Chickens and Eggs, Oppression and Race
Here's a riddle: Long ago, did race exist and then people decided to oppress people based on it, specifically in the form of slavery? Or did oppression exist first, followed by the emergence of race at...
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The Construction of Black Criminality
On September 19 this year a man named Terence Crutcher was driving home after attending a music class at a community college in Tulsa, OK. His car broke down and he was forced to stop on the road and...
View ArticleMore on the Construction of Black Criminality
I forgot to include this video animation of Ta-Nehisi Coates' take on the myth of Black criminality. His narration picks up after I said, "However, while antebellum slaves were generally considered...
View ArticleThe Bright Line is not Monotonic
The anthology of myths commonly known as America rests upon the notion that history is linear. In the past people in this country ignorantly did bad things to other people. But thanks to the passage of...
View ArticleCulture: Made Fresh Daily
There are two inspirations for this essay worth noting. The first is an impromptu talk I gave to the board of trustees at Thatcher School while I was visiting in October as an Anacapa Fellow. Spending...
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And We Settled for Mediocrity
This, y'all: One day we will look back at the lack of equity & inclusion in STEM & see we settled for mediocrity when we could have been better together— Lucianne Walkowicz (@shaka_lulu)...
View ArticleTiny Post 1
When you spend time talking about racism's central role in our society, they think you must be suffering from depression, which is the only way they can fathom you'd think such a thing. What they fail...
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No Human is Illegal: Not a Tough Concept
I'm encouraged to see so many fans of progressive, pluralistic society recently rally together against the presidential administration's recent Muslim ban. The executive order is blatantly...
View ArticleTiny Post 2: Exceptionalism
The believers of American Exceptionalism see the country as a "city on the hill," morally above other nations and a force for good in the world. However, when one points to the historical record of our...
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Racism Defines Race
In a discussion about race and racism with a group of Black and Latinx students, the first part of the dialog centered around the things such as the difference between being African American and Black,...
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Tiny Post 3: The Impossibility of Biraciality
I was once interviewed by a journalism student for an article about what it means to be biracial in America, a subject she told me that was near to her heart (and experience). Among other things she...
View ArticleThis week in the freedom to discriminate
Race has no biological basis. Race is assigned based on biological features (hair, skin, etc), but biological features do not uniquely map to a race. Academics know this. Or at least they should....
View ArticleAn annual note to all the (NSF) haters
It's that time of year again: students have recently been notified about whether they received the prestigious NSF Graduate Student Research Fellowship. Known in the STEM community as "The NSF," the...
View ArticleHidden Explicit Messaging
A common refrain these days about racism in our society—to the extent that it's discussed at all—is that racist language is far less explicit today than it was in the past. There may be racism (way...
View ArticleNo Human is Illegal, But Some Are Not White
Our white nationalist presidential administration is cracking down hard on non-white immigrants, particularly those from Mexico. In fact, it's the only successful policy that the child-king has managed...
View ArticleAffirmative Action is Bad, But Wealth is Good
I wonder if anyone asked Jared Kushner if he got into Harvard only because he is white. It would've been a valid question. Even so, the question wouldn't have drawn upon centuries of stereotypes about...
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Finding Blissful Clarity by Tuning Out
It's been a minute since I've posted here. My last post was back in April, so it has actually been something like 193,000 minutes, but I like how the kids say "it's been a minute," so I'll stick with...
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On Sovereignty
Here's a thought exercise. Roughly half of our country is displeased with our current leadership in both the executive branch and the vast majority of people are displeased with the legislative branch...
View ArticleQuestions for Those Seeking Freedom
I recently gave a "diversity talk" at a large public university, and I reiterated a point that I've been making whenever I get an opportunity. Namely, I believe there are two primary ways one can enact...
View ArticlePublic Service Announcement About Corporate News
Five major corporations own almost all of the media Americans consume on a daily basis, and corporations have an outsize impact on national policy. This is just a friendly reminder that in a country...
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Iraq War 2: Electric Boogaloo
Sequels to Hollywood hits are rarely good. It's just too easy to succeed by being fundamentally lazy. Note the success of the original, sign the stars to new contracts, rehash the same basic story and...
View ArticleHands Off Venezuela!
The US is gearing up for another attempt at regime change, this time in Venezuela. The first attempt in that country was on April 11, 2002. That coup lasted only a few days before millions of mostly...
View Article"Why do you care about war?"
Full transcriptThe Triple Prong Sickness of AmericaExcerpts From King’s Speech Delivered at the National Conference on New PoliticsAugust 31, 1967 Over the past two years, as I have moved to break the...
View ArticleBanneker 5 Report 1: Building Community
From its inception, one of the primary aims of the Banneker Institute has been to build community within astronomy that can can be supportive and even nourishing for students of color. To be sure, this...
View ArticleBanneker 5 Report 2: Advising
One of the refrains of the summer is that the Banneker Institute is not an REU program. It's not that REU programs are bad. It's just that we've just always had different goals in mind—and we are not...
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