Stand Against Racism Challenge 2022
Thank you for joining us and the participants who have registered to be a part of YWCA’s virtual community of growth, the Stand Against Racism Challenge! Our work starts now and continues every weekday (Monday through Friday) from April 4th until May 2nd. Every day you will be presented with 3-4 articles, videos, infographics, or podcasts to help you to take a deep dive into the daily topic. Do not feel any pressure to engage with every piece of content. The time required to complete each challenge and whether it is audio, visual, or interactive are listed upfront so that you can participate in a way that fits your schedule and learning style. We look forward to going on this journey towards true equity and justice with you!
The Stand Against Racism Challenge is an essential part of YWCA’s annual Stand Against Racism.
This year’s theme: We Can’t Wait: Equity and Justice Now!
If you haven’t already, visit the homepage to take the Stand Against Racism pledge and tell Congress to take action on key issues.
Join the discussion or comment about each activity here. We welcome an open discourse:
Week 1: 4/4 - 4/8/22
If you followed the news at all this past year, you probably heard about Critical Race Theory and what students are learning about race and racism in schools. Today, we are going to take the time to explore what CRT is, dispel some common misconceptions, and take a deep dive into the origins of this important academic movement.
Title of Content | Author/Speaker | Daily Theme: What is Critical Race Theory? | Content-type | Time to complete | Links | Source | Key facts |
Kimberlé Crenshaw on Teaching the Truth about Race in America | Kimberlé Crenshaw | Listen to this podcast featuring Kimberlé Crenshaw, one of the founders of the Critical Race Theory movement, as she explains the true meaning of CRT and how it became a political flashpoint in schools and beyond. | Podcast | 36 minutes | Click Here | ACLU | CRT Defined: refers to a body of legal scholarship from the 70s and 80s that says racism is not just a result of individual prejudice, but something embedded in the legal system and in government policy. |
Critical Race Theory: Common Misconceptions | Professor Khiara M. Bridges | In this video, Critical Race Theory scholar Professor Khiara M. Bridges dispels some of the commonly repeated untruths about CRT. | Video | 6 minutes | Click Here | UC Berkley School of Law | CRT is not being taught in k-12 schools. CRT is not DEI training and often critiques DEI for not addressing systemic issues. CRT does not vilify white people. Anti CRT policies are aimed at elminating discussions about race in schools. |
A Lesson on Critical Race Theory | Janel George | Read this deep dive on how CRT’s framework challenges the status quo of racial inequality, and how the law and lawyers can help to finally upend systemic racism. | Article | 14 minutes | Click Here | The American Bar Association | CRT critiques how the social construction of race and institutionalized racism perpetuate a racial caste system that relegates people of color to the bottom tiers. CRT also recognizes that race intersects with other identities, including sexuality, gender identity, and others. |
Manufactured boogeyman’: Latino critical race theory pioneers, advocates push back | Raul A. Reyes | Read this article on the contributions of Latino scholars to the field of Critical Race Theory and how CRT helps shed light on the Latino experience in America. | Article | 8 minutes | Click Here | NBC | 59 percent of Latinos said that increased attention to the history of racism in America was good for society. About the same percentage of Latinos also said a lot more needs to be done to achieve racial equality. |
The backlash against Critical Race Theory in schools is partially a reaction to a push by teachers to correct the stereotypes and narratives in their curriculum that devalued people of color’s contributions and experiences. Today, we are going to talk about some of the ways that schools have failed to teach difficult truths and erased people of color.
Title of content | Author/Speaker | Daily Theme: Racism/Bias in School Curriculum | Content-type | Time to complete | Links | Source | Key facts |
Why Schools Fail To Teach Slavery’s ‘Hard History’ | CORY TURNER | Read this article on how the way that slavery has been discussed in textbooks and taught in American classrooms perpetuates racist stereotypes and has left generations of Americans with a whitewashed version of history. | Article/Podcast | 4 minutes | Click Here | NPR | Of a sample of 1,000 high school seniors, only 8% were able to identify the preservation of slavery as the reason the South seceded from the Union |
Reexamining U.S. History Textbooks To Promote Equality In The Classroom | NBC Nightly News | Read this article on reckoning with the often racist descriptions or omissions of Black history in U.S. history textbooks. | Video | 3 minutes | Click Here | NBC | Often, the very first references to Black people in American history books is as slaves. | |
Survey finds ‘shocking’ lack of Holocaust knowledge among millennials and Gen Z | Kit Ramgopal | Read this article on the lack of knowledge of the Holocaust among American adults under 40 and how misinformation on social media contributes to Holocaust denial. | Article | 8 minutes | Click Here | NBC | Among adults under 40, 1 in 10 respondents did not recall ever having heard the word “Holocaust” before. |
Teacher’s Racist Class Skit Highlights Bias Against Native Americans in Schools | Leah Altman | Read this article about how schools are failing to prepare educators adequately to teach accurate representations of our country’s Indigenous peoples. | Article | 5 minutes | Click Here | Parents.com | 70 percent of Americans are interested in learning more about Native people and support Native political interests, increased representation, and inclusion of Natives in entertainment, and significant changes to K–12 curricula to ensure accurate Native history and culture is taught in schools. |
Because of the racism embedded in the school curriculum teachers have moved to update their lesson plans with an antiracist lens. These resources discuss how teachers have made necessary changes, how students are responding to this richer view of history, and why these conversations are so important to have with children and young people.
Title of content | Author/Speaker | Daily Theme: Teaching the next generation | Content-type | Time to complete | Links | Source | Key facts |
Should Schools Teach about Racism? Three Students Weigh In. | Read this interview with three students on how history is taught in their schools, what they would like to see change, and why antiracist education is important to them. | Article | 8 minutes | Click Here | America’s Promise Alliance | ||
How Educators Are Talking to Students About Systemic Racism | Lizzie O’Leary | Listen to this podcast discussing how educators are attempting to talk to their students about systemic racism and the role it plays in our society. | Podcast | 30 minutes | Click Here | WNYC Studios, the Takeaway | |
How to Talk to Kids About Race | Jemar Tisby | Watch this video about how to talk to kids about race and why it is important to have the conversation early, often, and honestly. | Video | 3 minutes | Click Here | The Atlantic | As early as 3 years old, children are classifying people based on appearences. |
How advocates are writing Asian American stories back into history books | Agnes Constante | Read this article about how advocates are writing Asian American stories back into history books and developing lesson plans and curricula about Asian American history. | Article | 8 minutes | Click Here | NBC | Asian Americans are one of the fastest growing ethnic groups in the country. |
Truth-telling is vital to a functioning democracy, even if it is painful. Unfortunately, that is becoming more difficult in our classrooms as more States pass bills banning Critical Race Theory in schools. Barred from talking openly about the impact of systemic racism, sexism, and homophobia, educators are left with the choice between failing to teach their students basic facts about American history and potential legal consequences that could end their careers.
Title of content | Author/Speaker | Daily Theme: Legislative Backlash to CRT | Content-type | Time to complete | Links | Source | Key facts |
Map: See which states have passed critical race theory bills | Char Adams, Allan Smith, and Aadit Tambe | View this map showing which states have banned critical race theory from public schools, along with other discussions about racism, and which states are considering such bills. | Article / Infographic | 4 minutes | Click Here | NBC | Lawmakers in nearly half of the states have proposed legislation to limit the teaching of concepts such as racial equity and white privilege. |
The ACLU on fighting critical race theory bans: ‘It’s about our country reckoning with racism’ | Julia Carrie Wong | Read this article on how the ACLU is pushing back against state bans on Critical Race Theory in the classroom and why anti-CRT legislation has a chilling effect on all discussions about race/racism in schools. | Article | 9 minutes | Click Here | The Gaurdian | Bills seeking to limit the teaching of CRT have been introduced in 22 states in 2021. |
Critical race theory bans are making teaching much harder | Fabiola Cineas | Read this article on how the vague way that anti-CRT legislation has been written is making it difficult for educators to navigate what conversations are allowed, leaving them fearful of potential legal consequences. | Article | 15 minutes | Click Here | Vox | in July, Illinois became the first state to mandate Asian American history for elementary and high school students, and Connecticut required all high schools to offer African American studies and Latino studies by 2022, with Native American studies being required in all schools beginning in the 2023-24 school year. |
The backlash against Critical Race Theory is a symptom of our unwillingness to talk about or acknowledge racism. In order for our country to heal we need to be willing to have difficult conversations about the harm systemic oppression has done and is continuing to do to people of color. Today’s resources share stories about how other countries reckoned with their painful history and how we as Americans can use these examples to find our own way forward towards justice and growth.
Title of content | Author/Speaker | Daily Theme: Truth and Healing | Content-type | Time to complete | Links | Source | Key facts |
The German model for America | Mattie Kahn | Read this article on how the long and public reckoning that followed the Holocaust shows a path forward for how America can begin to heal the intergenerational trauma caused by slavery and Jim Crow. | Article | 30 minutes | Click Here | Vox | After 1945, there were no monuments to Nazis on their boulevards. The streets and squares named after Hitler were rechristened within a matter of weeks. It became illegal to brandish a swastika, the Nazi emblem. |
How South Africa has confronted its history of racism | TRIGGER WARNING: Graphic Violence. Watch this video on South Africa’s struggle to reckon with the violence of Apartheid and why painful conversations and reparations are key to moving forward. | Video | 6 minutes | Click Here | CBS | For 7 years, South Africa’s truth and reconciliation commission was broadcast regularly on national television. Because economic justice was left unfulfilled in South Africa, the impact of Apartheid is still being deeply felt by Black residents. | |
New Lynching Memorial Is A Space ‘To Talk About All Of That Anguish’ | DEBBIE ELLIOTT | Read this article about how the National Memorial for Peace and Justice, dedicated to victims of lynching, is enabling visitors to confront the brutality of slavery and Jim Crow and sparking powerful conversations across the country. | Article/Podcast | 5 minutes | Click Here | NPR | The Equal Justice Initiative has documented more than 4,000 “racial terror” lynchings — extrajudicial killings, often by hanging, for alleged crimes — in the U.S. between 1877 and 1950. |
‘Notice the Rage; Notice the Silence’ | Resmaa Menakem | Read or listen to this interview with author, therapist, and trauma specialist Resmaa Menakem on how racial intergeneration trauma manifests in the body and strategies for centering ourselves. | Article/Podcast | 38/50 minutes | Click Here | On being.org |
Week 2: 4/11 - 4/15/22
A living wage is defined as a minimum income necessary for an individual to meet their basic needs such as food, housing, clothing, etc. The weekly median salary for full-time workers is $49,450. That means half of the full-time workers make less, and when they have children, the math looks even darker. The pandemic put into sharp focus the importance of historically undervalued jobs in retail, health care, and food service. It is long past time to ensure that full-time workers make a living wage. Use these resources to find out what the living wage would need to be in your community to provide a decent standard of living.
Content Title | Author/Speaker | Year Published | Daily Theme: What is the Living Wage? | Content-type | Time to complete | Links | Source | Key Facts |
LIVING WAGE CALCULATOR | Amy K. Glasmeier | The living wage calculator was developed by Amy Glasmeier and Tracey Farrigan to estimate the cost of living in your community or region based on typical expenses. The tool helps individuals, communities, and employers determine a local wage rate that allows residents to meet minimum standards of living. | activity | 5 minutes | Click Here | Living Wage Calculator | The living wage model is an alternative measure of basic needs. It is a market-based approach that draws upon geographically specific expenditure data related to a family’s likely minimum food, childcare, health insurance, housing, transportation, and other basic necessities | |
Everything you wanted to know about a living wage but didn’t know whom to ask | Wendi C. Thomas | 2018 | Read this article to answer all questions about living wage, and what you can do to advocate for minimum wage workers | article | Click Here | MLK50.com | ||
Essential workers comprise about half of all workers in low-paid occupations. They deserve a $15 minimum wage. | Molly Kinder and Laura Stateler | 2021 | During the COVID-19 pandemic, we were reminded that essential workers are the backbone of our country’s economy. Read this article on why we need to act to ensure they are paid the living wage they deserve. | article | 7 minutes | Click Here | brookings.edu | Essential workers comprised approximately half (47%) of all workers in occupations with a median wage of less than $15 an hour. |
When the federal minimum wage was put into place in 1938, employers were required to pay their workers $.25 per hour. Contrary to popular belief, President Franklin Roosevelt intended this to be a living wage that meant more than subsistence. Since then, the minimum wage has not kept pace with increased productivity or even inflation. Today, we are going to learn more about the history of the minimum wage, how and why it no longer reflects the needs of everyday Americans, and its disproportionate impact on people marginalized by racism and sexism.
Content title | Author/Speaker | Year Published | Daily Theme: Minimum Wage | Content-type | Time to complete | Links | Source | Key Facts |
What the US gets wrong about minimum wage | 2019 | Watch this video about the history of the minimum wage in America and how its failure to keep up with inflation has made the minimum wage significantly weaker than it’s high point in the 60s and 70s. | Video | 5 minutes | Click Here | Vox | When adjusting for inflation, the minimum wage has not gone up and has essential been unchanged since the 1980s. | |
When it comes to raising the minimum wage, most of the action is in cities and states, not Congress | DREW DESILVER | 2021 | Mimimum wage can be drastically different between states following the federal minimum and other states creating their own. Read this article to understand how states determine their minimum wage | Article | 5 minutes | Click Here | Pew Research Center | the $7.25 federal minimum wage is actually used in just 21 states, which collectively account for about 40% of all U.S. wage and salary workers |
How Raising the Minimum Wage Can Bring Dignity to Latino Workers | 2019 | Throughout history, Latino/a individuals have been at the front of the economic empowerment movement. Read this article dispelling myths about minimum wage workers and learn how a living wage will benefit Latino Workers | Article | 4 minutes | Click Here | UnidosUS Action Fund | Today, workers who earn the federal minimum wage make about 29 percent less per hour than their counterparts made 50 years ago, after adjusting for inflation. Nearly one in five Hispanic workers are paid a poverty wage | |
Workers of color are far more likely to be paid poverty-level wages than white workers | David Cooper | 2018 | The racial wage gap has remained consistent in the US since the 80s. Read this article to explore how poverty-level wages have a disproportional affect on marginalized people. | Article | Click Here | Economic Policy Institute | the average family size of Hispanic workers is 14.5 percent larger than the average white worker, yet they are 123 percent more likely than white workers to be paid a poverty-level wage. |
Content title | Author/Speaker | Year Published | Daily Theme: Racist History of Tipping | Content-type | Time to complete | Links | Source | Key Facts |
The Racist History of Tipping, Minimum Wage and the Fight for Equity | Unpack That | Felice Leon | 2021 | Watch this video on the racist history of the subminimum tipped wage and how it continues to disproportionately impact black and brown women in the resturant industry. | Video | 10 minutes | Click Here | The Root | 41% of tipped workers are people of color. 66% of tipped workers are women. 37% of tipped workers are mothers |
The Racist History of Tipping | REV. DR. WILLIAM J. BARBER II | 2019 | Read this article on how tipping was introduced in America as a way to avoid paying wages to Black people recently free of slavery. | Article | 6 minutes | Click Here | Politico | When the Department of Labor conducted an unusual compliance sweep of 9,000 full-service restaurants between 2010 and 2012, they found that 84 percent had violated the subminimum wage system. |
The Land of the Fee | Rund Abdelfatah, Ramtin Arablouei, Nina Martyris | 2021 | Listen to this podcast on American tippings origins on the railroad, the early anti-tipping movement, and how the New Deal codified our two teir wage system. | Podcast | 50 minutes | Click Here | NPR |
YWCA is committed to the health, safety, and economic empowerment of women of color. Because people marginalized by racism and sexism make up a disproportionate number of low-wage workers, raising today’s minimum wage to a living wage has the potential to be an important tool for achieving economic justice and closing the racial and gender pay gaps.
Content title | Author/Speaker | Year Published | Daily Theme: Closing the Racial & Gender wealth gap | Content-type | Time to complete | Links | Source | Key Facts |
Why Increasing the Minimum Wage Could Help Close the Gender Wage Gap | LISA RABASCA ROEPE | 2021 | Read this article on how moving towards a living wage would help to close the pay gap. 34 percent of Black working women and 31 percent of Latina workers will get a raise if the minimum wage rises to $15 per hour | Article | 5 minutes | Click Here | Ms. Magazine | If the minimum wage was raised to $15 an hour, 32 million workers would get a raise and, of those, 59 percent are women States that pay at least $10 per hours, have a gender wage gap that is 17 percent smaller than states that pay the federal minimum wage of $7.25 hour A Congressional Budget Office estimate finds that that gradually raising the minimum wage to $15 would lift 1.3 million Americans out of poverty, including 600,000 children |
Why minimum wages are a critical tool for achieving racial justice in the U.S. labor market | Ellora Derenoncourt Claire Montialoux Kate Bahn |
2020 | Read this article to understand why we must use minimum wage reform to address racial income inequality | article | 12 minutes | Click Here | Washington Center for Economic Growth | The wage gap between Black and White workers persists across the wage distribution and is larger at the top of end of the wage distribution, where Black workers are excluded from high-wage jobs Black and Latinx workers also are more likely to experience wage theft, where they are paid less than the statutory minimum wage by their employers, because of the ineffective enforcement of minimum wage standards |
The Impact of Structural Racism in Employment and Wages on Minority Women’s Health | Ruqaiijah Yearby | 2018 | Economic stability can account for up to 40% of the health factors that contribute to health outcomes in individuals. This article explores how structural racism can lead to economic struggles, and in turn cause poorer health for minority individuals | article | Click Here | American bar association | Even if minority women are hired, they are disproportionately employed in low-paying occupations, such as childcare, nursing, cleaning, waitressing, and teaching The poverty rate for African American women is 21.4 percent, 18.7 percent for Latinas, and 22 percent for Native women, which was higher than the U.S. poverty rate of 12.7 percent. The poverty rate of African American women is almost twice the rate of Caucasian women in every state except Montana |
Increasingly, people are reevaluating what they need from their workplaces. This year, employees resigned in record numbers to take care of their families, to find jobs that were more flexible or offered better pay, or to find a workplace that shared their values. Paying a living wage is an important way that employers can continue to attract workers, demonstrate that they value their employees, and are committed to creating an equitable organization.
Content Title | Author/Speaker | Year Published | Daily Theme: Organizational Values | Content-type | Time to complete | Links | Source | Key Facts |
Paying a Living Wage is Anti-Racist | Nina Berman | 2021 | Read this article on why paying workers a living wage is a crucial part of anti-racism in the workplace, especially for entry-level positions. | article | 8 minutes | Click Here | fractured atlas | A 2017 report from Prosperity Now and Institute for Policy Studies indicates that white households are projected to own “86 and 68 times more wealth than Black and Latinx households, respectively.” Plus, Black and Latinx people are much more likely to be in a more precarious economic position as a result of COVID-19. In order to create institutions that are welcoming to people at all levels and in all departments, we need to pay people enough so that they can find safe, comfortable housing, feed themselves and their families, save for the future and for emergencies, while still being able to afford a quality of life that is more than just scraping by. |
$20+/hour Nonprofit Minimum Wage | 2021 | Read this blog post on why it is so important for non-profit organizations to pay a living wage and some key benchmarks and strategies to help create a more equitable workplace. | podcast | 25 minutes | Click Here | Successful Nonprofits | ||
After this CEO raised his company’s minimum wage to $70,000, he said the number of babies born to staff each year grew 10-fold and revenue soared | Zahra Tayeb | 2021 | Read this article about Gravity Payment’s CEO, Dan Price, and his company’s $70,000 minimum sallary that he credits for allowing Gravity Payment and its employees thrive and weather the COVID pandemic. | article | 4 minutes | Click Here | Business Insider | After increasing wage to 70,000, company had a 10 times increase in the number of first-time homeowners every year and 70% of employees were able to pay down debt. Employees had a 10x boom in terms of the number of babies they were having. Went from having between 0-2 babies born per year among the entire team, to over 65 born or announced over the last six years |
Week 3: 4/18 - 4/22/22
The first celluloid film was shot in 1888, just 23 years after the end of the civil war. Since then, the medium of film has been a powerful tool, both for perpetuating white supremacy and for challenging it. One of the darkest chapters in the history of Hollywood is the institutionalization of the Hays Code 1934 and 1968, a self-imposed set of guidelines that ensured that ideas and depictions in opposition to institutionalized racism, sexism, and homophobia, would not have a platform in mainstream film of the time.
Content Title | Author/Speaker | Year Published | Daily Theme: Racism and the origins of film | Content-type | Time to complete | Links | Source | Key Facts |
How ‘The Birth of a Nation’ Revived the Ku Klux Klan | ALEXIS CLARK | 2019 | Read this article about how the film ‘The Birth of a Nation’ which premiered just 50 years after the end of the civil ware and depicted the KKK as the heros of the post-civil war south, was used as a recruiting tool and led to a nationwide revival of the Klan in the 1920s. | Article | 5 minutes | Click Here | History.com | The film bolstered the idea that the Klan was there to save the South from savage Black men raping white women, a racist myth that would be propagated for years |
The History of Yellowface | Teen Vogue | Gabe Bergado | 2019 | Watch this video on the impact of the history of yellowface in film and the continuted whitewashing Asian characters on Asian Americans. | Video | 7 minutes | Click Here | Teen Vouge | |
TCM Original Production: Blackface and Hollywood – African American Film History – Documentary | 2020 | Watch this video explaining blackface’s harmful history as a staple of film up through the mid-20th century and how its legacy continues to be deeply damaging for Black representation. | Video | 13 minutes | Click Here | Turner Classic Movies | ||
9 BLACK FILMMAKING PIONEERS FROM THE EARLIEST DAYS OF CINEMA | Joi Childs | 2020 | Read this article exploring the lives of 9 Black trailblazers who helped shape the film industry and how they both challenged, and were sometimes made to play into, the cartoonish, tired, and racist stereotypes pushed by those who held power in Hollywood. | Article | 8 minutes | Click Here | Rotten Tomatoes | “Race film” was a genre during the Jim Crow era, referring to movies created for and by Black people partly as a way to commit to screen the discrimination they faced. These Black filmmaking pioneers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries helped shape the modern film industry and often challenged the cartoonish, tired, and racist stereotypes pushed out by those who held the most power in Hollywood in its earliest years. |
2020 was a high watermark year for LGBTQ+ representation in media. We have come a long way from the Hays code ban depicting gay and lesbian people and the stereotypical gay best friend characters of the ’90s and 2000s. Although a greater number of more nuanced and diverse depictions of queer people are still badly needed, young people searching for representation have a wider variety of characters and stories than ever to share both the struggles and joys of the LGBTQ+ experience.
Content title | Author/Speaker | Year Published | Daily Theme: LGBTQ+ Representation | Content-type | Time to complete | Links | Source | Key Facts |
Books and movies keep creating transgender aggressors. But trans people are far more likely to be victims of violence | Emma Reynolds | 2020 | Far too often in media, transgender people are portrayed as violent predators when in reality, they are far more likely than other groups to be victims of violence. Read this article breaking down trans stereotypes and how they became so prevelant. | Article | 10 minutes | Click Here | CNN | The European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights 2020 survey found that one in five trans and intersex people had been physically or sexually attacked in the previous five years — double the rate for other LGBTQ groups. In the US, the number of suspected murders of trans people in 2020 has already surpassed the total for 2019, according to the National Center of Transgender Equality |
The Gay Best Friend: How is became a Stereotype | The Take | 2021 | Not all representation is good representation, especially when characters are defined mostly by stereotypes. Watch this video to better understand how the ‘Gay Best Friend’ trope is reductive and doesn’t allow for diverse representations of LGBTQ+ characters. | Video | 20 minutes | Click Here | The Take | |
GLAAD’S WHERE WE ARE ON TV 2020-2021 REPORT: DESPITE TUMULTUOUS YEAR IN TELEVISION, LGBTQ REPRESENTATION HOLDS STEADY | Mathew Lasky | 2021 | What does LGBTQ+ representation in media look like today? How far have we come? Read this analysis done by GLAAD to see where we fell in 2020. | Article | 9 minutes | Click Here | GLAAD | Study finds that 9.1% of series regular characters scheduled to appear on broadcast scripted primetime television this season are LGBTQ — a decrease of one percentage point from last year’s record high percentage of 10.2 percent. Of the 773 series regulars counted on broadcast television, 46 percent (354) of characters are people of color, a one percentage-point decrease from the previous year’s record high of 47 percent. The racial diversity of LGBTQ characters on all platforms increased. |
Othering is the conscious or unconscious assumption that certain groups pose an imminent threat to the group in power. Othering in mass media has been used to deadly effect and has been one of the most successful strategies for perpetuating white supremacy. Today, we will be exploring the topic of othering through the lens of Islamophobia and the American media’s response to 9/11 and the War on Terror and its continued impact.
content title | Author/Speaker | Year Published | Daily Theme: The War on Terror & Islamophobia on Screen | Content-type | Time to complete | Links | Source | Key Facts |
Why Hollywood misrepresents Muslim communities | 2019 | Watch this video about the prevalence of damaging stereotypes of Muslims in film and television and how the U.S. Department of Defense has influenced depictions of the War on Terror. | Video | 5 minutes | Click Here | Newsy | ||
How American Muslims have been represented in popular culture post-9/11 | Vignesh Ramachandran | 2021 | 9/11 caused a spike in Islamaphobic hate crimes as well as a wave of media depicting Muslims only as violent terrorists. Read the article, watch the video clips, or take a deep dive into the full interview in order to understand how the experience of Muslims in America has transformed since 2001 | Article/Videos | 29 minutes | Click Here | PBS Newshour | A 2021 study by his organization and USC Annenberg, “Missing and Maligned,” looked at 200 top-grossing movies between 2017 and 2019 in several countries and found that out of almost 9,000 speaking roles, fewer than 2 percent were Muslim characters. Overall, only about a quarter of Muslim characters represented were female. An overwhelming majority — almost 91 percent — of the 200 films did not feature even one speaking character who was Muslim |
Haqq and Hollywood | Maytha Alhassen | 2018 | The Haqq and Hollywood report follows the progression of Muslim representation in film and television. Read this report to see how Muslims have been represented and misrepresented throughout time on the big screen | Article | Click Here | Pop Culture Colab | Writers, showrunners, and producers working in Hollywood and Muslim-community organizations hould be included as partners in story creation on an ongoing basis instead of being brought in as consultants after the concept, script, casting, set design, etc. have already mostly been developed and determined. We need to build our capacity for coordinated responses around important political moments and pop culture moments, and we need to build the infrastructure for a long-term, multifaceted narrative inclusive of the diversity of Muslim communities. This includes pipelines for talent to break into the entertainment industry, support with how to navigate it and go-to relationships between Muslim community leaders, Muslim artists and entertainment industry leaders such that the right people are tapped and hired when opportunities aris |
Colorism and anti-blackness are a bias against people with darker skin and any other features that differ from white, Eurocentric beauty standards. Children with darker skin experience more discipline in school than lighter-skinned people of color and as adults, they face higher rates of hiring discrimination. It is no different in film and television where light-skinned people of color are more likely to be featured, particularly as protagonists and romantic leads than dark-skinned actors.
content title | Author/Speaker | Year Published | Daily Theme: Colorism | Content-type | Time to complete | Links | Source | Key Facts |
Hollywood’s Colorism Problem | ICYMI | 2019 | Watch this Huffington Post panel discussing how inclusion in Hollywood means considering how colorism influences the casting of Black, Latinx, and Asian-American roles. | Video | 13 minutes | Click Here | Huffington Post | ||
To succeed as a Latinx creator in Hollywood, it helps to be white-passing | Libby Torres | 2021 | “Latin identity is rich, complex, and ever-evolving”. But many times, representation of the Latinx community tends to feature light-skinned people with some European ancestry rather than Indigenous or Afro-Latinx people. Read this article to learn more about how film and television have missed the mark when it comes to diverse Latinx representation. | Article | 10 minutes | Click Here | Insider | because of racism, colorism, and xenophobia, the most well-represented part of the community in Hollywood right now is probably light-skinned Spanish-speaking Latinx people, which leads to the exclusion of Afro-Latinx and Indigenous Latinx people. A 2019 study from the University of Southern California’s Annenberg Inclusion Initiative found that in 100 of the top grossing movies from 2007 to 2018, only three films featured Latinx leads or coleads. And in the same 100 movies, only 4.5% of all speaking characters were Latinx |
It Isn’t Just Gossip Girl — TV Has A Major Colorism Problem | KATHLEEN NEWMAN-BREMANG | 2021 | Read this article to learn about Colorism and how it continues to be a persistent problem even as TV characters become more diverse | Article | 15 minutes | Click Here | Refinery | Darker-skinned Black girls are rarely portrayed as the popular, pretty, love interests (see again: Gossip Girl) but to take it one step further: the erasure of dark Black femininity is an insidious way the lie that lightness links to soft, delicateness and that darkness is akin to all the things society pegs to masculinity — strength, aggression, cockiness — continues to spread.Research by the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media noted in March that nearly 80% of Black female characters on television have “light or medium skin tones” and specified that “colorism is persistent” on TV. According to Deadline, the report also found that the hairstyles of more than half of Black female leads in popular films were consistent with “European standards of beauty as opposed to natural Black hairstyles. |
Marian Wright Edelman, Founder and President of the Children’s Defense Fund said, “You can’t be what you can’t see.” Film and Television have a unique power both to inspire us to achieve our goals and to perpetuate harmful stereotypes that keep marginalized people from reaching their full potential. These resources explore both how a lack of representation can be extremely harmful, and how diverse representation can empower people marginalized by racism, sexism, and ableism.
content title | Author/Speaker | Year Published | Daily Theme: Power of Representation | Content-type | Time to complete | Links | Source | Key Facts |
Indigenous Actors: Stereotypes in Hollywood | Native American & Indigenous Actors Panel | 2020 | Watch this Indigenous actor’s panel discuss Native American representation, stereotypes, and why it is important for Hollywood to show the contemporary lives of Indigenous people. | Video | 13 minutes | Click Here | SAG-AFTRA | ||
Importance of Representation in Film and Media | Lauren Washington | 2019 | To truly address gender inequities, women must be seen and heard as frequently as their male counterparts. Read this article to analyze how the GD-IQ has and will continue to analyze gender representation in film. | Article | 16 minutes | Click Here | Medium | In 2015, 17% of the top grossing films had a female lead. Women had a particularly strong presence in the comedy and action genres Films with female leads actually earned more money than films with male leads, and casts with both male and female leads perform even better. Gender balance in casting produces sound financial returns Male characters spoke two times as often as female characters |
Disability stereotypes in the media | Aruma | Disability representation is a rarity in film and television. Read this article about how when individuals with disabilities are featured in media, they too often fall victim to stereotypes. | Article | 18 minutes | Click Here | ARUMA | only 3.1% of actors on TV (and we would assume other media too) have a disability | |
Why on-screen representation matters, according to these teens | Rawan Elbaba | 2019 | Watch this video or read the article featuring young people sharing how impactful it is to see people who share an identity with them represented in the media. | Video/article | 3 minutes | Click Here | PBS |
Week 4: 4/25 - 4/29/22
Each month, 800 million people get their period and need access to menstrual products and resources, but these are not always accessible. Period poverty is inadequate access to period products and menstrual cycle education. According to Days for Girls, 25% of people who menstruate experience period poverty. Even in the richest country in the world, many people do not have the essentials they need, particularly if they are a part of marginalized communities.
Content Title | Author/Speaker | Year published | Daily Theme: Period Poverty | Content-type | Time to complete | Links | Source | Key Facts |
How access to period products removes a barrier to education | 2019 | The cost of necessary menstrual products like pads and tampons can be prohibitavely expensive, particularly for students. Watch this video about some schools and universities that have begun to provide menstural products for those who may need it in order to tackle period poverty. | Video | 7 minutes | Click Here | PBS | -Girls stay home from school or miss school activities because they can’t afford feminine products -Stigma and secrecy around menstruation; simply saying period, tampons, pads, etc. is taboo -Some girls learn about periods and how to use products at school -California, Illinois, Tennessee, and New York have passed laws to provide students with free period products |
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Covid relief bill was a missed opportunity to address ‘period poverty’ in America | Lynette Medley | 2021 | Read this article to understand why the US should follow the lead of other countries and make period products free of charge for all those who need them. | Article | 4 minutes | Click Here | NBC | 1 in 4 women struggle to purchase menstrual supplies because of poverty 1 in 5 girls has missed school because of a lack of menstrual products. Covid-19 has devastated the economy, and for those who rely on a small single income to support their families, covering the cost of menstrual hygiene products can feel out of reach even though it’s an essential expense. |
What is period poverty? Native American women work to address issue | Meghan Holohan | 2019 | For isolated and marginalized communities, period products may not even be readily accessible. Read this article which takes a look at the Native American women that are advocating for availability of free menstrual products in rural areas. | Article | 5 minutes | Click Here | TODAY | “Period poverty exists in many pockets of the U.S., including Native American communities, particularly in rural areas,” Carney told TODAY. “It starts with the fact that there are few jobs and few commercial businesses. The cost of period supplies is very high and the money to pay for them isn’t there.” |
What is taught about sex, relationships, and our bodies looks different everywhere and reflects the beliefs and values of the culture we are raised in. However, regardless of where we grow up and who we learn from, knowing the basic facts about how our bodies work is critical for our health and safety, particularly for women and girls. Today we are talking about how comprehensive sex education can be used as a tool for creating equity and forming healthy relationships with those around us.
Content Title | Author/Speaker | Year Published | Daily Theme: Sex Education | Content-type | Time to complete | Links | Source | Key Facts |
LGBTQ Youth Aren’t Getting the Sex Ed They Deserve | The Sex Ed Crisis | 2018 | When LGBTQ+ experiences aren’t addressed in sex education curriculum, it can be dangerously isolating for queer students. Watch this video to learn about comprehensive sex education and how it can protect the mental and physical well-being of LGBTQ+ youth. | Video | 7 minutes | Click Here | Cosmopolitan | -Great need for legislation that demands compressive, medically accurate, and inclusive sex education in schools -lack of regulation allows for school boards to create curricula and hiring non-health professionals who share inaccurate, biased information -Only 12 states require a discussion on sexual orientation [Rhode Island, New Jersey, Delaware, South Carolina, Alabama, Texas, California, Washington, Iowa, New Mexico, Oregon, Colorado |
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Comprehensive sexuality education: A foundation for life and love – Global | UNESCO | 2018 | Sex education is taught differently all around the world. Watch this video where individuals reflect on their experience of comprehensive sex education and how they hope sex education will be taught in the future. | Video | 4 minutes | Click Here | UNESCO | |
Sex Education in School and at Home Needs an Anti-Racist Focus | Varuna Srinivasan | 2020 | Sexuality is a term that encompasses more than just intimacy, it also includes body image, emotional risk-taking, gender identity, gender roles and sexual orientation. For this reason, sexuality is not a topic that is free from the effects of racism. Read this article to understand the importance of teaching sexual health with an antiracist lens. | Article | 6 minutes | Click Here | Parents.com | Sexuality is not a topic that’s free from the effects of racism and other issues. This is evidenced in many different ways: over-sexualization and stereotyping of Black women in the media, lack of access to basic reproductive health for Indigenous women, reinforcing traditional gender roles, and misguided stigmas around sex education and testing for sexually transmitted infections (STIs). |
Meet the Educators Helping Indigenous Communities ‘Own Their Pleasure’ | Cassandra Corrado | 2020 | Understanding and owning your sexual health is important, especially for minority groups that experience discriminiation when interacting with health professionals. Read this article about the Native American educators who are working to provide comprehensive sex education rooted in Indiginous culture. | Article | 7 minutes | Click Here | Rewire | According to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data, American Indian/Alaska Native people were diagnosed with chlamydia at 3.7 times the rate of white people in 2018. That same year, the rate of reported gonorrhea cases among those populations was 4.6 times that of white people. |
In 2021, the United States has seen the highest number of abortion restrictions ever made in a single year. Despite the laws being passed by state legislatures that have the effect of ending abortion access for many women, these rules do not reflect the opinion of the majority of Americans. Although abortion access is often talked about in the media as a highly polarized political issue, everyday Americans hold space for the complexities the abortion and understand how personal it is. Only 11% of Americans would deny abortion access to save the life of the mother, only 33% of Americans agree with restricting abortion after 6-8 weeks of pregnancy, and 24% say that providers should be criminalized for providing abortions. Abortion is an essential part of healthcare, particularly when it comes to racial, gender, and economic justice. Use these resources to learn more about abortion restrictions in your state and their impact.
Content Title | Author/Speaker | Year Published | Daily Theme: Legal Restrictions | Content-type | Time to complete | Links | Source | Key Facts |
Is Abortion Legal in My State, and What Happens if Roe v. Wade is Overturned? | Abortion is legal in the United States under Roe v Wade yet many state laws restrict when, where, and in what situations a woman is able to have this procedure. Interact with this Planned Parenthood infographic to see where your state currently stands in access to abortion. | Infographic | 5 minutes | Click Here | Planned Parenthood | |||
Does Texas’ abortion law presage the end of Roe v. Wade? | Rachel Reed | 2021 | Read this article which explains the new abortions restrictions introduced in Texas, how they are unique compared to other states laws that have been passed. | Article | 7 minutes | Click Here | Harvard | A six-week ban on abortion bars approximately 85 to 90% of abortions. At six weeks, most people don’t know that they are pregnant. So it amounts to a near-total ban on abortion in the state |
Standing up for Young Women and Young Women of Color at the Supreme Court | YWCA | 2021 | Abortion bans can push women out of the workplace, limit their education and change their lives in unanticipated ways. Read this brief to understand the negative effects that abortion restrictions have on young women, especially women of color. | Other | 15 minutes | Click Here | YWCA | In YWomenVote 2020, 5 YWCA USA’s most recent report exploring the opinions of diverse groups of women across the country, young women overwhelmingly expressed that protecting Roe v. Wade is “very important.” In fact, 72% of the women aged 18 to 22 (part of Generation Z) and 68% of women aged 23 to 38 (part of the Millennial generation) viewed protecting Roe v. Wade as being “very important.” |
Poll: Majority Want To Keep Abortion Legal, But They Also Want Restrictions | DOMENICO MONTANARO | 2019 | Read this article on Americans’ nuanced opinions on abortion and how these views are poorly reflected by legislation regulating abortion in many states. | Article | Click Here | NPR | A total of 77% say the Supreme Court should uphold Roe, but within that there’s a lot of nuances — 26% say they would like to see it remain in place, but with more restrictions added; 21% want to see Roe expanded to establish the right to abortion under any circumstance; 16% want to keep it the way it is; and 14% want to see some of the restrictions allowed under Roe reduced. Just 13% overall say it should be overturned. |
Women need to have the bodily autonomy to make the best reproductive choices for themselves and their families. Rather than ending abortion, state abortion restrictions would have a disproportionate impact on low-income women, particularly low-income women of color, who do not have the resources to travel to access reproductive care. These pieces highlight the stories of women who have had or were denied, an abortion, and the impact that it had on their lives.
Content Title | Author/Speaker | Year Published | Daily Theme: Impact | Content-type | Time to complete | Links | Source | Key Facts |
What it’s like trying to have an abortion in Texas right now | Vice | 2021 | On September 1st, Texas introduced the most restrictive abortion bill in the US. Watch this video to see what it is like right now for women in Texas trying to get an abortion after 6 weeks. | Video | 13 minutes | Click Here | ||
How Reproductive Justice is part of an anti-racist agenda | ACLU | 2020 | There is a long history of how bodily autonomy has been denied for women of color. Listen to this podcast to understand why reproductive justice needs to be a part of the antiracist agenda. | Podcast | 33 minutes | Click Here | ||
The Road to Reproductive Justice: Native Americans in New Mexico | Forward Together | 2020 | Read this article to understand how Native Americans are too often seen as statistically insignificant when it comes to reproductive data and the individuals fighting to make Indigenous voices heard. | Article | 10 minutes | Click Here | 89% of surveyed Native Americans believe that Native American women and families deserve to make their own healthcare decisions without government interference. 72% of surveyed Native Americans agreed with the statement: “I can hold my own moral views about abortion and still trust a woman and her family to make this decision for themselves.” 1 in 3 surveyed Native Americans knew that the federal Hyde Amendment explicitly prohibits the use of federal funds to provide abortion care at Indian Health Service (IHS) clinics. |
Reproductive justice is a wider set of ideas than just ensuring women can decide if and when to have children. Reproductive Justice advocates are shining a light on how systemic racism, including police violence against black and brown people, violates the rights of women of color to raise their families in a safe environment, free of the physical and psychological impact of systemic racism. These resources explore the powerful link between the black lives matter movement and the movement for reproductive justice.
Content Title | Author/Speaker | Year Published | Daily Theme: Police Violence & Reproductive Justice | Content-type | Time to complete | Links | Source | Key Facts |
Black Reproductive Justice Advocates Call For Defunding Police In Wake Of Violent Police Response To Protesters | Angela Doyinsola Aina, etc. | 2020 | Read this article where Black reproductive justice advocates call for politicians to defund law enforcement in response to the disproportionate police killings of black people. | Article | 6 minutes | Click Here | After centuries of systemic violence that has harmed and continues to harm Black communities, it is important to recognize and respond to the trauma and pain that this violence causes to our collective minds. | |
Violence Against Black Women is a Racial Justice & Reproductive Issue | Now This | 2021 | Watch this video to understand why reproductive justice is a Black Lives Matter issue and should be part of an Anti-Racist agenda | Video | 4 minutes | Click Here | ||
Black life at the intersection of life and death | Ted Talk | 2017 | Watch this video to understand what Reproductive Justice is and how systemic racism has denied Black and Brown women the right to safe and healthy environments to raise their children. | Video | 8 minutes | Click Here |