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‘We have a duty to speak to everyone who makes up our community,’ says Little.
‘Social entrepreneurs are fired up to tackle injustice’
Baby boomers may still run the world, but what can we expect from the next generations? Young western adults today are stereotyped by some as ‘snowflakes’ – a group of entitled, politically correct, selfie-taking, free speech-suppressing and emotionally vulnerable souls with no grip on the realities of the world.
But this misses the new world they are creating. We meet five young people from the UK who are changing society for the better. They say that many in their generation stand for compassion, diversity, social entrepreneurship, true freedom of expression and opportunity for all. No snowflakes, just an avalanche of change.
Taiwo Alonge speaks to students and faculty at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York City during a teach-in he co-organized during his first year of medical school in 2017. The purpose of the teach-in was to advocate against early efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act.
Photo courtesy: Taiwo Alonge
Medical schools, it’s time to get real about becoming anti-racist
Like many American institutions, medicine has had to confront anti-Black racism during this tumultuous year. A senior medical student shares his ideas for how to enact real and lasting change.
Editor’s note: The opinions expressed by the author do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the AAMC or its members.
Imagine being told in a medical school interview that your desire to provide care for Black people and patients from marginalized communities would be a “poor use of your medical education.” When this happened to me five years ago, I thought maybe my interviewer was just testing my commitment to this cause, so I politely doubled down. I spoke further about how institutional racism plagues America and how being able to participate in the transformative work to combat it was a major reason I was drawn to a career in medicine. My interviewer rebutted my conviction with an unamused smile, suggested that we agree to disagree, and abruptly charged onward with his next question.
"I wanted to create a platform for Black women to put their problems, issues, solutions, ideas and struggles on the table and start building together," Caroline Gombe says. Giannella M. Garrett
Meet the organizers behind New York's Black Women's March
"Our message was clear: Vote for women of color. Protect and respect Black and brown women."
Days after the George Floyd protests began in New York City in early June, Caroline Gombe joined the cause.
"The walking and the chanting helped me heal in a way," she said. Before long, Gombe, 40, an event planner by profession, was helping organizers distribute water, hand out masks, dollop hand sanitizer into outstretched palms and wave the front banner.
But she noticed a glaring omission in the larger fight for racial justice and equality. When she asked organizers whether any protests were planned related to Black women's issues, someone suggested that she start one.
The Milwaukee Bucks read a statement on their decision not to play on Wednesday, in Orlando, Fla. Jesse D. Garrabrant / NBAE via Getty Images
Jacob Blake, the NBA's postponed playoffs and an incredible, inevitable moment for pro sports
This historic moment did not spring forth, fully formed, out of a vacuum. Here's how momentum building over the past seven or so years reached an inflection point.
On Wednesday afternoon, the Milwaukee Bucks did not come out of their locker room for Game 5 in their first-round playoff matchup against the Orlando Magic. In a historic decision, the team refused to go out and play. A few days earlier, a white police officer in Kenosha, Wisconsin, a town roughly 40 miles from Milwaukee, shot Jacob Blake, a Black man, seven times in the back at close range as Blake was getting into a car. Blake’s children were in the back seat. His family says he is now paralyzed from the waist down.
Former Arizona Cardinals running back Jason Wright, center, talks to the media on Capitol Hill on Jan. 19, 2011. Alex Brandon / AP file
Meet the NFL's first Black team president, Jason Wright
Washington's newest president faces down the task of turning around the negative perceptions around the team.
Jason Wright has heard the comments, the whispers, the armchair quarterbacking.
He certainly has read enough about the negativity surrounding his new job in the high-profile world of the National Football League.
In any other time, Wright’s appointment as the new president of the Washington Football Team would have been met and celebrated with the usual flair in terms of being groundbreaking and shattering barriers.
But this is 2020, a year complete with heightened awareness over racial inequalities and debate at every turn. It was in this climate that he became the NFL’s first Black president of any franchise earlier this month. Considering that Washington’s team has stayed in the news for things other than any measure of football success, he knows that eyes will be trained on him and the team with even more scrutiny.
Co-authors and PEACE Pack program developers - Flinders University experts Professor Phillip Slee and Dr Grace Skrzypiec - who lead the Flinders Centre for Student Wellbeing and Prevention of Violence (SWAPv).
Credit: Flinders University
Anti-bullying PEACE program packs a punch
Italian high schools have reported success with a South Australian program to help victims of bullying and aggression. The Preparation, Education, Action, Coping, Evaluation (PEACE) antibullying program, developed at Flinders University, has been adapted by several state education systems in Europe, with the intervention used in 22 Italian classes in a 2019-20 study.
More than 550 students questioned about the program found it especially useful in giving victims of severe bullying support with their self-confidence and fewer experiences of aggression from other pupils, University of Bologna and Bolzano researchers say.
Audrianna Williams, left, and Callie Evans. Courtesy Dougherty County School System
'What's poppin'?': Georgia teachers' COVID-19, back-to-school rendition of TikTok hit goes viral
“You better pass my class no floppin'/ Gone log in, every day, every morning,” the teachers rapped in a rendition of viral TikTok hit “Whats Poppin.”
Cheerleading coaches and high school teachers Callie Evans and Audrianna Williams can add “rapper” to their résumés.
The best friend duo went viral after writing, rapping and dancing in their own back-to-school video over the breezy flow of Jack Harlow’s “Whats Poppin” — a viral TikTok hit that peaked at No. 2 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 this summer.
Williams and Evans first started producing end-of-year jams four years ago when Williams started teaching. This year, they wanted to welcome students back to Monroe Comprehensive High School in Albany, Georgia, one of the regions in the U.S. hit hard by the coronavirus.
Amy Sherald / Vanity Fair
Breonna Taylor graces the cover of Vanity Fair's September issue
The late 26-year-old was captured in a portrait by the same artist who painted Michelle Obama for the National Portrait Gallery.
Breonna Taylor, the Black woman who was shot and killed by policein her home and has become a symbol in the protests against systemic racism, will grace the cover of Vanity Fair's September issue.
Taylor, who was 26 when she was fatally shot by officers from the Louisville Metro Police Department in Kentucky, is immortalized on the cover in a stunning painting created by artist Amy Sherald.
"I made this portrait for her family," Sherald said in a behind-the-cover interview with Vanity Fair. "I mean, of course I made it for Vanity Fair, but the whole time I was thinking about her family…. Producing this image keeps Breonna alive forever."
People gathering around the Robert E. Lee statue on Monument Avenue in Richmond, VA, amid continued protests over the death of George Floyd in police custody.
The Black, Millennial Mayor Who Tore Down His City’s White Monuments
Under pressure from protesters in the former capital of the Confederacy, Levar Stoney bucked tradition and preempted state law to remove a street of statues, putting his reputation and reelection prospects on the line.
RICHMOND, Va. — At noon on June 2, more than a thousand people thronged the plaza outside City Hall to hold the young mayor to account.
The night before, protesters had gathered in front of an equestrian statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee on the city’s famous Monument Avenue, demanding that it come down. George Floyd had been killed in Minneapolis a week earlier, and the effects were rippling across the country. Here, in the former capital of the Confederacy, the protesters targeted the nation’s most prominent memorial to the military commander who fought to protect slavery. Police officers had responded with tear gas, claiming the demonstrators were violent, and now the people gathered in front of City Hall blamed the mayor, Levar Marcus Stoney, for an assault they saw as unprovoked.
“Black is Beautiful” billboard in Charlottesville.
“Black is Beautiful” Billboard put up in Charlottesville
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (WVIR) - A new billboard up in the city of Charlottesville has a simple message, “Black is Beautiful”.
The new billboard, that is located near the intersection of High Street and 250, is part of the Black is Beautiful campaign. Virginia Union University professors Ricky and Whitney Parker created and developed the campaign through their company Dream For Purpose.
The Parker’s said they came up with the idea after the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis. They want to start a greater conversation and dialogue within communities.
Kelli Williams running in Washington, D.C. on July 13, 2020. Andrew Harnick/AP
How to not let your anti-racist passion die: Advice from your one Black friend
I was flooded with requests to teach people how to help and how to talk about racism. Then the requests suddenly stopped. Did they stop caring?
Since the death of George Floyd in my home state, my life has been upended. In the beginning, my phone was buzzing off the hook. My friends, my family, colleagues, acquaintances — even the lunch lady and teachers at my kids’ school — were all checking in. What’s more, they were all asking for advice: What can they do to help? How do they talk to their kids about racism? What action can they take today?
The onslaught of questions lasted for about two weeks — then it went radio silent. People stopped reaching out and they seemed to just move on with their lives.
I haven’t moved on. I have been asking myself: How can I keep my family safe; how did I get nominated for the task of giving advice to everyone; why have they now seemed to stop caring?
Do you have an obligation to call out casual racism on social media? The long and short of it is “yes,” experts say.
Yes, You Should Speak Up If Your Family Or Friends Post Something Racist
If Black lives matter to you and you want to be an ally, you have to take a stand against white solidarity, even when it means calling out racially insensitive posts your friends or family share on Facebook.
Nice white people, including those in your family, can still be racist.
That’s a hard lesson many of us are grappling with as we enter into the second month of protests and conversations spurred on by the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police.
Perhaps in the past, during the holidays or at family get-togethers, you listened through gritted teeth as racist jokes or comments were casually tossed around, frozen from action because, hey, racist uncles are gonna racist uncle. (Plus, did you really want to be that family member who ruins what might be the last Christmas for your 97-year-old grandma?)
But in light of the protests, many are doubling down with racially insensitive comments and reaction memes: “MLK protested, these are just thugs looting on the streets.” “All lives matter.” “No white person alive today ever owned a slave. No Black person alive today was ever a slave.” “Candace Owens says we shouldn’t be mourning George Floyd because he was far from the perfect victim.” “What about Black-on-Black crime?”
The teenager's calendar includes articles, documentaries, and ways to take action against social injustice.
A teenager created an anti-racism calendar to make it easier for everyone to become an ally
(CNN)A Vermont teen found a way to creatively help others grow into becoming better allies for the people of color in their communities with an anti-racist calendar.
Sixteen-year-old Tilly Krishna thought that there was a need for a simple resource to help people become more aware of Black history and bias in their own lives and communities.
"Before recently, when people said racism, people think it's just saying the N-word or very explicit things like that, but... it's not just one person making a snide comment, it's systemic things and institutionalized oppression we still have," Krishna told CNN.
Main hospital seen at the UCSF Parnassus campus on Thursday, June 11, 2020, in San Francisco, Calif. Photo: Liz Hafalia / The Chronicle
UCSF group demands ‘anti-racist’ changes
A group of faculty and staff at UCSF are circulating a document calling on leadership to create an “anti-racist” institution.
Among the demands outlined are acknowledging and denouncing acts of racism at the medical school, improved care for marginalized communities and increased diversity in leadership.
“As faculty, staff, and learners part of the UCSF community (including UCSF Health), we recognize our moral imperative to actively dismantle structures of racism that are interwoven into the foundation and daily operations of UCSF,” the group, called Anti-Racist UCSF, wrote in the document. “To build towards this vision requires fundamental changes.”
Teenage sweethearts Michelle and Amit Patel.
How a viral wedding video spawned a support platform for interracial couples
Teenage sweethearts Michelle and Amit Patel launched a support platform for interracial couples after their wedding went viral
Two childhood sweethearts from Croydon have become role-models for interracial couples worldwide after a wedding video, which has attracted over 2m views, helped them launch a popular support platform on social media.
Benson Science Hall on the campus of the Vanderbilt Commodores in Nashville, Tennessee circa 2012. (Photo by Vanderbilt/Collegiate Images via Getty Images) *** Local Caption ***Vanderbilt / Collegiate Images via Getty Images file
Students at Vanderbilt leave fraternities and sororities, alleging racism and insensitivity
"It is seen as morally unacceptable to contribute to the culture these organizations have created," one Vanderbilt student who left her sorority said.
More than two months after George Floyd's death sparked nationwide protests, unexpected consequences have arisen at some leading universities: Students are leaving their fraternities and sororities over what they perceive as a lack of sensitivity on issues of race, sexism, classism, homophobia and other issues of discrimination or inequality.
Brandon Weeks covering up a racist tattoo.
Rock Island Tattoo Artist Covers Up Racist Tattoos For Free
"Turning hate into love so to speak."
ROCK ISLAND, Illinois — A tattoo artist in Rock Island is using his skills to cover up hate speech tattoos, and he's doing it for free. But a change like this goes more than skin deep for one man who's set to get a confederate flag-covered up on his arm.
Transforming an outline into art takes time.
For Brandon Weeks, an expert at O Tool Design Custom Tattoo in Rock Island, on the schedule, this day is a request for change.
L to R: Amber Roberts, Aicha Davis, Malone Mukwende, Kimberly Grayson
Making Racism History
THESE EDUCATORS ARE REWRITING CURRICULUMS TO DISMANTLE SYSTEMIC RACISM.
In the wake of ongoing protests for racial justice, educators all over the world are taking advantage of the unique opportunity they have to shape progress in the classroom with anti-racist curriculums, more inclusive history materials, and systemic change both at micro- and macro-levels.
ELLE.com spoke with a principal, a teacher, a coach, and a student all going beyond surface-level initiatives to dismantle white supremacy and celebrate diversity at school.
Rehan and his brother both worked at the trash company – Photos courtesy of Rehan Staton.
Sanitation Worker is Accepted To Harvard Law After Life Of Struggle
When you think of Harvard Law School, a few things probably come to mind—wealth, prestige, distinguished libraries, maybe sweater vests. You likely wouldn’t conjure a picture of a sanitation worker getting up at 4 a.m. to clean dumpsters and sort trash before school.
But, then, you don’t know Rehan Staton.
Mary Winston Jackson, the first female African American NASA engineer. NASA/ Getty Images
NASA names D.C. headquarters for 'Hidden Figure' Mary W. Jackson, first Black woman engineer at agency
NASA has named its Washington, D.C. headquarters for Mary W. Jackson, The first Black woman engineer at the space agency. Her role and contributions were celebrated in the movie “Hidden Figures.”
