Commentary: African American Scientists and Inventors
by Black Kos Editor, Sephius1
William Cardozo born in Washington, D.C. on April 6, 1905, came from a prominent family of educators and politicians; his father, Francis Cardozo, Jr., was a high school principal and his grandfather, Francis Cardozo, was a prominent D.C. area politician and educator. Cardozo attended the public schools of the District of Columbia and then went to Hampton Institute in Virginia.
(con't.)
He later earned his A.B. (1929) and M.D. (1933) degrees at Ohio State University. Upon his graduation in 1935, Cardozo was awarded a two-year fellowship in pediatrics at Children's Memorial Hospital and Provident Hospital in Chicago. This was the beginning of his research on sickle cell anemia. With the aid of a grant from Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, he published a pioneering study "Immunologic Studies in Sickle Cell Anemia" in the Archives of Internal Medicine.
Cardozo’s findings in sickle cell anemia concluded that the disease was largely familial and inherited. In addition, he discovered that it was found almost exclusively among people of African descent. Further research concluded that not all people having sickle cells were anemic, that sickle cell disease wasn’t always fatal and that no successful treatment had been found. His findings are still valid to this day.
In 1937 Cardozo started his private practice in Washington, D.C. In the same year he was appointed part-time instructor in pediatrics at Howard University College of Medicine and Freedmen's Hospital. He would later be promoted to clinical assistant professor and clinical associate professor of pediatrics.....Read More
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
News by dopper0189, Black Kos Managing Editor
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
No, it’s not the brutal, hate-twisted racism of the old days. Today’s Republicans Jim Crow revival — the large-scale disenfranchisement of minority voters — is pragmatic. Race-Talk: Pragmatic Racism.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
No, it’s not the brutal, hate-twisted racism of the old days. Today’s Republicans are capable of adoring select right-wing African-Americans. The Jim Crow revival they’re pushing — the large-scale disenfranchisement of primarily minority voters — is pragmatic.
They’re outnumbered. They couldn’t win a fair national election. What a dilemma for such a righteous political organization. Winning — securing power, implementing their agenda — is the whole point, and that means they have no choice but to put the big squeeze on Democrat-leaning voting blocs. And the most obvious of those blocs are racial and ethnic.
Democracy is as vulnerable to abuse when it’s several centuries old as when it’s brand new. And though the United States proudly waves its flag as the world’s oldest democracy, at the beginning that concept was seriously limited — to white, male property owners. And as enfranchisement spread, a tradition of virulent vote suppression spread right along with it. Democracy is never far from its own demise.
As Harvey Wasserman, co-author along with Bob Fitrakis of the recently released Will The GOP Steal America’s 2012 Election?, noted in a recent interview at Op-Ed News:
Historians tend to classify the racist violence of the Ku Klux Klan as a ‘boys-will-be-good-ol’-boys’ product of random bigotry. But in fact the Klan’s major function was as a well-oiled voter suppression machine, the terrorist wing of the Southern Democratic Party.
If blacks could vote, as was the case for the ten years of Reconstruction, the center of political power would not be with the old guard. The point of Jim Crow was to re-secure repressive white political power in the Old South. And as many analysts are now pointing out, that need is very much still alive today, represented this time around by the Republicans.
“There is no question in my mind anymore that the Republican Party has reconfigured itself as a Confederate party,” Charles P. Pierce writes this week at Esquire‘s Politics Blog.
And Jonathan Alter, writing last June for Bloomberg, talked about what he called the GOP’s Voter Suppression Project.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Where are all the black ballet dancers? Not in the world's elite companies. Guardian: Where are the black ballet dancers?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Classical ballet celebrates pale princesses and fair swans. It's a world where dancers cake their limbs in white powder, and where performers with darker skin don't always feel welcome.
Junor Souza is one of only two black dancers (out of 64) at English National Ballet, both of them male. "Most of the time ballet dancers are white," he says. "It's disappointing, and it makes me sad. Usually, when I go to see ballet, there is no one dark on stage." Nor is this dramatic imbalance limited to the UK: the picture is poor worldwide. Russia's elite Bolshoi Ballet has no black dancers in its company of 218; there are very few black dancers at any of the major US and British companies. The Royal Ballet has four – three men and one woman – in a company of 96. At the Central School of Ballet, which trains many future ballet stars, there are four black dancers in a student body of 110.
Carlos Acosta, principal guest artist for the Royal Ballet and one of the world's most successful black dancers, agrees that the statistics are discouraging. "The percentage of classical black ballet dancers around the world is sadly minimal, which is quite embarrassing," he says. "In most companies, when a talented black dancer is chosen as a member, they don't know how to cast them properly. Still there is this mentality, especially with directors, that a black ballerina in the middle of a flock of white swans would somehow alter the harmony."
Forget the pink tights … Cira Robinson and Jazmon Voss perform for Ballet Black. Photograph: Alastair Muir/Rex
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The NAACP and activists fight for the release of a black Georgia man who shot a man on his lawn. The Root: Can a Black Man Defend Himself at Home?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Despite Kennesaw, Ga., police detectives declaring in 2005 that John McNeil, 46, acted in self-defense, Cobb County District Attorney Pat Head decided a year later to try the case. McNeil was sentenced in November 2006.
"If this can happen to John McNeil, then it can happen to [Georgia NAACP President] Ed DuBose, it can happen to William Barber, it can happen to Ben Jealous. It can happen to any black man standing out here or standing anywhere in America, no matter how much good you've done or how right you are," the Rev. William Barber, president of the North Carolina NAACP, told the crowd in front of the Georgia State Capitol. Barber, a longtime friend of McNeil's, along with Jealous and other NAACP members, went to see him in prison before the press conference.
The "it" relates to events that took place Dec. 6, 2005, when McNeil arrived home after his teenage son called him about an unfamiliar man lurking about their property. According to testimony, the man, Brian Epp, a hired contractor with whom McNeil had past difficulties, had already pulled a knife on the teenager.
Epp refused to leave, and McNeil, who had called 911, fired a warning shot into the ground. Epp then charged toward McNeil while reaching into his pocket. McNeil fatally shot him in the head at close range. Court documents state that a pocketknife was clipped inside Epp's pants pocket. McNeil's neighbors who witnessed the incident backed his story.
Kennesaw police detectives investigated the case, decided that McNeil had acted in self-defense and didn't charge him. McNeil's self-defense claim is supported by Georgia's "castle doctrine" law, which allows an individual to use deadly force to protect his or her home, or anyone inside it, from a violent trespasser.
McNeil and his family thought the worst was over, until Pat Head decided nearly a year later to pursue prosecution. Although the Kennesaw Police Department refused to arrest McNeil, the Cobb County Sheriff's Office did, under Head's advisement, according to NAACP members.
During the trial, McNeil's neighbors, the two senior detectives investigating the case and a couple who said that they felt threatened by Epp when they hired him to do work all testified in McNeil's defense. All of those individuals are white.
McNeil courtesy of the NAACP
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This is a discussion and a debate we need to start having. ColorLines: Are For-Profit Colleges the Answer for Black Students?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Not all college educations are created equal. And as long as a university’s prestige has been associated with its exclusivity, the rungs of higher education have been racially stratified. Nowhere is this reality more clear than today, when the for-profit college giant the University of Phoenix, is graduating the most college graduates of color in the nation.
The fact, stunning as it is, reflects the changing landscape of higher education, where black, Latino and Native American students may be going to college in ever higher numbers, but are increasingly enrolling in an industry that’s come under harsh scrutiny for its business practices.
The for-profit schools of yore were once the sole domain of aspiring hairdressers and truck drivers and typists, people looking primarily for vocational training. Today, for-profit schools have muscled their way into the higher education landscape to serve a great many more education needs at a staggering rate. Folks looking to pick up a college degree, a master’s, even a doctorate, can do so from for-profit colleges.
The University of Phoenix opened its doors just under 50 years ago in 1976, but today it’s the largest institution of higher education in the nation. And despite federal regulations which have dampened enrollment numbers in the last year, it remains the top producer of African-American and combined student of color baccalaureates in the nation. In the 2010-2011 school year 5,393 students of color received college degrees from just the online division of the University of Phoenix, and 3,124 of those went to black students, according to a report by Victor Borden for “Diverse: Issues in Higher Education.”
The second top producer of black baccalaureates for the 2010-2011 year was a for-profit university too—Ashford University graduated 2,124 African Americans in the same year, an increase of 84 percent since just the previous year. Those sorts of staggering gains for students of color in the for-profit industry have become the new normal in the world of higher education. In fact, when it comes to the four-year for-profit industry, black students have formed the backbone of the industry’s growth. Between just 2004 and 2010, black enrollment in four-year for-profit schools jumped a whopping 264 percent, at a rate which dwarfs black students’ 24 percent growth in enrollment in four-year public colleges during the same time period.
It wasn’t always this way. The for-profit industry’s growth has been made possible because of the confluence of several factors. With the changing economy a college degree today is the social and practical equivalent of a high school degree a couple decades ago; it’s all but a prerequisite for joining and staying in the middle class. (And the labor market for college graduates is not exactly flourishing today, either.) The low-income students, veterans, moms and students of color who are the bulk of the for-profit industry’s target market are not immune to those sorts of cultural and economic pressures. Quite the opposite.
And for black people in particular who are looking to enter or move up in the workforce, said Tressie McMillan Cottom, a PhD student in Emory University’s sociology department, “having a credential tends to mean more than it means for other people.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The authorities in Uganda have charged a British theatre producer, David Cecil, for staging a play about the condition of gay people in the country. BBC: Uganda charges British producer David Cecil over gay play.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
He appeared in court accused of "disobeying lawful orders", because the play The River and the Mountain was performed without authorisation.
Mr Cecil was denied bail. He faces two years in jail if convicted.
The Ugandan parliament is considering legislation aimed at increasing penalties for homosexual acts.
The play - the main character of which is a gay businessman killed by his own employees - was performed at two theatres in the Ugandan capital, Kampala, last month.
Homosexual acts are illegal in Uganda and gay people have faced physical attacks and social rejection.
An anti-gay bill imposing life sentences on those convicted of homosexual acts was re-tabled in parliament earlier this year.
David Cecil face a two-year jail sentence if convicted
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Welcome to the Front Porch
If you are new, introduce yourself, grab a chair, a bite to eat and rap with us for a while.