Race Inquiry Digest (March 1) – Important Current Stories On Race In America

Feature – Report Updates Landmark 1968 Racism Study, Finds More Poverty And Segregation. A new study that builds on the Kerner Report’s work was released this week. Healing Our Divided Society: Investing in America Fifty Years After the Kerner Report. It notes that poverty has increased and so has the inequality gap between white America and Americans who are black, brown and Native American. Read more 
What is the ‘State of the Black Athlete’? The cultural resonance, political awakening and activation of the black athlete, as told in pictures. Read more 

Poorer, more diverse schools receive far less funding across the country. State and local education funding gaps persist, while the Trump administration seeks to gut federal resources. Read more 

African rhythms, ideas of sin and the Hammond organ: A brief history of gospel music’s evolution. The enslaved Africans who first arrived in the British colony of Virginia in 1619 after being forcefully removed from their natural environments left much behind, but their rhythms associated with music-making journeyed with them across the Atlantic. Read more 
A Supreme Court Ruling Against Unions Would Hit Black Women Hardest. In an amicus brief, the National Women’s Law Center and dozens of other groups “committed to civil rights and economic opportunity” argue that unions have been a vital tool for shrinking economic inequality for women and people and color. Read more 

Hate crimes targeting Jews hit highest rate in more than 20 years. Hate crimes and incidents of discrimination against U.S. Jews rose a staggering 57 percent last year, producing the second-highest number of such events in 40 years and the highest in 20 years according to an annual report from the Anti-Defamation League released on Tuesday. Read more 

We’re Judging Latino Students All Wrong. Historically, the causes for low levels of educational success for Latino students are often attributed to cultural factors, family dynamics or language. Little attention is ascribed to the enormous diversity within the Latino student population and the negative school experiences associated with that diversity. Read more 

Did white privilege protect Nikolas Cruz? Many red flags were raised about the Parkland shooter. Would a black or Muslim young man have been ignored? Read more 

Arming teachers would put black and Latino kids in danger. How long would it be, if Trump’s plan became reality, before a teacher shoots a black student and then invokes the “I feared for my life” defense we continually hear from police officers who misinterpret young black people’s behavior with deadly consequences? Read more 

Hollywood Diversity Study Finds ‘Mixed Bag’ When It Comes To Representation. The report states that people of color make up nearly 40 percent of the U.S. population, yet they remain underrepresented on every front on all platforms, including lead roles, writers, directors and showrunners. Read more 

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