Welcome to.....EQUALITY NEWSLETTER
A weekly round-up of cutting-edge developments in the global struggle for gender, race, income and LGBTQ equality.
INEQUALITY
Duke Offers New Inequality Studies Program
With income disparities widening worldwide, the issue of wealth inequality is ascending every nation’s political agenda. But the issue is rarely viewed as a topic worthy of formal study in institutions of higher learning, even as access to these institutions continues to be highly stratified.
But change is afoot. Duke University has just created a new path for focused study of inequality in its undergraduate curriculum. The program, which the university will launch officially during the spring 2021 semester, is believed to be just the second of its kind in higher education in the United States.
The new minor is open to all Duke students, but is likely to attract aspiring scholars majoring in history, sociology, political science, religion and economics. Courses will cover topics such as the history of global inequality, the role of entrepreneurship, social conflict and crisis, health disparities and reparations. Students will also be required to study social science research methods in the study of inequality.
Duke is hoping its program will become a catalyst for change in liberal arts programs nationwide. The new curriculum “will help undergraduate students acquire rigorous, analytical understanding of social inequality and integrate that understanding into their liberal arts education, as well as their social and professional engagement at Duke, in the surrounding community and in the wider world beyond,” write William A. Darity Jr., Malachi Hacohen and Adam Hollowell, who jointly developed the new program.
Cornell University has managed its own Center for the Study of Social Inequality for the past two decades. In a typical year over 250 students are enrolled in courses focused on inequality and more than a 100 graduate with a minor in the field. In 2016, the Center received a $10 million grant from the Atlantic Philanthropies which allowed it to recruit additional faculty and postdoctoral students focused exclusively on inequality issues and to expand the Center’s own research agenda on these issues.
Two other schools, Columbia University and Stanford University, house major research centers for the study of wealth and poverty. Stanford receives grants from the MacArthur Foundation, Pew Charitable Trusts and the Elfenworks Foundation. However, these centers do not yet offer a curriculum in inequality for their students. Duke says it’s hoping to attract major foundation support once its new program gets off the ground.
RACE
UK Study: More Diversity Needed in Children’s Books
Getting children to see themselves accurately portrayed in children’s books has never been easy. But according to a recent British survey, children of minority ethnic backgrounds may find it especially difficult, due, in part, to the dearth of main characters reflecting their experience
The survey, the first of its kind ever conducted in the UK, queried over 58,000 British youth ages 9 to 18 on how well they related to characters depicted in children’s books. About two-thirds of the respondents said they identified with those characters but the percentage dropped to 60% among minority youth and to just over half (54%) among Black youth.
Part of the disparity is undoubtedly due to social-economic differences between among White and minority youth readers, researchers at the National Literacy Trust, which sponsored the study, noted. Even when minority youth are depicted as main characters in children’s books, their life circumstances may not be sufficiently reflective of those most familiar to minority readers
Researchers at the National Literacy Trust, which sponsored the study, said the disparities were of great concern. “The struggle to find characters who look similar, or share similar characteristics or circumstances, can impact a child’s engagement with reading and its lifelong benefits,” said the NLT. “Just one book a child really connects with can spark a love of reading which can change their life story and help them to succeed in school and in life.”
The survey also revealed that minority youth are conscious of the differences between the life circumstances and experiences of characters in the books they read.and their own. About 4 in 10 said they would like to see more characters that looked and sounded like they do.
Publishers in the UK are also well aware of the growing demand for diversity in children’s books. Between 2017 and 2019, the number of main characters in children’s books from minority ethnic backgrounds quintupled -- from 1% to 5%.
But the vast majority of those books were not written by writers of color, critics note. In the United States, publishing houses are under growing pressure to contract more diverse writers for their children’s books.
GENDER
Academic Journal Under Pressure to Retract “Flawed” Study of Same-Sex Mentoring
A popular online magazine has come under fire for suggesting that women that rely on female mentors are much less likely to succeed in their careers.
An article published in Nature Communications last month publicized the highly disputed claim based on a study of mentor-mentee pairs in academia over the past 100 years. The study followed the career achievements of the mentees, based on citations to papers they authored during their first 7 years as “senior scientists,” to determine if gender played a role in their degree of professional success.
The researchers found that the more female mentors an early-career scientist enjoyed, the lower the impact of the papers they published when they became senior scientists. By contrast, male and female early-career scientists with male mentors, especially those considered “big shot” scholars in their respective fields, saw their careers surge.
“Our gender-related findings suggest that current diversity policies promoting female-female mentorships, as well-intended as they may be, could hinder the careers of women who remain in academia in unexpected ways,” the paper’s discussion section concluded. “Female scientists, in fact, may benefit from opposite-gender mentorships in terms of their publication potential and impact throughout their post-mentorship careers.”
Dozens of male and female academics from various fields have publicly attacked the study, saying it was based on flawed assumptions and should be retracted. “I find it deeply discouraging that this message—avoid a female mentor or your career will suffer—is being amplified by your journal,” wrote Rockefeller University neurobiologist Leslie Vosshall in an open letter to the editors of Nature Communications.
Critics have suggested that the study vastly over-states the importance of citations as a measure of academic merit and merely reinforces the sexism in the academy that often pays undue attention to male scholars and their work regardless of the actual quality of their scholarship. Men and women both too often cite a male scholar knowing that academic colleagues might take their own work more seriously.
Critics also note that without the support of female mentors, many early-career female scholars might never survive the rigors of the academy to have the opportunity to become full-time scholars and publish their own work.
Nature Communications has yet to respond to the mounting criticism, let alone demands for the study to be withdrawn. The study’s authors have also remained aloof but in a recent statement broadly defended their findings. They noted that given existing disparities, same-sex mentoring by women would not by itself guarantee gender equity in the academy.
“We believe that free inquiry and debate are enginch we think will lead to a thorough and rigorous discussion of the work and its complex implications,” they said.
LGBTQ
2020 Holiday Entertainment to Highlight LGBTQ Themes
What’s the latest sign of mainstream America’s growing acceptance of the LGBTQ community? Hallmark Channel and Lifetime, long known for their schmaltzy, heart-warming stories of love lost and found, have begun airing their first-ever, gay-led, Holiday-themed rom-coms.
The new holiday line-up began with The Christmas House, which aired on Nov. 22. The story depicts a family adapting to the recent marriage of their gay son who wants to adopt a child with his new husband. It’s a familiar homecoming story that includes some non-traditional twists as the two shocked parents and their son struggle to find peace and reconciliation in time to welcome Santa and his reindeer.
A second offering scheduled to air on December 12 is The Christmas Setup, the story ofa gay match-making plan that nearly goes awry when two formerly closeted men that magically rediscover a long-lost high school crush are forced to decide which is more important, their blossoming romance or their burgeoning careers. Like the Christmas House, the storyline and plot complications are decidedly mainstream even if the quirky main characters come packaged in an unfamiliar gift box.
Not to be outdone, streaming platforms like HBO Max, Hulu and Netflix are also taking viewers on an LGBTQ sleigh ride. Get ready for a dash of “queer” content, including a holiday makeover series in the spirit of Queer Eye and a reality dating competition that features a gay man hoping to find love before Christmas Day.
Apparently, this is only the beginning. While the latest offerings only feature gay men (and decidedly handsome, straight-looking ones), they could well open the doors for more holiday-themed projects in 2021 starring transgender people and queer people of color.
“Everyone deserves representation. Christmas is for everyone.” says Brandon Lewis who stars opposite his real-life gay partner Blake Lee, in The Christmas Set Up.
“Love is love,” adds Lee.
DID YOU KNOW?
The Emancipation Proclamation wasn't written by Abraham Lincoln with the intention of abolishing slavery. The proclamation freed enslaved people in designated areas in the South, but it was actually written as part of Lincoln's military strategy, according to History.com. Historian Lonnie Bunch has called the Proclamation “without doubt the most misunderstood document in American history.”
In fact, slavery wasn't formally abolished until the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified.. However, a loophole in the 13th Amendment still exempts criminals from its application. As a result, states can make criminals work without pay, often under inhumane conditions.
In fact, the danger that the 13th amendment might allow some forms of slavery to survive was recognized at the time. Then-Massachusetts Sen. Charles Sumner wanted the amendment to include the phrase, “All persons are equal before the law.” But the Amendment survived in its original form, allowing prisoners to be subjected to de facto slave conditions.
For more on the Emancipation Proclamation as part of Lincoln’s evolving war strategy, see Burrus M. Carnahan, Act of Justice: Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation and the Law of War. Lexington, KY: The University Press of Kentucky.