Tag: African-Americans

African-American

On Labor Acknowledgements and Honoring the Sacrifice of Black Americans

I have begun to give land and labor acknowledgements to address this vital reality as a material and symbolic practice. For conferences and meetings, this practice has become essential and powerful. Not only have enslaved Africans labored on the lands where many hotels exist, but in many cities, Black Americans continue to serve as housekeepers/janitors/custodians, kitchen staff, and other service roles that often go unnoticed and uncompensated in ways they deserve.

February 24, 2021

African-American

AKA Meets $1 Million HBCU Fundraising Goal for Third Consecutive Year

For the third year in a row, Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority (AKA), Incorporated® recently raised $1 million in 24 hours  to support historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs). The fundraising is part of the sorority’s annual HBCU Impact Day, which has a goal of raising $1 million in online donations from local AKA chapters, private […]

September 25, 2020

African-American

Public Charter Schools Send Thousands of Students to HBCUs Every Year

As a proud Spelman College student and KIPP Public Schools alum, I urge Sen. Kamala Harris to support public charter schools.  Nearly 90% of Black Democratic primary voters support expanding access to more public school options, including charter schools. In Atlanta, where I live, 83% supported providing “more choice in the public school system,” including charters.

September 15, 2020

African-American

Proposing a Concept of the Black Tax to Understand the Experiences of Blacks in America

The protests occurring in many cities in America to call attention to the systemic racism in society has provoked us to critically reflect on our experiences as Black men in this country. This cathartic process has led us to believe that as African Americans we are involuntarily mandated to pay a “Black tax.” This term is not new. In fact, it has been primarily associated with a family member who has advanced to a high socioeconomic status and who provides monetary support to other family members. Some have used this term to underscore the ways in which discrimination has impacted the financial standing of African Americans. Our conceptualization of the Black tax differs from the ways it has been used previously.

July 6, 2020

African-American

Historically Black Meharry Medical College Joins the COVID-19 Vaccine Trials Network

Meharry Medical College has joined the COVID-19 Vaccine Trials Network and will be “enrolling community members” in studies of a handful of vaccine candidates, announced the Nashville, Tennessee-based historically Black institution on Tuesday. “I am excited given the importance of minority communities taking part in COVID-19 vaccine trials,” said Meharry’s president and CEO Dr. James E. K. Hildreth.

June 30, 2020

African-American

California Senate Approves Bill Requiring State Universities to Implement Ethnic Studies Course Requirement

Beginning next fall, all California State Universities will implement a three-unit ethnic studies course as part of a graduation requirement for all students, according to Mustang News. On Thursday, the California Senate approved the Assembly Bill 1460 to establish an ethnic studies course focused on Native Americans, African Americans, Asian Americans and Latinx Americans. If […]

June 26, 2020

African-American

Texas A&M Students Divided Over the Statue of a Former University President

Texas A&M University students and alumni are divided over the place of a statue on campus of Sul Ross, a Confederate General who is also a former president of the university. The statue was discovered to have been vandalized Wednesday, with ‘racist’ and ‘BLM’ (Black Lives Matter) painted on it. University police is investigating the […]

June 11, 2020

Students

A Battle for the Soul of Our Nation

Minneapolis, Minnesota, is a long way from Brunswick, Georgia and Louisville, Kentucky. Yet the three areas are now inextricably linked by the recent tragedies that befell African- American citizens – murdered in those locations by citizen vigilantes or police officers. Each illuminates a teachable moment that we would do well to learn from, and demonstrates that even during a historic pandemic, when we are all supposedly “in this together,” that we still have a long way to go as a society before we truly reach “togetherness.”

June 4, 2020

African-American

A Letter to George Floyd

I do not know at a biological or emotional level what it is like to be Black. White privilege was my birthright. Poverty, and homosexuality, and a propensity toward obesity were equally my birthright, and I have experienced prejudice for all of those reasons. Still, I do not pretend to know what it feels like to be racially profiled or to know that my ancestors were violently separated from their homeland and brought in chains to serve people whose race is the same as mine.

June 2, 2020

African-American

Asian Americans are Not the “Model Minority”

Asian Americans are wrongly assumed to be doing well, uniformly and virtually without exception. The stereotype, dubbed “the model minority myth,” has been debunked again and again, but it persists in ideological claims that Asian Americans demonstrate racial discrimination has been eliminated and hard work is all it takes to do well.

April 27, 2020

African-American

A Primer on Asian Americans

Asian Americans fight against “the perpetual foreigner syndrome.” That is the sentiment that no matter how much they try to be American — or in fact have always been American — they must be secretly loyal to another nation.

April 7, 2020

African-American

Beware the Racist Who Claims to Be “Rational”

Among the most dangerous arguments for racial profiling are the most rational. They are persuasive because they are by definition based on logic and statistics. The premise is that a stereotype is true, or more probably true than false, or at least more true of the group subjected to it than of other populations.

January 21, 2020