Among those selected to receive the 2021 MacArthur Fellowship are people primarily known for their work in critical race theory, internet activism, and the promotion of social and racial equality values.
Ibram X. Kendi, author of the bestselling book How to Be an Antiracist; Cristina Ibarra, a documentary filmmaker who focuses primarily on Mexican family traditions and border towns; and filmmaker Alex Rivera, who focuses on topics surrounding politics and illegal immigration in the United States, were three of the 25 recipients of the award from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation that came amid a reckoning on race that followed the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis in the summer of 2020.
Recipients of the MacArthur Fellowship, also known as the “Genius Grant,” is a “$625,000, no-strings-attached award” dispersed over five years. Recipients of the award are “extraordinarily talented and creative individuals,” according to the MacArthur Foundation website.
Safiya Noble, an associate professor at the University of California Los Angeles and author of Algorithms of Oppression: How Search Engines Reinforce Racism, is also a recipient of the MacArthur award this year. Noble said she plans to use her award to “accelerate and amplify the work of other Black women and women of color,” as well as start a nonprofit organization, EquityEngine.org.
“The MacArthur Fellowship will have a transformative impact on the work I do to abolish the harmful and discriminatory effects of digital technologies,” Noble said.
Let’s take a moment today to celebrate boundless creativity…?⚡
Meet the 2021 MacArthur Fellows, 25 extraordinarily creative and inspiring individuals in all fields of endeavor: https://t.co/6wIercy5in
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— MacArthur Foundation (@macfound) September 28, 2021
Two other recipients — Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, a professor of African American studies at Princeton University and author of books such as From #BlackLivesMatter to Black Liberation, and Race for Profit: How Banks and the Real Estate Industry Undermined Black Home Ownership; and filmmaker Jacqueline Stewart — explained how their time spent in Chicago has influenced their work.
“Chicago is uniquely racist,” Taylor said, adding how she was “struck” by the “city’s stark segregation” when she first moved there, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.
Stewart talked about how she plans to put part of the grant money toward trying to “understand what happened to the promise of civil rights.”
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Joshua Miele, a blind adaptive technology designer who creates devices that allow the blind and visually impaired to use technologies in everyday life, also received the MacArthur Fellowship award this year.
Previous recipients of the award include people such as papermaker Timothy Barrett of the class of 2009, who is described as an “internationally recognized master craftsman” focused on “enhancing the art of hand-papermaking,” and elder rights lawyer Marie-Therese Connolly of the class of 2011 who focuses on raising awareness regarding elder abuse and neglect.
