August 14 - 20, 2020
In honor of Juneteenth 2020, I've committed to educating myself on
systemic racism, discrimination, and bias. Every day from June 19, 2020
to June 18, 2021, I will read an article or book chapter, listen to a
podcast, watch a movie or documentary, view a webinar, or do something
substantive to educate myself in these areas. As part of that
commitment, I will post to this blog each Friday with a list of what
I've done over the past week as well as any pertinent thoughts or
reflections.
Today's post covers the week of August 14-20, 2020.
In this 13 minute TED Talk, Eve Abrams reviews stories of innocent people jailed and some statistics behind mass incarceration. She implores those of us who do not see a connection to those wrongfully accused to look deeper and become involved in changing the system. "As a society, we are more willing to lock up innocent people than we are to let guilty people go free."
Roderic Pettigrew, the CEO of Engineering Health and Executive Dean of Engineering Medicine at Texas A&M writes this short essay for the National Academy of Engineering. He details his own experience with both overt racism and multiple microaggressions and how they impact societal progress. He also encourages us to see our common humanity as a way out of these racist behaviors.
This 30 minute episode of the podcast Floodlines, hosted by Vann R. Newkirk, looks at media coverage of Hurricane Katrina and how rumor and racism distorted the focus on looting and violence instead of legitimate suffering. National and international media clips are contrasted with first person accounts of citizens who survived the flooding.
This 100 minute documentary from HBO is about the 1989 murder of
Yusuf Hawkins, a Black teenager from the Brooklyn neighborhood of East New York. Hawkins was killed when he and some of his friends went to
look at a car for sale in nearby Bensonhurst. The ensuing community responses, trial of the accused, and racial divisions in the city are discussed. This is a very emotional, powerful and raw account of race relations in the late 80s and I highly recommend it.
This article from Forbes reviews the stereotypes often associated with Black women who pursue positions of leadership. Facing both racial discrimination and sexism, Black women leaders often have endured charges of being overly ambitious, even while their contributions to building American are innumerable.
The Wall Street Journal examines federal data and death certificates that point to a disproportionate number of fatalities among certain age groups within minority communities. Housing, health care access, and employment sectors are discussed as potential factors in explaining the differences.
Conor Friedersdorf of The Atlantic reviews the discourse among members of the New York City Community Education Council for Manhattan District 2 regarding screening policies for middle school and claims of racism among its members. This 20 minute article challenges the polarizing tone of these discussions and claims that antiracism is a contested concept that requires a broader engagement and genuine understanding among those who disagree.
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