Navigating the ‘space between’ the Black/White binary: a call for Jewish multicultural inclusion

ABSTRACT

In the twenty-first century, diversity and multicultural analysis of race often falls along a Black/White binary paradigm. Therefore, those who are perceived to be White are often left out of the discussion of diversity and multicultural education (DME) in the United States. This absence is particularly true for American Jews of Ashkenazi descent. In academic circles today, the notion of ‘Whiteness’ is often used as a determining factor for overlooking antisemitism while addressing issues of racism aimed at other racial and ethnic groups in the United States. Data show that acts of antisemitism continues to rise in the U.S., especially on college campuses. Due to a lack of acknowledgment in the university classroom, Jews continue to be overlooked in multicultural academic thought, which can have wide-ranging consequences for Jews and non-Jews alike.     

Exploring inhibitory deficits in female premutation carriers of fragile X syndrome: Through eye movements

There is evidence which demonstrates that a subset of males with a premutation CGG repeat expansion (between 55 and 200 repeats) of the fragile X mental retardation 1 gene exhibit subtle deficits of executive function that progressively deteriorate with increasing age and CGG repeat length. However, it remains unclear whether similar deficits, which may indicate the onset of more severe degeneration, are evident in female PM-carriers. In the present study we explore whether female PM-carriers exhibit deficits of executive function which parallel those of male PM-carriers. Fourteen female fragile X premutation carriers without fragile X-associated tremor/ataxia syndrome and fourteen age, sex, and IQ matched controls underwent ocular motor and neuropsychological tests of select executive processes, specifically of response inhibition and working memory. Group comparisons revealed poorer inhibitory control for female premutation carriers on ocular motor tasks, in addition to demonstrating some difficulties in behaviour self-regulation, when compared to controls. A negative correlation between CGG repeat length and antisaccade error rates for premutation carriers was also found. Our preliminary findings indicate that impaired inhibitory control may represent a phenotype characteristic which may be a sensitive risk biomarker within this female fragile X premutation population.