WWW.TRIANGLE TRIBUNE.COM Stereotypes drive The Triangle students of color away from STEM By Ebony O. McGee RIBUNE THE CONVERSATION TTHE TRIANGLE’S CHOICE FOR THE BLACK VOICE Dominique, a Black electrical engineering doctoral student, found herself in an awkward situation in the lounge of a hotel VOLUME 22 NO. 52 WEEK OF JANUARY 3, 2021 $1.00 where she had been attending a conference on science. A white man at her table assumed a nearby Black woman was on the hotel cleaning staff, so he asked her to clean their table. The woman did as she was asked, but in the process she informed North Carolina A&T him that not only was she a scientist attending the same con- ference as he, but she was also the keynote speaker. football signs 7 during Rather than apologize for his erroneous assumption, the man early signing period. cracked a joke. “But she cleans so good,” the man told everyone at the table. “Can we say: ‘Dual career opportunity?’” – as if an accomplished scientist would need an “opportunity” to clean tables. All of the white folks at the table stared at Dominique (not her real name), seemingly waiting on her approval of the wisecrack. Caught off guard, Dominique faked a laugh. Her white table mates broke out in laughter, too, but it didn’t seem fake – it Please see STEREOTYPES/2A Can BOOK Program workers launched reject to help vaccine renters By Ana Santos Rutschman THEODORE D. SEGAL own THE CONVERSATION The Equal Employment By Christopher G. Cox Opportunity Commission, SPECIAL TO THE TRIBUNE the federal agency in charge of enforcing laws Confronted with the blunt prohibiting discrimination reality that homeownership in the workplace, said em- is largely out of reach for ployers can require em- POINT OF some 45 million Americans ployees to get vaccinated without usable credit scores, before entering the work- the Office of the Comptroller place. Now that two of the Currency launched the COVID-19 vaccines have Roundtable for Economic Ac- received emergency use cess and Change to address authorization in the United this and other economic dis- States, some people are RECKONING parities that hinder wealth concerned they could be creation in communities of fired if they don’t want to color. take the vaccine. “Project REACh” was ini- 1. Can employers re- tially conceived in the wake THE of the widespread social un- quire employees to get a vaccine? The general rule rest that followed the killing is yes – with some excep- of George Floyd in Minnea- tions. Under U.S. law, pri- FIGHT polis, explains Andrew Moss, vate employers have the director of minority outreach ability to define general in the OCC’s office of public working conditions, in- affairs. FOR “We recognized that a lot of cluding the adoption of health and safety within the unrest was due to the the workspace. Requiring lack of full participation in employees to get vacci- RACIAL the economic system by nated against diseases that communities of color and could compromise health other underserved com- and safety in the work- munities,” Moss said. “By JUSTICE this, I mean they are not get- place is viewed as part of that ability. ting the same opportunities 2. Does the rule apply to that others have, not just COVID-19 vaccines? Ear- AT from a social level but also lier in the pandemic, there from an economic level.” were some doubts about The central focus of Project whether the general rule REACh is facilitating relation- DUKE ships among major financial would apply to COVID-19 vaccines because the first institutions, civil rights or- vaccines that became ganizations, financial tech- available in the U.S. have UNIVERSITY nology firms and Minority not been fully approved by Depository Institutions. the Food and Drug Admin- Some of the organizations istration. They have re- that have pledged to work ceived an emergency use with the OCC on this initia- authorization, which is tive include Citibank; Flag- temporary permission to star; Huntington, Texas commercialize the vac- Duke grad writes Capital; Wells Fargo; JP Mor- cines because of the public gan Chase; the NAACP; the health crisis the U.S. is fac- National Urban League; Op- ing. For this reason, some eration Hope; and Credit legal scholars questioned Karma. book on university’s “We are building opportu- whether existing laws ap- plied to temporarily au- nities for MDIs to receive in- thorized vaccines. vestments, and through That question was ad- those investments helping dressed when the EECO is- racial unrest them to build out their in- sued guidelines that said frastructure so they can pro- employers have the right Point of Reckoning: lens of events that occurred at changes that would allow vide the same suites of to impose a mandatory The Fight for Racial Justice Duke in the sixties. them to thrive. services and financial pro- COVID-19 vaccination pol- at Duke University Telling a story emblematic Q: Why did you write this ducts that others have had icy. Therefore, the general By Theodore D. Segal of other historically white col- book in particular? the opportunity to benefit rule applies and employers Duke University Press, leges and universities in the A: I wanted to understand from in this country,” Moss should be able to require $29.95 HC period, Segal recounts the ar- how we ended up here. How is said. that employees get vacci- rival at Duke in 1963 of the it possible that 50 years after MDIs are defined by the nated against COVID-19, Segal’s “POINT OF RECKON- first Black undergraduates, the the end of the tumultuous Federal Deposit Insurance within certain limits. These ING…” sheds light on the ra- institution’s unwillingness to sixties, our schools, work- Corporation as banks and other financial institutions limits – including the ex- cial dynamics of today by acknowledge their presence, Please see DUKE/2A ceptions below – are the exploring them through the and its resistance to making that are either owned or di- same as the general ex- rected primarily by African emptions applicable to any Americans, Asian Americans, employer-mandated vacci- Hispanic Americans or nation. Native Americans. 3. Are there religious Moss says there are about exemptions? Title VII of 140 such institutions in the the Civil Rights Act estab- What’s holding our country together? U.S. By working with these lished that if an employee stakeholders, the OCC hopes now harbor new grievances been shaken — by partisan has a sincerely held reli- By Tamara Lush, Josh to put together the technol- borne of President Donald rancor, disinformation, a pres- gious belief incompatible Boak, Nicholas Riccardi ogy to help bridge both the Trump’s baseless claims of ident’s assault on democracy with vaccination, the em- and Claire Galofaro digital divide and the eco- election fraud. Many Demo- and a deadly coronavirus pan- ployer cannot require that nomic divide. THE ASSOCIATED PRESS crats are saddened by results demic. One area of focus, Moss employee to be vaccinated. Elections are meant to re- that revealed the opposition to There is a sense of loss. It said, addresses those The EEOC has traditionally solve arguments. This one in- be far more powerful than they burdens even the winners. In deemed as “credit invisible.” interpreted the concept of flamed them. Weeks after the imagined. And in both groups North Carolina, a soon-to-be Project REACh participants “religious belief” very votes have been counted and there are those grappling with state lawmaker whose victory are developing a new credit broadly. Vaccine refusal the winners declared, many larger, more disquieting real- made history says he is struck decision-making tool that ex- cannot, however, be a per- Americans remain angry, defi- izations: The foundations of by how little feels changed. In pands on the traditional ant and despairing. Millions the American experiment have Please see NATION/2A Plase see COVID/2A Please see PROGRAM/2A Index 5007 South Park Drive Publisher: Gerald O. Johnson Suite 200-G Managing Editor/Sports Editor: Bonitta Best News 1A Religion 5A Durham, NC 27713 Advertising: Linda Johnson Classifieds 4A Sports 6A (919) 688-9408 [email protected] Focus 8A © 2020 The Triangle Tribune www.triangletribune.com 2A NEWS/The Triangle Tribune Sunday, January 3, 2021 Duke alumni writes book on university’s racial past Continued from page 1A had never interacted with play of the Confederate places, and society con- white individuals as Flag and the singing of tinue to grapple with so equals, faced their own Dixie at athletic events; ex- many of the same issues of challenge. How would they clusionary fraternity and race and racism that were live and work together at sorority admissions pol- the focus of activism years Duke? icies; and offensive com- ago. Q: How did the university ments in the dorm. I believed that by looking prepare for the arrival of Q: How did university ad- closely at the years imme- Black students? ministrators resist change, diately following desegre- A: Duke did little to pre- even while claiming to sup- gation at Duke, I could pare itself for the chal- port many of the issues expose the entrenched at- lenges desegregation and demands raised by the titudes and narrow, reflex- would present. The univer- students? ive responses to sity did not study the ex- A: Most fundamental was desegregation that sparked perience of other schools the belief that Black stu- protest and served to stifle that had recently desegre- dents should be grateful Program launched to racial change at the univer- gated. for the chance to attend sity. Duke made no changes Duke and that they should Q: This was happening at to anticipate or address simply aspire to “fit in.” increase homeownership universities across the Black students’ distinctive Among the arguments country, why Duke? cultural, academic, and so- “progressive” admin- Continued from page 1A ized economic discrim- nation shifts from the A: I was a student at cial needs.