Learning More for Black History Month

In the past, February brought historical figures through my social media. This year I saw more about correcting perceptions. LinkedIn fed me a post about the significance of cornrows while Facebook broke down racist terms. Considering “CakeWalk” was a carnival game at my elementary school, I’m horrified. Last, the Daily News called out how unfair high school applications are in this city. —MV https://www.africanexponent. com/post/7891-how-cornrows-were-used-by-slaves-to-escape-slavery-in-south-america

https://www.africanexponent. com/post/7891-how-cornrows-were-used-by-slaves-to-escape-slavery-in-south-america

@monachalabi

BLACK AND WHITE

Why are there only six choices for race on the U.S. Census? And why was there such a big jump in “other” between 2010 and 2020? The Feb. 21 episode of United States of Anxiety explores what it’s like to pick a box that doesn’t really apply to you and how the data matters with Mona Chalabi, a data journalist and artist.

I had just read about Sally Hemmings as proof that the one-drop rule endured so slave owners could create new slaves for free. Thomas Jefferson’s descendants (who looked like him) were property, not people. This podcast does address the motives of the original census, but also spends the majority of its time in the present with the need for accurate data and personal accounts.

Ms. Chalabi is Arab, which is not one of the six options. The category was supposed to be added for 2020 but Trump allegedly blocked it to prevent the number of “whites” from dropping. The results appeared to say there was a decrease in the white population anyway. Is it no longer acceptable to be “white”? Are people opting out of answering the question? Do they want to be more nuanced than simply “white”? Maybe we should go back to the system where citizens could see the results and amend them before the data was finalized.

I highly recommend the episode: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ the-united-states-of-anxiety/ id1155194811?i=1000551741944

Also, check out @monachalabi on Instagram for her insightful takes on available data.