Commentary: African American Scientists and Inventors
by Black Kos Editor, Sephius1
Long Island, New York native James McLurkin loved working with Legos, models, and bicycles as child. But his tinkering went beyond mere child's play. Soon he was assembling parts and creating new toys from objects he found around the house. As a teenager he was inspired to build his first robot, "Rover," which he completed during his sophomore year in high school. By the time he finished high school he had created three robots on his own.
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McLurkin was admitted to MIT, where he pursued a degree in electrical engineering. As a student there in 1991, he began working in the university's Artificial Intelligence Lab, where he first began developing his idea for "Robot Ants." These tiny machines (one inch or less per side) would each house internal computers and motors, with sensors that would allow them to detect objects in their paths that they could pick up or avoid. Each robot would also have an internal communication system using infrared emitters. These characteristics would give the robots "intelligence"—theoretically they would be able to work together to play games and accomplish tasks.
McLurkin, who believes that the greatest inspiration comes from observing nature, studied the behavior of real ants in ant colonies as a basis for his programming. He would keep "ant farms" on his desk at school and watch how the creatures worked together. He examined the ways in which the insects structured their workloads so they could succeed even when some members of the group were no longer able to perform.
McLurkin left MIT after receiving his B.S. in Electrical Engineering and pursued graduate studies at the University of California, Berkeley. Next he returned to MIT to pursue his PhD in Computer Science, all the while continuing to work on his robot colonies. As part of his doctoral research, McLurkin is developing algorithms and techniques for programming "swarms" of autonomous robots, which would be programmed to mimic the behavior of bees, including their abilities to cluster, disperse, follow and orbit.....Read More
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News by dopper0189, Black Kos Managing Editor
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William Edward White, the first black player in major league history, lived his life as a white man. Slate: Baseball’s Secret Pioneer.
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In June 22, 1937, Joe Louis knocked out James Braddock with a right to the jaw to become the world heavyweight champion. At a time when Major League Baseball was still a decade from integration, Louis’ victory in Chicago’s Comiskey Park was a triumph for black America, and for racial progress. “What my father did was enable white America to think of him as an American, not as a black,” Joe Louis Jr. told ESPN in 1999. “By winning, he became white America’s first black hero.”
Three months before the fight, another notable moment involving race and sports occurred in the same city: the death of a 76-year-old man named William Edward White, of blood poisoning after a slip on an icy sidewalk and a broken arm. Fifty-eight years earlier, White played a single game for the Providence Grays of baseball’s National League to become, as best as can be determined, the first African-American player in big-league history. Unlike Louis’ knockout, though, White’s death merited no coverage in the local or national press. A clue as to why can be found in cursive handwriting in box No. 4 on White’s death certificate, which is labeled COLOR OR RACE. The box reads: “White.”
William Edward White was born in 1860 to a Georgia businessman and one of his slaves, who herself was of mixed race. That made White, legally, black and a slave. But his death certificate and other information indicate that White spent his adult life passing as a white man. Since the 1879 game was unearthed a decade ago, questions about White’s race have clouded his legacy. If he didn’t want other people to think of him as black, did he actually break the sports world’s most infamous racial barrier? Or is the reality of his racial heritage, and the difficult personal issues it no doubt forced him to confront, enough to qualify him as a pioneer? Should William Edward White be recognized during Black History Month alongside Joe Louis and Jackie Robinson and other groundbreaking African-Americans?
William Edward White on the 1879 Brown baseball team. White is in the second row, seated and wearing a hat. He's directly above the fellow with the sideburns.
Courtesy of John Thorn
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The SNCC leader and black power icon who later became Kwame Ture is as vital as, but less celebrated than, Martin and Malcolm. The Root: Stokely Carmichael’s Legacy Is Less Recognized Black History
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lack History Month is the time to delve beyond the predictable roster of celebrated and increasingly mainstream African-American icons in order to spotlight an undiscovered country of political activists and activism. Going beyond the usual cast of characters celebrated during this time of year allows us to better understand the narrative of struggle that makes up African-American history.
In recent decades, America has been willing to commemorate sanitized versions of Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X. But there are some figures from our past who will never be redeemed in the national imagination. And this is precisely why these “people’s heroes and heroines” need to be remembered.
One man whose life underscores this is Stokely Carmichael. If Martin served as the king of the black freedom movement during the civil rights era, then Stokely reigned as the prince of a revolutionary movement for political self-determination and cultural pride that would be embodied in his call for black power.
Tall, black and slim, the enormously charismatic Carmichael traveled from humble roots in Port of Spain, Trinidad, to the Bronx, N.Y., in 1952 at the age of 10. He enrolled at the predominantly Jewish Bronx High School of Science and became an intellectual and political prodigy, as well as a favorite of his liberal white classmates.
In 1960, the year lunch counter sit-ins gripped the national imagination, Carmichael entered Howard University, where he joined the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (via its campus-based affiliate, the Nonviolent Action Group). At 19 he quickly established a reputation as a fearless organizer, eloquent speaker and outsized personality.
Stokely Carmichael
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Two fashion and creative designers are attempting to change the way young Blacks are viewed through art, style and music. Ebony: Babylon Cartel’s Gianni Lee and Aaron Ramey.
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Dope. Innovative. Educated. Worldly. These four words are the first that most people think of after talking to two best friends hailing from Philly who took a risk of flight to L.A. to fully live out their dreams of becoming a hit in the fashion, music and design industry.
It was only eight years ago that Gianni Lee and Aaron Ramey decided they would not only work for themselves one day, but attempt to change the Black fashion, music and art conversation through Babylon Cartel. And at 27 (Lee) and 26 (Ramey), they’re on the road to doing just that. So much so that last year, Rihanna posted an Instagram picture of herself wearing their signature camo jacket (more than once).
It’s evident these Black, Fresh and 20somethings are on their way to true success, defined by their own rules.
Fashion and Creative Designers, Gianni Lee (left) and Aaron Ramey (right)
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The standard should be healthy as well as beautiful. The Root: Black Beauty Standards Can Be Just as Unhealthy as White Ones.
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Last week, there were plenty of reactions to an XO Jane story in which a self-described “skinny white girl” in a yoga class assumed that a "heavyset" black woman, who never said a word to her, coveted her lithe form. Whatever.
That misguided essay launched hundreds of responses, including one of my own, which pointed out that no, white lady, black women in general aren't sitting around pining for "skinny white girl” bodies. Many reaction stories emphasized that we black women have our own beauty ideals—ones that emphasize curves in all the "right" places and/or a little more "meat on the bones," as the elders might say. I wondered, though, even as I emphasized the difference between the two ideals, if black women hadn't bought into a perspective that, while unique from the mainstream standard, was equally as problematic as absolute thinness.
To emphasize my defense of black women who are just minding their business and aren't thinking about random white women, I posted a picture of video model-turned-fitness advocate Tiara Harris. Harris has a figure that is held up as "ideal" for black women—narrow waist, ample bosom, thick thighs and prominent rear—and many women commented how they would love to look just like her.
“Is that sister in the photo a trainer?” the very first commenter asked. “She is the bomb.com.”
She is. I picked the picture for a reason. But as much as that very curvaceous shape is admired, is it any more realistic for most black women than say, Sarah Jessica Parker—the current cover model for the February issue of InStyle—is for white women? The truth is, it isn't. And that is one of the reasons that some black women go to extreme lengths, risking their health and their lives, to meet an unrealistic body ideal. It’s the other side of the same coin that plagues some white women.
Over the last few months, there have been several viral stories about black women who have sought illegal butt injections with disastrous results. As an unintentional kickoff to Black History Month, The Root ran a story about Natasha Stewart, who was convicted of culpable negligence manslaughter for her role in helping a woman get silicone butt injections that resulted in her death.
Fitness Advocate Tiara Harris
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Two of the most important things to recognize on National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day are that African-Americans continue to bear a disproportionate burden of HIV and that new tools are now available to respond to this disparity. TheGrio: Things to know for National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day.
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According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, African-Americans account for 47 percent of all new HIV infections in the United States—despite representing only 12 percent of the total population. Black gay men, transgender individuals, and other men who have sex with men (MSM) continue to experience alarming increases in HIV incidence each year, particularly among those aged 13–24 (up nearly 21 percent since 2008). Encouragingly, new HIV infections among black women have declined in recent years, yet more than half (64 percent) of all women diagnosed with HIV in 2011 were African American. We do not need an epidemiologist to tell us that these numbers represent a troubling and dangerous situation for the black community. Without a rigorous and sustained effort to prevent HIV transmission in African American men, especially young MSM, while at the same time maintaining our successful efforts and investment among black women, the African American population in the U.S. will continue to shoulder the most severe burden of HIV.
More must be done to scale up core evidence-based interventions in geographic areas and among key populations that have historically been left behind and stand to benefit from them the most. Public health scientists have convincingly demonstrated that African-Americans are tested for HIV just as frequently as other racial groups and do not engage in any more high-risk behaviors than others, but are still more likely to be diagnosed with HIV with CD4 counts below 350 cells/mm3 (an indication of advanced disease progression), receive an AIDS diagnosis, and/or die from the disease.
That is why the Affordable Care Act (ACA), President Obama’s signature legislative achievement, is such an important policy development for black people in the United States, particularly for those of us who are living with HIV. Since the beginning of 2014, health insurance programs expanded under the ACA are prohibited from denying coverage on the basis of pre-existing conditions, and certain preventive services must now be provided at no cost to the beneficiary, including routine HIV screening. Historically, many people with HIV have been prevented from accessing healthcare services that we now know remain vital for those with HIV and beneficial overall to public health.
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Pull up a chair and sit down a while and enjoy the company.