Do you, or have you ever, used a graphical user interface? If you use #Windows, #macOS, or any version of #Linux with a window manager or desktop environment, you can thank Dr. Clarence "Skip" Ellis.
Dr. Ellis worked at Xerox PARC, the research organization that developed the modern GUI. Icons, windows, the mouse, Ethernet-based networking, laser printing - all of these (and more) came out of PARC. Dr. Ellis led the team that created Officetalk, the first program to use icons and the Internet. He got his start at 15 years old showing a local tech company how to reuse punch cards, which was a game-changer back in 1958.
Oh, and he was also the first black man to earn a PhD in Computer Science.
You know the drill by now. I don't like talking about Black history. Americans know Black history. I want to talk about white American history. In other words, racism, and the erasure of both positive achievements of, and injustices suffered by, non-white people. That's what people don't know.
Try this: Ask your white US friends what the statue of liberty celebrates.
Now ask your Black friends. Or French folk of any color.
I'm still not up to Black History! I'm still working through white US history. Bear with me! Almost there!
Q: Why does it seem like everything has to be woke now? Even our scientists?! It never used to be that way! Why does it seem like these days, even higher education has to think about race, when it didn't before?
A: Higher education, including STEM, did think about race before. That history has just been hidden from you. Because racism.
Saying "the first Black X" of anything reinforces an idea that Black (or diasporic African) history began when white people declared their inferior colony of Africans to be free.
Writers, poets, artists, dancers, athletes all existed prior. One of the greatest crimes of America (and the West) is its forced decoupling of a people and locking this colony (which is constantly being replenished and reformed) into a state of "newness", being felt to create anew because, like the British Museum, everything was taken and discarded because it had no value to settlers.
Ruby Bridges age 6 first day of school and first African American student to integrate in an elementary school in the south. Look at the racist abuse this little girl got. Shit many of these mfs still alive today 🤷🏿
Respect Ruby 💪🏾💪🏾 #blackhistorymonth#blackmastodon
I'm still not onto Black history. I'm still on white US history.
Q: Why were Black folk so happy when OJ was acquitted? To be honest, it feels disgusting. Why does it seem like you're happy he got away with murder?
A: Racism. Black folk did not like OJ that much. In fact, many Black people think he did it. Black folk didn't "celebrate OJ." Black folk celebrated the hope that a brutally unjust, evil, and racist system, could be defeated at all.
Today would have been Trayvon Martin’s 29th birthday. He was not the first Black person to die because of white supremacy, but his death was highly publicized and IMO a major catalyst in re-igniting the conversation about systemic and police violence against Black people. Happy Birthday, Trayvon, I wish you were here to celebrate. #BlackHistoryMonth
I was today years old when I learned that US schools are more segregated today than they were in 1968.
Racial segregation due to racist policies (like red lining) and reinforcing economic conditions (like school funding tied to property taxes) ensure a system of oppression that is, in many ways, getting worse.
For more info, check out: Beverly Daniel Tatum's book: Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?
This #BlackHistoryMonth, I’m thinking about my forebears whose celebrations of their own histories were less “official” and more fraught—like my mom, whose ragged hand-me-down books in segregated schools bore the slurs scrawled by students who got them when they were new. And /1
It's #BlackHistoryMonth, and in 2024 I'm reflecting on the fact that although I've known about Walter Rodney and his seminal work "How Europe Underdeveloped Africa" for years, it wasn't until I started reading it last year that I found out that Rodney was assassinated by his own Guyanese government in a car bombing. He was 38.
I'm obligated to point out to fellow white people, in case you missed it, the trend of white people lionizing a heroic Black person in a show of solidarity while studiously ignoring the vicious violence enacted against that person by the powers that be.
Also, Rodney was banned from Jamaica and from his teaching position at the University of the West Indies in Mona, Jamaica. This caused protests that escalated to riots in Kingston in 1968. Part of the wave of protests that swept the world from that year to the next.
Black Americans who are attempting to trace their roots can get help from the Smithsonian. The institute's National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) offers free genealogy sessions, both in person and online, teaching people how to interpret census records, find useful sources of information, and more. Here's more from @Smithsonianmag's Tracy Scott Forson, who got answers about her own family history from an NMAAHC session.
Q: Why is so much Black music about violence and misogyny? I'm not racist, but I think Black culture is just more violent. Why does it seem that way?
A: Racism. Rap, trap, and drill, are only the most popular genres of Black music listened to by white people. The most popular among Black folk is R&B, almost 2X as popular. Violent rap is mostly for y'all.🤷🏿♂️
I got to nerd around looking up a lot of Black history surrounding archival images (freely) held in Flickr Commons and it's the happiest I've been in a non-drop-in-time job in a long while.
Q: OK fine! There's a lot of racism! But we can't do anything about it! You can't change hearts and minds! I've flipped from denial to helplessness! Talking about racism depressed me and makes me feel bad, because we can't do anything about it! So, can you stop talking about it?
A: No, we won't stop talking about it. Yes, we can do something about it. Let's look at one specific example of a reduction in racism, driven by racists themselves! 🙂🙃
Locals in the historic Fort Worth neighborhood were interested in the proposed Juneteenth museum ... but what they really needed was a grocery store, a health clinic and a pharmacy. Architects and civic leaders worked together to make the new site a part of the community.
Why is it OK for Black folk to like the Black Panthers, but white folk can't like the klan? Black supremacy is just as bad as white supremacy! Why the double standard?
Q: Why are you so worried about racism? Racism is a boomer problem! As old people die off, the younger generation takes over! Young people are less racist! Everyone knows that! Or are you worried that people become more "conservative" as they get older?
A: No. Young people are not less racist. People do not become more "conservative" as they get older.
Q: Not everything is racism! E.g. Black folk die young because of high BMI from their bad diets! That's on y'all! Don't hate on Lululemon leggings or khaki pants! Hate yourself! We're only trying to help you! How is this racism?
A: Black people in the UK have higher BMI than white people, and live longer than white people.🙂🙃