Speaking of Race

26/08/2024

You can pre-order this lovely, light, uplifting tale now! Put it on your bedside table...if you're a horror reader, maybe.

For the last two centuries, groups of influential men have, in the professed interest of fiscal responsibility, crime reduction, and outright racism, attempted to control who was allowed to bear ch…

26/05/2024

🇺🇸“REMEMBERING IS HONORING” 🇺🇸appears all over the place on Memorial Weekend signs. Well, let’s remember, then—the right way. The whole way. The hard truth.
Four years ago, so many of us said we’d never forget. We marched. We did some tweeting about our virtue. We put black squares up on instagram and Fbook. And we meant it, probably.

Which is why the current assault on teaching truth is such a tragedy, if not unexpected. And the current lack of protest about it a betrayal of four years ago. What we’re facing is the vigorous attempt to un-see, to un-know, to un-act. It’s the continuation of blindness, our deeper sickness.

Remembering is honoring. So, memorialize the right things, America. 🇺🇸

Share this substack with those whose eyes aren’t quite closed.

A terrible, pivotal day.

28/12/2023

“The United States does not stand out for having a high prevalence of single motherhood. Rather what makes the United States stand out is having the highest penalty for single motherhood.”
I'm late reading this, but very important and tragic data!

Recent research changes our understanding of the causes of and policies for reducing systemically high poverty in the U.S.

20/04/2023

No shock to anyone who pays attention!

The proportion of incarcerated people who were Black or Latino increased during the pandemic, mainly because of sentencing differences.

13/04/2023

Better late than never!

Nature’s updated advice is a small step towards ensuring that research does not inadvertently end up harming under-represented groups.

24/02/2023

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — When Miya Iwataki and other Japanese Americans fought in the 1980s for the U.S. government to apologize to the families it imprisoned during World War II, Black politicians and civil rights leaders were integral to the movement.

17/11/2022

Science finally corrects an unscientific racist mistake:
"Make no mistake. Shockley was a racist. Shockley was a eugenicist. That’s all."
Lesley Jo Weaver Erik Peterson

This week’s issue on the 75th anniversary of the transistor describes a triumph of both basic and applied science. What started out as studies on the fundamental physics of silicon led to the device that makes it possible to read this article online. The ...

12/10/2022

👏It's new episode time! 👏 Annnnnnd we're back with more eugenics: the science and practice of promoting “good breeding” among humans. This time we're looking at the lesser-known origins of the movement and its racist implications today. http://speakingofrace.ua.edu/podcast/eugenics-part-2 Jim Bindon Erik Peterson Lesley Jo Weaver

In this episode we describe some of the early roots of eugenics and Erik describes his three-ingredient model for eugenics.

23/08/2022

And this!

A judge cited the First Amendment – the woke-ist part of the Constitution – in blocking Florida's Stop WOKE Act. But Gov. DeSantis is pressing on.

23/08/2022

Something to think about.

An assault on the very notion of truth and all who seek it

26/07/2022

Saw this in today's paper and it reminded me of the episode we did on redlining (http://speakingofrace.ua.edu/podcast/redlining-health-and-voting).

Thelma Mays couldn’t breathe. On a blaz­ing sum­mer day, she began gasp­ing for air inside her Peters­burg, Vir­ginia, apart­ment, and was forced to call 911. If she’d been able to look out her win­dow to see the ambu­lance pull up at Car­riage House,...

07/07/2022

"Opening the doors to science for everyone requires that faculty learn the most effective methods for teaching a diverse student body. Yes, it’s more work on top of the many other faculty duties, so universities must provide resources to make the adjustments, such as revamping classrooms for active learning, providing time for faculty to redo their curricula, and doing the hard work involved in having the faculty and institution make the cultural changes that students need. And everyone should have more optimism about who can become a scientist."

The cultural wars raging across the United States have sadly found their way into the world of science. Some university science faculty and administrators are resistant to making changes that would allow more students from underrepresented groups to ...