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Special Report

Special Report

What began as a call to action in response to police violence and anti-Black racism in the U.S. is now a global initiative to confront racial inequities in society, including environmental injustice, bias in academia and the public health threat of racism.

Medicine

Minority patients are diagnosed later, stay on dialysis longerand are added to transplant lists less quickly. Why?

Policy & Ethics

Those who argue that the system will magically self-correct are kidding themselves

Policy & Ethics

Accountability, demilitarization and the transfer of responsibilities to social workers are needed to remake our overly antagonistic law-enforcement agencies

The aftermath of the Springfield, Ill., rampage led, in part, to the NAACP

December 29, 2020 Rob Hotakainen and E&E News

Lower-income residents and people of color are more likely to live in the hottest neighborhoods

December 10, 2020 Chelsea Harvey and E&E News

Amid multiple crises, science and medicine cannot stand aloof from politics

Challenging racisms deleterious effects requires first identifying its many forms

The common, chronic inflammation of the airways may help explain why deaths in custody are so high among African-Americans

Frederick Douglass, Antonio Maceo and the outrages of racial science

A gay, African-American physician relied on personas to endure his medical training

September 22, 2020 Chase T. M. Anderson

Theyre a story about racism

Moviemakers have perfected the art of rendering skin and hairbut only for white people

Contrary to the sanitized version we sometimes hear about the civil rights movement, change was not achieved solely by protest marches and people singing We Shall Overcome

An incoming medical student points out that the field has always been political, prioritizing some bodies over others

Biases in the system put the lives and well-being of women and minorities at risk

Racial minorities and those with underlying health conditions may be at a greater risk from coronavirus infection, but have historically been less likely to be included in clinical trials...

July 27, 2020 JoNel Aleccia and Kaiser Health News

A study of nearly 200 U.S. medical centers found that even apparently healthy kids suffer racial disparities in complications associated with surgery

July 20, 2020 Jim Daley

And stop letting hospital security guards carry guns; there are better ways to keep patients and staff safe

As physicians, we believe that recognizing it begins with understanding our own privilege and biases

From Frederick Douglass to George Floyd, photography has been key for racial justice. But cameras have also been used to hurt

Management researcher Modupe Akinola explains on how stereotypes hurt Black Americans and what we can do to counter them

July 8, 2020 Katy Milkman and Kassie Brabaw

Statues are ideological powerhouses that compress whole systems of authority into bodies of bronze or marble

Systemic inequities such as credit scores mean Black home and business owners receive fewer federal relief loans than white ones

July 2, 2020 Thomas Frank and E&E News

Demonstrators face tear gas, flash bangs, coronavirus and surveillance

June 26, 2020 Karen Kwon

Academic institutions and scientific organizations must embrace collective action

One of the forces behind #BlackInAstro week shares her optimism for the future

June 25, 2020 Karen Kwon

Rubber bullets and tear gas are not as innocuous as they sound

June 23, 2020 Kelsey D. Atherton

Large crowds, tear gas and jail cells could contribute to transmission of the virus. But it would not be easy to separate that danger from the risks of states reopening businesses and workplaces...

June 22, 2020 Tanya Lewis

Pairing the practice with greater accountability, better oversight of law enforcement and efforts to reimagine the role police play in communities could help reduce officers use of force...

June 17, 2020 Stacey McKenna

Public health specialist and physician Camara Phyllis Jones talks about ways that jobs, communities and health care leave Black Americans more exposed and less protected

June 12, 2020 Claudia Wallis

Some scientists call for police to stop using the chemical irritants, which could increase the risk of spreading COVID-19

June 8, 2020 Will Stone and Kaiser Health News

Antiracism in science must be about much more than challenging the bigoted graybeards of our past

Air pollution disproportionately impacts minority communities, and proposed changes would stymie efforts to address the disparity

June 12, 2020 Jean Chemnick and E&E News

Here are 10 ways to reduce adverse outcomes

An academic strike is planned for this week, alongside marches and demonstrations worldwide

June 9, 2020 Nidhi Subbaraman and Nature magazine

June 10 is a day off from business as usual for non-Black academics and a day of rest for Black students, staff and faculty

June 9, 2020 Gary Stix

Some scientists and politicians have invokedbaseless ideas about unknown genes, ignoring systemicinequality andoppression

June 7, 2020 Clarence Gravlee

The weaponization of medical language emboldened white supremacy with the authority of the white coat. How will we stop it from happening again?

June 6, 2020 Ann Crawford-Roberts, Sonya Shadravan, Jennifer Tsai, Nicols E. Barcel, Allie Gips, Michael Mensah, Nichole Roxas, Alina Kung, Anna Darby, Naya Misa, Isabella Morton and Alice Shen

Columbia University attorney Alexis J. Hoag discusses the history of how we got to this point and the ways that researchers can help reduce bias against black Americans throughout the legal system...

June 4, 2020 Lydia Denworth

Co-organizers of the first Black Birders Week talk about the joy of the natural world and the work outdoor-focused groups need to do to reduce racism and promote inclusion

June 5, 2020 Andrea Thompson

Such reviews are intended to allow community input and minimize harm to the environment

June 5, 2020 Adam Aton, Scott Waldman and E&E News

Prescribingweight loss to black womenignoresbarriers to theirhealth

June 4, 2020 Sabrina Strings and Lindo Bacon

Experts and affected communities say environmental justice must be a key component of efforts to address climate change

June 4, 2020 Daniel Cusick and E&E News

Discover world-changing science. Explore our digital archive back to 1845, including articles by more than 150 Nobel Prize winners.

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Read more from this special report: The Black Lives Matter Movement - Scientific American

On a Saturday night in early June, Shard Davis, an assistant professor in the Department of Communication at the University of Connecticut, was sitting on a couch in a rented apartment in San Diego, scrolling through her Twitter feed. She was in California to do research on a project that was funded by a Ford Foundation postdoctoral fellowshipplans that had been affected somewhat by COVID-19 and the widespread protests for racial justice. Davis herself had gone to a Black Lives Matter protest in La Mesa the previous weekend. The event had started out peacefully but turned ugly when California Highway Patrol officers squared off with thousands of protesters on the I-8 freeway. There were reports of bottles thrown, tear gas unleashed, arson, and looting.

A week later, after attending another protest, Davis still couldnt calm down. As she sat alone on her couch, ruminating about the murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor and news coverage of the La Mesa protestthe crowd had been mostly white and Latinx, she said, but the media made it seem as though Black folks were the ones destroying propertyshe felt more and more enraged.

She asked herself repeatedly, What can I do? She was already thinking about what it would look like for universities to cut ties with police departments. I think I was just drawing the very obvious connections, she said. Academia is seen as a very liberal and progressive place, but systemic racism is running through all of these different institutions.

Although she was not an avid Twitter user, Davis came up with the hashtag #BlackInTheIvory, thinking it might be a good way for Black people to share their stories about racism in her sphere of influence. Folks tout the liberal ivory tower, she told me. They hide behind it.

She texted a friend, Joy Melody Woods, a doctoral student in the Moody College of Communication at the University of Texas at Austin, to see what she thought of the hashtag idea. I love it, Woods replied from her iPhone. Already tweeted it out. Davis followed suit, using the hashtag while retweeting a physician named Shaquita Bell: Black individuals in the United States have endured events in our everyday life without an audience or validation of our experiences.

The next morning, Davis and Woods found their notification in-boxes filled with hundreds of tweets from Black academics and graduate students, sharing their stories of exclusion and pain. By Sunday night, #BlackInTheIvory was one of the top twenty hashtags in the country. #BlackInTheIvory is being asked during your first week of college if youre sure you can handle it, many said, or being asked on campus if youre in the right place or lost. #BlackInTheIvory is having campus security constantly ask for your research-lab badge, residence-hall identification, and/or drivers license. Marc Edwards, now an assistant professor of biology at Amherst College, recalled that, in graduate school, at another institution, a dean suggested he wear a tie to class in response to incessant profiling. #BlackInTheIvory is being thrashed in student evaluations for discussing racial injustice, Danielle Clealand, a political scientist at the University of Texas at Austin, wrote. And my personal favorite: #BlackInTheIvory is being asked to serve on endless diversity committees and write endless diversity reports, without regard for ones labor or time, also known as the Black tax. To drive the point home, Woods and Davis posted Venmo bar codes on their Twitter feeds for anyone who might care to contribute.

The movement took off, with feature stories in Nature, The Chronicle of Higher Education, NBCNews.com, and the Boston Globe. Davis and Woods created a Web site, which sold branded merchandise and launched an effort to match Black graduate students in need with donors. Not the Diversity Hire, read the text on one coffee mug.

Youre finally seeing people opening up and sharing these experiences, Woods said. We had been feeling like we were alone.

When Woods and I spoke in June, she told me the story of her own experience as an incoming graduate student. In the fall of 2016, she was the only Black student on her track in a masters program in public health at the University of Iowa. The college had no Black faculty, and Woods said that professors made it clear that she didnt belong, that she wasnt smart enough. One professor told her directly that she didnt have the skills to be a graduate student.

I was feeling maybe I am dumb, she said. I thought I was going insane. I would just be on the floor crying.

Toward the end of her first semester, Woods tried reporting one faculty member to the universitys Office of Equal Opportunity and Diversity, but the complaint went nowhere. Its hard to prove microaggressions, she said. Thats why we think were going crazy.

In Woodss second semester of graduate school, a private psychologist tested her for learning disabilities. She discovered that she had three: a reading impairment, a visual-spatial processing disability, and a nonverbal learning disability. The psychologist told Woods that she didnt know how she had managed to finish high school. Yet her professors refused to provide learning accommodations, as is required by law. (In response, a spokesperson from the college said that we have made progress since 2016, but it is not enough. We are determined to do better.)

So she left. Walked right across the bridge, as she put it, transferring to the College of Education, where she found three Black professors, an Asian-American adviser, and far more Black students in her classes. I was never the only anymore, she said. The course readings also featured more diverse authors, and, because they explicitly addressed issues of inequality, it was easier to have open conversations about racism. In her new program, Woods completed a masters degree in Educational Policy and Leadership Studies with an emphasis on the sociology of education.

But, in many ways, Woods is an exception. Both of her parents have bachelors degrees in electrical engineering, and her two older sisters have graduate degrees in medicine and science. Many other Black students leave graduate programs in despair, but Woods felt that her family simply wouldnt accept her defeat.

She persisted, but her education came at a cost. These experiences are traumatic, Woods said. They can be isolating and emotionally battering. The problem of being the first and the only Black person in any institution is that being alone makes it much easier for white majorities to dismiss ones perceptions.

As a doctoral student at the University of California, Santa Cruz, I experienced the same isolation and resentment that Black women are now once again shouting about from their Twitter-feed rooftops. I know all too well what #BlackInTheIvory is about. I was already writing about my time in graduate school when I came across the hashtag. It took a moment for its meaning to sink in. For so long, I had recalled my experiences in isolation, pushing them to the corners of my memory and doing my best to make them small. #BlackInTheIvory reminded me that, like Woods, I wasnt alone.

In 1988, I was the first Black woman to enroll in my Ph.D. program in ten years. I was there, really, only because my undergraduate mentor, Elliott Butler-Evans, a Black professor in English at the University of California, Santa Barbara, had insisted on it. He had attended the program and received his own Ph.D. there, some years earlier. He told me about the dearth of Black women with tenure in the U.C. system. In his eyes, getting a doctorate was my civic duty. So I went to graduate school.

There were seven incoming students at the history-of-consciousness program at U.C. Santa Cruz that year: five white men and women, me, and a Chicano from Los Angeles named Raul. One afternoon, the conversation in our first-year seminar turned to race.

Our professors for the seminar, Donna Haraway and Jim Clifford, were two of the most formidable minds I had ever met. The conversation was stimulating, as I recall. Something about how racial meaning is socially constructed, perhaps, rather than strictly biological. I was only just beginning to wrap my head around post-structuralism and theory, and the concepts were still fresh and new. But it soon became apparent that a young woman in our cohort was becoming agitated. Ill call her Mary. She shifted in her seat as though biting her tongue.

Its just that Im Italian-American and... I get really tan in the summer, Mary said. She paused, searching the room. It seemed that no one had a clue what she was getting at. Raul and I exchanged confused looks, waiting for her to complete her thought.

I mean, I get even darker than her, she said, crooking her chin in my direction. And thats when she hit me with it. So... I dont understand, why does she get to be Black?

I wish I could say that anyone had a good response to what Mary had said. If they did, I dont recall. I remember only the silence.

I was isolated in a program in which not a single student or faculty member looked like me, or my mother, or my grandmother, or anyone in my family. All around me were hippie-like surfer students, white kids who found it perfectly acceptable to walk the woodsy paths barefoot on a warm day, or to wear their straight hair in clumped mats. For so many of them, college was an inevitable part of growing up. They treated the privilege with a certain casualness that I, as a first-generation student, did not share.

And, although I didnt think of it that way at the time, I crossed a bridge that year in search of bolstering, just like Joy Woods. I made my way across campus, over to Kresge College, where I found the writer Gloria Anzalda working on a doctorate in literature. Gloria called herself a Chicana-Mexicana-mestiza. She had edited a seminal book for Black and brown feminists, This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color, that was mandatory reading in womens-studies courses across the country. I also found Ekua Omosupe, an African-American single mom from Mississippi. We three became friends. I was no longer alone.

Im putting together another anthology, Gloria told me one day, and I was wondering if you have any essays or poems youd like to contribute? She did that thing which is so often missing from our lives as Black scholars and academics. Nurturing.

It doesnt have to be polished. Just send me what you have. My essay, which I called Light-Skinnedded Naps, appeared in Making Face, Making Soul/Haciendo Caras the next year. It was my first published piece of writing. I was twenty-three years old.

Not long afterward, the literature department brought the novelists Toni Cade Bambara and Buchi Emecheta to campus, as distinguished visiting professors, and my life changed again. I became their teaching assistant, crossing campus regularly to commune with my newfound Black community.

One day, after class, I walked with Toni back to her office. The day was bright and impossibly bluewhich made her next words seem incongruous. She pulled a small AM radio from her pocket. Always carry a short-wave radio, she told me. For when the revolution comes. I loved her commitment to revolutionary ideas, and to Black people, and to me.

I plopped myself down in a chair in her office, continuing our conversation. Mostly, I was hungry for her affirmation, which she gave freely. Years later, I found an old cassette tape of an interview she gave for my dissertation, on nationalist desire in Black television, film, and literature. Playing it back, I was mortified to discover that I had done most of the talking. Toni listened patiently, offering mm-hmms in all the right places.

With Buchi, a Nigerian novelist, one day in particular stands out in my memory. She stood before a class of white students, pausing to survey a Douglas fir outside the window.

For you, the trees and the forest are very beautiful, she said. Beau-ti-ful, she repeated, enunciating each syllable with her thick, British accent. But for me I see something more in the forests.

Uh-oh. I surveyed the room, sensing what was coming.

I see fear and danger. She pronounced this last word dan-jah, allowing it to linger in the coffee-scented air for a beat or two. You just dont know who might be behind those trees. The class considered her words in silence. She was right, and they knew it, although I doubt that a Black person had ever said this to them before in quite that way.

And, if something happens, well, then... Im just another Black woman gone. I wouldnt even get two sentences in the newspaper. Buchi paused, allowing students to sit with their discomfort awhile. One rustled papers. Another crossed and uncrossed her legs.

The rest is here:
How Black Lives Matter Came to the Academy - The New Yorker

In 2020, Portland reported the most incidents of police brutality across the nation since the start of demonstrations in May, with nearly three times as many reports compared with second-place New York City, according to 2020PoliceBrutality, an open-source project that tracks officer violence in the U.S. Even as loud activists demanded institutional change, wildfires burned across Oregon and the COVID-19 pandemic raged, with both factors disproportionately impacting minority communities.

In September 2020, wildfire smoke created the most hazardous air quality conditions the Portland area had ever experienced, resulting in an 88% surge in visits to hospitals and emergency departments by patients with asthma-like symptoms during this time.

The trifecta of emergencies has magnified the need for culturally sensitive providers conscious of the social determinants of health in the city. In the wake of Black Lives Matter protests, healthcare providers are rethinking how they connect with the community.

As much of a dumpster fire and awful as 2020 was, it also taught me a lot about the power of mutual aid, Krieger said. Ive never been so excited to be in street medicine and street mental health. It feels like theres possibility here.

The EWOKs represent the only street medic teams in the city integrating physical and mental health services, according to Krieger, who works as a crisis therapist and supervisor at a local not-for-profit. But the city is aiming to implement a similar service.

In June 2020, the Portland City Council voted to direct $4.8 million from the police budget to a program called Portland Street Response, which will send trained mental health providers to certain 911 calls instead of law enforcement officers.

By tending to the full spectrum of a persons health, officials hope to bridge racial health inequities in the city, said Sam Diaz, a senior policy adviser in Portland Mayor Ted Wheelers office.

In 2014, a report by Portland State University and the not-for-profit Coalition of Communities of Color found that Black families lag behind whites in the area in health outcomes and law enforcement engagement, like many areas across the country. In these instances, hospitals and healthcare systems often pay for much of the cost of treatment. A 2020 study by the American College of Surgeons found that gunshot wounds cost the U.S. healthcare system $170 billion a year, with hospitals spending $16 billion on operations alone to care for patients.

In Portland, between 2003 and 2007, Blacks were more than six times as likely to die by homicide and twice as likely to die from diabetes as whites, according to the report. Black residents in Multnomah County, where Portland is located, were more than three times as likely to be represented in the criminal justice system than the population as a whole, according to the analysis. In 2019, the countys Black residents had an average annual income of $46,500, while whites income averaged upwards of $80,000, according to U.S. Census data.

This isnt new, Diaz said. We have report after report after report showing us the data, and it continues to be unacceptable.

Continue reading here:
Portland healthcare institutions work to build trust with BLM - Modern Healthcare

When the leaders of the Black Lives Matter Seacoast chapter saw Seacoastonlines 10 to Watch 2020 list, they quickly noticed that the 10 winners all had something in common: They all apparently were white.

New Hampshires coastal region and the bordering areas of Massachusetts and Maine are predominantly white, but the leaders of the chapter knew that people of all backgrounds in the Seacoast community also deserved to be recognized for what they do.

So, they decided to hold their own event.

Called BIPOC Seacoast Leaders Celebration, the event will recognize 10 Seacoast residents who identify as Black, indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) and who are contributing positively to the community.

We recognize that there are so many people of color in the Seacoast area who are making history today, and theyre doing it without being recognized or seen, said Julian Maduro, a University of New Hampshire student who has been organizing the event in her role as BLM Seacoasts event manager.

The event will be held virtually at the end of February to coincide with Black History Month. Nominations can be submitted through a form on the chapters website until Sunday, Feb. 7.

The criteria to nominate someone are purposely broad, Maduro explained. The form simply asks how the person has benefited the Seacoast community. Nominees can also be of all ages, from 14 years old to senior citizens, unlike other awards that are limited to just young professionals.

Theres nothing that could prohibit someone from nominating someone, Maduro said. We want artists, musicians, entrepreneurs, business owners, inventors, athletes anybody who is benefiting the Seacoast in some way.

While the event will only feature 10 nominees chosen by BLM Seacoast, the organization hopes to recognize other candidates as well, according to the website.

BLM Seacoast has been organizing events in the community since it was founded last summer in the weeks following the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis by Clifton West Jr. and Tanisha Johnson, two Seacoast residents who met online while looking to start a BLM chapter on the Seacoast.

There were established chapters nearby in Manchester and Nashua, but West and Johnson saw the need for a chapter in their own community. The fact that the Black community on the Seacoast is small was part of their motivation.

Here, people feel so alone. It really drives me to keep going, West, now BLM Seacoasts executive director, told Fosters Daily Democrat last year.

Since last summer, BLM Seacoast has been holding meetings, events, and fundraisers mostly virtual due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Its been a mostly positive experience so far, though not without some challenges from some members of the community.

Obviously, with any BLM organization, youre going to be met with a bit of backlash, which is honestly understandable, Maduro said. Its new for people and its new for the community, and people arent necessarily sure what we represent.

The chapter hopes events like the BIPOC Seacoast Leaders Celebration will continue to further its goals of supporting the Black community, promoting Black-owned businesses, nurturing Black youth leadership, and demanding social justice, while continuing to build its presence in the community.

This is an event that is being done with a lot of love, Maduro said. Its love for the community and love for the people that are working hard to make it great.

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Excerpt from:
This Black Lives Matter chapter wants to recognize people benefiting the Seacoast. Heres why. - Boston.com

SEATTLE (AP) The city of Seattle has been ordered to pay nearly $82,000 to attorneys for Black Lives Matter to cover their fees and costs in pursuing contempt-of-court violations against the Seattle Police Department.

The contempt violations were for the improper use of pepper spray and blast balls by police against peaceful protesters after the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, The Seattle Times reported.

The amount by U.S. District Judge Richard Jones ordered was much less than the nearly $264,000 in fees and costs sought by lawyers for BLM-Seattle and King County after Jones found police had violated his injunction prohibiting unnecessary force.

Jones did not place coercive sanctions against the city, sought by BLM, which would have required Seattle officers to provide BLM with use-of-force reports within days of every incident in which an officer uses force against a protester. The judge found those kinds of sanctions were not appropriate in this case.

The judge also rejected the citys efforts to have him reconsider his contempt finding.

We are pleased that the Court rejected the Citys misguided attempt to reverse the Courts contempt finding, and that the Court issued sanctions against the City, said David Perez, one of the lawyers representing Black Lives Matter. Our goal is to ensure greater safety for protesters through compliance with the Courts orders, and this decision will help in that regard.

Read the original here:
Seattle ordered to pay $82K to Black Lives Matter lawyers - Associated Press