According to jbhe.com, Professor Anita L. Allen, the Henry R. Silverman Professor of Law and Professor of Philosophy at the University of Pennsylvania, has been selected by The American Philosophical Association as the 2021 winner of the Philip L. Quinn Prize, the highest honor the association has to offer in recognition of service to philosophy and philosophers.
“This award means the world to me,” says Professor Allen. “It reflects the unexpected success of my interdisciplinary commitments as a scholar, teacher, and mentor. It was remarkable to have been the first Black woman APA president in 2018-19 and it’s a special achievement, as a Black woman, to be receiving the highest award for service to the discipline.”
Professor Allen is an internationally renowned expert on philosophical dimensions of privacy and data protection law, ethics, bioethics, legal philosophy, women’s rights, and diversity in higher education. She was vice provost for faculty at the University of Pennsylvania from 2013-2020.Professor Allen is the author of several books on privacy issues including Unpopular Privacy: What Must We Hide (Oxford University Press, 2011) and Why Privacy Isn’t Everything: Feminist Reflections on Personal Accountability (Rowman & Littlefield, 2003).
Professor Allen holds a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of Michigan. She is also a graduate of Harvard Law School.
Dr. Maria Rosario Jackson was confirmed by the U.S Senate on Saturday as Chair of the National Endowment for the Arts. Jackson is the first African American and Mexican American to lead the organization.
Jackson, 56, earned a doctorate in urban planning from the University of California at Los Angeles, and she’s a professor at Arizona State University and a sought-after speaker on how to embed arts, culture and design into community life. Jackson previously worked at the Urban Institute, a think tank in Washington.
President Biden made the historic nomination in October, during National Arts and Humanities Month. At the same time, he nominated Shelly Lowe to be the first Native American to lead the National Endowment for the Humanities. Lowe’s nomination has not been confirmed.
In a statement released by the NEA, Jackson thanked President Biden for the opportunity and said she plans to lead the institution with “dedication to inclusivity, collaboration, and with the recognition that art, culture, and creativity are core to us reaching our full potential as a nation.”
“The NEA plays a crucial role in helping to provide funds and other resources needed for the sector to recover, retool, and reopen,” Jackson also stated. “The agency also has the opportunity and responsibility to deepen and expand its already purposeful efforts to reach communities who have been traditionally underserved.”
The American Psychological Association recently issued a detailed statement owning up to and apologizing for not only for its own role in perpetuating systemic racism in the U.S., but for the role the field of psychology as a whole has also played in systemically denigrating people of color for decades.
“APA is profoundly sorry, accepts responsibility for, and owns the actions and inactions of APA itself, the discipline of psychology, and individual psychologists who stood as leaders for the organization and field,” a portion of the statement reads.
“In addition, recognizing that many existing historical records and narratives have been centered in Whiteness, APA also concluded that it was imperative to capture oral history and the lived experiences of communities of color, so commissioned a series of listening sessions and surveys, which also inform this resolution.
“The narrative that emerged from the listening sessions, surveys, and historical findings put into stark amplification the impact of well-known and lesser-known actions. It leaves us, as APA leaders, with profound regret and deep remorse for the long-term impact of our failures as an association, a discipline, and as individual psychologists.”
The APA’s apology also admits that it should have come sooner, but stated that many in the field have failed to take responsibility, even amid continued discussions.
The resolution comes after the APA last year launched an number of projects intended to delve more deeply into the effects of systemic racism in the field of psychology throughout history, work that was done in preparation for writing an informed apology.
One endeavor was a chronological history of racism in the field of psychology, which has been made available online.
“In offering an apology for these harms, APA acknowledges that recognition and apology only ring true when accompanied by action; by not only bringing awareness of the past into the present but in acting to ensure reconciliation, repair, and renewal,” the resolution reads. “We stand committed to purposeful intervention, and to ensuring that APA, the field of psychology, and individual psychologists are leaders in both benefiting society and improving lives.”
The APA passed two other resolutions: one describes the work the APA and the field of psychology must engage in to dismantle racism in society, while the other announces its commitment to eradicating inequality in health and healthcare.
APA President Jennifer F. Kelly, Ph.D. (photo via apa.org)
APA President Jennifer F. Kelly, PhD, acknowledged in a press release that, despite the steps that have been taken, there is much more work to be done.
“For the first time, APA and American psychology are systematically and intentionally examining, acknowledging and charting a path forward to address their roles in perpetuating racism,” Kelly said.
“These resolutions are just the first steps in a long process of reconciliation and healing. This important work will set the path for us to make real change and guide the association and psychology moving forward.”
Every year, the MacArthur Fellows Program awards its recipients a $625,000 “no strings attached” grant, an investment in a person’s originality, insight, and potential so they may continue to “exercise their own creative instincts for the benefit of human society.”
In 2021, 12 of the 25 “geniuses” that have been selected and were announced this week identify as Black.
Among them are historian Ibram X. Kendi, who founded and directs the Center for Antiracist Research at Boston University as well as wrote the best-selling books How to Be an Anti-Racist(2019) and Stamped From The Beginning(2016), and civil rights activist Desmond Meade who helped strike down restrictive voting laws for formerly incarcerated citizens in Florida.
Artist Jordan Casteel, internet studies and digital media scholar Safiya Noble, biological physicist Ibrahim Cissé, art historian and curator Nicole Fleetwood, film scholar, archivist and curator Jacqueline Stewart, and choreographer and dance entrepreneur Jawole Willa Jo Zollar are among the other 2021 MacArthur Fellows.
A full list (in alphabetical order) of the Black fellows and summaries of their work follow below:
Hanif Abdurraqib is a music critic, essayist, and poet using the lens of popular music to examine the broader culture that produces and consumes it. Many of the essays in Abdurraqib’s first collection, They Can’t Kill Us Until They Kill Us (2017), grew out of reviews and articles he wrote while a journalist; taken together, they form a deeply personal consideration of self-identity and the continued suffering inflicted on Black bodies at the hands of police and others. For example, he writes about attending a Bruce Springsteen concert days after visiting a memorial for Michael Brown in Ferguson, MO, and struggling to reconcile his technical appreciation of the music with the racialized and gendered stories told by the lyrics.In his book Go Ahead in the Rain: Notes to A Tribe Called Quest(2019), Abdurraqib traces the three-decade history of the pioneering hip-hop group and its impact within the larger hip-hop movement. He writes with clear affection for the group, and his assessment of the social and political atmosphere in which it operated includes reflections on how those same forces shaped his childhood and his experience of the music.
Abdurraqib delves more deeply into historical research for his most recent book,A Little Devil in America: Notes in Praise of Black Performance(2021). His thought-provoking observations on key artists and cultural moments in music, film, dance, and comedy—ranging from William Henry Lane, a nineteenth-century minstrel dancer who performed for White audiences in blackface, to Beyoncé’s 2016 Super Bowl appearance and the dance and music television show Soul Train—form a focused analysis of Blackness and a celebration of Black identity.
A Year of Good Black News, written by yours truly, is filled with facts, history, bios, quotes, jokes and trivia in easy-to-read entries delivered on the daily.
The calendar’s official drop date is Tuesday, October 12, and if you pre-order at Workman.com using the code: GOODBLACKNEWS from now until December 31, you will receive 20% off.
A Year of Good Black Newsoffers fun Black facts about inventors, entrepreneurs, musicians, comedians, historians, educators, athletes and entertainers, as well as info shared in fun fact categories like “Lemme Break It Down: Black Lexicon,” “We Got Game: Black Trivia,” “Get The Knowledge: Black Museums and Landmarks” and “You Know We Did That, Right?: Black Inventors.”
Here’s a sneak peek inside:
Although I’m biased because I wrote it, the A Year of Good Black News Page-A-Day 2022 calendar is an awesome way to get inspired every day by the good things Black people do (and have done) for centuries, but haven’t always been widely known or shared.
Well, no more! If this site is for you, this calendar is, too!
It’s also a great gift for family members, friends, teachers, kids and loved ones. Did I mention if you use the code: GOODBLACKNEWS at Workman.com, you get 20% off?
Or, if you prefer, you can also order from the retailers below:
Black Girl 44, the scholarship established by Deesha Dyer, founder & CEO of social impact firm Hook & Fasten and former social secretary for the Obama White House, recently announced its recipients for 2021.
Through contributions from more than 55 Black women who worked in the Obama White House, Dyer established the scholarship as part of an initiative to expose Black women to policy, community engagement, community service, advocacy, global relations and politics.
“When you hear the word politics, people get turned off,” Dyer explained. “So they’re like ‘politics is the Hill and the White House and the president.’ That’s how I thought for years, that I didn’t belong in politics and I don’t belong there. But that’s not necessarily all that it is. There’s a whole realm of politics and public service that we don’t talk about, that really is broad.”
This summer, 10 young women from across the country will participate in the Black Girl 44 scholarship. Due to the pandemic, some scholars may be in a position to experience the public service field remotely. The ultimate goal is that the experience entices the women to pursue careers in these fields.
Through the Black Girl 44 Scholarship, Deesha hopes to redefine the “face of what politics looks like” and reimagine “what it means.”
To see a full list of the scholars and their interests, click here.
MacKenzie Scott, novelist, former teacher and ex-wife of Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos, is a real one.
Scott’s net worth since her divorce settlement from Bezos stands close to $60 billion, and Scott has vowed to give away her wealth in her lifetime -“until the safe is empty” – because she believes “it would be better if disproportionate wealth were not concentrated in a small number of hands.”
This week Scott and her team, lead by herself and her current spouse Dan Jewett, donated $2.7 billion to 286 organizations “including major universities, distinguished arts groups, and nonprofits working to combat racial injustice and domestic violence.”
Scott announced the donations in her Medium blog post “Seeding by Ceding,” where she states “major universities, distinguished arts groups, and nonprofits working to combat racial injustice and domestic violence” are among those receiving grants.
This is the third time Scott has donated along these lines. In July 2020, Scott donated to “116 Organizations Driving Change,” which all fell under nine categories: racial equity, LGBTQ+ equity, gender equity, economic mobility, empathy and bridging divides, functional democracy, public health, global development and climate change.
Following up on the commitment I made last year to give away the majority of my wealth in my lifetime: https://t.co/Ocb8eU5UR1. (Note my Medium account is under my new last name — changed back to middle name I grew up with, after my grandfather Scott.)
Tania León for Music for Stride, Marcia Chatelain for History for Franchise: The Golden Arches in Black America, Mitchell S. Jackson for Feature Writing for Twelve Minutes and a Life, Michael Paul Williams of the Richmond (Va.) Times-Dispatch for Commentary (link to Williams’ winning works here) and Wesley Morris of the New York Times for Criticism (link to Morris’ winning works here).
Pulitzer gave its 2021 Special Citation Award to Darnella Frazier, the young woman who recorded the murder of George Floyd on her phone, a video that spurred protests against police brutality around the world, highlighting the crucial role of citizens in journalists’ quest for truth and justice. Past recipients in the special citation category include investigative journalist Ida B. Wells and Aretha Franklin.
Mitchell S. Jackson’s winning essay from June 2020, Twelve Minutes and a Life, offered a deeply affecting account of the killing of Ahmaud Arbery that combined vivid writing, thorough reporting and personal experience to shed light on systemic racism in America.
A formerly incarcerated person, Jackson is also a social justice advocate who engages in outreach in prisons and youth facilities in the United States and abroad.
Georgetown University professor Marcia Chatelain’s Franchise offers a nuanced account of the complicated role the fast-food industry plays in African-American communities, a portrait of race and capitalism that masterfully illustrates how the fight for civil rights has been intertwined with the fate of Black businesses.
Hall’s Hot Wing King is a deeply felt consideration of Black masculinity and how it is perceived, filtered through the experiences of a loving gay couple and their extended family as they prepare for a culinary competition.
Tania Leon’s Stride premiered at David Geffen Hall, Lincoln Center, New York City on February 13, 2020, a musical journey full of surprise, with powerful brass and rhythmic motifs that incorporate Black music traditions from the US and the Caribbean into a Western orchestral fabric.
To see the complete list of 2021 Pulitzer Prize recipients and more details about them, click here.
[Photo collage: top l-r are Darnella Frazier, Wesley Morris, Tania León; bottom l-r are Katori Hall, Michael Paul Williams, Marcia Chatelain via pulitzer.org]
Producer, actor and entreprenueur Marsai Martin (Black-ish, Little) will executive produce Girls Inc.’s inaugural film festival, which will be held virtually this June 13 starting at 4pmPT/7pmET.
Amber Ruffin, creator and star of Peacock‘s The Amber Ruffin Show, takes on hosting duties for the ticketed festival that will also include appearances by Tracee Ellis Ross, Venus Williams, Hoda Kotb, and Tina Fey.
The ticketed fest will feature live and pre-taped appearances as it offers a series of short films featuring “an inspiring group of girls and young women who represent a new generation of leaders and change,” per Girls Inc. Renée Elise Goldsberry, Darnell Martin, Melinda Hsu Taylor, Busy Philipps and Amber Stevens West directed the projects.
During a VIP reception, Martin and Fey will host a panel to discuss the next generation of female producers. Later, during the program Girls Inc. will hand out a series of honors to Netflix’s Bela Bajaria, Walgreens Boots Alliance’s Rosalind Brewer, ballerina Misty Copeland, Schultz Family Foundation’s Sheri Kersch Schultz, and Moderna COVID-19 vaccine developer and Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health assistant professor Dr. Kizzmekia Corbett. Also booked to perform during the event is Broadway and recording star Shoshana Bean.
Girls Inc. president and CEO Stephanie J. Hull said the inaugural festival is an “exciting opportunity” for girls to share their experiences through film. “The event will feature compelling stories from a group of girls and young women who represent a new generation of leaders and changemakers. Collaborating with Marsai Martin on this endeavor is a dream come true — she leads by example and inspires girls everywhere to believe in themselves and see no limit to their potential.”
Said Martin: “It gives us a chance to spotlight the next generation of talented filmmakers. It’s also important that we give young girls an opportunity to use their voices.”
Tickets to the virtual event and more information can be found here.
San FranciscoMayorLondon N. Breedannounced yesterday the awarding of $3.75 million to serve San Francisco’s Black and African American small business community.
This investment by the Office of Economic and Workforce Development (OEWD) and the San Francisco Human Rights Commission (HRC) is part of the Dream Keeper Initiative, which is reinvesting $120 million from law enforcement into San Francisco’s African American community.
In June 2020, following the killing of George Floyd, Mayor Breed and Supervisor Shamann Walton announced a plan to prioritize the redirection of resources from law enforcement to support the African-American community. Following that plan, HRC led an extensive and collaborative process with the community to identify and prioritize funding needs and developed a report to guide the reinvestment.
The community engagement process included more than 60 community meetings, listening sessions, coalition convenings, and surveys with over 700 respondents. As part of the budget process, Mayor Breed redirected $120 million from law enforcement for investments in the African American community for Fiscal Years 2020-21 and 2021-22.
This funding is aimed at mitigating the economic hardships facing San Francisco’s African American community and will support rebuilding of the community’s economic power in San Francisco.
Professor Allen is the author of several books on privacy issues including Unpopular Privacy: What Must We Hide (Oxford University Press, 2011) and Why Privacy Isn’t Everything: Feminist Reflections on Personal Accountability (Rowman & Littlefield, 2003).
