripts are available within seven days of publication.</p>
<p><a href="mailto:dcmr@theconversation.com">We’d love to hear from you</a>, including any ideas for future episodes.</p>
<p>Join the Conversation on <a href="https://www.instagram.com/dontcallmeresilientpodcast/">Instagram</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/ConversationCA">X</a>, <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/theconversationcanada">LinkedIn</a> and <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@theconversation">TikTok</a> and use #DontCallMeResilient.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/224065/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
It’s been nine years since #OscarsSoWhite called out a lack of diversity at the Oscars. Has anything changed? Prof. Naila Keleta-Mae and actress Mariah Inger unpack the progress.Vinita Srivastava, Host + Producer, Don't Call Me ResilientDannielle Piper, Associate Producer, Don't Call Me Resilient, The ConversationAteqah Khaki, Associate Producer, Don't Call Me ResilientLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2244962024-03-14T12:42:05Z2024-03-14T12:42:05ZEmployees have a right to express support for Black Lives Matter while they’re on the job, according to a historic labor board decision<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/581413/original/file-20240312-24-pix1iz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=149%2C183%2C4387%2C2788&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The aftershocks of George Floyd's death are still reverberating for Home Depot.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/mourners-in-home-depot-aprons-wait-to-view-the-casket-of-news-photo/1218632854?adppopup=true">Godofredo A. Vásquez-Pool/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>A <a href="https://www.nlrb.gov/news-outreach/news-story/board-rules-employees-black-lives-matter-action-at-home-depot-was">Home Depot store violated labor law</a> when it disciplined Antonio Morales, the National Labor Relations Board ruled on Feb. 21, 2024.</p>
<p>Morales, a Home Depot employee in the Minneapolis area, had drawn the letters BLM on a work apron and refused to remove them. BLM stands for the <a href="https://www.loc.gov/item/lcwaN0016241/">Black Lives Matter movement</a>, which campaigns against violence and systemic racism aimed at Black people. Morales ultimately quit because of pressure to end the use of BLM messaging.</p>
<p>The NLRB has now <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/21/business/home-depot-blm-nlrb-ruling.html">ordered Home Depot to rehire Morales</a> based on the legal right U.S. employees have to engage in “<a href="https://www.nlrb.gov/about-nlrb/rights-we-protect/your-rights/employee-rights">concerted activity</a>” for the purpose of “mutual aid or protection.”</p>
<p>As a legal scholar who has <a href="https://law.tamu.edu/faculty-staff/find-people/faculty-profiles/michael-z-green">studied issues of race in the workplace</a> for more than 20 years, I believe the Home Depot decision establishes an important precedent for workers who express broad concerns about systemic racism.</p>
<p>This decision indicates that employees have a right to demonstrate their support for the Black Lives Matter movement on the job if they are seeking to improve their own working conditions with respect to racial discrimination. And this right persists even if the messaging arguably has political connotations that some workers or customers might disagree with. </p>
<h2>Right to display slogans</h2>
<p>The <a href="https://www.nlrb.gov/about-nlrb/who-we-are">National Labor Relations Board</a> is the federal agency that conducts elections when employees seek to be represented by a union. It also prosecutes and adjudicates complaints filed against employers and unions based upon unfair labor practices as defined by the <a href="https://www.nlrb.gov/guidance/key-reference-materials/national-labor-relations-act">National Labor Relations Act</a>. </p>
<p>Workers have the right to display slogans related to working conditions when they’re on the job under <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/29/157">Section 7 of that law</a>, which was enacted in 1935. Section 7 “protects the rights of employees to wear and distribute items such as buttons, pins, stickers, t-shirts, flyers, or other items displaying a message relating to terms and conditions of employment, unionization, and other protected matters.”</p>
<p>In this <a href="https://apps.nlrb.gov/link/document.aspx/09031d4583c6ebac">Home Depot case</a>, the NLRB reviewed a preliminary decision issued in 2022 by <a href="https://apps.nlrb.gov/link/document.aspx/09031d45837af63d">Paul Bogas</a>, an NLRB administrative law judge. Bogas found that Home Depot’s ban on manifestations of support for the Black Lives Matter movement didn’t violate labor law.</p>
<p>The NLRB disagreed with the decision by Bogas in a 3-1 decision that cited a <a href="https://www.oyez.org/cases/1977/77-453">1978 Supreme Court precedent</a>.</p>
<p>In that case, Eastex Inc. v. National Labor Relations Board, the court found that workers distributing materials related to their terms and conditions of employment are protected by Section 7 when there is a reasonable and direct connection to the advancement of mutual aid and protection in the workplace.</p>
<p>That ruling held that this protection exists even when political messages may be involved in the workers’ communications. “Moreover, what may be viewed as political in one context can be viewed quite differently in another,” the Supreme Court held.</p>
<p>At the Home Depot in question, Morales and other employees had previously discussed concerns about racial misconduct by a supervisor and two separate incidents of destroying a display of Black History Month materials the workers had created to celebrate Black culture.</p>
<p>Employees had a right to express their support for BLM messaging in the workplace because they had already objected to working conditions based upon racial concerns, the NLRB’s majority ruled.</p>
<p>One of the NLRB’s four members, <a href="https://www.nlrb.gov/bio/marvin-e-kaplan">Marvin Kaplan</a>, <a href="https://cdn.theconversation.com/static_files/files/3135/Board_Decision-HOME_DEPOT_USA.pdf?1710272577">dissented, in part, from the majority</a> based on his different view about the purpose of Morales’ display of the BLM messaging. Morales was expressing support for the Black Lives Matter movement’s “goal of combating police violence against Black individuals – not with improving terms and conditions of employment,” Kaplan wrote.</p>
<h2>Discussing racial justice at work</h2>
<p>Morales’ show of support for the Black Lives Matter movement in the workplace was hardly an outlier.</p>
<p>Many Black Americans began to <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2020/06/17/george-floyd-protests-black-lives-matter-employees-corporate-america-racism/3195685001/">speak out about racism and discrimination</a> by discussing BLM in their workplaces amid the widespread protests that followed <a href="https://theconversation.com/pain-of-police-killings-ripples-outward-to-traumatize-black-people-and-communities-across-us-159624">George Floyd’s murder by police officers on May 25, 2020</a>, in Minneapolis.</p>
<p>A year after Floyd was killed, a poll found that 68% of Americans thought that employees “<a href="https://www.paradigmiq.com/blog/nearly-7-in-10-americans-think-racial-injustice-is-problem-and-believe-they-should-be-able-to-talk-about-it-at-work/">should be able to discuss racial justice issues at work</a>.”</p>
<p>Employees who wanted to show their support for BLM at work have in recent years met resistance from other employers besides Home Depot, <a href="https://www.hrdive.com/news/diversity-inclusion-grocery/627933/">including the Publix</a> and <a href="https://www.kuow.org/stories/grocery-store-workers-union-wins-case-for-black-lives-matter-buttons">Fred Meyer supermarket chains</a>.</p>
<p>Some companies have said their bans on workers displaying BLM insignia were intended to <a href="https://www.seattletimes.com/business/local-business/black-lives-matter-logos-in-the-workplace-divide-employers-workers-and-customers/">prevent disruptive responses</a> by other workers and customers who may not agree with the movement’s message. </p>
<h2>Mixed decisions</h2>
<p>Legal decisions about this issue have been mixed so far.</p>
<p>A court found that <a href="https://casetext.com/case/amalgamated-transit-union-local-85-v-port-auth-of-allegheny-cnty-2">a Pennsylvania government agency violated the First Amendment</a> when it prohibited workers from wearing face masks emblazoned with BLM messaging during the COVID-19 pandemic.</p>
<p>But <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/21/business/whole-foods-black-lives-matter.html">Whole Foods has prevailed against workers</a> in similar cases. An <a href="https://www.aseonline.org/News-Events/ASE-News/Press-Releases/nlrb-board-overrules-its-administrative-judges-to-hold-in-favor-of-over-riding-dress-rules-for-worker-blm-wear">NLRB administrative law judge</a> found that its employees had worn BLM insignia merely as a political statement <a href="https://www.shrm.org/topics-tools/employment-law-compliance/court-dismisses-claims-whole-foods-black-lives-matter-masks">unrelated to their working conditions</a>.</p>
<p>That preliminary decision is now in question after the NLRB’s final ruling about the same issue in the Home Depot dispute.</p>
<p>Whole Foods workers asserted in a separate legal challenge that their employer’s ban on wearing BLM insignia <a href="https://www.foxbusiness.com/politics/appeals-court-rejects-whole-foods-workers-discrimination-claim-dress-code-crackdown-blm-protests">represented racial discrimination under federal law</a>. In that case, the court found that the employees had failed to prove that the ban had a racial motivation.</p>
<p>Whole Foods was instead seeking to stop expression of a “politically charged” and “controversial message by employees in its stores,” according to the court.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/581411/original/file-20240312-18-s5qhb2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="People stand in front of a Whole Foods with painted signs depicting a woman in a Black Lives Matter face mask and another one with a Black person's face without a mask." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/581411/original/file-20240312-18-s5qhb2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/581411/original/file-20240312-18-s5qhb2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=407&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/581411/original/file-20240312-18-s5qhb2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=407&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/581411/original/file-20240312-18-s5qhb2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=407&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/581411/original/file-20240312-18-s5qhb2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=512&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/581411/original/file-20240312-18-s5qhb2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=512&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/581411/original/file-20240312-18-s5qhb2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=512&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Whole Foods employees who were dismissed from their shift for wearing Black Lives Matter face masks conduct a protest in 2020.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/adam-hermon-left-and-abdulai-barry-stand-in-front-of-whole-news-photo/1227707669?adppopup=true">Erin Clark/The Boston Globe via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>One interesting aspect of these cases is the apparent contradictions involved.</p>
<p>After Floyd’s death, many <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/corporate-america-weighs-protests-racism-companies-struggle-diverse/story?id=71077049">big companies proclaimed their commitment to fight racism</a> and promised to do a better job of supporting diversity, equity and inclusion efforts. </p>
<p><a href="https://corporate.homedepot.com/news/diversity-equity-inclusion/message-craig-menear-racial-equality-justice-all">Home Depot</a>, for example, expressed its “anguish over the senseless killing of George Floyd” and “other unarmed Black men and women in our country.” The company explained how it had established worker programs “to facilitate internal town halls to share experiences and create better understanding.” </p>
<p>Amazon, which owns Whole Foods, <a href="https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/policy-news-views/amazon-donates-10-million-to-organizations-supporting-justice-and-equity">made a similar statement</a>, along with a pledge to donate US$10 million to “organizations that are working to bring about social justice and improve the lives of Black and African Americans.”</p>
<h2>Possible aftermath</h2>
<p>To be sure, this NLRB decision isn’t the final word on this issue, because <a href="https://apps.nlrb.gov/link/document.aspx/09031d4583c8e109">Home Depot has filed an appeal</a>.</p>
<p>Regardless of how the courts respond, the NLRB’s decision is historic. The labor panel has established that a worker’s support for Black Lives Matter in the workplace isn’t merely an expression of their political beliefs.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/224496/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michael Z. Green does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Racism can be a workplace issue, even at Home Depot.Michael Z. Green, Professor of Law and Director, Workplace Law Program, Texas A&M UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2256202024-03-13T14:47:19Z2024-03-13T14:47:19ZThe abuse of Diane Abbott by a top Tory donor should have us all thinking about how we normalise racism against women MPs<p>Yet again a black woman in British public life has been subjected to racist and sexist abuse. This may be shocking, but it is not surprising. </p>
<p>When Tory donor Frank Hester said that looking at Diane Abbott “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2024/mar/11/biggest-tory-donor-looking-diane-abbott-hate-all-black-women">makes you want to hate all black women</a>” his comments were extreme. Yet they were hardly out of the ordinary.</p>
<p>Likewise, the reluctance of some parliamentary colleagues to address the <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-68542621">racial and gendered nature of the comments</a> is sadly unsurprising, as was the slowness with which the prime minister responded, only belatedly and after pressure from ministers, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2024/mar/12/conservative-donor-frank-hester-comments-diane-abbott-racist-wrong-no-10-rishi-sunak#:%7E:text=No%2010%20and%20Conservative%20ministers,MP%20%E2%80%9Cshould%20be%20shot%E2%80%9D.">admitting the remarks were racist</a>. </p>
<p>Whether you love or loathe Abbott (who has been suspended from the parliamentary Labour party for her <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-65374104">own comments on race</a>) this is more than a story about a single individual.</p>
<p>All politicians in the UK are facing increasing levels of violence, harassment and abuse. Data from the <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1467-923X.13070">representative audit of Britain</a> survey shows that in 2019, 49% of parliamentary candidates indicated that they had suffered some form of abuse, harassment and intimidation while campaigning. This is a rise of 11 percentage points compared with 2017. </p>
<p>However, evidence also shows ethnic minority women face exceptional dangers in public life. Variation in experiences of harassment and intimidation is enormous: 63% of ethnic minority women candidates reported experiencing abuse compared with 38% of ethnic minority men, 34% of white men and 45% of white women. </p>
<p>The intimidation experienced by ethnic minority women also sometimes originates <a href="https://renewal.org.uk/archive/vol-29-2021/inconvenient-voices-muslim-women-in-the-labour-party/">within their own political parties</a>. Muslim women in both Labour and the Conservatives have spoken up about this problem. </p>
<p>On top of this, black women experience specific forms of anti-black racism combined with misogyny. African American scholar Moya Bailey coined the term “<a href="https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.18574/nyu/9781479803392.001.0001/html">mysogynoir</a>” to describe this phenomenon in the US, but the UK also abounds with examples. For example, in 2016, Dawn Butler, another black woman Labour MP, revealed that she had been <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-london-35685169">mistaken for a cleaner by a fellow MP</a>. She said this was just a single example of “so many incidents” in parliament.</p>
<p>And although headlines often ostensibly celebrate “diversity” in politics, campaign press coverage also <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1940161216673195">subjects minority ethnic women to extreme scrutiny</a>. This renders figures such as Abbott hyper-visible, at the same time as being exceptionally negative in tone and narrowly focused on ethnicity and gender. </p>
<p>Untangling the relationship between these forces is extremely tricky. While black and minority ethnic women MPs are uncomfortably visible, the ethnic minority women that all MPs are supposed to represent actually face a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1332/251510821X16739744241737">crisis of representation</a> in parliament. </p>
<p>They are very rarely spoken about in parliamentary debates, and when they are, it is usually by white men and in relation to an extremely narrow range of issues, such as <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/fgm-5898">female genital mutilation</a> and trafficking. There is less debate about how race and gender permeate many other aspects of minority ethnic women’s lives.</p>
<h2>Taking black and ethnic minority women MPs seriously</h2>
<p>While Frank Hester’s comments are therefore deeply concerning, they should not be viewed as an exception. Racial and gendered inequalities are still rife in British politics, and they hit black and ethnic minority women the hardest. </p>
<p>We cannot treat examples like this as isolated incidents or as being the work of “bad apples”. Instead, we need to take heed of clear patterns in the data and ask uncomfortable questions about political institutions. What would it take to eliminate these dynamics from political parties, parliament and the press?</p>
<p>Perhaps one way to start is to listen to, and take seriously, the words of people like Abbott herself. In response to Hester’s remarks, she <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/politics/live/2024/mar/12/minister-calls-tory-donor-frank-hesters-diane-abbott-comments-completely-unacceptable-but-refuses-to-go-further-uk-politics-live">revealed</a> how vulnerable she feels when just travelling around her constituency. </p>
<p>“For all of my career as an MP I have thought it important not to live in a bubble, but to mix and mingle with ordinary people,” she said. “The fact that two MPs have been murdered in recent years makes talk like this all the more alarming.”</p>
<p>When his comments were exposed, Hester admitted that he had been “rude about Diane Abbot in a private meeting several years ago” but insisted that his comments “had nothing to do with her gender nor colour of skin”. The character of Hester’s apology itself speaks to the normalisation of abuse and incivility, as well as racism and sexism. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1767248542651781271"}"></div></p>
<p>Abbott and others have told the public before that they are frightened and that they are unable to do their jobs because of the dangers involved. If we start to take them seriously, we resist both the normalisation of incivility in public life and the comfortable notion that politics is now a level playing field.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/225620/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Orly Siow has previously received an ESRC scholarship for research on press coverage of Black and ethnic minority women as political candidates.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sofia Collignon received funding from the British Academy /Leverhulme and was part of the ESRC -funded research team behind the Representative Audit of Britain survey. </span></em></p>Frank Hester’s words are only the latest extreme example of the constant discrimination black and ethnic minority women face when they enter public life.Orly Siow, Associate Senior Lecturer in Gender Studies, Lund UniversitySofia Collignon, Lecturer in Comparative Politics, Queen Mary University of LondonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2252672024-03-08T00:44:21Z2024-03-08T00:44:21ZSam Kerr’s alleged comments may have had a racial element, but they were not ‘racist’<p>Footballer Sam Kerr has been charged with “racially aggravated harassment” over a January 2023 incident in which she allegedly insulted a London police officer. According to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/football/2024/mar/06/sam-kerr-allegedly-called-police-officer-a-stupid-white-bastard-source-says">widespread media reports</a>, she is said to have called the officer a “stupid white bastard”. </p>
<p>Kerr has pleaded not guilty to the charge and has <a href="https://www.9news.com.au/world/sam-kerr-legal-team-reportedly-challenge-allegations-of-police-harassment/744598ef-75f9-4e03-acb5-7b37aecde8d1">reportedly denied</a> using the word “bastard”.</p>
<p>According to section 33 of the British Crime and Disorder Act, to be found guilty of such an offence, the conduct would have had to cause – or have intended to cause – alarm or distress. </p>
<p>Regardless of the court’s ultimate verdict, one big question seems to occupy the minds of many: does the phrase attributed to Kerr constitute racism? </p>
<p>Kerr was born in Western Australia, and has Indian ancestry on her father’s side. Can she be racist towards a white person, and more specifically to a white police officer? </p>
<p>Assuming it is true Kerr used the term “white”, there is a racial element. But “racial” is not the same as “racist”. </p>
<h2>Definitions of racism</h2>
<p>It is important to note here that “race” is not a biological category (there is only one human race). Race is a <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/race-is-a-social-construct-scientists-argue/">social construct</a>, invented and cemented centuries ago to legitimise colonial atrocities, oppression and forms of subjugation including slavery.</p>
<p>There are many definitions of racism, but there has been a broad consensus for decades that racism is more than “just” prejudice and discriminatory behaviour. It is not simply a matter of less favourable treatment of an individual or group of people based on their actual or ascribed ethnic background, skin colour, origin or related characteristics. </p>
<p>Racism also reflects and manifests as systemic exclusion and marginalisation based on historically rooted power imbalances and racial hierarchies that put white people at the top. </p>
<p>To put it very simply, the scholarly (if not the legal) definition is that “<a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/record/1998-07453-002">racism equals power plus prejudice</a>”. </p>
<p>In a vicious cycle, everyday racism and discrimination are shaped and justified by racial hierarchies, while they operate continuously in a way that cements power imbalances and racial marginalisation. </p>
<p>This may sound a bit abstract, but if we do not recognise this power dynamic, we trivialise racism as little more than name-calling. We will fail to understand how racism operates and how it continues to affect people from racially marginalised groups in their daily lives. </p>
<p>One way to illustrate the systemic nature of racism is to look at the persistent lack of representation of people of colour in leadership positions in the corporate sector, the media and governments in Australia and elsewhere. </p>
<p>In the United Kingdom, where the alleged incident occurred, institutional racism – including within the police force – has been recognised since the release of the <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-stephen-lawrence-inquiry">Macpherson report</a> in 1999. It was reaffirmed in 2023 by the <a href="https://www.met.police.uk/SysSiteAssets/media/downloads/met/about-us/baroness-casey-review/update-march-2023/baroness-casey-review-march-2023a.pdf">Baroness Casey Review</a>, despite some political pushback. </p>
<p>The review found “Met officers are 82% White and 71% male, and the majority do not live in the city they police. As such, the Met does not look like the majority of Londoners.”</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/what-is-reverse-racism-and-whats-wrong-with-the-term-208009">What is 'reverse racism' – and what's wrong with the term?</a>
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<h2>Reverse racism?</h2>
<p>Anti-discrimination legislation in the UK and Australia usually does not speak explicitly of “racism”. It outlaws certain acts that are motivated, partially or wholly, by a person’s race (or other personal identity markers). </p>
<p>Legislators introduced these laws with the intention of enhancing the legal protections for those who were considered vulnerable to racism. In Australia, for example, the <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.au/C2004A00274/latest/text">Racial Discrimination Act</a> (1975) is often celebrated as a legal cornerstone in the country’s journey away from its racist “White Australia” history towards a modern multicultural society. </p>
<p>The United Nations’ <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/en/instruments-mechanisms/instruments/international-convention-elimination-all-forms-racial">International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination</a> (1965), ratified by Australia in 1975 and the UK in 1969, makes its intention explicit when it calls on all state parties to make it an offence to disseminate “ideas based on racial superiority”. </p>
<p>The issue of power structures should also be seen through an institutional lens. It is difficult to imagine a person on the streets of London with more institutional power than a white police officer. </p>
<p>Being called a “stupid bastard” might hurt someone’s feelings. But while I’m in no position to judge whether Sam Kerr’s alleged actions have caused “distress” to the officer – as the law would require – labelling the incident as racist is clearly not in line with what racism means. </p>
<p>Such a definition would not align with the concept’s institutional and systemic dimensions. It is not what anti-discrimination laws were intended to outlaw.</p>
<p>Claims of anti-white or “reverse” racism are based on a shallow, misguided and inaccurate understanding of what racism really constitutes. </p>
<p>If Kerr’s court case fails to acknowledge the deeper purpose of anti-racism legislation by equating “racial” with “racist”, it risks setting a highly problematic precedent that would undermine efforts to acknowledge and tackle racism in all its forms. </p>
<p>What would be the message to those millions of people in the UK, Australia and elsewhere who have to face racism every day without recognition of the harm it causes and without the support and capacity to sue the perpetrators? </p>
<p>What would they think about their right to equality and their place in society?</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/225267/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mario Peucker receives funding from Victorian Health Promotion Foundation (VicHealth).</span></em></p>Claims of anti-white or “reverse” racism are based on a shallow, misguided and inaccurate understanding of what racism really constitutes.Mario Peucker, Associate Professor and Principal Research Fellow, Institute for Sustainable Industries and Liveable Cities, Victoria UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2210082024-03-07T14:39:16Z2024-03-07T14:39:16ZDon’t Call Me Resilient podcast: Listen to the new season trailer<p>Today, we launch our trailer for a new season of <a href="https://dont-call-me-resilient.simplecast.com/"><em>Don’t Call Me Resilient</em>,</a> our podcast that takes on the ways racism impacts our biggest news stories and also permeates our everyday lives.</p>
<p>The DCMR team has been busy prepping new episodes and next week, we start releasing episodes for season 7, taking our anti-racist lens to the news unfolding around us and the issues occupying a lot of our minds these days. From big cultural moments, like the Oscars, to the scary spread of AI and the ongoing impacts of climate change, to the devastating war in Gaza: we’ll be on it, in our signature way.</p>
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<p>Thank you for following along with us through all six seasons! And thank you to the audience members who filled out our DCMR audience survey. The results tell us what we already guessed, but now know: our audience is loyal and active and engaged. And many of you say you learn something new with each episode. </p>
<p>Whether you are a loyal listener or have not heard an episode yet, follow us, so you don’t miss our first episode. Find us on <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/dont-call-me-resilient/id1549798876">Apple Podcasts</a>, <a href="https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5zaW1wbGVjYXN0LmNvbS9qZFg0Ql9DOA">Google Podcasts</a>, <a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/37tK4zmjWvq2Sh6jLIpzp7">Spotify</a> or <a href="https://dont-call-me-resilient.simplecast.com/">wherever you listen to your favourite podcasts</a>.</p>
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<h2>Most listened to episodes were about polarization</h2>
<p>You can catch up and listen to last season. Our season 6 most listened to episodes were about the intense polarization within our institutions. </p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/why-the-israel-gaza-conflict-is-so-hard-to-talk-about-216149">One episode</a> featured the conflict in Gaza and we spoke with a historian whose family was taken hostage by Hamas, and a geographer with family in the West Bank. They got together to discuss a way forward. </p>
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<p>The <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-are-brown-and-black-people-supporting-the-far-right-214800">second episode</a> was about political polarization in the United States, and why racialized people are upholding white supremacist ideologies that work against them. Prof. Daniel Martinez HoSang of Yale University joined us to explain the rising popularity of the far right with people of colour – what he calls multicultural white supremacy. </p>
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<h2>Catch up on the past six seasons of DCMR:</h2>
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<h2>Stay in touch</h2>
<p><a href="mailto:DCMR@theconversation.com">We’d love to hear from you</a>, including any ideas for future episodes. Keep up with our podcast and chat with us on <a href="https://www.instagram.com/dontcallmeresilientpodcast/">Instagram</a>. Use the hashtag #DontCallMeResilient or tag us <a href="https://www.instagram.com/dontcallmeresilientpodcast/">@dontcallmeresilientpodcast</a>. Or join <em>The Conversation</em> on <a href="https://twitter.com/ConversationCA">X</a>, and follow our sister stories on <em>The Conversation</em>’s <a href="https://www.instagram.com/theconversationdotcom/">Instagram</a>. You can also now follow the podcast on <a href="https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL_mJBLBznANz6ID9rBCUk7gv_ZRC4Og9-">YouTube</a>. </p>
<p><em>Season 7 credits: Vinita Srivastava is the host and producer. Ateqah Khaki and Dannielle Piper are associate producers. Jennifer Moroz is the consulting producer. Krish Dineshkumar is our sound editor. Theme music: Zaki Ibrahim, Something in the Water.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/221008/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
The DCMR team has been busy prepping new episodes and next week, we start releasing episodes for season 7, taking our anti-racist lens to the news and issues occupying a lot of our minds these days.Vinita Srivastava, Host + Producer, Don't Call Me ResilientDannielle Piper, Associate Producer, Don't Call Me Resilient, The ConversationAteqah Khaki, Associate Producer, Don't Call Me ResilientJennifer Moroz, Consulting Producer, Don't Call Me ResilientLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2250312024-03-05T13:49:08Z2024-03-05T13:49:08ZQuick, blame the deep state! The tactics at play when Tories spout conspiracy theories<p>Conservative MPs seem increasingly willing to use the rhetoric of conspiracy. Recently, Liz Truss claimed that her brief tenure as prime minister had been <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hbbz-mYLzdw">ended by the deep state</a> – shadowy forces within the British establishment and the media.</p>
<p>A few days later, Lee Anderson, the Conservative party’s former deputy chairman, asserted that London’s mayor, Sadiq Khan, is being <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2024/feb/23/tory-mp-lee-anderson-claims-islamists-have-got-control-of-sadiq-khan">controlled by Islamists</a>. He was adding his own twist on a similar conspiracy theory put forward by former home secretary Suella Braverman, who claimed in a Telegraph article that Islamists are <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2024/02/22/islamism-suella-braverman-gaza-ceasefire-lindsay-hoyle/">in charge of the whole country</a>. </p>
<p>Why do politicians make conspiracy claims like these? It seems strange for MPs whose party has been in government for almost 14 years to imply that they aren’t really in control and that power is wielded by hidden actors.</p>
<p>Maybe Truss and Anderson mean what they say, and say what they mean. But even if they do believe that Britain is governed by a deep state or Islamist plotters, knowing a bit about rhetoric can help us to see that there is more going on when politicians use the language of conspiracy.</p>
<h2>Context matters</h2>
<p>A good politician will adapt what they say to fit the moment and their audience. For example, Truss’s deep state comments were made at CPAC, a conference for American conservatives. She was speaking in part to promote her new book, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HEykZe1z6nY">Ten Years to Save the West</a>, and so had little reason to do anything other than give her audience what it likes. Conspiracy theories have become prominent in American conservatism (think QAnon and the claims that the 2020 presidential election was stolen), so echoing the rhetoric is an obvious way for a CPAC speaker to ingratiate themselves with an audience.</p>
<p>Anderson, though, was speaking in the UK, where conspiracist language is more unusual. His comments were seen by many as deliberately divisive and Islamophobic, and quickly landed him a suspension from his party. That said, government ministers <a href="https://www.lbc.co.uk/radio/presenters/nick-ferrari/nick-ferrari-cuts-interview-short-after-minister-refuses-answer-question/">were evasive</a> when asked why his comments were wrong and whether they were Islamophobic.</p>
<h2>Part of the brand</h2>
<p>Courting controversy carries risks, as Anderson’s suspension shows. But it can also thrust a politician into the limelight, giving them a chance to speak to a broader audience and potentially gain new supporters. Much of the time, politicians make their own character – or ethos, as it is known in classical rhetoric – part of their pitch.</p>
<p>In her comments alleging a deep state conspiracy, Truss took on a populist tone. She portrayed herself as an anti-establishment figure fighting for the British people against the elites. She didn’t mention her party’s long period in government in charge of the civil service that allegedly made her tenure so impossible. Nor did she refer to the <a href="https://theconversation.com/sterling-hits-all-time-low-two-things-can-turn-this-around-but-neither-is-straightforward-191370">economic problems</a> brought about during her fleeting administration.</p>
<p>Speaking to an audience which is likely to be less familiar with her political career, Truss was able to present herself as the protagonist in a David and Goliath narrative – albeit one in which David is defeated.</p>
<p>Similarly, Anderson used the controversy around his comments to present himself as a man of the people. Rather than giving any evidence to back up his claims about Islamists controlling Khan, Anderson instead justified his views by citing the positive reaction he had received from his constituents. When told in an <a href="https://youtu.be/No7evaiMj-M?feature=shared&t=285">interview with Channel 4 News</a> that people were puzzled by his refusal to back down, Anderson replied: “If you go and speak to people in Ashfield [Anderson’s constituency] and ask them if they’re puzzled about it, no they’re not.”</p>
<p>In the aftermath of the controversy, <a href="https://youtu.be/YSOnSWys-yM?feature=shared&t=337">Anderson told GB News</a>: “When I went into pubs in Ashfield at the weekend, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, I got a round of applause when I went in. And these are normal working-class people.”</p>
<p>Such comments can be seen as part of a broader trend. Politicians have learned to cite the <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1111/j.1467-9248.2012.00953.x">opinions of ordinary people</a> in order to justify spurious claims. Rather than explaining anything about how he came to view Islamists being in charge of London, Anderson’s response to questions has been to use them as an opportunity to present himself as an outsider to the political establishment – a man in tune with what voters really think.</p>
<h2>Pitting ‘us’ against ‘them’</h2>
<p>This focus on presenting a certain persona and using it to justify baseless comments tells us something important – that identity is a key ingredient in conspiracist rhetoric.</p>
<p>It enables a politician to construct a conflict between an in-group and an out-group – a struggle between “us” and “them” – and asks the audience to pick a side. Rather than focusing on policies or ways of improving life for the British population, this rhetoric wants the audience to identify with the speaker’s character and join them in opposing a threatening enemy.</p>
<p>In this way, conspiracist rhetoric is much like the Conservatives’ attacks on “woke ideology” – it deflects attention away from their record in government, and rallies their supporters against an enemy at a time when the party is down on its luck. </p>
<p>Counteracting this is no easy task. Rhetoric is an art, not an exact science. One strategy could be to focus more on what politicians are trying to achieve when they use conspiracist rhetoric. While it is important to determine whether or not they really believe in a deep state or Islamist conspiracy, we also need to challenge the personas that politicians craft for themselves, as well the us-against-them divisions they construct.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/225031/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Adam Koper has received funding from the Wales Institute of Social and Economic Research and Data (WISERD), and is a member of the Labour Party.</span></em></p>When Liz Truss blames shadowy elitists for her failings as prime minister, she is leaning into a tried-and-tested formula.Adam Koper, WISERD Civil Society Post-Doctoral Fellow, Cardiff UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2230802024-02-28T22:11:57Z2024-02-28T22:11:57ZStop breaking women’s hearts at work: 7 ways to make workplaces better for cardiovascular health<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/578772/original/file-20240228-20-3fdqgt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=1581%2C73%2C6597%2C4329&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Research shows women are at higher risk for burnout and psychological, emotional and physical stress in the workplace in comparison to their male counterparts.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Prominent heart health messaging focuses on the <a href="https://www.heartandstroke.ca/stroke/recovery-and-support/make-healthy-choices#:%7E:text=Be%20more%20active,disease%20and%20stroke%20by%2030%25.">role of lifestyle behaviours</a> (such as physical activity and nutrition) in cardiovascular health. However, the role of <a href="https://www.who.int/health-topics/social-determinants-of-health#tab=tab_1">social determinants of health</a> (or SoDH) — which include sex, gender, poverty, environment — is also well established. SDoH not only directly impact <a href="https://doi.org/10.1161/circresaha.121.319811">risk and progression</a> of heart disease, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajmo.2023.100047">but also health outcomes</a>.</p>
<p>Certain types of heart disease are <a href="https://www.heartandstroke.ca/what-we-do/media-centre/news-releases/system-failure-womens-heart-and-brain-health-are-at-risk">significantly more common in women</a>, compared to men. Moreover, compared with their non-Black counterparts, heart health for Black women is differentiated by a heavier burden of traditional risk factors, earlier development of the disease and nearly 20 per cent higher <a href="https://onlinecjc.ca/article/S0828-282X(23)01619-7/abstract#:%7E:text=Compared%20with%20their%20nonblack%20counterparts,higher%20rates%20of%20cardiovascular%20mortality.">rates of cardiovascular mortality</a>. </p>
<h2>Women, work and heart health</h2>
<p>Canadians spend an average of 7.5 hours per day at work, translating to roughly half of our waking hours. Several researchers have shown a relationship between <a href="https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/news/press-releases/increasing-workplace-flexibility-associated-with-lower-risk-of-cardiovascular-disease/">workplace and heart health</a>. For instance, <a href="https://doi.org/10.2105/ajph.2023.307413">research has linked</a> increased workplace flexibility (hybrid models, flexible schedule) with lower risk of cardiovascular disease. </p>
<p>Research also shows women are at higher risk for burnout and psychological, emotional and physical stress in the workplace <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2023/03/14/burnout-is-on-the-rise-gen-z-millennials-and-women-are-the-most-stressed.html#:%7E:text=Two%20types%20of%20people%2C%20however,burnout%20than%20men%20(37%25)">in comparison to their male counterparts</a>. This disproportionate burden has been attributed to several factors in and outside the workplace, inextricably linked to <a href="https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01400">gender roles, sexism, racism, ageism and misogyny</a>. For instance, women are more likely to experience gender-based violence, assumptions about gender-roles, and higher cognitive and emotional workload in and out of work. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A woman bringing a mug to an older woman" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/578728/original/file-20240228-22-q2iddp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/578728/original/file-20240228-22-q2iddp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578728/original/file-20240228-22-q2iddp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578728/original/file-20240228-22-q2iddp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578728/original/file-20240228-22-q2iddp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578728/original/file-20240228-22-q2iddp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578728/original/file-20240228-22-q2iddp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Many women balance paid work with gendered labour in the home and care-taking roles.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Once again, these burdens are <a href="https://www.mckinsey.com/ca/%7E/media/mckinsey/locations/north%20america/canada/gender%20diversity%20at%20work/gender_diversity_at_work_in_canada.pdf">higher in equity-deserving groups</a>, especially for women experiencing <a href="https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/diversity-and-inclusion/women-in-the-workplace">intersectional forms of discrimination</a>, such as <a href="https://canadianwomen.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Resetting-Normal-Gender-Intersectionality-and-Leadership-Report-Final-EN.pdf">racism, colonialism, ableism and homophobia</a>. </p>
<p>It should not come as a surprise then that almost 90 per cent of reported <a href="https://www.health.harvard.edu/heart-health/takotsubo-cardiomyopathy-broken-heart-syndrome#:%7E:text=More%20than%2090%25%20of%20reported,no%20long%2Dterm%20heart%20damage.">stress-induced heart disease</a> — or “<a href="https://www.heart.org/en/news/2021/10/13/broken-heart-syndrome-is-on-the-rise-especially-among-older-women">broken heart syndrome</a>” — is found among women, and five per cent of women suspected of having a heart attack actually have this disorder.</p>
<p>Women are often the heart of their communities, and assume multiple, and intersecting, gendered social roles. For instance, many balance paid work, with <a href="https://cdn.dal.ca/content/dam/dalhousie/pdf/diff/ace-women-health/Healthy%20Balance/ACEWH_hbrp_thinking_it_through_women_work_caring_new_millennium.pdf">gendered labour in the home and in care-taking roles</a>. To make matters worse, women are then <a href="https://hbr.org/2022/04/stop-framing-wellness-programs-around-self-care">bombarded with wellness and self-management messaging</a> that tells them they are <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/ca/blog/the-psychology-of-weight-loss/202308/going-on-vacation-wont-cure-your-burnout">responsible for managing stress</a> and <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/ca/blog/the-psychology-of-weight-loss/202306/the-burnout-burger">risk in a “healthy” way</a>.</p>
<p>In terms of workplace health, women and equity-deserving groups have been compared to the “canary in the mine.” Canaries were traditionally used in coal mines to detect the presence of carbon monoxide. The bird would succumb to the toxicity before the miners, thereby providing time to take action. </p>
<p>However, psychologists Christina Maslach and Michael P. Leiter <a href="https://www.hup.harvard.edu/books/9780674251014">make an important point</a>: No one ever declared that the canaries needed to be more resilient or do more self-care to be less susceptible to the influence of carbon monoxide.</p>
<p>Women make up over half of the population, yet continue to be <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016%2Fj.neuron.2021.06.002">under-represented in the workplace in several ways</a>, including <a href="https://canadianwomen.org/the-facts/women-and-leadership-in-canada/#:%7E:text=Women%20are%2030%25%20less%20likely,%2C%20report%20finds%2C%202017">leadership and positions of influence</a>. </p>
<h2>Creating heart-healthy workplaces</h2>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A woman at a desk looking at a tablet" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/578730/original/file-20240228-24-sbksv1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/578730/original/file-20240228-24-sbksv1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=379&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578730/original/file-20240228-24-sbksv1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=379&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578730/original/file-20240228-24-sbksv1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=379&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578730/original/file-20240228-24-sbksv1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=476&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578730/original/file-20240228-24-sbksv1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=476&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578730/original/file-20240228-24-sbksv1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=476&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Hybrid work models can increase productivity and workers’ locus of control and support flexible hours.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Workplaces can have a positive impact on women’s health by ensuring knowledge about women and heart disease is translated into actions that support prevention and treatment. Here are seven evidence-based recommendations for co-creating heart-healthy workplaces:</p>
<ol>
<li><p><strong>Flexible hours</strong>: <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0002716211415608">Inflexible work schedules</a> have been shown to increase stress for <a href="https://workplaceinsight.net/working-mothers-disproportionately-more-stressed-study-claims/">women and families</a> — including stressors transmitted to children. Effective “flex hours” initiatives (for example, flex hours to support physical activity) show <a href="https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/news/2023/workplace-flexibility-may-support-cardiovascular-health">positive impact on workers’ heart health</a>, physical activity and sleep patterns, especially in adults ages 45 and older and for those who had increased cardiovascular disease risks.</p></li>
<li><p><strong>Flexible hybrid work models</strong>: Evidence on hybrid work models has grown exponentially since March 2020. It appears that when using a non-fixed, worker-led approach, hybrid work models can <a href="https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/news/press-releases/increasing-workplace-flexibility-associated-with-lower-risk-of-cardiovascular-disease/">increase productivity, workers’ locus of control and support flexible hours</a>. Research supports that women are more likely to use this option, when offered, but also highlights that when employers fail to monitor impact, or properly design jobs for hybrid and remote working, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2022/sep/25/hybrid-working-may-hold-back-womens-careers-say-managers">hybrid work models can augment gender pay and promotion gaps</a>. </p></li>
<li><p><strong>Invest in psychological safety</strong>: A <a href="https://theconversation.com/fostering-psychological-safety-in-the-workplace-4-practical-real-life-tips-based-on-science-204661">psychologically safe workplace</a> is where employees feel comfortable taking risks and being themselves without fear of judgement, lateral violence (for example stonewalling, bullying) or negative consequences. Psychological safety is positively associated with workplace engagement, innovation, job performance and job satisfaction — all desirable outcomes for institutions, organizations, the bottom line, clients and the community. </p></li>
<li><p><strong>Offer health benefits</strong>: Mandatory benefits, also known as statutory benefits, are <a href="https://novascotia.ca/lae/employmentrights/docs/labourstandardscodeguide.pdf">required by Canadian employment law</a>. They include provincial health-care coverage, pension contributions, employment insurance, survivor insurance and workers’ compensation insurance. <a href="https://velocityglobal.com/resources/blog/employee-benefits-in-canada">Supplementary benefits</a> help attract and retain workers. Examples include dental care, medication insurance, disability insurance and many complementary medicine services. These <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007%2FBF03403639">supplementary benefits</a> have been associated with <a href="https://doi.org/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2022.33020">improved health outcomes</a>, and <a href="https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/universal-health-coverage-(uhc)">reduced chronic disease risk</a>.</p></li>
<li><p><strong>Invest in programs supporting health promotion</strong>: In addition to the examples above, <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/workplacehealthpromotion/initiatives/resource-center/pdf/WHRC-Workplace-Best-Practices-for-Heart-Healthy-Employees-508.pdf">workplaces can invest</a> in programming that supports health-promoting behaviours in and out of work. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1097/jom.0000000000000467">Such programming</a> has been associated with workplace satisfaction, productivity and favourable health-related outcomes. Additional examples of health promotion include health risk appraisals, lunch and learns, flexible and inclusive leave options, and time off for leisure activities, spiritual practices, volunteering or community engagement. </p></li>
<li><p><strong>Engage in collective conflict resolution strategies</strong>: Evidence supports that <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK470432/">collaborative conflict resolution</a> approaches, like mediation, can provide a positive learning opportunity for those involved. This encourages workers to find a solution together, <a href="https://demlegaleagle.com/blog/2020/12/3-ways-workplace-mediation-may-beat-discipline/">rather than via formal disciplinary action</a>, where the root causes of conflict often go unaddressed.</p></li>
<li><p><strong>Commit to policy, procedure and protocols that combat ‘isms’</strong>: Ibram X. Kendi’s book, <a href="https://www.ibramxkendi.com/how-to-be-an-antiracist"><em>How To Be An Antiracist</em></a>, provides rationale and examples for how to ensure policy and procedures are anti-racist. Adopting this approach requires a significant, but worthwhile investment, learning and unlearning, but gains can be made through small changes. Workplaces can also adopt policies that combat other forms of discrimination, including ageism and sexism. For instance, several employers have started to <a href="https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/resumes-cover-letters/stay-at-home-mom-resume">encourage applicants</a> to <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbescoachescouncil/2023/02/24/how-stay-at-home-parents-returning-to-work-can-overcome-common-barriers/?sh=f500d7f2c091">report “stay at home mom” as part of their work experience</a>, and the several transferable skills this experience offers.</p></li>
</ol>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="A yellow canary perched on a branch" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/578731/original/file-20240228-18-alxd70.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/578731/original/file-20240228-18-alxd70.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=545&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578731/original/file-20240228-18-alxd70.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=545&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578731/original/file-20240228-18-alxd70.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=545&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578731/original/file-20240228-18-alxd70.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=685&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578731/original/file-20240228-18-alxd70.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=685&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/578731/original/file-20240228-18-alxd70.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=685&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Integrating health and safety strategies is a better option for workers than waiting until the ‘canary’ expires.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Pixabay)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Rather than waiting until the canary in the workplace coal mine expires, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1097/jom.0000000000000467">evidence shows</a> there are options available to integrate health and safety strategies that achieve measurable benefits to enhance the overall health and well-being of workers, their families and the community. </p>
<p>In acknowledging that factors like the built environment, social and health systems, and outdated policies are the problems needing to be addressed — rather than people, including women, those living with disability, and equity-deserving groups — we take a step towards healthier, safer and more accessible workplaces.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/223080/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Shannan M. Grant has received funding from Diabetes Canada, Dietitians of Canada and currently holds funding from Medavie, Tri-Council Funding Programs, Canadian Foundation for Dietetic Research, IWK Health, Mount Saint Vincent University. She is affiliated with Mount Saint Vincent University, IWK Health, Dalhousie University, Dietitians of Canada, Diabetes Canada, People in Pain (PIPN), and Dr. Lee-Baggley and Associates.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dayna Lee-Baggley dislosures: Consulting fees from: Bausch Health, Novo Nordisk; Clinical advisory committee: Tobacco Free Nova Scotia; Royalties: New Harbinger Publications; Funded by: Workplace Harassment and Violence Prevention Fund, Employment and Social Development Canada, Government of Canada; Canadian Foundation for Dietetic Research, Research Grants; Owner or co-owner: Dr. Lee-Baggley and Associates Inc and ImpACT Workplace Solutions Inc.
</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jacquie Gahagan receives funding from SSHRC and CIHR.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Barb Hamilton-Hinch, Jessica Mannette, and Leigh-Ann MacFarlane do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Acknowledging that factors like the built environment, social and health systems, and outdated policies are the problems — rather than people — is a step towards healthier and safer workplaces.Shannan M. Grant, Associate Professor, Registered Dietitian, Department of Applied Human Nutrition, Faculty of Professional Studies, Mount Saint Vincent UniversityBarb Hamilton-Hinch, Associate Professor, School of Health and Human Performance, and Assistant Vice Provost of Equity and Inclusion, Dalhousie UniversityDayna Lee-Baggley, Adjunct professor, Department of Family Medicine & Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Dalhousie UniversityJacquie Gahagan, Full Professor and Associate Vice-President, Research, Mount Saint Vincent UniversityJessica Mannette, Research Assistant, Department of Psychology, Saint Mary’s UniversityLeigh-Ann MacFarlane, Educational Developer, Mount Saint Vincent UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2220322024-02-28T17:09:36Z2024-02-28T17:09:36ZW.E.B. Du Bois’ study ‘The Philadelphia Negro’ at 125 still explains roots of the urban Black experience – sociologist Elijah Anderson tells why it should be on more reading lists<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/576236/original/file-20240216-26-ucw3z0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A mural dedicated to Du Bois and the Old Seventh Ward is painted on the corner of 6th and South streets in Philadelphia.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/general-view-of-the-mural-commemorating-the-seventh-ward-on-news-photo/502954290">Paul Marotta/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>W.E.B. Du Bois is widely known for his civil rights activism, but many <a href="https://doi.org/10.7709/jnegroeducation.87.3.0230">sociologists argue</a> that he has yet to receive due recognition as the founding father of <a href="https://theconversation.com/whats-sociology-a-sociologist-explains-why-floridas-college-students-should-get-the-chance-to-learn-how-social-forces-affect-everyones-lives-222365">American sociology</a>. His groundbreaking study, “<a href="https://www.pennpress.org/9781512824346/the-philadelphia-negro/">The Philadelphia Negro: A Social Study</a>,” was published in 1899 and exhaustively detailed the poor social conditions of thousands of Black Philadelphians in the city’s historic Seventh Ward neighborhood.</em> </p>
<p><em>We spoke with <a href="https://sociology.yale.edu/people/elijah-anderson">Elijah Anderson</a>, Sterling Professor of Sociology and of African American Studies at Yale University, about the importance of Du Bois’ seminal study and why it’s still relevant for Philadelphians 125 years later.</em></p>
<p><strong>How did the ‘Philadelphia Negro’ study come about?</strong></p>
<p>Much of Philadelphia’s elite of the day believed that the city was going to the dogs, and that the reason was the huge influx of Black people from the South. Susan Wharton, a philanthropist and the wife of Joseph Wharton – after whom the Wharton School is named – and then-provost at the University of Pennsylvania Charles Harrison invited Du Bois to come to Philadelphia to study Philadelphia’s Black population and try to find answers to this problem.</p>
<p>Du Bois accepted their offer, which came with a small stipend, and came to Philadelphia along with his new bride, Nina Gomer. They settled in the Old Seventh Ward in a local settlement house, located at Sixth and Waverly streets, down the street from Mother Bethel AME, the famous Black church. Du Bois then set about studying the Seventh Ward, known for its concentration of the Black population. These people lived in the alleys and streets adjacent to the wealthy white people for whom they worked as servants. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Family portrait of W.E.B. Du Bois, his wife Nina, and their baby son Burghardt in 1898." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/577096/original/file-20240221-20-awssda.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/577096/original/file-20240221-20-awssda.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=429&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577096/original/file-20240221-20-awssda.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=429&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577096/original/file-20240221-20-awssda.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=429&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577096/original/file-20240221-20-awssda.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=539&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577096/original/file-20240221-20-awssda.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=539&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577096/original/file-20240221-20-awssda.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=539&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Family portrait of W.E.B Du Bois, his wife, Nina, and their baby son Burghardt in 1898.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://credo.library.umass.edu/view/full/mums312-i0389">W.E.B. Du Bois Papers, 1803-1999, Special Collections and University Archives, University of Massachusetts Amherst Libraries</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Due to Du Bois’ upbringing and Harvard education, his bearing was that of the elite. While conducting his field work, he at times dressed in spats and a suit and tie. </p>
<p>Du Bois approached his subjects as an objective social scientist. He wanted to understand the condition of Philadelphia’s Black population and then provide his report to the white elite whom he believed would use his work to improve the condition of Black people, both within Philadelphia and beyond. </p>
<p><strong>Can you explain his idea of the benevolent despot?</strong></p>
<p>This term is based on Du Bois’ original premise: that the inequality between the living conditions of Blacks and whites could be rectified by the wealthy people who controlled the city. He regarded these leaders as despots due to the power they wielded, but also believed them to be benevolent as well as rational. Du Bois observed the Irish and Scottish immigrants who were employed in certain industries. He wondered why these companies would fail to employ Black people, as well, and concluded that they must simply be ignorant. After all, in his mind, these were benevolent people as well as rich and powerful – and most importantly, they were rational. So why would they employ the Irish and Scots, but not the Black people? This was a critical question for Du Bois, and one he was determined to answer through his study.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/576238/original/file-20240216-30-6f7ir.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Book cover of 'The Philadelphia Negro: A Social Study' by W.E.B. Du Bois" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/576238/original/file-20240216-30-6f7ir.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/576238/original/file-20240216-30-6f7ir.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=902&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/576238/original/file-20240216-30-6f7ir.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=902&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/576238/original/file-20240216-30-6f7ir.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=902&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/576238/original/file-20240216-30-6f7ir.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1133&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/576238/original/file-20240216-30-6f7ir.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1133&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/576238/original/file-20240216-30-6f7ir.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1133&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Elijah Anderson wrote the introduction to the 1995 and 2023 editions of ‘The Philadelphia Negro.’</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.pennpress.org/9781512824346/the-philadelphia-negro/">University of Pennsylvania Press</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>However, as the study progressed, Du Bois began to realize that the problem was much more complicated than he’d originally assumed. He realized that the so-called benevolent despots may not be so benevolent after all, focusing on their own financial interests. These included pitting Irish and Scottish workers against Black people to keep wages low, but also a simple preference of white workers over Black workers.</p>
<p>Halfway through the study, Du Bois pours out a soliloquy of disappointment. He declares that there is, in fact, no benevolent captain of industry, because if such a person existed, he wouldn’t let these Black boys and girls fester in poverty and crime. </p>
<p>He writes:</p>
<p>“If now a benevolent despot had seen the development, he would immediately have sought to remedy the real weakness of the Negro’s position, i.e., his lack of training; and he would have swept away any discrimination that compelled men to support as criminals those who might support themselves as workmen.</p>
<p>"He would have made special effort to train Negro boys for industrial life and given them a chance to compete on equal terms with the best white workmen; arguing that in the long run this would be best for all concerned, since by raising the skill and standard of living of the Negroes he would make them effective workmen and competitors who would maintain a decent level of wages. He would have sternly suppressed organized or covert opposition to Negro workmen.</p>
<p>"There was, however, no benevolent despot, no philanthropist, no far-seeing captain of industry to prevent the Negro from losing even the skill he had learned or to inspire him by opportunities to learn more.”</p>
<p>This is also where Du Bois began to see and clarify the situation as a problem of racism. He doesn’t use the word “racism” – that word did not exist at the time – but he speaks in terms of racial preferences and discrimination. </p>
<p><strong>How are his findings relevant to Philadelphians today?</strong></p>
<p>“The Philadelphia Negro” remains a powerful work. It depicts the social organization of the Black community, and especially the Black class structure of Du Bois’ day. It also utilizes the technique we know today as “<a href="https://escholarship.org/uc/item/8wc8v8cv">cohort analysis</a>” – the idea that social conditions affecting a group are also impactful to the individual, and that what happens to the group is a function of historic moments of society. </p>
<p>Du Bois’ ethnographic descriptions of Black people living in isolated communities after the end of slavery and migrating to these cities presages the dire conditions in inner-city communities of today, many of which are still largely Black. </p>
<p>Additionally, the role of European immigration in Du Bois’ day played a critical role in undermining the position of Black people in society. In the context of “white over Black,” each successive wave of immigration from Europe since the end of the Civil War typically worked to undermine the position of the emerging Black middle class. </p>
<p>Du Bois pointed this out back in 1899. He observed that employers preferred white immigrants from Europe over Black people. The benevolent despot Du Bois hoped to reach ignored his work, with implications for Philadelphia race relations to this day.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/577092/original/file-20240221-24-gr3t9h.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="W.E.B. Du Bois seated at desk in office at Atlanta University in 1909" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/577092/original/file-20240221-24-gr3t9h.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/577092/original/file-20240221-24-gr3t9h.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=442&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577092/original/file-20240221-24-gr3t9h.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=442&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577092/original/file-20240221-24-gr3t9h.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=442&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577092/original/file-20240221-24-gr3t9h.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=555&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577092/original/file-20240221-24-gr3t9h.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=555&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577092/original/file-20240221-24-gr3t9h.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=555&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">W.E.B. Du Bois seated in his office at Atlanta University in 1909.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://credo.library.umass.edu/cgi-bin/pdf.cgi?id=scua:mums312-i0393">W.E.B. Du Bois Papers, 1803-1999, Special Collections and University Archives, University of Massachusetts Amherst Libraries</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><strong>How did it inform your own work as a sociologist?</strong></p>
<p>When I was a sociology graduate student at the University of Chicago in the 1970s, “The Philadelphia Negro” was not required reading. But later, I taught a summer course at Northwestern University about Du Bois and, like so many young Black scholars of my generation, I was deeply inspired by his work.</p>
<p>Afterwards, when I was recruited by Swarthmore College – located 11 miles outside Philadelphia – I felt honored to reside near the city where Du Bois had conducted his work. I often traveled to Philadelphia to walk through the neighborhoods where he’d worked. Ultimately, the University of Pennsylvania – the very place that had originally recruited Du Bois to conduct his study – offered me a position. I moved to the city and began conducting ethnographic studies. In some sense, I followed in the footsteps of Du Bois. </p>
<p>In fact, my entire body of ethnographic work grows out of some of the questions Du Bois raises, and the unresolved problems he uncovers. “<a href="https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/S/bo3638183.html">Streetwise</a>” focuses on the sociology of gentrification and its implications for both white and Black people living in gentrifying neighborhoods. “<a href="https://wwnorton.com/books/Code-of-the-Street/">Code of the Street</a>” addresses the violence that occurs in inner-city neighborhoods, as well as the issue of policing and the abdication of the police. After that, I began to deal with some of the issues that brought different races together. “<a href="https://wwnorton.com/books/9780393340518">The Cosmopolitan Canopy</a>” is an ethnographic study of Philadelphia’s Rittenhouse Square and the Reading Terminal Market and Center City.
Most recently, in 2022, I published “<a href="https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/B/bo119245209.html">Black in White Space</a>,” a fine-grained ethnographic portrait of how systemic racism operates in everyday life. </p>
<p>All these books, based on studies that were conducted in Philadelphia, stem from the inspiration of reading Du Bois as a graduate student.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/576852/original/file-20240220-20-uaxpth.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="View of empty street in Kensington neighborhood of North Philadelphia" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/576852/original/file-20240220-20-uaxpth.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/576852/original/file-20240220-20-uaxpth.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/576852/original/file-20240220-20-uaxpth.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/576852/original/file-20240220-20-uaxpth.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/576852/original/file-20240220-20-uaxpth.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/576852/original/file-20240220-20-uaxpth.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/576852/original/file-20240220-20-uaxpth.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Philadelphia has more residents living in poverty than any other big city in the U.S.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/buildings-stand-in-the-neighborhood-where-the-west-news-photo/1308933509">Spencer Platt/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><strong>Why should Philadelphians read this book?</strong></p>
<p>The book is a seminal work, and while it has influenced many Black sociologists, it has <a href="https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520286764/the-scholar-denied">not yet received the attention it deserves</a>. However, an increasing number of scholars, both Black and white, are beginning to grapple with Du Bois’ work.</p>
<p>Philadelphians should read this book to become enlightened about the city’s history and how it relates to the dire circumstances of the city’s impoverished population of today. </p>
<p>The Philadelphia economy is undergoing a <a href="https://selectgreaterphl.com/doing-business/economic-overview/">period of profound transition</a>, from an economy based on manufacturing to one based increasingly on service and high technology, including robotics, computers and social media. Jobs and financial opportunities are <a href="https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/issue-briefs/2022/02/how-the-pandemic-has-affected-philadelphias-economy-and-jobs">sent away from Philadelphia</a> to non-metropolitan America and to underdeveloped nations around the world. As a result, many residents of the city have become dislocated economically; <a href="https://www.inquirer.com/news/philadelphia-poverty-rate-big-city-20230914.html">22% of the city’s population is impoverished</a>, and a <a href="https://www.pewtrusts.org/-/media/assets/2017/11/pri_philadelphias_poor.pdf">majority of them are Black</a>. Hence, the condition of the disenfranchised underclass whom Du Bois regarded as the “submerged tenth” has become remarkably more complicated and dire.</p>
<p>This complex mix of factors creates a good deal of crime and alienation, which feeds into the dominant narrative that our cities are falling apart – and that it’s the fault of this disenfranchised underclass, this “submerged tenth.” This is blatantly incorrect. The problems facing today’s poor inner-city residents stem from <a href="https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/B/bo119245209.html">systemic racism</a> and <a href="https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/T/bo13375722.html">the structure of capital</a>, not the individuals trapped inside that structure. </p>
<p>Strikingly, despite being written over a century ago, “The Philadelphia Negro” anticipates not only the condition of today’s poor inner-city Blacks, but also the unwillingness or the inability of today’s “benevolent despots” to rectify or even address the situation. We see Du Bois’ “submerged tenth” in today’s drug dealers, drug addicts and the persistently impoverished Black community. And we see his not-so-benevolent despots in politicians who would rather blame the victims than take any steps to improve their lot.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/222032/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Elijah Anderson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Over a century ago, white Philadelphia elites believed the city was going to the dogs – and they blamed poor Black inner-city residents instead of the racism that kept this group disenfranchised.Elijah Anderson, Professor of Sociology and African American Studies, Yale UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2232502024-02-27T12:30:48Z2024-02-27T12:30:48ZA Texas court ruling on a Black student wearing hair in long locs reflects history of racism in schools<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/577713/original/file-20240224-24-mne9vr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=61%2C49%2C8118%2C5383&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">America's schools don't always welcome cultural expression. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/barber-cutting-young-boys-hair-in-barbershop-royalty-free-image/1717468327?phrase=black+boy+dread+locs&adppopup=true">MoMo Productions via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>A Texas judge ruled on Feb. 22, 2024, that the Barbers Hill School District <a href="https://www.texastribune.org/2024/02/22/texas-crown-act-judge-barbers-hill">didn’t violate the law</a> when it punished Darryl George, a Black student, for wearing his hair in long locs. The Texas law in question – the CROWN Act – prohibits discrimination against hairstyles in schools and workplaces. The school district argued – and Judge Chap B. Cain III agreed – that the law doesn’t mention anything about hair length. In the following Q&A, <a href="https://american.academia.edu/KenjusWatson">Kenjus Watson</a>, an education professor at American University who studies the <a href="https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED619047">psychological and social effects of racism</a>, discusses how the decision upholds a long-standing legacy of cultural assimilation .</em></p>
<h2>What message has the court just sent?</h2>
<p>I’d argue it’s a harsh reminder that the natural appearance, cultural expressions and freedom of Black children are <a href="https://doi.org/10.47106/4rwj.11.02181931">incompatible with the objectives and ideals</a> of <a href="https://www.tcpress.com/the-white-architects-of-black-education-9780807740422">the school system in the U.S</a>. Those objectives and ideals were created to establish social order, enforce conformity, demand cultural assimilation and <a href="http://www.blackfeministpedagogies.com/uploads/2/5/5/9/25595205/a_third_uni.pdf">suppress marginalized groups</a>. </p>
<p>The court decision in Texas – and the no-long-hair policy in the Barbers Hill Independent School District – might seem outdated, misinformed or at odds with <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s11256-019-00540-3">best practices for culturally responsive education</a>. But as I and other researchers <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36891083/">have found</a>, strict monitoring and other <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0042085918754328">anti-Black practices</a> – such as those regarding Black children’s hair, bodies, language, clothing and even their presence – <a href="https://culanth.org/fieldsights/schools-prisons-and-blackness-in-america-a-conversation-with-damien-sojoyner">are widespread in America’s schools</a>. </p>
<h2>What options do Black students have?</h2>
<p>Since education is compulsory for minors, the only options for Black families are to find schools that attempt to <a href="https://doi.org/10.58295/2375-3668.1484">prioritize their overall well-being</a> by being supportive of their children’s hairstyle and other cultural values, or to educate their children at home, as <a href="https://theconversation.com/struggling-with-racial-biases-black-families-homeschool-kids-38694">many Black families do now</a>.</p>
<p>Finding a culturally supportive school can be a challenge. Despite efforts from Black families, educators, leaders and allies to create more inclusive environments in schools, anti-Black racism is <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/13613324.2013.850412">pervasive in educational settings</a> – from pre-K through higher education.</p>
<p>Staying in a school system that is hostile to Black cultural expression can threaten children’s well-being. <a href="https://www.tcpress.com/racial-microaggressions-in-education-9780807764398">Extensive research</a> has found that <a href="https://hollisarchives.lib.harvard.edu/repositories/14/resources/9950">racial microaggressions</a> – <a href="https://issuu.com/almaiflores/docs/kw___lph_research_brief_final_versi">everyday acts of racism</a> – can adversely affect the mental and <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-is-racial-battle-fatigue-a-school-psychologist-explains-192493">physical</a> health of Black people. </p>
<p>My own research has found that it can affect the <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36891083/">biological health of Black young people</a>. The hormones the body releases under stressful racial events can damage the <a href="https://vimeo.com/469867415">DNA of Black students</a>. Over time, this can contribute to higher rates of disease and overall <a href="https://theconversation.com/study-racism-shortens-lives-and-hurts-health-of-blacks-by-promoting-genes-that-lead-to-inflammation-and-illness-122027">shorter life expectancy</a> among Black people in the U.S. Finding a supportive school can be an even more urgent matter of life and death. Researchers have found that enduring everyday racism in school is also a key factor behind <a href="https://theconversation.com/black-kids-and-suicide-why-are-rates-so-high-and-so-ignored-127066">rising suicide rates</a> for Black youth.</p>
<h2>What should school leaders consider?</h2>
<p>If educational leaders want to see Black students flourish, I believe they should dismantle racist policies that require order, conformity and assimilation. They should replace these with schoolwide <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.newideapsych.2021.100880">microaffirmative</a> practices that validate Black student cultural expressions, identities, resilience and brilliance. They can also prioritize mental and emotional health and wellness.</p>
<p>To move toward a new educational system that truly serves all students, I argue that it is crucial to listen to Black families and students in the development of school policies, curriculum and instruction. Doing so can help place Black families’ current experiences within the broader context of the ongoing struggle against <a href="https://theconversation.com/critical-race-theory-what-it-is-and-what-it-isnt-162752">discrimination and unjust legal decisions</a>, such as the one against Darryl George.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/223250/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kenjus T. Watson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A scholar on racism weighs in on a recent court decision that upheld a school’s decision to punish a Black male student for wearing his hair in long locs.Kenjus T. Watson, Assistant Professor of Urban Education, American UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2222942024-02-21T17:27:59Z2024-02-21T17:27:59ZHow colourism affects families in the UK – and how positive parenting can challenge it<p>Actor Lupita Nyong'o <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-49976837">describes colourism</a> as “the daughter of racism” in “a world that rewards lighter skin over darker skin”. <a href="https://theconversation.com/colourism-how-skin-shade-prejudice-impacts-black-men-in-the-uk-175786">This form</a> of <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/00380385211069507">prejudice</a> sees people more penalised the darker their skin is and the further their features are from those associated with whiteness. </p>
<p>In 2021, we developed the <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/01419870.2022.2149275">Everyday Colourism Scale</a> to capture individual people’s perceptions of interpersonal colourism. This tool has allowed us to start to examine associations between experiences of colourism and demographic characteristics and various health and wellbeing outcomes. We found that experiencing colourism is associated with negative <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S174014452300092X">body image</a>. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/01419870.2024.2311139">Our skin shade study</a> has found that colourism affects both men and women, and can shape how people feel about themselves and how they choose romantic partners. It also shows how often this starts at home. We have found that families in the UK play a significant role in introducing children to colourist views and that these, in turn, can shape and undermine family relations.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A mother and child." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/577070/original/file-20240221-16-ymuuml.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/577070/original/file-20240221-16-ymuuml.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577070/original/file-20240221-16-ymuuml.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577070/original/file-20240221-16-ymuuml.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577070/original/file-20240221-16-ymuuml.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577070/original/file-20240221-16-ymuuml.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577070/original/file-20240221-16-ymuuml.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Families can challenge colourism through positive parenting and love.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/mother-son-504833179">Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>How colourism can play out in the home</h2>
<p>For our study, we conducted interviews in 2019 with 33 people of colour (24 women and nine men) who were black, South Asian, East Asian or of mixed ethnic backgrounds (predominantly black and white). </p>
<p>We found that women and men’s experiences of familial colourism differed. The women we spoke to were targeted and affected more than men. </p>
<p>In a patriarchal society, <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/27821646">women</a> are subjected to global appearance ideals that posit light skin as beautiful and feminine. Our previous work on <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/00380385211069507">black men’s experiences of colourism</a> found that light skin is seen as desirable in women – it is often a status symbol. </p>
<p>Our new findings show that familial awareness of the social capital inherent in light skin, particularly for women, affects how families treat their children. </p>
<p>Marie, a 50-year-old Chinese woman who participated in our research, described conflicting feelings about going out in the sun due to colourism from women in her family. She said:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I don’t like going outside because I’m going to get darker and end up looking like a peasant. My parents were peasants. When they were growing up, they used to work in the countryside. I remember as a kid, mum saying: ‘No, don’t go outside because you’ll get dark, and you’ll end up looking like you work in the paddy fields.’</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Marie’s story suggests that family colourism may relate to feelings of shame. From her account, her mother seems to associate dark skin with low socioeconomic status and wants to distance her family from it. </p>
<p>Other participants described how dark skin was seen as ugly in ways that suggested that it might also be a source of shame. Portia, a 51-year-old black woman, said that her father told her, at 13, that she was “black and ugly” like her grandmother – his own mother. “It’s something that is etched on my brain,” she said. To her mind, it showed “how deep this self-hatred is”.</p>
<p>Participants also discussed the impact of family colourism on romantic relationships. Chloe, a 33-year-old woman with a black mother and white father, said skin shade influenced her choice of partner. “This is really sad,” she said. “My mum doesn’t like us to date black people … She only wants us to date white people.” </p>
<p>Chloe later said that her mother did not mind a former Chinese boyfriend, but was opposed to her dating south Asian people. Her mother was also uncomfortable with her having a partner from a mixed ethnic background.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A multigenerational family at dinner." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/577071/original/file-20240221-20-6sbwbz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/577071/original/file-20240221-20-6sbwbz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577071/original/file-20240221-20-6sbwbz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577071/original/file-20240221-20-6sbwbz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577071/original/file-20240221-20-6sbwbz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577071/original/file-20240221-20-6sbwbz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577071/original/file-20240221-20-6sbwbz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Skin-shade prejudice can shape familial relations.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/happy-asian-extended-family-laughing-mans-2083727323">Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>‘Oppositional consciousness’</h2>
<p>Some of our participants described the impact of familial colourism on their sense of self-worth, body image and wellbeing. Divya, a 43-year-old Indian woman, suggested that her mother’s colourist views negatively affected her when she was growing up:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>One of the biggest issues I had was with my mum always, always going on about how it’s better to be fairer, that you’ll only find a boy if you’re fairer and you’re only beautiful if you’re fair. And I think that really, really got to me.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>These findings chime with what scholars have found in <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0192513X10390858?journalCode=jfia">the US</a> and <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01419870.2013.788200">Brazil</a>. Families can actively make children aware of colourism and inflict it too. These same studies, though, have also highlighted how some families speak about colourism as a way of opposing and resisting it. </p>
<p>US sociologists JeffriAnne Wilder and Colleen Cain talk about “oppositional consciousness” to describe the process by which families can challenge colourist views and promote acceptance, celebrating all skin tones. </p>
<p>Our participants, too, described how their families helped them to appreciate people of all skin shades. Some had parents who encouraged them to take pride in their skin shades. Others described trying to raise awareness about colourism among their own children. </p>
<p>Portia told us that she talks with her son about colourism and they do not let it slide when they encounter it. Doing so, to her mind, is about healing, “because otherwise you end up carrying this stuff around, thinking it’s your fault. It is not.” It is also about ensuring her son grows up with confidence: “I don’t want him carrying this baggage around. I want him to go into the world as confident as he can be as a young black man.”</p>
<p>Colourism has a profound impact on people’s wellbeing. Experiencing this at the hands of the people closest to you is detrimental. This is particularly the case since racialised minority families are <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/jftr.12262">often seen to be havens</a> from the racialised prejudice and discrimination experienced outside the home. </p>
<p>Figuring out how to challenge it, then, is paramount. By educating the next generation, families have a key role to play in disrupting the transmission of this prejudice. </p>
<p>For one participant, Malakai, it is about teaching love and positive parenting: “You, as a people, need to educate your children and tell them that they are beautiful. Teach the younger ones, educate them. And teach love among our people.”</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/222294/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Aisha Phoenix receives funding from the UKRI as a Future Leaders Fellow. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nadia Craddock does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Families in the UK play a significant role in introducing children to colourist views. They can also be instrumental in challenging them.Aisha Phoenix, Lecturer in Social Justice, King's College LondonNadia Craddock, Senior Research Fellow at Centre for Appearance Research, King's College LondonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2221062024-02-20T13:18:14Z2024-02-20T13:18:14ZSeparate water fountains for Black people still stand in the South – thinly veiled monuments to the long, strange, dehumanizing history of segregation<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/571683/original/file-20240126-21-60gtdd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=388%2C153%2C5003%2C3500&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">In this 1938 image, a Black boy uses a fountain marked 'colored' at a North Carolina county courthouse.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/photograph-of-an-african-american-child-using-a-water-news-photo/532291108?adppopup=true">Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>No one knows for certain when public facilities like bathrooms and drinking fountains were separated by race. </p>
<p>But starting in the 1890s, shortly after the U.S. Supreme Court decision that legalized “separate but equal” in <a href="https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/plessy-v-ferguson">Plessy v. Ferguson</a>, the <a href="https://jimcrowmuseum.ferris.edu/what.htm">Jim Crow</a> laws and customs that emerged required Black and white people to be separated in virtually every part of life. They used separate restrooms, sat in separate sections on trains and buses and drank from separate water fountains.</p>
<p>Even in death, Black and white people were buried in separate cemeteries.</p>
<p>Though the racist practice of separate accommodations was <a href="https://www.starnewsonline.com/story/news/2021/06/13/when-did-segregated-water-fountains-end-southern-states/7550716002/">officially outlawed</a> by the <a href="https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/civil-rights-act">Civil Rights Act of 1964</a>, relics from the past still linger today. </p>
<p>In Ellisville, Mississippi, for instance, two water fountains remain standing in front of the Jones County Courthouse. When they were first built in the late 1930s, the words “white” and “colored” designated which fountain was to be used by which race. </p>
<p>Over the years, those words were covered up by different ceremonial plaques. But for some Black Ellisville residents, the fountains still stir up painful memories of second-class citizenship. </p>
<p>During public hearings in 2020 to determine whether the fountains should be removed, then 68-year-old Donnie Watts told the County Board of Supervisors that he had lived there for most of his life.</p>
<p>“I got told once to get away from that fountain because I, as a 6-year-old, was drinking out of the ‘white’ fountain,” <a href="https://www.hattiesburgamerican.com/story/news/politics/elections/2020/11/05/segregated-water-fountain-jones-county-ms-courthouse-remains/6176111002/">Watts said</a>. “Can you imagine what a child, that age, how they felt when they were told that they can’t drink out of that fountain and they had to drink out of another fountain that said ‘colored’?”</p>
<h2>Separate and unequal</h2>
<p>In the 2001 <a href="https://repository.duke.edu/dc/behindtheveil">Behind the Veil project</a>, Duke University historians and researchers conducted interviews with over 300 Black and white people to document what day-to-day life was like during the Jim Crow era of legal segregation. </p>
<p>One of those interviewed was <a href="https://americanradioworks.publicradio.org/features/remembering/public.html">Mary Sive</a>, who in 1947 was 24 years old and lived in Montclair, New Jersey. That year, she was traveling through the Deep South when she saw water fountains labeled “colored” and “white” for the first time. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A Black man is drinking from a water fountain that has a signs that reads for colored only." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/576233/original/file-20240216-20-e8a5ai.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/576233/original/file-20240216-20-e8a5ai.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=421&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/576233/original/file-20240216-20-e8a5ai.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=421&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/576233/original/file-20240216-20-e8a5ai.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=421&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/576233/original/file-20240216-20-e8a5ai.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=529&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/576233/original/file-20240216-20-e8a5ai.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=529&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/576233/original/file-20240216-20-e8a5ai.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=529&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Men drinking from segregated water fountains in 1960.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/segregated-drinking-fountain-in-use-in-the-american-south-news-photo/515579376?adppopup=true">Bettmann Archive/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>“This was not outright cruelty such as lynching or denial of voting rights,” she said. “It was not silly, as it at first seemed to me. I realized that for segregation to stick, it had to intrude into the simplest everyday activity such as taking a drink of water. It was that very banality that brought home what it must be like to be ‘colored.’”</p>
<p>Sive said she chose not to drink from either fountain.</p>
<p>The signs were not the only thing that separated the fountains. </p>
<p>The fountains for whites were often <a href="https://www.army.mil/article/200456/water_fountains_symbolize_1960s_civil_rights_movement">more modern</a>, offered some form of filtering from contaminants found in tap water and were capable of providing cold water. The colored water fountains <a href="https://jimcrowmuseum.ferris.edu/what.htm">were always worse</a>, generally older and less well kept and usually found in the basement or outdoors.</p>
<p>More often than not, there were no Black facilities. </p>
<h2>Bloody Tuesday</h2>
<p>In <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=566DVVQAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">my view</a> as a sociologist who studies race and ethnicity, part of the legal and systematic effort to maintain Black subservience was based in part on the white people’s fear that formerly enslaved Black people would be rebellious and unwilling to stay on the lower levels of society.</p>
<p>It’s not surprising, then, that peaceful protests against the repressive structure of Southern society was met with a violent reaction from Southern law enforcement officers.</p>
<p>On June 9, 1964, for instance, Rev. T.Y. Rogers organized a march with the NAACP <a href="https://www.tuscaloosanews.com/story/news/2021/06/05/tuscaloosas-bloody-tuesday-year-before-selmas-bloody-sunday/7468120002/">to protest segregated drinking fountains</a> and restrooms in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. </p>
<p>The civil rights group had planned to march to the Tuscaloosa County Courthouse but barely made it a few steps from where they started at the First African Baptist Church before they were <a href="https://www.al.com/news/tuscaloosa/2014/06/bloody_tuesday_tuscaloosa_reme.html">assaulted, beaten, arrested and tear-gassed</a> by police officers, who used cattle prods and wooden batons to subdue the demonstration. </p>
<p>Known as <a href="https://www.tuscaloosanews.com/story/news/2021/06/05/tuscaloosas-bloody-tuesday-year-before-selmas-bloody-sunday/7468120002/">Bloody Tuesday</a>, the day saw the hospitalization of 33 Black men, women and children and the arrests of 94 others on charges of unlawful assembly.</p>
<p>That tragedy has been largely overshadowed by another protest march in Alabama from <a href="https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/selma-montgomery-march">Selma to Montgomery</a> that occurred nearly a year later on March 7, 1965.</p>
<p>In what became known as “Bloody Sunday,” more than 600 marchers who were demanding equal voting rights, including <a href="https://www.archives.gov/exhibits/eyewitness/html.php?section=2">John Lewis</a>, then chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and future congressman, were beaten and arrested by state troopers led by segregationist Public Safety Commissioner <a href="https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/meet-players-other-figures/">Eugene “Bull” Connor</a>.</p>
<p>But unlike Bloody Tuesday in Tuscaloosa, <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-the-images-of-john-lewis-being-beaten-during-bloody-sunday-went-viral-143080">news photographers and television cameras</a> captured the images of Black marchers being beat by white police officers. </p>
<p>Those images triggered national outrage.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A white man is shaking the hands of a Black man as a crowd of other men stand behind them." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/568329/original/file-20240108-19-jsmytv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/568329/original/file-20240108-19-jsmytv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=451&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/568329/original/file-20240108-19-jsmytv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=451&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/568329/original/file-20240108-19-jsmytv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=451&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/568329/original/file-20240108-19-jsmytv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=567&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/568329/original/file-20240108-19-jsmytv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=567&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/568329/original/file-20240108-19-jsmytv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=567&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">President Lyndon B. Johnson, left, shakes hands with Martin Luther King Jr. after signing the Civil Rights Act on July 3, 1964, at the White House.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/president-lyndon-johnson-shakes-hands-with-the-us-clergyman-news-photo/150253569?adppopup=true">AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But enactment of civil rights laws didn’t mean the end of the fight. </p>
<p>After Donnie Watts’ testimony about his experience with discrimination at age 6, Jones County voters <a href="https://www.hattiesburgamerican.com/story/news/politics/elections/2020/11/05/segregated-water-fountain-jones-county-ms-courthouse-remains/6176111002/">decided to keep</a> the two separate fountains in <a href="https://www.wdam.com/2020/11/03/jones-co-votes-keep-once-segregated-water-fountains-outside-courthouse/">a 2020 referendum</a>.</p>
<p>Even though the fountains don’t work any longer and the words “white” and “colored” remain covered by ceremonial plaques, Watts said in a published interview that his memory of them remains clear.</p>
<p>“I can see right through those plaques. I know what they say,” <a href="https://www.hattiesburgamerican.com/story/news/politics/elections/2020/11/05/segregated-water-fountain-jones-county-ms-courthouse-remains/6176111002/">Watts told the</a> Hattiesburg American. “If they were so gung-ho about keeping those fountains, why don’t they take those plaques off where everybody can see the words ‘colored’ and ‘white’?”</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/222106/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rodney Coates does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Though the Civil Rights Act of 1964 officially ended racial discrimination in public places, relics of the Jim Crow South still haunt modern memory.Rodney Coates, Professor of Critical Race and Ethnic Studies, Miami UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2156352024-02-14T13:22:20Z2024-02-14T13:22:20ZBack in the day, being woke meant being smart<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/571740/original/file-20240127-21-ngtc3k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=494%2C147%2C2904%2C2721&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Demonstrators march on Jan. 1, 1934, in Washington against the unjust trials of nine Black men falsely accused of raping two white women. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/hundreds-of-demonstrators-march-in-washington-d-c-against-news-photo/514685542?adppopup=true">Bettmann/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>If Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis had his way, the word “woke” would be banished from public use and memory. </p>
<p>As <a href="https://time.com/6285681/woke-rhetoric-republicans-desantis-trump/">he promised</a> in Iowa in December 2023 during his failed presidential campaign, “We will fight the woke in education, we will fight the woke in the corporations, we will fight the woke in the halls of Congress. We will never, ever surrender to the woke mob.”</p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/florida-gov-desantis-leads-the-gops-national-charge-against-public-education-that-includes-lessons-on-race-and-sexual-orientation-196369">DeSantis’ war</a> on “woke ideology” has resulted in <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/jan/19/ron-desantis-bans-african-american-studies-florida-schools">the banning</a> of an advanced placement class in African American studies and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/feb/02/ron-desantis-block-dei-program-state-colleges-florida">the elimination</a> of diversity, equity and inclusion programs in Florida’s universities and colleges.</p>
<p>Given <a href="https://www.vox.com/culture/21437879/stay-woke-wokeness-history-origin-evolution-controversy">the origins</a> of the use of the word as a code among Black people, DeSantis has a nearly impossible task, despite his tireless efforts.</p>
<p>For Black people, the <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/woke-meaning-word-history-b1790787.html">modern-day meaning</a> of the word has little to do with school curriculum or political jargon and goes back to the days of Jim Crow and legal, often violent, racial segregation. Back then, the word was <a href="https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2023/jan/08/heres-where-woke-comes-from/">used as a warning</a> to be aware of racial injustices in general and Southern white folks in particular. </p>
<p>In my view as a <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=lfBeq78AAAAJ&hl=en">behavioral scientist who studies race</a>, being woke was part of the unwritten vocabulary that Black people established to talk with each other in a way that outsiders could not understand. </p>
<h2>The early days of wokeness</h2>
<p>It’s unclear when exactly “woke” <a href="https://www.npr.org/2023/07/19/1188543449/what-does-the-word-woke-really-mean-and-where-does-it-come-from">became a word</a> of Black consciousness. Examples of its use – in various forms of the word “awake” – date back to before the Civil War in <a href="https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/freedom-s-journal-1827-1829/">Freedom’s Journal</a>, the nation’s first Black-owned newspaper. </p>
<p>In their introductory editorial on April 21, 1827, the editors <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20150209163534/http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/pdfs/la/FreedomsJournal/v1n01.pdf">wrote that their mission</a> was to “plead our own cause.” Part of that mission was offering analysis on the state of educating enslaved Black people who were prohibited from learning how to read and write. </p>
<p>Because education and literacy were “of the highest importance,” the editors wrote, it was “surely time that we should awake from this lethargy of years” during enslavement. </p>
<p>By the turn of the 20th century, the use of versions of the word “woke” by other Black newspaper editors expanded to include the fight for Black voting rights. In a 1904 editorial in the <a href="https://afro.com/">Baltimore Afro-American</a>, for instance, the editors urged Black people to “Wake up, wake up!” and demand full-citizenship rights.</p>
<p>By 1919, Black nationalist <a href="https://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/tserve/twenty/tkeyinfo/garvey.htm">Marcus Garvey</a> frequently used a version of the word in his speeches and newspaper, <a href="https://www.loc.gov/item/sn84037003/">The Negro World</a>, as a clarion call to Black people to become more socially and politically conscious: “Wake up Ethiopia! Wake up Africa!” </p>
<p>At around the same time, <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2022-12-31/-woke-culture-has-been-fighting-injustice-since-early-1900s">blues singers</a> were using the word to hide protest messages in the language of love songs. On the surface, <a href="https://adp.library.ucsb.edu/index.php/mastertalent/detail/352507/Thomas_Willard">Willard “Ramblin’” Thomas</a> laments a lost love in “Sawmill Moan”:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>If I don’t go crazy,
I’m sure gonna lose my mind
‘Cause I can’t sleep for dreamin’,
sure can’t stay woke for cryin’</p>
</blockquote>
<p>But instead of a love song, <a href="https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2023/jan/08/heres-where-woke-comes-from/">some historians</a> have suggested that the lyrics were a veiled protest against the atrocious conditions faced by Black workers in Southern sawmills.</p>
<p>The song given the most credit by historians for the use of the word woke was written and performed in 1938 by Huddie Leadbetter, known as <a href="https://www.songhall.org/profile/Huddie_Ledbetter">Lead Belly</a>. He <a href="https://www.snopes.com/articles/464795/origins-term-stay-woke/">advises his listeners</a> to “stay woke” lest they run afoul of white authority.</p>
<p>In an <a href="https://folkways.si.edu/lead-belly/scottsboro-boys/track/music/smithsonian">archived interview</a> about the song “Scottsboro Boys,” Lead Belly explained how tough it was at the time for Black people in Alabama.</p>
<p>“It’s a hard world down there in Alabama,” <a href="https://www.vox.com/culture/21437879/stay-woke-wokeness-history-origin-evolution-controversy">Lead Belly said</a>. “I made this little song about down there. … I advise everybody, be a little careful when they go along through there — best stay woke, keep their eyes open.”</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/VrXfkPViFIE?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Lead Belly explains his “stay woke” advice to Black people at the 4:30 mark.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>And that’s the message that came out in <a href="https://genius.com/Lead-belly-scottsboro-boys-lyrics">the song lyrics</a>: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“Go to Alabama and ya better watch out
The landlord’ll get ya, gonna jump and shout
Scottsboro Scottsboro Scottsboro boys
Tell ya what it all about.” </p>
</blockquote>
<h2>A miscarriage of justice</h2>
<p>On March 25, 1931, in Chattanooga, Tennessee, two white women, <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/who-were-scottsboro-nine-180977193/">Victoria Price and Ruby Bates</a>, <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2013/11/21/justice/alabama-scottsboro-pardons/index.html">falsely accused</a> a group of
<a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/who-were-scottsboro-nine-180977193/">several Black young men</a> of rape. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Several white men dressed in uniforms and carrying shotguns walk in front of a group of Black men." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/572179/original/file-20240130-19-izdwno.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/572179/original/file-20240130-19-izdwno.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=467&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/572179/original/file-20240130-19-izdwno.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=467&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/572179/original/file-20240130-19-izdwno.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=467&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/572179/original/file-20240130-19-izdwno.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=586&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/572179/original/file-20240130-19-izdwno.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=586&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/572179/original/file-20240130-19-izdwno.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=586&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">National Guard troops protect members of the Scottsboro Boys as they enter an Alabama courtroom on Jan. 1, 1932.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/judge-james-e-horton-presiding-over-the-court-at-decatur-news-photo/514902380?adppopup=true">Bettmann/GettyImages</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Based on their words, the nine Black men – <a href="https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/scottsboro-boys-who-were-the-boys/">ages 12 to 19 years old</a> – were immediately arrested and in less than two weeks, all were tried, convicted, and with one exception, sentenced to death. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/571743/original/file-20240127-15-l3dk8x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A white woman is sitting on a chair as she answers questions." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/571743/original/file-20240127-15-l3dk8x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/571743/original/file-20240127-15-l3dk8x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=751&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/571743/original/file-20240127-15-l3dk8x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=751&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/571743/original/file-20240127-15-l3dk8x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=751&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/571743/original/file-20240127-15-l3dk8x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=944&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/571743/original/file-20240127-15-l3dk8x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=944&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/571743/original/file-20240127-15-l3dk8x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=944&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">One of the alleged victims, Victoria Price, testifies on April 4, 1933, against nine young Black men in the Scottsboro case.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/victoria-price-one-of-the-alleged-in-the-scottsboro-case-of-news-photo/514678766?adppopup=true">Bettmann/GettyImages</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>All the cases were appealed and eventually reached the U.S. Supreme Court. In its 1932 <a href="https://www.oyez.org/cases/1900-1940/287us45">Powell v. Alabama</a> decision, the court <a href="https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/287/45/">overturned the verdicts</a> in part because prosecutors excluded potential Black jurors from serving during the trial. But instead of freedom, the cases were retried – and each of the “Scottsboro Boys” was found guilty again. </p>
<p>There were four more trials, seven retrials and, in 1935, two landmark Supreme Court decisions – one requiring that defendants be tried by <a href="http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/scottsboro/SB_norus.html">juries of their peers</a> and the other requiring that indigent defendants receive <a href="https://www.oyez.org/cases/1900-1940/287us45">competent counsel</a>. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/scottsboro-boys-who-were-the-boys/">nine young men</a> spent a combined total of 130 years in prison. The last was released in 1950. By 2013, all were <a href="https://www.aclu.org/news/racial-justice/scottsboro-boys-exonerated-troubling-legacy-remains">exonerated</a>. </p>
<h2>How woke became a four-letter word</h2>
<p>Over the years, the memory of the Scottsboro Boys has remained a part of Black consciousness and of <a href="https://www.npr.org/2023/07/19/1188543449/what-does-the-word-woke-really-mean-and-where-does-it-come-from">staying woke</a>. During the height of the Civil Rights Movement, Martin Luther King Jr. used a version of woke during his commencement address at Oberlin College in 1965. </p>
<p>“The great challenge facing every individual graduating today is to remain awake through this social revolution,” <a href="https://www2.oberlin.edu/external/EOG/BlackHistoryMonth/MLK/CommAddress.html">he said</a>.</p>
<p>In recent times, use of the word has ebbed and flowed throughout Black culture but became popular again in 2014 during the protest marches organized by Black Lives Matter in the wake of the shooting death of <a href="https://apnews.com/article/police-donald-trump-us-news-ap-top-news-darren-wilson-dd31d221489e40989f61908a59c685bf">Michael Brown</a> by a police officer in Ferguson, Missouri. Two years later, a documentary on the group was called “<a href="https://tv.apple.com/us/show/stay-woke-the-black-lives-matter-movement/umc.cmc.1nh2deranlyif6yjxa57esu5k">Stay Woke: The Black Lives Matter Movement</a>.” </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A white man waves to a crowd from a stage that has the words awake and not woke in large letters in the background." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/572184/original/file-20240130-23-mjtlna.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/572184/original/file-20240130-23-mjtlna.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=423&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/572184/original/file-20240130-23-mjtlna.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=423&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/572184/original/file-20240130-23-mjtlna.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=423&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/572184/original/file-20240130-23-mjtlna.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=532&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/572184/original/file-20240130-23-mjtlna.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=532&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/572184/original/file-20240130-23-mjtlna.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=532&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis speaks at a conservative political conference on Feb. 24, 2022, in Orlando, Fla.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/florida-gov-ron-desantis-speaks-at-the-conservative-news-photo/1372591565?adppopup=true">Joe Raedle/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/woke-conservatives/story?id=93051138">for GOP lawmakers and conservative talk show pundits</a>, such as DeSantis, “woke” is a pejorative word used to describe those who believe that systemic racism exists in America and remains at the heart of the nation’s racial shortcomings. </p>
<p>When asked to define the term in June 2023, <a href="https://time.com/6285681/woke-rhetoric-republicans-desantis-trump/">DeSantis explained</a>: “It’s a form of cultural Marxism. It’s about putting merit and achievement behind identity politics, and it’s basically a war on the truth.”</p>
<p>DeSantis couldn’t be more wrong. The truth is that being aware of America’s racist past cannot be dictated by conservative politicians. Civic literacy requires an understanding of the social causes and consequences of human behavior – the very essence of being woke.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/215635/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ronald E. Hall does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Conservative politicians have launched attacks against the use of the word “woke.” If they knew the history of the word, they might stop wasting their time.Ronald E. Hall, Professor of Social Work, Michigan State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2230502024-02-14T12:21:09Z2024-02-14T12:21:09ZDon’t blame parents for wanting their children to speak differently – blame society<p>Rishi Sunak, the UK prime minister, <a href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/rishi-sunak-my-mother-didnt-want-us-to-have-accents-qtxp9zh75">recently</a> described how, growing up, his parents were determined that his Indian heritage should not be a barrier for him and his siblings. They did what they could to ensure their children would fit in. </p>
<p>One way his mother did this, he says, was to send them to extra drama lessons. The reason? To make sure they “didn’t speak with accents”, and instead would be able to “speak properly”.</p>
<p>It is hard to criticise Mrs Sunak for wanting to do what’s best for her children. She was aware of an injustice that her children were facing, and so she did what she could to minimise that injustice. One less thing for the racists to seize upon. </p>
<p>However, from a linguistic perspective, the strategy is somewhat flawed. It is, of course, objectively impossible to speak without an accent. Whenever we speak, that speech has certain characteristics, certain ways of pronouncing the sounds. And those pronunciations are what make up the accent. Speaking without an accent is, well, not actually speaking. It is silence.</p>
<p>It follows that everybody has an accent. If we don’t like it, the most we can ever do is change our accent into another one. But we can’t just decide or learn not to have one.</p>
<h2>What does ‘to speak without an accent’ mean?</h2>
<p>In Rishi Sunak’s case, it means eschewing the accent that marks you out as being different, and, instead, using the one that allows you to fit in. One accent creates obstacles, another accent opens doors. The wrong accent gets in the way, the right accent goes unnoticed. In fact, the right accent does such a good job of going unnoticed, that it ceases to be seen as an accent at all.</p>
<p>“Accentless” spoken language is the language of the elite, of authority. It’s the version of the language that is used by the people who have traditionally held power in any given society, be that social power, political power or racial power. It’s the way of speaking that goes unchallenged. It’s the way of speaking that can allow people to go about their business, unchallenged.</p>
<p>In England, this <a href="https://accentbiasbritain.org/accents-in-britain/#:%7E:text=Received%20Pronunciation%20(RP),and%20upper%2Dmiddle%2Dclasses.">prestige accent</a> is what is variably known as received pronunciation (RP), the King’s English, BBC English, or southern standard British English, depending on who you ask and what the context is. Sunak’s natural way of speaking is firmly in this area. Not as extreme as the RP of his colleague, Jacob Rees-Mogg, but in the same ballpark. </p>
<p>As any linguist will tell you, however, RP is still an accent. And like all accents, its use can give us insights into who somebody is, or who somebody is trying to be. </p>
<p>The way we speak is <a href="https://scribepublications.co.uk/books-authors/books/youare-all-talk-9781914484285">inextricably linked to who we are</a>, to our sense of identity. Whether by reflecting aspects of ourselves to the outside world (such as where we’re from, our social class, our race and ethnicity), or by helping to consciously create the version of ourselves we want to portray, our accent plays an important role in making us, us. </p>
<p>So changing the way we speak is no small undertaking. Moving towards a perceived “standard” can mean changing the bits of our spoken language that tie us to a particular regional, social or racial background. This in turn can mean erasing those aspects of our identity – at least in our speech. </p>
<p>But it is not the fault of the parents in encouraging their children to speak in ways that erase their background. It is the fault of a society that makes this necessary for people to succeed. We live in a society where speaking in a certain way still matters, despite the obvious inequalities this creates. Some people are born into this arbitrary linguistic privilege. Some do what they can to acquire it. And others are so far removed from it they don’t even get close.</p>
<p>Speaking with the wrong accent can cause serious problems. Not only can it bring <a href="https://www.suttontrust.com/our-research/speaking-up-accents-social-mobility/">criticism</a> and <a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/angela-rayner-hits-back-at-abusive-emails-over-her-accent_uk_5811d990e4b04660a438156a">abuse</a>, but it can work against you <a href="https://accentbiasbritain.org/">at work</a>, with the <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000ls8x">police</a>, within the <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15377938.2019.1623963">legal system</a> and in the <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/article/900094">housing rental market</a>. </p>
<p>An RP accent in the wrong context can indeed make you stand out as uncomfortably posh, sometimes leading to people <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RhnQTxUP56I">temporarily adapting</a> their accent to fit in. But this discomfort pales compared with genuine prejudice the other way around. </p>
<p>People will always do what needs to be done to allow them and their children to succeed in life. For some, this means changing their accents. But wouldn’t a better option be for us, collectively, to challenge what makes this necessary? Surely we should work to change the way we listen, not force others to change the way they speak.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/223050/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rob Drummond has previously received funding from The Arts and Humanities Research Council, The Leverhulme Trust, and The British Council</span></em></p>‘Accentless’ spoken language is the language of the elite, of authority. It’s the version of the language that is used by the people who have traditionally held all the power.Rob Drummond, Professor of Sociolinguistics, Manchester Metropolitan UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2063752024-02-09T13:35:58Z2024-02-09T13:35:58ZLack of access to health care is partly to blame for skyrocketing HIV rates among gay Black men<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/573871/original/file-20240206-20-wvuls8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=453%2C91%2C3636%2C2624&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A man takes a free HIV test during the Harlem Pride parade in New York City.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/man-takes-a-free-hiv-test-during-the-harlem-pride-parade-in-news-photo/1152819582?adppopup=true">Kena Betancur/AFP via Getty Images)</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Over the past 20 years, people living with HIV in the United States have seen a drastic improvement in their overall <a href="https://www.thebodypro.com/article/hiv-life-expectancy-in-u-s-matches-general-population-with-some-differences">quality of life</a>. But the medical achievements that have made those lives better and created longer <a href="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanhiv/article/PIIS2352-3018(23)00028-0/fulltext">life expectancies</a> have not benefited all communities. </p>
<p>In fact, some communities still have higher rates of new cases of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. This is especially true for <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/hiv/group/msm/bmsm.html">Black gay and bisexual men</a>. Black queer men are <a href="https://minorityhealth.hhs.gov/omh/browse.aspx?lvl=4&lvlid=21">six times more likely</a> to die as a result of HIV-related complications when compared with queer men of different races.</p>
<p>In addition, in the <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/hiv/group/msm/bmsm.html">most recent available data</a>, Black queer men made up 26% of all new cases of HIV in 2019 despite making up <a href="https://williamsinstitute.law.ucla.edu/publications/black-lgbt-adults-in-the-us/">less than 3% of the total</a> U.S. population. </p>
<p>Finally, <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/nchhstp/newsroom/2016/croi-press-release-risk.html">data released in 2016</a> revealed that if the rates then of new HIV cases persisted, an estimated 1 in 2 Black queer men would acquire HIV in their lifetime. </p>
<p>For comparison, those rates mirror the <a href="https://www.prb.org/resources/the-status-of-the-hiv-aids-epidemic-in-sub-saharan-africa/">prevalence of HIV in sub-Saharan Africa</a> in 2003 when the international community began sending help, including then-<a href="https://www.cgdev.org/page/overview-president%E2%80%99s-emergency-plan-aids-relief-pepfar">President George W. Bush</a>, who approved and implemented his <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2023/02/28/1159415936/george-w-bushs-anti-hiv-program-is-hailed-as-amazing-and-still-crucial-at-20">Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief</a> program.</p>
<p>To this day, sub-Saharan Africa is still considered the epicenter of the AIDS crisis and accounts for <a href="https://www.unaids.org/en/resources/presscentre/pressreleaseandstatementarchive/2023/july/unaids-global-aids-update">nearly 70%</a> of the world’s HIV infections.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://doi.org/10.1353/hpu.2023.a903345">prevalence of HIV</a> in the Black queer community has been well documented in <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/09540121.2023.2189223">academic research</a>, including <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/00027642221145027">my own</a>, which demonstrates that when patients’ <a href="https://doi.org/10.5744/rhm.2023.6012">treatment plans</a> include access to health care and other social services, the patients stay healthy longer. </p>
<h2>The question of risky behavior</h2>
<p>The wide reach of HIV in the Black queer community is not due to members of that community having more sex, or using protection less, or having more partners than queer people of other racial or ethnic backgrounds.</p>
<p>In fact, long-standing studies have shown that when Black queer men have access to appropriate health care, they use condoms more often, and test themselves for HIV more often, than queer men of other races.</p>
<p>For example, <a href="https://www.contagionlive.com/view/hiv-rates-in-young-black-gay-men-strikingly-higher-despite-fewer-risk-behaviors">a study</a> conducted in 2018 found that young Black gay men reported lower rates of sexual risk behaviors, fewer sexual partners and more lifetime HIV tests, but still maintained the highest number of new cases.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A Black man sits at a table surrounded by a group of other men at a large gathering." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/574193/original/file-20240207-22-snwbsu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/574193/original/file-20240207-22-snwbsu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=367&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/574193/original/file-20240207-22-snwbsu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=367&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/574193/original/file-20240207-22-snwbsu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=367&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/574193/original/file-20240207-22-snwbsu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=461&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/574193/original/file-20240207-22-snwbsu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=461&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/574193/original/file-20240207-22-snwbsu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=461&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A Black man sits among the audience at the annual World AIDS Day commemoration on Dec. 1, 2023, in Long Beach, Calif.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/long-beach-ca-the-audience-was-deeply-moved-by-the-singing-news-photo/1825635482?adppopup=true">Brittany Murray/Long Beach Press-Telegram via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Studies published in <a href="https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2012.301003">2012</a>, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s10461-014-0842-8">2015</a>, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s10461-018-2270-7">2019</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s10461-021-03430-6">2021</a> have shown that the increase in HIV infections in the Black queer community is not about the number of sexual encounters.</p>
<p>According to those studies, Black queer people have a higher risk of contracting HIV than those others because their communities are more tightly knit – despite behaving more safely than others.</p>
<p>As a result of social stigma and discrimination, Black queer men are more likely to have sexual relationships within their own racial group. Given the already high prevalence of HIV in this group, this concentration increases the likelihood of encountering a partner living with HIV and increases the risk of HIV infection.</p>
<h2>A perfect storm of racism and homophobia</h2>
<p>Preventive measures such as preexposure prophylaxis, or <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/hiv/basics/prep.html">PrEP</a>, have completely revolutionized the field of HIV treatments.</p>
<p>Available as an <a href="https://www.fda.gov/news-events/press-announcements/fda-approves-first-injectable-treatment-hiv-pre-exposure-prevention">injection</a>, a <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5935218/">daily pill</a> or <a href="https://endinghiv.org.au/blog/prep-on-demand-dosing-guide/">on-demand dosage</a>, PrEP is known to be 99% effective in reducing the risk of acquiring HIV when taken as prescribed.</p>
<p>But in order to receive PrEP, for instance, one must first locate a provider who is willing to prescribe the medicine. <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/feature/nbc-out/unequal-hiv-prevention-pill-use-puts-minority-men-higher-risk-n1059016">There are examples</a> of doctors simply refusing to prescribe it out of fear of “<a href="https://sph.cuny.edu/life-at-sph/news/2018/07/31/prep-perception-promiscuity/">increased promisciuty</a>.”</p>
<p>This sentiment is often rooted in racism and homophobia.</p>
<p>Even if one locates a provider, there is also the ever-looming issue of insurance and affordability. A <a href="https://www.webmd.com/hiv-aids/how-much-truvada-for-prep-costs">month’s supply</a> of Truvada, one of the two FDA-approved PrEP drugs, is nearly $2,000 without insurance, while a generic version costs $30 to $60 per month. </p>
<p>Though HIV care and <a href="https://www.healthaffairs.org/content/forefront/new-guidance-prep-support-services-must-covered-without-cost-sharing">PrEP</a> are broadly covered under the Affordable Care Act, that often means only the cost of the prescriptions. Patients are frequently surprised to learn that the lab costs of blood tests and analysis of PrEP are <a href="https://kffhealthnews.org/news/article/prep-hiv-prevention-costs-covered-problems-insurance/">not always covered</a>, nor are additional tests for other medical conditions, such as diabetes or high blood pressure. </p>
<p>This is problematic because in order to stay on PrEP, you must engage in quarterly check-ins and bloodwork. </p>
<h2>Lowering the risks</h2>
<p>HIV prevalence is highly <a href="https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/18/9715">concentrated in the South</a>, which accounts for over 50% of new HIV cases. The region also has the highest fatality rate for Black queer men.</p>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.3389/fcomm.2020.00026">My research</a> typically uses interviews of Black queer men to better understand how Black gay men experience and face structural barriers such as access to testing and <a href="https://health.gov/healthypeople/priority-areas/social-determinants-health">adequate housing</a>.</p>
<p>Most men I interview are living with HIV and offer insights on their lived experiences and professional expertise with great vulnerability and power.</p>
<p>For example, Travis – a pseudonym – is from Little Rock, Arkansas, and is living with HIV. “If I’m worried about where I’m going to sleep or how I’m going to afford medicine, I don’t care about getting tested,” he explained. “I am not gonna come to my appointment to get poked with needles.” </p>
<p><a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4509742/#:%7E:text=For%20example%2C%20Peterson%20and%20Jones,reduce%20HIV%2Drelated%20racial%20disparities.">Research</a> shows Travis is not an outlier. </p>
<p>Issues such as <a href="https://www.hud.gov/program_offices/comm_planning/hopwa">housing</a>, <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7716244/">employment</a>, <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23876086/">transportation</a> and concerns <a href="https://ajph.aphapublications.org/doi/10.2105/AJPH.2019.305389">about costs</a> of health care are major obstacles in staying healthy.</p>
<p>Another man I interviewed lives in Los Angeles and pointed out that the younger generation has had limited education about the risks of <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/hiv/group/msm/brief.html">Black gay life</a>. </p>
<p>“We don’t even think about the fact that so many young Black gay men were never taught about HIV and condoms in school,” he said. “We don’t learn that.”</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/206375/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Deion Scott Hawkins does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>When appropriate care is available, several studies have shown, gay Black men are more likely to test themselves for HIV and engage in less risky sexual behaviors than gay men of other races.Deion Scott Hawkins, Assistant Professor of Argumentation & Advocacy, Emerson CollegeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2136972024-02-06T13:30:01Z2024-02-06T13:30:01ZBlack travelers want authentic engagement, not checkboxes<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/571338/original/file-20240125-19-jhtqbj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Black travelers want to see the travel industry embrace their full identities.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/african-woman-with-smartphone-vacationing-in-tokyo-royalty-free-image/1155295723?phrase=black+tourists&adppopup=true">AzmanL/ Getty</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>After the murder of George Floyd in 2020, when <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/travel/2020/06/26/travel-brands-rushed-post-blacklivesmatter-are-slow-share-how-theyre-taking-action/">travel brands</a> – including Delta Air Lines, Hilton and Enterprise – pronounced their support for diversity and the Black Lives Matter movement, our research group was motivated to conduct a study that collected data of the travel experiences of more than 5,000 Black people and people of color. </p>
<p>Our work, published in <a href="https://www.afar.com/magazine/black-travel-is-not-a-monolith">Afar magazine</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/14616688.2022.2149848">Tourism Geographies</a>, found that Black travelers expressed dissatisfaction with how the travel industry promotes itself as inclusive.</p>
<h2>Authenticity matters</h2>
<p>Black travelers want more genuine and authentic engagement and representation, we found, that showcases an investment in the Black community by partnering with Black-owned travel businesses, guides and experiences. </p>
<p>We conducted in-depth interviews with several of the people who provided data to us. Those we interviewed told us plainly that they are weary of being perceived as a single, uniform entity. They want more attention paid to their <a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-what-does-intersectionality-mean-104937">intersecting identities</a>. First coined by Law professor Kimberlé Crenshaw back in 1989, intersectionality has come to mean that all oppression is linked to people’s complex identities related to their gender, race, class, sexual orientation, physical ability and more.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.instagram.com/urbanistamom/?hl=en">Joshlyn Crystal Adams</a>, CEO of Urbanista Travel, told us, “It’s definitely more than being Black. It’s also as a woman, where do I feel safe going … if you go to this country as a gay person, just be mindful that if you’re caught doing this or that, you can be arrested. So it spins far beyond race. It’s definitely about gender and sexuality.” </p>
<p>We also found that Black travelers notice the small things that add up to an experience of feeling valued and seen – or not.</p>
<p>Some companies support Black-owned businesses by buying their products in limited amounts. For example, <a href="https://travelnoire.com/black-skincare-line-owner-partners-with-marriott-hotels">JW Marriott</a> sells <a href="https://travelnoire.com/black-skincare-line-owner-partners-with-marriott-hotels">Diamond’s Body Care</a> in their spas. But the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/14616688.2022.2149848">people in our study emphasized</a> the need for brands and destinations to make a greater effort. </p>
<p>“<a href="https://www.theroot.com/is-hotel-shampoo-kind-of-racist-1790876376">What do you know about my hair</a>? Nothing,” travel media personality, pilot and avid adventurer <a href="https://www.kelleesetgo.com/">Kellee Edwards</a> said about hotel shampoo. “Until they go ahead and mix that pot up and sprinkle some salt and pepper in it … this is what we’re going to be dealing with.” </p>
<h2>Diversity is not a box to check</h2>
<p>In the <a href="https://nmaahc.si.edu/explore/stories/traveling-through-jim-crow-america">Jim Crow era</a>, Black travelers were regularly denied access to crucial services such as gas, food, restrooms and lodging. Stopping in unfamiliar locations posed the threat of humiliation, threats or worse. </p>
<p>While it’s true that race relations and access to travel by Black people have improved in the United States since <a href="https://www.dol.gov/agencies/oasam/civil-rights-center/statutes/civil-rights-act-of-1964">the Civil Rights Act of 1964</a>, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-publhealth-040218-043750">generational trauma</a> has left a mark on Black travelers, affecting how and why <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/14616688.2019.1630671">they choose to travel</a>. </p>
<p>Edwards shared that identifying as a Black woman in a <a href="https://www.unwto.org/gender-and-tourism">traditionally male-dominated industry</a> is “exhausting.” </p>
<p>“Diversity is a lot of things, but … as women, we are very much underrepresented,” Edwards said. “While we need to focus on inclusion when it comes to race, we also must focus on gender.” </p>
<p>Travel often reinforces entrenched power dynamics, noted Christopher Carr, one of our study participants and an associate dean at George Mason University. </p>
<p>Carr said that destinations often engage in “<a href="https://www.wired.com/story/lgbtq-pride-consumerism/">rainbow washing</a>” – superficial LGBTQ-friendly gestures meant to elicit positive feelings about a brand in order to sell something – with no real support going to the community, such as promoting pride flags while passing <a href="https://vogue.sg/rainbow-washing-pride-month/">anti-LGBTQIA corporate policies</a>. </p>
<p>That leaves him to wonder if “the attention that I’m receiving is genuine or is it because I’m somebody’s box to tick?” </p>
<p>Our <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/14616688.2022.2149848">interviewees</a> called for actions beyond symbolic gestures and real effort to engage the community.</p>
<p>“If companies want to understand how to be appeasing to our communities, they should go directly to us,” study participant and AfroBuenaventura Transformative Travel founder <a href="https://www.afrobuenaventura.com/">Ronnell Perry</a> said.</p>
<h2>Change the industry from within</h2>
<p>Black individuals hold fewer than 1% of top leadership roles – C-suite, director, CEO/president – in the U.S. hospitality industry, according to a <a href="https://www.ahla.com/sites/default/files/2022blackrepresentationinhospitalityindustryleadership_final_0.pdf">report by Castell Project</a>. </p>
<p>Over the past decade, consultancies such as <a href="https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/people-and-organizational-performance/our-insights/why-diversity-matters">McKinsey</a> have made it increasingly clear that companies with more diverse workforces perform better financially.</p>
<p>In our recent publication “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/14616688.2022.2149848">Black Travel Is Not Monolithic</a>,” we proposed a road map to help guide the travel sector toward authentic inclusion. However, change requires taking power from the hands of dominant white, heterosexual, nondisabled and first-world nation groups. </p>
<p>One of our top suggestions is to <a href="https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.864043">diversify human resource departments</a> so that individuals from diverse identities and backgrounds can actively participate in the hiring process. From there, they can address culturally sensitive issues on a daily basis. Of course, this is true not just in travel but across industries.</p>
<p>Fostering an inclusive workplace also requires nurturing diverse leaders, inclusive of intersecting marginalized identities. </p>
<p>“Until you get people in who can represent us to say, ‘Hey, this is my community and I know something about this and we can represent this,’” Edwards said, “it’s not going to change.”</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/213697/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Black travelers want the tourism industry to recognize their full identity. That will require more than procedural checkboxes and targeted advertising.Alana Dillette, Assistant Professor. L. Robert Payne School of Hospitality and Tourism Management, Tourism RESET, San Diego State UniversityStefanie Benjamin, Associate Professor of Retail, Hospitality, and Tourism Management; Co-Founder of CODE, University of TennesseeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2212992024-02-05T13:31:04Z2024-02-05T13:31:04ZBlack communities are using mapping to document and restore a sense of place<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/573098/original/file-20240202-25-m9rzc0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=16%2C11%2C1856%2C1272&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">These highways displaced many Black communities. Some Black activists are using mapping to do the opposite: highlight hidden parts of history.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.loc.gov/item/2011593044/">Library of Congress, Geography and Map Division</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>When historian <a href="https://www.nps.gov/cawo/learn/carter-g-woodson-biography.htm">Carter Woodson</a> created “Negro History Week” in 1926, which became “<a href="https://guides.loc.gov/black-history-month-legal-resources/history-and-overview">Black History Month” in 1976</a>, he sought not to just celebrate prominent Black historical figures but to transform how white America saw and valued all African Americans. </p>
<p>However, many issues in the history of Black Americans can get lost in a focus on well-known historical figures or other important events.</p>
<p>Our research looks at how African American communities struggling for freedom have long used maps to protest and survive racism while affirming the value of Black life.</p>
<p>We have been working on the “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/00087041.2023.2256131">Living Black Atlas</a>,” an educational initiative that highlights the neglected history of Black mapmaking in America. It shows the <a href="https://mappingblackca.com/">creative ways</a> in which Black people have historically used mapping to document their stories. Today, communities are using “restorative mapping” as a way to tell stories of Black Americans.</p>
<h2>Maps as a visual storytelling technique</h2>
<p>While most people think of maps as a useful tool to get from point A to point B, or use maps to look up places or plan trips, the reality is all maps tell stories. Traditionally, most <a href="https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520292833/chocolate-cities">maps did not accurately</a> reflect the stories of Black people and places: Interstate highway maps, for example, do not reflect the realities that in most U.S. cities the building of major roads <a href="https://www.npr.org/2021/04/07/984784455/a-brief-history-of-how-racism-shaped-interstate-highways">was accompanied by the displacement</a> of thousands of Black people from cities. </p>
<p>Like many marginalized groups, Black people have used maps as a <a href="https://doi.org/10.3138/cart-2020-0011">visual story-telling technique</a> for “<a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/44000276">talking back</a>” against their oppression. They have also used maps for enlivening and giving dignity to Black experiences and histories. </p>
<p>An example of this is the NAACP’s campaign to lobby for <a href="https://edsitement.neh.gov/curricula/naacps-anti-lynching-campaigns-quest-social-justice-interwar-years">anti-lynching federal legislation</a> in the early 20th century. The <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-black-cartographers-put-racism-on-the-map-of-america-155081">NAACP mapped</a> the <a href="https://lynchinginamerica.eji.org/explore">location and frequency</a> of lynching to show how widespread racial terror was to the American public. </p>
<p>Another example is the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee’s efforts to document racism in the American South in the 1960s. The <a href="https://snccdigital.org/inside-sncc/sncc-national-office/research/">SNCC research department’s</a> maps and research on racism played a pivotal role in planning civil rights protests. SNCC produced conventional-looking county-level maps of income and education inequalities, which were issued to activists in the field. The organization also developed creative “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/24694452.2019.1631747">network maps</a>,” which exposed <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0016718521000300">how power structures and institutions</a> supported racial discrimination in economic and political ways. These maps and reports could then identify urgent areas of protest. </p>
<p>More recently, artist-activist Tonika Lewis Johnson created the “<a href="https://www.foldedmapproject.com/interactive-maps">Folded Map Project</a>,” in which she brought together corresponding addresses on racially separated sides of the same street, to show how racism remade the city of Chicago. She photographed the “map twins” and interviewed individuals living at paired addresses to show the disparities. The project brought residents from north and south sides of Chicago to meet and talk to each other.</p>
<h2>Maps for restorative justice</h2>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.3138/carto.45.1.32">Restorative mapping</a> is an important part of the Living Black Atlas: It helps bring visibility to <a href="https://www.southerncultures.org/article/rooted/">Black experiences</a> that have been marginalized or forgotten. </p>
<p>An important example of restorative mapping work comes from the <a href="https://www.honeypotperformance.org">Honey Pot Performance, a collective</a> of Black feminists who helped create the <a href="https://www.honeypotperformance.org/about-the-cbscm">Chicago Black Social Culture Map, or the CBSCM</a>. This digital map traces Black Chicagoans’ experiences from <a href="https://www.archives.gov/research/african-americans/migrations/great-migration">the Great Migration</a> to the rise of electronic <a href="https://www.thedjrevolution.com/the-history-of-electronic-dance-music/#:%7E:text=The%20early%20forms%20of%20house%20music%20began%20in%20the%20early,with%20drum%20machines%20and%20synthesizers">dance music in the city</a>. The map includes historical records and music posters as well as descriptions of important people and venues for that music. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/573191/original/file-20240203-29-y8l8ww.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Five Black young men, dressed in suits, sit atop a white car with an Illinois number plate." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/573191/original/file-20240203-29-y8l8ww.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/573191/original/file-20240203-29-y8l8ww.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/573191/original/file-20240203-29-y8l8ww.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/573191/original/file-20240203-29-y8l8ww.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/573191/original/file-20240203-29-y8l8ww.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/573191/original/file-20240203-29-y8l8ww.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/573191/original/file-20240203-29-y8l8ww.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Millions of African Americans migrated from the Deep South to the industrial North between 1942 and 1970. In this photo, Black youngsters are dressed for Easter on the South Side of Chicago, April 13, 1941.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/TheGreatMigration/60132bf19f434519b6071ff3bb526a65/photo?Query=black%20history%20month%20chicago%20history%20music&mediaType=photo&sortBy=&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=817&digitizationType=Digitized&currentItemNo=14&vs=true&vs=true">AP Photo/Library of Congress/FSA/Russell Lee</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>While engaging Black Americans in the effort, the CBSCM map tells the story of Chicago through a series of artistic movements that highlight African Americans’ <a href="https://www.chicago.gov/dam/city/depts/zlup/Historic_Preservation/Publications/Chicago_Black_Renaissance_Literary_Movement_Report.pdf">connection with the city</a>.</p>
<p>After years of gentrification and urban renewal programs that displaced Black people <a href="https://www.beyondthewhitecity.org/urban-renewal-and-bronzeville">from the city</a>, this project is helping remember those neighborhoods digitally. It is also inviting a broader discussion about the history of Black Chicago. </p>
<h2>Restoring a sense of place</h2>
<p>An important idea behind restorative mapping is the act of returning something to a former owner or condition. This connects with the broader <a href="https://bjatta.bja.ojp.gov/media/blog/what-restorative-justice-and-how-does-it-impact-individuals-involved-crime">restorative justice</a> movement that seeks to address historic wrongs by documenting past and present injustices through perspectives that are often ignored or forgotten.</p>
<p>The CBSCM map is not a conventional paper map. While it includes many things you would find in such a map, such as road networks and political boundaries, the map also includes links to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/anti.12679">fiction writing</a> and <a href="https://www.chicago.gov/dam/city/depts/zlup/Historic_Preservation/Publications/Lorraine_Hansberry_House_Landmark_Report.pdf">the Chicago Renaissance</a>, <a href="https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520292833/chocolate-cities">art and music</a>, as well as expressions of <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/41279638">food</a>, family life, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/00220620.2020.1784113">education</a> and politics that document a hidden history of Black life in the city. The map <a href="https://cbscmap.omeka.net/geolocation/map/browse">provides links to specific </a> historic documents, socially meaningful sites, and to the lives of people that tell the story of Black Chicago. </p>
<p>Thus, the map helps highlight how this geography is still present in Chicago in archives and people’s memories. Through this digital representation of Black Chicagoans’ deep cultural roots in the city, the mapping aims to restore a sense of place. Such work embodies what Black History Month is about.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/221299/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Black activists have long used maps to help illustrate their communities’ history and to document historical injustices.Joshua F.J. Inwood, Professor of Geography and Senior Research Associate in the Rock Ethics Institute, Penn StateDerek H. Alderman, Professor of Geography, University of TennesseeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2205282024-02-05T13:28:50Z2024-02-05T13:28:50ZRace is already a theme of the 2024 presidential election – continuing an American tradition<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/572464/original/file-20240131-27-k5mtb2.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=16%2C16%2C3336%2C2408&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Donald Trump's increasingly anti-immigrant campaign is steeped in race.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/former-us-president-donald-trump-speaks-during-a-make-news-photo/1252238271?adppopup=true"> Joseph Prezioso / AFP via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>I imagine that lots of people won’t like this article. They’ll feel attacked. They’ll feel it’s unfair. The depth of that response will show just how deeply rooted American politics is, and has always been, in racial fears.</p>
<p>The centrality of race to our politics is clear in the current presidential campaign. The most common campaign slogan is from the campaign of Donald Trump: “MAGA” – Make America Great Again. The slogan indicates that the U.S. was once great but has fallen from greatness. </p>
<p>So what caused America’s fall?</p>
<p>Former president <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/how-donald-trump-came-up-with-make-america-great-again/2017/01/17/fb6acf5e-dbf7-11e6-ad42-f3375f271c9c_story.html">Trump introduced MAGA as his campaign slogan</a> when he began his presidential run in 2015. Central to his announcement, and repeated endlessly since then, is his claim that illegal immigrants assaulting our border are an existential threat because, he claims, they are <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2015/06/16/full-text-donald-trump-announces-a-presidential-bid/">rapists, criminals and other kinds of predators</a>.</p>
<p>His anti-immigrant campaign is steeped in race. When criticizing what he <a href="https://trumpwhitehouse.archives.gov/briefings-statements/remarks-president-trump-illegal-immigration-crisis-border-security/">calls the country’s “open borders,</a>” he isn’t referring to Canada. In fact, he hopes, he says, for more <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/11/world/trump-countries-haiti-africa.html">immigrants from Norway and other predominantly white nations</a>. </p>
<p>The fearsome immigrants, the “others,” are the ones who have darker skin than most white Americans; their racial identity is written on their faces. How do we distinguish these immigrants from other Americans who have darker skins? There’s no need; the former president has warned us about them as well. You know, the earlier immigrants, from countries he referred to as “s***hole countries.” </p>
<p><a href="https://polisci.indiana.edu/about/emeriti-faculty/hershey-marjorie.html">Social scientists like me</a> have been able to demonstrate that concern about race has long been central to Trump’s appeal. As the U.S. begins another presidential campaign in which <a href="https://apnews.com/article/rnc-trump-presumptive-nominee-haley-2024-campaign-74c529ab8d3804622276f8e197cd3a5c">Trump is likely to be the GOP nominee</a>, here’s what we have found:</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/572502/original/file-20240131-23-jomth2.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A crowd of people behind a barricade along a street, waving Confederate flags while watched by two police officers." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/572502/original/file-20240131-23-jomth2.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/572502/original/file-20240131-23-jomth2.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/572502/original/file-20240131-23-jomth2.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/572502/original/file-20240131-23-jomth2.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/572502/original/file-20240131-23-jomth2.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/572502/original/file-20240131-23-jomth2.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/572502/original/file-20240131-23-jomth2.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">People wave Confederate flags outside the hotel that President Barack Obama stayed in on July 15, 2015, in Oklahoma City.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/Obama/160d41fb625349f988f7903d056f87f0/photo?Query=Unite%20the%20Right%20rally%20white%20supremacists&mediaType=photo&sortBy=arrivaldatetime:asc&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=612&digitizationType=Digitized&currentItemNo=NaN&vs=true&vs=true">AP Photo/Evan Vucci</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Racial resentment key</h2>
<p>Researchers showed that the second-strongest determinant of individuals’ vote for Trump in 2016 and 2020 – first, of course, was the voter’s party identification – wasn’t people’s economic fears or their commitment to individual freedom. It was <a href="https://news.berkeley.edu/2022/02/03/racial-resentment-the-insidious-force-that-divides-america/">respondents’ racial resentment</a>, <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/Papers.cfm?abstract_id=2847791">measured by agree-disagree questions</a> such as, “Whites in the U.S. are more discriminated against than Blacks,” and “Blacks are getting advantages from elites that Blacks have not earned.” </p>
<p>Substantial <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/Papers.cfm?abstract_id=2847791">numbers of Americans</a>, including one-third of white respondents, claim that white Americans face either a “great deal” or a “fair amount” of discrimination in the U.S. Among Republicans, well over half claim that white people are discriminated against, a larger percentage than acknowledges discrimination against Blacks, Latinos or Asians. </p>
<p>White Americans’ <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1540-5907.2011.00564.x">racial resentment increased substantially during the Barack Obama presidency</a>. Even many 2008 Obama voters soon found that the media focus on Obama becoming the nation’s first Black president, at first so exciting, was <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/obamas-decline-in-popularity-what-caused-it/">hard to swallow on a day-to-day basis</a>. </p>
<p>The U.S. is not now “post racial,” free from racial prejudices or discrimination, nor has it ever been.</p>
<p>It’s not easy to argue seriously that white people are more discriminated against than Black Americans. Such a claim withers in the face of hard facts: that the average Black employee earns just <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/palashghosh/2021/06/18/blacks-earn-30-less-than-whites-while-black-households-have-just-one-eighth-of-wealth-of-white-households/?sh=33b5f600550c">70% of the average white employee’s wages</a>; that the median white household in 2021 had <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/race-ethnicity/2023/12/04/wealth-surged-in-the-pandemic-but-debt-endures-for-poorer-black-and-hispanic-families/">nine times as much wealth as the median Black household</a>; that Black Americans, especially Black men, are <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2021/10/13/politics/black-latinx-incarcerated-more/index.html">jailed in much higher proportions than white Americans are</a>; or that the homeownership gap between Black and white Americans is <a href="https://www.nar.realtor/newsroom/more-americans-own-their-homes-but-black-white-homeownership-rate-gap-is-biggest-in-a-decade-nar">substantial, at 44% versus 73%, and growing</a>.</p>
<p>Even reports from white Americans themselves belie the notion that they are more discriminated against than people of color. White people are less likely than other racial groups to report that they have <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/12/07/kff-racial-descrimination-polling/">experienced negative responses from other people</a>. And among Black adults, “those with self-reported darker skin tones are more likely to report discrimination experiences <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/12/07/kff-racial-descrimination-polling/">than those with lighter skin tones</a>” – added evidence that observed racial differences affect the way people are treated.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/572523/original/file-20240131-27-t35ou5.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A 'For Sale' sign hanging from a post in front of a home with a metal roof." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/572523/original/file-20240131-27-t35ou5.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/572523/original/file-20240131-27-t35ou5.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/572523/original/file-20240131-27-t35ou5.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/572523/original/file-20240131-27-t35ou5.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/572523/original/file-20240131-27-t35ou5.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/572523/original/file-20240131-27-t35ou5.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/572523/original/file-20240131-27-t35ou5.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The homeownership gap between Black and white Americans is substantial, at 44% versus 73%, and growing.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/home-available-for-sale-is-shown-on-october-16-2023-in-news-photo/1739414316?adppopup=true">Brandon Bell/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Anxiety deepens resentment</h2>
<p>The centrality of race in American life is nothing new. </p>
<p>Race was the reason that a large portion of the U.S. – the South – could <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/06/confederacy-wasnt-what-you-think/613309/">not have been legitimately defined as a democracy</a> for most of the nation’s history. How could a region that deprived a large portion of its citizens of the right to vote systematically, in law and practice, on the grounds of their race be considered democratic?</p>
<p>But racial resentment seems to deepen in times of anxiety, when many people seek a specific target for their fears rather than deal with a vaguer sense of dread. The U.S. recently experienced an enormous source of anxiety: <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2023/05/11/us/covid-deaths-us.html">More than 1.1 million Americans died of a virus</a> that affected virtually every aspect of day-to-day life, from our education and travel to the nation’s budget and public health.</p>
<p>The U.S. has also faced social-demographic change at a speed that those with racial resentment may find threatening. In just 20 years, from 2000 to 2020, the U.S. Census found that those who identified as non-Hispanic white dropped from about 75% of the population to 58%, though the two years’ measures <a href="https://www.census.gov/library/stories/2021/08/2020-united-states-population-more-racially-ethnically-diverse-than-2010.html">are not completely comparable</a>. These threats to the public’s health and to the image of the white American that so many traditionalists hold can encourage racial resentment.</p>
<p>However understandable it may be, it’s hard to argue that racial resentment, or any other hatred rooted in immutable differences, benefits U.S. society. Some segments of society do benefit from racial resentment, of course, and they will resist losing it as a campaign tool to protect their privileged status. </p>
<p>But if the U.S. is to fully realize the American ideals of freedom, opportunity and democracy for all, the country is going to have to face the reality of continuing discrimination against people of color and “others” of all types. Americans will need to not just talk about race <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/interactive/2024/race-identity-michele-norris-hidden-conversations-race-card-project/?utm_campaign=wp_post_most&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&wpisrc=nl_most">but to listen</a>, even if they don’t like what they hear. </p>
<p>As I said, lots of people won’t like this story.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/220528/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Marjorie Hershey does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The centrality of race to US politics is, once again, a defining feature of the current presidential campaign.Marjorie Hershey, Professor Emeritus of Political Science, Indiana UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2208142024-02-02T16:09:17Z2024-02-02T16:09:17ZBiden is campaigning against the Lost Cause and the ‘poison’ of white supremacy in South Carolina<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/569668/original/file-20240116-17-rcsaui.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=580%2C210%2C7662%2C5265&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">President Joe Biden at Mother Emanuel AME Church in South Carolina on Jan. 8, 2024. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/president-joe-biden-waits-to-speak-next-to-south-carolina-news-photo/1910415169?adppopup=true">Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In the blur of breaking news, one of President Joe Biden’s <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/speeches-remarks/2024/01/08/remarks-by-president-biden-at-a-political-event-charleston-sc/">first speeches</a> of the 2024 campaign was given in South Carolina and has already been mostly forgotten in the ongoing coverage of the state’s democratic primary on Feb. 3, 2024.</p>
<p>We should pay it more attention.</p>
<p>The site of the speech on Jan. 8, 2024, was Charleston, South Carolina’s Mother Emanuel AME Church, where, on a summer evening in 2015, an avowed white supremacist murdered nine Black worshipers, including <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2015/06/18/politics/south-carolina-church-shooting-clementa-pinckney/index.html">Rev. Clementa Pinckney</a>, the church’s pastor and a state representative. At Pinckney’s funeral, then-<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IN05jVNBs64">President Barack Obama</a> sang a heart-felt version of the Christian hymn <a href="https://www.loc.gov/item/ihas.200149085/">Amazing Grace</a>.</p>
<p>From the pulpit, Biden sounded like a preacher. </p>
<p>“The word of God was pierced by bullets in hate and rage, propelled by not just gunpowder but by a poison,” <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/speeches-remarks/2024/01/08/remarks-by-president-biden-at-a-political-event-charleston-sc/">Biden said</a>. “A poison that’s for too long haunted this nation. What is that poison? White supremacy. … Throughout our history, it’s ripped this nation apart.”</p>
<p>As a <a href="https://joseph-kelly.com">historian who studies democracy in the American South</a>, I am doing research for a book on free speech, lying and fascism in America during the 1920s and 1930s. What I have learned is that Biden’s Mother Emanuel speech should rank with some of the most important speeches in our history.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/PiU5aPekR7o?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Joe Biden speaks at Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The original big lie</h2>
<p>In 1820, 44 years after the nation’s birth, U.S. Sen. <a href="https://www.scencyclopedia.org/sce/entries/smith-william/">William Smith</a> of South Carolina was the first to claim in Congress that men were not created equal. Boldly rejecting the Declaration of Independence as effusive “enthusiasm,” Smith injected white supremacy into public discourse.</p>
<p>It spread like wildfire, and there’s little wonder. Smith, who owned several plantations and at least 71 enslaved people, was among more than <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/interactive/2022/congress-slaveowners-names-list/?itid=sf_local_dont-miss-brights_p004_f001">1,800 U.S. legislators</a> who enslaved Black people. </p>
<p>Southern propagandists rewrote history, arguing the founders never really believed in equality. If you disagreed, vigilante thugs would beat you up or chase you into exile. They killed more than a few people who spoke up against slavery.</p>
<h2>‘A house divided against itself cannot stand’</h2>
<p>The Supreme Court’s infamous 1857 decision in <a href="https://www.oyez.org/cases/1850-1900/60us393">Dred Scott v. Sandford</a> extended Southern racist ideology into the North. Black people, the court held, are “so far inferior that they had no rights which the white man was bound to respect, and … the negro might justly and lawfully be reduced to slavery.”</p>
<p>The following year, in his campaign for the U. S. Senate, Abraham Lincoln sounded the alarm. He addressed the consequences of slavery on America’s democracy and warned that “<a href="https://www.nps.gov/liho/learn/historyculture/housedivided.htm">a house divided against itself cannot stand</a>.” </p>
<p>“This government cannot endure,” he said, “permanently half slave and half free. It will become all one thing, or all the other. Either the opponents of slavery will arrest the further spread of it … or its advocates will push it forward till it shall become alike lawful in all the States, old as well as new, North as well as South.”</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/569676/original/file-20240116-15-ho7zat.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="In this black-and-white photograph, a white man dressed in a dark suit sits in a chair with his hands on his lap." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/569676/original/file-20240116-15-ho7zat.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/569676/original/file-20240116-15-ho7zat.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=738&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/569676/original/file-20240116-15-ho7zat.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=738&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/569676/original/file-20240116-15-ho7zat.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=738&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/569676/original/file-20240116-15-ho7zat.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=927&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/569676/original/file-20240116-15-ho7zat.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=927&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/569676/original/file-20240116-15-ho7zat.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=927&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">An 1860 portrait of Abraham Lincoln.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/abraham-lincoln-may-20-1860-salted-paper-print-from-glass-news-photo/1215985241?adppopup=true">Sepia Times/Universal Images Group via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The Civil War was supposed to end slavery and the white supremacist ideology that underpinned it. The <a href="https://guides.loc.gov/13th-amendment">13th</a>, <a href="https://guides.loc.gov/14th-amendment">14th</a> and <a href="https://guides.loc.gov/15th-amendment">15th Amendments</a>, known as the <a href="https://www.pbs.org/tpt/slavery-by-another-name/themes/reconstruction-amendments/">Reconstruction amendments</a>, made equality explicit in the Constitution, extending civil and political rights to newly freed African Americans. </p>
<p>That upended the Southern social order.</p>
<p>The South then invented what Biden called the “<a href="https://www.usnews.com/news/politics/articles/2024-01-08/biden-links-trump-election-denialism-confederate-lost-cause">self-serving lie</a>” of the “<a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/08/growing-up-in-the-shadow-of-the-confederacy/537501/">Lost Cause</a>,” the rewritten version of the Civil War that claims <a href="https://avalon.law.yale.edu/19th_century/csa_csa.asp">slavery</a> had nothing to do with the war. The white supremacist group Ku Klux Klan was <a href="https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist-files/ideology/ku-klux-klan">the violent hammer</a> of this “Lost Cause,” and its emergence coincided with <a href="https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/freedom-riders-jim-crow-laws/">Jim Crow laws</a> that established racial segregation across the South and disenfranchised Black voters until the 1960s.</p>
<h2>Democracies in peril</h2>
<p>In his State of the Union address on Jan. 6, 1941, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt sounded a new alarm. His “<a href="https://voicesofdemocracy.umd.edu/fdr-the-four-freedoms-speech-text/">Four Freedoms</a>” speech was an updated version of Lincoln’s and further defined freedom within a democracy.</p>
<p>The immediate issue was whether the U.S. should help England and other European allies defend against the <a href="https://www.historians.org/about-aha-and-membership/aha-history-and-archives/gi-roundtable-series/pamphlets/em-18-what-is-the-future-of-italy-(1945)/the-rise-and-fall-of-fascism">fascist regimes</a> of German Nazi leader Adolf Hitler and Italian dictator Benito Mussolini.</p>
<p>This was no academic question of foreign policy. In helping Britain, President Roosevelt stated, the United States was fighting for the universal freedoms that all people possessed: freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom from want and freedom from fear.</p>
<p>Biden has rung a similiar alarm. During his speech at Mother Emanuel church – and again during other campaign stops before the <a href="https://www.usvotefoundation.org/south-carolina-election-dates-and-deadlines">Feb. 3 Democratic Party primary in South Carolina</a> – Biden acknowledged that he is not only running against the GOP front-runner Donald Trump but also against a “second lost cause” myth. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=360t4mRmPcA">Biden called out Trump</a> for his “big lie” about the 2020 election that Trump has repeatedly claim was “rigged” against him. He criticized those who he said are attempting to “steal history” again and spin <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-67889403">the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection</a> as “a peaceful protest.” </p>
<p>At its core, Biden warned, Trump’s campaign slogan, “Make America Great Again,” is a resurrection of southern-style white nationalism and the age-old disregard for equal rights. </p>
<p>“<a href="https://www.instagram.com/joebiden/reel/C1x2_oVt0cg/">We all know who Donald Trump is</a>,” Biden said during his speech and in his ads, calling on Americans to work to make up for centuries of racism and discrimination “The question we have to answer is who are we?”</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/220814/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Joseph Patrick Kelly volunteers for the Charleston County (SC) Democratic Party. </span></em></p>During a campaign speech in South Carolina, President Biden made it clear that he is not only running against Donald Trump but also against white supremacy.Joseph Patrick Kelly, Professor of Literature and Director of Irish and Irish American Studies, College of CharlestonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2197862024-02-01T23:03:34Z2024-02-01T23:03:34ZGirls in hijab experience overlapping forms of racial and gendered violence<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/570251/original/file-20240118-27-ltadts.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=308%2C625%2C5251%2C3075&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Violence against girls who wear hijabs is often situated in structural oppression, including gendered Islamophobia and white supremacy.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" allow="clipboard-read; clipboard-write" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/girls-in-hijab-experience-overlapping-forms-of-racial-and-gendered-violence" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p><a href="https://worldhijabday.com/">World Hijab Day</a> recognizes the millions of Muslim women and girls who wear the traditional Islamic headscarf.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/09/26/europe/un-hijab-olympics-intl/index.html">Around the world</a>, Muslim girls in hijab are experiencing unique forms and <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/hamilton/islamophobia-canada-health-care-muslim-1.6792148">heightened rates</a> of gender and race-based <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/9549134/ttc-islamophobia-nccm-police-toronto/">violence and discrimination</a>. Overt violence against girls and women in hijab have captured global attention, evidenced most recently in the violent Canadian attacks on <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/community-groups-join-calls-for-further-action-in-attack-on-two-women-1.5839402">women in hijabs in Alberta</a> and the horrific <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/london/it-s-been-6-months-since-members-of-the-afzaal-family-in-london-ont-were-killed-what-s-changed-1.6274751">murders of the Afzaal family in London, Ont.</a></p>
<p>Violence against hijabi girls is often situated in structural oppression, including <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/10665680600788503">gendered Islamophobia</a> and white supremacy. Understanding the underpinnings of this violence is key to imagining more just and equitable futures for girls and young women in hijab.</p>
<h2>Islamophobia</h2>
<p>The term Islamophobia has often been used and understood in different ways. While often used interchangeably, some have argued that the term anti-Muslim racism, rather than the term Islamophobia, better encapsulates the systemic nature of anti-Muslim hate and violence.</p>
<p>Sociologist and Muslim studies scholar Jasmin Zine <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/48696287">has outlined how Islamophobia in Canada is comprised of systemic oppressive networks</a> and industries that are both fueled by and fuel anti-Muslim racism. Zine explains that an “industry behind purveying anti-Muslim hate” distinguishes Islamophobia from other forms of oppression.</p>
<p>According to Zine, this well-funded, lucrative and often transnational industry is comprised of media outlets, political figures and donors, white nationalist groups, think tanks, influencers and ideologues that support and engage in “activities that demonize and marginalize Islam and Muslims in Canada.”</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/568512/original/file-20240109-25-pd0nip.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C44%2C6000%2C3943&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A young girl in a pink hijab watches a sunset" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/568512/original/file-20240109-25-pd0nip.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C44%2C6000%2C3943&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/568512/original/file-20240109-25-pd0nip.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/568512/original/file-20240109-25-pd0nip.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/568512/original/file-20240109-25-pd0nip.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/568512/original/file-20240109-25-pd0nip.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/568512/original/file-20240109-25-pd0nip.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/568512/original/file-20240109-25-pd0nip.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Understanding the underpinnings of violence is key to creating more just and equitable futures for girls and young women in hijab.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Gendered Islamophobia</h2>
<p>Islamophobia and anti-Muslim racism is part of the fabric of institutions. Critics of laws such as <a href="https://doi.org/10.3138/cjwl.32.1.05">Bill 21 in Québec</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/01419870.2013.738821">similar measures in France</a> have argued that <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/muslim-women-most-affected-by-quebec-s-secularism-law-court-of-appeal-hears-1.6644377">Muslim women who wear the hijab are most affected</a>. These measures reflect narratives that <a href="https://www.hup.harvard.edu/books/9780674088269">position Muslim girls and women as oppressed victims</a> in need of rescue, as well as <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.ca/books/159783/orientalism-by-edward-w-said/9780394740676">Orientalist tropes</a> in the form of the <a href="https://assertjournal.com/index.php/assert/article/view/31/62">“save us from the Muslim girl” narratives</a>.</p>
<p>As Muslim women in hijab, we grieve horrific violence alongside our communities. Violent attacks highlight how anti-Muslim racism is often situated at a nexus of anti-Black racism, xenophobia, white supremacy and patriarchy. </p>
<p>We know that anti-Muslim violence is often aimed at girls and women in hijab. Yet, academic literature on hijabi girlhood is relatively scarce. Two years ago, we put out <a href="http://journals.berghahnbooks.com/_uploads/ghs/GHS_cfp_TheGirlInTheHijab.pdf">a call to the international academic community</a> seeking papers and creative submissions on the experiences of girls and young women in hijabs.</p>
<h2>The girl in the hijab</h2>
<p>Two years later, <a href="https://doi.org/10.3167/ghs.2023.160302">our new special issue</a>, called <em>The Girl in the Hijab</em>, has now been published in the international journal <em>Girlhood Studies</em>. It comes at a time when anti-Muslim, anti-Arab and <a href="https://www.canarablaw.org/s/Anti-Palestinian-Racism-Naming-Framing-and-Manifestations.pdf">anti-Palestinian racism</a> are on <a href="https://montrealgazette.com/news/local-news/muslim-groups-report-skyrocketing-number-of-islamophobic-incidents-across-canada">the rise around the country</a> and around the world.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.berghahnjournals.com/view/journals/girlhood-studies/16/3/girlhood-studies.16.issue-3.xml">The special issue</a> includes academic articles written by mostly Muslim women and creative works produced by hijab-wearing girls themselves. Both types of work provide insight into the current global landscape of hijabi girl experiences. </p>
<p>Cultural politics lecturer <a href="https://doi.org/10.3167/ghs.2023.160303">Noha Beydoun explores the events surrounding the donning of the American flag as a method of protest</a>. She finds that this phenomenon gained popularity because it worked to conceal complicated U.S. histories regarding Muslim immigration and broader imperial interests. Beydoun’s analysis evidences that the “American flag as hijab for girls and women reinforces the larger constructs it seeks to resist.”</p>
<p>Gender studies professor Ana Carolina Antunes highlights <a href="https://doi.org/10.3167/ghs.2023.160305">how unconscious bias and microaggressions hinder a positive sense of belonging among hijab-wearing students and impacts their academic success</a>. This study also reveals that anti-Muslim sentiment in schools affects the everyday experiences of Muslim girls, leading to disconnection from the school community. </p>
<p>Among the central themes in the special issue is <a href="https://assertjournal.com/index.php/assert/article/view/31/62">how women and girls resist gendered and Islamophobic discrimination in their everyday lives</a>. Hijabi girls resist oppressive narratives through their everyday actions and activist engagements. In Antunes’s study, girls asserted their right to occupy space in the educational environment.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/islamophobia-in-schools-how-teachers-and-communities-can-recognize-and-challenge-its-harms-162992">Islamophobia in schools: How teachers and communities can recognize and challenge its harms</a>
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<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/570252/original/file-20240118-20-old0n0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A girl in a black hijab with a handbag walks down a tree-lined path" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/570252/original/file-20240118-20-old0n0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/570252/original/file-20240118-20-old0n0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/570252/original/file-20240118-20-old0n0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/570252/original/file-20240118-20-old0n0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/570252/original/file-20240118-20-old0n0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/570252/original/file-20240118-20-old0n0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/570252/original/file-20240118-20-old0n0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">For Muslim women, donning the hijab can be an act of resistance and resilience in the face of discrimination.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Clinical social workers Amilah Baksh and her mother, Bibi Baksh, provide insight into their <a href="https://doi.org/10.3167/ghs.2023.160306">lived experiences as Indo-Caribbean social workers and university educators</a>. In their article, they identify the hijab as a form of resistance and resilience in their personal and professional lives. In their words, “it was never the hijab that rendered us voiceless. It is Islamophobia.”</p>
<p>The special issue highlights how Muslim girls and women, racialized through donning hijab, continue to be at the forefront of the struggle against Islamophobia and anti-Muslim violence, even as we remain among the primary targets of that violence.</p>
<p>The articles in this special issue demonstrate the need for better policies, education and laws that consider the unique experiences of girls and women in hijab. To counter violence against girls and women in hijab, we must name and understand the complexities of anti-Muslim racism and gendered Islamophobia. </p>
<p>Critically, this must center the voices of girls and women in hijab, opening or widening spaces for girls and women in hijab to practise acts of resistance in ways that are not bound by colonial logics and respectability politics.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/219786/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Salsabel Almanssori receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC).</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Muna Saleh receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Insight Development Grant (2022-2024) for her research titled “A Narrative Inquiry into the Curriculum-Making Experiences of Palestinian Muslim Youth and Families in Alberta.”</span></em></p>Around the world, Muslim girls who wear hijabs are experiencing unique forms and heightened rates of gender and race-based violence.Salsabel Almanssori, Adjunct Assistant Professor, Faculty of Education, University of WindsorMuna Saleh, Assistant Professor, Faculty of Education, Concordia University of EdmontonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2201212024-01-31T13:35:57Z2024-01-31T13:35:57ZHow Black male college athletes deal with anti-Black stereotypes on campus<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/572017/original/file-20240129-23-pzkon0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Professors have lower academic expectations of Black college athletes compared with white college athletes, a study found.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/basketball-makes-me-fulfilled-royalty-free-image/1407119795">supersizer/E+ Collection/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In an effort to avoid stereotypes about Black male athletes, such as being labeled a “<a href="https://scholarworks.bgsu.edu/jade/vol3/iss3/1">dumb jock</a>,” Spike, a college football player, says he wore athletic clothes to class as little as possible. </p>
<p>“I mean, granted, I’m a 6-foot-4, 240-pound Black kid on campus, so it’s kind of hard to get away from that,” he said. “But I didn’t want any, you know, significant confirmation that I was an athlete. So, I just wore like a collared shirt, jeans and nice shoes every day.”</p>
<p>Trey, a baseball player, refrained from speaking up or sharing personal information – even with his teammates. </p>
<p>He said he was often “outnumbered in opinion” as he was one of two Black athletes on a team of 40, which led to him “not even wanting to speak up” about issues that may cause conflict with others. “I’m a Black student-athlete and, like, that already makes me have to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1123/ssj.2022-0108">carry myself</a> a different way,” he said.</p>
<p>I’m a professor of sport management who <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/10126902221082042">researches</a> the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/10126902221082042">experiences of Black male college athletes</a>. During the 2020-21 academic year, I <a href="https://doi.org/10.1123/ssj.2022-0108">interviewed 16 Black male college athletes</a> at Division I colleges across the U.S. I wanted to know how they changed their behavior to navigate stereotypes about them. </p>
<p>I also asked participants, who competed in numerous sports – including football, baseball, cheer, diving, and track and field – to record audio diaries about the topic as part of the study.</p>
<p>I found that these college athletes, at times, went out of their way to change how they present themselves to others in order to avoid anti-Black racism and “dumb jock” stereotypes on campus. At other times, they pushed back against these stereotypes as a form of resistance.</p>
<h2>‘I don’t bring up that I am a student-athlete’</h2>
<p><a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Presentation_of_Self_in_Everyday_Lif.html?id=Sdt-cDkV8pQC">Self-presentation</a> refers to how someone acts or behaves during social interactions in order to influence how others perceive them. For example, a person may change how they speak, or their word choices, depending on who is around them.</p>
<p>The Black male college athletes in my study altered their presentation in a number of ways, including their dress or clothing and their speech. They also limited how much information they shared, and at times they hid details about their identity.</p>
<p>Marc, another football player, reflected on how being a Black male college athlete affected how he spoke – both the frequency and delivery – during class. “You have to be, like, more engaged,” he said. “You got to assert yourself more and you got to be more analytic about things.”</p>
<p>These adjustments were not restricted to academic environments. Marc was also careful about what information he shared in various athletic settings, too. “You do not really <a href="https://doi.org/10.1123/ssj.2022-0108">talk about personal stuff</a> or anything like that,” he said. </p>
<p>Participants did not want their vulnerabilities used against them by their coaches or academic advisers.</p>
<p>Another strategy Black male college athletes used was hiding details about their identity – most often their athletic identity. Tyler, a track athlete, noted, “I try to make sure I don’t bring up that I am a student-athlete. I’m just trying to build my <a href="http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1623682148502463">identity away from the sport</a>.”</p>
<h2>Black students, white campuses</h2>
<p>Black men represent about <a href="https://nscresearchcenter.org/current-term-enrollment-estimates/">6% of total college students</a> in U.S. four-year public institutions. Yet at Division I schools, the highest level of college athletic competition, they represent roughly <a href="https://www.ncaa.org/sports/2018/12/13/ncaa-demographics-database.aspx">45% of football players</a> and <a href="https://www.ncaa.org/sports/2018/12/13/ncaa-demographics-database.aspx">51% of men’s basketball players</a>. </p>
<p>Overall, Black men represent <a href="https://www.ncaa.org/sports/2018/12/13/ncaa-demographics-database.aspx">12% of all Division I college athletes</a>, excluding historically Black colleges and universities.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, at Power Five schools, where college football is a big-time business, as many as <a href="https://www.americanprogress.org/article/madness-doesnt-end-march/">1 in 6 Black male students</a> are athletes, compared with 1 in 50 white students. </p>
<p>The vast majority of Division I schools are predominantly white institutions. Their athletic departments, including coaching staffs and administrators, are <a href="https://www.tidesport.org/college">overwhelmingly white</a>. For example, 78% of Division I athletic directors, 81% of head coaches, 68% of assistant coaches and 90% of head athletic trainers <a href="https://www.ncaa.org/sports/2018/12/13/ncaa-demographics-database.aspx">are white</a>. </p>
<p>Similar to their athletic experience, these athletes do not see many other Black people across campus. Faculty on these campuses are <a href="https://www.bestcolleges.com/research/diversity-in-higher-education-facts-statistics/#faculty-diversity">93% non-Black</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/572018/original/file-20240129-17-e529bf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="College student wearing ear buds works on laptop on campus" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/572018/original/file-20240129-17-e529bf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/572018/original/file-20240129-17-e529bf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/572018/original/file-20240129-17-e529bf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/572018/original/file-20240129-17-e529bf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/572018/original/file-20240129-17-e529bf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/572018/original/file-20240129-17-e529bf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/572018/original/file-20240129-17-e529bf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Black college athletes often go out of their way to avoid ‘dumb jock’ stereotypes.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/male-college-student-studying-online-on-laptop-in-royalty-free-image/1304983476">Maskot/Maskot Collection/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Racism and discrimination</h2>
<p>It is well documented that Black male college athletes <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0193723513520013">experience racism and discrimination</a> while attending these predominantly white schools. This includes, for example, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/1012690208099874">unequal enforcement of school policies</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/10665684.2016.1194097">less access to educational opportunities</a>. </p>
<p>They are discriminated against for being Black, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0002764207307742">for being Black males</a> and for being athletes. Although touted for their physical prowess, Black male athletes are often <a href="https://scholarworks.bgsu.edu/jade/vol3/iss3/1">labeled “dumb jocks”</a> – their intelligence somehow discredited by their <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/10126902221082042">physical stature</a>.</p>
<p>They are sometimes seen by students, faculty, staff and even fans as <a href="https://doi.org/10.17161/jis.v14i2.13606">lacking the intellectual ability</a> and motivation to succeed academically. They are characterized as illegitimate students who undermine the academic mission of the university and <a href="https://go.gale.com/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CA163678994&sid=googleScholar&v=2.1&it=r&linkaccess=abs&issn=01463934&p=AONE&sw=w&userGroupName=anon%7E5882e246&aty=open-web-entry">receive special treatment</a>. </p>
<p>One study found that professors and academic counselors had <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0193723513520013">lower academic expectations</a> of Black college athletes compared with their white counterparts and that these athletes lacked autonomy in making academic decisions. Academic counselors often selected their courses, as opposed to the athletes registering themselves, which made the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0193723513520013">athletes feel powerless</a>.</p>
<p>Another study found that faculty members were more likely to attribute Black male college athletes’ success to policies, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1123/ssj.27.4.390">such as affirmative action</a>, instead of their merits, as they did for white athletes.</p>
<h2>Resisting societal pressure</h2>
<p>Not all the athletes altered their behavior or appearance to avoid anti-Black stereotypes. Keyvon, a football player, expressed that he presents himself authentically in predominantly white spaces as a way to “<a href="http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1623682148502463">apply pressure</a>” and force people to get comfortable with his Blackness. </p>
<p>Being a big-time college athlete indeed <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/10126902221082042">presents privileges</a>, such as a pseudo-celebrity status, which at times can shield Black male college athletes from the impact of stereotypes and anti-Blackness. However, this is often the case solely when Black males perform well in their sport. </p>
<p>Sport performance should not determine how people treat Black male college athletes. Nor should Black male college athletes be <a href="https://doi.org/10.1123/kr.2016-0039">placed in a box</a> when it comes to how they present themselves, or risk anti-Black discrimination if they express themselves authentically. Ultimately, Black male college athletes will present themselves in a manner they deem appropriate – whether that aligns with what society expects or not.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/220121/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jonathan Howe does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Black male athletes at Division I schools say they alter their speech, dress and other behaviors to gain acceptance in mostly white academic and athletic settings.Jonathan Howe, Assistant Professor of Sport Management, Temple UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2178952024-01-30T13:33:53Z2024-01-30T13:33:53ZFor 150 years, Black journalists have known what Confederate monuments really stood for<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/571511/original/file-20240125-21-3a2puj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=494%2C187%2C2976%2C2596&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Confederate leaders Robert E Lee, Stonewall Jackson and Jefferson Davis are depicted in this carving on Stone Mountain, Ga. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/the-confederate-generals-carved-into-stone-mountain-in-news-photo/3094974?adppopup=true">MPI/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In October 2023, nearly seven years after the deadly <a href="https://time.com/charlottesville-white-nationalist-rally-clashes/">Unite the Right</a> white supremacist rally, the statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee in Charlottesville, Virginia, was <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/interactive/2023/civil-war-monument-melting-robert-e-lee-confederate/">melted down</a>. Since then, two more major Confederate monuments have been removed: the <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/12/arlington-cemetery-confederate-monument/676965/">Confederate Memorial at Arlington National Cemetery</a> and the <a href="https://apnews.com/article/confederate-monuments-jacksonville-florida-eb85c70216603e180db5df851f0f852c">Monument to the Women of the Confederacy in Jacksonville, Florida</a>.</p>
<p>Defenders of Confederate monuments have argued that the statues <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/15/opinion/the-meaning-of-our-confederate-monuments.html">should be left standing</a> to educate future generations. One such defender is former President Donald Trump, the likely GOP presidential nominee in 2024.</p>
<p>“Sad to see the history and culture of our great country being ripped apart with the removal of our beautiful statues and monuments,” <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/trumps-history-defending-confederate-heritage-political-risk-analysis/story?id=71199968">Trump tweeted</a> in 2017. “The beauty that is being taken out of our cities, towns and parks will be greatly missed and never able to be comparably replaced!”</p>
<p>But since the end of the Civil War, journalists at Black newspapers have told a different story. Despite meager financing and constant threats, these newspapers represented the views of Black Americans and documented the nation’s shortcomings in achieving racial equality. </p>
<p>According to many of these writers, the statues were never designed to <a href="https://www.aaihs.org/beyond-monuments-african-americans-contesting-civil-war-memory/">tell the truth</a> about the Civil War. Instead, the monuments were built to enshrine the myth of the “<a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/08/growing-up-in-the-shadow-of-the-confederacy/537501/">Lost Cause</a>,” the false claim that white Southerners nobly fought for states’ rights – and not to <a href="https://avalon.law.yale.edu/19th_century/csa_csa.asp">preserve slavery</a>.</p>
<p>In 1921, for instance, the Chicago Defender published an article under the headline “Tear the Spirit of the Confederacy from the South” and called for the <a href="https://www.laphamsquarterly.org/roundtable/why-honor-them">removal of the statues</a> from across the country because they “lend inspiration to the heart of the lyncher.” </p>
<h2>‘Lost Cause’ propaganda</h2>
<p>For the last several years, I’ve <a href="https://falseimage.pennds.org/introduction/">studied the history of Confederate monuments</a> by poring over the letters and records of the organizations that campaigned for their construction. My research students and I have also <a href="https://falseimage.pennds.org/">reviewed countless reactions</a> to the monuments published in real time in Black newspapers.</p>
<p>What is clear is that from the late nineteenth century until today, Confederate monuments were part of a relentless propaganda campaign to restore the South’s reputation at dedication ceremonies, parades, reunions and Memorial Day events.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://archive.org/details/ProceedingsOfTheThirty-seventhAnnualReunionOfTheVirginiaGrandCamp">dedication in Charlottesville</a> of the Lee monument in 1924 – 100 years ago this May – was one such event. </p>
<p>Timed to coincide with a reunion of the <a href="https://scv.org/">Sons of Confederate Veterans</a>, the speakers openly bragged about how they were sweeping Northern-authored textbooks out of Southern schools and replacing them with <a href="https://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/story/news/education/2020/12/03/southern-history-textbooks-long-history-deception/6327359002/">friendlier accounts</a> of the Civil War. </p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="Underneath a burning cross, a group of white men dressed in white robes and white hoods march holding American flags." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/571519/original/file-20240125-21-en2mp2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/571519/original/file-20240125-21-en2mp2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=790&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/571519/original/file-20240125-21-en2mp2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=790&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/571519/original/file-20240125-21-en2mp2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=790&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/571519/original/file-20240125-21-en2mp2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=993&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/571519/original/file-20240125-21-en2mp2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=993&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/571519/original/file-20240125-21-en2mp2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=993&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Ku Klux Klan members march under a burning cross near Washington in 1925.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/arlington-park-va-composite-photo-of-ku-klux-klan-members-news-photo/515204254?adppopup=true">Bettmann Archive/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In the weeks leading up to the dedication, members of the Ku Klux Klan <a href="https://search.lib.virginia.edu/sources/uva_library/items/uva-lib:2590120">paraded down Charlottesville’s Main Street</a> in daylight and <a href="https://search.lib.virginia.edu/sources/uva_library/items/uva-lib:2590109">burned crosses in the hills</a> at night.</p>
<p>The master of ceremonies of that unveiling was <a href="https://www.cvillepedia.org/Richard_Thomas_Walker_Duke_Jr.">R.T.W. Duke, Jr.</a>, the son of a Confederate colonel who was a popular orator at events like these. </p>
<p>A few years earlier, Duke made his own views of the Civil War plain. </p>
<p>He told a crowd gathered at a Confederate cemetery in Richmond, Virginia, that he was “still a believer in the righteousness of what some of our own people now call the ‘rebellion.‘”</p>
<p>Duke further said “that slavery was right and emancipation a violation of the Constitution, a wrong and a robbery.”</p>
<h2>A critical Black press</h2>
<p>Contrary to the claims of today’s defenders of Confederate monuments, a <a href="https://falseimage.pennds.org/essays/">review of Black newspapers</a> going back to the 1870s conducted by my research team shows that Black journalists’ criticism of these memorials had already begun by the late nineteenth century. </p>
<p>The first truly national Confederate monument was the statue of Robert E. Lee in Richmond. It was unveiled before an audience of as many as 150,000 attendees on May 29, 1890, and provoked sharp alarm among Black commentators across the country.</p>
<p>In a May 31, 1890, article, <a href="https://www.civilwarrichmond.com/written-accounts/post-war-newspapers/richmond-planet/6161-1890-05-31-richmond-planet-editorial-decrying-the-erection-of-the-lee-statue-on-monument-avenue-and-the-improper-use-of-confederate-imagery-and-memory">Richmond Planet</a> editor John Mitchell, Jr. pointed out that Confederate flags and emblems far outnumbered U.S. flags at the unveiling.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="A Black man wearing a business suit sits at a desk with his right hand on a sheet of paper." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/571515/original/file-20240125-21-44dqbz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/571515/original/file-20240125-21-44dqbz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=897&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/571515/original/file-20240125-21-44dqbz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=897&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/571515/original/file-20240125-21-44dqbz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=897&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/571515/original/file-20240125-21-44dqbz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1128&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/571515/original/file-20240125-21-44dqbz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1128&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/571515/original/file-20240125-21-44dqbz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1128&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">John Mitchell Jr. at the Richmond Planet in 1917.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://encyclopediavirginia.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/7808hpr_aab81de2428104d-scaled.jpg">Encyclopedia Virginia</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>“This glorification of States Rights Doctrine, the right of ‘secession’ and the honoring of men who represented that cause, fosters in this Republic the spirit of Rebellion and will ultimately result in handing down to generations unborn a legacy of treason and blood,” Mitchell wrote. </p>
<p>Mitchell further <a href="https://theshockoeexaminer.blogspot.com/2020/06/john-mitchell-jr-and-richmond-planet.html">detailed the enthusiasm</a> of the crowd assembled in Richmond. </p>
<p>“Cheer after cheer rang out upon the air as fair women waved handkerchiefs and screamed to do honor,” Mitchell wrote. But the South’s insistence on celebrating Lee “serves to retard its progress in the country and forges heavier chains with which to be bound.”</p>
<p>By reprinting articles from other Black publications, the Planet in 1890 effectively created <a href="https://falseimage.pennds.org/essay/lee-in-richmond-forging-heavier-chains/">a forum for commentary on the Richmond Lee statue from around the country</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="A large statue is seen in the middle of a park that depicts a white man siting atop a horse." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/571528/original/file-20240125-21-rww437.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/571528/original/file-20240125-21-rww437.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=470&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/571528/original/file-20240125-21-rww437.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=470&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/571528/original/file-20240125-21-rww437.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=470&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/571528/original/file-20240125-21-rww437.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=590&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/571528/original/file-20240125-21-rww437.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=590&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/571528/original/file-20240125-21-rww437.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=590&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">The statue of Robert E. Lee in Richmond, Va., in 1905.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/equestrian-statue-of-robert-e-lee-in-richmond-virginia-in-news-photo/835252424?adppopup=true">Library of Congress/Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>An article republished from the National Home Protector, a Baltimore-based Black newspaper, also took aim at the statue.</p>
<p>“When the unveiling of the monument is used as an opportunity to justify the southern people in rebelling against the U.S. government and to flaunt the Confederate flag in the faces of the loyal people of the nation the occasion calls for serious reflection,” the article said. </p>
<p>The editors of the newspaper accused white Southerners of trying to use the glorification of Lee to resurrect the “corpse of rebellion.” </p>
<h2>Writing truth to power</h2>
<p>No one knows what the Black-owned Charlottesville Messenger said about the unveiling of the Lee monument in its city in 1924.</p>
<p>Only one copy <a href="https://search.lib.virginia.edu/sources/uva_library/items/u3832085?idx=0&page=1">of a single issue still exists</a>. In fact, one of the only things known about the Messenger is that in 1921, the white-dominated Charlottesville Daily Progress <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2019/08/10/charlottesvilles-confederate-statues-still-stand-still-symbolize-racist-past/">reprinted a Messenger article</a> that called for Black civil rights. The Black newspaper later retracted the story after receiving threats from white supremacists.</p>
<p>But we do know what other Black newspapers of this period were saying about Confederate monuments. For many Black editors, the monuments had become symbols of the violent backlash against Black citizenship by white Southerners. </p>
<p>In 1925, the <a href="https://www.aaihs.org/the-pittsburgh-couriers-discursive-power-1910-1940/">Pittsburgh Courier</a>, criticized the Confederate carving on Stone Mountain in Georgia, the <a href="https://www.kqed.org/lowdown/19119/stone-mountains-hidden-history-americas-biggest-confederate-memorial-and-birthplace-of-the-modern-ku-klux-klan">site of the rebirth of the Ku Klux Klan</a>. </p>
<p>Taking square aim at the Lost Cause myth, the newspaper called Stone Mountain “a living monument of the cause to which white Southerners have dedicated their lives: human slavery and color selfishness.” </p>
<p>The Confederate monument on the side of Stone Mountain still stands today. </p>
<p>Telling the truth about American history requires transforming these memorials into true reflections of the seemingly never-ending battles initially fought during the Civil War.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/217895/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Donovan Schaefer does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>At the turn of the 20th century, Southern sympathizers started building monuments to Confederate leaders. Black newspaper editors saw these emblems clearly for what they stood for – a lost cause.Donovan Schaefer, Associate Professor of Religious Studies, University of PennsylvaniaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2211572024-01-29T15:44:46Z2024-01-29T15:44:46ZFrom Twitter to X: one year on, are white supremacists back?<p>On 28 October 2022, just one day after acquiring Twitter, Elon Musk published a message that summed up his vision for its future: “The bird is free”.</p>
<p>The social network’s emblematic blue colour quickly gave way to the black X – reminiscent of the dark web – when Musk’s X Corp, took control. Soon after, the billionaire announced the <a href="https://www.platformer.news/p/why-some-tech-ceos-are-rooting-for">restoration of 62,000 previously suspended accounts</a>, including – and this was to make headlines – that of Donald Trump.</p>
<p>The technology mogul clearly stated his intention: to transform Twitter into a platform where freedom of speech would approach the absolute. In so doing, he <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/elon-musk-twitter-layoffs-outsourced-content-moderators/">gutted the site’s moderation mechanisms</a>, intended to reduce hate speech and counter the epidemic of misinformation on the platform. Put in place at the encouragement of the <a href="https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/R/R46662">US Congress</a>, Musk felt that they had no place in the brave new world of X.</p>
<p>Predictably, this new direction generated polarised reactions in the United States. Some feared a rise in extremism, in particular supremacist movements, due to the spread and possible normalisation of <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/nov/21/great-replacement-theory-antisemitism-racism-rightwing-mainstream">racist and anti-Semitic content</a>. At the same time, others saluted the new “freedom of expression”, and even called for the accounts of white nationalist leaders to be reinstated.</p>
<p>Just over a year later, Musk retweeted his original message on the anniversary of his takeover, embellishing it with the word <em>freedom</em>. So what is the actual state of white nationalist accounts on the social network, and what are the foreseeable implications for the evolution of extremism in public discourse?</p>
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<h2>The persistent suspension of white nationalist leaders</h2>
<p>X carried out an initial wave of restorations of suspended accounts <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2022/12/08/tech/twitter-unbanned-users-returning/index.html">from November 2022</a>, including white-nationalist leaders suspended from 2017 to 2021. The waves of <a href="https://www.cjr.org/language_corner/deplatform.php">“deplatforming”</a> started after the <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2021/11/19/us/charlottesville-unite-the-right-civil-trial-how-we-got-here/index.html">Charlottesville “United the Right” rally that turned deadly</a> and continued through the <a href="https://theconversation.com/twitter-permanently-suspends-trump-after-u-s-capitol-siege-citing-risk-of-further-violence-152924">assault on the US Capitol</a>. </p>
<p>During that period, the accounts of well-known figures such as Ku Klux Klan icon <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/31/tech/david-duke-twitter-ban/index.html">David Duke</a> were suspended. The measure also affected less high-profile but equally important individuals, such as <a href="https://www.cnet.com/culture/white-nationalist-jared-taylor-american-renaissance-sues-twitter-for-account-suspension/">Jared Taylor</a>, founder of the white supremacist website <a href="https://www.amren.com/">American Renaissance</a>, and <a href="https://academic.oup.com/book/25370/chapter-abstract/192454202">Greg Johnson</a>, publisher of the white nationalist magazine <em>Counter-Currents</em>.</p>
<p>Even with Musk’s arrival, however, these and other accounts have remained inaccessible. Because they all promote the idea of a racial state in the United States based on a homogeneous white identity, their content contradicts X’s new security rules, which prohibit <a href="https://help.twitter.com/en/rules-and-policies/x-rules">associations with violent or hateful entities</a>. Other key accounts were deactivated by Elon Musk’s teams, such as that of the anti-Semitic and white nationalist psychologist <a href="https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist-files/individual/kevin-macdonald">Kevin MacDonald</a> in April 2023.</p>
<p>While the persistent absence of these leaders deprives a fragmented movement of points of ideological convergence, this does not mean that the platform is free of anti-democratic racialism. Many minor figures already on Twitter have managed to slip past X’s new rules and establish themselves as the new voices to follow.</p>
<p>The platform carried out a second wave of restorations in January 2023, and while it didn’t restore high-profile theorists of racialism, groups close to white nationalism, such as Nick Fuentes’s <a href="https://www.isdglobal.org/explainers/groypers/">Groypers</a>, have attempted to reestablish themselves.</p>
<h2>The intellectual dark web or “authentic” right-wing X</h2>
<p>Musk’s Twitter tends to favour an essentialising line of the <a href="https://intellectualdarkweb.site/">intellectual dark web</a>, a motley collection of personalities who claim academic qualifications in order to define themselves as thinkers. Their shared ideology is often based on a biological conception of gender, crystallising traditionalist roles that confine men to a productive, masculine power, while assigning women a femininity centred on the home.</p>
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<p>The account of Stefan Molyneux, once part of the <a href="https://twitter.com/Shayan86/status/1613610719043256331">alt-right movement</a>, was reinstated back in January 2023. With a following of several hundred thousand, he is known for his libertarian views within the <a href="https://unherd.com/2021/12/why-the-right-is-obsessed-with-masculinity/">“manosphere”</a>, a particularly reactionary version of masculinism characterised by militant hostility to anything that its members consider to be “wokism.” This ideological trend has been reinforced by the <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/danidiplacido/2022/11/18/jordan-peterson-returns-to-twitter-immediately-demands-the-site-censor-anonymous-trolls/">reactivation of the accounts of Jordan B. Peterson</a> and <a href="https://www.louderwithcrowder.com/james-lindsay-exclusive-part-one">James Lindsay</a>, two figures in this movement.</p>
<p>The “manosphere” also tends to serve as a gateway to other groups adjacent to white nationalism. The synthesis of identity is embodied by the return to X of Bronze Age Pervert (known as “BAP” to his followers), the provocative pseudonym of <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2023/09/bronze-age-pervert-costin-alamariu/674762/">Costin Alamariu</a>. His world view is based on a rigid sexual hierarchy dominated by alpha males who enjoy ephemeral seduction. It also adds the ambiguity of virile friendships marked by a warrior aesthetic.</p>
<p>Since given a green light by Elon Musk, BAP has found a growing audience, which now exceeds 130,000 followers, an increase of two thirds in one year. Its presence has restored structure to a movement that commonly refers to itself as the “authentic” right-wing Twitter. It has also encouraged a shift from simple anti-woke libertarianism to more overt neo-fascism.</p>
<p>Indeed, BAP is not so different from the white-nationalist accounts that are <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2023/07/16/bronze-age-pervert-masculinity-00105427">inaccessible on X</a>. He subscribes to a neo-Nietzschean philosophy, placing his elitist notion of fraternity against ethnic groups. Social relations are essentialised to the extreme: they are no longer euphemistic, but sublimated by the illusion of belonging to a community based on the celebration of a strength that is achieved solely through the domination of others.</p>
<h2>The NatCon movement</h2>
<p>At first glance, X’s rejection of explicitly racialist or anti-Semitic accounts while allowing the presence and growth of an adjacent neo-fascist network may seem paradoxical. There are several possible explanations.</p>
<p>From a semiotic point of view, this faction of the extreme right has developed its own codes of language that enable it to bypass the recommendation algorithms. Masculinist discourses, which take a stand against gender theories, seem to be favoured by Elon Musk. Indeed, he made his opposition to the “woke virus” explicit when he reinstated the satirical <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/media/the-babylon-bees-twitter-account-reinstated-elon-musk-suspension-transgender-joke-back">Babylon Bee</a> account. </p>
<p>The right-wing extreme influencers returning to the platform tend to gravitate towards the “NatCon” movement, a <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2019/07/national-conservatism-conference/594202/">nationalist conservatism</a> bringing together various illiberal political branches, <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2019/07/national-conservatism-conference/594202/">under the leadership of Yoram Hazony</a>. From 2019, BAP received the support of <a href="https://newrepublic.com/article/174656/claremont-institute-think-tank-trump">the Claremont Institute</a>, a think tank closely associated with the NatCon network, for the <a href="https://claremontreviewofbooks.com/are-the-kids-altright/">promotion of its book _Bronze Age Mindset</a>_.</p>
<p>This inclusion in a key organisation of national conservatism establishes a link to <a href="https://reason.com/2020/08/02/wait-wasnt-peter-thiel-a-libertarian">libertarian Peter Thiel</a>, founder of Palantir, co-founder of PayPal and former associate of Elon Musk. The relationship between a Silicon Valley tycoon and a masculinist philosopher may seem tenuous, yet Thiel is a major donor to the Republican Party and has never hidden his adherence to an anti-democratic ideology akin to the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/28/opinion/marc-andreessen-manifesto-techno-optimism.html">neo-reactionary thinking of Curtis Yarvin</a>. BAPtism enjoys considerable support, and is at the extreme of the <a href="https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2022/04/inside-the-new-right-where-peter-thiel-is-placing-his-biggest-bets">continuum promoting a “New Right”</a>.</p>
<p>The question of white nationalism can therefore be posed in strategic terms. Despite their ideological proximity, the refusal of the NatCon conference organisers to accept the presence of the movement’s leaders is justified by the <a href="https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/rosiegray/national-conservatism-trump">concern not to see their image linked to such an openly extreme movement</a>. Association with what is labelled “white nationalism” is seen as detrimental to attracting a broad and diverse audience. On the contrary, staging its rejection helps to reassure and reinforce NatCon’s respectability.</p>
<p>In the conference rooms and on X, NatCon seems to have set about rebuilding a movement on the basis of new codes and new figures. It is these choices that will determine whether the anti-democratic project can be perceived as acceptable, and whether masculinist extremism can become the political norm in the Republican Party. As far back as 2022, Blake Masters, the unsuccessful Republican candidate for Senator of Arizona, gained the support of the hard right with a program that was both traditionalist and protectionist.</p>
<p>The Twitter bird may be free, but X is being selective. A year after Elon Musk took control, fears about the rise of white nationalism need to be contextualised and rationalised more than ever. A study of the influential accounts that are actually active shows that the terms of the debate are in danger of shifting from the alt-right to the New Right. As the 2024 elections approach, this framework will be of great importance in analysing the resurgence of all forms of white supremacism in the United States.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/221157/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Les auteurs ne travaillent pas, ne conseillent pas, ne possèdent pas de parts, ne reçoivent pas de fonds d'une organisation qui pourrait tirer profit de cet article, et n'ont déclaré aucune autre affiliation que leur organisme de recherche.</span></em></p>When Elon Musk took control of Twitter, many were concerned about the reappearance of extremist accounts. In retrospect, X has shown itself to be selective.Sarah Rodriguez-Louette, Doctorante à l’Université Sorbonne Nouvelle, membre de la Chaire Unesco « Savoir Devenir à l'ère du développement numérique durable»., Université Sorbonne Nouvelle, Paris 3 Divina Frau-Meigs, Professeur des sciences de l'information et de la communication, Auteurs historiques The Conversation FranceLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.