What We’re Reading: June 9, 2016

Untangling Gun Violence from Mental Illness (Atlantic)
by Julie Beck
“Unfortunately, a consistent and dangerous narrative has emerged—an explanation all-too-readily at hand when a mass shooting or other violent tragedy occurs: The perpetrator must have been mentally ill. ‘We have a strong responsibility as researchers who study mental illness to try to debunk that myth,’ says Jeffrey Swanson, a professor of psychiatry at Duke University. ‘I say as loudly and as strongly and as frequently as I can, that mental illness is not a very big part of the problem of gun violence in the United States.'”

This New Neighborhood Will Grow Its Own Food, Power Itself, And Handle Its Own Waste (CoExist)
by Adele Peters
“In Almere, the village is likely to grow about half of the food that the community eats—it won’t grow coffee or bananas, for example. It will also feed energy back to the local grid. But in some locations, the company believes that the neighborhood could be fully self-sufficient.”

When ‘Diversity’ and ‘Inclusion’ Are Tenure Requirements (Atlantic)
by Conor Friedersdorf
“Last November, student activists at Pomona College, a selective liberal arts school in Southern California, demanded a change in the way that professors are evaluated. Alleging ‘unsafe academic environments,’ they wanted future candidates for promotion or tenure to be judged in part on ‘a faculty member’s support of a diverse student body.’ College President David Oxtoby dubbed it ‘an idea with merit.’ And a semester later, faculty were set to formally vote on the matter.”

Black students in US nearly four times as likely to be suspended as white students (Guardian)
by Ryan Felton
“As early as preschool, black children are 3.6 times as likely to receive one or more suspensions as white children. According to the data, black girls represent 20% of female preschool enrollment, but account for 54% of preschool children suspensions. Black students were also twice as likely to be expelled as white students.”