#was a white man with a phd who pioneered an academic field‚ for one

[obstinatecondolement]

It feels like every day I read attempts to debunk the social model of disability that fundamentally misunderstand what the social model of disability is and who the people who developed that model were, including what the nature of their disabilities was, and I want to scream.

But I don't, because yelling at people on the internet is basically pointless. Instead I check to see that I'm not mutuals with whoever reblogged said misunderstanding and vague about it.

[fatliberation]

Here Are Some Fat Positive Activists, Educators, Therapists, and Artists to Know!

First and foremost, the pioneer of organized fat activism:

• Bill Fabrey (he/him)

Bill Fabrey, a self-proclaimed fat admirer, founded NAAFA (the National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance) in 1969 after gaining an understanding of the day-to-day oppression and discrimination faced by his wife, Joyce. Fabrey founded the organization in hopes to raise awareness of weight stigma, criticize biased studies, and increase overall acceptance and accessibility to fat Americans. He is considered one of the pioneers of the fat liberation movement, and is heavily involved to this day.

• Judy Freespirit, Sara Fishman, Lynn McAfee, Ariana Manow, & Gudrun Fonfa (she/her for each)

(Members of The Fat Underground, 1979)

Fat, radical, feminist members of NAAFA! Their agenda was much more aggressive than NAAFA’s, and eventually they broke off and formed their own group called The Fat Underground, which acted as a catalyst in the creation and mobilization of the fat liberation movement. Based in LA in the 1970s, the Fat Underground did not fight to change discriminatory laws but rather discriminatory thoughts and practices in different aspects of society, which included those of doctors and other health professionals who perpetuated the unhealthy habits encouraged by diet culture. In 1973, Judy Freespirit and Alderbaran published the “Fat Liberation Manifesto” which establishes that fat people are entitled to what they were denied on a daily basis: “human respect and recognition.” The other objectives then outline the commercial exploitation of fat bodies by both corporations and scientific institutions. (x) I will go into more detail about the Fat Underground in my next post, “The History of Fat Activism!”

• Dr. Lindo Bacon (they/them), PhD

(no photo)

Creator of the concept of HAES (Health At Every Size).

Dr. Bacon is best known for their paradigm-shifting research and advocacy upending the weight discourse. They have mined their deep academic proficiency, wide-ranging clinical expertise and own personal experience to write two best-selling books, Health at Every Size: The Surprising Truth About Your Weight, and the co-authored Body Respect: What Conventional Health Books Get Wrong, Leave Out, or Just Plain Fail to Understand about Weight. Both are credited with transforming the weight discourse and inspiring a hopeful new course for the fat liberation movement. Dr. Bacon holds their PhD in physiology, as well as graduate degrees in psychology and exercise metabolism. Dr. Bacon formerly taught at City College of San Francisco, in the Health Education, Psychology, Women’s Studies, and Biology Departments. A professor and researcher, for almost two decades Dr. Bacon has taught courses in social justice, health, weight and nutrition; they have also conducted federally funded studies on health and weight and published in top scientific journals. Their research has been supported by grants from the United States Department of Agriculture and the National Institutes of Health. A truly great pioneer in medical health research! 

https://lindobacon.com/ | HAES | IG

• Aubrey Gordon, a.k.a. Your Fat Friend (she/her)

(no photo)

Aubrey Gordon writes about the social realities of life as a very fat person, previously publishing anonymously as Your Fat Friend. She is the author of What We Don't Talk About When We Talk About Fat. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, Lit Hub, Vox, Gay Mag, and has been covered in outlets around the world. She also hosts the podcast Maintenance Phase, in which she and cohost Michael Hobbes debunk and decode wellness and weight loss trends. Her articles are incredibly heartfelt and enlightening. You can read all of them at www.yourfatfriend.com !!

@ yrfatfriend on IG & Twitter

• Sabrina Strings (she/her), PhD

Sabrina Strings is an associate professor of sociology at the University of California, Irvine and the author of Fearing the Black Body: The Racial Origins of Fat Phobia, which exposes fatphobia’s roots in anti-blackness. Strings contributed an opinion story to The New York Times titled “It’s Not Obesity. It’s Slavery.” With Lindo Bacon (creator of HAES), she coauthored “The Racist Roots of Fighting Obesity,” published in Scientific American. Strings has a BA in psychology and an MA and PHd in sociology. This book is #1 on my to-read list!!

https://www.sabrinastrings.com

• Hannah Fuhlendorf (she/her), MA LPCC NCC

Hannah is a highly educated and experienced counselor whose work focuses on self acceptance, eliminating the effects of internalized oppression, and practicing through a HAES lens. She is a fat liberationist who puts out educational videos daily. Hannah is also married to a healthcare professional, and the two of them are working toward making the medical field more accessible to fat people in their local community, and offering education on how to be fat allies. I really admire Hannah and the work that she does!

@ hannahtalksbodies on IG and TikTok

• Tracy Cox (she/her)

Tracy is an award-winning performer and artist, who co-created the web series “Angry Fat People” with Matthew Anchel, which takes a pop culture approach on serious issues faced by fat performers. She has been interviewed by the New York Times on fat politics and accessibility, and currently has a huge following on IG where she unpacks fat performance, fashion, and politics. You may know her as the creator of the ‘fat vanity’ trend on TikTok!

@ sparklejams on IG & TikTok

• Da’Shaun L. Harrison (they/them) 

Da’Shaun is a non-binary abolitionist, community organizer, and writer. They are currently a managing editor and columnist at Wear Your Voice Magazine. They travel throughout the United States and abroad to speak at conferences, colleges, and lead workshops focused on Blackness, queerness, gender, class, religion, (dis)abilities, fatness, and the intersection at which they all meet. Da’Shaun is the author of the book Belly of the Beast: The Politics of Anti-Fatness as Anti-Blackness, which is expected to be published in July 2021. They have an incredibly enlightening social media presence as well!!

@ dashaunlh on IG and Twitter

• Lauren Buchness (she/her)

Lauren Buchness is one of my favorite artists. She’s a contemporary artist and fat activist based in Tucson, Arizona. By combining painting & performance, she aims to question Western standards of beauty and create conversations that alter preconceived notions about the fat body. Go check out her gorgeous work!!

@ ladybuchness on IG and TikTok

If you’re interested in learning about diet culture and intuitive eating, check out

Shana Minei Spence (she/her), MS RDN CDN

Shana is a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist who opposes food restriction and encourages intuitive eating! She spreads food positive daily messages on her platform. She used to work in fashion, but she left after being dissatisfied with the industry and went back to school to become involved in food policy and public health. She offers counseling on a HAES approach. I have much respect for Shana!

@ thenutritiontea on IG

And right here on tumblr (who was my personal introduction to fat lib) -

@ bigfatscience !!!

An anonymous fat liberationist. They share so many great resources, diving head-first into the scientific research of weight and health, they’ve found that the relation between the two is extremely complex. They tackle the biases of  research in a system that profits off of fatphobia, and they offer a fat positive perspective based on scientific studies. Their blog serves as an easily accessible resource for fat folx and fat activists who want to learn about fat positive science to support their own personal interests/activism. Thank you for your work, bigfatscience!! (if you have questions for them, you will have a greater chance of getting a response with anon off!) 

• Sonalee Rashatwar (she/they), LCSW MEd

Sonalee is an award-winning clinical social worker, sex therapist, and grassroots organizer. They’re a superfat queer bisexual non-binary therapist and co-owner of Radical Therapy Center. Sonalee is specialized in treating sexual trauma, internalized fatphobia, immigrant kid guilt, and South Asian family systems, while offering fat positive sexual healthcare. Go, Sonalee!!

@ thefatsextherapist on IG

• Fat Rose (org)

Fat Rose organizes fat people, building a more radical fat liberation movement in strong relationship with other social movements, such as anti-fascism, anti-ableism, and anti-racism. Check them out on Facebook!

fatrose.org

Honorable IG mentions: (Some anti diet culture specific blogs in here, as well)

@fatangryblackgirl  @msgigggles @thefatphobiaslayer @bodyimagewithbri @saucyewest @fatpositivetherapy @fatlippodcast @chairbreaker 

BOOKS

And here’s an amazing list of fat-positive book recommendations from HannahTalksBodies!

Science & Health:

Health at Every Size by Lindo Bacon PhD

Body Respect by Lindo Bacon PhD and Lucy Aphramor PhD, RD

Secrets from the Eating Lab by Traci Mann PhD

Anti-Diet by Christy Harrison MPH, RD

Fat Liberation:

Fearing the Black Body by Sabrina Strings PhD

Fat Activism by Dr. Charlotte Cooper

Fat Politics by J. Eric Oliver

The Fat Studies Reader by Esther Rothblum (Editor) and Sondra Solovay (Editor)

Fat Shame by Amy Erdman Farrell

Self Acceptance:

The Body is Not an Apology by Sonya Renee Taylor

Things No One will Tell Fat Girls by Jes Baker

Eating in the Light of the Moon by Anita Johnson PhD

Happy Fat by Sofie Hagan

You have the Right to Remain Fat by Virgie Tovar

Thanks for reading! Please feel free to share this list of resources!

Image descriptions below.

1. [ID: A black and white photo of Bill Fabrey, a straight-sized, balding white man with thick black glasses wearing a suit and tie, standing at a poduim in front of a sign that reads, “NAAFA”. Beside the image is another photo of Fabrey, from his left side.]

2. [ID: A black and white photo of seven fat, female and gender non-conforming members of The Fat Underground, performing a recital.]

3. [ID: The cover of Sabrina Strings’ book, Fearing the Black Body: The Racial Origins of Fat Phobia. On the cover is an illustration of four upper-class white people in fancy colonial period clothing showing shock and disgust at a Black woman’s exposed body. Beside the book cover is a photo of Sabrina Strings, a straight-sized Black woman with dark brown curly hair wearing a blouse.]

4. [ID: Hannah Fulhendorf, a fat, white woman with straight hair dyed blue, wearing a black tank top and holding her shoulder while smiling brightly and looking into the camera.]

5. [ID: An artistic picture of Tracy Cox, a fat, white woman with long, straight brown hair, laying topless on a bed of flowers. There are flower petals placed strategically in her hair on her skin, and along her lower eyelid. Beside that image, is an image of the album cover for Angry Fat People, picturing two angry faces made out of white paper against a grey background. In the top left corner, black, bolded text that reads “AFP” and “FAT LIBERATION”.]

6. [ID: Da’Shaun L. Harrison, a fat, non-binary Black person with a beard, glasses, and long dreadlocks, wearing a shirt that reads, “TO BE VISIBLY QUEER IS TO CHOOSE YOUR HAPPINESS OVER YOUR SAFETY. -DA’SHAUN HARRISON” against a natural backdrop of autumn leaves.]

7. [ID: A watercolor painting by Lauren Buchness of a white and tattooed fat body, hands caressing abstract rolls of fat with wild blueberries and grapefruit between folds. Beside it is another Buchness watercolor painting of Black hands with long sharp nails, caressing the midsection of a fat Black body, with purple crystals growing out of the skin.]

8. [ID: Shana Minei Spence, a straight-sized, Black woman smiling with bright pink lipstick and her long wavy hair pulled back, wearing a floral pattern shirt and jean shorts. She is holding small marquee that reads, “BE CAREFUL OF WELLNESS COMPANIES THAT SAY THEY’RE PROMOTING HEALTH YET ARE STILL ONLY TRYING TO GET YOUR BODY SMALLER” and a heart symbol.]

9. [ID: Sonalee Rashatwar, a superfat, South Asian non-binary person with short black hair, wearing a long floral dress, standing in front of large glowing text that reads, “BIG GIRL ENERGY” against a coarse-textured wall.]

10. [ID: A circular logo with a red fist in the center, with text surrounding it that reads, “FATTIES AGAINST FASCISM” with roses separating the word “RESIST”. Beside it is another image, of eleven fat and superfat activists, standing and sitting on mobility scooters, holding fists and middle fingers in the air, wearing T-shirts and holding banners that both read, “FATTIES AGAINST FASCISM”. In front of the group is a large cardboard sign that spells the acronym “F.A.B.” which stands for “Fat Antifascist Brigade”.]

[blackkudos]

Carter G. Woodson

Carter Godwin Woodson (December 19, 1875 – April 3, 1950) was an African-American historian, author, journalist and the founder of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History. Woodson was one of the first scholars to study African-American history. A founder of The Journal of Negro History in 1915, Woodson has been cited as the father of black history. In February 1926 he launched the celebration of "Negro History Week"; it was the precursor of Black History Month.

Background

Carter G. Woodson was born in Buckingham County, Virginia on December 19, 1875, the son of former slaves, James and Eliza Riddle Woodson. His father helped Union soldiers during the Civil War and moved his family to West Virginia when he heard that Huntington was building a high school for blacks.

Coming from a large, poor family, Carter Woodson could not regularly attend school. Through self-instruction, Woodson mastered the fundamentals of common school subjects by age 17. Wanting more education, Carter went to Fayette County to earn a living as a miner in the coal fields. He was able to devote only a few months each year to his schooling.

In 1895, at the age of 20, Woodson entered Douglass High School, where he received his diploma in less than two years. From 1897 to 1900, Woodson taught at Winona in Fayette County. In 1900 he was selected as the principal of Douglass High School. He earned his Bachelor of Literature degree from Berea College in Kentucky in 1903 by taking classes part-time between 1901 and 1903.

Career in education

From 1903 to 1907, Woodson was a school supervisor in the Philippines. Later, he attended the University of Chicago, where he was awarded an A.B. and A.M. in 1908. He was a member of the first black professional fraternity Sigma Pi Phi and a member of Omega Psi Phi. He completed his PhD in history at Harvard University in 1912, where he was the second African American (after W.E.B. Du Bois) to earn a doctorate. His doctoral dissertation, The Disruption of Virginia, was based on research he did at the Library of Congress while teaching high school in Washington, D.C. After earning the doctoral degree, he continued teaching in public schools, later joining the faculty at Howard University as a professor, where he served as Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences.

Convinced that the role of African American history and the history of other cultures was being ignored or misrepresented among scholars, Woodson saw a need for research into the neglected past of African Americans. Along with Alexander L. Jackson, Woodson published The Education of the Negro Prior to 1861 in 1915.

Carter G. Woodson stayed at the Wabash Avenue YMCA during visits to Chicago. Dr. Woodson's experiences at the Y and in the surrounding Bronzeville neighborhood inspired him to create the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History in 1915. The Association for the Study of Negro Life and History (now the Association for the Study of African American Life and History), which ran conferences, published The Journal of Negro History, and "particularly targeted those responsible for the education of black children". Another inspiration was John Wesley Cromwell's 1914 book, The Negro in American History: Men and Women Eminent in the Evolution of the American of African Descent.

Woodson believed that education and increasing social and professional contacts among blacks and whites could reduce racism and he promoted the organized study of African-American history partly for that purpose. Woodson would later promote the first Negro History Week in Washington, D.C., in 1926, forerunner of Black History Month. The Bronzeville neighborhood declined during the late 1960s and 1970s like many other inner city neighborhoods across the country, and the Wabash Avenue YMCA was forced to close during the 1970s, until being restored in 1992 by The Renaissance Collaborative.

He served as Academic Dean of the West Virginia Collegiate Institute, now West Virginia State University, from 1920 to 1922.

In addition to his first book, he wrote A Century of Negro Migration, which continues to be published by the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH). He studied many aspects of African-American history. For instance, in 1924, he published the first survey of free black slaveowners in the United States in 1930.

He once wrote: “If you can control a man’s thinking, you don’t have to worry about his actions. If you can determine what a man thinks you do not have to worry about what he will do. If you can make a man believe that he is inferior, you don’t have to compel him to seek an inferior status, he will do so without being told and if you can make a man believe that he is justly an outcast, you don’t have to order him to the back door, he will go to the back door on his own and if there is no back door, the very nature of the man will demand that you build one.”

NAACP

Woodson became affiliated with the Washington, D.C. branch of the NAACP, and its chairman Archibald Grimké. On January 28, 1915, he wrote a letter to Grimké expressing his dissatisfaction with activities. Woodson made two proposals:

That the branch secure an office for a center to which persons may report whatever concerns the black race may have, and from which the Association may extend its operations into every part of the city; and

That a canvasser be appointed to enlist members and obtain subscriptions for The Crisis, the NAACP magazine edited by W. E. B. Du Bois.

W. E. B. Du Bois added the proposal to divert "patronage from business establishments which do not treat races alike," that is, boycott businesses. Woodson wrote that he would cooperate as one of the twenty-five effective canvassers, adding that he would pay the office rent for one month. Grimke did not welcome Woodson's ideas.

Responding to Grimke's comments about his proposals, on March 18, 1915, Woodson wrote:

"I am not afraid of being sued by white businessmen. In fact, I should welcome such a law suit. It would do the cause much good. Let us banish fear. We have been in this mental state for three centuries. I am a radical. I am ready to act, if I can find brave men to help me."

His difference of opinion with Grimké, who wanted a more conservative course, contributed to Woodson's ending his affiliation with the NAACP.

Black History Month

Woodson devoted the rest of his life to historical research. He worked to preserve the history of African Americans and accumulated a collection of thousands of artifacts and publications. He noted that African-American contributions "were overlooked, ignored, and even suppressed by the writers of history textbooks and the teachers who use them." Race prejudice, he concluded, "is merely the logical result of tradition, the inevitable outcome of thorough instruction to the effect that the Negro has never contributed anything to the progress of mankind."

In 1926, Woodson pioneered the celebration of "Negro History Week", designated for the second week in February, to coincide with marking the birthdays of Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass. The week of recognition became accepted and has been extended as the full month of February, now known as Black History Month.

Colleagues

Woodson believed in self-reliance and racial respect, values he shared with Marcus Garvey, a Jamaican activist who worked in New York. Woodson became a regular columnist for Garvey's weekly Negro World.

Woodson's political activism placed him at the center of a circle of many black intellectuals and activists from the 1920s to the 1940s. He corresponded with W. E. B. Du Bois, John E. Bruce, Arturo Alfonso Schomburg, Hubert H. Harrison, and T. Thomas Fortune among others. Even with the extended duties of the Association, Woodson made time to write academic works such as The History of the Negro Church (1922), The Mis-Education of the Negro (1933), and others which continue to have wide readership.

Woodson did not shy away from controversial subjects, and used the pages of Black World to contribute to debates. One issue related to West Indian/African-American relations. Woodson summarized that "the West Indian Negro is free." He observed that West Indian societies had been more successful at properly dedicating the necessary amounts of time and resources needed to educate and genuinely emancipate people. Woodson approved of efforts by West Indians to include materials related to Black history and culture into their school curricula.

Woodson was ostracized by some of his contemporaries because of his insistence on defining a category of history related to ethnic culture and race. At the time, these educators felt that it was wrong to teach or understand African-American history as separate from more general American history. According to these educators, "Negroes" were simply Americans, darker skinned, but with no history apart from that of any other. Thus Woodson's efforts to get Black culture and history into the curricula of institutions, even historically Black colleges, were often unsuccessful. Today African-American studies have become specialized fields of study in history, music, culture, literature and other areas; in addition, there is more emphasis on African-American contributions to general American culture. The United States government celebrates Black History Month.

Woodson's legacy

Carter G. Woodson died suddenly from a heart attack in the office within his home in the Shaw neighborhood of Washington, DC on April 3, 1950, at the age of 74. He is buried at Lincoln Memorial Cemetery in Suitland, Maryland.

That schools have set aside a time each year to focus on African-American history is Woodson's most visible legacy. His determination to further the recognition of the Negro in American and world history, however, inspired countless other scholars. Woodson remained focused on his work throughout his life. Many see him as a man of vision and understanding. Although Woodson was among the ranks of the educated few, he did not feel particularly sentimental about elite educational institutions. The Association and journal that he started in 1915 continue, and both have earned intellectual respect.

Woodson's other far-reaching activities included the founding in 1920 of the Associated Publishers, the oldest African-American publishing company in the United States. This enabled publication of books concerning blacks that might not have been supported in the rest of the market. He founded Negro History Week in 1926 (now known as Black History Month). He created the Negro History Bulletin, developed for teachers in elementary and high school grades, and published continuously since 1937. Woodson also influenced the Association's direction and subsidizing of research in African-American history. He wrote numerous articles, monographs and books on Blacks. The Negro in Our History reached its eleventh edition in 1966, when it had sold more than 90,000 copies.

Dorothy Porter Wesley stated that "Woodson would wrap up his publications, take them to the post office and have dinner at the YMCA." He would teasingly decline her dinner invitations saying, "No, you are trying to marry me off. I am married to my work". Woodson's most cherished ambition, a six-volume Encyclopedia Africana, lay incomplete at the time of his death.

Honors and tributes

In 1926, Woodson received the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People Spingarn Medal.

The Carter G. Woodson Book Award was established in 1974 "for the most distinguished social science books appropriate for young readers that depict ethnicity in the United States."

The U.S. Postal Service issued a 20 cent stamp honoring Woodson in 1984.

In 1992, the Library of Congress held an exhibition entitled "Moving Back Barriers: The Legacy of Carter G. Woodson". Woodson had donated his collection of 5,000 items from the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries to the Library.

His Washington, D.C. home has been preserved and designated the Carter G. Woodson Home National Historic Site.

In 2002, scholar Molefi Kete Asante named Carter G. Woodson on his list of 100 Greatest African Americans.

Wikipedia

[sciencespies]

How the space sector is responding to the killing of George Floyd

https://sciencespies.com/space/how-the-space-sector-is-responding-to-the-killing-of-george-floyd/

How the space sector is responding to the killing of George Floyd

For many, the Black Lives Matter protests occurring while NASA celebrated a historic achievement were reminiscent of the Apollo era.

In July 1969, civil rights protesters marched outside the Kennedy Space Center the day before Apollo 11 launched to the moon. NASA’s historic achievement occurred against the backdrop of a nation struggling to address discrimination against Black Americans.

The May 30 launch of the SpaceX Crew Dragon, the first flight of astronauts from U.S. soil in nine years, also happened amid widespread protests prompted by the May 25 death of George Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man in Minneapolis who died with his neck under the knee of a White police officer.

Once again, NASA risks being out of touch with the nation as a whole by failing to be more proactive on matters of equality, said Lori Garver, who pushed NASA to hire more women and people of color as astronauts when she was the deputy administrator from 2009 to 2013.

NASA finally responded to the civil rights and women’s marches of the 1960s by selecting its first female astronaut in 1978 and its first Black astronaut in 1979. But more than 40 years later, the results of that shift remain limited.

“It is still unbelievable to me that we have flown only 11 Black males and three Black females in space out of 350 U.S. astronauts,” Garver said. “It’s shameful.”

Since late May, the space industry, like organizations and individuals around the world, has been responding to the Black Lives Matter movement and calls for racial justice.

Responses range from corporate scholarships and diversity training to new leadership for the Brooke Owens Fellowship and a petition to rename NASA’s Stennis Space Center. Still more action is expected in the weeks ahead as companies respond to this unique moment in American history when millions of people, confined to their homes for months to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus, emerge to attend racial justice rallies.

Diversity initiatives

Many recent initiatives focus on increasing the diversity of the space workforce, which is overwhelmingly white compared with the U.S. population, according to Aviation Week’s annual aerospace and defense workforce report.

Small launch vehicle startup Relativity Space announced plans July 1 on Twitter to hire a diversity, equity and inclusion program manager to help “build and drive an inclusive workplace that personifies the values within our organization.”

Satellite fleet operator SES pledged to support underrepresented communities through various actions, including adding Black Lives Matter to charities included in its employee donation-matching program.

Virgin Galactic announced a new scholarship as part of its Galactic Unite outreach initiative. The suborbital spaceflight company pledged $100,000 to a scholarship for Black Americans pursuing degrees in science, technology, engineering and math with a focus on aerospace.

Students selected to participate in the program, also backed by The Spaceship Company, Virgin Orbit and Virgin Hyperloop, “will receive scholarship support, mentoring, summer fellowships and job opportunities upon graduation,” Virgin Galactic announced June 19. “The aspiration is to support Black scholars through the academic pipeline to a successful early career placement opportunity.”

The Brooke Owens Fellowship, a similar initiative to bring women and gender minorities into the aerospace industry, announced a change in leadership. Garver, a Brooke Owens Fellowship founder, announced plans June 19 to step down from the leadership team to make room for women of color.

“I had been going to rallies and doing what I could, but it felt inadequate,” Garver said. “I thought [the Brooke Owens Fellowship] needed a more representative leadership team.”

NASA announced June 24 plans to rename its Washington headquarters after Mary W. Jackson, a mathematician and aerospace engineer whose contributions to the U.S. space program were depicted in the 2016 book “Hidden Figures” and the 2016 movie of the same name. Credit: NASA

Joining Brooke Owens Fellowship co-founders Cassie Lee, aerospace director at Vulcan Inc., and Will Pomerantz, vice president of special projects at Virgin Orbit, on the executive committee are alumnae: Caroline Juang, a PhD student at Columbia University; Kayla Watson, Amazon Prime Air system reliability engineer; and Diana Trujillo, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory aerospace engineer.

Space industry leaders also are publishing letters and statements about racial justice online.

Blue Origin CEO Bob Smith urged employees June 1 to “be thoughtful and compassionate” with colleagues “struggling once again with long-standing racism and are demanding solutions today — not in some vague time in the future.”

In the letter, Smith said, “The institutional and individual racism that has long plagued our country was pulled into plain view by Ahmaud Arbery’s shooting death in Georgia, through the lies of Amy Cooper in Central Park, in Breonna Taylor’s killing inside her Louisville home, and, most recently, the Minneapolis killing of George Floyd.”

SES CEO Steve Collar wrote about the deaths of several unarmed Black Americans.

“The frequency of these kinds of events and the fact that the underlying biases that drive them are endemic makes us question whether there is even a path to change,” Collar said in a June 9 LinkedIn post. “But the strength of the global reaction to Floyd’s killing makes me believe there are reasons to hope for something better.”

NanoRacks CEO Jeffrey Manber, called on the space community “to become part of the solution to the horrific challenges America faces today.” In a statement posted on the NanoRacks website Manber said, “We must assure diversity in the workplace and in our kids’ school system — in such a manner that it is standard, not the exception, that your neighbors, your friends, your leaders, are people of color, women, or someone with a differing sexual orientation.”

An uphill challenge

Much of the space industry’s response has focused on increasing minority participation. A walk through the halls of any major conference — Space Symposium, the International Astronautical Congress or the annual Satellite show — show the industry struggles with diversity.

“It’s well documented that the aerospace community, like many other technical communities, is not diverse, but that’s not my biggest concern,” said Danielle Wood, an assistant professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who leads the Space Enabled Research Group within the Media Lab. Lack of diversity is a symptom, she added.

If the space industry wants to become more diverse, it must come to terms with how racially motivated decisions shape the country, Wood said. The industry must acknowledge “that white supremacy is the reason why there is disproportionate violence towards Black people by police, why there are a disproportionate number of people of Black and Hispanic backgrounds in jails, why there are a disproportionate number of people who can’t get loans, and also why there aren’t enough people of color in the aerospace industry,” she said. “Then we can start to make progress.”

NanoRack’s Manber said he hopes the space industry sees today’s movement as a tipping point that leads to a permanent change.

“Part of my fear, in terms of being a business person in space, is that space exploration gets branded as being either behind the times or counter to the reforms taking place,” he said.

The space industry can’t risk, by inaction, being viewed only as a domain for the wealthy and white, he said.

“This is not your grandfather’s space program,” he said.

What’s in a name?

NASA announced plans June 24 to rename its Washington headquarters for Mary W. Jackson, NASA’s first female African-American engineer and someone who “spent her career advancing opportunities for women and minorities in engineering,” NASA spokeswoman Katy Summerlin said by email.

Also on June 24, Pomerantz called on Twitter for the space agency to consider renaming the John C. Stennis Space Center in Mississippi.

“I think that was largely, but not entirely, a coincidence,” Pomerantz said.

“Space friends: maybe it’s time we had a talk about the fact that one of NASA’s main campuses is named after a person who has been called ‘the heart, soul, and brains of the white supremacist caucus in the 1948 Congress,’” the Twitter thread began.

Former U.S. Sen. John C. Stennis, shown celebrating a space shuttle engine test in 1978 at the NASA field center that bears his name, has been called “the heart, soul, and brains of the white supremacist caucus in the 1948 Congress.” Credit: NASA

The quote by retired U.S. Navy Lt. Cmdr. Reuben Keith Green appeared in his June 2020 U.S. Naval Institute Proceedings commentary calling for renaming the USS John C. Stennis, a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier.

Pomerantz began thinking about NASA facility names after watching organizations like university libraries and U.S. Army bases rethink their namesakes in response to national demonstrations for racial justice.

NASA field centers are named for locations, functions and white men, Pomerantz pointed out. They include: Presidents John Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson, Smithsonian Institution Secretary Samuel Langley, National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics chairman Joseph Ames, astronaut and U.S. Senator John Glenn, Apollo 11 astronaut Neil Armstrong, rocketry pioneer Robert Goddard, Army General and Secretary of State George Marshall and John Stennis, a U.S. senator from Mississippi.

Stennis opposed the 1965 Voting Rights Act, the Civil Rights Acts of 1964 and 1968 and signed the Declaration of Constitutional Principles, also called the Southern Manifesto, a document published in 1956 in response to the Supreme Court ruling Brown v. Board of Education that found racial segregation in public schools to be unconstitutional. The Southern Manifesto pledged “all lawful means to bring about a reversal of this decision which is contrary to the Constitution and to prevent the use of force in its implementation.”

NASA’s Stennis website focuses on less controversial details about the former senator. “The courtly senator from Mississippi who was unanimously elected president pro tempore of the Senate for the 100th Congress also served as Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, 1969-1980,” the website says. “Senator Stennis stood firm for U.S. military superiority and was a staunch supporter of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.”

NASA leaders are “sensitive to the discussion of racism, discrimination and inequalities going on around the world, including conversations about renaming NASA facilities,” Summerlin said by email. “We are having ongoing discussions with the NASA workforce on all of these topics. NASA is dedicated to advancing diversity, and we will continue to take steps to do so.”

On Twitter, Pomerantz’s idea has received both support and opposition. One person suggested Pomerantz “leave NASA and space alone.”

Others have embraced the idea.

After seeing Pomerantz’ tweet, Andy de Fonseca, Planetary Society outreach coordinator, created a Change.org petition calling for NASA to rename the Stennis Space Center.

Garver also endorses the idea of renaming Stennis, saying she regretted not knowing about Stennis’ namesake when she worked under a Black president and a Black administrator.

NASA renamed the Lewis Research Center after Glenn in 1999 and renamed the Dryden Flight Research Center to honor Armstrong in 2014, meaning names can and do change. “So yes, I would change it,” she said.

Another petition gathering signatures on Change.org calls for renaming the USS John C. Stennis.

This article originally appeared in the July 13, 2020 issue of SpaceNews magazine.

#Space