tag:theconversation.com,2011:/fr/topics/african-americans-13366/articlesAfrican Americans – The Conversation2023-12-15T13:22:43Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2140532023-12-15T13:22:43Z2023-12-15T13:22:43ZRacism produces subtle brain changes that lead to increased disease risk in Black populations<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/565115/original/file-20231212-21-79wl3z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=50%2C30%2C6659%2C4436&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Coping with everyday affronts comes at a cost and requires a certain level of emotional suppression. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/composite-of-portraits-with-varying-shades-of-skin-royalty-free-image/1249641728?phrase=discrimination&searchscope=image%2Cfilm&adppopup=true">RyanJLane/E+ via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The U.S. is in the midst of a racial reckoning. The COVID-19 pandemic, which took a particularly <a href="https://covidtracking.com/race">heavy toll on Black communities</a>, turned a harsh spotlight on long-standing health disparities that the public could no longer overlook.</p>
<p>Although the health disparities for Black communities have been well known to researchers for decades, the pandemic put real names and faces to these numbers. Compared with white people, Black people are at much greater risk for developing a range of health problems, including <a href="https://minorityhealth.hhs.gov/heart-disease-and-african-americans">heart disease</a>, <a href="https://minorityhealth.hhs.gov/diabetes-and-african-americans">diabetes</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jalz.2018.09.009">dementia</a>. For example, Black people are twice as likely as white people to <a href="https://www.alz.org/media/Documents/alzheimers-facts-and-figures.pdf">develop Alzheimer’s disease</a>.</p>
<p>A vast and growing body of research shows that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-publhealth-040218-043750">racism contributes to systems that promote health inequities</a>. Most recently, our team has also learned that racism directly contributes to these inequities on a neurobiological level.</p>
<p>We are <a href="https://www.negarfani.com/">clinical</a> <a href="https://www.mcleanhospital.org/profile/nathaniel-harnett">neuroscientists</a> who study the multifaceted ways in which racism affects how our brains develop and function. We use brain imaging to study how trauma such as sexual assault or racial discrimination can cause stress that leads to mental health disorders like depression and post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD. </p>
<p>We have studied trauma in the context of a study known as the <a href="https://www.gradytraumaproject.com/">Grady Trauma Project</a>, which has been running for nearly 20 years. This study is largely focused on the trauma and stress of Black people in the metropolitan Atlanta, Georgia, community.</p>
<h2>How discrimination alters the brain</h2>
<p>Racial discrimination is commonly experienced through subtle indignities: a woman clutching her purse as a Black man walks by on the sidewalk, a shopkeeper keeping close watch on a Black woman shopping in a clothing store, a comment about a Black employee being a “diversity hire.” These slights are often referred to as <a href="https://www.med.unc.edu/inclusion/justice-equity-diversity-and-inclusion-j-e-d-i-toolkit/microaggressions-microaffirmations/#">microaggressions</a>.</p>
<p>Decades of research has shown that the everyday burden of these race-related threats, slights and exclusions in day-to-day life translates into a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-publhealth-040218-043750">real increase in disease risk</a>. But researchers are only beginning to understand how these forms of discrimination affect a person’s biology and overall health.</p>
<p>Our team’s research shows that the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bpsc.2022.05.004">everyday burden of racism</a> <a href="https://doi.org/10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2021.1480">affects the function</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsych.2021.08.011">structure</a> <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41386-022-01445-8">of the brain</a>. In turn, these changes play a major role in risk for health problems.</p>
<p>For instance, our studies show that racial discrimination <a href="https://doi.org/10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2021.1480">increases the activity of brain regions</a>, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41386-023-01737-7">such as the prefrontal cortex</a>, that are involved in regulating emotions. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/565418/original/file-20231213-25-bah2a6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Scientist and technologist view brain images." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/565418/original/file-20231213-25-bah2a6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/565418/original/file-20231213-25-bah2a6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565418/original/file-20231213-25-bah2a6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565418/original/file-20231213-25-bah2a6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565418/original/file-20231213-25-bah2a6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=603&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565418/original/file-20231213-25-bah2a6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=603&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565418/original/file-20231213-25-bah2a6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=603&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Negar Fani and a team member view brain images.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Patrick Heagney</span></span>
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<p>This increased activity in prefrontal brain regions occurs because responding to these types of affronts requires high-effort coping strategies, such as suppressing emotions. People who have experienced more racial discrimination also show more activation in brain regions that enable them to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dr.2021.100967">inhibit and suppress anger, shock or sadness</a> so that they can curate a socially acceptable response. </p>
<h2>A cost for overcompensating</h2>
<p>Despite the fact that high-energy coping allows people to manage a constant barrage of threats, this comes at a cost.</p>
<p>The more brain energy you use to suppress, control or manage your feelings, the more energy you take away from the rest of the body. Over time, and without prolonged periods of rest, relief and restoration, this can contribute to other problems, a process that public health researcher <a href="https://psc.isr.umich.edu/news/a-monumental-new-book-weathering-arline-geronimuss-lifes-work/">Arline Geronimus termed “weathering</a>.” Having these brain regions in continual overdrive is <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2020.113169">linked with</a> <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007%2Fs12110-010-9078-0">accelerated biological aging</a>, which can <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016%2Fj.ssmph.2018.11.003">create vulnerability for health problems</a> and early death. </p>
<p>In our research, we have found that this <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41386-022-01445-8">weathering process is evident</a> in the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsych.2021.08.011">gradual degradation</a> <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bpsc.2022.05.004">of brain structure</a>, particularly in the heavily myelinated axons of the brain, known as “<a href="https://medlineplus.gov/ency/article/002344.htm#">white matter</a>,” which serve as the brain’s information highways. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/565504/original/file-20231213-21-yeiyph.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Computer-generated image of white matter tracts in the brain." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/565504/original/file-20231213-21-yeiyph.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/565504/original/file-20231213-21-yeiyph.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=293&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565504/original/file-20231213-21-yeiyph.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=293&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565504/original/file-20231213-21-yeiyph.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=293&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565504/original/file-20231213-21-yeiyph.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=368&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565504/original/file-20231213-21-yeiyph.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=368&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/565504/original/file-20231213-21-yeiyph.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=368&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Rendering of white matter fibers − shown in color − throughout the brain.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Negar Fani</span></span>
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<p><a href="https://medlineplus.gov/ency/article/002261.htm">Myelin</a> is a protective sheath around nerve fibers that allows for improved communication between brain cells. Similar to highways for vehicles, without sufficient maintenance of the myelin, degradation will occur. </p>
<p>Erosion in these brain pathways can affect self-regulation, making a person more vulnerable to developing unhealthy coping strategies for stress, such as <a href="https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.ajp.2015.15060710">emotional eating or substance use</a>. These behaviors, in turn, can increase one’s risk for a wide variety of health problems. </p>
<p>These racism-related changes in the brain, and their direct effects on coping, may help to explain why Black people are twice as likely to develop brain health problems such as <a href="https://www.alz.org/media/Documents/alzheimers-facts-and-figures.pdf">Alzheimer’s disease</a> compared with white people.</p>
<h2>Recognizing racial gaslighting</h2>
<p>In our view, what makes racism particularly insidious and pernicious to the health of Black people is the societal invalidation that accompanies it. This makes racial trauma effectively invisible. Racism, whether it <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691616659391">originates from people</a> or from institutional systems, is often rationalized, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.beth.2020.09.001">excused or dismissed</a>. </p>
<p>Such invalidation leads those who experience racism to second-guess themselves: “Am I just being too sensitive?” People who have the temerity to report racist events are often ridiculed or met with skepticism. This <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41578-021-00361-5">extends to</a> <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/2372732220984183">academic spheres</a> <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2020.06.009">as well</a>.</p>
<p>This continual questioning and doubting of the circumstances around racist experiences, or <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/21565503.2017.1403934">racial gaslighting</a>, may be part of what depletes the brain of its resources, causing the weathering that ultimately increases vulnerability to brain health problems.</p>
<p>Interrupting this cycle requires that people learn to identify their biases toward people of color and people in marginalized groups more generally, and to understand how those biases may lead to discriminatory words and behavior. We believe that by finding their blind spots, people can see ways in which their actions and behaviors could be viewed as hurtful, exclusionary or offensive. Through recognition of these experiences as racist, people can become allies rather than skeptics. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.institutionalcourage.org/">Institutions can help</a> to create a culture of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.focus.20220045">healing, validation and support</a> for people of color. A validating, supportive institutional culture may help people of color normalize their reactions to these stressors, in addition to the connection – and restoration – they may find within their communities.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/214053/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Negar Fani receives funding from the National Institutes of Health and Emory University School of Medicine. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nathaniel Harnett receives funding from the National Institutes of Health, the Brain and Behavior Research Foundation, and the Presidents and Fellows of Harvard College. </span></em></p>Racial threats and slights take a toll on health, but the continual invalidation and questioning of whether those so-called microaggressions exist has an even more insidious effect, research shows.Negar Fani, Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Neuroscience, Emory UniversityNathaniel Harnett, Assistant Professor of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2197042023-12-14T15:54:12Z2023-12-14T15:54:12Z‘American Fiction’ asks who gets to decide Blackness<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/american-fiction-asks-who-gets-to-decide-blackness" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>The much-anticipated <em>American Fiction</em> comes to theatres this month. As a long-time scholar of Percival Everett, the author whose 2001 novel, <a href="https://www.ctpublic.org/2023-12-12/advice-from-a-critic-read-erasure-before-seeing-american-fiction"><em>Erasure</em></a>, was adapted for this critically praised film I am curious how the main themes of the book will be explored.</p>
<p>Directed by Cord Jefferson and starring Jeffrey Wright, the film presents an opportunity to talk about race, power and white supremacy within intellectual and cultural spaces, including higher education. Specifically, what version of Blackness is acceptable or saleable within American culture? </p>
<p>Thelonious “Monk” Ellison, the protagonist of <em>American Fiction</em>, is a novelist and an English professor. He struggles with the power that determines which versions of Blackness “count” and who makes these determinations. </p>
<p>In <em>Erasure</em>, Monk is constantly told that his work is not “Black enough.” But the determination of his Blackness is most often decided by people who are not themselves racialized within American society. </p>
<p>He finally gets so fed-up by the lack of sales for his literary novels, that he decides to write a satirical novel as a joke. </p>
<p>To his complete surprise, his ghetto novel, <em>My Pafology</em>, becomes a bestselling, award-winning novel. The film rights eventually sell for millions. But Monk’s ambivalence is unavoidable, since his work’s “success” is based entirely on terms set by other people. </p>
<p>And now, a novel satirizing how stereotypical versions of Blackness are often preferred by and sold to American culture has been made into <em>American Fiction</em>, a major motion picture, with wide cinematic release. It’s difficult not to feel ambivalent.</p>
<p>As a scholar who has written two books and given numerous interviews and talks on Black identity and race in Canada and as a longtime university English professor and now a university administrator, I am not Monk. But I get Monk. Like him, I have been frustrated and confused by the disjunctions between theory and practice so characteristic of life in the academy, especially in those moments when race — and particularly Blackness — is being discussed. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/american-fiction-is-a-scathing-satire-that-challenges-pop-culture-stereotypes-of-blackness-217988">'American Fiction' is a scathing satire that challenges pop-culture stereotypes of Blackness</a>
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<h2>Questions of power</h2>
<p>In my own setting, as a Black man born in Canada, working and teaching at an American college, I too am asking which versions of diversity matter and who decides how and when it matters.</p>
<p>Everett’s novel highlights racist mechanisms within society, many of which appear so natural that we no longer think of them as mechanisms at all.</p>
<p>In her 2019 book, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/jan/20/shoshana-zuboff-age-of-surveillance-capitalism-google-facebook"><em>The Age of Surveillance Capitalism</em></a>, American philosopher and scholar Shoshana Zuboff analyzes power through the role that giant tech companies play in our lives, often without our noticing them. Her book asks a question crucial to the understanding of how power works: “Who knows? Who decides? Who decides who decides?” </p>
<p>I find Zuboff’s questions useful in thinking about how power in relation to race works in colleges and universities, especially as institutions emphasize their commitment to “diversity,” on the one hand, while maintaining a glacial pace of change, on the other. </p>
<h2>Diversity needs a wholesale renovation</h2>
<p>Recently, someone at the Council of Colleges of Arts and Sciences <a href="https://www.ccas.net/i4a/pages/index.cfm?pageid=3940&pageid=1">(CCAS)</a> conference said the most effective way to diversify university faculties is through hiring. But the idea of hiring for diversity has led to a backlash in some quarters. </p>
<p>Recent attacks against <a href="https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2022/10/the-diversity-backlash-here-s-how-to-resist-it/">“diversity, equity and inclusion” policies</a> and <a href="https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/what-critical-race-theory-means-why-its-igniting-debate-2021-09-21/">misunderstandings of critical race theory</a> have pitted historical holders of power against those usually only spoken about. Controversies like these do not promise speedy progress where race is concerned.</p>
<p>I’m often equally perplexed by those who purport to be on my side. </p>
<p>Like Monk, the sources of much misunderstanding among my academic peers are people who say they want to help members of underrepresented groups on their campuses. </p>
<p>The expression “underrepresented groups” is another of these natural-looking expressions, now quite prominent in diversity policies. It actually obscures the important questions about the mechanisms and decisions that have resulted in these particular groups becoming underrepresented in universities in the first place. </p>
<p>The way that progress within a culture looks depends on who is doing the looking. At the CCAS conference, sociologist Nicole Stokes, interim vice-chancellor of student affairs at Pennsylvania State University (Abington), put all of this very well. She said a lot of the diversity work she sees looks a lot like surface remodelling, like putting new doors on old kitchen cabinets for example. But diversity work needs to be a wholesale renovation: when you take your kitchen down to the studs and start again.</p>
<p>In a way similar to who decides what is a saleable artifact from a minority culture, those deciding whether to remodel or to renovate are usually not those most directly affected by the history that has brought the need for such policies into being.</p>
<p>I’ve been a college professor for 28 years, and I’m currently an associate dean. If I feel this way, then how do you suppose junior colleagues of colour, or, more importantly, students of colour might feel? </p>
<p>For diversity policies to be taken seriously, we need to come clean on who has always decided their direction and value, and then work from there.</p>
<p>In the end, power dynamics don’t change in <em>American Fiction</em>, but at least Monk gets a bestseller and a movie deal.</p>
<iframe height="200px" width="100%" frameborder="no" scrolling="no" seamless="" src="https://player.simplecast.com/edde9889-d430-40cb-b879-4b21d58d2936?dark=true"></iframe><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/219704/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Anthony Stewart 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>The release of ‘American Fiction’ presents an opportunity to talk about race, power and white supremacy: What version of Blackness is acceptable or saleable within American culture?Anthony Stewart, Associate Dean (Arts and Humanities), Bucknell UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2179882023-12-14T15:54:09Z2023-12-14T15:54:09Z‘American Fiction’ is a scathing satire that challenges pop-culture stereotypes of Blackness<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/563028/original/file-20231201-27-tecr8d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=134%2C0%2C4250%2C2910&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Erika Alexander is Coraline and Jeffrey Wright is Monk in 'American Fiction.'</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Claire Folger/Orion)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>In this episode, Vinita sits down with two experts to break down the many layers — and Black stereotypes — in the much anticipated new film, American Fiction.</em></p>
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<p>The lead character of the new movie <em>American Fiction</em> is Monk. He’s a Black man but never feels ‘Black’ enough: he graduated from Harvard, his siblings are doctors, he doesn’t play basketball and he writes literary novels. </p>
<p>Directed and written by former journalist Cord Jefferson, <em>American Fiction</em> won this year’s People’s Choice Award at the Toronto International Film Festival, and it has its much anticipated North American release in theatres this month. It’s been called an “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2023/sep/10/american-fiction-review-cord-jefferson-jeffrey-wright">incisive literary satire</a>” by the <em>Guardian</em>. </p>
<p>The film, starring Jeffrey Wright, is an adaption of the 2001 novel <em>Erasure</em> by Percival Everett. The book and the film are centred on Monk, a novelist who’s fed up with a white-led publishing industry that profits from Black entertainment and tired tropes. As a Black man who thinks about race but also rages against having to talk about it, Monk gets so frustrated that he decides to poke fun of those who uncritically consume what they are sold as “Black culture.”</p>
<p>He uses a pen name to write an outlandish “Black” book of his own. It’s about “thug life” and is called “My Pafology.” But plot twist: his attempt at satire is lost on his audience and the book ends up becoming wildly successful. Suddenly, Monk is among those profiting off the stereotypes he so despises. The rest of the story explores “<a href="https://variety.com/2023/film/reviews/american-fiction-review-jeffrey-wright-1235718392/">the unfairness of asking individual artists to represent the entire Black experience</a>.”</p>
<p>In this episode of <em>Don’t Call Me Resilient</em>, Prof. Vershawn Ashanti Young of University of Waterloo and Prof. Anthony Stewart of Bucknell University join forces to break down the many layers of Monk’s story and why Black stereotypes remain so persistent in pop culture.</p>
<h2>Read more in The Conversation</h2>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-stories-about-alternate-worlds-can-help-us-imagine-a-better-future-dont-call-me-resilient-ep-7-165933">How stories about alternate worlds can help us imagine a better future: Don't Call Me Resilient EP 7</a>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/cultural-appropriation-and-the-whiteness-of-book-publishing-79095">Cultural appropriation and the whiteness of book publishing</a>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/blackkklansman-a-deadly-serious-comedy-101432">'BlacKkKlansman' -- a deadly serious comedy</a>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/harriet-tubman-film-does-not-deserve-the-twitter-hate-127493">Harriet Tubman film does not deserve the Twitter hate</a>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/american-fiction-asks-who-gets-to-decide-blackness-219704">'American Fiction' asks who gets to decide Blackness</a>
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<h2>Resources</h2>
<p><a href="https://lsupress.org/9780807172643/"><em>Approximate Gestures: Infinite Spaces in the Fiction of Percival Everett</em></a> by Anthony Stewart</p>
<p><a href="https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2023/08/awards-insider-first-look-american-fiction">First Look: American Fiction Challenges Hollywood’s “Poverty of Imagination” About Black People </a> (<em>Vanity Fair</em>)</p>
<p>“<a href="https://slate.com/culture/2016/09/how-amos-n-andy-paved-the-way-for-black-stars-on-tv.html">How Amos ’n’ Andy paved the way for Black Stars on TV</a>” (<em>Slate</em>)</p>
<p><a href="https://www.harpercollins.com/products/native-son-richard-wright?variant=41224345419810"><em>Native Son</em></a> by Richard Wright</p>
<h2>Listen and follow</h2>
<p>You can listen to or follow <em>Don’t Call Me Resilient</em> 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. </p>
<p><a href="mailto:DCMR@theconversation.com">We’d love to hear from you</a>, including any ideas for future episodes. Join The Conversation on <a href="https://twitter.com/ConversationCA">Twitter</a>, <a href="https://www.instagram.com/dontcallmeresilientpodcast/">Instagram</a> and <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@theconversation">TikTok</a> and use #DontCallMeResilient.</p>
<figure>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Trailer for ‘American Fiction’ (Orion)</span></figcaption>
</figure><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/217988/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
In this episode, Vinita sits down with two experts to break down the many layers — and Black stereotypes — in the much anticipated new film, ‘American Fiction.’Vinita Srivastava, Host + Producer, Don't Call Me ResilientDannielle Piper, Associate Producer, Don't Call Me Resilient, The ConversationLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2195672023-12-13T13:32:25Z2023-12-13T13:32:25Z‘Good Times’: 50 years ago, Norman Lear changed TV with a show about a working-class Black family’s struggles and joys<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/565080/original/file-20231212-15-wc43rn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=39%2C0%2C2335%2C1605&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Esther Rolle, right, and John Amos starred in the pathbreaking 1970s Black sitcom.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/american-actors-john-amos-as-james-evans-sr-and-esther-news-photo/180965295?adppopup=true">Moviepix via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>I loved watching <a href="https://apnews.com/article/norman-lear-died-87300f0e49b54c05803ab315dfdf9933">Norman Lear</a>’s trailblazing television shows when I was growing up in Dalzell, South Carolina, in the 1970s.</p>
<p>“<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0070991/">Good Times</a>,” my favorite, debuted on Feb. 8, 1974 – nearly 50 years ago. CBS aired the show about the daily struggles and triumphs of the working-class Evans family until Aug. 1, 1979. </p>
<p>Lear, who <a href="https://apnews.com/article/norman-lear-died-87300f0e49b54c05803ab315dfdf9933">died at 101 on Dec. 5, 2023</a>, forever changed sitcoms. His characters were more diverse, and their predicaments included situations that had previously been out of bounds for humorous TV programs, such as <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/norman-lear-producer-sitcoms-obituary-180983380/">child abuse, unemployment and alcoholism</a>. As a result, they more accurately reflected modern life in America than their counterparts that predominated through the 1960s.</p>
<p>“Good Times” stood apart from Lear’s other successful comedies because it featured, as Lear put it, the “<a href="https://variety.com/2021/tv/spotlight/all-in-the-family-spinoffs-the-jeffersons-good-times-1234878187/">first full black family on television</a>.”</p>
<p>I have been researching “Good Times” and other <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?view_op=view_citation&hl=en&user=HhQ5hiwAAAAJ&citation_for_view=HhQ5hiwAAAAJ:5nxA0vEk-isC">shows with primarily Black casts</a> since 1989. Along the way, I’ve developed a deep appreciation for the show’s strong female characters and its many nods to Black popular culture.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">The catchy ‘Good Times’ theme song emphasized both hardship and resilience.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Compelling characters</h2>
<p>“Good Times” starred actress <a href="https://digitalarchives.broward.org/digital/collection/p16146coll16/id/45/rec/12">Esther Rolle</a>. She had previously been cast as a domestic worker with the same name but in a different city in “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0068103/">Maude</a>,” another popular show Lear produced. “Maude” was also a spinoff – its <a href="https://interviews.televisionacademy.com/shows/maude">main character originated</a> on “<a href="https://theconversation.com/norman-lears-70s-tv-comedies-brought-people-together-to-confront-issues-in-a-way-gen-z-would-appreciate-219375">All in the Family</a>,” Lear’s first breakthrough hit.</p>
<p>On “Good Times,” Rolle’s character, Florida Evans, was a loving wife and mother. She was married to James Evans Sr. Her hardworking and easily angered husband was <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1976/06/07/archives/good-times-will-drop-male-parent-black-media-coalition-protests.html">played by John Amos until 1976</a>.</p>
<p>Their children included J.J. – James Jr. – the eldest son and a <a href="https://deadline.com/2022/05/ernie-barnes-sugar-shack-painting-good-times-marvin-gaye-1235023123/">talented painter</a>. He was played by stand-up comedian <a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0907858/">Jimmie Walker</a>. The gangly young man <a href="https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/544598/10-things-you-might-not-know-about-good-times">won viewers’ devotion</a> by frequently <a href="https://youtu.be/b5rKZs6HnB4">shouting “dyn-o-mite!” to express his excitement</a>.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0822304/">Bern Nadette Stanis</a> had the role of Thelma, the middle child and only daughter. She aspired to be a doctor, and her beauty attracted many suitors her parents found unsuitable. Michael, the militant youngest son who often expressed his indignation over social justice issues starting as a young tween, was played by <a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0141876/">Ralph Carter</a>.</p>
<p>The actress <a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0238840/?ref_=fn_al_nm_1">Ja'net DuBois</a> rounded out the core cast as Willona Woods, the Evans’ fashionable, sassy neighbor who was virtually another member of this boisterous and tight-knit family. Other actors rotated in and out, including a <a href="https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/janet-jackson-little-sister-good-140000791.html">very young Janet Jackson</a> cast as Willona’s adopted daughter, Penny.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">‘Good Times’ episodes had themes that were relatable to all viewers, including sibling rivalry and conflict between parents and their older children.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Familiar folks</h2>
<p>The <a href="https://www.rutgersuniversitypress.org/scratchin-and-survivin/9781978834835/">Black characters in “Good Times” looked and sounded real</a> to Black viewers. Also, Florida had authority in her home, just as her husband, James, did.</p>
<p>The Evans family and Willona resonated with me because they authentically presented African American culture on the small screen. Their speech, hairstyles, clothes, dance moves and music were recognizable to me as a young Black girl.</p>
<p>The cast regularly referenced Black pop culture icons, including <a href="https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/ebony-magazine/">Ebony magazine</a>, the comedian and <a href="https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/flip-wilson-1933-1998/">variety show host Flip Wilson</a>, and the <a href="https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/hayes-isaac-1942-2008/">composer and musician Isaac Hayes</a>.</p>
<p>“Good Times” also made a mark because Black women had agency on and off the set. <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/09/arts/television/norman-lear-good-times-the-jeffersons.html">Rolle openly shared her concerns</a> with Lear and other producers about the show’s direction.</p>
<p>Rolle wanted more stories that focused on the show’s female Black characters. And she got them.</p>
<p>Thelma was the first Black teenage girl and Willona was the first Black female divorcée on prime-time television. Both characters were interesting, funny and beautiful.</p>
<h2>Race’s role</h2>
<p>One way that “Good Times” differed from Lear’s other Black-cast sitcoms was the role that race played.</p>
<p>In “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0068128/">Sanford and Son</a>,” which revolved around a Los Angeles junk dealer and his adult son, and “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0072519/">The Jeffersons</a>,” in which the audience saw a successful Black entrepreneur and his wife “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gnS9tt5yGuc">movin’ on up</a>” to a fancy Manhattan apartment, the protagonists disliked and distrusted white people. And they let everyone know it. </p>
<p>The Evans family, on the other hand, were mostly cordial and welcoming in their interactions with the white characters who infrequently appeared in “Good Times.” They also turned distant and aloof when racism intervened, as happened in the episode “<a href="https://subslikescript.com/series/Good_Times-70991/season-2/episode-23-Thelmas_Scholarship">Thelma’s Scholarship</a>.”</p>
<p>Thelma and her family are initially thrilled by the prospect of getting a full ride to a boarding school in Michigan. But they reject the opportunity in disgust when it turns out she would have become a token Black student rather than being valued for her academic achievement and potential.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Thelma beams while telling her family about her shot at a scholarship to a prestigious boarding school.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Normal people’s problems</h2>
<p>“Good Times” also broke ground because the Evanses lived in poverty. Their fictional, cramped two-bedroom apartment was in Chicago’s very real <a href="https://allthatsinteresting.com/cabrini-green-homes">Cabrini-Green Homes</a>, which the <a href="https://blockclubchicago.org/2021/12/15/cabrini-green-a-history-of-broken-promises/">city has since demolished after years of neglect</a>.</p>
<p>The hassles and heartaches tied to their housing problems often became part of the plotlines. </p>
<p>In contrast, typical TV families in the 1950s and 1960s were white, middle class and suburban. </p>
<p>These included the Nelsons in “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0044230/">The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet</a>,” the Andersons in “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0046600/">Father Knows Best</a>” and the Stones in “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0051267/">The Donna Reed Show</a>.” </p>
<p>The Nelsons, Andersons and Stones, however, also had some things in common with the Evans family. </p>
<p>For example, Betty Anderson in “Father Knows Best” contemplated marrying her boyfriend in the episode “Vine Covered Cottage,” as did Thelma in “Thelma’s Young Man.” Michael dealt with a bully in “<a href="https://subslikescript.com/series/Good_Times-70991/season-2/episode-24-The_Lunch_Money_Rip-Off">The Lunch Money Rip-Off</a>,” as did Bud Anderson in “<a href="https://subslikescript.com/series/Father_Knows_Best-46600/season-2/episode-29-Bud_the_Boxer">Bud, the Boxer</a>.”</p>
<p>“Good Times” showed that Black families had many of the same problems and concerns as white families.</p>
<h2>‘Good Times’ reboot</h2>
<p>I believe that “Good Times” lives on in contemporary depictions of 21st-century, urban, Black, working-class nuclear families. Netflix’s “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt10945036/">The Upshaws</a>” is the most recent example of a two-parent, Black, working-class nuclear family with children. </p>
<p>Like Lear’s comedies, “The Upshaws” is packed with situations that would have been out of bounds before Lear redefined TV sitcoms – such as adultery and gay central characters. </p>
<p>And, as it happens, “Good Times” itself is being reincarnated.</p>
<p>“Family Guy” creator Seth MacFarlane and NBA star Stephen Curry joined with Lear in 2020 to <a href="https://www.whats-on-netflix.com/news/good-times-netflix-animated-adaptation-of-70s-comedy-series-everything-we-know-so-far/">executive-produce an adult animated reboot</a>.</p>
<p>The series, slated for release in 2024 on Netflix, will follow a new generation of the Evans family 50 years after it first showed up in American living rooms. Lear will reportedly make a posthumous <a href="https://deadline.com/2023/12/norman-lear-cameo-netflix-good-times-animated-series-1235655123/">cameo appearance</a> in it.</p>
<p>I hope a new generation of viewers will find as much to revere in the new “Good Times” as I have in the old one.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/219567/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Angela M. Nelson 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>Norman Lear brought the first nuclear Black family to prime-time television in 1974.Angela M. Nelson, Associate Professor of Popular Culture, Bowling Green State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2182332023-11-23T16:32:58Z2023-11-23T16:32:58ZThe potential of psychedelics to heal our racial traumas<iframe height="200px" width="100%" frameborder="no" scrolling="no" seamless="" src="https://player.simplecast.com/f2e5423c-d81f-41aa-a3c8-e7a6bb396a7b?dark=true"></iframe>
<p><em>Clinical psychologist and professor Monnica Williams is on a mission to bring psychedelics to therapists’ offices to help people heal from their racial traumas. To do this, she’s jumping over some big hurdles.</em></p>
<p>Judging from the colourful signs advertising mushrooms that we are seeing on our streets and the presence of psychedelics in pop culture, we are in the middle of a psychedelic renaissance. For example, in the TV program <em>Transplant</em>, a Syrian Canadian doctor experiencing trauma is treated by his psychiatrist with psilocybin therapy. </p>
<p>On a more official front, this month, the <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/10079020/psychedelics-veteran-ptsd/">Canadian Senate recommended the federal government fast-track a research program</a> into how psychedelics can help veterans suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). PTSD covers a range of issues, including racial trauma. </p>
<p><a href="https://dont-call-me-resilient.simplecast.com/episodes/the-potential-of-psychedelics-to-heal-our-racial-traumas">On this week’s episode of <em>Don’t Call Me Resilient</em></a>, we explore how psychedelics — including psilocybin (“magic mushrooms”) and MDMA — can help heal racial trauma. Racial trauma, Williams explains, is not necessarily something that happens through one event. It’s usually ongoing experiences of stress, including “daily insults to your person.” </p>
<p>With racial trauma, therapists are also looking at events beyond an individual’s lifetime. “We’re looking at historical trauma, that may have happened decades or even centuries ago, that is still associated with the person’s cultural group. These could be catastrophes that happened to a whole group of people, like ethnic cleansing or genocide, the Holocaust, or it could be a natural disaster.”</p>
<p>Intergenerational trauma is something Williams has experienced personally. Her parents grew up in the Deep South in the United States during the Jim Crow era. As African Americans, they were subject to segregation and extreme oppression. She says that affected the whole African American community.</p>
<p>People with racial trauma can have symptoms like depression or anxiety or may be despondent or angry. </p>
<h2>Research studies show results for psychedelics</h2>
<p>Once Williams saw the research studies coming out of <a href="https://maps.org/about-maps/">MAPS, a multidisciplinary association for psychedelic studies</a>, she was convinced that psychedelics can work: “The medicine does its thing and the brain starts to heal itself.”</p>
<p>But there are some big hurdles before we get there, including the fact that many mental health professionals don’t have any “training or knowledge in working with people across race, ethnicity and culture,” according to Williams. </p>
<p>And we don’t exactly have a great track record when it comes to communities of colour and drugs. There is a long and ugly history of institutions using Black, Indigenous and racialized bodies without consent for medical experimentation, including drug testing. We also can’t forget the racial roots of the <a href="https://apnews.com/article/war-on-drugs-75e61c224de3a394235df80de7d70b70">war on drugs</a> and the devastating impact it had — and continues to have — on Black and other racialized communities. </p>
<p>All this begs the question: As psychedelics appear to be entering the mainstream, how can we open up their healing properties to people in need in an inclusive way? </p>
<p>To find out more, listen to this week’s podcast with Monnica Williams, clinical psychologist and professor in the School of Psychology at the University of Ottawa, where she is the Canada Research Chair in Mental Health Disparities. She is also the Clinical Director of the Behavioral Wellness Clinic in Connecticut.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>People heal through connecting with other people. That’s how we get through traumas. Our society suffers from a mental illness called racism, and we as a society need to heal from this disease where you have one part of the body attacking another part of the body. It’s like an autoimmune disorder, right? Doesn’t make any sense: makes the whole body sick. And we’re on a planet that we all share and we’re all human beings, we’re all connected, even in ways we don’t realize or understand. We could think of it as a single organism and we all need to heal so that we can all function in a way that’s in the best interest of the whole entity.
- Monnica T. Williams</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Read more in The Conversation</h2>
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<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-real-promise-of-lsd-mdma-and-mushrooms-for-medical-science-100579">The real promise of LSD, MDMA and mushrooms for medical science</a>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/albertas-new-policy-on-psychedelic-drug-treatment-for-mental-illness-will-canada-lead-the-psychedelic-renaissance-195061">Alberta’s new policy on psychedelic drug treatment for mental illness: Will Canada lead the psychedelic renaissance?</a>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/mdma-assisted-couples-therapy-how-a-psychedelic-is-enhancing-intimacy-and-healing-ptsd-127609">MDMA-assisted couples therapy: How a psychedelic is enhancing intimacy and healing PTSD</a>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/psychedelic-medicine-is-on-its-way-but-its-not-doing-shrooms-with-your-shrink-heres-what-you-need-to-know-208568">Psychedelic medicine is on its way. But it's not 'doing shrooms with your shrink'. Here's what you need to know</a>
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<h2>Resources</h2>
<p><a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11469-023-01160-5?sv1=affiliate&sv_campaign_id=922583&awc=26429_1700596296_e8eeb80cdaec76f40d0015d156200eef&utm_medium=affiliate&utm_source=awin&utm_campaign=CONR_BOOKS_ECOM_DE_PHSS_ALWYS_DEEPLINK&utm_content=textlink&utm_term=922583">“Psychedelics and Racial Justice”</a> by Monnica T. Williams</p>
<p><em><a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/truth-be-told/id1462216572">Truth be Told</a></em> Season 5 (American Public Media/Tonya Mosley)</p>
<p><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/23/us/oregon-psychedelic-mushrooms.html">“A New Era of Psychedelics in Oregon”</a> by Mike Baker</p>
<p><a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8811257/">“The Need for Psychedelic-Assisted Therapy in the Black Community and the Burdens of Its Provision”</a> by Darron T. Smith, Sonya C. Faber, NiCole T. Buchanan, Dale Foster and Lilith Green</p>
<p><a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.ca/books/529343/how-to-change-your-mind-by-michael-pollan/9780735224155"><em>How to Change Your Mind: The New Science of Psychedelics</em> by Michael Pollan
</a></p>
<p><a href="http://doi.org/10.1037/0022-006X.76.2.208">“Anger and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder symptoms in Crime Victims: A Longitudinal Analysis”</a>. <em>Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology</em>. by Orth, U., Cahill, S.P., Foa, E.B., & Maercker, A.</p>
<h2>Listen and follow</h2>
<p>You can listen to or follow <em>Don’t Call Me Resilient</em> 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. </p>
<p><a href="mailto:DCMR@theconversation.com">We’d love to hear from you</a>, including any ideas for future episodes. Join The Conversation on <a href="https://twitter.com/ConversationCA">Twitter</a>, <a href="https://www.instagram.com/dontcallmeresilientpodcast/">Instagram</a> and <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@theconversation">TikTok</a> and use #DontCallMeResilient.</p>
<p><iframe id="tc-infographic-572" class="tc-infographic" height="100" src="https://cdn.theconversation.com/infographics/572/661898416fdc21fc4fdef6a5379efd7cac19d9d5/site/index.html" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/218233/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
Clinical psychologist and professor Monnica Williams is on a mission to bring psychedelics to therapists’ offices to help people heal from their racial traumas. To do this, she’s jumping over some big hurdles.Vinita Srivastava, Host + Producer, Don't Call Me ResilientLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2134392023-11-01T12:34:43Z2023-11-01T12:34:43ZA century ago, a Black-owned team ruled basketball − today, no Black majority owners remain<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/556712/original/file-20231030-15-31tku3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=3%2C1%2C1194%2C955&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The New York Rens played from 1923 to 1948.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CAq0dD0VAAAeSwU?format=jpg&name=medium">Black History Heroes/Twitter</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>For the first time in 20 years, the NBA began its season with no Black-owned franchises.</p>
<p>In fact, there’s been only one Black majority-owned team in league history.</p>
<p>In late 2002, the NBA awarded an expansion team, the Charlotte Bobcats, to Black Entertainment Television co-founder Bob Johnson. Four years later, former NBA star Michael Jordan bought a minority stake in the franchise, and in 2010, he bought Johnson’s stake. However, <a href="https://andscape.com/features/michael-jordans-hornets-sale-leaves-nba-with-no-black-majority-team-ownership/">Jordan sold his majority stake</a> in the franchise in July 2023.</p>
<p>This lack of diversity in basketball team ownership is especially disappointing considering the rich history of Black ownership in sports, which began when the top leagues in the U.S. were still segregated.</p>
<p>A century ago, one of the top pre-NBA professional franchises began play in Harlem thanks to the efforts of a Black business owner named <a href="https://www.hoophall.com/hall-of-famers/robert-douglas">Bob Douglas</a>. </p>
<h2>A challenge to the dominance of white sports</h2>
<p>My students are often surprised that the history of professional team sports in the U.S. goes far beyond the NBA, NHL, NFL and MLB. But the media’s focus on the “big four” leagues can cause fans to overlook the incredible accomplishments and leadership of many pioneers in athletics, including those from marginalized groups whose <a href="https://store.cognella.com/84292-1a-001">participation in mainstream leagues were limited or banned</a>.</p>
<p>The first 50 years of professional basketball was an amalgam of regional leagues and barnstorming teams. As with baseball and football, basketball teams from this era were segregated. But white teams and Black teams would square off against one another in exhibitions as they toured the country. </p>
<p>On the business side, many white businessmen were profiting from – if not exploiting – this Black talent pool, arranging tournaments and competitions and taking a <a href="https://academic.oup.com/illinois-scholarship-online/book/30355/chapter-abstract/257397248?redirectedFrom=fulltext">disproportionate cut of the earnings</a>. But Black entrepreneurs saw an opportunity to support Black communities through sports by keeping the talent – and money – from exclusively <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/mlb/2023/02/04/negro-league-baseballs-demise-assured-once-mlb-integrated-1947/11082330002/">lining the pockets of white owners</a>.</p>
<p>Douglas helped found the Spartan Field Club in 1908 to support his and other Black New Yorkers’ interest in playing sports. These clubs provided facilities and organized amateur teams across a number of sports, with <a href="https://www.historicstkitts.kn/people/robert-douglas">cricket and basketball being among the most popular</a>.</p>
<p>Douglas had fallen in love with basketball after first playing in 1905, only a few years after he had immigrated to New York from St. Kitts. Despite encountering discrimination as a Black man and immigrant, he founded and played for an adult amateur basketball team within the club named the Spartan Braves. He transitioned to managing the club in 1918.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Black bald man wearing sunglasses and a suit poses while folding his arms." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/556713/original/file-20231030-26-jlbs88.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/556713/original/file-20231030-26-jlbs88.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556713/original/file-20231030-26-jlbs88.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556713/original/file-20231030-26-jlbs88.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556713/original/file-20231030-26-jlbs88.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556713/original/file-20231030-26-jlbs88.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556713/original/file-20231030-26-jlbs88.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">Bob Douglas was nicknamed the ‘Father of Black Professional Basketball.’</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://djn2oq6v2lacp.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/bob-douglas-rens-owner-harlem-2.jpg">Harlem World Magazine</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Douglas was searching for a permanent home for his team and offered to rename the Spartan Braves the Harlem Renaissance in exchange for the use of the Black-owned <a href="https://onetwentyfifth.commons.gc.cuny.edu/non-fiction/the-historical-renaissance-ballroom/">Renaissance Ballroom & Casino</a> on Seventh Avenue between 137th and 138th streets. The team played its first game as the Renaissance on Nov. 3, 1923, with Douglas signing his players to <a href="https://www.blackfives.org/new-york-rens/">full-season contracts</a>.</p>
<p>Two years later, the “Rens,” as they came to be called, were declared the World Colored Basketball Champions. The squad went on to establish itself as a national powerhouse and competed in some of the first professional basketball games between <a href="https://www.npr.org/transcripts/7032039">white teams and Black teams</a>. In 1925, <a href="https://archive.org/details/hotpotato00bobk">the Rens bested the Original Celtics</a>, a white team from <a href="https://www.hoophall.com/hall-of-famers/original-celtics/">Manhattan’s West Side</a> that many viewed as the top team in the nation.</p>
<p>The next year, another all-Black team claiming Harlem as its home was founded. Unlike the Rens, however, the Harlem Globetrotters had no connection to the New York City neighborhood. They were based out of Illinois and had a white owner, <a href="https://www.hoophall.com/hall-of-famers/abe-saperstein/">Abe Saperstein</a>, who sought to profit from the connection between Black Americans and the place that served as the epicenter of Black culture. </p>
<h2>A stretch of dominance</h2>
<p>During the 1932-33 season, the Rens won 120 of the 128 games they played, including 88 in a row. Six of the losses came at the hands of the Original Celtics, although the Rens did end up winning the season series, beating their all-white rivals eight times. </p>
<p>Basketball’s influence on Black culture continued to grow throughout the interwar period. During Duke Ellington concerts, basketball stars like <a href="https://www.hoophall.com/hall-of-famers/clarence-jenkins/">Fats Jenkins</a> would entertain the crowd between sets, facilitating the deep cultural connection between <a href="https://www.blackfives.org/spin-magazine-mentions-harlem-rens-basketball-music-connection/">basketball and Black music that continues today</a>.</p>
<p>By the end of the 1930s, the Rens and Globetrotters were not just looking to prove themselves as the <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/black-fives-basketball/">best Black teams</a> but also establish themselves as the best basketball teams in the nation. </p>
<p>In 1936, the New York Rens played a two-game series against the formidable <a href="https://www.nba.com/bucks/features/history-of-basketball-in-oshkosh">Oshkosh All-Stars</a>, who played out of Wisconsin. The popularity of the games led to Douglas and Oshkosh founder <a href="https://www.blackfives.org/early-racial-inclusion-puts-wisconsin-on-pro-basketball-map/">Lon Darling</a> to agree to a longer series, with the Rens winning three of the five games. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/556710/original/file-20231030-25-zgcuj4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Old program for the first Basketball World's Championship features two players jumping for a ball above a map of the United States, wtih Chicago's skyline emerging from the center of the map." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/556710/original/file-20231030-25-zgcuj4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/556710/original/file-20231030-25-zgcuj4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=1192&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556710/original/file-20231030-25-zgcuj4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=1192&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556710/original/file-20231030-25-zgcuj4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=1192&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556710/original/file-20231030-25-zgcuj4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1498&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556710/original/file-20231030-25-zgcuj4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1498&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556710/original/file-20231030-25-zgcuj4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1498&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 Rens won the first World Professional Basketball Tournament in 1939.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.blackfives.org/museum/world-pro-tournament-programs/#foogallery-23466/i:1">Black Fives Foundation</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Douglas agreed to extend the competition another two games to create a “world series.” Oshkosh ended up winning them both to take the series. The victories led Darling and the All-Stars to join what would become the National Basketball League, a predecessor to the NBA. The NBL signed its <a href="https://www.gq.com/story/first-black-african-american-nba-players-history">first Black player in 1942</a>, five years before Jackie Robinson made his MLB debut.</p>
<p>As the NBL grew in popularity, the World Professional Basketball Tournament was created. In the 10 years the tournament was played, NBL teams won all but three championships, with all-Black teams claiming the other three. But only one of those teams – <a href="https://www.blackfives.org/new-york-rens-won-first-world-pro-basketball-tournament-on-todays-date/">the Rens</a> – had a Black owner.</p>
<h2>War, competition and integration</h2>
<p>The Rens struggled to maintain their dominance after the newly established Washington Bears, another all-Black team, <a href="https://www.blackfives.org/washington-bears/">poached a number of Ren players in 1941</a>. The Bears were founded by legendary Black broadcaster <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/25/nyregion/hal-jackson-pioneer-in-radio-and-racial-progress-dies-at-96.html">Hal Jackson</a> and backed by theater owner Abe Lichtman, who lured players with higher pay and a lighter schedule. </p>
<p>After the war, a number of NBL franchises struggled, including the Detroit Vagabond Kings, <a href="https://nbahoopsonline.com/History/Leagues/NBL/Teams/DetroitVB/index.html">who dropped out of the league</a> in December 1948. Since the league needed a replacement, the Rens moved to Dayton, Ohio, and finished the season with the NBL, becoming the first Black-owned team in a primarily white league. </p>
<p>The NBL shuttered following the season, and several teams joined the newly formed NBA, leaving the Rens behind. The NBA was segregated during its first season after the merger was completed. But in 1950, several Black players – including former Rens player <a href="https://www.nba.com/news/how-chuck-cooper-nat-clifton-earl-lloyd-changed-nba-racial-integration">Nat “Sweetwater” Clifton</a> – integrated the league.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Young Black man in white basketball jersey palming a basketball in each hand." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/555637/original/file-20231024-29-vu17bv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/555637/original/file-20231024-29-vu17bv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=411&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555637/original/file-20231024-29-vu17bv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=411&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555637/original/file-20231024-29-vu17bv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=411&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555637/original/file-20231024-29-vu17bv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=517&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555637/original/file-20231024-29-vu17bv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=517&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555637/original/file-20231024-29-vu17bv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=517&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Nat ‘Sweetwater’ Clifton played for the New York Rens and went on to become one of the first Black players in the NBA.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/nat-sweetwater-clifton-of-the-new-york-knickerbockers-news-photo/517727432?adppopup=true">Bettmann/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>As professional sports grew and continued to integrate over the course of the 20th century, all-Black teams lost much of their top talent to white-owned teams. Despite <a href="https://www.nba.com/news/how-chuck-cooper-nat-clifton-earl-lloyd-changed-nba-racial-integration">quotas that limited the number of Black players on white-owned teams</a>, the loss of top talent led to the end of teams like the Rens.</p>
<p>The unique community and fan experiences fostered by these all-Black franchises <a href="https://theconversation.com/on-the-100th-anniversary-of-the-negro-leagues-a-look-back-at-what-was-lost-129678">was forever lost</a>.</p>
<h2>The Rens legacy</h2>
<p>In 1963, the 1932-33 Rens squad was enshrined in the <a href="https://www.hoophall.com/hall-of-famers/new-york-renaissance">Basketball Hall of Fame</a>. Several individual players, along with Douglas, would enter the Hall in later years.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="Black man wearing suit jacket and orange shirt seated courtside during a basketball game." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/556705/original/file-20231030-19-k2soqy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/556705/original/file-20231030-19-k2soqy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556705/original/file-20231030-19-k2soqy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556705/original/file-20231030-19-k2soqy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556705/original/file-20231030-19-k2soqy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1130&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556705/original/file-20231030-19-k2soqy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1130&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556705/original/file-20231030-19-k2soqy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1130&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">BET co-founder Bob Johnson owned the Charlotte Bobcats from 2002 to 2010.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/charlotte-bobcats-team-owner-bob-johnson-watches-his-team-news-photo/577765474?adppopup=true">Chris Keane/Icon Sport Media via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Today there are no Black majority owners in any of the four major North American professional leagues. There are a handful of Black Americans who are <a href="https://andscape.com/features/michael-jordans-hornets-sale-leaves-nba-with-no-black-majority-team-ownership/">minority owners of teams</a> – former NBA stars Dwyane Wade and Grant Hill have minority stakes in the Utah Jazz and Atlanta Hawks, respectively – but it isn’t clear how much influence they wield.</p>
<p>It’s an especially discouraging situation for the NBA. In a league <a href="https://43530132-36e9-4f52-811a-182c7a91933b.filesusr.com/ugd/403016_901e54ed015c44fb83df939d2070dc17.pdf">that is over 70% Black</a>, the dearth of Black owners and executives can lead to a disconnect between <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/the-racial-politics-of-the-nba-have-always-been-ugly">the players and the people running the league</a>. </p>
<p>In recent years, players have clashed with owners <a href="https://www.complex.com/style/a/jackson-connor/stylish-nba-players-who-were-affected-by-leagues-dress-code">over dress codes</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/ja-morant-shows-how-a-good-guy-with-a-gun-can-never-be-black-206161">discipline</a> and <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nba/2017/09/27/kareem-abdul-jabbar-protest-pushback/710808001/">political protests</a>.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.sportsvalue.com.br/en/nba-has-surpassed-us-10-billion-in-revenue-increasingly-disruptive-valuation-reached-us-86-billion/">As league revenue continues to soar</a>, and the NBA serves as an example for <a href="https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/38156961/nba-grade-racial-gender-hiring-practices">inclusive hiring practices</a>, the lack of Black ownership is harder to ignore 100 years after the Rens first stepped on the court.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/213439/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jared Bahir Browsh 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>Led by a Black businessman named Bob Douglas, the New York Rens, who played their first game on Nov. 3, 1923, became one of the best basketball teams in the country.Jared Bahir Browsh, Assistant Teaching Professor of Critical Sports Studies, University of Colorado BoulderLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2126052023-10-30T12:29:58Z2023-10-30T12:29:58ZThis course uses big data to examine how American newspapers covered lynchings<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/556441/original/file-20231029-19-izwm8n.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=99%2C9%2C5897%2C2966&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">More than 5,000 Black people have been lynched in the US.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/hangmans-noose-on-black-background-royalty-free-image/132062934?adppopup=true">Peter Dazeley/The Image Bank via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="Text saying: Uncommon Courses, from The Conversation" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/499014/original/file-20221205-17-kcwec8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/499014/original/file-20221205-17-kcwec8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499014/original/file-20221205-17-kcwec8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499014/original/file-20221205-17-kcwec8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499014/original/file-20221205-17-kcwec8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499014/original/file-20221205-17-kcwec8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499014/original/file-20221205-17-kcwec8.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=471&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"></span>
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<p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/topics/uncommon-courses-130908">Uncommon Courses</a> is an occasional series from The Conversation U.S. highlighting unconventional approaches to teaching.</em> </p>
<h2>Title of course:</h2>
<p>Lynching and the Press</p>
<h2>What prompted the idea for the course?</h2>
<p>One of my students was reviewing a spreadsheet that listed total lynchings by state. She exhaled, and then, with a bit of weariness, said, “Mississippi, goddamn.”</p>
<p>She was trying to comprehend the enormity of violence against the Black population of Mississippi: 823 lynchings from 1865 to 2011, <a href="https://sites.uw.edu/lynching/#/home">according to the Tolnay-Beck and Seguin lynching inventories</a>, two of the main academic resources in this field. She is one of 13 University of Maryland journalism students digging through <a href="https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn95073194/1901-08-28/ed-1/seq-2/#date1=08%2F28%2F1901&index=0&date2=08%2F28%2F1901&searchType=advanced&language=&sequence=0&lccn=sn95073194&words=CRIME&proxdistance=5&state=Nebraska&rows=20&ortext=crime&proxtext=&phrasetext=&andtext=&dateFilterType=range&page=1">historic newspaper articles</a> and data tables this semester to learn about how U.S. newspapers covered lynching. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/555440/original/file-20231023-21-ger90y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=3%2C4%2C1019%2C823&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A black and white photograph of a large crowd of white people looking up, many of them grinning, at tree branches where two men have been hanged, their bodies dangling from the branches." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/555440/original/file-20231023-21-ger90y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=3%2C4%2C1019%2C823&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/555440/original/file-20231023-21-ger90y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=486&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555440/original/file-20231023-21-ger90y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=486&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555440/original/file-20231023-21-ger90y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=486&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555440/original/file-20231023-21-ger90y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=610&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555440/original/file-20231023-21-ger90y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=610&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555440/original/file-20231023-21-ger90y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=610&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Thomas Shipp and Abram Smith, both of whom were African American, were lynched by a mob in Marion, Ind., in 1930.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/the-lynching-of-african-americans-thomas-shipp-and-abram-news-photo/871633440?adppopup=true">Photo 12/Universal Images Group via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The class is an extension of an <a href="https://www.ire.org/announcing-the-2021-ire-award-winners/">award-winning 2021 student journalism project</a> called “<a href="https://lynching.cnsmaryland.org/">Printing Hate</a>,” published by the <a href="https://merrill.umd.edu/howard-center-for-investigative-journalism">Howard Center for Investigative Journalism</a> at the University of Maryland, which examined various case studies of lynching coverage.</p>
<p>My class is taking a much longer view of this kind of journalism, using big data tools to examine newspaper coverage of lynchings from 1789 through 1963. In the process, students will gain important insights about our country’s history. They are learning about the societal context that allowed more than <a href="https://sites.uw.edu/lynching/">5,000 mob-driven murders</a> of Black citizens to happen and how some mainstream news coverage reinforced the violent white supremacy of these events. Newspapers, for example, frequently used dehumanizing language to describe the lynching victims as “<a href="https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn86063034/1890-10-19/ed-1/seq-2/#date1=10%2F19%2F1890&index=0&date2=10%2F19%2F1890&searchType=advanced&language=&sequence=0&lccn=sn86063034&words=Fiend&proxdistance=5&rows=20&ortext=Fiend&proxtext=&phrasetext=&andtext=&dateFilterType=range&page=1">fiends</a>” or “<a href="https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn82015137/1881-08-23/ed-1/seq-1/#date1=08%2F23%2F1881&index=0&date2=08%2F23%2F1881&searchType=advanced&language=&sequence=0&lccn=sn82015137&words=Brute&proxdistance=5&rows=20&ortext=&proxtext=brute&phrasetext=&andtext=&dateFilterType=range&page=1">black brutes</a>.”</p>
<h2>What does the course explore?</h2>
<p>The core of the class involves analyzing data from 60,000 news pages captured from the <a href="https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/">Library of Congress’ Chronicling America</a> database of historic newspapers. This project began as an academic study with my colleague <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=koSIcJ0AAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">Sean Mussenden</a>, the data editor at the Howard Center and senior lecturer at the Philip Merrill College of Journalism. A prominent journalism historian, <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=TwNX-ucAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">Kathy Roberts Forde</a>, at the University of Massachusetts Amherst later joined our team. </p>
<p>After working with this large dataset, I decided to offer a class so students could learn research skills, such as data and content analysis, while also learning more about history and the history of U.S. journalism.</p>
<h2>What materials does the course feature?</h2>
<p>• “<a href="https://www.worldcat.org/title/1099574431">Southern Horrors: Lynch Law in All Its Phases</a>,” by journalist <a href="https://theconversation.com/ida-b-wells-how-grassroots-support-and-social-media-made-a-monumental-difference-in-honoring-her-legacy-100866">Ida B. Wells</a>.</p>
<p>• “<a href="https://www.worldcat.org/title/1252735793">Journalism and Jim Crow: White Supremacy and the Black Struggle for a New America</a>,” by Kathy Roberts Forde and Sid Bedingfield.</p>
<p>• “<a href="https://www.worldcat.org/title/they-left-great-marks-on-me-african-american-testimonies-of-racial-violence-from-emancipation-to-world-war-i/oclc/778459402">They Left Great Marks On Me: African American Testimonies of Racial Violence from Emancipation to World War I</a>,” by Kidada Williams. </p>
<h2>What’s a critical lesson from the course?</h2>
<p>Working with a sample of this data from newspaper lynching articles, students compared the lynching location with the location of the newspaper. It took about three weeks for the class to classify some 3,000 news articles on a Google form and sheet that I had prepared. Students’ preliminary research is exploring why some Southern newspapers would cover lynching outside the state but not in their own backyards. Students are wondering if this was a form of erasure of local history.</p>
<p>Later this semester, my students will research the tone of newspaper narratives about lynching, such as how the news coverage portrayed the mob. The one graduate student in the class, who is pursuing her Ph.D. in history, is examining lynching in the antebellum era, a period for which there is very little research on this topic available.</p>
<h2>Why is this course relevant now?</h2>
<p>My students write weekly reflections about the readings and coursework. This course has opened their eyes to how the news media’s negative portrayals of African Americans can support systems of white supremacy. <a href="https://www.worldcat.org/title/778459402">Few mainstream newspaper articles reflected Black voices</a>, except, of course, the Black press.</p>
<h2>What will the course prepare students to do?</h2>
<p>These students will leave this class with in-depth data and content analysis skills. They will acquire a keen sensitivity to portrayals of Black Americans and other people of color in news coverage. Ultimately, we hope the course will lead to better journalism.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/212605/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rob Wells receives funding from the Social Data Science Center Seed Grant program for this research into media coverage of lynching.</span></em></p>Student journalists are using spreadsheets and databases to examine one of the darkest chapters in American history.Rob Wells, Associate Professor, University of MarylandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2114782023-10-26T12:32:45Z2023-10-26T12:32:45ZI studied 1 million home sales in metro Atlanta and found that Black families are being squeezed out of homeownership by corporate investors<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/554093/original/file-20231016-21-isn6c7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=40%2C32%2C5414%2C3026&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Corporate investors own nearly one-third of all single-family rental properties in Atlanta.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/atlanta-georgia-usa-downtown-skyline-aerial-royalty-free-image/1184733973">Kruck20/iStock via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In the years since the Great Recession, when <a href="https://www.federalreservehistory.org/essays/great-recession-and-its-aftermath">housing prices dramatically fell</a>, Wall Street investors have been buying large numbers of single-family homes to use as rentals. As of 2022, big investment firms <a href="https://www.urban.org/research/publication/profile-institutional-investor-owned-single-family-rental-properties">owned nearly 600,000 such properties nationwide</a>.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.huduser.gov/portal/periodicals/em/winter23/highlight1.html#title">Critics say</a> this practice drives up home prices and worsens the housing shortage, making it harder for families to afford to buy. Industry advocates <a href="https://thehill.com/opinion/congress-blog/3496390-providers-of-single-family-rental-homes-are-an-important-part-of-americas-housing-ecosystem/">dismiss such charges</a>, arguing that large investment firms own a tiny fraction of single-family rental housing across the U.S. – <a href="https://www.urban.org/research/publication/profile-institutional-investor-owned-single-family-rental-properties">less than 4%</a> of the total.</p>
<p>As a <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=cxLejGQAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">professor of public policy at Georgia Tech</a>, I wanted to understand how this trend was affecting my neighbors. So I analyzed <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0739456X231176072">more than 1 million property sales</a> in the Atlanta metropolitan area from 2007 to 2016. Since the study period included the <a href="https://www.federalreservehistory.org/essays/subprime-mortgage-crisis">mortgage crisis</a>, I excluded bulk sales, such as the packages of
foreclosed homes, that aren’t available to typical homebuyers. I examined only <a href="https://www.investopedia.com/terms/a/armslength.asp">arm’s-length transactions</a> of single-family detached homes, where buyers and sellers act independently. </p>
<p>I found that global investment firms buying up local properties are indeed hurting Atlanta families – specifically, Black ones. </p>
<h2>Neighborhood transformations</h2>
<p>In the period I studied, homeownership declined across the Atlanta metro area by <a href="https://www.census.gov/housing/hvs/data/rates/tab6a_msa_05_2014_hmr.xlsx">more than 5 percentage points</a>, similar to a nationwide trend. For an average neighborhood, home purchasing by large corporate investors explained one-quarter of that decline. </p>
<p>But when I broke the analysis down by race, I found that Black families were hit much harder: Large investment firms buying up local properties explained fully three-quarters of the decline in African American homeownership. In contrast, non-Hispanic whites were largely unaffected. </p>
<p>It turns out that while Wall Street firms control just a sliver of the single-family rental market nationally, they can have much more influence at the local level. In the Atlanta metro area, these firms own nearly one-third of all single-family rental properties. They’re even more concentrated <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/interactive/2021/investors-rental-foreclosure">in predominantly Black neighborhoods</a>, where <a href="https://www.ajc.com/american-dream/investor-owned-houses-atlanta/">more than 10 houses in a row</a> can be owned by the same corporation.</p>
<p>In my study, I found that large investors tend to snap up housing in majority-nonwhite, lower-income suburban neighborhoods. This makes homebuying even more challenging for middle-class families of color, as they get <a href="https://www.huduser.gov/portal/periodicals/em/winter23/highlight1.html">pushed out of the bidding market</a> by global investors. </p>
<h2>Home is where the financial security is</h2>
<p>Homeownership has long been one of the main pathways for the American middle class to accumulate wealth. Despite this, the national homeownership rate declined <a href="https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/RHORUSQ156N">by 5.5 percentage points</a> between 2007 and 2016, reaching a five-decade low of 62.9%. Although homeownership has rebounded somewhat since 2016, it remains below pre-2008 levels. </p>
<p>And who owns these homes is starkly divided by race. Between 2015 and 2019, more than 70% of white families owned a home, compared with <a href="https://www.jchs.harvard.edu/blog/nearly-every-state-people-color-are-less-likely-own-homes-compared-white-households">just 41% of Black families</a>, according to an analysis by Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies. </p>
<p>To be sure, policies like <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/17/realestate/racism-home-deeds.html">racial covenants</a>, <a href="https://uncpress.org/book/9781469663883/race-for-profit/">discriminatory mortgage lending practices</a> <a href="https://www.epi.org/publication/the-color-of-law-a-forgotten-history-of-how-our-government-segregated-america/">and redlining</a> fueled low homeownership rates for Black Americans long before the Great Recession. But global investors’ growing control of single-family homes only widens existing racial gaps in homeownership and wealth.</p>
<h2>Directions for new research</h2>
<p>While my study focused on Atlanta, it’s not the only place where residents are <a href="https://www.huduser.gov/portal/periodicals/em/winter23/highlight1.html">competing with global investors</a> for housing. Investment firms’ single-family rental portfolios are largely <a href="https://www.urban.org/sites/default/files/2023-08/A%20Profile%20of%20Institutional%20Investor%E2%80%93Owned%20Single-Family%20Rental%20Properties.pdf">concentrated in Sun Belt metro areas</a>, including Phoenix, Charlotte and Jacksonville. It wouldn’t be surprising to see similar conflicts playing out in those cities. </p>
<p>Since my analysis stopped in 2016, I can’t be sure that Black Atlanta residents are still affected by Wall Street firms buying up housing. Many investment firms have recently been <a href="https://www.wsj.com/real-estate/americas-biggest-landlords-cant-find-houses-to-buy-either-ea893213">switching from a buy-to-rent</a> business model to a <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/building-and-renting-single-family-homes-is-top-performing-investment-11636453800">build-to-rent model</a>, which could complicate matters.</p>
<p>In the meantime, while <a href="https://www.banking.senate.gov/hearings/how-institutional-landlords-are-changing-the-housing-market">residents and policymakers have claimed</a> that large corporations don’t invest in local communities, researchers lack robust evidence this is the case. Academics should study whether properties owned by institutional landlords are more likely to be <a href="https://www.ajc.com/american-dream/investor-owned-houses-atlanta/">poorly maintained</a> or have <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/07/12/invitation-homes-corporate-landlord-permits/">code violations</a>, as anecdotal evidence suggests.</p>
<p>It’s also worth investigating whether big investment firms undermine local revenue collection by <a href="https://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/business/article277638663.html">serially filing property tax appeals</a>. </p>
<h2>An open-source tool for housing policy research</h2>
<p>It’s been hard for researchers to identify corporate-owned, single-family homes, since it requires proprietary real-estate data and labor-intensive number crunching. In a separate project, my colleagues and I have developed a <a href="https://repository.gatech.edu/entities/publication/472788f9-a5e6-4d9b-8238-422d20333bcb">simple, user-friendly methodology</a> that gets around such challenges with the use of open-source software and public tax parcel data. </p>
<p>Local governments and nonprofits can use our methodology to unveil all the corporate-owned residential properties in any neighborhood and link them to outcomes such as code violations. Using data-driven approaches like this is an important step toward developing policy solutions.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/211478/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Brian Y. An 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 would-be homeowners pay the price when big investors buy up the neighborhood.Brian Y. An, Director of Master of Science in Public Policy Program & Assistant Professor of Public Policy, Georgia Institute of TechnologyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2155592023-10-18T12:31:19Z2023-10-18T12:31:19ZWhat do a Black scientist, nonprofit executive and filmmaker have in common? They all face racism in the ‘gray areas’ of workplace culture<p>American workplaces talk a lot about diversity these days. In fact, you’d have a hard time finding a company that says it doesn’t value the principle. But despite this – and despite the <a href="https://www.researchandmarkets.com/reports/5519706/diversity-and-inclusion-dandi-global-strategic">multibillion-dollar diversity industry</a> – Black workers continue to face significant hiring <a href="https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691175102/making-the-cut">discrimination</a>, stall out at middle management levels and remain <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/04/16/black-workers-face-promotion-and-wage-gaps-that-cost-the-economy-trillions.html">underrepresented in leadership roles</a>.</p>
<p><a href="https://sociology.wustl.edu/people/adia-harvey-wingfield">As a sociologist</a>, I wanted to understand why this is. So I spent more than 10 years interviewing over 200 Black workers in a variety of roles – from the gig economy to the C-suite. I found that many of the problems they face come down to organizational culture. Too often, companies elevate diversity as a concept but overlook the internal processes that disadvantage Black workers.</p>
<p>I tell several of these individuals’ stories in my new book, “<a href="https://www.harpercollins.com/products/gray-areas-adia-harvey-wingfield?variant=41006208876578">Gray Areas: How the Way We Work Perpetuates Racism and What We Can Do to Fix It</a>.” While racial disparities were once the result of law and explicit policy – think of “Whites Only Need Apply” signs – today, <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Systemic-Racism-A-Theory-of-Oppression/Feagin/p/book/9780415952781">subtle cultural processes lead to unequal racial outcomes</a>. It’s in these “gray areas” that racism lurks.</p>
<h2>Three professionals, one frustrating reality</h2>
<p>Take “Constance,” for example – not her real name – who is a Black female chemical engineering professor at a major research university. Her university proclaims its commitment to diversity and inclusion, with several offices and initiatives dedicated to this goal.</p>
<p>Yet she told me that most leaders at her school are uncomfortable trying to achieve racial diversity. They’d rather be “colorblind” – that is, they’d rather not acknowledge or address racial disparities or the institutional rules and norms that perpetuate them. So their attempts to pursue diversity translate into attempts to hire more women faculty but not more Black faculty. </p>
<p>This isn’t surprising, as women generally <a href="https://ncses.nsf.gov/pubs/nsf23315/report/the-stem-workforce">are underrepresented in STEM fields</a>. But the emphasis on gender means that the racial issues Constance <a href="https://www.diverseeducation.com/opinion/article/15295726/does-anyone-see-us-disposability-of-black-women-faculty-in-the-academy">encounters as a Black woman</a> – openly racist teaching evaluations, colleagues’ casual stereotyping, additional barriers to mentorship – go ignored.</p>
<p>“Kevin” offers another instructive example. He’s a Black man who works at an education nonprofit that <a href="https://www.apa.org/monitor/2016/11/cover-inequality-school#:%7E:text=For%2520decades%252C%2520black%2520students%2520in,the%2520rate%2520was%252073%2520percent.">aims to help kids</a> – a laudable goal. His workplace touts its culture of collaboration and says that it demonstrates its commitment to diversity by supporting children from all backgrounds.</p>
<p>But in practice, Kevin found that the organization often shunned and patronized Black parents, treating them disrespectfully. And despite his employer’s stated support for diversity, Kevin says his efforts to highlight these problems usually went ignored.</p>
<p>And then there’s “Brian.” A film producer with extensive Hollywood experience, Brian was excited about taking a job with a major studio. He thought it would give him an opportunity to bring more films about the variety of Black experience to audiences. And since studio leaders talked a big game about innovation, creativity and original thinking, this seemed like a reasonable assumption.</p>
<p>But once he started in this role, Brian learned that the studio was dominated by a market-driven culture, which leaders <a href="https://nyupress.org/9781479847877/the-hollywood-jim-crow/">used to justify</a> not investing in films by and about Black people. Importantly, the same logic around Black filmmakers rarely seemed to apply to white ones, Brian said – those who directed flops were still given multiple chances to keep working. Pointing out this hypocrisy failed to change minds or practices, Brian found.</p>
<h2>When a DEI statement isn’t enough</h2>
<p>What do these three people, working in very different industries, have in common? They all work for employers that have a stated commitment to diversity – and an organizational culture that belies and even undermines it.</p>
<p>When these companies commit to diversity but fail to tackle racial diversity specifically, it becomes easy for workers like Constance, Kevin and Brian to find that the issues they experience get overlooked and that there’s no effective way to bring them forward. They get stuck in the gray areas.</p>
<p>However, it doesn’t have to be this way. There are <a href="https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674276611">practical steps</a> companies can take to address racial diversity: creating <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbeshumanresourcescouncil/2022/12/02/four-ways-mentorship-programs-can-meaningfully-promote-workplace-diversity-and-inclusion/?sh=581f7cbc98db">mentoring programs</a> for everyone, setting goals and <a href="https://libguides.stanford.edu/library/business-diversity">collecting data to measure progress</a>, and investing in <a href="https://hbr.org/2004/09/diversity-as-strategy">diversity task forces</a>, for example. </p>
<p>My research suggests smart organizations will do just that – moving toward a culture where “diversity” is a driver of solutions, not just a buzzword.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/215559/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Adia Harvey Wingfield is the President-elect of the American Sociological Association. </span></em></p>A sociologist interviewed more than 200 Black workers about their experiences. Here’s what she found.Adia Harvey Wingfield, Professor of Sociology, Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. LouisLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2140522023-10-06T12:31:25Z2023-10-06T12:31:25Z20 years after the publication of ‘Purple Hibiscus,’ a generation of African writers have followed in Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s footsteps<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/552193/original/file-20231004-23-3cpw1n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=143%2C229%2C2943%2C1890&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie in 2004, shortly after the publication of 'Purple Hibiscus.'</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/nigerian-author-chimamanda-ngozi-adichie-poses-while-in-news-photo/56522066?adppopup=true">Ulf Andersen/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Twenty years ago, in October 2003, 26-year-old Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie burst onto the North American publishing scene with her debut novel,“ <a href="https://www.chimamanda.com/purple-hibiscus/">Purple Hibiscus</a>.” </p>
<p>Since then, Adichie’s literary fame has only grown: She’s published two more novels and a collection of short stories, while <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hg3umXU_qWc">two of her</a> <a href="https://www.ted.com/talks/chimamanda_ngozi_adichie_the_danger_of_a_single_story?language=en">TED talks</a> have garnered tens of millions of views. In September 2023, she published her first children’s book – a joyful celebration of mother-daughter love – under the nom de plume <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.ca/books/742306/mamas-sleeping-scarf-by-chimamanda-ngozi-adichie-writing-as-nwa-grace-james-illustrated-by-joelle-avelino/9781774882696">Nwa Grace-James</a>.</p>
<p>But the October 2003 publication of “Purple Hibiscus” didn’t just signal the start of a single author’s brilliant career. It also forged a path for a whole new generation of African novelists who had come to America as immigrants or students and who have been mining that experience in their writing. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="Black and white portrait of African man wearing a tweed coat sitting at a table." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/552194/original/file-20231004-19-uk36ch.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/552194/original/file-20231004-19-uk36ch.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=810&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/552194/original/file-20231004-19-uk36ch.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=810&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/552194/original/file-20231004-19-uk36ch.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=810&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/552194/original/file-20231004-19-uk36ch.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1018&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/552194/original/file-20231004-19-uk36ch.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1018&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/552194/original/file-20231004-19-uk36ch.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1018&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Chinua Achebe’s 1958 novel ‘Things Fall Apart’ came perilously close to never seeing a printing press.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/portrait-of-chinua-achebe-nigerian-novelist-poet-and-critic-news-photo/681121124?adppopup=true">Michel Delsol/Hulton Archive via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The struggles to get published by prior generations of African authors are almost legendary. Thirty years apart, Chinua Achebe and Tsitsi Dangarembga have both described how close their manuscripts of “<a href="https://slate.com/culture/2013/03/things-fall-apart-by-chinua-achebe-was-almost-lost-by-london-typists-the-amazing-story-of-the-handwritten-manuscript.html">Things Fall Apart</a>” (1958) and “<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/15/books/tsitsi-dangarembga-this-mournable-body.html">Nervous Conditions</a>” (1988) came to being lost. Achebe’s only copy of the manuscript was a handwritten draft. He sent it to a typing agency in London that nearly dismissed it as a joke. Dangarembga’s manuscript sat unread in the basement of a British publishing house for years. Only when the writer stopped by the offices during a work trip to London did the editors agree to read it.</p>
<p>Through attending American MFA programs, however, Adichie and her contemporaries were able to tap into the networks of agents and found their work snapped up by American publishers.</p>
<p>Writers born in Africa who studied at American universities – Teju Cole, Yaa Gyasi, Uzodinma Iweala, NoViolet Bulawayo and Akwaeke Emezi, to name just a few – have followed in Adichie’s footsteps. </p>
<p>“Purple Hibiscus” has been to these writers what Gabriel García Márquez’s “<a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2017/05/one-hundred-years-of-solitude-50-years-later/527118/">One Hundred Years of Solitude</a>” (1967) was to aspiring Latin American writers during the <a href="https://libguides.bc.edu/virtual-book-display/latin-american-literature">Latin American literary boom of the 1960s and 1970s</a>, and what Salman Rushdie’s “<a href="https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/books/98/12/06/specials/rushdie-children.html">Midnight’s Children</a>” (1981) was to the proliferation of Indian writers in English from the 1980s on.</p>
<p>While it would be reassuring to think that the current surge of African novelists represents a wider American interest in all things African, the success of these novels may also have to do with the fact that so many are actually set in the U.S. </p>
<p>The recurrent theme of immigration to the U.S. gives many of these works direct – and instructive – relevance to U.S. readers. As Black outsiders in the U.S., African immigrants have a particularly acute insight into the way race and racism affect daily life in this country. One of the common features of these novels is the way in which they explore the tension of racial solidarity and mutual misunderstanding between African immigrants and Black Americans.</p>
<p>When I first started teaching African literature, I often had difficulty finding books in print. Now my problem is deciding who to leave out of my syllabus. Here is a very brief list of some of the books that I would consider must-reads.</p>
<h2>1. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, “Americanah” (2013)</h2>
<p>As its title suggests, Adichie’s fourth novel, “<a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/878/americanah-by-chimamanda-ngozi-adichie/">Americanah</a>,” is arguably the definitive novel of contemporary African immigration to America.</p>
<p>It tells the story of Ifemelu, a young Nigerian woman overstaying her student visa, and how she negotiates the new Black identity forced on her by the blunt instrument of American race-construction. </p>
<p>In a brilliant metafictional move, Adichie has Ifemelu achieve internet fame by writing a blog dedicated to non-American Blacks: “Dear Non-American Black,” Ifemelu writes, “when you make the choice to come to America, you become black. Stop arguing. Stop saying I’m Jamaican or I’m Ghanaian. America doesn’t care. So what if you weren’t ‘black’ in your country? You’re in America now.”</p>
<p>Ifemelu’s experience of racism is simultaneously hurtful and baffling to her. On the one hand, her illegal status makes her both psychologically and physically vulnerable. But at times American racism is almost comical; Ifemelu doesn’t understand why an innocent reference to eating watermelon might be misconstrued, for instance, and she is totally bewildered by a shop assistant’s attempt to avoid distinguishing between two shoppers by reference to their skin color. </p>
<h2>2. Yaa Gyasi, “<a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/533857/homegoing-by-yaa-gyasi/">Homegoing</a>” (2016)</h2>
<p>Ghanaian-born Yaa Gyasi’s debut novel takes the form of a series of skillfully interwoven stories set on either side of the Atlantic. </p>
<p>Beginning with two half sisters, Effia and Esi, in the Gold Coast in the middle of the 18th century, the stories trace the two sets of the sisters’ descendants through six subsequent generations in West Africa and the U.S. In the final two stories we meet the young teenager Marjorie, who, as the American-born daughter of Ghanaian parents, struggles to come to terms with her identity as one of Ifemelu’s “Non-American Blacks.” She finds herself ostracized by her Black classmates for “acting white” but is unable to enjoy a normal relationship with a white classmate. One of the only Black teachers at her high school tells her, “You’re here now, and here black is black is black.”</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Portrait of young Black woman bathed in sunlight." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/552195/original/file-20231004-19-k2bynk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/552195/original/file-20231004-19-k2bynk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/552195/original/file-20231004-19-k2bynk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/552195/original/file-20231004-19-k2bynk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/552195/original/file-20231004-19-k2bynk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/552195/original/file-20231004-19-k2bynk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/552195/original/file-20231004-19-k2bynk.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">
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<span class="caption">Yaa Gyasi in 2017, a year after the publication of her debut novel, ‘Homegoing.’</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/yaa-gyasi-milano-italy-9th-september-2017-news-photo/1129549208?adppopup=true">Leonardo Cendamo/Hulton Archive via Getty Images</a></span>
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<h2>3. NoViolet Bulawayo, “<a href="https://novioletbulawayo.com/books/we-need-new-names/">We Need New Names</a>” (2013)</h2>
<p>When “We Need New Names” appeared, Nigerian novelist Helon Habila accused NoViolet Bulawayo of peddling “poverty-porn” by <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/jun/20/need-new-names-bulawayo-review">pandering to American stereotypes of Africa</a>. </p>
<p>However, for Bulawayo’s teenage protagonist Darling, it’s American culture that is dangerously dysfunctional – and personally discombobulating. Darling finds American high school ridiculously easy, is horrified by the laxness of American parenting and is generally unimpressed by the urban blight she sees around her in the city she calls Destroyed, Michigan. </p>
<p>Late in the novel, her mentally ill countryman Tshaka Zulu is shot to death by police when off his meds and ranting in his home language. You might think that such a violent, tragic event would be a major plot driver. Sadly, it seems to exemplify just one more random peril – little different from being hit by a car or struck down by cancer – that many Africans coming to America have to endure.</p>
<h2>4. Uzodinma Iweala, “<a href="https://www.harpercollins.com/products/speak-no-evil-uzodinma-iweala?variant=32118044753954">Speak No Evil</a>” (2018)</h2>
<p>Even wealth and class status offer no protection from such perils. </p>
<p>In Uzodinma Iweala’s “Speak No Evil,” the main character, Niru, is the high-achieving son of high-achieving Nigerian parents in supposedly cosmopolitan Washington, D.C. The first three-quarters of the book appear to be exploring Niru’s dilemma: how to come out as gay to his conservative parents. </p>
<p>It turns out that Niru’s gayness – an invisible characteristic, after all – is not the problem; his Blackness is. When he gets in a row outside a bar with his best friend, Meredith – an equally well-off, well-connected, high-flying white female classmate – someone calls the cops. In the space of a paragraph the inevitable has happened: Shots are fired. “You’re safe,” someone says to Meredith. “He can’t hurt you.” </p>
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<img alt="Young Black man wearing a black turtleneck and eyeglasses posing in front of a sculpture with waterfalls." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/552366/original/file-20231005-15-38rtnw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/552366/original/file-20231005-15-38rtnw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=382&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/552366/original/file-20231005-15-38rtnw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=382&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/552366/original/file-20231005-15-38rtnw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=382&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/552366/original/file-20231005-15-38rtnw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/552366/original/file-20231005-15-38rtnw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/552366/original/file-20231005-15-38rtnw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=480&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">Nigerian author Uzodinma Iweala.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/nigerian-author-uzodinma-iweala-author-of-the-fiction-novel-news-photo/539982735?adppopup=true">Fairfax Media/Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>By extraordinary coincidence, Adichie grew up in the very house that Chinua Achebe had lived in on the campus of the University of Nigeria in Nsukka. She, and the other writers of her generation, grew up in the house of fiction that Achebe and his generation established. The writers of that older generation were concerned with the material and cultural despoliation of colonialism. In Achebe’s words, their task was to let their African readers know “<a href="https://www3.dbu.edu/mitchell/achebequ.htm">where the rain began to beat</a>” them. </p>
<p>Today’s African writers demand readers’ attention by letting them know that for African and African-descended people in the U.S., although the winds may have shifted, the storm is far from over.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/214052/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Simon Lewis 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>African immigrant writers possess particularly acute insights into the way race and racism affect daily life in the US.Simon Lewis, Professor of English, College of CharlestonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2084232023-09-22T12:29:56Z2023-09-22T12:29:56ZBiases against Black-sounding first names can lead to discrimination in hiring, especially when employers make decisions in a hurry − new research<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/549130/original/file-20230919-23-y3ipbc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C116%2C5301%2C2563&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">What role will race play in determining who gets the job?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/everyones-grabbed-their-easiest-prep-tool-royalty-free-image/1174452924?phrase=hiring+job+candidates&adppopup=true">Cecilie_Arcurs/E+ via Getty Image</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Because names are among the first things you learn about someone, they can influence first impressions. </p>
<p>That this is particularly true for names associated with Black people came to light in 2004 with the release of a study that found employers <a href="https://doi.org/10.1257/0002828042002561">seeing identical resumes</a> were 50% more likely to call back an applicant with <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/2020/top-20-whitest-blackest-names/story?id=2470131">stereotypical white names like Emily or Greg</a> versus applicants with names like Jamal or Lakisha.</p>
<p>I’m a <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=WJe3b0UAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=sra">behavioral economist who researches discrimination in labor markets</a>. In a <a href="https://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4490163">study based on a hiring experiment</a> I conducted with another economist, <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=vyGCfDoAAAAJ">Rulof Burger</a>, we found that participants systematically discriminated against job candidates with names they associated with Black people, especially when put under time pressure. We also found that white people who oppose affirmative action discriminated more than other people against job candidates with distinctly Black names, whether or not they had to make rushed decisions.</p>
<h2>Detecting racial biases</h2>
<p>To conduct this study, we recruited 1,500 people from all 50 U.S. states in 2022 to participate in an online experiment on <a href="https://prolific.com">Prolific</a>, a survey platform. The group was nationally representative in terms of race and ethnicity, age and gender.</p>
<p>We first collected data on their beliefs about the race and ethnicity, education, productivity and personality traits of people with six names picked from a pool of 2,400 workers whom we hired in an early stage of our experiment for a transcription task. Data from these individual responses made it possible for us to categorize how they perceived the candidates.</p>
<p>We found that the names of workers perceived as Black, such as Shanice or Terell, were more likely to elicit negative presumptions, such as being less educated, productive, trustworthy and reliable, than people with either white-sounding names, such as Melanie or Adam, or racially ambiguous names, such as Krystal or Jackson.</p>
<p>We were specifically studying discrimination against Black people, so we did not include names in this experiment that are frequently associated with Hispanics or Asians. </p>
<p>Participants were next presented with pairs of names and were told they could earn money for selecting the worker who was more productive in the transcription task. The chance that they would choose job candidates they perceived to be white because of their names was almost twice as high than if they thought the candidates to be Black. This tendency to discriminate against people with Black-sounding names was greatest among men, people over 55, whites and conservatives.</p>
<p>Educational attainment, the level of racial diversity in the participants’ ZIP codes or whether they had personally hired anyone before didn’t influence their apparent biases. </p>
<p><iframe id="cju7c" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/cju7c/3/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<h2>Rushing can cause more discriminatory behavior</h2>
<p>Most real-world hiring managers spend <a href="https://careers.workopolis.com/advice/employers-view-resumes-for-fewer-than-11-seconds">less than 10 seconds</a> reviewing each resume during the initial screening stage. To keep up that swift pace, they may resort to using mental shortcuts – including racial stereotypes – to assess job applications.</p>
<p>We found that requiring the study participants to select a worker within only 2 seconds led them to be 25% more likely to discriminate against candidates with names they perceived as Black-sounding. Similar patterns of biased decision-making under time pressure have been documented in the context of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.92.6.1006">police shootings</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0022146512445807">medical decisions</a>.</p>
<p>However, making decisions more slowly is not a panacea. </p>
<p>We found that the most important factor for whether more deliberate decisions reduce discrimination was a participant’s view on <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/affirmative_action">affirmative action</a> – the consideration of race in a workforce or student body to ensure that their share of people of color is roughly proportionate to the general public or a local community. </p>
<p>White participants who opposed affirmative action were more than twice as likely to select an applicant with a white-sounding name compared with applicants perceived as Black – whether or not they had to make the simulated hiring decision in a hurry.</p>
<p>By contrast, giving white participants who favor affirmative action unlimited time to choose a name from the hiring list reduced discrimination against the job candidates with names they perceived as Black-sounding by almost half. The data showed that this decline had to do with people basing their decision more on their perceptions of a worker’s performance, rather than relying on mental shortcuts based on their perceived race.</p>
<p>We assessed the participants’ views on affirmative action by doing a survey at the end of this experiment.</p>
<h2>Discrimination hasn’t gone away</h2>
<p>A study published in 2021 <a href="https://www.nber.org/papers/w29053">suggested that hiring discrimination</a> based on Black-souding names had declined, although discriminatory practices remained high in some customer-facing lines of work, such as auto sales or retail. </p>
<p>Other research has suggested that once people learn more about someone, the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1086/722093">discriminatory influence that a name might have</a> begins to fade. Yet, other studies have indicated that racial biases can make the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1257/pandp.20231114">interactions needed for this learning process less likely</a>. For example, racial biases may lead employers to refrain from interviewing – or hiring – a job candidate of color in the first place.</p>
<p>There is ample evidence that people of color face discrimination in many important domains beyond employment, including finding <a href="https://doi.org/10.1257/app.20160213">housing</a> or <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/rfs/hhac029">obtaining loans</a>.</p>
<p>Our results suggest that slowing down the initial assessment of applicants can be a first step toward reducing this type of discrimination.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/208423/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Martin Abel 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>People who object to affirmative action were more likely to discriminate against job candidates with Black-sounding names than those who supported it, whether or not they had to rush.Martin Abel, Assistant Professor of Economics, Bowdoin CollegeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2120672023-08-25T17:51:53Z2023-08-25T17:51:53ZGospel singer Mahalia Jackson made a suggestion during the 1963 March on Washington − and it changed a good speech to a majestic sermon on an American dream<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/544069/original/file-20230822-5286-r2ntq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=946%2C315%2C4065%2C2983&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Martin Luther King Jr. (bottom right) listens to gospel singer Mahalia Jackson during the March on Washington on Aug. 28, 1963.
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/american-singer-mahalia-jackson-sings-at-the-march-on-news-photo/53404587?adppopup=true">Bob Parent/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Every now and then, a voice can matter. <a href="https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/jackson-mahalia">Mahalia Jackson</a> had one of them.</p>
<p>Known around the world as the “<a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Mahalia-Jackson">Queen of Gospel</a>,” Jackson used <a href="https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=123498527">her powerful voice</a> to work in the <a href="https://www.loc.gov/classroom-materials/united-states-history-primary-source-timeline/post-war-united-states-1945-1968/civil-rights-movement/">Civil Rights Movement</a>. Starting in the 1950s, she traveled with Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. throughout the South and heard him preach in Black churches about a vision that only he could see.</p>
<p>But on Aug. 28, 1963, on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, something didn’t quite sound right to Jackson as she listened to King deliver his prepared speech. King was reading from his prepared remarks when she made <a href="https://www.vox.com/2016/1/18/10785882/martin-luther-king-dream-mahalia-jackson">a simple suggestion</a>.</p>
<p>“Tell them about the dream, Martin,” <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2022/may/19/mahalia-jackson-martin-luther-king-al-sharpton">she urged King</a>, “tell them about the dream.” </p>
<p>Inspired, King cast aside his prepared remarks and ad-libbed from his heart. For the estimated 250,000 who joined the <a href="https://www.si.edu/spotlight/1963-march-on-washington">March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom</a> that day, they heard King <a href="https://www.npr.org/2010/01/18/122701268/i-have-a-dream-speech-in-its-entirety">deliver one of his seminal sermons</a>.</p>
<p>“I have a dream,” King preached, “that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.”</p>
<p>Though most memorable, King’s voice wasn’t the only one that day 60 years ago. The other voice, the one King listened to and heeded, belonged to Mahalia Jackson. </p>
<p>“A voice like hers comes along once in a millennium,” <a href="https://nmaahc.si.edu/explore/stories/mahalia-jackson-gospel-takes-flight">King once said</a>.</p>
<h2>An international phenomenon</h2>
<p>Born on <a href="https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/jackson-mahalia-1911-1972/">Oct. 26, 1911, in New Orleans</a>, Jackson had a contralto voice that first won fame as a gospel singer in the choir at Greater Salem Baptist Church on Chicago’s South Side during the 1940s. </p>
<p>Among her earliest hit recordings were “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1P5bXtVb614">I Can Put My Trust in Jesus</a>,” “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oiCtmjPQE0w">In the Upper Room</a>,” “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UEH7jyt1eoo">He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands</a>,” “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=06gAdro-62E">Move On Up A Little Higher</a>” and “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w3H80p0dkxU">Even Me Lord</a>.”</p>
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<img alt="A Black woman dressed in a white gown gestures with her hands as she sings behind several microphones." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/544332/original/file-20230823-19-92zuwa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/544332/original/file-20230823-19-92zuwa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/544332/original/file-20230823-19-92zuwa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/544332/original/file-20230823-19-92zuwa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/544332/original/file-20230823-19-92zuwa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/544332/original/file-20230823-19-92zuwa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/544332/original/file-20230823-19-92zuwa.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">
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<span class="caption">Mahalia Jackson performing in Copenhagen, Denmark, in April 1961.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/american-gospel-singer-mahalia-jackson-copenhagen-denmark-news-photo/1049302250?adppopup=true">Lennart Steen/JP Jazz Archive/Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>Before long, Jackson was appearing in major concert venues in the U.S. and Europe. In 1956, she was the first gospel singer to perform at <a href="https://timeline.carnegiehall.org/performers/mahalia-jackson">Carnegie Hall</a>. In 1961, Jackson <a href="https://www.bet.com/article/dbpnlc/this-day-in-black-history-jan-20-1961">sang at the inauguration of President John F. Kennedy</a>. The popular <a href="https://blackmusicscholar.com/mahalia-jackson-story/">“Ed Sullivan Show” made Jackson a household name</a> by frequently asking her to perform. </p>
<p>But international fame did not make Jackson forget her religious upbringing and commitment to fight for equal rights. </p>
<p>In “<a href="https://www.unz.com/print/SaturdayRev-1958sep27-00041/">As the Spirit Moves Mahalia</a>,” prominent Black writer Ralph Ellison wrote about the meaning of Jackson’s voice. </p>
<p>“The true function of her singing is not simply to entertain,” he explained, “but to prepare the congregation for the minister’s message, to make it receptive to the spirit, and with effects of voice and rhythm to evoke a shared community of experience.” </p>
<p>Ellison <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1992/12/04/book-world/58b37299-e450-4833-9917-7c46feb6f414/">further wrote</a> that Jackson was “not primarily a concert singer but a high priestess in the religious ceremony of her church.”</p>
<h2>Mahalia and Martin</h2>
<p>Jackson and King <a href="https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/jackson-mahalia#:%7E:text=Already%20an%20icon%2C%20Jackson%20met,anniversary%20of%20the%20Brown%20v.">first met</a> at the National Baptist Convention in Alabama in 1956. King asked her if she could support his work there by singing and inspiring civil rights activists during the 381-day <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2023/03/22/1161664788/the-women-behind-the-montgomery-bus-boycott">Montgomery Bus Boycott</a>.</p>
<p>From there, she became the first woman to serve on the board of the <a href="https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/southern-christian-leadership-conference-sclc">Southern Christian Leadership Conference</a>, a prominent civil rights group led by King, and became one of King’s most trusted advisers. In a <a href="https://www.crmvet.org/docs/sclc/6212_sclc_newsletter.pdf">1962 press release</a>, <a href="https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/jackson-mahalia">King wrote that Jackson</a> “has appeared on numerous programs that helped the struggle in the South, but now she has indicated that she wants to be involved on a regular basis.”</p>
<p>She shared his vision for breaking down the barriers of segregation and fighting for equitable treatment for African Americans. In her own right, Jackson became a visible fixture within the Civil Rights Movement. </p>
<p>Jackson <a href="https://www.latimes.com/local/obituaries/archives/la-me-mahalia-jackson-19720128-story.html">died in 1972</a> at the age of 60. </p>
<h2>Jackson’s voice in a movement</h2>
<p>If music was the soul of the movement, strategic thinking was at its core. As <a href="https://www.apa.org/pi/oema/resources/ethnicity-health/psychologists/asa-hilliard">psychologist Asa Hilliard</a> later explained, among those strategies were moral suasion, litigation, grassroots organizing, civil disobedience, economic boycotts, the solicitation of corporate sponsors and the use of television. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.nps.gov/articles/march-on-washington.htm">March on Washington</a> was considered the culminating event of the historic Civil Rights Movement. The march was rooted in the ideal of economic justice and intentionally held on Aug. 28 to commemorate the <a href="https://www.loc.gov/collections/civil-rights-history-project/articles-and-essays/murder-of-emmett-till/">lynching of Emmett Till</a> in Mississippi on the same date in 1955. </p>
<p>Till’s death and the subsequent acquittal of three white men charged with the brutal murder was <a href="https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/emmett-impact-emmett-tills-murder/">one of the turning points</a> of the movement.</p>
<p>Among the building blocks of the Civil Rights Movement was music. It spoke to the soul, and Mahalia’s gift comforted the masses. King often called her during trying times and <a href="https://www.directv.com/insider/mahalia-jackson-mlk-i-have-a-dream-speech">asked her to sing</a> to him over the telephone.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="A Black woman wearing a black hat stands in front of an American flag." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/544773/original/file-20230825-15-onlapr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/544773/original/file-20230825-15-onlapr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=865&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/544773/original/file-20230825-15-onlapr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=865&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/544773/original/file-20230825-15-onlapr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=865&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/544773/original/file-20230825-15-onlapr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1087&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/544773/original/file-20230825-15-onlapr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1087&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/544773/original/file-20230825-15-onlapr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1087&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Mahalia Jackson greets others during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom on Aug. 28, 1963.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/american-gospel-singer-mahalia-jackson-greets-others-during-news-photo/1472641559?adppopup=true">Roosevelt H. Carter/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><a href="https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/jackson-mahalia">King called</a> her “a blessing to me … and a blessing to Negroes who have learned through her not to be ashamed of their heritage.”</p>
<p>It was no surprise then that Jackson felt comfortable enough to make a suggestion to the civil rights leader during a sermon. </p>
<p>Before he appeared on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, Jackson had sung her rendition of “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZck6OXR_wE">I have been buked and I have been scorned</a>” and after he finished, she sang “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g088O0UeKQE">We Shall Overcome</a>.” </p>
<p>But her <a href="https://www.vox.com/2016/1/18/10785882/martin-luther-king-dream-mahalia-jackson">most important line that day</a> might have been, “Tell them about the dream, Martin.”</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/212067/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Bev-Freda Jackson 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>As the “Queen” of gospel music, Mahalia Jackson sang two songs during the historic March on Washington. But her most famous line may have been a suggestion to Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.Bev-Freda Jackson, Adjunct professor of Justice, Law and Criminology, American University School of Public AffairsLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2107742023-08-14T12:26:30Z2023-08-14T12:26:30ZFlorida’s academic standards distort the contributions that enslaved Africans made to American society<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/541753/original/file-20230808-23-3nwz2o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=7%2C70%2C996%2C726&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Enslaved Africans built landmarks like the White House, the U.S. Capitol and New York's Wall Street. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/group-of-freed-african-american-slaves-along-a-wharf-during-news-photo/515185532?adppopup=true">Bettmann via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The state of <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2023/08/01/kamala-harris-ron-desantis-black-history-00109170">Florida ignited a controversy</a> when it released a <a href="https://www.fldoe.org/core/fileparse.php/20653/urlt/6-4.pdf">set of 2023 academic standards</a> that require fifth graders to be taught that enslaved Black people in the U.S. “developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their benefit.”</p>
<p>As a <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=566DVVQAAAAJ&view_op=list_works&sortby=pubdate">researcher</a> specializing in the <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?view_op=view_citation&hl=en&user=566DVVQAAAAJ&sortby=pubdate&citation_for_view=566DVVQAAAAJ:u-x6o8ySG0sC">history of race and racism in the U.S.</a>, I – like a <a href="https://www.wfla.com/news/education/critics-call-floridas-new-standards-for-teaching-african-american-history-insulting/">growing chorus of critics</a> – see that education standard as flawed and misleading.</p>
<p>Whereas Florida would have students believe that enslaved Black people “benefited” by developing skills during slavery, the reality is that enslaved Africans contributed to the nation’s social, cultural and economic well-being by using skills they had already developed before captivity. What follows are examples of the skills the Africans brought with them as they entered the Americas as enslaved:</p>
<h2>1. As farmers</h2>
<p>During the period between 1750 and 1775, the majority of the enslaved Africans that landed in the Carolinas came from the traditional <a href="https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20210307-how-rice-shaped-the-american-south">rice-growing regions in Africa</a> known as the Rice Coast.</p>
<p>Subsequently, rice joined cotton as one of the <a href="https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20210307-how-rice-shaped-the-american-south">most profitable agricultural products</a>, not only in North Carolina and South Carolina but in <a href="https://doi.org/10.1086/ahr.115.1.125">Virginia and Georgia</a> as well.</p>
<p>Other African food staples, such as <a href="https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674008342">black rice</a>, <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/7200344">okra</a>, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/food/a-new-years-tradition-born-from-slavery/2011/12/21/gIQA63UfKP_story.html">black-eyed peas</a>, yams, <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/7200344">peanuts</a> and watermelon, made their way into North America via slave ship cargoes.</p>
<p>Ship captains <a href="https://www.worldcat.org/title/759158601">relied on African agricultural products</a> to feed the <a href="https://www.nps.gov/articles/the-middle-passage.htm">12 million</a> enslaved Africans transported to the Americas through a brutal voyage known as the Middle Passage. In some cases the <a href="https://scholarworks.lib.csusb.edu/history-in-the-making/vol15/iss1/10">Africans stowed away food</a> as they boarded the ships. These foods were essential for the enslaved to survive the harsh conditions of their trans-Atlantic trip in the hulls of ships.</p>
<p>Once on plantations in the land now known as the United States, enslaved people occasionally were able to <a href="https://scholarworks.lib.csusb.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1264&context=history-in-the-making">cultivate small gardens</a>. In these gardens, reflecting a small amount of freedom, enslaved men and women grew their own food. Some of the crops consisted of produce originating in Africa. From these they <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/how-enslaved-chefs-helped-shape-american-cuisine-180969697/">added unique ingredients</a>, such as hot peppers, peanuts, okra and greens, to adapt West African stews into gumbo or jambalaya, which took rice, spices and heavily seasoned vegetables and meat. These dishes soon became staples in what would become known as <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/how-enslaved-chefs-helped-shape-american-cuisine-180969697/">down-home cooking</a>. Crop surpluses from the communal gardens were sometimes sold in local markets, thus providing income that some enslaved people used to purchase freedom. Some of these African-derived crops became central to Southern cuisine.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A farmer displays a handful of peanuts." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/541757/original/file-20230808-29-qn6cof.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/541757/original/file-20230808-29-qn6cof.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/541757/original/file-20230808-29-qn6cof.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/541757/original/file-20230808-29-qn6cof.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/541757/original/file-20230808-29-qn6cof.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/541757/original/file-20230808-29-qn6cof.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/541757/original/file-20230808-29-qn6cof.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">African crops like peanuts and okra became central to Southern cuisine.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/sudanese-farmer-displays-a-handful-of-peanuts-harvested-on-news-photo/1227995255?adppopup=true">Ashraf Shazly/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>2. As cooks and chefs</h2>
<p>The culinary skills that the West Africans brought with them served to enhance, transform and produce unique eating habits and culinary practices in the South. Although enslaved Africans were forced to cook for families that held them as property, they also cooked for themselves, typically using a large pot that they had been given for the purpose.</p>
<p>Using skills from various West African cultures, these cooks often worked together to prepare communal meals for their fellow enslaved people. The different cooking styles produced a range of popular meals centering on <a href="https://www.pulse.com.gh/ece-frontpage/what-africas-slaves-brought-to-american-cuisine/2rkxxvd">one-pot cooking</a> to include stews or gumbos, or layering meat with greens. The meals comprised a high proportion of corn meal, animal fat and bits of meat or vegetables. Communal gardens, maintained by the enslaved, might supplement the meager supplies and what was available from hunting or fishing. Some of the cooks who emerged from these conditions <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/2952566?casa_token=662izW38zxAAAAAA%3Alz9N4OhwxS2VuzmWJcdxKenY8Uk5dWP_U4XSXQKwe379BFbCbFdPSF9iVGfIHwRg3M-d1sgcw5AAxSZ58KeasDHCuSN-st0ed01jn11FMqk9WiDRra4">became some of the highest regarded and valued</a> among the enslaved in the regions.</p>
<p>Enslaved chefs blended African, Native American and European traditions to create <a href="https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20220201-hercules-posey-george-washingtons-unsung-enslaved-chef">unique Southern cuisines</a> that featured roasted beef, veal, turkey, duck, fowl and ham. Desserts and puddings featured jellies, oranges, apples, nuts, figs and raisins. Stews and soups changed, given the season, sometimes featuring oysters or fish.</p>
<h2>3. As artisans and builders</h2>
<p>Slave ship manifests reveal that enslaved Africans included some who were <a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/Workers_on_Arrival/D2hyDwAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=enslaved+wood+workers+and+craftsmen&pg=PR11&printsec=frontcover">woodcarvers and metalworkers</a>. Others were skilled in various traditional crafts, including pottery making, weaving, basketry and wood carving. These crafts were instrumental in filling the perpetual <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/1845390?casa_token=7qITcPXFjl0AAAAA%3Axy1lL9AsdasmaJCcYcc-FoIFMczQCDWCM3MqcF1QybJ8ojJ9j0IHXefJUVblkASDA5ZXwUPOhC3tb749l73WuFG14Kn-1xync8CxBBODA6MxkvhNbv4&seq=3">scarcity of skilled labor on plantations</a>.</p>
<p>When <a href="https://archive.org/details/greatauctionsale00does">planters and traders</a> considered purchasing an enslaved Black person, one of the key factors influencing their decision and the price was their skills. Slave auction sales included carpenters, blacksmiths and shoemakers.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/Another_s_Country/yO2Cwx6AkH0C?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=enslaved+african+builders&pg=PA30&printsec=frontcover">Architectural designs showing West African</a> influences have been identified in structures excavated from some colonial plantations in various areas of the <a href="https://discoversouthcarolina.com/articles/discover-the-lowcountry">South Carolina Lowcountry</a>. These buildings, with clay-walled architecture, demonstrate that the West Africans came with building skills. <a href="https://thereader.mitpress.mit.edu/300-years-of-african-american-invention-and-innovation/">Excavated clay pipes in the Chesapeake</a> region reveal West African pottery decorative techniques.</p>
<p>Across the nation, <a href="https://ibw21.org/editors-choice/15-american-landmarks-that-were-built-by-slaves/">multiple landmarks were built by the enslaved</a>. These include the White House, the U.S. Capitol and the Smithsonian Castle in Washington, Fraunces Tavern and Wall Street in New York, and Fort Sumter in South Carolina.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A group of enslaved African women and a man sit on the steps of a porch." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/541754/original/file-20230808-17-sfs7m2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/541754/original/file-20230808-17-sfs7m2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=602&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/541754/original/file-20230808-17-sfs7m2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=602&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/541754/original/file-20230808-17-sfs7m2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=602&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/541754/original/file-20230808-17-sfs7m2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=757&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/541754/original/file-20230808-17-sfs7m2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=757&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/541754/original/file-20230808-17-sfs7m2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=757&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Enslaved African women brought new medical practices and skills to the U.S. from their native lands.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/group-of-women-and-a-man-presumably-enslaved-sit-on-the-news-photo/53265526?adppopup=true">Hulton Archive via Getty Images</a></span>
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</figure>
<h2>4. As midwives, herbalists and healers</h2>
<p>As Africans entered the Americas, they brought <a href="https://collegeofphysicians.org/programs/education-blog/medicinal-practices-enslaved-peoples">knowledge of medicinal plants</a>. Some enslaved women were midwives who used medical practices and skills from their native lands. In many cases, while many of these plants were unavailable in the Americas, enslaved Africans’ knowledge, and that gleaned from Native Americans, helped them to identify a range of plants that could be beneficial to treat a wide range of illnesses among both the enslaved and the enslavers. <a href="https://collegeofphysicians.org/programs/education-blog/medicinal-practices-enslaved-peoples">Enslaved midwives</a> delivered babies and, in some cases, provided the means for either avoiding pregnancies or performing abortions. They also treated respiratory illnesses. </p>
<p>These <a href="https://vc.bridgew.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1376&context=undergrad_rev">practices and knowledge grew</a> as they began incorporating techniques from Native American and European sources. They employed an interesting array of these practices to identify herbs, produce devices and to facilitate <a href="https://nmaahc.si.edu/explore/stories/historical-significance-doulas-and-midwives">childbirth</a> and <a href="https://collegeofphysicians.org/programs/education-blog/medicinal-practices-enslaved-peoples">maternal health and well-being</a>. They utilized several <a href="https://midwiferyinearlyamerica.wordpress.com/2014/10/29/childbirth-and-the-antebellum-american-south/">herbal remedies</a> such as cedar berries, tansy and cotton seeds to end pregnancies.</p>
<p>In 1721, of the <a href="https://curiosity.lib.harvard.edu/contagion/feature/the-boston-smallpox-epidemic-1721">5,880 Bostonians who contracted smallpox, 844 died</a>. Even more would have died had it not been for a <a href="https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/article/smallpox-epidemic-boston-onesimus-african-indigenous/">radical technique introduced by an enslaved person named Onesimus</a>, who is credited with helping a small portion of the population survive.</p>
<p>Onesimus, purchased by Cotton Mather in 1706, was being groomed to be a domestic servant. In 1716, Onesimus informed Mather that he had survived smallpox and no longer feared contagion. He described a practice known as <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d42859-020-00006-7">variolation</a> derived by West Africans to fight various infections. </p>
<p>This was a method of intentionally infecting an individual by rubbing pus from an infected person into an open wound. Onesimus explained how this treatment resulted in significantly milder symptoms, eliminating the likelihood of contracting the disease. As physicians began to wonder about this mysterious method to prevent smallpox, they developed the technique known as vaccinations. Smallpox today has been eradicated worldwide primarily because of the medical advice rendered by Onesimus.</p>
<p>Regardless of how Florida’s education standards misrepresent history, the reality is that the Africans forced to come to America brought an enormous range of skills. They were farmers, cooks, chefs, artisans, builders, midwives, herbalists and healers. Our country is richer because of their skills, techniques and knowledge.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/210774/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>While a Florida curriculum implies that enslaved Africans ‘benefited’ from skills acquired through slavery, history shows they brought knowledge and skills to the US that predate their captivity.Rodney Coates, Professor of Critical Race and Ethnic Studies, Miami UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1999512023-07-17T12:25:03Z2023-07-17T12:25:03ZInternational African American Museum in Charleston, S.C., pays new respect to the enslaved Africans who landed on its docks<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/537383/original/file-20230713-21-9njk23.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">One of the exhibits of notable Black people on display at International African American Museum.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.world-architects.com/en/architecture-news/headlines/iaam-in-pictures">courtesy of v2com/International African American Museum</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Before Congress <a href="https://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/slave-trade.html">ended the transatlantic slave trade</a> in 1808, the Port of Charleston was <a href="https://www.postandcourier.com/news/special_reports/slavery-in-charleston-a-chronicle-of-human-bondage-in-the-holy-city/article_54334e04-4834-50b7-990b-f81fa3c2804a.html">the nation’s epicenter</a> of human trafficking. </p>
<p>Almost half of the estimated 400,000 African people imported into what became the United States were brought to that Southern city, and <a href="https://ldhi.library.cofc.edu/exhibits/show/africanpassageslowcountryadapt/sectionii_introduction">a substantial number</a> took their first steps on American soil at <a href="https://www.preservationsociety.org/locations/gadsdens-wharf/">Gadsden’s Wharf</a> on the Cooper River.</p>
<p>That location of once utter degradation is now the hallowed site of the <a href="https://iaamuseum.org/">International African American Museum</a>. Pronounced “I Am” and <a href="https://www.postandcourier.com/opinion/editorials/editorial-charleston-celebrates-a-new-museum-a-new-day/article_316fd1e0-0fad-11ee-a08a-7b6f11f64bdc.html">opened in June 2023</a>, the US$120 million project financed by state and local funds and private donations was 25 years in the making and is a memorial to not only those enslaved but also those whose lives as free Black Americans affected U.S. history and society through their fight for full citizenship rights. </p>
<p>As <a href="https://asalh.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/BIOGRAPHY-POWERS.pdf">a historian</a> and founding director of the College of Charleston’s <a href="https://studyslaverycharleston.cofc.edu/">Center for the Study of Slavery</a> in Charleston, I served as the museum’s interim executive director and know firsthand how difficult the road has been to build a museum focused on African American history. </p>
<p>The museum’s mission is to honor the untold stories of the African American journey and, by virtue of its location and landscape design, pay reverence to the ground on which it sits.</p>
<h2>America’s widespread historical illiteracy</h2>
<p>Many Americans don’t know much about the nation or its history. </p>
<p>In the 2022 “<a href="https://www.nationsreportcard.gov/highlights/civics/2022/">Nation’s Report Card</a>,” the National Assessment of Educational Progress revealed ongoing deficiencies in <a href="https://www.axios.com/2023/05/03/history-civic-test-results-covid-schools">eighth grade students’ knowledge</a> of U.S. history and civics. </p>
<p>Only 20% of test-takers scored proficient or above in civics, and, for American history, only 13% achieved proficiency.</p>
<p>The adult population shows similar deficits. </p>
<p>A 2018 <a href="https://woodrow.org/news/american-history-report/">Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation</a> survey shockingly revealed only <a href="https://citizensandscholars.org/resource/national-survey-finds-just-1-in-3-americans-would-pass-citizenship-test/">36% of people who were born in the U.S.</a> knew enough basic American history and government to pass the citizenship test.</p>
<p>And <a href="https://www.wtsp.com/article/news/politics/woke-2024-gop-primary/67-ad81efcb-860c-4663-b04c-a06452961284">conservative political candidates</a> are working to prevent current students from learning key information about the country’s founding and development by mischaracterizing the teaching of slavery and civil rights as <a href="https://www.edweek.org/leadership/what-is-critical-race-theory-and-why-is-it-under-attack/2021/05">critical race theory</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A small advertisement with large black letters gives the details on the sale of 25 Black people." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536689/original/file-20230710-29-mw77lw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536689/original/file-20230710-29-mw77lw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=455&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536689/original/file-20230710-29-mw77lw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=455&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536689/original/file-20230710-29-mw77lw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=455&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536689/original/file-20230710-29-mw77lw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=572&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536689/original/file-20230710-29-mw77lw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=572&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536689/original/file-20230710-29-mw77lw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=572&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">An advertisement details the auction sale of 25 enslaved Black people at Ryan’s Mart in Charleston, S.C., on Sept. 25, 1852.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/broadside-by-louis-de-saussure-of-a-sale-of-25-enslaved-sea-news-photo/1457493575?adppopup=true">Kean Collection/Archive Photos/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Though critical race theory is typically taught in graduate and law schools, <a href="https://www.chalkbeat.org/22525983/map-critical-race-theory-legislation-teaching-racism">at least 36</a> states had banned or tried to ban lessons on Black history from public K-12 classrooms. </p>
<p>In this highly politicized environment, efforts to restrict how race can be discussed in public schools have led to <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/US/authors-color-speak-efforts-ban-books-race/story?id=81491208">widespread calls from parents and politicians</a> for the censorship of certain books on race. </p>
<p>These new restrictions have had an impact on public education, according to the <a href="https://ncheteach.org/post/How-do-we-Navigate-the-Culture-Wars-in-History-Classrooms-this-Year">National Council for History Education</a>. </p>
<p>A <a href="https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RRA1108-3.html">2022 survey of teachers</a> conducted by the <a href="https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RRA1108-7.html">Rand Corp.</a> showed the restrictions “influenced their choice of curriculum materials or instructional practices,” as many “chose to or were directed to omit the use of certain materials” deemed “controversial or potentially offensive.”</p>
<h2>South Carolinians’ overlooked national impact</h2>
<p>One of the first things visitors see at the museum is an <a href="https://iaamuseum.org/building-and-garden/">African Ancestors Memorial Garden</a>, which includes a graphic stone relief depicting <a href="https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part1/1p277.html">captive Africans during the Middle Passage</a>.</p>
<p>But the museum is not just a memorial site of enslavement. </p>
<p>Exhibits show how the lives of Black people and their resistance to enslavement helped shape state, national and international affairs.</p>
<p>For example, South Carolina’s 1739 <a href="https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part1/1p284.html">Stono Rebellion</a>, in which fugitive slaves attempted to escape to Spanish Florida, precipitated conflict between Spain and Great Britain. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="An image of a black man is shown near docks on a river." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/537401/original/file-20230713-25-t9p97g.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/537401/original/file-20230713-25-t9p97g.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/537401/original/file-20230713-25-t9p97g.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/537401/original/file-20230713-25-t9p97g.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/537401/original/file-20230713-25-t9p97g.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=629&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/537401/original/file-20230713-25-t9p97g.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=629&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/537401/original/file-20230713-25-t9p97g.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=629&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">An exhibit detailing African people’s migration around the Atlantic.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://iaamuseum.org/news/surface-mag-the-long-awaited-international-african-american-museum/">courtesy of v2com/International African American Museum</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Many Americans know about white abolitionist <a href="https://www.nps.gov/articles/john-browns-raid.htm">John Brown’s 1859 attack</a> against the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia, which led to the Civil War. </p>
<p>But few know that <a href="https://nyupress.org/9781479802753/the-untold-story-of-shields-green/">Shields Green</a>, a South Carolina fugitive slave, assisted in the planning and execution of the fateful attack.</p>
<p>Even fewer know of <a href="https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv2cxx8zq">South Carolina’s role</a> in the Civil Rights Movement.</p>
<p>Many know the name Rosa Parks, but it was Charleston’s educator and activist <a href="https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/encyclopedia/clark-septima-poinsette">Septima Clark</a> who inspired Parks and led the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s Southern educational and voting rights initiatives. </p>
<p>In fact, King <a href="https://avery.cofc.edu/the-legacy-of-septima-p-clark-by-kangkang-kovacs/">once called Clark</a> “the mother of the movement” and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/09612029900200193">considered her to be</a> a “community teacher, an intuitive fighter for human rights and leader of her unlettered and disillusioned people.”</p>
<h2>A monument to freedom</h2>
<p>The museum’s educational goals are ambitious. </p>
<p>It is an interdisciplinary history museum, where educators plan to work with teachers and administrators around the world to make sure students in American schools – and everyone who lives in the U.S. today and in the future – learns about South Carolina’s significant role in U.S. history. </p>
<p>In my view, that collaboration will likely be challenging, given the efforts to sanitize the nation’s racial history and teachers’ apprehensions about teaching supposedly controversial subjects. </p>
<p>“This is a site of trauma,” Tonya Matthews, CEO and president of the museum, <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/international-african-american-museum-charleston-south-carolina-trauma-triumph/">told CBS News</a>. “But look who’s standing here now. That’s what makes it a site of joy, and triumph.”</p>
<p>Indeed, the International African American museum is, by design, a monument to freedom – and an honest engagement with America’s troubled racial past.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/199951/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Bernard Powers is a board member of the International African American Museum. </span></em></p>The new museum opened at a time when the teaching of Black history is under attack by conservative politicians.Bernard Powers, Professor of History Emeritus, College of CharlestonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2084182023-07-06T12:26:55Z2023-07-06T12:26:55ZPolice treatment in black and white – report on Minneapolis policing is the latest reminder of systemic racial disparities<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/535099/original/file-20230630-29-v5vyxp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C3081%2C2051&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">People in the Brooklyn borough of New York City protest police violence against Black women on Sept. 5, 2020.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/participant-holding-a-sign-at-the-protest-brooklynites-news-photo/1228367931?adppopup=true">Erik McGregor/LightRocket via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The latest reminder that police officers around the country routinely deny Black people their constitutional rights comes from the Justice Department. This time, it’s about Minneapolis, the site of a police officer’s video-recorded murder of resident George Floyd. </p>
<p>More than three years after <a href="https://theconversation.com/george-floyds-death-reflects-the-racist-roots-of-american-policing-139805">Floyd’s brutal death</a> and the global protest movement that sprang from it, a June 2023 <a href="https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justice-department-finds-civil-rights-violations-minneapolis-police-department-and-city">Justice Department report</a> found that Minneapolis police use excessive force, including unjustified deadly force in their interactions with civilians, and discriminate against Black people. </p>
<p>The report echoes Justice Department findings, released in March 2023, about police misconduct in Louisville, Kentucky, where officers killed <a href="https://www.justice.gov/crt/case-document/file/1572951/download">Breonna Taylor</a> during <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2022/08/04/feds-charge-4-officers-with-violating-breonna-taylors-rights-00049867">an unlawful search of her home</a> in March 2020, and about <a href="https://www.justice.gov/sites/default/files/opa/press-releases/attachments/2015/03/04/ferguson_police_department_report.pdf">police in Ferguson, Missouri</a>, in a report released in March 2015. An <a href="https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/michael-brown-killed-by-police-ferguson-mo">officer shot and killed Michael Brown</a>, who was unarmed, during a 2014 encounter. </p>
<p>The Justice Department <a href="https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justice-department-finds-civil-rights-violations-minneapolis-police-department-and-city">found that Minneapolis police</a> also discriminate against Native Americans; routinely use excessive force, including “unreasonable use of tasers”; violate the rights of citizens exercising their First Amendment right to free speech; participate in racially discriminatory stops against Black people and Native Americans; and discriminate against people with serious mental illnesses.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/535104/original/file-20230630-29351-piiz0d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A uniformed, white police officer kneels on the neck of a Black man as he lies on the ground." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/535104/original/file-20230630-29351-piiz0d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/535104/original/file-20230630-29351-piiz0d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=330&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535104/original/file-20230630-29351-piiz0d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=330&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535104/original/file-20230630-29351-piiz0d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=330&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535104/original/file-20230630-29351-piiz0d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=415&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535104/original/file-20230630-29351-piiz0d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=415&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535104/original/file-20230630-29351-piiz0d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=415&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A screenshot of a video shows former Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin kneeling on George Floyd’s neck as Floyd cries out in pain, stating that he can’t breathe.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CEZh0C-pmaw">23 ABC News - KERO</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>As a <a href="https://newsroom.asu.edu/expert/rashad-shabazz">geographer and scholar of African American studies</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/black-police-officers-arent-colorblind-theyre-infected-by-the-same-anti-black-bias-as-american-society-and-police-in-general-198721">I’ve written</a> about <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-law-often-shields-police-officers-from-accountability-and-reinforces-policing-that-harms-black-people-homeless-people-and-the-mentally-ill-201552">racist policing</a> for <a href="https://theconversation.com/minneapolis-long-hot-summer-of-67-and-the-parallels-to-todays-protests-over-police-brutality-139814">The Conversation</a> before. So, I struggled to find a new way to examine the topic this time around. And that led me to the enduring question: Why is racial discrimination by police so common in the United States? </p>
<h2>Policing in black and white</h2>
<p>Justice Department reports, <a href="https://theconversation.com/police-officers-accused-of-brutal-violence-often-have-a-history-of-complaints-by-citizens-139709">complaints from citizens</a> and dozens of <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/21533687211047943">academic studies painfully point to</a> racial discrimination by police as a common practice. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2020/opinions/systemic-racism-police-evidence-criminal-justice-system/">evidence</a> is overwhelming. Countless studies have shown that Black people are <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15377938.2021.1992326">routinely stopped</a> by police and live in racially segregated communities <a href="https://now.tufts.edu/2020/06/17/how-racial-segregation-and-policing-intersect-america">that police heavily monitor</a>. These conditions have led to <a href="https://thecrimereport.org/2021/01/14/blacks-overrepresented-in-violent-crime-arrests/">Black people being overrepresented</a> in arrests for violent crime that doesn’t involve a fatality. </p>
<p>Police body camera footage shows <a href="https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.1702413114">officers speak disrespectfully to Black people</a> during traffic stops; about four of every 10 <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2019/04/09/the-role-of-race-and-ethnicity-in-americans-personal-lives/">Black people say police have unfairly stopped them</a>; and Black people are more than <a href="https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/news/hsph-in-the-news/blacks-whites-police-deaths-disparity/">three times</a> as likely to be killed by police during interactions. These experiences explain why Black people have <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2016/09/29/the-racial-confidence-gap-in-police-performance/#wide-racial-gaps-in-views-of-police-performance">negative views of police</a>. </p>
<p>For white Americans, however, their feelings and interactions with the police are more positive. For instance, <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2019/04/09/the-role-of-race-and-ethnicity-in-americans-personal-lives/">only a quarter</a> of white people surveyed report being in situations where they believe police were suspicious of them. Meanwhile, <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2020/06/03/10-things-we-know-about-race-and-policing-in-the-u-s/ft_2020-06-03_raceandpolice_04/">78% feel police protect people</a> from crime; 75% say police use the correct amount of force and that they treat people of color and white people equally; and 70% of white Americans feel police are held accountable for their misconduct.</p>
<p>These experiences explain why white Americans are more likely to <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2020/06/03/10-things-we-know-about-race-and-policing-in-the-u-s/">give police high marks</a> – 75% – for job performance.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/535105/original/file-20230630-12495-mlbkoz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A group of people pose standing behind a large " src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/535105/original/file-20230630-12495-mlbkoz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/535105/original/file-20230630-12495-mlbkoz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535105/original/file-20230630-12495-mlbkoz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535105/original/file-20230630-12495-mlbkoz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535105/original/file-20230630-12495-mlbkoz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535105/original/file-20230630-12495-mlbkoz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535105/original/file-20230630-12495-mlbkoz.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">Demonstrators pose in front of the Georgia Capitol building on March 13, 2021, during a march commemorating the one-year anniversary of the police killing of Breonna Taylor in Louisville, Ky.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/demonstrators-pose-for-a-picture-in-front-of-the-georgia-news-photo/1231697654?adppopup=true">Megan Varner/Getty Images</a></span>
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</figure>
<p>These differences influence how race shapes people’s interactions with police. African Americans have negative views of police because of past and personal experience. Many white people have more positive views shaped by living on their side of the <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/color%20line#:%7E:text=%3A%20a%20set%20of%20societal%20or,usually%20used%20with%20the">color line</a>. </p>
<h2>Experiences shape people’s views</h2>
<p>The fact that Black and white Americans have different views on the police are not accidents. </p>
<p>This reality is built on a long history of police targeting people of color. Indeed, policing in the United States was established on the practice of controlling specific populations. In the 19th century, for example, <a href="https://www.npr.org/transcripts/869046127">policing in the South</a> was designed to monitor the movement of enslaved Black people. Some of the first police forces in the nation were developed to keep the enslaved from escaping and to recapture them if they did. They were called slave patrols, and by law, some states required white men to serve as slave patrollers. </p>
<p>Similar histories exist with <a href="https://www.history.com/news/how-stereotypes-of-the-irish-evolved-from-criminals-to-cops">the Irish</a> in the Northeast before they were <a href="https://www.publishersweekly.com/9780415913843">considered white</a>, as well as with Mexicans and Mexican Americans in the <a href="https://www.npr.org/2020/06/08/871929844/cult-of-glory-reveals-the-dark-history-of-the-texas-rangers">Southwest</a>. </p>
<p>Policing and controlling the movements of specific nonwhite groups have often gone hand in hand. This powerful cocktail of racism and policing has enabled <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/may/05/us-police-brutality-un-experts-george-floyd">brutal forms of violence</a> against people of color.</p>
<p>In each case, police discriminated against Black people in the South, Mexicans and Mexican Americans in the Southwest and the Irish in the North, while treating white Southerners, white Southwesterners and the middle and upper classes in the North differently. The parallels to this moment are not an accident. And neither is police misconduct.</p>
<h2>Policing the way it was intended</h2>
<p>The Justice Department’s report will place the practices of the Minneapolis Police Department under public scrutiny. And it will be part of the mountain of studies, complaints and federal reports that show widespread racial discrimination.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/535106/original/file-20230630-14093-9vsgeo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A man draped in the US flag, with his back to the camera, sits on a motorized bicycle. A crowd of people stand yards away from him with their backs to the camera as well." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/535106/original/file-20230630-14093-9vsgeo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/535106/original/file-20230630-14093-9vsgeo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535106/original/file-20230630-14093-9vsgeo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535106/original/file-20230630-14093-9vsgeo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535106/original/file-20230630-14093-9vsgeo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535106/original/file-20230630-14093-9vsgeo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/535106/original/file-20230630-14093-9vsgeo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A man draped in the U.S. flag sits on a motorized bicycle near the White House during June 3, 2020, protests over the death of George Floyd.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/man-draped-in-the-us-flag-sits-on-his-motorized-bicycle-news-photo/1217490160?adppopup=true%20ALT%20TEXT:%20A%20man%20draped%20in%20the%20US%20flag,">Roberto Schmidt/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>That said, with the long history of how policing began and how targeting groups was part of its foundation, along with the studies that document it, what’s apparent is that police misconduct is not an aberration. Despite claims of serving and protecting the public, that is simply not what the police have always done.</p>
<p>It’s no wonder, then, that so many people believe racial discrimination is endemic to policing and is simply part of the way it works. And while this most recent Justice Department report shows that, it also makes the case that Minneapolis police are <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/jun/15/angela-davis-on-george-floyd-as-long-as-the-violence-of-racism-remains-no-one-is-safe">working the way they were intended</a>. </p>
<p>If this is the case, then Black people’s denial of basic constitutional guarantees by law enforcement, enshrined in our nation’s founding documents, is, to quote the abolitionist Fredrick Douglass, a “<a href="https://www.gilderlehrman.org/sites/default/files/inline-pdfs/douglass_july_4_speech.pdf">shameless hypocrisy</a>.”</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/208418/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rashad Shabazz 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 a time when Americans celebrated their nation’s independence, it’s clear not every American enjoys the same constitutional rights.Rashad Shabazz, Associate Professor at the School of Social Transformation, Arizona State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2052662023-06-09T13:34:23Z2023-06-09T13:34:23Z6 books that explain the history and meaning of Juneteenth<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/530978/original/file-20230608-20480-a4sqhf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=17%2C52%2C5850%2C3835&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A Juneteenth celebration in Prospect Park in New York City in 2022.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/people-take-part-in-a-celebration-of-juneteenth-in-prospect-news-photo/1241425742?adppopup=true">Michael Nagle/Xinhua News Agency via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>After decades of being celebrated at mostly the local level, Juneteenth – the long-standing holiday that commemorates the arrival of <a href="https://www.archives.gov/news/articles/juneteenth-original-document">news of emancipation and freedom</a> to enslaved Black people in Galveston, Texas, in 1865 – <a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/senate-bill/475">became a federal holiday</a> in 2021. In honor of this year’s Juneteenth, The Conversation reached out to Wake Forest University humanities professor <a href="https://english.wfu.edu/meet-corey-db-walker/">Corey D. B. Walker</a> for a list of readings that can help people better understand the history and meaning of the observance. Below, Walker recommends six books.</em></p>
<h2>‘On Juneteenth’</h2>
<p>Combining history and memoir, Annette Gordon-Reed’s “<a href="https://wwnorton.com/books/9781631498831">On Juneteenth</a>” offers a moving history of African American life and culture through the prism of Juneteenth. The award-winning <a href="https://hls.harvard.edu/faculty/annette-gordon-reed/">Harvard historian</a> presents an intimate portrait of the experiences of her family and her memories of life as an African American girl growing up in segregated Texas. The essays in her book invite readers to enter a world shaped by the forces of freedom and slavery.</p>
<p>Reed’s exploration of the history and legacy of Juneteenth is a poignant reminder of the hard history all Americans face.</p>
<h2>‘O Freedom! Afro-American Emancipation Celebrations’</h2>
<p>William H. Wiggins Jr.’s “<a href="https://utpress.org/title/o-freedom/">O Freedom! Afro-American Emancipation Celebrations</a>” is the historical standard for African American emancipation celebrations. It offers an accessible and well-researched account of the emergence and evolution of Juneteenth.</p>
<p>Wiggins brings together oral history with archival research to share the stories of how African Americans celebrated emancipation. It explains how Juneteenth is part of the tapestry of emancipation celebrations. These celebrations included such dates as <a href="https://www.ncpedia.org/emancipation-day">January 1</a>, in North Carolina, <a href="https://encyclopediavirginia.org/4684hpr-1a40a372231de4c/#:%7E:text=A%20large%20crowd%20of%20Black,of%20Richmond%2C%20the%20Confederate%20capital.">April 3</a>, in Richmond, Virginia, and <a href="https://www.loc.gov/item/today-in-history/april-16/#:%7E:text=On%20April%2016%2C%201862%2C%20President,and%20enfranchisement%20for%20African%20Americans.">April 16</a>, in Washington, D.C.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Three women hug or gesture." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/530980/original/file-20230608-26-z8tztt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/530980/original/file-20230608-26-z8tztt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530980/original/file-20230608-26-z8tztt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530980/original/file-20230608-26-z8tztt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530980/original/file-20230608-26-z8tztt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530980/original/file-20230608-26-z8tztt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530980/original/file-20230608-26-z8tztt.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">A Juneteenth celebration in 2022 in San Francisco.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/people-take-part-in-a-celebration-of-juneteenth-in-san-news-photo/1241425569?adppopup=true">Liu Yilin/Xinhua News Agency via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>What began as a local holiday has evolved into a national celebration.</p>
<p>Juneteenth celebrations are known for the variety of programs and events that highlight African American history and culture. In the 1960s, students at Prairie View A&M University in Prairie View, Texas, informed faculty that classes would not be held on Juneteenth. In Milwaukee, the local Juneteenth parade includes a group known as the <a href="http://www.milwaukeeindependent.com/photos/milwaukees-black-cowboys-urban-horseback-riding-club-keeps-equestrian-traditions-alive-brew-city/">Black Cowboys</a> riding their horses along Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Drive. Juneteenth celebrations also feature cultural fairs and exhibitions, artistic performances and historical reenactments. Lectures and public conversations, community feasts and religious services are also part of the celebrations.</p>
<h2>‘Juneteenth’</h2>
<p>Ralph Ellison, perhaps best known for his novel “Invisible Man,” offers multiple meanings of Juneteenth in African American and American life in his posthumously published novel “<a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/46133/juneteenth-by-ralph-ellison/">Juneteenth</a>.”</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A black-and-white portrait of a man in front of a shelve of books." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/530982/original/file-20230608-2966-gk7fjh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/530982/original/file-20230608-2966-gk7fjh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=674&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530982/original/file-20230608-2966-gk7fjh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=674&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530982/original/file-20230608-2966-gk7fjh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=674&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530982/original/file-20230608-2966-gk7fjh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=847&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530982/original/file-20230608-2966-gk7fjh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=847&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530982/original/file-20230608-2966-gk7fjh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=847&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Ralph Ellison’s novel ‘Juneteenth’ was released posthumously.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/portrait-of-american-author-ralph-ellison-new-york-new-york-news-photo/1067513294?adppopup=true">United States Information Agency/PhotoQuest via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The ambivalence of Juneteenth is of a freedom delayed but not denied. Ellison’s spiraling novel captures this in the entangled and tragic lives of the racist Senator Sunraider – previously known as Bliss – and the minister who raised him, the Reverend A. Z. Hickman. For Ellison, Juneteenth represents more than just a celebration of emancipation. It also represents the shared fate of white Americans and African Americans in the quest to create a just and equal society. The promise and peril of Juneteenth is elegantly captured in Hickman’s words, “There’s been a heap of Juneteenths before this one and I tell you there’ll be a heap more before we’re truly free!”</p>
<h2>‘Festivals of Freedom: Memory and Meaning in African American Emancipation Celebrations, 1808-1915’</h2>
<p>Mitch Kachun’s book, “Festivals of Freedom: Memory and Meaning in African American Emancipation Celebrations, 1808-1915,” <a href="https://www.umasspress.com/9781558495289/festivals-of-freedom/">traces the history</a> of emancipation celebrations and their influence on African American identity and community. Juneteenth joined a longer tradition of emancipation celebrations. Those celebrations included ones at the end of the trans-Atlantic slave trade in the United States on Jan. 1, 1808. They also included the <a href="https://www.parliament.uk/about/living-heritage/evolutionofparliament/legislativescrutiny/parliament-and-empire/parliament-and-the-american-colonies-before-1765/the-west-indian-colonies-and-emancipation/">August First Day/West India Day celebrations</a> that marked the abolition of slavery throughout the British Empire on Aug. 1, 1834.</p>
<p>With an eye for historical detail, Kachun narrates a complex history of how Juneteenth and other freedom festivals shaped African American identity and political culture. The celebrations also displayed competing meanings of African American identity. In Washington, D.C. in the late 19th century, different groups of African Americans held distinct celebrations. These variations underscored tensions around political ideals, status and identity. Kachun’s book reminds us that Juneteenth served as a crucible for forging a collective and contested sense of African American community. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Six older African Americans face the camera in a photo from the year 1900." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/529192/original/file-20230530-15-53w1dw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/529192/original/file-20230530-15-53w1dw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=468&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/529192/original/file-20230530-15-53w1dw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=468&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/529192/original/file-20230530-15-53w1dw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=468&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/529192/original/file-20230530-15-53w1dw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=588&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/529192/original/file-20230530-15-53w1dw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=588&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/529192/original/file-20230530-15-53w1dw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=588&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">An Emancipation Day celebration from 1900 in Austin, Texas.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://nmaahc.si.edu/explore/stories/historical-legacy-juneteenth">The Austin History Center</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>‘Rites of August First: Emancipation Day in the Black Atlantic World’</h2>
<p>Similar to Kachun’s book, <a href="https://profiles.howard.edu/jeffrey-kerr-ritchie">Howard University historian</a> Jeffrey R. Kerr-Ritchie’s “<a href="https://lsupress.org/books/detail/rites-of-august-first/">Rites of August First: Emancipation Day in the Black Atlantic World</a>” reminds readers of a broader history and geography of emancipation celebrations.</p>
<p>Kerr-Ritchie focuses on how various African American communities adopted and adapted West India Day celebrations. He also explores how they created meaning and culture in celebrating the abolition of slavery in the British West Indies. Kerr-Ritchie’s book details how these celebrations moved across political borders and boundaries.</p>
<h2>‘Juneteenth: The Story Behind the Celebration’</h2>
<p>Contemporary invocations of Juneteenth often overlook its military history. </p>
<p>Edward T. Cotham, Jr.’s “<a href="https://www.tamupress.com/book/9781649670007/juneteenth/">Juneteenth: The Story Behind the Celebration</a>” fills the void by exploring the Civil War origins of Juneteenth.</p>
<p>Cotham renders explicit the military context leading up to the events on June 19, 1865, in Galveston. This is when enslaved Black people there finally got word that they had been freed more than two years prior. Cotham reminds readers that the history of Juneteenth involves ordinary actions of many individual people whose names may not be widely known.</p>
<p>Collectively, these books about Juneteenth offer fresh perspectives on the history and culture of African Americans on a quest to fully express their freedom. Juneteenth is also an invitation for all Americans to continue to learn about and strive for freedom for all people.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/205266/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Corey D. B. Walker 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>Juneteenth is part of a rich heritage of African American emancipation and freedom celebrations.Corey D. B. Walker, Wake Forest Professor of the Humanities, Wake Forest UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2040972023-04-28T12:46:41Z2023-04-28T12:46:41ZHow the US military used magazines to target ‘vulnerable’ groups with recruiting ads<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/523264/original/file-20230427-22-8gas0s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C11%2C3840%2C2132&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Ad agencies developed distinct ads for the U.S. military to reach different demographics over the years.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/young-military-cadet-enjoys-classroom-training-royalty-free-image/1004304340?phrase=military%20recruiting&adppopup=true">SDI Productions via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>In his forthcoming book, “Tactical Inclusion: Difference and Vulnerability in U.S. Military Advertising,” Jeremiah Favara, a communication scholar at Gonzaga University, examines military recruitment ads published in three commercial magazines between 1973 – when the federal government ended the military draft – and 2016. The three magazines are Sports Illustrated, Ebony and Cosmopolitan. In the following Q&A, Favara explains the rationale behind his book and discusses some of its key findings.</em></p>
<h2>Why did you decide to look at these ads?</h2>
<p>I chose to look at these three magazines because they allowed me to explore ads designed to reach different groups, namely white men, Black people and women.</p>
<p>Scholars have argued that content in Sports Illustrated – known for its racy swimsuit editions – has long been <a href="https://sunypress.edu/Books/T/The-Swimsuit-Issue-and-Sport2">designed to appeal to straight white men</a>. My own research for the book and other scholarship has found that straight white men have consistently been portrayed in recruiting ads as <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/enlisting-masculinity-9780199842827?cc=us&lang=en&">ideal service members</a>.</p>
<p>Ad agencies J. Walter Thompson and Bates Worldwide developed recruiting plans that singled out Sports Illustrated as one of the most effective publications for reaching a high concentration of potential recruits because of the magazine’s popularity with male readers.</p>
<p>Advertisers contracted by the military viewed Ebony as crucial for reaching Black recruits. That’s largely because Ebony sought to balance content focusing on <a href="https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781315586861-4/presenting-black-middle-class-john-johnson-ebony-magazine-1945%E2%80%931974-jason-chambers">Black middle-class life</a> with content covering the fight for racial inequality in American society.</p>
<p>Recruiting plans for the Marine Corps and the Navy all sought to place ads in Ebony, especially as part of efforts to recruit more Black officers.</p>
<p>Since the 1960s, Cosmopolitan has played a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/016344399021003004">key role for advertisers</a> in reaching self-sufficient working women as a consumer market. The desired reader of Cosmo – young, straight white women seeking independence – was also an ideal target of military advertisers, particularly in the 1970s and early 1980s.</p>
<p>Following President Ronald Reagan’s election in 1980, the military sought to <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/Women_in_the_Military.html?id=Ea8MAAAACAAJ">decrease the numbers of military women</a> – an effort now known as the “<a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.7249/j.ctt19gfk6m.10?seq=5#metadata_info_tab_contents">womanpause</a>” – and recruiting ads published in Cosmo tapered off. </p>
<h2>How were the ads in each magazine distinct?</h2>
<p>In the course of looking at more than 1,500 ads published in the three magazines between 1973 and 2016, I discovered interesting distinctions. Some themes – how much money you could make in the military, the educational benefits you could access, the sense of purpose the military could provide – were similar across the different magazines. But what was really distinct was how different ads portrayed different people as service members. </p>
<p>For instance, in the 1970s, the Army and Army Reserve placed ads in Cosmo that depicted the military as a way for young women – mostly young white women – to find careers and gain financial independence. The ads used headlines like “Did the last good job you wanted go to a man?” and “The best man doesn’t always get the job.” Text detailed the equal treatment – the same salaries, educational opportunities and chances for promotion – that military women would find in the military. The idea was to portray the Army as a unique site of opportunity for women. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="Advertisement with four women wearing different military uniforms on the left." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/523272/original/file-20230427-14-rcbmud.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/523272/original/file-20230427-14-rcbmud.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=811&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/523272/original/file-20230427-14-rcbmud.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=811&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/523272/original/file-20230427-14-rcbmud.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=811&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/523272/original/file-20230427-14-rcbmud.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1019&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/523272/original/file-20230427-14-rcbmud.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1019&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/523272/original/file-20230427-14-rcbmud.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1019&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">An ad in a 1973 edition of Cosmopolitan presents the military as a place where women can get a fair shot.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Cosmopolitan, August 1973</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Similarly, in the 1970s, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/23337486.2018.1463759">ads published in Ebony</a> portrayed the military as a site of equal opportunity for Black men. A series of Navy ads talked about a “new Navy” where Black men had opportunities they wouldn’t have had 20 years prior.</p>
<p>In more recent decades, Ebony ads were less likely to use such explicit language of equal opportunities. Instead, they celebrated Black History Month by highlighting the accomplishments of exceptional Black service members from the past, such as the <a href="https://daily.jstor.org/who-were-the-montford-point-marines/">Montford Point Marines</a> and the <a href="https://airandspace.si.edu/explore-and-learn/topics/blackwings/tuskegee.cfm">Tuskegee Airmen</a>. </p>
<h2>Were the magazine ads effective?</h2>
<p>While there is no way to know if the magazine ads – and not TV ads or other methods of recruiting – were directly responsible for increasing enlistments, my research for the book found that the publication of ads targeting Black recruits and women corresponded with high <a href="https://www.cna.org/pop-rep/2016/summary/summary.html">rates of enlistment</a> from those groups. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.cna.org/pop-rep/2016/summary/summary.html">Between 1973 and 2016</a>, the percentage of military women increased sevenfold, <a href="https://www.cna.org/pop-rep/2016/appendixd/appendixd.pdf">from 2.2% in 1973 to 15.57% in 2016</a>. In the same time frame, Black recruits were consistently overrepresented in the military compared with their share in the civilian population. For example, in 1980, 1990 and 2000, <a href="https://www.cna.org/pop-rep/2016/appendixd/appendixd.pdf">between 19% and 22% of new enlistees were Black</a> compared with roughly 12% to 14% of the civilian population.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="Advertisement with two men to the right, one with his arm around the other man and his hand on the other's chest." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/523268/original/file-20230427-26-tbmiyp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/523268/original/file-20230427-26-tbmiyp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=737&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/523268/original/file-20230427-26-tbmiyp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=737&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/523268/original/file-20230427-26-tbmiyp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=737&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/523268/original/file-20230427-26-tbmiyp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=926&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/523268/original/file-20230427-26-tbmiyp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=926&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/523268/original/file-20230427-26-tbmiyp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=926&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">An ad that appeared in a 1976 edition of Ebony presents the Navy as a way for Black men to get ahead.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Ebony magazine, 1976</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>To me these demographic changes show how, as recruiting ads were being designed to reach women and Black recruits, the military itself was becoming more diverse. </p>
<p>I am interested in exploring how ads created a certain vision of the military as what I call a tactically inclusive institution. By that I mean an institution that has been selectively inclusive of different groups but ultimately exploits the vulnerabilities of potential recruits and perpetuates state violence.</p>
<h2>What does it mean to be ‘vulnerable’ to military ads?</h2>
<p>The term is not one that I or other scholars initially decided to use to describe what the military does. It comes from J. Walter Thompson, an advertising agency that has been creating Marine Corps ads since 1946. In a 1973 proposal for an integrated research program for the armed forces, housed in the <a href="https://guides.library.duke.edu/jwt">J. Walter Thompson Co. archives</a>, one of the first stated objectives was to identify “vulnerable target groups.” </p>
<p>The agency considered those vulnerable to military recruiting as people already inclined to join the military and those who might have reservations but were seen as persuadable. Ad agencies and the military used the term “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0095327X9902500304">propensity</a>” to describe these two groups. Propensity refers to the likelihood that individuals will serve in the military, regardless of whether or not they really want to join the military. </p>
<p>Drawing on an array of different scholars, such as <a href="https://www.dukeupress.edu/the-right-to-maim">Jasbir K. Puar</a>, <a href="https://www.upress.umn.edu/book-division/books/death-beyond-disavowal">Grace Kyungwon Hong</a>, <a href="https://www.upress.umn.edu/book-division/books/aberrations-in-black">Roderick A. Ferguson</a> and <a href="https://www.dukeupress.edu/normal-life-revised">Dean Spade</a>, I think of vulnerability as being at the center of military recruiting. One is deemed vulnerable to military service because of a lack of opportunities, resources, support or cultural capital that the military can promise.</p>
<h2>Is your book pro-military, anti-military or neutral?</h2>
<p>The book argues that military inclusion is a form of power that furthers state violence. I am interested in studying military inclusion and recruitment advertising in order to challenge and resist the violence of the military. However, there were moments that made me think of military inclusion in a more complicated way. During an event at the <a href="https://www.fulcolibrary.org/auburn-avenue-research-library/aarl-eresources/">Auburn Avenue Research Library</a> in Atlanta, Georgia, I heard a panel of Black women veterans talk about their experiences in the military. They spoke about how the military provided them with financial stability, a chance to see the world and the opportunity to buy a home. </p>
<p>Despite the violence of the military, it is also one of the best avenues for upward mobility for many Americans. It is this tension, between seeing military inclusion as an opportunity and as a risk and form of exploitation, that I grapple with in the book.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/204097/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jeremiah Favara 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 US military’s switch to an all-volunteer force in 1973 led to a series of magazine ads that sought to portray military service as a way for women and people of color to move up in society.Jeremiah Favara, Assistant Professor of Communication Studies, Gonzaga UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2019002023-04-19T12:45:25Z2023-04-19T12:45:25ZTo understand American politics, you need to move beyond left and right<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/520636/original/file-20230412-18-9xinwa.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=20%2C0%2C6968%2C4000&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">There's a more sophisticated way to understand how Americans divide themselves politically.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/close-up-us-election-badges-with-the-national-flag-royalty-free-image/1340786091?phrase=right%20and%20left%20in%20politics%20U.S.%20&adppopup=true">Torsten Asmus/ iStock / Getty Images Plus</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Are Americans really as politically polarized as they seem – and everybody says? </p>
<p>It’s definitely true that Democrats and Republicans <a href="https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-polisci-051117-073034">increasingly hate and fear one another</a>. But this animosity seems to have more to do with tribal loyalty than liberal-versus-conservative <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/poq/nfy005">disagreements about policy</a>. Our research into what Americans actually want in terms of policy shows that many have strong political views that can’t really be characterized in terms of “right” or “left.” </p>
<p>The media often talks about the American political landscape as if it were a line. Liberal Democrats are on the left, conservative Republicans on the right, and a small sliver of moderate independents are in the middle. But <a href="https://www.brandeis.edu/cmjs/about/people/wright.html">political scientists</a> <a href="https://cssh.northeastern.edu/student/sasha-volodarsky/">like us</a> have long argued that a line is a bad metaphor for how Americans think about politics. </p>
<p>Sometimes scholars and pundits will argue that views on economic issues like taxes and income redistribution, and views on so-called social or cultural issues like abortion and gay marriage, actually represent two distinct dimensions in <a href="https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-polisci-060314-115422">American political attitudes</a>. Americans, they say, can have liberal views on one dimension <a href="https://news.gallup.com/poll/351494/americans-divided-social-economic-issues.aspx">but conservative views on the other</a>. So you could have a pro-choice voter who wants lower taxes, or a pro-life voter who wants the government to do more to help the poor. </p>
<p>But even this more sophisticated, two-dimensional picture doesn’t reveal what Americans actually want the government to do – or not do – when it comes to policy. </p>
<p>First, it ignores some of the most contentious topics in American politics today, like <a href="https://www.npr.org/2022/10/31/1131789230/supreme-court-affirmative-action-harvard-unc">affirmative action</a>, the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/democratic-convention-embraces-black-lives-matter/2020/08/18/f1de2ce8-e0f7-11ea-b69b-64f7b0477ed4_story.html">Black Lives Matter movement</a> and <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2023/03/16/desantis-anti-woke-law-00087483">attempts to stamp out “wokeness”</a> on college campuses.</p>
<p>Since 2016, when Donald Trump won the presidency while simultaneously <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/a-fresh-look-back-at-2016-finds-america-with-an-identity-crisis/2018/09/15/0ac62364-b8f0-11e8-94eb-3bd52dfe917b_story.html">stoking racial anxieties</a> and bucking Republican orthodoxy on <a href="https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/trump-breaks-gop-orthodoxy-taxes-msna670121">taxes</a> and <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/feature/nbc-out/trump-says-he-s-fine-gay-marriage-60-minutes-interview-n683606">same-sex marriage</a>, it has become clear that what Americans think about politics can’t really be understood without knowing what they think about racism, and what – if anything – they want done about it. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/520635/original/file-20230412-20-95tq6.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A man in a white shirt and tie with gray hair, standing at a lectern outside." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/520635/original/file-20230412-20-95tq6.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/520635/original/file-20230412-20-95tq6.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/520635/original/file-20230412-20-95tq6.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/520635/original/file-20230412-20-95tq6.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/520635/original/file-20230412-20-95tq6.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/520635/original/file-20230412-20-95tq6.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/520635/original/file-20230412-20-95tq6.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">‘Racial Justice Communitarians’ have liberal views on economic issues and moderate or conservative views on moral issues; some Black evangelicals supported Barack Obama but were troubled by his support for same-sex marriage.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/president-barack-obama-speaks-at-capital-university-on-news-photo/160056112?adppopup=true">Charles Ommanney/Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>Recently, some political scientists have argued that views on racial issues represent a <a href="https://academic.oup.com/sf/article/96/4/1757/4781058">third “dimension” in American politics</a>. But there are other problems with treating political attitudes as a set of “dimensions” in the first place. For example, even a “3D” picture doesn’t allow for the possibility that Americans with conservative economic views tend to also hold conservative racial views, while Americans with liberal economic views are deeply divided on issues related to race. </p>
<h2>A new picture of American politics</h2>
<p>In our new <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/soin.12517">article in Sociological Inquiry</a>, we analyzed public opinion data from 2004 to 2020 to develop a more nuanced picture of American political attitudes. Our aim was to do a better job of figuring out what Americans actually think about politics, including policies related to race and racism. </p>
<p>Using a new analytic method that doesn’t force us to think in terms of dimensions at all, we found that, over the past two decades, Americans can be broadly divided into five different groups.</p>
<p>In most years, slightly less than half of all Americans had consistently liberal or conservative views on policies related to the economy, morality and race, and thus fall into one of two groups. </p>
<p>“Consistent Conservatives” tend to believe that the free market should be given free rein in the economy, are generally anti-abortion, tend to say that they support “traditional family ties” and oppose most government efforts to address racial disparities. These Americans almost exclusively identify themselves as Republicans.</p>
<p>“Consistent Liberals” strongly support government intervention in the economy, tend to be in favor of abortion rights and pro-same-sex marriage and feel that the government has a responsibility to help address discrimination against Black Americans. They mostly identify as Democrats.</p>
<p>But the majority of Americans, who don’t fall into one of these two groups, are not necessarily “moderates,” as they are often characterized. Many have very strong views on certain issues, but can’t be pigeonholed as being on the left or right in general. </p>
<p>Instead, we find that these Americans can be classified as one of three groups, whose size and relationship to the two major parties change from one election cycle to the next: </p>
<p>“Racial Justice Communitarians” have liberal views on economic issues like taxes and redistribution and moderate or conservative views on moral issues like abortion and same-sex marriage. They also strongly believe that the government has a responsibility to address racial discrimination. This group likely includes many of the Black evangelicals who strongly supported Barack Obama’s presidential campaign, but were also deeply uncomfortable with his expression of <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/itsallpolitics/2012/05/10/152442748/black-voters-likely-to-stick-with-obama-despite-gay-marriage-stance">support for same-sex marriage in 2012</a>.</p>
<p>“Nativist Communitarians” also have liberal views on economics and conservative views on moral issues, but they are extremely conservative with respect to race and immigration, in some cases even more so than Consistent Conservatives. Picture, for instance, <a href="https://www.npr.org/2017/08/24/545812242/1-in-10-sanders-primary-voters-ended-up-supporting-trump-survey-finds">those voters in 2016</a> who were attracted to both Bernie Sanders’ economic populism and Donald Trump’s attacks on immigrants. </p>
<p>“Libertarians,” who we find became much more prominent after the tea party protests of 2010, are conservative on economic issues, liberal on social issues and have mixed but generally conservative views in regard to racial issues. Think here of <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2023/03/18/d-c-silicon-valley-00087611">Silicon Valley entrepreneurs and venture capitalists</a> who think that the government has no business telling them how to run their company – or telling gay couples that they can’t get married.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/520633/original/file-20230412-18-ejntu7.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A large collection of colorful campaign signs placed in the ground." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/520633/original/file-20230412-18-ejntu7.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/520633/original/file-20230412-18-ejntu7.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=407&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/520633/original/file-20230412-18-ejntu7.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=407&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/520633/original/file-20230412-18-ejntu7.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=407&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/520633/original/file-20230412-18-ejntu7.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=512&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/520633/original/file-20230412-18-ejntu7.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=512&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/520633/original/file-20230412-18-ejntu7.jpeg?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">Three groups of Americans have a difficult time fitting in with either of America’s two major parties.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/campaign-signs-are-shown-near-voters-waiting-in-line-at-news-photo/1244613234?adppopup=true">Ronda Churchill/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
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<h2>Five groups – but only two parties</h2>
<p>These three groups of Americans have a difficult time fitting in with either of the two major parties in the U.S. </p>
<p>In every year we looked, the Racial Justice Communitarians – who include the largest percentage of nonwhite Americans – were most likely to identify as Democrats. But in some years up to 40% still thought of themselves as Republicans or independents.</p>
<p>Nativist Communitarians and Libertarians are even harder to pin down. During the Obama years they were actually slightly more likely to be Democrats than Republicans. But since Trump’s rise in 2016, both groups are now slightly more likely to identify as Republicans, although large percentages of each group describe themselves as independents or Democrats.</p>
<p>Seeing Americans as divided into these five groups – as opposed to polarized between the left and right – shows that both political parties are competing for coalitions of voters with different combinations of views.</p>
<p>Many Racial Justice Communitarians disagree with the Democratic Party when it comes to cultural and social issues. But the party probably can’t win national elections without their votes. And, unless they are willing to make a strong push for promoting “racial justice,” the Republican Party’s national electoral prospects probably depend on attracting significant support from either the economically liberal Nativist Communitarians or the socially liberal Libertarians. </p>
<p>But perhaps most importantly, these five groups show how diverse Americans’ political attitudes really are. Just because American democracy is a two-party system doesn’t mean that there are only two kinds of American voters.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/201900/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>We often talk about the American political landscape as if it were a line – Democrats on the left, Republicans on the right. Two political scientists say that view doesn’t reflect reality.Graham Wright, Associate Research Scientist, Maurice & Marilyn Cohen Center for Modern Jewish Studies, Brandeis UniversitySasha Volodarsky, Ph.D. Student in Political Science, Northeastern UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1851112023-03-07T13:44:09Z2023-03-07T13:44:09ZLeading American medical journal continues to omit Black research, reinforcing a legacy of racism in medical knowledge<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/483105/original/file-20220906-16-z1jwf1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C6%2C3637%2C2709&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Medical research is one of the keys in providing health care. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://unsplash.com/photos/8hHxO3iYuU0">SJ Objio for Unsplash</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The leading U.S. medical journal, read regularly by doctors of all specialties, systematically ignores an equally reputable and rigorous body of medical research that focuses on Black Americans’ health. </p>
<p>The American Medical Association created a segregated “whites only” environment more than 100 years ago to <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0027968415309354">prohibit Black physicians</a> from joining their ranks. This exclusionary and racist policy prompted the creation in 1895 of the <a href="https://www.nmanet.org/page/History">National Medical Association</a>, a professional membership group that supported African American physicians and the patients they served. Today, the NMA represents more than 30,000 medical professionals. </p>
<p>In 2008, the AMA publicly apologized and pledged to right the wrongs that were done through <a href="https://journalofethics.ama-assn.org/article/american-medical-association-and-race/2014-06">decades of racism</a> within its organization. Yet our research shows that despite <a href="https://www.ama-assn.org/sites/ama-assn.org/files/corp/media-browser/public/ama-history/ama-apology-african-americans.pdf">that public reckoning</a> 15 years ago, the opinion column of the AMA’s leading medical journal does not reflect the research and editorial contributions by NMA members. </p>
<p>Invisibility in the opinion column of one of the <a href="https://www.healthwriterhub.com/top-medical-journals/">most prominent medical journals</a> in the U.S. is another form of subtle racism that continues to <a href="https://www.journals.elsevier.com/journal-of-the-national-medical-association">lessen the importance of</a> equitable medical care and health issues for Black and underserved communities. </p>
<p>As <a href="https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C38&q=mya+poe&btnG=">rhetoricians</a> and <a href="https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C38&q=gwendolynne+reid&oq=gwendolynne+r">researchers</a> who study scientific communication, we look at the ways scientific writing perpetuates or addresses racial inequity. Our <a href="https://blog.petrieflom.law.harvard.edu/2022/06/07/citational-racism-how-leading-medical-journals-reproduce-segregation-in-american-medical-knowledge/">recent study</a> traced how research is referenced by medical professionals and colleagues, known as citations, of flagship journals of the NMA and AMA: the <a href="https://www.nmanet.org/page/History">Journal of the National American Association</a> and the <a href="https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama">Journal of the American Medical Association</a>. </p>
<h2>Invisible research</h2>
<p>Our research began with a question: Has the <a href="https://www.ama-assn.org/sites/ama-assn.org/files/corp/media-browser/public/ama-history/ama-apology-african-americans.pdf">AMA’s 2008 apology</a> had any effect on the frequency with which JAMA opinion writers draw on insights and research of JNMA scholars and authors? </p>
<p>We studied opinion columns, also referred to as editorials, precisely because they are useful <a href="https://www.peterlang.com/document/1043716#document-details-anchor">indicators of current and future research as well as priorities and agendas</a>. The <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3190447/">purpose of editorials</a> is to critically analyze and sift through various opinions and evidence. <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3190447/">Effective editorials</a> in scientific journals are especially rich forums for debate within the medical community. </p>
<p>Medical publications like JNMA and JAMA do not simply convey knowledge. They also establish professional community values through the topics that are studied and who is credited for ideas related to research. When writers choose to reference or cite another scholar, they are acknowledging and highlighting that expertise. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/492834/original/file-20221101-26-bicird.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="X-ray of a chest, several ribs, shoulder bone." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/492834/original/file-20221101-26-bicird.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/492834/original/file-20221101-26-bicird.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492834/original/file-20221101-26-bicird.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492834/original/file-20221101-26-bicird.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492834/original/file-20221101-26-bicird.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492834/original/file-20221101-26-bicird.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492834/original/file-20221101-26-bicird.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Influential medical journals serve to inform and shape health care.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://unsplash.com/photos/ouyjDk-KdfY">Harlie Raethel for Unsplash</a></span>
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<p>As such, citations play an important role in the visibility of research. Articles and authors with more citations are more likely to have a greater effect on the scientific community and patient care. Opinion pieces can shape the broader conversation among medical professionals, and citations can widen that circle of communication. </p>
<h2>Invisible racism</h2>
<p>We <a href="https://blog.petrieflom.law.harvard.edu/2022/06/07/citational-racism-how-leading-medical-journals-reproduce-segregation-in-american-medical-knowledge/">traced how frequently</a> JAMA and JNMA opinion writers referenced one another from 2008 to 2021 by reviewing the 117 opinion pieces published in JNMA and 1,425 published in JAMA during this 13-year period. We found that JAMA opinion columns have continued to, in effect, uphold racial bias and segregation by ignoring JNMA findings. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/492836/original/file-20221101-18-bfntf0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A Black medical professional adjusts gloves in front of a mirror." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/492836/original/file-20221101-18-bfntf0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/492836/original/file-20221101-18-bfntf0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492836/original/file-20221101-18-bfntf0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492836/original/file-20221101-18-bfntf0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492836/original/file-20221101-18-bfntf0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492836/original/file-20221101-18-bfntf0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492836/original/file-20221101-18-bfntf0.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>
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<span class="caption">The work of Black medical proessionals is being overlooked in national medical journals.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://unsplash.com/photos/kJwZxH6jins">Piron Guillaume for Unsplash</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
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<p>Even when focusing on race, racism and health disparities, topics that JNMA has explored in great detail, JAMA opinion columns did not reference JNMA colleagues or research. Only two <a href="https://blog.petrieflom.law.harvard.edu/2022/06/07/citational-racism-how-leading-medical-journals-reproduce-segregation-in-american-medical-knowledge/">JNMA articles</a> were credited and referenced in the 1,425 JAMA opinion pieces that we reviewed.</p>
<p>Editors at JAMA did not respond to our requests for their comments on our analysis.</p>
<h2>Racial equity in medicine</h2>
<p>The story of the AMA and NMA is not only a reminder of the racist history of medicine. It demonstrates how the expertise of Black professionals and researchers continues to be ignored today. The lack of JNMA citations in JAMA research undercuts the <a href="https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2780911">AMA’s own work on racial equity</a> and potentially compromises the quality of medical knowledge published in its journals. </p>
<p>For example, a recent study in the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1915378117">Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences</a> found that scientists from underrepresented groups innovate, or contribute novel scientific findings, at a higher rate than those from majority groups.</p>
<p>An article published in the weekly medical journal of the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1001918">Public Library of Science</a> noted that diverse research teams are often more successful in developing new knowledge to help treat women and underrepresented patients with greater precision. </p>
<h2>Dissolving systemic bias</h2>
<p>One way to intentionally tackle racial bias and segregation in medical knowledge is by deliberately referencing Black researchers and their work. To change this dynamic of racial bias, medical journals must pay attention to how much and how often the Black medical establishment is referenced. Health issues in underserved communities would likely become more visible and achieve greater quality of care in keeping with the <a href="https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2780911">AMA’s commitment to social justice</a>.</p>
<p>Journal editors could tell writers and editorial staff to prioritize citation practices. Individual authors might conduct research and evaluate their reading habits to intentionally include research from the Black medical community. </p>
<p>However, this work must go beyond individuals. Undoing decades of collective habits and embedded racism requires collaborations that work across systems, institutions and disciplines. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/492838/original/file-20221101-28600-4atxo6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="One hand holds a bottle of pills and the other hand holds three white pills." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/492838/original/file-20221101-28600-4atxo6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/492838/original/file-20221101-28600-4atxo6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492838/original/file-20221101-28600-4atxo6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492838/original/file-20221101-28600-4atxo6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492838/original/file-20221101-28600-4atxo6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492838/original/file-20221101-28600-4atxo6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492838/original/file-20221101-28600-4atxo6.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>
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<span class="caption">Racial disparities in health care often result in lower-quality medical treatment and worse health care outcomes for Black Americans.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://unsplash.com/s/photos/medicine">Towfiqu Barbhuiya for Unsplash</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
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<p>For example, libraries, databases, and search engines that help researchers find and evaluate medical publications might review today’s research tools. It is hard to contribute to a research conversation if your work is invisible or can’t be found.</p>
<p>Many tools, <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4150161/">like impact factors</a>, rank research according to how influential it is. If research begins in a category of less importance, it can be harder for the technology to rank it equitably. JNMA’s work was already marginalized when the tools that rank research were developed. </p>
<p>Thus, search results can hinder efforts of individual authors to work toward equitable citation practices. Black researchers and their research of Black health were excluded from the beginning, and existing systems of sharing knowledge and drawing attention to important studies incorporate that structural racism.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.ama-assn.org/sites/ama-assn.org/files/corp/media-browser/public/ama-history/ama-apology-african-americans.pdf">AMA apology</a> in 2008 and its recent progress on <a href="https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2780911">addressing racism</a> in its publication process are promising steps. Influential medical journals serve to inform and shape health care. Who is referenced in these journals matters to the medical establishment, research funders and, ultimately, to the patients that are served by innovations in medicine.</p>
<p>Attention to citation can help <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0165178121005904?via%3Dihub">reduce systemic bias</a> in medical knowledge to achieve greater fairness in health care and, in the long run, help increase attention and resources that will help solve health issues in underserved communities.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/185111/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>The lack of visibility by Black researchers and physicians in scientific literature perpetuates systemic racism in medicine.Cherice Escobar Jones, PhD Candidate, Northeastern UniversityGwendolynne Reid, Assistant Professor of English, Emory UniversityMya Poe, Associate Professor of English, Northeastern UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1963452023-02-22T12:54:48Z2023-02-22T12:54:48ZGlobetrotting Black nutritionist Flemmie P. Kittrell revolutionized early childhood education and illuminated ‘hidden hunger’<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/509502/original/file-20230210-18-axl9fy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=238%2C274%2C5663%2C3282&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">She traveled far and wide to support children and families around the world.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://digital.library.cornell.edu/catalog/ss:549027">Cornell University</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Nutrition is among the most critical issues of our time. <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2022/08/31/1120004717/the-u-s-diet-is-deadly-here-are-7-ideas-to-get-americans-eating-healthier">Diet-related illnesses</a> are shortening life spans and <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-urban-planning-and-housing-policy-helped-create-food-apartheid-in-us-cities-154433">the lack of conveniently located and affordable nutritious food</a> makes it hard for many Americans to enjoy good health.</p>
<p>Physicians are also alarmed by nutritional trends they see among the nation’s most vulnerable people: <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/20/well/family/childhood-obesity-guidelines.html">children</a>. </p>
<p>I think that this situation would frustrate Black nutritionist <a href="https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/kittrell-flemmie-pansy-1904-1980/">Flemmie Pansy Kittrell</a> if she were alive today. Throughout a trailblazing career that spanned half a century, she worked to enhance food security and to improve both diets and children’s health – under the umbrella of home economics. </p>
<p>While you might view home economics as merely a set of practical skills concerning cooking and budgeting, <a href="https://rmc.library.cornell.edu/homeEc/masterlabel.html">in the mid-20th century it applied</a> scientific concepts to improve home management, strengthen parenting skills and enhance childhood development.</p>
<p>Kittrell went further, by making the case for healthy and strong families a tool for diplomacy. </p>
<p>While researching Black women’s global activism for rights and freedom, I became aware of Kittrell’s work on behalf of the U.S. State Department, women’s organizations and church groups. I was struck by her <a href="http://cup.columbia.edu/book/ideology-in-u-s-foreign-relations/9780231201810">pragmatic approach to foreign relations</a>, which emphasized women, children and the home as the keys to good living and national and global peace and security.</p>
<p>I was also stunned by the Black nutritionist’s commitment to <a href="https://ww3.aauw.org/2016/02/24/flemmie/">shattering traditional assumptions about home economics</a> and improving the health of low-income families around the globe, especially for people of color. </p>
<h2>Humble roots</h2>
<p>Kittrell, the eighth of nine children born to a sharecropping family, grew up in Henderson, North Carolina. She began working as a nursemaid and cook when <a href="https://iiif.lib.harvard.edu/manifests/view/drs:45173968$3i">she was only 11 years old</a>. </p>
<p>In 1919, Kittrell enrolled at Hampton Institute, a small historically Black Virginia college that later became Hampton University. </p>
<p>A professor encouraged her to major in home economics. She initially rejected the suggestion, claiming the home was “<a href="https://iiif.lib.harvard.edu/manifests/view/drs:45173968$3i">just so ordinary</a>.” Kittrell reconsidered once she learned about <a href="https://www.bostonglobe.com/2020/03/30/metro/ellen-h-swallow-richards-pioneer-sanitary-engineering-science/">Ellen H. Swallow Richards</a>, the first woman to attend Massachusetts Institute of Technology and one of the nation’s earliest female professional chemists.</p>
<p>Kittrell realized that the field was about <a href="https://theconversation.com/is-bringing-back-home-economics-the-answer-to-our-modern-woes-161632">more than cooking and sewing</a>. Furthermore, women who majored in the subject could then <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/04/26/did-home-economics-empower-women">pursue sciences</a> that were closed to them because of their gender.</p>
<p>With a growing belief that the home and family were the basis of society, Kittrell chose to major in home economics rather than political science or economics.</p>
<h2>Nutrition and Black families</h2>
<p>After her 1928 graduation, Kittrell briefly taught at a high school before becoming the director of home economics and dean of women at <a href="https://www.digitalnc.org/blog/bennett-colleges-home-economics-institute-materials-now-online/">Bennett College</a>, a historically Black college in Greensboro, North Carolina. During a 12-year tenure there, she created a nursery center that trained parents and provided child care.</p>
<p>The center also served as a laboratory for experimenting with different teaching techniques. </p>
<p>Kittrell drew on this research when she became the <a href="https://www.human.cornell.edu/flemmie-kittrell-visiting-scholar-college-human-ecology">first Black woman to earn a doctorate at Cornell University</a>. In her 1936 doctoral dissertation, she argued that the health of Black families could be improved by focusing on infant feeding practices and parental education. She was the first Black woman to get a doctorate in nutrition at any college or university.</p>
<p>In 1940 she returned to Hampton. During World War II, Kittrell and her students taught local families how to ration and substitute food. The home economics department also joined female students in hosting evening activities, including dances for <a href="https://hamptonroadsnavalmuseum.blogspot.com/2018/03/hampton-institute-and-navy-in-second.html">Black military trainees and their families</a>. </p>
<p>Four years later, Kittrell became the head of Howard University’s home economics department. She remained on that faculty for 28 years. </p>
<p>Taking advantage of Howard’s Washington, D.C., location, Kittrell persuaded national leaders that <a href="https://ww3.aauw.org/2016/02/24/flemmie/">home economics could help transform society</a> at home and around the world. She spent so much time working and traveling for the U.S. government that one biographer called her “<a href="https://worldcat.org/title/958934382">a good will ambassador with a cookbook</a>.”</p>
<h2>‘Hidden hunger’ at home and abroad</h2>
<p>In 1947, the State Department sent Kittrell to Liberia to conduct a nutrition study. Her efforts supported an American commitment to strengthen diplomatic and military with countries around the world.</p>
<p>In <a href="https://dh.howard.edu/reprints/230/">her follow-up report</a>, Kittrell explained that while food shortages and hunger were not significant issues, more than 90% of Liberians suffered from vitamin deficiencies, resulting in “hidden hunger.” Though she did not invent the term, she was among the first to draw widespread attention to the issue at home and abroad.</p>
<p>Arguing that what happens in one place often occurs in others, Kittrell implored the U.S. to examine diet issues at home.</p>
<p>In 1949, <a href="https://www.worldcat.org/title/5545597277">she published a study</a> comparing the diet and food choices of Black and white Americans. She showed that the illnesses that many Black Americans experienced were tied to racial discrimination in housing, employment and medical services rather than poor decision-making. <a href="https://www.ars.usda.gov/ARSUserFiles/oc/np/HistoryofHumanNutritionResearch/HistoryofHumanNutritionResearch.pdf">In later years</a>, academic, professional and activist organizations similarly applied this intersectional lens to nutrition campaigns.</p>
<h2>Nutrition and democracy</h2>
<p>American foreign policy leaders found <a href="https://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/1999/winter/us-and-ghana-1957-1966-2.html">Kittrell’s pragmatic and balanced approach</a> indispensable in forging alliances during the Cold War. </p>
<p>In 1950, Kittrell persuaded the State Department’s Fulbright program to send her to India, which had recently won its independence from the U.K. She returned there in 1953 under <a href="https://www.trumanlibrary.gov/sites/default/files/InternationalAid_Background.pdf">a government program that provided technical expertise</a> to newly independent nations as a form of diplomacy. </p>
<p>In the 1950s, Kittrell traveled across Africa to improve relations with African states that had criticized the U.S. for boasting of its freedoms while <a href="https://history.house.gov/Exhibitions-and-Publications/BAIC/Historical-Essays/Keeping-the-Faith/Postwar-Foreign-Policy-Civil-Rights/">denying basic civil rights to many of its citizens</a>. </p>
<p>In September 1958, the nutritionist traveled to Ghana, the <a href="https://nvdatabase.swarthmore.edu/content/ghanaians-campaign-independence-british-rule-1949-1951">first West African country to gain independence</a> from a colonizing power. She met with Ghanaian political leaders and members of women’s organizations, delivering lectures on home economics and the value of higher education for women. </p>
<p>Ghanaians asked Kittrell about racial incidents, including the 1957 Little Rock crisis, in which a white mob tried to stop nine Black students from <a href="https://www.history.com/topics/black-history/central-high-school-integration">integrating a public high school</a>. Kittrell cast this incident, which violated the <a href="https://www.oyez.org/cases/1940-1955/347us483">Brown v. Board 1954 Supreme Court ruling</a> that rendered segregation in public schools unconstitutional, as a Southern dilemma rather than a national one.</p>
<p>She also optimistically emphasized Black Americans’ progress since emancipation and <a href="https://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/1999/winter/us-and-ghana-1957-1966-2.html">contended that the U.S. Constitution would prevail</a> in ensuring equality.</p>
<h2>An appetite for justice</h2>
<p>Though Kittrell’s answers sidestepped larger issues of discrimination at home, she claimed to reject U.S. boosterism in her thinking about cross-cultural interactions, family and society.</p>
<p>She argued that newly independent nations had much to teach Americans. Even more, Kittrell claimed to see herself not as a representative of the U.S. but as “<a href="http://cup.columbia.edu/book/ideology-in-u-s-foreign-relations/9780231201810">a citizen of the world</a>.” </p>
<p>A closer look at Kittrell’s activities reveals that she maintained a strong appetite for justice. Even as a dedicated bureaucratic infighter, Kittrell was willing to move beyond these bounds.</p>
<p>In 1967, for example, she protested apartheid in South Africa, the system of segregation that oppressed that country’s nonwhite communities and privileged a white minority. Incensed by American inaction, <a href="https://projects.kora.matrix.msu.edu/files/210-808-3403/ACOA12-6-67Summaryopt.pdf">Kittrell became one of five Americans to stage a fly-in</a> – an impromptu trip in which she and her colleagues sought to enter the country without visas to dramatize their protest. </p>
<p><a href="https://iiif.lib.harvard.edu/manifests/view/drs:45173968$3i">In a 1977 interview</a> with the Black Women’s Oral History Interviews Project of the Harvard University Radcliffe Institute, Kittrell hinted that she was engaged in other acts of protest, slyly suggesting that she “was very fortunate not to have gotten into more trouble.” </p>
<p>Three years later in an interview for a faculty profile with Howard University, Kittrell boldly claimed that she had not been “<a href="http://cup.columbia.edu/book/ideology-in-u-s-foreign-relations/9780231201810">afraid to speak against evil as I see it</a>.”</p>
<p>These statements suggest that she was more of a strategist and activist than many people at the time believed. </p>
<h2>Head Start</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gx539W3E41w">Kittrell kept traveling extensively</a> in the 1960s. </p>
<p>She took trips to Russia and several African countries on behalf of the United Nations and professional, women’s and religious organizations, such as the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom and the United Methodist Church. </p>
<p>Kittrell also increased her focus on the needs of U.S. children. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2015/09/10/how-the-geography-of-u-s-poverty-has-shifted-since-1960/">In the 1960s</a>, 1 in 5 U.S. children lived in poverty. With the conviction that good living began at a young age, <a href="https://worldcat.org/title/42072097">Kittrell expanded Howard University’s nursery program</a> with a deeper focus on parents, whom she contended were the key to stronger families.</p>
<p>That center became an early model for the <a href="https://eclkc.ohs.acf.hhs.gov/about-us/article/head-start-history">Head Start program</a>, which emerged as part of Lyndon B. Johnson’s War on Poverty.</p>
<p>Refusing to “<a href="https://dh.howard.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1116&context=finaid_manu">sit still enough to hold hands</a>,” Kittrell never married or had children.</p>
<p>Instead, as <a href="https://dh.howard.edu/finaid_manu/117/">her archival papers</a> at Howard University’s Moorland-Spingarn Research Center show, she dedicated herself to assisting others by cultivating strong families through nutritious habits and healthy children.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/196345/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Brandy Thomas Wells 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>Kittrell’s legacy shows that home economics was always about more than cooking and sewing. It’s also a reminder that issues that affect families are simultaneously local and global.Brandy Thomas Wells, Assistant Professor of History, Oklahoma State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1975112023-02-03T13:31:04Z2023-02-03T13:31:04ZA brief history of the Black church’s diversity, and its vital role in American political history<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/507146/original/file-20230130-189-3y4vap.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=383%2C315%2C3697%2C2816&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The exterior view of the Bethel African American Methodist Episcopal Church at 125 S. 6th St. in Philadelphia.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://tile.loc.gov/image-services/iiif/service:gdc:gdcwdl:wd:l_:09:25:1:wdl_09251:W026/full/pct:100/0/default.jpg">Breton, William L., circa 1773-1855 Artist via the Library of Congress, World Digital Library</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>With religious affiliation <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2021/02/16/faith-among-black-americans/#religiously-unaffiliated-black-americans">on the decline</a>, continuing racism and increasing income inequality, some scholars and activists are soul-searching about the Black church’s role in today’s United States. </p>
<p>For instance, on April 20, 2010, an African American Studies professor at Princeton, <a href="https://aas.princeton.edu/people/eddie-s-glaude-jr">Eddie S. Glaude</a>, sparked an online debate by provocatively declaring that, despite the existence of many African American churches, “<a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/the-black-church-is-dead_b_473815">the Black Church, as we’ve known it or imagined it, is dead</a>.” As he argued, the image of the Black church as a center for Black life and as a beacon of social and moral transformation had disappeared.</p>
<p>Scholars of African American religion responded to Glaude by stating that the image of the Black church as the moral conscience of the United States has <a href="https://religiondispatches.org/bupdated-with-responseb-the-black-church-is-dead-long-live-the-black-church/">always been a complicated matter</a>. As historian <a href="https://rels.sas.upenn.edu/people/anthea-butler">Anthea Butler</a> argued, “The Black Church may be dead in its incarnation as agent of change, but as the imagined home of all things black and Christian, it is alive and well.”</p>
<p>As <a href="https://virginia.academia.edu/JasonOEvans">a scholar of Christian theology and African American religion</a>, I’m aware of this long history of the Black church and its contribution to American politics. Its story began in the 15th and 16th centuries, when European empires authorized the capture, auction and enslavement of various peoples from across the coast of Western and Central Africa. </p>
<h2>Origins of African American Christianity</h2>
<p>As millions were transported through the “Middle Passage” to the Americas, Europeans forcefully baptized the enslaved into the Christian faith despite many of them adhering to traditional African religious systems and Islam. European slave traders dismissed Africans as “heathenish” to justify their enslavement of Africans and the <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/us/academic/subjects/history/african-american-histor/african-american-religions-15002000-colonialism-democracy-and-freedom?format=PB">coercive proselytization to Christianity</a>. </p>
<p>In the 1600s, British missionaries traveled throughout the American Colonies to convert enslaved Africans and the Indigenous peoples of the continent. Originally, however, white slaveholders were hesitant to convert enslaved Africans to Christianity because they feared that Christian baptism would lead to the enslaved Africans’ freedom, causing both economic ruin and social upheaval. They widely supposed that <a href="https://www.pennpress.org/9780812294903/christian-slavery/">British laws mandated the freedom of all baptized Christians</a>, and thus white slaveholders initially refused to grant missionaries permission to instruct enslaved Africans into the Christian faith. </p>
<p>By 1706, six Colonies had passed laws that declared that Africans’ Christian status <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/slave-religion-9780195174120?lang=en&cc=us">did not alter their social condition as slaves</a>. Consequently, missionaries created “slave catechisms,” modified religious instruction manuals that instructed enslaved Africans about Christianity while reinforcing their enslavement. </p>
<p>Over time, <a href="https://www.ivpress.com/the-rise-of-evangelicalism">evangelical Protestant groups</a> followed suit in their proselytization of the enslaved community, most notably during the First and Second Great Awakenings, the Protestant religious revivals that swept across the American nation in the mid-18th and early 19th centuries.</p>
<h2>Denominations that form the Black church</h2>
<p>Both during and after the end of slavery, African Americans began to establish their own congregations, parishes, fellowships, associations and later denominations. <a href="https://www.mupress.org/Frustrated-Fellowship-The-Black-Baptist-Quest-for-Social-Power-P183.aspx">Black Baptists</a> founded first the National Baptist Convention USA, in 1895, the largest Black Protestant denomination in the United States. The National Baptist Convention of America International and the Progressive National Baptist Convention <a href="https://www.judsonpress.com/Products/J285/a-history-of-the-black-baptist-church.aspx">were founded years later</a>. </p>
<p>The first independent Black denomination, <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/us/academic/subjects/religion/religion-general-interest/african-methodist-episcopal-church-history?format=PB">the African Methodist Episcopal Church</a>, which was formalized in 1816, grew out of the Free African Society founded by Richard Allen, a former enslaved man and Methodist minister, in the city of Philadelphia in 1787. Allen and his colleague Absalom Jones walked out of St. George’s Methodist Episcopal Church after white members demanded that Allen and Jones, who had been kneeling in prayer, leave the ground floor and go to the upper balcony, which was designated for Black worshippers.</p>
<p>Other Black Methodists founded two other denominations – the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church in 1821 and the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church in 1870. The <a href="https://www.uapress.com/product/the-rise-to-respectability/">Church of God in Christ</a>, the largest Black Pentecostal denomination in the United States, was founded by Charles Harrison Mason, a former Baptist minister, in 1897 and incorporated in 1907. </p>
<p>Other Black Christians belong to mainline Protestant denominations. Additionally, there are <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2022/03/15/black-catholics-in-america/">3 million Black Roman Catholics</a> in the United States, and a smaller number of African Americans who attend Eastern Orthodox churches. Moreover, a number of African Americans belong to independent nondenominational congregations, while others belong to white conservative evangelical, Pentecostal and charismatic churches. </p>
<h2>Contributions to American politics</h2>
<p>The Black church has played a vital role in the shaping of American political history. African American churches provided spaces for not only spiritual formation but also political activism.</p>
<p>Black churches were spaces where slave abolitionism was envisioned, and insurrections were planned. Black preachers such as <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/155764/denmark-vesey-by-david-robertson/">Denmark Vesey</a> and <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/nat-turner-9780195177565?cc=us&lang=en&">Nat Turner</a> were actively involved in attempted and successful slave insurrections in the South</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/507909/original/file-20230202-9545-57ddc9.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A black and white drawing of a young woman." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/507909/original/file-20230202-9545-57ddc9.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/507909/original/file-20230202-9545-57ddc9.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=750&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507909/original/file-20230202-9545-57ddc9.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=750&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507909/original/file-20230202-9545-57ddc9.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=750&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507909/original/file-20230202-9545-57ddc9.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=943&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507909/original/file-20230202-9545-57ddc9.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=943&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507909/original/file-20230202-9545-57ddc9.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=943&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Ida B. Wells organized and led Bible study classes for young Black men.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://tile.loc.gov/storage-services/service/pnp/cph/3c00000/3c07000/3c07700/3c07756_150px.jpg">Library of Congress</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>During the Reconstruction era, the African Methodist Episcopal Bishop <a href="https://utpress.org/title/bishop-henry-mcneal-turner-and-african-american-religion-in-the-south/">Henry McNeal Turner</a> served as one of the first African American legislators for the state of Georgia. Turner was famous for his scathing critiques of American Christianity and the nation at large. <a href="https://www.harpercollins.com/products/ida-a-sword-among-lions-paula-j-giddings?variant=32123075526690">Ida B. Wells</a> was an investigative journalist and educator who wrote extensive accounts of the lynchings of Black people in the South, fought against Jim Crow policies, and advocated for Black women’s right to vote. An active churchgoer, Wells also organized and led Bible study classes for young Black men at Grace Presbyterian Church, a predominantly Black church founded in 1888 in the city of Chicago. </p>
<p>Many Black Christians participated in the Civil Rights movement, including Bayard Rustin, an openly gay Quaker, who was instrumental in organizing the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom on Aug. 28, 1963. Despite his contributions to advancing Black people’s freedom, Rustin was pushed to the background by his peers <a href="https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/L/bo3644370.html">because of his homosexuality</a>. </p>
<p>Pauli Murray, the <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/jane-crow-9780190656454?cc=us&lang=en&">first Black woman to be ordained in the Episcopal Church</a>, was a lawyer, legal scholar, civil rights and gender equality advocate and poet. Murray compiled an extensive collection of laws and ordinances <a href="https://ugapress.org/book/9780820350639/states-laws-on-race-and-color/">that mandated racial segregation</a> and wrote extensively on women’s rights. </p>
<h2>An influential institution</h2>
<p>The Black church is far from monolithic. Its members hold different theological positions and hail from diverse socioeconomic backgrounds, education levels and political affiliations. </p>
<p>Some African American Christians did not participate in efforts to end racial segregation, fearing violent backlash from white people. Today, Black Christians are divided over other social justice issues, such as whether to <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2021/02/16/gender-sexuality-and-religion/">support LGBTQ equality</a>. Nevertheless, African American Christians have drawn insights from their experience of enduring racism and their Christian faith to contest racial subjugation and advocate for their freedom and human dignity. </p>
<p>Despite the rise of the religiously unaffiliated or “Nones” within the African American community, the Black church, I believe, continues to be an influential institution.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/197511/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jason Oliver Evans 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>Millions of enslaved Africans were forcefully converted to the Christian faith. The Black church came about when African Americans began to establish their own congregations.Jason Oliver Evans, Ph.D. Candidate in Religious Studies, University of VirginiaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1974752023-02-03T13:30:25Z2023-02-03T13:30:25ZCivil rights legislation sparked powerful backlash that’s still shaping American politics<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/506449/original/file-20230125-16-70s0sb.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C3868%2C2598&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A group of voters lining up outside the polling station, a small Sugar Shack store, on May 3, 1966, in Peachtree, Ala., after the Voting Rights Act was passed the previous year. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/group-of-voters-lining-up-outside-the-polling-station-a-news-photo/3088626?phrase=Voting%20Rights%20Act&adppopup=true">MPI/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>For nearly 60 years, conservatives have been trying to <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2021/03/voting-rights-act-democracy/617792/">gut the Voting Rights Act</a> of 1965, the crowning achievement of the civil rights movement. <a href="https://jepson.richmond.edu/faculty/bios/jhayter/">As a scholar of</a> American voting rights, I believe their long game is finally bearing fruit.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.oyez.org/cases/2012/12-96">The 2013 U.S. Supreme Court decision</a> in <a href="https://www.bunkhistory.org/resources/1027">Shelby County v. Holder</a> seemed to be the death knell for the Voting Rights Act.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2013/08/15/the-court-right-to-vote-dissent/">In that case</a>, the court struck down a portion of the Voting Rights Act that supervised elections in areas with a history of disenfranchisement.</p>
<p>The Supreme Court is currently considering a case, <a href="https://www.scotusblog.com/case-files/cases/merrill-v-milligan-2/">Merrill v. Milligan</a>, that might gut what remains of the act after Shelby.</p>
<p>Conservative legal strategists want the court to say that Alabama – <a href="https://www.naacpldf.org/merrill-v-milligan-supreme-court/">where African Americans</a> make up approximately one-quarter of the population, still live in concentrated and segregated communities and yet have only one majority-Black voting district out of seven state districts – should not consider race when drawing district boundaries. </p>
<p>These challenges to minority voting rights didn’t emerge overnight. The Shelby and Merrill cases are the culmination of a decadeslong conservative legal strategy designed <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2022/10/john-roberts-supreme-court-voting-rights-act/671239/">to roll back</a> the political gains of the civil rights movement itself.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/506451/original/file-20230125-22-zpgh30.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A receipt for a $1.50 poll tax paid in 1957 by Rosa Parks." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/506451/original/file-20230125-22-zpgh30.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/506451/original/file-20230125-22-zpgh30.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=246&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506451/original/file-20230125-22-zpgh30.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=246&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506451/original/file-20230125-22-zpgh30.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=246&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506451/original/file-20230125-22-zpgh30.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=309&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506451/original/file-20230125-22-zpgh30.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=309&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506451/original/file-20230125-22-zpgh30.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=309&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A number of Southern states had a poll tax that was aimed at preventing by Black people, many of whom couldn’t afford to pay it. This is a receipt for a $1.50 poll tax paid in 1957 by Rosa Parks.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.loc.gov/resource/mss85943.002605/?sp=2&r=0.026,-0.021,1.01,0.419,0">Library of Congress, Rosa Parks Papers</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Victory – and more bigotry</h2>
<p>The realization of civil and <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/made-by-history/wp/2017/07/02/the-civil-rights-act-was-a-victory-against-racism-but-racists-also-won/">voting rights laws</a> during the 1960s is often portrayed as a victory over racism. The rights revolution actually gave rise to more bigotry.</p>
<p>The Voting Rights Act criminalized the use of discriminatory tests and devices, including literacy tests and <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2013/10/21/239081586/the-racial-history-of-the-grandfather-clause">grandfather clauses</a> that exempted white people from the same tests that stopped Black people from voting. It also required federal supervision of certain local Southern elections and barred these jurisdictions from making electoral changes without <a href="https://www.justice.gov/crt/about-section-5-voting-rights-act">explicit approval from Washington</a>.</p>
<p>These provisions worked. </p>
<p>After 1965, <a href="https://www.crmvet.org/docs/ccr_voting_south_6805.pdf">Black voters instigated a complexion revolution</a> in Southern politics, as African Americans voted in record numbers and elected an unprecedented number of Black officials. </p>
<p>In fact, the VRA worked so well that it gave rise to another seismic political shift: White voters left the <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/08/emerging-republican-majority/595504/">Democratic Party</a> in record numbers.</p>
<p>As Washington protected Black voting rights, this <a href="https://newrepublic.com/article/158320/western-origins-southern-strategy">emerging Republican majority</a> capitalized on fears of an interracial democracy. Conservatives resolved to turn the South Republican by associating minority rights with white oppression. </p>
<p>In 1981, conservative political consultant and GOP strategist Lee Atwater recognized that Republicans might exploit these fears. <a href="https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/exclusive-lee-atwaters-infamous-1981-interview-southern-strategy/">He argued</a>: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“You start out in 1954 by saying, "Nigger, nigger, nigger.” By 1968 you can’t say “nigger” – that hurts you, backfires. So you say stuff like, uh, forced busing, states’ rights, and all that stuff, and you’re getting so abstract. Now, you’re talking about cutting taxes, and all these things you’re talking about are totally economic things and a byproduct of them is, blacks get hurt worse than whites.“</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>‘Retard civil rights enforcement’</h2>
<p>It wasn’t just Southerners who aimed to undo the revolution enabled by the Voting Rights Act. </p>
<p>President Richard Nixon helped begin this process by promising Southerners that he wouldn’t enforce civil rights. In fact, in a secret meeting with <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2003/06/27/us/strom-thurmond-foe-of-integration-dies-at-100.html">segregationist Sen. Strom Thurmond</a>, Nixon promised to ”<a href="https://www.amacad.org/publication/past-future-american-civil-rights">retard civil rights enforcement</a>.“ </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/506474/original/file-20230125-11748-j7xsu2.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Three men in suits at a large gathering smoking cigars, clapping and looking happy." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/506474/original/file-20230125-11748-j7xsu2.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/506474/original/file-20230125-11748-j7xsu2.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=394&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506474/original/file-20230125-11748-j7xsu2.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=394&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506474/original/file-20230125-11748-j7xsu2.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=394&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506474/original/file-20230125-11748-j7xsu2.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=495&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506474/original/file-20230125-11748-j7xsu2.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=495&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506474/original/file-20230125-11748-j7xsu2.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=495&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Conservative political consultant and GOP strategist Lee Atwater, center, at the GOP National Convention in Dallas, Aug. 23, 1984, recognized that Republicans might capitalize on white people’s fears of rising Black political power.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/RNCCigars/b716a9e732ca4ea39fd610b1faa0171f/photo?Query=Lee%20Atwater&mediaType=photo&sortBy=arrivaldatetime:desc&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=51&currentItemNo=11">AP Photo/Ed Kolenovsky</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>By the early 1980s, President Ronald Reagan also used white people’s <a href="https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/exclusive-lee-atwaters-infamous-1981-interview-southern-strategy/">growing fear of African American political clout</a> to his advantage. </p>
<p>Reagan’s administration, according to voting rights expert <a href="https://www.sup.org/books/title/?id=26493">Jesse Rhodes</a>, used executive and congressional control to reorganize the Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department and the Supreme Court.</p>
<p>The objective?</p>
<p>To undermine how Washington enforced the Voting Rights Act – without appearing explicitly racist.</p>
<p>One of the Reagan administration’s strategies was to associate minority voting rights with so-called reverse discrimination. They argued that laws privileging minorities discriminated against white voters. </p>
<h2>Undoing progress</h2>
<p>Here’s the background to that strategy:</p>
<p>The years following 1965 were characterized by the <a href="https://jointcenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/VRA-report-3.5.15-1130-amupdated.pdf">dilution of Black Southerners’ voting power</a>. Realizing that they couldn’t keep African Americans from voting, Southerners and segregationists resolved to weaken votes once they’d been cast. They gerrymandered districts and used other means that would dilute minority voting power. </p>
<p>African Americans took the fight to the courts. In fact, nearly 50 cases involving vote dilution <a href="https://www2.law.umaryland.edu/marshall/usccr/documents/cr12v943a.pdf">flooded the court system after 1965</a>.</p>
<p>Over the course of the 1970s, the Supreme Court met the challenge of <a href="https://constitution.congress.gov/browse/essay/amdt14-S1-8-6-6/ALDE_00013453/">vote dilution</a> by mandating the <a href="https://openscholarship.wustl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2905&context=law_lawreview">implementation of majority-minority districts</a>. </p>
<p>Conservatives during the early 1980s had become increasingly alarmed by the Supreme Court’s and Department of Justice’s preference for drawing racial district boundaries to give minorities more influence in elections in such ”<a href="https://ballotpedia.org/Majority-minority_districts">majority-minority districts</a>.“ <a href="https://www.democratic-erosion.com/2021/10/24/unpacking-redistricting-are-majority-minority-districts-really-what-theyre-cracked-up-to-be/">These districts</a> aimed to guarantee that minorities could elect candidates of their choice free from machinations such as vote dilution. </p>
<p>With little regard for vote dilution itself, conservative politicians and their strategists argued that majority-minority districts discriminated against whites because they privileged, like affirmative action policies, equality of outcomes in elections <a href="https://edeq.stanford.edu/sections/section-1-equality-opportunity-and-alternatives/equality-outcome">rather than equal opportunity to participate</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/506475/original/file-20230125-3412-tih2e4.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A gray-haired man in a suit walking in front of a lot of marble steps." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/506475/original/file-20230125-3412-tih2e4.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/506475/original/file-20230125-3412-tih2e4.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506475/original/file-20230125-3412-tih2e4.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506475/original/file-20230125-3412-tih2e4.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506475/original/file-20230125-3412-tih2e4.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506475/original/file-20230125-3412-tih2e4.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506475/original/file-20230125-3412-tih2e4.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">Edward Blum, a longtime conservative legal activist, has brought and won many cases at the Supreme Court rolling back civil rights gains.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/edward-blum-a-long-time-opponent-of-affirmative-action-in-news-photo/1437982045?phrase=Edward%20Blum&adppopup=true">Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Tidal wave</h2>
<p>This strategy paid off. </p>
<p>During the 1980s, Republicans used congressional control, a Republican White House and judicial appointments to turn the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/29/magazine/voting-rights-act-dream-undone.html">federal court system and the Department of Justice even further right</a>. </p>
<p>By the 1990s, conservatives replaced federal officials who might <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/2006/01/09/proving-his-mettle-in-the-reagan-justice-dept/416680ce-9ee7-485f-86f8-df6570cab56f/">protect the Voting Rights Act</a>. In time, these developments, and growing conservatism within the courts, prompted conservative litigation that continues to shape civil rights laws.</p>
<p>A tidal wave of anti-civil rights litigation, led by <a href="https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2022/10/supreme-court-edward-blum-unc-harvard-myth.html">a well-funded man</a>, Edward Blum, flooded the court system. Blum sought to undermine the Voting Rights Act’s supervision of local elections and undo racial quotas in higher education and employment. </p>
<p>Blum, <a href="https://www.democrats.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/Captured%20Courts%20Equal%20Justice%20report.pdf">a legal strategist</a> affiliated with the conservative American Enterprise Institute, helped engineer these now-famous test cases – <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-court-casemaker-cases/cases-edward-blum-has-taken-to-the-supreme-court-idUKBRE8B30Z120121204">Bush v. Vera (1996), Fisher v. University of Texas (2013) and Shelby v. Holder (2015)</a>. He also orchestrated <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/10/24/edward-blum-supreme-court-harvard-unc/">two pending cases</a> at the court that could reshape the consideration of race in college admissions, <a href="https://www.oyez.org/cases/2022/20-1199">Students for Fair Admissions Inc. v. President & Fellows of Harvard College</a> and <a href="https://www.oyez.org/cases/2022/21-707">Students for Fair Admissions Inc. v. University of North Carolina</a>. </p>
<p>These cases, at their core, attacked the rights revolution of the 1960s – or rights that privilege minorities. The argument? </p>
<p>These protections are obsolete because Jim Crow segregation, especially its overt violence and sanctioned segregation, is dead.</p>
<h2>New claim, old game</h2>
<p>Nearly 30 years of Republican or divided control of Congress and, to a lesser degree, the executive office gave rise to increasingly conservative <a href="https://newrepublic.com/article/156855/republican-party-took-supreme-court">Supreme Court nominations</a> that have not just turned the court red; they all but ensured favorable outcomes for conservative litigation.</p>
<p>These include the Shelby and Merrill cases and, more recently, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/10/24/edward-blum-supreme-court-harvard-unc/">litigation</a> that seeks to remove racial considerations from college admissions.</p>
<p>In the Shelby case, the court held that the unprecedented number of African Americans in <a href="https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/fifty-years-after-march-selma-everything-and-nothing-has-changed/">Alabama</a> – and national – politics meant not merely that racism was gone, it meant that the <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/07/how-shelby-county-broke-america/564707/">Voting Rights Act is no longer relevant</a>. </p>
<p>These cases, however, have all but ignored <a href="https://newrepublic.com/article/165283/suppress-black-vote-jim-crow">the uptick</a> in conservatives’ claims of <a href="https://www.retroreport.org/video/poll-watchers-and-the-long-history-of-voter-intimidation/">voter fraud and political machinations</a> at polling stations in predominantly minority voting districts. </p>
<p>In fact, the rise of voter fraud allegations and <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2020/11/19/true-danger-trump-his-media-allies-denying-election-results/">contested election results</a> is a new iteration of old, and ostensibly less violent, racism.</p>
<p>The Voting Rights Act was not only effective; Washington was also, initially, committed to its implementation. The political will to maintain minority voting rights has struggled to keep pace with the continuity of racist trends in American politics.</p>
<p>The work of protecting minority voting rights remains <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2022/01/05/democracy-january-6-coup-constitution-526512">unfinished</a>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/197475/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Julian Maxwell Hayter 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>Conservatives and the GOP have mounted a decadeslong legal fight to turn the clock back on the political gains of the civil rights movement.Julian Maxwell Hayter, Associate Professor of Leadership Studies, University of RichmondLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1973682023-01-15T14:37:15Z2023-01-15T14:37:15ZBasquiat: A multidisciplinary artist who denounced violence against African Americans<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/503457/original/file-20230106-25-uqa0a0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C6255%2C2982&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Jean-Michel Basquiat's _Toxic_, pictured right, is inspired by the American cartoon and denounces the violence of American society.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(MMFA)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The exhibition <a href="https://www.mbam.qc.ca/en/exhibitions/jean-michel-basquiat/">Seeing Loud: Basquiat and Music</a>, currently running at the Montréal Museum of Fine Arts, demonstrates that the work of Jean-Michel Basquiat, which is usually associated with painting, also calls upon other media, including music — the main theme of this exhibition — literature, comic strips, cinema and animation, a much lesser-known aspect of his work.</p>
<p>Basquiat was born in New York in 1960 to a Haitian father and a mother of Puerto Rican descent. In the late 1970s, in collaboration with Al Diaz, he drew enigmatic graffiti <a href="https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520383340/reading-basquiat">under the pseudonym SAMO</a>. The artist quickly made a name for himself in the New York art world (becoming friends with Andy Warhol and Madonna, among others). He then produced solo paintings and achieved international fame that continued to grow until his death in 1988.</p>
<p>At the time of the Black Lives Matter movement, Jean-Michel Basquiat’s work is more relevant than ever. It highlights racial inequalities and the lack of representation of racialized people in the media, but also the violence suffered by African Americans.</p>
<p>This is what I propose to explore in this article. As a PhD student in literature and performing and screen arts, my research focuses on the interactions between animated film and the visual arts (comics, painting) as well as on the American cartoon.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/503146/original/file-20230104-129855-7kcpz0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/503146/original/file-20230104-129855-7kcpz0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=410&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503146/original/file-20230104-129855-7kcpz0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=410&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503146/original/file-20230104-129855-7kcpz0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=410&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503146/original/file-20230104-129855-7kcpz0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=516&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503146/original/file-20230104-129855-7kcpz0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=516&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503146/original/file-20230104-129855-7kcpz0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=516&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Jean-Michel Basquiat with his <em>Klaunstance</em> installation, at the Area, in 1985.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Photo: Ben Buchanan)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Love/hate for the cartoon</h2>
<p>As a child, Basquiat <a href="https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520305168/the-jean-michel-basquiat-reader">dreamed of becoming a cartoon animator</a>. When he became a painter, the television was always on while he worked in his studio, <a href="https://niuarts.com/2021/02/tvs-influence-on-the-work-of-jean-michael-basquiat-is-the-subject-of-the-next-elizabeth-allen-visiting-scholars-in-art-history-series/">and regularly ran cartoons</a>. These programmes and films were a great source of inspiration for the artist, who integrated several references to animation and comic strips into his paintings.</p>
<p>One of these works, which can be seen in the Montréal Museum of Fine Arts exhibition, is called <em>Toxic</em> (1984). The painting depicts a Black man with his arms in the air, with a collage in the background that mentions several titles of animated shorts made between 1938 and 1948.</p>
<p>The character is in fact a friend of Basquiat’s, the artist Torrick “Toxic” Ablack. So the <a href="https://www.widewalls.ch/artists/toxic">title of the painting refers to him</a>. However, knowing that Basquiat <a href="https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520305168/the-jean-michel-basquiat-reader">played with words and their meanings</a>, “Toxic” could also refer to the relationship he had with the animated films that are mentioned behind the character.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/503155/original/file-20230104-129650-l0k73w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/503155/original/file-20230104-129650-l0k73w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=348&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503155/original/file-20230104-129650-l0k73w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=348&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503155/original/file-20230104-129650-l0k73w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=348&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503155/original/file-20230104-129650-l0k73w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=438&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503155/original/file-20230104-129650-l0k73w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=438&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503155/original/file-20230104-129650-l0k73w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=438&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A multidisciplinary artist, Jean-Michel Basquiat was also a musician. The exhibition devoted to him at the Montréal Museum of Fine Arts illustrates this aspect of his work.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(MMFA)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Could we say that the films are considered toxic by Jean-Michel Basquiat, despite his admiration for them? In fact, I think there is a certain duality in this picture: the artist loves the cartoon, but he hates it at the same time. The dictionary definition of the word <a href="https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/definition/american_english/toxic">“toxic”</a> can mean someone or something that likes “to control and influence other people in a dishonest way.” The term therefore implies that the toxic element (the cartoon in this case) is dangerous in a way that isn’t apparent.</p>
<h2>The violence of cartoons</h2>
<p>The cartoon is often associated with childhood, pleasure, eccentricity.</p>
<p>This is a universe where anything is possible: in <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-fpqSdSnD0"><em>Gorilla My Dreams</em></a>, directed by Robert McKimson in 1948, for example, the character Bugs Bunny talks, dresses up as a baby and imitates a monkey. It appears innocent. However, the cartoon can also represent the worst of humanity in a very sneaky way through the incredible violence it contains: the characters hunt each other, chase each other, hit each other, cut each other, kill each other and then start again.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/G-fpqSdSnD0?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Robert McKimson, <em>Gorilla My Dreams</em>, Warner Bros., 1948.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In <em>Porky’s Hare Hunt</em>, a film directed by Ben Hardaway in 1938 and quoted in <em>Toxic</em>, the character of Porky is injured by dynamite, abused even though he is in his hospital bed and tries to kill a rabbit. Basquiat, who consumed cartoons every day on television, knew that they were a reflection of 20<sup>th</sup> century American society.</p>
<p>This is an interpretation that could be supported by the title of another of his paintings, which also uses iconography from animation or comics: <em>Television and Cruelty to Animals</em> (1983). This cruelty is also denounced and reproduced in <em>An Opera</em> (1985), which shows Popeye being beaten with the words “ senseless violence ” above his head, as well as in <a href="https://www.mbam.qc.ca/en/oeuvres/14684/"><em>A Panel of Experts</em></a> (1982), where we see matchstick men hitting each other right next to an enormous revolver.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/503115/original/file-20230104-14-ck5io.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/503115/original/file-20230104-14-ck5io.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=573&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503115/original/file-20230104-14-ck5io.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=573&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503115/original/file-20230104-14-ck5io.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=573&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503115/original/file-20230104-14-ck5io.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=720&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503115/original/file-20230104-14-ck5io.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=720&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503115/original/file-20230104-14-ck5io.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=720&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The painting <em>A Panel of Experts</em>, produced in 1982, denounces cruelty and violence.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(MMFA, gift of Ira Young. Estate of Jean-Michel Basquiat. Licensed by Artestar, New York. Photo: Douglas M. Parker)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The violence that Basquiat denounces is so present in the cartoon that it seems, to a certain extent, to have become commonplace, like the violence seen on television newscasts (which he probably watched while he was painting).</p>
<h2>Denouncing racial stereotypes</h2>
<p>These cartoons are also violent because they often perpetuate racial stereotypes (not to mention the many stereotypes related to sexual orientation, gender, sex, body appearance, etc.).</p>
<p>Bob Clampett’s 1940 film <em>Patient Porky</em>, which is also mentioned in <em>Toxic</em>, features a scene in which a elevator attendant grossly and monstrously parodies a Black character. In <em>Untitled (All Stars)</em> (1983), Basquiat cites Max Fleischer’s 1920 film <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_WXrrOIWZKo"><em>The Chinaman</em></a>, which features a highly caricatured Asian character and Koko the Clown putting makeup on to impersonate him.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/_WXrrOIWZKo?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Max Fleischer, <em>The Chinaman</em>, Bray Studios, 1920.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>By placing elements referring to animation in his compositions, Basquiat attempts to denounce a stereotypical and unfair worldview where <a href="https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520305168/the-jean-michel-basquiat-reader">racialized people are portrayed in an unrealistic way</a>. Basquiat said that if he had not been a painter, he would have been a filmmaker and would have told stories where Black people <a href="https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520305168/the-jean-michel-basquiat-reader">were portrayed as human beings, not negatively</a>.</p>
<p>So, the title of the painting <em>Toxic</em> carries several meanings. It refers both to the main subject (Torrick “Toxic” Ablack), but also to its relationship to popular culture and to animation, in this case.</p>
<p>The <em>Toxic</em> character has his arms in the air and his hands coloured red. Could it be that this toxic relationship has made his hands dirty? Or, specifically, that the character — because the cartoon has continually portrayed Black people in a pejorative manner — is now being portrayed as a criminal? Indeed, his position indicates that he appears to be under arrest.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/503154/original/file-20230104-105026-uxktgp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/503154/original/file-20230104-105026-uxktgp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=298&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503154/original/file-20230104-105026-uxktgp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=298&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503154/original/file-20230104-105026-uxktgp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=298&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503154/original/file-20230104-105026-uxktgp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503154/original/file-20230104-105026-uxktgp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503154/original/file-20230104-105026-uxktgp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"><em>Dog Bite/Ax to Grind</em> (1983).</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Estate of Jean-Michel Basquiat. Rotterdam, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen. Licensed by Artestar, New York)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This hypothesis is very likely since Basquiat produced several works denouncing police brutality against African Americans, including <em>The Death of Michael Stewart (Defacement)</em> (1983).</p>
<p>Basquiat died prematurely in 1988 at the age of 27. Other artists from the Black community, such as Montréal painters <a href="https://helloteenadultt.com/">Kezna Dalz, aka Teenadult</a>, <a href="https://www.manuelmathieu.com/">Manuel Mathieu</a>, and animation filmmaker <a href="http://www.martinechartrand.net/">Martine Chartrand</a> have, in their own way, taken up his struggle and continue to fight for greater visibility of Black people in the arts.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/197368/count.gif" alt="La Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>John Harbour's doctoral research is funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC).</span></em></p>In the age of the Black Lives Matter movement, Basquiat’s work is more relevant than ever. It highlights racial inequality and violence against racialized people.John Harbour, Doctorant en littérature et arts de la scène et de l'écran (concentration cinéma), Université LavalLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1967182022-12-18T13:16:44Z2022-12-18T13:16:44ZStephen ‘tWitch’ Boss’s death should spark real conversations about the cost of Black celebrity<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/501412/original/file-20221215-11363-xdwxlj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C3300%2C2183&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">There has been a public outpouring of love for the dancer and producer Stephen 'tWitch' Boss who died this week at the age of 40. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Donald Traill/JetBlue's Soar with Reading Program via AP Images)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Last week, dancer and DJ <a href="https://people.com/tag/stephen-twitch-boss/">Stephen ‘tWitch’ Boss</a> died from suicide at age 40. Like many, I was incredibly shocked and saddened by the news. </p>
<p>As a scholar of Black entertainment history, I also reflected on the longer history of Black male entertainers dancing or telling jokes to their deaths despite cultivating a public image as “<a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CmKDwRNJYrV/">pure love and light</a>,” which is how tWitch’s former co-producer, Ellen DeGeneres described him on her Instagram upon hearing of his death.</p>
<p>There have been so many tragic and unexpected deaths of young Black men in the entertainment industry that websites, such as <a href="http://www.bestofdate.com/">BestOfDate</a>, and <a href="https://www.ranker.com/list/rappers-who-passed-young/celebrity-lists">Ranker</a> have formed to document them. </p>
<p>While these sites are primarily documenting the deaths of rappers, they are also creating a narrative around Black men that values their personas more than the lives they actually lived. </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/501625/original/file-20221216-11243-ityp8l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="man smiles for the camera" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/501625/original/file-20221216-11243-ityp8l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/501625/original/file-20221216-11243-ityp8l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=429&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501625/original/file-20221216-11243-ityp8l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=429&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501625/original/file-20221216-11243-ityp8l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=429&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501625/original/file-20221216-11243-ityp8l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=539&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501625/original/file-20221216-11243-ityp8l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=539&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501625/original/file-20221216-11243-ityp8l.jpg?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"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Actor Chadwick Boseman, star of the film ‘Black Panther,’ in Los Angeles, 2018.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>If there is a common thread running through the seemingly unexpected deaths of Black male celebrities, it’s that few around them were made aware of their struggles. When singer-songwriter Prince died in 2016 at 57 from an accidental overdose of fentanyl, even his <a href="https://www.chicagotribune.com/columns/dahleen-glanton/ct-met-prince-friends-dahleen-glanton-20180420-story.html">closest friends</a> did little to address his drug addiction. Similarly when Chadwick Boseman, actor and star of <em>Black Panther</em> died of Stage 4 colon cancer in 2020 at age 43, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/28/movies/chadwick-boseman-dead.html">no one in the industry knew</a> that he had been battling the disease. While these deaths were given a medical cause, I believe the larger issue of Black male celebrities not talking about their struggles plays an undeniable role.</p>
<p>When a celebrity’s image matters more to the public than their real-life challenges, it is often referred to as the <a href="https://www.findapsychologist.org/parasocial-relationships-the-nature-of-celebrity-fascinations/#:%7E:text=Parasocial%20relationships%20are%20one%2Dsided,sports%20teams">parasocial relationship</a>.</p>
<h2>How parasocial relationships have changed</h2>
<p>First coined in 1956 by sociologists Donald Horton and R. Richard Wohl, the “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/00332747.1956.11023049">para-social interaction</a>,” was a kind of psychological relationship experienced by how television audiences related to performers. Today, parasocial interactions apply to social media platforms. As audiences are repeatedly exposed to media personas, we develop illusions of intimacy, friendship and identification. </p>
<p>They’re at our fingertips and in front of our eyes every second of every day. Clinical psychologist <a href="https://doctorbethanycook.com/">Bethany Cook</a> told <a href="https://stylecaster.com/parasocial-relationships-meaning/">Stylecaster</a> that “social media allows the untouchable to become touchable.” </p>
<p>And the lines between reality and fiction are increasingly more blurred than when Horton and Wohl conducted their study. </p>
<p>In reality, the networks of intimacy that we develop with celebrities are based on impersonal forms of communication. </p>
<p>For example, two days before tWitch died, he posted a dance video to <a href="https://www.instagram.com/sir_twitch_alot/">his Instagram</a> with his wife, Allison. While dancing Instagram posts come off as pure fun, they are mostly a <a href="https://www.morethandancers.com/posts/how-to-grow-your-dance-instagram">marketing strategy</a> to increase brand awareness, not an innocent glimpse into a dancer’s “off-time.” </p>
<p><div data-react-class="InstagramEmbed" data-react-props="{"url":"https://www.instagram.com/p/CmNVqhwKPv0","accessToken":"127105130696839|b4b75090c9688d81dfd245afe6052f20"}"></div></p>
<p>Today’s celebrity and performer are involved in the curation of webs of intimacy and presumed friendships which makes it difficult to see reality. For example, when a celebrity we follow is struggling with a mental health issue. </p>
<p>Significantly, there is a long history of Black male performers burying mental health issues until they tragically and unexpectedly die.</p>
<h2>Black men have been dying on-and-off stages for centuries</h2>
<p><a href="https://masterjuba.com/">William Henry Lane</a> (1825–1852), also known as Master Juba, was the first Black dancer to reach international acclaim on both sides of the Atlantic. Born in Providence, R.I., he is remembered not only as the originator of African American tap dance but has been hailed as <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Blackface-Minstrelsy-in-Britain/Pickering/p/book/9781138265363">“the Jackie Robinson of the American stage.”</a> </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="an engraving of a man dancing with onlookers" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/501565/original/file-20221216-27-ojy8uy.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/501565/original/file-20221216-27-ojy8uy.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=423&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501565/original/file-20221216-27-ojy8uy.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=423&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501565/original/file-20221216-27-ojy8uy.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=423&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501565/original/file-20221216-27-ojy8uy.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=531&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501565/original/file-20221216-27-ojy8uy.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=531&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501565/original/file-20221216-27-ojy8uy.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=531&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">William Henry Lane (‘Master Juba’) dances in New York’s Five Points District as Charles Dickens and a companion watch in the background.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Master_Juba_from_American_Notes.jpg">(Engraving from American Notes by Charles Dickens, 1842: The Penumbral Frontier: Landscape, Modernity, and the Subterranean Imagination in New York City Literature and Culture)</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>By the 1840s, Lane was billed as one of the greatest dancers of his time, no small feat if you consider that throughout the 19th century (and most of the 20th), Black performers did not get regular work unless they fit themselves into the mold cast for them by white casting directors. </p>
<p>However, because it was the 19th century, Lane was often forced to wear the burnt-cork mask of blackface minstrelsy, as he danced. As the sole Black performer on white stages, Lane worked day and night for 11 years in Britain until he died at only 27 years old. </p>
<p>As cultural sociologist Michael Pickering observes in <em>Blackface Minstrelsy in Britain</em>, by most accounts, Lane “had quite literally danced himself to death.” </p>
<p>tWitch was one of the first Black dancers on <em>So You Think You Can Dance</em> to catapult into the mainstream. His unique combination of personality and hip hop moves made him one of the most memorable and beloved members of the show. </p>
<p>While the reasons tWitch took his life are still unknown, the legacy of Lane’s death, which was the result of physical and mental exhaustion lingers eerily in his passing.</p>
<h2>It’s time to listen to the whisper</h2>
<p>At the end of my book, <a href="https://chbooks.com/Books/U/Uncle"><em>Uncle: Race, Nostalgia, and the Politics of Loyalty</em></a>, I write that “Uncle Tom is our collective whisper.” Meaning that when Black men are always smiling, happy, loyal and constantly performing, that state of “on-ness” comes at a cost. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="A portrait of Redd Foxx" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/501567/original/file-20221216-11243-ou8soy.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/501567/original/file-20221216-11243-ou8soy.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=827&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501567/original/file-20221216-11243-ou8soy.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=827&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501567/original/file-20221216-11243-ou8soy.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=827&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501567/original/file-20221216-11243-ou8soy.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1039&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501567/original/file-20221216-11243-ou8soy.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1039&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501567/original/file-20221216-11243-ou8soy.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1039&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Redd Foxx in 1966.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(John E. Reed/Coast Artist Management0</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In centuries past, working oneself to death meant that performers died suddenly like Lane or the legendary comedian <a href="https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1991-10-12-me-105-story.html">Redd Foxx</a>, who suffered a heart attack on set in 1991 after working in the industry for 56 years. The trailblazing dancer, actor and choreographer <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2003/08/11/arts/gregory-hines-versatile-dancer-and-actor-dies-at-57.html">Gregory Hines</a>, who revitalized tap dance in the 1980s, also died young at age 57 after a short battle with cancer. </p>
<p>Today, it is more likely that Black celebrities — especially those who make a career of entertaining primarily white audiences — suffer in silence until they die suddenly, take their own lives and/or have violent public outbursts. </p>
<p>The “<a href="https://theconversation.com/will-smiths-oscar-slap-reveals-fault-lines-as-he-defends-jada-pinkett-smith-against-chris-rock-podcast-180280">slap heard around the world</a>,” for instance, at the 2022 Oscars was not just about two Black male entertainers having an inappropriate altercation; it was a glimpse into Black mental health where the cost of <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/apr/19/whats-the-real-reason-why-black-celebs-are-still-so-angry-with-will-smith">playing the “nice guy,”</a> as Tayo Bero argued in a piece for the <em>Guardian</em>, takes an often-invisible toll.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/will-smiths-oscar-slap-reveals-fault-lines-as-he-defends-jada-pinkett-smith-against-chris-rock-podcast-180280">Will Smith's Oscar slap reveals fault lines as he defends Jada Pinkett Smith against Chris Rock: Podcast</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
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<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="TWitch dances with Hillary Clinton in a blue suit." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/501621/original/file-20221216-19-c5mhv7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/501621/original/file-20221216-19-c5mhv7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501621/original/file-20221216-19-c5mhv7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501621/original/file-20221216-19-c5mhv7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501621/original/file-20221216-19-c5mhv7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501621/original/file-20221216-19-c5mhv7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501621/original/file-20221216-19-c5mhv7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton, right, practices her dance moves with DJ Stephen ‘tWitch’ Boss during a break in the taping of ‘The Ellen DeGeneres Show’ in 2015.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>A 2015 report by the U.S. <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26079520/">National Center for Health Statistics</a> found that only 26.4 per cent of Black and Hispanic men ages 18 to 44 who experienced daily feelings of anxiety or depression were likely to have used mental health services, compared with 45.4 per cent of non-Hispanic white men with the same feelings. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.mentalhealthcommission.ca/wp-content/uploads/drupal/2021-02/covid_19_tip_sheet%20_health_in_black_communities_eng.pdf">Mental Health Commission of Canada</a> reports similar disparities noting that between 2001 and 2014, 38.3 per cent of Black Canadians with “poor or fair self-reported” mental health used mental health services compared with 50.8 per cent of white Canadians.</p>
<p>Black male celebrities who are chasing white approval are self-destructing in front of our very eyes. The whispers have become non-stop noise. It’s time for celebrities with power to do more than post condolences on social media. They need to be part of the process to create sustainable structures and supports for Black men in the industry. When that happens, the parasocial relationship might be key to changing lived realities.</p>
<p>My hope is that Stephen ‘tWitch’ Boss’s death does not overshadow the life he lived. And that the entertainment industry finally breaks down the wall of shame that keeps too many in the closet about their mental health struggles.</p>
<p><em>If you or someone you know is struggling with suicidal thoughts or mental health matters, you can get help here: Talk Suicide Canada: 1-833-456-4566 (phone) | 45645 (text between 4 p.m. and midnight ET)</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/196718/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Cheryl Thompson receives funding from the Ontario Early Researcher Award program. </span></em></p>A scholar of Black entertainment history reflects on the death of producer Stephen ‘tWitch’ Boss and reflects on the history of Black male entertainers dancing or telling jokes to their deaths.Cheryl Thompson, Assistant Professor, Performance, Toronto Metropolitan UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1916592022-11-16T14:23:55Z2022-11-16T14:23:55ZWhy isn’t anyone talking about ‘who’ gets long COVID? — Podcast<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/492362/original/file-20221028-68131-5gbu7p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=4%2C16%2C1364%2C874&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Our guest on this episode has insights into long COVID both as a researcher and a patient.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://unsplash.com/@jekafe">Jessica Felicio/Unsplash</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>Join us for <a href="https://dont-call-me-resilient.simplecast.com/episodes/long-covid">this episode of <em>Don’t Call Me Resilient</em></a> as we speak with Margot Gage Witvliet who has insights into long COVID both as a patient and an epidemiologist.</em></p>
<iframe height="200px" width="100%" frameborder="no" scrolling="no" seamless="" src="https://player.simplecast.com/f3b28129-0dca-4d74-9227-10bfd0cdd58e?dark=true"></iframe>
<p><iframe id="tc-infographic-572" class="tc-infographic" height="100" src="https://cdn.theconversation.com/infographics/572/661898416fdc21fc4fdef6a5379efd7cac19d9d5/site/index.html" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<p>If you don’t pay close attention to news about COVID, <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/president-joe-biden-60-minutes-interview-transcript-2022-09-18/">you might think the pandemic is nearly over</a>. But for the millions of people worldwide suffering from long COVID, that couldn’t be further from the truth. </p>
<p>And the number of those experiencing long-term symptoms keeps growing: At least <a href="https://www.statnews.com/2022/07/06/understanding-long-covid-estimates/">one in five</a> of us infected with the virus go on to develop long COVID.</p>
<p>The effects of long COVID are staggering. <a href="https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/coronavirus/in-depth/coronavirus-long-term-effects/art-20490351">Researchers</a> say it can lead to: blood clots, heart disease, damage to the blood vessels, neurological issues, cognitive impairment, nerve damage, chronic pain and extreme fatigue. </p>
<p>And there is no treatment for long COVID. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Brown-skinned person with hand on head crying, sitting against a bed." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/487873/original/file-20221003-14-pzxyeh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C15%2C5142%2C3970&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/487873/original/file-20221003-14-pzxyeh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=468&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/487873/original/file-20221003-14-pzxyeh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=468&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/487873/original/file-20221003-14-pzxyeh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=468&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/487873/original/file-20221003-14-pzxyeh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=588&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/487873/original/file-20221003-14-pzxyeh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=588&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/487873/original/file-20221003-14-pzxyeh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=588&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Recent stats show that 80 per cent of long haulers are women.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://unsplash.com/photos/owBcefxgrIE">Claudia Wolff/Unsplash</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>So why don’t we hear more about long COVID? Why haven’t governments warned people about the risks we face with infection? </p>
<p>It might be that this debilitating disease is largely overlooked because of <em>who</em> gets it: Almost <a href="https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2771111">80 per cent</a> of longhaulers are women. </p>
<p>And in the United States, where our guest on this episode is from, many of those suffering from the prevailing conditions of COVID are women of colour, with <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hhrSa8c9Tj8">Black and Latinx people most likely</a> to get the illness.</p>
<p>Our insightful guest for this conversation on long COVID is Margot Gage Witvliet, assistant professor at Lamar University in Beaumont, Texas. Margot is a social epidemiologist who studies health disparities, including as they relate to long COVID and <a href="https://www.hhs.gov/about/news/2021/07/02/readout-fifth-covid-19-health-equity-task-force-meeting.html">has presented her research findings to the United States Health Equity Task Force on COVID-19</a>. </p>
<p>Margot is also a Black woman living with long COVID and has created a <a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/bipocwomenlongcovid">support and advocacy group</a> for women of colour.</p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/jcs4YZ_UZeE?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
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<h2>Listen and Follow</h2>
<p>You can listen to or follow <em>Don’t Call Me Resilient</em> 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>. <a href="mailto:theculturedesk@theconversation.com">We’d love to hear from you</a>, including any ideas for future episodes. Join The Conversation on <a href="https://twitter.com/ConversationCA">Twitter</a>, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/TheConversationCanada">Facebook</a>, <a href="https://www.instagram.com/theconversationdotcom/">Instagram</a> and <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@theconversation">TikTok</a> and use #DontCallMeResilient.</p>
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<h2>Also in The Conversation</h2>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/im-a-covid-19-long-hauler-and-an-epidemiologist-heres-how-it-feels-when-symptoms-last-for-months-143676">I'm a COVID-19 long-hauler and an epidemiologist – here's how it feels when symptoms last for months</a>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/even-mild-covid-raises-the-chance-of-heart-attack-and-stroke-what-to-know-about-the-risks-ahead-190552">Even mild COVID raises the chance of heart attack and stroke. What to know about the risks ahead</a>
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</em>
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<em>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/ivermectin-blood-washing-ozone-how-long-covid-survivors-are-being-sold-the-next-round-of-miracle-cures-186047">Ivermectin, blood washing, ozone: how long COVID survivors are being sold the next round of miracle cures</a>
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</em>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/long-covid-should-make-us-rethink-disability-and-the-way-we-offer-support-to-those-with-invisible-conditions-187531">Long COVID should make us rethink disability – and the way we offer support to those with 'invisible conditions'</a>
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</em>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/being-stressed-out-before-you-get-covid-increases-your-chances-of-long-covid-heres-why-190649">Being stressed out before you get COVID increases your chances of long COVID. Here's why</a>
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</em>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-covid-19-damages-lungs-the-virus-attacks-mitochondria-continuing-an-ancient-battle-that-began-in-the-primordial-soup-192597">How COVID-19 damages lungs: The virus attacks mitochondria, continuing an ancient battle that began in the primordial soup</a>
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</em>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/influenza-and-covid-19-whats-in-store-for-the-fall-winter-respiratory-virus-season-193076">Influenza and COVID-19: What's in store for the fall/winter respiratory virus season?</a>
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</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Sources</h2>
<p><a href="https://theexperimentpublishing.com/catalogs/fall-2022/long-covid-survival-guide/"><em>The Long COVID Survival Guide: How to Take Care of Yourself and What Comes Next, Stories and Advice from Twenty Long-Haulers and Experts</em> Edited by Fiona Lowenstein</a></p>
<p><a href="https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Long-Haul/Ryan-Prior/9781637581414"><em>The Long Haul: Solving the Puzzle of the Pandemic’s Long Haulers and How They Are Changing Healthcare Forever</em> By Ryan Prior</a></p>
<h2>Transcript</h2>
<p>For an unedited transcript of this episode, go <a href="https://dont-call-me-resilient.simplecast.com/episodes/long-covid/transcript">here</a>.</p>
<p><em>Don’t Call Me Resilient was produced in partnership with the Journalism Innovation Lab at UBC and with a grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/191659/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
Long COVID impacts one in every five people who’ve had the virus. In the U.S., early research shows people of colour are most likely to develop long COVID. It has been called a mass-disabling event.Vinita Srivastava, Host + Producer, Don't Call Me ResilientLygia Navarro, Associate Producer, Don't Call Me Resilient, The ConversationLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.