Race and Equity

For several months between the fall of 2022 and the spring of 2023, two or three researchers at the UW headed to the Puget Sound Regional Archives in Bellevue and spent each Friday digging into Kitsap County deed books — specifically, around 300 bound volumes and 520 documents between 1921 and 1948. The purpose was to identify and map neighborhoods marked by racist deed provisions and restrictive covenants across the state before 1968. Sophia Dowling, project coordinator with the UW Racial Restrictive Covenants Project, is quoted, and team members Erin Miller and Samantha Cutts are mentioned.

In her book “Grandmothering While Black: A Twenty-First Century Story of Love, Coercion and Survival,” LaShawnDa Pittman, associate professor of American ethnic studies at the UW, plumbs the nuances of the role of contemporary Black grandmothers in today’s landscape.

The dual pandemics of COVID-19 and the racial reckoning after the murder of George Floyd in 2020 changed us. While we may be ready to move on, bearing witness for one another can teach us about ourselves, our resilience and our communities. Timeka Tounsel, assistant professor of Black studies in communication at the UW, is quoted.

Police facing criminal charges for deaths caused on duty are exceedingly rare. Over the past century, just six deaths at the hands of police have resulted in criminal charges in Washington state. James Gregory, professor and associate chair of history at the UW, is quoted.

"Killers of the Flower Moon," the Martin Scorsese movie about my people, the Osage Nation of Oklahoma, brings to life the reign of terror we lived through a century ago, as if we were back there on those busy 1920s reservation streets, rubbing elbows with our own ancestors and their murderers. It is a powerful film, vividly and heartbreakingly accurate," writes Jean Dennison, associate professor of American Indian Studies at the UW.

The autobiography of Frederick Douglass, published in 1845, was a standard bearer of the abolitionist movement. Having escaped slavery as a young man, Douglass became a famous activist, orator, statesman and businessman. But it is another aspect of his story that is just as intriguing to Habiba Ibrahim, professor of English at the University of Washington: Douglass never knew, nor is there an official record of, his exact age.

"Like many readers, I was floored by the story of brutality and exploitation at the heart of the Washington Post's recent series on the Smithsonian's complicated history of collecting and preserving human remains," writes columnist Matt Driscoll. James Gregory, professor of history at the UW, is quoted.

Some people in the Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) community in South Seattle are sharing their concerns about a recent string of robberies in the area. They are not only concerned with the violent crimes, but with how the city has been handling the situation. Connie So, teaching professor of American ethnic studies at the UW, is quoted.

Identity - including race, sexual orientation, gender - have become lightning rod subjects of hundreds of bills in state legislatures across the country as Americans across the political spectrum seek to define the nation's values. Christopher Parker, professor of political science at the UW, is quoted.

The decades-old government housing discrimination program commonly called redlining continues to shape which of Seattle's streets are most dangerous for pedestrians. James Gregory, professor of history at the UW, is quoted.

"Health practitioners are increasingly concerned that because race is a social construct, and the biological mechanisms of how race affects clinical outcomes are often unknown, including race in predictive algorithms for clinical decision-making may worsen inequities," writes Anirban Basu, professor of health economics at the UW.

All women and girls are susceptible to eating disorders and poor body image, but because of misleading medical terminology, popular-media images, and a lack of overall awareness and training, the issue and remedies are framed almost exclusively around white women. But individuals and organizations are working to shift the discussion and unveil the true complexities of eating disorders, particularly in relation to minoritized communities. Timeka Tounsel, assistant professor of Black studies in communication at the UW, is quoted.

Many Spanish speakers have been discouraged from using Spanglish — a dialect of Spanish influenced by English — at some point in their lives. Because of these experiences, the Spanish Language Heritage Program was formed in 2000 by María Gillman, who saw the program as a necessity for students with different linguistic abilities. Writer McKenna Sweet highlights the program and its impact on student. 

Earlier this month, poets Javier Zamora and Ricardo Ruiz met at the sixth annual Lee Scheingold Lecture in Poetry & Poetics to discuss their work, immigration, and the importance of representation in all forms of media, including poetry and prose. In their latest, writer McKenna Sweet recaps the event and reiterates the key takeaways from the poets’ works

After Alice Ball died -- and just a year after her discovery of a treatment for leprosy -- another scientist took credit for her work. It would be more than half a century until her story resurfaced. Quintard Taylor, professor emeritus of history at the UW, is quoted.