Commentary: African American Scientists and Inventors
by Black Kos Editor, Sephius1
David Harold Blackwell (April 24, 1919 – July 8, 2010) was Professor Emeritus of Statistics at the University of California, Berkeley, and is one of the eponyms of the Rao–Blackwell theorem. Born in Centralia, Illinois, he was the first African American inducted into the National Academy of Sciences, and the first black tenured faculty member at UC Berkeley.
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David Blackwell is, to mathematicians, the most famous, perhaps greatest, African Amercan Mathematician. He earned his Bachelor of Arts in Mathematics in 1938, Master of Arts in Mathematics in 1939, and his Ph.D. in 1941 (at the age of 22), all from the University of Illinois. He is the seventh African American to receive a Ph.D. in Mathematics. He is the first and only African American to be any one of: a member of the National Academy of Sciences, a President of the American Statistical Society, and a Vice President of the America Mathematics Society.
David Harold Blackwell grew up in Centralia, Illinois, a town of 12,000 on the "Mason-Dixson Line." He was raised in a family which expected and supported working hard and a little faster than most folk. Blackwell says he was fortunate to attend a mixed school rather than the all black school. While he was growing up, "Southern Illinois was probably fairly racist. But I was not even aware of these problems -- I had no sense of being discriminated against." As a schoolboy, Blackwell did not care for algebra and trigonometry ("I could do it and I could see that it was useful, but it wasn't really exciting.") Geometry turned him on. "The most interesting thing I remember from calculus was Newton's method for solving equations. That was the only thing in calculus I really liked. The rest of it looked like stuff that was useful for engineers in finding moments of inertia and volumes and such." In his junior year he took an elementary analysis course and really fell in love with mathematics. "That's the first time I knew that serious mathematics was for me. It became clear that it was not simply a few things that I liked. The whole subject was just beautiful." Four years later he had a Ph.D.
Dr. Blackwell was appointed a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study from 1941 for a year. At that time, members of the Institute were automatically officially made visting fellows of Princeton University, and thus Blackwell was listed in its bulletin as such. This caused considerable ruckus as there had never been a black student, much less faculty fellow, at the University [most notably it had rejected Paul Robeson soley on race]. The president of Princeton wrote the director of the Institute that the Institute was abusing the University's hospitality by admitting a black.
At the Institute he met the great von Neumann who asked Blackwell about his thesis. Blackwell, "He [von Neumann] listened for ten minutes and he started telling me about my thesis." Colleagues in Princeton wished to extend Blackwell's appointment at the institute. However, the president of Princeton organized a great protestation.
When it was time to leave the institute, Blackwell knew no white schools would hire him, and he applied to all 105 Black schools in the country. After instructorships at Southern University and Clark College, Dr. Blackwell joined the faculty of Howard University from 1944 as an instructor.. At the time, Howard University "was the ambition of every black scholar." In three years, Blackwell had risen to the rank of Full Professor and Chairman.....Read More
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News by dopper0189, Black Kos Managing Editor
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Can a white author write black character? Slate: Michael Chabon says yes. And he’s right. This shouldn’t be controversial.
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When a man routinely hailed as one of America’s “greatest living writers” publishes a new novel, one hardly expects it to draw reviews posing questions along the lines of “Can he do it? Can he actually pull it off?” Because when you’re Michael Chabon, Pulitzer Prize winner, the act of writing a decent novel ought to be taken as something of a given. But Chabon’s newest book, Telegraph Avenue, out last week, is set against the backdrop of race, and its author undertakes the task of inhabiting and giving life to characters whose skin color is different from his own. The book is a sprawling narrative about the intertwined lives of Archy Stallings and Nat Jaffe, two proprietors, one black and one white, and a used vinyl store trying to survive on the shifting, gentrifying frontier between hippie-dippy Berkeley and its neighbor, the historically black enclave of Oakland. Or, as Chabon neatly puts it, “the ragged fault line where the urban plates of Berkeley and Oakland subducted.”
For all his skills as a novelist, Chabon’s whiteness must be reckoned as a disability when it comes to writing about race, an asterisk next to his name. Either he’s crazy for wanting to “go there,” or, like a toddler learning how to walk, he is to be applauded just for getting in a few good steps before the inevitable stumble. In an otherwise positive review, Michiko Kakutani of the New York Times notes that Chabon is trying too hard “to sound like he was from the ’hood.” Slate’s own Troy Patterson gently chides Chabon for simplifying race, not because of his whiteness per se, but because of his naive and overly idealistic Berkeley-ness, which really just calling out one particular brand of whiteness.
Both of those comments were from critics of color. As for Chabon’s white reviewers, they seem nervous about being white people reviewing a book about race, and channel that anxiety into being nervous on Chabon’s behalf. In questioning whether or not a white author is capable of writing a book about race, Los Angeles Times reviewer Carolyn Kellogg actually lets her racial insecurity undercut her own review, qualifying her criticism to say that, “As a white book reviewer, I don’t feel qualified to say he gets it documentarily right …” (So why is she reviewing the book?) Todd VanDerWerff of the Onion’s AV Club goes even further, telling us that, because of the book’s racial element, it “might be Chabon’s riskiest novel yet, as he remains very much a white male author.” Riskiest novel yet? Chabon’s last novel, The Yiddish Policeman’s Union, wrestled with an alternate “what if” history of the Holocaust. This one’s about two guys who own a record store.
“White person tackles race” shouldn’t have to be such a big deal. From Herman Melville to Harriet Beecher Stowe to Mark Twain to William Faulkner to Harper Lee, the grand American narrative of race was always tackled by white writers, writers who created and inhabited black characters as they would any other. Together with black authors who would finally be given a platform in the 20th Century, like Ralph Ellison and Zora Neale Hurston and Richard Wright, white novelists addressed the issue head on, thoughtfully and meaningfully, thereby leading to a deeper and richer understanding of the country we live in.
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New York Fashion Week "progress" report. The Grio: Black models still underrepresented on the catwalks.
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New York Fashion Week ended Thursday with black models of every shade prancing down the catwalk. At first glance, it’s encouraging and exciting to see the likes of Joan Smalls, Arlenis Sosa, Cora Emmanuel, and Jourdan Dunn strut alongside newer faces like Jasmine Tookes, Grace Mahary, and Maria Borges; but the truth is, black models are still not represented evenly at New York Fashion Week.
Outside of a small pantheon of designers that consistently cast black models to represent their work including Tracy Reese, Stephen Burrows, Carolina Herrera, Rachel Roy, and Diane von Furstenberg, black models are still tokens on most runways, or shut out altogether.
Of the roughly 168 designers that presented their Spring 2013 collections in New York, 40 — that’s nearly 25 percent — did not use a single black model. Though most designers cast at least one to walk in their show, pose in their presentation, or feature in the look book they sent press, less than 25 designers hired three or more models of African descent.
The story was similar last spring. Out of 170 Spring 2012 fashion shows, again 40 were missing a black face. If anything, last year was a better season for black models as 47 designers used more than two black models in their shows — more than double the number of designers that did so this season.
Disturbingly, the spring seasons are typically more favorable to black models. As designers seek to show off their warm-weather lines against darker skin tones, they tend to hire black models more liberally. In the Fall 2012 collections, designers previewed just six months ago, 56 (out of 180) did not feature one black model. Again, only 24 designers went beyond the one token model to cast three or more blacks.
Arlenis Sosa, Jourdan Dunn and Joan Smalls. (Photos: Getty Images)
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Shenequa Golding contemplates what's to blame for her cluelessness about an event focused on the African-American experience. Elev8: Is Black Culture Having an Identity Crisis?
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The 43rd Annual African-American Day Parade was held this past Sunday in Harlem and I along with several of my well educated, culturally savvy African-American co-workers had no idea there was a parade in honor of African-Americans, or that it had been going on for 43 years ...
As vibrant and exciting as New York City is, it's also a hodgepodge for every and any cultural background to come, reside and gain their part of the American dream. But while New York's culture has become everyone's culture, some believe Black culture in New York isn't as strong as West Indian culture or Puerto Rican culture, which draws throngs of people every year for their parade and is highly publicized. Or is it?
This parade has been in existence for more than 40 years and we didn't know about it.But the question is why? It's not because we're not "black enough" we represent a healthy and vibrant mix of opinions, ideals, and thoughts.
Maybe us choosing not to know is the reason. I could've easily done a Google search for last minute free summer activities to partake in and learned all about it. However, I like my other co-workers were well aware of the season premiere of HBO's Boardwalk Empire. (Grimaces)
Participants in the African-American Day Parade (via NCNW-Manhattan)
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African-American LGBT charity group debuts. Washington Post: A newly launched charitable organization called Kindred: An African American LGBT Giving Circle.
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Kindred: An African American LGBT Giving Circle gave its first grant this week, beginning what organizers hope is a new brand of philanthropy. The $13,000 gift went to Washington, D.C.'s Sexual Minority Youth Assistance League. "Our African-American history is rich with individual philanthropists -- people who provided warm meals for families in the community in need, and books and resources for young people trying to make it through school," organizers said.
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Forensic tests made public Wednesday show that George Zimmerman’s was the only DNA that could be identified on the grip of the gun used to fatally shoot 17-year-old Trayvon Martin. The Grio: Tests only identify Zimmerman’s DNA on handgun.
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The results rule out Martin’s DNA from being on the gun’s grip. Zimmerman’s DNA also was identified on the gun’s holster, but no determination could be made as to whether Martin’s DNA was on the gun’s holster, according to the report from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.
Zimmerman is charged with second-degree murder for fatally shooting Martin during a confrontation in a gated community in Sanford in February. Zimmerman is pleading not guilty, claiming self-defense.
A delay in Zimmerman’s arrest led to nationwide protests.
The question of whose DNA is on the gun and holster could play a role in Zimmerman’s defense.
Zimmerman says Martin had been on top of him, slamming his head against the ground and smothering his mouth and nose with his hand and arm when he grabbed his gun from a holster on his waist before Martin could get it. He shot the teenager once in the chest.
Other documents released by prosecutors Wednesday include an interview with the clerk of a convenience store where Martin purchased Skittles and a can of iced tea moments before his confrontation with Zimmerman. The clerk said in the interview, more than a month after Martin was shot, that he didn’t remember Martin.
George Zimmerman (C) sits during his bond hearing with his attorney Mark O'Mara (L) in a Seminole County courtroom on June 29, 2012 in Sanford, Florida. Zimmerman is charged with second degree murder in the shooting death of Trayvon Martin. (Photo by Joe Burbank/Orlando Sentinel-Pool/Getty Images)
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Sickle cell disease affects 1 out of every 500 Black Americans, and yet trying to find blood donations to help those thousands of African-Americans in need is trying. BET: Give Blood for Sickle Cell Disease Awareness Month.
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September is Sickle Cell Disease Awareness Month, an annual event that should indeed be a time for African-Americans to acknowledge one of the most notorious illnesses in the community. According to the Centers for Disease Control, SCD affects 1 out of every 500 African-Americans born, and about 70,000 Americans are now living with the disease. It can also occur in Latinos, Middle Easterners and Asians, but it impacts the Black community far more than any of those other groups. And for the people it does afflict, sickle cell can be hellish.
Patients with SCD have red blood cells that deform into a sickle-like shape. Not only do these cells die earlier than a healthy person’s red blood cells, giving the patient anemia, their strange shape can cause them to get caught in blood vessels and block the blood flow, thus preventing the delivery of oxygen to the body’s tissue. If that happens, the result can be pain, organ failure or even stroke. The Sickle Cell Disease Association of America notes that people with SCD also tend to die earlier than others, generally in their mid-40s.
The good news is that some SCD symptoms can be managed with blood transfusions. The bad news is that African-Americans don’t donate nearly enough blood to help Sickle Cell patients in dire need. Blacks are more likely than whites and Latinos to have certain kinds of blood antigens, and thus African-American SCD patients are less likely to reject blood from other African-American donors. Unfortunately, less than 1 percent of the American medical community’s blood supply comes from Black donors. That’s been a problem many pro-blood donation campaigns directed at Black Americans have been trying to remedy, but the results have not been spectacular thus far.
(Photo: Spencer Grant/Getty)
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Prostate cancer discriminates. Washington Post: Understanding the unique and urgent needs of black men.
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●Prostate cancer discriminates: African Americans are 60 percent more likely to develop prostate cancer and twice as likely to die from it than any other racial or ethnic group nationwide.
●We not only have a higher incidence and death rate from prostate cancer, but research also suggests that prostate cancer develops more rapidly in African American men, leading to a greater likelihood of more aggressive disease at an early age.
●The Senate passed a resolution July 26 recognizing the occurrence of prostate cancer among African American men to be of epidemic proportions. This resolution was sponsored by Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.), a prostate cancer survivor, and it was co-sponsored by five senators who are also survivors.
●President Obama issued a proclamation designating September as National Prostate Cancer Awareness Month, in which he stated, “Prostate cancer is especially prevalent among African American men, who experience both the highest incidence and the highest mortality rates of prostate cancer.”
This week in the nation’s capital, PHEN is hosting its Eight Annual African American Prostate Cancer Disparity Summit, where we bring leaders together from around the country with the goal of developing strategies for eliminating prostate cancer’s racial disparity. Coincidentally, the District has the highest incidence of prostate cancer nationwide and the second highest death rate in the country.
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