The crisis in American girlhood

February 21, 2023 Paul Costello1 Uncategorized

Donna St George Katherine Lewis Lindsay Bever… Washington Post Feb 18th 2023

When Sophie Nystuen created a website for teens who had experienced trauma, her idea was to give them space to write about the hurt they couldn’t share. The Brookline, Mass., 16-year-old received posts about drug use and suicide. But a majority wrote about sexual violence.

“Every time I’ve tried, my throat feels like it’s closing, my lungs forget how to breathe,” wrote one anonymous poster. “I was sexually assaulted.”

These expressions of inner crisis are just a glint of the startling data reported by federal researchers this week. Nearly 1 in 3 high school girls said they had considered suicide, a 60 percent rise in the past decade. Nearly 15 percent had been forced to have sex. About 6 in 10 girls were so persistently sad or hopeless they stopped regular activities.

When Sophie Nystuen, 16, started a website for teens who had experienced trauma, most posts were about sexual violence. (Courtesy of Sophie Nystuen)

The new report represents nothing short of a crisis in American girlhood. The findings have ramifications for a generation of young women who have endured an extraordinary level of sadness and sexual violence — and present uncharted territory for the health advocates, teachers, counselors and parents who are trying to help them.

The data comes from the Youth Risk Behavior Survey, conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention from a nationally representative sample of students in public and private high schools. “America’s teen girls are engulfed in a growing wave of sadness, violence and trauma,” the CDC said.

“It’s alarming,” Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said Thursday of the report. “But as a father of a 16-year-old and 19-year-old, I hear about it. It’s real. I think students know what’s going on. I think sometimes the adults are just now realizing how serious it is.”

But high school girls are speaking out, too, about stresses that started before the pandemic — growing up in a social media culture, with impossible beauty standards, online hate, academic pressure, economic difficulties, self doubt and sexual violence. The isolation and upheaval of covid made it tougher still.

This edited photograph was created after multiple “Me Too” comments was captured in the girls bathroom at Brookline High. It is being featured in the Brookline High feminist zine, edited by Sylvia Blaser. (Courtesy of Sophie Nystuen)

‘Teens are really good at hiding it.’

When Caroline Zuba started cutting her arms in ninth grade, she felt trapped: by conflict at home, by the school work that felt increasingly meaningless, by the image her friends and teachers had of a bubbly, studious girl. Cutting replaced the emotional pain with a physical pain.

She confided in a trusted teacher, who brought in the school counselors and her mother. But Zuba’s depression worsened and, at age 15, she attempted suicide. That sparked the first of a series of hospitalizations over the summer and subsequent school year.

Caroline Zuba, 17, started a mental health club at her high school to support classmates struggling with depression, anxiety and suicidal thoughts. (Courtesy of Kellie Zuba)

Now a 17-year-old junior at a public high school in Potomac, Md., Zuba relies on therapy, medication, exercise and coping strategies. She started a mental health club at her high school to support classmates also struggling with depression, anxiety and suicidal thoughts.

At the lowest point of her depression, she said, she kept many secrets from her friends, parents and teachers because she felt stuck in her role: a cheerful high achiever who had it all together.

“My mom’s like my best friend, and there’s no way she would have ever expected it,” Zuba said. “Teens are really good at hiding it, which is really sad.”

Notes written by 18-year-old Elida Mejia Elias to herself, plastered on her bedroom wall in the shape of a heart. ( Zaydee Sanchez)

Internalizing conflict, stress and fear

While the teen mental health crisis was clear before the CDC report, the stark findings have jolted parents and the wider public.

“These are not normal numbers,” said Surgeon General Vivek H. Murthy. “When you grow up with this, I think the risk is thinking, ‘Well, this is just how it is.’”

The reasons girls are in crisis are probably complex, and may vary by race, ethnicity, class and culture. Harvard psychologist Richard Weissbourd points out that “girls are more likely to respond to pain in the world by internalizing conflict and stress and fear, and boys are more likely to translate those feelings into anger and aggression,” masking their depression.

Weissbourd added that girls also are socialized not to be aggressive and that in a male-dominated culture girls can be gaslit into thinking there is something wrong with them when problems or conflicts arise. “They can be prone to blaming themselves,” he said.

Jean Twenge, a psychology professor at San Diego State University and author of the book “iGen,” said that increases in most measures of poor mental health in the past decade were more pronounced for girls than boys.

She said part of the problem is that digital media has displaced the face-to-face time teens once had with friends, and that teens often don’t get enough sleep. Adding to those influences are the hours teens spend scrolling social media. For girls, she said, this often means “comparing your body and your life to others and feeling that you come up wanting.”

That’s not to say everything that people do on smartphones is problematic, Twenge said. “It’s just social media in general and internet use show the strongest correlations with depression,” she said.

Elida Mejia Elias, a high school senior, says teen girls are constantly being judged. (Zaydee Sanchez)

Ben Handrich, a school counselor at South Salem High School in Salem, Ore., said teen girls often feel that “people are watching them — that no matter what they do, there’s this invisible audience judging their movements, their actions, the way they smile, the way they eat.”

Lisa Damour, a clinical psychologist and author of “The Emotional Lives of Teenagers,” said it’s important to note that the CDC data was collected in the fall of 2021, a time when many teens were anxious about returning to in-person school and wearing masks.

“Teenagers were miserable,” Damour said. “It absolutely confirms what we were looking at clinically at that time. We don’t know what the next wave of data will tell us.”

Damour noted that the CDC findings are distressing because today’s teens, in many ways, are in better physical health and more risk-averse than most previous generations.

“We’re raising the best-behaved generation of teenagers on record,” said Damour. “They drive with seat belts, they smoke less, they have less sex, they wear helmets. They do all these things that we did not do.”

And yet they are in crisis.

Whistles and ‘gross comments’

Many girls across the country describe teen cultures of casual slut-shaming, of peers greeting girls with sexist slurs such as “whore” or “ho,” based on what they wear or how they look.

In Los Angeles, Elida Mejia Elias says it’s a no-win situation. “If you’re skinny, they judge you for being skinny and if you’re fat, they judge you for being fat,” explains the 18-year-old, a senior.

In ninth grade, a friend of Mejia Elias’s sent a naked picture of herself to a boy she was dating, at his urging, and he spread it around to his friends. “Everyone was talking bad about her. They were calling her names, like ‘ho,’” said Mejia Elias. “That affected her mental health. She needed to get therapy.”

Tulip Kaya, right, with her family. The 14-year-old says teen girls routinely endure harassment. (Courtesy of Fran Miller Kaya)

In Maryland, at her Bethesda public high school, 14-year-old Tulip Kaya said that girls in her friend group hear whistles or “gross comments” about their breasts and are texted unsolicited penis pictures by boys at school. “If there’s anything slightly unique about you, you’re not going to have a fun time, and you will be targeted,” she said.

Social media can be overwhelming. “On Snapchat and TikTok, you see all these pretty girls with tiny waists and a big bottom. I know I’m only 14, but it makes me feel like there’s something wrong with myself,” Kaya said. “When I start to feel like that, I will delete the app for a little while.”

Girls interviewed by The Post expressed uncertainty and self-doubt over everything from what to wear, what to post or comment on social media, what it meant if someone wasn’t following them back on a social platform, and even in daily interactions. When in-person school resumed, during the fall of 2021 for many, routine encounters and moments felt weird after a year or more of separation from peers.

“Sometimes I don’t want to wear shorts because I don’t have the body type I had in middle school,” said Leilah Villegas, of Eastvale, Calif., who ran track before the pandemic. Now in 10th grade, she’s started running again, but her changed body brings pangs of self-consciousness.

Aanika Arjumand, 16, says school health curriculums don’t cover abuse or sexual violence as much as they should. (Courtesy of Aanika Arjumand)

Aanika Arjumand, 16, from Gaithersburg, Md., who sits on her county’s Domestic Violence Coordinating Council, said she was not surprised by the increases in sexual violence.

“We deal with a lot of cases on like teen dating violence and kind of informing schools about teen dating violence because the health curriculum right now basically does not cover abuse or sexual violence as much as it should,” she said.

School itself can sometimes be physically unsafe, as happened with Harker, a 13-year-old in Savannah, Ga., who spoke on the condition that her full name not be used because of the sensitivity of the issue.

At school, she received unwanted attention from a boy in sixth grade. He would whisper in her ears and grab her shoulders. Once, he seized her across her chest and did not release her until she screamed. A teacher was nearby, but she said the boy went unpunished and remained in her classes. The teen has resorted to learning at home.

“They didn’t believe me even though there were witnesses,” she said. “A boy in school can get away with something, but if I do one mess-up, I get called out for it.

Najiha Uddin, right, with her father and two sisters. The 17-year-old says a White beauty standard is perpetuated in mainstream and social media. (Courtesy of Najiha Uddin)

Unrealistic beauty standards and financial pressure

At the Bronx High School of Science in New York, 17-year-old Najiha Uddin talks about a White beauty standard perpetuated in mainstream and social media, which she says girls of color can’t possibly meet. She and others describe status-oriented peers and media messages about shoes, clothes, styles and experiences that outstrip their families’ means.

For Montanna Norman, 18, a senior at a private high school in Washington during the fall of 2021, the killing of unarmed Black men by police was foremost in her mind after the murder of George Floyd. At the time she was the co-leader of her school’s Black Student Union. “The toll that that took on my mental health was a lot,” she said.

Some of her friends have contemplated, or attempted, suicide, Norman said. “You wish you could do more to help,” she said.

Garvey Mortley, a 14-year-old in Bethesda, Md., who is Black, said she has been teased because of her hair and still feels microaggressions. “Racism can be a stressor for depression or a cause of depression because of the bullying that happens, not just Black kids but Asian kids and Hispanic kids who feel they are unwanted,” she said.

Students who are LGBTQ face some of the highest rates of depressive symptoms and sexual violence, including rape. In 2021, nearly 1 in 4 reported an attempt to take their life.

Rivka Vizcardo-Lichter, a student activist in Virginia, pointed out that high school is a time when many LGBTQ students are still figuring out who they are and solidifying their identity. “Even if you have an accepting environment around you, you are aware that there are millions of people who don’t want you to exist,” she said.

Waking up to a nightmare

Some of the most alarming data collected by the CDC involved the rise in suicidal thoughts among teen girls — 24 percent of teen girls have made a plan for suicide while 13 percent have attempted it, almost twice the rate for boys.

Ella Walker’s parents say they wish someone would have alerted them to the warning signs of suicide. (Devine Dezines)

Rich and Trinna Walker, from New Albany, Ind., searched for a therapist for their 13-year-old daughter Ella but struggled to find one in the overloaded mental health-care system during the pandemic. Once Ella finally started treatment, however, her demeanor seemed to improve, they said.

“I really felt like she was doing so much better,” Trinna Walker said. Ella had been asking her dad how she could earn extra money to buy a birthday gift for her sister. She told her mom she wanted doughnuts for breakfast.

“Then we woke up to a nightmare the next morning,” Trinna said.

Ella died by suicide on Jan. 22, 2022. Her parents said they wish someone would have alerted them to the warning signs. Unknown to them, Ella was being bullied, and she was devastated by a breakup, they said.

Now the couple is urging teens to speak up when their peers are in trouble. “It was like a bomb going off,” Rich Walker said. “It’s like it mortally wounded my wife and me and Ella’s two older sisters, and then it reverberated outwardly to her friends.”

Listen to girls

Many of the girls interviewed for this story asked that adults listen to and believe girls, and stop dismissing their concerns as drama. “Adults don’t get all the pressure that teenage girls have to deal with, from appearance to the way they act to how smart they are, to the things they do,” said Villegas, the Eastvale 10th-grader. “It can be very overwhelming.”

Asma Tibta, a 10th-grader in Fairfax County, Va., said she is “close friends” with her mother but doesn’t talk about mental health at home.“I haven’t told her too much. And I don’t plan to.”

In Savannah, Harker took a break from playing “Roblox” with her friend to be interviewed. Before heading back to the game, she had one request: “I want adults to believe young girls.”

If you or someone you know needs help, visit 988lifeline.org or call or text the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988.

Serena Marshall contributed to this report.

Katherine Reynolds Lewis is an award-winning science journalist covering children, behavioral and mental health, education and related topics. Katherine is the author of “The Good News About Bad Behavior” and former national correspondent for Newhouse and Bloomberg News.

By Donna St. GeorgeDonna St. George is a national education reporter for The Washington Post, where she has been a staff writer since 1998. She previously worked at the Philadelphia Inquirer and the New York Times. Twitter

By Lindsey BeverLindsey Bever is a reporter for The Washington Post’s Well+Being desk, covering chronic illness, mental health and navigating the medical system, among other issues. She was previously a reporter at the Dallas Morning News. Twitter

https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2023/02/17/teen-girls-mental-health-crisis/

Teen girls ‘engulfed’ in violence and trauma, CDC finds

February 16, 2023 Paul Costello1 Uncategorized

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By Donna St. George Washington Post Feb 14th 2023

Teen girls across the United States are “engulfed in a growing wave of violence and trauma,” according to federal researchers who released data Monday showing increases in rape and sexual violence, as well as record levels of feeling sad or hopeless.

Nearly 1 in 3 high school girls reported in 2021 that they seriously considered suicide — up nearly 60 percent from a decade ago — according to new findings from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Almost 15 percent of teen girls said they were forced to have sex, an increase of 27 percent over two years and the first increase since the CDC began tracking it.

“If you think about every 10 teen girls that you know, at least one and possibly more has been raped, and that is the highest level we’ve ever seen,” said Kathleen Ethier, director of the CDC’s Division of Adolescent and School Health who said the rise of sexual violence almost certainly contributed to the glaring spike of depressive symptoms. “We are really alarmed,” she said.

Ethier said it’s important to determine who is perpetrating the violence, which the survey did not address, and how it can be stopped.

Almost 3 in 5 teenage girls reported feeling so persistently sad or hopeless almost every day for at least two weeks in a row during the previous year that they stopped regular activities — a figure that was double the share of boys and the highest in a decade, CDC data showed.

Girls fared worse on other measures, too, with higher rates of alcohol and drug use than boys and higher levels of being electronically bullied, according to the 89-page report. Thirteen percent had attempted suicide during the past year, compared with 7 percent of boys.

Sharon Hoover, a professor of child and adolescent psychiatry at the University of Maryland’s School of Medicine and co-director of the National Center for School Mental Health, said she was struck by “the magnitude of the increases and the gender difference.”

Hoover and others pointed out it is unclear whether the data is influenced by other factors — if girls were more aware of depressive symptoms than boys, for instance, or more inclined to report them — or whether girls are simply far worse off.

The crisis of student mental health is much vaster than we realize

Richard Weissbourd, a psychologist and senior lecturer at Harvard’s Graduate School of Education, said there is probably not a single cause to explain the data but rather interacting causes that vary by race, ethnicity, class, culture and access to mental health resources.

Even so, he said, “girls are more likely to respond to pain in the world by internalizing conflict and stress and fear, and boys are more likely to translate those feelings into anger and aggression,” he said. Boys are more likely to “mask depression,” he said, while girls may be more vulnerable to social media and “a culture obsessed with attractiveness and body image.”

CDC researchers said schools could be a lifeline as students struggle, pointing to studies showing better mental health outcomes for students who felt connected to their schools.

The pandemic took a heavy toll on adolescents, who already struggled with depression, anxiety and thoughts of suicidebefore it began. Many were cooped up at home for months. They continue to grapple with social media pressures, academic strain and family turmoil. Some lost parents and other relatives to covid-19. “These data make it clear that young people in the U.S. are collectively experiencing a level of distress that calls on us to act,” the report said.

In 2021, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and the Children’s Hospital Association together declared “a national state of emergency” in children’s mental health. A year later, the organizations sounded the alarm again.

The isolation and stress of pandemic lockdowns were followed by a rise in domestic violence — and may have also driven an increase in the sexual assault of teen girls, said Heather Hlavka, an associate professor of criminology and law studies at Marquette University with expertise in sexual violence.

CDC data do not suggest where the assaults happened or who perpetrators are, but Hlavka said it could be a combination of peer violence, dating violence and violence in the home — and should be a target for more research. “It’s really important to disentangle the relationships between the perpetrators and the victim-survivors to better understand the reasons why,” she said.

CDC researchers have kept an eye on data about forced sex for a long time, Ethier said. Now, “we see this increase from 11 percent to 14 percent of teenage girls saying that they’d been raped just between 2019 and 2021 — and that’s extremely concerning,” she said.

The CDC analysis is based on data collected in fall 2021 from the Youth Risk Behavior Survey, taken by a nationally representative sample of students in public and private high schools. The results released Monday, derived from more than 17,200 responses, are the first since the pandemic began. The survey is done every two years, and Monday’s report showed trends that spanned from 2011 to 2021.

The findings about hopelessness and sadness among girls are true to the school experiences of high school senior Riana Alexander, 17, who founded the organization Arizona Students for Mental Health. As a group, girls tend to struggle more openly, she said, while boys “tend to struggle in silence.” The sexual violence figures did not startle her either, she said. “I’ve yet to meet a teenage girl who has not had something disgusting said or done to her by a man,” she said.

Why tween girls especially are struggling so much

Lesbian, gay, bisexual and questioning students were significantly more likely to experience violence,including rape, than their heterosexual peers. They were also more likely to be electronically bullied and to report persistent sadness or hopelessness. Twenty-two percent had attempted suicide during the past year. (The survey did not have a question about gender identity, so the analysis did not include transgender students; future versions of the survey are expected to include the question.)

“These data show a distressing picture,” said Debra Houry, the CDC’s chief medical officer, speaking at briefing Monday. “America’s teen girls are engulfed in a growing wave of sadness, violence and trauma.”

That was not completely a surprise for Laurie McGarry Klose, past president of the National Association of School Psychologists. The first thing that came to mind about the rise in depressive symptoms, she said, was “this is the hard data that shows what we have known anecdotally for the last couple of years.”

Teens were hit hard by the isolation and disruption of the pandemic, but many were also shaken by a series of high-profile cases of racial injustice, Klose said — as they simultaneously navigated personal and family difficulties. “It was trauma after trauma, especially for kids of color,” she said.

The report showed disparities by race and ethnicity. Black and Hispanic students were more likely than White and Asian students to avoid school because of safety concerns, a finding the authors said suggested exposure to violence in the community or at school. Black students were more likely to attempt suicide than Asian, Hispanic or White students. White students were more likely to experience sexual violence than Asian, Black and Hispanic students, and they were the only group to see an increase in it.

American Indian or Alaska Native high school students were more likely than other groups to have been raped.

The report also spotlighted some positive findings: Students reported less alcohol and drug use. Over the last decade, fewer students reported ever having sex, currently having sex or having had four or more partners during their lifetime.

Though usage was significantly down over a decade, girls were more likely than boys to have consumed alcohol and used marijuana during the past 30 days. They also were more likely to have recently vaped or ever used illicit drugs such as cocaine, heroin, inhalants, meth and hallucinogens.

Girls were almost twice as likely as boys to be electronically bullied through texting and social media. The targets of bullying were more likely to be White, American Indian or Alaska Native, or LGBQ+.

In its report, the CDC steered attention to the nation’s schools, saying activities there can make a profound difference in the lives of teens. It recommended improved access to mental health services, more classroom management training for teachers, school clubs that foster gay-straight alliances, high-quality health education and enforcement of anti-harassment policies.

Ideally, schools would take on multiple initiatives: “The more of these things you do, the better the impact in the school environment,” Ethier said.

Research shows that those who feel close to people at school have a significantly lower prevalence of serious thoughts of suicide and feelings of persistent sadness or hopelessness. “Our research has shown that young people who feel more connected in their schools do better, both while they are adolescents and up to 20 years later,” Ethier said.

Those least likely to feel connected to school included girls, students of color and LGBQ+ students, according to the data.

Emily Ozer, a professor at the University of California at Berkeley School of Public Health, recommended more mental health services in schools and even small ways to relieve student stress — whether it’s greeting each student by name as they enter class, responding to an absence with a caring inquiry, or giving the occasional homework pass. Student well-being is also linked to the mental health of teachers and other adults in the building, and they, too, need to be supported, she said.

“It takes a lot to be there for students,” Ozer said, “especially distressed students.”

Strikingly 86 percent of students reported high parental monitoring, defined as parents or other adults in the family knowing most of the time where teens are going and who they are with — also considered a protective factor. Nearly 90 percent of girls reported it, compared with 84 percent of boys.

If you or someone you know needs help, visit 988lifeline.org or call or text the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2023/02/13/teen-girls-violence-trauma-pandemic-cdc/

Two-Thirds of Kids Struggle to Read, and We Know How to Fix It

February 13, 2023 Paul Costello1 Uncategorized

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Two young children looking up from behind an open book. One child has short brown hair, and the other has blond hair.

By Nicholas Kristof New York Times February 13th 2023

A lovely aphorism holds that education isn’t the filling of a pail but the lighting of a fire.

But too often, neither are pails filled nor fires lit.

One of the most bearish statistics for the future of the United States is this: Two-thirds of fourth graders in the United States are not proficient in reading.

Reading may be the most important skill we can give children. It’s the pilot light of that fire.

Yet we fail to ignite that pilot light, so today some one in five adults in the United States struggles with basic literacy, and after more than 25 years of campaigns and fads, American children are still struggling to read. Eighth graders today are actually a hair worse at reading than their counterparts were in 1998.

One explanation gaining ground is that, with the best of intentions, we grown-ups have bungled the task of teaching kids to read. There is growing evidence from neuroscience and careful experiments that the United States has adopted reading strategies that just don’t work very well and that we haven’t relied enough on a simple starting point — helping kids learn to sound out words with phonics.

“Too much reading instruction is not based on what the evidence says,” noted Nancy Madden, a professor at Johns Hopkins University who is an expert on early literacy. “That’s pretty clear.

“At least half of kids in the U.S. are not getting effective reading instruction.”

Other experts agree. Ted Mitchell, an education veteran at nearly every level who is now president of the American Council on Education, thinks that easily a majority of children are getting subpar instruction.

Dig deeper into the moment.

Others disagree, of course. But an approach called the “science of reading” has gained ground, and it rests on a bed of phonics instruction.

(I’m focusing on national policy, but parents also play a role. It can be dangerous to listen to kids — you’ll be talked into buying a video game — so read to them! I’ve offered my suggestions for the best kids’ books ever — and truly one of the best reasons to have kids is the chance to read to them.)

I spent much of the 1980s and 1990s as a New York Times correspondent in East Asia, and children there (including mine) learned to read through phonics and phonetic alphabets: hiragana in Japan, bopomofo in Taiwan, pinyin in China and hangul in South Korea. Then I returned with my family to the United States in 1999, and I found that even reading was political: Republicans endorsed phonics, so I was expected as a good liberal to roll my eyes.

The early critique of phonics in part was rooted in social justice, trying to address inadequate education in inner cities by offering more engaging reading materials. The issue became more political when the 2000 Republican Party platform called for “an early start in phonics,” and when President George W. Bush embraced phonics with a major initiative called Reading First.

For liberals, Bush’s support for phonics made it suspect. That had some basis: The Reading First program was not well implemented, and careful evaluations showed it had little impact. It died.

I became intrigued by the failures in reading after listening to a riveting six-part podcast, “Sold a Story,” that argues passionately that the education establishment ignored empirical evidence and unintentionally harmed children.

“Kids are not being taught how to read because for decades teachers have been sold an idea about reading and how children learn to do it,” Emily Hanford, a public radio journalist who for years has focused on reading issues, says in the first of the podcasts. She told me that the podcast has had more than 3.5 million downloads.

One of the targets of the podcast is Lucy Calkins, a professor at Columbia University Teachers College who has a widely used reading curriculum. Calkins has acknowledged learning from the science of reading movement and from Hanford, and she told me how she has modified her curriculum as a result — but she also says that phonics was always part of her approach and that media narratives are oversimplified.

As Calkins and others revise their materials, skeptics worry that curriculums still aren’t fully committed to phonics but layer it onto other strategies, leaving students befuddled.

It’s easy to be glib in describing these reading wars. Everyone agrees that phonics are necessary, and everyone also agrees that phonics are not enough.

“Yes, phonics matters, but how you do phonics matters, too, and the rest of the stuff matters as well,” said Madden. She runs a nonprofit, Success for All, that is one of the most evidence-based organizations for improving reading, and rigorous evaluations have shown excellent results. (Success for All was one of the nonprofits in my 2022 holiday giving guide; huge thanks to my readers for donating more than $6 million to them.)

What’s clear is that when two-thirds of American kids are not proficient at reading, we’re failing the next generation. We can fix this, imperfectly, if we’re relentlessly empirical and focus on the evidence. It’s also noteworthy that lots of other interventions help and aren’t controversial: tutoring, access to books, and coaching parents on reading to children. And slashing child poverty, which child tax credits accomplished very successfully until they were cut back.

Onward.

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/11/opinion/reading-kids-phonics.html

My experience shows Black History Month’s importance — then and now

February 13, 2023 Paul Costello1 Uncategorized

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By Colbert I. King Columnist|Follow Washington Post February 11th 2023

In this second week of Black History Month, Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.) and Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) reintroduced their bill to award the Congressional Gold Medal to approximately 200,000 African Americans who served with the Union Army during the Civil War. My great-grandfather Isaiah King of New Bedford was among them. He was a soldier with Company D of the Fifth Massachusetts (Colored) Cavalry, having enlisted at age 17 on Jan. 16, 1864.S

Those brave Black soldiers served with honor in a system that paid them less than it paid White troops and under adverse conditions, including the risk of enslavement and torture if captured by Confederate forces. Their valor is largely unrecognized or unappreciated.

Getting a pension was another ordeal. It took Great-Granddaddy King 13 years to finally get his pension.

With that as a backdrop, I enter into this year’s observance of Black History Month. It’s a step that I take without warm feelings.

Yes, I join in paying tribute to accomplished Black trailblazers and their contributions to the building of America. I have been doing that since grade school in the 1940s, when the celebration was conducted under the banner “Negro History Week.” It was important then, as it is now, to show that Black contributions extend beyond the fields of sports, entertainment and military service. This country is also a commanding figure on the world stage because of the fight for human rights by the descendants of enslaved Black people — a struggle that inspired independence and anti-colonialism movements around the world.

What stays with me, however, is the reason for continuing to set aside a special time of the year for this observance.

Renowned historian and author John Hope Franklin said Carter G. Woodson, who founded Negro History Week in 1926, always believed that the day would come when there no longer would be a need to set aside such a time, because the history of African Americans would become an integral part of American history to be observed throughout the year. Until Woodson’s death in 1950, Franklin said, he continued to express hope that Negro History Week would outlive its usefulness. It hasn’t. But not for the best of reasons.

The observance served a necessary purpose for Black youngsters in my generation. We needed to hear about the role of Black people in the making of America because we were being told by White people of our day that there was nothing about us, or our mommas and daddies, or other people who looked like us, that White people were bound to respect. And that disdain was expressed in tangible ways.

I’m not talking about Black experiences learned from reading a book or classroom lectures, or from tales told by elders. I lived that history — that long, darkened slice of life that affected my heart and mind in ways unlikely ever to be undone. Those experiences will be with me until my dying day.

Try living with knowledge that White Washingtonians have given the sanction of law to prevent Black-skinned children from attending their schools and our parents, preachers and teachers from entering their theaters and restaurants. Try growing up in a city that, by custom, denied Black people the chance to try on clothes in department stores or sit at drugstore counters; try having to tolerate a racial etiquette in which White men and White women were always addressed by “Mr.,” “Mrs.” or “Miss,” while first-name usage was reserved for Black men and women — regardless of rank, station or age.

Imagine, if you can, what it’s like as a young teen looking for a job to open your morning newspapers and see job advertisements for Whites only. To know that the key reason you could not work inside a bank, a department store, a downtown office building or in a service station, drugstore or restaurant — except for menial jobs — is that you were born Black.

Try knowing, even as a child and young adult, that you were receiving that kind of treatment because White people in our nation’s capital wanted to instill in you a sense of inferiority.

That was my world.

Legalized racism is now off the books, albeit not voluntarily, but by court orders and federal laws. Few employers, store and shop owners, public school leaders or neighborhood citizen associations of my day stopped, looked around and said, “Naw, I don’t want to do that anymore. Let’s do the right thing.” Law, not conscience, made the changes.

Negro History Week, now Black History Month, seeks to refute racial denigration. But that the observance is still needed speaks volumes about where we are as a country. To think: Some states are banning teaching about the impact of racial bias in the pursuit of democracy under the guise of eliminating critical race theory. African American history is American history with all its warts. Period.

My great-granddaddy King is a reminder of that.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/02/10/why-black-history-month-exists/

MLK Riverside Speech with Michael Ealy

February 10, 2023 Paul Costello1 Uncategorized

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Martin Luther King's Most Controversial Speech: Beyond Vietnam. Key Passages and Recording

…”Perhaps a more tragic recognition of reality took place when it became clear to me that the war was doing far more than devastating the hopes of the poor at home. It was sending their sons and their brothers and their husbands to fight and to die in extraordinarily high proportions relative to the rest of the population. We were taking the black young men who had been crippled by our society and sending them eight thousand miles away to guarantee liberties in Southeast Asia which they had not found in southwest Georgia and East Harlem.

And so we have been repeatedly faced with the cruel irony of watching Negro and white boys on TV screens as they kill and die together for a nation that has been unable to seat them together in the same schools. And so we watch them in brutal solidarity burning the huts of a poor village, but we realize that they would hardly live on the same block in Chicago. I could not be silent in the face of such cruel manipulation of the poor…”

Black History Month Study

February 9, 2023 Paul Costello1 Uncategorized

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Thank you Lorne for this

Black History Month is a time to celebrate the rich cultural heritage and immense contributions of Black individuals throughout history. It is a time to reflect on the struggles and triumphs of the Black community, and to acknowledge the incredible impact they have had on shaping our society. This month-long observance is a reminder of the incredible strength and resilience of Black people, and it is a time to show gratitude and appreciation for their contributions to our world.

Here is a collection of videos, books, and articles you can share freely with your teams to support their learning journey. There are an infinite number of resources, and these are ones I curated.

Books:

Ibram X Kendi his book Stamped from the Beginning
Isabel Wilkerson her books Caste and The Warmth of Other Suns.
Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921: The History of Black Wall Street, and its Destruction in America’s Worst and Most Controversial Racial Riot

Videos:

Ibram X Kendi The difference between being “not racist” and antiracist (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KCxbl5QgFZw)
Ibram X Kendi: Stamped from the Beginning (https://bit.ly/3j3yl41)
“Isabel Wilkerson The Great Migration and the power of a single decision” (https://bit.ly/3kD6TKA)
Hulu has a new series on the 1619 project that just dropped,
Netflix has dozens of films and even a whole category of Black themed pieces.
“Teachers Struggle As Debate Continues Over Teaching Race During Black History Month” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=44ahezsEZA8)
“The Ferry: A Civil Rights Story | Retro Report | The New York Times” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q83SPoGjusA)
“Monument Circle showcases Black History Month” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jjk52yMXke0)
“A look at the history behind Black History Month” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2CToEEwgNNk)
“Juneteenth 1865-2022: The Pursuit of Economic Equality” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=soDrQpHz6jg)
“Rebekkah Brunson on Why Black History Month Matters Now More Than Ever | The Players’ Tribune” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=romyip3w4j4)

Articles:

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. His Life and Legacy (https://www.history.com/mlk)
“What is Black History Month and Why is it Celebrated?” by BBC (https://www.itv.com/news/2019-10-02/what-is-black-history-month-and-why-is-it-celebrated)
Caldwell University Black History Month resources (https://libguides.caldwell.edu/blackhistorymonth)
“Black History Month: A Guide to Understanding the Celebration of African American Culture” by The Washington Post (https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/interactive/2021/02/01/black-history-month-2021/)
“The History of Black History Month” by The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) (https://naacp.org/find-resources/history-explained)
“The History of Black History Month” by The History Channel (https://www.history.com/topics/black-history/black-history-month)
“Why We Celebrate Black History Month” by Dr. Gemima St. Louis, (https://www.williamjames.edu/news/Why-We-Celebrate-Black-History-Month.html)

https://www.lorneepstein.com/blackhistorymonthresources

© 2009-2023 Electric Cow

Lorne@Electric

The Immigrant Experience in Montgomery County, Maryland

February 9, 2023 Paul Costello1 Uncategorized

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Volunteer Homepage,Gilchrist Immigrant Resource Center, Montgomery County, MD

Maryland’s historical legacies of opportunity and openness to diverse immigrants continue to characterize Montgomery County, as a third of its residents are foreign born and over forty percent speak a language besides English. Concurrently, Native peoples and the descendants of colonial settler families continue to be part of the fabric of the county.

https://sites.google.com/view/immigrantexperiencemontgomery/home?pli=1

For long covid fatigue, a strategy called ‘pacing’ helps, but at a cost

February 7, 2023 Paul Costello1 Uncategorized

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Amanda Morris Washington Post February 7th 2023

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

What is it like to live with the chronic fatigue of long covid?

It feels like dragging your body through wet cement, says Judy Schaefer, 58, a once avid hiker who lives in Seattle.

It’s knowing that simple tasks, like showering or cooking dinner, will be exhausting, says Alyssa Minor, 36, a physiotherapist in Calgary.

It’s trying to exercise and instead, landing in the ER, says Harry Leeming, 31, of London.

Judy Schaefer, 58, at her home in Seattle, Wash., was an avid hiker before developing long covid after an infection in 2020. (Jovelle Tamayo/ forThe Washington Post)

Experts say the extreme fatigue experienced by many long covid patients has a name: myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME/CFS), a condition previously known as chronic fatigue syndrome. Researchers estimate that about half of people with long covid have developed ME/CFS.

There is no known cure for ME/CFS, but some experts say a complicated lifestyle change can help manage some of the symptoms.

It’s called “pacing.”

Pacing is an “activity management” strategy, which requires people to carefully limit their daily activities, reduce their energy expenditureand track their symptoms.

But pacing is difficult. It often requires scaling back on mundane tasks that most people take for granted, like rinsing dishes or chopping vegetables. And it means finding ways to reduce energy expenditure and effort — such as creating water and snack stations around the house to reduce trips to the kitchen. Even showering or picking children up from school can be debilitating for those with ME/CFS.

The world is moving on. Not these covid long haulers.

Schaefer at home with her dog while she meets with a group of other women with long COVID via Zoom. (Jovelle Tamayo for The Washington Post)

While pacing can make a huge difference in quality of life for someone with long covid, it also comes with a cost. Pacing often means cutting back on both work and favorite activities like cooking, walking the dog or socializing with friends. And it can represent a challenging reversal for people who, until very recently, have been accustomed to leading busy, active lives.

“I tell people to figure out what they can do every day without struggle,” explained Ravindra Ganesh, a physician and medical director of Mayo Clinic’s Post-COVID-19 Care Clinic.

People with long covid who have tried pacing say it has helped them return to a semblance of normalcy.

Daria Oller, 38, of Lincoln Park, N.J., said that after getting covid in March 2020, she felt winded all the time, and the fatigue sometimes left her unable to get up or even speak.

Daria Oller, 38, who has long covid, takes a break on a gymnastics mat in her living room in Lincoln Park, NJ. (Evelyn Freja for The Washington Post.)

To cope, she started using a pacing strategy to manage her activities and energy level. She gave up running and regular dance classes and scaled back date nights with her husband and outings with friends. She also scaled back at her job as a physical therapist, giving up clinical work and now leads education sessions.

She plans her clothing for a week at a time, to minimize effort later. These and other pacing strategies have reduced her symptoms, and leave her with just enough energy to keep working and enjoy the occasional fun activity.

“My symptoms weren’t constant anymore whereas I previously had been short of breath almost all of the time,” Oller said. “It helped to give me a little more sense of control.”

Study raises alarm about impacts of long covid

Oller keeps essential items close by to conserve her energy. (Evelyn Freja for The Washington Post.)

A lesson from longtime sufferers

While pacing is a new strategy for those with long covid, it’s been used for years by people who suffer from ME/CFS. The cause of ME/CFS is not understood. Experts believe the disease can be triggered by illness, infection or stress.

Before she learned how to pace correctly, Kaia Arrow, 32, of Toronto, often needed to stay in bed and could rarely leave the house.

Arrow has lived for 12 years with ME/CFS, which was triggered by a post-surgical infection. She said that over the past few years she has gotten better at pacing, and now she can usually leave the house a few times a week and has started cooking again every few weeks.

“Pacing made it so that I could predict what I could do, like on a small level for the first time in over a decade,” said Arrow. “I can cook for my husband. I can cook for my friends. Not frequently. But, that’s more than I could do before.”

Kaia Arrow, 32, has lived with ME/CFS for 12 years. Scaling back activities and conserving energy has helped her live a more normal life. ( (Chloë Ellingson/For The Washington Post)

The evidence for pacing

“Pacing is being active when you’re able, and resting when you’re tired, rather than pushing through symptoms,” said Jaime Seltzer, director of scientific and medical outreach at #MEAction, a nonprofit advocacy group for people with infection-associated chronic illness.

The effectiveness of pacing for long covid patients with ME/CFS hasn’t yet been widely studied. But the World Health Organization recommends the strategy for long covid patients who experience a worsening of symptoms after activity, which is known as post-exertional malaise.

While pacing is gaining acceptance, patient groups and doctors say more study is needed, and some experts remain divided about the best treatment approach. One of the largest studies to include pacing, published in the Lancet, found that cognitive behavioral therapy and graded exercise therapy may be better options for some patients. Graded exercise therapy involves a gradual increase in activity over time, but some doctors think it’s too risky for ME/CFS patients.

How long covid is accelerating a revolution in medical research

For people with ME/CFS, even holding a phone can be a struggle. Arrow wears finger braces to give her hands more support. (Chloë Ellingson/For The Washington Post)

The study has been widely criticized for its methods. Another analysis of 18,000 survey responses showed that pacing had the highest reported benefit (44 to 82 percent of patients,) while cognitive behavioral therapy helped less (8 to 35 percent). Graded exercise therapy had the highest negative response (54 to 74 percent).

Peter White, the lead author of the Lancet report, said that he stands by the results of the study. He noted that studying recovery or improvement in ME/CFS patients can be difficult because it often relies on subjective criteria. Another issue, he said, may be that some patients aren’t receiving therapy that has been correctly tailored to patients with ME/CFS.

Both the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the British National Institute for Health and Care Excellence updated their guidance in the past decade to remove graded exercise therapy as a recommended treatment for ME/CFS.

What it’s like to live with brain fog

A wheelchair customized with details such as a pink heart sits near the entrance to Arrow’s apartment. (Chloë Ellingson/For The Washington Post)

Rethinking what recovery looks like

One of the biggest challenges of pacing is that it contradicts popular thinking around recovery. For many people with an illness, the goal is to rebuild stamina through physical therapy and gradually increase activity levels over time.

But experts say that approach can result in a debilitating “crash” that leaves patients in even worse condition.

The fatigue that Minor, the Calgary physiotherapist, experienced after she caught a mild case of covid in January 2021, was so bad that she couldn’t get through a single shift at work without feeling like she was “hitting a wall.” Simple chores at home left her feeling exhausted and dizzy.

The post-exertional malaise she described is a defining quality of ME/CFS. Even minor levels of activity can cause a worsening of symptoms, or “crash.”

Arrow keeps a foldable stool in the bathroom to minimize the time she spends standing. (Chloë Ellingson/For The Washington Post)

A dysfunctional energy system

Studies show that people with ME/CFS don’t have the same response to physical exertion as healthy individuals.

In one small study of 22 people with ME/CFS, researchers tested people’s capacity for activity by measuring oxygen intake and how hard they could pedal while they pushedthemselves on a stationary bicycle.

In the study, participants cycled to the point of exhaustion, then repeated the exercise test 24 hours later. On the second test, the researchers found the participants could not match the performance they had put in the day before, even when putting in maximum effort. And their bodies’ ability to use oxygen and deliver it to cells had declined significantly.

These tests, called cardiopulmonary exercise tests, have been performed on people with long covid as well, yielding similar results.

Oller sorts through a box of clothes she needs for the week, including compression socks. (Evelyn Freja for The Washington Post)

The culprit seems to be a dysfunction in the body’s aerobic energy system, which is responsible for providing long-term energy to the body and relies heavily on blood flow to deliver oxygen, according to Todd Davenport, professor and vice-chair of the physical therapy program at the University of the Pacific, who has studied ME/CFS.

When a healthy person runs up a flight of stairs, for instance, they may breathe heavily because the body can’t distribute oxygen to the cells fast enough to keep up with the body’s demand. A healthy body with a well-functioning aerobic energy system can recover quickly.

But someone with moderate ME/CFS experiences a shortage of energy more easily, even after minor activity, and takes longer to recover. And, if they continue to push themselves, they risk permanently lowering their body’s ability to perform various activities, said Davenport.

Often, by the time people learn about pacing, they are already caught in a boom and bust cycle, where they feel better, push themselves to do too much and crash again, said Seltzer. Sometimes a crash occurs 24 hours or longer after the triggering activity, she said.

Arrow’s cart includes craft supplies, drinks and snacks, and garbage and recycling bags, among other things. (Chloë Ellingson/For The Washington Post)

Schaefer, the hiking enthusiast in Seattle, developed long covid after an infection in July 2020 and still struggles with knowing what she can’t do. She started pacing in early 2021 based on advice from her doctors at the University of Washington’s Post-COVID-19 rehabilitation and recovery program.

Every day, Schaefer said she tries to do only one or two things, such as vacuum the floor, do laundry or go for a walk around the block. Sometimes, the activity she chooses is still too much and she can’t get off the couch.

“It’s a learning process that takes months or years to realize what you need to do or need to not do,” she said. “If I wasn’t pacing, I would probably be worse right now with the fatigue. It’s this bone crushing fatigue that I can never push through.”

Oller takes a break and elevates her feet at her New Jersey home. For people with ME/CFS, pacing includes taking frequent rest breaks. (Evelyn Freja for The Washington Post.)

How to start pacing

The hardest part of pacing is determining the correct level of activity. People with ME/CFS who have been pacing for years say it is often difficult to prioritize what to do and not do.

“You have to convince yourself to say no to a lot of things that you really want to do,” Arrow said.

To start pacing, use a blank weekly planner or a scheduling app like Daylio to plan each day’s activities.
Start with the goal of making about half of your waking hours “rest time.” Rest does not include any activities that require mental energy, such as going on your phone or reading a book.
Schedule your “must-do” activities, and try to plan small breaks between each activity — it may be necessary to rest between basic tasks like showering or eating breakfast.
If there is time left, add in activities that you would like to do (You probably won’t be able to include all of them.)
Avoid scheduling activities that would cause your heart rate to rise significantly.
Record your symptoms daily to determine if you are pacing yourself correctly. Try categorizing your days as green (feeling good), yellow (feeling okay or needing more rest) and red (feeling bad).
If symptoms don’t improve, keep cutting back activities and resting until they do. If you begin to feel better, you can try adding more activities into your routine, but remember to take frequent breaks.

For many people, pacing may mean reducing work hours, working remotely or stopping work altogether. Other strategies include delegating household tasks to loved ones, using meal delivery services instead of cooking, and breaking up bigger tasks into smaller ones with rests in between.

For example, Seltzer, who herself has ME/CFS, will chop vegetables and toss them in a freezer on one day; then she’ll cook the meal on another day.

Other ME/CFS patients say they use a chair while showering or cooking, since sitting down during tasks can help save energy.

Some people use timers to be sure they don’t forget to rest.

Tracking exertion

Another way to practice pacing is to keep track of daily physical exertion.

One method is to record how many hours each day you spent on your feet. For instance, if five hours a day on your feet is too much, scale back until you find the right amount of time for you.

Some ME/CFS patients track exertion with a heart rate monitor, Davenport said. Start by calculating your average morning resting heart rate over seven days. Try to stay within 15 beats per minute of your resting heart rate. The longer you spend above this threshold, the greater the risk of a crash later, he said.

Experienced pacers also learn to monitor their heart rate variability, by measuring the amount of time between beats, which can vary by fractions of seconds. It can also be a way to predict future energy levels, said Davenport.

A free app called Visible allows you to place your finger on your smartphone camera for one minute and check heart rate variability and resting heart rate. The app is still in beta testing and has been designed specifically to help people with pacing. It was created by Leeming, the British man who has long covid, in collaboration with several researchers.

Leeming said that once he realized pacing helped him feel better, he decided to create an app to make it easier.

“Even if I think I should go slower, having that extra bit of information like, ‘Yes, you’re making the right decision’ has been really helpful,” he said.

Whitney Dafoe, 39, of Palo Alto, Calif., is an award-winning photographer who has lived with ME/CFS since the age of 21. Pacing helps him conserve enough energy to use his phone and computer and to take self portraits that document severe ME/CFS. But he is unable to leave bed and is fed through a tube. He responded to questions by email.

People with ME/CFS should think of pacing as a way of life, he said. “Pacing is how you survive,” he wrote.

Sign up for the Well+Being newsletter, your source of expert advice and simple tips to help you live well every day

By Amanda Morris
Amanda Morris is a disability reporter for The Washington Post on its Well+Being desk. Before joining The Post in 2022, she was the inaugural disability reporting fellow for the New York Times. Twitter

https://www.washingtonpost.com/wellness/2023/01/16/long-covid-fatigue-pacing/

For MLK Day- Boston’s ‘Embrace’ holds fast to the whitewashed view of MLK

February 6, 2023 Paul Costello1 Uncategorized

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Karen Attiah, Washington Post January 21, 2023

“Most of my rebellions are against mediocrity,” the writer Anais Nin said. In that spirit, then, let me rebel: When it comes to the legacy of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., America loves to conjure up half-assed banalities in the name of “social justice.”

This year, the city of Boston added its own twisted contribution to the Disneyfication of King’s legacy. On Friday, the city unveiled “The Embrace,” a $10 million, 20-foot-high bronze sculpture in Boston Common. “The Embrace” features the disembodied arms and slender hands of a woman and the sleeved arms of a man in what is meant to be a hug. The arms are supposed to be that of King and his wife, Coretta Scott King.

The $10 million, 20-foot-tall bronze sculpture was inspired by a photo of Martin Luther King Jr. and his wife, Coretta Scott King, embracing after he won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964. “ (Steven Senne/AP)

From one angle the sculpture shows the arms interlocking in a way that evokes a heart, clearly the intent. But from another, shown in photos that are firing around the internet, the sculpture could be mistaken for something a bit, uh, NSFW.

As I wrote on Twitter, when I first saw “The Embrace” I felt a visceral discomfort that lingered for a few days. Public art and the processes around it are always political. Even more so in a nation that has few public monuments and statues of Black people.

A number of thorny vines get tangled in the politics of “The Embrace” as a universalist representation of King’s legacy.

First of all, one would not immediately know that the statue, a work of public art that is meant to be an homage to King, and by extension to his activism, depicts the Rev. Martin Luther Jr. and Coretta Scott King at all. The sculpture appears to not have any indication of race; these could be anyone’s hands. Sculptor Hank Willis Thomas said that he took inspiration from a photo of the two embracing after Martin Luther King Jr. won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964. He wanted, he said, for the sculpture to be a universal symbol of love.

Let’s unpack that.

It’s bad enough that a casual visitor would need to see the reference photo to understand the intent of the sculpture. But beyond that, these static arms and hands don’t really show emotion. For all we know, it could just as easily show two people embracing in mourning or in a casual greeting among relatives. The embodied joy and love between Martin and Coretta were in their very Black faces. But here their heads have been separated from their bodies, leaving floating body parts that only form a heart if seen from the right angle.

“The Embrace” also evokes America’s compulsion to butcher King’s fight against white supremacy. The statue reinforces how White America loves to see King not as the radical who was murdered for fiercely challenging capitalism, imperialism and white supremacy but as a man who used feel-good, interpersonal love to overcome the racist violence of America’s institutions. That reduces racism to an issue of people not being nice to one another, not one of systems and institutions that perpetuate anti-Black violence and inequality.

This is why institutions like the FBI — which surveilled King and continues to surveil Black activists — have the audacity to tweet about King’s example. Politicians across the country have used King’s messages about love and judging people not “by the color of their skin but by the content of their character” to justify laws whitewashing the history on race that is taught in our nation’s schools — some even have proposed dropping from the required curriculum MLK’s “I Have a Dream” speech that articulates that very concept.

So dismemberment of Martin and Coretta by “The Embrace” to form a superficial representation of love is both safe and grotesque.

On one level, considering that Martin Luther King Jr. was murdered, there is something violent about creating a tribute to him out of disembodied body parts.

On a deeper level, this dismemberment represents the misremembering of MLK’s legacy. Simply put: The deliberate forgetting of America’s history plays a crucial role in the self-understanding of White Americans. It makes them feel safe and innocent. It absolves them of the need to feel guilt, anger and empathy — all of which can be necessary emotional catalysts for change. Reducing activism to fuzzy feelings of love and niceness prevents the hard work of disrupting the vestiges of the white supremacy that continue to endanger Black lives and hold the country hostage.

And to answer one point raised in response to my Twitter thread about these themes: Some argue that “The Embrace” has nothing to do with White America — because the sculptor, Thomas, is Black.

C’mon. As contributors to the public discourse, Black writers, artists, intellectuals and critics need to be able to publicly engage with each other’s ideas, to look at them critically. The context of creation matters. And in the heavily White art world, one can understand that “safe” art about the struggle for social justice will easily find backers — and is more likely to end up on prominent placements like Boston Common. Let this be a reminder that representation alone is not the same as progress.

If you think I’m wrong about “The Embrace,” let me know, and tell me why. Regardless, I hope one day White America will stop cherry-picking MLK and actually embrace its responsibility to end white supremacy. But right now, sadly, that feels like a pipe dream.

Do you have questions, comments, tips, recipes, poems, praise, or critiques for me? Submit them here. I do read every submission and may include yours in a future version of the newsletter.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/01/20/boston-mlk-statute-embrace-whitewashed/

Guide to the best Black History Month events around Washington

February 6, 2023 Paul Costello1 Uncategorized

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Fritz Hahn Washington Post Feb 3 2023

Black history is Washington’s history, every month of the year. The city is home to the National Museum of African American History and Culture, but numerous museums showcase Black excellence. The Mall bore witness to important events, such as the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech and the inauguration of America’s first Black president, but the streets are rich with stories: Frederick Douglass, Carter G. Woodson and Mary McLeod Bethune all lived in D.C. Duke Ellington and Charles Drew were born here. Howard University was founded here. Black Broadway thrived here.

In February, the nation’s official Black History Month, there are ample opportunities to celebrate historical figures and walk in the footsteps of great men and women, both famous and unheralded. “Black Resistance” is the theme of this year’s commemorations, and it’s a through-line connecting many of the events around town.

The occasion also serves as a chance to learn more about the art being created by neighbors and the history in our own backyard. It’s a chance to acknowledge the contributions of remarkable Black Americans and come away inspired to carry their legacies forward.

Photographer Dee Dwyer’s “Wild Seeds of the Soufside” is on view at the Phillips Collection’s Phillips at THEARC from Feb. 18 to May 13. Dwyer discusses her work at a Feb. 24 reception. (Dee Dwyer)

Art and film

Black Voices film screenings at Alamo Drafthouse Cinema: A month-long program at the area’s Alamo theaters features films showcasing the talents of Black actors, directors and producers. The lineup includes such feature films as “Boyz n the Hood,” “Love & Basketball” and “Moonlight” and documentaries “Hoop Dreams” and “Wattstax.” Through March 1. Times and prices vary. drafthouse.com.

Artist Talk: ‘The Radical Voice of Blackness Speaks of Resistance and Joy’ at the Banneker-Douglass Museum: The Annapolis museum’s current exhibition includes paintings, photographs, videos and other works from prominent Black Maryland-based artists. Hear from Devin Allen, Wesley Clark and Chrystal Seawood, who have works included in the exhibit, during a discussion moderated by guest curator Myrtis Bedolla. The exhibition remains on display through Sept. 30. Artist talk, Feb. 18 from 1 to 3 p.m. bdmuseum.maryland.gov. Free; registration required.

‘Wild Seeds of the Soufside’ opening at Phillips at THEARC: Photographer Dee Dwyer’s images of people and everyday life in Southeast Washington are featured in a new exhibition at the Phillips Collection’s gallery at the Town Hall Education Arts Recreation Campus (THEARC) in Congress Heights. Dwyer discusses her work at the opening reception; the exhibit is on view through May 13. Opening reception, Feb. 24 from 5 to 9 p.m. phillipscollection.org. Free; registration required.

Music

A2B at the Eaton Workshop: The Eaton’s A2B series, which finds musicians, DJs and journalists playing and discussing records that hold deep personal meaning, examines “Black history and future through music” in the hotel’s library throughout February. Sessions include filmmaker and former Post journalist Chris Jenkins covering Public Enemy’s “Fear of a Black Planet” on Feb. 9 and Panama Jackson of TheGrio delving into Erykah Badu’s “Mama’s Gun” on Feb. 16. Thursdays through Feb. 23. 7 to 9 p.m. eatonworkshop.com. Free; RSVP required.

Mamie Smith, Bessie Smith and the Centennial Year of Race Records with Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra at the National Museum of Natural History: 1923 was a momentous year for music, featuring the first recordings from Bessie Smith, later dubbed the “Empress of the Blues.” The Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra explores the trailblazing output of Bessie Smith and “Queen of the Blues” Mamie Smith (no relation) during this concert. Feb. 18 at 7 p.m. smithsonianassociates.org. $25.

Live! At the Library: African American Folk Music with Jake Blount at Library of Congress: Roots musician Jake Blount drew from historical recordings housed at the Library of Congress’s American Folklife Center when creating his acclaimed 2022 album “The New Faith,” and Blount returns to the library for this after-hours party, where the gifted banjo player will perform and discuss how African American traditions have shaped Americana music. Before or after the event, visitors can also view the temporary exhibit on “Black Resistance,” which draws from library collections. Feb. 23 at 6 p.m. loc.gov. Free; timed entry passes required.

Soul and Blues Music Maker Foundation Showcase at National Gallery of Art: In conjunction with the exhibit “Called to Create: Black Artists of the American South,” the National Gallery of Art’s East Building hosts a day featuring live performances of blues, bluegrass and gospel. Feb. 26 from noon to 4:30 p.m. nga.gov. Free.

The southern leg of Alexandria’s African American Waterfront Heritage Trail ends at Jones Point, which is the site of the boundary stone marking the original southern tip of Washington. The trail extension launches Feb. 4. (Carol Jean Stalun/Visit Alexandria)

History and tours

African American Waterfront Heritage Trail extension in Old Town Alexandria: In 2021, the city of Alexandria launched the African American Waterfront Heritage Trail, a self-guided walking tour from the waterfront at King Street north to the Cross Canal neighborhood near Tide Lock Park. This month, the city launches a 19-stop extension of the interactive multimedia tour, which can be accessed on a smartphone, leading from King Street south to Jones Point Park, covering Black history from the 18th century to the present. Trail launches Feb. 4. alexandriava.gov. Free.

African American Voices tour at Washington National Cathedral: The Rev. Martin Luther King. Jr. delivered his final Sunday sermon from the pulpit of Washington National Cathedral; Archbishop Desmond Tutu preached there on the first anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Learn more about the cathedral’s relationship with these men and other Black leaders and theologians during themed tours of the building. Feb. 4 at 10:30 a.m. and Feb. 25 at 2 p.m. cathedral.org. $25-$30.

Frederick Douglass Birthday Celebration at Capital Turnaround: Cedar Hill, the historic mansion that Frederick Douglass called home, remains closed for renovations, so the annual birthday party for the Lion of Anacostia is moving to the former streetcar barn across from the Navy Yard. The program includes period music from the Jubilee Voices of the Washington Revels, DC Strings, speeches from the student winners of the Frederick Douglass Oratorical Contest and a discussion about which city Douglass really considered his home during his lifetime. Feb. 11 at 2 p.m. nps.gov/frdo. Free.

After Emancipation walking tours in Rock Creek Park: National Park Service rangers lead this two-mile tour exploring sites associated with formerly enslaved people who lived and worked on land that’s now part of Rock Creek Park, including Sarah Whitby, whose now-vanished house was excavated by archaeologists. The walk begins near Picnic Grove 28, and no reservations are required. Feb. 12 and 18 at 10 a.m. nps.gov/rocr. Free.

Black History Tours from Off the Mall Tours: Off the Mall Tours offers a collection of walking tours covering subjects as esoteric as Civil War madams and the birth of D.C. punk. For February, topics include Queer Black Broadway (Feb. 25), an LGBTQ tour of U Street sites in conjunction with the Rainbow History Project, and the History of Black Georgetown (Feb. 26). Feb. 12-26. Times vary. otmdc.com. $25.

Families can explore the Underground Railroad Experience Trail during Black History Month Family Day at Woodlawn Manor Cultural Park in Sandy Spring. (Marilyn Stone/Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission)

For families

Community Day: Celebrating the 25th Anniversary of ‘The Lion King’ on Broadway at the National Museum of African American History and Culture: “The Lion King” debuted a quarter-century ago, with its innovative masks and staging and a soundtrack proudly featuring authentic African music. The production changed the face of Broadway and became the highest-grossing Broadway musical ever. This month, “The Lion King” will be celebrated with a family festival on the Mall, which includes workshops with Disney “theatrical teaching artists” and family activities across the museum. Feb. 20 at 10:30 a.m. nmaahc.si.edu. Free; registration required. Separate registration for workshops required.

Culture Queen Kids Hour: Magnificent Monuments at the Anacostia Community Museum: One of the most dynamic and joyful children’s performers around, Culture Queen empowers audiences while also educating them, thanks to songs such as “I Like the Me I See” and “I Am the Future of Black History.” Her monthly visits to the Anacostia Community Museum feature crafts, stories and fun, and for Black History Month, participants will discuss people they admire before building monuments to them. Feb. 4 from noon to 1 p.m. anacostia.si.edu. Free; registration required.

NMAAHC Kids Learning Together from the National Museum of African American History and Culture: Animated movie and TV heroes serve as the inspiration for online Zoom programs sponsored by the National Museum of African American History and Culture. Feb. 21 is based on “Doc McStuffins,” so kids can meet a real doctor and learn about staying healthy, while the Feb. 10 event celebrates Frozone of “The Incredibles” and features a figure skater and a science project about ice. Registration is required for each session, and participants will receive information about craft supplies by email before the event. Various times and dates, beginning Feb. 4. nmaahc.si.edu. Free; registration required.

Black History Month Family Day at Woodlawn Manor: Sandy Spring’s Woodlawn Manor, home to Montgomery County’s Underground Railroad Experience Trail and a museum with exhibits about free and enslaved Black communities, is open for self-guided tours and take-home activities. Feb. 18 from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. montgomeryparks.org. Free.

Black Aviators Tour at the College Park Aviation Museum: Learn about the exploits of Black pilots, such as Eugene Bullard, a member of the legendary Lafayette Flying Corps during World War I, and Gus McLeod, the first man to fly over the North Pole in an open-cockpit biplane (on display at the museum), during this tour designed for ages 12 and older. 11 a.m. Feb. 4, 11 and 25 as well as 1 p.m. each Saturday and Sunday through Feb. 26. pgparks.com. Free.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2023/02/02/black-history-month-events-washington-dc/

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Posts by Paul Costello1