Commentary: African American Scientists and Inventors
by Black Kos Editor, Sephius1
Katherine G. Johnson (born August 26, 1918) is an American physicist, space scientist, and mathematician who contributed to America's aeronautics and space programs with the early application of digital electronic computers at NASA. Known for accuracy in computerized celestial navigation, she calculated the trajectory for Project Mercury and the 1969 Apollo 11 flight to the Moon.
Dissatisfied with teaching, Johnson decided on a career in mathematics. At a family gathering, a relative mentioned that the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), later to become NASA, was looking for new people. They especially wanted African American women for their Guidance and Navigation Department. Johnson was offered a job in 1953, and she immediately accepted.
According to oral history archived by the National Visionary Leadership Project:
"At first she worked in a pool of women performing math calculations. Katherine has referred to the women in the pool as virtual 'computers who wore skirts.' Their main job was to read the data from the black boxes of planes and carry out other precise mathematical tasks. Then one day, Katherine (and a colleague) were temporarily assigned to help the all-male flight research team. Katherine's knowledge of analytic geometry helped make quick allies of male bosses and colleagues to the extent that,'they forgot to return me to the pool.' While the racial and gender barriers were always there, Katherine says she ignored them. Katherine was assertive, asking to be included in editorial meetings (where no women had gone before.) She simply told people she had done the work and that she belonged."
[She is also a Medal of Freedom Recipient. Below is NASA statement:]
“Katherine Johnson once remarked that even though she grew up in the height of segregation, she didn’t think much about it because ‘I didn’t have time for that… don’t have a feeling of inferiority. Never had. I’m as good as anybody, but no better.’
“The truth in fact, is that Katherine is indeed better. She’s one of the greatest minds ever to grace our agency or our country, and because of the trail she blazed, young Americans like my granddaughters can pursue their own dreams without a feeling of inferiority.
“Katherine’s legacy is a big part of the reason that my fellow astronauts and I were able to get to space; it’s also a big part of the reason that today there is space for women and African-Americans in the leadership of our nation, including the White House.
“The entire NASA family is both proud of and grateful to Katherine Johnson, a true American pioneer who helped our space program advance to new heights, while advancing humanity’s march of progress ever forward.”
The following is a statement from NASA Deputy Administrator Dava Newman:
“The reach of Katherine Johnson’s leadership and impact extends from classrooms across America all the way to the moon. Katherine once remarked that while many of her colleagues refrained from asking questions or taking tasks further than merely ‘what they were told to do,’ she chose instead to ask questions because she ‘wanted to know why.’
“For Katherine, finding the ‘why’ meant enrolling in high school at the age of 10; calculating the trajectory of Alan Shepard’s trip to space and the Apollo 11’s mission to the moon; and providing the foundation that will someday allow NASA to send our astronauts to Mars. She literally wrote the textbook on rocket science.
“We are all so fortunate that Katherine insisted on asking questions, and insisted on relentlessly pursing the answers. We are fortunate that when faced with the adversity of racial and gender barriers, she found the courage to say ‘tell them I’m coming.’ We are also fortunate that Katherine has chosen to take a leading role in encouraging young people to pursue education in the STEM disciplines of science, technology, engineering, and math.
“Katherine was born on National Equality Day. Few Americans have embodied the true spirit of equity as profoundly or impacted the cause of human exploration so extensively. At NASA, we are proud to stand on Katherine Johnson’s shoulders.”
From 1953 through 1958, Johnson worked as a "computer", doing analysis for topics such as gust alleviation for aircraft. Originally assigned to the West Area Computers section which was supervised by mathematician Dorothy Vaughan, she was reassigned to the Guidance and Control Division of Langley's Flight Research Division. From 1958 until she retired in 1983, she worked as an aerospace technologist. She later moved to the Spacecraft Controls Branch. She calculated the trajectory for the space flight of Alan Shepard,[3] the first American in space, in 1959......Read More
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
News round up by dopper0189, Black Kos Managing Editor
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
He’s a strong student. He’s a formidable athlete. He’s a supportive friend—just a solid, good soul. Of all the Peanuts characters, Franklin is the most mentally balanced and secure in himself. As Peanuts’ only principal black character, Franklin had a monotonously positive characterization. It revealed cartoonist Charles Schulz’s struggle to diversify the strip in a way that was authentic. He succeeded in some ways, but he fell short in others.
The year of Franklin’s debut, 1968, was a fraught time in American history. The North Vietnamese and Viet Cong launched the Tet Offensive on January 30. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated on April 4, and riots swept the nation in the immediate aftermath.
On April 15, Los Angeles schoolteacher Harriet Glickman wrote a letter to Schulz, reflecting on what she could do to stem the hate. She suggested that Schulz should add a black character to the Peanuts roster, offering that it “could happen with a minimum of impact.” She knew it could cause “shock waves” from Schulz’s readers, but felt Schulz had “a stature and reputation which can withstand a great deal.” Most tellingly, she hoped that “the result will be more than one black child….Let them be as adorable as the others...but please...allow them a Lucy!”
In her hope for “a Lucy,” Glickman did not wish for a black child in the background. She wanted Schulz to create a black character who could be considered an equal part of the group.
Schulz wrote back, expressing his desire to accommodate her request, but also citing his concerns. He felt that he and other white cartoonists were “afraid that it would look like we are patronizing” black readers, who might view a new character as a perfunctory nod to diversity.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Consider the opioid epidemic, which contributed to the record 52,000 drug overdose deaths reported in 2015. Because the crisis has disproportionately affected white Americans, white lawmakers — who make up a disproportionate amount of all levels of government — are more likely to come into contact with people afflicted by the opioid epidemic than, say, the disproportionately black drug users who suffered during the crack cocaine epidemic of the 1980s and ’90s. And that means a lawmaker is perhaps more likely to have the kind of interaction that Christie, Trump, Bush, and Fiorina described — one that might lead them to support more compassionate drug policies — in the current crisis than the ones of old.
Is it any wonder, then, that the crack epidemic led to a “tough on crime” crackdown focused on harsher prison sentences and police tactics, while the current opioid crisis has led more to calls for legislation, including a measure Congress passed last year, that boosted spending on drug treatment to get people with substance use disorders help?
Ithaca, New York, Mayor Svante Myrick, who’s black, told me this has led to resentment in much of the black community in his predominantly white town. “It’s very real,” he acknowledged. The typical response from his black constituents, he said, goes something like this: “Oh, when it was happening in my neighborhood it was ‘lock ’em up.’ Now that it’s happening in the [largely white, wealthy] Heights, the answer is to use my tax dollars to fund treatment centers. Well, my son could have used a treatment center in 1989, and he didn’t get one.”
Still, Myrick added, “I’m as angry about this as anybody. But just because these are now white kids dying doesn’t mean we shouldn’t care, because these are still kids dying.”
Stories like Christie’s, Trump’s, Fiorina’s, and Bush’s show one of the many ways we got to this point, where a policy response can vary largely based on a victim’s race. They demonstrate that it’s not just personal racism that can lead to racially disparate policies, but structural factors like segregation as well.
Rachel Godsil, co-founder and director of research at the Perception Institute, said that the empirical literature shows this to be the case: People are more likely to associate with and relate to people in their own racial group. And they’re more likely to run into people in their own racial group in their day-to-day lives, over time building a personal connection with them. As a result, they’re more likely to feel compassion and empathy for people in their own group and community who stumble and suffer — and demand policy solutions to ease that suffering.
“Not seeing people in casual contexts — like in your neighborhood and your place of worship and your school — it just completely changes the nature of the dynamic that you experience,” Godsil said. “And people [of other races] seem very othered.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
As the proudly mixed-race country grapples with its legacy of slavery, affirmative-action race tribunals are measuring skull shape and nose width to determine who counts as disadvantaged. Foreign Policy: Brazil’s New Problem With Blackness
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Late last year Fernando received news he had dreaded for months: he and 23 of his classmates had been kicked out of college. The expulsion became national news in Brazil. Fernando and his classmates may not have been publicly named (“Fernando,” in fact, is a pseudonym), but they were roundly vilified as a group. The headline run by weekly magazine CartaCapital — “White Students Expelled from University for Defrauding Affirmative Action System” — makes it clear why.
But the headline clashes with how Fernando sees himself. He identifies as pardo, or brown: a mixed-race person with black ancestry. His family has struggled with discrimination ever since his white grandfather married his black grandmother, he told me. “My grandfather was accused of soiling the family blood,” he said, and was subsequently cut out of an inheritance. So when he applied to a prestigious medical program at the Federal University of Pelotas, in the southern tip of Brazil, he took advantage of recent legislation that set aside places for black, brown, and indigenous students across the country’s public institutions.
While affirmative action policies were introduced to U.S. universities in the 1970s, Brazil didn’t begin experimenting with the concept until 2001, in part because affirmative action collided head-on with a defining feature of Brazilian identity. For much of the twentieth century, intellectual and political leaders promoted the idea that Brazil was a “racial democracy,” whose history favorably contrasted with the state-enforced segregation and violence of Jim Crow America and apartheid South Africa. “Racial democracy,” a term popularized by anthropologists in the 1940s, has long been a source of pride among Brazilians.
As the country’s black activist groups have argued for decades, it is also a myth. Brazil’s horrific history of slavery — 5.5 million Africans were forcibly transported to Brazil, in comparison with the just under 500,000 brought to America — and its present-day legacy demanded legal recognition, they said. And almost two decades ago, these activists started to get their way in the form of race-based quotas at universities.
For Brazil’s black activists, however, the breach of the country’s unofficial color-blindness has also been accompanied by suspicion over race fraud: people taking advantage of affirmative action policies never meant for them in the first place.
“These spots are for people who are phenotypically black,” Mailson Santiago, a history major at the Federal University of Pelotas and a member of the student activist group Setorial Negro, told me. “It’s not for people with black grandmothers.”
But in a country as uniquely diverse as Brazil — where 43 percent of citizens identify as mixed-race, and 30 percent of those who think of themselves as white have black ancestors — it’s not immediately clear where the line between races should be drawn, nor who should get to draw it, and using what criteria. These questions have now engulfed college campuses, the public sector, and the courts.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The International Criminal Court was set up to deal with the worst criminals in the world. But as African countries threaten to leave and the US withdraws funding, how can it wield justice more effectively? The Guardian: Is the world's highest court fit for purpose?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Walking barefoot, Dominic Ongwen took a westerly course across the tropical savanna in the Central African Republic where it meets the border of Sudan. The Ugandan rebel leader had been on the run for days from Joseph Kony, the notoriously elusive chief of Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA). After 30 years as a rebel, from child soldier to commander, Ongwen had fallen out of favour with Kony and had three options: face likely execution, escape, or die trying.
Ongwen met a group of cattle herders, who led him to a group of former rebels. A succession of phone calls eventually brought news of his defection to US and Ugandan soldiers in Obo, 500km south, who had been hunting him for six years. US special forces flew Ongwen to their base by helicopter. It was January 2015.
Ongwen agreed to record a message to lure other LRA commanders out of the bush. “I am now a free man despite the ICC [International Criminal Court] case against me,” Ongwen said on the recording, addressing his old comrades. He sounded confident, boastful even, mentioning the quality of the women and the luxury of his quarters. “Even the president has agreed to forgive me,” he said.
It could have been a textbook example of the US and Ugandan strategy to encourage LRA defection, and a catalyst to dismantle the remains of the group (who reportedly now number less than 100, down from up to 4,000 fighters in 1997). Except Ongwen wasn’t going to get amnesty. Under pressure from the Obama government to show results, the US transferred him swiftly to the ICC in The Hague.
Human rights defenders in Uganda felt Ongwen was deceived, which undermined a basic tenet of criminal law – truth – and prompted criticism of the ICC from many people in northern Uganda who support granting amnesty to former rebels who were abducted as children.
As a result, Ongwen’s trial has swollen from a simple trial to a do-or-die chance to prove the validity – or not – of the ICC at a time when it is undergoing an existential crisis.
The ICC was founded with the idealistic goal of trying the perpetrators of the world’s worst atrocities – genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity. The dream was to offer victims justice and to act as a deterrent. After the post- second world war criminal trials in Nuremberg and Tokyo, the UN security council established two temporary courts in response to atrocities committed in Rwanda and former Yugoslavia during the 1990s. Seeing the efficacy of international justice, the world sought to establish a permanent court from which no leader, rebel group, junta or army could hide. In 1998, leaders met in Rome and 120 of them voted for, and later ratified, the Rome Statute, creating the ICC.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
In Charlotte and other Southern cities, poor children have the lowest odds of making it to the top income bracket of kids anywhere in the country. Why? The Atlantic: Why It’s So Hard to Get Ahead in the South
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Shamelle Jackson moved here from Philadelphia, hoping to find work opportunities and better schools for her four children, who range in age from two to 14. Instead, she found a city with expensive housing, few good jobs, and schools that can vary dramatically in quality. “I’ve never struggled as hard as I do here in Charlotte,” Jackson, 34, told me.
Jackson isn’t alone. Data suggests that Charlotte is a dead-end for people trying to escape poverty. That’s especially startling because the city is a leader in economic development in the South. Bank of America is headquartered here, and over the last two decades the city has become a hub for the financial services industry. In recent years, Charlotte and the surrounding area, Mecklenburg County, have ranked among the fastest-growing regions of the country. “Charlotte is a place of economic wonder in some ways, but it’s also a city that faces very stark disparities, and that increasingly includes worrisome pockets of real deprivation,” said Gene Nichol, a professor at the UNC School of Law who has completed an extensive report on local poverty. Some of these disparities bubbled to the surface in September, when protests erupted after a black man, Keith Lamont Scott, was shot and killed by police.
Charlotte ranked dead last in an analysis of economic mobility in America’s 50 largest cities by the Equality of Opportunity Project, a team of researchers out of Harvard, Stanford and Berkeley led by Stanford’s Raj Chetty. Children born into the bottom 20 percent of the income distribution in Charlotte had just a 4.4 percent chance of making it to the top 20 percent of the income distribution. That’s compared to a 12.9 percent chance for children in San Jose, California, and 10.8 percent change for children in Salt Lake City. These statistics are troubling because mobility is essentially just a formal term for the American Dream—the ability to find a good job, provide for children, and do better than one’s parents did. Rather than making it into the middle class in Charlotte, poor children, who are majority black and Latino, are very likely to stay poor.
In some ways, Charlotte is indicative of a more widespread problem in the region. Map out the data from the Equality of Opportunity Project and you’ll find that much of the South has low mobility rates. The chance of a child moving from the bottom to top quartile in Atlanta is 4.5 percent, the chance of moving up in Raleigh is 5 percent, and the chance of moving up in New Orleans is 5.1 percent. These are among the lowest odds of advancement in the country. “The South really does struggle,” said Erin Currier, who directed the financial security and mobility project at the Pew Charitable Trusts. Pew found that mobility lags in states including Louisiana, South Carolina, Alabama, and North Carolina.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
WELCOME TO THE FRIDAY’S PORCH