A Curation of Inspiration for #BlackHistoryMonth
One of the core values of The Lean Lab is equity, which means we work unapologetically to create just circumstances from which innovations are born. And while we acknowledge Black History Month, we also realize that it is ineffective to confine equity and race discussions to the shortest month of the year. That’s why we remain committed to equity issues year round. We will continue to post pieces about race and equity, but here’s a non-exhaustive list of pieces that have recently inspired and continue to inspire the us at The Lean Lab:
Choosing a School for My Daughter in a Segregated City: How one school became a battleground over which children benefit from a separate and unequal system — The New York Times Magazine
“The nearby public schools are named after people intended to evoke black uplift, like Marcus Garvey, a prominent black nationalist in the 1920s, and Carter G. Woodson, the father of Black History Month, but the schools are a disturbing reflection of New York City’s stark racial and socioeconomic divisions…. I didn’t know any of our middle-class neighbors, black or white, who sent their children to one of these schools.”
Virtual Reality Field Trips Offer Black History Experiences for Kansas City Students — Startland News
“With backgrounds in tech, education and business, five women have joined forces to create technology-based educational experience to impart lessons on black culture.”
Brown vs the Board of Education (Topeka, KS) — PBS
“Although the decision did not succeed in fully desegregating public education in the United States, it put the Constitution on the side of racial equality and galvanized the nascent civil rights movement into a full revolution.”
I Am Not Your Negro (2016 film) — 2017 Oscar Nominee for Best Documentary (catch it at Kansas City’s Tivoli Cinemas on Feb. 24)
“In 1979, author James Baldwin wrote a 30-page letter outlining a biography of slain civil rights leaders Medgar Evers, Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr. Although Baldwin’s proposed manuscript was never completed, his letter and other writings serve as fuel for an examination of race relations in America.”
13th (2016 film) — 2017 Oscar Nominee for Best Documentary
“African Americans have continued to suffer since the passing of the 13th Amendment, with popular media demonizing people of color, Jim Crow laws prohibiting real growth and black leaders being assassinated in the 1960s. The politically motivated ‘war on drugs’ penalizes more people of color than whites, and the mass incarceration of blacks in the U.S. has led to a booming prison industry.”
Moonlight (2016 film) — Read a critic’s review at The New Yorker
“A timeless story of human self-discovery and connection, Moonlight chronicles the life of a young black man from childhood to adulthood as he struggles to find his place in the world while growing up in a rough neighborhood of Miami.”
Hidden Figures (2016 film) — IMDB
“The story of a team of African-American women mathematicians who served a vital role in NASA during the early years of the US space program.”
Solange’s “A Seat at the Table” (2016 album) — Pitchfork
“Solange’s new record is stunning, a thematically unified and musically adventurous statement on the pain and joy of black womanhood.”
What inspires you to take action and fight for equity? Leave a comment below.
