--:-- Shamita Basu: Good morning. It's Tuesday, June 1st. I'm Shamita Basu. And I'm Duarte Giraldino. This is Apple News Today.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: Each morning, hear about some of the most fascinating stories in the news and how the world's best journalists are covering them.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Today, President Biden is visiting Tulsa, Oklahoma. He's there to mark one of the worst episodes of racial violence in U.S. history. A century ago, in the Tulsa Race Massacre, hundreds of Black people were killed and thousands left homeless when a white mob attacked a prosperous Black neighborhood.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: Now, researchers are trying to answer some difficult questions. What could have been? How do you quantify the domino effect of decades of loss for Black families in Tulsa?
--:-- Shamita Basu: Two researchers set out to answer those questions. This comes to us from The Atlantic. Labor economist Jeremy Cook and economic historian Jason Long, they looked at census data before and after the attack.
--:-- Shamita Basu: In 1920, the year before the massacre, black families in Tulsa earned 9% more than black families in comparable cities. Two decades later, in 1940, those numbers flipped. Black people in Tulsa were making 7% less.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: In the year before the massacre, Black Tulsans were more likely to be homeowners, married and employed than Black residents in similar cities. In the two following decades, they fell behind in every one of those measures.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Meanwhile, White Tulsans maintained their standing when compared to their counterparts in similar cities.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: NPR spoke with John Rogers Jr. He's the co-CEO of Aerial Investments. It's one of the largest Black-owned financial firms in the U.S.
--:-- John Rogers Jr.: His great-grandfather, J.B. Stratford, owned several Tulsa businesses, including one of the largest Black-owned hotels in America. It was all destroyed in the riots.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Over time, we think it would have compounded to over $100 million. We think there would have been real serious wealth that J.B. Stratford would have been able to create and then to be able to share with his descendants as the years went on.
--:-- John Rogers Jr.: His great-grandfather left Oklahoma, and Roger says he was never able to recreate the type of success he had in Tulsa.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Now 100 years later this descendant of Black Wall Street is a Wall Street CEO himself. Remembering Tulsa is both evidence of the power of Black entrepreneurship and a warning about how rapidly what's built can be destroyed.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: According to CNN, today Biden is announcing policies designed to steer more federal contracts to minority-owned businesses. The administration is also looking at ways to create more opportunity in underserved communities like Greenwood and all across America.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Tennis star Naomi Osaka won't play at the French Open. She says she's prioritizing her mental health.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: To catch you up to speed, this comes after she said she would skip post-game press conferences for the tournament, and she got fined $15,000.
--:-- Shamita Basu: So she made the decision to walk away, and she says she's going to take some time away from the court.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: Her announcement put a new spotlight on athletes' mental health and what sports journalists demand of these players.
--:-- John Wertheim: I'm covering the French Open for Sports Illustrated, and I'm calling this a watershed moment.
--:-- Shamita Basu: There's long been a focus on physical injuries in sports. He thinks this could bring more understanding about mental health.
--:-- John Wertheim: Wurtheim also says that he's surprised because Osaka doesn't have a reputation for grandstanding and had what appeared to be a friendly relationship with the press.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: He calls her a media darling and says that her interviews have always been different and engaging.
--:-- Jonathan Leul: In The Guardian, I wrote a column under the headline, We're Not the Good Guys.
--:-- Shamita Basu: He describes the post-game press conference as a toxic environment, especially for women's tennis.
--:-- Jonathan Leul: The reporters in the room are often older men, and the stars are young women. Keep in mind, some of these players are not even legally adults when they're made to stand in front of these reporters.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: Leo rattles off a list of inappropriate questions that some of these journalists asked over the years. Many of them about an athlete's appearance and not her performance on the court.
--:-- Shamita Basu: For example, when Maria Sharapova was just 17 years old, one reporter asked her whether she enjoyed being a pinup.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: Questions whether these kinds of press conferences are even necessary anymore. He writes that they used to be a way for fans to hear directly from the stars, but now they're social media.
--:-- Jonathan Leul: Athletes can connect with the public anytime. Lou says too many journalists at these press conferences are just digging for gossip and feuds.
--:-- Shamita Basu: He says this should be an opportunity for sports media to take a look in the mirror. When a top player is quitting a key tournament, in part to get away from the press pool, it should be a wake-up call, a moment of reflection for sports journalists.
--:-- Shamita Basu: So what happens when a young person wants to get a COVID-19 shot but their parents don't want them to? Millions of adolescents could find themselves in this predicament.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: A recent survey found about a quarter of parents who have 12 to 17-year-old children say they will definitely not get their kids vaccinated.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Young people face a complex set of regulations if their parents don't support them getting the shot.
--:-- Megan Kosar: I'm 16 years old, and I work in the service industry. I was worried about getting sick from customers who refused to wear masks.
--:-- Shamita Basu: After the Pfizer vaccine was approved for her age group, her parents didn't want her to get it.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: And when it comes to vaccinating young people without parental permission, it's basically a patchwork of state laws.
--:-- Shamita Basu: In most states, anyone younger than 18 needs consent from a parent or guardian to get any vaccine. But there are places with more options.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: For example, in Delaware, minors who are 12 and older do not need their parents' consent to get any vaccination.
--:-- Shamita Basu: In Alabama, you need to be 14 or older. In Washington, D.C., 11-year-olds can choose to get any vaccine recommended by the CDC, including the COVID shot.
--:-- Megan Kosar: In states where there aren't laws that grant minors the right to choose for themselves, one course of action might be to talk it out.
--:-- Shamita Basu: That's what Kozar decided to do. She turned to an organization called VaxTeen. It helps teens and parents navigate vaccine information.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: She followed the tips on talking to parents and after several conversations, she was able to persuade them.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Kozar got her second Pfizer dose last month.
--:-- Shamita Basu: If you took a drive this weekend, maybe you got some free entertainment by reading the signs along the side of the highway.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: You know, the responsible driving PSAs that think that they're funny. Things like, I couldn't fasten my seatbelt, then it clicked. You know, ha ha.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Some state transportation officials, they believe humor can catch drivers' eyes and get them to slow down and buckle up.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: Even if that humor is not really funny. The question is, do the signs actually work? Or are bored bureaucrats just amusing themselves?
--:-- Shamita Basu: Yeah, Marketplace took this question seriously.
--:-- Shamita Basu: So a recent study examined the impact of what transport professionals call non-traditional safety messages.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: This has been tried in at least half of the states, and they range from things like the jokey stuff, like I mentioned earlier, to pop culture references or even sports references.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Researchers used brain scans and surveys to figure out which of these messages landed best.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: And it turns out humor is an effective tool. And so are puns and rhymes.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Generally, messages about distracted driving and seatbelts were the most effective at changing behavior.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: The study also found using stats like the number of driving deaths was especially powerful.
--:-- Shamita Basu: As for the wannabe comics of highway departments, They're probably not going to get a job writing for a late-night comic anytime soon.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: But ultimately, they're not in it for the laughs.
--:-- Shamita Basu: Whether drivers love or hate a joke that they read on a billboard, it really doesn't matter. If they notice it, and if they take their foot off the gas just a little bit, that's a win.
--:-- Duarte Giraldino: You can find all these stories and more in the Apple News app. And while you're there, check out some of our audio stories.
--:-- Shamita Basu: We'll talk with you again tomorrow. Thank you.
