A recent story in the Washington Post concerned the northern Georgia town of Dahlonega, population 5,242, where one morning in mid-February residents discovered a banner affixed to a building in the town square.

The banner, which sported the image of a white-hooded figure with an outstretched hand, read “Historic Ku Klux Klan Meeting Hall.” Also present on corners of the building were a Confederate battle flag and a red flag with a white cross and the letters “KKK.” The banner and flags had gone up in the middle of the night without any indication of who was responsible.  

Residents of Dahlonega reacted to the sign and flags in a variety of ways. One man called the sight “glorious,” while others stood before the building crying. Concerned citizens found a ladder and worked to remove the banner (affixed with 21 screws) and flags. Soon social media buzzed with images of the sign with captions like “WTF, Dahlonega?” A day later, there was a unity march organized by a local church. The event attracted many from outside the town, including a member of the (wonderful) folk-rock duo Indigo Girls, who led singing “This Land is Your Land.”

As the week progressed, other reactions showed through, including claims on regional talk radio that the banner was “an elaborate plot not only to create chaos in Dahlonega, but also to undermine the presidency of Donald Trump, and ultimately, the nation.” Others expressed pride over the banner, with one man saying he had recently put up the American flag after long resisting, saying “In in the last fifty years, I didn’t think we had the votes to elect a governor, much less a president…And yet here we are today.”

Certainly, there were far more people appalled by events than supporters. A local minister, Reverend Webb, summed up the counter-thought. “Dahlonega is a sacred place for everybody,” he said. The banner symbolized how some had acted in reaction to our new president’s words. “The atmosphere he’s created in America today has caused people to think they have some kind of power again,” he offered.

You can read the entire Washington Post story here. What would you do if this happened in your community?

(Photo © Matt Aiken/The Dahlonega Nugget)

Science writer Katherine Hobson’s piece, “Young Girls Are Less Apt to Think that Women Are Really, Really Smart,” appeared on National Public Radio in late January. As Hobson reported, a study detailed in Science set forth findings for a series of experiments involving 400 children.  The reason for the study was to determine why the STEM field (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) is top-heavy with men.

One of the studies, involving nearly 100 kids, attempted to measure attitudes about “brilliance and gender.”  Children were told a brief story about a person described as “really, really smart”; the child was then asked to pick out that person from four photos—two of men and the other two of women.

The results showed an age-related disparity in the children believing that the men were smarter. Specifically, 5 year-old boys picked one of the men’s photos (as the smart person in the story) 71 percent of the time compared to 69 percent of five-year-old girls  favoring a woman’s photo. At 6 years of age, the numbers start to diverge; 65% of boys favored a man’s photo (as the smarter protagonist) versus 48 percent of girls favoring their own gender. At age 7, the ratio was 69 percent to 54 percent.

As Sapna Cheryan, an associate professor of psychology at the University of Washington observed, “The surprising thing is that already, by age six, girls and boys are saying different things…Before they’ve heard of physics or computer science they are getting these messages.” Another researcher, New York University psychologist Andrei Cimpian, theorized that “stereotypes are all about who has an innate ability.” He suggested a way to support girls and young women is to stress that success comes not because of natural ability but instead through hard work over time.

I train that we are hard-wired for grouping and labeling in a variety of ways with a multitude of outcomes. It’s not something to feel guilty about; rather, it’s something to be aware of—everyday—and work to counter by reminding ourselves that the real narrative about a human is what’s in her or his heart and character.