Race, Biology and Medicine

Here's an interesting article in The Atlantic that puts the critiques of Jason Richwine's doctoral dissertation into a larger theoretical perspective. You can go to the original article here, but I copied and pasted it below.

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Race Is Not Biology

By Merlin Chowkwanyun

aspidoscelis / flickr

During the past two weeks, much outrage has arisen over former Heritage Foundation staffer Jason Richwine's Harvard doctoral dissertation, which speculated that IQ differences between "Hispanic" and "non-Hispanic' populations were genetically rooted. The claims mirrored those of Richard Herrnstein and Charles Murray's scurrilous The Bell Curve: Intelligence and Class Structure in American Life, which made similar claims about the intelligence of blacks. (Murray receives thanks in Richwine's dissertation acknowledgments and filed a piece recently in defense of Richwine at the National Review Online.)

Crack Babies: A Retrospective Report

For those of you who lived in the late 1980s and 1990s you might remember the "crack epidemic." This was a huge political and media event in which crack cocaine was portrayed as a drug that led to super predators, addicted mothers who will do anything for more, and crack babies that are destined for a life living on social welfare.  This was also the time when the U.S. government and many states adopted tougher and tougher sentencing policies for drug offenses.  There was even discussion of forced sterilization for mothers who gave birth to babies addicted to crack.  However, while use of any hard drug during pregnancy is potentially troublesome, the media and political narrative seemed to over blow the case. Here's a retrospective video report from The New York Times on this popular narrative and it's relationship to reality.

Xavier Prep School to Reopen as St. Katherine Drexel Preparatory High School

I'm a little late on this, but it's certainly news worth posting.  Xavier Prep, which was scheduled to close at the end of the school year, will remain open under a new name, St. Katherine Drexel Preparatory High School. Courtesy of The Uptown Messenger.

Happy Hour with The Lens

This Thursday (May 9th) at 7pm, the folks at The Lens are hosing their first happy hour. This is an opportunity for them to meet readers and for readers to meet them, and an opportunity to learn what readers appreciate about their work and what they can do to better serve the city.  It will be held at Molly's at the Market (1107 Decatur St.). The folks with the Digital News Alliance (DNA) will also be there.  Hope to see you there.