Confronting Mass Incarceration

The hard truth is that America is addicted to incarceration – just like slavery before it, writes Shaun King on Instagram. This entire town relies on the prison for jobs – not just at the prison, but the surrounding hotels and restaurants. And now that it’s closing, they are all pissed. What I need you…

Black Professors Push a Major University to Diversify and Confront Racism

Professor Gary King said he was stunned at a not-subtle suggestion that many job candidates from underrepresented minority groups are not qualified. He was stunned, too, that an administrator would dare say that to him, according to the Washington Post. The episode spurred King to join colleagues for a pair of recent reports about Penn…

What is an Equitable Classroom?

The equitable classroom is a classroom that is connected to the lives of black and brown students. This connection helps the teacher, co-teacher and teacher’s aides to understand the negative narratives that persist around the intelligence, beauty and efficacy of our boys and girls of color, writes Josh Parker. This knowledge then informs everything about…

Watch a Never-Before-Aired James Baldwin Interview From 1979

Buried by ABC at the time, the segment reveals a unique glimpse into Baldwin’s private life—as well as his resounding criticism about white fragility, as blisteringly relevant today as it was in 1979, writes Adrienne Westenfeld. “White people go around, it seems to me, with a very carefully suppressed terror of Black people—a tremendous uneasiness,”…

Breaking the Cycle of Silence Around Black Mental Health

The normalization of trauma is far too common among Black youth, who data shows are at higher risk for mental health issues due to disproportionate exposure to illness, poverty, toxic stress, and racism, writes Paige Tutt. One in every three Black children in the United States has been exposed to two to eight adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), which…

Moved by Words: how Poetry Helps us Express our Feelings

Poetry has made something of a comeback in popular culture, thanks to America’s Amanda Gorman, who read her performance poems at a presidential inauguration and this year’s Super Bowl. Gorman has been described as bringing poetry to the masses, writes Maria Takolander. However, when it comes to the mainstream, poetry has long been hiding in plain…

Why People of Colour are Misidentified so Often

There are scientific reasons that help explain initial mistakes; research shows that people identify faces from their own race better, BBC reports. But repeated errors can be frustrating, and take an emotional toll over time. Mistakes also carry career implications; visibility is a critical component of advancement, and Cadet points out that misidentification can impact…

Dance Company Highlights Missing Native American Women

Indigenous women are murdered at a rate 10 times higher than the national average (U.S. Department of Justice), and homicide is one of the leading causes of death for young Indigenous women. Nonetheless, many Americans are unfamiliar with the prevalence of the issue.  Thousands of cases of missing or murdered Indigenous women and girls across…

For Native Americans, Harvard and Other Colleges Fall Short

When Samantha Maltais arrives at Harvard this autumn, she will be the first member of the Aquinnah Wampanoag tribe to attend its law school. In some ways, she will be joining an ancestor. More than 350 years ago, an Aquinnah Wampanoag man named Caleb Cheeshahteaumuck became the first Native American to graduate from Harvard University. He attended…