Race
The next census will gather more racial, ethnic information
The U.S. Census Bureau and a growing number of states are starting to gather more detailed information about Americans’ race and ethnicity, a change some advocates of the process say will allow people to choose identities that more closely reflect how they see themselves. Crunching and sorting through those specific details — known as data […]
As AI takes the helm of decision making, signs of perpetuating historic biases emerge
In a recent study evaluating how chatbots make loan suggestions for mortgage applications, researchers at Pennsylvania’s Lehigh University found something stark: there was clear racial bias at play. With 6,000 sample loan applications based on data from the 2022 Home Mortgage Disclosure Act, the chatbots recommended denials for more Black applicants than identical white counterparts. They also […]
Virginia panels begin investigating Black communities displaced by universities
A Newport News task force, one of two recently established groups in Virginia investigating the historic displacement of Black communities by the state’s public universities, is facing allegations that it has not been open about its operations. The six-member local government and university joint initiative, along with a separate nineteen-member statewide panel, is seeking potential […]
Science, policy advancements could curb disproportionate breast cancer deaths in Tidewater
Tasha Cade was more than two months pregnant when she was diagnosed with breast cancer. For nearly two years, a painful, discolored lump had been growing in the 43-year-old Virginia Beach resident’s left breast. “I find out that I am pregnant, one of the happiest times of my life, only to be dealt such devastating […]
‘Disappointed’: Black students suing Shenandoah school board for restoring Confederate names
After a Virginia school district made headlines around the world for rebranding two schools with Confederate leaders’ names, two rising seniors at one of the schools are leading community opposition to that decision. The two said they were “disappointed” after the school system voted to rebrand schools with Confederate names on May 10, four years after […]
Will Youngkin appoint a DEI director, as the state budget directs?
After signing a new state spending plan on Monday, Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin must appoint a director for the Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion by July 1 or risk losing money for the office, whose title he renamed by replacing “equity” with “opportunity,” a move which Democrats criticized as contrary to state code. “If […]
Census change will lead to more data on health of Middle Eastern, North African people in US
Before the successful, healthy birth of her son, recalls Germine Awad — an Egyptian American who is a psychologist at the University of Michigan — clinicians told her that her hormone levels were too high and that her pregnancy was in danger. “They don’t know us,” her mother reassured her. Iyman Hamad, a Palestinian American […]
Youngkin proposes a second vote to remove Robert E. Lee license plate
While Gov. Glenn Youngkin did not veto a measure to repeal two license plates connected to the controversial history of the Confederacy, he is staving off Democrats’ effort to do so by requiring lawmakers to vote again on the measure next year. The governor also amended the bill, which received bipartisan support from the General […]
To close racial gap in maternal health, some states, including Va., take aim at implicit bias
Countless times, Kenda Sutton-El, a Virginia doula, has witnessed her Black pregnant clients being dismissed or ignored by clinicians. One woman was told by doctors that swelling, pain and warmth in her leg was normal, despite warning the clinicians that she had a history of blood clots. Sutton-El urged her to visit the emergency room. […]
A tone-deaf attack on diversity at a university first built by the enslaved
Posts began popping up in my social media feeds a couple of weeks ago from friends in my demographic: white, male and old enough to know better. They linked back to stories in the Washington Examiner or the Washington Times about a report by the nonprofit group OpenTheBooks.com, asserting that the University of Virginia spends […]
Youngkin considers budget proposal to redirect diversity office funds
After top Democrats and community leaders called for the firing of the state’s diversity chief last spring over his “DEI is dead” comments, the General Assembly included language in its budget to redirect funding from the Office of Diversity, Opportunity and Inclusion to a loan program to help licensed cannabis sellers unless “equity” is put […]
Diversity must be more than skin deep in Virginia’s 2024 legislature
If you grew up in Virginia and attended schools here, like me, you’d likely agree with a fact that I picked up on before my elementary days were done: our state’s political and social origin stories always had white men as protagonists. From John Smith and the colonists who carved out the first permanent English […]