Volume 15, Number 3, Winter 2020Do Small Islands Count? A Commentary about Combatting Population Bias in CSD Research AUTHOR(S):
The colliding events of 2020 thus far, including coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) and the public outcry surrounding the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and many other Black men and women across the country, have forced the United States and other nations to reflect upon the impact of racism in our daily lives. The field of Communication Sciences and Disorders (CSD) has not been spared from this reflection. The present national response is not unlike the enduring protests of the 1950s and 1960s, events that fueled a call for change at the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) convention in 1968. At that convention, five Black men, criticized for inciting trouble, publicly echoed the concerns of many when they spoke up against the presence of institutional racism in ASHA, and the organization’s “indifference to the social protests and constitutional changes that were sweeping the American scene” (Wiggins, 2014, p. 10). Both in 1968 and now in 2020, CSD is grappling with the stranglehold of racism. DOI: DOWNLOAD FULL ARTICLE |