What Is Weathering? Is It An Argument For Reparations In Realtime?

The January 2019 edition of National Geographic states that “weathering” is “a concept developed by University of Michigan professor of public health Arline Geronimus that suggests the health of African Americans deteriorates earlier than that of whites because of the cumulative effects of racism and bias.”

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Does Privacy Even Exist?: The Gap In America’s Privacy Law

Four Cellphone CompaniesAccording to a ZDNet article entitled: “U.S. Cell Carriers Are Selling Access To Your Real-Time Phone Location Data,” written by Zack Whittaker, America’s top cellphone providers (Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile, and Sprint) are selling their customers’ location data to privately-owned companies. These private companies have reportedly, in turn, provided the acquired data to the government.

The aforementioned article states: “Kevin Bankston, director of New America’s Open Technology Institute, explained that the Electronic Communications Privacy Act only restricts telecom companies from disclosing data to the government. It doesn’t restrict disclosure to other companies, who then disclose that same data to the government.

He called that loophole ‘one of the biggest gaps in U.S. privacy law.’”

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Plantation Food: Brazil vs. America

Brazilian FeijoadaIn her autobiography, Beverly Johnson discusses the cuisine she was introduced to when she was on a photo shoot in Brazil: “I always enjoyed tasting the local cuisine of every country I visited during my career…Brazil’s national dish is feijoada, a tasty stew that differs throughout the country, but where I was it comprised beans, fresh pork or beef, cabbage, kale, potatoes, okra, carrots, and pumpkin in one large yummy meal. Feijoada had been served to Brazilian slaves, because it contained the unwanted part of the pig (such as the feet, nose, ears) and cheap black beans. This made me think of African-American slaves who were fed with the leftovers of whatever was served in the main house on the plantation.”

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South African Apartheid vs. American Racism (Throwback Post: 2/28/08)

Wikipedia defines apartheid as: “A system of legalized racial segregation enforced by the National Party (NP) South African government between 1948 and 1994. It arose from a longer history of settler rule and Dutch and British colonialism.” America’s social ideals have also not been exempt from the effects of colonialism. Hence, the prevalence of racism throughout American History. Although we can optimistically hope that the irrationality of racial hatred has been diagnosed and is being cured, recent shocking events on the continents of Africa and America sadly shows otherwise.

Yesterday, a video which was recorded at the University of Free State in South Africa surfaced. In this disturbing video, several White students from the university allegedly forced five Black elderly university employees to perform humiliating acts; this included forcing the Black elders to eat food that was urinated on. The supposed motivation for this criminal abuse was a protest by the White students to oppose the university’s integrating Black and White students in residential dorms.

In response to the horrendous video, Black students and university employees have handed over a list of demands to university administrators. According to the BBC website: “The university says it has begun procedures to suspend the students allegedly implicated in the video, and says the alleged victims have received psychological support.” This is a weak response to such an inhumane act.

On the homefront, the Megan Williams case is slowly winding its way through the American court system. This case involves a 20 year old African American woman who was kidnapped in the Summer of 2007, tortured, raped, and forced to eat animal feces- while being called racial slurs. While sexual abuse victims usually exercise their right to remain anonymous, Ms. Williams and her family decided to reveal her identity in order to put a human face on this unconscionable crime. However, the lack of media attention involving this situation begs to ask where the concern is on the journalistic front. There is also a question of fairness in the arena of justice. Megan Williams’ family feels slighted that the prosecutor is not demanding harsher penalties.We’ll see what happens as the repercussions from these two heinous events evolve. The manner in which these two events are resolved will be telling about how far we have advanced when it comes to racial ethics.

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