Tagged: racial equity and social justice

Selected Media

“A Step Forward”: Black Lives Matter Protests Forced Biden to Push Racial Equity, But More Is Needed

From DemocracyNow!

Read the full story from DemocracyNow! here.

“Ash-Lee Woodard Henderson, co-executive director of the Highlander Research and Education Center, says Biden’s executive orders are ‘a step forward’ and credits social movements who have been pressuring the administration to act. ‘This is not just because of his good graces,’ Henderson says. ‘This is because movement made it possible that racial equity be something that is prioritized in the executive branch of our government.'”

Selected Media

Black America Has Reason to Question Authorities

By Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor

Read the full article from Thhe New Yorker here.

“The skepticism among the Black public is not rooted in the same kind of anti-scientific sentiment that has motivated those small communities that reject vaccines in general. Instead, Black concerns are enmeshed within a history of Black health care that is replete with acts of cruelty and depravity and has caused Black communities to regard the health-care professions with warranted suspicion. More important, racism in the provision of medical treatment in the United States has tainted the ways that health-care professionals view Black suffering and symptoms, and Black bodies, more generally.”

Selected Media

Black people are dying from coronavirus — air pollution is one of the main culprits

By Jared Dewese

Read the full article from The Hill here.

“Harvard researchers recently found that even the smallest increase of exposure to a common air pollutant is associated with a 15 percent increase in the death rate from COVID-19 (on top of increased risk of lung cancer and heart problems). Fossil fuel plants are among the top emitters of this particle, along with other pollutants that can cause or worsen asthma and shortness of breath. Partly due to a history of redlining, African Americans live closer to fossil fuel infrastructure than the rest of the population: A 2017 joint report from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the Clean Air Task Force found that more than a million African Americans live within a half-mile of an oil and gas facility.”

Selected Media

The War against Neo-Fascism and White Supremacy

By Henry-Louis Taylor, Jr.

“We, the progressives, beat back by the neo-fascist movement by defeating Trump and acquiring control of the House of Representatives and the Senate. But make no mistake, the Republicans and Trump Nation will continue their intrigue.”

Selected Media

The Politics of White Anxiety

By Jonathan M. Metzl

Read the full article from Boston Review here.

“For commentators such as Elie Mystal, writing in The Nation, the spectacle of white sympathies shifting away from Black communities—so-called whitelash—highlighted the mercurial nature of white support for Black communities. ‘And so here we are, barely three months after George Floyd was choked to death, and already white allyship is waning,’ Mystal wrote. ‘A majority of white people were always going to value their own comfort over justice for Black people.'”

Selected Media

The Just City Essays

Story by Toni Griffin, Ariella Cohen, and David Maddox

Read the essays on NextCity.org here.

“Over the past decade, there have been numerous conversations about the “livable city,” the “green city,” the “sustainable city” and, most recently, the “resilient city.” At the same time, today’s headlines—from Ferguson to Baltimore, Paris to Johannesburg—resound with the need for frank dialogue about the structures and processes that affect the quality of life and livelihoods of urban residents. Issues of equity, inclusion, race, participation, access and ownership remain unresolved in many communities around the world, even as we begin to address the challenges of affordability, climate change adaptation and resilience. The persistence of injustice in the world’s cities—dramatic inequality, unequal environmental burdens and risks, and uneven access to opportunity—demands a continued and reinvigorated search for ideas and solutions.”

Selected Media

BLACK HISTORY MONTH: Inzajeano Latif

Essay by Henry-Louis Taylor, Jr.

Published by AOP

“In honour of Black History Month, member Inzajeano Latif shares his project, The Boisterousness of Silence: The Marginalised of Tottenham. An autobiography told through considered street portraits of the marginalised of Tottenham. ‘In telling their story, Inz tells his own story.'”

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