The Pseudo-Science of Whiteness: Biology as a Social Weapon
Making Contact · The Pseudo-Science of Whiteness: Biology as a Social Weapon This week, filmmaker Stephanie Welch explores the role that racist, unscientific propaganda has played in promoting white supremacy in the U.S. She traces the history of the Pioneer Fund, the primary funding source for research that claims to demonstrate that people of color are genetically and intellectually inferior. The Fund used such research to...
Geraldine’s Story: How Public Schools Are Failing Black Students with Dyslexia
Making Contact · Geraldine’s Story: How Public Schools Are Failing Black Students with Dyslexia Black students with dyslexia all too often carry a heavy burden in our public schools. This documentary centers around a grandmother who fought for years to get her grandkids — particularly her grandson — properly assessed for dyslexia. Like too many African American boys, Geraldine Robinson’s grandson had been erroneously labeled...
Canada’s Slavery Secret
Making Contact · Canada’s Slavery Secret Today we’ll take a look at Canada and its history of Black enslavement. Canada, our northern neighbor, is rarely mentioned when we talk about the trans-Atlantic slave trade. In fact, we often equate Canada with being the safe space where Blacks escaped US slavery – the final stop on the underground railroad, so to speak. But Canada indeed has its own history of slavery...
Mirrors of Privilege: Making Whiteness Visible
Making Contact · Mirrors of Privilege: Making Whiteness Visible Today on Making Contact, we present the film Mirrors of Privilege: Making Whiteness Visible. The film takes us on the transformational journey of white men and women who overcome issues of unconscious bias and entitlement. Producer, Dr. Shakti Butler explores what is required to move through stages of denial, to awareness, to making a solid commitment to end racial...
One Long Night: Andrea Pitzer on the Global History of Concentration Camps
Making Contact · One Long Night: Andrea Pitzer on the Global History of Concentration Camps Today we use a lot of euphemisms: re-education camps, internment, work camps, prison camps, camps for internally displaced people. But before World War I, these prisons were known simply as concentration camps and they started in Cuba in the 1890s to control an uprising against the Spanish colonizers. Since then, concentration camps have...
President Biden and America’s Expectation
Making Contact · President Biden and America’s Expectation Today, a divided nation experiences one of the most tumultuous presidential transitions in US history. Leaders from marginalized communities across the nation are watching, with cautious optimism, as Biden and Harris seek to tackle several serious crises amid a raging pandemic. Thank you to freelance journalist Maritza L. Félix for reporting from Arizona. Like...
