On this Monday, Nov. 30, episode of Sundial:
“Bad Apples” Study on Policing
Following protests this summer focused on racial injustice and police accountability, the common “bad apples” argument was used by many politicians: Police departments just have a few bad officers on staff as opposed to there being systemic bias in the profession.
An ongoing survey from Harvard University examines implicit and explicit bias among millions of participants. The University of Miami reviewed the data and published a report focusing on law enforcement.
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They found that officers display racial bias at higher rates than the general public.
“So I think the key takeaway is when we're screening applicants for positions, you might want to have them take some tests like this just to see how they're scoring," said Alexis Piquero, the chair of the sociology department at University of Miami and one of the authors on the report. "It's not a magic number that says, 'OK, if you score X, you're no longer going to be in the applicant pool.' But it's a piece of information that goes along with every other piece of information when we're looking at trying to select the best candidates for a position."
Sundial guest host Daniel Rivero spoke with Piquero about the report and its findings.
First Caribbean Heritage Museum
The Island SPACE Caribbean Museum in Broward is the first of its kind —showcasing and bringing together many different Caribbean nations and cultures under one roof.
“We're telling the full story of the Caribbean region. So, it's not an island by island thing. You're going to learn about the indigenous peoples of the Caribbean," said Calibe Thompson, the museum’s co-founder and executive director. "You’re going to learn about colonialism, all the way through plantation life and slavery and emancipation. You'll learn about our evolved identities and how our governments and economies and so forth were formed."
She said the museum will also explore the Caribbean-American connection. Thompson describes the space as multipurpose, and belonging to the community they represent and the broader community that wants to come in and learn.
Sundial spoke with Thompson about the museum and its goals.
Miami Art Week
Miami Art Week normally brings thousands of art lovers and collectors from across the globe to the Magic City for a week of fairs, exhibitions and more. However, back in September the largest event of the week, Art Basel, was moved online because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“A lot of people sort of half jokingly call Art Basel the 'Super Bowl' of the contemporary art world, but that's not really that far off. And it's important to distinguish that everything that falls under the umbrella of Miami Art Week," said Brett Sokol, a contributing arts and culture writer for the New York Times.
Sokol explained while many large scale fairs chose to go online, there are a number of in-person events happening that claim to be following strict COVID-19 protocols.
While the fair highlights artists from around the globe, one of the common complaints from local creatives was that they were often kept out of the spotlight.
“So many of the exhibitions that are happening are featuring homegrown talent that puts the spotlight on homegrown artists. For a while, there was so much activity happening in our backyard and Miami artists felt like they were the kids pressed up against the window, looking inside,” Sokol said.
