Another crushing step backwards. This is our view of the recent SCOTUS decision to strike down affirmative action in university admissions (except military schools, cunningly).
Plans were in place for a different episode this week but we were so intensely troubled by this breaking news, we decided to lend our voice and experiences to the chorus of outrage. It seems that America is destined to find opportunities to move further away from its promise.
Connecting the imposition of Jim Crow Laws upon Black people after they had been given a glimpse of self-determination during Reconstruction to the chipping away of meager opportunities for equity since the Civil Rights Act of 1964. We reflect on white affirmative action being the law of the land for over 300 years, and again now, with this ruling.
Our Blackness is a source of pride and resilience, despite experiences where it is acknowledged with suspicion (Angella at Penn) or made invisible by color-blinded ignorance (Leslie at the hospital). We get into our feelings, our history and our hopes in this compelling and unapologetic conversation.
References:
The Delaney Sisters
Sadie and Bessie Delaney were civil rights sisters born in 1889 and 1891 respectively, to a formerly enslaved father, just before the Jim Crow Laws bloomed into full-blown viciousness in the mid-1890s.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Having_Our_Say:_The_Delany_Sisters%27_First_100_Years
With freedom came death & disease
About a quarter of the 4 million enslaved people freed during the American Civil War died from disease and hunger after being liberated, according to a new book by historian John Downs.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/jun/16/slavery-starvation-civil-war
Visit Black Boomer Besties from Brooklyn website for behind-the-scenes extras.
Another crushing step backwards. This is our view of the recent SCOTUS decision to strike down affirmative action in university admissions (except military schools, cunningly).
Plans were in place for a different episode this week but we were so intensely troubled by this breaking news, we decided to lend our voice and experiences to the chorus of outrage. It seems that America is destined to find opportunities to move further away from its promise.
Connecting the imposition of Jim Crow Laws upon Black people after they had been given a glimpse of self-determination during Reconstruction to the chipping away of meager opportunities for equity since the Civil Rights Act of 1964. We reflect on white affirmative action being the law of the land for over 300 years, and again now, with this ruling.
Our Blackness is a source of pride and resilience, despite experiences where it is acknowledged with suspicion (Angella at Penn) or made invisible by color-blinded ignorance (Leslie at the hospital). We get into our feelings, our history and our hopes in this compelling and unapologetic conversation.
References:
The Delaney Sisters
Sadie and Bessie Delaney were civil rights sisters born in 1889 and 1891 respectively, to a formerly enslaved father, just before the Jim Crow Laws bloomed into full-blown viciousness in the mid-1890s.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Having_Our_Say:_The_Delany_Sisters%27_First_100_Years
With freedom came death & disease
About a quarter of the 4 million enslaved people freed during the American Civil War died from disease and hunger after being liberated, according to a new book by historian John Downs.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/jun/16/slavery-starvation-civil-war
Visit Black Boomer Besties from Brooklyn website for behind-the-scenes extras.