What are 10 beliefs of an anti-racist? Answers to this question and many, many more are found on a new educational website. The purpose for ‘The ARC’ site, a project of Dr. Keith L. Anderson, is to help people learn how to become change agents in the fight against racism. To fight racism one must…
Black women are largely shut out of coveted tenure-track positions at Mass. colleges and universities
The University of North Carolina may have quelled one controversy when its trustees finally granted tenure to journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones on Wednesday, but across the country — and in Massachusetts — the number of Black women who are tenured faculty remains rare, the Boston Globe reports. At public and private nonprofit four-year colleges, slightly more than 2…
After Contentious Debate, UNC Grants Tenure To Nikole Hannah-Jones
The case inspired a bruising debate over race, journalism and academic freedom. It led both to national headlines and anger and distress among many Black faculty members and students at UNC, NPR Reports. Some professors there have publicly said they were reconsidering their willingness to remain at the university over the journalist’s treatment. “We welcome…
My Daughter Sees Herself in Her Black Role Models and it Makes All the Difference
We’ve worked to surround Naima with imagery and information that emphasize the beauty of her sense of self, history, and potential as a Black girl-child, which was the standard set by my own upbringing, writes Jamilah Lemieux. There is certainly a lot more to discuss today, in the form of media and public events, that…
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…
