tag:theconversation.com,2011:/us/topics/cultural-stereotypes-17884/articles
Cultural stereotypes – The Conversation
2024-03-20T01:04:06Z
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/225656
2024-03-20T01:04:06Z
2024-03-20T01:04:06Z
Is Dune an example of a white saviour narrative – or a critique of it?
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/582971/original/file-20240319-22-bjxlks.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=53%2C62%2C5937%2C3925&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Courtesy Warner Bros</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Science-fiction film as a genre allows us to encounter hypothetical worlds in which <a href="https://www.google.com.au/books/edition/Prosthetic_Memory/aLw3BAAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0">to understand our own</a>. </p>
<p>These films often present utopian and dystopian worlds, exploring themes of nationalism and heroism. They often include a strong, white, male lead who heroically rescues the poor and the good from the stranglehold of authoritarianism. Therefore, historically, science fiction has had mass appeal for political zealots from the far left to the <a href="https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/race-consciousness-fascism-and-frank-herberts-dune/">alt-right</a>. </p>
<p>In Denis Villeneuve’s Dune: Part Two (2024), however, science fiction becomes a genre to subvert colonial and patriarchal narratives of the white, masculine saviour. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/bagpipes-in-space-how-hans-zimmer-created-the-dramatic-sound-world-of-the-new-dune-film-224854">Bagpipes in space: how Hans Zimmer created the dramatic sound world of the new Dune film</a>
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<h2>What is a ‘white saviour’?</h2>
<p>Elements of a white saviour narrative are pervasive in Villeneuve’s first Dune film (2021), which hints at – but doesn’t commit to – subverting this narrative. But before we get into the details, it helps to understand what the “white saviour complex” is. </p>
<p>This is, to put <a href="https://www.e-ir.info/2020/07/13/de-constructing-the-white-saviour-syndrome-a-manifestation-of-neo-imperialism">it simply</a>, the idea that a white person or people are needed to help or “save” people of colour from their circumstances. </p>
<p>White saviourism, also called the white “messiah complex”, is born of a <a href="https://www.google.com.au/books/edition/_/mLlu-MCDUnsC?hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiiuumQiYCFAxVBn2MGHRWDBlAQ7_IDegQIGhAC">legacy of colonialism</a>, and often performed in a paternalistic or self-serving way. For decades, we’ve seen this narrative play out in science-fiction films, from the Star Wars franchise to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/08/opinion/08brooks.html">Avatar</a> (2009).</p>
<h2>The setup</h2>
<p>Signs of white saviourism in the first Dune film are recognisable in the male protagonist, Paul Atreides, played by Timothée Chalamet. Paul is destined for messianic status in both films, which have so far stayed close to the plot line of Frank Herbert’s book series of the same name. </p>
<p>However, Chalamet’s casting as a white saviour is complicated by his physicality. In both demeanour and appearance, Paul Atreides contradicts the <a href="https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/masculinity-in-contemporary-science-fiction-cinema-9781350258372/">traditional masculinity</a> of science-fiction heroes, with his fine features, elfin stature and mummy’s boy status.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/582972/original/file-20240319-18-cf1j3w.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/582972/original/file-20240319-18-cf1j3w.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/582972/original/file-20240319-18-cf1j3w.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582972/original/file-20240319-18-cf1j3w.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582972/original/file-20240319-18-cf1j3w.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582972/original/file-20240319-18-cf1j3w.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582972/original/file-20240319-18-cf1j3w.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582972/original/file-20240319-18-cf1j3w.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">The casting of Chalamet as Paul Atreides is a departure from more conventional depictions of the white, male saviour.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Courtesy Warner Bros</span></span>
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<p>The first film follows the House of Atreides as it travels to the distant planet, Arrakis, to take charge of the scarce and precious spice production which their future wealth, power and survival depend on. </p>
<p>The Indigenous inhabitants of Arrakis, the Fremen, are portrayed as being deeply connected to the desert environment. </p>
<p>They find innovative ways to survive in the extreme weather conditions, yet are considered savage by the aristocratic characters in the film. They’re even referred to as “rats” by the film’s villainous, luminously white, oil-bathing leader, Baron Vladimir Harkonnen. </p>
<p>This reflects a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2022/aug/01/no-white-saviors-how-a-campaign-against-stereotype-of-helpless-africa-rose-and-fell">common criticism</a> of the white saviour complex: it perpetuates stereotypes about the Indigenous people being “helped”, while ignoring their strengths and agency.</p>
<h2>Dune as a colonial critique</h2>
<p>It’s tempting to consider Dune’s narrative, settings and costume design as an appropriation of Islamic and Arab culture. For example, there are scenes where the Fremen are dressed in <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Bedouin">Bedouin</a> clothing, worshipping behind an Islamic architectural screen in ways that are reminiscent of Muslim prayers at a mosque. </p>
<p>The cinematography and light also appear to refer to 19th-century paintings by Jean-Léon Gérôme, much of which are of Islamic subjects. Such appropriations aren’t unique to Dune; the landscape of Arrakis itself is reminiscent of Tatooine, the desert planet where much of the action takes place in the original <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2023/may/05/dune-part-2-denis-villeneuve">Star Wars</a> trilogy. </p>
<p>While the intention may be to create otherworldly settings, the portrayal of a desert land often relies on <a href="https://www.thoughtco.com/tv-film-stereotypes-arabs-middle-easterners-2834648">stereotypical tropes of “exoticness”</a> associated with the Middle East, as well as the use of Arabic-sounding names for characters and locations. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/582977/original/file-20240319-22-1bimcz.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/582977/original/file-20240319-22-1bimcz.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/582977/original/file-20240319-22-1bimcz.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=316&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582977/original/file-20240319-22-1bimcz.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=316&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582977/original/file-20240319-22-1bimcz.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=316&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582977/original/file-20240319-22-1bimcz.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582977/original/file-20240319-22-1bimcz.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582977/original/file-20240319-22-1bimcz.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">The Fremen are portrayed with clear parallels to real Arab-Bedouin peoples.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Courtesy Warner Bros</span></span>
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<p>Nonetheless, there is a surprising critique of colonialist fantasy in Dune: Part Two, which primarily takes place through changes between the <a href="https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/movies/a46972485/dune-part-2-movie-differences-book/#">script and the book</a>. These changes enable us to see the white saviour from the perspective of Chani (played by Zendaya), Paul’s Fremen love interest. </p>
<p>In the book, Chani is a supporting character who is merely there to encourage and promote Paul’s ascendancy. She is also a white person who is bound to Paul through having his children. In the film, Chani’s character has been adapted to provide a critical counterpoint. </p>
<p>This reveals Villeneuve’s directorial intention in reframing the book to account for the postcolonial and feminist perspectives of the 21st century. In many ways, Dune: Part Two can be read through the post-colonial perspective of late Palestinian-American writer <a href="https://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Edward_Said">Edward Said</a>. </p>
<p>In his 1978 book <a href="https://theconversation.com/orientalism-edward-saids-groundbreaking-book-explained-197429">Orientalism</a>, a founding text of post-colonialism, Said argued against the West’s distorted image of the East or the Orient as exotic, backward, uncivilised and sometimes dangerous.</p>
<p>He expressed that Western scholars, artists and politicians use Orientalism as a pervasive framework to depict the East as the “Other”. This reinforces a binary opposition between the West as rational, developed and superior and the East as irrational, undeveloped and inferior. </p>
<p>While we see this play out in both Dune films’ visual tropes, a more nuanced message is delivered through the character of Chani. </p>
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<h2>Paul through Chani’s eyes</h2>
<p>Chani is a woman of colour who is sceptical of Paul’s mother’s intentions for him as leader. She also refuses to believe in the prophecy of a saviour, as is held by some Fremen. </p>
<p>Ultimately, the film’s postcolonial and feminist leanings are made explicit in the final scenes. Through careful cinematography and editing, the audience is encouraged to see, from Chani’s perspective, the ways in which Paul is being manipulated.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/582976/original/file-20240319-30-vmc572.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/582976/original/file-20240319-30-vmc572.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/582976/original/file-20240319-30-vmc572.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582976/original/file-20240319-30-vmc572.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582976/original/file-20240319-30-vmc572.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582976/original/file-20240319-30-vmc572.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582976/original/file-20240319-30-vmc572.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582976/original/file-20240319-30-vmc572.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Chani (Zendaya) is sceptical of the intentions of Paul’s mother, Jessica Atreides (Rebecca Ferguson).</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Courtesy Warner Bros</span></span>
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<p>When Paul avenges the death of his father and takes control of the empire, promising to marry the empress – despite having declared his enduring love for Chani – we encounter this betrayal from Chani’s standpoint. </p>
<p>The scenes tend to switch back to her disappointment as the witness. As viewers, we are not encouraged to celebrate Paul’s rise to messiah. Rather, we mourn the loss of his moral conscience with Chani. And this point is affirmed when we see Chani <a href="https://variety.com/2024/film/news/dune-2-ending-explained-dune-3-anya-taylor-joy-1235927539/">surfing the worm alone</a> in the final scenes. </p>
<p>As a woman of colour who is both independent, powerful and resistant to the white saviour narrative, Chani activates the idea of looking at cinema from a <a href="https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/english/currentstudents/postgraduate/masters/modules/femlit/bell_hooks.pdf">non-white vantage point</a>. She leads us to be critical of both colonial and patriarchal narratives. </p>
<p>Where will this lead? We will have to find out in the next film. </p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/582979/original/file-20240320-22-zgjxj4.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/582979/original/file-20240320-22-zgjxj4.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=346&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582979/original/file-20240320-22-zgjxj4.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=346&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582979/original/file-20240320-22-zgjxj4.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=346&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582979/original/file-20240320-22-zgjxj4.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=434&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582979/original/file-20240320-22-zgjxj4.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=434&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/582979/original/file-20240320-22-zgjxj4.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=434&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">In a press tour for Dune: Part Two, director Denis Villeneuve said ‘Dune Messiah’ would be his last Dune film.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Courtesy Warner Bros</span></span>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/diplomacy-and-resistance-how-dune-shows-us-the-power-of-language-including-sign-language-224952">Diplomacy and resistance: how Dune shows us the power of language – including sign language</a>
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<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/225656/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
White saviourism is the paternalistic notion that white people are needed to “save” people of colour from their circumstances.
Cherine Fahd, Associate Professor Visual Communication, University of Technology Sydney
Sara Oscar, Senior Lecturer, Visual Communication, School of Design, University of Technology Sydney
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/148924
2020-11-09T14:52:41Z
2020-11-09T14:52:41Z
How memes in the DRC allow people to laugh at those in power – and themselves
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/367996/original/file-20201106-13-bfl1f5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Those dressing in designer labels can be the subject of memes in the DRC.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Per-Anders Pettersson/Corbis News via Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Memes have become expressions of contemporary culture worldwide, as people document their daily lives through images. The world of <a href="https://twitter.com/africamemes?lang=en">memes</a> – the humorous images paired with text that mutate and spread rapidly, depending on how funny they are – remind us that humour is also contagious. </p>
<p><a href="https://africacartoons.com/cartoonists/map/drc/">Cartoonists</a> in Africa have also historically engaged their readers through the use of humour. Their expressions become fodder for conversations in public spaces like crowded buses and bars. In the colonial era, cartoons and <a href="https://wallach.columbia.edu/exhibitions/congo-chronicle-patrice-lumumba-urban-art">popular paintings</a> were <a href="https://books.google.co.za/books?id=DDtcPGvlRlIC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false">instrumental</a> in the <a href="https://www.si.edu/object/siris_sil_1091429">struggle</a> for independence in many African countries. </p>
<p>In postcolonial settings they <a href="https://www.cnbcafrica.com/international/2018/12/28/drcs-best-known-political-cartoonist-making-light-of-grim-realities-shares-his-election-hopes/">continue</a> to be mediums that covertly – and sometimes explicitly – mock and challenge abuses of power. </p>
<p>There’s some continuity when comparing memes to cartoons. But the anonymity offered by the virtual quality of meme circulation allows for a different kind of participation. </p>
<p>Photoshopped images of politicians in compromising situations – being caught with their pants down – offer a carnivalesque commentary on the arbitrariness of power. These images galvanise people to laugh at those in power, but also those who are subjected to it.</p>
<p>There are an estimated <a href="https://www.slideshare.net/wearesocial/digital-in-2018-in-middle-africa-86865634?qid=8111df47-9748-4099-9ea7-6b54cbe07aba&v=&b=&from_search=1">5.3 million</a> active internet users in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). But access to technology is limited to people with the financial means. Because censorship in the country is <a href="https://www.indexoncensorship.org/tag/democratic-republic-of-congo/">rife</a>, the online sphere, with its anonymity, provides a platform through which power can be critiqued. The economy of circulating images represents a threat to a government that often shuts off the internet during electoral periods.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/367952/original/file-20201106-21-5wpu7l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A man sits at a desk that's covered in hand drawn cartoons, touching one up on a computer screen in front of him." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/367952/original/file-20201106-21-5wpu7l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/367952/original/file-20201106-21-5wpu7l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/367952/original/file-20201106-21-5wpu7l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/367952/original/file-20201106-21-5wpu7l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/367952/original/file-20201106-21-5wpu7l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/367952/original/file-20201106-21-5wpu7l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/367952/original/file-20201106-21-5wpu7l.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">Cartoons paved the way for memes - like those of Congolese cartoonist Kash, seen here in 2013.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">JUNIOR D.KANNAH/AFP via Getty Images</span></span>
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<p>There has been an increase in <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/action/doSearch?AllField=memes">academic interest</a> about circulating digital content. But there’s been virtually no research exploring memes and other viral media in Africa. Beginning in 2017, we began <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02560046.2020.1753089">researching</a> memes and their circulation in the DRC’s capital city, Kinshasa. </p>
<p>This research has provided some insights into the cultural characteristics of digital images in the DRC. And also how they relate to larger anxieties about social change and foreign interventions and new forms of <a href="https://datareportal.com/reports/digital-2020-democratic-republic-of-the-congo">online connection</a>. </p>
<h2>Pondu, Versace and the Chinese</h2>
<p>In many of the memes we collected there was a sense of self-reflexive laughter, an ironic self-mockery, that characterised the images. For example, one meme presents an image of Victor Hugo, a 19th century French author, superimposed on an image of a plate of <a href="https://theculturetrip.com/africa/congo/articles/a-brief-history-of-pondu-the-republic-of-congos-favourite-delicacy/">pondu</a>, a Congolese national dish, with a quote supposedly from Hugo himself: “A real woman knows how to cook Pondu.” </p>
<p><div data-react-class="InstagramEmbed" data-react-props="{"url":"https://www.instagram.com/p/BQ08NRdAIsm","accessToken":"127105130696839|b4b75090c9688d81dfd245afe6052f20"}"></div></p>
<p>Another meme depicts a man in head to toe Versace print and a trolley stacked with luggage emblazoned with the luxury fashion brand logo. The caption: “When your Congolese uncle comes to visit for a week.” These images appeal to people living at home and abroad as they express cultural affinities through images (one might say caricatures) of Congolese culture. This one holds up the stereotype of Congolese people as <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-54323473">obsessed with fashion</a>.</p>
<p>There is a profusion of images depicting Chinese people. These range from light-hearted provocations about cultural stereotypes to some that carry more serious allegations of <a href="https://www.gbreports.com/article/the-chinese-power-grab-in-the-drc">abuse of power</a>. One meme we collected presents a Chinese-owned shop in the DRC featuring a mannequin mimicking a stereotypical Congolese silhouette. Others are suggestive of more serious racial stereotypes. For instance, a Chinese street-food vendor selling grilled rats is ridiculed in one meme. It bears the inscription, “Have you eaten yet?” </p>
<p>Digital content and other oral channels like rumours can become intertwined, and feed one another, which presents a potential danger. For instance, the image of a Chinese woman selling grilled rats might be read as legitimate news rather than a playful jab. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"818493873517428737"}"></div></p>
<p>Images might be used to manipulate people’s attitudes, especially if people are not aware of the complexities of internet content production. This points to the importance of the promotion of internet literacy in the country. </p>
<h2>Technological anxieties</h2>
<p>There are growing assumptions that memes and viral content can alter opinions in a manner that many characterise as manipulation. New psychology <a href="https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/9780429492303">studies</a> have raised questions about the agency of the memetic receiver. They suggest that exposure to conspiracy theories is sometimes enough to significantly influence one’s belief. Take the proliferation of memes circulating across Africa about Chinese people. Many are intended to be comical, but others become vehicles of false information that can affect people’s perceptions. </p>
<p>Biological viruses can contaminate, but technology also becomes a means through which contamination can occur. Local belief systems of virality can converge with the notion that images themselves can be potentially virulent, infecting people’s minds on a literal level. For instance, it is not uncommon for a Congolese person to say, “Do not infect my phone with that video of yours. I do not want to be contaminated by those images.” </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-new-media-platforms-have-become-powerful-across-africa-107294">How new media platforms have become powerful across Africa</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>This particular statement speaks not as much to a digital virus as to beliefs about the power of images themselves. Given the threat of Ebola outbreaks, as well as the COVID-19 pandemic, language relating to contamination is particularly salient. </p>
<p>As more people, technology and ideas continue to circulate, anxieties about the proximity of others will continue to make themselves visible through the multiplication of narratives. These narratives now also appear in the memes that people make, circulate and laugh at. </p>
<p>It’s undeniable that the ambiguity of digital technology contributes to our relationships with others. Concerns over contamination, whether cultural or biological, will continue to breed and be fed by the digital domain, contributing to ambivalence towards structural forces circulating in the world. </p>
<p>As the technology used to access and create internet content becomes increasingly available to Congolese people, locally produced content will inevitably continue to multiply and interact with global trends as well as to critique the wider political sphere.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/148924/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lesley Nicole Braun receives funding from the Swiss National Foundation (SNF).</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ribio Nzeza Bunketi Buse does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Humour is a way for Congolese internet users to prod at cultural traits and political developments – despite censorship being rife.
Lesley Nicole Braun, Senior lecturer, University of Basel
Ribio Nzeza Bunketi Buse, Associate Professor, University of Kinshasa
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/119894
2019-07-07T09:03:35Z
2019-07-07T09:03:35Z
Donor-funded journalism is on the rise in Africa: why it needs closer scrutiny
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/282696/original/file-20190704-51278-17ghca9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Some African journalists are concerned that foreign funders may influence what they cover and how. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">EPA-EFE/Jayden Joshua</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>An enormous and increasing portion of the foreign development aid coming into Africa annually is for media development. Foreign aid funds diverse projects, ranging from investigative journalism in Nigeria, to stories on Chinese building projects in Kenya, or health reporting in South Africa. </p>
<p>The news media landscape and journalism practices – on the continent as well as globally – have undergone massive change in recent times. This, coupled with the collapse of <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-economic-questions-are-key-to-africas-media-freedom-debate-96429">familiar business models</a>, and the limited potential for genuinely independent “watchdog” journalism, the relationship between external influences on local cultures and practices of journalism needs to be reassessed.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.cima.ned.org/publication/confronting-the-crisis-in-independent-media/">A report</a> last year, by the American <a href="https://www.cima.ned.org/">Centre for International Media Assistance</a>, concluded that about US$600 million a year is spent on media development in Africa by state and private funders. This may exceed a billion dollars if the opaque amount China spends on media operations and training globally is included. <a href="https://africasacountry.com/2018/04/going-out-china-in-african-media">Much of this is focused on Africa</a>.</p>
<p>But how does this aid influence journalism in Africa? </p>
<p>Our recent international <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/23743670.2018.1474121">study</a> examined the impact of foreign development aid on media systems in seven African countries. These were Ghana, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Tanzania, Senegal, South Africa and Sudan. A <a href="http://www.alaic.org/journal/index.php/jlacr/article/viewFile/315/160">separate report</a> focused on Latin America.</p>
<p>We witnessed parallel and intensifying debates among media workers in developing countries who accept (or depend on) foreign funding. Funders themselves are also increasingly <a href="https://www.peterlang.com/abstract/title/65486?rskey=AIyXje&result=1">reflecting on their objectives</a> and how they measure success. And, the role of foundations in funding journalism is <a href="https://www.cjr.org/analysis/foundation-funding-journalism.php">coming under increasing scrutiny</a>.</p>
<p>Much of the media aid industry still holds the view that media workers and institutions in the South should emulate their counterparts in the North. But, our study took a different approach. We asked to what extent a flow of foreign money has affected the ability of developing regions to foster a critical and independent media sector. </p>
<h2>Chinese versus Western perspectives</h2>
<p>Journalists who took part in our project worried that the foreign assistance or travel they’ve received may limit the stories they can tell, or influence the way they tell them. On the other hand, they often feared that without foreign financial support, critical journalism in their countries would vanish.</p>
<p>The colonial powers of Britain, France, and Portugal still <a href="https://www.surlejournalisme.com/rev/index.php/slj/article/view/73/25">cast a long shadow over Africa’s media</a>. More recently, however, African media has been shaped by the US and China. Many foreign interventions are small like the funding of a single investigative news story, for example. But some are massive.</p>
<p>Since the end of the Second World War in <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2013/09/02/world/btn-end-of-wwii/index.html">1945</a>, foreign aid has been directed at disseminating a model of journalism practice and education that aligns with the interests of wealthy, Northern donor nations. Chinese involvement in Africa has led to questions being asked about the assumptions underpinning Western media funding and training. </p>
<p>Because Chinese media are based on a very different model, their initiatives have caused anxiety among journalists and <a href="https://rsf.org/en/reports/rsf-report-chinas-pursuit-new-world-media-order">commentators</a> steeped in the liberal-democratic tradition. This tradition emphasises the <a href="https://theconversation.com/south-africas-media-should-beware-of-being-the-voice-of-only-some-85911">“watchdog” role of journalism</a>.</p>
<p>Chinese media, on the other hand, adopt a more persuasive and positive tone and favour official perspectives. This, while taking a critical view of the history of Western involvement in Africa. This approach is sometimes called <a href="https://www.journals.uio.no/index.php/TJMI/article/view/2403">“constructive journalism”</a>. It promises to present Africa in a more positive light than the stereotypes that have <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Africas-Media-Image-in-the-21st-Century-From-the-Heart-of-Darkness/Bunce-Franks-Paterson/p/book/9781138962323">historically characterised Western coverage</a>.</p>
<p>The establishment of Chinese media outlets such as <a href="https://www.cgtn.com/">China Global Television Network</a>, the wire service <a href="http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/">Xinhua</a> and <a href="https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/china-radio/">China Radio International</a> in Africa have been seen as part of China’s strategy to increase its visibility overseas.</p>
<p>Simultaneously, <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/23743670.2018.1473271">the cultural diplomacy component of media aid</a> has seen African journalists receive offers for paid travel to Europe, North America, and especially to China. </p>
<p>We know little about how these exchanges – and other forms of foreign investment by corporate or religious institutions – affect African media and the stories they tell.</p>
<p>The fear is that the Chinese model, because of the government’s control over the media, is dangerous to introduce in African countries where press freedom has often come under attack. </p>
<p>But fears about a major shift may be overblown or premature given that <a href="https://ijoc.org/index.php/ijoc/article/view/7809">research</a> has shown that the influence of Chinese media on journalists and audiences in Africa remains minimal. </p>
<p>For its part, Western aid has resulted in an <a href="https://journals.co.za/content/glomed_africa/5/1/EJC34950">Anglo-American culture of journalism</a> education which has proved impractical to implement in countries with illiberal political regimes. </p>
<h2>A quandary</h2>
<p>Should under-resourced African journalists accept any foreign funding? </p>
<p>This is a difficult question. There are risks that come from shunning aid. This includes missed opportunities to develop African media or report independently on local power brokers. </p>
<p>On the other hand, aid can be used to coerce journalists to change their norms and practices unduly.</p>
<p>Media producers and users in developing countries need to be more vigilant about foreign media support. And they need to evaluate it. For citizens in countries that provide such aid, the challenge is to scrutinise the efforts made in their name.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/119894/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The study upon which this article is based, was an AHRC/DfID funded project: Development Assistance and Independent Journalism in Africa and Latin America: A Cross-National and Multidisciplinary Research Network (AH/P00606X/1). </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Audrey Gadzekpo received funding from the AHRC/DfID for this project.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Chris Paterson received funding from the AHRC/DfID for this project.
</span></em></p>
Western aid has resulted in an Anglo-American culture of journalism education which has proved impractical to implement in African countries with illiberal political regimes.
Herman Wasserman, Professor of Media Studies and Director of the Centre for Film and Media Studies, University of Cape Town
Audrey Gadzekpo, Professor in the Department of Communication Studies, University of Ghana
Chris Paterson, Senior Lecturer in International Communication, University of Leeds
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/112268
2019-02-21T19:01:31Z
2019-02-21T19:01:31Z
‘Black Panther’ and its science role models inspire more than just movie awards
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/260249/original/file-20190221-195873-1czfcxm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=122%2C77%2C1252%2C694&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">King of a technologically advanced country, Black Panther is a scientific genius.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1825683/mediaviewer/rm2447322112">© 2017 – Disney/Marvel Studios</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>It has been said many times that the Marvel movie “<a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1825683/">Black Panther</a>” is an important landmark. I’m not referring to its deserved critical and box office success worldwide, the many awards it has won, or the fact that it is the first film in the superhero genre to be <a href="https://oscars.org/oscars/ceremonies/2019">nominated for best picture at the Academy Awards</a>.</p>
<p>Instead, I’m focusing on a key aspect of its cultural impact that is less frequently discussed. Finally a feature film starring a black superhero character became part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe – a successful run of intertwined movies that began with “<a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0371746/">Iron Man</a>” in 2008. While there have been other superhero movies with a black lead character – “<a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0448157/">Hancock</a>” (2008), “<a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120611/">Blade</a>” (1998), “<a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120177/">Spawn</a>” (1997) or even “<a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0107563/">The Meteor Man</a>” (1993) – this film is significant because of the <a href="https://www.nyfa.edu/student-resources/the-rise-of-superhero-films/">recent remarkable rise of the superhero film</a> from the nerdish fringe to part of mainstream culture.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=marvel2017b.htm">Huge audiences</a> saw a black lead character – not a sidekick or part of a team – in a superhero movie by a major studio, with a black director (Ryan Coogler), black writers and a majority black cast. This is a significant step toward diversifying our culture by improving the <a href="http://annenberg.usc.edu/sites/default/files/Dr_Stacy_L_Smith-Inequality_in_900_Popular_Films.pdf">lackluster representation</a> of minorities in our major media. It’s also a <a href="http://annenberg.usc.edu/research/aii/research/raceethnicity">filmmaking landmark because black creators</a> have been given access to the resources and platforms needed to bring different storytelling perspectives into our mainstream culture.</p>
<p>2017’s “<a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0451279/">Wonder Woman</a>” forged a similar path. In that case, a major studio finally decided to commit resources to a superhero film headlined by a female character and directed by a woman, Patty Jenkins. Female directors are <a href="http://annenberg.usc.edu/inclusion-directors-chair">a minority in the movie industry</a>. Jenkins brought a new perspective to this kind of action movie, and there was a <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/movies/2017/05/31/why-women-are-crying-when-they-watch-wonder-woman-fight/102328772/">huge positive response from audiences</a> in theaters worldwide.</p>
<p>And beyond all this, “Black Panther” also broke additional ground in a way most people may not realize: In the comics, the character is actually a scientist and engineer. Moreover, in the inevitable (and somewhat ridiculous) ranking of scientific prowess that happens in the comic book world, he’s been portrayed as at least the equal of the two most famous “top scientists” in the Marvel universe: Tony Stark (Iron Man) and Reed Richards (Mr. Fantastic). A black headlining superhero character written and directed by black artists is rare enough from a major studio. But making him – and his sister Shuri – successful scientists and engineers as well is another level of rarity.</p>
<h2>Scientists on screen</h2>
<p>I’m a scientist who cares about increased engagement with science by the general public. I’ve worked as <a href="http://www.laweekly.com/film/physicist-dr-clifford-v-johnson-is-a-consultant-on-superhero-movies-8232890">a science adviser on many film and TV projects</a> (though not “Black Panther”). When the opportunity arises, I’ve <a href="https://creativefuture.org/science-advisor-conversation-dr-clifford-johnson/">helped broaden the diversity of scientist characters</a> portrayed onscreen.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/205377/original/file-20180207-74512-hw1u6u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/205377/original/file-20180207-74512-hw1u6u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/205377/original/file-20180207-74512-hw1u6u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205377/original/file-20180207-74512-hw1u6u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205377/original/file-20180207-74512-hw1u6u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205377/original/file-20180207-74512-hw1u6u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205377/original/file-20180207-74512-hw1u6u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205377/original/file-20180207-74512-hw1u6u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Jason Wilkes is a black scientist on ‘Agent Carter,’ whose character emerged from the author’s talks with the show’s writers.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">ABC Television</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/205375/original/file-20180207-74512-zdpjdm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/205375/original/file-20180207-74512-zdpjdm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/205375/original/file-20180207-74512-zdpjdm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=419&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205375/original/file-20180207-74512-zdpjdm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=419&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205375/original/file-20180207-74512-zdpjdm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=419&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205375/original/file-20180207-74512-zdpjdm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=527&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205375/original/file-20180207-74512-zdpjdm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=527&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205375/original/file-20180207-74512-zdpjdm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=527&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Panels from ‘The Dialogues,’ including a black female scientist.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">'The Dialogues,' by Clifford V. Johnson (MIT Press 2017)</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>I’ve also recently published a <a href="http://thedialoguesbook.com/">nonfiction graphic book</a> for general audiences called “<a href="https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/dialogues-0">The Dialogues: Conversations about the Nature of the Universe</a>.” Its characters include male and female black scientists, discussing aspects of my own field of theoretical physics – where black scientists are <a href="https://www.nsf.gov/statistics/2017/nsf17310/data.cfm">unfortunately very rare</a>. So the opportunity that the “Black Panther” movie presents to inform and inspire vast audiences is of great interest to me.</p>
<p>The history and evolution of the Black Panther character and his scientific back story is a fascinating example of turning a problematic past into a positive opportunity.</p>
<p>Created in 1966 by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, he’s the first black superhero character in mainstream comics, <a href="https://comicvine.gamespot.com/fantastic-four-52-introducing-the-sensational-blac/4000-8666/">originally appearing as a guest</a> in a “Fantastic Four” Marvel comic. As a black character created and initially written by nonblack authors, guest-starring in the pages of a book headlined by white characters, he had many of the classic attributes of what is now sometimes controversially known as the “<a href="https://www.salon.com/2010/09/14/magical_negro_trope/">magical negro</a>” in <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0021934707307831">American cultural criticism</a>: He ranked extremely highly in every sphere that mattered, to the point of being almost too unreal even for the comics of the time.</p>
<p>Black Panther is T’Challa, king of the fictional African country Wakanda, which is fathomlessly wealthy and remarkably advanced, scientifically and technologically. Even Marvel’s legendary master scientist – Reed Richards of the superhero team Fantastic Four – is befuddled by and full of admiration for Wakanda’s scientific capabilities. T’Challa himself is portrayed as an extraordinary “genius” in physics and other scientific fields, a peerless tactician, a remarkable athlete and a master of numerous forms of martial arts. And he is noble to a fault. Of course, he grows to become a powerful ally of the Fantastic Four and other Marvel superheroes over many adventures.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/205406/original/file-20180207-74473-hjn59z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/205406/original/file-20180207-74473-hjn59z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/205406/original/file-20180207-74473-hjn59z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=333&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205406/original/file-20180207-74473-hjn59z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=333&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205406/original/file-20180207-74473-hjn59z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=333&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205406/original/file-20180207-74473-hjn59z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=418&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205406/original/file-20180207-74473-hjn59z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=418&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205406/original/file-20180207-74473-hjn59z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=418&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">While likening Black Panther to a ‘refugee from a Tarzan movie,’ the Fantastic Four marveled at his technological innovations in ‘Introducing the Sensational Black Panther.’</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Fantastic Four #52 (July 1966). [Marvel Comics]</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The key point here is that the superlative scientific ability of our hero, and that of his country, has its origins in the well-meaning, but problematic, practice of inventing near or beyond perfect black characters to support stories starring primarily white protagonists. But this is a lemons-to-lemonade story.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/205407/original/file-20180207-74476-yuoi9u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/205407/original/file-20180207-74476-yuoi9u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/205407/original/file-20180207-74476-yuoi9u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=280&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205407/original/file-20180207-74476-yuoi9u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=280&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205407/original/file-20180207-74476-yuoi9u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=280&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205407/original/file-20180207-74476-yuoi9u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=352&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205407/original/file-20180207-74476-yuoi9u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=352&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205407/original/file-20180207-74476-yuoi9u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=352&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 Fantastic Four were amazed by the scientific ingenuity of Wakanda in ‘Whosoever Finds The Evil Eye.’</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Fantastic Four #54 (September 1966). [Marvel Comics]</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Black Panther eventually got to star in his own series of comics. He was turned into a nuanced and complex character, moving well away from the tropes of his beginnings. Writer Don McGregor’s work started this development as early as 1973, but Black Panther’s journey to the multilayered character you see on screen was greatly advanced by the efforts of several writers with diverse perspectives. Perhaps most notably, in the context of the film, these include Christopher Priest (late 1990s) and Ta-Nehisi Coates (starting in 2016), along with Roxane Gay and Yona Harvey, writing in “World of Wakanda” (2016). Coates and Gay, already best-selling literary writers before coming to the character, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/23/books/black-panther-marvel-comics-roxane-gay-ta-nehisi-coates-wakanda.html?_r=0">helped bring him to wider attention</a> beyond normal comic book fandom, partly paving the way for the movie.</p>
<p>Through all of the improved writing of T'Challa and his world, his spectacular scientific ability has remained prominent. Wakanda continues to be a successful African nation with astonishing science and technology. Furthermore, and very importantly, T'Challa is not portrayed as an anomaly among his people in this regard. There are many great scientists and engineers in the Wakanda of the comics, including his sister Shuri. In some accounts, she (in the continued scientist-ranking business of comics) is an even greater intellect than he is. In the movie, T’Challa’s science and engineering abilities are referred to, but it is his sister Shuri who takes center stage in this role, having taken over to design the new tools and weapons he uses in the field. She also uses Wakandan science to heal wounds that would have been fatal elsewhere in the world.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/205385/original/file-20180207-74506-voxz8z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/205385/original/file-20180207-74506-voxz8z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/205385/original/file-20180207-74506-voxz8z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205385/original/file-20180207-74506-voxz8z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205385/original/file-20180207-74506-voxz8z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205385/original/file-20180207-74506-voxz8z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205385/original/file-20180207-74506-voxz8z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205385/original/file-20180207-74506-voxz8z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Black Panther isn’t an isolated genius – his half-sister Shuri is a technological wiz herself.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://collider.com/black-panther-things-to-know/">Marvel Studios</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>If they can do it, then why not me?</h2>
<p>As a scientist who cares about inspiring more people – including underrepresented minorities and women – <a href="https://theconversation.com/new-ways-scientists-can-help-put-science-back-into-popular-culture-84955">to engage with science</a>, I think that showing a little of this scientific landscape in “Black Panther” potentially amplifies the movie’s cultural impact.</p>
<p>Vast audiences see black heroes – both men and women – using their scientific ability to solve problems and make their way in the world, at an unrivaled level. <a href="https://dornsife.usc.edu/daphna-oyserman/identity/">Research has shown</a> that such representation can have a positive effect on the interests, outlook and career trajectories of viewers.</p>
<p>Improving science education for all is a core endeavor in a nation’s competitiveness and overall health, but outcomes are limited if people aren’t inspired to take an interest in science in the first place. There simply are <a href="http://annenberg.usc.edu/research/aii/research/raceethnicity">not enough images of black scientists</a> – male or female – in our media and entertainment to help inspire. Many people from underrepresented groups end up genuinely believing that scientific investigation is <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1949-8594.2002.tb18217.x">not a career path open to them</a>.</p>
<p>Moreover, many people still see the dedication and study needed to excel in science as “nerdy.” A cultural injection of Black Panther heroics helps continue to erode the crumbling tropes that science is <a href="https://theconversation.com/most-people-think-man-when-they-think-scientist-how-can-we-kill-the-stereotype-42393">only for white men</a> or reserved for <a href="https://theconversation.com/beliefs-about-innate-talent-may-dissuade-students-from-stem-42967">people with a special “science gene.”</a></p>
<p>The huge widespread success of the “Black Panther” movie, showcasing T'Challa, Shuri and other Wakandans as highly accomplished scientists, remains one of the most significant boosts for science engagement in recent times.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>This is an updated version of <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-hidden-superpower-of-black-panther-scientist-role-models-91042">an article originally published</a> on Feb. 8, 2018.</em></p>
<p>
<section class="inline-content">
<img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/248895/original/file-20181204-133100-t34yqm.png?w=128&h=128">
<div>
<header>Clifford V. Johnson is the author of:</header>
<p><a href="https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/dialogues-1">The Dialogues: Conversations about the Nature of the Universe</a></p>
<footer>MIT Press provides funding as a member of The Conversation US.</footer>
</div>
</section>
</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/112268/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>MIT Press provides funding as a member of The Conversation US.</span></em></p>
The film wowed critics and fans. But its hidden power may be black lead characters who are accomplished scientists – just the thing to help inspire future generations to follow in their footsteps.
Clifford Johnson, Professor of Physics and Astronomy, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/91042
2018-02-08T14:41:44Z
2018-02-08T14:41:44Z
The hidden superpower of ‘Black Panther’: Scientist role models
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/205384/original/file-20180207-74473-zbs0ny.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=435%2C4%2C2290%2C1679&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">King of a technologically advanced country, Black Panther is a scientific genius.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://hdqwalls.com/download/3840x2400/black-panther-2018-4k">Marvel Studios</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>I’m not the first to say that the upcoming Marvel movie “<a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1825683/">Black Panther</a>” will be an important landmark. Finally a feature film starring a black superhero character will be part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe – a successful run of intertwined movies that began with “<a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0371746/">Iron Man</a>” in 2008. While there have been other superhero movies with a black lead character – “<a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0448157/">Hancock</a>” (2008), “<a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120611/">Blade</a>” (1998), “<a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120177/">Spawn</a>” (1997) or even “<a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0107563/">The Meteor Man</a>” (1993) – this film is significant because of the <a href="https://www.nyfa.edu/student-resources/the-rise-of-superhero-films/">recent remarkable rise of the superhero film</a> from the nerdish fringe to part of mainstream culture. </p>
<p>Huge audiences will see a black lead character – not a sidekick or part of a team – in a superhero movie by a major studio, with a black director (Ryan Coogler), black writers and a majority black cast. This is a significant step toward diversifying our culture by improving the <a href="http://annenberg.usc.edu/sites/default/files/Dr_Stacy_L_Smith-Inequality_in_900_Popular_Films.pdf">lackluster representation</a> of minorities in our major media. It’s also a <a href="http://annenberg.usc.edu/research/aii/research/raceethnicity">filmmaking landmark because black creators</a> have been given access to the resources and platforms needed to bring different storytelling perspectives into our mainstream culture.</p>
<p>Last year’s “<a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0451279/">Wonder Woman</a>” forged a similar path. In that case, a major studio finally decided to commit resources to a superhero film headlined by a female character and directed by a woman, Patty Jenkins. Female directors are <a href="http://annenberg.usc.edu/inclusion-directors-chair">a minority in the movie industry</a>. Jenkins brought a new perspective to this kind of action movie, and there was a <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/movies/2017/05/31/why-women-are-crying-when-they-watch-wonder-woman-fight/102328772/">huge positive response from audiences</a> in theaters worldwide. </p>
<p>Above and beyond all this, “Black Panther” also has the potential to break additional ground in a way most people may not realize: In the comics, the character is actually a scientist. Moreover, in the inevitable (and somewhat ridiculous) ranking of scientific prowess that happens in the comic book world, he’s been portrayed as at least the equal of the two most famous “top scientists” in the Marvel universe: Tony Stark (Iron Man) and Reed Richards (Mr. Fantastic). A black headlining superhero character written and directed by black artists is rare enough from a major studio, but having him be a successful scientist as well is another level of rarity.</p>
<h2>Scientists on screen</h2>
<p>I’m a scientist who cares about increased engagement with science by the general public. I’ve worked as <a href="http://www.laweekly.com/film/physicist-dr-clifford-v-johnson-is-a-consultant-on-superhero-movies-8232890">a science adviser on many film and TV projects</a> (though not “Black Panther”). When the opportunity arises, I’ve <a href="https://creativefuture.org/science-advisor-conversation-dr-clifford-johnson/">helped broaden the diversity of scientist characters</a> portrayed onscreen.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/205377/original/file-20180207-74512-hw1u6u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/205377/original/file-20180207-74512-hw1u6u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/205377/original/file-20180207-74512-hw1u6u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205377/original/file-20180207-74512-hw1u6u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205377/original/file-20180207-74512-hw1u6u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205377/original/file-20180207-74512-hw1u6u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205377/original/file-20180207-74512-hw1u6u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205377/original/file-20180207-74512-hw1u6u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Jason Wilkes is a black scientist on ‘Agent Carter,’ whose character emerged from the author’s talks with the show’s writers.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">ABC Television</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/205375/original/file-20180207-74512-zdpjdm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/205375/original/file-20180207-74512-zdpjdm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/205375/original/file-20180207-74512-zdpjdm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=419&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205375/original/file-20180207-74512-zdpjdm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=419&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205375/original/file-20180207-74512-zdpjdm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=419&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205375/original/file-20180207-74512-zdpjdm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=527&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205375/original/file-20180207-74512-zdpjdm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=527&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205375/original/file-20180207-74512-zdpjdm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=527&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Panels from ‘The Dialogues,’ including a black female scientist.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">'The Dialogues,' by Clifford V. Johnson (MIT Press 2017)</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>I’ve also recently published a <a href="http://thedialoguesbook.com">nonfiction graphic book</a> for general audiences called “<a href="https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/dialogues-0">The Dialogues: Conversations about the Nature of the Universe</a>.” Its characters include male and female black scientists, discussing aspects of my own field of theoretical physics – where black scientists are <a href="https://www.nsf.gov/statistics/2017/nsf17310/data.cfm">unfortunately very rare</a>. So the opportunity that the “Black Panther” movie presents to inform and inspire vast audiences is of great interest to me.</p>
<p>The history and evolution of the Black Panther character and his scientific back story is a fascinating example of turning a problematic past into a positive opportunity.</p>
<p>Created in 1966 by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, he’s the first black superhero character in mainstream comics, <a href="https://comicvine.gamespot.com/fantastic-four-52-introducing-the-sensational-blac/4000-8666/">originally appearing as a guest</a> in a “Fantastic Four” Marvel comic. As a black character created and initially written by nonblack authors, guest-starring in the pages of a book headlined by white characters, he had many of the classic attributes of what is now sometimes controversially known as the “<a href="https://www.salon.com/2010/09/14/magical_negro_trope/">magical negro</a>” in <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0021934707307831">American cultural criticism</a>: He ranked extremely highly in every sphere that mattered, to the point of being almost too unreal even for the comics of the time.</p>
<p>Black Panther is T’Challa, king of the fictional African country Wakanda, which is fathomlessly wealthy and remarkably advanced, scientifically and technologically. Even Marvel’s legendary master scientist - Reed Richards of the superhero team Fantastic Four - is befuddled by and full of admiration for Wakanda’s scientific capabilities. T’Challa himself is portrayed as an extraordinary “genius” in physics and other scientific fields, a peerless tactician, a remarkable athlete and a master of numerous forms of martial arts. And he is noble to a fault. Of course, he grows to become a powerful ally of the Fantastic Four and other Marvel superheroes over many adventures.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/205406/original/file-20180207-74473-hjn59z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/205406/original/file-20180207-74473-hjn59z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/205406/original/file-20180207-74473-hjn59z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=333&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205406/original/file-20180207-74473-hjn59z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=333&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205406/original/file-20180207-74473-hjn59z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=333&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205406/original/file-20180207-74473-hjn59z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=418&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205406/original/file-20180207-74473-hjn59z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=418&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205406/original/file-20180207-74473-hjn59z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=418&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">While likening Black Panther to a ‘refugee from a Tarzan movie,’ the Fantastic Four marveled at his technological innovations in ‘Introducing the Sensational Black Panther.’</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Fantastic Four #52 (July 1966). [Marvel Comics]</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The key point here is that the superlative scientific ability of our hero, and that of his country, has its origins in the well-meaning, but problematic, practice of inventing near or beyond perfect black characters to support stories starring primarily white protagonists. But this is a lemons-to-lemonade story.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/205407/original/file-20180207-74476-yuoi9u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/205407/original/file-20180207-74476-yuoi9u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/205407/original/file-20180207-74476-yuoi9u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=280&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205407/original/file-20180207-74476-yuoi9u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=280&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205407/original/file-20180207-74476-yuoi9u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=280&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205407/original/file-20180207-74476-yuoi9u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=352&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205407/original/file-20180207-74476-yuoi9u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=352&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205407/original/file-20180207-74476-yuoi9u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=352&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 Fantastic Four were amazed by the scientific ingenuity of Wakanda in ‘Whosoever Finds The Evil Eye.’</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Fantastic Four #54 (September 1966). [Marvel Comics]</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Black Panther (T’Challa) eventually gets to star in his own series of comics. He is turned into a nuanced and complex character, moving well away from the tropes of his beginnings. Writer Don McGregor’s work started this development as early as 1973, but Black Panther’s journey to the multilayered character we’ll see on screen was greatly advanced by the efforts of several writers with diverse perspectives. Perhaps most notably, in the context of the film, these include Christopher Priest (late 1990s) and Ta-Nehisi Coates (starting in 2016), along with Roxane Gay and Yona Harvey, writing in “World of Wakanda” (2016). Coates and Gay, already best-selling literary writers before coming to the character, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/23/books/black-panther-marvel-comics-roxane-gay-ta-nehisi-coates-wakanda.html?_r=0">helped bring him to wider attention</a> beyond normal comic book fandom, partly paving the way for the movie.</p>
<p>Through all of the improved writing of T'Challa and his world, his spectacular scientific ability has remained prominent. Wakanda continues to be a successful African nation with astonishing science and technology. Furthermore, and very importantly, T'Challa is not portrayed as an anomaly among his people in this regard. There are many great scientists and engineers in Wakanda, including his half-sister Shuri. In some accounts, she (in the continued scientist-ranking business of comics) is an even greater intellect than he is.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/205385/original/file-20180207-74506-voxz8z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/205385/original/file-20180207-74506-voxz8z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/205385/original/file-20180207-74506-voxz8z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205385/original/file-20180207-74506-voxz8z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205385/original/file-20180207-74506-voxz8z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205385/original/file-20180207-74506-voxz8z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205385/original/file-20180207-74506-voxz8z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/205385/original/file-20180207-74506-voxz8z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Black Panther isn’t an isolated genius – his half-sister Shuri is a technological wiz herself.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://collider.com/black-panther-things-to-know/">Marvel Studios</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>If they can do it, then why not me?</h2>
<p>As a scientist who cares about inspiring more people – including underrepresented minorities and women – <a href="https://theconversation.com/new-ways-scientists-can-help-put-science-back-into-popular-culture-84955">to engage with science</a>, I think that if a significant portion of this scientific landscape appears in “Black Panther” it could amplify the movie’s cultural impact.</p>
<p>Vast audiences will see black heroes of both genders using their scientific ability to solve problems and make their way in the world, at an unrivaled level. <a href="https://dornsife.usc.edu/daphna-oyserman/identity/">Research has shown</a> that such representation can have a positive effect on the interests, outlook and career trajectories of viewers.</p>
<p>Improving science education for all is a core endeavor in a nation’s competitiveness and overall health, but outcomes are limited if people aren’t inspired to take an interest in science in the first place. There simply are <a href="http://annenberg.usc.edu/research/aii/research/raceethnicity">not enough images of black scientists</a> – male or female – in our media and entertainment to help inspire. Many people from underrepresented groups end up genuinely believing that scientific investigation is <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1949-8594.2002.tb18217.x">not a career path open to them</a>.</p>
<p>Moreover, many people still see the dedication and study needed to excel in science as “nerdy.” A cultural injection of Black Panther heroics could help continue to erode the crumbling tropes that science is <a href="https://theconversation.com/most-people-think-man-when-they-think-scientist-how-can-we-kill-the-stereotype-42393">only for white men</a> or reserved for <a href="https://theconversation.com/beliefs-about-innate-talent-may-dissuade-students-from-stem-42967">people with a special “science gene.”</a></p>
<p>Given the widespread anticipation for the upcoming “Black Panther” movie, if it showcases T'Challa and other Wakandans as highly accomplished scientists, it should give science engagement a significant boost worldwide.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/91042/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Clifford 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>
Seeing black lead characters who are accomplished scientists could be just the thing to help inspire future generations to follow in their footsteps.
Clifford Johnson, Professor of Physics and Astronomy, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/88562
2018-01-08T19:35:57Z
2018-01-08T19:35:57Z
Stereotypes in the courtroom can prejudice our justice system – here’s how that can be fixed
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/197722/original/file-20171205-23047-1gzbsg.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">As an extra-legal factor stereotypes can undermine fairness.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">UQx Crime101x The Psychology of Criminal Justice</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In 2015, Canadian judge Robin Camp acquitted Alexander Scott for the rape of a woman at a party. <a href="http://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/real-life/wtf/canadian-federal-court-judge-robin-camp-under-review-for-shocking-remarks-to-alleged-rape-victim/news-story/350959d6eeca7ab6a4d01733099a1ebd">According to reports</a>, Camp questioned why the victim had not done more to resist the attack. He said:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>She knew she was drunk … Is not an onus on her to be more careful?</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Camp also noted the alleged victim’s lack of physical and verbal resistance, and her low socioeconomic status. Four law professors <a href="http://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/2510250/cjc-complaint-r-camp.pdf">subsequently filed a complaint</a> criticising the decision: they characterised it as being sexist and reflecting stereotypical thinking.</p>
<p>Stereotypes like these <a href="http://press.anu.edu.au/publications/new-directions-law-australia">have an undesirable influence</a> on decisions in the legal system. While they can have a functional influence on how we form impressions of others, stereotypes can undermine fairness. </p>
<h2>Stereotypes and thinking</h2>
<p>One useful way to think about a criminal trial is as a series of persuasive messages directed at the fact-finder. In many jurisdictions, the fact-finder is a judge, and for more serious matters it is a jury.</p>
<p>We can use research on persuasion to understand and counter the effect of stereotypes. It generally finds there are two ways in which persuasive messages can influence people. </p>
<p>These processes are described in the dual process models – specifically the <a href="http://www.unc.edu/%7Efbaum/teaching/articles/jpsp-1980-Chaiken.pdf">heuristic systematic</a> and the <a href="http://www.acrwebsite.org/search/view-conference-proceedings.aspx?Id=6329">elaboration likelihood</a> models.</p>
<p>According to these models, there are two modes of thinking. The central or systematic route involves careful deliberative thought. In contrast, the peripheral or heuristic route relies more on shortcuts and pre-existing knowledge – such as stereotypes. </p>
<p>While the central route sounds like the best way of making decisions, people can only use effort in their thinking when they have the motivation and ability to do so.</p>
<h2>What influences jurors?</h2>
<p>It is not just judges like Camp who are influenced by stereotypes in cases of sexual assault or rape: jurors’ perceptions are <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0886260513518843">also affected</a>.</p>
<p>Convictions for sexual assault are often dependent on circumstantial evidence, as there is <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Nina_Westera/publication/264384581_Promoting_pre-recorded_complainant_evidence_in_rape_trials_Psychological_and_practice_perspectives/links/53db04b40cf2e38c63397e55.pdf">typically little corroborating evidence</a>. This means jurors in these cases are likely to draw on their stereotypes to interpret what happened and who should be blamed.</p>
<p>Jurors are also often influenced by defendants’ characteristics, such as their <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0092656680900173">attractiveness</a>, <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1559-1816.1994.tb01552.x/full">race</a>, and <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0739986308315319">socioeconomic status</a>. Defendants are seen as <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00224545.1988.9711362">more likely to be guilty</a> when they come from social categories that are stereotypically linked to the features of the particular crime they are alleged to have committed. </p>
<p>It is not just stereotypes about the defendant’s appearance that influence perceptions: those derived from courtroom design also affect how jurors decide a case. In one of <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jols.12033/full">our studies</a>, a defendant sitting at the bar table with his lawyer was seen as less likely to be guilty than a defendant who was sitting either in an open dock or glass-enclosed dock.</p>
<h2>Why stereotyping happens, and what can be done about it</h2>
<p><a href="http://trove.nla.gov.au/work/18680805">One assumption</a> as to why stereotypes exert such an effect is that perceivers want to use the least mental effort possible, and so use stereotypes to <a href="http://psycnet.apa.org/record/1991-18331-001">reduce the amount of effort required</a>. </p>
<p>However, <a href="http://psycnet.apa.org/record/1985-01256-001">there is evidence</a> that perceivers think more carefully about unexpected, or stereotype inconsistent, information. <a href="http://psycnet.apa.org/fulltext/2012-30280-001.html">Our research</a> suggests that stereotypes can actually be used to maximise the amount of information that is evaluated under taxing conditions.</p>
<p>Despite stereotypes being pervasive and often functional, in the justice system their influence on fact-finders can lead to unfair outcomes for both victims and the accused. This reduces confidence in the justice system and is undesirable for the community. </p>
<p>So, what changes can we make to reduce the negative effects of stereotypes?</p>
<p>One suggestion is that we should get rid of juries and have judge-only trials. But, as the Camp example shows, judges are sometimes also influenced by stereotypes. And research shows that judges, just like juries, have difficulty <a href="http://www.jstor.org/stable/4150614">ignoring inadmissible information</a> and stereotypes.</p>
<p>This is not a criticism of jurors or judges. Rather, it is a recognition that they are human. </p>
<p>Another possibility is to change how jurors are asked to do their job so that they rely less on stereotypes. One option could be to use structured question trails to instruct jurors, rather than the traditional way of giving verbal instructions.</p>
<p>We could also redesign courtrooms to remove elaborate docks, which can make stereotypes about the threat posed by the defendant. </p>
<p>Whatever strategy is decided upon, there is a real need for empirical evidence to inform law reform and practice. This will increase the chance that change will actually improve the fairness of the criminal justice system.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>This article is based on the author’s chapter in <a href="https://press.anu.edu.au/publications/new-directions-law-australia">New Directions for Law in Australia: Essays in Contemporary Law Reform</a>, published by ANU Press.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/88562/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Blake McKimmie has received funding from The Australian Research Council and the Queensland Law Reform Commission. Industry partners, who provided funding and/or in-kind support, for some of the research were the NSW Department of Justice and Attorney General, the Western Australian Department of Justice and Attorney General, PTW Architects, Hassell Architects, Katsieris Origami, and ICE Design. </span></em></p>
Stereotypes can undermine the fairness of criminal trials, but research can help us understand and counter the effect of stereotypes through law reform.
Blake McKimmie, Associate Professor, School of Psychology, The University of Queensland
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/68472
2016-12-12T03:40:46Z
2016-12-12T03:40:46Z
How learning a new language improves tolerance
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/149303/original/image-20161208-31364-1yz4g47.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Why learn a new language?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/sixteenmilesofstring/2598192209/in/photolist-4XAq2p-83mCTV-bewrH8-9JamX4-mgbWGP-8xNEMQ-bUYTaW-e6k6Qv-e6k6A2-aJhdL4-gcghxh-bewKfg-qUWDX-ej9BUW-ej9Agf-ej9sWQ-ej3RYi-ej9AFu-dUn1sw-5PKagb-nHmFbh-e4k2Pt-4G4hBb-nFX3cL-ej3Pj4-nHd4PN-ej9swh-afSwLV-9CCTtH-dUn227-4xhMS4-Jy7pjg-ej9x2q-bKVqsV-dUn2MJ-dUgpr4-PZidp-DkkCB-4G4hff-dUmYHb-93GdcW-4b9F1g-ktM8z8-ej3M7T-ej3END-4ua1Pa-8TuLSe-ej3E6k-qBxFz-ej3Q6V">Timothy Vollmer</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>There are many <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/18/opinion/sunday/the-benefits-of-bilingualism.html">benefits</a> to knowing more than one language. For example, it has been shown that <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/bilingualism-language-and-cognition/article/bilingualism-and-cognition/CCC95B8238C4CDDD92B3ABFFCD0CF2AE#">aging adults</a> who speak more than one language have less likelihood of developing dementia. </p>
<p>Additionally, the bilingual <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3322418/">brain</a> becomes better at filtering out distractions, and learning multiple languages improves <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/292250731_Multilingualism_and_Creativity">creativity</a>. Evidence also shows that <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1540-4781.2013.12034.x/abstract">learning subsequent languages</a> is easier than learning the first foreign language. </p>
<p>Unfortunately, not all American universities consider <a href="https://www.mla.org/About-Us/Governance/Executive-Council/Executive-Council-Actions/2011/Learning-Another-Language-Goals-and-Challenges">learning foreign languages</a> a worthwhile investment. </p>
<p>Why is foreign language study important at the university level?</p>
<p>As an <a href="http://languages.usf.edu/people/athompson/">applied linguist</a>, I study how learning multiple languages can have cognitive and emotional benefits. One of these benefits that’s not obvious is that language learning improves tolerance.</p>
<p>This happens in two important ways. </p>
<p>The first is that it opens people’s eyes to a way of doing things in a way that’s different from their own, which is called “cultural competence.” </p>
<p>The second is related to the comfort level of a person when dealing with unfamiliar situations, or “tolerance of ambiguity.”</p>
<h2>Gaining cross-cultural understanding</h2>
<p>Cultural competence is key to thriving in our increasingly globalized world. How specifically does language learning improve cultural competence? The answer can be illuminated by examining different types of intelligence. </p>
<p>Psychologist <a href="http://www.human.cornell.edu/bio.cfm?netid=rjs487">Robert Sternberg’s</a> <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=ZmiggcC-RxoC&pg=PA13&lpg=PA13&dq=The+theory+of+successful+intelligence+and+its+implications+for+language-aptitude+testing&source=bl&ots=slAeTCHgb3&sig=Ho64-KctbU1CM92J9qvbrS_NGVQ&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjQysz6tePQAhWDPiYKHbfUDvMQ6AEIJTAB#v=onepage&q&f=false">research on intelligence</a> describes different types of intelligence and how they are related to adult language learning. What he refers to as “practical intelligence” is similar to social intelligence in that it helps individuals learn nonexplicit information from their environments, including meaningful gestures or other social cues. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/149343/original/image-20161208-31402-1x1dulb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/149343/original/image-20161208-31402-1x1dulb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/149343/original/image-20161208-31402-1x1dulb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/149343/original/image-20161208-31402-1x1dulb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/149343/original/image-20161208-31402-1x1dulb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/149343/original/image-20161208-31402-1x1dulb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/149343/original/image-20161208-31402-1x1dulb.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">Learning a foreign language reduces social anxiety.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/codnewsroom/16375464297/">COD Newsroom</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Language learning inevitably involves learning about different cultures. Students pick up clues about the culture both in language classes and through meaningful immersion experiences. </p>
<p>Researchers <a href="http://de.hpu.edu/hnguyen/">Hanh Thi Nguyen</a> and <a href="https://www.kapiolani.hawaii.edu/directory/gkellogg/">Guy Kellogg</a> have shown that when students learn another language, they develop new ways of understanding culture through <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1540-4781.2009.00983.x/full">analyzing cultural stereotypes</a>. They explain that “learning a second language involves the acquisition not only of linguistic forms but also ways of thinking and behaving.” </p>
<p>With the help of an instructor, students can critically think about stereotypes of different cultures related to food, appearance and conversation styles. </p>
<h2>Dealing with the unknown</h2>
<p>The second way that adult language learning increases tolerance is related to the comfort level of a person when dealing with “tolerance of ambiguity.” </p>
<p>Someone with a high <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1467-6494.1962.tb02303.x/abstract">tolerance of ambiguity</a> finds unfamiliar situations exciting, rather than frightening. My research on <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13670050.2014.985631?journalCode=rbeb20">motivation</a>, <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13670050.2012.713322">anxiety</a> and <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14790718.2014.973413?journalCode=rmjm20">beliefs</a> indicates that language learning improves people’s tolerance of ambiguity, especially when more than one foreign language is involved.</p>
<p>It’s not difficult to see why this may be so. Conversations in a foreign language will inevitably involve unknown words. It wouldn’t be a successful conversation if one of the speakers constantly stopped to say, “Hang on – I don’t know that word. Let me look it up in the dictionary.” Those with a high tolerance of ambiguity would feel comfortable maintaining the conversation despite the unfamiliar words involved. </p>
<p>Applied linguists <a href="http://www.bbk.ac.uk/linguistics/our-staff/academic-staff/jean-marc-dewaele">Jean-Marc Dewaele</a> and <a href="https://www.ucl.ac.uk/dcal/team/accordion/associatesadmin/liwei">Li Wei</a> also study tolerance of ambiguity and have indicated that those with experience learning more than one foreign language in an instructed setting have more <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/bilingualism-language-and-cognition/article/is-multilingualism-linked-to-a-higher-tolerance-of-ambiguity/2C909C4C33BB214F162367B713B9CD7B">tolerance of ambiguity</a>.</p>
<h2>What changes with this understanding</h2>
<p>A high tolerance of ambiguity brings many advantages. It helps students become less anxious in <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10400419.2013.783762">social interactions</a> and in <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13670050.2012.713322">subsequent language learning</a> experiences. Not surprisingly, the more experience a person has with <a href="https://www.ceeol.com/search/article-detail?id=189138">language learning</a>, the more comfortable the person gets with this ambiguity. </p>
<p>And that’s not all.</p>
<p>Individuals with higher levels of tolerance of ambiguity have also been found to be more <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0148296315000739">entrepreneurial</a> (i.e., are more optimistic, innovative and don’t mind taking risks). </p>
<p>In the current climate, universities are frequently being judged by the <a href="http://www.flbog.edu/about/budget/docs/performance_funding/Overview-Doc-Performance-Funding-10-Metric-Model-Condensed-Version.pdf">salaries of their graduates</a>. Taking it one step further, based on the relationship of tolerance of ambiguity and entrepreneurial intention, increased tolerance of ambiguity could lead to <a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/groupthink/2013/01/03/does-it-pay-to-become-an-entrepreneur/#511534db585b">higher salaries</a> for graduates, which in turn, I believe, could help increase funding for those universities that require foreign language study. </p>
<p>Those who have devoted their lives to theorizing about and the teaching of languages would say, “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMxX-QOV9tI">It’s not about the money</a>.” But perhaps it is. </p>
<h2>Language learning in higher ed</h2>
<p>Most American universities have a minimal language requirement that often varies depending on the student’s major. However, students can typically opt out of the requirement by taking a placement test or providing some other proof of competency. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/149432/original/image-20161209-31402-nwdcfb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/149432/original/image-20161209-31402-nwdcfb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/149432/original/image-20161209-31402-nwdcfb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/149432/original/image-20161209-31402-nwdcfb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/149432/original/image-20161209-31402-nwdcfb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/149432/original/image-20161209-31402-nwdcfb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/149432/original/image-20161209-31402-nwdcfb.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">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Why more universities should teach a foreign language.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/sarspri/5280711519/">sarspri</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In contrast to this trend, Princeton <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2016/11/02/princeton-proposal-would-require-all-students-even-those-already-proficient-study">recently announced</a> that all students, regardless of their competency when entering the university, would be <a href="http://www.princeton.edu/strategicplan/files/Task-Force-Report-on-General-Education.pdf">required</a> to study an additional language. </p>
<p>I’d argue that more universities should follow Princeton’s lead, as language study at the university level could lead to an increased tolerance of the different cultural norms represented in American society, which is desperately needed in the current political climate with the wave of <a href="http://www.chronicle.com/blogs/ticker/heres-a-rundown-of-the-latest-campus-climate-incidents-since-trumps-election/115553">hate crimes</a> sweeping university campuses nationwide. </p>
<p>Knowledge of different languages is crucial to becoming global citizens. As former Secretary of Education Arne Duncan <a href="http://www.ed.gov/news/speeches/education-and-language-gap-secretary-arne-duncans-remarks-foreign-language-summit">noted</a>, </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“Our country needs to create a future in which all Americans understand that by speaking more than one language, they are enabling our country to compete successfully and work collaboratively with partners across the globe.” </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Considering the evidence that studying languages as adults increases tolerance in two important ways, the question shouldn’t be “Why should universities require foreign language study?” but rather “Why in the world wouldn’t they?”</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/68472/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Amy Thompson 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>
Language learning can make people more open to seeing a new way of doing things and develop a greater level of comfort with unfamiliar situations.
Amy Thompson, Associate Professor of Applied Linguistics, University of South Florida
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/60913
2016-06-16T09:55:17Z
2016-06-16T09:55:17Z
Stanford sexual assault: what changed with the survivor’s testimony
<p>As the case against Brock Turner, the Stanford swimmer who sexually assaulted a woman when she was unconscious, unfolded in court, his attorneys <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/jun/07/brock-turner-statement-stanford-rape-case-campus-culture">presented him</a> as a young man whose inexperience with alcohol and desire to fit in with his teammates led to a drunken night of consensual sex.</p>
<p>Following Turner’s conviction and six-month sentence, the victim <a href="https://www.buzzfeed.com/katiejmbaker/heres-the-powerful-letter-the-stanford-victim-read-to-her-ra">released her 12-page</a> courtroom statement to Buzzfeed and it went viral. The sympathy she received kept the story in the news. </p>
<p>Details that have emerged in the aftermath of the trial – about the crime, Turner’s robust partying past and predatory sexual behavior, as well as his parents’ statements pleading for leniency in sentencing – <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/jun/07/stanford-sexual-assault-letters-brock-turner-judge">reveal, I would argue, the extent</a> to which the judge’s decision to go easy on Brock Turner was grounded not in the facts of the case, but in a protective orientation toward young, privileged, white men.</p>
<p>My research into how women’s testimony about sexual assault is discredited demonstrates that facts are only one element in rape prosecutions. Facts are often not enough to offset cultural stereotypes about rape in court. </p>
<h2>Biases that work against women</h2>
<p>In numerous cases, including <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/17/steubenville-rape-trial-verdict_n_2895541.html">recent high school</a> and <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/29/magazine/have-we-learned-anything-from-the-columbia-rape-case.html?_r=0">college rape cases</a> involving athletes, victims are routinely exposed to legal processes that leave them feeling revictimized.</p>
<p>In my forthcoming book, <a href="http://cup.columbia.edu/book/tainted-witness/9780231543446">“Tainted Witness: Why We Doubt What Women Say About Their Lives,”</a> I examine how women who bring forward accounts of sexual assault and harassment find their credibility attacked.</p>
<p>Phrases like “he said/she said” or “no one knows what really happened” <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-victimization-of-women-9780199765102?q=Michelle%20Meloy&lang=en&cc=us">are used commonly</a> to describe rape as a matter of interpretation. Such phrases actively harm women’s credibility in general and erode our capacity to engage with the truth of specific cases. They allow savvy defense teams to substitute bias against women for the facts of actual cases and to turn sympathy towards perpetrators. </p>
<p>Because these stereotypes have entered the law and permeate everyday life, <a href="http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/6/19/1217232/-Beyond-The-Shadow-of-a-Doubt-Applying-The-Wrong-Legal-Standard-To-Establishing-Consent-in-Rape-Case">doubt has become a legal weapon</a> that can be used against any woman who testifies about rape. And in criminal cases, like rape, reasonable doubt is the standard the evidence must meet. </p>
<p>Yet even when the facts in a case confirm guilt, as they did in the case against Brock Turner, who was caught in the act of sexually assaulting an unconscious woman behind a dumpster, defense teams can rely on bias: that women send “mixed signals” about sex, that women say no and mean yes, that women regret sex and cry rape. </p>
<p>None of these cliches is grounded in evidence. Overwhelmingly, <a href="http://www.npr.org/2015/04/19/400185648/jon-krakauer-tells-a-depressingly-typical-story-of-college-town-rapes">women tell the truth</a> about sexual violence. The majority of rapes <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/Missoula.html?id=Q1WWBgAAQBAJ">will never be prosecuted</a> and, when they are prosecuted, the majority of rapists will not be convicted. </p>
<p>Why, then, are the stereotypes that women “cry rape” so durable? When the crime is rape, why are women doubted? </p>
<h2>Here’s what the Turner case shows</h2>
<p>The Brock Turner trial offers an opportunity to examine a familiar and successful set of strategies his legal team employed in the rape defense. These strategies shift responsibility from perpetrators to victims. </p>
<p>While there are numerous strategies, here are the three that predominate: </p>
<ul>
<li><p>Blame the victim: This includes attacking her entire history and turning everything in her life into a sordid example of her loose morals. The focus especially is on what she wore and what she drank, as if the natural consequence of getting drunk is not an awful hangover but a sexual attack. This shifts responsibility from her attacker to her. </p></li>
<li><p>Elicit sympathy for the accused: Emphasize his many accomplishments and bright future (including his career as a promising athlete). Attach the word “ruin” to the risk to the perpetrator’s future and reputation and not to the victim’s. Ensure his visual image makes him appear as clean-cut and respectable as possible. </p></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Promote doubt: Instead of focusing on the facts in the case, capitalize on cultural stereotypes about women’s unreliability. Distort evidence in order to equalize the victim and perpetrator (e.g., they were both at the party, they were both drinking, they both left at some point, they both were part of a sexual “encounter”). Create a parallel story that suggests it’s all a matter of interpretation. </li>
</ul>
<p>For example, on the night Turner was arrested, he gave a statement that said he did not know the victim. Later, new elements were added to Turner’s testimony to create the illusion of consent, including alleging the victim, who did not regain consciousness until after being in the hospital for three hours, consented because she “rubbed my back.” </p>
<p>Turner’s light sentence distills the legal notion that women are not to be trusted and men’s – especially white men’s – reputations are not to be marred by what Dan Turner, the rapist’s father, called “<a href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2016/06/06/father-student-convicted-rape-steep-price-20-minutes-action/85492660/">20 minutes of action.</a>” </p>
<p>To be sure, these legal strategies are used because they work. The law allows them. We are susceptible to them because no one wants to see an innocent person wrongfully accused. However, the commonality among numerous cases allows us to understand the rape defense for what it is: a cynical and legally effective use of cultural stereotypes about rape and women’s unreliability to deflect blame from rapists and lighten their sentences. </p>
<h2>Testimonies from the past</h2>
<p>Although women are often doubted, lose in court or see perpetrators given light sentences, and endure having their lives distorted and sensationalized, their testimony can have a second act.</p>
<p>Anita Hill <a href="http://content.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,167355,00.html">was smeared</a> after testifying during Clarence Thomas’ Senate confirmation hearing that he <a href="http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2010/10/20/anita-hill-scandal-almost-sank-clarence-thomas/">sexually harassed her</a> as “a little bit nutty and a little bit slutty.” Yet journalists Jill Abrahamson and Jane Mayer’s <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/1994/11/11/books/books-of-the-times-the-thomas-hill-question-answered-anew.html">investigative study</a> found no evidence of what Clarence Thomas’s supporters accused her of. Instead, Thomas’s own behavior, including his penchant for pornography and hitting on women who worked for him, was confirmed. </p>
<p>Similarly, the former head of the International Monetary Fund, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, was not charged in criminal court for sexually assaulting Nafissatou Diallo. She <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/dec/10/dominique-strauss-kahn-case-settled">pressed her claim</a> against him in civil court, where the standard of proof is a preponderance of the evidence, and received a settlement for undisclosed damages. </p>
<h2>How the victim fought back</h2>
<p>What can be done to expose the rape defense for the cynical misogyny it traffics in?</p>
<p>No one has done this better than the young woman Brock Turner assaulted. In her moving courtroom statement, she detailed the trauma she experienced and its impact on her and her family. She also exposed and countered every strategy that had been used against her in a singular feminist voice.</p>
<p>She sounded both like herself, and, powerfully, through her decision to remain – thus far – anonymous, <a href="http://www.vox.com/2016/6/8/11887500/brock-turner-victim-anonymous">she sounded</a> like every woman.</p>
<p>She explicitly turned the “he said/she said” format against Brock Turner, countering six disclaimers from his statements. Here is the first one: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>You said, ‘Being drunk I just couldn’t make the best decisions and neither could she.’</p>
</blockquote>
<p>She followed with her rebuttal: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Alcohol is not an excuse. Is it a factor? Yes. But alcohol was not the one who stripped me, fingered me, had my head dragging against the ground, with me almost fully naked. Having too much to drink was an amateur mistake that I admit to, but it is not criminal. Everyone in this room has had a night where they have regretted drinking too much, or knows someone close to them who has had a night where they have regretted drinking too much. Regretting drinking is not the same as regretting sexual assault. We were both drunk, the difference is I did not take off your pants and underwear, touch you inappropriately, and run away. That’s the difference.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Once the victim’s statement left Judge Persky’s courtroom, it entered the court of public opinion. Vice President Joe Biden <a href="http://www.motherjones.com/media/2016/06/read-joe-bidens-open-letter-stanford-suvivor-sexual-assault">published an open letter</a> to the victim, her statement was read in its entirety in <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/stanford-sexual-assault-victim-letter-congress_us_5758d597e4b00f97fba74969">the congressional record</a>, a <a href="http://www.mercurynews.com/crime-courts/ci_29997198/judge-aaron-persky-prospective-jurors-refuse-serve">petition to recall Judge Persky</a> is circulating, at least 10 potential jurors in his courtroom have refused to serve and evidence of Brock Turner’s alcohol and drug use <a href="http://www.today.com/video/brock-turner-rape-case-court-docs-show-history-of-drug-alcohol-use-702056003959">continues to surface</a>. On June 14, Santa Clara District Attorney Jeff Rosen filed a peremptory challenge against Judge Persky to <a href="http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/06/14/482103187/california-judge-in-stanford-rape-trial-removed-from-new-sex-assault-case">remove him</a> from deciding whether a former Kaiser Permanente surgical nurse should be tried for the alleged sexual assault of a sedated patient.</p>
<p>The ideology of gender bias operates under the deceptive cover of common sense in everyday life and as reasonable doubt in criminal court. In this way, the rules of evidence are biased against women. However, one of the most important outcomes of the current public attention is that we see how a new voice can disrupt the recycling of the the same old story. </p>
<p>In this case, the testimony of the woman survivor has galvanized student activists at Stanford, catalyzed protest against Judge Persky and promises to continue to expose systemic bias against women.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/60913/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Leigh Gilmore 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>
Women’s testimony about sexual assault is often doubted and discredited. Here’s how the voice of the Stanford assault survivor changed an old narrative.
Leigh Gilmore, Distinguished Professor of Women's and Gender Studies, Wellesley College
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/52284
2015-12-16T23:27:46Z
2015-12-16T23:27:46Z
Not just victims or threats: young people win recognition as workers for peace
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/105898/original/image-20151214-23202-q0jwk2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">These participants in a seminar on advocacy and peacebuilding are part of a generation of young people working for global peace and security.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/inclusivesecurity/9566159360/in/photolist-fzkbp5-fz5PND-fzk995-fz5Lhe-fzk9X9-fzkc31-fz5N8D-fzkaqq-fzk9y1-fzkcMb-fz5M96-fz5Pti-fz5Myv-fzkbH9-fz5P4t-fzk4U5">Institute for Inclusive Security/flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The UN Security Council’s <a href="http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=52773#.Vm85OWR96X0">adoption</a> of <a href="http://unoy.org/wp-content/uploads/SCR-2250.pdf">Resolution 2250</a> on “youth, peace and security” marks a historic and significant change in how the UN recognises and engages with youth.</p>
<p>Security Council resolutions and debates, and statements from the UN and other international organisations, often refer to young people. They are usually discussed, however, as vulnerable victims, or as uncontrollable, violent or potentially violent delinquents. These stereotypical characterisations deeply influence the way young people are understood and the ways policies and practices will affect them. </p>
<p>When youth are seen as victims, the common understanding is that adults are obliged to protect them. If they are delinquent, they are seen as a threat to security; they must be contained and have their childhoods “returned” to them. Resolution 2250 changes this dynamic by recognising youth as active agents in conflict and post-conflict settings.</p>
<h2>Half the world’s people are young</h2>
<p>Young people make up a greater proportion of the global population than ever before. Almost half (48%) of the world’s people are under 24 years old. </p>
<p>In a changing global security environment, young people face a range of critical challenges. These include: accessing quality education and health care; finding secure employment; risks of involvement in conflict or negotiating the consequences of living with conflict; and being most affected by climate change.</p>
<p>It is astonishing that youth have not been formally recognised until now as active agents who can contribute to our responses to these challenges and risks. Enduring and reductive victim/perpetrator binaries have dominated how we see their experience. How we talk about youth matters, and it has to move beyond these binaries.</p>
<p>Resolution 2250 is the result of a long campaign to raise awareness and foster debate about the role of youth in peace and security.</p>
<p>In January 2013, the secretary-general appointed the first UN <a href="http://www.un.org/youthenvoy/about/">Envoy on Youth</a>. In April 2015, Jordan, as Security Council president, held an open debate on youth and peacebuilding. This was followed by a <a href="http://www.un.org/youthenvoy/2015/08/amman-youth-declaration-adopted-global-forum-youth-peace-security/">Global Forum</a> on Youth, Peace and Security in August. </p>
<p>Resolution 2250 is a significant step toward recognising and supporting the diverse roles young people take on in conflict settings and in peacebuilding. It
incorporates <a href="http://www.youthpolicy.org/blog/peacebuilding/un-security-council-resolution-youth/">five pillars</a>: participation, protection, prevention, partnerships, and disengagement and reintegration.</p>
<p>These echo some established framings for engagement with youth. For example, the rights outlined in the 1989 UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (<a href="http://www.ohchr.org/en/professionalinterest/pages/crc.aspx">UNCRC</a>) are generally categorised as the “<a href="http://www.cyc-net.org/cyc-online/cycol-0500-threepees.html">three Ps</a>”: provision, protection and participation. </p>
<p>The UNCRC’s focus is on people under 18, which reflects a dominant framing of engagement with those not considered full adults or citizens. Resolution 2250 uses much more active language about engaging with and considering youth views and actions.</p>
<h2>Long struggle for recognition continues</h2>
<p>With or without a UN resolution, young people work tirelessly in conflict and post-conflict environments around the world to effect meaningful change and build peace. The <a href="http://unoy.org/">United Network of Young Peacebuilders</a> has established itself as a global network for youth peacebuilding organisations.</p>
<p>The resolution calls for a “progress study” by the secretary-general into the contributions youth make to peace and conflict resolution. It also calls for these to be included in situation reports for the Security Council. Such formal mechanisms of recognition could strengthen the established work for peace by youth around the world.</p>
<p>A UN resolution gives legitimacy to young people, opens access to broader support and establishes them as important actors in the peace and security space. However, it doesn’t automatically enable this. Just like past agendas – notably the <a href="http://www.securitycouncilreport.org/un-documents/women-peace-and-security/">Women, Peace and Security agenda</a> – advocates for change will have to campaign loudly to encourage nations, organisations and the UN itself to adopt the tenets of the resolution.</p>
<p>Challenges remain. For one, youth are often not enfranchised in formal political structures. They struggle to find spaces to be taken seriously. </p>
<p>Definitional challenges also exist. After much debate, and to avoid overlap with resolutions aimed at children, Resolution 2250 defines “youth” as people between 18 and 29. </p>
<p>Contestations of the <a href="http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/documents/youth/fact-sheets/youth-definition.pdf">definition of youth</a> are likely. Understandings differ significantly between societies. The African Union, for example, defines youth as those aged 15-34.</p>
<p>Another issue is the tendency to conflate issues of concern to women “and youth” or “and children”. This erases the unique contributions and specificity of experiences of youth.</p>
<h2>Learning from women’s experience</h2>
<p>The historic struggle to include women in peace and security efforts offers important lessons. Gender is a significant factor in youth participation when it comes to peace and security. As Marc Sommers <a href="https://books.google.com.au/books?id=CwDaCgAAQBAJ&pg=PP12&dq=%22conjuring+male+youth+as+dangerous%22&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiypNefu9zJAhUEmpQKHcLNDRAQ6AEIHDAA#v=onepage&q=%22conjuring%20male%20youth%20as%20dangerous%22&f=false">argues</a>, the common practice of:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>… conjuring male youth as dangerous and overlooking female youth doesn’t square with realities in which young people, among many other things, resist engagement in violence, develop remarkable talents, and experience inclusion within excluded worlds.</p>
</blockquote>
<p><a href="http://insider.foxnews.com/2015/11/16/allen-west-syrian-refugees-no-military-age-males-should-be-allowed">Recent calls</a> to deny refugee status to “military-age males” fleeing conflict zones such as Syria highlight the need to consider the life-threatening consequences of applying such gendered stereotypes to youth.</p>
<p>Despite the many achievements of the UN’s Women, Peace and Security Agenda, women still make up an embarrassingly small percentage of participants in formal peace processes. They face many other forms of discrimination and barriers to access. Youth peace advocates will likely face a similarly steep uphill struggle for recognition. </p>
<p>As Ashis Nandy <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-intimate-enemy-9780198062172?cc=au&lang=en&">highlighted</a> back in 1983, both gender and age have been exaggerated and oversimplified in ways that authorise the gaining and maintaining of control over others.</p>
<p>Finally, Resolution 2250 deals with radicalisation and violent extremism as well as recognising youth as agents of peace. Its drafting included <a href="http://www.whatsinblue.org/2015/12/adoption-of-resolution-on-youth-peace-and-security.php">much debate</a> about how much of the resolution should focus on youth and countering violent extremism.</p>
<p>Policymakers and implementers of peace and security initiatives must be vigilant in ensuring that the nascent “Youth, Peace and Security Agenda” is not diverted to a protection and prevention framework with a very narrow focus on extremism. Young people’s proactive participation in peacebuilding deserves serious attention.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/52284/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
When nearly half the world’s people are under 24 years old, they clearly have a critical role to play in working for peace and security around the world.
Helen Berents, Lecturer, School of Justice, Queensland University of Technology
Lesley Pruitt, Lecturer, RMIT University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/43099
2015-06-16T10:08:09Z
2015-06-16T10:08:09Z
When researchers ask for data on penalization of black kids, schools resist, cover up
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/85085/original/image-20150615-5846-1oj1oza.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Students of color are more likely to be suspended.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/unirodlibrary/8726689218/in/photolist-ei9yEW-ei3Q8D-ei3P7x-ei9ypW-ei9yvu-fVx6Ld-aUkPAz-i6Ukv8-9DDm9K-aUkPZr-aUkQYP-ei9zwW-ei9zaU-ei9zj3-ei9xMQ-ei3QmD-ei3QdP-ei9ywY-ei3NSP-ei3NMV-ei3R6c-ei9zJA-ei3QBH-ei9yim-ei3QFM-ei3Qop-ei9xXf-ei3R1n-ei3QsH-ei9zWh-ei9ziQ-ei3Pc8-ei9yLy-ei3PXv-ei9zpE-ei3PCk-ei9y69-ei9ypj-ei9yzY-ei9y1u-ei3NVR-ei3Qjz-ei3QvM-ei3QPV-ei3PWK-ei9yB5-ei3P2D-ei3Qzr-ei9z7y-ei3Q9v">Rod Library</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>That students of color bear the <a href="https://theconversation.com/with-harsher-disciplinary-measures-school-systems-fail-black-kids-39906">brunt</a> of the zero tolerance discipline policies in schools has been <a href="https://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/docs/crdc-discipline-snapshot.pdf">well-established</a>. What is not so well known is that some school administrations are actually <a href="http://www.tcrecord.org/Content.asp?ContentId=17975">complicit</a> in this act of racial disciplining.</p>
<p>Nationally, students of color are <a href="https://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/docs/crdc-discipline-snapshot.pdf">more likely</a> to be suspended than white students. On average, black boys are <a href="http://ocrdata.ed.gov/Downloads/CRDC-School-Discipline-Snapshot.pdf">suspended</a> four times more than white boys. Latino students are also <a href="http://ocrdata.ed.gov/Downloads/CRDC-School-Discipline-Snapshot.pdf">suspended</a> more frequently than white students, and female students of color are also disciplined more frequently than white female students. </p>
<h2>The policy ‘problem’</h2>
<p>But this is not all. A recent <a href="http://www.tcrecord.org/Content.asp?ContentId=17975">study</a> that we conducted over a period of two years in Texas found that schools were in fact negligent when it came to addressing such practices of disciplining. The study covered four school districts in Texas with a population of nearly 200,000 students.</p>
<p>As researchers, we have been studying this issue since 2010. But what prompted this study was the suspension of one of the researcher’s sons from school. The child was given a US$500 court citation. And when we showed up for our court appointment, we saw that all the children were either black or brown. Did it mean that white children never fought in school?</p>
<p>We knew this was part of what is now known as the <a href="https://www.aclu.org/issues/racial-justice/race-and-inequality-education/school-prison-pipeline">school-to-prison pipeline</a> for children of color. It led us to take on a scholar-activist role. </p>
<p>Most schools and districts claim to be following <a href="http://uex.sagepub.com/content/early/2013/03/05/0042085913475635.abstract">“race-neutral” discipline policies</a>. School officials even point to their race-neutral suspension and expulsion policies to show how they are <a href="http://eaq.sagepub.com/content/39/1/68.short">“fair” with students</a> of all race and ethnic subgroups.</p>
<p>However, researchers have found that the problem lies in the application of these policies. </p>
<p>For example, black students are more likely to be suspended for breaking <a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19083368">subjective school rules</a> such as a lack of respect for teachers than for objective ones, like having a weapon. Researchers point to <a href="http://link.springer.com/article/10.1023/A:1021320817372#page-1">cultural stereotypes</a> and misunderstandings from a primarily white teaching force as the reasons for the “disciplining gaps.” </p>
<h2>Data on discipline</h2>
<p>Our <a href="http://www.tcrecord.org/Content.asp?ContentId=17975">recent study</a> found that some schools are, in fact, negligent and even defensive when it comes to addressing the problem of school discipline practices and the discipline gap. </p>
<p>The kind of responses we got when we asked for school districts’ discipline data resembled a “corporate cover-up.” </p>
<p>Some school administrators resisted our attempts to provide information under the <a href="http://www.foia.gov/">Freedom of Information Act (FOIA)</a>, and some others released data that were not helpful. For example, in the discipline data submitted by a school district, we were not able to discern the race of the children who had been suspended or expelled from school. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/85087/original/image-20150615-5812-1pf540f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/85087/original/image-20150615-5812-1pf540f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/85087/original/image-20150615-5812-1pf540f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/85087/original/image-20150615-5812-1pf540f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/85087/original/image-20150615-5812-1pf540f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/85087/original/image-20150615-5812-1pf540f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/85087/original/image-20150615-5812-1pf540f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Some schools have been found to be negligent about school disciplining issues.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/cat.mhtml?lang=en&language=en&ref_site=photo&search_source=search_form&version=llv1&anyorall=all&safesearch=1&use_local_boost=1&autocomplete_id=14343824922903054000&search_tracking_id=3QRhFZ-NxCkmZBsSnyJAuQ&searchterm=school%20children%20african%20american%20&show_color_wheel=1&orient=&commercial_ok=&media_type=images&search_cat=&searchtermx=&photographer_name=&people_gender=&people_age=&people_ethnicity=&people_number=&color=&page=1&inline=147613502">Student image via www.shutterstock.com</a></span>
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<p>It is hard for us to imagine that schools are not keeping track of usable disciplinary data, considering that in recent years, widespread attention has focused on the disciplinary treatment of black boys and other students of color. President Obama has even initiated <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/my-brothers-keeper">My Brother’s Keeper</a>, a national program intended to help black and Latino boys succeed. </p>
<h2>Responses from schools</h2>
<p>Our biggest surprise was finding out that districts perceived our request for data as a threat. We found that school administrations became secretive, defensive and even more protective of the data. It seemed to us that districts were essentially complicit in the process of oppression of youth of color. </p>
<p>Even the districts that provided the data were very defensive when informed of the discipline gaps that occurred in their schools. For example, when presented with data in his district, one data administrator responded, “Well, other districts in Texas are higher than us” and “We are not far off from the state average.” </p>
<p>It was very troubling for us to see schools reacting in this way, especially when lives of youth were at risk. These responses were unacceptable and deflected the district’s responsibility. </p>
<p>In the end, only one school district, out of four, instituted a district-wide program for the principals of their schools to learn more about the racial discipline gaps. It was the only one to take steps on how to begin reducing and eliminating racial discipline gaps at both the school and at the district level. </p>
<p>As we conducted the study, we also realized that there is no national legislation that prompts schools to address disparities in education. While No Child Left Behind (NCLB) and other national legislation have at least attempted to draw attention to <a href="http://www2.ed.gov/nclb/accountability/achieve/edpicks.jhtml">racial disparities</a> in achievement, no legislation exists that actually compels schools to address the problem.</p>
<p>This is unfortunate, given the close connection between the <a href="http://edr.sagepub.com/content/39/1/59.short">academic achievement gap</a> and the discipline gap. </p>
<h2>What must be done?</h2>
<p>It is important that schools make policies and goals for racial and ethnic groups more explicit. For example, a goal for “75% proficiency for students in math” is not as impactful as “75% proficiency for each student subgroup based on their racial, gender or language-based identity.” The reason we say this is: what if the population of a school is 25% Latino and that happens to be the same population of nonproficient math students? </p>
<p>At the policy level, what is needed is intensive training on <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2014/12/08/across-america-whites-are-biased-and-they-dont-even-know-it/">implicit racial bias</a> in most districts. In addition, school districts should be required to report overall suspension rates and discipline gaps within each of their schools. </p>
<p>Furthermore, state or federal policies must begin to regulate both the collection of discipline data and the rate of compliance of schools.</p>
<p>Parents too need to pay more attention. Parents of color and from other subgroups should begin to identify which schools are more likely to suspend students of color.</p>
<p>All this together can be a powerful impetus for districts and schools to attend to this problem. Otherwise, disciplining practices will continue to have devastating consequences for our kids.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/43099/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dr. Muhammad Khalifa works as a private consultant (schoolequityproject.com) and helps districts to close their achievement and discipline gaps, and to establish culturally responsive leadership. He is also a professor of educational administration for Michigan State University, and continuously trains school leaders to become culturally responsive leaders.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Felecia Briscoe 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>
Students of color are subjected to harsher disciplinary measures. Are schools doing enough to check this practice?
Muhammad Khalifa, Assistant Professor of Educational Administration, Michigan State University
Felecia Briscoe, Associate Professor of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies, The University of Texas at San Antonio
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.