#chanda prescod-weinstein

[judgingbooksbycovers]

The Edge of Space-Time: Particles, Poetry, and the Cosmic Dream Boogie

By Chanda Prescod-Weinstein.

[freckles-and-books]

Going to read some nonfiction this month! I used to listen to nonfiction audio books on my commute, so I haven’t read as much since I started working from home.

[progressivejudaism]

13 Jews of Color to Follow on Social Media Right Now – Kveller

With every news headline referencing the Covid-19 pandemic, the past few months ushered the world into unprecedented times. But recently, for the first time in what feels like forever, coronavirus has taken the back burner to the Black Lives Matter movement.

Are we still in unprecedented times? Absolutely not.

Racism is a scourge that’s ingrained in society. As a community of people who share the pain of serving as the world’s scapegoat, Jews — as well as everyone — have a responsibility to dismantle the systems that have oppressed Black people for centuries. Victims of racism cannot fight their battles alone, nor can they be at the forefront.

Many non-Black Jews are reckoning with how best to support the Black Lives Matter movement and, in an effort to help, they’re turning to People of Color for answers. This is a mistake. Even with good intentions, do not lean on Jews of Color, primarily Black Jews, to do the work for you. It’s exasperating and further illustrates privilege.

So, where to start? Listen to Black Jews, learn from Black Jews, but don’t ask them for help — they’re asking for ours. So here’s one super simple thing you can do: Check your privilege and begin with diversifying your social media.

[wearewcc]

A Black Female Astrophysicist Explains Why Hidden Figures Isn't Just About History

First, it beat Star Wars: Rogue One. Now, for the second weekend since its wide-release debut, Hidden Figures—the true story of three black female mathematicians at NASA—is number one at the box office. It’s raked in roughly $6o million so far, and counting.

[addictedtowords16]

Too often, arguments for expanding access to science are made in the name of exceptional people among those being brutalized. Scientists and policy makers focus on the question, "What if that refugee child could solve dark matter if we just gave them a chance?" This framing is ultimately about what value the refugee child has to American intellectual economies, too close to the logic of slavery for my comfort. It is essential that we reject this framework and instead put our energies into eliminating the conditions that cause people to flee for their lives. At the same time, we must question our collective investment in the idea of borders and deny--completely--the value of walls, like the ones both here in the US and Palestine. My freedom dreams are big. Caring for humanity means ensuring we all have food, water, shelter, health care, equal treatment under the law, and freedom from violence. Sustaining what makes us human also means protecting our deeply human connection to the universe and our impulse to tell stories about it. For we are a hybrid, storytelling species, Sylvia Wynter's homo narrans. Access to a dark night sky--to see and be inspired by the universe as it really is--should be available to everyone, not a luxury for the chosen few. We must demand liberation for all, including the right to know and understand the night sky, not as the context of desperate and dangerous searches for freedom, but as the beautiful place that holds the answers to how we came to exist at all.

The Disordered Cosmos

[addictedtowords16]

The lazy conclusion to come to here is that this is a problem that will be solved by more diversity in science, and that the inclusion of token people from minoritized groups would signal that the problem has been solved. But I'm not trying to make an argument for the sort of directionless, all-encompassing inclusion that is so often held up as a panacea to the problems of a backward scientific culture. The goal is not just to have more trans scientists, but to build a world where being trans isn't a barrier to full participation in society.

The Disordered Cosmos

[starminesister]

Started yesterday afternoon (via audiobook): The Disordered Cosmos: A Journey into Dark Matter, Spacetime, and Dreams Deferred by Chanda Prescod-Weinstein

[averycanadianfilm]

...it is important to think carefully and clearly about the ethical implications of the work that I do, whom I do that work with, and with what money.