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Research Guide-Jayniah Spann, Autumn, Sarah Ikaiddi, Jehiel Wright, Kelly Jones, Harmonee, Mar

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rhyming dictionary rhyme rhymes thesaurus spelling spellcheck words songwriting poetry language lyrics shakespeare quotations mother goose quotes rimezone rymezone

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RhymeZone rhyming dictionary and thesaurus

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A comprehensive rhyming dictionary, thesaurus, and brainstorming tool for the English language. Includes dozens of functions to help songwriters, poets, and anyone else in need of a word.

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In January, the U.S. Department of Education reported a record-high 1.5 million schoolchildren as homeless. By this fall, amid the pandemic's school closures, shrinking capacity at homeless shelters, and ever-higher family mobility, more than 423,000 of them have fallen off school's radars.

That estimate comes from a new report by the nonprofit homeless education advocacy group SchoolHouse Connection and Poverty Solutions at the University of Michigan finds a 28 percent drop in the number of homeless students identified in fall 2020 compared to this time in 2019, based on reports from nearly 1,500 homeless liaisons in 49 states. Nearly 70 percent of homeless liaisons in the study reported they have had pandemic-related identification problems this year, in part due to school closures and families being forced out of homeless shelters because of new pandemic capacity restrictions. (The most recent federal data, which covers 2017-18, represented an 11 percent jump over the prior year and double that a decade ago.)

Barbara Duffield, executive director for SchoolHouse Connection, said her group's projection may underestimate the number of homeless students who are missing education services during the pandemic. While 2.27 percent of public high school students were identified as homeless in 2017-18, the Centers for Disease Control's Youth Risk Behavior Survey data shows nearly 5 percent of high school students actually were homeless at some point during the school year.

The largest share of homeless students don't live in shelters, but are instead doubled up with other families, and these situations have become particularly precarious during quarantines. According to Laura Tucker, homeless liaison for the Sanchez Full Service Center in Tampa, Fla., and Sonia Pitzi, regional homeless education coordinator for the Lincoln Intermediate Unit #12 in York, Pa., more families have ended up stranded in cars, motels, and campgrounds after being forced to leave shared housing.

In Kansas City, Mo., homeless liaison Melissa Douglas has found only about 350 of the 800 homeless students she expected in her district. At this point she's combing state records and calling district staff in both Missouri and neighboring Kansas. In particular, Douglas said she has been able to locate only 17 out of nearly 100 unaccompanied homeless youth who attended the district last year.

"It's super difficult," she said. "We're just trying to see where families have landed because as a district, we are missing kids and they have not shown up electronically anywhere. So you're trying to find out are they in a different district? Are they just not logging on? 'Where are they?' is just the question that's being asked all the time."

Douglas also got a grant through her district's federal CARES Act funding to provide 300 free mobile phones with one- and two-year plans to homeless youth and families, to help the school keep in touch with them as they moved. She and her colleagues also created a Google number tied to multiple phone lines for the entire team, so that families could reach them more easily. So far, the district has handed out 30 phones, primarily to seniors, as part of efforts to help them keep up credits and graduate on time.

Duffield said her group has been working with districts to help teachers learn to identify more potentially homeless students virtually, such as noticing changing backgrounds or a child suddenly no longer having access to internet or video, such as in the public service message below:

Critical Care

However, Duffield said only 18 percent of homeless liaisons reported using federal pandemic relief funding for education support for homeless students. While prior relief packages for natural disasters such as hurricane Katrina included dedicated money for homeless students, that hasn't happened yet during the pandemic.

"It's an invisible population," Duffield said. "There's a lot of need and there are lot more vocal arguments for, like, 'let's just do Chromebooks for everybody,' you know, 'let's just do [personal protective equipment] for everybody' and not think about how's this going to get to certain groups of students."

The study also found that once identified, homeless students have critical needs:

64 percent lack stable internet

64 percent do not have shelter or other emergency housing

47 percent needed food

37 percent needed child care

and 21.5 percent needed health care.

Schools have always been a critical source of health care for homeless students, but Duffield said school-based tele-health and hygiene supplies have become critical during school closures. Douglas said she now provides packs of masks and hand sanitizer along with other supplies.

Pitzi brings her van to campgrounds to provide a hotspot to help homeless students keep up on remote learning, while also getting basics such as food and hygiene supplies. Twice already, she has been called by the local hospital because she was listed as an emergency contact for homeless students who were brought in with COVID-19 and ended up on respirators.

For more on homeless students in Kansas City, see this Education Week interview:

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More Than 1 in 4 Homeless Students Dropped Off Schools' Radar During the Pandemic

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In January, the U.S. Department of Education reported a record-high 1.5 million schoolchildren as homeless. By this fall, amid the pandemic's school closures, shrinking capacity at homeless shelters, and ever-higher family mobility, more than 423,000 of them have fallen off school's radars.

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Sexism experienced during formative years stays with girls into adulthood

These background norms can influence choices that women make and affect their life outcomes

In addition, women face different levels of sexism and discrimination in the states where they live as adults

Sexism varies across states and can have a significant impact on a woman's wages and labor market participation, and can also influence her marriage and fertility rates

Imagine two girls who grew up as friends on the same street, in the same rural town, where they attended the same church and schools, and generally shared the same cultural experiences through high school. Eventually, these two girls become adults and end up living in different places, perhaps hundreds of miles apart. Now imagine two other adult women who live in the same place but who were raised in different places.

What type of life experiences will these women have in terms of the work they do and the wages they earn? Will they get married and, if so, how young? If they have children, when will they start to raise a family? How many children will they have? According to the authors of the new BFI working paper, "The Effects of Sexism on American Women: The Role of Norms vs. Discrimination," the answers to those questions depend crucially on where women are born and where they choose to live their adult lives.

Kerwin Kofi Charles, professor at the Harris School of Public Policy, and his colleagues employ a novel approach that examines how prevailing sexist beliefs shape life outcomes for women. Essentially, they find that sexism affects women through two channels: one is their own preferences that are shaped by where they grow up, and the other is the sexism they experience in the place they choose to live as adults.

On average, not all states are average The average American woman's socioeconomic outcomes have improved dramatically over the past 50 years. Her wages and probability of employment, relative to the average man's, have risen steadily over that time. She is also marrying later and bearing children later, as well as having fewer total children. However, these are national averages and these phenomena do not hold in all states across America. Indeed, the gap between men and women that existed in a particular state 50 years ago is largely the same size today. In other words, if a state exhibited less gender discrimination 50 years ago, it retains that narrower gap today; a state that exhibited more discrimination in 1970 has a similarly wide gap today. Much research over the years has focused on broad national trends when measuring sexism and its effect on women's lives. A primary contribution of this paper is that it documents cross-state differences in women's outcomes and incorporates non-market factors, like cultural norms. The focus of the authors' analysis are the four outcomes described above: wages, employment, marriage, and fertility. Of the many forms sexism might take, the authors focus on negative or stereotypical beliefs about whether women should enter the workplace or remain at home. Specifically, sexism prevails in a market when residents believe that:

* women's capacities are inferior to men;

* families are hurt when women work;

* and men and women should adhere to strict roles in society.

These cultural norms are not only forces that occur to women from external sources, but they are forces that also exist within women, and are strongly affected by where a woman is raised. For example, a girl may grow up within a culture that prizes stay-at-home mothers over working moms, as well as early marriages and large families. These are what the authors describe as background norms, and they are able to estimate the influence of these background norms throughout adulthood by comparing women who were born in one place and moved to different places, and those who were born in different places and moved to the same place. Once a woman reaches adulthood and chooses a place to live, she is then influenced by discrimination in the labor market and by what the authors term residential sexism, or those current norms that they experience in their new hometown. On the question of who engages in sexist behavior, men and/ or women, the authors are clear: men are the purveyors of discrimination in the market (whether women are hired for or promoted to certain jobs), and women determine norms (or residential sexism) that influence such outcomes as marriage and fertility.

The authors conduct a number of rigorous tests based on a broad array of data to reach their conclusions about women's wages, their labor force participation relative to men, and the ages at which women aged 20-40 married and had their first child. For example, their information on sexism comes from the General Social Survey (GSS), which is a nationally representative survey that asks respondents various questions, among others, about their attitudes or beliefs about women's place in society.

Sexism affects women through two channels: one is their own preferences that are shaped by where they grow up, and the other is the sexism they experience in the place they choose to live as adults.

Conclusion
The authors reveal how prevailing sexist beliefs about women's abilities and appropriate roles affect US women's socioeconomic outcomes. Studying adults who live in one state but who were born in another, they show that sexism in a woman's state of birth and in her current state of residence both lower her wages and likelihood of labor force participation, and lead her to marry and bear her first child sooner. The sexism a woman experiences where she was raised, or background sexism, affects a woman's outcomes even after she is an adult living in another place through the influence of norms that she internalized during her formative years. Further, the sexism present where a woman lives (residential sexism) affects her non-labor market outcomes through the influence of prevailing sexist beliefs of other women where she lives. By contrast, residential sexism's effects on her labor market outcomes seem to operate chiefly through the mechanism of market discrimination by sexist men. Finally, and importantly, the authors find sound evidence that prejudice-based discrimination, undergirded by prevailing sexist beliefs that vary across space, may be an important driver of women's outcomes in the US.

CLOSING TAKEAWAY
By studying adults who were born in one place but live in another, the authors reveal the effects of sexism on women's outcomes in the market through discrimination (wages and jobs), as well as in non-market settings through cultural norms (marriage and fertility).

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The Effects of Sexism on American Women: The Role of Norms vs. Discrimination | BFI

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Sexism experienced during formative years stays with girls into adulthood These background norms can influence choices that women make and affect their life outcomes In addition, women face different levels of sexism and discrimination in the states where they live as adults Sexism varies across states and can have a

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The harmful ableist language you unknowingly use

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Some of our most common, ingrained expressions have damaging effects on millions of people - and many of us don't know we're hurting others when we speak.

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Ableism 101 - What is Ableism? What Does it Look Like?

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As buzzwords like social justice, equity, and inclusion permeate our conversations, it’s essential for advocates of progress to remember another ‘ism.’

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Having a safe, stable home is a basic need for all children. Homelessness, unstable housing, and the unavailability of affordable housing have dire consequences for children's health, education, and future earning potential. Yet, the right to a decent, safe, and affordable home was out of reach even before the COVID-19 crisis for far too many children and families-but particularly for Black, Hispanic, and Indigenous families. Access to housing is a racial justice issue as families of color, especially Black families, are more likely to experience eviction, homelessness, and segregated housing and neighborhoods due to racist policies built deep into our housing system.

The affordable housing crisis has deep and racist roots, but stems largely from policymakers' intentional divestment from affordable housing and rental assistance programs.

Federal investment in housing was gutted in the 1970s and 80s and the number of unhoused children and families skyrocketed. The crisis deepened after the 2008 financial crisis as foreclosures forced 9 million new families into the rental market.

As more families sought affordable and safe rental housing, construction failed to keep pace with growing demand, and the new units built were mostly luxury units in big cities. Rents rose and working-class wages remained stagnant, leaving many families unable to find suitable housing.

By 2020, rents were so high that a person working full-time, year-round at minimum wage could not afford the monthly Fair Market Rent for a two-bedroom rental unit in any state or the District of Columbia and still have enough money for food, utilities, and other necessities.To afford this rent, a single person working full-time would have to make almost $24 an hour, more than three times the federal minimum wage (see Table 8).

These barriers to prosperity and disinvestment in federal housing programs have put decent, affordable housing out of reach for millions of people and disproportionately impacted Black, Hispanic, and Indigenous communities. Families with children are hit especially hard by the affordable housing crisis.

More than 1 in 3 children live in households burdened by housing costs, meaning more than 30 percent of their family income goes toward housing.Sixty-one percent of children in low-income households are rent-burdened.

Nearly 2.6 million families with children experience "worst-case housing needs," meaning they are extremely rent-burdened, their income is at or below the poverty line, they spend half of their income on housing, and receive no housing assistance from the government.

Twenty percent of Black households, 17 percent of American Indian or Alaska Native households, 15 percent of Hispanic households, and 10 percent of Asian households (compared to just six percent of white households), are extremely low-income renters and are often locked out of affordable housing due to systemic and structural racism and decades of racist policies.

The affordable housing crisis is the primary reason so many families are unhoused. Children made up 107,069-nearly 1 in 5-of the nearly 568,000 people who were unhoused on a single night in January 2019.

Thirty percent of people who were unhoused were in families with children, and half of all families who are unhoused with children lived in just three states: California, Massachusetts, and New York. Family homelessness declined by 5 percent between 2018 and 2019 and by 27 percent between 2007 and 2019.

In 2019, more than half of individuals in families who were unhoused were Black.Black youth are 83 percent more likely than youth of other races to be unhoused.

More than 1.3 million children under six were unhoused in 2017.

More than 1.5 million unhoused children were enrolled in public schools during the 2017-2018 school year, according to the Department of Education, excluding younger children and youth not enrolled in school (see Table 9).

The number of unhoused students has increased by 15 percent since the 2015-2016 school year.

Seventy-four percent of unhoused students during the 2017-2018 school year were living temporarily with family or friends; 12 percent were in shelters or transitional housing; 7 percent were in hotels or motels; and 7 percent were unsheltered, often living in abandoned buildings or cars.

Access to school for unhoused children is complicated by economic mobility and the lack of school supplies and clothes, funds for transportation, and necessary records to enroll in a new school. The trauma, poor physical and mental health, hunger, and fatigue many experience continue to challenge these children when they get to school.

In addition to school-aged public school students, 4.2 million teens and young adults experienced homelessness during 2016 and 2017.Black and Hispanic youth, youth living in poverty, and young adults; youth with less than a high school diploma or GED; young parents; youth aging out of foster care; and LGBTQ youth were all at especially high risk of homelessness.

Housing insecurity and homelessness are exacerbated by a lack of accessible federal assistance. This assistance is extremely effective, but these programs do not come close to meeting families' needs because they are woefully underfunded.

Families with children make up 60 percent of those helped by federal rental assistance.

Although federal rental assistance can help reduce homelessness, housing instability, and overcrowding, only 1 in 4 eligible households receive it.

Housing vouchers can help families move from areas of concentrated poverty to lower-poverty neighborhoods. Children who moved from concentrated poverty neighborhoods before age 13 have been shown to have higher earnings as 26-year-old adults when compared with those who did not leave the neighborhoods.

Vouchers for unhoused families with children reduce foster care placements by more than half and also reduce school moves and other hardships.

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The State of America's Children 2021 - Housing and Homelessness

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The State of America's Children® 2021 Housing and Homelessness MORE THAN 1.5 MILLION CHILDREN ENROLLED IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS EXPERIENCED HOMELESSNESS DURING THE 2017-2018 SCHOOL YEAR. Having a safe, stable home is a basic need for all children.

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The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has released its latest report about homelessness in the United States, finding that the number of people sleeping rough grew 2% last year. Levels of homelessness have now increased for four consecutive years and just over 580,000 people experienced it on a single night in 2020. Of that total, 61% were staying in emergency shelters or transitional housing while the remainder were forced to live in unsheltered locations such as the street, abandoned buildings or locations unsuitable for human habitation. Unsheltered homelessness in the U.S. is primarily a problem in cities with nearly 6 out of every 10 people experiencing it living in an urban area.

More than half of all people experiencing homelessness in the U.S. last year were in just four states: California (28% or 161,548 people), New York (16% or 91,271 people), Florida (5% or 27,487 people), and Texas (5% or 27,229). California is also particularly notable as accounting for more than half of all unsheltered homeless people in the entire country at 51% or 113,660. That's nearly nine times the number in the next highest state which is Texas with 13,212. On a single night in January 2020, slightly more than half of all Americans experiencing homelessness were in one of the country's 50 largest cities with one out of every four people experiencing it in either New York City or Los Angeles

When it comes to urban areas, the report breaks data down by Continuums of Care or CoC which are local planning bodies coordinating responses to the problem. The following infographic takes a closer look at the CoCs with the highest homeless populations in 2020 with New York City coming first with 77,943. One positive aspect of New York's situation is that the vast majority of its homeless population, nearly 71,000 people, are able to sleep in sheltered accommodation. Los Angeles City & County was the CoC with the second highest number of people experiencing homelessness in 2020 at 63,706 while there is a considerable gap to the third highest urban area which is Seattle/King County with a homeless population of 11,751 last year.

CoCs with the largest number of people experiencing homelessness in 2020
Statista

... Read More

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The U.S. Cities With The Highest Homeless Populations In 2020 [Infographic]

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The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has released its latest report about homelessness in the United States, finding that the number of people sleeping rough grew 2% last year. Levels of homelessness have now increased for four consecutive years and just over 580,000 people experienced it on a single night in 2020.

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What is Food Insecurity? | Feeding America

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Hunger affects millions of people in America. Learn about the root causes of food insecurity and hunger in America and it’s impacts.

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What Hunger Looks Like in

In , people are struggling with hunger - and of them are children.

people

struggles with hunger.

children struggles with hunger.

People facing hunger in are estimated to report needing more per year to meet their food needs.

The average cost of a meal in is . Data from Feeding America's Map the Meal Gap 2020 study. Learn more ›

Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) in

Charitable programs are unable to fully support those struggling with hunger. The combination of charity and government assistance programs are necessary to help bridge the meal gap.

SNAP, formerly food stamps, provides temporary help for people going through hard times - providing supplemental money to buy food until they can get back on their feet.

In ,

46.8% of households receiving SNAP benefits have children

$2,115,101,241
distributed through 3,595,672,110 in economic activity*.
SNAP generated

*Economists estimate that every dollar a household redeems through SNAP generates about $1.70 in economic activity.

Make a Difference in

The Feeding America network is able to reach 40 million people, largely thanks to the commitment of volunteers. Our communities are stronger when we join together - help give your neighbors a hand up by volunteering at your local food bank.
Pledge to volunteer ›
To make progress toward ending hunger in , we need to make sure our lawmakers in Washington are fighting for those struggling back home. You can help make sure they see how great the need is in - call on lawmakers to make ending hunger a priority.
Contact your member of Congress today ›

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In , people are struggling with hunger - and of them are children. people struggles with hunger. children struggles with hunger. People facing hunger in are estimated to report needing more per year to meet their food needs. The average cost of a meal in is .

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Five things students can do about racism

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Five things students can do about racism

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Newsela | Five things students can do about racism

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Research and action can make people feel better, healthier, studies show

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Pretty cool Grady Doc breaks down the science of the Covid-19 vaccine that EVERYONE can understand!

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Pretty cool Grady Doc breaks down the science of the Covid-19 vaccine that EVERYONE can understand!

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Pretty cool Grady Doc breaks down the science of the Covid-19 vaccine that EVERYONE can understand!

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You Can't Treat If You Can't Empathize': Black Doctors Tackle Vaccine Hesitancy

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You Can't Treat If You Can't Empathize': Black Doctors Tackle Vaccine Hesitancy

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Black Americans have been catching the coronavirus, getting severely ill and dying from it, at a rate higher than other racial and ethnic groups in the U.S. Black Americans are also less likely to want to get the COVID-19 vaccine, according to polls. A survey from the Kaiser Family Foundation last month found that around 35% of Black adults are not planning to get COVID-19 vaccines.

So how can medical and public health leaders work to overcome this hesitancy? To start with, acknowledge the historical reasons for black mistrust of medicine, say researchers and Black physicians working to reach their own communities.

"In the Black community, there is skepticism that relates to historical experiences, and mistrust based on the discrimination that Black Americans face in the health care system and in the rest of society. It's really well-founded," says Dr. Lisa Cooper, director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Equity, and a former MacArthur "genius" fellow for her work in health disparities.

To address this hesitance, experts say medical authorities should listen to people's concerns and connect communities with accurate and accessible information. The key, says Cooper, "is for them to feel a sense of empowerment and control over their own health and their own decisions."

Among those working to reach Black communities with vaccine information are a growing contingent of Black doctors finding creative ways to encourage vaccine acceptance.

Dr. Robert Drummond, an urgent care physician in Los Angeles,posts videos on Youtube and Instagram explaining COVID-19 science to the public. He says acknowledging racism in the health care system is one key step to reaching Black communities, because the mistrust has deep roots.

Validating the real, history- and experience-based reasons why people may be hesitant establishes common ground. "You can't treat if you can't empathize," says Drummond.

That history goes back to the history of medical experimentation on slaves. It goes back to the mid-1900's, when Black men in Tuskegee, Alabama were deliberately not treated for syphilis so researchers could observe disease progression; and when Henrietta Lacks' cancer cells were harvested for research without her knowledge, Drummond says.

And while the medical system has reformed in response to these exploitations, establishing independent review boards to scrutinize study designs for safety and ethics, and requiring documented consent from patients participating in biomedical research, Drummond says it's also true that racism is still baked into the medical system.

A 2016 study showed that many white medical students still wrongly believed that African Americans have a higher tolerance for pain, "Everything from - they thought we had thicker skin, to we have a heightened pain threshold so we don't need as much medication," he said in a recent Instagram Live with TV actor Dondre Whitfield: "This is not from the 1960's. This is from the late 2000's - right now."

It's also key to combat rumors and information that are not fact-based. "I've heard people stating some very cringe-worthy things," says Dr. Kristamarie Collman, a family physician in Orlando, "Misinformation like how this vaccine will give you COVID, how it will change your DNA. We know these statements are false, but unfortunately in this day and age, false information spreads quicker than factual data."

Collman has been dispelling vaccine myths through social media - a recent short video she made for Tik Tok, in which she drops facts over a trending music clip, has been viewed more than half a million times.

A recent study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine looked at public health messages geared at communities of color. It showed that Black Americans are more receptive to information if it comes from Black doctors like Collman.

"For some people, it means a lot when it comes from someone who looks like them, when it comes from someone who speaks like them," says Collman.

But only 5% of physicians in the U.S. are Black. There's a need for other trusted leaders in Black communities to amplify myth-busting messages, says Marc Morial, president of the National Urban League.

"I'm not going to encourage people to take medical advice from me or from Oprah or from Jay-Z or from Lebron," said Morial, at a virtual town hall meeting January 7 from the Black Coalition Against COVID-19. "But all prominent people can be amplifiers or messages that have been advanced by [Black medical professionals] ... who we can trust would not say it was safe and effective if it was not."

And since the main source of personal health care advice is often primary care doctors and nurses, Cooper says that the medical community needs to work to instill trust and communication in patient-doctor relationships too.

"Even before COVID-19 came up, we saw that minorities oftentimes had shorter visits with their doctors. They got interrupted more. They didn't participate as much in the conversation," Cooper says.

To help address this, she's helped train doctors to take a more participatory style in seeing minority patients, and helped empower patients - with information and support from community health workers - to speak up in their appointments.

For Dr. Kida Thompson, a Black primary care physician in El Paso, Texas, building trust with patients starts with being honest about her own concerns. She was worried about the speed at which the vaccine had been developed, and the possible side effects.

"Fast and free - that just doesn't equate," she says. In late December, after reviewing data showing that the vaccines were highly protective with minimal side effects, she decided to get the COVID-19 vaccine rather than prolong the risk of catching the virus.

She got her first dose of the Moderna vaccine on December 28. "I thought I should be an example [to my patients]," she says - though her patients are now asking her not if, but when they will get the vaccine.

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'You Can't Treat If You Can't Empathize': Black Doctors Tackle Vaccine Hesitancy

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Black Americans have been catching the coronavirus, getting severely ill and dying from it, at a rate higher than other racial and ethnic groups in the U.S. Black Americans are also less likely to want to get the COVID-19 vaccine, according to polls.

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COVID Tips from a Doctor: Kimberly Manning, MD

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COVID Tips from a Doctor: Kimberly Manning, MD

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COVID Tips from a Doctor: Kimberly Manning, MD

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Empowering Today’s Youth By Using Social Justice Activism | NBC News

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5 Things To Know About the Delta Variant

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5 Things To Know About the Delta Variant

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[Originally published: June 28, 2021. Updated: October 15, 2021.]

Even as people began to feel some hope-or at least cautious optimism-early this summer that the pandemic could recede to the background, there was still the threat that new mutations of the COVID-19 virus could bring it back, and it might be even stronger.

Then, the Delta variant surfaced in the United States. First identified in India in December 2020, Delta swept rapidly through that country and Great Britain before reaching the U.S., where it quickly surged. It is now the predominant SARS CoV-2 variant, accounting for more than 99% of COVID-19 cases and leading to an overwhelming increase in hospitalizations in some states.

Delta is believed to be more than twice as contagious as previous variants, and studies have shown that it may be more likely than the original virus to put infected people in the hospital. People who are not vaccinated are most at risk, and the highest spread of cases and severe outcomes is happening in places with low vaccination rates.

Inci Yildirim, MD, PhD, a Yale Medicine pediatric infectious diseases specialist and a vaccinologist, wasn't surprised by Delta's progression. "All viruses evolve over time and undergo changes as they spread and replicate," she says.

From what we know at this point, people who are fully vaccinated against the coronavirus continue to have strong protection against COVID-19 compared to those who aren't, but there have been enough questions to lead the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to advise additional precautions, including mask guidelines regardless of vaccination status and recommendations for booster shots.

While most Delta infections have been in people who have not had a vaccine, data also has shown the variant to have increased transmissibility even among some vaccinated people. According to the CDC, if a vaccinated person is infected with COVID-19 (in what's called a "breakthrough" case) and they have symptoms, they can transmit the virus to others; the agency is still assessing data on whether fully vaccinated people can spread the virus if they have a breakthrough case but have no symptoms.

Here are five things you need to know about the Delta variant.

1. Delta is more contagious than the other virus strains.

The CDC has labeled Delta "a variant of concern," using a designation also given to the Alpha strain that first appeared in Great Britain, the Beta strain that first surfaced in South Africa, and the Gamma strain identified in Brazil. (The new naming conventions for the variants were established by the World Health Organization [WHO] as an alternative to numerical names.)

Delta's quick growth rate has been especially dramatic, says F. Perry Wilson, MD, a Yale Medicine epidemiologist. Delta was spreading 50% faster than Alpha, which was 50% more contagious than the original strain of SARS-CoV-2, he says. "In a completely unmitigated environment-where no one is vaccinated or wearing masks-it's estimated that the average person infected with the original coronavirus strain will infect 2.5 other people," Dr. Wilson says. "In the same environment, Delta would spread from one person to maybe 3.5 or 4 other people."

"Because of the math, it grows exponentially and more quickly," he says. "So, what seems like a fairly modest rate of infectivity can cause a virus to dominate very quickly."

2. Unvaccinated people are at risk.

In the U.S., there is a disproportionate number of unvaccinated people in Southern and Appalachian states including Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Mississippi, Missouri, and West Virginia, where vaccination rates are low, but cases are rising in other parts of the country as well. In September, health leaders in Idaho, which has one of the lowest vaccination rates in the country, expanded health care rationing throughout the state after the Delta surge led to a scarcity of resources for all hospitalized patients.

Children, teenagers, and young adults are a concern, too. "A study from the United Kingdom showed that children and adults under 50 were 2.5 times more likely to become infected with Delta," says Dr. Yildirim. While Pfizer-Biotech has applied for FDA authorization of its vaccine for children ages 5-11, as of yet, no vaccine is available for that age group, and as of the end of July, less than 50% of teenagers In the U.S. were vaccinated.

"As older age groups get vaccinated, those who are younger and unvaccinated will be at higher risk of getting COVID-19 with any variant," says Dr. Yildirim. "But Delta seems to be impacting younger age groups more than previous variants."

3. Delta could lead to 'hyperlocal outbreaks.'

If Delta continues to accelerate the pandemic, Dr. Wilson says the biggest questions will be about the heightened transmissibility. The answer could depend, in part, on where you live-and how many people in your location are vaccinated, he says. "I call it 'patchwork vaccination,' where you have these pockets that are highly vaccinated that are adjacent to places that have 20% vaccination," Dr. Wilson says. "The problem is that this allows the virus to hop, skip, and jump from one poorly vaccinated area to another."

In some cases, a low-vaccination town that is surrounded by high vaccination areas could end up with the virus contained within its borders, and the result could be "hyperlocal outbreaks," he says. "Then, the pandemic could look different than what we've seen before, where there are real hotspots around the country."

Some experts say the U.S. is in a good position because of its relatively high vaccination rate overall-or that conquering Delta will take a race between vaccination rates and the variant. But if Delta keeps multiplying infections in the U.S., it could steepen an upward COVID-19 curve, Dr. Wilson says.

So, instead of a three- or four-year pandemic that peters out once enough people are vaccinated, an uptick in cases would be compressed into a shorter period of time. "That sounds almost like a good thing," Dr. Wilson says. "It's not." If too many people are infected at once in a particular area, the local health care system will become overwhelmed, and more people will die, he says. "That's something we have to worry about a lot."

4. There is still more to learn about Delta.

As data about Delta accumulates, scientists are working hard to learn as much as possible as quickly as they can. One important question is whether the Delta strain will make you sicker than the original virus. Early information about the severity of Delta included studies from Scotland and Canada, both cited by the CDC, that suggested the Delta variant may be more likely to result in hospitalization in the unvaccinated. A report this summer, published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases, found that people in England with Delta had double the hospitalization risk of those with Alpha, which was previously the dominant mutation in that country.

Another question focuses on how Delta affects the body. There have been reports of symptoms that are different than those associated with the original coronavirus strain, Dr. Yildirim says. "It seems like cough and loss of smell are less common," she says. "And headache, sore throat, runny nose, and fever are present based on surveys in the U.K."

Meanwhile, experts continue to study Delta and breakthrough cases. It's difficult to pin down exact numbers of breakthrough infections in the U.S., where the CDC stopped counting cases that don't result in hospitalization or death in May. The agency notes that no vaccine is 100% effective, and any rise in cases will have an accompanying rise in breakthrough infections.

There are additional questions and concerns about Delta, including Delta Plus-a subvariant of Delta, that has been found in the U.S., the U.K., and other countries. "Delta Plus has one additional mutation to what the Delta variant has," says Dr. Yildirim. This mutation, called K417N, affects the spike protein that the virus needs to infect cells, and that is the main target for the mRNA and other vaccines, she says.

"Delta Plus has been reported first in India, but the type of mutation was reported in variants such as Beta that emerged earlier. More data is needed to determine the actual rate of spread and impact of this new variant on disease burden and outcome," Dr. Yildirim adds.

5. Vaccination is the best protection against Delta.

The most important thing you can do to protect yourself from Delta is to get fully vaccinated, the doctors say. At this point, that means if you get a two-dose vaccine like Pfizer or Moderna, for example, you must get both shots and then wait the recommended two-week period for those shots to take full effect. Data so far has shown the vaccines that are authorized or approved in the U.S. still provide strong protection, especially against severe illness, hospitalization, and death, according to the CDC.

The CDC also recommends a booster dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for people 65 and up, residents of long-term care settings, and people 18 to 64 with underlying medical conditions or whose work may put them at higher risk of exposure to COVID-19. That latter group may include health care workers, teachers, and others. This booster dose is recommended at least six months after receiving the second dose of the primary series. In October, the FDA recommended a similar booster protocol for Moderna, and one for Johnson & Johnson to be given to adults ages 18 and older at least two months after the first shot. (But there are additional steps to be completed before those two EUAs are finalized).

People with certain immunocompromising conditions can get a third dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna vaccines so they can reach a level of immunity they were not able to reach after two doses.

Although fully vaccinated people with a breakthrough infection can infect others, the CDC reports that the amount of viral genetic material may decrease faster in vaccinated people-so, while they have been found to carry the same amount of virus in their noses and throats as unvaccinated people, studies have also found they may spread virus for a shorter time.

There are additional CDC prevention guidelines available for both vaccinated and unvaccinated people. As efforts continue to vaccinate more people in the U.S., the CDC is recommending "layered prevention strategies" for everyone, and that includes wearing face masks in public indoor settings in areas of substantial or high transmission. The agency has also recommended universal indoor masking for all teachers, staff, students, and visitors to K-12 schools. There also may be mask mandates in place depending on your geographic location.

"Like everything in life, this is an ongoing risk assessment," says Dr. Yildirim. "If it is sunny and you'll be outdoors, you put on sunscreen. If you are in a crowded gathering, potentially with unvaccinated people, you put your mask on and keep social distancing. If you are unvaccinated and eligible for the vaccine, the best thing you can do is to get vaccinated."

Of course, there are many people who have not gotten the vaccine, because personal logistics or difficulties have created roadblocks-or they may have chosen not to get it. Will the Delta variant be enough to encourage those who can get vaccinated to do so? No one knows for sure, but it's possible, says Dr. Wilson, who encourages anyone who has questions about vaccination to talk to their family doctor.

"When there are local outbreaks, vaccine rates go up," Dr. Wilson says. "We know that if someone you know gets really sick and goes to the hospital, it can change your risk calculus a little bit. That could start happening more. I'm hopeful we see vaccine rates go up."

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5 Things To Know About the Delta Variant

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Delta is a highly contagious SARS-CoV-2 virus strain that was first identified in India, and is now circulating in the United States and other countries. The vaccines have proven to be highly effective against Delta, but anyone who is unvaccinated is at risk for infection by the variant.

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Curry and Fauci chat on Instagram as thousands watch, including Obama

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Curry and Fauci chat on Instagram as thousands watch, including Obama

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Newsela | Curry and Fauci chat on Instagram as thousands watch, including Obama

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how we can fight the coronavirus - cnn video

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How we can fight the coronavirus - CNN Video

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The novel coronavirus has led to thousands of deaths and more than 100,000 infections across the world. CNN's Dr Sanjay Gupta outlines what we can do to fight back.

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Note: This page is not being updated. Find a more up-to-date version of this data here.
In April, New Orleans health officials realized their drive-through testing strategy for the coronavirus wasn't working. The reason? Census tract data revealed hot spots for the virus were located in predominantly low-income African-American neighborhoods where many residents lacked cars.

In response, officials have changed their strategy, sending mobile testing vans to some of those areas, says Thomas LaVeist, dean of Tulane University's School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine and co-chair of Louisiana's COVID-19 Health Equity Task Force.

"Data is the only way that we can see the virus," LaVeist says. "We only have indicators. We can't actually look at a person and tell who's been infected. So what we have is data right now."

Until a few weeks ago, racial data for COVID-19 was sparse. It's still incomplete, but now 48 states plus Washington D.C., report at least some data; in total, race or ethnicity is known for around half of all cases and 90% of deaths. And though gaps remain, the pattern is clear: Communities of color are being hit disproportionately hard by COVID-19.

Public health experts say focusing on these disparities is crucial for helping communities respond to the virus effectively - so everyone is safer.

"I think it's incumbent on all of us to realize that the health of all of us depends on the health of each of us," says Dr. Alicia Fernandez, a professor of medicine at the University of California San Francisco, whose research focuses on health care disparities.

NPR analyzed COVID-19 demographic data collected by the COVID Racial Tracker, a joint project of the Antiracist Research & Policy Center and the COVID Tracking Project. This analysis compares each racial or ethnic group's share of infections or deaths - where race and ethnicity is known - with their share of population. Here's what it shows:

Nationally, African-American deaths from COVID-19 are nearly two times greater than would be expected based on their share of the population. In four states, the rate is three or more times greater.

In 42 states plus Washington D.C., Hispanics/Latinos make up a greater share of confirmed cases than their share of the population. In eight states, it's more than four times greater.

White deaths from COVID-19 are lower than their share of the population in 37 states and the District of Columbia.

Major holes in the data remain: 48% of cases and 9% of deaths still have no race tied to them. And that can hamper response to the crisis across the U.S., now and in the future, says Dr. Utibe Essien, a health equity researcher at the University of Pittsburgh who has studied COVID-19 racial and ethnic disparities.
A heavy toll of African-American deaths
"If we don't know who is sick, we're not going to know in six months, 12 months, 18, however long it takes, who should be getting the vaccination. We're not going to know where we should be directing our personal protective equipment to make sure that health care workers are protected," he says.

NPR's analysis finds that in 32 states plus Washington D.C., African Americans are dying at rates higher than their proportion of the population. In 21 states, it's substantially higher, more than 50% above what would be expected. For example, in Wisconsin, at least 141 African Americans have died, representing 27% of all deaths in a state where just 6% of the state's population is black.

"I've been at health equity research for a couple of decades now. Those of us in the field, sadly, expected this," says Dr. Marcella Nunez-Smith, director of the Equity Research and Innovation Center at Yale School of Medicine.

"We know that these racial ethnic disparities in COVID-19 are the result of pre-pandemic realities. It's a legacy of structural discrimination that has limited access to health and wealth for people of color," she says.

African-Americans have higher rates of underlying conditions, including diabetes, heart disease, and lung disease, that are linked to more severe cases of COVID-19, Nunez-Smith notes. They also often have less access to quality health care, and are disproportionately represented in essential frontline jobs that can't be done from home, increasing their exposure to the virus.

Data from a recently published paper in the Annals of Epidemiology reinforces the finding that African-Americans are harder hit in this pandemic. The study from researchers at amfAR, the Foundation for AIDS Research, looks at county-level health outcomes, comparing counties with disproportionately black populations to all other counties.

Their analysis shows that while disproportionately black counties account for only 30% of the U.S. population, they were the location of 56% of COVID-19 deaths. And even disproportionately black counties with above-average wealth and health care coverage bore an unequal share of deaths.
Hispanics bear a disproportionate share of infections
"There's a structural issue that's taking place here, it's not a genetic issue for all non-white individuals in the U.S.," says Greg Millett, director of public policy at amfAR and lead researcher on the paper.

Latinos and Hispanics test positive for the coronavirus at rates higher than would be expected for their share of the population in all but one of the 44 jurisdictions that report Hispanic ethnicity data (42 states plus Washington D.C.). The rates are two times higher in 30 states, and over four times higher in eight states. For example, in Virginia more than 12,000 cases - 49% of all cases with known ethnicity - come from the Hispanic and Latino community, which makes up only 10% of the population.

Fernandez has seen these disparities first-hand as an internist at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital. While Latinos made up about 35% of patients there before the pandemic, she says they now make up over 80% of COVID-19 cases at the hospital.

"In the early stages, when we were noticing increased Latino hospitalization at our own hospital and we felt that no one was paying attention and that people were just happy that San Francisco was crushing the curve, it felt horrendous," she says. "It felt as if people were dismissing those lives. ... It took people longer to realize what was going on."

Like African-Americans, Latinos are over-represented in essential jobs that increase their exposure to the virus, says Fernandez. Regardless of their occupation, high rates of poverty and low wages mean that many Latinos feel compelled to leave home to seek work. Dense, multi-generational housing conditions make it easier for the virus to spread, she says.
Other racial groups
The disproportionate share of deaths isn't as stark for Latinos as it is for African-Americans. Fernandez says that's likely because the U.S. Latino population overall is younger - nearly three-quarters are millennials or younger, according to data from the Pew Research Center. But in California, "when you look at it by age groups, [older] Latinos are just as likely to die as African-Americans," she says.

While data for smaller minority populations is harder to come by, where it exists, it also shows glaring disparities. In New Mexico, Native American communities have accounted for 60% of cases but only 9% of the population. Similarly, in Arizona, at least 136 Native American have died from COVID-19, a striking 21% of deaths in a state where just 4% of the population are Native American.

In several states Asian Americans have seen a disproportionate share of cases. In South Dakota, for example, they account for only 2% of the population but 12% of cases. But beyond these places, data can be spotty. In Iowa, Maine, Michigan, Oklahoma and Wisconsin, Asian Americans and Hawaiian and Pacific Islanders are counted together, making comparison to census data difficult.
Understanding the unknowns
Fernandez points out that if COVID-19 demographic reporting included language, public health officials might see differences among different Asian groups, such as Vietnamese or Filipino Americans. "That's what's going to allow public health officials to really target different communities," she says. "We need that kind of information."

Months into the pandemic, painting a national picture of how minorities are being affected remains a fraught proposition, because in many states, large gaps remain in the data.

For instance, in New York state - until recently the epicenter of the the U.S outbreak - race and ethnicity data are available for deaths but not for cases. In Texas, which has a large minority population and a sizable outbreak, less than 25% of cases and deaths have race or ethnicity data associated with them.

There are also still concerns about how some states are collecting data, says Christopher Petrella, director of engagement for the Antiracist Research and Policy Center at American University. For example, he says West Virginia - which claims to have race data for 100% of positive cases and 82% of deaths - only reports three categories: white, black and "other."

Also, some states appear to be listing Hispanics under the white category, says Samantha Artiga, director of the Disparities Policy Project at Kaiser Family Foundation.

"There's a lot of variation across states in terms of how they report the data that makes comparing the data across states hard, as well as getting a full national picture," Artiga says.

But experts fear that the available data actually undercounts the disparity observed in communities of color.

"I think we have the undercount anyway, because we know that minority communities are less likely to be tested for COVID-19," says Millett. NPR's own analysis found that in four out of six cities in Texas, testing sites were disproportionately located in whiter communities. Millet points to a recent study, released pre-peer review, that found that when testing levels went up in disadvantaged neighborhoods in Philadelphia, Chicago and New York City, so too did the evidence of the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on these communities.

Lawmakers have raised concern about the way the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports racial and ethnic data; the agency didn't report on demographics early on in the crisis, and even now it updates it weekly but with a one- to two-week lag. Democratic senators Patty Murray of Washington and Democratic Rep. Frank Pallone, Jr., of New Jersey called a recent report on demographics the CDC submitted to Congress "woefully inadequate."
A tailored public health response
"The U.S. response to COVID-19 has been plagued by insufficient data on the impact of the virus, as well as the federal government's response to it," Murray and Pallone wrote in a letter sent May 22 to Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar. They called on the Trump administration to provide more comprehensive demographic data.

Essien says he's heard concerns from colleagues that by focusing on race and ethnicity in the disease, "some of the empathy for managing and treating is going to go away."

"If people feel like, 'Well, this is a them problem and not a me problem ... then that may potentially affect the way that people think about the opening up of the country," he says.

But unless testing and other resources are directed now to communities that need them most, the pandemic will go on for everyone, says Nunez-Smith.

"This is important for everyone's health and safety," she says.

Nunez-Smith says race and ethnicity data is necessary for officials to craft tailored public health responses.

"For many people, physical distancing is a privilege," she says. "If you live in a crowded neighborhood or you share a household with many other people, we need to give messaging specific to those conditions. If you need to leave home for work every day, if you need to take public transportation to get to an essential frontline job, how can you keep safe?"

A tailored public health response is already happening in Louisiana, where LaVeist says his task force has recently recruited celebrities like Big Freedia, a pioneer of the New Orleans hip-hop subgenre called bounce, to counter misinformation and spread public health messages about COVID-19 to the African-American community.

Given the pandemic's disparate toll on communities of color, in particular low-income ones, Fernandez and Nunez-Smith say the public health response should include helping to meet basic needs like providing food, wage supports and even temporary housing for people who get sick or exposed to the virus.

"We have to guarantee that if we recommend to someone that they should be in quarantine or they should be in isolation, that they can do so safely and effectively," Nunez-Smith says.

Nunez-Smith says if you don't direct resources now to minority communities that need them most, there's a danger they might be less likely to trust and buy into public health messaging needed to stem the pandemic. Already, polls show widespread distrust of President Trump among African-Americans, and that a majority of them believe the Trump administration's push to reopen states came only after it became clear that people of color were bearing the brunt of the pandemic.

Fernandez notes that among Latinos, distrust could also hamper efforts to conduct effective contact tracing, because people who are undocumented or in mixed-status families may be reluctant to disclose who they've been in contact with.
Connie Hanzhang Jin, Alice Goldfarb and Selena Simmons-Duffin contributed to this report.
"This is a terrible time for all of us who do health equity work," says Fernandez, "partly because this is so predictable and partly because we're standing here waving our arms saying, 'Wait, wait. We need help.' "

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What Do Coronavirus Racial Disparities Look Like State By State?

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Note: This page is not being updated. Find a more up-to-date version of this data here. In April, New Orleans health officials realized their drive-through testing strategy for the coronavirus wasn't working. The reason? Census tract data revealed hot spots for the virus were located in predominantly low-income African-American neighborhoods where many residents lacked cars.

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Family Members Are Streaming Funerals Because of Coronavirus

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'united shades': why this push for justice feels different - cnn video

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'United Shades': Why this push for justice feels different - CNN Video

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CNN's Sara Sidner speaks with W. Kamau Bell on Covid-19 and the fight for racial justice following her appearance on CNN's "United Shades of America."

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Ep. 2: Say Her Name - Breonna Taylor, a Conversation with Tamika Mallory and Taylor Family Attorney Lonita Baker

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Black Lives Matter Managing Director, Kailee Scales is joined by Activist Tamika Mallory, Co-founder of Until Freedom, and Taylor Family Attorney Lonita Baker to discuss the brutal shooting of Breonna Taylor, a 26-year-old EMT who was killed by police officers in her own home, and the ongoing marginalization of police violence against Black lives.

https://www.blacklivesmatter.com/whatmatters

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Showing Up for Racial Justice National is in solidarity with the people in Louisville, Minneapolis, St. Paul, Detroit, Albuquerque, Tallahassee, Denver, Memphis, Columbus, Los Angeles, Oakland, New York, and the dozens of other communities across the U.S. who are in the streets expressing their collective outrage at the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade, and Ahmaud Arbery. We support the demands of local organizations and the Movement for Black Lives to defund the police and for accountability.
Outrage is justified.
In Louisville, Kentucky, where police shot Breonna Taylor eight times in her own home , thousands of people have taken to the streets, demanding that the city cut the inflated budget of Louisville Police Department and release people from jails for health concerns. Just a few days ago, demonstrators were shot with rubber and pepper bullets, causing serious injuries. In Minneapolis, Minnesota, where police murdered George Floyd in the street, protests have grown each night with similar demands, led by Black and Indigenous youth. Protesters are using a range of different tactics, but are united by the ethic that cops don't keep people safe, we keep us safe. Even as these protests rage on, yet another life was taken. On May 27th, a white cop shot Tony McDade, a Black trans man in Tallahassee, Florida. This is Florida's third fatal police shooting in two months, sparking protests against the killings in Florida's capital and across the state, one of which was met with a truck driving into the crowd. Devastatingly, these are only the recent accounts of lives needlessly lost.
These are popular uprisings.
The state and racialized capitalism is violent, not protesters and uprisings. From Watts to Ferguson, Black people in popular uprisings are described as "thugs," and "criminals." This is both wrong and a precise political choice. It erases the context from which these actions emerge. It encourages an absurdly simplified analysis of "good cops" vs. "bad protestors." It perpetuates the belief that some lives are worth protecting while others are not. Similarly, media coverage that emphasizes "property damage" as the leading story is simply writing for an audience that wishes to absolve police departments of responsibility for anti-Black state-sanctioned violence.

People have the right to demonstrate against the state-sanctioned murder of Black people. The political move to value property over Black lives, as Donald Trump's recent tweet points out, justifies more violence by armed racists, police, and the national guard.
Popular uprisings are part of movements. It's time to put our bodies on the line.
To the hearts on fire, to the freedom fighters in the streets, to the bodies in motion, and the networks taking care of each other: we join you in your outrage, we join you in your heartbreak, we join you in your demands for justice. We know these uprisings are just one part of a long struggle to build a more safe world where everyone can live a full, dignified life.

We commit to showing up alongside Black leadership and popular movements and to doing the work in our own communities.

Here are three ways white people can show up for Black lives today:

1. Get into action and follow Black leadership on the ground. Need support? Join the SURJ #EndWhiteSilence action call at 1 p.m. ET today, May 31, for an action white people can take in our towns and cities. If you miss the call, sign up with SURJ to get ongoing updates on how you can be in action in the coming days and weeks.

2. Change your social media profile picture to this "In Defense of Black Life" image from the Movement for Black Lives and make a solidarity statement on your page to #DefundPolice and #DefendBlackLives

3. Move your money to Black-led organizations. If you don't know where to start, donate to Black Visions Collective, an organization on the frontlines expanding the power of Black people across the Twin Cities and Minnesota.

With love and rage,

SURJ National

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Showing Up for Racial Justice Solidarity Statement

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Showing Up for Racial Justice National is in solidarity with the people in Louisville, Minneapolis, St. Paul, Detroit, Albuquerque, Tallahassee, Denver, Memphis, Columbus, Los Angeles, Oakland, New York, and the dozens of other communities across the U.S. who are in the streets expressing their collective outrage at the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade, and Ahmaud Arbery.

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George Floyd, Minneapolis Protests, Ahmaud Arbery & Amy Cooper | The Daily Social Distancing Show

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Social Distance "Sing" Docu-Musical by Brandon J. Woods Harvard PhD Candidate

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Wipe It Down #coronavirus Rap Parody #stayhome - Raven the Science Maven

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Their choice of the state Capitol as their destination was symbolic: they know it's too late for changes in state law this year with the legislative session ending as they gather outside the home of the General Assembly. They hope to build awareness of systemic racism in schools and spark a movement for redress at every level, from school boards to Congress.

"We really believe there is power here to start a movement," Miles said.

The group asked for, and received, support from several established organizations, including the Atlanta Coalition for Educational Equity, the Georgia Coalition for the Peoples' Agenda and the NAACP.

Gerald Griggs, a leader of the Atlanta NAACP, will be marching. Race is embedded in the way schools police and test their students, he said. Griggs, who is an attorney, represented one of the educators who was accused in the Atlanta Public Schools test-cheating case.

"The country is awakening to the issues of systemic racism," he said.

The Educators for Black Lives March started at 3 p.m. at Rosa L. Burney Park on Windsor Street south of downtown. Organizers plan brief stops outside the city jail, the headquarters for Atlanta Public Schools, the Georgia Department of Education and Atlanta City Hall, before arriving at their destination: Liberty Plaza across the street from the Georgia State Capitol.

The group has eight demands, some rooted in racial equity and others addressing broader educational issues, such as economic instability.

They want: an end to "zero tolerance" disciplinary practices that have resulted in higher rates of suspension and expulsion of Black students, the hiring of more Black teachers and mandatory curriculum on Black history and ethnic studies "with a social justice lens."

Two demands are less clearly rooted in race though they could help address issues such as inequity in discipline: more counselors and more investment in "social-emotional" learning.
Three final demands affect all students: changes to the state educational funding formula with public input, state tests that are more "well-rounded" than "high-stakes" and so-called "wrap-around" services, which in Georgia have included everything from basic food and laundry assistance to substance abuse counseling.

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Educators march in Atlanta for Black Lives Matter, demand school reform

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Their choice of the state Capitol as their destination was symbolic: they know it's too late for changes in state law this year with the legislative session ending as they gather outside the home of the General Assembly. They hope to build awareness of systemic racism in schools and spark a movement for redress at every level, from school boards to Congress.

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Just hear me out.

By

Ms. Abrams is the founder of the voting rights group Fair Fight Action.

Credit... Rose Wong

Voting feels inadequate in our darkest moments. I recognize that.

When you're watching a man's death on a video loop, hearing him say "I can't breathe." When those words echo what another man said in his last moments, his life also taken by the police. When a woman who saved lives is shot dead in her home in a botched police raid. When a black man is murdered for jogging, his killers left free to celebrate. When you know there is a list of deaths so long that most people can't keep all the names in their head.

To say that the answer is to go cast a ballot feels not just inadequate, but also disrespectful. "Go vote" sounds like a slogan, not a solution. Because millions of us have voted. And too many still die. The moment requires many things of each one of us. What I am focused on is the work of showing people, in concrete ways, what voting gets us. And being honest about how much work voting requires.

Across America, would-be voters continue to turn away or opt out, discouraged by the permanence of inequality, the persistence of voter suppression. Their fear is again and again made real by stories of neighbors denied provisional ballots in Georgia and lines that wind around city blocks in Milwaukee because polling locations are shut down and alternatives never arrive. By undermining confidence in the political system, modern-day suppression has swapped rabid dogs and cops with billy clubs for restrictive voter ID laws and tangled rules for participation. And those who are most vulnerable to suppression become the most susceptible to passing on that reluctance to others.

Now, in the ninth day of protests all across this country and in a week where, in our nation's capital, thousands of people demonstrated in front of the White House while elsewhere in the city hundreds of people waited in lines to cast their ballot, we must talk about systemic inequalities and particulars.

Which systems are broken? How do we fix them and what does fixing them look like at the federal, state and local levels? We've got to be that granular because that's how people learn. "Dismantle qualified immunity," "increase law enforcement transparency" and "reform Peace Officer Standards and Training certification methods" don't make for the catchiest slogans. Not like "just vote" does. But to the extent that we are reductive in how we speak about it - "just go vote" - we shouldn't be surprised about the rejection of the solution. So then we have to say, "And it doesn't stop with the vote."

Voting is a first step in a long and complex process, tedious but vital. You can have a car with all the bells and whistles, but if it doesn't have wheels, you can't move forward. So we have to talk about the whole process, and we cannot be so simplistic that we seem too idealistic.

In 2018, I ran for governor of Georgia, with the goal of building a new coalition of voters. Before staff members and volunteers working for my campaign in the field ever mentioned my name, they talked about what the governor does. People don't necessarily care about politicians, but they do care about their own lives. The canvassers would explain, "The governor is responsible for how much money goes toward education" or "The governor decides whether we expand Medicaid."

You talk about what the job does, how the job works for people - and how people get to choose who does that work for them when they vote.

In 2020, a poor woman in South Georgia, miles away from a doctor or a hospital, may discover her pregnancy too late to make a choice. If she makes more than $6,000 a year, she is too rich to qualify for Medicaid and too impoverished to afford anything else because the governor refuses to expand the program. If she is black in Georgia, she is three times more likely to die of complications during or after her pregnancy than a white woman in the same position. Her child is more likely to attend underfunded schools, face a return to "tough on crime" policies that target black and brown people, and live in a state with a minimum wage of $5.15 an hour. All because her vote didn't count in 2018.

In our campaign, we increased turnout to record numbers and engaged voters who never wanted to participate before. Athough we didn't prevail, we forced the closest election in Georgia since 1966. In the course of that 18-month campaign, I met skeptical Americans who neither trusted government nor believed their votes counted. But 1.9 million voters showed up for me on Election Day, the highest number of Democratic votes in Georgia history.

We won because people trusted, if only for a single election, that it was worth a leap of faith. In political circles, what we accomplished would be dismissed as a moral victory. To that I say, absolutely. Because I learned long ago that winning doesn't always mean you get the prize. Sometimes you get progress, and that counts - and when it comes to voting in America, I certainly believe that to be true.

The civil rights icon Representative John Lewis of Georgia often refers to the right to vote as "almost sacred." As the child of ministers, I understand his hesitation to label a simple, secular act as sacred. Voting is an act of faith. It is profound. In a democracy, it is the ultimate power. Through the vote, the poor can access financial means, the infirm can find health care support, and the burdened and heavy-laden can receive a measure of relief from a social safety net that serves all. And we are willing to go to war to defend the sacred.

I am not calling for violent revolt here. We've done that twice in our nation's history - to claim our freedom from tyranny and when we fought a civil war to recognize (at least a little) the humanity of blacks held in bondage. Yet as millions are stripped of their rights, we live out the policy consequences, from lethal pollution running through poor communities to kindergartners practicing active shooter drills taught with nursery rhymes. I question what remedy remains. The questions that confront me every day are how to defend this sacred right and our democracy, and who will do so.

As it stands now, on one side, we have a Republican Party that believes it has complied with the letter of the law, having twisted the rules to barely reflect its spirit when it comes to purging voter rolls and, of late, rejecting vote-by-mail in a time of global disease. On the other side, the Democrats - the party to which I hold allegiance - talk about full civic engagement but take inconsistent steps to meaningfully expand the electorate and build infrastructure. Embedded in this duality is a fundamental concern: Who is entitled to full citizenship? Based on our national story, and from where we are now, the list is far shorter than it should be.

Right now, we are experiencing an enormous cultural change, spurred by a demographic transition sweeping the nation. According to the Census Bureau, people of color comprise nearly 40 percent of the American population; millennials and Gen Zers are the largest combined age cohort in the country. When added to socially moderate and progressive-leaning whites, this population is a new American majority, and their impact on American life can be felt in nearly every corner. Diversity, which incompletely describes this transformation, has altered how we engage and interact with one another - from the Black Lives Matter movement and marriage equality to Dreamers pressing for action on immigration and women challenging the silence of sexual harassment and assault.

We can also trace a darker, angrier politics out of this evolution. Those who see their relative influence shrinking are using every tool possible to limit access to political power. For those who cling to the days of monochromatic American identity, the sweep of change raises the fundamental fear of not being part of a multicultural America.

As the first black woman ever to win a primary for governor for a major political party in American history, one who ran against one of the worst purveyors of voter suppression and xenophobia since George Wallace, I watched in real time as the conflicts in our evolving nation became fodder for racist commercials, horrific suppression - and the largest turnout of voters of color in Georgia's history. Despite the final tally of the election, our campaign energized a new American majority in tremendous ways, proving the resilience and possible destiny of our nation.

Every night for more than a week, we have witnessed the anguish and anger of demonstrators, their cries punctured by politicians urging them to vote their power. Both are right. Protest to demand attention to the wrenching pain of systemic injustice. Vote because we deserve leaders who see us, who hear us and who are willing to act on our demands.

Voting will not save us from harm, but silence will surely damn us all.

Stacey Abrams (@staceyabrams) is the founder of Fair Fight Action and was the Democratic nominee for governor in Georgia in 2018. She is the author of " Our Time Is Now: Power, Purpose and the Fight for a Fair America," from which this essay was adapted.
The Times is committed to publishing Follow The New York Times Opinion section on Facebook, Twitter (@NYTopinion) and Instagram. a diversity of letters to the editor. We'd like to hear what you think about this or any of our articles. Here are some tips. And here's our email: letters@nytimes.com.

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Opinion | Stacey Abrams: I Know Voting Feels Inadequate Right Now

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Just hear me out. By Ms. Abrams is the founder of the voting rights group Fair Fight Action. Voting feels inadequate in our darkest moments. I recognize that. When you're watching a man's death on a video loop, hearing him say "I can't breathe."

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​

Bishop Brian Green sings during a service at Pentecostal Tabernacle, a small historic black church in Cambridge, Mass. Associated Press

On the surface, Black Lives Matter demonstrations can appear to simply be collective acts of rage against U.S. law enforcement agencies, not the " love note to black people" the movement's founders intend it to be. I was reminded of this "love note" while perusing Twitter during the Freddie Gray demonstrations in Baltimore. While cable news outlets were covering the looting and unrest, black children and adults were dancing in the midst of civil unrest. In that moment, those dancers were participating in the old tradition of resisting the brutality of white supremacy through practicing joy.

During the brutality of chattel enslavement and the era of white-dominated sharecropping, black people wrote and performed songs of resistance, reaching into the inner-recesses of their suffering to uncover balms of joy. They sang of "gospel trains" and "sweet chariots" coming to rescue them and of not having long to "stay here". While some have claimed that these songs of joy symbolized blacks' passive acceptance of subservience, Frederick Douglass, the formerly enslaved abolitionist, claimed that "Every tone was a testimony against slavery, and a prayer to God for deliverance from chains." While black bodies were chained, black psyches weren't.

In the Civil Rights era, activists wrote protest songs, sometimes repurposing the music of their antebellum ancestors to combat the racist tactics of Jim Crow America. As protesters "woke up" with their "minds stayed on freedom" and intoned the inevitability of overcoming racism, they engendered a new world based not on white supremacy, but on an economy of shared humanity, forged through common suffering. The August 29, 1963 edition of the New York Times went as far as describing the mood at the March on Washington as " festive".

Enslaved and oppressed people often know something that oppressors don't: Oppression is untenable. The economic, social, and political subjugation of people of African descent in the United States can't last forever. This, of course, is counterintuitive to those who are convinced that there is no end in sight for state-sanctioned violence against black people in the forms of police brutality, incongruous black imprisonment, and low-performing black schools. And yet, black joy remains, in the words of Terrance Laney, "Undead, unchained, and fearless." It dances in the face of armed officers, sings in the presence of death, and shouts down systems of terror. Black joy is the Spirit of liberation that inhabits black bodies in church services, defying order of rows of pews for spontaneous joy.

When enslaved people of African descent were converting to Christianity, their white enslavers began panicking. "If they discover the freedom that comes in the message of Jesus Christ," the enslavers thought, "they will surely escape our labor camps and kill us." The enslavers' fears weren't completely unfounded, seeing as Nat Turner and his associates launched the Southampton Insurrection as a result of being told by God to rebel against the institution of enslavement. Insurrections like Turner's caused some white enslavers to squash every possible sign of black joy as they split up black families, suppressed black prayer gatherings, and publicly raped black women and men. These grotesque practices, however, did not crush black joy.

In present struggles for black liberation - from Oakland to McKinney - demonstrators are embodying this rebellious joy, from playful chants to rhythmic choreography. We do this, not because of black deaths, but because of black life; life that is fleeting, complex, and beautiful. We will not be crushed because we know that while the history of white supremacy is long and triumphant, white supremacy itself is not the last word; joy is.

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​ Bishop Brian Green sings during a service at Pentecostal Tabernacle, a small historic black church in Cambridge, Mass. Associated Press On the surface, Black Lives Matter demonstrations can appear to simply be collective acts of rage against U.S. law enforcement agencies, not the " love note to black people" the movement's founders intend it to be.

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When people contemplate the ways that anti-Blackness converges upon those of us who are of the Black African Diaspora - and who also identify as Black - they can make oppression seem insurmountable. The alternatives can seem both binary and grim: bury oneself in mountains of racist news, history and despair or bury one's head in the sand to avoid persistent sadness. But, nah.

We have always been people who prioritized joy. Joy gives us love, family, art, music, quit wit and resilience. And in that spirit, one Black man decided to make digital space for Black people to congregate joyfully and share selfies, art, GIFs, messages and more to collectively lift Black spirits as an act of revolution.

"Two years ago, I woke up wishing that I could go back to sleep and wake up to a more just and Black-loving world," Kleaver Cruz wrote for CassiusLife. Cruz turned his pain and frustration into a digital project called the Black Joy Project, and now the hashtag #TheBlackJoyProject is a thing of beauty.

"I realized the challenge I had taken on, The Black Joy Project, was a call to community-transformation. The Black Joy Project-a digital and real-world effort to center Black joy-is a form of resistance," he said. Cruz called on joyful Black people to envision a different world.

"What does life after the revolution look like? I imagine that Black folks are full of joy and healing in that world. I fight to ensure that Black folks anywhere and everywhere have access to their joy. Black joy is also a consequence of community."

In a world that often heaps too much, too often and too readily on Black people, this project is a light spot.

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The Black Joy Project turned two, creator explains why he centers Black joy in an anti-Black world

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When people contemplate the ways that anti-Blackness converges upon those of us who are of the Black African Diaspora - and who also identify as Black - they can make oppression seem insurmountable. The alternatives can seem both binary and grim: bury oneself in mountains of racist news, history and despair or bury one's head in the sand to avoid persistent sadness.

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Gratitude & Affirmations

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There are three parking spaces outside Building 78 on the storied Walt Disney Studios lot. Director Ava DuVernay, scooting between editing sessions for "A Wrinkle in Time," makes a point to stop and point out who they're assigned to.

One is for her silver Mercedes. The others belong to "Black Panther" director Ryan Coogler and "Black-ish" creator Kenya Barris. All three work under the same roof.

"We're having a moment right now, but it's only like six of us," says DuVernay. "So it's like the black building. You have three productions headed by black creators here, and it's a beautiful thing."

Go behind the scenes with Ava DuVernay

Forgive us for starting this by focusing on race. But race, fairly or not, is one of the major story lines as DuVernay, 45, readies her big budget adaptation of Madeleine L'Engle's young adult classic. She is a black woman in an industry long ruled by white men. "Wrinkle," which opens March 9, stars Oprah Winfrey, Reese Witherspoon and Mindy Kaling, but its heroine is Meg Murry, a character transformed by actress Storm Reid. In the book, Meg is white, 14 and lives in Connecticut. In the movie, she's an African American teenager from South Central L.A.

"She's just a black girl who has no super powers but ends up doing extraordinary things that she didn't even know she could, and I relate to that," says DuVernay.

It's a bold reinvention that's been almost overlooked in the pre-release hype for the film. From the moment DuVernay got the gig, so much about "Wrinkle" has been about the money, the headline echoing from the Atlantic to Vanity Fair of "the first woman of color to direct a $100 million film."

Never mind that whatever the budget, DuVernay's work speaks for itself.

The poetically paced beauty of 2012's "Middle of Nowhere," which cost $200,000 and won her the best directing award at Sundance. The sizzling "Queen Sugar," a TV series that explores family dynamics, institutional racism and our modern media age. Then there's the 2014 historical drama "Selma," a project DuVernay revived from development limbo by rewriting much of the script and inspiring a remarkable performance from David Oyelowo as the Rev. Martin Luther King. The $20 million movie scored with critics and at the box office. It also sparked what has become a deep friendship with Winfrey, who helped produce "Selma."

"I see the rising of myself in her," says Winfrey. "That's what people are seeing. They see her courage, her bodaciousness, owning herself. In a way that reflects what you want to be the best of yourself."

Even as her résumé grows, the work is hard to isolate from the larger vision. DuVernay hires only women to direct "Queen Sugar" episodes, and her company, Array, distributes films by women and people of color while also building community through screenings and digital campaigns.

"Her mission is bigger than one film," says Witherspoon. "I've never met a director like that. I've never had an experience where they've talked more about other people's work than their own,"

DuVernay's not looking to kick white men out of Hollywood. One of those white men, Spencer Averick, is her longtime editor and self-described "brother." Her goal is to reshape the system so that everyone gets a chance.

And while it may sometimes feel like a grand stroke of luck, sitting with Oprah at the Golden Globes, turning Jay-Z's latest jam into a star-studded video, DuVernay's rise is no accident. It is about talent, long hours and the way you treat people. About not doing things the same way because that's how they've always been done. Oh, and always remember: You may be the first to get a $100 million budget, but you're not the first to deserve one.

These tenets have made DuVernay an inspirational figure even for those who wouldn't know a key grip from a key chain. These admirers can tick off her firsts - first black woman to win a best director prize at Sundance, to be nominated for a best director Golden Globe, to have her film nominated for an Oscar.

"I don't really know anyone in all of my life, and I'm 61, who has done what she's done," says law professor Anita Hill, who famously testified against Clarence Thomas during his Supreme Court confirmation hearings. "It's tragic that she's the first. But she is the first, and we have to celebrate that."

One evening last year, after DuVernay dazzled a packed auditorium at a talk with Questlove, a group of young black women huddled, raving about the director.

"I'm an attorney," said Nneka Udoh, 36. "Hearing her speak, it gives me a lot of confidence to do just what she does. Which is to be true to herself. Not being afraid to stand up for what she believes in, stand up for her values and also be inviting about it."

All the possibilities

Steven Spielberg grew up making short films with his father's 8mm camera. J.J. Abrams wrote a screenplay in college that made it to the big screen ("Taking Care of Business"). DuVernay had her dolls.

In their small house in Lynwood, Calif., DuVernay would recruit her sisters Jina and Tera to play Barbie on Saturday mornings. The family couldn't afford doll accessories. So if the girls wanted something approximating Barbie's dune buggy, they crafted it out of a shoe box. This was serious stuff.

"It was like, this is my side of the room, this is your side," says DuVernay. "Then the stories started. I mean, my mom would go to work, come back on a Saturday, and we were still on the floor playing."

DuVernay got her surname, but not much else, from her biological father. She doesn't talk about him or his marriage to her mother, Darlene, which DuVernay says was abusive. He is, she says, "a stranger to me."

It was her stepfather, Murray Maye, who died in 2016, whom she called Pops. He had a carpet and flooring business and was as soft-spoken as the California-born Darlene was a social sparkplug. The girls would watch in half-amused awe, every morning, as he ironed his jeans before heading to work.

Darlene Maye, just 18 when she had Ava, worked as a bank teller, a human resources manager and ran a preschool as she raised her daughters. She taught them the sorts of lessons you won't find in a Girl Scout manual. Jina, the middle sister, remembers one time they went to IHOP for breakfast and a man came out of the bathroom distressed, naked and collapsed on the floor. Instead of shielding the children, Darlene darted over with her leather coat. She covered the man up until help arrived.

"No manager did that, no employee did that," says Jina, now the special collections librarian at Alabama State University. "And anybody on the side of the street, you'd give them money. Is there anything I can do for you? Is there any help that you need? That extra inch. She always did that."

Her Aunt Denise taught DuVernay to love art. She was a nurse who never had any children. (DuVernay, who also says she doesn't plan to have kids, has a boyfriend, whom she prefers not to name.) Denise took her niece to see a stage production of "A Chorus Line" and Warren Beatty's three-hour Russian revolution epic, "Reds." She also loved music, whether lecturing about the underappreciated genius of U2's "The Unforgettable Fire" or blasting Brahms.

"Like, you know, you walk into a house in Compton and there's classical music playing," says DuVernay. "People were like, 'Turn that s- down!' It's like, you know, Bach or something. She's like, 'F- you!' "

From the start, DuVernay's family loomed large in her work.

Aunt Denise's struggle with breast cancer - she died in 2003 - inspired DuVernay's 2010 feature debut, "I Will Follow."

Her Los Angeles childhood, with the backdrop of hovering police copters and the tactical brutality in the era of Chief Daryl Gates, connected her to "13th," the 2016 documentary centered on a justice system that targets people of color. It's no wonder that her youngest sister, Tera, who works at Equal Justice Initiative, a nonprofit group made up of attorneys who defend the accused, helped out on that project.

"Selma," DuVernay's breakthrough, may be a historical drama about one of the country's most famous civil rights campaigns. But for DuVernay, it was also personal. Murray Maye, the man she considers her real father, came from Alabama and, as a boy, watched the marchers pass.

Everyone is equal on the set

Approaching midnight on a Friday, DuVernay pops out of her office at Disney and down the hall to see a pair of her staffers at their computers.

"Gosh," she says. "What do you think? What's your ETA?"

"Well," one of them says. "It was 12. Now I'm going with 2 a.m."

"What?" DuVernay says. "Can I get you anything? Pinkberry?"

"No, we're okay."

Back in her office, DuVernay is told that this is probably not standard practice. That it is unlikely Martin Scorsese has ever offered to make fro-yo runs for the crew.

"I mean, it's 11:30 at night on Friday and both those women have children, so I'm just, like, sorry they have to be here," she says.

This is the culture she creates. It comes from the dozen years she worked as a movie publicist before going into directing. She watched how people were treated on set.

"I very much try not to - and don't - make it a habit of treating my actors differently than I treat the gaffer or the grip or the craft services manager or hair and makeup, because we're all making the movie," she says. "Because I used to be crew, and I would see the hierarchy and I always thought: I won't do that. Because this is a grown man. I would see grips and gaffers and, you know, dolly grips pushing things around all day and being treated like s- and they would just remind me, gosh, that's somebody's father."

That applies to how she builds a crew. Witherspoon says she has never, over 40 plus films, seen a team as diverse as the one DuVernay put together.

"I said, 'How did you do that?' " says Witherspoon. "She said, 'Whenever I was presented with an option, I was told there were no other choices for people for every job.' She said, 'I want to see every single résumé for every single job.'"

Her ability to find, elevate and keep talent can be seen across her staff. Averick, 39, studied film at San Francisco State University, but he had almost no experience when he took a job editing on DuVernay's first film in 2008. Now he's the lead editor on a potential Disney blockbuster.

Tilane Jones, 44, also met DuVernay in 2008. She started as an office assistant. Jones had left college early, but DuVernay could see she was organized, passionate and smart. Today, she's
vice president of Array, which has so far distributed 17 films.

The friendships Oyelowo developed on the sets of "Middle of Nowhere" and " Selma" are unlike any before or since.

"She is literally like a blood sister to me," he says. "That's to do with her. It is by no means the norm. And it's what she brings out in people."

Even as DuVernay searches for new talent, she also doesn't forget artists who came before her. Take Julie Dash, who directed 1991's "Daughters of the Dust," the first feature directed by an African American woman to get a theatrical release. After "Dust," Dash struggled to get other films going. Last season, DuVernay not only hired her to direct "Queen Sugar" episodes, she has done her best to make sure Dash is also in the right rooms.

"Every event that she goes to, pretty much, she invites me," says Dash, 65. "To her birthday party. The Essence awards. Living in Hollywood events. She understands it's not about a single person being successful. It's about a wave of women filmmakers having access."

Calling Oprah

DuVernay didn't go to film school, instead majoring in English and African American studies at UCLA. For a while, DuVernay wanted to go into journalism, but an internship at CBS News soured her. During the O.J. Simpson trial, she found herself assigned to a juror, which involved going through her trash cans.

The internship did give DuVernay a window into how publicists worked, and, after graduation, she took a job at a small firm, Bender Helper Impact. Before long, she founded her own agency and started working on films that included "Collateral,"
"Dreamgirls" and "Invictus."

Making movies was never the plan. DuVernay's debut, 2008's "This Is the Life," is a raw documentary about the hip-hop scene at a cafe she performed at as Eve. It was done simply to document a fleeting moment.

But "I Will Follow," released two years later, marked a shift, as DuVernay realized she had stories to tell. The film took 11 days to shoot, cost $50,000 and featured a small, unpaid performance from Blair Underwood. He did the favor because of how hard she had worked as a publicist for his series, "City of Angels."

As DuVernay moved behind the camera, she realized how much she had learned from hanging out on sets as Spielberg, Clint Eastwood and others directed. She beefed up her technique by religiously listening to directors' audio commentaries on DVDs and taking private directing classes.

Her next film, 2012's "Middle of Nowhere," marked an artistic leap as she told the spare story of Ruby, a nurse trying to cope with her husband going to jail. The film, which she made for $200,000, introduced her to Oyelowo. The British actor, in turn, brought the film to Oprah Winfrey when they were working together on "Lee Daniels' The Butler."

Winfrey was moved by the film and then Googled DuVernay.

"I loved her face, her warmth," says Winfrey. "I loved her glasses, and I thought, I'm going to be friends with this person."

That friendship has meant sharing birthdays with each other and also a table at the Golden Globes, where DuVernay snapped a selfie with Denzel Washington before watching Winfrey's powerful speech. The relationship has also deepened away from the red carpet.

DuVernay turned to Winfrey during a vulnerable moment after "Selma."

The film had been a huge success. After it, DuVernay expected offers to roll in. Marvel did talk to her about "Black Panther," though she decided their visions didn't match. Now, DuVernay found herself down in New Orleans, scouting locations for "Queen Sugar," and feeling unsure of her next film.

"I need a movie, I need a movie, why am I not making a movie . . . why don't I have what all my white boy counterparts have," she remembers thinking. "He is the whipping boy for all this and he is such a nice guy, but how does Colin Trevorrow go from 'Jurassic World' straight into Star Wars, you know what I mean? From the little indie that we both did, sitting side by side at Sundance with our films in 2012, and goes from that to 'Jurassic World' to Star Wars, and I go from that to 'Selma,' and there is nothing else on the horizon? That didn't feel good, and that had me in a depressed place. Not depressed, but just desperate. I felt desperate I was trying to make something happen."

She called Winfrey, who was at home in bed. Immediately, she was struck by how down DuVernay sounded.

"I remember sitting up and putting on my glasses so I could hear better," says Winfrey. "I realized this was a bigger moment than just friends on the phone having a conversation."

Her message would be direct. DuVernay, she said, needed to stop feeling desperate. She couldn't just take anything that came along. Her path was too important.

"It's not about the phone calls, it's not about your perception," Winfrey said. "It's about what you've actually come here to do. Look at where you are right now. You're in New Orleans looking for locations to create from scratch this idea that you have for a television series. How many people have ever been able to do what you're doing right now? And when you can relax into understanding that, there's a bigger thing, bigger than you are?"

They spent two hours on the phone. The next day, after DuVernay joined her crew to start scouting for "Queen Sugar,"' she got a pair of emails. One was from Spielberg's production company asking her to consider making a film with Lupita Nyong'o. The other was from Disney about "A Wrinkle in Time."

"I was like, what is that?" she says with a laugh. "Never heard of it."

'A big swing'

The pressure should be unbearable. That first woman of color, the $100 million budget. That whole thing. DuVernay is asked about this as she walks across the Disney lot, sipping a smoothie, hustling from one meeting to the next. But before she can say anything, she shrieks with joy. She has spotted Blair Underwood sitting on a bench. He runs over to meet her with a hug.

"How's the film going?" Underwood asks.

"Going well," she says. "I'm going to call you to come watch it and give me some feedback."

Then she's back, heading toward her building.

The pressure, DuVernay says, is not necessarily the money. It's the big idea driving "Wrinkle." The reimagined Meg.

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"It's a big swing," she says. "It is a fantasy where a black girl goes to another planet and saves the world."

That "world" is a long way from the Edmund Pettus Bridge or Ruby's bus rides in "Middle of Nowhere." "Wrinkle's" visual language is of sweeping landscapes, animated creatures bathed in bright colors and majestic costumes fit for a cast of celestials. DuVernay knows nobody would blink if Spielberg or James Cameron were behind the camera. But what about, as her Twitter profile reads, "A girl from Compton who got to make a Disney movie"?

"All of those guys," she says. "They can build worlds. Will you respect my world? Me building a planet?"

The question lingers as she floats into her office and returns when, nearing midnight, DuVernay is asked what might happen if "Wrinkle" isn't a smash. Does she worry that all of this - the magazine covers, the studio muscle, the platform - will disappear? She doesn't miss a beat.

"If they won't let me make films at a certain point, I can still make them indie. If I can't make films, I'll make TV. If I can't make TV, I'll do commercials. I'll do the installation at the Smithsonian. I'll do the Prada ad," and she tails off.

It's late and Ava DuVernay doesn't sound particularly concerned about herself. Because just down the hall, she knows at least a handful of staffers are still working. She gets up, heads down the hall, and checks that they're okay.

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Can anyone actually blow up the Hollywood system? Ava DuVernay is about to find out.

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There are three parking spaces outside Building 78 on the storied Walt Disney Studios lot. Director Ava DuVernay, scooting between editing sessions for "A Wrinkle in Time," makes a point to stop and point out who they're assigned to. One is for her silver Mercedes.

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My interview with GirlTrek is one that has been in the making for a while now-I

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The Black Joy Project: Putting Smiles On Black Faces | SHOPPE BLACK

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Here we are, a couple days after Valentine's Day. The dust has settled and love is My interview with GirlTrek is one that has been in the making for a while now-I Before you hit up the usual suspects for your Valentine's day gifts, check out these Black Here we are, a couple days after Valentine's Day.

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And She Could Be Next follows a defiant movement led by women of color as they fight for a truly reflective democracy and transform politics from the ground up. A co-production of POV and ITVS. A co-presentation of Black Public Media and the Center for Asian American Media.

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And She Could Be Next (Ep. 2) | POV | PBS

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And She Could Be Next follows a defiant movement led by women of color as they fight for a truly reflective democracy and transform politics from the ground up. A co-production of POV and ITVS. A co-presentation of Black Public Media and the Center for Asian American Media.

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Meet the Radical Monarchs, a group of young girls of color on the frontlines of social justice. Set in Oakland, California, the film documents the journey of the group as they earn badges for completing units on such subjects as LGBTQ allyship, environmental preservation and disability justice. Official Selection, SXSW. A co-presentation of Latino Public Broadcasting.

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Meet the Radical Monarchs, a group of young girls of color on the frontlines of social justice. Set in Oakland, California, the film documents the journey of the group as they earn badges for completing units on such subjects as LGBTQ allyship, environmental preservation and disability justice. Official Selection, SXSW.

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The laughter that poured out of us that day was sudden and staccato, much like the torrential storm that threatened to pummel my plants if we didn't close the entry to the plastic greenhouse that already sat precariously in our small backyard.

"Look at me, Mommy!" my daughter said, the Afro-puff on top of her head swelling in the winds. Her wide-mouth grin was like a checkerboard with her two missing "Dracula" teeth.

We finally got the closure zipped when, in true 8-year-old goofball fashion, she started dancing. Her arms flailed as she did something that could only be described as a cross between the "Milly Rock" and the "Renegade." Ordinarily my reaction would have been to say, "Girl, get your tail in this house and get those soaked clothes off!" But something shifted in me. I matched her Gen Z shenanigans with a little Gen X, old-school righteousness and hit her with a "Cabbage Patch" and "Hammer dance" combo. Then we both did something we hadn't done in a long time.

We laughed uncontrollably.

Not a few chuckles like when we see a funny meme on the Internet. Not even the giggles that come when Duck mistakes some random stuffing for Bunny in Toy Story 4. This was a guffaw. A scream-laugh. An unearthing of all the things, known and unknown, that ailed us.

When we got back into the house, I cried. Mostly because I'd been vacillating between sorrow and rage the whole week prior, and I understood what that singular moment really meant. In my mind, we were two black girls in a backyard turning the world and white perceptions upside down with our joy.

I suppose, on the surface, we both may have just needed the release. My daughter has not seen her friends or had a play date since March. I have been wrestling with all the things most quarantined, working moms have to manage. But there was so much more behind my deluge of tears. I knew what our joy represented. It was its own kind of resistance. Our joy was an affront to our Trump-supporting neighbor down the street. It was an affirmation for the black mom who lives across the street with her daughters. It was a cleansing experience for us and, in many ways, it was a demonstration of what Zora Neale Hurston once said: "Sometimes, I feel discriminated against, but it does not make me angry. It merely astonishes me. How can any deny themselves the pleasure of my company? It's beyond me."

Our dancing in the rain wasn't a denial of all the storms that had moved in on black people that week. It was a dare. An indignant stance of confidence in the midst of this malignant monsoon called systemic racism. Our laughter was a way to say "you can't steal our joy" to anyone who'd dare deny our humanity. Author and scholar Imani Perry, in a recent article for the Atlantic, captured this feeling well: "Joy is not found in the absence of pain and suffering. It exists through it. ... Blackness is an immense and defiant joy."

Joy as resistance isn't as much of a stretch as some might think. We constantly hear about the alleged rioting and looting happening during recent protests and uprisings around the country. What we don't hear too much about is the spontaneous breaks in protests when dancers and singers and artists take over where the chants and confrontations left off. The way the crowds stomp an insistent rhythm into the pavement feels like a Diasporic clarion call. The engagements and weddings that have happened in the middle of marches are too often considered anecdotal for some but are actually intentional acts of defiance. Why else would a woman dressed in ivory satin stand with her partner, eyes wide and full with liquid love, kissing fervently to the sounds of protesters' cheers?

Choosing to express our joy loudly and without reservation is directly connected to bringing our Imago Dei (made in the image of God) humanity front and center in the movement.

That's a necessary form of resistance because it clearly punches the lights out of the pervasive dehumanization we encounter every day.

More than even resistance, though, dancing in the rain with my sweet girl illuminated just how powerful and healing black joy can be for black people. That night, my baby girl slept more soundly than she had in months. I was able to quiet the panic that fills my chest when, long after the little one's bedtime, I sit at my computer and prepare to write another essay about another hashtagged brother or sister.

In the wake of George Floyd calling out for his long-passed mother as his neck was being crushed by a police officer and what I imagine was Breonna Taylor's last dream before she was shot while trying to sleep in her bed, it's hard not to believe that the only real and lasting weapon I have as a black mother is to circumvent these generations-long traumas with generational joy.

My daughter will laugh and cry and dance as much as she likes with as much freedom as I can afford her. She will know that she can laugh and cry and dance in the sun and the rain.

And sure, I'm a mother. So after the laughter was over and both our hair and our hearts were drenched, I might have still said, "Girl, get your tail in this house and get those soaked clothes off!" But this time, my words were laced with some newly recovered ammunition: joy.
Tracey M. Lewis-Giggetts is a writer and educator whose work explores the intersection of culture (race, class, identity) with faith/spirituality. The author of 13 books, she is the host of the podcast Join our More reading: The pandemic's mental health impact is dangerous for new moms. Especially black moms. Nine things to consider when searching for anti-racist literature and media for kids In black families like mine, the talk comes early. It's not an option. We asked black moms how they find their joy. This is what they said. discussion group here to talk about parenting and work. You can sign up here for the On Parenting newsletter. HeARTtalk with Tracey Michae'l and is the chief creative officer at NewSeason Books and Media, an independent publishing and content creation company. She can be found online at www.traceymlewis.com.

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Perspective | My daughter reminded me that black joy is a form of resistance

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The laughter that poured out of us that day was sudden and staccato, much like the torrential storm that threatened to pummel my plants if we didn't close the entry to the plastic greenhouse that already sat precariously in our small backyard. "Look at me, Mommy!"

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Teaching STEM With HipHop: STEM to STEAM

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Neil deGrasse Tyson and rapper Logic discuss race

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CML Presents: Crown, An Ode to the Fresh Cut by Derrick Barnes

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Read by: Zuri, Librarian @ Beatties Ford Road Regional Library In honor of African American History month, the patrons and staff at Beatties Ford Regional Library picked and read from several African American children books highlighting African American culture and history.

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Dr. Z made a beat using programming code

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Dr. Z made a beat using programming code

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COVID-19 and the rise of zoonotic infectious diseases

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COVID-19 and the rise of zoonotic infectious diseases

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COVID-19 and the rise of zoonotic infectious diseases

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How do viruses jump from animals to humans?

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How do viruses jump from animals to humans?

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How do viruses jump from animals to humans? - Ben Longdon

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The Story of Ebola (a zoonotic disease just like Covid-19 & how a community got impacted and fought against it)

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The Story of Ebola (a zoonotic disease just like Covid-19 & how a community got impacted and fought against it)

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Science 2043 (the Diverse faces of STEM by Year 2043 = when people of color becomes the majority in the US)

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Science 2043 (the Diverse faces of STEM by Year 2043 = when people of color becomes the majority in the US)

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A more diverse scientific America by 2043

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The superpower of shapeshifting in Nature

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The superpower of shapeshifting in Nature

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Black in Nature (Black Biologists share their love for studying nature & experiencing racism...like the birdwatcher in Central Park in NYC)

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Black in Nature (Black Biologists share their love for studying nature & experiencing racism...like the birdwatcher in Central Park in NYC)

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For many nature lovers, a good day in the field means successful observations: spotting their favorite organism, or witnessing a rare event. As seasoned enthusiasts and researchers know, those exciting days pale in comparison to the majority of days, where searches are fruitless. This pattern parallels the experience of a Black STEM professional, whose searches for other Black scientists often come up short.

The disparagingly low numbers of Black individuals in natural spaces and research communities largely due to systemic racial poverty. As described by a 2018 study by the National Parks Service, limited socioeconomic resources, a widespread cultural perception that certain ethnic groups have select types of leisure outlets, and racial discrimination are among the leading reasons why Blacks and other people of color infrequently visit national parks. Such examples of racial discrimiation were recently seen in the viral video taken by Black birdwatcher Christian Cooper who, in May 2020, was threatened with the violence of calling the police specifically because he was Black.

Yet, tragic and unjust incidents like these can fortify solidarity in Black and allied communities. Conversations are starting, protestors are marching, and social media is buzzing. People are uniting now more than ever to fight for radical social change; Black people especially are strategizing, organizing, and mobilizing in efforts to collectively enact change and to share our own culture with the world.

The BlackAFinSTEM collective (@BlackAFinSTEM) and Black Birders' Week is a powerful example of such an effort. Conceptualized by Anna Gifty Opoku-Agyeman (@itsafronomics) and organized by over 30 members of BlackAFinSTEM, the Black Birders Week movement serves as a strong stance in solidarity with protests against racism and police brutality by highlighting, celebrating, and normalizing Black scientists and nature enthusiasts. As stated by Professor Stacy Farina, an Associate Professor of Biology at Howard University and SICB Member, "a key feature of #BlackBirdersWeek has been the soothing of trauma through education and celebration of black excellence".
Have you experienced racism while in the field?
To capture some of the diversity in perspectives and experiences of Black scientists during this time, especially in relation to Black Birder's Week, we caught up with fellow BlackAFinSTEM members.

Racism can be anywhere, and that includes fieldwork and research settings. Black scientists often encounter persistent, yet thankfully less dubious, racial encounters. Black scientists have been mistaken for other Black colleagues, expected to have roles of servitude or assistance, and often have their skills or expertise questioned.

Harmful and traumatic incidents, however, also occur. For Armand Cann, a graduate student at Loyola University, Chicago, it was an unprecedented, aggressive, and public police interrogation that occurred after completing a day of fieldwork. While in the field, Armand's car had been hit and abandoned, so he went door-to-door, asking neighbors if they'd witnessed how his property was damaged. For reasons unjust, someone called the police. When they arrived, Armand explained his situation and answered questions, but was met with disbelief. The officers questioned him further, "as if [he was] telling a lie," Armand recounts. Armand complied with unwarranted requests until the officers "felt comfortable" with his answers and his presence. Fortunately, Armand was able to walk away from this situation, but not without emotional scars. Cann's story serves as a crushing reminder that his appearance can be deemed threatening regardless of the setting.

Encounters like Armand's, Christian Cooper's, or even Ahmaud Arbery's are unpredictable, and can happen at any time. This need for safety affects how we move through our lives: which universities we consider for work and schooling, which conferences we can attend, and field sites that we decide to use, whether it's for research or pleasure.
What has Black Birders' Week & its community meant to you?

The prevalence of racism is undoubtedly a point of contention when we consider whether we can actually be Black, safe, and in STEM, given national discourse. We expect that it generates fears and discourages younger generations of Black youth from exploring, enjoying, and appreciating nature.

Why is visibility of Black people enjoying STEM and nature important?
Black Birders Week affords levity in otherwise arduous times, and also a space for support. It has been "one of the only positive things in my life in the past few weeks," states Kassandra Ford, University of Louisiana at Lafayette graduate student and SICB member. Academics, environmentalists, SciCommers, and hobbyists alike can share their stories with people who deeply understand their experience. Expanding on that experience publicly, through movements like Black Birders Week, defies the presumption that Black people don't thrive in natural spaces, or succeed in science fields.

When it comes to STEM careers, Black people are the severe minority, making up about 7% of STEM jobs, according to a 2018 Pew study. Thus, in the pursuit of STEM careers, there are very few Black role models to guide the aspirations of young Black scientists. As children and young adults, many of us felt the joy of being outdoors, savored problem solving challenges in our STEM courses, and were endlessly curious about the mysteries of natural life. But we could not escape the feeling that nature and academia did not hold space for us.

With few Black faces in the academic track, it's easy to convince yourself that there's a sinister reason why we weren't present: that you didn't belong. The number of faces dwindle with the advancement of our career, often making careers in STEM fields synonymous with singularity. Symone Barkley, the National Aquarium's Manager of Education Programs describes it as the burden of tokenism feels as if we are "always carrying the weight of being perfect at all times. ... I do not have the luxury of 'not knowing' or dropping the ball." Visibility of Black people in STEM mitigates tokenism.

The benefit of Black STEM enthusiasts visibility is extensive. As Rhiannon Kirton, a graduate student at the University of Western Ontario, states, "Having Black folx can also increase the diversity of perspectives and therefore, the impact of programs and decisions made within organizations."
What is your favorite aspect of doing fieldwork and research while Black?
Assertive representation of Black scientists will not only pivot collective thinking within STEM careers, but as postdoctoral fellow Tiara Moore claims, we can "show the next generation that there is space for them...[that] we can finally breathe and move comfortably in this space now! " With Black scientists visible, there is three times the likelihood Black students will take an interest in STEM careers.

It is hard work to create safe spaces in nature and in academia for Black people and people of color, but often a joyous effort. Our push to transform unfamiliar areas is primarily driven by our love of nature. For the Black Birders Week team, some of the most savored moments are ones where we can deeply connect with nature: getting down to business in muddy marshes or enjoying peaceful stillness of the ocean while bird or whale watching.

There is also joy in seeing children react to meeting a Black scientist or naturalist, often for the first time. As Kassandra puts it, "They are so excited to see a Black woman in that role, I hope it inspires them to become scientists themselves." And when we see other Black nature and science lovers, it stokes calmness, joy, and feelings of safety. Having a network of fellow Black nature and STEM enthusiasts bolsters confidence to contribute ideas and perspectives our nonBlack peers may not have considered. Starting these conversations in turn promotes political discourse that may not have otherwise happened. Simply put, our presence begets change.

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These stories represent just a glimpse of the experiences of Black STEM professionals. The BlackAFinSTEM collective comprises a diversity of Black communicators, educators, researchers, field scientists, professionals, and parents who are deeply passionate about continuing these conversations around our experiences in science, economics, and policy. Black Birders' Week is just the beginning. Mississippi State undergraduate student Kanshisha Taylor said it best: "[we] will not sit by and let injustices keep going and [we will not] be quiet about our experiences as Black people in STEM." Our hope is that this movement will fortify alliship with the diversity of scientists and nature enthusiasts of all walks and colors.

Follow our featured STEM professionals on Twitter for more on their experiences! In order of mention:
Check out @BlackAFinSTEM, #BlackBirdersWeek, #BlackAFinSTEM, and #BlackInNature for more stories from fellow collective members and the broader community of Black STEM professionals. About the authors: Alexus Roberts

Shaz Zamore

Amber Wendler @amberwendler - Virginia Polytechnic Institute

Armand Cann @devonian_one- Loyola University, Chicago

Kassandra Ford @kassthefish - University of Louisiana at Lafayette

Kaylee Arnold @Black_Ecologist - University of Georgia

Kinshisha Taylor @Sasha_Melanated - Mississippi State University

Rhiannon Kirton @rhi_kirton - University of Western Ontario

Symone Barkley @Scientistsymone - National Aquarium

Tiara Moore @curly_scientist - The Nature Conservancy

Dr. Shaz Zamore (@TheDoctaZ) is a neuroengineer by training and STEAM Outreach Coordinator and Instructor by trade. Working for the ATLAS Institute at CU Boulder, Dr. Z merges social justice into STEM Education in and out of the classroom by developing a neuroscience comic series for under-served students. They also sit as the Chair of the Public Affairs Committee for SICB. On their days off, Shaz is found in the mountains, searching for reptiles in the summer or backcountry snowboarding in the winter.

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For many nature lovers, a good day in the field means successful observations: spotting their favorite organism, or witnessing a rare event. As seasoned enthusiasts and researchers know, those exciting days pale in comparison to the majority of days, where searches are fruitless. This pattern parallels the experience of a Black STEM professional, whose searches...

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Dr. Z on Questions & the Scientific Method

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Dr. Z on Questions & the Scientific Method

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Wondrous World - Episode 01 - Questions Camp

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A Tribe Called Red - The Virus Ft. Saul Williams, Chippewa Travellers

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A Tribe Called Red - The Virus Ft. Saul Williams, Chippewa Travellers

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The Halluci Nation - The Virus Ft. Saul Williams, Chippewa Travellers (Official Video)

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East Brookridge Middle School's annual science museum field trip was one to remember. Three students snuck off to explore exhibits behind the scenes and returned changed forever. The consequences of their choices changed their lives and the course of the future as we know it, for these three met Malus and GIA, two battling scientists from the future.

Follow Frankie, Hanna, Aisha and friends as they deal with typical tween tribulations, all while managing new-found superpowers, evildoers from the future and an unforgettable mentor and friend.

Readers will enjoy action-packed issues with thrills, emotional nuance, and challenging quizzes! The STEAM Team primarily teaches readers about biology, neuroscience, and biomechanics.

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East Brookridge Middle School's annual science museum field trip was one to remember. Three students snuck off to explore exhibits behind the scenes and returned changed forever. The consequences of their choices changed their lives and the course of the future as we know it, for these three met Malus and GIA, two battling scientists...

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STEAM Team print comics follow the adventures of 5 plucky middle school students who have a chance encounter with G.I.A., a genderless, cyborg scientist from the future. Follow as students from diverse backgrounds with diverse skills learn to work together to solve puzzles and thwart bad guys! Each comic issue will have interactive puzzles and a new, standalone chapter of a story.

The M.O.D. Capsule is paired with the STEAM Team, allowing readers to build devices and conduct experiments that they read about in the comic series. The MOD Capsule is named after G.I.A.'s modular toolkit, which helps the Team reach their goals. The M.O.D Capsule is standalone-providing all the tools, materials, and instructions needed to make neat devices such as vision-shifting goggles, static field detectors, and cardboard limb attachments that augment sound!

Craniate is a compact, transportable kit that uses recycled materials to minimize ecological impact, while maximizing access to students. Craniate is ideal for afterschool activities, home schooling, library project kits, and informal learning at home. Aimed at children ages 10-13, Craniate uses visual storytelling, hands-on activities and diverse science identities to broaden inclusion into STEAM education efforts.

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STEAM Team print comics follow the adventures of 5 plucky middle school students who have a chance encounter with G.I.A., a genderless, cyborg scientist from the future. Follow as students from diverse backgrounds with diverse skills learn to work together to solve puzzles and thwart bad guys!

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"Serio" By Simple Ali (Black/Filipino youth on growing up in South Central LA)

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"Serio" By Simple Ali (Black/Filipino youth on growing up in South Central LA)

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Aerosoul Art (Hip-Hop visual artists in the Zulu Nation tradition)

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Aerosoul Art (Hip-Hop visual artists in the Zulu Nation tradition)

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Refa1 (AeroSoul Art) on hip-hop & consciousness

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Refa1 (AeroSoul Art) on hip-hop & consciousness

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Refa 1 Speaks: Hip Hop is about Consciousness & Freedom..It's Essence over Form

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Interview Dr. Z on being a LGBTQ+ non-binary person of color neurotechnologist

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Interview Dr. Z on being a LGBTQ+ non-binary person of color neurotechnologist

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About This Show

Show Info:

Chemistry! Queerness! The Trials and Tribulations of Graduate School! MFQC spills the tea on it all. Join Beca and Geraldo each week as they interview LGBTQ+ chemists on their research interests and experiences with identity, challenges, and achievements in the chemistry field. You'll laugh. You'll cry. You'll learn all the ins and outs of queer culture. Follow us on twitter at @MFQCPod or send us an email at myfavequeerchemist@gmail.com.Read more "

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Listen to My Fave Queer Chemist episodes free, on demand. Chemistry! Queerness! The Trials and Tribulations of Graduate School! MFQC spills the tea on it all. Join Beca and Geraldo each week as they interview LGBTQ+ chemists on their research interests and experiences with identity, challenges, and achievements in the chemistry field.

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A Tribe Called Red - R.E.D. Ft. Yasiin Bey, Narcy & Black Bear

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A Tribe Called Red - R.E.D. Ft. Yasiin Bey, Narcy & Black Bear

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The Halluci Nation - R.E.D. Ft. Yasiin Bey, Narcy & Black Bear (Official Video)

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"Mathematics" By Mos Def (now Yasiin Bey) 

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"Mathematics" By Mos Def (now Yasiin Bey) 

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Madow Futur (Clothing inspired by Hip-Hop consciousness & community)

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Madow Futur (Clothing inspired by Hip-Hop consciousness & community)

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Madow Futur is a Black-owned & Oakland-based streetwear brand, existing to empower the vanguard of tomorrow's revolution.

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Young girls, patrons of the Earth
Young girls, take care of all the Earth
Young girls, they need their own respect
Young girls, carry babies from their neck

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What is One Health? Human Health + Animal Health + Environment Health

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What is One Health? Human Health + Animal Health + Environment Health

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We believe that in order to remove systemic discrimination, it’s important to raise the next generation of Inclusive AI algorithms.

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We believe that in order to remove systemic discrimination, it’s important to raise the next generation of Inclusive AI algorithms.

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Ethics4NextGen AI Hackathon - DataEthics4All

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AI in Predictive Policing is basically a nightmarish sequel of the movie Minority Report. Launched to help curb crime, it has been used against the Black, Hispanic communities, criminalizing their locations and their movements. Do you see any good in this tech? Can it be salvaged to benefit us?

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20 Seconds or More ft. Doug E. Fresh, Artie Green & Gerry Gunn

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20 Seconds or More ft. Doug E. Fresh, Artie Green & Gerry Gunn

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First Aid with Kelly Kinkaid: Hip Hop Public Health Conversation with Doug E Fresh and Dr. Williams

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First Aid with Kelly Kinkaid: Hip Hop Public Health Conversation with Doug E Fresh and Dr. Williams

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First Aid with Kelly Kinkaid: Hip Hop Public Health Conversation with Doug E Fresh and Dr. Williams

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Hip-Hop Public Health (Doug E. Fresh is involved)

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Hip-Hop Public Health (Doug E. Fresh is involved)

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Join our diverse community of educators, entertainers and health professionals empowering youth with the transformative power of hip-hop.
Get special access to free resources, videos, music, and other perks!

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Join our diverse community of educators, entertainers and health professionals empowering youth with the transformative power of hip-hop. Get special access to free resources, videos, music, and other perks!

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New Knerds (ATL-based educational rap group)

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New Knerds (ATL-based educational rap group)

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New Knerds featured on Fox 5 Good Day Atlanta

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We envision a world where diverse communities unite and develop authentic relationships that allow us to collectively outthink systems upholding structural racism. A nationally unified commitment to advancing daily disruptive practices will ensure upward mobility for every child, family and community for generations to come. Lives are depending on it.

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We envision a world where diverse communities unite and develop authentic relationships that allow us to collectively outthink systems upholding structural racism. A nationally unified commitment to advancing daily disruptive practices will ensure upward mobility for every child, family and community for generations to come. Lives are depending on it.

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As a nation we have worked extremely hard to address the symptoms of inequities. This work has created urgency to unite in bold new ways to quickly identify the root cause. The time for strategic cross-industry partnerships is now.

We can no longer watch people of color D-I-E, while decision makers grapple with D-E-I (Diversity Equity Inclusion) in safe and comfortable spaces.

Over 1,000 people are killed by police every year in America, and Black people are three times more likely to be killed than White people. This is happening in the communities we all serve and profit from. There are actions we can take today, starting with training and development, that moves the needle from compliance to sustainable impact for generations to come.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
As a nation we have worked extremely hard to address the symptoms of inequities. This work has created urgency to unite in bold new ways to quickly identify the root cause. The time for strategic cross-industry partnerships is now.

# data[].attributes.headline
We envision a world where diverse communities unite and develop authentic relationships that allow us to collectively outthink systems upholding structural racism. A nationally unified commitment to advancing daily disruptive practices will ensure upward mobility for every child, family and community for generations to come. Lives are depending on it.

# data[].attributes.subject
We envision a world where diverse communities unite and develop authentic relationships that allow us to collectively outthink systems upholding structural racism. A nationally unified commitment to advancing daily disruptive practices will ensure upward mobility for every child, family and community for generations to come. Lives are depending on it.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
As a nation we have worked extremely hard to address the symptoms of inequities. This work has created urgency to unite in bold new ways to quickly identify the root cause. The time for strategic cross-industry partnerships is now.

We can no longer watch people of color D-I-E, while decision makers grapple with D-E-I (Diversity Equity Inclusion) in safe and comfortable spaces.

Over 1,000 people are killed by police every year in America, and Black people are three times more likely to be killed than White people. This is happening in the communities we all serve and profit from. There are actions we can take today, starting with training and development, that moves the needle from compliance to sustainable impact for generations to come.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
As a nation we have worked extremely hard to address the symptoms of inequities. This work has created urgency to unite in bold new ways to quickly identify the root cause. The time for strategic cross-industry partnerships is now.

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Teaching Trust: 2020 Leading To Impact Summit featuring Anashay Wright

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H.E.R. Performs "I Can't Breathe" & "Fate" – Live | 2020 Roots Picnic

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H.E.R. Performs "I Can't Breathe" & "Fate" – Live | 2020 Roots Picnic

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H.E.R. Performs "I Can't Breathe" & "Fate" – Live | 2020 Roots Picnic Virtual Experience

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Pretty cool Grady Doc breaks down the science of the Covid-19 vaccine that EVERYONE can understand!

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Pretty cool Grady Doc breaks down the science of the Covid-19 vaccine that EVERYONE can understand!

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Pretty cool Grady Doc breaks down the science of the Covid-19 vaccine that EVERYONE can understand!