By RayJaun Stelly, Word in Black Have you noticed the atmosphere is different when you’re at a high school football or basketball game? The aesthetic of hearing a band play in such a way that makes fans get out of their seats to dance, or get players and coaches riled up to go out on […]
Author Archives: Word in Black
Posted inCoronavirus
This device used to diagnose COVID-19 doesn’t always work on Black folks
By Alexa Spencer, Word In Black As the Black community grapples with the ongoing impact of COVID-19, research shows that the faultiness of pulse oximeters on dark-skinned people contributed to poor outcomes during the pandemic. When clipped onto a patient’s finger, pulse oximeters send a beam of light through the skin to calculate oxygen levels. […]
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Black women in tech might be the key to climate justice
By Nadira Jamerson, Word in Black Toxic air. Dirty water. It seems we find out every day about another Black neighborhood being damaged by environmental pollution. The Justice Department recently filed a complaint against the city of Jackson, Miss. — which has been without clean water since August — over its alleged violations of the […]
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Why healthy relationships matter for people with breast cancer
By Alexa Spencer, Word In Black After breastfeeding all four of her children, finding out in 2020 that she had breast cancer was the biggest shock of 32-year-old Tulsa, Oklahoma resident Aisha Patterson’s life. She’d now become a part of the 9% of American women diagnosed with the disease before age 45. And, as a […]
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Claudine Gay appointed as first Black president of Harvard University
By Word In Black Since 2018, Claudine Gay has served as the Edgerley Family Dean of Harvard’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS), the University’s largest and most academically diverse faculty, spanning the biological and physical sciences and engineering, the social sciences, and the humanities and arts. As dean, she has guided efforts to expand […]
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The Pioneering Black LGBT Activist You Probably Don’t Know – But Should
By Dawn Suggs, Word in Black On a bright, crisp morning in October, a crowd of Donald Suggs Jr.’s friends, neighbors, and family from across the country gathered at the southwest corner of East 6th street and Avenue B in New York City’s East Village. In front of a verdant community garden, they witnessed the […]
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Activist: addressing violence in schools requires a comprehensive approach
By RayJaun Stelly, Word in Black Over the last eight years, safety at many schools in the state of Washington has come into question. During that time, there have been 10 shootings during regular school hours or school related activities in K-12 schools across the state. The most recent shooting took place a few weeks […]
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Building a Black male pipeline into public education
By Aziah Siid, Word in Black South Side of Chicago-native Abdul Wright, grew up the oldest of several siblings. His family moved through low-income housing — at one point they found themselves in a homeless shelter. But Wright, who was named 2016 Minnesota Teacher of the Year, is a prime example of how an excellent […]
Posted inCoronavirus
Treating COVID-19 ‘long haulers’ is rife with guesswork
By Blake Farmer, Word In Black Medical equipment is still strewn around the house of Rick Lucas, 62, nearly two years after he came home from the hospital. He picks up a spirometer, a device that measures lung capacity, and takes a deep breath — though not as deep as he’d like. Still, Lucas has […]
Posted inCommentary
Dear Black America: stop accepting equitable and demand equity
By Khalid Rudo Smith, Word in Black For some time, we’ve all held our breath as a tech billionaire, who made questionable moral compass attempts in the past, has purchased Twitter — one of the most important free speech platforms on the planet. Many, particularly in the Black community, have seen far more hate speech, […]
Posted inCommentary
Social media and Black youth: can positive affirmations curb the impact?
By Megan Kirk, Word in Black Social media has changed the landscape of the world and some believe it’s not for the greater good. While social media provides an outlet for the stressors of life, it is also a platform for overstimulation. Adults, teens, and children alike have witnessed the perils of social media and […]
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Black college students lead movement to eliminate bias in tech
By Nadira Johnson, Word in Black From self-driving cars that can’t detect folks with darker skin to keep from running them over, to digital assistants like Siri that have trouble understanding non-White accents, technology is biased and it is hurting Black folks. “A lot of people will look toward technology as the end all, be […]