DCentric

Can babies exhibit racist behavior? Maybe, according to a new study that sheds light on the effects of exposing babies to just one racial group.

The study from University of Massachusetts at Amherst found that, by nine months, babies had trouble distinguishing people of other races if they had only been around people of their own race. Researchers ran tests with white babies who had little or no exposure to African Americans. At nine months, those babies could read the emotions of whites and tell white people apart. They had more difficulty doing that with black people.

GOOD’s Amanda Hess writes about the study’s findings.

• 
• Source: Good

These early developmental deficiencies could contribute to some of the most pervasive racist stereotypes among adults—the idea that people of other races “all look alike,” or the assumption that people of other races are emotionally deficient in some way—dumb or angry or perpetually happy. And these racial biases begin to kick in long before adults can verbally communicate concepts about race to their children. In fact, the researchers compare this developmental phenomenon to that of learning a language—at first, babies’ ears are open to sounds made by all languages, but their brains quickly begin to attune to the language they hear most often.

Read more at: www.good.is

Nationwide unemployment dropped slightly in April, but the job outlook differs among racial groups, according data released Friday by the U.S. Department of Labor Statistics. The overall, seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate dropped from 8.2 percent in March to 8.1 percent in April.

African Americans made the biggest gains, seeing unemployment decline from 14 to 13 percent. Yet joblessness remains the highest for that group. Latino unemployment went unchanged at 10.3 percent, and white unemployment rose from 7.3 to 7.4 percent.

Local unemployment rates will be released May 18. D.C.’s March unemployment rate was 9.8 percent, but joblessness varies by community. Ward 3′s March unemployment rate reached 2.5 percent, while it hovered just above 24 percent in Ward 8.

• 
• Source: Bls

Just as communities east of the Anacostia River are slowly experiencing change, so is the river itself. The Anacostia River has struggled with pollution — including high levels of fecal matter– for years. But activists have been working to raise the profile of the river and bolster efforts to clean it up.

The Washington Post chronicles the effort, and notes some of the reasons why the Anacostia River has gone neglected for so long. For one, the river doesn’t provide drinking water, “but the prevailing theory is that the communities surrounding the river — wards 6, 7 and 8 — have been forced to bear the brunt of the District’s waste.”

Those wards are predominately black and have high poverty rates.

• 
• Source: Washingtonpost

“America has a shameful history of putting our pollution on poor minorities, and there’s no other way to say it,” said Mike Bolinder, head of the Anacostia Riverkeeper group. “You can slice and dice it any way you want, but the Potomac [River] got cleaned up first because it isn’t near poor minorities and toxic landfills.”

Read more at: www.washingtonpost.com

A community center opening next month will cater to D.C.’s Latino lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community. Casa Ruby is the project of local activist Ruby Corado, who tells Metro Weekly that the center will also welcome people who aren’t LGBT, and connect them with local non-profits and District services. The center is located at 2822 Georgia Ave. NW, according to the group’s Facebook page.

• 
• Source: Metroweekly
• Via: Carlos in DC

Corado says she hopes to reach segments of the population who don’t have access to resources or services, including transsexuals, sexual minorities, youth and people struggling with immigration-related issues. She expects the resource center to double as a community center where people can meet and spend time with friends.

”I live in D.C., I grew up in D.C. Many people have opened doors for me, and now I want to be able to open doors to everyone else,” Corado says. ”Even though some services are going to be targeted to some groups, I envision this as a multicultural center.”

Read more at: www.metroweekly.com

Food deserts are low-income places with few large grocery stores and supermarkets, and they’ve been the focus of activists and the federal government in the fight to correct food disparities. But simply building more supermarkets doesn’t mean people will eat better.

NPR reports on the lessons learned by activists in some low-income Philadelphia neighborhoods, as they’ve started helping hundreds of small corner stores stock their shelves with fresh and healthy foods. Displays include recipe and nutrition information.

A similar, but smaller, effort is underway in the District through D.C. Central Kitchen, and it’s partially funded by the city. Twenty-nine stores in Wards 4, 5, 7 and 8 participate in the program.

• 
• Source: Npr

Barry Popkin, from the University of North Carolina, says this is the sort of effort that really can work. But changing food habits won’t happen quickly, he says. Powerful economic incentives got us into this situation over the course of the past half-century.

“In 1950, low-income Americans ate the most healthy diets in our country,” he says. “In 2010, they ate the least healthy diets. And that’s because the least healthy foods are the cheapest.”

Read more at: www.npr.org