RACE / RACISM
Redlining Lives On in Black New York Neighborhoods and Why Black Women Struggle to Get Help for ADHD
Catch up on the race and racism news you might have missed.
The stories highlighted in this week’s roundup of race-related news illustrate how much harder it can be for Black people to get what’s due to them, whether that’s a home loan, medical treatment, or flood prevention infrastructure. If reading about that stresses you out, don’t miss the last roundup item about how Black women are using cannabis products in their self-care routines — and founding businesses to help others do the same.
The Black Brooklyn neighborhoods where Black people can’t get a home loan
It may not be a huge shock to learn that there are still places where Black people are denied home mortgage loans. But what about when those places…
My birth certificate lists my race as White, but I’m not.
Technically there are no White people who look the color White. There are no Black people either who look the color Black.
But there is a story of Black and White people. One of the greatest stories ever told. A story originating in Europe. Brought over to the land we now call the United States of America. The European settlers started living this story.
In this hard-to-believe story, a turbaned and bearded man with heritage from India is labeled in the late 20th century as White.
This bizarre fantastical story became the foundation for a new nation. The lighter-skinned settlers…
Race/Racism
This week, English soccer’s best players face racist threats while Black female athletes’ mental health issues are met with little sympathy
Several of this week’s selections got me thinking about the price Black people are sometimes forced to pay when they excel. There are always folks who seek to minimize or explain away our successes and maximize our failures or missteps. Black players on England’s national soccer team are facing harassment and threats after reaching the finals of the European championship. Athletes like Sha’Carri Richardson are penalized for taking measures to protect their mental health. Black families whose ancestors scraped and saved to buy land after emancipation are finding themselves cut off from disaster aid because their forebears didn’t have access…
It turns out I wasn’t nearly as woke as I thought
When I was single and new to Toronto, my main activities consisted of swiping on dating apps and complaining about how frustrated I was with dating apps.
I went through the familiar cycle of obsessing over photos, bios, matches, and openers, then getting frustrated and deleting every dating app on my phone, then getting bored and downloading them all again.
At the height of my swiping days, a friend told me about a disturbing study from OkCupid. It showed that people of color experience extreme bias on dating apps, receiving substantially fewer right swipes and matches than white folks. …
Let’s Unpack This
Racial discrimination is a major reason why Black knowledge workers prefer staying remote.
The COVID-19 pandemic changed everything we knew about work. While some jobs mandate a physically present workforce, many realized working from home is just as viable. Some people buckled under the weight of remote positions due to various factors, and others flourished under the newfound freedom. Freedom from office politics and small talk. Freedom from fake relationships and networking. Freedom from racist coworkers and customers.
Future Forum, a site that enables leaders to reimagine work through data and dialogue, published a study titled “A new era of workplace inclusion: moving from retrofit to redesign.” Author Sheela Subramanian discovered more than…
THIS IS AMERICA
My parents turned the racism around us into a game to help us cope
Hillenbrand Industries is the holding company for two operating businesses. One is Hillrom, which operates in the health care industry, selling and renting hospital beds, furnishings, and other hospital accessories. If you’ve ever needed to spend a night in a hospital, chances are you’ve slept in one of their beds.
Hillenbrand’s other operating business is Batesville Casket Company. Although the name is probably unfamiliar to most people, Batesville is the largest coffin manufacturer in the country, controlling nearly half the U.S. market. Funerals may be uncomfortable to discuss, but it’s a $20 billion industry.
No matter what anyone tells you…
It’s the only way we can get to a world without racism
As a Black woman, I write about how it feels to be a victim of racism.
I suspect that some of my white readers are a little voyeuristic and enjoy reading about the painful situations I encounter. They get to walk in my shoes for four minutes and can return to the safety and comfort of their white lives. Some have the courage to comment. They tell me how sorry they are that these horrible things happen to me. They hit send, wash their hands of the problem and go about their lives.
Very few ask what they can actually…
Let’s Unpack This
Sending my kids to a White school may offer a chance for better resources but at what cost?
I spend a lot of time thinking about my unborn children. I wonder about things like what kind of lives they might live and what kind of people they could become. I also wonder whether I’m ready for the responsibility of being a parent. If my dreams are any indication, I’m more than up to the task of finding out. But, there’s one equation I haven’t quite been able to solve for: my kids’ education.
I trust Black women who have been on both sides of the exam table and understand the dangers of dismissing our bodies and ailments
The last prescription I got from a doctor’s office was a year ago, and I have never used it. It was for anxiety medication.
I don’t have anxiety.
What I did have at the time was chest pain. It was understandable given the fact that I was recovering from several blood clots in my lungs that had landed me in the hospital only a few weeks prior. At least, I thought it was understandable. …
Race/Racism
From stopping an oil pipeline to getting reparations, protesting anti-Black injustice is getting results
This news roundup usually points out and discusses stories about anti-Black racism, and though I try to include at least one feel-good item every week, it’s generally a necessarily sobering read. But this week, I can start off with some good news, for a change? We’ve got several stories about how protesting anti-Black injustice is getting results, from stopping an oil pipeline to getting reparations (of a kind) for a Georgia neighborhood erased by urban renewal.
Activism works
Plans to build an oil pipeline that would have run under several predominantly Black Memphis neighborhoods have been canceled after strong opposition from environmental…
Momentum
A blog from Medium about the fight against anti-Black racism.
