Predatory Inclusion in Higher Education: Labor and Financial Exploitation at a Predominantly White Institution in the Era of Neoliberal Multiculturalism

In the summer of 2020, racial justice movements that emerged in response to the murder of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin passionately decried the systems and institutions at fault and complicit in still perpetuating racial discrimination towards Black people, as well as Indigenous and other People of Color (BIPOC). As a response to these racial justice demands, college institutions pushed for diversity in their student body and across college affairs in order to appear like they were effectively responding to student demands. However, this fight against racial inequality and inequity began long before during the post-Civil War era when, as W.E.B. DuBois has written, America’s enduring problem of the color line continued to structure race relations in the nation. Formally, the work to desegregate higher education began in the 1960s after the Civil Rights Act was passed. Over time, higher education consequently became an increasingly popular commodity as it was framed as a necessity to access better and higher-paying jobs, where going to college became framed as an inclusive opportunity for increasing racial social mobility. As BIPOC students gain opportunities to enroll in higher education, it is important that we examine the relationship between institutions’ DEI efforts and the experiences that people with “diverse” racialized bodies have within them. To further explore this relationship, I conducted in-person interviews with 14 students who self-identified as BIPOC and were currently enrolled at Macalester College, a self-proclaimed racially progressive liberal arts college located in the Twin Cities less than ten miles away from where Floyd had been murdered. Ultimately engaging with Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor’s concept of predatory inclusion but applying it to the context of higher education instead of the housing market, my results reveal that there are two general forms of exploitation that BIPOC students reported experiencing: labor and financial. As a result, I conclude that the DEI efforts promoted and promised by the college do not reflect the true experiences of BIPOC students who are being tokenized and exploited by the institution instead of being offered material redistribution or a fair path to upward mobility

Inbreeding levels in Northeast Brazil: Strategies for the prospecting of new genetic disorders

A new autosomal recessive genetic condition, the SPOAN syndrome (an acronym for spastic paraplegia, optic atrophy and neuropathy syndrome), was recently discovered in an isolated region of the State of Rio Grande do Norte in Northeast Brazil, in a population that was identified by the IBGE (Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics) as belonging to the Brazilian communities with the highest rates of “deficiencies” (Neri, 2003), a term used to describe diseases, malformations, and handicaps in general. This prompted us to conduct a study of consanguinity levels in five of its municipal districts by directly interviewing their inhabitants. Information on 7,639 couples (corresponding to about 40% of the whole population of the studied districts) was obtained. The research disclosed the existence of very high frequencies of consanguineous marriages, which varied from about 9% to 32%, suggesting the presence of a direct association between genetic diseases such as the SPOAN syndrome, genetic drift and inbreeding levels. This fact calls for the introduction of educational programs for the local populations, as well as for further studies aiming to identify and characterize other genetic conditions. Epidemiological strategies developed to collect inbreeding data, with the collaboration of health systems available in the region, might be very successful in the prospecting of genetic disorders

Study od a Slice at +9 to +15 degrees of Declination: I. The Neutral Hydrogen Content of Galaxies in Loose Groups

We examine the H1 content of spiral galaxies in groups by using a catalog of loose groups of galaxies identified in a magnitude limited sample m < 15.7 spanning the range 8 h to 18 h in right ascension and +9 to +15 in declination. The redshift completeness of the galaxy sample is ~95%. No significant effect of H1 depletion is found, although there may be a hint that the earliest type spirals are slightly deficient.Comment: 10 pages, Latex, 3 tables, 5 figures, to appear in the Astronomical Journa

Comparação de taxas de crescimento populacional em artrópodes utilizando testes permutacionais.

O método "jackknife" é largamente utilizado para estimar incertezas associadas a parâmetros de tabelas de vida e fertilidade, utilizados para quantificar crescimento populacional em artrópodes. As estimativas "jackknife" da variância são utilizadas em testes para avaliar o efeito de tratamentos sobre tais parâmetros. No entanto, quando há fêmeas que não ovipositam durante o período de avaliação, o método "jackknife" não pode ser usado, devido a problemas no cálculo dos pseudovalores que levam à obtenção de alguns valores negativos para as estimativas da taxa líquida de reprodução. Como alternativa aos testes que utilizam estimativas ?jackknife? da variância propomos o uso de testes permutacionais. Apresentamos dois exemplos, utilizando dados simulados, onde é avaliado o efeito linear de um fator quantitativo sobre a taxa intrínseca de crescimento populações hipotéticas de artrópodes (espécie I e espécie II). O método pode também ser aplicado para avaliação de efeitos quantitativos descritos por modelos não lineares e testes de hipóteses representadas por contrastes lineares entre médias de tratamentos qualitativos