Homework AAS

Chapter 9 Science, Technology, and the Future of African Americans

Science

The intellectual and practical activity encompassing the systematic study of the structure and behavior of the physical and

natural world through observation and experiment.

Technology

The application of scientific knowledge for practical purposes, especially in industry;

Machinery and equipment developed from the application of scientific knowledge;

The branch or knowledge dealing with engineering or applied science

Popular Culture is increasingly supplanting science as the major purveyor of cultural imagery, values, and interpretations of social and physical phenomena.

It's not magic, it’s Science!

Science is the process and the body of knowledge that enables us humans to know nature. So far, it’s the best idea we’ve ever had.

Bill Nye, “The Science Guy,” is an American mechanical engineer, science communicator, and television presenter

Receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom from Barack Obama at the White House on 12 August 2009

Eddie Redmayne and Stephen Hawking at the Theory of Everything feature film premiere at the Odeon, Leicester Square, in December 2014.

Stephen Hawking floating in a zero- gravity jet undertaking parabolic dips to simulate space conditions over the Atlantic.

The first episode in which theoretical physicist and cosmologist Stephen Hawking guest-starred as himself (1999).

Stephen Hawking

The pop idol turned science idol, Professor Brian Edward Cox is a British physicist and professor of particle physics at the University of Manchester. He is best recognized as the presenter of science programs for the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC).

After presenting six programmes about physics, Prof Cox and his TV mentor, BBC head of science Andrew Cohen, felt he was ready to make a blockbuster series of his own. Wonders of the Solar System established his mass appeal in 2010. Today, after the airing of Wonders of the Universe, Wonders of Life and Human Universe, and countless appearances on other programmes he is the undisputed heir apparent to David Attenborough as Britain’s premier presenter of science.

Science is too important not to be a part of popular culture. — Brian Cox

neil degrasse

tyson

The good thing about science is that it’s true whether or not

you believe in it

Neil deGrasse Tyson, 2013

Integrating Science and Technology Studies into African American Studies

S. E. Anderson has taught mathematics, science and Black History courses at Queens College, Sarah Lawrence College, SUNY at Old Westbury College, Rutgers University and the New School University as well as CCNY & Queens Colleges’ Centers for Worker Ed. He has also spent many years working within the anti-apartheid movement and for various African Liberation struggles. He is currently doing national and international education consulting work with a particular focus on developing Africa Diaspora’s Math and Science curriculum. He is also a math/science/Black History consultant within the African American education community from public schools to the university.

“Blackfolk have to struggle against a double psych-barrier: Science as divine and mysterious, and science as non-black in the socio-historical sense.” He argues that

“Technological oppression and dependence blocks us from developing - Revolutionary black scientists, - Scientific and technological alternatives, and - Scientific education among the masses of blackfolk.”

‘Hidden Figures’ and the journey to celebrate NASA’s black female pioneers

A portrait of a young Dorothy Vaughan. Photo courtesy of Vaughan Family

Mary Jackson grew up in Hampton, Virginia and was a teacher in Maryland before joining Langley Research Center in 1951. She became NASA’s first black female engineer in 1958. Photo by NASA

Katherine Johnson, a NASA mathematician who calculated the

trajectories that launched the first Americans into space, at Langley Research Center in 1980. Her story features in Hidden Figures, a book and film about contributions made by African-American women during the early days of U.S. aeronautics. Photo by NASA

“I like to learn,” the mathematician told PEOPLE in 2016. “That’s an art and a science. I’m always interested in learning something new.”

Johnson went on to play a pivotal role in many of NASA’s first space missions —performing trajectory analysis for America’s first human spaceflight in 1961, and was also the first woman in the Flight Research Division to get credit as an author of a research report one year earlier.

One of her most memorable contributions, though, came in 1962, when Johnson helped crunch the numbers that would control the trajectory for astronaut John Glenn (played by Glen Powell in Hidden Figures) during his orbital mission, making sure the IBM computer calculations were correct.

“‘If [Katherine] says they’re good, then I’m ready to go,'” Johnson recalled Glenn, who died in 2016 at the age of 95, saying, according to her biography.

Before retiring from NASA in 1986, Johnson coauthored 26 research reports and worked on the Space Shuttle and the Earth Resources Satellite, according to the agency. She also received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Barack Obama in 2015.

Integrating Science and Technology Studies into African American Studies

Lenneal Henderson is a distinguished professor emeritus of the School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Baltimore and an internationally recognized urban scholar who has lectured and consulted on housing issues, energy management, environmental policy and public management for federal, state and local government and the corporate and nonprofit sectors for more than 30 years. He is currently Adjunct Professor of Government at the College of William and Mary.

“Black participation in public technology must include policy decisions, scientific and professional employment, White collar and blue-collar employment and, where necessary, legal and community action” and Henderson insists that “…Blacks be involved in informed decisions about the implications of technological developments.”

Integrating Science and Technology Studies into African American Studies

HBCU’s should focus their attention on “reaching modern science of matter and life” through the experiences of peoples of African descent.

W.E.B. Du Bois (1933)

“The relationship between technological change and the economic, social, cultural, and political struggle of African American people is the missing link in the ‘history of African American history.’”

Abdul Alkalimat, (PhD, Sociology, University of Chicago), Professor Emeritus of African-American studies and library and information

science at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign. He is the author of several books, including Introduction to Afro-American Studies, The African American Experience in Cyberspace, and Malcolm X for Beginners.

Integrating Science and Technology Studies into African American Studies

Impacts of modern science and technology on people of African descent???

Science, Technology, and the Oppression of African Americans: Impacts and Exploitation of

African American Labor

The invention of the cotton gin (1794) led to the expansion of Southern slave-based plantation system.

The invention of reapers, combines, and tractors made the operation of small farms uneconomical and led to the expulsion of huge numbers of Black sharecroppers from farmlands. Those that remained on the farm, were unable to acquire enough capital for equitable participation in industrialization.

The Negro and the Labor Unions

“Shall the labor unions use their influence to deprive the black man of his opportunity to labor… [or] unite with those who want to give every man, regardless of color, race or creed, what Colonel Roosevelt calls the ‘square deal’ in the matters of labor?” By Booker T. Washington (June 1913, The Atlantic)

Trade unions in the North excluded Blacks, and the Depression largely eliminated independent Black artisans and craftsmen. 5 Black-led Labor Unions: ❖ Black Sleeping Car Porters Union (est. 1925) ❖ Colored National Labor Union (est. 1869) ❖ National Domestic Worker’s Union (est. 1968, Atlanta) ❖ Coalition of Black Trade Unionists (est. 1972) ❖ American League of Colored Laborers (est. 1850)

Science, Technology, and the Oppression of African Americans

Science, Technology, and the Oppression of African Americans: Storm Damage

Blacks provide cheap labor and forced to live in areas most prone to storm damage and subject to the least well-designed technological applications to prevent flooding and related catastrophes.

Galveston, Texas (1900) Hurricane killed 6,000 people exposed racial animosities (Blacks falsely accused of stealing jewelry from victims)

Mississippi (1927) During “Great Flood,” Blacks rounded up into work camps, held by armed guards, and prevented from leaving as the waters rose. After flood, city leaders intentionally flooded areas and reneged on promises to compensate those whose homes were destroyed.

Hurricane Katrina (New Orleans, 2005)

Blacks re-located to the Superdome, which was inadequate and ill- prepared to accommodate 1000s of Blacks seeking shelter during and after storm. Blacks were also accused of looting.

Hurricane Katrina (New Orleans, 2005)

Hurricane Katrina was a large and destructive Category 5 Atlantic hurricane that caused over 1,800 fatalities and $125 billion in damage in late August 2005, especially in the city of New Orleans and the surrounding areas.

Flooding, caused largely as a result of fatal engineering flaws in the flood protection system (levees) around the city of New Orleans, precipitated most of the loss of lives. Eventually, 80% of the city, as well as large tracts of neighboring parishes, were inundated for weeks.

Hurricane Katrina was the largest and 3rd strongest hurricane ever recorded to make landfall in the US. In New Orleans, the levees were designed for Category 3, but Katrina peaked at a Category 5 hurricane, with winds up to 175 mph.

96,000 fewer African-Americans are living in New Orleans now than prior to Hurricane Katrina. Nearly 1 in 3 black residents have not returned to the city after the storm.

Most shocking is the Lower Ninth Ward, where the average resident was living on $16,000 a year before the hurricane. You can still drive blocks there and not see a single home. The neighborhood is still missing more than half its pre- Katrina population.

The Lower Ninth Ward is a shell of its former self, with fewer homes and fewer people. (Ricky Carioti/The Washington Post)

Hurricane Katrina (New Orleans, 2005) Lakeview, a prosperous white neighborhood on the east side that also suffered catastrophic flooding, looks better than it did before the storm because of all the new homes and businesses.

New Orleans’s economy is in many respects stronger today than it was the day before the levees broke. Yet the city’s remarkable recovery has, to a troubling degree, left behind the African-Americans who still make up the majority of its population. Black New Orleanians are less likely to be working than when the storm hit in 2005 and are more likely to be living in poverty. Black household incomes, adjusted for inflation, have fallen. And the earnings gap between black and white residents has grown.

Fully 74% of blacks said they felt depressed by what had happened to areas affected by the hurricane; nearly as many (71%) felt angry. Fewer whites experienced such strong emotions – 55% said they had been depressed and 46% angry. Aug 27, 2015

Science, Technology and the Oppression of African Americans:

Segregation and Social Control

Long-standing tradition in America of using technology and public policy to control residential options available to African Americans

Segregation and Social Control

Gentrification (movement of middle-class Whites into central city areas) is occurring in many cities leading, in time, to Black displacement.

The withdrawal of federal support for low- and moderate-income housing created massive unmet housing need and persistent underdevelopment in many inner-city areas

Broader pattern of racial segregation in cities creates an environment in which most Blacks have a high probability of experiencing policy discrimination and differential access to the benefits of technology.

Racial Segregation and Surveillance Segregation enables public officials to enhance the surveillance of both individuals and groups.

Technology makes surveillance increasingly intrusive and a potential threat to privacy rights.

Social acceptance due to concerns about future terrorist attacks

Cameras mounted on street corners monitor innocent and lawful activities related to hip hop artists/rappers or peaceful protests against racist policies, war, etc,…. and Increase use of house arrest and electronic monitoring 24-hours/day

Racial Medical Experimentation

❖ Abuse and Exploitation ❖ Clinical Material (slaves provided “bodies” for American medical

research and medical training) ❖ Involuntary (poor, uneducated and/or incarcerated Blacks) ❖ “Blame the Victim” (Blacks responsible for their own illnesses,

need for experimental remedies) ❖ Tuskegee Experiment ❖ Institutionalized Racism and Apprehension (racial/genetic

differences produced different physiological effects) ❖ Genetics

(Sara) Saartjie Baartman (1789-1815)

She was derisively named the “Hottentot Venus” by Europeans as her body would be publicly examined and exposed inhumanly throughout the duration of her young life. Moreover. her experience reinforced the already existing and extremely negative sexual fascination with African women bodies by the people of Europe.

Born in South Africa, she was sold into slavery to a trader named Pieter Willem Cezar, who took her to Cape Town where she became a domestic slave to his brother, Hendrik. On October 29, 1810, although she could not read, 21-year-old Baartman supposedly signed a contract with William Dunlop, a physician, who was a friend of the Cezar brothers.

This contract required her to travel with the Cezar brothers and Dunlop to England and Ireland where she would work as a domestic servant since technically slavery had been abolished in Great Britain. Additionally, she would be exhibited for entertainment purposes. Baartman would receive a portion of earnings from her exhibitions and would be allowed to return to South Africa after five years. However, the contract was false on all details and her enslavement continued for the remainder of her life.

Baartman was first exhibited in London in the Egyptian Hall at Piccadilly Circus on November 24, 1810. In September 1814, after staying four years in Great Britain, Baartman was taken to France and sold to S. Reaux, an exhibitor who showcased animals. He put Baartman on public display in and around Paris, often at the Palais Royal. He also allowed her to be sexually abused by patrons willing to pay for her defilement. Reaux garnered considerable profit due to the public’s fascination with Baartman’s body.

Sara Saartjie Baartman died in Paris on December 29, 1815 at the age of 26 for unknown reasons. Even after her death, many of her body parts would go on display at the Musée de l’Homme (Museum of Man), in Paris to support racist theories about people of African ancestry. Some of the body parts remained on display until 1974.

In 1994 South African President Nelson Mandela formally requested that Baartman’s remains be returned to South Africa. On March 6, 2002, her remains were returned and buried at Hankey in the Eastern Cape Province. https://www.blackpast.org/global-african- history/baartman-sara-saartjie-1789-1815/

The Tuskegee Experiment Experiment involved the deliberate denial of treatment for syphilis to approximately four hundred African American men and their families in the Tuskegee, Alabama, area from 1930 to 1970.

The experiment was conducted under the auspices of the Public Health Service and had nothing to do with “treatment.” No new drugs were tested, neither was any effort made to establish the efficacy of old forms of treatment. It was a non-therapeutic experiment, aimed at compiling data on the spontaneous evolution of syphilis on black males.

The Tuskegee Experiment has been one of many negative experiences with medical, scientific, and technological research that has contributed to tremendous apprehension among African Americans about their use as guinea pigs and the possibility of their being targets of genocidal policies.

Many in African American community believe illnesses or diseases like AIDS were created in a laboratory and designed to annihilate people of African descent.

Variety of medications used to immobilize inmates and subjugate “violent” or mentally ill African Americans (including but not limited to anti-depressants, sedatives, tranquilizers, and other powerful hypnotics)

Traditional African Technologies

The Struggle for Freedom

Food Production and Security

Households with children are more likely to be food insecure than those without, although in more than half of these households, only the adults were food insecure, because adults typically choose to ensure their children eat even if it means they go hungry.[9] Nevertheless, 5.3 million children faced food insecurity themselves, and 361,000 children suffered from very low food security in 2019.[10]

Households with children headed by a single woman are nearly twice as likely as those headed by a single man to be food insecure, though women living alone are at virtually equal risk as men living alone. Black and Hispanic Americans are much more likely to be food insecure than White Americans.

Read more: https://www.americanactionforum.org/research/food-insecurity-and-food-insufficiency-assessing-causes-and-historical- trends/#ixzz7QxuD3lM5

Food Production and Security

Counties with the highest rates of food insecurity (top 10 percent) tend to be disproportionately rural and located in the South. This is largely due to persistently high rates of unemployment and poverty. Socioeconomic disparities exist in other parts of the country as well, but have a disproportionate impact on people of color, especially African Americans. As a result, food insecurity sheds light on systemic barriers caused by structural and institutional racism and discrimination.

Prior to COVID-19, all 3,142 counties and county equivalents and 436 congressional districts in all 50 states were home to people who struggled with hunger. The percentage of the population estimated to be food insecure in 2018 ranged from a low of 3.6 percent in Burke County, North Dakota up to 30.4 percent in Jefferson County, Mississippi.

Locally, we estimate that food insecurity will increase in every county, congressional district, and state because of COVID-19. States with the highest projected food insecurity rates in 2020 are largely consistent with rankings based on 2018 rates.

George Washington Carver

George Washington Carver was a scientist, an accomplished pianist, and a world renowned inventor. He used his creative and scientific mind to create hundreds of uses for peanuts that greatly increased farming and contributed to the economy in the South. In fact, Carver researched and invented 300 different uses for peanuts including:

❖ Food products: peanut lemon punch, chili sauce, caramel, peanut sausage, mayonnaise and coffee. ❖ Cosmetics: face powder, shampoo, shaving cream and hand lotion ❖ Other commercial products: insecticides, glue, charcoal, rubber, nitroglycerine, plastics and axle grease. ❖ He also developed 100 consumer products from the sweet potato and 75 from the pecan in an effort to generate

markets for these alternative crops

Information Technology and the “Digital Divide”

The new information and communications revolution could easily bypass the minority communities of America.

“Failure to bridge the gap will relegate our sons and daughters to sit in the backseat of the technology train on the Information Superhighway.” Rep. Maxine Walters (D-CA), 2000

Technology and Racial Health Disparities

Black-White health disparities have remained virtually unchanged since 1960, despite reduced gaps in housing, education, and income.