IN THE LAST normal school year before the pandemic, Black girls in Massachusetts were disciplined in school at more than three times the rate of white girls. Often, Black girls say, they are punished for the same offenses for which white students are not. Melanie Rush, director of research and policy at the Massachusetts Appleseed […]
Race/Racism
Posted inOpinion
State not living up to environmental justice responsibilities
JUST OVER A YEAR after Gov. Charlie Baker signed “An Act Creating a Next-Generation Roadmap for Massachusetts Climate Policy,” which contained protections for environmental justice populations, the state has found itself roiled in controversy for sacrificing the health and well-being of those very same, protected populations. Investigative reporting revealed that the Massachusetts Department of Transportation […]
Posted inHealth, Health Care, Race/Racism
Why Black women die from childbirth twice as often as white women
WHEN NNEKA HALL was pregnant with her third child, she had a symptom of preeclampsia, a serious pregnancy complication, but her doctor never caught it. Hall felt her daughter hiccuping and worried something was wrong, but the doctor told her she was having a recurrence of depression because of separating from her husband. “My child […]
Posted inOpinion, Race/Racism
Juneteenth a chance for new customs and rituals
TWO YEARS AFTER George Floyd and just days after the final victims of last month’s racial murders in Buffalo, it’s hard not to reflect on America’s long and painful history of racism and hate. Incidents like New York City Draft Riots of 1863, the Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921, the 1963 Sixteenth Street Baptist Church […]
Posted inOpinion, Race/Racism
Zoning has played a major role in racial segregation
IN RESPONSE TO decades of rising housing costs across the Commonwealth, Massachusetts recently amended the state zoning act to require local governments to reform their zoning laws. The amendments are part of a broader goal of addressing the barriers that prevent the supply of housing from keeping up with growing demand. In many communities, local […]
Posted inOpinion
Finding teachers of color starts with mentoring
THE PANDEMIC has taken a terrible toll on school children, costing them not just in lost time learning, but in the socialization skills necessary to succeed. For students of color, already facing serious challenges in often-underfunded school districts, the pandemic has added even more hurdles between them and college. The pandemic has hit teachers hard, […]
Posted inRace/Racism
King sculpture on Boston Common breaks ground
BOSTON UNIVERSITY STATEHOUSE PROGRAM A LARGE GROUP of dignitaries held a ceremonially groundbreaking at the Boston Common on Wednesday for the “Embrace,” a sculpture commemorating the moment when Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and his wife heard he had won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964. Wednesday was the 95th anniversary of the birth of […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
For Wilkerson, a looming question of culpability
TENACITY ALONE SOMETIMES brings its own rewards, and Dianne Wilkerson certainly looks determined to complete her return from the political wilderness more than a decade after being sent off to federal prison for abusing the power of her elected office. Some may call it more a matter of chutzpah. A one-time rock star on the […]
Posted inEducation
Reimagining access to college in Roxbury
EDUCATORS AND POLICYMAKERS have been talking about providing all students access to college and career pathways for decades. The impact of technical training and two-year and four-year degrees on earnings and generational change is undeniable. Yet, progress has been, at best, slow. In Roxbury, we are trying something different. For far too long, the grueling […]
Posted inRace/Racism
No easy glide path for Black marijuana CEOs
BLACK AND LATINO men were disproportionately incarcerated for decades for drug-related offenses. But when it comes to participating in the emerging legal marijuana industry, only 4 percent of cannabis company CEOs nationally are people of color. On Thursday, a group of 16 cannabis CEOs of color gathered in Boston as the first cohort of a […]