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The question is not whether eugenics should be included in the new curriculum, but in what frame. Is it being reintroduced as a viable component to science, social studies, and the humanities, or as a historical tool for understanding its use in manufacturing national thought? What, if anything, will be taught about Malaga Island and efforts to classify and destroy its mixed-race inhabitants? https://www.bowdoin.edu/news/2023/12/education-professor-advises-maine-on-updating-school-curriculum-to-include-the-holocaust-genocide-and-eugenics.html

The reviews are in! Acumen & Dr. Shantella hit the mark!

Westminster hosts Black History Year event on how theories of racial fitness shape our views Westminster welcomed Dr Shantella Sherman to speak at the University’s Black History Year event Screening Eugenics: How Theories of ‘Racial Fitness’ Shape Our Views on 11 October.

We are eagerly awaiting the demise of Stephen... now what type of trouble does that mean for Acumen's research darlings, Carla & Peter Barlow?

Stephen’s reign of terror reaches a dramatic climax on the cobbles this month in the nail-biting final chapter!

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Popular eugenic themes in A Piece of the Action

Popular Eugenic themes in "A Piece of the Action" REFORMING THE UNREFORMABLE (from POP-EU) Sidney Poitier joined comedian Bill Cosby in a trio of films (Let’s Do It Again, Uptown Saturday Night, and A Piece of the Action), in the 1970s that celebrated the everyday working man in Black communities. In the last of the three, the duo portray a pair ...

Revisiting Peter Barlow and the fight for recovery.

POP RECOVERY CHARTING THE LONG-TERM RECOVERY OF CORONATION STREET'S PETER BARLOW BY LEE ROSS, ACUMEN EDITOR Television writers rarely afford viewers storylines that incorporate the long-term, often rocky recovery of characters when scripting portrayals of addiction. Historically, the consumption of intoxicants,....

Happy 50th Birthday, Hip Hop! Like jazz and the blues before it, Hip Hop's gestation emerged organically, from the young people living it. Long live the beat!

Hip-hop: an aromatic seed grown from a pulsating environment of blacktop courts, bodegas, smoldering projects, and neighborhood pride. Tatted with police misconduct, the benign neglect of city hall, and economic uncertainty, hip-hop sweetened the bitterness of life with lyrical defiance. Its 50-year evolution gave rise to a cultural revolution marked by musical protests and exceptional beauty (fashion), creativity (art), and passion (music).

The everyday hopes, frustrations, creativity, and passions of Bronx youth gave rise to one of the nation’s most prolific and innovative movements in urban history. Hip-hop music was officially created at a party held inside an apartment building in The Bronx, N.Y. on this day 50 years ago. Its architect, Clive Campbell, aka DJ Kool Herc, and his sister Cindy Campbell hosted a back-to-school block party from the recreational room of 1520 Sedgwick Avenue in The Bronx. Kool Herc, using two turntables to separate the breakbeats of popular songs at the time, James Brown’s “Give It Up or Turnit a Loose” and The Incredible Bongo Band’s “Bongo Rock,” originated a method he dubbed “The Merry-Go-Round” technique.

Born and raised to the age of 12 in Kingston, Jamaica, DJ Kool Herc often emulated the style of Jamaican “selectors” (DJs) by “toasting” (talking) over the records he spun, popularizing a unification of sound that launched a grassroots musical revolution. Take a journey across the country as we explore hip-hop through its stories and objects on our Searchable Museum: https://s.si.edu/3Yt8pii


📸 Photograph of DJ Kool Herc with sound system at T-Connection. Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture

Black Power Chronicles - Roy Lewis

Nature or Nurture? Can our character and behaviors be chalked up to our genes? Are we acting out the DNA of our parents, grandparents, or ancestors? Are some people born "bad"? Are there "born criminals" who are bound to an inherited life of crime, poverty, immorality, ignorance, (and) or disease? Join Dr Shantella Y. Sherman and the Acumen team as we discuss eugenic theory and hereditarian thought in television and film. Our summer course examines the BBC drama Happy Valley. Catch up on the show (Prime or Netflix) and join us July 8 for the first session.

Happy Valley: Extended Trailer | Series 1 A fan-made trailer for ‘Happy Valley’, Series 1.I am in no way affiliated with the BBC or Netflix. I am not making any profits from this.Music: “Rapture” by ...

https://www.theacumengroup.org/single-post/sitting-on-the-garbage-can

'Sitting on the Garbage Can' REVISITING THE BLACKBOARD JUNGLE (OR) WHY WE EXPECT SOME KIDS TO FAIL DR. SHANTELLA SHERMAN [The Blackboard Jungle, Metro-Goldwyn-Meyer. Photos courtesy of the Library of Congress] From its opening scenes, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer’s The Blackboard Jungle cast the urban school and its largely immigrant ...

https://www.theacumengroup.org/single-post/dna-baby

DNA, BABY! Police use newborn blood samples in crime investigations Angelique Attaway, ACUMEN Intern A recent New Jersey lawsuit alleges that police obtained the blood sample of a newborn baby to perform a DNA analysis that linked the baby's father to a crime. Using forensic genealogy, the extraction and analy...

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ALL SMILES S.M.I.L.E-ing Boys Project Cuts Through Stereotypes BY LEE ROSS, ACUMEN EDITOR Brandon Bell lived his life as any typical 13-year-old — days of school and homework, goofing about with neighborhood friends, and sidestepping his parents’ relentless pleas to wear a helmet while showing off his ‘k...

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The Acumen Group does NOT subcontract, collaborate, or partner with other organizations through agents or those outside of our team. Interested in eugenic lectures, short courses, talks, screenings, or broadcasts, contact Dr. Shantella Sherman directly 202.893.8805

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Dr. Shanella Sherman, our Executive Director (and founder of Acumen) was the proud recipient of the 2022 ASALH Freedom Scholar Award.

Lawmakers Offer Tubal Ligations or Vasectomies in Exchange for Time Served in Prison If West Virginia Sen. Randy Smith has his way, residents of the state could face a loss of their reproductive rights in exchange for their freedom.

📚Vivienne is a long-standing customer at A Different Booklist. It's been a while - lovely smile! We appreciate your support especially on this first day of reopening. Enjoy BLACK ARTISTS SHAPING THE WORLD, by Jackson. Donated by The Acumen Group, who, out of New Jersey, provide free lectures on Diasporic Black Culture for the purpose promoting social awareness and change. ✊🏿📚

Bless! Our campaign 2022 is making waves across Toronto, London, and Amsterdam… as well as right here at home in D.C.

📚🎉TOMORROW: Hope everyone had a lovely weekend. Tomorrow we welcome you back for in-store shopping and free book giveaways in recognition of . Giveaways courtesy of donors The Acumen Group & Penguin Random House Canada. Looking forward to serving you from 10am-6pm, Monday to Saturday! (Pictured here: Micaela, of A Different Booklist.) ✊🏿📚

Laughter is LIFE! Look for the our feature on comedian Kerwin Claiborne and the power of humor to heal in times of crisis. Looking good in that Acumen wear!

Watch this reel by therealkerwinclaiborne on Instagram Kerwin Claiborne () added a video to their Instagram account: “Oh he thought I forgot this morning 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂 ( I do not own the rights to this music) Song …”

Q is for - Quinine Suppositories - Quinine Suppositories and Pessaries touted by eugenicists as a cheap, safe family planning (birth control) method that trapped and killed s***m and impeded pregnancy.

P is for Phrenology - Phrenology a pseudoscience which involves the measurement of bumps on the skull to predict mental traits.

O is for One-drop Rule - One-drop Rule and the Race Purity Act 1924 under the Racial Integrity Act determined that anyone who had even one Black ancestor (thus “one drop” of Black blood) could not be considered white and “racially pure.”

N is for Neurasthenia - Neurasthenia a white American men’s malady characterized by racial, sexual, and gender anxieties and depression caused by fears of inadequacy.

M is for Moron - Moron a mental deficiency classification assigned to a person with a mental aptitude of a child 10-12-years-old.

L is for Laughlin - Harry Laughlin an American educator and eugenicist. He served as the Superintendent of the Eugenics Record Office and was pivotal in promoting compulsory sterilization laws.

K is for John Kellogg - John Kellogg was a vocal eugenicist, and he was particularly concerned with race degeneracy. He believed that race was threatened both by racial mixing and mental defectives. Kellogg revolutionized the American diet by inventing flaked breakfast cereals Corn Flakes.

J is for Jukes - The “Jukes” a study conducted by Richard Dugdale of a New York "Hill family" to chart its inherited genetic pathology (crime, poverty, immorality, and ignorance). The study was used to substantiate eugenic sterilization laws.

I is for Idiot - Idiot a mental deficiency classification assigned to a person with a mental aptitude of a child under the age of 3 years old.

H is for Hereditarianism - Hereditarianism theory that heredity plays a significant role in determining human nature and character traits, such as intelligence and personality.

G is for Germplasm - Germplasm a term used to define the genetic material passed from one generation to successive generations that included behaviors and character traits.