tag:theconversation.com,2011:/global/topics/black-americans-27304/articlesBlack Americans – The Conversation2024-03-13T12:38:53Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2248922024-03-13T12:38:53Z2024-03-13T12:38:53ZWhat the numbers say about diversity on corporate boards<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/581302/original/file-20240312-28-1hong4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=956%2C204%2C8157%2C5260&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Corporate diversity efforts have resulted in more women and minorities sitting on boards. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/bright-clean-modern-style-conference-room-royalty-free-image/1667099947?phrase=corporate++board+directors&adppopup=true">Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Through the decades, corporate boards have been mostly white and mostly male. </p>
<p>That started changing in the early 1970s. Fueled by the historic gains of the Civil Rights Movement that broke down racial and gender barriers, a variety of social groups such as the <a href="https://finance.yahoo.com/news/promising-students-benefit-commitment-developing-170000223.html">National Black MBA Association</a> and the <a href="https://now.org/">National Organization for Women</a> pressured corporations to build diversity programs into their management structures. </p>
<p>Over the years, a dramatic change has occurred. My latest research on the corporate boards of the top 50 companies from 2011 to 2023 shows that the percentage of whites dropped to 73.6%, the percentage of men dropped to 65.3% and, rather remarkably, the percentage of white men dropped below 50%, to 49.5%. </p>
<p>My research included reviewing the published names of the members of the boards of directors of the top 50 companies on the 2011 and 2023 Fortune 500 lists, as well as information on company websites about each of these hundreds of directors. I coded for gender, ethnicity and educational background. </p>
<p>Though the patterns differ for each of these demographic groups, the percentages of white women, Asian, Hispanic and Black Americans increased by different amounts as the percentage of white men decreased.</p>
<h2>White female directors</h2>
<p>The percentage of white females serving on boards at the top-50 companies increased from 16.8% in 2011 to 24.1% in 2023. All of these white women had undergraduate degrees, and almost two-thirds had advanced degrees, including in business, law and medicine. Many of them were <a href="https://fortune.com/2023/06/05/fortune-500-companies-2023-women-10-percent/">current or former CEOs</a> of Fortune 500 companies.</p>
<p>Notably, and related to the increase in white female directors, between 2000 and 2020 there was <a href="https://whorulesamerica.ucsc.edu/power/diversity_update_2020.html#fnr20">a dramatic increase</a> in the number of white female CEOs.</p>
<p>There were almost as many white female directors in 2023 as there were Blacks, Asian Americans and Latinos combined. In terms of sheer numbers, white men have been replaced by white women more than by any other single group.</p>
<h2>Asian American directors</h2>
<p>The changes can be seen clearly in a comparison between the makeup of the top-50 company boards <a href="https://whorulesamerica.ucsc.edu/diversity/unexpected_increase_in_diversity.html">between 2011 and 2023</a>. </p>
<p><iframe id="rQ4Ho" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/rQ4Ho/1/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<p>During that time period, the percentage of Asian Americans more than tripled, from 1.8% to 6.1%. The percentages more than doubled for Asian American men, and increased almost ninefold for Asian American females. </p>
<p>Strikingly, 17 of the 20 Asian American men who were directors in 2023 were of Indian heritage – and most but not all were born in India. Only six of the 15 Asian American women were of Indian heritage, and seven were of Chinese background.</p>
<p>Asian Americans make up about 7% of the population, so they are now only slightly underrepresented on the top Fortune boards.</p>
<h2>Black and Hispanic directors</h2>
<p>Black Americans also showed a sizable increase, from 9.4% in 2011 to 15.1% in 2023. They, too, showed a bigger jump for women, from 1.9% to 5.9%, than for men, from 7.4% to 9.2%.</p>
<p>Black people made up about 13.6% of the population in 2023, so they were slightly overrepresented on these Fortune boards. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/diversity-and-inclusion/race-in-the-workplace-the-frontline-experience">McKinsey & Company</a>, a management consulting firm, conducted a study of 53 corporations, most of which were Fortune 500 companies. The study, released in 2022, found that there were far fewer Black men and women in the pipeline leading to the CEO office than on the boards. That pipeline includes jobs such as managers, vice presidents and others on leadership teams.</p>
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<img alt="A Black woman is speaking as she sits in a chair on stage." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/581313/original/file-20240312-26-kv4ftg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/581313/original/file-20240312-26-kv4ftg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=420&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/581313/original/file-20240312-26-kv4ftg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=420&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/581313/original/file-20240312-26-kv4ftg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=420&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/581313/original/file-20240312-26-kv4ftg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=528&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/581313/original/file-20240312-26-kv4ftg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=528&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/581313/original/file-20240312-26-kv4ftg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=528&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Michelle Jordan, AT&T chief diversity officer, talks about equity and inclusion during a 2023 conference in Atlanta.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/michelle-jordan-chief-diversity-officer-at-t-speaks-onstage-news-photo/1779377976?adppopup=true">Paras Griffin/WireImage</a></span>
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<p>This suggests that these companies are trying to appear diverse through the makeup of their boards, even as they haven’t diversified the executive ranks.</p>
<p>Hispanic Americans showed only a slight increase in representation on the boards, from 4.7% in 2011 to 5.2% in 2023, with women almost doubling their representation, from 1.1% to 2.1%, and men decreasing from 3.6% to 3.1%. </p>
<p>Hispanic Americans make up about 19% of the U.S. population. As a group, they were very much underrepresented on corporate boards.</p>
<p>Many of those in all of the groups I looked at had attended elite colleges and universities, either as undergraduates or for postgraduate work. Recent evidence showing that Hispanic men and women have been <a href="https://edtrust.org/resource/private-universities-havent-increased-diversity/?emci=6e70acb4-83d5-ee11-85f9-002248223794&emdi=425387aa-41d6-ee11-85f9-002248223794&ceid=456745%5D">vastly underrepresented at elite colleges</a> over the past two decades suggests that few are making it through the pipeline from these schools to Fortune 500 boards.</p>
<h2>Recent attacks on diversity</h2>
<p>With <a href="https://theconversation.com/a-2003-supreme-court-decision-upholding-affirmative-action-planted-the-seeds-of-its-overturning-as-justices-then-and-now-thought-racism-an-easily-solved-problem-208807">the 2023 Supreme Court decision</a> against affirmative action in higher education – and <a href="https://www.wsj.com/us-news/law/diversity-equity-dei-companies-blum-2040b173">subsequent lawsuits</a> against the practices that some corporations have used to address inequality – the civil rights gains in higher education and on corporate boards are in jeopardy of being reversed by conservative resistance. </p>
<p>In fact, many big companies have been “backing away from efforts to promote diversity, equity and inclusion in their ranks,” according to a <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2023/04/01/woke-capitalism-esg-dei-climate-investment/">Washington Post corporate culture reporter</a>.</p>
<p>The pattern that I have found in board composition between the 1990s and 2023 is consistent with data from 2013 to 2023 that was published by <a href="https://www.spencerstuart.com/research-and-insight/sp-500-new-director-and-diversity-snapshot">Spencer Stuart</a>, an executive search firm. It found that in 2013, only 39% of newly appointed directors were women and underrepresented minorities.</p>
<p>In the next decade, the percentage of new diversity appointments to boards increased dramatically, from the 39% in 2013, to 60% in 2018, to 86% in 2021, and then tapered off to 82% in 2022 and 75% in 2023.</p>
<p>Based on my findings and those of other researchers, it is likely that the ups and downs of diversity on corporate boards will serve as an indicator of the success – or failure – of ongoing efforts to increase inclusion in all walks of American life.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/224892/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Richie Zweigenhaft 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>Since the 1970s, corporate boards have included more women and minorities. But those gains are likely to change after a US Supreme Court ruling and increased conservative resistance.Richie Zweigenhaft, Professor of Psychology, Emeritus, Guilford CollegeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag: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>
<figcaption>
<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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</figure>
<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>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<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>
<figcaption>
<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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</figure>
<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/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>
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</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>
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</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/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/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/2061612023-06-23T12:48:18Z2023-06-23T12:48:18ZJa Morant shows how a ‘good guy with a gun’ can never be Black<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/533247/original/file-20230621-22-uh7sna.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C4%2C2986%2C1989&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The NBA suspended Ja Morant for 25 games after he posted a video of himself brandishing a gun.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/ja-morant-of-the-memphis-grizzlies-brings-the-ball-upcourt-news-photo/1485941791?adppopup=true">Justin Ford/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>“Man enough to pull a gun, be man enough to squeeze it,” rapped NBA superstar Allen Iverson on his song “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2skYVPGExgY">40 Bars</a>.” </p>
<p>This was two weeks prior to the 2000-01 NBA season, one in which Iverson would be named league MVP. Ja Morant, the 23-year-old star point guard for the Memphis Grizzlies, was barely 1 year old.</p>
<p>Today, Morant’s game conjures <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MYbs4adAyds">that of the electrifying Iverson</a>. With colorfully dyed dreadlocks, an infectious smile and <a href="https://www.si.com/fannation/sneakers/news/the-nike-ja-1-day-one-sold-out-quickly-online">a signature sneaker</a>, Ja represents the next generation of NBA superstars.</p>
<p>But his bursting athletic brilliance, so evocative of Iverson, comes with a cost: the perceived menace of the Black gangster.</p>
<p>On March 4, 2023, Morant posted an <a href="https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/35782987/nba-investigating-ja-morant-displays-gun-instagram-video">Instagram Live video</a> of him displaying a gun at a Denver strip club. Colorado is an open carry state, but it’s illegal to carry a firearm while under the influence of alcohol. Though Morant was never charged for a crime, the NBA suspended him eight games for “<a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/colorado/news/nba-hands-down-8-game-suspension-ja-morant-gun-incident-shotgun-willies/">conduct detrimental to the league</a>.” </p>
<p>Then, on May 14, 2023, <a href="https://www.cbssports.com/nba/news/ja-morant-addresses-latest-gun-controversy-i-take-full-accountability-for-my-actions/">another Instagram Live video</a> surfaced of Morant holding a gun in a parked car with his friends while dancing to rap music. In response, <a href="https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/37863825/sources-grizzlies-ja-morant-suspended-25-games-nba">the NBA suspended Morant for 25 games</a> to start this upcoming season for “engaging in reckless and irresponsible behavior with guns.”</p>
<p>I’m not looking to defend Morant’s behavior. It was careless, and he could have harmed himself and others.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.cla.purdue.edu/directory/profiles/aaron-dial.html">But as a scholar of Black popular culture</a>, I can’t help but wonder what the reaction would have been if Morant were white.</p>
<p>To many politicians and activists in the gun-obsessed U.S., the freedom to own and flaunt firearms is a sacred right. And yet throughout the nation’s history, gun ownership among Black Americans has elicited fear and recrimination. Even when folks who look like Morant innocuously and legally possess a gun, they find themselves too easily typecast as villains. </p>
<h2>Disciplining ‘thugs’ and ‘children’</h2>
<p>The NBA has long had a fraught relationship with its Black superstars.</p>
<p>When global sports icon Michael Jordan <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nba/2022/03/22/ap-was-there-michael-jordan-retires-for-3rd-final-time/49970153/">retired from basketball in 2003</a>, the league found itself in a period of transition.</p>
<p>How would it continue to fill arenas, satisfy advertisers and spread its vision of a global game without its brightest star? </p>
<p>Not only did the NBA need a new crop of superstars to mitigate Jordan’s exit, but it also needed a fresh attitude. In response, the league turned to the <a href="https://stanforddaily.com/2018/03/08/the-answer-to-the-nbas-stance-on-hip-hop/">marketing juggernaut of hip-hop and Black culture</a>.</p>
<p>Players openly professed their love for rap music, with stars like <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/music-news/shaquille-oneal-rap-return-king-talk-nba-playoffs-1235405566/">Shaquille O'Neal</a>, <a href="https://deadline.com/2021/05/kobe-bryant-los-angeles-lakers-rap-album-hall-of-fame-induction-1234757106/">Kobe Bryant</a>, Iverson <a href="https://ballislife.com/nba-players-music-albums/">and others</a> recording and releasing music. Players wore oversized T-shirts, baggy jeans and New Era fitted caps as they traveled. You’d see durags and iced-out diamond chains during postgame interviews. </p>
<p>At first, the league saw opportunity – an opening to usher in a new <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NBA_Street">post-Jordan</a> <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Ultimate-Assist-Relationship-Strategies-Communication/dp/1572734086">audience</a>. </p>
<p>However, in 2004, two events prompted a backlash.</p>
<p>First, there was the notorious “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EP7xRieiZm0">Malice at the Palace</a>,” during which players for the Indiana Pacers went into the stands to fight fans who had provoked them at Detroit’s Palace of Auburn Hills stadium.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Basketball fan grabbing arm and tusseling with basketball player." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/533250/original/file-20230621-11103-foropp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/533250/original/file-20230621-11103-foropp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/533250/original/file-20230621-11103-foropp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/533250/original/file-20230621-11103-foropp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/533250/original/file-20230621-11103-foropp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/533250/original/file-20230621-11103-foropp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/533250/original/file-20230621-11103-foropp.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">Indiana Pacers forward Ron Artest fights with a fan during a brawl at a game against the Detroit Pistons, in Auburn Hills, Mich., on Nov. 19, 2004.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/NBAat75APWasThereMaliceatthePalace/e858811ee860456d882be6320dc9ec41/photo?Query=pistons%20pacers%20brawl&mediaType=photo&sortBy=arrivaldatetime:desc&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=68&currentItemNo=2">Duane Burleson/AP Photo</a></span>
</figcaption>
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<p>A year later, there was an infamous Team USA dinner in Serbia. <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/2005/10/23/opinions-on-the-nbas-dress-code-are-far-from-uniform/d8110301-49b4-4151-b0c2-42c2c5f30ae8/">As The Washington Post reported</a>, “Iverson and some of his fellow National Basketball Association professionals arrived wearing an assortment of sweat suits, oversize jeans, shimmering diamond earrings and platinum chains … Larry Brown, the Hall of Fame coach of the U.S. team, was appalled and embarrassed.”</p>
<p>Former commissioner David Stern went on to institute <a href="https://www.espn.com/nba/news/story?id=2194537">a controversial dress code for NBA players</a>, banning, among other things, baggy clothing, along with the display of gaudy jewelry. But Los Angeles Lakers coach Phil Jackson exposed the ban’s quiet truth. </p>
<p>“The players have been dressing in prison garb the last five or six years,” <a href="https://www.espn.com/nba/news/story?id=2197012">he said</a>. “All the stuff that goes on, it’s like gangster, thuggery stuff.”</p>
<p>The NBA decided its foray into the marketing of hip-hop with basketball required a paternalist brand of discipline to keep its players’ “street cool” in line and avoid the poisonous image of Black criminality.</p>
<p>And like Jackson all those years ago, ESPN’s Tim MacMahon, on the network’s <a href="http://www.espn.com/espnradio/podcast/archive/_/id/10528553">Lowe Post basketball podcast</a>, criticized Morant with not so subtle racial undertones.</p>
<p>“Ja Morant is a child,” he announced. “This guy is so worried about being cool: ‘Look at me, man: Life is like a rap video.’”</p>
<h2>The NBA’s gun culture</h2>
<p>Ja Morant isn’t the first NBA player to find himself in trouble for wielding firearms. </p>
<p>In 2006, <a href="https://www.sfgate.com/sports/article/NBA-suspends-Jackson-for-seven-games-2581301.php#:%7E:text=After%20all%20the%20legal%20and,finally%20caught%20up%20with%20him.">Stephen Jackson</a> was suspended just seven games for firing a gun after an altercation at an Indianapolis strip club. In 2010, <a href="https://www.espn.com/nba/news/story?id=4802267">Gilbert Arenas and Javaris Crittenton </a> were suspended for 50 and 38 games, respectively, after pulling guns on each other in the Washington Wizards team facilities. And in 2014, <a href="https://www.sbnation.com/nba/2014/8/7/5979817/raymond-felton-suspension-gun-charges-mavericks">Raymond Felton</a> was suspended four games after pleading guilty to charges stemming from an incident where he threatened his estranged wife with a gun. </p>
<p>Like Ja, all these players are Black. But unlike his situation, these incidents were violent, criminal offenses.</p>
<p>The closest analogues to Morant are Chris Kaman and Draymond Green. <a href="https://www.sportskeeda.com/basketball/news-flexing-guns-used-school-shootings-pictures-chris-kaman-posing-guns-spark-ja-morant-double-standards-claim">Kaman</a>, a former center who is white, posted pictures of his arsenal to social media in 2012, 2013 and 2016. In 2018, during a trip to Israel, Golden State Warriors star forward <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/sanfrancisco/news/draymond-green-warriors-israel-rifle-photo-outrage/">Draymond Green</a> posed with an assault weapon. Neither Kaman nor Green was suspended for their posts. </p>
<p>The metaphor of guns also saturates the league in ways that <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-warspeak-permeating-everyday-language-puts-us-all-in-the-trenches-121356">reflect the country’s obsession with firearms</a>. </p>
<p>The alias of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrei_Kirilenko">Andrei Kirilenko</a>, a former All-Star for the Utah Jazz, was “AK- 47.” Fans anointed Lakers guard <a href="https://www.cbssports.com/nba/news/lakers-guard-austin-reaves-wants-to-get-rid-of-ar-15-nickname/">Austin Reaves</a> with the nickname “AR-15” until he denounced it after <a href="https://www.texastribune.org/2023/05/24/uvalde-school-shooting-what-to-know/">the tragic mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas</a>. NBA superstar Kevin Durant’s <a href="https://www.instagram.com/easymoneysniper/">Instagram handle</a> is “easymoneysniper.” Watch Hall of Fame broadcaster Mike Breen announce a game, and you’ll inevitably hear <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AtIx03UmiiE">his famous catch phrase</a>, “BANG.” </p>
<h2>Was this ever about guns?</h2>
<p>After Morant’s most recent incident, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j03cKLDTo0Y">Adam Silver</a>, league commissioner, said, “I’m assuming the worst.” </p>
<p>But why is Morant, according to Silver, all of a sudden a poor role model to “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-6-xiD8Xkk">millions of kids, globally</a>,” especially when <a href="https://www.kcra.com/article/former-nfl-player-says-posing-with-gun-in-daughters-prom-photo-was-a-joke/19915571">former</a> <a href="https://www.thedodo.com/pro-baseball-player-is-trolled-803649064.html">and</a> <a href="https://torontosun.com/opinion/columnists/lilley-carey-price-is-showing-how-far-reaching-trudeaus-hunting-gun-ban-will-go">current</a> athletes have done the same without punishment? </p>
<p>To me, the answer is simple: In America, armed Black folks conjures pathological criminality.</p>
<p>Guns, since the nation’s inception, have fortified <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-the-good-guy-with-a-gun-became-a-deadly-american-fantasy-117367">a uniquely American masculine fantasy</a>: the revolutionary and the cowboy, the cop and the soldier, the spy, the hunter, the gangster – all coalesce around the presumed thrill of the trigger. These fantasies reflect the <a href="https://www.npr.org/2012/12/21/167824766/nra-only-thing-that-stops-a-bad-guy-with-a-gun-is-a-good-guy-with-a-gun">National Rifle Association’s</a> most pernicious and oddly patriotic lie: “The only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun.”</p>
<p>At the same time, Historian Carol Anderson’s book “<a href="https://www.professorcarolanderson.org/the-second">The Second: Race and Guns in a Fatally Unequal America</a>” explores how the imagined danger of armed Black people has long pervaded the national psyche. </p>
<p>In her telling, this story begins in Morant’s home state of South Carolina, where the <a href="https://www.usccr.gov/files/pubs/2020/04-06-Stand-Your-Ground.pdf">Negro Act of 1722</a> and the <a href="https://calendar.eji.org/racial-injustice/may/10">Negro Slave Act of 1740</a> argued Blacks were “instinctually criminal” and abolished their access to weapons and right to self-defense.</p>
<p>So if people are so sure of Morant’s villainy, I ask without a hint of snark: What does responsible Black gun ownership look like?</p>
<p>Does it look like Huey Newton, Bobby Seale and the Black Panther Party, whose armed protests were the impetus behind <a href="https://www.history.com/news/black-panthers-gun-control-nra-support-mulford-act">California’s stricter gun laws – legislation that was backed by the NRA</a>? </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Black and white photo of Black men and women congregating, with some men holding guns." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/533252/original/file-20230621-3564-twpfqf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/533252/original/file-20230621-3564-twpfqf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=430&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/533252/original/file-20230621-3564-twpfqf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=430&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/533252/original/file-20230621-3564-twpfqf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=430&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/533252/original/file-20230621-3564-twpfqf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=540&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/533252/original/file-20230621-3564-twpfqf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=540&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/533252/original/file-20230621-3564-twpfqf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=540&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Armed members of the Black Panther Party stand in the corridor of California’s capitol in May 1967.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/HueyNewton/176d2c81ae1648cda9038c36e3aa7b15/photo?Query=black%20panthers%20guns&mediaType=photo&sortBy=arrivaldatetime:desc&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=28&currentItemNo=0">Walt Zeboski/AP Photo</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Does it look like <a href="https://exhibits.stanford.edu/saytheirnames/feature/philando-castile">Philando Castile</a>? Do we see it in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/07/us/marissa-alexander-released-stand-your-ground.html">Marissa Alexander</a>, who was sent to prison after she fired a warning shot at her husband, who had threatened to kill her?</p>
<p>To me, this was never about guns – just as, back in the early 2000s, it was never about rap music or baggy clothing.</p>
<p>It’s about <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Feminist-Theory-From-Margin-to-Center/hooks/p/book/9781138821668">white paternalism</a>. It’s about how Black people can’t be trusted with weapons. It’s about how the country’s veneration of gun ownership as an inalienable right is seconded only by its commitment to rendering armed Blacks an existential danger to the civility and structure of America.</p>
<p>Blackness seems to disavow any possibility of being a “good guy,” gun or not. <a href="https://fox17.com/news/local/tennessee-lawmaker-proposes-2nd-amendment-bill-in-honor-of-hero-kyle-rittenhouse-kenosha-wisconsin-gun-rights-crime-courts-usa-news-politics">Kyle Rittenhouse</a> was a “good guy with a gun.” So, too, was <a href="https://psmag.com/news/george-zimmerman-hero-77272">George Zimmerman</a>. Both meted out extrajudicial killings, and both emerged unpunished.</p>
<p>According to this warped, uniquely American fantasy, “good guys with guns” can never look like Ja Morant – and good guys can always kill bad guys.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/206161/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>A. Joseph Dial 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>America’s veneration of gun ownership is seconded only by its commitment to rendering armed Blacks as an existential danger to the civility and structure of America.A. Joseph Dial, DISCO Network Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Purdue UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2072002023-06-14T12:35:42Z2023-06-14T12:35:42ZHow Black Americans combated racism from beyond the grave<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/531729/original/file-20230613-29-v4r4v4.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=628%2C18%2C2933%2C2017&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The addition of a simple 'Mr.' or 'Mrs.' could be a quiet act of resistance.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://images.findagrave.com/photos/2020/138/UNCEM_35636_03eec082-5c04-49d3-923d-56e52521da3c.jpeg?v=1589684490">Rae Tucker/Find a Grave</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The Atlanta Journal-Constitution recently <a href="https://www.ajc.com/news/atlanta-news/descendants-fight-to-preserve-black-cemetery-behind-buckhead-condo/ZB57GY6QXRCGNLDB5MAPMIL4U4/">published a story about a Black cemetery</a> in Buckhead, a prosperous Atlanta community.</p>
<p>The cemetery broke ground almost two centuries ago, in 1826, as the graveyard of Piney Grove Baptist Church. The church has been gone for decades; the cemetery now sits on the property of a townhouse development. It is overgrown, with most of its 300-plus graves unmarked.</p>
<p>The article describes how some of the buried’s descendants and family members are trying to get the property owner to clean up and take care of the cemetery. </p>
<p>Audrey Collins is one of those descendants. Her grandmother, Lenora Powell Thomas, is buried there, and a photograph of her grandmother’s headstone accompanied the article.</p>
<p>The headstone is not one of those polished markers that you are probably used to seeing. It is small, perhaps 18 inches tall. It has a rough, poured concrete base with a plaster inset, which includes the name of the funeral home, the name of Collins’ grandmother and the date of her death. Her name reads, “Mrs. Lenora Thomas.” </p>
<p>Those first three letters – Mrs. – might be the most important on the headstone. </p>
<p>The courtesy titles Mr., Mrs. and Miss rarely appear on headstones; usually it is just the first and last name. </p>
<p>But here, they serve an important function, reminding viewers of how Black Americans came up with creative ways to retain their dignity and weather the dehumanizing effects of racism.</p>
<h2>Unworthy of honorifics</h2>
<p>In September 1951, the Savannah Tribune, a Black newspaper, <a href="https://gahistoricnewspapers.galileo.usg.edu/lccn/sn84020323/1951-09-27/ed-1/seq-4/#date1=01%2F01%2F1763&nottext=&date2=12%2F31%2F2023&words=house+lewd+operated+operating+operator&searchType=advanced&sequence=0&lccn=sn84020323&index=1&proxdistance=5&rows=12&ortext=&proxtext=&andtext=operating+a+lewd+house&page=1">complained about a couple of items</a> that had recently appeared in the white press.</p>
<p>One was a report of a white woman who was convicted of “operating and maintaining a lewd house.” The newspapers put “Mrs.” before her name. The second item was an announcement of the principals in the city’s “colored schools.” The names of the female principals were given without the courtesy titles of “Miss” or “Mrs.” The difference was literally Black and white.</p>
<p>When you hear about life in the Jim Crow South, you might think of segregated schools, city buses and lunch counters. </p>
<p>But subtler slights were part of everyday life. White Southerners refused to refer to African Americans with the courtesy titles Mr., Mrs. or Miss, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/10/opinion/sunday/white-newspapers-african-americans.html">depriving them of their dignity</a>. In the late 1970s, <a href="https://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/education/benjamin-mays-ca-1894-1984/">Benjamin Mays</a>, president of Atlanta’s Morehouse College, <a href="https://ugapress.org/book/9780820316970/living-atlanta/">recounted how</a> “‘Mr.’ and ‘Mrs.’ and ‘Miss’ were signs of social equality. They didn’t call you that.” </p>
<p>This denial of Black dignity was pervasive. A 1935 study of 28 Southern white newspapers <a href="https://doi.org/10.2307/2292331">found none that used courtesy titles for Black Americans</a>. In a 1964 article, the Atlanta Daily World noted that <a href="https://www.proquest.com/hnpatlantadailyworld/docview/491308729/5951604249B14D6BPQ/17?accountid=11824">in the telephone book</a> “Miss” or “Mrs.” appeared before the names of white women; for Black women, it was just “Susie Smith” or “Jenny Davis.”</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="Black and white mugshot photo of woman with short hair." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/531495/original/file-20230612-27-1zmtqo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/531495/original/file-20230612-27-1zmtqo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=809&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/531495/original/file-20230612-27-1zmtqo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=809&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/531495/original/file-20230612-27-1zmtqo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=809&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/531495/original/file-20230612-27-1zmtqo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1017&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/531495/original/file-20230612-27-1zmtqo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1017&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/531495/original/file-20230612-27-1zmtqo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1017&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Civil rights activist Mary Hamilton was arrested in Jackson, Miss., in 1961 while participating in the Freedom Rides. Two years later, she would be arrested again – and held in contempt of court for refusing to respond to a lawyer who called her ‘Mary.’</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ec/Miss_Mary_Hamillton_mugshot_1961.jpg">Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Only in the 1960s did this begin to change. <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2017/11/30/567177501/when-miss-meant-so-much-more-how-one-woman-fought-alabama-and-won">Mary Hamilton</a>, a civil rights activist, was arrested at a demonstration in Gadsden, Alabama, in 1963. In the courtroom, the prosecutor asked her a question, addressing her as “Mary.” </p>
<p>“I won’t respond,” Hamilton said, “until you call me Miss Hamilton” – which is how he had been addressing white women on the stand. The judge ordered her to answer the question, and, when she refused, he sentenced her to a few days in jail for contempt of court. </p>
<p>Her appeal reached the Supreme Court, which ruled that <a href="https://www.proquest.com/hnpatlantaconstitution2/docview/1556878357/EEEA8E7745694E50PQ/1?accountid=11824">judges and lawyers do have to use “Miss” and other honorifics for Black witnesses</a>, just as they do for white people.</p>
<h2>Dignity in death</h2>
<p>In the 1940s, Black funeral directors in Atlanta came up with a way to combat this dehumanization: grave markers that anointed their dead with the courtesy titles that white society had denied them. </p>
<p>There <a href="https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/208154394/hattie-binyon">are</a> <a href="https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/69779193/leonard-fuller">hundreds</a> of <a href="https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/115550887/woody-d-blountson">headstones</a> like Mrs. Thomas’ in <a href="https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/195981183/zebbie-bailey">older</a> <a href="https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/181934133/otha-swanson">Black cemeteries</a> in the Atlanta area. Most of those markers were made by <a href="https://oaklandcemetery.com/eldren-bailey-the-story-of-a-cemetery-artist/">Eldren Bailey</a>, an artist who worked in concrete and plaster. They are beautiful in their simplicity. And they all clearly say “Mr.,” “Mrs.” or “Miss.”</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/531501/original/file-20230613-15-dg0cdi.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Three photographs of three old gravestones taken at dusk." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/531501/original/file-20230613-15-dg0cdi.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/531501/original/file-20230613-15-dg0cdi.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=198&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/531501/original/file-20230613-15-dg0cdi.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=198&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/531501/original/file-20230613-15-dg0cdi.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=198&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/531501/original/file-20230613-15-dg0cdi.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=249&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/531501/original/file-20230613-15-dg0cdi.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=249&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/531501/original/file-20230613-15-dg0cdi.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=249&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Tombstones for Mrs. Annie R. Summerour, Mr. Walter I. Summerour and Mr. Charlie Price in the graveyard of Mount Zion AME Church in Kennesaw, Ga.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">David B. Parker</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>These grave markers were sold as part of a funeral package, so they each bear the name of one of a dozen or so African American funeral homes in Atlanta: Hanley, Cox Brothers, Ivey Brothers, Haugabrooks, Sellers, Murdaugh and others. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674036215">One historian</a> noted that “black funeral directors not only regularly participated in the fight for racial equality but also made significant contributions to the cause.” That was certainly true of <a href="https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=186438">Geneva Haugabrooks</a>, who established the Haugabrooks Funeral Home in 1929. She was active in the <a href="https://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/government-politics/atlanta-negro-voters-league-anvl/">Atlanta Negro Voters League</a>, and she supported the <a href="https://negromotoristgreenbook.si.edu/compass/">Negro Motorist Green Book</a>. In 1953, <a href="https://www.proquest.com/hnpatlantadailyworld/docview/490999968/6EACB8A703E24AD9PQ/1?accountid=11824&parentSessionId=pNLzX56RIdYYlazg4PGQjbwYX3MhjRaF8pCdvfzUQoI%3D">the Atlanta chapter of the NAACP honored her</a> for “the valuable work she has done locally and nationally.”</p>
<p>I do not know who came up with the idea of using honorifics in these markers. Perhaps it was Mrs. Haugabrooks, whose funeral home appears on some of the oldest.</p>
<p>In any case, I believe they are worth preserving and remembering, as they restored, in death, a sense of dignity to people who had been denied it in life.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/207200/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>David B. Parker 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>Tombstones that used the honorifics ‘Mr.’ and ‘Mrs.’ restored a sense of dignity to people who had been denied it in life.David B. Parker, Professor of History, Kennesaw State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2063732023-06-13T12:31:02Z2023-06-13T12:31:02ZAfter ‘Rapper’s Delight,’ hip-hop went global – its impact has been massive; so too efforts to keep it real<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/531462/original/file-20230612-260763-85vkdt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=56%2C78%2C4689%2C3053&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">MC Solaar, a pioneer of French rap</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/solaar-en-concert-lors-des-francofolies-de-la-rochelle-en-news-photo/1199615351?adppopup=true">Photo by Eric Catarina/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Soon after the fall 1979 release of “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mcCK99wHrk0">Rapper’s Delight</a>,” versions of the first commercially successful rap recording began cropping up around the world. </p>
<p>Two Portuguese-language versions, “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=byP2Ex4swlg">Bons Tempos</a>” and “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1e5dg4gvEjQ">Melô Do Tagarela</a>,” were put out in Brazil. One version from Jamaica provided a relatively faithful <a href="https://youtu.be/wMp6bSEgk4c">recreation of the Sugarhill Gang original</a>, while “<a href="https://youtu.be/V4GMOL-t7YM">Hotter Reggae Music</a>” slowed down the track, transforming it into reggae. Other local language versions came from the Netherlands with “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RjdqUQnfB7k">Hallo, Hallo, Hallo</a>,” Venezuela with “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9YyqFF_m0Q">La Cotorra Criolla</a>” and Germany with “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6pQ5Xqv6bQk">Rapper’s Deutsch</a>.”</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/531409/original/file-20230612-167932-xm0gc1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/531409/original/file-20230612-167932-xm0gc1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=588&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/531409/original/file-20230612-167932-xm0gc1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=588&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/531409/original/file-20230612-167932-xm0gc1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=588&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/531409/original/file-20230612-167932-xm0gc1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=739&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/531409/original/file-20230612-167932-xm0gc1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=739&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/531409/original/file-20230612-167932-xm0gc1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=739&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">‘Rapper’s Delight’ spreads to Germany in 1980.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.discogs.com/release/1517110-GLS-United-Rappers-Deutsch/image/SW1hZ2U6Mjc5NzkyNTU=">Metronome Musik GmbH/Discogs</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Within a few years, one could hear the song’s DNA being altered in disparate parts of the world, as in Japanese artists Yellow Magic Orchestra’s 1981 “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHZ1GWEoiP0">Rap Phenomena</a>,” Nigerian Dizzy K. Falola’s 1982 “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HrMwSSt1Hd8">Saturday Night Raps</a>” and the French duo Chagrin d’amour’s 1982 “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZLiyZdkkEJU">Chacun fait (c’qui lui plait)</a>.” Even Soviet Russia got into the act with Chas Pik’s “Rap” in 1984.</p>
<h2>… and on and on</h2>
<p>The rapid spread of “Rapper’s Delight” is an important milestone in <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/topics/hip-hop-50-135779">hip-hop’s first 50 years</a>. It marked the beginning of the globalization of rap music and the broader hip-hop culture in which it is embedded, which includes deejaying, break-dancing and graffiti-tagging. </p>
<p>More milestones in hip-hop’s global spread soon followed. In 1984 in France, “<a href="https://youtu.be/9nctOWroU1g">H.I.P.H.O.P.” hosted by DJ Sidney</a> became the first nationally televised weekly show devoted to rap, preceding “Yo! MTV Raps” in the U.S. by some four years. In the early 1990s, a vibrant French rap scene produced the first internationally touring, platinum-selling rap star outside the U.S.: <a href="https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1994-06-08-ca-1865-story.html">MC Solaar</a>. France became – and remains – the second-biggest market for rap in the world. </p>
<p>Indeed, by 2000 the term “global hip-hop” had entered <a href="https://www.discogs.com/release/405511-Various-Speaking-In-Tongues-Diverse-Dialects-From-The-Global-Hip-Hop-Nation">commercial</a> <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=Gg8UiSodjz8C&lpg=PA5&vq=global&pg=PA5#v=onepage&q=%22global%20hip%20hop%22&f=false">and scholarly</a> discourse. Soon, new styles partially informed by hip-hop emerged, like grime in London, <a href="https://youtu.be/yEH6IU7pDOg?t=596">which cultivated its own unique identity</a>.</p>
<h2>The catch</h2>
<p>But the global expansion of hip-hop rides on a paradox. The Black American urban culture that birthed rap and hip-hop makes up its very fabric. But so does the core idea of representing one’s own experience and place. When hip-hop and rap travel abroad, does one or the other have to give? </p>
<p>To an <a href="https://www.wesleyan.edu/academics/faculty/echarry/profile.html">ethnomusicologist</a> like myself, this paradox goes right to the heart of identity and authenticity. How do people use, shape and transform cultural elements from elsewhere to make it speak to their own experience? And in the process, how do markers of authenticity become redefined?</p>
<h2>Multitracking global hip-hop</h2>
<p>With hip-hop, I believe it is helpful to imagine a wide spectrum of possible markers of authenticity – that is, what it means to stay “true” to the art form.</p>
<p>At one end lies the integration of Black American performance styles and fashion. Some efforts may border <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1yKD_-e8neo">appropriation</a> or <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yVR9JykPC-0">mimicry</a>.</p>
<iframe style="border-radius:12px" src="https://open.spotify.com/embed/playlist/4KfQJTnuUojupdOZ3yeH0O?utm_source=generator" width="100%" height="380" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="" allow="autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture" loading="lazy"></iframe>
<p>At the other end lies hip-hop’s potential to inspire global rappers to dig deep into the well of local performance traditions. This could mean sampling music from their own countries or exploring the <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/20174422">quirks and intricacies of their own languages</a> and dialects. </p>
<p>Pioneering hip-hop scholar <a href="https://www.hosumare.com/about">Halifu Osumare</a> explored authenticity in her concept of “<a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1537-4726.2001.2401_171.x">connective marginalities</a>,” which established the blueprint for theorizing about global hip-hop. This key concept concerns “social resonances between Black expressive culture” on the one hand and similar dynamics in other nations and cultures on the other hand.</p>
<p>These connections or resonances can be tied to a shared culture among different parts of the African diaspora or through social class, historical oppression or the marginalization of youth.</p>
<p>Expanding this framework a bit, almost anyone feeling marginalized can draw on a hip-hop ethos. This could include Ukraine’s Alyonna Alyonna, <a href="https://uatv.ua/en/rapper-singer-fight-cyber-bullying-music">who was bullied for the way she looked</a>, and even <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/lions-of-the-north-9780190212605?cc=us&lang=en&">Nordic white supremacists</a>.</p>
<p>Hip-hop scholar and political activist <a href="https://aalbc.com/authors/author.php?author_name=Yvonne+Bynoe">Yvonne Bynoe</a> presented an alternative view on the genre’s worldwide spread. Writing in 2002, <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/43133478">she noted</a>: “While rap music has been globalized, hip-hop culture has not been and cannot be.” To Bynoe, it is irrational to expect that a cultural expression that is centered around Black American experiences and vernacular can speak for all. </p>
<p>“While ‘rap’ as a creative tool is portable and adaptable, it belittles hip-hop culture to continue to insist that as a cultural entity it can be disassociated from its roots,” she wrote.</p>
<h2>Manufacturing authenticity</h2>
<p>A 2007 documentary about hip-hop in Kenya, with the on-point title “<a href="https://www.hiphopcolony.com/">Hip Hop Colony</a>,” addresses the issue from a different standpoint: “Today, Kenya tackles a new breed of colonization,” the narrator notes, “Its chameleon-like quality has allowed it to integrate with cultures around the world. … It is hip-hop [and] in the vein of colonialism it’s dictating the choice of attire, language and lifestyle in general. Unlike the colonists, its presence is welcomed and widely embraced by the majority.” </p>
<p>In a clever twist, the <a href="https://www.michaelwanguhu.com/">filmmaker, Michael Wanguhu,</a> sets up an initial neo-colonial framework and then dismantles it by showing how Kenyans have made hip-hop their own. </p>
<p>Moreover, hip-hop has been seen as a catalyst for cultural self-reflection and revival wherever it lands. </p>
<p>“The first time we heard Grandmaster Flash rapping on a hip-hop track,” Senegalese rapper Faada Freddy of the group Daara J <a href="https://www.npr.org/2005/05/20/4660446/daara-j-senegalese-hip-hop">said in 2006</a>, “everybody was like, ‘OK we know this, because this is taasu,’” referring to a <a href="https://youtu.be/c_yImWVc5QE">Senegalese verbal art form accompanied by drumming</a>.</p>
<p>“We’ve been rhyming like that for a long time,” he added. </p>
<p>Australian aboriginal rapper Wire MC similarly sees a connection between traditional Indigenous gatherings known as “corroboree” – which involve singing, dancing and telling stories – <a href="http://www.jstor.org/stable/24046901">and hip-hop, which he says</a> “is just a modern corroboree.”</p>
<p>“Hip-hop is a part of aboriginal culture; I think it always has been,” he added.</p>
<p>Native American rapper Frank Waln, of the Sicangu Lakota tribe, also <a href="https://vimeo.com/355341843">notes a resonance between hip-hop and Indigenous culture</a>. </p>
<p>“I definitely think there’s a connection between traditional storytelling and hip-hop,” he said. “My people have been storytellers for thousands of years, and this is just a new way to tell our stories.” </p>
<h2>Digging into the well</h2>
<p>Almost anywhere rap and hip-hop have traveled, people have pointed to its resonance with homegrown traditions. Some have employed those traditions to transform hip-hop into something with deep local roots. In this way, Japanese rapper Hime has <a href="https://read.dukeupress.edu/books/book/1072/Hip-Hop-JapanRap-and-the-Paths-of-Cultural">used the ancient poetic form tanka</a> for the chorus of her song “Tateba Shakuyaku.” In the song, she raps about the Japanese concept of “kotodama,” or “the spirit of the language” embedded in the 5-7-5-7-7 syllable count in that chorus. </p>
<p>Similarly, Ghanaian rapper Obrafour has <a href="https://iupress.org/9780253005755/hip-hop-africa/">drawn on esoteric proverbs in his native Twi language</a>, and Somali Canadian rapper K’Naan has <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/337005283_Hip_Hop_as_dusty_foot_philosophy_Engaging_locality">drawn on and paid tribute to Somali oral poetry</a>.</p>
<p>Historical connections between modern-day French rappers and French song <a href="https://journals.openedition.org/volume/1946">have also been fruitfully explored</a>. This should be no surprise, given the dual identities of the children of African immigrants in France, like rapper <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/25/world/europe/rapper-abd-al-malik-pushes-for-new-french-identity.html">Abd al Malik</a>. </p>
<p>The indelible link between hip-hop and Black American culture remains a constant theme in how to understand its transformations around the world. Take one of <a href="http://www.szdaily.com/content/2018-08/22/content_21066727.htm">China’s most well-known rappers, Vava</a>. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/aknkofx2bHg?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">VAVA - My New Swag.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In a 2018 interview in Esquire Singapore, she said that hip-hop “helps us to express our innermost emotions and thoughts about how we understand the world we’re living in.” When asked, “American hip-hop has grown out of the African American struggle. So where does Chinese hip-hop come from?” she replied, “Chinese hip-hop comes from rebellion in young people’s lives. … The generation before us were rockers, but today, we use rap to express ourselves.”</p>
<h2>Rap as universal art form</h2>
<p>The “global spread of authenticity,” as linguist <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15348450701341246">Alastair Pennycook called it in 2007</a>, has been a concern in the genre ever since “Rapper’s Delight” sparked its travel across the world.</p>
<p>In 1982, pioneering deejay <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=WzNEAQAAIAAJ&focus=searchwithinvolume&q=%22rap+in+your+own+language%22">Afrika Bambaataa advised French rappers</a> to “Rap in your own language and speak from your own social awareness.”</p>
<p>Jay-Z addressed the issue in the conclusion of his <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/23/books/23book.html">2010 memoir, “Decoded</a>.” Implicitly noting the distinction between the culture hip-hop and the art form rap, he wrote: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“Rap … is at heart an art form that gave voice to a specific experience, but, like every art, is ultimately about the most common human experiences. … The story of the larger culture is a story of a million MCs all over the world … and inside of them the words are coming, too, the words they need to make sense of the world they see around them. … And when we decode that torrent of words — by which I mean really listen to them with our minds and hearts open — we can understand their world better. And ours, too. It’s the same world.”</p>
</blockquote><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/206373/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Eric Charry 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>Hip-hop traveled far after being birthed by Black Americans in US cities. The journey hasn’t always been smooth.Eric Charry, Professor of Music, Wesleyan UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2038832023-05-16T12:39:47Z2023-05-16T12:39:47ZUS has a long history of state lawmakers silencing elected Black officials and taking power from their constituents<p>Some Republican lawmakers in Georgia are targeting Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, a Black Democrat representing a majority Black district, for removal from office. </p>
<p>These efforts come in the midst of Willis’ investigation and prosecution of former President Donald Trump and 18 others for their alleged conspiracy to overturn results of the state’s 2020 presidential election. </p>
<p>Before a Fulton County grand jury indicted Trump and his co-defendants, Georgia Republican lawmakers pushed through legislation to set up a Prosecuting Attorneys Qualifications Commission, which has the power to discipline or remove from office elected district attorneys whom commission members believe are not adequately enforcing Georgia law. Governor Brian Kemp, also a Republican, <a href="https://gov.georgia.gov/press-releases/2023-05-05/gov-kemp-signs-legislation-creating-prosecuting-attorneys-qualifications">signed the legislation</a> on May 5, 2023. </p>
<p>Steve Gooch, Georgia Senate majority leader, and state Senator Clint Dixon, have said they will use the newly created commission – which will be up and running Oct. 1, 2023 – <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/sep/01/georgia-republicans-fani-willis-unseat">to investigate Willis</a>. </p>
<p>Kemp, who objects, said on Aug. 31, 2023, that he “<a href="https://www.ajc.com/politics/kemp-rejects-talk-of-special-session-warns-of-risks-of-punishing-fani-willis/I4JZYJIORNACFKY2COSFE3VCSI/">hasn’t seen any evidence</a>” Willis violated her oath of office. </p>
<p>These efforts to undercut prosecutors’ authority in Georgia are not happening in a silo. </p>
<p>On Aug. 9, 2023, Florida Republican Governor Ron DeSantis <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2023/08/09/desantis-suspends-state-attorney-worrell-0011044">suspended elected State Attorney Monique Worrell</a>, whom he said was too lenient with criminals. Worrell was Florida’s only Black woman state attorney. DeSantis <a href="https://www.orlandosentinel.com/2023/08/09/ron-desantis-andrew-bain-monique-worrell/">replaced her with Black conservative Andrew Bain</a>. </p>
<p>In Mississippi, legislators have enacted a law that would <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/feb/08/jackson-mississippi-republicans-unelected-court-system">create a new judicial system</a> covering the state’s capital city, Jackson, in place of the current county court system. </p>
<p>In effect since July 1, 2023, the move by a Republican-dominated legislature has been criticized by opponents as creating a “<a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2023/04/24/separate-and-unequal-policing-naacp-sues-mississippi-over-new-laws/11728899002/">separate and unequal</a>” court system that is not answerable to the majority-Black community it would seek to govern.</p>
<p>The law was justified by supporters as an effort to curb the <a href="https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/naacp-sues-mississippi-over-state-takeover-of-jacksons-policing-and-courts/ar-AA1ahuKA">city’s crime level</a>, which includes <a href="https://www.wlbt.com/2023/01/07/analysis-second-straight-year-jacksons-homicide-rate-ranks-highest-us-among-major-cities/">one of the highest murder rates in the nation</a>. </p>
<p>But the move was the third time in recent months that state legislatures have taken highly visible actions to effectively disenfranchise Black voters: On April 6, 2023, the Tennessee House of Representatives <a href="https://www.tennessean.com/story/news/2023/04/07/tennessee-house-expulsion-vote-why-were-lawmakers-expelled/70092066007/">expelled two Black members</a> who represented mostly Black districts. </p>
<p>As a <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=566DVVQAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">sociologist who studies historical issues related to race, gender and social justice</a>, I have closely followed these moves by the states. Throughout U.S. history, I see three main periods of legislative disenfranchisement in which legislative bodies have voted to expel members. These events have been shown to be a form of “<a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5816/blackscholar.44.2.0103">white backlash</a>” working to keep <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/ahr/118.2.551">Black officeholders out of power and their constituents powerless without representation</a>.</p>
<h2>Reconstruction and legislative disenfranchisement</h2>
<p>After the Civil War, the United States engaged in a brief period known as <a href="https://www.history.com/topics/american-civil-war/reconstruction">Reconstruction</a>, which lasted from 1865 to 1877. It was a deliberate attempt to reverse the negative effects and legacies of slavery by enacting economic, political and social policies that directly benefited the formerly enslaved Black people of the South. </p>
<p>The efforts included formally <a href="https://constitution.congress.gov/constitution/amendment-13/">abolishing slavery nationwide</a>, guaranteeing <a href="https://constitution.congress.gov/constitution/amendment-14/">equal protection of the laws</a> to everyone regardless of race, and <a href="https://constitution.congress.gov/constitution/amendment-15/">allowing formerly enslaved people to vote</a>. In addition, formerly Confederate <a href="https://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/history-archaeology/shermans-field-order-no-15/">land was set aside</a> for newly freed Black families, and former Confederate soldiers were not allowed to vote.</p>
<p>But after Tennessee politician Andrew Johnson, who had been Abraham Lincoln’s running mate in 1864, took office upon Lincoln’s assassination, many of those provisions of Reconstruction <a href="https://www.nps.gov/anjo/andrew-johnson-and-reconstruction.htm">were reversed</a>. Former Confederate combatants were allowed to vote, and confiscated Confederate property was returned to its prewar owners.</p>
<p>In addition, Johnson and Congress made it easier for defeated Confederate states to <a href="https://www.nps.gov/anjo/andrew-johnson-and-reconstruction.htm">rejoin the Union</a>, which allowed former Confederate leaders to regain their previous positions of power in local and national governments. </p>
<p>Georgia was originally readmitted to the Union in <a href="https://www.marshallnewsmessenger.com/opinion/columns/georgias-readmission-to-the-union/article_afb9fc3e-886c-5b5d-ac2f-0e975f68b32e.html">July 1868</a>. But just two months later, in September, the Democratically controlled Georgia Assembly, with a total of 196 members, voted to expel all 33 of its Black elected officials.</p>
<p>Immediately upon making themselves into an all-white legislature, the remaining assembly members enacted the infamous <a href="https://www.history.com/topics/black-history/black-codes">Black Codes</a>. These codes created a unique set of laws specific to the newly freed Blacks, including limiting the types of work they could do.</p>
<p>Collectively, the legislative expulsion of the Black officials and the imposition of the Black Codes served to <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/perspectives-on-politics/article/rule-by-violence-rule-by-law-lynching-jim-crow-and-the-continuing-evolution-of-voter-suppression-in-the-us/CBC6AD86B557A093D7E832F8D821978B">effectively disenfranchise</a> the Black voters of Georgia. Senator Henry McNeal Turner, one of those expelled, defiantly <a href="https://talkingpointsmemo.com/cafe/georgia-unique-bloody-history-voter-disenfranchisement">asked</a>: “Am I a man? If I am such, I claim the rights of a man.”</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/526293/original/file-20230515-24710-e5v3f4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A drawing of a Black man standing on a porch with people surrounding him." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/526293/original/file-20230515-24710-e5v3f4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/526293/original/file-20230515-24710-e5v3f4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/526293/original/file-20230515-24710-e5v3f4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/526293/original/file-20230515-24710-e5v3f4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/526293/original/file-20230515-24710-e5v3f4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=626&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/526293/original/file-20230515-24710-e5v3f4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=626&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/526293/original/file-20230515-24710-e5v3f4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=626&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Under the Black Codes, which were restrictive laws in the post-Reconstruction South, a Black person could be sold into what was effectively a new version of slavery if they could not repay fines or debts.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/copy-of-an-illustration-showing-a-free-black-man-being-sold-news-photo/134341296">Interim Archives/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The civil rights era</h2>
<p>Another major effort to disenfranchise Black Americans came during their next major push to achieve political, social and economic equality: the <a href="https://www.history.com/topics/black-history/civil-rights-movement">Civil Rights Movement</a> of the 1950s and 1960s. Opponents targeted two prominent civil rights activists who had been elected to represent their communities: Adam Clayton Powell Jr. and Julian Bond.</p>
<p>Bond was elected as a Democrat to the Georgia House of Representatives in 1965, but on Jan. 10, 1966, the Democratically controlled House voted not to seat him, citing his criticism of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/08997225.1974.10555931">U.S. involvement in Vietnam and support of students who were protesting the war</a>. A year later, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously ruled that Bond’s <a href="https://mtsu.edu/first-amendment/article/182/bond-v-floyd">First Amendment rights</a> had been violated and ordered that he be seated. But for that intervening year, his constituents had no voice in their state legislature. Bond ultimately served in the Georgia Legislature for <a href="https://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/history-archaeology/julian-bond-1940-2015/">another two decades</a>, before turning to teaching and activism.</p>
<p>Powell’s situation was different. He was the first African American to be elected to Congress from New York and from any state in the Northeast. Starting in 1945, he represented the district that included the majority-Black Harlem neighborhood of New York City. He became <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/2783891?seq=12">one of the most important Democrats</a> in the House, but in the mid-1960s, he found himself <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Adam-Clayton-Powell-Jr">embroiled in personal and financial scandals</a>. </p>
<p>After the election of 1966, the House created a committee to investigate Powell’s actions and <a href="https://history.house.gov/People/Listing/P/POWELL,-Adam-Clayton,-Jr--(P000477)/">refused to seat him</a> until the committee’s report was complete. The report found fault, but committee members were split on the proper discipline for Powell. Ultimately the whole House voted to keep him out.</p>
<p>Powell <a href="https://history.house.gov/People/Listing/P/POWELL,-Adam-Clayton,-Jr--(P000477)/">sued to reclaim his seat</a>, saying the House had excluded him unconstitutionally. He also won the special election in April 1967 created by the vacancy but didn’t take his seat because of the lawsuit. The removal of Powell meant that Harlem was <a href="https://archive.org/details/kingofcatsli00hayg">the only congressional district in the nation</a> without a representative from 1967 to 1969.</p>
<p>In 1969, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the <a href="https://caselaw.findlaw.com/court/us-supreme-court/395/486.html">House had acted unconstitutionally</a> by refusing to seat Powell. By then, Powell had also won the 1968 regularly scheduled election and had been seated, though without the seniority and committee positions that would normally have been given to someone who had continuously been a House member. </p>
<h2>Black Lives Matter movement</h2>
<p>In the aftermath of the George Floyd killing, a <a href="https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/blacklivesmatter-hashtag-first-appears-facebook-sparking-a-movement">new social movement</a> emerged across the United States. With this new activism came another “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/S0003055421000460">white backlash</a>” in the form of legislative disenfranchisement.</p>
<p>In May 2022, Tiara Young Hudson, a long-serving Black public defender, <a href="https://www.cbs42.com/alabama-news/last-month-jefferson-county-voters-elected-a-new-judge-now-she-may-never-take-the-bench/">won the Democratic primary</a> for a judgeship in Jefferson County, Alabama. <a href="https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/jeffersoncountyalabama">More than half of the county’s population</a> is nonwhite. Facing no opposition in the general election, she was expected to win and take office. </p>
<p>But two weeks after the primary, a state judicial commission, divided along racial lines, <a href="https://www.al.com/news/2022/06/alabama-commission-moves-vacant-jefferson-county-judgeship-to-understaffed-madison-county-courts.html">eliminated the position she was a candidate for</a> and created a new judgeship in the majority-white Madison County. </p>
<p>Hudson immediately <a href="https://www.al.com/news/2022/07/candidate-who-won-jefferson-county-judicial-seat-sues-to-block-transfer-of-seat-to-madison-county.html">sued to block the shift</a>, saying it violated the Alabama Constitution and only the state Legislature had the authority to reallocate judgeships. In March 2023, the state Supreme Court <a href="https://www.al.com/news/2023/03/alabama-supreme-court-allows-jefferson-county-judgeship-transfer-to-madison-county.html">dismissed Hudson’s complaint</a>, effectively stripping the Black people of Jefferson County of a representative they had elected to be their voice on the state’s roster of judges.</p>
<p>And on April 6, 2023, the Republican majority of the Tennessee House of Representatives voted to expel two Black legislators – Justin Pearson and Justin Jones – for participating in a protest calling for gun legislation following yet another mass shooting. </p>
<p>Within days, both Pearson and Jones had been temporarily reinstated by processes for filling vacant seats, and subsequently <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/elections/tennessee-democrats-expelled-gop-protests-special-election-rcna97374">reclaimed their seats in special elections</a>. Their alleged violation was participating in a protest against legislature rules – but their real violation, I believe, was that they are Black. I believe that is the reason Willis is being targeted too.</p>
<p><em>This is an updated version of an article originally published on May 16, 2023.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/203883/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>Throughout US history, a ‘white backlash’ has worked to keep Black officeholders and their constituents out of power. Atlanta DA Fani Willis is just the latest.Rodney Coates, Professor of Critical Race and Ethnic Studies, Miami UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2025012023-04-20T12:41:38Z2023-04-20T12:41:38ZHopelessness about the future is a key reason some Black young adults consider suicide, new study finds<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/521105/original/file-20230414-14-sc3uxf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C11%2C3834%2C2144&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The study analyzed survey responses from young Black adults ages 18-30. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/lonely-male-teen-sitting-building-stairs-royalty-free-image/1183330478?phrase=African%20American%20male%20teenager%20depressed&adppopup=true">Motortion/iStock via Getty Images Plus</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>The <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/topics/research-brief-83231">Research Brief</a> is a short take about interesting academic work.</em></p>
<h2>The big idea</h2>
<p>Feeling hopeless about the future is one of the primary reasons Black young adults consider suicide. That is one of the key <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s40615-023-01530-8">findings from a new study</a> I published in the Journal of Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities. Hopelessness proved to be the most common reason that Black men considered suicide, and it was one of the most common reasons Black women consider suicide. </p>
<p>The Black young adult women in this study were more likely to seriously think about suicide because they could not live up to the expectations of other people and because they felt lonely and sad. </p>
<p>The study analyzed survey responses from 264 Black young adults between the ages of 18 and 30. I recruited participants online from across the U.S. and asked them to complete a single survey in the spring of 2020 that included a list of eight potential reasons that they may have considered suicide within the past two weeks. The data and participant responses highlighted in this article come from a larger study focusing more generally on issues of mental health in Black young adults. </p>
<p>My previous work has explored whether encountering racial discrimination, experiencing feelings of worthlessness and adopting different strategies for coping with stress are linked to either <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2022.106448">increases or decreases in suicidal thoughts</a>. This new study, however, builds upon my earlier research by examining some of the specific reasons Black young adults consider suicide. </p>
<p>In my study, the primary reasons Black young adults consider suicide could be grouped into three main categories. First, people who experienced pronounced feelings of failure, hopelessness, being overwhelmed and a lack of accomplishment made up about 59% of the study sample. The second category, which comprised nearly one-third of study participants, included those who considered suicide because they felt somewhat hopeless and other reasons not captured in this study. The final category included Black young adults who reported that although they were accomplished in life, they still felt extremely lonely and sad. Participants in this last group made up 9% of the total study sample. </p>
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<h2>Why it matters</h2>
<p>A recent report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows a 36.6% increase in suicides among <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.15585/mmwr.mm7206a4">young Black Americans ages 10 to 24</a> from 2018 to 2021. Suicide rates also increased among American Indian or Alaska Native, Hispanic and multiracial adults ages 25 to 44. Therefore, it is critically important to better understand the underlying factors that contribute to this trend. </p>
<p>Other national data shows that suicides increased each year for <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaac.2021.08.021">both Black adolescent boys and girls from 2003 to 2017</a>. Still, more research is needed to measure suicide risk among Black youths as they transition from adolescence to young or early adulthood. </p>
<p>Also, it is important to note that there is rarely one reason someone considers ending their life. Instead, several events or painful circumstances may occur over time that ultimately influence an individual’s suicide risk. Loved ones who understand why Black young adults consider suicide will be better equipped to support their friends and family members who may be suicidal by directing them to <a href="https://afsp.org/mental-health-resources-for-underrepresented-communities">guided resources</a> and encouraging them to seek professional help for their specific mental health needs. </p>
<p>These findings can also be used to inform development of therapeutic interventions designed to intentionally meet the needs of Black young adults who are either actively or passively thinking about ending their lives. </p>
<h2>What still isn’t known</h2>
<p>While the results generated from this study are helpful in confirming that hopelessness serves as a primary reason for suicidal thinking in Black young adults, researchers still need to identify the specific sources of hopelessness for this particular population. </p>
<p>Importantly, I collected this data using a single survey during the first phase of the global COVID-19 pandemic, and the timing of this study may have shaped participants’ responses. Therefore, I will test the same survey questions with different samples of Black young adults over an extended period of time to determine whether any potential changes emerge.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/202501/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Janelle R. Goodwill currently serves as the principal investigator for a suicide prevention intervention funded by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). The data presented in this article are not supported by the NIMH grant. </span></em></p>New research points to feelings of failure, hopelessness, loneliness and sadness as some of the potential reasons Black young people are considering or carrying out suicide at unprecedented rates.Janelle R. Goodwill, Assistant Professor of Social Work, Policy, and Practice, University of ChicagoLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1950862023-04-05T17:52:00Z2023-04-05T17:52:00ZBlack singles with college education embrace life without marriage<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/519412/original/file-20230404-20-6snpsz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A new book titled 'The Love Jones Cohort' examines the lifestyles of middle-class Black Americans.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/african-american-woman-using-social-media-on-smart-royalty-free-image/1432253560">Morsa Images/DigitalVision Collection/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>Why is it seemingly OK to ask single people “Why are you single?” when married people are rarely asked “Why are you married?”</em></p>
<p><em><a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=EhVdUK4AAAAJ&hl=en">Sociologist Kris Marsh</a> hopes to break this double-standard with her new book “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/9781316672754">The Love Jones Cohort: Single and Living Alone in the Black Middle Class</a>.” In it, she examines the lifestyles of single people and explores the stigma that can come with their decision to not marry.</em></p>
<h2>What’s the story behind the title?</h2>
<p>My mentor and I coined the expression “The Love Jones Cohort” over coffee on a hot and humid summer day in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. We were discussing how my idea to study Black middle class men and women who are single and living alone came from both media and my own life experiences. </p>
<p>I said that I was noticing – in both film and TV – a demographic shift in Black characters away from married couples to single adults. I believed this started with the 1997 romance drama “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0119572/">Love Jones</a>,” starring Larenz Tate as an up-and-coming poet, and Nia Long as a talented but recently unemployed photographer.</p>
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<img alt="Movie still of group of young adults smoking and drinking at a table" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518593/original/file-20230330-390-elezol.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518593/original/file-20230330-390-elezol.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=405&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518593/original/file-20230330-390-elezol.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=405&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518593/original/file-20230330-390-elezol.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=405&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518593/original/file-20230330-390-elezol.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=509&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518593/original/file-20230330-390-elezol.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=509&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518593/original/file-20230330-390-elezol.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=509&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">The 1997 film ‘Love Jones’ is a story of Black love, life and friendship that still resonates today.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/larenz-tate-and-nia-long-having-drinks-with-another-couples-news-photo/159840963">Addis Wechsler Pictures/Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>The film follows the two characters, as well as their friends and acquaintances, as they pursue careers and lovers. It deals with relationships, premarital sex, choosing partners, the <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-women-still-earn-a-lot-less-than-men-109128">gender pay gap</a> and the realization that growing old and single might affect one’s health. More than 25 years later, the film remains a <a href="https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/la-et-mn-love-jones-oral-history-20170313-htmlstory.html">staple within Black culture</a>.</p>
<h2>Tell us more about this shift in TV and film</h2>
<p>In the 1980s and 1990s, the media prototype for the middle class – whether Black or white – had been a married couple with children. For the Black middle class, this was exemplified by the Huxtable family from “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0086687/">The Cosby Show</a>,” a sitcom starring Bill Cosby that ran from 1984 to 1992 about an obstetrician father, a corporate attorney and their four happy, intelligent and adorable children. </p>
<p>After “The Cosby Show,” a surge of sitcoms and films depicted Black middle-class characters of a quite different demographic profile. These characters were 20-something, educated professionals who had never been married, were child-free and lived alone or with an unmarried friend or two. “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0106056">Living Single</a>,” a sitcom that ran from 1993 to 1998, centered on six Black friends living in a Brooklyn brownstone. “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0247102">Girlfriends</a>,” another popular sitcom, ran from 2000 to 2008 and followed the career and dating lives of four single Black women. </p>
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<img alt="Issa Rae and Yvonne Orji laugh while getting photographed at an event" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518828/original/file-20230331-18-6kwvv7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518828/original/file-20230331-18-6kwvv7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=683&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518828/original/file-20230331-18-6kwvv7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=683&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518828/original/file-20230331-18-6kwvv7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=683&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518828/original/file-20230331-18-6kwvv7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=858&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518828/original/file-20230331-18-6kwvv7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=858&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518828/original/file-20230331-18-6kwvv7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=858&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">Issa Rae and Yvonne Orji starred in ‘Insecure,’ which followed a group of young Black women living and dating in Los Angeles.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/issa-rae-and-yvonne-orji-attend-vulture-festival-2021-at-news-photo/1353132110">David Livingston/Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>More recent TV shows that represent the Love Jones cohort include “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2345481">Being Mary Jane</a>,” which ran from 2013 to 2019 and was about a young Black female news anchor and her career and family, and “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5024912">Insecure</a>,” which ended in 2021 after six seasons. “Insecure” followed four Black women who are best friends as they deal with insecurities and uncomfortable everyday experiences, career and relationship challenges, and a variety of social and racial issues relating to the contemporary Black experience.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, on the big screen, films depicting this demographic profile include “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0250274/">The Brothers</a>” and “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0269341">Two Can Play That Game</a>” in 2001, and “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0301181">Deliver Us From Eva</a>” in 2003.</p>
<p>This shift in Hollywood, it turns out, was also grounded in the real world – where a <a href="http://www.doi.org/10.1093/sf/86.2.735">growing number of middle-class Black Americans</a> in recent decades are single and living alone. Looking at Census data, I learned that the number of middle-class Black people age 25-44 that were single and living alone jumped from <a href="http://www.doi.org/10.1093/sf/86.2.735">6% in 1980 to 14% in 2000</a>, where it remains today. </p>
<h2>What are some of your most interesting findings?</h2>
<p>Several findings stand out from my interviews with members of the Love Jones Cohort in the summer of 2015.</p>
<p>A number of the men and women – who were all identified by pseudonyms in the study – actively chose singlehood. For example, Genesis, who works in brand management, had decided to not date for the immediate future. “Right now I’m more content with being single due to other priorities,” she said.</p>
<p>Many also enjoyed the economic autonomy that accompanied being single. “I decide what I want to do, if it’s political, if it’s social, I decide, and I don’t have to answer to anyone,” said Joanna, a 47-year-old communications specialist. However, they also reported that buying a home on a single income can be an economic hurdle. </p>
<p>While freedom and self-reliance were central aspects of the cohort’s lifestyle, so was – in many cases – what I call “situational loneliness.” This refers to bouts of mild to moderate loneliness that ebb and flow over short periods of time, such as Valentine’s Day. As a result, members in the cohort tended to place high value on interactions with family, friends and social networks.</p>
<p>In fact, friends were often perceived as a direct extension of their families, and both men and women expressed how friends met various social needs – whether this be workout partners, golf buddies or fellow foodies.</p>
<p>The women in the cohort saw their female friends as sources of emotional support, and these nurturing, nonromantic relationships were central to their single and living alone lifestyle. The cohort’s men, meanwhile, talked about their circle of friends in more pragmatic terms. “My friends come over. … We have a rooftop pool and different stuff like that. They’ll come over and want to hang out and chill,” noted Reggie, a 30-year-old financial analyst.</p>
<h2>What’s driving single life?</h2>
<p>When people talk about the driving factors of Black singlehood, the discussion often involves suggesting that Black singles – usually Black women – are too picky and need to lower or modify their standards to be partnered or married.</p>
<p>The Love Jones Cohort’s women were hopeful that if they did decide to partner, it would be with an educated Black man. Research supports the tendency for people to want to marry or partner with people in their same <a href="https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.soc.24.1.395">social and economic class</a>. However, Black women are <a href="https://www.jbhe.com/2019/03/the-gender-gap-in-african-american-educational-attainment-2/">outpacing Black men in higher education</a>. According to <a href="https://www.census.gov/data/tables/2018/demo/education-attainment/cps-detailed-tables.html">2018 Census data</a>, <a href="https://www.jbhe.com/2019/03/the-gender-gap-in-african-american-educational-attainment-2/">19% of Black men</a> between the ages of 25 and 29 held a bachelor’s degree compared to 26% of Black women. This can lead to a disparity in resources and social standing. </p>
<p>In the book, I argue that racism and gendered racism constrain personal choices and also need to be taken into consideration when discussing Black singlehood. </p>
<p>For example, sociologist <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=TcTbU6oAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">Celeste Vaughn Curington</a> and her colleagues coined the term “<a href="https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520293458/the-dating-divide">digital-sexual racism</a>” after they conducted a comprehensive study of a diverse group of daters. According to Curington, the term refers to how Black daters are rendered “simultaneously hyper-visible and invisible. … They are contacted on dating sites specifically because they are Black but also ignored on other user sites entirely because they are Black.”</p>
<p>I’m asking readers to consider how singlehood is not simply because of an individual deficit, choice or behavior. I hope for the book to challenge readers to consider how structural forces and social contexts also fit into the conversation on singlehood.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/195086/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kris Marsh does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A sociologist interviewed dozens of middle-class Black singles about their friendships, freedom and dating lives.Kris Marsh, Associate Professor of Sociology, University of MarylandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1946182023-03-10T13:40:54Z2023-03-10T13:40:54ZBiggest racial gap in prison is among violent offenders – focusing on intervention instead of incarceration could change the numbers<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/514323/original/file-20230308-1134-uk6k7t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=4%2C184%2C3230%2C2187&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Black men disproportionately make up the US prison population.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/CriminalJusticeRacialDivide/8233901987644f12a3b849a880a5a4a4/photo?Query=Black%20prison%20U.S.&mediaType=photo&sortBy=arrivaldatetime:desc&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=758&currentItemNo=259">AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Racial disparities in state imprisonment rates dropped significantly during the first two decades of the 21st century. </p>
<p>That’s one of the main findings <a href="https://counciloncj.foleon.com/reports/racial-disparities/national-trends">from a report</a> published by one of us in late 2022, along with Georgia State University colleague <a href="https://aysps.gsu.edu/profile/william-sabol/">William Sabol</a>, for the Council on Criminal Justice, nonpartisan think tank.</p>
<p>But that headline decline tells only half the story. The narrowing is significant – down some 40% in the 20 years to 2020 – but Black adults were still being imprisoned at 4.9 times the rate of white adults in 2020, compared with 8.2 times at the turn of the century.</p>
<p>Of equal concern to us, as Black Americans and <a href="https://aysps.gsu.edu/profile/thaddeus-johnson/">scholars of</a> <a href="https://aysps.gsu.edu/profile/natasha-johnson/">criminal justice</a>, is where the largest gaps exist in imprisonment rates once you break down the data. With a steep decline in the drug imprisonment gap between Black and white Americans – <a href="https://counciloncj.foleon.com/reports/racial-disparities/national-trends">from 15 to 1 in 2000 to just under 4 to 1 in 2019</a> – the biggest racial disparity now exists among people incarcerated for violent felony offenses. These violent offenses cover a range of criminal behavior from rape to robbery to murder.</p>
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<p>The <a href="https://counciloncj.foleon.com/reports/racial-disparities/national-trends">Council on Criminal Justice report</a> shows that states incarcerated Black adults for violent offenses at a rate over six times that of white adults by 2019, the most recent year for which offense-specific data is available.</p>
<h2>Both victims and offenders</h2>
<p>It has long been accepted that the racial disparity in incarceration rates for drug offenses is the <a href="https://doi.org//10.1177/0022042616678614">result of bias in the system</a>. Black people <a href="https://www.vox.com/2015/3/17/8227569/war-on-drugs-racism">do not use</a> or <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/0735648X.2009.9721270">traffic</a> drugs more than their white counterparts. Rather, Black communities have borne the brunt of drug imprisonment because of discriminatory enforcement. </p>
<p>But this does not seem to be the case when it comes to felony violence. There is evidence to suggest that the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s10940-017-9357-6">relatively higher Black incarceration rates</a> for violent crimes, especially homicides, are due to an <a href="https://counciloncj.foleon.com/reports/racial-disparities/national-trends">overrepresentation of violent offenders and victims</a> in Black communities.</p>
<p>The homicide rate for Black Americans (29.3 per 100,000) was about <a href="https://wonder.cdc.gov/">seven and a half times higher</a> than the white homicide rate (3.9 per 100,000) in 2020. Black Americans were also about <a href="https://ncvs.bjs.ojp.gov/multi-year-trends/crimeType">twice as likely</a> to report receiving medical treatment for physical injuries sustained from an assault. </p>
<p>Most acts of violence involve a victim and offender of the <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2020/09/29/fact-check-meme-shows-incorrect-homicide-stats-race/5739522002/">same race</a>. According to the most recent data available, despite accounting for roughly <a href="https://wonder.cdc.gov/Bridged-Race-v2020.HTML">14% of the U.S. population</a>, Black Americans comprise over half of the known <a href="https://www.ojjdp.gov/ojstatbb/ezashr/asp/off_selection.asp">homicide offenders</a> and more than a <a href="https://bjs.ojp.gov/content/pub/pdf/revcoa18.pdf">third of rape, robbery and aggravated assault offenders</a> identified by victims.</p>
<h2>Structural racism and violent crime</h2>
<p>The evidence suggests that Black Americans both commit and suffer the bulk of serious violent crimes. </p>
<p>Of course, this should not be misconstrued as suggesting Black people are inherently more violent. Rather, it demonstrates the structural and economic barriers that Black Americans continue to face.</p>
<p>Striking racial gaps, rooted in a legacy of structural racism, have left generations of Black people with disproportionately <a href="https://graphics.reuters.com/GLOBAL-RACE/USA/nmopajawjva/#0">less wealth and education, lower access to health care</a>, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007%2Fs41996-022-00109-5">less stable housing</a> and differential <a href="https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.abf4491">exposure</a> to environmental harms like <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/bjc/azab059">air pollution</a>. Such factors <a href="https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2021.699049">contribute</a> to concentrated poverty, racially segregated neighborhoods and other <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lana.2021.100052">community conditions tied to violent offending</a>.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://crim.sas.upenn.edu/fact-check/violent-crime-increasing">recent rise in violent crime</a> has affected all demographics, but especially Black Americans. Data from the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 saw an <a href="https://wonder.cdc.gov/ucd-icd10.html">average of 10</a> more Black lives lost each day to homicide than the year before. During this same period, the average number of white homicide victims increased by nearly three per day.</p>
<p>This increase was not evenly distributed across Black communities. Most Black homicide victims were young males. The <a href="https://wonder.cdc.gov/">U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates</a> that Black men ages 15 to 34 represented nearly a third of all U.S. homicide deaths in 2021 and over a quarter since 2000.</p>
<h2>‘Throwing away the key’ hasn’t worked</h2>
<p>Mass incarceration and the tough-on-crime policies of the past have been unable to fix the problem. </p>
<p>Those who victimize others should undoubtedly be held accountable, but violent offenders already serve substantial prison terms in the U.S. A <a href="https://bjs.ojp.gov/library/publications/recidivism-prisoners-released-24-states-2008-10-year-follow-period-2008-2018">Bureau of Justice Statistics study</a> of 24 state prison systems reported that convicted murderers released in 2008 had spent an average of almost 18 years in prison. Nearly all violent offenders (96%) served 10 to 20 years of their full sentences. In comparison with other countries, the U.S. tends to <a href="https://counciloncj.foleon.com/tfls/long-sentences-by-the-numbers/an-international-perspective">lock up offenders for more extended periods</a>.</p>
<p>We believe simply incarcerating more people for longer periods is not a sustainable or efficient public safety strategy. Lengthy prison sentences temporarily stop criminals from victimizing communities while they are under confinement. However, <a href="https://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/2007/2007.10268.pdf">no clear-cut evidence</a> exists that locking up convicted offenders and “throwing away the key” provides lasting public safety benefits.</p>
<p>Indeed, research suggests harsher sentences offer diminishing public safety returns for two main reasons. First, people tend to “age out” of crime, in that most criminals <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/22/sunday-review/too-old-to-commit-crime.html">stop lawbreaking activities by middle age</a>. Secondly, a relatively <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007%2Fs00127-013-0783-y">small share of individuals</a> commit a disproportionate amount of crime in their communities.</p>
<p>The effects of stiffer sentences are also weakened by the “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s12103-020-09555-z">replacement effect</a>” common in criminal activities, by which incarcerating offenders leads to other offenders <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1559-1816.2003.tb02076.x">taking their place on the streets</a> – this is true especially when it comes to violent crime involving gangs and drug dealers.</p>
<h2>Incarceration leads to community harm</h2>
<p>Moreover, a reliance on mass incarceration as a solution to crime has perpetuated the historical disadvantages faced by Black Americans. </p>
<p>Studies have consistently revealed a <a href="https://issues.org/effects-mass-incarceration-communities-color/">host of collateral damages</a> linked to incarceration that disproportionately affects Black families. The imprisonment of a family member can cause households significant <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/jomf.12699">emotional and psychological distress</a>, <a href="https://www.americanprogress.org/article/americas-broken-criminal-legal-system-contributes-to-wealth-inequality/">financial hardship</a> from the loss of income and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s10940-022-09550-z">residential instability</a>. </p>
<p>High levels of imprisonment in the community also <a href="https://nap.nationalacademies.org/read/18613/chapter/12">undermine</a> employment and community relationships necessary to reduce the likelihood of criminal activity. Reflecting both the causes and consequences of disproportionate incarceration, neighborhoods with the highest rates of incarcerated residents tend to be characterized by <a href="https://doi.org/10.17226/18613">high rates</a> of poverty and racial segregation.</p>
<p>As such, by simply implementing stricter laws and practices, legislative leadership risks further contributing to crime and social inequities.</p>
<h2>A new, targeted approach?</h2>
<p>So if lengthy incarceration isn’t the answer, what is? All indications suggest that improving public safety requires intervening in the lives of, in particular, young Black men. Research shows that most young Black men involved in violent crime are traumatized from being victimized or <a href="https://doi.org/10.2105%2FAJPH.2004.044560">afraid of being victimized themselves</a>. They turn to violence or carry weapons for survival, largely because of a <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/23311886.2016.1227293">lack of faith in the justice system</a>.</p>
<p>This all points to the need for a targeted and holistic approach to reducing violent crime, which combines policing strategies focused on the offenders and places most susceptible to serious violence, with initiatives addressing the root causes of both individual and community violence.</p>
<p>Solving core problems through improved access to adequate education, health care, housing, services targeting at-risk youth and habitual offenders, and job training and placement is challenging but, we believe, necessary to keep Americans safer.</p>
<p>Research shows that interventions targeting risk factors, such as <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/soin.12072">unemployment</a>, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/epirev/mxy004">substance abuse</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177%2F0093854820942285">housing</a> problems, can significantly improve reentry and rehabilitation outcomes, even among <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0306624X16645083">high-risk individuals</a>. </p>
<p>For example, in Oakland, California, community partners have worked with law enforcement to combine focused policing efforts with broad-ranging outreach and social supports to enhance trust in the system. From <a href="https://giffords.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/Giffords-Law-Center-A-Case-Study-in-Hope.pdf">2012 to 2018</a>, the city achieved a nearly 50% reduction in shootings and homicides. However, as seen with other interventions across the U.S., much of Oakland’s progress was lost largely because the pandemic lockdowns and social distancing restrictions starting in 2020 <a href="https://secondpress.substack.com/p/giffords-law-center-the-ultimate-264#details">upended</a> the existing network of relationships and services.</p>
<p>Community partnership-oriented interventions able to withstand the toll of the pandemic continued to see reductions in violence and recidivism. The READI violence intervention program in Chicago, for instance, provides those most affected by gun violence with subsidized employment alongside cognitive behavioral therapy and personal development services. <a href="https://urbanlabs.uchicago.edu/attachments/a62ee6577262a53b83e54b14ba4a1995bccbe9be/store/8b89a14e657c8ae9268ef3c72333c7043cca2bbc29c57478f24720b00cb6/READI+01.2023.pdf">Early reports</a> show an encouraging decline in arrests and gun assaults among READI Chicago participants.</p>
<p>In our view, these efforts suggest that while there will, of course, remain a need for consequences for violent offending, the focus needs to be more on intervention rather than incarceration.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/194618/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Thaddeus L. Johnson is affiliated with the Council on Criminal Justice. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Natasha N. Johnson 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 has one of the highest incarceration rates in the world. When it comes to violent offenders and the Black community, the system isn’t working, argue criminologists.Thaddeus L. Johnson, Assistant Professor of Criminal Justice and Criminology, Georgia State UniversityNatasha N. Johnson, Clinical Instructor of Criminal Justice and Criminology, Georgia State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1995812023-03-06T13:35:55Z2023-03-06T13:35:55ZAmericans remain hopeful about democracy despite fears of its demise – and are acting on that hope<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/513208/original/file-20230302-83-yerkvc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C109%2C4311%2C2760&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Black voters are punishing anti-democratic candidates at the ballot box.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/BlackVotersWisconsin/650e7d8af49a4535b74a3851d47c8f99/photo?Query=black%20voters%20&mediaType=photo&sortBy=arrivaldatetime:desc&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=797&currentItemNo=11">AP Photo/Morry Gash</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>President Joe Biden will <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2022/11/29/joint-statement-between-costa-rica-the-netherlands-the-republic-of-korea-the-republic-of-zambia-and-the-united-states-on-the-announcement-of-the-second-summit-for-democracy/">convene world leaders beginning on March 29, 2023</a>, to discuss the state of democracies around the world.</p>
<p>The Summit for Democracy, a virtual event being co-hosted by the White House, is being <a href="https://www.state.gov/summit-for-democracy/">touted as an opportunity</a> to “reflect, listen and learn” with the aim of encouraging “democratic renewal.”</p>
<p>As <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=8LCrZXcAAAAJ&hl=en">political scientists</a>, <a href="https://andrenewright.com/">we have been</a> <a href="https://polisci.la.psu.edu/people/map6814/">doing something</a> very similar. In the fall of 2022 we listened to thousands of U.S. residents about their views on the state of American democracy. What we found was that, despite widespread fears over the future of democracy, many people are also hopeful, and that hope translated into “voting for democracy” by <a href="https://www.usnews.com/news/national-news/articles/2022-12-30/how-democracy-fought-back-in-2022">shunning election result deniers at the polls</a>.</p>
<p>Our <a href="https://2022electionpoll.us/">study</a> – and indeed <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/06/us/politics/biden-democracy-threat.html">Biden’s stated push for democracy</a> – comes at a unique point in American political history.</p>
<p>As a group, we have decades of experience studying politics and believe that not since the American Civil War has there been so much concern that American democracy, while always a <a href="https://www.loc.gov/loc/lcib/0704/franklin.html">work in progress</a>, is under threat. <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2022/06/06/public-trust-in-government-1958-2022/">Survey trends</a> point to eroding trust in democratic institutions. And in addition to serving as a <a href="https://www.npr.org/2022/01/03/1069764164/american-democracy-poll-jan-6">direct reminder</a> of our political system’s fragility, the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol provoked concern of the potential of <a href="https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2022/11/where-are-we-going-america/">democratic backsliding</a> in the U.S.</p>
<h2>Fears of a failing democracy</h2>
<p>The 2022 midterms were the first nationwide ballot to take place after the Jan. 6 attack. The vote provided a good opportunity to check in with potential U.S. voters over how they viewed the risks to democracy.</p>
<p>As such, in the fall of 2022, the <a href="https://africanamericanresearch.us/">African American Research Collaborative</a> – of which one of us is a member – worked with a team of <a href="https://2022electionpoll.us/partners/">partners</a> to create the <a href="https://2022electionpoll.us/">Midterm Election Voter Poll</a>. In an online and phone survey, we asked more than 12,000 U.S. voters from a variety of backgrounds a series of questions about voting intention and trust in national politics. Respondents were also quizzed over their concern about the state of American democracy.</p>
<p>On a five-point scale ranging from “very” to “not at all,” the survey asked how worried respondents were that: “The political system in the United States is failing and there is a decent chance that we will no longer have a functioning democracy within the next 10 years.”</p>
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<p>Roughly 6 in 10 Americans expressed fear that democracy is in peril, with 35% saying they were “very worried.”</p>
<p>Broken down by race and ethnicity, white Americans were the most concerned, with 64% expressing some worry that democracy is in peril. Black and Latino Americans were slightly less concerned. Asian Americans appeared the least worried, with 55% expressing concern. </p>
<p>Of the 63% of respondents who registered concern, more than half said they were “very worried” that democracy is in trouble and that it may soon come to an end.</p>
<p>Such fragility-of-democracy concerns can have a <a href="https://doi.org/10.31219/osf.io/my987">self-perpetuating effect</a>; voters’ increasing lack of faith in their system can hasten the collapse in government they fear. </p>
<p>For example, negative attitudes about democracy can also destabilize voting habits – prompting some to skip elections altogether while motivating others to swing back and forth between candidates and political parties from one election to another. This pattern of voting can, in turn, lead to gridlock in government or worse: the election of cynical politicians who are less able – or even willing – to govern. It is a process that former Democratic Rep. Barney Frank of Massachusetts described in 2015 as the “self-fulfilling prophesy of ‘<a href="https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2015/11/the-self-fulfilling-prophecy-of-government-doesnt-work-213375/">government doesn’t work</a>.’” </p>
<h2>Turning hope into action</h2>
<p>But the story that emerged from our survey isn’t all doom and gloom. </p>
<p>In addition to confirming how endangered Americans believe their democracy is, citizens appear hopeful that their political system can recover. When given the prompt: “Overall, as you vote in November 2022, are you mostly feeling …,” more than 40% of the respondents – regardless of race or ethnicity – said they felt “hopeful.” </p>
<p>Indeed, “hope” was by far the most common feeling out of the four emotions that respondents were able to choose from. “Worry” was the second most typical emotion, with 31% of the total sample selecting it, followed by “pride” and “anger.”</p>
<p>Rather than resigning themselves to a lost democracy, the results indicate that voters from a broad array of demographic and political backgrounds feel hopeful that American democracy can overcome the challenges facing the nation.</p>
<p><iframe id="8GvT6" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/8GvT6/1/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<p>Black Americans were among the most hopeful (49%), second only to Asian Americans (55%), while white Americans were the most worried (33%). These racial and ethnic differences are consistent with <a href="https://doi.org/10.5964/jspp.v8i2.847">recent research</a> on how emotions can shape politics.</p>
<p>The results also make sense in the context of the trajectory of race relations in the U.S. Black people have borne the brunt of what happens when authoritarian forces in this country have prevailed. They have suffered firsthand from anti-democratic actions being used against them, depriving them of the right to vote, for example. Throughout U.S. history, stories of racial progress often reveal a <a href="https://www.matteroffact.tv/what-factors-determine-a-sense-of-belonging-in-america-this-college-professor-crafted-a-study-to-find-out/">struggle to reconcile</a> feelings of hope and worry – particularly when thinking about what America is versus what the nation ought to be.</p>
<p>Such hope in democracy has turned into action. Efforts to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/feb/13/voting-rights-georgia-activism-us-elections">counter</a> GOP-led attempts to <a href="https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/how-the-republican-push-to-restrict-voting-could-affect-our-elections/">suppress votes</a> are encouraging signs of citizens combating anti-democratic measures, while punishing parties deemed to be pushing them.</p>
<p>Take the example of Georgia, which has “<a href="https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/how-georgia-turned-blue/">flipped from Republican to Democrat</a>” in large part because of voting rights activist and Democratic politician Stacey Abrams’ <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/06/us/politics/stacey-abrams-georgia.html">tireless mobilization efforts</a>. In the midterm election, GOP Senate candidate Herschel Walker underperformed among Black voters, winning less of the Black vote than GOP candidates in other states.</p>
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<p>The breaking of the Republican stronghold in Georgia fits with a broader theme of <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/blog/the-avenue/2021/01/06/last-night-in-georgia-black-americans-saved-democracy/">Black voters casting ballots to “save democracy</a>,” as scholars writing for the Brookings Institution think tank put it. In rejecting anti-democratic measures – and representatives of the party held responsible – in Georgia, “Black people were the solution for an authentic democracy.”</p>
<p>Black women <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/26855823">deserve the most credit</a> here, consistently voting for pro-democracy candidates. Not surprisingly, when broken down by race and gender, our survey shows that Black women are most hopeful (56%), some way ahead of white men (43%), with Black men and white women both at 42%.</p>
<h2>A democracy, to keep for good.</h2>
<p>Democracy has long been a cherished ideal in the U.S. – but one that from the country’s founding was perceived to be fragile. </p>
<p>When asked what sort of political system the Founding Fathers had agreed upon during the <a href="https://www.constitutionfacts.com/us-constitution-amendments/the-constitutional-convention/">Constitutional Convention of 1787</a>, Benjamin Franklin famously replied: “<a href="https://tinyurl.com/2s3dcedy">A republic, if you can keep it</a>.”</p>
<p>While acknowledging that the success of our government isn’t promised, Franklin’s words serve as a reminder that <a href="https://youtu.be/nDg3EsMcsBs">citizens must work relentlessly</a> to maintain and protect what the Constitution provides. What we’ve discovered, both from our survey and from how people voted, is that Americans are sending a clear message that they support democracy, and will fight anti-democratic measures – something that politicians of all parties might benefit from listening to if we want to keep our republic.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/199581/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ray Block Jr works for the African American Research Collaborative. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Andrene Wright and Mia Angelica Powell 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>A survey of more than 12,000 US voters found that Black Americans are among the most hopeful about the direction of politics – and they are turning that emotion into action at the polls.Ray Block Jr, Brown-McCourtney Career Development Professor in the McCourtney Institute and associate professor of political science and African American studies, Penn StateAndrene Wright, Presidential Postdoctoral Fellow, Penn StateMia Angelica Powell, PhD Student in Department of Political Science, Penn StateLicensed 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>
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<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/1967922022-12-23T16:42:06Z2022-12-23T16:42:06ZCalling Deion Sanders a sellout ignores the growing role of clout-chasing in college sports<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/501978/original/file-20221219-14-jjx1kn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=140%2C39%2C5055%2C3383&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Jackson State Tigers coach Deion Sanders greets right tackle Deontae Graham during the Cricket Celebration Bowl on Dec. 17, 2022.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/jackson-state-tigers-coach-deion-sanders-greets-right-news-photo/1245687709?phrase=deion sanders&adppopup=true"> Austin McAfee/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>For most college football coaches, the move from a mid-major conference to a Power Five conference would be met with widespread praise.</p>
<p>Not so for Deion Sanders.</p>
<p>When the Pro Football Hall of Famer <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/03/sports/ncaafootball/deion-sanders-colorado-jackson-state.html">announced he would be leaving Jackson State University</a>, where he has coached the football team since 2020, to become head coach at the University of Colorado Boulder, many ardent fans and supporters reacted with dismay and disbelief – particularly his fans and supporters from the Black community.</p>
<p>Jackson State is one of <a href="http://www.thehundred-seven.org/hbculist.html">107 historically Black colleges and universities</a>, or HBCUs. Some HBCU alumni and supporters <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B6X9YNUMECA">saw Sanders as betraying the cause of rejuvenating HBCU sports</a> and returning them to a time when football greats such as <a href="https://www.pro-football-reference.com/players/R/RiceJe00.htm">Jerry Rice</a>, <a href="https://www.pro-football-reference.com/players/P/PaytWa00.htm">Walter Payton</a> and <a href="https://www.pro-football-reference.com/players/M/McNaSt00.htm">Steve McNair</a> attended HBCUs as a stepping stone to professional stardom. </p>
<p>Debates about whether he was a “<a href="https://eurweb.com/2022/deion-sanders-labelled-a-sellout/">sellout</a>,” a “traitor” and a “hypocrite” quickly surfaced on social media and in <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/nbcblk/deion-sanders-sell-experts-say-s-complicated-rcna60552">major media outlets</a>. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1599059649889640448"}"></div></p>
<p><a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=4gfj6hYAAAAJ&hl=en">As a scholar who specializes in Black culture</a>, I was struck by the ways in which this Sanders story was tied to a concept I write about called <a href="https://ijoc.org/index.php/ijoc/article/view/18433">clout-chasing</a>. It’s a process in which cultural capital is harnessed on social media to attract media attention, likes, followers and fame. You’ll often see young people looking to launch careers as content creators described as <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2019/12/clout-definition-meme-influencers-social-capital-youtube/603895/">clout chasers</a>.</p>
<p>Institutions, however, can also chase clout. And I saw Jackson State doing just that when it hired Deion Sanders.</p>
<h2>Black Schools Matter</h2>
<p>Over the past decade – after the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement, the spread of national anthem protests and the murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor – HBCUs have received more attention and investment as places for the revitalization and advancement of the Black community.</p>
<p>In 2019, Black billionaire Robert Smith promised to pay the student loan debt of that year’s <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/video/2022/03/22/morehouse-grads-thrive-after-student-debt-wiped-out.html#:%7E:text=It's%20something%20400%20Morehouse%20graduates,at%20their%20commencement%20in%202019">entire graduating class at Morehouse College</a>. In the summer of 2021, the Department of Education awarded <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/12/17/fact-sheet-the-biden-%E2%81%A0harris-administrations-historic-investments-and-support-for-historically-black-colleges-and-universities/">more than US$500 million</a> in grants to HBCUs. Finally, President Joe Biden’s American Rescue Plan and other forms of pandemic relief have provided <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/12/17/fact-sheet-the-biden-%E2%81%A0harris-administrations-historic-investments-and-support-for-historically-black-colleges-and-universities/">nearly $3.7 billion in relief funding to HBCUs</a>.</p>
<p>HBCU athletic departments have also received increased visibility. Though HBCU programs have always been overshadowed by schools in conferences like the Big Ten and SEC – what are known as <a href="https://bleacherreport.com/articles/10053822-ranking-the-college-football-power-5-conferences">Power Five conferences</a> – HBCU sports have started to receive more national television coverage. Top recruits <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/Sports/hbcus-appealing-high-profile-athletes/story?id=76210979">have started taking official visits to HBCUs</a> as they weigh which school to commit to. </p>
<p>In the summer of 2020, after star basketball recruit Makur Maker spurned offers from the University of Kentucky and UCLA to attend Howard University, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/22/sports/ncaabasketball/black-lives-matter-hbcus-college-athletes.html">The New York Times proclaimed</a> that a movement of top Black athletes attending HBCUs was underway.</p>
<h2>A star with staying power</h2>
<p>Like many, I grew up watching Deion Sanders play professional football and baseball. I idolized him. He wore gold chains, danced his way to the end zone, wore expensive suits and – most importantly – he was a celebrity who fully embraced Black popular culture. He was also one of the first athletes to understand that he was a brand off the field. </p>
<p>His appeal transcended race, gender and class, putting him in a rarefied group that includes Michael Jordan, Serena Williams and LeBron James.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Two football players anticipate a pass." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/502572/original/file-20221222-24-m5ztgk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/502572/original/file-20221222-24-m5ztgk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=405&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/502572/original/file-20221222-24-m5ztgk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=405&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/502572/original/file-20221222-24-m5ztgk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=405&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/502572/original/file-20221222-24-m5ztgk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=509&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/502572/original/file-20221222-24-m5ztgk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=509&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/502572/original/file-20221222-24-m5ztgk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=509&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Over the course of 14 seasons, defensive back Deion Sanders was elected to eight Pro Bowls.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/dion-sanders-of-the-dallas-cowboys-guards-j-j-birden-of-the-news-photo/466184829?phrase=deion%20sanders&adppopup=true">Focus on Sport/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Even after his <a href="https://www.pro-football-reference.com/players/S/SandDe00.htm">playing career</a> ended in 2005, Sanders’ star never dimmed. He had <a href="https://ftw.usatoday.com/2013/07/deion-sanders-oprah-winfrey-reality-show">his own reality show</a> produced by Oprah, has served as a regular analyst on the NFL Network, and has acted as a pitchman for companies like Nike, Under Armour, American Airlines and Aflac.</p>
<p>Sanders has also seamlessly adapted to the social media era, regularly posting videos on Instagram to <a href="https://www.instagram.com/deionsanders/?hl=en">an audience of 3 million followers</a>. </p>
<p>Simply put, he is still one of the most famous people in the world. Like his younger counterparts with huge online followings – digital natives like <a href="https://www.instagram.com/obj/?hl=en">Odell Beckham Jr.</a> and <a href="https://www.instagram.com/melo/?hl=en">LaMelo Ball</a> – Sanders possesses an immense amount of <a href="https://www.ingentaconnect.com/contentone/intellect/ghhs/2020/00000001/00000002/art00003?crawler=true&mimetype=application/pdf&casa_token=G0nsPOIRXqcAAAAA:6Ze57p_2E_kNntxCNSQc-b2DzuWpJ_KtqTy2MG3po7wCLDq0n28IhvClUFvj-Afz1xhgwuKNKa0">digital clout</a>. </p>
<h2>Coach Prime joins the HBCU ranks</h2>
<p>I was hardly surprised when Sanders made a quick splash in Jackson. </p>
<p>Fueled by the talents of his son, quarterback <a href="https://www.espn.com/college-football/player/_/id/4432762/shedeur-sanders">Shedeur Sanders</a>, and former top high school recruit <a href="https://bleacherreport.com/articles/10059142-5-star-cb-travis-hunter-to-transfer-from-jsu-comments-on-deion-sanders-colorado">Travis Hunter</a>, Jackson State quickly attracted national attention as a HBCU powerhouse.</p>
<p>After a COVID-shortened 2020 season, Sanders, whose players affectionately call him <a href="https://bleacherreport.com/articles/10058741-coach-prime-trailer-drops-for-deion-sanders-jsu-football-docuseries-by-prime-video">Coach Prime</a>, led the school to two consecutive appearances at the Celebration Bowl, an annual game in which the champions of the two prominent HBCU conferences face off.</p>
<p>While boosting Jackson State’s profile, Sanders also presented himself as someone scholars like Brandon J. Manning have termed a “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZxJClMVBYU">race man</a>,” or a loyal member of the Black race who dedicates their life to directly contributing to the betterment of Black people. </p>
<p>Under the pretense of <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UxI848ELSEE">looking out for the future of HBCU athletics</a>, <a href="https://www.espn.com/video/clip?id=34896671">Sanders said</a> he would be better positioned than anybody to protect the legacy of HBCUs. Black student athletes, he argued, should choose to go to Jackson State because their association with him would not only give them clout, but also the kind of attention and encouragement that they could expect to receive from a Power Five program. </p>
<p>Yet it was always going to be close to impossible to keep Sanders at Jackson State if he consistently won. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.yardbarker.com/college_football/articles/paul_finebaum_says_nick_saban_would_lose_sleep_over_deion_sanders_as_auburns_next_coach/s1_13132_37910995">Many suspected</a> that Sanders eventually wanted to compete against top-tier programs like the University of Alabama and the University of Georgia. In fact, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jz1YfvAw5Ow">during an October 2022 interview on CBS’s “60 Minutes</a>,” Sanders talked openly about listening to offers from bigger schools. </p>
<p>Despite these realities, many Black folk wanted to believe Sanders would be in it for the long haul. Now they’re dismayed, believing the momentum Sanders gave to HBCU athletics could come to a screeching halt.</p>
<h2>God changes his mind</h2>
<p>But unlike some prominent <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IkqKkW2SxeE">Black cultural critics who derided Sanders’ decision</a>, I don’t think he’s a sellout. </p>
<p>Jackson State was arguably chasing some clout of its own when it hired Deion in the first place. At the time, Sanders was a coach with no experience beyond the high school level. He did, however, have plenty of experience performing – and winning – in the brightest of spotlights. Jackson State probably knew that taking a flier on an untested celebrity coach would be worth it: It would attract attention and, with it, money.</p>
<p>On the flip side, I also believe Sanders knew that he could build his coaching clout further at Jackson State by appealing to what sociologist Saida Grundy calls <a href="https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520340398/respectable">the Black respectability politics</a> and Christian values of HBCU campuses. You could see this <a href="https://www.clarionledger.com/story/sports/college/jackson-state/2020/09/22/deion-sanders-says-why-he-took-jackson-state-job-good-morning-america/5863325002/">when he said</a> that God told him “to even the playing field” for those who attend Black schools.</p>
<p>It was a symbiotic arrangement all along: Sanders leveraged his clout to grow the program that embraced him, but he was also hoping to attract the attention of an even bigger program. </p>
<p>I believe Sanders ultimately did more good than harm in terms of raising the profile of HBCU athletics. Furthermore, one person was never going to catapult HBCUs to the prominence of Power Five programs. </p>
<p>Sanders is part of a bigger group of former professional players and coaches leading HBCU programs. Former NFL head coach Hue Jackson <a href="https://www.thenewsstar.com/story/sports/college/gsu/2022/02/15/hue-jackson-contract-grambling-state-football/6800931001/">now heads the football program</a> at Grambling State University; NFL Pro Bowler Eddie George <a href="https://www.tennessean.com/story/sports/college/2021/04/11/eddie-george-coach-tennessee-state-university-football-tsu-derrick-mason/7183662002/">currently mans the sidelines</a> at Tennessee State University; and Pro Football Hall of Famer <a href="https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/35330809/hall-famer-ed-reed-head-coach-bethune-cookman">Ed Reed</a> was recently named the head coach at Bethune-Cookman. </p>
<p>If Sanders was a sellout, it was only in one sense: Jackson State football games routinely sold out during his tenure, <a href="https://theanalyst.com/na/2022/10/jackson-state-keeps-producing-jaw-dropping-attendance-under-coach-prime/">shattering attendance records for the program</a>.</p>
<p><em>This article has been edited to remove the mention of Cynthia Cooper-Dyke, who no longer serves as the head women’s basketball coach at Texas Southern University.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/196792/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jabari M. 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>While Sanders deftly played the game of Black respectability politics during his short tenure, Jackson State had motives of its own when it hired the former NFL star.Jabari M. Evans, Assistant Professor of Race and Media, University of South CarolinaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1944352022-12-20T13:37:48Z2022-12-20T13:37:48ZDisney’s Black mermaid is no breakthrough – just look at the literary subgenre of Black mermaid fiction<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/500853/original/file-20221213-27076-rbisur.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=23%2C31%2C5256%2C3388&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A coffin made to resemble a mermaid at a Ga funeral. The Ga people live along the southeast coast of Ghana.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/ghana-teshie-coffin-made-and-painted-to-resemble-a-mermaid-news-photo/481610203?phrase=african mermaid&adppopup=true">Eye Ubiquitous/Universal Images Group via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Mermaids have become a cultural phenomenon, and clashes about mermaids and race have spilled out into the open. This is most pointedly apparent in the backlash over Disney’s much-anticipated “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5971474/">The Little Mermaid</a>.”</p>
<p>After Disney unveiled <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-wPm99PF9U">its trailer for the film</a>, which will be released in May 2023, <a href="https://www.cnn.com/videos/media/2022/09/13/little-mermaid-trailer-reactions-halle-bailey-orig-jc.cnn">social media captured the faces</a> of gleeful young Black girls seeing Black mermaids onscreen for the first time. Less inspiring was <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/danidiplacido/2022/09/14/disneys-little-mermaid-backlash-has-reached-insane-heights/?sh=1318a9845592">the racism</a> that simultaneously occurred, with hashtags like #NotMyMermaid and #MakeMermaidsWhiteAgain circulating on Twitter.</p>
<p>The fact that Disney’s portrayal of a nonwhite mermaid is controversial is due to 150 years of whitewashing. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/10/opinion/black-little-mermaid.html">In a 2019 op-ed for The New York Times</a>, writer Tracey Baptiste – whose children’s novel “<a href="https://traceybaptiste.com/the-jumbies-series">Rise of the Jumbies</a>” features a Black mermaid as the protagonist – <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/10/opinion/black-little-mermaid.html">points out how</a> “Eurocentric stories have obscured the African origins of mermaids.” </p>
<p>“Mermaid stories,” she writes, “have been told throughout the African continent for millenniums. Mermaids are not just part of the imagination, either, but a part of the living culture.”</p>
<p>Nonetheless, contemporary culture is pushing back. Mermaids have, in recent years, become a popular subject in literature, film and fashion. In many cases, their depictions reflect contemporary culture: They appear as Black and brown, as sexually fluid and as harbingers of the climate crisis. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.jessicapressman.com/">As a scholar of contemporary literature and media</a> – and as a lifelong lover of mermaids – I am fascinated by the recent surge of mermaid literature that remixes African folklore and connects the transatlantic slave trade to mermaid tales.</p>
<p>By briefly charting this new literary movement, I hope to show how these stories are part of a larger current with a much longer historical tail. I also hope to put to rest the idea that Disney’s decision to feature a Black mermaid represents some sort of modern breakthrough.</p>
<p>Here are three very different works of Black mermaid fiction that, in my view, deserve attention.</p>
<h2>1. Rivers Solomon’s “<a href="https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Deep/Rivers-Solomon/9781534439870">The Deep</a>” (2019)</h2>
<p>This novella is marketed as fantasy, but it does the very real and important work of opening up new ways to think about the legacy of slavery. </p>
<p>Specifically, it pushes readers to think about mermaids as products of <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Middle-Passage-slave-trade">the Middle Passage</a>, the harrowing stage of the transatlantic slave trade in which enslaved Africans were transported in crowded ships across the Atlantic Ocean. </p>
<p>The novel’s conceit is that pregnant, enslaved Africans who either jumped or were thrown overboard from slave ships gave birth underwater to babies who moved from amniotic fluid to seawater and evolved into a society of merfolk.</p>
<p>The protagonist, Yetu, is a mermaid who serves as a repository of the traumatic stories that would be too troubling for her people to remember on a daily basis. She is the historian, and once a year she delivers “The Remembrance” to her people in a ritual of sharing.</p>
<p>As the narrator explains, “Only the historian was allowed to remember,” because if the regular folk “know the truth of everything, they will not be able to carry on.”</p>
<p>Once a year, the society gathers to hear the history. The memories are not lost or forgotten but submerged and transformed, hosted by the ocean and housed in the body of a mermaid.</p>
<p>This vibrant and readable book can be tied to the work of literary scholar Christina Sharpe, who presents the concept of “the wake” – a means of contemplating the continued effects of the Middle Passage. <a href="https://www.dukeupress.edu/in-the-wake">For Sharpe</a>, “The wake” is “a method of encountering a past that is not past” and of endeavoring to “memorialize an event that is still ongoing.” </p>
<p>“The Deep” also offers an allegory for the challenges of working in archives of African American experience – the main mermaid is, of course, the historian – and evokes the work of another important scholar in contemporary Black studies, <a href="https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780374531157/loseyourmother">Saidiya Hartman</a>, who has written about the erasure of Black women from archives largely compiled by white men.</p>
<h2>2. Monique Roffey’s “<a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/703096/the-mermaid-of-black-conch-by-monique-roffey/">The Mermaid of Black Conch</a>” (2020)</h2>
<p>This gorgeous and complex work of Caribbean literature dips into magical realism but is deeply grounded in the reality of today – specifically, <a href="https://www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/blog/what-is-postcolonial-literature/">the effects of colonialism</a> and exploitative tourism.</p>
<p>Like “The Deep,” “The Mermaid of Black Conch” explores lost ancestries and imagines alternative futures. The novel highlights the continued impact of white settlement on a fictional Caribbean island called Black Conch.</p>
<p>One day, a mermaid named Aycayia is caught in the net of a fisherman. She is ancient and Indigenous – “red-skinned, not black, not African” – and carries the weight of history. David, the fisherman who finds her and falls in love with her, recalls his first sighting of her: “She looking like a woman from long ago, like old-time Taino people I saw in a history book at school.” </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Woman wearing pink scarf holds book." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/500857/original/file-20221213-26186-zd3iu5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/500857/original/file-20221213-26186-zd3iu5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/500857/original/file-20221213-26186-zd3iu5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/500857/original/file-20221213-26186-zd3iu5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/500857/original/file-20221213-26186-zd3iu5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/500857/original/file-20221213-26186-zd3iu5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/500857/original/file-20221213-26186-zd3iu5.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">Author Monique Roffey employs magical realism in her book ‘The Mermaid of Black Conch.’</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/monique-roffey-who-was-announced-this-evening-as-the-winner-news-photo/1230803463?phrase=monique%20roffey&adppopup=true">Ian Gavan/Getty Image</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Similar to Solomon’s historian in “The Deep,” this mermaid is depicted as an embodied archive; her hair is a home for sea creatures, and her face is a history book. </p>
<p>However, Roffey’s mermaid is an anomaly, singular and isolated, not a member of a tribe. The ocean keeps this ancient beast safe, hiding her from the destructive forces of Western capitalism, embodied in the father-son duo of American tourists who seek to capture and capitalize on what they see as an aquatic trophy.</p>
<h2>3. Nnedi Okorafor’s “<a href="https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Lagoon/Nnedi-Okorafor/9781481440882">Lagoon</a>” (2014)</h2>
<p>“A star falls from the sky. A woman rises from the sea. The world will never be the same.” The publisher’s summary describes a science fiction novel that combines the alien-encounter genre with African mythology to create a vast narrative network of characters, human and nonhuman, that stretches across Nigeria. </p>
<p>The arrival of aliens off the coast of Lagos transforms the area and the people, miraculously remedying centuries of oceanic destruction caused by industrial and colonial exploitation. It also turns Adaora, a female marine biologist caught in a bad marriage, into a mermaid. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="Woman with glasses smiling." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/500859/original/file-20221213-22736-avllq2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/500859/original/file-20221213-22736-avllq2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/500859/original/file-20221213-22736-avllq2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/500859/original/file-20221213-22736-avllq2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/500859/original/file-20221213-22736-avllq2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1130&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/500859/original/file-20221213-22736-avllq2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1130&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/500859/original/file-20221213-22736-avllq2.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">
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<span class="caption">Nigerian-American writer Nnedi Okorafor.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/nnedi-okorafor-attends-the-70th-emmy-awards-at-microsoft-news-photo/1035243148?phrase=Nnedi%20Okorafor&adppopup=true">Neilson Barnard/Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>“Lagoon” is far more than an allegory of ecological repair. But I want to point out how literature explores the global ecological crisis and, specifically, how <a href="https://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/display/document/obo-9780190221911/obo-9780190221911-0014.xml">ecocriticism</a> plays a key role in the emergent genre of Black mermaid literature. </p>
<p>As ecocritic and Caribbean literature scholar Elizabeth DeLoughrey <a href="https://uhpress.hawaii.edu/title/routes-and-roots-navigating-caribbean-and-pacific-island-literatures/">writes</a>, rising sea levels caused by global warming are spurring a planetary future that is “more oceanic.” </p>
<p>Many contemporary mermaid tales share an acute sense of environmental concern.</p>
<p>Mermaids serve as signals, in both senses of the word – as an emergency alert and as a medium for transmitting a message about humanity’s increasingly oceanic planetary future. </p>
<p>In “<a href="https://www.akpress.org/undrowned.html">Undrowned: Black Feminist Lessons from Marine Mammals</a>” (2020), Black feminist theorist Alexis Pauline Gumbs points to “several practices of marine mammals that resonate with Black freedom movement strategies and tendencies.” Racial justice and environmental activism are aligned – and, as many Black mermaid novels teach readers, inseparable.</p>
<p>There are many more works I could have included in this roundup – Natasha Bowen’s “<a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/609878/skin-of-the-sea-by-natasha-bowen/">Skin of the Sea</a>” (2021), which grounds its narrative in the West African myths of Mami Wata and the goddess Yemoja, or Bethany C. Morrow’s “<a href="https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250315328/asongbelowwater">A Song Below Water</a>” (2020), a young adult novel that tells the coming-of-age story of a Black girl who becomes a mermaid.</p>
<p>None of these texts are outliers because they feature Black mermaids. </p>
<p>Instead, they are part of a broader cultural movement – a contemporary mermaid craze deserving of critical attention and appreciation.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/194435/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jessica Pressman 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>These literary works ask readers to rethink the histories of these half-human sea creatures and their role in society today.Jessica Pressman, Professor of English and Comparative Literature, San Diego State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1872722022-08-30T12:19:19Z2022-08-30T12:19:19ZLow vaccine booster rates are now a key factor in COVID-19 deaths – and racial disparities in booster rates persist<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/480642/original/file-20220823-11-gs3akm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=77%2C0%2C8660%2C5691&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">As of August 2022, COVID-19 vaccination rates in Black and Hispanic people exceeded those of white Americans nationally, but only for the initial shots.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/getting-vaccinated-royalty-free-image/1363894755?adppopup=true">FatCamera/E+ via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>More than 450 people are <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/us/covid-cases.html">dying of COVID-19 in the U.S. each day</a> as of late August 2022.</p>
<p>When COVID-19 vaccines first became available, public officials, community organizations and policymakers mobilized to get shots into arms. These efforts included <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/community/health-equity/vaccine-equity.html">significant investments</a> in making vaccines accessible to <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/03/25/fact-sheet-biden-administration-announces-historic-10-billion-investment-to-expand-access-to-covid-19-vaccines-and-build-vaccine-confidence-in-hardest-hit-and-highest-risk-communities/">Black, Hispanic, American Indian and Alaska Native populations</a>. These groups experienced exceptionally high <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/71/wr/mm7117e2.htm">COVID-19 death rates early in the pandemic</a> and had <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/70/wr/mm7006e3.htm?s_cid=mm7006e3_w">low initial vaccine rates</a>.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/71/wr/mm7123a2.htm">efforts worked</a>. As of August 2022, vaccination rates for the <a href="https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#vaccination-demographics-trends">primary series – or required initial doses of COVID-19 vaccines – for Black and Hispanic people</a> exceeded those of white Americans.</p>
<p>But boosters are a different story. Comparable booster vaccine promotion efforts <a href="https://theconversation.com/should-you-get-a-covid-19-booster-shot-now-or-wait-until-fall-two-immunologists-help-weigh-the-options-184809">have been lacking</a>. <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2022/04/cdc-covid-vaccine-booster-campaign/629536/">Confusion</a> in the public health messaging surrounding boosters and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/mar/27/us-second-covid-booster-delays-funding">limited federal funding</a> for rolling out vaccination campaigns have resulted in <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/04/18/us-booster-gap/">slow booster uptake</a> across the country. </p>
<p>As a result, divides have once again emerged. A recent <a href="https://doi.org/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2022.27680">study of COVID-19 booster rates</a> found that 45% of white adults and 52% of Asian American adults had received boosters by January 2022. But only 29% of Black adults and 31% of adults who reported another racial or ethnic identity, such as American Indian, Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian, Pacific Islander or multiracial, were boosted. </p>
<p>As of late August 2022, the U.S. <a href="https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#vaccination-demographics-trends">Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported</a> that 36.3% of white adults in the U.S. 50 years or older and eligible for a second booster shot had received one. This is compared to only 28.4% for the Black population, 31.3% for American Indian or Alaska Native populations, and 25.1% for the Hispanic population. </p>
<p>New boosters aimed at the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/article/covid-omicron-booster.html?">currently dominant omicron subvariant</a> are expected to become available <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/23/us/politics/covid-booster-shots-biden.html">in early September 2022</a>. But the benefits of this new booster will be limited if it is not widely used. </p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">The new variant-specific boosters are expected to be available in September 2022.</span></figcaption>
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<h2>Booster rates predict mortality rates across counties</h2>
<p>We are a team of population health researchers at <a href="https://www.bu.edu/sph/profile/andrew-stokes/">Boston University</a> and the <a href="https://cla.umn.edu/about/directory/profile/ewf">University of Minnesota</a>. We have been <a href="https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1003571">tracking COVID-19 mortality rates</a> since the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177%2F2378023120980918">beginning of the pandemic</a>. Our team uses demographic methods to identify social and structural factors that influence health and <a href="https://ajph.aphapublications.org/doi/full/10.2105/AJPH.2021.306331">contribute to evidence-based reforms</a> of <a href="https://thehill.com/opinion/healthcare/3572982-hidden-covid-fatalities-show-us-death-investigations-need-reform/">public health and health care systems</a>.</p>
<p>Vaccine studies suggest that adults age 50 and older who receive a booster shot have <a href="https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJMoa2115624">90% lower death rates</a> from COVID-19 than those who receive only the initial vaccine regimen. But the extent to which boosters have translated into health gains at the population level remains unclear. </p>
<p>Preliminary analyses by our team indicate that people in the U.S. living in counties with low booster uptake are dying from COVID-19 at higher rates than people living in counties with high booster uptake. In particular, in comparing the counties in the bottom 10% of booster rates with those in the top 10%, the COVID-19 death rates for residents of the bottom 10% of counties were 64% higher. Our analysis applies to the period from January to June 2022. It also adjusts for residents’ ages.</p>
<p>This difference in death rates may in part reflect the fact that counties with greater booster protection also tend to have higher rates of primary-series vaccination. Nonetheless, these findings suggest that at the population level, booster rates are now a key factor behind COVID-19 deaths. </p>
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<p>A prior study found that vaccination strategies that target high-risk geographical areas <a href="https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.abj2099">save more lives than strategies based on age alone</a>. Thus, the evidence suggests that limited federal funding for COVID-19 booster promotion should be sent to geographical areas that are currently reporting high rates of COVID-19 deaths. </p>
<h2>Learning from the community</h2>
<p>An effective booster campaign could build on lessons learned from prior vaccination campaigns. Specifically, this involves <a href="https://time.com/6204470/innovation-covid-19/">bringing vaccines directly to people</a>. From the earliest days of vaccine distribution during the pandemic, partnerships with faith-based organizations, housing communities and trusted community organizations have been <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007%2Fs11524-021-00594-3">successful in reaching populations with low vaccination rates</a>. </p>
<p>Other strategies to make boosters <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/covid-19/downloads/vaccination-strategies.pdf">more accessible</a> include increasing access to vaccine centers via public transit and outside of typical working hours. In rural areas, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093%2Fofid%2Fofab152">evidence-based strategies</a> to promote vaccination include education of community ambassadors, use of social media and operation of mobile vaccination sites. </p>
<p>In the absence of federal funding, community efforts have aimed to make boosters more accessible. A New Yorker documentary filmed in 2021 explored the <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/culture/the-new-yorker-documentary/an-alabama-womans-neighborly-vaccination-campaign">challenges that one rural community in Alabama</a> – Panola – has faced with vaccination. It highlights community leader Dorothy Oliver as she promotes vaccination with little to no support from the government. Her efforts included door-to-door campaigns, discussions with residents about their fears and concerns and coordination of vaccination logistics, including scheduling and transport. </p>
<p>In a similar way, Minneapolis’ Seward Vaccine Equity Project <a href="https://www.healthaffairs.org/do/10.1377/forefront.20220518.186581/">increased booster shots among East African immigrant families</a> by having volunteers call members of their own communities and offer them a booster appointment and a ride. The volunteers were also available to answer residents’ questions and address any concerns. Successful efforts like those could be carried out by health departments on a much wider scale.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/187272/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Andrew Stokes receives funding from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, and the National Institute on Aging. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Elizabeth Wrigley-Field is a member of the Seward Vaccine Equity Project, discussed in the article. She receives funding from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute on Child Health and Human Development via the Minnesota Population Center and from the National Institute on Aging via the Life Course Center, both at the University of Minnesota.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dielle Lundberg and Rafeya Raquib 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>Early on, public health messaging focused on the need for vaccines to combat COVID-19. But far less attention has been given to the role of boosters in preventing deaths and reducing inequities.Andrew Stokes, Assistant Professor of Global Health, Boston UniversityDielle Lundberg, Research Fellow in Global Health, Boston UniversityElizabeth Wrigley-Field, Assistant Professor of Sociology, University of MinnesotaRafeya Raquib, Research Fellow in Global Health, Boston UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1877992022-08-05T15:28:55Z2022-08-05T15:28:55ZHow a British sense of justice saved black American GI wrongly sentenced to death in WWII<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/476306/original/file-20220727-1351-ka61t1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C2%2C808%2C535&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">US military justice as handed down in wartime Britain was found to be racially biased against black American servicemen.</span> </figcaption></figure><p>Eighty years ago this summer, 150,000 American servicemen were in the UK to support the allied campaign against Nazi occupied Europe. The British government hoped their presence would strengthen the “special relationship”. But controversy over the administration of justice soon challenged that assumption.</p>
<p>Tension first emerged when an English court convicted two American soldiers of armed robbery. Each was sentenced to hard labour and one faced additional punishment by whipping (the Whipping Act of 1530 permitted whipping or flogging for a wide range of offences and until 1948 courts retained power to order whippings in cases involving violent crimes). </p>
<p>The US ambassador, John Gilbert Winant was furious. Britain’s home secretary, Herbert Morrison, prevented the flogging, but it was not enough. Winant demanded American jurisdiction over US soldiers.</p>
<p>English law made soldiers subject to civilian courts for breaches of criminal law. In the USA, exclusive jurisdiction over serving soldiers was entrusted to military courts. </p>
<p>At first, the British were obdurate. Exemption from British law for US soldiers serving in the UK would undermine British sovereignty. But pressure from Washington was intense, and Britain buckled. In July 1942, Anthony Eden, the foreign secretary conceded the <a href="https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1942/aug/04/united-states-of-america-visiting-forces">United States of America (Visiting Forces) Act</a>.</p>
<p>The Times, Daily Telegraph and Manchester Guardian <a href="https://www.proquest.com/hnpguardianobserver/docview/484930196/B6FB224E72E7423CPQ/1?accountid=14533">reported</a> (on a paywalled archive) that there was widespread opposition to this surrender of British judicial sovereignty. Clement Davies, the Liberal MP for Montgomery, called it a hasty fait accompli. Major Abraham Lyons, Conservative MP for Leicester East, said he had heard nothing to justify the legislation or the “haste with which it had been introduced”.</p>
<p>British concern about US military justice reached a crescendo when it produced verdicts prejudicial to black servicemen. By October 1942, American officers were <a href="https://scholars.wlu.ca/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1215&context=cmh">worried about</a> a “growing number of racial incidents in which British civilians were taking the side of the black GIs”.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/black-troops-were-welcome-in-britain-but-jim-crow-wasnt-the-race-riot-of-one-night-in-june-1943-98120">Black troops were welcome in Britain, but Jim Crow wasn't: the race riot of one night in June 1943</a>
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<p><a href="https://moidigital.ac.uk/reports/home-intelligence-reports/">Home Intelligence</a> reports found that Britons were “characteristically against discrimination”. The prosecution for rape of a 30-year-old black GI, Corporal <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/article/669874/">Leroy Henry</a> of St Louis Missouri, would bring Anglo-American tension to boiling point.</p>
<p>Irene Lilley of Combe Down near Bath told police that Henry raped her shortly after midnight on May 5 1944. She said Henry knocked on her window, told her he was lost and asked for help to find the way back to his base. Lilley agreed to help and showed the GI to the railway station. </p>
<p>When she did not return, her husband set out to find her. Lilley found his wife in a ditch beside the road. She said Henry had raped her. British police arrested Henry immediately and handed him over to the US military.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/476305/original/file-20220727-1268-bkd21z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Tearout of article about the death sentence for US soldier Leroy Henry in 1943." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/476305/original/file-20220727-1268-bkd21z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/476305/original/file-20220727-1268-bkd21z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=557&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/476305/original/file-20220727-1268-bkd21z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=557&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/476305/original/file-20220727-1268-bkd21z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=557&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/476305/original/file-20220727-1268-bkd21z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=699&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/476305/original/file-20220727-1268-bkd21z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=699&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/476305/original/file-20220727-1268-bkd21z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=699&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">How the story was reported in one British newspaper.</span>
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<p>Henry faced trial by a court martial jury with only one black officer. His signed confession admitting rape at knife-point was placed before the court. He was convicted and sentenced to be hanged.</p>
<h2>Insecure conviction</h2>
<p>Evidence that the conviction was insecure emerged in the <a href="https://go-gale-com.ezphost.dur.ac.uk/ps/retrieve.do?tabID=Newspapers&resultListType=RESULT_LIST&searchResultsType=SingleTab&hitCount=1&searchType=AdvancedSearchForm&currentPosition=1&docId=GALE%7CJFJNEN242251450&docType=Article&sort=Pub+Date+Forward+Chron&contentSegment=ZDMA&prodId=DMIR&pageNum=1&contentSet=GALE%7CJFJNEN242251450&searchId=R1&userGroupName=duruni&inPS=true">Daily Mirror</a>. The popular left-wing title revealed that Henry had confessed after being deprived of food for 24 hours. US military police “admitted they had made him stand to attention for forty-five minutes during questioning”.</p>
<p>British historian <a href="https://www.hist.cam.ac.uk/people/professor-david-reynolds">David Reynolds</a> recounts in his 1994 book, Rich Relations: The American Occupation of Britain, 1942–1945 that it was eventually claimed that Henry had knocked on Lilley’s window before and paid her £1 for sex. On May 5, she had asked for £2. He refused and she allegedly threatened to cause him trouble. Henry’s comrades testified that he did not own a knife and they had never seen him carrying one.</p>
<p>The sentence provoked an angry reaction from the British public. The Daily Mirror received many letters from readers opposed to the death sentence. The Daily Mirror insisted that there were aspects of the evidence that “would have inspired a reasonable doubt in the minds of a British jury”. </p>
<p>Popular sentiment would be “much appeased if justice could be tempered with mercy”. Such a decision might not be possible in America “which has a colour problem peculiar to herself”. In Britain, it was possible to “take a different view”.</p>
<p>Within days, General Dwight D Eisenhower, the commander of US Forces in Europe received a petition for clemency signed by the mayor of Bath and more than 30,000 local residents. From the USA, <a href="https://naacp.org/find-resources/history-explained/civil-rights-leaders/thurgood-marshall">Thurgood Marshall</a> of the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People (NAACP) asked for a stay of execution. </p>
<p>The left-wing weekly Tribune published Henry’s claim that he had been forced to confess. In America Time summarised the Mirror’s account.</p>
<p>Now, Eisenhower’s legal team moved fast. Captain Frederick J. Bertolet, the assistant judge advocate for the European Theatre of Operation (ETO) concluded that Henry’s confession had been forced. He was “an ignorant soldier” who had not understood what he was signing. Lilley’s conduct “cast doubt on her credibility”. There was insufficient evidence to support the conviction or to warrant retrial. </p>
<p>Henry was free to return to duty. The British press had done good work, but the Americans resented it profoundly. They demanded press censorship in rape cases. </p>
<p>The British refused, but the Americans found a solution. From November 1944, the crime statistics they shared with British officials ceased to distinguish between white and black soldiers. Colonel Jock Lawrence, the public relations officer for the ETO, was determined that the British press must be denied further opportunity to depict the USA as “some uncivilised nation”.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/187799/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tim Luckhurst has received research funding from News UK and Ireland Ltd. He is a member of the Society of Editors and the Free Speech Union. His forthcoming book, Reporting the Second World War: Newspapers and the public in wartime Britain will be published by Bloomsbury Academic in February 2023 </span></em></p>The case showed how American justice meted out to US troops in second world war England was often racially biased.Tim Luckhurst, Principal of South College, Durham UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1852782022-07-01T12:16:26Z2022-07-01T12:16:26ZPoll reveals white Americans see an increase in discrimination against other white people and less against other racial groups<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/470668/original/file-20220623-52151-owiixr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=432%2C129%2C3310%2C2990&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Polling suggests that white and Black Americans are coming from different positions on discrimination.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/illustration/two-businessmen-stand-at-the-edge-of-the-royalty-free-illustration/1315707013?adppopup=true">DigitalVision Vector/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Despite largely holding the <a href="https://wholeads.us/research/system-failure-2020-primary-elections/">political</a>, <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/blog/up-front/2020/02/27/examining-the-black-white-wealth-gap/">economic</a> and <a href="https://nmaahc.si.edu/learn/talking-about-race/topics/whiteness">social</a> levers of power, nearly a third of white Americans say they have seen “a lot more” discrimination against white people in the past five years – and more than half of them say they have not seen a rise in discrimination against Black and Latino Americans.</p>
<p><a href="https://criticalissues.umd.edu/sites/criticalissues.umd.edu/files/American%20Attitudes%20on%20Race%20and%20Ethnicity.pdf">A May 2022 University of Maryland Critical Issues Poll</a> further found that a majority of white Americans do not believe that there has been a rise in discrimination against minority groups.</p>
<p>In stark contrast, the poll found a large majority of Black Americans believe they have been on the receiving end of discrimination.</p>
<p>That many white Americans, the dominant racial group in U.S. society, see more discrimination against other white people than those who have historically endured this treatment is troubling.</p>
<p><a href="https://gvpt.umd.edu/facultyprofile/telhami/shibley">In our view</a> as <a href="https://gvpt.umd.edu/facultyprofile/rouse/stella">scholars of public opinion and identity politics</a>, these grievances have been at the heart of conservative GOP politics and at their extreme have played a role in mass shootings such as the one in Buffalo <a href="https://www.npr.org/2022/05/19/1099997281/the-white-man-accused-of-killing-10-black-people-in-buffalo-will-be-back-in-cour">in which 10 Black people were killed</a>, allegedly by an 18-year-old white supremacist, or the <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2022/01/05/racisms-prominent-role-january-6-us-capitol-attack">violent assault that occurred on Jan. 6, 2021</a>, at the U.S. Capitol. </p>
<h2>Empathy gaps among racial groups</h2>
<p>The poll was conducted between May 6 and May 16, 2022, by polling firm Nielsen Scarborough from a nationally representative sample of 2,091 respondents, with a margin of error of plus or minus 2.14. </p>
<p>The poll asked questions on how much more discrimination exists now than in the past against different minority groups, and whether different minority groups weaken or strengthen American society.</p>
<p>The results are striking.</p>
<p>There is a clear empathy gap across racial and ethnic groups.</p>
<p>While white Americans say they have seen an increase in discrimination against other whites, they say at the same time that other groups, including Black and Latino Americans, have been less discriminated against. </p>
<p>In stark contrast, Black and Latino Americans say their groups have been discriminated against while also saying that other groups have also been highly discriminated against.</p>
<p>In the case of Latino Americans, they believe that Asians have been discriminated against even more than their own group. </p>
<p>The empathy gap is even larger when viewed through political partisanship, especially among white and Latino Americans.</p>
<p><iframe id="DDYd0" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/DDYd0/4/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<h2>Assessing racial experiences</h2>
<p>We examined responses among white, Black and Latino people to the following question: “Compared to five years ago, and based on your own experience, including interactions with others, how much racial/ethnic/religious discrimination, if any, would you say exists against each of the following groups?” </p>
<p>We found that 3 in 10 white respondents – 30.1% – say that white Americans experienced “a lot more” discrimination in the past five years. </p>
<p>In comparison, 28.9% of white respondents said Asian Americans experience “a lot more” discrimination, 21.7% said the same of Jewish Americans, 20.4% about Black Americans, 19.7% about Muslim Americans and 14.7% about Latino Americans. </p>
<p>But over half of Black Americans – 53.2% – say that their group has encountered “a lot more” discrimination in the past five years, compared with 38.9% of Black respondents who said the same about Asian Americans, 33.3% about Latino Americans, 29.3% about Muslim Americans, 23.7% about Jewish Americans and 13% about white Americans.</p>
<p>More Latino people say they saw “a lot more” discrimination against Asian people than against other groups. Nearly 2 in 5 – 38.7% – of Latino respondents said that “a lot more” discrimination exists against Asian Americans than five years ago. That number compares with 41.2% who said the same about Black Americans, 34.5% about Latino Americans, 33.5% about Muslim Americans and 20% about Jewish Americans. </p>
<p>Notably, and unlike white and Black people, Latino Americans say that both Black and Asian people have endured “a lot more” discrimination in the past five years than their own group.</p>
<h2>Perceptions of contributions to American society</h2>
<p>We also gauged people’s opinions about whether they thought Black Americans, Asian Americans, Latino Americans, Muslim Americans and Jewish Americans strengthened or weakened American society. </p>
<p>The findings show that a majority of white, Black and Latino people believe that all these groups strengthen American society, with one exception. </p>
<p>Only 40.1% of white Americans believe that Muslim Americans strengthen American society. </p>
<p>Slightly more than 20% of white people say that Muslim Americans weaken traditional American values and customs, the highest expression of this negative sentiment for any group. </p>
<p>A lower percentage of white people view Black Americans – 12.4% – and Latino Americans – 9.8% – as weakening American values and customs in comparison with these attitudes about Muslim Americans.</p>
<p>Both Black Americans – 67% – and Latino Americans – 74.1% – view their groups as having the greatest effect in strengthening American society. </p>
<p>Notably, 54.6% of Black Americans view Latinos as strengthening American society, and 61.1% of Latino Americans say the same about Blacks. </p>
<p><iframe id="dbrWx" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/dbrWx/3/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<h2>Impact of partisanship</h2>
<p>Americans are deeply divided along partisan lines, and this division can be seen on most issues. </p>
<p>But does this divide also affect racial and ethnic groups’ attitudes? </p>
<p>To be sure, there are significant overlaps. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2016/09/13/2-party-affiliation-among-voters-1992-2016/">Most Black and Latino Americans are Democrats</a>, and far more white Americans identify as Republicans than as Democrats.</p>
<p>But while Black Americans overwhelmingly identify as Democrats, about <a href="https://news.gallup.com/opinion/polling-matters/389093/hispanic-americans-party-updated-analysis.aspx">a quarter of Latinos identify as Republicans</a>, and <a href="https://news.gallup.com/poll/160373/democrats-racially-diverse-republicans-mostly-white.aspx">the Republican Party mostly comprises white voters</a>. </p>
<p>We examined the extent to which partisanship helps explain racial and ethnic identity on attitudes about other groups. </p>
<p>The findings were revealing. White Democrats are closer in their views on race to Black and Latino Democrats than they are to white Republicans. </p>
<p>White Democrats are more likely to perceive greater discrimination against other groups than they did five years ago. </p>
<p>Latino Republicans are closer to white Republicans than they are to Latino Democrats. </p>
<p>About two-thirds of Black Republicans – 65% – and a third of Latino Republican respondents – 33% – perceive “a lot more” discrimination against white Americans than five years ago. However, we are careful not to draw strong conclusions from our Black Republican sample, as it is relatively small in our survey.</p>
<p>Partisanship also plays an important role in accounting for differences in the perceived value of minority groups in society among white, Latino and Black Americans. </p>
<p>In contrast, over two-thirds of white Democrats say that all five groups strengthen American society. White Republicans are much less likely to say any of the five minority groups strengthen American society.</p>
<p>A higher percentage of Latino Republicans view minority groups as strengthening America than do white Republicans. But this view among Latino Republicans lags in comparison with Latino Democrats.</p>
<p>The Black Republicans who did respond expressed strong sentiments about the idea that minority groups strengthen American society – a view that goes against trends among white Republicans.</p>
<p>Black Republican responses look more similar to those of Black Democrats.</p>
<p>This finding requires further investigation with a larger sample of Black Republicans. </p>
<h2>Democratic values</h2>
<p>It is worth acknowledging that party affiliation has become partly a reflection of one’s identity and comfort with certain positions, especially about one’s place in American society.</p>
<p>In other words, <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-identity-not-issues-explains-the-partisan-divide/">partisanship has become an identity</a> in and of itself. </p>
<p>Our findings may point to the difficulty in having conversations about race relations that start from a common perspective, and engaging in meaningful action that will strengthen American democracy. </p>
<p>A notable result from our poll is the empathy exhibited by groups who have historically experienced high degrees of discrimination.</p>
<p>Black and Latino Americans have similar perceptions about discrimination. </p>
<p>More importantly, they support the idea that a democratic America embraces all its constituents and view all minority groups as being a strength rather than a weakness – a view not as strongly shared by white Americans.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/185278/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Stella Rouse receives funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF) and has previously received funding from the Russell Sage Foundation.
Stella Rouse is a board member for the Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI). PRRI is a non-profit, non-partisan organization that conducts research on and writes about the intersection of religion and politics. She serves on the board in a volunteer capacity and do not receive compensation. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Shibley Telhami 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>Researchers found political partisanship is a significant factor in determining perceptions of discrimination against different racial groups.Stella Rouse, Professor of Government and Politics and Director of the Center for Democracy and Civic Engagement, University of MarylandShibley Telhami, Anwar Sadat Professor for Peace and Development, University of MarylandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1837072022-06-17T12:33:23Z2022-06-17T12:33:23ZWhat is Afrofuturism? An English professor explains<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/469013/original/file-20220615-9155-71yxl3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C15%2C3396%2C2394&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Entertainer and author Janelle Monáe performs during the 2019 Grammys flanked by android-like backup dancers.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/janelle-monae-performs-onstage-during-the-61st-annual-news-photo/1097533676?adppopup=true">Kevin Winter/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The new sci-fi musical “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt11873472/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0">Neptune Frost</a>,” set in a Rwandan village constructed with computer parts, tells the story of an <a href="https://www.plannedparenthood.org/learn/gender-identity/sex-gender-identity/whats-intersex">intersex</a> hacker and a <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/Nightline/story?id=128631&page=1">coltan</a> miner who lead an anarchist uprising against their oppressors.</p>
<p>The film – lauded for its “<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/03/movies/neptune-frost-behind-the-scenes.html">Afrofuturist vision</a>” – is only one of the more recent works to engage in the transformative speculation of Afrofuturism, a cultural movement that pulls from elements of science fiction, magical realism, speculative fiction and African history. Undergirding this movement is a longing to create a more just world.</p>
<p>As I point out to my students in my course on Afrofuturism, while the term was coined 28 years ago, it can pertain to multiple kinds of work created by Black people across history. In 1994, cultural critic <a href="https://www.markdery.com/books/flame-wars/">Mark Dery</a> came up with “Afrofuturism” in an essay titled “Black to the Future.” Black people, <a href="https://www.uvic.ca/victoria-colloquium/assets/docs/Black%20to%20the%20Future.pdf">he wrote</a>, have “other stories to tell about culture, technology, and things to come.”</p>
<p>Starting in 1998, scholars, artists and activists from various fields refined the meaning of the term.</p>
<p>British-Ghanaian writer and filmmaker Kodwo Eshun’s 1998 book “<a href="https://www.indiebound.org/book/9781784786724">More Brilliant than the Sun: Adventures in Sonic Future</a>” traces the origins and influence of electronic music. He explores how jazz, dub, techno, funk and hip-hop musicians used the tools, culture and experiences of the African diaspora to create an electronic sound of the future charged by a longing for transformation.</p>
<p>That same year, U.S. social scientist <a href="http://www.alondranelson.com/books/afrofuturism">Alondra Nelson</a> helped organize the <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20160411045955/https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/afrofuturism/info">Afrofuturism email list</a> for artists, scholars and everyday people to explore African visions of the world as it is, in addition to “the world to come.” </p>
<p>Nelson would go on to edit a groundbreaking special issue of the academic journal Social Text in 2002. This collection of essays argued the notion that race and gender distinctions would be eliminated by technology was “<a href="https://monoskop.org/images/0/0e/Nelson_Alondra_ed_Afrofuturism_Social_Text.pdf">the founding fiction of the digital age</a>.” </p>
<p>I tend to define Afrofuturism for my students as an intersection of speculation and liberation that’s inspired by the concerns of people of African descent.</p>
<p>While Afrofuturism conjures images of future-oriented action, it doesn’t mean that all of these works draw from an imagined future. The act of speculating about liberation has long been a core element of the Black experience. Afrofuturists seek to recover knowledge lost as the result of slavery and colonialism, and they’re highly critical of contemporary practices that continue to marginalize people.</p>
<h2>Why Afrofuturism matters</h2>
<p>Since Afrofuturism is rooted in the experiences of oppressed people, it usually seeks to undermine exploitative systems while pointing to the ways modern institutions use race and gender as a means of control. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/469015/original/file-20220615-11-fdy7es.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Woman in glasses holds book." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/469015/original/file-20220615-11-fdy7es.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/469015/original/file-20220615-11-fdy7es.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=767&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/469015/original/file-20220615-11-fdy7es.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=767&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/469015/original/file-20220615-11-fdy7es.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=767&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/469015/original/file-20220615-11-fdy7es.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=964&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/469015/original/file-20220615-11-fdy7es.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=964&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/469015/original/file-20220615-11-fdy7es.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=964&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Octavia E. Butler reads from her novel ‘Fledgling’ in 2005.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/octavia-e-butler-news-photo/81629740?adppopup=true">Malcolm Ali/WireImage via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Thus, entertainer and author Janelle Monáe’s use of the android as a metaphor for an <a href="https://youtu.be/EZyyORSHbaE">exploited body</a> struggling to be freed offers a critique of oppression linked to race and gender. In a similar vein, <a href="https://www.johnjenningsstudio.com/">John Jennings</a>’ graphic novels explore Black trauma by reimagining overlooked [folklore] and <a href="https://www.johnjenningsstudio.com/work-1/box-of-bones-john-jennings">horror stories</a> rooted in Black history.</p>
<p>Afrofuturist critiques can even compel audiences to reassess aspects of society that are taken as a given. For example, Rasheedah Phillips’ article about <a href="https://thefunambulist.net/magazine/cartography-power/placing-time-timing-space-dismantling-masters-map-clock-rasheedah-phillips">maps and clocks</a> explores how time zones manifest power and oppression.</p>
<p>Ultimately, Afrofuturist works ask audiences to think about how society can be made safe for everyone. Though <a href="https://www.octaviabutler.com/">Octavia Butler’s</a> “Parable” series of novels is set in a dystopian U.S., she models community practices rooted in sustainability, gender equity and mutual respect.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/183707/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Julian C. Chambliss received funding from Michigan Humanities Council for Beyond the Black Panther: Visions of Afrofuturism in American Comics in 2020. </span></em></p>Even though Afrofuturist works are set in fictional worlds, they provide a blueprint for social, political and economic systems free from exploitation and oppression.Julian C. Chambliss, Professor of English, Michigan State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1814592022-05-05T12:43:51Z2022-05-05T12:43:51ZA white librettist wrote an opera about Emmett Till – and some critics are calling for its cancellation<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/461045/original/file-20220503-12-jpgsmp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=8%2C22%2C2986%2C1976&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A faded photograph is attached to the headstone that marks the gravesite of Emmett Till in Chicago.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/faded-photograph-is-attached-to-the-headstone-that-marks-news-photo/1308512100">Scott Olson/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>“Are Black audiences, actors, and producers simply conditioned to having their stories told by white counterparts?” screenwriter and director <a href="https://www.ebony.com/entertainment/op-ed-the-problem-with-white-writers-writing-black-stories/">Darian Lane</a>, who is Black, wondered in a 2021 op-ed for Ebony. </p>
<p>On TV and in film, white authorship of Black stories has long been a point of contention, whether it was David Simon <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2000/06/11/us/who-gets-to-tell-a-black-story.html">writing about a Black neighborhood</a> in Baltimore for his series “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0306414/">The Wire</a>” or Tate Taylor writing and directing “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1454029/">The Help</a>.”</p>
<p>It was only a matter of time before this issue would beset the world of opera. Since “Emmett Till, A New American Opera” <a href="https://playbill.com/article/emmett-till-a-new-american-opera-to-premiere-at-john-jay-college">premiered at John Jay College</a> on March 23, 2022,
a <a href="https://www.change.org/p/cancel-a-new-american-opera-emmett-till-at-john-jay-college">Change.org petition</a> has circulated with 12,000-plus signatories calling for the production to never again see the light of day. </p>
<p>The reason?</p>
<p>A white woman named Clare Coss wrote <a href="https://www.uncoveringsound.com/difference-between-a-libretto-and-a-script/">the libretto</a>, or text, for the opera, which she based on an award-winning play she had written called “<a href="https://theaterlife.com/emmett-down-in-my-heart/">Emmett, Down in My Heart</a>” in 2015. </p>
<p>Coss concocted a fictional white female protagonist named Roann Taylor, who fails to call the police when she overhears the lynching of the 14-year-old Till. Eventually, she realizes that her silence has perpetuated injustice and she confronts the killers. </p>
<p>Critics claim the opera elevates the guilt of white audiences while capitalizing on Black trauma. <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/music/2022/03/22/emmett-till-opera-protest/">The Washington Post</a> notes that the production joins a slew of white-authored responses to the Emmett Till murder that didn’t sit well with the Black community, ranging from Bob Dylan’s “<a href="https://bob-dylan.org.uk/archives/5856">Death of Emmett Till</a>” to Dana Schutz’s painting “<a href="https://www.vulture.com/2022/01/dana-schutz-open-casket-emmett-till-painting.html">Open Casket</a>.”</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Painting of boy in suit in casket." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/460796/original/file-20220502-22-8flicq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/460796/original/file-20220502-22-8flicq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=437&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/460796/original/file-20220502-22-8flicq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=437&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/460796/original/file-20220502-22-8flicq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=437&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/460796/original/file-20220502-22-8flicq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=550&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/460796/original/file-20220502-22-8flicq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=550&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/460796/original/file-20220502-22-8flicq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=550&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Dana Schutz’s painting of Till sparked protests during the 2017 Whitney Biennial, where it was displayed – with some people calling for its destruction.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_Casket#/media/File:Dana_Schutz_Open_Casket_2016_Oil_on_canvas.jpg">Dana Schutz, Open Casket (2016). Oil on canvas</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>On the one hand, I sympathize with the frustrating legacy of white artists telling Black stories. On the other hand, my 25 years of experience <a href="https://gufaculty360.georgetown.edu/s/contact/0031Q00002QPtm6QAD/anita-gonzalez">teaching African-American theater</a> have made me acutely sensitive to the complications of authorship – especially when it comes to stage productions.</p>
<h2>Whom is the opera for?</h2>
<p>When artists develop new stories about Black experiences it matters who creates the story. How might their own background connect to the narrative? What sort of audience do they have in mind?</p>
<p>Social activist and cultural thinker W.E.B Du Bois published <a href="https://archive.org/search.php?query=sim_pubid%3A10994+AND+volume%3A32&sort=date">an essay in a 1926 issue of Crisis magazine</a> that set out to define what constitutes African American drama. He argued that they were plays that ought to be “about” Black communities, “by” Black authors, written “for” Black audiences and performed “near” Black neighborhoods.</p>
<p>Under this definition, Coss’ opera wouldn’t be considered African American drama. While it was a production about the Black community, it was composed, in part, to help white audiences empathize with Black pain. </p>
<p>And even though Coss has said the opera is intended for everyone, she’s also noted that the inclusion of a white character who recognizes her slow response to racial violence was <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/deceptivecadence/2022/03/23/1088169711/a-new-opera-about-emmett-till-is-criticized-for-being-written-by-a-white-woman">important for predominantly white operagoing audiences to see</a>.</p>
<p>This is the rub. Many Black artists <a href="https://www.ebony.com/entertainment/op-ed-the-problem-with-white-writers-writing-black-stories/">are weary of products told from white perspectives</a> because there’s a tendency for the characters and conflicts to fall into familiar tropes. Lost are the ambiguities and inconsistencies of our unique cultural legacies.</p>
<p>Productions like George Gershwin’s “<a href="https://www.metopera.org/season/2021-22-season/porgy-and-bess/">Porgy and Bess</a>,” where the Black experience is reflected in old tropes, still draw huge crowds. The opera – which tells the story of Porgy, a disabled, downtrodden Black man who lives among drug dealers and addicts – perpetuates stereotypes of Black people as addicts who are incapable of self-sufficiency.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Older man using crutches sings on stage." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/461049/original/file-20220503-19080-6ru4ob.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/461049/original/file-20220503-19080-6ru4ob.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=403&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461049/original/file-20220503-19080-6ru4ob.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=403&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461049/original/file-20220503-19080-6ru4ob.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=403&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461049/original/file-20220503-19080-6ru4ob.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=507&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461049/original/file-20220503-19080-6ru4ob.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=507&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461049/original/file-20220503-19080-6ru4ob.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=507&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A 2019 dress rehearsal of ‘Porgy and Bess’ at New York City’s Metropolitan Opera House.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/american-baritone-eric-owens-performs-at-the-final-dress-news-photo/1179461251?adppopup=true">Jack Vartoogian/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
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<p><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/20/us/george-floyd-protests-police-reform.html">In this moment of raised social consciousness</a>, it’s important to tell stories about Black injustices. But stories of joy, community, healing and wellness are just as important. </p>
<p>So it’s refreshing to see newer musicals like Michael R. Jackson’s “<a href="https://strangeloopmusical.com/">A Strange Loop</a>,” which is now playing on Broadway. Jackson, who is Black, wrote a musical that plumbs the inner psyche of a character named Usher who struggles with anxieties about his queer identity and lifestyle. A chorus of colorful characters depicts his thoughts as he untangles his fraught family relationships and rebuilds his self-esteem. </p>
<h2>The complications of ‘by’</h2>
<p>The “by” of Du Bois’ argument is particularly complex in the case of both the Till opera and “Porgy and Bess.” Both productions feature white authors writing about Black experiences that are then depicted by Black performers. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/461052/original/file-20220503-17-8tt63g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Man in suit sits in chair." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/461052/original/file-20220503-17-8tt63g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/461052/original/file-20220503-17-8tt63g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=887&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461052/original/file-20220503-17-8tt63g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=887&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461052/original/file-20220503-17-8tt63g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=887&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461052/original/file-20220503-17-8tt63g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1114&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461052/original/file-20220503-17-8tt63g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1114&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461052/original/file-20220503-17-8tt63g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1114&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">To W.E.B. Du Bois, a work needed to meet certain criteria to be considered African American drama.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/dubois-waits-to-be-called-as-a-witness-at-the-federal-news-photo/514697730?adppopup=true">Bettmann/Getty Images</a></span>
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</figure>
<p>Is the author the writer, producer, director or lead performer? Many productions about the Black experience – Steven Spielberg’s 1985 adaptation of Alice Walker’s “<a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088939/">The Color Purple</a>” is just one example that comes to mind – were originally authored by Blacks yet produced by whites to accommodate white sensibilities. At the time of its release, the film also <a href="https://www.indiewire.com/2020/04/the-color-purple-debate-anniversary-1202217786/">elicited controversy</a> for depicting Black female experiences through the eyes of a white male producer and director.</p>
<p>The current controversy about the Emmett Till opera ultimately glosses over a complex collaborative processes. As with most performance projects, many artists participated in realizing the final product. Afro-Cuban composer <a href="https://www.tanialeon.com/">Tania León</a> conducted the score. The Harlem Chamber Players and Opera Noire International co-produced the work. </p>
<p>Most importantly, Mary Watkins, the composer, is Black. The composer is usually considered the core creative artist in an operatic work, and Watkins artfully uses emotional arias and music that mimics moans to draw listeners into the anguish of the mother’s loss.</p>
<p>“Even though there are many artists of color involved in this project, the critics are assuming that we have had no impact on the final shape of the piece and that the playwright has somehow forced all of us to tell her story,” <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/music/2022/03/22/emmett-till-opera-protest/">Watkins wrote in an email interview</a>. “It is an insult to me as a Black woman and to the cast members who are African-American.” </p>
<h2>Performing race</h2>
<p>One of my students once pointed out that enslaved Africans arrived in the Americas naked and were then forced to don clothing provided by the enslavers. </p>
<p>We have been wearing garments and identities designed to conform to white sensibilities ever since. African American theater historians have long grappled with how to assess Black contributions in a country where white critics, by and large, evaluate our cultural productions. </p>
<p>Books like “<a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/african-american-performance-and-theater-history-9780195127256?cc=us&lang=en&">African American Performance and Theater History</a>” describe how double-conscious performance styles enabled Black artists to resist stereotypical representations on stage. <a href="https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2021/04/hattie-mcdaniel-gone-with-the-wind-oscars-autobiography">Hattie McDaniel</a>, for example, played the maid in “<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gone_with_the_Wind_(film)">Gone With the Wind”</a> with tenacious spunk, using sassy comedy to humanize her servile “Mammy” role.</p>
<p>Newer anthologies, like my edited collection “<a href="https://www.dukeupress.edu/black-performance-theory">Black Performance Theory</a>,” complicate notions of Black authorship and artistry. The book describes how Blackness circulates through cultural productions as vocal, physical and visual imagery which may or may not be aligned with Black bodies on stage. For example, in “Emmett Till, A New American Opera,” Watkins’ use of resonant open tones in the first few bars of Mamie Till’s lament, “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9kfwNzQyrDA&t=28s">My Son, My Child</a>,” evokes the choral singing of the African American gospel tradition.</p>
<p>To me, the backlash against the white librettist is ultimately a waste of time. Not only is there room for works done in collaboration with Black artists, but cross-cultural, interethnic collaborations also add to the richness and versatility of performed storytelling. </p>
<p>Du Bois wrote about Black performance as it existed within the confines of a segregated society. Theatrical performances by, for, near and about can certainly unite Black communities around collective storytelling. </p>
<p>But I also cherish the vibrancy of storytelling that includes a diversity of perspectives. I hope to see more operas, plays and musicals that encourage conversations about Black identities – without efforts to cancel those who have contributed to the effort.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/181459/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Anita Gonzalez 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>Many Black audiences are justifiably weary of works about their community told from white perspectives. But authorship isn’t always black and white.Anita Gonzalez, Professor of African American Studies and Performing Arts, Co-Founder/Director Racial Justice Institute, Georgetown UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1802132022-03-29T12:35:36Z2022-03-29T12:35:36ZWhat is alopecia? It’s no laughing matter for millions of Black American women<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/454828/original/file-20220328-23-burw6b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C32%2C4313%2C2754&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Jada Pinkett Smith has spoken about her struggles with hair loss.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/jada-pinkett-smith-attends-the-94th-annual-academy-awards-news-photo/1388067835?adppopup=true">Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>The <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/28/movies/oscars-will-smith-slap-reactions.html">Oscar slap that overshadowed the Academy Awards ceremony</a> was sparked by a joke about Jada Pinkett Smith’s lack of hair – with husband Will Smith objecting violently to comedian Chris Rock mocking the actress’s shaved head.</em></p>
<p><em>Away from the recriminations over what could be perceived as <a href="https://nypost.com/2022/03/28/fresh-prince-co-star-defends-will-smiths-chris-rock-slap/">a mean-spirited jibe</a> and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2022/mar/28/celebrities-react-will-smith-hitting-chris-rock-the-oscars">a disproportionate response</a>, many people will sympathize with Pinkett Smith. As millions of women in the U.S. will attest, hair loss <a href="https://www.doi.org/10.1001/jamadermatol.2020.5732">is no laughing matter</a>.</em></p>
<p><em>The Conversation asked <a href="https://dermatology.med.wayne.edu/profile/ds8312">dermatologist Danita Peoples</a> of Wayne State University’s School of Medicine about alopecia and why certain forms of it can <a href="https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/wellness-and-prevention/hair-loss-in-black-women-tips-from-an-expert">disproportionately affect Black women</a>.</em></p>
<h2>1. What is alopecia?</h2>
<p>Alopecia is a medical word that refers to hair loss generally. And there are descriptors added which can refer to where the hair loss is occurring, or to the cause of it. Traction alopecia, for example, is hair loss from trauma or chronic inflammatory changes to the hair follicles. </p>
<h2>2. What causes alopecia?</h2>
<p>Traction alopecia happens when there is trauma to the scalp, where the hair is being pulled or rubbed on a regular basis, causing inflammation around the hair follicles. This can lead to hair loss or thinning. </p>
<p>Alopecia areata describes hair loss to a particular area. It has different levels of severity, so there might be just a coin-sized area of hair loss on the scalp, or it could affect large areas. It can occur any place on the body.</p>
<p>Or it might result in complete hair loss on the scalp, alopecia totalis. Some people lose eyebrows or see a thinning of their eyelashes. </p>
<p>People can even have alopecia universalis, which is a loss of hair on the entire body. </p>
<p>Alopecia areata is considered an “immune-mediated” type of hair loss. The immune system is attacking the hair follicles. It has to do <a href="https://doi.org/10.3389/fimmu.2019.01198">with T cells</a>, the important white blood cells in the immune system.</p>
<p>And then other autoimmune disorders can have alopecia associated with them. This is the form of alopecia that <a href="https://www.prevention.com/health/health-conditions/a38634649/jada-pinkett-smith-hair-loss-journey-alopecia/">Jada Pinkett Smith has said she has</a>.</p>
<p>Lupus is an autoimmune disorder that can lead to hair loss. One type is systemic lupus erythematosus. Another type, discoid lupus erythematosus, primarily affects the skin and can cause hair loss with scarring on the scalp.</p>
<p>Thyroid abnormalities can be related to hair loss as well. In fact, when patients come to me with hair loss, the first test that I may order is a thyroid study.</p>
<h2>3. Who does it affect?</h2>
<p>Anyone can get alopecia. Alopecia areata can show up at any age, from children to adults, and both men and women. But it’s more likely <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaad.2019.06.1300">to affect African Americans</a> than white or Asian Americans. About 1 million people in the U.S. <a href="https://dx.doi.org/10.2147%2FCCID.S245649">have alopecia areata</a>. </p>
<p>Traction alopecia can affect people in certain professions, like ballerinas, who wear their hair up in buns all the time. The pressure and friction from sports headgear, like helmets or baseball caps, can also cause hair loss. And in some parts of northern Europe, where it is common for people to pull their hair back tight on a regular basis, there are higher rates of traction alopecia. Traction alopecia <a href="https://doi.org/10.2147/ccid.s137296">affects one-third</a> of women of African descent, making it the most common type of alopecia affecting Black women.</p>
<h2>4. Why is traction alopecia so common among Black women?</h2>
<p>That is due to certain hair styling practices that Black women use on their hair – wearing tight weaves or extensions, straightening with heat, that sort of thing. Hair is a big deal among African American women in a way that it isn’t for others. When I was growing up, my older relatives told us girls that our hair was our “crowning glory.” And they made a big deal about us keeping our hair looking stylish and well groomed, and that usually meant straightening it.</p>
<p>But I believe there’s less pressure than there used to be for Black women to keep our hair straightened, in the workplace or elsewhere.</p>
<h2>5. How is alopecia treated?</h2>
<p>It depends on the cause. There are injected or topical corticosteroids for alopecia areata. If it’s due to a nutritional deficiency, like iron or protein, obviously you simply need to correct the deficiencies with supplements or by changing the diet. When it is caused by traction or discoid lupus, if you don’t treat the inflammation on the scalp soon enough, the hair loss can become permanent.</p>
<p>[<em>Over 150,000 readers rely on The Conversation’s newsletters to understand the world.</em> <a href="https://memberservices.theconversation.com/newsletters/?source=inline-150ksignup">Sign up today</a>.]</p>
<p>When it comes to traction, though, it’s much more about eliminating the practices that cause the problem in the first place. What’s happening now is more people are aware of the downsides of chemical or heat applications to straighten the hair and are using those damaging processes less. </p>
<p>One thing that may help is the CROWN Act, legislation introduced last year, which the U.S. House passed on March 18, 2022. That would make it <a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/house-bill/2116/text">illegal to discriminate</a> against people wearing natural styles, such as afros and braids, so I am hopeful that it will contribute to a lot less traction alopecia in the future.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/180213/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Danita Peoples 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 joke that sparked a violent reaction from actor Will Smith at the Oscars centered on his wife, Jada Pinkett Smith’s hair loss. A dermatologist explains the causes and treatment for alopecia.Danita Peoples, Clinical Associate Professor of Dermatology, Wayne State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1796122022-03-25T12:19:33Z2022-03-25T12:19:33Z2020 census miscounted Americans – 4 questions answered<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/453610/original/file-20220322-17-1ukv0eg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=23%2C0%2C5157%2C3448&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Census takers went door to door in 2020, as in past years, seeking to make the count as accurate as possible.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/2020CensusDoorKnockers/0075ed39582247b5a577b989138e5fa7/photo">AP Photo/John Raoux</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>_The census conducted in the U.S. every 10 years is meant to count everyone. But it doesn’t actually count everyone.</p>
<p><em>After every census, the U.S. Census Bureau reports how well it did at counting every person in the country. In 2020, as in past years, the census <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/u-s-census-bureau-report-finds-racial-gap-in-2020-population-count">didn’t get a completely accurate count</a>, according to the bureau’s own reporting. The official census number reported more non-Hispanic whites and people of Asian backgrounds in the U.S. than there actually were. And it reported too few Blacks, Hispanics and <a href="https://www.greenbaypressgazette.com/story/news/special-reports/2022/02/21/census-historically-undercounted-indigenous-population-wisconsin/6570741001">Native Americans</a> who live on reservations.</em></p>
<p><em>The Conversation U.S. asked <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=BHtyLUQAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">Aggie Yellow Horse</a>, a sociologist and demographer at Arizona State University, to explain why, and how, the census misses people, and how it’s possible to assess who wasn’t counted.</em>_</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/453612/original/file-20220322-15-1l2y8bo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A person wearing a mask and a face shield writes on a clipboard while talking with a person in a car" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/453612/original/file-20220322-15-1l2y8bo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/453612/original/file-20220322-15-1l2y8bo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/453612/original/file-20220322-15-1l2y8bo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/453612/original/file-20220322-15-1l2y8bo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/453612/original/file-20220322-15-1l2y8bo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/453612/original/file-20220322-15-1l2y8bo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/453612/original/file-20220322-15-1l2y8bo.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">Census workers found their time and ability to connect with people limited by the pandemic.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/CensusMontanaHouseSeat/3c04be6e29914360bc2b1e2b11609eab/photo">AP Photo/Matthew Brown</a></span>
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<h2>1. Who gets missed in the census?</h2>
<p>The <a href="https://www.census.gov/library/working-papers/2019/demo/2020-brief.html">people most commonly missed</a> are those with low income, people who rent or don’t have homes at all, people who live in rural areas and people who don’t speak or read English well. Often, these are people of color – Black Americans; Indigenous peoples; or people of Hispanic, Asian or Pacific Islander backgrounds.</p>
<p>Because of their living situations, these people can be hard for census takers to track down in the first place. And they may be more reluctant to participate because of concerns <a href="https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/decennial-census/decade/2020/planning-management/plan/final-analysis/2020-report-cbams-study-survey.html">about confidentiality, fear of repercussions and distrust of government</a>.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, the U.S. Census Bureau tries to count everyone, aiming <a href="https://www.census.gov/library/stories/2020/02/census-bureau-reaches-native-hawaiians-and-pacific-islanders-through-music.html">targeted public relations campaigns</a> at specific communities to encourage members to participate. In addition, Census Bureau employees knock on doors in person across the country, trying to <a href="https://www.census.gov/library/visualizations/interactive/2020-census-nonresponse-followup-completion-rates.html">follow up with those who did not respond to mailings, announcements and events</a>. </p>
<p>However, the pandemic made that process more difficult for the 2020 census, both by making people uncomfortable with in-person visits and by <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/article/census-supreme-court-ruling.html">shortening the timeline for collecting the data</a>.</p>
<h2>2. Who got missed?</h2>
<p>The official estimates show that the 2020 census was really very accurate, capturing 99.8% of the nation’s residents overall. But the census <a href="https://www.census.gov/newsroom/press-releases/2022/2020-census-estimates-of-undercount-and-overcount.html">missed counting</a> 3.3% of Black Americans, 5.6% of American Indians or Alaskan Natives who live on reservations and 5% of people of Hispanic or Latino origin. This could mean missing about 1.4 million Black Americans; 49,000 American Indians or Alaskan Natives who live on reservations; and 3.3 million people of Hispanic or Latino origin.</p>
<p>This performance is much worse than in the previous two censuses, when smaller proportions of those populations were missed.</p>
<p>The 2020 census also counted 1.64% more non-Hispanic whites than there actually are in the country. For example, college students could have been counted twice – at their college residence and at their parents’ home.</p>
<p><iframe id="Gz3oo" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/Gz3oo/4/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<h2>3. How can they count the people who were missed?</h2>
<p>It can be puzzling to understand how the Census Bureau can know how many people it missed. Efforts for measuring census accuracy <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2012/04/02/sample-surveys-and-the-1940-census/">started in 1940</a>. Census officials use two methods.</p>
<p>First, the Census Bureau uses <a href="https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/decennial-census/about/coverage-measurement/da.html">demographic analysis</a> to create an estimate of the population. That means the bureau calculates how many people might be added to the population counts, through birth registrations and immigration records, and how many people might be removed from them, through death record or emigration reports. Comparing that estimate with the actual count can reveal an <a href="https://www.census.gov/data/tables/2020/demo/popest/2020-demographic-analysis-tables.html">overall scale</a> of how many people the census missed.</p>
<p>As a second measure, the Census Bureau runs what it calls a “<a href="https://www.census.gov/newsroom/press-kits/2021/post-enumeration-survey.html">post-enumeration survey</a>,” taken after the initial census data is collected. The survey is conducted independent of the census and <a href="https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/decennial-census/decade/2020/planning-management/plan/memo-series/2020-memo-2022_06.html">randomly sent to a small group of households</a> from census blocks in each state, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. The results of that survey are compared with the census results for those households and can reveal how many people were missed, or if some people were counted twice or counted in the wrong place.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/453615/original/file-20220322-27-1hv1yd6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A man gestures at a screen showing two maps of political districts in South Carolina" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/453615/original/file-20220322-27-1hv1yd6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/453615/original/file-20220322-27-1hv1yd6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/453615/original/file-20220322-27-1hv1yd6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/453615/original/file-20220322-27-1hv1yd6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/453615/original/file-20220322-27-1hv1yd6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/453615/original/file-20220322-27-1hv1yd6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/453615/original/file-20220322-27-1hv1yd6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Population figures formally reported by the Census Bureau for the purposes of reapportionment cannot be corrected, according to a 1999 Supreme Court ruling.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/Redistricting-SouthCarolina/3a5b086838a441f396539a20a71ec024/photo">AP Photo/Jeffrey Collins</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>4. Can the Census Bureau fix its data?</h2>
<p>The Census Bureau has determined that its 2020 data is not accurate and has measured the amount of that inaccuracy. But in 1999, the Supreme Court ruled that <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/525/326">the bureau cannot adjust the numbers</a> it sent to Congress and the states for the purpose of allocating seats in the U.S. House of Representatives and, therefore, Electoral College votes. That’s because federal law <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/13/141">bars the use of statistical sampling</a> in apportionment decisions and requires those changes to be made only on the basis of how many people were actually counted. That means political representation in Congress may not accurately reflect the constituencies the representatives serve.</p>
<p>But <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/525/326">the numbers can be adjusted when used to divide up federal funding</a> for <a href="https://www.npr.org/2022/01/01/1069610946/2020-census-correction-challenge-results-count-question-resolution">essential services in communities</a> around the nation. More than <a href="https://www.census.gov/about/what.html">US$675 billion a year is provided to tribal, state and local governments</a> proportionally according to their population numbers.</p>
<p>However, that adjustment happens only if tribal, state or local officials ask for it. The Census Bureau’s <a href="https://www.census.gov/newsroom/press-kits/2021/2020-census-count-question-resolution.html">Count Question Resolution program</a> can correct 2020 census data until June 2023. After the 2010 census, the program received requests from 1,180 governments, of out about 39,000 nationwide. As a result, <a href="https://fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R42092.pdf">about 2,700 people were newly added</a> to the census count, and about <a href="https://www.npr.org/2022/01/01/1069610946/2020-census-correction-challenge-results-count-question-resolution">48,000 household addresses were corrected</a>.</p>
<p>This approach can lessen the harm done to communities where the census count missed people. But it doesn’t prevent the Census Bureau from missing them – or others – in the next census.</p>
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Aggie Yellow Horse does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>When the Census Bureau’s count of the population is inaccurate, it affects representation and government spending. Correcting errors isn’t always allowed.Aggie Yellow Horse, Assistant Professor of Asian Pacific American Studies, Arizona State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.