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Racist Remarks from L.A. Council Members 

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Racist Remarks from L.A. Council Members 

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On October 9, 2022, an audio recording was released from a private meeting involving Los Angeles City Council members and a union leader where incredibly racist and crude comments were made during a discussion about how they could conserve their "political clout" during the re-drawing of council districts to the detriment of Blacks and renters. It was really demoralizing to have political figures of such a diverse county be exposed for a scandal like this and it puts a deep distrust in the City Hall.

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(Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)

Behind closed doors, Los Angeles City Council President Nury Martinez made openly racist remarks, derided some of her council colleagues and spoke in unusually crass terms about how the city should be carved up politically.

The conversation remained private for nearly a year, until a leaked recording reverberated explosively Sunday and turned the focus of a sprawling metropolis toward Los Angeles City Hall.

By Sunday evening, three of Martinez's council colleagues had called for her to resign. The leak had quickly become a new and incendiary issue in the coming Nov. 8 election, with candidates - some of them endorsed by Martinez - having to stake out positions.

Martinez and the other Latino leaders present during the taped conversation were seemingly unaware they were being recorded as Martinez said a white councilmember handled his young Black son as though he were an "accessory" and described Councilman Mike Bonin's son as " Parece changuito," or "like a monkey."

During the conversation with Councilmembers Gil Cedillo and Kevin de León and Los Angeles County Federation of Labor President Ron Herrera, Martinez described Bonin at one point as a "little bitch," according to a recording of the meeting reviewed by The Times.

Martinez also mocked Oaxacans and said "F- that guy ... He's with the Blacks" while speaking about Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. George Gascón.

De León appeared to compare Bonin's handling of his child to Martinez holding a Louis Vuitton handbag.

The conversation took place in October 2021 and focused heavily on councilmembers' frustration with maps that had been proposed by the city's 21-member redistricting commission.

Along with revealing cruel and racist comments, the leaked audio offered a rare window into the behind-the-scenes machinations of the redistricting process and the bare-knuckled fighting between various groups trying to secure political power.

On Sunday, after this article was published online, Martinez issued a statement apologizing for her comments, saying: "In a moment of intense frustration and anger, I let the situation get the best of me and I hold myself accountable for these comments. For that I am sorry."

"The context of this conversation was concern over the redistricting process and concern about the potential negative impact it might have on communities of color," she added. "My work speaks for itself. I've worked hard to lead this city through its most difficult time."

Also on Sunday, De León called the comments "wholly inappropriate" and said he had fallen "short of the expectations we set for our leaders."

"I regret appearing to condone and even contribute to certain insensitive comments made about a colleague and his family in private," he said in a statement. "I've reached out to that colleague personally."

Cedillo, contacted by The Times Saturday night, said, "I don't have a recollection of this conversation."

On Sunday night, Herrera apologized and asked for forgiveness, saying there is "no justification and no excuse for the vile remarks made in that room."

"And I didn't step up to stop them and I will have to bear the burden of that cross moving forward," he said.

Julie Gutman Dickinson, a lawyer representing the L.A. County Federation of Labor, sent a letter saying the conversation was "recorded in violation of California's privacy and recording laws on LA County Federation of Labor property." If The Times published information from it, "it is condoning this illegal conduct," she added.

Times General Counsel Jeffrey Glasser responded to Gutman Dickinson in a letter Sunday morning, defending the newspaper's right to publish the material.

Audio of the wide-ranging, roughly hourlong conversation was posted on Reddit by a now-suspended user. It is unclear who recorded the audio, who uploaded it to Reddit and whether anyone else was present.

"It is a fundamental principle in the United States that we do not prohibit or punish the receipt and publication of newsworthy information," Glasser wrote.

The leak comes a month before a consequential city election in which the mayor and several council seats are being contested. Martinez has endorsed several council candidates in the Nov. 8 election, and their fate could determine whether she retains the powerful council presidency.

Focus on the leak spread far beyond the typical milieu of municipal government. The words "Nury" and "resign" both briefly trended locally on Twitter Sunday, as ordinary Angelenos and political insiders alike expressed their shock over its content.

"Wow, you know it happens, but when you actually hear it, it's unbelievable," the now-suspended Reddit user said in text accompanying the audio, according to a screenshot reviewed by The Times. "The labor movement is in bed with City Hall."

The group discussed the city's once-a-decade process of redrawing council district boundaries, which was underway at the time, as well as the need to reelect Latino council members and ensure that heavily Latino districts did not lose economic assets, such as USC and Van Nuys Airport.

Latino residents make up roughly half of L.A.'s population but represent less than a third of the council's 15 districts - a fact that has led to complaints that the population is not being fairly represented.

At one point in the conversation, De León referred to Bonin as the council's "fourth Black member."

"Mike Bonin won't f-ing ever say peep about Latinos. He'll never say a f-ing word about us," he said.

Bonin's son was brought into the conversation as the group discussed a dispute between Councilmembers Curren Price and Marqueece Harris-Dawson, who were at odds last year over whose district would represent USC and Exposition Park once the new maps were finalized. Both men are Black and represent parts of South Los Angeles.

Martinez told the group she had a conversation with businessman Danny Bakewell about the situation, and argued that if Harris-Dawson was seeking an economic asset for his district that he should seek to move Los Angeles International Airport out of Bonin's Westside district and into his.

"Go get the airport from his little brother - that little bitch Bonin," Martinez recalled advising Bakewell.

Martinez said that Bonin appeared with his son on a float in a Martin Luther King Jr. Day parade that featured a number of politicians. She also said the child was "an accessory."

De León seemed to compare Bonin's handling of the child to "when Nury brings her Goyard bag or the Louis Vuitton bag."

" Su negrito, like on the side," Martinez said, using a Spanish diminutive term for a Black person that can be considered demeaning.

Martinez suggested the child was misbehaving on the float and might have tipped over the float if she and the other women on the float didn't step in to "parent this kid."

"They're raising him like a little white kid," Martinez said. "I was like, this kid needs a beatdown. Let me take him around the corner and then I'll bring him back."

Martinez's reference to Bonin's child as changuito occurred during that part of the conversation.

In an interview Saturday night, Bonin said he attended the MLK parade in 2017 with his young son and was "angry and heartsick" over the remarks.

On Sunday, Bonin and his husband, Sean Arian, called on Martinez, De León and Herrera to resign.

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"The entirety of the recorded conversation ... displayed a repeated and vulgar anti-Black sentiment, and a coordinated effort to weaken Black political representation in Los Angeles," they said in a statement.

"Any parent reading her comments will know she is unfit for public office," they said of Martinez. "No child should ever be subjected to such racist, mean and dehumanizing comments, especially from a public official. It is painful to know he will someday read these comments."

Bonin was joined by two of his council colleagues - Nithya Raman and Paul Koretz - in calling for Martinez to resign. Eunisses Hernandez, who beat Cedillo in the June primary and will take office later this year, also said she should quit.

Mayor Eric Garcetti did not say if any of the elected leaders should step down, keeping his remarks broad. "There is no place in our city family for attacks on colleagues and their loved ones, and there is no place for racism anywhere in L.A.," he said.

The secretly recorded conversation also dealt with the future of Councilmember Mark Ridley-Thomas, who had just been indicted, and whether he would step down or fight to hold onto his seat.

Martinez said she explained to another councilmember that if Ridley-Thomas were to be suspended, City Controller Ron Galperin would decide whether he still gets paid.

"You need to go talk to that white guy," she says. "It's not us. It's the white members on this council that will motherf- you in a heartbeat."

The council later suspended Ridley-Thomas, who is awaiting trial on bribery and other federal charges. Galperin ultimately terminated Ridley-Thomas' pay and health benefits.

Still, much of the conversation focused on the maps that had been proposed by the city's redistricting commission. Martinez voiced frustration that the panel had proposed removing a number of economic assets from her San Fernando Valley district, including the Van Nuys Airport and the Anheuser-Busch brewery.

"If you're going to talk about Latino districts, what kind of districts are you trying to create?" she asked. "Because you're taking away our assets. You're just going to create poor Latino districts with nothing?"

At one point, Cedillo said there were certain councilmembers who do not merit "rescuing" during the redistricting process. He then made clear that he was referring to Nithya Raman, who had been fighting to ensure her Hollywood Hills district was not moved to the west Valley.

"She is not our ally. She is not going to help us," he said.

Later in the conversation, the group talked about how Koreatown - a largely Latino neighborhood - should be handled in redistricting.

Martinez said the area was in Council District 10, which was Ridley-Thomas' district. Martinez then noted that Raman "wants a play for K-Town" but said that would not happen because she didn't want "beef" with Ridley-Thomas.

Martinez said that giving Raman what could amount to a safer council district would not be good for Martinez and her allies.

"It serves us to not give her all of K-Town," Martinez said, referring to Raman. "Because if you do, that solidifies her renters' district and that is not a good thing for any of us. You have to keep her on the fence."

The group then questioned whether Shatto Place, a small street, and Lafayette Park are in Koreatown.

"I see a lot of little short dark people," Martinez said of that section of Koreatown, employing stereotypes long used against Oaxacans in Mexico and in the United States.

"I was like, I don't know where these people are from, I don't know what village they came [from], how they got here," Martinez said, before adding " Tan feos " - "They're ugly."

Herrera then interjected to bring the group back to their broader strategy.

"I get what we have to do, right? Just massage to create districts that benefit you all. And the future. But we got to figure out Mark's seat too," Herrera said, referring to Ridley-Thomas.

"If he resigns and the African Americans look at this as a hostile takeover because he's gone, we'll have to figure that s- out," Martinez said of Ridley-Thomas. "Because politically, they're going to come after us."

Herrera, the labor official, later said that removing Ridley-Thomas was necessary regardless of potential political blowback, arguing the scandal would hurt all incumbents and make people think "that the council's corrupt." If they do put someone in, "that person has to support the three of you," Herrera said.

"The one who will support us is Heather Hutt," Cedillo said.

De León then floated nonprofit director Irma R. Muñoz as a possible replacement for Ridley-Thomas, noting that she's "married to an African American and she lives up in Baldwin Hills."

Last month, the council voted to install Hutt as Ridley-Thomas' interim replacement.
Times staff writer Brittny Mejia contributed to this report.

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Racist remarks in leaked audio of L.A. council members spark outrage, disgust

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A leaked recording of L.A. City Council members and a labor official includes racist remarks. Council President Nury Martinez apologizes; Councilmember Kevin de León expresses regret.

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This Twitch Livestreamer was in Singapore when she was greeted by a woman who made a racist remark towards Indian people. This goes to show how normalized racist conversation is used in every day life. You can tell by the livestreamers reaction to the comment how shocked she was to be hearing such a thing.

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Korean twitch streamer meets racist aunty in Singapore...

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@sgviralvids
Korean twitch streamer meets racist aunty in Singapore...
♬ original sound - SG Viral Videos

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An analysis of emotions and the prominence of positivity in #BlackLivesMatter tweets

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An analysis of emotions and the prominence of positivity in #BlackLivesMatter tweets

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I went looking for some positive news and found this interesting research article. Fig.4 kind of shocked me, clearly showing the role positivity played throughout the online discourse of #BLM. This is really encouraging to see!

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Stockton Unified Apologizes for Student's Actions

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Stockton Unified Apologizes for Student's Actions

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This website URL is of a recent event in my hometown of Stockton, CA. In this news article, students from Weber Institute reported seeing other students dressed up as Ku Klux Klan members. Said students defended themselves by reporting it was for a historical reenactment for a history class. The students were assigned a "hysteria" assignment, and were not specifically told to dress up, and this assignment did not even include race. Stockton Unified came out with an apology, but personally, at the very least, I think it should be the students apologizing.

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According to the school district, one group dressed up as members of the Ku Klux Klan for the assignment which focused on racism and prejudice.

STOCKTON, Calif. - The Stockton Unified School District is apologizing Friday after photos surfaced online showing students at the Weber Institute of Applied Sciences and Technology dressed as members of the Ku Klux Klan as part of a school assignment.

According to a statement school district officials sent to ABC10, students enrolled in an ELA class were working on an assignment this week about hysteria, discrimination and fear.

School district officials said the assignment called on students to create a short video about something in history that lead to discriminatory laws, actions or practices.

"One group decided to focus on Racism/Prejudice as part of the assignment. The group dressed as members of the Ku Klux Klan," the statement said. "Images of the group have surfaced. This assignment was inappropriate and wrong. SUSD does not condone racism, hate or violence."

School district officials said counselors were on hand Friday for students who witnessed the group and the situation has been addressed with all those involved.

"The Stockton Unified School District took immediate action when it was informed about this incident and assignment. We sincerely apologize for the hurt it caused. It is unacceptable," the statement said. "This type of assignment will not happen again. We apologize to students, teachers and staff who may have witnessed this incident."

ABC10: Watch, Download, Read

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Stockton Unified apologizes after photos of class assignment circulate on social media

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According to the school district, one group dressed up as members of the Ku Klux Klan for the assignment which focused on racism and prejudice. STOCKTON, Calif. - The Stockton Unified School District is apologizing Friday after photos surfaced online showing students at the Weber Institute of Applied Sciences and Technology dressed as members of the Ku Klux Klan as part of a school assignment.

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LA council members racial comments ;leaked audio

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LA council members racial comments ;leaked audio

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Integrity is how you behave when you think nobody is watching or listening as the case may be.

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Hello, it's Monday, Oct. 10, and here are the stories you shouldn't miss today:

TOP STORIES
L.A. council members make racist remarks, mock colleagues
Three Latino members of the Los Angeles City Council and a top county labor official held a conversation last fall that included racist remarks, derisive statements about their colleagues and council President Nury Martinez saying a white councilman handled his young Black son as though he were an "accessory," according to a recording of the meeting reviewed by The Times. Martinez referred to the councilman's child as "ese changuito," or that little monkey, soon after.

During the conversation with Councilmembers Gil Cedillo and Kevin de León and Los Angeles County Federation of Labor President Ron Herrera, Martinez also described Councilmember Mike Bonin at one point as a "little bitch." De León appeared to compare Bonin's handling of his child to Martinez holding a Louis Vuitton handbag. He also referred to Bonin as the council's "fourth Black member."

Must-read stories from the L.A. Times

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Anxiety about voting keeps some young Californians from the polls
Young voters are often misperceived as too apathetic or too self-absorbed to care about elections. But rather than being dismissive of politics, some of the country's least experienced voters say they feel unprepared to make such weighty choices.

This sense of paralysis is a key, but underappreciated, dynamic among this crucial voting bloc of 18- to 29-year-olds, whom politicians tend to court with cringeworthy social media stunts.

It's a sentiment pollsters pick up time and again. Oftentimes young voters say they didn't have enough information or campaigns didn't contact them, said Wasay Rasool, a lead strategist for Avalanche Insights, an information technology company that conducts polls.
More politics Sign up for our Critics say Newsom's Medicaid reforms leave patients behind California Politics newsletter to get the best of The Times' state politics reporting and the latest action in Sacramento. Coronavirus subvariant BA.2.75.2 appears in L.A. County
People who visit the emergency room at Martin Luther King Jr. Community Hospital in South Los Angeles don't always have severe and life-threatening cases. But patients and doctors say it is nearly impossible to find a timely medical appointment or receive adequate care in the impoverished community. A staggering 72% of patients who receive care at the hospital rely on Medi-Cal.

Gov. Gavin Newsom is spearheading a massive experiment in Medi-Cal, pouring nearly $9 billion into a five-year initiative that targets the sickest and costliest patients and provides them with nonmedical benefits. The concept is to improve patient health by funneling money into social programs and keeping patients out of costly institutions.
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The initiative, known as CalAIM, sounds like an antidote to some of the ills that plague MLK. Yet only a sliver of its patients will receive the new and expensive benefits.

(Lauren DeCicca / For The Times)

The Omicron subvariant BA.2.75.2 - a newer coronavirus strain some scientists fear could be problematic - has arrived in Los Angeles County. BA.2.75.2 has been described by Dr. Anthony Fauci, President Biden's chief medical advisor for the pandemic, as "one that looks suspicious - that it might start to evolve as a [troublesome] variant."

Los Angeles County Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer is also watching it closely. Three specimens of BA.2.75.2 have been detected in L.A. County. The strain has been spreading elsewhere, including in parts of Asia and Europe, and Ferrer said what is potentially worrisome is that "it may both evade prior protections" of immunity, such as from past COVID-19 shots or infection, "and not respond to some of our currently available treatments."

Thailand is barreling toward a future in which it could surge past Amsterdam and parts of the United States as a global destination for both cannabis cultivation and consumption.

In June, the government legalized domestically produced pot - a first in Asia - igniting a green rush that's seduced farmers, corporations and seemingly everyone in between. No business idea is too far-fetched. Care for a cannabis-infused bubble tea or a cannabis spa treatment? Looking for a vending machine offering the latest CBD spray? Thailand has you covered.

But from Bangkok to the tourism enclave of Phuket, there is also the unmistakable whiff of the world's largest legal weed market: California. Restrictions on imported weed haven't stopped dispensaries from touting strains smuggled from California.

OUR MUST-READS FROM THE WEEKEND

Will new housing rules stop San Diego from building in high-fire-risk areas? The county Board of Supervisors recently adopted a long-awaited suite of policies that developers and conservation groups agree will make it nearly impossible to build in far-flung parts of the county. But it will limit opportunities for new home construction at a time when short supply coupled with real estate speculation have crushed first-time homebuyers and others.

San Diego State is criticized for giving conflicting accounts of how it handled a gang rape allegation. Since allegations of a gang rape became public months ago, San Diego State University officials have provided shifting and conflicting accounts about how they responded after a star football player and his teammates were first accused of assaulting a 17-year-old high school senior at an off-campus party.

California was repeatedly warned about spiking gas prices and fragile supply. But fixes never came. California officials have had repeated warnings over the last two decades. But California has struggled to find solutions as it tries to rapidly reduce its reliance on fossil fuels. Motorists got a reminder of this in recent weeks as prices hit record levels in an increasingly fragile gasoline market.

CALIFORNIA

Council candidates on L.A.'s Westside bash each other over their legal careers. Attorney Erin Darling charged that his opponent, lawyer Traci Park, had moved to "defend racism" in a case where she represented the city of Anaheim against a city employee who accused a supervisor of using the "n-word."

How parking lots explain California's housing crisis. The cost of constructing low-income housing in California is the highest in the nation, with some apartment buildings totaling more than $1 million per unit to build. One of the reasons? It's expensive to set aside land for parking lots and build underground garages.

A Los Feliz couple encounter surprise in their driveway: a mountain lion believed to be P-22. P-22 surprised the world when he first appeared a decade ago in the park, which scientists had considered too urban and too small to support mountain lions. Scientists assumed that he would eventually leave the park, but he has remained.

Did you stop your home search because of rising mortgage rates? We want to hear from you. The Southern California housing market is in the midst of a sharp slowdown. Home sales are plunging and prices are starting to decline as well. The culprit? Mortgage rates have more than doubled in the last year, causing many prospective home buyers to call it quits. Tell us your story.

Support our journalism

NATION-WORLD

Ian leaves scenes of recovery and despair on the Florida coast. On a coast where a few miles meant the difference between life and death, relief and ruin, the contrasting scenes of reality less than two weeks since the hurricane's onslaught are jarring, and they point to the way disaster can mean so many different things to different people.

Russian strikes kill 13 in Ukraine; Putin labels Crimean bridge attack a 'terrorist act.' The blasts in the city, which remains under Ukrainian control but sits in a region Moscow has claimed as its own, blew out windows in adjacent buildings and left at least one high-rise apartment building partially collapsed. The multiple strikes came after an explosion caused the partial collapse of a bridge linking the Crimean peninsula with Russia.

HOLLYWOOD AND THE ARTS

Deadline founder Nikki Finke dies at 68 after a long illness. Finke was revered and feared in the industry for exposing secrets, first through her L.A. Weekly column, Deadline Hollywood, which she eventually built into a website. She founded Deadline Hollywood Daily in 2006 on a Friday and quickly began building her audience by live-blogging the 78th Academy Awards that Sunday.

With KTLA drama behind her, the countdown is on for Lynette Romero's KNBC debut. KNBC will welcome her to "Today in L.A." starting at 4 a.m. Pacific. Along with anchor Adrian Arambulo, meteorologist Belen De Leon and traffic anchor Robin Winston, Romero will co-anchor the broadcast on weekdays from 4 to 7 a.m.

For Round 2, Kanye West assures Tucker Carlson: 'I will eventually be president.' Fox News' "Tucker Carlson Tonight" aired more of its interview with the provocative rapper. Former President Obama, Elon Musk and West's firm belief that he'll be president one day were among the hot topics. The second half of West's conversation began with him speaking about Obama, whom he said he met in 2008.

BUSINESS

A fire tore through a Palms strip mall. Some restaurant owners are still reeling from the devastation. The deadly fire ravaged the strip mall last month, shuttering multiple businesses - one restaurant possibly permanently - and forcing relocation, pivots, a building-wide drop in business and losing what one estimates to be thousands of dollars each day in its wake. "I was making almost $3,000 a day," said Jay Betts, owner of Bernie's Soul Kitchen. "Now I'm making only maybe $600."

OPINION

L.A. invented jaywalking tickets to serve cars. It's time to give streets back to walkers. In cities, giving primacy to cars has worked to the detriment of lower-income pedestrians and favored suburbanites over local residents. Like the removal of an old monument or the renaming of a building, the law signals new possibilities, writes University of Virginia associate professor Peter Norton.

Free online games

(Christopher Reynolds/Los Angeles Times)

SPORTS

Matthew Stafford was sacked five times as offense-ravaged Rams lose to the Cowboys. Stafford and the Rams struggle to find the rhythm on offense in a 22-10 loss to the Cowboys that threatens to derail their season.

L.A. Chargers defeat the Browns after Cleveland misses a late field-goal attempt. Austin Ekeler scored two touchdowns as the Chargers escaped with a 30-28 win over the Cleveland Browns after Cade Knox missed a potential 54-yard game-winning field goal with 11 seconds left.

A TV dilemma resurfaces after the Tua Tagovailoa injury: When to show and when to tell. As he was on his back on the field, Tagovailoa's rigid hands were spread wide and raised above his face, his fingers splayed in different directions. The cameras for Amazon Prime Video provided a close-up view. Fred Gaudelli, executive producer of "Thursday Night Football," defended the decision to show six replays of the collision.

ONLY IN CALIFORNIA

You can't beat geothermal heat. That's what warms the many hot springs in California - and they make a disparate yet tempting bunch, from rustic roadside holes in the ground to luxurious Napa Valley retreats.

There are dozens, especially in Calistoga (Napa Valley wine country) and Desert Hot Springs (a Coachella Valley city that has not yet followed Palm Springs and environs into full-blown desert gentrification).
We appreciate that you took the time to read Today's Headlines! Comments or ideas? Feel free to drop us a note at headlines@latimes.com.

With the weather cooling down, here is a look at eight hot spring sites that Times writers tried in recent years.

FROM THE ARCHIVES

Actor Christopher Reeve died 18 years ago. The 52-year-old star of the "Superman" movies became even more famous as an advocate for people with disabilities after he was paralyzed from the neck down in a 1995 horseback riding accident.

A tall, dark-haired actor perfectly suited for the role of the "Man of Steel," Reeve showed true fortitude as a quadriplegic who pledged he would one day walk again.

After his accident, Reeve became a powerful advocate for pushing the boundaries of medicine. His New Jersey-based Christopher Reeve Paralysis Foundation emerged under his star power and relentless fundraising as a leading source of research money.

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Today's Headlines: L.A. council members make racist remarks, mock colleagues in leaked audio

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Hello, it's Monday, Oct. 10, and here are the stories you shouldn't miss today: L.A. council members make racist remarks, mock colleagues Three Latino members of the Los Angeles City Council and a top county labor official held a conversation last fall that included racist remarks, derisive statements about their colleagues and council President Nury Martinez saying a white councilman handled his young Black son as though he were an "accessory," according to a recording of the meeting reviewed by The Times.

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Current facts and statistics about issues and events in the US, including racial (in)justice 

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Current facts and statistics about issues and events in the US, including racial (in)justice 

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I decided to search for some positive news about race and racism. In my search, I stumbled upon this site run by the organization Human Right Watch. The news isn't necessarily positive. The news is about current facts and statistics regarding topics like racial justice, poverty and inequality, the criminal justice system, and more. It is refreshing to find a site that is more based on facts and statistics than opinions.

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The administration of United States President Joe Biden and the US Congress took positive steps on human rights by championing the rights of women and lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex (LGBTI) people that had been weakened under the previous administration, committing to racial equity, and taking action to address the Covid-19 pandemic and its harmful economic impacts.

However, the United States continues to fail to fulfill its human rights commitments, most notably in the area of racial justice as reflected in the country's failure to end systemic racism linked to the legacies of slavery; abusive structures of incarceration, immigration enforcement, and social control affecting many racial and ethnic minorities; and the Black-white wealth gap that persists alongside an overall slight increase in economic inequality.

Racial Justice

Black, Latinx, and Native communities have been disproportionately burdened by the negative impacts of Covid-19, which has deepened existing racial injustices in healthcare, housing, employment, education, and wealth accumulation. While poverty fell overall due to stimulus checks and unemployment aid, the Black-white wealth gap, which is still as big as it was in 1968, persisted.

Poverty and Inequality

Economic inequality remains high and has slightly increased in the United States, with wealth disparities rising faster than inequality in income. The total combined wealth of US billionaires increased from $2.9 trillion in March 2020 to $4.7 trillion in July 2021. According to US government sources, poverty dropped and hardship indicators improved since December 2020, aided primarily by government benefits.

The American Rescue Plan, enacted on March 11, which built on earlier direct payments by the administration of former President Donald Trump, included $1,400 payments for most adults in the US alongside other assistance to struggling households. Food hardship among adults with children also fell after the federal government began monthly payments under the expanded Child Tax Credit on July 15, along with improved food assistance. Federal and state eviction moratoriums protected millions of tenants during the pandemic.

Criminal Legal System

Prisons have often failed to provide sufficient protections against Covid-19 infection. One-third of all people in US prisons have contracted the virus and over 2,700 have died from it. Many jurisdictions reduced incarceration in response to the pandemic, but detained populations began returning to their pre-pandemic numbers in 2021 even as Delta variant cases surged.

Most US police departments refuse to report data on their use of force, necessitating nongovernmental data collection and analysis. As of November 3, police had killed over 900 people in 2021, similar to numbers in years past. On a per capita basis, police kill Black people at three times the rate they kill white people.

Children in the Criminal and Juvenile Justice Systems

Nearly two in three youth ordered into residential placement were placed in the most restrictive facilities.

Slow progress is being made to end the sentence of life without parole for children. According to the Campaign for the Fair Sentencing of Youth, 30 states have no one serving the sentence or have banned it for people under age 18.

Drug Policy

Rights of Non-Citizens

Despite promises made during the presidential campaign, the Biden administration kept in place Trump-era policies denying access to asylum at US borders. At time of writing, the administration had carried out 753,038 expulsions under Title 42, an illegal policy to expel migrants arriving at land borders based on specious public health grounds.

Title 42 expulsions single out migrants arriving at land borders-who are disproportionately Black, Indigenous, and Latino, particularly from Central America, Africa, and Haiti-for discriminatory treatment, while thousands of other travelers are able to cross the border without any health screening. Expulsions under Title 42 put migrants in harm's way with thousands suffering kidnapping, rape, assault, extortion, and other abuse after expulsion to Mexico alone. In September, the government showed total disregard for the right to seek asylum when immigration agents on horseback used long reins as whips to control and deter a group of about 15,000 largely Black Haitian migrants in Del Rio, Texas.

In October, Human Rights Watch reported on Department of Homeland Security documents cataloguing over 160 internal reports of US border officials physically or otherwise abusing asylum seekers and subjecting them to due process violations.

After detention levels reached historic lows due to releases prompted by the Covid-19 pandemic, the Biden administration dramatically increased the number of people detained for immigration reasons and also increased the number placed on electronic monitors, which facilitates invasive surveillance.

According to data current through August 2021, the United States decided over 18,000 asylum cases in fiscal year 2021 (which ended on September 30), of which 63 percent were denied asylum, 36 percent were granted asylum, and 1 percent were granted a different legal status. Despite the administration's decision to raise the limit to 62,500, only 11,445 refugees were admitted to the US during fiscal year 2021.

Health and Human Rights

Voting Rights

Climate Change Policy and Impacts

Historically, the United States is by far the country that has most contributed to the climate crisis that is taking a mounting toll on human rights around the globe and remains amongst the world's top emitters.

President Biden announced he would prioritize addressing climate change, and rejoined the Paris Agreement on his first day in office. However, the United States' emissions reduction target in its national climate plan, is not sufficient to meet the Paris Agreement goal to limit global warming to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels, according to the Climate Action Tracker. If all countries' commitments were in the same range, warming would reach just under 2°C, risking catastrophic human rights harms. Further, although the Biden administration has taken significant steps to reduce emissions, the United States is not on track to reach its target.

Women's and Girls' Health and Rights

Lack of access to health insurance and care contributed to higher rates of maternal and cervical cancer deaths than in comparable countries, with Black women dying at higher rates. President Biden issued a presidential memorandum on protecting women's health on January 28, rescinding actions by the Trump administration that created difficulties for women to speak freely with doctors, access health services, and get health information.

On March 8, Biden issued an executive order establishing the White House Gender Policy Council tasked with increasing access to comprehensive health care, addressing health disparities, and promoting sexual and reproductive health and rights, among other goals. On October 22, 2021, it issued a national strategy on gender equity and equality.

States continue to pass increasingly extreme abortion restrictions. Harmful laws in the majority of US states force young people under 18 to involve a parent in their abortion decision, or go to court to receive a judicial bypass. These laws can delay or prevent access to care. access to care.

In September, a new law in Texas effectively prohibited nearly all abortions after six weeks of pregnancy, before most people know they are pregnant, with no exception for rape or incest. At time of writing, the law remained in place after the Supreme Court declined to block the law in response to an emergency application; a second challenge was pending before the court.

At time of writing, the Supreme Court was scheduled to hear oral arguments in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, a case concerning a Mississippi abortion restriction that could have significant implications for abortion rights in the United States. A decision is expected in 2022.

As abortion access in some states became more restrictive, the Food and Drug Administration issued permission in April for mifepristone, a drug used in medical abortions, to be prescribed and administered by mail through the duration of the pandemic.

Disability Rights

Police violence against Black and Latinx people with disabilities (especially people with mental health conditions, but not exclusively) continued in 2021, partly due to lack of community-based support services for mental health crises. Illinois and California passed legislation to address the growing concern.

Older People's Rights

As of September, approximately one-third of Covid-19 deaths were in long-term residential facilities. There were also serious concerns about abuse and neglect in nursing homes during the pandemic. Staffing shortages, a longstanding issue, and limits on family visitors, who often assisted staff, may have contributed to neglect and decline. In June, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services undid a Trump administration rule that restricted monetary fines for certain nursing home violations. Congress considered bills to enhance nursing home accountability, address elder abuse, expand home and community-based services, and improve direct care workers' wages and benefits.

Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity

The Biden administration took swift steps to restore rights limited by the Trump administration, instructing federal agencies to combat discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.

The administration also issued a memorandum to advance the human rights of LGBTI people in US foreign policy, and reversed the discriminatory transgender military ban.

Lawmakers in US states introduced more than 110 bills targeting transgender people, particularly transgender children, threatening their health and rights. Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Mississippi, Montana, Tennessee, Texas, and West Virginia enacted laws prohibiting trans children from participating in sports consistent with their gender identity. Arkansas and Tennessee enacted laws preventing children and adolescents from obtaining gender-affirming healthcare.

The Senate did not pass the Equality Act, which would expressly prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity under various federal civil rights laws.

National Security

The Biden administration announced it would review the legal and policy frameworks governing lethal targeting of terrorism suspects abroad, but that review has not been made public. On August 29, two days after the Kabul airport suicide bombing claimed by the Islamic State of Khorasan Province (ISIS-K or ISKP) that killed at least 170 Afghans and 13 US servicemembers, the US launched a drone strike on a car it claimed was filled with explosives headed to the airport. On September 17, the Defense Department admitted the strike was a " tragic mistake," killing 10 civilians including seven children. Following an investigation, the US concluded that there was no "criminal negligence among military personnel" involved in the operation. The US announced it would provide " ex gratia condolence payments " to the victims' families.

Foreign Policy

Upon taking office, the Biden administration announced that it was committed to a foreign policy " that is centered on the defense of democracy and the protection of human rights," as well as to increasing multilateral cooperation. The United States was reelected to the UN Human Rights Council, and rejoined the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Paris Climate Accord.

In April 2021, President Biden lifted sanctions against senior International Criminal Court (ICC) officials but opposed ICC investigations that could include scrutiny of the conduct of US and Israeli nationals. The US hosted a Summit for Democracy intended to spur commitments by invited countries on human rights, anti-corruption, and anti-authoritarianism.

The Biden administration revoked the Protecting Life in Global Health Policy, also known as the "Global Gag Rule," which damaged sexual and reproductive health and rights globally. It also committed to restoring consideration of reproductive health and rights to its annual global human rights report.

A US Special Envoy to Advance the Human Rights of LGBTQI+ Persons was appointed, a vacant position since 2017. Secretary of State Antony Blinken rejected the findings of the State Department's Commission on Unalienable Rights -a Trump administration initiative advocating for a hierarchical approach to human rights-noting that human rights are "interdependent" and cannot be ranked.

While the Biden administration adopted the Trump administration's determination of genocide and crimes against humanity by China's government for its treatment of Uyghurs, it did not announce a legal determination on military abuses against the Rohingya in Myanmar or on abuses committed in Ethiopia's Tigray region. The United States urged the UN Security Council to discuss the humanitarian and rights crises in Myanmar and Tigray, but at time of writing had not called on the council to impose an arms embargo or individual UN sanctions on those responsible for abuses.

The United States pursued sanctions on a range of human rights violations. In response to China's use of forced labor and other abuses of Uyghurs in Xinjiang, the Biden administration issued an advisory warning that US companies conducting business in the region run a "high risk of violating US law." The administration imposed sanctions on Chinese and Hong Kong officials and companies over the crackdown on democracy in Hong Kong. On Myanmar, the administration imposed sanctions on the junta following the February coup. The US took similar action against Belarus, Cuba, and Nicaragua in response to increasingly authoritarian governance and rights violations. President Biden also issued an executive order allowing for US sanctions against individuals committing abuses in the Ethiopia conflict and terminated Ethiopia's trade status under the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) due to human rights violations.

The Biden administration did not impose sanctions on Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman following the release of a US intelligence report that concluded that he approved the 2018 murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

In July, President Biden launched a US strategy to address the root causes of migration in Central America, including promoting respect for human rights. The impact of this strategy has been limited.

The Biden administration pursued arms sales and security assistance to countries with poor human rights records. Though the United States pledged to end offensive weapons sales to Saudi Arabia and the UAE due to their role in the war in Yemen, it pursued arms deals with both governments. The Biden administration authorized over $2.5 billion in arms sales to the Philippines and requested $1.3 billion in security assistance to Egypt despite deteriorating human rights in both countries. President Biden also skirted congressional legislation that requires $300 million of US security assistance to Egypt to be conditioned on human rights, withholding only $130 million despite ongoing abuses.

The United States funded an additional $735 million in arms sales to Israel over the annual $3.8 billion commitment, even as Israeli forces used US-made weapons in May airstrikes in Gaza that violated the laws of war and apparently amount to war crimes.

The Biden administration stated its willingness to return to compliance with the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action if Iran does the same. At time of writing, the US and Iran had agreed to resume multilateral talks at the end of November. Broad US sanctions on Iran remain in place.

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World Report 2022: Rights Trends in United States

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The administration of United States President Joe Biden and the US Congress took positive steps on human rights by championing the rights of women and lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex (LGBTI) people that had been weakened under the previous administration, committing to racial equity, and taking action to address the Covid-19 pandemic and its harmful economic impacts.

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This article displays how acts of racism still in exist in soccer. During a World Cup game, "a banana was thrown at Richarlison as he celebrated scoring a 19th-minute goal in Brazil’s 5-1 win against Tunisia." FIFA, the organization that runs the World Cup, no longer has an anti-racism task force, but this example clearly shows discrimination is still prominent. It is important to point out these acts of racism in sports, especially ones as popular as soccer.

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Sept 27 (Reuters) - The worst miscarriages of justice any system can produce - the conviction or death sentence of an innocent person - are largely driven by racism in the U.S., a new report by the National Registry of Exonerations shows.

The Race and Wrongful Convictions report released on Tuesday also identifies some striking trends in the data about false convictions, including that pre-trial DNA testing has prevented the conviction of hundreds, maybe thousands, of innocent rape suspects, mostly Black men accused of raping white women.

The Registry, a joint project of the University of California, Irvine, the University of Michigan Law School and Michigan State University College of Law, tracks all known wrongful convictions in the U.S. since 1989. It last reported race and exonerations in 2017, when there were 1,900 known cases. That count has ballooned by almost 70% in the five years since, now reaching an astonishing 3,249 innocent people falsely convicted, and who served nearly 12 years in prison on average. That number doesn't include tens of thousands of people cleared in "group exonerations" because of large-scale law enforcement corruption (Information is sometimes sparse in those cases, and many don't fit the researchers' definition of "exoneration," which includes new evidence of innocence.).

The Registry's Race and Wrongful Convictions report is based on the first 3,200 exonerees in the registry, most of whom either faced the most serious, life-altering accusations - murder and sexual assault -- or were targeted and swept up in our Sisyphean war on drugs.

The growing number of exonerations makes the trends in the data more reliable, and the racial patterns are clear, and damning. They implicate offices and individuals at all levels of the justice system, from police, to drug lab technicians, to coroners, prosecutors and judges.

More than half of the people convicted of crimes and later exonerated because they were innocent are Black -- 53% -- even though Black people make up 13.6% of the American population, according to the report. (Researchers note that there are serious limitation to studying false convictions of Latino, Native American and other minority defendants, largely due to missing data or inconsistent standards of racial categorization.).

In other words, Black people are overrepresented in wrongful convictions at a rate nearly four times their proportion of the population. That holds true, to varying degrees, for exonerations in all major crime categories except white collar crime, and the racial disparities persist no matter how one slices the data.

A spokesperson at the National District Attorneys Association didn't respond to a request for comment about the study. The Fraternal Order of Police also didn't respond to my questions for this column.

Christina Swarns, executive director of the Innocence Project, told me that the report "shows that the belief that race is a proxy for criminality continues to pervade the criminal legal system and is a powerful driver of wrongful convictions."

The largest racial disparities show up for drug crimes, largely because of a key feature that distinguishes them from murder or rape cases: Police officers themselves choose whom to search, investigate and arrest for drug offenses.

"They usually choose Black people," researchers wrote.

Sixty-nine percent of drug crime exonerees are Black and 16% are white, even though Black and white Americans use illegal drugs at similar rates, according to the report. Put differently, innocent Black people are about 19 times more likely to be falsely convicted of drug crimes than innocent white people.

The report counts some 2,975 drug exonerations, many caused by police officers who deliberately and systematically framed Black people, including by planting drugs. (This count includes some defendants in "group exonerations.") A number of those scandals involved specialized drug task forces that have a documented history of aggressive policing and systemic abuse.

The disparities are lower, but still unmistakable, in more serious crime categories.

Innocent Black people are 7.5. times more likely to be convicted of murder than innocent white people, according to the report.

They're more likely to be framed in those cases: Murder exonerations of Black people were almost 50% more likely to include police misconduct than those of white defendants. And the disparity is also tied to the race of the victim. Many studies in at least 15 states have showed that defendants of all color who are charged with killing white victims are more likely to be sentenced to death than those charged with killing Black victims, the researchers wrote.

Innocent Black people are also nearly eight times more likely to be falsely convicted of rape than innocent white people. "The major cause of this disturbing racial disparity is the high danger of misidentification of Black suspects by white victims," according to the report.

But mistakes don't tell the whole story. A "substantial number of the convictions that led to rape exonerations of Black defendants were marred by implicit biases, racially tainted official misconduct and, in some cases, explicit racism," researchers wrote.

Two interesting trends also emerged in the data about violent crimes, and they speak to improvements in how we handle false convictions.

First, exonerations of misidentified rape defendants are now rare because of DNA testing - there were only two in the last 12 years. Second, many recent murder exonerees are Black people who were cleared by just eight conviction integrity units in large cities, including Philadelphia, Chicago and Detroit.

Swarns said that DNA testing has had a "huge impact on disparities in the system." The data on exonerations, overall, make it "abundantly clear" that all prosecutors should have units dedicated to reviewing questionable convictions, she added.

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Opinions expressed are those of the author. They do not reflect the views of Reuters News, which, under the Trust Principles, is committed to integrity, independence, and freedom from bias.

Hassan Kanu

Thomson Reuters

Hassan Kanu writes about access to justice, race, and equality under law. Kanu, who was born in Sierra Leone and grew up in Silver Spring, Maryland, worked in public interest law after graduating from Duke University School of Law. After that, he spent five years reporting on mostly employment law. He lives in Washington, D.C. Reach Kanu at hassan.kanu@thomsonreuters.com

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Rising number of false convictions shows stark racial patterns

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Sept 27 (Reuters) - The worst miscarriages of justice any system can produce - the conviction or death sentence of an innocent person - are largely driven by racism in the U.S., a new report by the National Registry of Exonerations shows.

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YouTube superstar PewDiePie -- aka Felix Kjellberg -- has captured the attention of millions with his video game reaction videos and goofy sense of humor. But he also has strong anti-Semitic values that he isn't shy about sharing. In one video, he held up a Nazi salute and hired two performers who held up a sign that read, "Death To All Jews." i don't think that this is good b/c kids watch him and see him do that so then they think it is ok to do but they don't understand the deeper meaning behind it

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NBA playrer uses an anti semitic slur on livestream

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NBA playrer uses an anti semitic slur on livestream

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NBA player Meyers Leonard was playing his video games while he was recording himself and livestreaming it while other people were watching him play. He then used an anti semitic slur on stream because he got mad at someone. After it got out he apologized and claimed he had no idea what the word he used meant.

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The concept of mass incarceration was created when Nixon entered office and began his "war on drugs," which targeted black and brown low-income communities. The conveniently timed war on drugs, which began a few years after segregation became illegal, created the foundation for a decades-long prison system that disproportionately convicts and incarcerates people of color. America is the leader in the prison population rate, comprising 25% of the global incarceration rate while only making up 2% of the global population.  It's incredibly frustrating that the injustices and structural racism of not only our federal and state prison systems, and the exploitation of convicts through private prisons are evident issues that our justice system is corrupt, yet it continues to operate through a racist lens.

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You've heard the phrase "mass incarceration." But what, really, does it mean?

Simply put, it is shorthand for the fact that the U.S. incarcerates more people than any nation in the world, including China. And the U.S. is also the leader in the prison population rate. America's approach to punishment often lacks a public safety rationale, disproportionately affects minorities, and inflicts overly harsh sentences.

We can build a better and fairer system. But before exploring how to fix the problem, it is worthwhile to conduct a brief review of the history of incarceration.
From Noble Intentions to Knee-jerk Result
The Founders, rebelling against a British legal system that vested all power in the Crown, wanted a justice system that guarded against government abuse. Four of the first 10 amendments to the Constitution protect the rights of the accused or convicted. This was a statement of priorities - and the world noticed.

Alexis de Tocqueville, the renowned 19th century French sociologist, came to the U.S. in 1831 to study the young nation's prisons and penitentiaries. He found that certain states were attempting to administer humane and proportional punishment in a way France, and the rest of Europe, were not. His observations appeared in his classic work, Democracy in America.

Of course, de Tocqueville also saw much to criticize in the young United States, including its commitment to slavery. That legacy continues to haunt the country today, even as most of the world has adopted punishment systems more in line with what de Tocqueville hoped to find. Today, the U.S. incarceration rate is nine times higher than Germany, eight times higher than Italy, five times higher than the U.K., and 15 times higher than Japan.

Why? Simply put, other countries do not use prison as a one-size-fits-all solution to crime. In 2016, the Brennan Center examined convictions and sentences for the 1.46 million people behind bars nationally and found that fully 39 percent, or 576,000, were in prison without any public safety reason and could have been punished in a less costly and damaging way (such as community service).

But even if they were all released, the U.S. would still incarcerate at a far higher rate than comparable countries.
Mass Incarceration Takes Hold
It wasn't always this way. The prison population began to grow in the 1970s, when politicians from both parties used fear and thinly veiled racial rhetoric to push increasingly punitive policies. Nixon started this trend, declaring a "war on drugs" and justifying it with speeches about being "tough on crime." But the prison population truly exploded during President Ronald Reagan's administration. When Reagan took office in 1980, the total prison population was 329,000, and when he left office eight years later, the prison population had essentially doubled, to 627,000. This staggering rise in incarceration hit communities of color hardest: They were disproportionately incarcerated then and remain so today.

Incarceration grew both at the federal and state level, but most of the growth was in the states, which house the vast majority of the nation's prisoners. The number of prisoners grew in every state - blue, red, urban, and rural. In Texas, for example, the state incarceration rate quadrupled: In 1978, the state incarcerated 182 people for every 100,000 residents. By 2003, that figure was 710.

These changes were spurred in part by laws like the 1994 Crime Bill, which gave states money to perpetuate policies that bred bloated prisons. In fact, while it received little attention, the rise of mass incarceration was a phenomenon that has affected the entire country for four decades.
Mass Incarceration's Slow Decline
Recently however, there has been some incremental progress in reducing mass incarceration. In the last decade, prison populations have declined by about 10 percent. Racial disparities in the prison population have also fallen. This is the product of a bipartisan consensus that mass incarceration is a mistake. Lawmakers from both parties have come to realize that locking people up is an expensive, ineffective means to fight crime. Some conservative states like Texas have led the way, undoing many of the harsh policies passed in the 1980s and 1990s. States have seen their prison populations and crime rates decline simultaneously. Unfortunately, however, both President Trump and Attorney General Jeff Sessions are stout reform opponents, threatening the small progress that's been made.

Yet, it's important to remember that even at the current rate of decline, it will take decades to achieve incarceration rates appropriate to the current violent crime rate, which is roughly where it was in 1971. And while racial disparities are decreasing, the rate of incarceration for African Americans would only match whites after 100 years at the current pace.

The good news is that at last criminal justice policy has finally begun to change course. But without a sustained effort, this burst of reform will fall short. Mass incarceration was created through decades-long policy shifts at the national, state, and local level. Ending it will require policies just as far-reaching.

(Photo: Thinkstock)

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From Alexis de Tocqueville to Ronald Reagan, the forces that have shaped the current state of our prison system.

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UPenn Doctor claims that rules placed to create a diverse work place is “lowering standards”

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UPenn Doctor claims that rules placed to create a diverse work place is “lowering standards”

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After the murder of George Floyd, the American Medical Association created a plan to eliminate disparities between white people and minorities. This doctor disagrees with the plan.

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I found this article on racism presence in social media, and how to combat it. - Jacob

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Rep. Paul Gosar of Arizona has long drawn criticism for his extremist views. He has added fuel to the spread of conspiracy theories surrounding the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol and the deadly 2017 white-nationalist rally in Charlottesville. Most recently, Gosar's tweet and Instagram post of a video depicting him killing Rep. Ocasio-Cortez, threatening President Biden, and advocating for hostile anti-migrant action on the border raised the menace of online racial violence in politics.

The Sunday-night post is not the first time immigrants have been portrayed as an apocalyptic threat by white nationalists. Nor is it rare for such views to be spread through online networks, and even by people in power. Social networking sites enable people to share connections and view content generated by other users that participate in this virtual social system. So when then President Donald Trump tweeted on March 16, 2020 that "the United States will be powerfully supporting those industries, like Airlines and others, that are particularly affected by the Chinese Virus," his message of blame toward the Asian community was disseminated across millions of people. A recent study published in the American Journal of Public Health indicates this tweet precipitated anti-Asian sentiments through hashtags like #covid19 and #chinesevirus. Twitter permanently suspended Trump in January 2021 due to " the risk of further incitement of violence."

Our recent report, " Bystander Intervention on Social Media," highlights the need for online interventions against the very real threats that can grow out of online abuse. We identify effective strategies that bystanders can use to combat hate speech and misinformation online. We conducted a quantitative and qualitative analysis of five themes in Twitter tweets and Reddit posts: systemic racism, police brutality, education inequality, employment, and wealth. Some of the conversations were small (n=2) whereas others were large (n=43,186). Each post was assigned a sentiment score using Vader, a tool uniquely designed to be used with micro-blog size social media posts. A sentiment analysis evaluates how positive or negative the words used in a particular tweet or reddit post are. Our analysis was visualized and color coded on a gradient scale from red (-1.0 being the most negative) to green (1.0 indicating the most positive) to indicate the sentiment score ( Click here to access tool similar to the figure below).

Understanding how people respond to racial abuse online has broader implications for effectively constructing healthy communication, calming anger and frustration, and changing attitudes. Unfortunately, we found that only one in six Twitter discussions and slightly less than 40 percent of Reddit discussions featured prosocial bystander action (evidence and education as well as content moderation). In the following sections, we describe five lessons learned from our research that hopefully encourage people to pay attention to their online networks and work to address perpetrators of hate speech and misinformation.

1. White Supremacy in a Digital Era

We found that people of color are being targeted by organized misinformation efforts using digital technologies. We identified four primary racist discourses that operate on social media: stereotyping, scapegoating, allegations of reverse racism, and echo chambers. For example, Trump's March 2020 tweet involves scapegoating in that he blames Chinese people and China for the spread of coronavirus in the U.S., thereby absolving his government of responsibility. Addressing racism on social media requires understanding that users who spread racist misinformation do so differently, sometimes compounding multiple forms of racism in just one post.

2. How to take Action Against Online Abuse

Our research revealed bystander intervention includes callouts, insults, efforts to educate or offer proof, and content moderation. Like Twitter deleting Trump's post, content moderation reduced or eliminated online racist dialogue. Users who objected to Trump's tweet may have also used the reply feature to express their disapproval. Others prefer to belittle the intelligence or morals of those who make racist remarks. Finally, people responded to racist misinformation by linking to external sources like Brookings Institution studies. This variety of responses implies social media users have varied perspectives on how best to online racism.

3. Different Platforms, Different Strategies

Despite comparable techniques on Twitter and Reddit, our research found that users utilize different ways to combat online racism. While both sites emphasized education and evidence, Twitter reactions featured more callouts, insults, and mockery than Reddit posts. However, Reddit's features allowed for more significant moderation, such as moderator bots or downvoting, to respond to racist Reddit posts. Since platforms differ in features that shape online interactions, users have to consider the limitations and possibilities for meaningful intervention based on the social networking software they use. Accordingly, Reddit has built in accountability mechanisms that increase prosocial strategies and reduce antisocial strategies.

4. Not All Bystander Intervention Strategies Work Equally

While there are several techniques for combating online racism, not all of them are equally effective. For instance, our study reveals that education and evidence-based or content-moderated discourse are prosocial techniques. These reactions to racist posts foster dialogue in the same way that they seek to debunk racist rhetoric. On the other hand, some methods, such as callouts, ridicule, and insults, were antisocial. These methods failed to minimize the hostility amongst users or against persons of color. Therefore, Internet users who want to speak out against online racism must consider the purpose of their interactions. If they want to reduce the presence of racism on social media, they must keep in mind that certain approaches may have the opposite effect.

5. We Need More Bystander Intervention

While we discovered several intervention tactics, we also discovered that users on both platforms tended to refrain from intervening in racist conversations entirely. Only around one in every six Twitter conversations and somewhat less than 40% of Reddit discussions included bystander behavior. Considering that "90 percent of teenagers report witnessing bullying online," bystander intervention is vital. Our report documented the consequences of bullying on mental health outcomes, including depression, anxiety and, at its worst, suicide.

We also suggest that racial minorities may face different types of cyberbullying, experience less empathy from bystanders, and, in turn, have fewer people engage in bystander intervention when they are bullied. The tragedies that occur as a consequence of under-intervention are what we see in the cases of children like 9-year-old McKenzie Adams and 10-year-old "Izzy" Tichenor. The very people meant to be protecting Izzy from abuse stood by as she, and many other Black students across Davis School District, Utah were called the N-word and taunted with references to monkeys, apes, slavery, lynching, and other racial harassment. A continued lack of bystander intervention from her peers or school administrators alike contributed to Izzy committing suicide.

"Silence and inaction do nothing but cause biased perpetrator behaviors to proliferate as they feel unquestioned." This is one of the most important implications from our analysis. Targeted aggressions can have real consequences on a victim's mental and physical health. When bystanders step in and help to make aggressions visible, disarm the situation, educate the perpetrator, and seek external reinforcement or support, these approaches provide crucial support in preventing some of the most detrimental effects. Understanding the best strategies for online bystander intervention is the first step in targeting aggression online. If we want to see a genuine change in how social media users discuss racism, we must foster a digital culture that values prosocial discourse.

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Combating racism on social media: 5 key insights on bystander intervention

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Melissa Brown, Samantha Elizondo, and Rashawn Ray write that understanding the best strategies for online bystander intervention is the first step in targeting aggression online and to improve how social media users discuss racism, we must foster a digital culture that values prosocial discourse.

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Last year, 7-time Formula 1 champion, Lewis Hamilton, was the victim of multiple racist remarks and harassment. Former F1 champion, Nelson Piquet, used a racial slur to describe Hamilton in an interview which got people on the internet buzzing with a very large majority of people defending Lewis. In another scenario, at the 2021 Dutch Grand Prix, fans of Hamilton's rival for that season (Max Verstappen), went on to exclaim many racial slurs towards Hamilton which caught the attention of the FIA and have since then taken action in an anti-racism campaign throughout all of F1. Hamilton has been a huge supporter of this seeing as how he has been faced with racism through all his life since he first started carting as a kid and even now at the height of his career being the only black driver on the grid.

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Formula One will use the season-opening Austrian Grand Prix to launch a new initiative against racism, which includes a diversity and equality task force.

On Monday F1 said it will return at the July 5 event with "added purpose" to recognise the issues facing modern society.

F1.com editor Lawrence Barretto joins the show to talk Lewis Hamilton's legacy after the Mercedes driver claimed a record-equalling seventh championship.
Listen to the latest episode

F1 CEO Chase Carey said the opening event of the delayed season will be "a platform for Formula One to come together and achieve results against the most important issues facing us as a sport and the world.

He added: "That is why at our first race in Austria Formula One will stand united to say loud and clear that racism must end. We will show our full support in fighting inequality throughout the weekend and accelerate our own efforts to make Formula One more diverse and inclusive."

The F1 initiative, dubbed WeRaceAsOne, follows reigning world champion Lewis Hamilton, F1's only black driver, launching a commission to help motorsport engage more young people from black backgrounds. Hamilton has been outspoken during the Black Lives Matter movement and last month called out F1 for its silence and inaction over both the death of George Floyd in police custody in Minneapolis and the lack of diversity in the series.

F1.com editor Lawrence Barretto joins the show to talk Lewis Hamilton's legacy after the Mercedes driver claimed a record-equalling seventh championship.
Listen to the latest episode

The initiative will also include a thanks from F1 to health workers and those affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. The series will launch an F1 Rainbow, consisting of the colours of all 10 teams, which will appear on cars, garages and around the circuit in Austria. F1 will also release rainbow-branded products to help charitable initiatives.

F1's statement said: "The rainbow has been chosen as it has become a symbol used internationally in the recent crisis to bring communities together. We believe this important gesture will encourage our fans to join us in saying thank you. The rainbow initiative will continue throughout the season."

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F1 launches initiative against racism, inequality

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Formula One will use the season-opening Austrian Grand Prix to launch a new initiative against racism, which includes a diversity and equality task force. On Monday F1 said it will return at the July 5 event with "added purpose" to recognise the issues facing modern society.

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I found this article about racism in soccer. Three players for England were facing harassment and racism after losing a game to Italy. Fans took to social media to bully the players for missing their penalty kicks against the opposing team. One of the players, Marcus Rashford, had his mural vandalized. I find it so dumb how fans can be so ignorant and hateful over a soccer game.

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Three Black Soccer Players Are Facing Racist Abuse After England’s Euro 2020 Defeat

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As soon as Italy clinched its win over England in the Euro 2020 soccer championship, racist comments started pouring in blaming three Black players for the loss.

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In this article it is discussed how the algorithm filters through creators and mostly promotes and uses its recommendation system of "collaborative filtering". As well as how people of color were getting suppressed by automated moderation while watching other people being promoted and going viral for their own creations or ideas.

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The Super Bowl is over, so we are officially in Valentine's Day mode over here. We're going to get into a story we haven't been able to stop thinking about for weeks: West Elm Caleb. Why was he dubbed one of the year's first internet villains? And what does his saga tell us about race on the internet? Let's dive in.

Here's the backstory: In early January, a woman posted a TikTok about her frustration with being ghosted after dates. In the video, she specifies she's in New York City, and her caption references a tall guy named Caleb. That's about it.

But this smattering of info, catalyzed by TikTok's powerful recommendation algorithm, turned the video into a lighthouse for a swath of young, mostly white women in the NYC dating scene. In the comments and their own videos, about a dozen women shared stories about meeting a tall guy named Caleb on Hinge, who said he worked at West Elm as a furniture designer.

In front of a growing audience, women who said they had or were currently dating Caleb pieced together a character built out of red flags. The man who told them he had "just deleted Hinge" had apparently actually left their meeting to go to another date, they said. As the story spread, more and more people chimed in, analyzing Caleb's behavior, trying to find their local equivalents, calling him everything from emotionally manipulative to a love bomber to a sociopath.

And so as these things go, Caleb went from a local Hinge player to dating supervillain, the target of a massive, righteous internet investigation. An audience of millions helped uncover and blow up his personal information. Several brands made posts trying to dunk on Caleb and edge in on the attention - a non-West Elm furniture store, a rival dating app, Hellman's mayo for some reason.

It was around this time that it jumped from a TikTok trend to Internet News, with pieces bursting forth about how actually, this punishment didn't fit the crime. Caleb's behavior, while certainly questionable sounding, really didn't seem outside the realm of normal (given the generally low standards for boys on the apps.)

And while it's good that many called out the overstep in reaction, it also made us think about the ways that these outrage cycles happen, and often get ignored, when people of color are involved. Mass harassment, character attack and doxxing are all pretty par for the course for people who stumble into internet attention. But this case seemed to play out in a very specific way.

Which raises some questions: How exactly did Caleb get so much attention in the first place, and what kind of attention was it? While social media companies tend to stay tight-lipped about how their algorithms work, TikTok describes part of their recommendation system as "collaborative filtering" - a system that creates "personalized" recommendations by showing you what other users who like the same things as you also like (yeah, it's the kind of thing that takes a few diagrams to explain.)

Marc Faddoul, an A.I. researcher who raised concerns about racial bias in TikTok's recommendations, told Buzzfeed News that "Collaborative filtering may also reproduce whatever bias there is in people's behavior. People who tend to like blonde teens tend to like a whole lot of other blonde teens."

But viral zeitgeistiness isn't just about the amount of eyeballs on a story. It's also about the type of audience attached to those eyeballs. Are the people watching you mostly looking for easy fun? Or is your audience saturated with content makers, who make response videos or work for ad agencies or national news organizations?

On TikTok, there's a flipside to the white stories that get the most mainstream attention - Black users have consistently had to fight for visibility and credit. Last year, creators flagged that terms like "Black Lives Matter'' and "Black people" were seemingly being suppressed by automated moderation. The Black dancers and choreographers who consistently created the biggest dance trends on the Internet watched white users skyrocket to popularity by copying their work - to the point of a content strike, also last year.

Another recent, more sobering social media phenomenon also raised questions about the line between pre-programmed and live human editorial bias. The disappearance of Gabby Petito last year got national attention in part because it attracted a huge, algorithm-driven wave of internet sleuthing. That tragedy and its widespread coverage lead to a renewed spotlight on "Missing White Woman Syndrome," since many noted that the case stood in harsh contrast to the 710 Indigenous people who were reported missing in Wyoming in the past decade, who received relatively little media attention.

The more our lives become intertwined and caught up in tech and social media algorithms, the more it's worth trying to understand and unpack just how those algorithms work. Who becomes viral, and why? Who gets harassed, who gets defended, and what are the lasting repercussions? And how does the internet both obscure and exacerbate the racial and gender dynamics that already animate so much of our social interactions?

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What internet outrage reveals about race and TikTok's algorithm

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subscribe to Code Switch podcast subscribe to Code Switch podcast The Super Bowl is over, so we are officially in Valentine's Day mode over here. We're going to get into a story we haven't been able to stop thinking about for weeks: West Elm Caleb.

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This is an article that has opinions of racism from high schoolers.

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Facebook has been able to collect data on the race of its users. This data is then sold to advertising companies that aim to target certain demographics. This data is not just used to promote products. The content of these advertisements can even include that of housing and credit. Additionally, the Facebook algorithm ends up pushing targeted misinformation onto users from a certain race.

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While Facebook profiles may not explicitly state users' race or ethnicity, my research demonstrates that Facebook's current advertising algorithms can discriminate by these factors. Based on research conducted in 2020 and 2021, I used Facebook's advertising tools to test how advertisers can use their targeting options like "multicultural affinity" groups, Lookalike Audiences, and Special Ad Audiences to ensure their ads are reaching white, African American, Asian, or Hispanic users. What I found is that discrimination by race and ethnicity on Facebook's platforms is a significant threat to the public interest for two reasons. First, it is a violation of the existing civil rights laws that protect marginalized consumers against advertising harms and discrimination by race and ethnicity, especially in the areas of housing, employment, and credit. Second, these same Facebook advertising tools can be used to disseminate targeted misinformation and controversial political messages to vulnerable demographic groups. To solve these concerns, regulators, advocacy groups, and industry must directly address these issues with Facebook and other advertising platforms to ensure that online advertising is transparent and fair to all Americans.

Racial Bias and Discrimination in Facebook Ad Targeting

Facebook's long-standing complaints in advertising

Over the last 5 years, Facebook has faced repeated criticism, lawsuits, and controversies over the potential for discrimination on its ad platform. Journalists have demonstrated how easy it is to exclude users whom Facebook has algorithmically classified into certain racial or ethnic affinity groups from being targeted by housing or employment ads. Researchers have also demonstrated racial and ethnic biases in Facebook's Lookalike Audience and Special Ad Audience algorithms, which identify new Facebook users similar to an advertiser's existing customers. In response to these allegations, Facebook has been sued by the National Fair Housing Alliance, the ACLU, the Communications Workers of America, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), and others over issues of discrimination on its advertising platform and violations of civil rights laws such as the Fair Housing Act and the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which expresses intolerance of any types of racial discrimination.

There are also ongoing controversies over how Facebook's platform can be used by political actors, both foreign and domestic, to spread misinformation and target racial and ethnic minorities in the 2016 and 2020 election cycles. In July 2020, a high-profile boycott of Facebook's advertising platform to "Stop Hate for Profit" was organized by civil rights and advocacy groups including the NAACP, the Anti-Defamation League, Color of Change, and other organizations over misinformation and civil rights violations. These groups called on major corporations to stop advertising on Facebook for the entire month of July. More than 1,000 large companies including Microsoft, Starbucks, Target, and others participated in the boycott.

On July 8, 2020, Facebook released its own civil rights audit conducted by Laura Murphy, former Director of the ACLU Legislative Office, and attorneys at the law firm Relman Colfax. The audit criticized Facebook for having "placed greater emphasis on free expression" over the "value of non-discrimination." Seeking to make concrete steps towards reducing discrimination, on August 11, 2020, Facebook announced that it would retire its controversial "multicultural affinity" groups that allowed advertisers to target users whom Facebook has categorized as "African American (US)," "Asian American (US)," or "Hispanic (US - All)."

has Facebook sufficiently addressed discriminatory ad harms?

No.

Not every case of advertising discrimination may be illegal. Keeping this in mind, I devised a research study and tested the degree to which the different tools on Facebook's ad platform can-intentionally or not-carry out racial and ethnic discrimination, following the Fair Housing Act's criteria which makes it illegal to publish an ad that indicates "any preference, limitation, or discrimination" based on race or ethnicity.

To date, Facebook provides advertisers with four major ways to target advertisements:

1. "Detailed Targeting" options are prepackaged groups of Facebook users who share common attributes based on Facebook's data analysis of their behaviors online,

2. "Custom Audiences" allow an advertiser to upload their own list of customers or individuals for Facebook to target,

3. "Lookalike Audiences" allow an advertiser to reach people who Facebook determines to be similar to a designated Custom Audience, and

4. "Special Ad Audiences" allow an advertiser to create a Lookalike Audience that finds people similar to their designated Custom Audience in online behavior without considering sensitive attributes like age, gender, or ZIP code, specifically for housing, employment, and credit ads which are regulated by anti-discrimination laws.

I conducted my study in January 2020 and again in January 2021, before and after the Stop Hate for Profit boycott in July 2020. As Facebook no longer offers multicultural affinity groups - "African American (US)," "Asian American (US)," and "Hispanic (US - All)" - as targeting options for advertisers in 2021, I instead examined the similar-sounding cultural interest groups that Facebook still offered as targeting options, such as "African-American Culture," "Asian American Culture," and "Hispanic American Culture." In both years, I tested how many minority users could be targeted by these race- and ethnicity-related advertising options by Facebook.
Figure 1: Example of the difference in Facebook's ad-targeting options, 2020 to 2021

2020

African American (US)

Behaviors > Multicultural Affinity

People who live in the United States whose activity on Facebook aligns with African American multicultural affinity

87,203,689

2021

African-American culture

Interests > Additional Interests

People who have expressed an interest in or like pages related to African-American culture

79,388,010

Note: Facebook offered the "African American (US)" targeting option until August 2020, but it has continued to offer the "African-American Culture" targeting option in 2021.

I also tested if Facebook's other advertising tools, such as Lookalike Audiences and Special Ad Audiences, can discriminate by race and ethnicity. For these tests, I used the most recent North Carolina voter registration dataset, which has voter-provided race and ethnicity information. In the North Carolina voter data, there were approximately 4.0 million white, 1.2 million African American, 90,000 Asian, and 180,000 Hispanic active voters. I created different racially and ethnically homogenous sub-samples of voters with Facebook Custom Audiences and then asked Facebook to find additional similar users to target for ads using their Lookalike and Special Ad Audience tools.

While Facebook doesn't permit direct demographic queries for a Lookalike or Special Ad audience, I was able to leverage the daily reach estimates of Facebook's ad planning tool to indirectly observe the racial and ethnic breakdown of a given Lookalike or Special Ad audience amongst North Carolina voters. For example, a Lookalike audience based on 10,000 African American voters in 2021 had an overlap in estimated daily reach of 139,000 users with a sample of 1 million African American voters but only an overlap of 17,000 users with a sample of 1 million white voters. This indicates that African Americans were likely over-represented in the Lookalike audience, since when intersecting the Lookalike audience with a combined 2 million voter sample that was 50% African American and 50% white at baseline, I found that 89% of the Lookalike audience's overlap was with African American voters and only 11% with white voters. I replicated a similar process for testing the demographics of Lookalike and Special Ad Audiences based on white, Asian, and Hispanic voters. More details on the methodology can be found here.
Figure 2: Overlap of a Facebook Lookalike Audience based on African-Americans with race-based North Carolina voter samples
A major concern about algorithmic discrimination is whether computers are reinforcing the existing patterns of discrimination that humans have made in the United States. Social science researchers have found in employment, housing, lending, and other aspects of life, racial proxies such as one's name and neighborhood can increase the degree to which human decision-makers discriminate. Thus, I used a frequently-cited computer algorithm trained on the names of 13 million voters in Florida to identify commonly used names for each demographic group and U.S. Census data to identify ethnic enclave ZIP codes. Then, I tested if using voter samples based on commonly-used racial proxies such as names and ZIP codes can affect the degree of bias in the resulting Lookalike and Special Ad Audiences. For example, would a Lookalike audience based on African American voters with common African American names and who live in majority African American ZIP codes be even more likely to over-represent African Americans above the 50% baseline?

Facebook still has a discrimination problem by race and ethnicity on its advertising platform

My research study of Facebook's ad platform in 2020 and 2021 had three major findings. Facebook's ad platform still offers multiple ways for discrimination by race and ethnicity despite the historic boycott it faced in 2020, and bad actors can exploit these vulnerabilities in the new digital economy.

Finding 1: The racial and ethnic targeting options by Facebook were even more accurate in 2021 than in 2020.

In 2021, certain racial and ethnic cultural interest groups that Facebook still offered to advertisers were even more accurate in targeting minority users than the old "multicultural affinity" groups Facebook retired in August 2020. For example, in 2020, 150,000 African American voters in North Carolina could be reached by Facebook's "African American (US)" targeting option each day, which is slightly more than the 142,000 who can be reached by Facebook's "African-American Culture" targeting option in 2021. However, there was a dramatic decrease in the number of white voters who can be reached by the same targeting options, from 428,000 in 2020 to just 109,000 in 2021. This means that in 2020, Facebook's "African American (US)" targeting option was likely to reach nearly three times as many white users as African American users, while in 2021, Facebook's "African-American Culture" targeting option became significantly more accurate in reaching nearly a same number of African American users while targeting 75% fewer white users.
Figure 3: Number of North Carolina voters by race reached by Facebook's African American related targeting options, 2020 and 2021
Finding 2: Facebook's algorithms to find new audiences for an advertiser permit strong racial and ethnic biases, which includes the algorithm that Facebook explicitly designed to avoid discrimination.

Facebook's Lookalike and Special Ad Audiences can be biased by race and ethnicity in both 2020 and 2021 depending on the demographics of a customer list that an advertiser provides to Facebook. For example, in 2020, a Lookalike audience based on African American voters in North Carolina had a sample share of 83% African Americans, which increased to 89% in 2021. Thus, these Lookalike Audiences significantly over-represented African Americans above the expected 50% baseline sample share (Figure 4). Similarly, Lookalike Audiences based on white voters had a sample share of 73% whites in 2020 and 71% in 2021, significantly over-representing whites above the 50% baseline. Other tests found that Lookalike Audiences based on Asian or Hispanic voters would also significantly over-represent Asians or Hispanics above the expected baseline share.

I also found a high degree of racial and ethnic bias in testing the Special Ad Audience tool that Facebook designed to explicitly avoid using sensitive demographic attributes when finding similar users to an advertiser's customer list. For example, in 2020, a Special Ad audience based on African American voters had a sample share of 83% African Americans, which decreased slightly to 76% in 2021 (Figure 4). Special Ad Audiences based on white voters had a similarly high sample share of 83% whites in 2020 and 81% in 2021. Finally, I also found that Special Ad Audiences based on Hispanic voters significantly over-represented Hispanics in both 2020 and 2021. This finding is especially problematic since it means that advertisers for housing, credit, and employment can use the Special Ad audience tool that Facebook has created for these legally protected sectors to pursue discrimination by race and ethnicity. This also undermines the goals of the 2019 legal settlement between Facebook and the ACLU, which required Facebook to create an alternative ad targeting solution for these sectors where an advertiser "cannot target ads based on Facebook users' age, gender, race, or categories that are associated with membership in protected groups, or based on ZIP code or a geographic area".

Finding 3: Racial proxies such as names and ZIP codes can increase the bias of Facebook's ad targeting algorithms.

In both 2020 and 2021, the degree of racial and ethnic bias in Facebook's Lookalike and Special Ad Audiences is higher when the ad targeting algorithm is trying to find users similar to individuals with racially stereotypical traits such as their name or neighborhood. For example, a Lookalike audience based on African American voters with commonly-given African American names and who live in majority African American ZIP codes had a very high sample share of 93% African Americans in 2020, which increased to 94% in 2021 (Figure 4). In the most extreme case, in 2021, I found that a Lookalike audience based on Asian voters with commonly-given Asian names and who live in popular Asian ZIP codes had a sample share of 100% Asians.

I also found that using racially stereotypical names and ZIP codes can embolden the opportunities for more precise discrimination in the use of Special Ad Audiences. For example, in 2020, a Special Ad audience based on African American voters with commonly-given African American names and who live in majority African American ZIP codes had a sample share of 97% African Americans, which was even higher than the 83% sample share observed when testing the Special Ad audience based on a generic sample of African American voters (Figure 4).
Figure 4: Sample share of African-American voters in Lookalike Audiences (top) and Special Ad audiences (bottom) based on lists of North Carolina voters with different traits
What's causing these research findings?

Based on algorithmic discrimination research, it's likely that a combination of multiple causes contributed to the biased outcomes observed in this study. One of the primary factors is that computer algorithms tend to replicate existing patterns and behaviors that already exist in society. Facebook's Lookalike and Special Ad Audience algorithms are using the enormous amounts of data that Facebook has about its users in order to identify which users are most similar to one another and thus most likely to respond well to the same type of ads. When it comes to demographic groups, researchers have found that racial and ethnic groups tend to behave differently from each other online and that Americans tend to have very racially homogenous friend networks. Thus, users within a racial or ethnic group may appear more alike to one another in the eyes of Facebook's algorithms than users in different groups to each other. However, this doesn't mean that Facebook should facilitate the discriminatory targeting of racial and ethnic minorities with ads, nor that commonly-used racial proxies such as name or ZIP code should also influence the digital world created by Facebook's advertising algorithms. After all, hard-fought civil rights laws in the U.S. have intentionally elevated society's interest in reducing discrimination above the private interest of landlords, employers, and lenders to maximize profits through possible discrimination. It would be taking a step backwards to make new allowances for discrimination on Facebook simply because the decision-maker is now a computer instead of a human.

Given these findings, policy makers have a role in mitigating the biases being activated by companies like Facebook and other advertisers reliant on online tools.

Policymakers, regulators, and civil society groups should demand and require greater transparency by Facebook and its advertisers

Clearly, at the heart of the problems, is the lack of transparency by Facebook to the public and to its advertisers about how its ad platform can potentially discriminate by race and ethnicity. This may be exploited by discriminatory advertisers while undermining the goals of non-discriminatory ones.

For example, discriminatory advertisers may already know that the "African-American Culture" targeting option contains fewer white users than the "African American (US)" option Facebook removed in 2020. Discriminatory advertisers may also be using similar proxy variable techniques to the ones tested in this study based on racially stereotypical names and ZIP codes to create biased Lookalike and Special Ad Audiences. On the other hand, non-discriminatory advertisers may be unintentionally choosing similar targeting settings as discriminatory ones but are unaware of how Facebook's ad platform is carrying out racially and ethnically biased targeting on their behalf.

Facebook can reverse this lack of transparency by more corporate accountability, transparency statement, disclosure to advertisers, and robust anti-discrimination engineering. However, it's vitally important that regulators, advocacy groups, and industry groups can respond to improve upon such outcomes.

Recommendation 1: Require Facebook and advertisers to release their ad targeting data.

Advertising platforms like Facebook should provide greater transparency about the way that advertisers are using their tools to target ads. Regulators can require Facebook's Ad Library for political, housing, employment, and credit-related ads to show the relevant metadata for establishing a "robust causal link" for racial or ethnic discrimination lawsuits. This is especially important since the Department of Housing and Urban Development's (HUD) "Implementation of the Fair Housing Act's Disparate Impact Standard" published on September 24, 2020 now requires a plaintiff to present evidence of a "robust causal link" in order to bring a disparate impact discrimination lawsuit in the first place. Facebook has begun to share relevant metadata for political ads with approved researchers in 2021, but doesn't currently release any ad targeting metadata for housing, employment, and credit-related ads.

Recommendation 2: Conduct regular algorithmic bias auditing of Facebook's ad platform.

Future civil rights audits of Facebook's platform should test its technologies for algorithmic bias based on race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, and other protected classes. In July 2020, Facebook released its first civil rights audit primarily focused on political speech, misinformation, and legal issues during the Stop Hate for Profit boycott. The civil rights groups organizing the boycott called for regular audits of Facebook's platform. These future civil rights audits can build on the technical efforts by myself and other researchers. Ideally, if provided even deeper access to Facebook's data and systems, these audits can go even further in examining why these racial and ethnic biases exist and how to address them. Since 2014, many large U.S. tech companies such as Facebook, Apple, Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Twitter, and others have participated in the related norm of releasing annual workforce diversity reports. Federal regulators such as the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) can also audit Facebook's ad platform for discrimination and use their enforcement powers to address violations of Section 5 of the FTC Act, the Fair Credit Reporting Act, and the Equal Credit Opportunity Act.

Recommendation 3: Design anti-discrimination solutions using the more effective "fairness through awareness" approach.

Technology and technology policy need to move beyond "fairness through unawareness"-the idea that discrimination is prevented by eliminating the use of protected class variables or close proxies-in order to actually address algorithmic discrimination. For example, Facebook created the Special Ad Audiences tool as an alternative to Lookalike Audiences in order to explicitly not use sensitive attributes such as "age, gender or ZIP code" when considering which users are similar enough to the source audience to get included. However, my research demonstrates that Special Ad Audiences based on African Americans or whites can be biased towards the race that is more dominant in the customer list used to create the audience, just like the corresponding Lookalike Audiences.

Statistics research has labeled this phenomenon as the Rashomon or the multiplicity effect. Given a large dataset with many variables, there exists a large number of potential models that can perform approximately to equally as well as a prohibited model that uses protected class variables. Thus, even though the Special Ad Audiences algorithm for finding similar users to a customer list does not use demographic attributes in the same way as the Lookalike Audiences algorithm, the two algorithms may end up making functionally comparable decisions on which users are considered to be similar enough to get included.

There are public policy risks from continuing to implement a "fairness through unawareness" standard, which has been shown to be statistically ineffective. For example, the initially proposed language on August 19, 2019 by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) for its updated Disparate Impact Standard, would likely have wrongfully protected companies like Facebook from being sued for discrimination simply because its Special Ad Audience algorithm follows "fairness through unawareness" and does not rely on "factors that are substitutes or close proxies for protected classes under the Fair Housing Act."

Instead, the more effective approach is to use "fairness through awareness" to design anti-discrimination tools, which could then accurately consider the experiences of different racial and ethnic groups on the platform. Thus, tech companies such as Facebook would need to learn the demographic information of their users. One way is to directly ask their users to provide their race and ethnicity on a voluntary basis, like with LinkedIn Self-ID. Another way is to use algorithmic or human evaluators to generate that information for their anti-discrimination testing tools. This was the approach taken by Airbnb's Project Lighthouse, launched in 2020 to study the racial experience gap for guests and hosts on Airbnb. Project Lighthouse used a third-party contractor to assess the perceived race of an individual based on their name and profile picture. In December 2009, Facebook researchers used a related methodology by comparing the last names of Facebook users to the U.S. Census' Frequently Occurring Surnames dataset in order to demonstrate how Facebook was becoming increasingly diverse over time by having more African American and Hispanic users.

The harms from discriminatory advertising on Facebook that target specific demographic groups are real. Facebook ads have reduced employment opportunities, sowed political division and misinformation, and even undermined public health efforts to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. My research shows how Facebook continues to offer advertisers myriad tools to facilitate discriminatory ad targeting by race and ethnicity, despite the high-profile Stop Hate for Profit boycott of July 2020. To address this issue, regulators and advocacy groups can enforce and demand greater ad targeting transparency, more algorithmic bias auditing, and a "fairness through awareness" approach by Facebook and its advertisers.

In July 2020, Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg stated that its civil rights audit was "the beginning of the journey, not the end." Faced with a long road ahead, it's time for Facebook to continue down the path to create more equitable and less harmful advertising systems.
The Brookings Institution is a nonprofit organization devoted to independent research and policy solutions. Its mission is to conduct high-quality, independent research and, based on that research, to provide innovative, practical recommendations for policymakers and the public. The opinions expressed in this paper are solely those of the author in their personal capacity and do not reflect the views of Brookings or any of their previous or current employers. Microsoft provides support to The Brookings Institution's Artificial Intelligence and Emerging Technology (AIET) Initiative, and Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google provide general, unrestricted support to the Institution. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions in this report are not influenced by any donation. Brookings recognizes that the value it provides is in its absolute commitment to quality, independence, and impact. Activities supported by its donors reflect this commitment.

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Solving the problem of racially discriminatory advertising on Facebook

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While Facebook profiles may not explicitly state users' race or ethnicity, my research demonstrates that Facebook's current advertising algorithms can discriminate by these factors. Based on research conducted in 2020 and 2021, I used Facebook's advertising tools to test how advertisers can use their targeting options like "multicultural affinity" groups, Lookalike Audiences, and Special Ad Audiences to ensure their ads are reaching white, African American, Asian, or Hispanic users.

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I found this article about how tic toc is full of jokes making fun of asians. This shows how the socially constructed racial category, asian, has been used to determine attributes about a person that have then been used to make a joke.

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We live in deeply unequal societies where certain groups, such as racial and sexual minorities, continue to experience structural oppression. Humour targeted at these groups can cause individual harm through its cumulative effects, and contribute to broader social harms too.

Much of our social interaction today takes place online. So it makes sense that significant attention is paid to issues such as online hate speech, harassment and misinformation.

However, a more challenging problem is the conduct of users who aren't necessarily trying to harm others, but still participate online in ways that can do so. For example, TikTok users have participated in viral parody challenges that trivialise police brutality, domestic violence and even the Holocaust.

The COVID-19 health crisis pushed digital platforms to curb the spread of misinformation, but it seems they did less to minimise anti-Asian content - despite signs the pandemic was being " racialised ".

In our research, we investigated how the "humorous" racist stereotyping of people of Asian descent emerged on TikTok during the pandemic, and how such behaviour should be addressed.

TikTok and racial humour

TikTok has become hugely popular across generations. Its "use this sound" feature allows users to remix audio from other videos, making it a unique platform to study racist stereotyping.

For our research we collected TikTok videos posted from January to June in 2020, with the hashtag #coronavirus, and other hashtags relevant to our research (such as "#asian" and "#funny", for example).

We also included videos tagged with keywords related to China (#china, #chinacoronavirus, #wuhan) and with #Australia, to potentially collect examples from within the country (which has a history of anti-Asian racism).

Once we removed duplicates, unavailable videos, and videos in a language other than English, we obtained a dataset of 639 TikTok videos. After closely analysing these, we found 93 videos displayed examples of racist humour.

'Yellow peril' memes

Among the videos were "yellow peril" memes. These were about people or objects being "contaminated" with coronavirus by extension of their connection to China, or other Asian countries. The " yellow peril " trope dehumanises people from Asian countries by posing them as a threat to Western countries.

Three types of "yellow peril" memes were noticed in our sample:

1. memes targeting people of Asian descent as being the cause of coronavirus spreading

2. memes where people react in horror or disgust when they receive packages or goods from China

3. memes that blame the coronavirus on practices such as eating wild animals.

Read more: Asian American mothers confront multiple crises of pandemic, anti-Asian hate and caregiving

"Digital yellowface" parodies

We also found a form of "digital yellowface". In these videos users applied the "use this sound" feature to parody Asian accents in English or say "Asian sounding words" by speaking gibberish, or words like "Subaru" (the Japanese car brand) in an exaggerated way.

Some users dramatised their face to further embody the offensive caricature they were trying to portray.

Scholars researching racist stereotyping online have warned that "certain dialects, vocal ranges, and vernacular are deemed noisy, improper, or hyperemotional by association with blackness".

During COVID-19, non-Asian users appropriated "Asian sounds" on TikTok in a similar way. They portrayed people of Asian descent as irrational or overly emotional, reducing an entire racial group to a mere caricature.

What has TikTok done?

TikTok has enabled users to willingly or unwillingly contribute to racist discourse that dehumanised Chinese people, and other Asian people, over the course of the pandemic.

We are not claiming a direct causal link between this racist stereotyping and real-world violence. But research has shown attaching an illness to an historically marginalised group has immediate and longer-term negative social effects in societies.

Although TikTok joined the European Commission's Code of Conduct on Countering Illegal Hate Speech Online in 2020, its policies still do not provide a detailed explanation of when humour can have the capacity to harm.

To improve the moderation of harmful humour, TikTok could modify its community guidelines and reporting processes to acknowledge the way humour targeted at historically-marginalised groups can have severe consequences.

This would be similar to Facebook's expansion of its hate speech policy in 2020 to include harmful stereotypes (which came after the platform consulted with advocacy groups and experts).

TikTok's moderation of racialised harmful humour doesn't necessarily have to entail takedowns and user bans. There are several other remedies available. The platform could:

educate users by tagging or labelling dubious or potentially harmful content

reduce the visibility of content through algorithmic demotion

restricting engagement functionalities on "humorous" content that's likely to cause harm.

One thing's for sure: we can no longer excuse racism under the guise of humour. Beyond individuals, social media platforms have a responsibility to make sure they address racist humour, since it can and does cause real harm.

Read more: It's corn! How the online viral 'Corn Kid' is on a well-worn path to fame in the child influencer industry

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Not just a joke: we scoured TikTok for anti-Asian humour during the pandemic, and found too many disappointing memes

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We live in deeply unequal societies where certain groups, such as racial and sexual minorities, continue to experience structural oppression. Humour targeted at these groups can cause individual harm through its cumulative effects, and contribute to broader social harms too. Much of our social interaction today takes place online.

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This man in San Francisco was picking up trash and was racially profiled and attacked, just because of his correlation of being asian and coronavirus, and other factors, This exemplifies the ignorance and hate people can have for no good reason.

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San Francisco Police Investigate Racially-Charged Attack On Can Collector Caught On Video

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Police in San Francisco are investigating an apparent racially fueled attack over the weekend targeting a man collecting cans in Hunters Point that was caught on video, according to authorities.

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Racists argue that a black woman should not play the role of Ariel in "The Little Mermaid" live action film

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Racists argue that a black woman should not play the role of Ariel in "The Little Mermaid" live action film

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I think that the reaction people have had to this isn't shocking because this has happened many times before. People will just get upset about anything involving people of color. In this case I also think the reaction to this is way overboard considering that Ariel is a fake sea creature. Who is to say a mermaid would be black or white?

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Ever since Disney released the first look for its 2023 live-action remake of "The Little Mermaid," the internet has been sodden with wave after wave of racist critics complaining that Ariel, the completely fictional underwater fish woman, shouldn't be Black. Hashtags like #notmyariel are bouncing around social media, and YouTube hid the dislike counter on the official video after it was bombarded with racist comments and more than 1.5 million "dislikes." One group of critics went as far as to share a digitally altered version of the teaser that featured a White woman in place of the movie's star Halle Bailey, who they called a " woke actress."

By now, we know it's not unusual to see racist responses whenever a person of color is cast in a role considered "traditionally" White. While there are plenty of legitimate reasons to dislike a movie, these critics often hide their discomfort behind other thin arguments, claiming historical or cultural accuracy or, of all things, science.

Here are some real arguments people have levied to protest the casting choice. The facts prove they just don't hold water.

Claim: 'The Little Mermaid' is a Danish story, therefore Ariel should be White

The original "Little Mermaid" story was written by Hans Christian Andersen and first published in 1837. If we're going to dignify this argument, according to the text, Ariel and the rest of her mermaid kin are from "far out in the ocean" (literally the opening lines of the story) at the "bottom of the sea." So, not Denmark or anywhere near it.

If critics are truly worried about staying faithful to the original story, we shouldn't gloss over the original ending where the mermaid is instructed to kill her prince, but throws the knife away in despair and dissolves into sea foam instead. Not to mention, while the 1989 Disney version has a Prince Eric with bright blue peepers, Anderson specifically described the prince as having "coal-black eyes" and "raven hair." (Also "The Little Mermaid," who doesn't even have a name in the original story, isn't real.)

Claim: Mermaids live under the sea and therefore would not have dark skin

"From a scientific perspective, it doesn't make a lot of sense to have someone with darker skin who lives deep in the ocean." So says far-right pundit Matt Walsh, who opined about the "Little Mermaid" casting on "The Matt Walsh Show." He claims he framed the comment as a joke, since he goes on to say that "​​not only should the Little Mermaid be pale, she should, actually, be translucent." However, the context of his comment is still racially charged, and he still implies pale skin is closer to a "scientific" mermaid than dark skin.

Again, if we're going to take an academic look at these unnecessary bits of discourse, not all abyssal creatures are pale. Not all underwater creatures are pale. Also, since mermaids also get close enough to the surface to see other humans, if you want to look at it scientifically, mermaids would probably have a specific type of pigmentation that allowed for both a deep sea and shallow water existence. We also know that, centuries ago, seafarers often mistook one particular animal for a mermaid: the manatee, which is not pale. (Also "The Little Mermaid" isn't real.)

Claim: Mermaids are a European mythological figure and therefore Ariel should be White

Numerous Twitter scraps have cropped up with people trying to argue European folklore, or even Homerian epics like "The Odyssey," have some sort of monopoly on the idea of mermaids. In reality, it's fascinating to see how many different cultures throughout history have arrived at parallel folklorical themes. Humanoid creatures that dwell in the water are part of innumerable mythologies around the world.

East Asian and Oceanic folklore is replete with stories of underwater kingdoms and merpeople both good and evil, from the Magindara in some Philippine regions to the tale of the Indian Princess Suriratna or Hwang-ok that reached South Korea. Middle Eastern folktales compiled in the classic "Arabian Nights" collection, which dates back more than a thousand years, feature several accounts of sea-dwelling human creatures. In parts of continental Africa and among the African diaspora, folklore describing water spirits, oftentimes in the shape of beautiful women, are common. According to Shona mythology in Zimbabwe, the "njuzu" are mermaids who occupy lakes or rivers.

(Also, not all Europeans are White. Also, "The Little Mermaid" isn't real.)

Claim: Making Ariel Black is ruining childhoods and changing the character

On message boards and comment sections across the internet, people are debating whether a new, dark-skinned Ariel somehow negates or erases the classic 1989 version.

Disney's 1989 "The Little Mermaid" is still available to watch, own and share. The animated character of Ariel is part of Disney's wildly profitable "Disney Princess" franchise and her name and image are valuable and heavily trademarked Disney properties. The red-haired, fair-skinned Ariel is here to stay.

Far from ruining childhoods, many fans think making a different iteration of Ariel will only increase the Disney magic. Just look at the sweet reactions of young Black children and the praise of Disney icons like Jodi Benson, the voice of the original Ariel.

More importantly, the remake of one film doesn't erase the existence of the previous films: 1999's Mr. Darcy and 2005's Mr. Darcy live in harmony with every other character from the roughly 300 "Pride and Prejudice" film remakes. Pennywise looks different in every "It" iteration, as does Frankenstein's monster. The story of "Cinderella," which predates even the famous Brothers Grimm version, seems to have a different remake out every year. One notable version, 1997's "Rodgers & Hammerstein's Cinderella," featured a racially diverse cast that included singer Brandy as the first Black Cinderella and Whitney Houston as the fairy godmother. It aired on TV as part of the "Wonderful World of Disney."

While Disney has produced a very famous iteration of "The Little Mermaid," it isn't the first, only, or universally definitive work. No one owns the concept of mermaids or what they look like. A White, red-haired animated teenager is not the only version of "The Little Mermaid" to exist.

Also - and this is very important - "The Little Mermaid" isn't real.

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Analysis: A definitive rebuttal to every racist 'Little Mermaid' argument | CNN

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Ever since Disney released the first look for its 2023 live-action remake of "The Little Mermaid," the internet has been sodden with wave after wave of racist critics complaining that Ariel, the completely fictional underwater fish woman, shouldn't be Black.

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I recently found this YouTube channel Aba and Preach, and I like their content because they can talk about serious issues relevant to them while still being entertaining. I have heard some of their political opinions can be controversial though so I will warn about that. This particular video is about a somewhat recent trend that happened on Tik-Tok where people would record themselves over some audio repeating the phrase "I love you black man" over and over. Even though this seems like a positive thing at first, in the video they go into why this is still racist and harmful because it comes off as very disingenuous and fake. These people making these Tik-Toks are not actually doing anything to support black people or their struggles, they are just trying to make themselves look virtuous. It also removes individuality from black people in this context because they are just lumping them all together. I thought it was an interesting example of how something can look positive but still be racist.

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Netflix's release of new series, Dahmer & why the black community is upset

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Netflix's release of new series, Dahmer & why the black community is upset

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Recently, Netflix has curated a new true crime series and dove deep into the story of Jeffrey Dahmer. It became a very controversial topic revolving around it because, if some of you didn't know, Jeffrey Dahmer targeted and fetishized the POC (mainly black victims) community by drugging & murdering them. The black community became very upset because it is sickening and appalling to them to see their community being viciously murdered for millions of people to see. Not only did Netflix not ask permission from the victim's families but the way racism and homophobia was heavily depicted in the series. Dahmer was able to get away with his crimes because the police saw that he was a white homosexual man and they chose not to get involved. His victims were as young as 14 years old and one of his neighbors, who was a black woman, tried to intervene when she saw that the young boy was clearly underage and drugged but the police chose to believe Dahmer because he is white. She had called the police station for months because she believed he was doing suspicious activity (his other neighbors in the apartment also complained about the smell in the complex where it was located in a part of town where mostly the black community resided in) but they never followed through with the report. Another black man who was drugged by Dahmer but escaped, reported it but nothing was done. He even mentioned it was because he was a black man and Dahmer was white. It broke my heart to see that various POC victims went missing and their families had no power to figure out why and how because the police simply did not care enough to intervene.

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I often think that when an issue doesn't head on effect someone they are not interested in helping. I read this article and was admittedly hit by the fact that Western Women are not helping women in Iran right now, especially in a time of need. I hope that we will stand up and help. Feminism is not only meant for one section of the world, but all over the world.

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Iranian demonstrators taking to the streets of the capital Tehran during a protest for Mahsa Amini on Sept. 21, days after she died in police custody. (AFP/Getty Images)

Masih Alinejad is an Iranian journalist, author and women's rights campaigner. A member of the Human Rights Foundation's International Council, she hosts "Tablet," a talk show on Voice of America's Persian service. Sign up for a weekly roundup of thought-provoking ideas and debates
A new popular uprising is taking place in Iran, and this time women are in the lead. It's incredibly inspiring to see - for the first time I can remember - unveiled women marching at the front. They have overcome fear and are challenging one of the main pillars of the Islamic Republic of Iran: compulsory hijab.

These women are marching shoulder to shoulder with men, chanting against the whole regime. They are facing guns and bullets and demanding an end to a system of gender apartheid.

Mahsa Amini was only 22 years old. She wasn't uncovered; only a few strands of her hair showed. And yet she was arrested by the so-called "morality police" and packed off to jail. Three days later she was dead. Many Iranians are convinced she was killed -a belief reinforced by countless individual experiences with the brutality of the security services.

The news of her death has triggered outrage throughout Iran. Tens of thousands of demonstrators are defying security forces to ask why an innocent young woman lost her life to religious radicals who merely wanted to show off their militant male power. The compulsory hijab is not just a small piece of cloth for Iranian women; it is the most visible symbol of how we are oppressed by a tyrannical theocracy. Now, by drawing attention to that injustice, Mahsa's death has the potential to serve as a new turning point for Iranian women.

Karim Sadjadpour: What the West should learn from the protests in Iran

They deserve the support of their Western counterparts. Yet so far we see little evidence that women in Europe or North America are willing to take to the streets to show their solidarity for a women's revolution in Iran.

Recent experience has been discouraging. Over the past decade, we've seen female politicians from democratic countries - including Ségolène Royal from France, Catherine Ashton from the United Kingdom, and Federica Mogherini from Italy - don hijab on their visits to Iran. All these female politicians are quick to assert their feminist credentials in their own societies - but when it comes to Iran they go out of their way to show deference to the men who have elevated misogyny to a state principle. A regime that abuses and harasses millions of women each year does not deserve our respect. To do so makes a mockery of all our talk of universal human rights.

When the Women's March took place in Washington, D.C., in 2017, I was happy to join. Along with the rest I chanted: "My body, my choice." Some women might well choose to veil their faces and bodies in accordance with their religious or cultural beliefs - but that should be a matter of their own choice, not a rule imposed by the whips and clubs of men. Yet Western women seem only too happy to succumb to the standards dictated by the male tyrants in countries such as Afghanistan and Iran.

I don't consider such feminists to be true advocates of women's rights. The true feminists and women's rights activists are those in Afghanistan and Iran who are stepping forward, at great cost, to resist the Taliban and Islamic republic. They are the true feminist leaders of the 21st century, risking their lives by facing guns and bullets. They will go on fighting against the regimes, and we who have the privilege to live in free countries should actively amplify their voices. This is the moment for women in the West to stand with Iran's mothers, daughters and sisters.

Pardis Mahdavi: When Iran's 'morality police' came for me

I will not remain silent. I will continue to speak out until compulsory hijab laws are abolished. Like the women now taking to the streets in my home country, I, too, have been targeted by the regime. I have chosen to speak up despite that regime's attacks on my family, and its attempts to have me abducted or killed. In this, I feel deep solitary with the thousands of women protesting in Iran. I will continue to do what I can to support their struggle, to help them achieve their rights.

My wish is for all of us to be louder than the tyrants. I call on the free world to join the protesters in calling for an end to the murderous regime of the ayatollahs. Iranian women are fighting to recover our dignity and exercise our personal freedoms - so that, one day, all Iranians can finally choose our government in free and fair elections. We shouldn't be afraid of the religious fanatics and the jihadists. They are the ones who are frightened. It is why they seek to keep women down. Women in the streets are paying with their lives for change. But too many in the outside world are shaking hands with our murderers.

I am asking all Western feminists to speak up. Join us. Make a video. Cut your hair. Burn a headscarf. Share it on social media and boost Iranian voices. Use your freedom to say her name. Her name was Mahsa Amini.

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Opinion | Women are leading a revolution in Iran. When will Western feminists help?

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Masih Alinejad is an Iranian journalist, author and women's rights campaigner. A member of the Human Rights Foundation's International Council, she hosts "Tablet," a talk show on Voice of America's Persian service. Sign up for a weekly roundup of thought-provoking ideas and debates ArrowRight A new popular uprising is taking place in Iran, and this time women are in the lead.

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All of you know that there has been an increase in hate crimes towards Asians in the past two years. Though I'm not so sure you understand how often these things occur. This is a video of an unprovoked attack on an older Asian woman. It is just one of many that happened to be recorded. Many more of these crimes have not been documented and people don't understand the probability that it could happen to any of us.

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#stopasianhate #canada #ottawa  #ottawapolice #asian  #crime#MyFutureThanksMe #kpop

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@hi.im.ulrica
#stopasianhate #canada #ottawa #ottawapolice #asian #crime#MyFutureThanksMe #kpop
♬ Slumber Party (feat. Princess Nokia) - Ashnikko

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This article touched deeply as the women in the thumbnail was only 22 years old when she was killed by the morality police in Iran.

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Iranian authorities say they will restrict internet access in the country until calm is restored to the streets. Meanwhile, the IRGC, the elite wing of the Iranian military that was established in the aftermath of the country's revolution in 1979, has asked all people to identify protesters, the country's semi-official news agency Fars News said.

Thousands of Iranians have taken to the streets in protest since the death last week of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, who was apprehended in Tehran and taken to a "re-education center," apparently for not wearing her hijab properly.

Since Friday, demonstrations have taken place in at least 40 cities nationwide, including the capital Tehran, with protesters demanding an end to violence and discrimination against women as well as an end to compulsory wearing of the hijab.

At least 1,200 have been arrested in connection to the protests, Iranian state-backed news agency Tasmin reported Saturday, citing a security official.

Dozens of protesters have reportedly been killed in the resulting clashes with security forces.

CNN cannot independently verify the death toll -  a precise figure is impossible for anyone outside the Iranian government to confirm - and different estimates have been given by opposition groups, international rights organizations and local journalists. Amnesty International said Friday that at least 30 people, including four children, had died; according to state media the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting, 35 people have died.

The demonstrations have also seen journalists targeted by authorities, with at least 17 arrested, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists, a non-profit that monitors press freedom.

Meanwhile, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has asked all people to identify protesters, the country's semi-official news agency Fars News said.

The IRCG is the elite wing of the Iranian military that was established in the aftermath of the country's revolution in 1979.

Decades of repression

Authorities hope that by restricting the internet they can control the protests - the latest in a wave that has swept Iran in recent years. They started with the Green movement in 2009 over contested election results and more recently the 2019 protests sparked by a rise in fuel prices. Hundreds were believed to have been killed in the violent crackdown three years ago and thousands injured, according to estimates released by the UN and rights groups.

But this year's protests are different - in their scope, scale and unprecedented feminist nature. There is also mobilization across the socio-economic divide. A young generation of Iranians are rising up on the streets against decades of repression - arguably bolder than ever.

The demonstrations have spread to dozens of Iranian cities, from the Kurdish region in the northwest, to the capital Tehran and even more traditionally conservative cities like Mashhad.

While they were ignited by the death of Amini, the initial calls for accountability have turned into demands for more rights and freedoms, especially for women who for decades since the 1979 Islamic Revolution have faced discrimination and severe restrictions on their rights.

But calls for regime change are growing too. People across the country are chanting for "death to the dictator," in a reference to the Supreme Leader, tearing down portraits of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Remarkable images emerged on Friday night from Khamenei's birthplace in the city of Mashhad, where protesters set fire to the statue of a man considered one of the symbols of the Islamic Revolution. Such scenes were unthinkable in the past.

This is all happening at a time when Iran's hardline leadership is under growing pressure with talks to revive the stalled 2015 nuclear agreement and the state of the economy under US sanctions; ordinary Iranians are struggling to cope with soaring levels of inflation.

While these protests are the biggest challenge for the government for years, analysts believe the government will likely move to contain them by resorting to the heavy-handed tactics it has used in the past. There are signs a brutal crackdown is coming, along with the internet restrictions on a level not seen since 2019. Other measures include the government mobilizing its supporters in mass rallies following Friday prayers; officials dismissing the demonstrators as rioters and foreign agents, and ominous warnings the army and powerful Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps will be deployed to deal with the protests.

Speaking with state broadcaster IRIB on Friday, Iran's Minister of Communications Ahmad Vahidi said, "Until the riots end, the internet will have limitations. To prevent riot organization through social media, we are obliged to create internet limitations."

Vahidi's comments came after videos on social media showed scenes of public defiance, with women removing and burning their headscarves and demonstrators chanting such slogans as, "women, life, freedom."

The move to further restrict the internet also followed a call by the United Nations for an independent investigation into Amini's death and for Iran's security forces to refrain from using "disproportionate force" on the protesters.

Outrage over Amini's death comes from public skepticism over the account given by state officials, who claim she died after suffering a "heart attack" and fell into a coma. But Amini's family have said she had no pre-existing heart condition.

Amini's death has now become a symbol of the violent oppression women have faced in Iran for decades, and her name has spread around the globe, with world leaders invoking her even at the United Nations General Assembly in New York City this week.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights on Thursday said UN experts strongly condemned the use of physical violence against women in Iran by state authorities.

"Iranian authorities said (Amini) died of a heart attack, and claimed her death was from natural causes. However, some reports suggested that Amini's death was a result of alleged torture and ill-treatment," it said in a statement.

"We call on the Iranian authorities to hold an independent, impartial, and prompt investigation into Ms Amini's death, make the findings of the investigation public and hold all perpetrators accountable," it added.

Internet crackdown

The internet monitoring agency Netblocks said Friday Iranians are facing a third wave of "nation-scale" loss of mobile internet connectivity as the protests continue.

The watchdog group said earlier in the week that Iran was experiencing the most severe internet restrictions since 2019, with mobile networks largely shutdown and social networks Instagram and WhatsApp restricted in the country since protests began.

To circumvent internet blocks, Iranians both inside the country and in the diaspora are turning to popular Virtual Private Network (VPN) providers such as Tor Project and Hula VPN - the top downloaded apps available in Iran via Google Play Store, a marketplace for Android smartphone users to download apps, according to monitoring service AppBrain.

However, Netblocks has warned that the kind of internet disruption seen currently in the country "cannot generally be worked around with the use of circumvention software or VPNs."

Similar internet restrictions took place in Iran in November 2019, taking Iranians almost entirely offline as authorities tried to curb the spread of nationwide protests over fuel prices.

Oracle's Internet Intelligence called it at the time the "largest internet shutdown ever observed in Iran."

Meanwhile, Internet activist hacker group Anonymous has also targeted the Iranian government online over the past week, announcing several breaches of government websites on Thursday.

Using the hashtag #OpIran, short for Operation Iran, which started gaining traction on social media following the death of Amini, Anonymous also tweeted Thursday that the organization was successful in hacking more than 1,000 CCTV Iranian cameras - a claim CNN has not been able to independently confirm.

UN calls for investigation

UN Secretary General António Guterres said Friday he was "concerned about reports of peaceful protests being met with excessive use of force leading to dozens of deaths and injuries."

"We call on the security forces to refrain from using unnecessary or disproportionate force and appeal to all to exercise restraint to avoid further escalation," Dujarric said at the daily briefing on UNTV.

The UN said it's closely following the protests in Iran and called on authorities to "respect the right to freedoms of expression, peaceful assembly and association."

"We also call on the authorities to respect women's rights and to eliminate all forms of discrimination against women and girls and implement effective measures to protect them from other human rights violations, in accordance with international standards."

Guterres reiterated a call from the Acting High Commissioner for Human Rights for a prompt investigation into the death of Amini by an "independent competent authority."

Iran's Interior Minister denied Mahsa Amini was beaten up, citing investigations into the incident, the country's state news agency, IRNA, reported Saturday.

"The results of observations, talking with those who were on the scene, receiving reports from relevant bodies and other investigations showed that late Ms. Amini was not beaten, Iranian Interior Minister Ahmad Vahidi told (Iran's state broadcaster) IRIB," IRNA reported.

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi called Amini's family saying he had ordered the incident to be investigated carefully so that no rights would be violated, according to IRNA. He said during his trip to the UNGA in New York last week that early coroner's findings found no signs of beating.

After returning to Iran follow his trip to the UNGA in New York, Raisi also called the family of a Basij member, a volunteer paramilitary group connected to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, who was killed during protests in Mashhad, according to his official website.

In the statement released by his office, Raisi expressed his condolences to the family of Rasool Doust Mohammadi, the Basij member, and said there is a "need to distinguish between protest and disruption of public order and security," while also describing the protests "as rioting and evil."

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international relations and national security

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Young Iranians are rising up against decades of repression -- arguably bolder than ever | CNN

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Iranian authorities say they will restrict internet access in the country until calm is restored to the streets. Meanwhile, the IRGC, the elite wing of the Iranian military that was established in the aftermath of the country's revolution in 1979, has asked all people to identify protesters, the country's semi-official news agency Fars News said.

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This article covers the racism and xenophobia between greek and turkish people. This affects not only the people of these countries but also affects foreign relations. Both countries people think they are superior which causes this rift between them.

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Over the past few days, people have been killed on the Greek-Turkish border! This situation is the direct consequence of political choices made by European leaders, willing to seal off the European Union's borders by all means, especially by outsourcing the examination of asylum claims and the encampment of the "undesirable" to non-European states. Every day, unbearable footage shows exiles being turned away or deliberately put in danger.

The Greek police force and army, alongside some of the local population and fascist groups, have deployed unprecedented violence to stop these people from entering Europe. Whether at sea or along the Evros river, border agents are barring the way to vessels - which is leading to shipwrecks - and are shooting into the air, causing injuries and deaths.

Not only has the European Union so far not condemned these extremely serious acts, but it is supporting, even encouraging them: Instead of reminding the Greek authorities that international and European law both prohibit that a person seeking international protection be turned away without his/her situation being examined first, the European Council President has praised Greece's efforts to 'protect European borders'; likewise, the European Commission President has referred to Greece as a 'European shield', as if an enemy was threatening Europe.

For it's part, the European agency Frontex is planning to deploy a rapid border intervention which will open a new front in the ' war on migrants ' that has been waged by the EU at its borders for some twenty years.

A recently established coalition of organisations against border violence has announced that complaints will be lodged against Greece and the EU for violating the rights of people fleeing Turkey. States, and the European leaders condoning their actions, must not be permitted to perpetrate such abuse with impunity.
A few days ahead of the 4th anniversary of the shameful EU-Turkey declaration, on the 18th March, we denounce confinement in camps in Greece and violence at the borders, and recall the urgency to protect above all the rights of migrants.
Close the camps and freedom of movement for all !
See the list of signatory organisations in Europe and beyond.

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Xenophobia and racism are killing at the Greek-Turkish border ! So is the European Union ! - MIGREUROP

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Over the past few days, people have been killed on the Greek-Turkish border! This situation is the direct consequence of political choices made by European leaders, willing to seal off the European Union's borders by all means, especially by outsourcing the examination of asylum claims and the encampment of the "undesirable" to non-European states.

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This article gives spotlight on how F1 is giving spotlight to racism and how it lingers today. Even though the best and most well known driver, Lewis Hamilton he still faces racism from the past drivers that made their names well known in the sport but it is mention that F1 is trying to make the sport more inclusive.

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Formula One has grown more popular than ever-but, in many ways, the sport is still stuck in the past.

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This video is from TikTok, one of the most popular social media apps, especially following the stay-at-home order in 2020 following the beginning of the pandemic. This is an example of doxxing, which is a social media term for finding people who commit heinous, morally questionable, and/or illegal acts and posting their names and often more personal information. This post is an example of how East Asians (in this case, a Korean woman) are subject to racism based on the entitlement of people who were born in the United States. This is not to say that this woman filming could have also been born in the US, but just looks different than the racist woman’s perspective of an American. Especially after the Pandemic, due to the COVID-19 virus starting in China, Asian hate became all the more prevalent, with people yelling slurs and committing hate crimes against East Asians and blaming Asian-American citizens for the start of the virus. (I am saying East Asian in this post to make the distinction that Asia is a huge continent with many different cultures and peoples, and in the United States people view features most prevalent in East Asia as people belonging to the entire race “Asian” (doesn’t exist)). #StopAsianHate was a popular social media hashtag movement starting during this movement.

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This article touches on the hypocrisy, exclusivity, and racism of white feminism. Women of color were there for Western feminist movements such as the Women's March. Where are the Western feminists now when Iranian women are being killed for their personal freedoms?

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Iranian demonstrators taking to the streets of the capital Tehran during a protest for Mahsa Amini on Sept. 21, days after she died in police custody. (AFP/Getty Images)

Masih Alinejad is an Iranian journalist, author and women's rights campaigner. A member of the Human Rights Foundation's International Council, she hosts "Tablet," a talk show on Voice of America's Persian service. Sign up for a weekly roundup of thought-provoking ideas and debates
A new popular uprising is taking place in Iran, and this time women are in the lead. It's incredibly inspiring to see - for the first time I can remember - unveiled women marching at the front. They have overcome fear and are challenging one of the main pillars of the Islamic Republic of Iran: compulsory hijab.

These women are marching shoulder to shoulder with men, chanting against the whole regime. They are facing guns and bullets and demanding an end to a system of gender apartheid.

Mahsa Amini was only 22 years old. She wasn't uncovered; only a few strands of her hair showed. And yet she was arrested by the so-called "morality police" and packed off to jail. Three days later she was dead. Many Iranians are convinced she was killed -a belief reinforced by countless individual experiences with the brutality of the security services.

The news of her death has triggered outrage throughout Iran. Tens of thousands of demonstrators are defying security forces to ask why an innocent young woman lost her life to religious radicals who merely wanted to show off their militant male power. The compulsory hijab is not just a small piece of cloth for Iranian women; it is the most visible symbol of how we are oppressed by a tyrannical theocracy. Now, by drawing attention to that injustice, Mahsa's death has the potential to serve as a new turning point for Iranian women.

Karim Sadjadpour: What the West should learn from the protests in Iran

They deserve the support of their Western counterparts. Yet so far we see little evidence that women in Europe or North America are willing to take to the streets to show their solidarity for a women's revolution in Iran.

Recent experience has been discouraging. Over the past decade, we've seen female politicians from democratic countries - including Ségolène Royal from France, Catherine Ashton from the United Kingdom, and Federica Mogherini from Italy - don hijab on their visits to Iran. All these female politicians are quick to assert their feminist credentials in their own societies - but when it comes to Iran they go out of their way to show deference to the men who have elevated misogyny to a state principle. A regime that abuses and harasses millions of women each year does not deserve our respect. To do so makes a mockery of all our talk of universal human rights.

When the Women's March took place in Washington, D.C., in 2017, I was happy to join. Along with the rest I chanted: "My body, my choice." Some women might well choose to veil their faces and bodies in accordance with their religious or cultural beliefs - but that should be a matter of their own choice, not a rule imposed by the whips and clubs of men. Yet Western women seem only too happy to succumb to the standards dictated by the male tyrants in countries such as Afghanistan and Iran.

I don't consider such feminists to be true advocates of women's rights. The true feminists and women's rights activists are those in Afghanistan and Iran who are stepping forward, at great cost, to resist the Taliban and Islamic republic. They are the true feminist leaders of the 21st century, risking their lives by facing guns and bullets. They will go on fighting against the regimes, and we who have the privilege to live in free countries should actively amplify their voices. This is the moment for women in the West to stand with Iran's mothers, daughters and sisters.

Pardis Mahdavi: When Iran's 'morality police' came for me

I will not remain silent. I will continue to speak out until compulsory hijab laws are abolished. Like the women now taking to the streets in my home country, I, too, have been targeted by the regime. I have chosen to speak up despite that regime's attacks on my family, and its attempts to have me abducted or killed. In this, I feel deep solitary with the thousands of women protesting in Iran. I will continue to do what I can to support their struggle, to help them achieve their rights.

My wish is for all of us to be louder than the tyrants. I call on the free world to join the protesters in calling for an end to the murderous regime of the ayatollahs. Iranian women are fighting to recover our dignity and exercise our personal freedoms - so that, one day, all Iranians can finally choose our government in free and fair elections. We shouldn't be afraid of the religious fanatics and the jihadists. They are the ones who are frightened. It is why they seek to keep women down. Women in the streets are paying with their lives for change. But too many in the outside world are shaking hands with our murderers.

I am asking all Western feminists to speak up. Join us. Make a video. Cut your hair. Burn a headscarf. Share it on social media and boost Iranian voices. Use your freedom to say her name. Her name was Mahsa Amini.

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Opinion | Women are leading a revolution in Iran. When will Western feminists help?

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Masih Alinejad is an Iranian journalist, author and women's rights campaigner. A member of the Human Rights Foundation's International Council, she hosts "Tablet," a talk show on Voice of America's Persian service. Sign up for a weekly roundup of thought-provoking ideas and debates ArrowRight A new popular uprising is taking place in Iran, and this time women are in the lead.

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Raising Anti-Racists Children By The American Psychological Association

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Raising Anti-Racists Children By The American Psychological Association

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As some one who is currently working in ECE and obtaining a Psychology degree this article hit home. I felt it was a great way to not only identify how detrimental racism is in our society but also how we can combat it with our children and those that we serve in the community. I have always been a firm believer in starting discussions about inclusivity, acceptance, and compassion for all since my kids were very young. In fact, most of my children have taken a more open minded approach to people and their differences. Racism is an epidemic that is starving children of love and acceptance in many ways. We have been dealing with the racist and even homophobic actions of society for far to long. I am hoping that by teaching the younger generations about the disgraceful way that people have been treated in the past, we can open their eyes to new and improve ways of accepting and including all instead of limiting the growth of specific people and races.

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Psychologists are studying the processes by which young children learn about race-and how to prevent prejudice from taking root

Cite this

Weir, K. (2023, May 18). Raising anti-racist children. Monitor on Psychology, 52(4). https://www.apa.org/monitor/2021/06/anti-racist-children

Racism occurs across a spectrum. It lives within individuals and between them, within institutions and across society. And at every level, children are affected by discriminatory beliefs and practices, said Farzana Saleem, PhD, an assistant professor in the Graduate School of Education at Stanford University. "Racism is learned early on in development, and children receive many messages about race and racism from a young age."

Kids pick up on what their parents and teachers say (and don't say), who and what they see on TV, what their dolls look like, and how other people are treated in their schools and neighborhoods. "Humans are sponges for their social environment," said Evan Apfelbaum, PhD, an associate professor of management and organizations at the Questrom School of Business at Boston University. Over decades, research has explored how children come to understand race-and how they learn racism. Yet the science is a long way from prescribing a formula for anti-racism. "There's a whole host of factors that can affect kids' holistic understanding of race-and so much research that needs to be done," he said.

Psychologists are among those working to fill the knowledge gap, studying the processes and influences that lead children to develop ideas about race-and how to fight back against the biased messaging they might learn so early. Dismantling White supremacy and other forms of racism won't be easy. But children can be taught to do better than their parents' generations did. "We learn racism very easily through our society," said Sarah Gaither, PhD, an assistant professor of psychology and neuroscience at Duke University. "But we are malleable. No one is born racist."

Race in early childhood

When do children understand race? It's not an easy question, in part because "race" isn't the rigid construct it's often made out to be. "It's well established that there's no biological basis for race," said Diane Hughes, PhD, a professor of applied psychology at New York University. "Race has meaning because we give it meaning-especially in the U.S., where our history is largely structured to uphold these 'racial differences,'" she said. "We assume that there are unobservable underlying personality traits that correlate to certain physical characteristics."

Even infants have the perceptual abilities to see those physical differences and to start responding to them. International research led by psychologists at the University of Toronto showed that between 6 and 12 months of age, babies begin to show a preference for members of their own racial groups. At 7 months, babies in uncertain situations are more likely to follow the gaze of a member of their own race (Xiao, N. G., et al., Child Development, Vol. 89, No. 3, 2018). And by 9 months, they associate faces from their own race with happy music and those from other racial groups with sad music (Xiao, N. G., et al., Developmental Science, Vol. 21, No. 2, 2018). The researchers suggest these patterns may develop as a result of lack of exposure to other-race individuals during infancy-and that such implicit associations could pave the way to the development of other racial biases in early childhood and beyond.

Within the first years of life, children are bombarded with messages from their environment that shape their beliefs and judgments about other people. It doesn't take long for such messages to stick. By preschool, children begin showing both implicit and explicit bias toward members of other races. Kristin Shutts, PhD, at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, found that at age 3, White children are equally likely to befriend Black or White children. But by age 4 or 5, White children are more likely to choose other White kids as friends (Child Development Perspectives, Vol. 9, No. 4, 2015).

Some evidence suggests that bias might be related to the information young children have already gleaned about social status. In a series of studies, Yarrow Dunham, EdD, at Yale University, and colleagues found that by age 3 or 4, White American children were more likely to associate both Black and Asian faces with anger, while rating White faces as having more positive emotions. Black American children did not show this same ingroup preference. This suggests that ingroup bias isn't implicit. Rather, from a very young age, children are picking up on the status hierarchy of the culture around them (Psychological Science, Vol. 24, No. 6, 2013).

By age 5 or 6, an ingroup preference-and outgroup bias-is well established, Hughes said. And those early beliefs are reinforced by what children see around them. "When they see that Black boys are the ones who get sent to the principal's office or that Black children tend to struggle more when reading aloud, they may attribute certain meanings to different racial groups," Hughes said. "Kids are operating in this universe where they're drawing a lot of conclusions about what they see."

By middle childhood, children have a more sophisticated understanding not only of race but also of racism. Though the biases they learned in early childhood are still present, older kids begin to understand that race may be a taboo topic. "It's around ages 9 to 11 when kids seem to really start understanding the social guidelines about what is and isn't considered culturally sensitive and what constitutes discrimination," said Apfelbaum. He, Kristin Pauker, PhD, an associate professor of psychology at the University of Hawai'i Mānoa, and colleagues showed this with an experiment modeled on the game Guess Who?, where kids ask yes or no questions to guess the person in an array of faces that their opponent has picked. In this version, about half of the faces were Black and half were White, so asking about race early on was an effective strategy to narrow down the field. But the researchers found that while 8- and 9-year-olds asked frequently about race, a majority of 10- and 11-year-olds avoided the question (Developmental Psychology, Vol. 44, No. 5, 2008).

"Older kids begin to understand the race question as something more than just a way to win the game. They're more concerned with how they're viewed with respect to social conventions and cultural sensitivity," Apfelbaum said. "It shows the age at which behavior starts to shift. And that suggests it's one important time to think about interventions by educators and parents."

Racial-ethnic socialization

As children grow and learn, messages about race come from all corners: news media and entertainment, teachers and peers, community interactions, and, of course, families. All children, including White children, learn about race through a process known as racial-ethnic socialization, and scholars say that addressing socialization more purposefully will be necessary for dismantling racism.

But for families of color, racial-ethnic socialization also serves the critical purpose of preparing children for the racism and discrimination they may encounter. "Racial socialization in non-White families occurs in the context of structural inequality and oppression. It's proactive, but it also has protective goals," Hughes said.

Researchers have most commonly studied four aspects of racial-ethnic socialization, based on a framework developed by Hughes and colleagues: 1) cultural socialization (messages about racial pride and heritage); 2) preparation for bias (discussions of discrimination and how to cope); 3) promotion of mistrust (teaching children to be wary of other racial groups or environments); and 4) egalitarianism (avoiding discussions of race and valuing individual qualities over racial group membership) (Developmental Psychology, Vol. 42, No. 5, 2006). "Based on interviews and surveys with hundreds of parents over the course of more than 25 years, we find much of what parents and adolescents discuss in family conversations about race involve these four aspects," Hughes said.

Of those four categories, cultural socialization has been shown to be most consistently associated with positive outcomes, according to a review of 259 studies by Adriana Umaña‐Taylor, PhD, a professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Education (Journal of Marriage and Family, Vol. 82, No. 1, 2020). Research has shown cultural socialization linked to positive outcomes in children from a variety of backgrounds, including Black, Asian American, and Latinx, Umaña‐Taylor said. "There's considerable evidence that cultural socialization is linked positively with mental health and academic outcomes."

Preparation for bias can also be helpful, Umaña‐Taylor said, "likely because it prepares kids with coping strategies for the experiences of marginalization they might encounter." But promotion of mistrust, while similar, is sometimes linked with youth maladjustment, she said. "That may be because while both approaches recognize the societal structures of racism and discrimination, promotion of mistrust isn't accompanied by coping strategies."

Families of all racial and ethnic backgrounds draw on these strategies when talking about race with their children, but some groups are more likely to choose one approach over another. "The racial-ethnic socialization strategy of egalitarianism-the idea that we're all one big happy human race-is used most often by White families," said Riana Elyse Anderson, PhD, an assistant professor of health behavior and health education at the University of Michigan. Black families, on the other hand, are more likely to blend messages of racial heritage and pride with preparation for bias, she added. And those messages can balance each other out in helpful ways. "By and large, if you combine pride messaging and preparation for bias, you see better psychological and academic outcomes in children," she said. "Teaching pride without warning can cause children to run into challenges they're unprepared for. But focusing only on bias and discrimination can drive anxiety or depression."

Families of color are often well versed in having explicit conversations about race, Anderson said. Still, research points toward ways to make the discussion more productive. In a paper still in press, Anderson found that greater racial-ethnic socialization competency among Black parents was associated with better psychosocial outcomes in their adolescents. To improve competency, she and psychologist Howard C. Stevenson, PhD, an expert on racial stress and trauma at the University of Pennsylvania, developed the Engaging, Managing, and Bonding through Race (EMBRace) intervention. The five-session intervention blends trauma-focused cognitive behavioral therapy with racial socialization messages to help parents address their racial stress and trauma so they can better approach racial socialization with their children (Family Process, Vol. 58, No. 1, 2019). "We want to address parents first, helping them unpack some of this before we help them think about what they might say or do differently as a parent," Anderson said.

The problem with color blindness

White families, meanwhile, have the luxury of approaching discussions of race from their privileged position in U.S. society. "On average, White parents avoid talking about race with their kids at all," Hughes said. "They don't have to protect their children from oppression and racism."

If they do bring up race, they often put off the conversation until kids are older. With Skidmore College psychologists Jessica Sullivan, PhD, and Leigh Wilton, PhD, Apfelbaum uncovered one reason why: Parents mistakenly don't think their kids are ready. The researchers surveyed U.S. adults and found participants estimated that children develop the capacity to process and understand race at around age 5, though research suggests they're capable of understanding the concept as toddlers. The belief that children weren't developmentally ready was the strongest predictor of delaying discussions of race, the researchers found (Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, Vol. 150, No. 2, 2021). "There are potentially years during which kids are starting to think about race and coming to their own impressions of what it means before parents broach the topic," Apfelbaum said. "It's a missed opportunity for parents to help frame that discussion in constructive ways."

Children are exposed to race and systemic racism from an early age, Hughes said, and avoiding or delaying the conversation leaves kids to fill in the blanks on their own. "Kids see structural inequality all around them-in the media, in their neighborhoods, in school," she said. Even when schools are integrated, kids see de facto segregation. They see kids of the same race sitting together at lunch or joining the same clubs and activities. "There are all of these things causing kids to attach meaning to race, and nobody is correcting their inferences," Hughes said. "If they're told everyone has equal opportunities but see these differences, they draw their own conclusions and attach deeper meaning to external appearance."

Promoting a more egalitarian or "color-blind" view can have negative consequences for interracial interactions. Hughes has found that when parents teach color-blind attitudes, their children are less likely to report friendships with children of other races. "My guess is that teaching egalitarianism allows kids to maintain a sense of privilege. Kids might think if race doesn't matter, they'd rather be with the group that has better outcomes," she said.

Color blindness can also make people less sensitive to recognizing discrimination. Apfelbaum, Pauker, and colleagues introduced elementary school children to stories that taught either a color-blind mindset or a mindset that emphasized valuing diversity (Psychological Science, Vol. 21, No. 11, 2010). "Children exposed to the value-diversity message were more likely to recognize discrimination when it occurred," Pauker said. "And they were more likely to describe what they saw in a way that made teachers more likely to intervene."

Although children begin learning about race from very young ages at home, schools are critical settings for teaching about race and discrimination. "It is clear that schools, like families, convey messages across multiple methods of expression. Images displayed in the classroom, curriculum choices, policies, and practices are just a few examples of how racial-ethnic socialization is transmitted within the school context," said Saleem.

"Kids look to teachers to understand how to navigate racial norms and what's appropriate to say and do," Apfelbaum added. And what teachers don't say is often as important as what they do say. Pauker and Elizabeth Brey, PhD, of the University of Hawai'i Mānoa, explored the role of teachers' nonverbal behavior in a study in which they assigned children ages 5 to 8 to either orange or green groups. (Because students already have preconceived ideas about race, the researchers invented these groups as a proxy for social categories.) After observing how other kids from each group were treated by teachers, children answered questions about new students from each group. When asked who was smarter, they picked students who had been in the group that received positive nonverbal feedback from teachers, such as smiles and nods (Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, Vol. 188, 2019). "When children have conflicting sources of information, they often rely on nonverbal behavior to provide them with information," Pauker said. "They form stereotypes based on how the teacher is interacting with other students."

Yet educators can certainly have positive impacts as well. "When the school climate is one where different cultures and backgrounds are celebrated and valued, students are better adjusted," said Umaña‐Taylor. She developed an eight-session, teacher-led intervention called the Identity Project that provides adolescents with tools and strategies with which to consider their racial and ethnic backgrounds as they explore concepts of their own identity. The intervention was linked to improved psychosocial functioning one year later (Journal of Youth and Adolescence, Vol. 47, 2018). "The intervention promotes positive identity development for all students, including White students and students of color," she said. "That has significant implications for their own adjustment, and for society as a whole, since people who have a clearer sense of themselves are more willing to engage with those who are different from them."

Teaching the value of diversity

For parents, teachers, and other adults who want to help children understand race and racism, awareness is a good start. White parents who are more aware of racial bias are more likely to discuss race with their children (Perry, S. P., et al., Journal of Social Issues, Vol. 75, No. 4, 2019). But awareness is a first small step on a long journey.

Hughes runs community workshops to help parents learn to talk about race with their children, and she said that while most attendees are well intentioned, they're often anxious about how and when to start the conversation. Her advice: Just start. "The fear of talking about race makes parents avoid talking about it at all. But you can't just react to situations as they arise or wait for your kids to ask questions. You need to be intentional about what you want your kids to know about race," she said. "If you can't find exactly the right words, don't worry. Childhood happens over a long period, and you get to keep practicing this conversation."

Meaningful intergroup contact is also important for teaching acceptance, Gaither said. Yet it's not enough to simply sit next to a Black man on a bus or chat with a Latinx grocery clerk. "It has to be meaningful, long-term contact. Being exposed to adults and kids from different backgrounds is one of the best tools psychology has to offer for developing positive attitudes about other groups," she said.

In many communities, that's challenging. "It can be effortful for parents to find opportunities for kids to see people who look different than they do," Gaither said. Choosing diverse communities and schools, interacting with babysitters or teachers from other groups, even pen pal programs that connect children from different backgrounds can all be ways to start breaking down barriers, she added. Parents would also do well to look critically at their own interactions. "If you're telling children you value diversity but you have no diversity in your friendships, kids pick up on that conflicting information," Pauker said.

Teachers, too, should be having conversations about race with even very young students, Hughes said. But most teachers are White, and there's a need for more tools to help them include race and diversity in their curricula. "Teachers need practice, and they need training on talking about racial issues in their classrooms," she said.

Efforts are being made to meet that need. The Southern Poverty Law Center's Learning for Justice project (formerly Teaching Tolerance) is in its 30th year working to eradicate hate by fighting intolerance in schools. The project, which provides free resources and guidance to help educators work against racial injustice and encourage student and community action, has plans to expand its reach to caregivers and other communities in 2021. Many other researchers are also tackling the problem. Among them is Umaña‐Taylor, whose team developed a teacher professional development program, Equipping Educators for Equity Through Ethnic-Racial Identity, that prepares educators to have discussions about race, ethnicity, and identity with their students.

"Professional development programs such as these will be essential to create equitable and just schools where all student can thrive," she said.

Prejudice is malleable

Although it's important to start teaching anti-bias messages as early as possible, it's also valuable for children to understand that racist beliefs don't have to be permanent. In a not-yet-published study, Pauker, Apfelbaum, and colleagues applied a growth mindset approach to the way children think about prejudice. "Just because you or someone you know said something prejudiced doesn't mean you'll be that way forever," Apfelbaum said. "Our preliminary research suggests that seeing prejudice as something that can change gets kids to stay interested in interacting across racial lines because it lowers the stakes that any mistakes they make will be a blemish that stays there forever."

While there's been a recent uptick in parents and educators wanting to address racism, it's unlikely there will ever be a universal curriculum for teaching children about race, Gaither said. "There's no one-size-fits-all model. A lot of people want to create change, but we need data about what changes will work for a particular group or school." Rushing to make changes that aren't yet proven could end up doing more harm than good, which is why psychological research is so critical, she added.

Among the many outstanding questions is how best to help multiracial children process their beliefs and experiences with race and identity. A review of the literature on racial-ethnic socialization in multiracial families found most parents do not discuss multiracial identity with their children (Atkin, A. L., & Yoo, H. C., Developmental Review, Vol. 53, 2019). Those conversations probably aren't being addressed sufficiently at school, either. "They are the fastest-growing youth population in the U.S., yet we don't exactly know how they fit into these curricula and interventions," Gaither said.

Even as the research continues, adults must keep up the hard work of confronting their own biases and teaching their children to do the same, Anderson said. "People often have the intent, but they don't sustain it. The books everyone purchased last summer [after George Floyd's murder] are now dusty," she said. To raise anti-racist children, parents, caregivers, teachers-and psychologists-have to work to keep the effort top of mind. "It starts with us as adults," Anderson said. "As professional psychologists, we need to be consistently interrogating ourselves and those around us. There's no way we'll be competent providers if we haven't first talked with ourselves."

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Further reading

RECASTing racial stress and trauma: Theorizing the healing potential of racial socialization in families
Anderson, R. E., & Stevenson, H. C., American Psychologist, 2019

RESilience Initiative
APA, 2018

Resilience in African American children and adolescents: A vision for optimal development
APA, 2008

Something happened in our town: A child's story about racial injustice
Celano, M., et al. Magination Press, 2018

Talking to children about racism: Breaking the cycle of bias and violence starts at home
Hughes, D. L., et al., Child & Family Blog, 2020

Recommended Reading

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Psychologists are studying the processes by which young children learn about race. Dismantling White supremacy and other forms of racism won't be easy, but children can be taught to do better than their parents' generations did.

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The Civil Rights Activist Sharing Her Story With A New Generation

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The Civil Rights Activist Sharing Her Story With A New Generation

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The Civil Rights Activist Sharing Her Story With A New Generation | Consider This

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Slavery is STILL OPERATING Under Private Prisons!

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Slavery is STILL OPERATING Under Private Prisons!

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This well written AP News article outlines the history of private prisons in regards to slavery and convict leasing. To summarize, slavery was completely outlawed in the United States with the inclusion of the 13th Amendment in the Bill of Rights. However, there is a statement in the Amendment that makes an exception, where slavery may remain legal if someone is fairly convicted. It reads: "[...] except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted [...]". Since the abolition of slavery, this loophole has been used by countless corporations to profit off of "convict leasing." "Convict leasing," is exactly what it sounds like. The private prisons "lease" out their prisoners to giant conglomerates, such as cole mining, steelmills, and railroad companies, who then pay much less for labor cost, and yield much more in return. It goes without saying that this is an INCREDIBLY unethical process that goes completely against our modern core American values. This process is not only very rooted in racism, but continues to be racist today due to the percentage of minority groups who are incarcerated, (68%) and therefore targeted. This system is clearly a continuation of slavery, inspired by the industrial revolution, where racism is perpetuated with the goal of extreme profit yields at the cost of unethical human treatment.

Sources:
Mason, Margie. “Locked up: The Prison Labor That Built Business Empires.” AP NEWS, Associated Press, 22 Sept. 2022, https://apnews.com/article/ap-investigation-convict-leasing-reveal-podcast-71bcdbeff840ff4bfbbea48ea50a1cb5.

Initiative, Prison Policy. “Beyond the Count: A Deep Dive into State Prison Populations.” Beyond the Count: A Deep Dive into State Prison Populations | Prison Policy Initiative, https://www.prisonpolicy.org/reports/beyondthecount.html.

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Locked Up: The prison labor that built business empires

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More than 150 years ago, a prison complex known as the Lone Rock stockade operated at one of the biggest coal mines in Tennessee.

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Racism and Cultural Appropriation in Surfing

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Racism and Cultural Appropriation in Surfing

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https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/08/31/sports/black-surfers.html

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On an overcast day on the cusp of summer last year, a group of surfers gathered on a historically Black beach known as the Ink Well in Santa Monica, Calif., with messages written on their boards. They were preparing for a paddle-out - a ritual for surfers to honor the dead - in the aftermath of the police murder of George Floyd. The messages on their boards read "Black Lives Matter" and listed the names of those killed by law enforcement.

"It's just been a battle to survive, all of it, all of the time, just for the right to be," Sharon Schaffer, the first Black woman to become a professional surfer, said that day in an emotional speech. She was referring to the racism she's experienced in her life both in and out of the water.

"I had to develop a voice right away to scream: 'I got it - it's mine, my wave,'" she said, and the assembled surfers cheered in response. "I have a right to be on this wave."

On President's Day of this year, an argument in Manhattan Beach, Calif., over wave priority turned ugly when a white man repeatedly called Justin Howze, a Black musician who goes by Brick, and his fellow Black surfer Gage Crismond a racial slur. The incident inspired Mr. Howze and Mr. Crismond to organize a paddle-out in protest, which attracted well over 100 Black surfers.

These recent paddle-outs raised awareness both of the fact that Black people do indeed surf and that they often do so in the face of hostilities both subtle and overt. The events also demonstrated the sense of connection and community among Black surfers whose networks have been steadily developing for decades.

Of course, Black people surf for the same reasons as anyone else - the feeling of weightlessness and propulsion, of being in perfect harmony with the energy of the wave. But surfing with other Black people can also foster a profound sense of healing, of being seen and understood, and of finding kinship through an experience shared with people who know your culture and history in an ocean that your ancestors may have traversed.

As Black surfers are increasingly coming out into the open - surfing together in organized groups, experiencing and sharing the joy and freedom that surfing can provide - they're also assuming a more visible presence in the sport's larger ecosystem, whether as brand ambassadors for major sponsors, as publishers in surf-related media or as contenders in elite competitions. These surfers are also participating in a tradition of activism and cultural pride around Black surfing - a history in which some of the surfers themselves may not be fully versed.

The first time Selema Masekela, a surfer and founder of Mami Wata, a lifestyle brand, saw another Black surfer in the water in California, he paddled right over so that they could exchange origin stories.

"I didn't even need to know him to know what it took for him to be out there," said Mr. Masekela, who recently published "Afrosurf," a book celebrating surfing in Africa. "There's so much you have to do on land to make the choice to even go. Then there's the outright potential for aggression and the constant processing of micro-aggression." The code-switching he said he needed for surfing "had become like a subliminal superpower."

In taking their place in the waves, people of African descent are reclaiming lost traditions. The contemporary practice of surfing derives from Polynesians who settled Hawaii, but the centuries-old African practices of wave-riding - whether on boards or in canoes - evolved independently, historians say, in multiple spots along the West African coast.

"The vast majority of us are descended from African people who were coastal, ocean-dwelling people, and yet most of us have been disconnected from that aspect that was a crucial part of our ancestors' identities," said Natalie Hubbard, a surgeon and surfer who is part of the Laru Beya Collective, which encourages surfing and water safety among underserved youth in the Rockaways in New York. "I think there's a power to, as a person with African ancestry, connecting with the ocean because you're also connecting with a part of your heritage."

Despite surfing's roots in Polynesia - and the fact that one of its most famous early ambassadors, Duke Kahanamoku, was dark-skinned enough that whites-only establishments tried to refuse him service - surfing gained popularity on the U.S. mainland in the 1950s and '60s primarily as a white sport. American surf culture at the time was typified by the music of bands like the Beach Boys and by movies like "Gidget" and "The Endless Summer."

Many Black Americans, meanwhile, had all but lost their connections to the African traditions of wave-riding, severed by centuries of enslavement, violence and legal segregation. They were systematically excluded from public swimming, beaches and water-sport culture by Jim Crow laws, racial terror campaigns and the real estate practice of redlining. The effect for many Black people was an overriding sense that sports like surfing just weren't available to them and that the culture of surfing wasn't open to them.

Yet there is a robust, if complicated, history of surfing among African-descended people, especially in segregated and historically Black beach communities around the U.S.

It was the Ink Well beach, for instance, that produced surfing's first documented Black star in the late 1940s. Nick Gabaldón learned to surf as a teenager at the Ink Well on a board he borrowed from a lifeguard. But Malibu Surfrider Beach, which is 12 miles to the north and was in practice reserved for whites, was known for having the best waves around. So, in a feat of extreme determination, Gabaldón began paddling the 12 miles from the Ink Well to Surfrider, eventually becoming a popular fixture at that beach until he died in 1951, at 24, trying to surf between the pilings of the pier.

In the years following Gabaldón's death, a number of Black surfers - most notably Montgomery Ernest Thomas Kaluhiokalani, known by the nickname Buttons - made inroads into professional surfing, competing in events and becoming icons of their local breaks, with some earning national attention. Over time, access to the water and to surfing opened up for Black surfers, as a culture of beach activism took root.

In much the same way that Black civil rights activists claimed a right to occupy a space where they were told they didn't belong - a Woolworth's lunch counter or a seat at the front of the bus - Black beachgoers put themselves into segregated waters during "wade-ins" that started in the late 1950s. These actions were met by a law enforcement response similar to other civil rights protests: police indifference that allowed white people to brutalize protestors or, as documented in "White Wash," a 2011 documentary about Black surfing, officers wielding truncheons against surfers.

"There's a long history of whites being profoundly uneasy with the notion that Black people should even have any leisure time at all, and there's a long history of efforts to suppress that," said Andrew W. Kahrl, the author of "The Land Was Ours: How Black Beaches Became White Wealth in the Coastal South." He added that surfing "is one way to challenge the fictions of white supremacy at its most fundamental level - to refuse to reduce oneself to being merely a laborer, and to reclaim your body."

Even now, surfing can seem to embody a kind of protest or conscious transgression for Black people: a commitment to occupying spaces traditionally considered off-limits.

It was through a Los Angeles experiment in busing in the '60s that Rick Blocker met the kids who introduced him to skateboarding and then to surfing. But it wasn't until he came across an open letter in Surfer magazine written by Tony Corley, who was looking to connect with other Black surfers, that he gave much thought to how broad the Black surfing community might be.

Mr. Corley went on to form the Black Surfing Association (B.S.A.) in 1974, with Mr. Blocker and a handful of others as early members. Through an article about the B.S.A. in Surfer, Mr. Blocker learned the forgotten history of the Ink Well and Nick Gabaldón, which he felt compelled to help preserve and share.

What began in Southern California has blossomed into a global movement, spurring the formation of groups dedicated to encouraging Black people to surf. The surf industry - often criticized for promoting the sport as the near-exclusive province of white men - is taking note, as popular brands provide sponsorships, equipment and other support to Black surfers and organizations.

Textured Waves, for example, is an online initiative that focuses on issues of representation in surfing. Chelsea Woody, a surfer and cofounder of Textured Waves who also has a promotional relationship with Vans, says that representation is important because it can make a tangible difference in people's lives. Ms. Woody, who works as a nurse and grew up playing basketball and running track in suburban Washington State, far from the coast, experienced the power of representation in her own life when she was exposed to surfing at 17 while watching the film "Blue Crush."

"I saw Michelle Rodriguez and I was like, 'She kind of looks like me and I would love to do that,'" Ms. Woody recalled. Now she serves as a surf double for Vinessa Antoine, who plays a lawyer and surfer on the Canadian legal drama "Diggstown," which takes place in Nova Scotia. The show helped spur the creation of a program to increase participation in surfing among Black Nova Scotians.

The Laru Beya Collective in New York, which was inspired by the East Coast chapter of the B.S.A., also seeks to promote both a sense in Black surfers that they belong in the water and a sense of responsibility for the effort to steward the ocean in which they surf.

A few Laru Beya surfers are now training for their first competition - the traditional path for surfers to build a professional career. Black surfers have yet to excel in professional surfing as a group, due in part to a lack of experience: The best training for professional competition involves practice in different kinds of waves and conditions at a wide variety of surf breaks, something that requires both mentorships and money. Until recently, major brands had been slow to embrace ethnic diversity, making it challenging for Black surfers to sustain the support that makes competition in international events possible.

Ms. Schaffer, who is among a handful of Black surfers from California who have competed professionally, recently announced a partnership with Red Bull to help sponsor promising young Black surfers. She said that in her own professional career she had trouble finding support and sponsorships. She secured a few years' worth of sponsorships when she was competing, "but because I didn't really know what I was doing, I couldn't keep it going," she said. "I didn't understand how the machine worked."

Entering the qualifying series - in which hundreds of surfers compete at dozens of events to amass points in order to join the elite world tour - is an expensive undertaking, according to Ashton Goggans, editor of the surf magazine Stab. "You're basically self-funding an around-the-world trip each year," he said.

But the competitive landscape is bound to become more diverse as more Black people train for and enter competitions, some with their eyes on the 2024 Olympics, experts say. (Surfing was included as an official Olympic event for the first time in 2021.) Mr. Goggans pointed to a surfer on the Jamaican national team, Elishama Jeshurun Beckford, as someone with promise; he recently participated in a Stab-organized contest where his performance "blew everybody's minds," Mr. Goggans said.

The internet and social media are also allowing Black surfers to follow a different path toward success, eschewing competition and attracting sponsorships by making and posting their own photos and films.

Hunter Jones, a team rider for Body Glove, does not compete but produces his own surfing content. "I was just surfing because I loved it and I never had that mindset of, 'OK, I want to be on the world tour and compete against Kelly Slater,'" he said.

Mr. Jones wants to be an example for the next generation, one that might include Farmata Dia, the daughter of Senegalese immigrants and a Laru Beya mentor who grew up in the Rockaways and became hooked on surfing after a single lesson.

A living link to Africa's aquatic heritage, Ms. Dia dreams of opening her own surf shop in Senegal some day and bringing more attention to the surf culture and its origins.

"I just want to surf, bring people to surfing and share the knowledge," she said.

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Black Surfers Refuse to Be Excluded: 'I Have a Right to Be on This Wave'

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On an overcast day on the cusp of summer last year, a group of surfers gathered on a historically Black beach known as the Ink Well in Santa Monica, Calif., with messages written on their boards. They were preparing for a paddle-out - a ritual for surfers to honor the dead - in the aftermath of the police murder of George Floyd.

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Backlash after the trailer was released and fans noticed Ariel is played by a black woman. 

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Backlash after the trailer was released and fans noticed Ariel is played by a black woman. 

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The anger surrounding this video and Disneys' decision to cast Ariel as brown woman displays lingering racism. The difference between the dislikes and likes are black and white. The need to argue with the color of a mermaid on a kids animated movie displays racism. The young black girls who finally get to see their favorite princess look like them, was an unexpected beautiful surprise that will make a great impact on their childhood.

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The trailer for Disney's upcoming The Little Mermaid hit 1.5 million dislikes on YouTube in the first two days after its release, and now support for the film is building against the backlash to the trailer.

Defenders of the film are citing racism regarding Black actress Halle Bailey being cast as Ariel as the cause for the negative reaction. The overwhelming response to the trailer has resulted in YouTube disabling the dislike counter, but trolls are continuing to fill up the comments section.

The people writing negative messages about the film are now being called out on Twitter.

"It is BLATANTLY clear that the only reason someone would dislike the trailer is because Ariel is now played by a Black actress. So y'all are racist," read a tweet posted on Wednesday.

I saw a headline that said that the new Little Mermaid trailer got 1.5 million dislikes in 2 days.

Here's what I have to say:
It is BLATANTLY clear that the only reason someone would dislike the trailer is because Ariel is now played by a Black actress. So y'all are racist.
- Eden H (@edeeee413) September 14, 2022

Another person wrote, "1.5 million dislikes on The Little Mermaid trailer.....Why? because she's black? Mermaids are fantasy creatures and aren't supposed to be tied to any skin color. Stay mad."

Many of the comments on YouTube do not reference any of the realities of the film and either imagine scenarios for the plot or reference unrelated movies.

"The part where Ariel says 'You can't handle the truth' literally gave me chills," read one typical comment. (The reference in that message is to a line delivered by Jack Nicholson in 1992's A Few Good Men.)

Another person wrote, "The part where Ariel said 'Avengers, assemble!' and then led the army of her mermaid sisters against Prince Eric's evil soldiers really made me cry! It's soooooo epic!!!"

On Twitter, other complaints leveled at the trailer include that it doesn't appear to capture the underwater environment it's meant to depict.

"That Aquaman movie was garbage, but it at least managed to make it look like they were underwater," read one such complaint.

But some Twitter users are saying much of the criticism is an indirect way of attacking the casting.

One person tweeted, "I finally watched the Little Mermaid trailer just now. And I literally see nothing wrong with it. The singing is on point, the fish and turtles look great, and Ariel is fine. People are just disliking it because they're f**king racist."

Anyway I finally watched the Little Mermaid trailer just now. And I literally see nothing wrong with it. The singing is on point, the fish and turtles look great, and Ariel is fine.

People are just disliking it because they're fucking racist.
- Azrael Auditore 🇵🇷 (@Heehaw_JWF) September 14, 2022

The anger toward The Little Mermaid may have an unintended consequence as many people are now pledging to help the film succeed.

"Thank you, racists. You have officially convinced me with your whining and sniveling to go see that new little mermaid movie to increase their box office with my dollar. I don't typically like to support these live action reboots, but I think to make the MAGAts mad it's worth it," read one tweet.

Thank you, racists. You have officially convinced me with your whining and sniveling to go see that new little mermaid movie to increase their box office with my dollar. I don't typically like to support these live action reboots, but I think to make the MAGAts mad it's worth it.
- Maximilian Scott (@DinoMaximilian) September 14, 2022

"I will be contributing heavily to the success at the Box office for The Little Mermaid," another person wrote. "Not y'all thinking you're oppressed over a damn fish."

I will be contributing heavily to the success at the Box office for The Little Mermaid.

Not y'all thinking you're oppressed over a damn fish.
- itachi's ol' lady. (@Smurfmona) September 14, 2022

Newsweek has reached out to Disney for comment.

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"Little Mermaid" support builds after trailer dislikes surpass 1.5 million

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The trailer for Disney's upcoming The Little Mermaid hit 1.5 million dislikes on YouTube in the first two days after its release, and now support for the film is building against the backlash to the trailer. Defenders of the film are citing racism regarding Black actress Halle Bailey being cast as Ariel as the cause for the negative reaction.

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Film racism in stranger things with Caleb McLaughlin

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Film racism in stranger things with Caleb McLaughlin

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This article discussed how the actor Caleb in stranger things was affected by how people treated him on the movie set, which was inhumane in that he tells us that people refused to stand in his lane based on his color. Additionally, I that racism was within the film cast members whom he worked with that, in terms of the support people did not support him, as his parents tried to explain to him about the societal racism that he was facing, which was harsh for the actor as he worked in this series from age 14 to 20 now.

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Stranger Things star Caleb McLaughlin recently opened up about the racism he faced when the hit sci-fi series first hit Netflix.

The actor reflected on his first Comic-Con when some people didn't want to stand in his line and claimed it was because of the way his character, Lucas Sinclair, treated Millie Bobby Brown 's Eleven in season one.

"It definitely took a toll on me as a younger kid," he said at the Heroes Comic Con Belgium convention. "Some people didn't stand in my line because I was Black. Some people told me, 'Oh I didn't want to be in your line but because you were mean to Eleven.'"

McLaughlin, 20, went on to explain that it still sometimes happens, "Even now some people don't follow me or don't support me because I'm Black," he continued. "Sometimes overseas you feel the racism, you feel the bigotry. Sometimes it's hard to talk about and for people to understand, but when I was younger it definitely affected me a lot."

He started the series when he was 14, and he recalled his younger self wondering at the time why he was the least favorite on the show, with fewer followers than his co-stars. "I'm on the same show as everybody from season one," he remembered thinking.

The actor said his parents had to sit him down and tell him a "sad truth."

"My parents had to be like, 'It's a sad truth, but it's because you're the Black child on the show,'" McLaughlin shared. "Because I was born with this beautiful chocolate skin, I'm not loved."

Despite the racism he's faced, he now refuses to let it bring him down.

"That's why with my platform I want to spread positivity and love," McLaughlin said, "because I do not give hate back to people who give hate to me."

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Caleb McLaughlin Reflects on the Racism He Faced From 'Stranger Things' Fans

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Stranger Things star Caleb McLaughlin recently opened up about the racism he faced when the hit sci-fi series first hit Netflix. The actor reflected on his first Comic-Con when some people didn't want to stand in his line and claimed it was because of the way his character, Lucas Sinclair, treated Millie Bobby Brown 's Eleven in season one.

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The story is about the racism that star Caleb McLaughlin experienced just because he was a black man - no one stood up to him at his first Comic-Con; people avoided him at early meet-and-greet events because his character was hostile to another character, etc. But in the end, Caleb has a very positive attitude towards discrimination, he doesn't want to get caught up in sadness, he just wants to spread love, etc.

More of his story made me sound very angry, especially since I found many movies that were attacked for their casting being black or the lack of diversity in many movies. Racism is a very long way to go, but I hope one day it will really go away because I think everyone is born equal and skin color is not something you can decide for yourself.

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Stranger Things star Caleb McLaughlin has said he has faced racism from fans of the show.

The 20-year-old, who plays Lucas Sinclair in the Netflix hit, said the experience "took a toll" on him.

"My very first Comic-Con, some people didn't stand in my line because I was black," he told fans at a Belgian convention.

The actor has starred in the show since he was 14, and will appear in the fifth and final season.

He is one of Stranger Things' five main characters alongside Finn Wolfhard, Gaten Matarazzo, Noah Schnapp and Millie Bobby Brown, all of whom also joined the cast in season one.

The other actors have more Instagram followers than Caleb - something that he discussed with fans during an on-stage appearance at Heroes Comic Con in Brussels.

In a video shared on Twitter by an attendee, he says he asked his parents why he was the "least favourite" even though he was "on the same show as everybody".

"My parents had to be like, 'It's a sad truth, but it's because you're the black child on the show'.

"Because I was born with this beautiful chocolate skin, I'm not loved."

He said people had avoided him at early meet-and-greet events, telling him it was "because you were mean to Eleven", referring to Lucas's hostility towards Millie Bobby Brown's character in season one.

"Even now some people don't follow me or don't support me because I'm black," he told fans in Belgium.

"Sometimes overseas you feel the racism, you feel the bigotry.

"Sometimes it's hard to talk about and for people to understand, but when I was younger it definitely affected me a lot."

Despite being a worldwide hit, Stranger Things has faced some criticism for its lack of casting diversity and accusations of sidelining its black characters.

Caleb is the latest black star to talk about receiving backlash because of the shows they were a part of.

Lord of the Rings actors recently condemned the "relentless" racist abuse suffered by cast members of the newly released spin-off series The Rings Of Power.

Non-white actors were trolled online for portraying a range of white fictional characters.

Speaking at this summer's Comic-Con event in the US, the star of another fantasy drama spin-off, House of the Dragon, hit out at racist trolls who criticised his casting in the new Game of Thrones series.

Steve Toussaint, who plays Lord Corlys Velaryon, said it was "an issue they have to deal with, I don't have to".

And Disney's recently released trailer for a new live-action version of the Little Mermaid, starring black actress Halle Bailey, generated criticism from people upset because the cartoon version featured a white mermaid.

Fellow Disney actor Rachel Zegler came to her defence, saying: "If you don't support my girl Halle, who is the perfect Ariel, you don't support any of us."

Despite his experiences, Caleb said he was determined to not be drawn into negativity.

"With my platform I want to spread positivity and love because I do not give hate back to people who give hate to me," he said.

Listen to Newsbeat live at 12:45 and 17:45 weekdays - or listen back here.

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Stranger Things star Caleb McLaughlin speaks about racism from fans

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Stranger Things star Caleb McLaughlin has said he has faced racism from fans of the show. The 20-year-old, who plays Lucas Sinclair in the Netflix hit, said the experience "took a toll" on him. "My very first Comic-Con, some people didn't stand in my line because I was black," he told fans at a Belgian convention.

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A fascinating controversy has arisen recently over Lizzo playing a 200-year-old flute, previously owned by James Madison.

In 1812, James Madison was gifted a crystal flute after defeating DeWitt Clinton for presidency. It has been un-played since, however, Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden personally invited Lizzo to play the flute, and she gladly accepted. Lizzo, a classically trained flutist, and Hayden, the first African American woman to hold the job title, are both trail blazers, deserving of national recognition and special privilege. However, the backlash, specifically from the Conservative community, has been severe, complaining that Lizzo has disrespected a historical artifact.

It seems this is a perfect example of how racism is discussed in the US, especially in the environment of the two party system. Both sides have quickly raised their fists, liberals claiming that Conservatives have no reason to be upset other than racist concerns over a black woman playing a while man's flute, while Conservatives complain they are being labeled as racist for simply valuing historical artifacts.

Disregarding these arguments, objectively speaking, it seems that Lizzo is not at fault. She was personally invited by a high ranking official to play the instrument, she played it with respect and prestige, and the artifact is still viable.

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James Madison defeated DeWitt Clinton in 1812 to secure a second term in the White House. To commemorate his inauguration, a craftsman from Paris made him a crystal flute. The flute eventually made its way into the possession of the Library of Congress and sat unplayed until this week, when Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden invited Lizzo, a classically trained flautist, to blow a few notes and even take the piece of history onstage during her concert in Washington, D.C.

Conservatives are none too pleased!

"Simply desecrating American history just for the sake of it," wrote right-wing pundit Matt Walsh, adding that letting Lizzo play the flute sends a "message that our heritage and history are meaningless and that nothing we love or care about has any value."

"This Lizzo-flute controversy is a perfect example of what I have termed Face Tattoo Phenomenon™," tweeted Ben Shapiro of the Daily Wire, where Walsh hosts a podcast, "the phenomenon whereby someone does something deliberately controversial in an attempt to draw attention, and then acts offended when you notice."

The conservative Columbia Bugle called it a "humiliation ritual." Right-wing commentator Greg Price wrote that "they" want to "degrade our history and then call you a racist if you actually value it." Trump appointee Darren Beattie described Lizzo as the "perfect representative of the American Globalist Empire." Trump superfan Nick Adams tweeted that the "Biden Administration is making a mockery of the country." Former GOP congressional candidate Andrew McCarthy said everyone involved "should be deported."

Jenna Ellis, a former member of Trump's crack team of election fraud lawyers, even felt compelled to address the issue on her online show. "It's hideous," she said. "Lizzo is famous for being one of the most morbidly obese people in the world who claims that she's oppressed."

"This is desecration, purposefully, of America's history," Ellis added before bringing on right-wing commentator Ryan Fournier to talk about how "disgusting" Lizzo looked.

It shouldn't come as a shock that the MAGA crowd is upset that a Black, body-positive pop star was given exclusive access to a piece of American history, and though the cruelty of their comments is yet another distressing sign of a right-wing that is increasingly animated by hatred, it's also pretty damn hilarious that they're writing about a novelty wind instrument like it's the Declaration of Independence.

The tweets from triggered conservatives about Lizzo playing a 200-year-old flute they almost certainly weren't even aware of before this week have indeed been entertaining, but the best comment about the incident came from Lizzo herself. "I just twerked and played James Madison's crystal flute from the 1800s," she proclaimed on Tuesday. "We just made history tonight."

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Conservatives Are Melting Down Because Lizzo Played James Madison's Crystal Flute

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James Madison defeated DeWitt Clinton in 1812 to secure a second term in the White House. To commemorate his inauguration, a craftsman from Paris made him a crystal flute.

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This article talks about how a Venezuelan man and a bunch of others were tricked into going to Martha's Vineyard thinking that they were going to Boston, Massachusetts. The State of Florida Governor racially profiled them.

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This 27-year-old Venezuelan man was one of 50 migrants taken to Martha's Vineyard from San Antonio, Texas, under the direction of Florida governor Ron DeSantis. The Republican is currently facing multiple lawsuits claiming he lured the migrants to Martha's Vineyard under false pretenses and violated Florida law by using state funds to transport them as a means of protesting President Biden's border policies.
Why I left is no big secret. No one's making any money in Venezuela. There isn't enough food. It's very difficult to care for your children. There are kidnappings, extortion. Someone tried to kill me.

I left my two kids, my wife, my aunts, and my grandmother behind. I decided to leave June 15. I walked until I reached the border with Colombia. It took me two months and 15 days. I rode mules, asked truck drivers for rides, anything to move forward.

In Colombia, I paid a boat $50 to drop me off in the Darién jungle, and there I started my journey toward Panama, walking. We just had to walk and walk and walk. I had three changes of clothes when I started, but I left the jungle with only one and no shoes. Eventually I got to Panama and then Costa Rica, where my brother lives. He helped me get into Nicaragua and then on to Honduras and Guatemala. The journey was hard, but it was also so beautiful and new to me. When you walk through those places, they are gorgeous. There are lots of old buildings, lots of tourists.

When I reached Mexico, I turned myself in to the immigration authorities in Chiapas. They gave me a permit to leave Mexico in 20 days to the border of my choice. I didn't know that Mexico was so big. The countries I had passed through were nothing; Mexico was seven times bigger than all of them. It took me 12 days of walking to get through Mexico to the border with the United States. It was August 18.

The next day, I got up early and asked someone where the river to the United States was. They told me, and I walked. I filled an inflatable mattress - I had a friend with me who didn't know how to swim. I dragged him across the border on the mattress.

On the other side, I turned myself in to the U.S. Border Police in Brownsville, Texas. There I breathed easy. I was joyful, happy. I lasted 15 days in detention while they arranged my papers there too. The aluminum blanket they gave me made a funny sound when you moved it. A few of us shared one.

The ICE people gave me papers, told me, "Sign and you'll be free," that I had to report on September 28 in Philadelphia.

I went to the bus terminal. I lasted there four days. There was a lady who gave us breakfast, lunch, and dinner every day, thank God. She helped some of us with the fare to San Antonio. At the terminal, there were some girls in blue vests who took us to a free shelter, but they offered us only three days of lodging. I started sleeping outside the shelter near a McDonald's. I still hadn't made enough money for the ticket to go to Philadelphia. My only goal was to show up on September 28 for my immigration hearing.

Then, on September 8 - Thursday - a lady named Perla appeared. She said she could take 50 people to sanctuary states. She wore cowboy boots and had highlights in her hair. She spoke English and Spanish. They said they would give us work and housing for 90 days. And the migration papers, she said she was going to change it herself. She said she would change the address to where we were going to be taken.

Of course we said yes. But that day she didn't take anybody, so we were left wondering. Then on the 10th, a Saturday, at half past two in the afternoon, Perla came back with two vans. Everything was done behind the McDonald's. She took us to a hotel, and during the course of the weekend, she started to bring more people, until she'd picked up 50 people.

On Wednesday, we left at 5:30 in the morning. Perla told us we were going to Massachusetts, to Boston. I thought, Well, I'll be six hours away from Philadelphia. Perla said, "Don't worry, I will arrange everything for you. You're going to make your court date in Philadelphia." She formed two groups because there were two airplanes. They were small, exclusive private planes. Onboard, they gave us cookies, soft drinks. The flight attendant was very attentive.

Everyone was kind to us because it was all a hoax. When we landed in Martha's Vineyard, there was a black van waiting for us. The van took us to a house and the driver said, "There's a doorbell. Ring it. They are waiting for you there." When we rang the doorbell, a lady came out, and we told her, "Here we are. We've arrived." The lady asked, "Who are you?" and we told her, "The gentleman brought us. He said to ring the doorbell." But when we turned around, the black van was gone.
This conversation has been translated from Spanish and has been edited for length and clarity.
We told the lady, "We're from Venezuela. We came from Mrs. Perla." We were terrified. We thought they would take us to jail or deport us. Many of us cried.

On the plane, they had given us some red folders with a map, and we looked at the map and realized that we were surrounded by sea, that we were on an island. There was no bridge; there was nothing. How do we get out of here? Do we have to leave by ferry or in a private plane like we got here? We were so scared. Then a gentleman came out speaking Spanish. He told us that we should not worry, that they were going to look for a solution.

It was 3:30 in the afternoon, but the weather was cold. I didn't have a sweater; I didn't have a coat. They took us to a school, where they gave us food, and then they took us to a church in the center of town - the center of the island, I imagine.

We slept in the church that night. Some slept on mattresses on the floor and some in bed. I preferred the floor. If those people hadn't offered us their hearts ... We didn't know where we were. I'm so thankful to those people on Martha's Vineyard who reached out to us and treated us like their family.

They moved my case to Massachusetts, but I haven't gotten a date yet, so I'm still waiting. Everything is close by. Why go anywhere else when this place is brimming with opportunity?

I want a normal life. In Venezuela, I did painting and construction, but I've worked a little bit of everything. What I'd really like is to be able to study. Maybe some electrician and construction classes but first English. Some people here have helped me with that. Even as just a distraction.

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'It Was All a Hoax': Migrant Sent to Martha's Vineyard by DeSantis Speaks

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This 27-year-old Venezuelan man was one of 50 migrants taken to Martha's Vineyard from San Antonio, Texas, under the direction of Florida governor Ron DeSantis . The Republican is currently facing multiple lawsuits claiming he lured the migrants to Martha's Vineyard under false pretenses and violated Florida law by using state funds to transport them as a means of protesting President Biden's border policies.

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This article highlights the racism present at white private schools and discusses the impacts it has had on its students, who experienced feelings of powerlessness and trauma.

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Saama Sane said that when he was a junior at Noble and Greenough School in Dedham, Massachusetts, a white student repeatedly called him the N-word as he sat at a table in the library. Sane said he responded by yelling insults back and ended up on the floor in a headlock, all while five white students, some of them laughing, stood by watching. He reported the incident, and the school, which enrolls just over 600 and charges tuition upward of $58,000 a year for boarding students, took disciplinary action against the student, he said.

But Sane felt suffocated at the school, he told NBC News. And the wounds from that incident and many others seemed to still be fresh even after graduating.

"I stopped loving myself because I realized the community did not love who I actually was," Sane said.

Since he graduated, he feels as though he can finally be himself, said Sane, a rising sophomore at Boston College. He has reclaimed his love for making music, something he felt he had to give up at Nobles, as the school is commonly known, for fear of being made fun of by classmates.

A spokesperson said the school could not comment on the specifics of the incident but said, "Noble and Greenough School takes expressions of racism - spoken or physical - with great seriousness and responds accordingly."

In recent weeks, Black students and alumni of elite private high schools, including Nobles, the Brearley School in New York, Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts, and Trinity School in New York, have created Instagram accounts where their peers can anonymously share experiences with racism.

The accounts, with usernames that begin with the words "BlackAt," are part of a broader trend of students' exposing racism through social media, Taylor Lorenz and Katherine Rosman reported in The New York Times.

While many schools have released statements vowing to change, in some cases, the damage has been done, students and graduates say. In their posts on Instagram, Black students have described racist incidents, an inability to ask faculty for help and support, a lack of confidence and trust in authority figures and general feelings of being outsiders.

Catherine Hall, head of school at Nobles, said the school is listening to the stories shared by graduates and striving to be more equitable and inclusive.

"We are working with a group of current student leaders and have also established a Graduates of Color Task Force - a group of graduates spanning six decades - to help plan our work ahead," Hall said in a statement provided to NBC News.

The experiences detailed in social media accounts can affect Black students' mental health and how they approach education, experts said.

Black students are prepared for the academic stress of top private schools, said Howard Stevenson, a clinical psychologist and professor of urban education who researches racial trauma at the University of Pennsylvania. "But what really bothers them is the social status, having to navigate who they are as people of color," he said.

Stevenson studies racial stress and how educators, community leaders and parents can address it. He said Black students often lack a sense of belonging within their private school environments, which - in combination with the racism they experience - affects their long-term mental health.

JahAsia Jacobs, 22, is a graduate of Blair Academy, a private school of about 460 in Blairstown, New Jersey. "I don't feel like I ever belonged to a 'Blair community,'" she said. "I don't think of myself as being a part of the people who the Blair administration protects."

Jacobs said that while she was at the school, she internalized the hurt and lost a part of herself because of the constant microaggressions she battled. As a result, she said, "I really wasn't involved in much outside of classes at Blair and beyond what they required me to do."

"There were so many opportunities, and I found myself not really taking those up, because I just didn't want to endure anything that was more racist or more alienating than I already had," she said.

Jacobs said she got involved in extracurricular activities again only once she got to college, where she has worked as an activist and co-hosted a race and resistance symposium.

"I am just very deeply involved in all the things that I wanted to be doing at Blair but didn't feel comfortable doing," she said.

in a recent statement to the Blair community, Chris Fortunato, Blair's head of school, revealed a plan to further diversity, equity and inclusion.

"We are all committed to more fully ensure that we are an inclusive, safe and welcoming community for every student and every adult," he said. The plan includes increased faculty training, a curriculum audit, efforts to hire a more diverse faculty and a commitment to engage with issues of bias with transparency.

The sense of belonging that Jacobs said she lacked at Blair is essential for the development of young people, said Beverly Daniel Tatum, a psychologist and author of "Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria: And Other Conversations About Race."

"When you are an adolescent in particular, trying to define your sense of identity, who you are, what you hope to be in the future - if you don't feel understood, you're likely to experience a sense of alienation and discomfort," Tatum said.

The consequences of working to fit in

Kynnedi Hines, 17, said she has hidden a part of herself to fit in at Woodward Academy, a private school near Atlanta. She self-censors her speech and tries not to bring any unwanted attention to herself.

The anxiety is the residual effect of a racist encounter with her middle school principal four years ago, Kynnedi said. In her post on the @ blackatwoodward page, she describes the time she and a classmate tried to plan a prom for their entire class. When they met with the principal to get approval, they were told they could not have an "African American-only dance" and that they would need to get signatures from their white peers supporting the event.

When reached by NBC News, the principal had no comment.

Stuart Gulley, president of Woodward Academy, said the former middle school principal retired in May. He said the school will encourage teachers and faculty to participate in "intensive diversity training," which has been offered for at least 11 years. The school will also host discussions with faculty and trained facilitators to digest their mandatory summer reading of "So You Want to Talk About Race."

"Over time, our hope is that we're going to create systemic change and that that change will be long term and regularly evaluated and reflect our commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion," Gulley said.

Kynnedi, a rising senior, is captain of the basketball cheerleading team and a tour guide for prospective students, but the encounter, which happened her first year at Woodward, has stuck with her, making her feel intimidated and wary of standing out.

When Black students experience racism, they are often just as hurt by the teachers who stand by and say nothing as they are by the perpetrator, Stevenson said. Black students need to know that their teachers will stand up for them and that acts of racism are not their burden to carry alone, he added.

What has stuck with Kennedy Austin, 22, is the feeling of powerlessness in the face of authority figures.

"I don't know what it's like to be a white student, and if you feel that, but especially as a Black student, you know that [teachers] have a lot more power than you do. And a lot of times they can say or do whatever they want," she said.

Austin started in kindergarten at the Berkeley Carroll School, a private pre-K-12 school in Brooklyn, New York, and graduated in 2015. The stories she shares in the @blackatbc group span elementary through high school. Her accounts include having been hypersexualized by teachers during health class, a white classmate's insistence that she would have helped her escape slavery, having been forced to translate the word "negrita" in class and a general sense of doubt about her ability to get into the colleges of her choice from peers and teachers.

She said that by the time she was given the chance to be herself and to feel empowered, the belief that she was powerless had already been ingrained.

"I've never felt comfortable going to office hours or having those 'I need help' conversations with my teachers, because historically they had never been the ones to help me," Austin said.

The exception came in ninth grade, when Black teachers allowed Austin to feel comfortable asking for support. Even then, she said, it took until her junior year of college to really build the skill.

A representative of the school wrote in a statement to NBC News: "We have been reading and carefully processing the stories from our Black alums and students on the 'Black at BC' Instagram and share their goal of ensuring that Berkeley Carroll is a supportive and welcoming environment for the Black community."

Austin said that although her main interest is in sociology, she is more comfortable in the Africana studies department at her college because of the support she feels she will get.

Despite their traumas, students have found ways to heal. Since graduating, many have found happiness at their colleges and in new communities.

"The only reason I'm thankful for Nobles is because I had to become a way stronger kid because of that school," Sane said.

But, according to Tatum, surviving the schools is not what is in question. These students have the ability to make it through, she said.

"The question is, should it have to be that hard? It should not."

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Black students experience trauma from racist incidents at school, experts say

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Social media accounts, with usernames beginning with the words "BlackAt," have revealed Black students' accounts of racist incidents at elite private schools.

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this article shows that the same racism seen in America is everywhere. This racism is shared by people who are even racist to each other which is a wild concept.

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Yaqiu Wang Senior China Researcher Yaqiu @Yaqiu

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From Covid to Blackface on TV, China’s Racism Problem Runs Deep

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China’s anti-Black racism shows in its media and its treatment of Africans during the pandemic.

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Racist comments about Lizzo's recent performance in DC

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Racist comments about Lizzo's recent performance in DC

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Earlier this week, Lizzo played James Madison's crystal flute at her show in DC. She was invited to try it out by the Library of Congress, who is in possession of the flute. After the show though, many people had much to say about why it was so wrong of her to play. It's funny how many of the people who have a problem with a black woman playing the flute of a former president, did not even know the flute existed before the other night.

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James Madison defeated DeWitt Clinton in 1812 to secure a second term in the White House. To commemorate his inauguration, a craftsman from Paris made him a crystal flute. The flute eventually made its way into the possession of the Library of Congress and sat unplayed until this week, when Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden invited Lizzo, a classically trained flautist, to blow a few notes and even take the piece of history onstage during her concert in Washington, D.C.

Conservatives are none too pleased!

"Simply desecrating American history just for the sake of it," wrote right-wing pundit Matt Walsh, adding that letting Lizzo play the flute sends a "message that our heritage and history are meaningless and that nothing we love or care about has any value."

"This Lizzo-flute controversy is a perfect example of what I have termed Face Tattoo Phenomenon™," tweeted Ben Shapiro of the Daily Wire, where Walsh hosts a podcast, "the phenomenon whereby someone does something deliberately controversial in an attempt to draw attention, and then acts offended when you notice."

The conservative Columbia Bugle called it a "humiliation ritual." Right-wing commentator Greg Price wrote that "they" want to "degrade our history and then call you a racist if you actually value it." Trump appointee Darren Beattie described Lizzo as the "perfect representative of the American Globalist Empire." Trump superfan Nick Adams tweeted that the "Biden Administration is making a mockery of the country." Former GOP congressional candidate Andrew McCarthy said everyone involved "should be deported."

Jenna Ellis, a former member of Trump's crack team of election fraud lawyers, even felt compelled to address the issue on her online show. "It's hideous," she said. "Lizzo is famous for being one of the most morbidly obese people in the world who claims that she's oppressed."

"This is desecration, purposefully, of America's history," Ellis added before bringing on right-wing commentator Ryan Fournier to talk about how "disgusting" Lizzo looked.

It shouldn't come as a shock that the MAGA crowd is upset that a Black, body-positive pop star was given exclusive access to a piece of American history, and though the cruelty of their comments is yet another distressing sign of a right-wing that is increasingly animated by hatred, it's also pretty damn hilarious that they're writing about a novelty wind instrument like it's the Declaration of Independence.

The tweets from triggered conservatives about Lizzo playing a 200-year-old flute they almost certainly weren't even aware of before this week have indeed been entertaining, but the best comment about the incident came from Lizzo herself. "I just twerked and played James Madison's crystal flute from the 1800s," she proclaimed on Tuesday. "We just made history tonight."

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Conservatives Are Melting Down Because Lizzo Played James Madison's Crystal Flute

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James Madison defeated DeWitt Clinton in 1812 to secure a second term in the White House. To commemorate his inauguration, a craftsman from Paris made him a crystal flute.

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Although the point of this video is satire, this man is able to interview and even record a meeting with one of the most racist, disgusting people in America through a brilliant plan. Again, although satire based, Niko Omilana does ask some very interesting questions and plays on all of the ignorance this man has.

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forehead thermometers less accurate against black people

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forehead thermometers less accurate against black people

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researchers from emory university in atlanta and the university of hawai'i school of med conducted a study that showed forehead thermometers to read lower on black patients than white.

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Forehead thermometers may be less accurate at detecting fevers in Black people, study finds | CNN

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A new study finds that temporal thermometers -- used to measure body temperature on the forehead -- may be less accurate than oral thermometers at detecting fevers among hospitalized Black patients.

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Former UNC student forced out of PHD program

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Former UNC student forced out of PHD program

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This article talks about a former UNC student who was kicked out of her PHD program in 2020. Now she filing a discrimination lawsuit.

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When Angelica Rose Brown was accepted into the University of North Carolina's Kenan Flagler Business School PhD. Program in 2020, she said it brought her one step closer to her career aspirations.

Brown entered the program that year with high hopes: she wanted to do extensive research on code switching and diversity and inclusion issues, earn her PhD, and become a college professor teaching organizational behavior.

But one year into the five-year program, Brown said her plans were derailed when professors forced her out ofthe PhD program, saying she was no longer a good fit.

"Initially I experienced disbelief and then from there it was just immense psychological and emotional distress," Brown told CNN. "It was heartbreaking."

Brown is now suing the university, three of her former professors and the UNC Board of Governors in federal court under claims that some faculty and school officials discriminated against her because she is Black and a woman.

In the lawsuit, filed August 30, Brown also accuses three professors of retaliating against her after she reported the discrimination to the business school's Diversity and Inclusion Program and Equal Opportunity Compliance Office.

UNC officials declined to comment on Brown's lawsuit.

"We are aware of these allegations but unable to comment on the pending litigation at this time," UNC spokesperson Pace Sagester said in an email. "UNC-Chapel Hill strives to provide a positive educational experience for all our students."

Brown said her forced removal reflects a pattern of systemic racism at the school. She wants the professors named in the lawsuit to be held accountable for their actions and receive more training in diversity and inclusion.

'This is very egregious,' Brown says

Brown's lawsuit outlines a chain of events that led to her reporting the alleged discrimination to university officials and being forced out of the PhD program.

According to the complaint, Brown asked her professors for "periodic scheduling accommodations including potential extensions on research projects" after she says she was raped and sexually assaulted twice by a male acquaintance in 2020. Brown claims she also shared with professors that she suffered a preexisting condition of post-traumatic stress disorder and that she documented it in her enrollment file. The PTSD was exacerbated by the alleged sexual violence, the lawsuit says. Brown said she was granted the extensions, but professors named in the suit admonished her for missing what Brown characterizes as a non-mandatory program seminar because she had a court hearing to get a protective order against the man who she says raped her.

Brown attempted to file criminal charges against her rapist but Durham officials declined because it was a "non-stranger" case, according to her lawyer. CNN has reached out to Durham police for comment.

The lawsuit also claims Brown had several disagreements with professors, including onher approach to research topics such as code switching with African- Americans; the person they would recruit to their research team; and funding sources for research projects. The complaint also says that at the end of Brown's first semester at UNC, she received a "Pass" grade in an introductory course while her classmates received a "High Pass." Brown says she was the only Black woman in the class.

In June 2021, Brown reported "what she believed to be a pattern of discriminatory behavior within her program" to the business school's Diversity and Inclusion program, the lawsuit says. That same month, she also filed a discrimination complaint with the university's Equal Opportunity Compliance Office.

During an academic review held on Zoom in July 2021, Brown said her professors indicated that multiple professors had complained about her frequent requests for deadline extensions, that she was not making progress academically and that she burned bridges with faculty, according to the lawsuit. Brown's professors said she did not have a path forward in the PhD program and could exit in May 2022 with a master's degree, the lawsuit says, which Brown ultimately did.

The lawsuit alleges that Brown's unfavorable review was "retaliation" for the discrimination reports she filed the month prior.

Brown's attorney Artur Davis told CNN that his client had good grades, stellar research and was "succeeding by every measure" but the university still forced her out of the PhD program.

Davis said the lawsuit is necessary so there can be more accountability for institutions that treat Black people unfairly.

"Discrimination goes on in this world because people think they can get away with it," Davis said. "It says to this institution which thinks it's untouchable that the world is watching, people are watching and there is scrutiny to your behavior."

"UNC needs some self-examination," he added.

Brown said in addition to accountability for the professors named in the lawsuit, she is seeking monetary damages for emotional distress, mental anguish and lost earning potential.

"This is bigger than gross negligence, this is very egregious," Brown said. "Being complicit in these behaviors by these facultysends a message that any and all faculty can treat students this way and it still be OK."

Brown, 28, said her removal from UNC has been a setback for her career. "I've lost two years on the job market," she said.

She was able to enroll in another PhD program at Cornell University this year and says she is set to graduate in 2027.

The university has faced criticism in recent years for its record on diversity and inclusion

Brown's lawsuit came weeks after UNC reached a settlement with award-winning journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones, whose tenure as the Knight Chair in Race and Investigative Journalism was initially denied by the board of trustees despite a recommendation by the tenure committee. The board later granted Hannah-Jones tenure after facing backlash from faculty and staff. But Hannah-Jones declined the tenure offer and instead joined Howard University's faculty.

The settlement requires the university to train 20 UNC faculty and staff as search and selection advisers through the Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion; increase the number of trauma-informed therapists on staff; and allocate $5,000 each fiscal year to the Carolina Black Caucus, a group that advocates for Black UNC faculty and staff. The settlement does not include an admission of liability for the parties involved.

Earlier this year, the American Association of University Professors released a report outlining longstanding patterns of institutional racism in the UNC system. The report accused Republican lawmakers of interfering within the university system by influencing chancellor appointments and shuttering academic centers focused on fighting poverty, social injustice and pollution.

In response, Kimberly van Noort, Sr. Vice President for Academic Affairs for the UNC system, called the report "disheartening." "During the last six years, we have lowered tuition for nearly all of our students; improved graduation rates among low-income and minority students; and made historic investments in growing and supporting our system's six historically minority-serving institutions," she said in a letter. "We continue to recruit and support world-class faculty, and we secured substantial raises for faculty and staff in the most recent (bipartisan) state budget, as well as more than $2 billion in capital funding for our campuses."

Julia Clark, president of the Black Student Movement at UNC, said some Black students don't feel supported when it comes to support services and tools needed to succeed in class. She wants to see more Black people appointed to work in the university's Women's Center and the Equal Opportunity Compliance Office to help address situations involving racial discrimination. CNN reached out to UNC regarding Clark's concerns about diversity in university offices and has not heard back.

Clark called Brown "brave" for filing the lawsuit and advocating for herself.

"We are constantly faced with having to be the voice for equity on campus and we don't necessarily see that reflected within our administration or within our campus systems," Clark said. "I hope (Brown's lawsuit) forces both the administration and specifically the business school and other schools at this university to not only reflect how they are treating their Black students but what they can do better."

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A former UNC graduate student says her professors forced her out of her PhD program. Now she is filing a discrimination lawsuit | CNN

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When Angelica Rose Brown was accepted into the University of North Carolina's Kenan Flagler Business School PhD. Program in 2020, she said it brought her one step closer to her career aspirations. Brown entered the program that year with high hopes: she wanted to do extensive research on code switching and diversity and inclusion issues, earn her PhD, and become a college professor teaching organizational behavior.

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False Convictions Largely Driven By Racism, New Report Says

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False Convictions Largely Driven By Racism, New Report Says

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This article is about the likelihood of convicting innocent African-Americans over Caucasians. A joint project of the University of California, Irvine, the University of Michigan Law School and Michigan State University College of Law called "Race and Wrongful Convictions in the United States 2022" tracks all known wrongful convictions in the United States since 1989 and looks into the race of the innocently convicted people. It also talks about how much more common police misconducts occur with African-Americans. It also mentions exoneration of innocent people that served about 12 years in prison.

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Innocent Black Americans are seven times more likely than White Americans to be falsely convicted of serious crimes, according to a new study published Tuesday (Sept. 27) by the National Registry of Exonerations, shining a spotlight on a pattern of pervasive racism in the criminal justice system.

"Race is central to every aspect of criminal justice in the United States," the researchers wrote. "The conviction of innocent defendants is no exception. Thousands of exonerations across dozens of years demonstrate that Black people are far more likely than white people to be convicted of crimes they did not commit."

" Race and Wrongful Convictions in the United States 2022 " is a joint project of the University of California, Irvine, the University of Michigan Law School and Michigan State University College of Law. It tracks all known wrongful convictions in the United States since 1989 and analyzes the role of race in the conviction of innocent people.

Although Blacks comprise roughly 13 percent of the U.S. population, they represent 53 percent of the more than 3,200 exonerations since 1989.

"We see this racial disparity, in varying degrees, for all major crime categories except white collar crime," the researchers said.

They examined racial disparities in the three categories of crime that produce the highest number of exonerations: murder, sexual assault, and drug crimes.

According to the report, innocent Black people are 7.5 times more likely to be convicted of murder than innocent white people. That's partly blamed on the high homicide rate in Black communities. At the same time, police misconduct is 50 percent more likely involved in the conviction of innocent Black people compared to innocent white people.

Innocent Black people are almost eight times more likely than White people to be falsely convicted of rape. Misidentification of Black men by White victims is the primary cause of the racial disparity. DNA testing has reduced the misidentification problem over the past decade.

Still, Black men sexually assaulting White women comprise a "a small minority" of cases but nearly half of the misidentifications that led to exonerations.

"A substantial number of the convictions that led to rape exonerations of Black defendants were marred by implicit biases, racially tainted official misconduct and, in some cases, explicit racism," according to the report.

Even though Black and White Americans use illegal drugs at similar rates, innocent Black people are 19 times more likely than whites to be convicted of drug crimes, the researchers found. Racial profiling by the police is a significant factor in that disparity.

"We also know of dozens of groups of innocent defendants who were deliberately framed by police officers who planted drugs on them," the report stated. "Almost all are Black people or other racial or ethnic minorities."

From 1989 to October 2016, there were 1,900 known exonerations when the Registry released its first report in 2017. The number of exonerated innocent people skyrocketed to 3,200 by Aug. 8, 2022 who served an average of 12 years in prison. A running list of cases is available online.

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False Convictions Largely Driven By Racism, New Report Says

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Innocent Black Americans are seven times more likely than White Americans to be falsely convicted of serious crimes, according to a new study published Tuesday (Sept. 27) by the National Registry of Exonerations, shining a spotlight on a pattern of pervasive racism in the criminal justice system.

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This article discusses how college admissions staff prioritize enlisting applicants from affluent, largely white high schools. And how white, wealthy students are favored by legacy admissions. Connerly, an admissions officer claims that she would have to accept the idea that Black and Latino applicants cannot compete with White and Asian applicants for admittance, which she doesn't. It is not a true premise. Its very nature is racist.

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Inside Higher Ed | Higher Education News, Events and Jobs

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Will conversation turn to action when it comes to issues of racial equity in college admission?

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Is now the moment when college admission professionals will start breaking down known barriers to admission for Black students?

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Axel Cox, a 23 year old white male, burned a cross in his front yard to threaten and scare his black neighbors. This is absolutely horrific and unacceptable. My heart breaks for all of the scared families in the area and even far away that are affected by this.

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JACKSON, Miss (AP) - A Mississippi man has been charged with a federal hate crime for burning a cross in his front yard to threaten his Black neighbors, the U.S. Justice Department announced Friday.

Axel Cox, 23, has been charged with one count of criminal interference with the right to fair housing and one count of using fire to commit a federal felony.

According to court records, Cox chose to burn a cross in front of a Black family because of their race. He also allegedly addressed the family with racially derogatory language, the records show. The incident occurred on Dec. 3, 2020.

Federal prosecutors said the Gulfport man violated his neighbors' housing rights. The statute Cox is accused of violating falls under the Civil Rights Act of 1968. That law says it is illegal for an individual to interfere with any person's housing rights based on race.

Vangela M. Wade, president of the Mississippi Center for Justice, said cross burnings harken back to the overt racism of the Jim Crow South.

"This is another stark reminder of how bigotry, racism, and hate-fueled violence are alive and well in our country. Mississippi is no exception," Wade said. "The fight to dismantle Mississippi's deeply entrenched culture of injustice and a better tomorrow continues. We are thankful for the courage of the members of the federal grand jury to indict this hate crime."

A grand jury indicted Cox in September. Court records were unsealed before his first court appearance on Friday. Judge Robert Myers ordered Cox held without bond pending a jury trial, which is scheduled to start Nov. 7.

Cox could face multiple years in prison and a $250,000 fine concerning each charge if convicted.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrea Cabell Jones for the Southern District of Mississippi and Noah Coakley II of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division are prosecuting the case.

Cox's attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment by The Associated Press.

___

Michael Goldberg is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues. Follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/mikergoldberg.

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Mississippi man gets hate crime charge in cross burning

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JACKSON, Miss (AP) - A Mississippi man has been charged with a federal hate crime for burning a cross in his front yard to threaten his Black neighbors, the U.S. Justice Department announced Friday. Axel Cox, 23, has been charged with one count of criminal interference with the right to fair housing and one count of using fire to commit a federal felony.

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This article speaks about how there are racial and gender issues in restaurants, and uses charts and diagrams to demonstrate how not everyone is tipped equally or given the same gratitude as a straight white individual might receive. Even brings up women in the industry in comparison to men.

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This article talks about the often neglected issue of racism in sports. It mentions Colin Kaepernick and the protest of the national anthem as well as other racist incidents sports scubas soccer and swimming. As a sports fan I believe this is something that deserves more attention.

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In 2019, Cindy Ong approached the Malaysian government before starting to prepare for the World Masters Championships, to compete in the swimming category. She requires assistance to pay for her uniform, plane tickets and training, in order to represent Malaysia appropriately. She was rejected.

Ong is a five-time world champion Malaysian swimmer who has been competing since 1989. She, however, has never found the deserved recognition from the government as she is not considered Malay. In Malaysia, 60 to 70% of the country is Malay and receives benefits from the government, like discounts on properties and easier access to education. The remaining are Chinese and Indian, who struggle to find their place in society. Ong was born in Malaysia, and even though she has Chinese roots, she has no affiliation with China.

"My kids and I are 100 percent Malaysian, we were born and raised here," Ong said. "I'm the fourth generation Malaysian and still being discriminated against and called an immigrant."

Racism resurfaces in sports in countries that have unresolved racist roots. Athletes are victims of the attacks if they don't belong to the dominant race of the country they represent. During 2020, the Black Lives Matter movement brought to light Colin Kaepernick's actions in 2016. He was a quarterback at the San Francisco 49ers NFL team and kneeled during the national anthem before a game, in protest of the police brutality in the country. To this, former president Donald Trump demanded the NFL to not allow these behaviors and asked the audience to not watch "those people."

Professor Ted Johnson, a senior fellow at the Brennan Center for Justice, who explores the interaction between race, political behavior, and policies that result in socioeconomic disparities, considered these tensions were a result of Trump claiming that the actions represented an insult to the United States. Johnson believes that, when a person who belongs to a racial minority mixes politics with sports, and the majority disagree, they are racially targeted; instead of attacking their ideas, they attack who they are and the race they belong to.

"What Trump did was make this a question of whether or not these Black athletes are gracious for being in America and if they are representative of excellence in their pursuits, which is another quality Americans like to put up," Johnson said.

Racism in sports is a controversial topic and often ignored; games are surrounded by fans, uniforms, and the athletes receive big amounts of money and fame because of their representation to the country. Without realizing it, racist scenarios can start in high school and college athletics. Stanley Thangaraj, a socio-cultural anthropologist with interests in race, gender and class, believes that there is a tendency of believing that African-Amercian and Black athlete-students are "lucky" to be in that position; they are seen as athletes before being seen as students, as it is believed that they are not "as committed to education" and considered "outside the boundaries of belonging in the educational sphere."

"Anyone that speaks out is seen as not fit for that space and for college, especially Black student athletes," Thangaraj said. "They are not allowed to speak out about their experiences of marginalization within college settings because they are not imagined as students with the same type of rights."

The final of the Euro 2020 was not only marked by Italy's victory, but by the racist slurs the fans threw at the three English Black players, Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho and Bukayo Saka, who missed the penalties.

Thangaraj considered that this episode is different from when a person from the dominant race fails a game; his failure is a call to better represent his nation. However, the three English players are blamed to have failed mainly because of their race.

"The slurs we saw on social media after the English loss showcased that these folks have never been considered full citizens, and their failures are a sign that they are not quite seen as English enough," Thangaraj said.

The heat in the game among fans comes out when there is a loss; to remove that frustration, they take it out on the player. Johnson considered that if the player who failed belonged to the same race as the majority in the nation, they blame his failure on variables like age and health status. However, if the player belongs to a racial minority, they put race at the center of the attacks.

"That's the problem that we're seeing; for some athletes who belong to a racial minority, race is what people begin to attack," Johnson said. "That symbolizes a society's unwillingness to view a multiracial, multicultural society as one."

Even though the Black Lives Matter movement highlighted Kaepernick's actions, and the NFL has now removed the requirement of having to stand up during the national anthem, Kaepernick has still not been signed onto any new team.

After not receiving support from the Malaysian government because of her race, Ong decided to swim with the Singapore team in 2019, who sponsored her entire trip and training. She won five gold medals and two silver ones.

"I felt like I belonged to a team," Ong said. "If I would have changed the scenario and told the government that I'm Malay, I am absolutely certain that I would have gotten the sponsorship from the government."

According to Thanjarad, we must address how racism is part of sports and provoke changes to the structure of the community to erase racism. He considered that a lot of companies have "cosmetic and esthetic" sayings but don't change the actual systems of racism in which they operate.

"The change has to be something that brings in communities to speak and to lead, rather than owners and president of clubs."

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Racism in sports defies athletes to find a place in their country

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In 2019, Cindy Ong approached the Malaysian government before starting to prepare for the World Masters Championships, to compete in the swimming category. She requires assistance to pay for her uniform, plane tickets and training, in order to represent Malaysia appropriately. She was rejected.

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This article explains the results of a survey done in the UK about discrimination against people of color in the healthcare system. The results showed the majority of people who took the survey felt they weren't being treated fairly or with the right intentions due to their ethnicity. There is also a portion of the article explaining the experience of black women in maternity care and how they are being dismissed because of assumptions made about their pain tolerance which is beyond unprofessional.

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Most black people living in the UK have experienced prejudice from healthcare professionals because of their ethnicity, with younger people feeling especially discriminated against, a survey has revealed. 1

Almost two thirds (65%) of black people who responded to a survey said that they had experienced prejudice from doctors and other staff in healthcare settings. This rose to three quarters (75%) among black people aged 18 to 34.

The report was commissioned by the Black Equity Organisation, a national civil rights organisation launched earlier this year to tackle systemic racism in the UK. The survey received 2051 responses from people of black or mixed black ethnicity, including 1014 people aged 18 to 34.

Vivian Hunt, the organisation's chair of trustees, said, "The key to change is identifying and recognising the reality of black communities across the country. This research and our other report, Brick Wall after Brick Wall, provides a clear picture of what black communities experience daily and will help shape our work and campaigns moving forward.

"We will work in partnership with communities, businesses, grassroots organisations, and allies to deliver systemic change that will ensure that these experiences become a thing of the past."

The report cited particular issues around the experience of black women in maternity care and the diagnosis of certain special educational needs. Survey participants felt as though they were not seen and that their concerns were not listened to or incorporated into their treatment decisions.

"Specific to Black women, participants felt that due to the misguided stereotype of 'strong Black women,' practitioners were dismissive of their pain," the report said.

It noted that this finding had also been reported by the NHS Race Health Observatory, 2 which found evidence of negative interactions, stereotyping, disrespect, discrimination, and cultural insensitivity across maternity services. This made many women from ethnic minority groups feel "unwelcome, and poorly cared for." It also found that black patients in the UK were subject to more intrusive treatments, such as injectable antipsychotics, and were less likely to be offered talking therapy for severe mental illness.

Black African individuals were at least six percentage points more likely than those from other ethnic groups to believe that they were being discriminated against by NHS professionals because of their ethnicity.

Honest conversation

Reflecting on its findings, the organisation called for an end to prejudicial decisions being made by healthcare professionals when treating and diagnosing illness in black patients.

"In particular, in response to the findings of this report BEO [the Black Equity Organisation] will focus on improving maternity care statistics, and supporting healthcare providers to ensure that people with special educational needs and mental health issues are being catered for appropriately without suffering a detriment because of their race," it said.

Miriam Deakin, interim deputy chief executive of NHS Providers, described the findings as "deeply concerning." She said, "Racism has no place in the NHS. Time and again, we hear how patients from ethnic minority backgrounds have worse experiences of healthcare than their white counterparts.

"This must be addressed, and everyone-including the NHS and government-must work together to do more to tackle racism within health and care. It is only by recognising these facts and having an honest conversation about racism, its structural roots, and its impact, that we can achieve change."

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Most black people in UK face discrimination from healthcare staff, survey finds

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Most black people living in the UK have experienced prejudice from healthcare professionals because of their ethnicity, with younger people feeling especially discriminated against, a survey has revealed.1 Almost two thirds (65%) of black people who responded to a survey said that they had experienced prejudice from doctors and other staff in healthcare settings.

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"Black women are about 1.6 times as likely as whites to give birth more than three weeks before the due date". A group of experts in the medical field are sure that racism affects women of color's premature birth rates and that chronic stress from racism before pregnancy effect this rate as well.

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The tipping point for Dr. Paula Braveman came when a longtime patient of hers at a community clinic in San Francisco's Mission District slipped past the front desk and knocked on her office door to say goodbye. He wouldn't be coming to the clinic anymore, he told her, because he could no longer afford it.

It was a decisive moment for Braveman, who decided she wanted not only to heal ailing patients but also to advocate for policies that would help them be healthier when they arrived at her clinic. In the nearly four decades since, Braveman has dedicated herself to studying the " social determinants of health" - how the spaces where we live, work, play and learn, and the relationships we have in those places, influence how healthy we are.

As director of the Center on Social Disparities in Health at the University of California-San Francisco, Braveman has studied the link between neighborhood wealth and children's health, and how access to insurance influences prenatal care. A longtime advocate of translating research into policy, she has collaborated on major health initiatives with the health department in San Francisco, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization.

Braveman has a particular interest in maternal and infant health. Her latest research reviews what's known about the persistent gap in preterm birth rates between Black and white women in the United States. Black women are about 1.6 times as likely as whites to give birth more than three weeks before the due date. That statistic bears alarming and costly health consequences, as infants born prematurely are at higher risk for breathing, heart and brain abnormalities, among other complications.

Braveman co-authored the review with a group of experts convened by the March of Dimes that included geneticists, clinicians, epidemiologists, biomedical experts and neurologists. They examined more than two dozen suspected causes of preterm births - including quality of prenatal care, environmental toxics, chronic stress, poverty and obesity - and determined that racism, directly or indirectly, best explained the racial disparities in preterm birth rates.

(Note: In the review, the authors make extensive use of the terms "upstream" and "downstream" to describe what determines people's health. A downstream risk is the condition or factor most directly responsible for a health outcome, while an upstream factor is what causes or fuels the downstream risk - and often what needs to change to prevent someone from becoming sick. For example, a person living near drinking water polluted with toxic chemicals might get sick from drinking the water. The downstream fix would be telling individuals to use filters. The upstream solution would be to stop the dumping of toxic chemicals.)

KHN spoke with Braveman about the study and its findings. The excerpts have been edited for length and style.
Q: You have been studying the issue of preterm birth and racial disparities for so long. Were there any findings from this review that surprised you?
The process of systematically going through all of the risk factors that are written about in the literature and then seeing how the story of racism was an upstream determinant for virtually all of them. That was kind of astounding.

The other thing that was very impressive: When we looked at the idea that genetic factors could be the cause of the Black-white disparity in preterm birth. The genetics experts in the group, and there were three or four of them, concluded from the evidence that genetic factors might influence the disparity in preterm birth, but at most the effect would be very small, very small indeed. This could not account for the greater rate of preterm birth among Black women compared to white women.
Q: You were looking to identify not just what causes preterm birth, but also to explain racial differences in rates of preterm birth. Are there examples of factors that can influence preterm birth that don't explain racial disparities?
It does look like there are genetic components to preterm birth, but they don't explain the Black-white disparity in preterm birth. Another example is having an early elective C-section. That's one of the problems contributing to avoidable preterm birth, but it doesn't look like that's really contributing to the Black-white disparity in preterm birth.
Q: You and your colleagues listed exactly one upstream cause of preterm birth: racism. How would you characterize the certainty that racism is a decisive upstream cause of higher rates of preterm birth among Black women?
It makes me think of this saying: A randomized clinical trial wouldn't be necessary to give certainty about the importance of having a parachute on if you jump from a plane. To me, at this point, it is close to that.

Going through that paper - and we worked on that paper over a three- or four-year period, and so there was a lot of time to think about it - I don't see how the evidence that we have could be explained otherwise.
Q: What did you learn about how a mother's broader lifetime experience of racism might affect birth outcomes versus what she experienced within the medical establishment during pregnancy?
There were many ways that experiencing racial discrimination would affect a woman's pregnancy, but one major way would be through pathways and biological mechanisms involved in stress, and stress physiology. In neuroscience, what's been clear is that a chronic stressor seems to be more damaging to health than an acute stressor.

So it doesn't make much sense to be looking only during pregnancy. But that's where most of that research has been done: stress during pregnancy and racial discrimination, and its role in birth outcomes. Very few studies have looked at experiences of racial discrimination across the life course.

My colleagues and I have published a paper where we asked African American women about their experiences of racism and we didn't even define what we meant. Women did not talk a lot about the experiences of racism during pregnancy from their medical providers; they talked about the lifetime experience, and particularly experiences going back to childhood. And they talked about having to worry, and constant vigilance, so that even if they're not experiencing an incident, their antennae have to be out to be prepared in case an incident does occur.

Putting all of it together with what we know about stress physiology, I would put my money on the lifetime experiences being so much more important than experiences during pregnancy. There isn't enough known about preterm birth, but from what is known, inflammation is involved, immune dysfunction, and that's what stress leads to. The neuroscientists have shown us that chronic stress produces inflammation and immune system dysfunction.
Q: What policies do you think are most important at this stage for reducing preterm birth for Black women?
I wish I could just say one policy or two policies, but I think it does get back to the need to dismantle racism in our society. In all of its manifestations. That's unfortunate, not to be able to say, "Oh, here, I have this magic bullet. And if you just go with that, that will solve the problem."

If you take the conclusions of this study seriously, you say, well, policies to just go after these downstream factors are not going to work. It's up to the upstream investment in trying to achieve a more equitable and less racist society. Ultimately, I think that's the take-home, and it's a tall, tall order.

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Study: Racism a Strong Factor in Black Women's High Rate of Premature Birth

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The tipping point for Dr. Paula Braveman came when a longtime patient of hers at a community clinic in San Francisco's Mission District slipped past the front desk and knocked on her office door to say goodbye. He wouldn't be coming to the clinic anymore, he told her, because he could no longer afford it.

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During a recent "friendly" soccer game, Brazil vs. Tunisia hosted Paris, a banana and other items were thrown at the Brazil team while celebrating a goal. Brazil was using this game as a piece of their campaign against racism, and before the kickoff held a sign saying “Without our black players, we wouldn’t have stars on our shirt.” Unfortunately, some fans did not see it that way and showed their bigotry to all- and the perpetrator(s) were not found. 

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During a recent "friendly" soccer game, Brazil vs. Tunisia hosted Paris, a banana and other items were thrown at the Brazil team while celebrating a goal. Brazil was using this game as a piece of their campaign against racism, and before the kickoff held a sign saying “Without our black players, we wouldn’t have stars on our shirt.” Unfortunately, some fans did not see it that way and showed their bigotry to all- and the perpetrator(s) were not found. 

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Banana thrown at Brazilian players in friendly in Paris

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PARIS (AP) — A banana was thrown from the crowd at Brazilian players celebrating a goal in a friendly against Tunisia in Paris on Tuesday. Forward Richarlison had just scored the team’s second goal in a 5-1 win at Parc des Princes when the banana was hurdled toward him and the other Brazilians celeb…

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I am born and raised in the Bay Area and it is heartbreaking seeing the amount of hate crimes against people of a certain race. This last year in particular there have been so many assaults on the Asian community, some within a mile from my home in broad daylight. Although the police are doing what they can, members of the community are feeling helpless.

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UC Berkeley assault believed to be anti-Asian hate crime

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BERKELEY, Calif. (KRON) — A violent crime that was reported near the UC Berkeley campus on Monday morning is being investigated as an anti-Asian hate crime, according to a press release from …

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A film that has just been released this week is already being boycott. The film depicts events that took place in Africa during the slave trade and follows an African army of women to stop their fellow people from being taken away. The boycott is being followed mostly by men and not for reasons about slavery, but because the film portrays powerful black women.

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Editor's Note: Nsenga K. Burton, PhD (@Ntellectual) is a professor, film producer, journalist and cultural critic. She is co-director of the Film and Media Management Concentration at Emory University, founder of The Burton Wire (a news blog covering news of the African Diaspora) and a recipient of the Entrepreneur of the Year Award from the National Association of Black Journalists. The views expressed here are her own. Read more opinion on CNN.

Note: This op-ed contains mild spoilers for "The Woman King."

Imagine my excitement - as a Black woman named for a controversial African queen - to see a Hollywood film about a fearless unit of women warriors committed to protecting the West African kingdom of Dahomey for over 200 years.

Inspired by true events, "The Woman King" was directed by Gina Prince-Bythewood and produced by Academy award-winning actress Viola Davis (who also stars) and veteran actress/producer Maria Bello. And the highly anticipated film earned $19 million last weekend during its debut at the domestic box-office, so clearly I was not alone in my enthusiasm.

The film tells the tale of the Agojie, the most powerful all-woman army in world history, their unparalleled commitment to their country, to each other and to their King Ghezo, played exceptionally by John Boyega.

But there are calls to boycott the film because, to its critics (even those not calling for a boycott), it underplays the role played by the Dahomey Kingdom in the Atlantic slave trade. In their eyes, this fictional film, inspired by true events, doesn't tease out enough information about a horrific history - the kidnapping and sale of Africans by the Dahomey and Oyo kingdoms - that is, in the film's narrative arc, a subplot, while the main storyline centers on a group of badass African women, living, loving and laboring together to ensure their people remain free.

The period of Dahomey's most intense involvement in the slave trade included the trafficking of West Africans in the late 17th and early 18th century, primarily by taking prisoners who were then enslaved abroad by European traders. The real King Ghezo ultimately agreed to end Dahomey's participation in the slave trade in 1852, under pressure from the British government (which had abolished slavery in 1833).

The Atlantic slave trade is hardly overlooked in the movie, however. At the beginning of the film, Davis' character Nanisca admonishes the King for allowing his people - and other Africans - to be involved in the business. She spends the entire film talking about how it is wrong to sell your own people and offers alternatives to the barbaric practice. The climax of the film involves the Agojie freeing Africans who were about to be transported to the New World.

Isn't it interesting that some of those calling most loudly for the boycott are Black men? Where were similar calls about films like "12 Years a Slave," "Django Unchained" or "The Good Lord Bird" - films about the slave trade given copious creative license in their portrayal of characters, storylines and the institution of slavery itself?

There is inherent value in a film about a dynamic group of Black women warriors many had not heard of, from a West African kingdom most could not find on a map, who challenge the notion of male supremacy. The film's controversies only amplify the need for more people to see it, and to talk about it.

Meanwhile, critics calling for a more realistic representation of the slave trade might direct their energies elsewhere: They might focus on the fact, for instance that school systems across the United States are taking steps to erase its reality and legacy from curricula. Or that many Americans dismiss it as being "no big deal" when discussions about slavery turn to reparations. Or that the slave trade has historically been misrepresented in television and film for over 100 years - see film classics like "The Birth of a Nation" (1915) or " Gone With the Wind " (1939) or TV classics "Uncle Tom's Cabin" (1987) and "Roots" (1977).

I suspect that much of the criticism and most of the efforts to suppress this film are really about the portrayal of powerful Black women warriors fighting and winning battles in a Hollywood that is still overwhelmingly White and male. Not just in the movie, but in the very fact of its creation, and the audience it has already garnered, Black women are winning - and the trolls oppose the film are losing.

As much as it is about anything else, "The Woman King" is about the precarious journey Black women take - and the obstacles they face - in pursuit of freedom and self-determination in a world where misogyny and misogynoir reign supreme.

"The Woman King" is an outstanding film in the tradition of classics like "Spartacus" (1960), "Braveheart" (1995) and "The Gladiator" (2000). The difference is that Black women are at the center of the action, both on-screen and behind the camera. It's a difference that makes the film only more worthwhile to see.

Hollywood has spent much of its existence repudiating the talents of Black women. The effort by some to erase their work in "The Woman King" is lamentable. But it shouldn't work - and it won't. Anyone who finds the film's depiction of the slave trade problematic should watch it anyway - and then join a lively debate about what worked, what didn't and how it could be more accurately portrayed.

There is intellectual and cultural value, even - or perhaps especially - in the conflict and contradictions.

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international relations and national security

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Opinion: What the calls to boycott 'The Woman King' are really saying | CNN

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There is inherent value in a film about a dynamic group of Black women warriors, from a West African kingdom most could not find on a map, who challenge the notion of male supremacy, says Nsenga K. Burton. She writes that the film's controversies only amplify the need for more people to see it, and to talk about it.

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McDonalds and Their Strategically Diminishing Locations.

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McDonalds and Their Strategically Diminishing Locations.

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McDonalds has been seen to have placed their restaurants in low income areas/ areas with a high percentage of colored people. They take advantage of the fact that they can't afford other food options and make it easier for them to access horrible food. There are many negative effects from this including bad health problems like obesity.

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Corporate anti-racism is all the rage these days. We've exposed the hypocrisy of companies from Amazon to Airbnb that have taken to social media in recent weeks to speak out against systemic racism and express support for the Movement for Black Lives, but refuse to adopt corporate policies to back up their claims. McDonald's is the latest company we've called out for joining the chorus of brands releasing hollow solidarity statements and launching a full on woke-washing marketing campaigns to profit from the Movement for Black Lives, while doing nothing to change worker policies that perpetuate systemic racism.

After the killing of George Floyd, McDonald's produced a digital ad to honor Floyd and six other victims of police brutality. "We do not tolerate inequity, injustice, or racism," reads the text that flashes momentarily on the screen before it ends with "Black Lives Matter. "

The ad begs the question - do Black lives REALLY matter to McDonald's when it comes to its own workers? McDonald's actions speak louder than words. The reality is that 80 percent of McDonald's majority Black and Brown workforce don't have access to paid sick leave. That is dangerous under normal circumstances; during a global pandemic, it's deadly. By failing to ensure that workers have access to paid leave, the McDonald's solidarity statement feels more like a PR stunt than a real commitment to the cause.

In another recent attempt to "woke-wash" its brand, last month McDonald's used its live air time and social platforms during the BET awards to amplify Black voices - putting the spotlight on a number of Black artists, advocates, educators and more. While this tactic arguably did some good by elevating Black issues in the media, it was also a thinly veiled attempt to distract the public from the many ways McDonald's exploits Black workers. Many Black McDonald's workers have led protests and strikes for paid leave and basic COVID-19 protections for months. Workers have even filed lawsuits against the company, claiming the dangerous workplace conditions - including being told to use coffee filters and "puppy pads" as face masks - pose a " public nuisance" that put entire communities at risk. McDonald's has so far failed to meet these worker demands and consistently discredits their advocacy - while paying shareholders nearly $2 billion since the pandemic began.

If McDonald's wants to show it cares about Black and Brown people, it needs to begin the work to change company policies and practices that perpetuate inequality. Immediately adopting a policy that gives all workers access to paid sick days and family and medical leave is an important step in the right direction.

Failing to give its majority Black and Brown workforce paid time off to care for themselves and their families is just the tip of the iceberg. McDonald's has a long record of failing to protect workers from racial discrimination and harassment.

For years, McDonald's has ignored sexual harassment complaints from many women of color workers. Over the past 18 months, the ACLU has represented dozens of McDonald's workers around the country, filing Equal Employment Opportunity Commision complaints and lawsuits against the company for failing to protect them from sexual assault and harassment. A l awsuit filed earlier this year by two Black executives alleges a company culture rife with systemic racial discrimination. And most recently, McDonald's' inability to protect its majority Black and Brown workforce has led to COVID-19 outbreaks in a number of restaurants across the country, and without access to paid leave, has left hundreds of its workers with the impossible decision of choosing between a paycheck and risking their health and the health of others.

It's clear that McDonald's cares a LOT about attracting Black consumers and socially conscious consumers who care about the Movement for Black Lives. What's also clear is that it will gladly co-opt a global movement to end white supremacy and stop police brutality to pad its bottom line. As consumers, we must use our power to call McDonald's out and show the company that woke-washing won't work on us. Now is the time for McDonald's to reckon with its past, address systemic racism within its red and gold walls, and implement policies that support Black people.

Today, July 20, marks the nationwide Strike For Black Lives, which calls for an end to white supremacy and fundamental changes to our society, economy, and workplaces. Many McDonald's workers are planning actions to pressure the company to give all workers access to paid leave and other basic protections. Now is the time to show workers that we have their backs. McDonald's cares about consumer reviews, which is why we're flooding more than 300 McDonald's restaurant Facebook review pages with messages amplifying worker demands for paid leave. McDonald's should listen to their demands and respond with real policy changes. Anything short of that is unacceptable.

McDonald's workers don't need a marketing campaign telling them McDonald's cares about Black people. They need policies that show it.

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McDonald's is Hiding Policies That Perpetuate Systemic Racism Behind Woke-Washing | ACLU

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Corporate anti-racism is all the rage these days.

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This happened in my hometown recently and it sparked community wide outrage. It reopened the discussion on police and their mistreatment of minorities.

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Brontë Wittpenn, photographer / The Chronicle

Behind a Mexican restaurant in San Rafael's Canal neighborhood lies an industrial backstreet where people like to hang out after work. A group of men - day laborers - were there chatting over Coronas and Heinekens when a police officer arrived, questioning them about drinking in public.

What followed that day in July could have been a mundane encounter. Instead, it ended with two officers violently taking a man to the pavement as one cop bloodied his face with a punch, body-camera footage shows. The video - first obtained by ABC7 and released in early September - opened old wounds in the Canal, a dense waterfront area that is 92% Latino and the most segregated neighborhood in the Bay Area, according to a previous Chronicle analysis of data provided by the Othering and Belonging Institute at UC Berkeley.

For some Latino residents, the footage wasn't just galling because of the violence and blood - it was because it felt familiar. They say they've come to expect mistreatment, profiling and disrespect from San Rafael police.

"If we see someone with a police uniform on, we feel fear," Ana Nuñez said in Spanish at Pickleweed Park in the Canal. "Just because you have a uniform doesn't mean it gives you the power to intimidate other people."

More than five weeks after the incident, the ABC7 report - and not the use-of-force reforms that San Rafael adopted two years ago after the murder of George Floyd - prompted responses by the city and its police force.

Officers Daisy Mazariegos and Brandon Nail were placed on paid administrative leave. The city said it had launched an investigation of the violent encounter, as well as accusations that the officers falsified their reports about their takedown of "Mateo," as the man has asked to be called to protect his privacy.

Two San Rafael police officers' violent treatment of a man accused of drinking in public on July 27 has drawn outrage from the public. Video: San Rafael Police Department

Police Chief David Spiller, who made no public statement on the incident before the video emerged, put out an open letter in English and Spanish saying he was "both personally and professionally concerned about this incident and how it impacts the trust our department has worked hard to build in this community."

Amid the backlash over the video, Marin County District Attorney Lori Frugoli said on Sept. 7 that her office was investigating the officers' actions and that she wouldn't comment further on the pending investigation.

Mateo was arrested on charges including disorderly conduct involving alcohol, obstruction and battery on a police officer, but after reviewing the video footage, Marin County prosecutors dropped all charges, according to Mateo's attorney Charles Dresow.

The city also hired Paul Henry, a retired Santa Rosa police officer of 27 years who runs Independent Investigative Consultants LLC, to investigate the officers' behavior. In a news release, City Attorney Rob Epstein's office said Henry would write a report explaining whether the officers had "followed, or failed to follow, the policies of the San Rafael Police Department."

The choice of Henry to investigate prompted a rebuke by Mateo's attorney. Dresow cited Henry's previous employment with the city, during which he cleared police in a 2018 shooting of a man who was subsequently convicted of assaulting police.

"How is it possible for Mr. Henry to perform a 'neutral, fair and unbiased' investigation when he already represents the San Rafael Police Department," Dresow said in a letter sent to the City Attorney's Office.

Reached by email, Henry didn't address the notion of any alleged bias but described his company's investigators as seasoned, with decades of experience.

Outrage over the officers' treatment of Mateo spilled into the City Council chambers on Sept. 6, when residents lined up and called in to denounce the police.

"This is a time where we're going to sit here and simply listen," Mayor Kate Colin said, gesturing to her colleagues on either side of the dais. "I know I speak for the council when I say we are deeply saddened, distressed and concerned about the police incident."

Officials sat for three hours as residents aired outrage, making clear that they intended to see San Rafael use this as a catalyst to solve entrenched issues.

"You need to show us you guys are listening - not just nodding your heads," Saul Godinez, a community organizer, said to applause.

Inaction, he said, won't be tolerated.

Bloody evening in the Canal

The Canal hugs the banks of San Rafael Creek, on the other side of the water from the Marin Yacht Club. It's a neighborhood of families, where people take ceramics classes at the Albert J. Boro Community Center, watch their kids go down the slides at Pickleweed Park and run a bountiful community garden.

The neighborhood's growth, dating back to the 1950s, has been guided by immigration, according to a 2015 UC Berkeley study. The first immigrants came from Vietnam and were followed by people from El Salvador, Guatemala and Mexico.

Today the neighborhood is home to a considerable number of the city's Latino residents.

As more people have moved in during the past 25 years, new development hasn't caught up, leading to many families living in crowded homes and apartments, the UC Berkeley study said.

Residents say the overcrowding issue persists for a lot of families. It may be exacerbated by deep income inequality.

In San Rafael, Latino households earn on average half what their white and Asian American and Pacific Islander neighbors do, according to the Bay Area Equity Atlas, the collaborative data project aimed at weighing equity in the region. The most recent data, from 2019, shows Latino households on average take in $34,000 a year compared to $106,000 by white residents and $81,000 by AAPI households.

Melkyn Mazariegos, a San Rafael gardener, said people go to Windward Way, the street where police encountered Mateo, to hang out and socialize while not disturbing their families in cramped homes. "You get home and there are children, which is why a lot of workers go to drink and relax on that street," he said in Spanish.

At 6:50 p.m. on July 27, Officer Daisy Mazariegos - no relation to Melkyn Mazariegos - drove onto Windward Way and spotted Mateo with other men who had been hanging out. Mazariegos noticed beer bottles littered on the pavement, according to body-camera footage obtained by The Chronicle.

She instructed the men to sit on the curb, which they did.

The officer asked for the men's identification. Mateo appeared to have trouble retrieving his wallet from his jeans without standing up.

Officer Nail had by then arrived and loudly told Mateo: "Sit the f- down."

"Hey, you don't have to talk to me," Mateo said, sitting down.

When he stood up again evidently to explain his wallet issue, the officers descended on him and pulled him to the ground.

As Mateo fell, Nail punched him in the face, video shows. Mateo's face scraped against the pavement. Blood pooled under him as he protested that he'd done nothing wrong.

Later, when a medical worker asked officers what happened, Mazariegos said Mateo had been "uncooperative, so we took him down to the ground." In written police reports obtained by The Chronicle, Mazariegos and Nail say Mateo tripped, causing the three of them to fall.

Mazariegos and Nail also wrote that Nail punched Mateo after he'd tried to put Nail in a headlock and grabbed at the officer's vest, which carries a baton and other small weapons. Nail added that Mateo struck him in the head.

Mateo's attorney said the officers' accounts are "squarely" contradicted by the video evidence, which he said shows police bullying and attacking his now-traumatized client.

"They treated him ... like he didn't matter," Dresow said in an interview.

'For change'

At a picnic table outside the community center, a man who wished to be referred to simply as Jorge looked out on the green ballfield stretched out before him and contemplated how police handled Mateo.

"Back in the day, if you were drinking in public, the cops would come and ask you to dump out your beer and take your trash," Jorge said in Spanish. "I think the police did too much."

Complaints about police aren't new in the Canal.

In 2014, a community-led research project called Voces Del Canal found 44% of neighborhood residents surveyed were not satisfied with the police. Residents complained of police abuse and discrimination as well as poor response and long wait times for emergencies called in to 911. Some complained that a Spanish-speaking officer wasn't always available in a neighborhood where one can be needed often.

The San Rafael Police Department's own stop data shows officers have been stopping Latino and Black residents at elevated rates this year.

In a city where Latinos make up 30% of the population, officers pulled over motorists they perceived to be Latino in 38% of the more than 3,400 enforcement stops made this year through July 31. Black residents account for only 1.5% of the city, but 10% of traffic stops involved drivers thought to be Black.

Lt. Scott Eberle, San Rafael police spokesperson, said he believed the department had a good relationship with Canal residents, but that the agency intends to work to make sure residents feel safe and unafraid to contact police.

"We can always do better and we must now more than ever work to build strong relationships with the community," he said in an email.

Melkyn Mazariegos, who's lived and worked as a gardener in the city for six years, said police don't prioritize the Latino community, particularly in the Canal. He said they also don't treat Latinos well enough.

"The police look down on you because you might not be a citizen or because you are an immigrant," he said. "It feels like you don't have the same human value as white people."

Mazariegos expressed disgust at the body-camera footage.

"By watching that video," he said, "what impression do you get of the police? Imagine if you show a child that video, they won't believe that the police are there for our protection."

On Windward Way, on the south side of the Canal, Mando Calderon, who was installing a new stereo system in his car, wasn't surprised to hear of a police incident there. He said the police know about the drinking and often stop by.

Calderon said he understood that drinking in public is illegal, but the rough way police talk to people on Windward Way isn't right.

Darlin Ruiz, a longtime Canal resident, was one of the few to express a more favorable view, saying she generally was very happy with the police but wanted to see more Latino officers to meet the community's needs.

At Pickleweed Park, where children laughed going down the slide and roamed the sprawling grounds, Nuñez complained that police had profiled her sons and harassed them when they were teenagers.

She lamented Mateo's plight. She was glad that it was on video and that the footage came out.

"Unfortunately," Nuñez said, "sometimes something graphic has to be public like this for change to actually happen."
Joshua Sharpe and Joel Umanzor are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. Email: joshua.sharpe@sfchronicle.com, joel.umanzor@sfchronicle.com; Twitter: @joshuawsharpe, @jr_umanzor

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Video of police beating reignites outrage in Bay Area's most segregated neighborhood

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Behind a Mexican restaurant in San Rafael's Canal neighborhood lies an industrial backstreet where people like to hang out after work. A group of men - day laborers - were there chatting over Coronas and Heinekens when a police officer arrived, questioning them about drinking in public.

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Since the notify of race changing in some famous movies, people are showing their angry about it, in this article they say something relevant to me which is something like this, "they're fictional characters if they be describe as a purple person none could play the role". Every one need to be treated at the way that those actors just for come from other races, the talent is the important in those films.

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Two new adaptations of The Lord of the Rings and The Little Mermaid are prompting deep outrage and indignation among fans who are arguing that the projects' increased diversity has weakened their faithfulness to the original story.

Detractors of Amazon's new Lord of the Rings series, which debuted this month, claim that casting Black and Asian actors undermines the show's faithfulness to Tolkien's world. Meanwhile, some ostensible fans of Disney's animated Little Mermaid are rejecting the new live-action version for swapping out the titular mermaid's famous blue eyes and red hair for the features of Black actress Halle Bailey.

The Lord of the Rings: Rings of Powerfirst drew widespread anger from fans because it casts Black and Asian actors as characters across the spectrum of fictional Middle Earth races. Fans' chief complaint was that the decision to include nonwhite characters had ruined the authenticity of Tolkien's world, because he had never described his elves, hobbits, men, and dwarves as anything other than white. Then last week, Disney released the first trailer for The Little Mermaid, featuring Bailey singing "Part of Your World." Thousands of YouTube users brigaded, leaving more than 2 million dislikes and countless derogatory comments on the trailer, and creating memes ridiculing the film for casting Bailey and mocking all of its supporters.

To anyone who's paid any attention to geek culture over the past decade or so, these arguments probably feel endless and exhausting. After all, this is the same cycle of backlash that plays out when any beloved story gets rebooted (or, in the case of Tolkien's The Silmarillion, adapted to film for the first time) and makes any changes, big or small. The anger intensifies to a new level when they're big changes that shake the foundations of a story that was originally framed within a white, male worldview. Let's face it: Most of the stories that have been passed down to us throughout the centuries have been created for us by white men.

From a progressive standpoint, stories all could use a good shake-up by varying their points of view through casting, and pop culture is full of narratives ripe for retelling. Taking the detractors at face value, however, you have apantheon of geeks who just want to see their beloved tales left alone. These fans now face repeated battles as they watch one franchise after another fall into the clutches of progressive directors and writers who insist on - gasp - casting women in the lead roles, or - gasp - casting actors of color in roles long reserved for white people.

The negative attention on The Little Mermaid and The Lord of the Rings has fueled a groundswell of support from other fans who view such anger as founded in racism. Complicating all of these arguments are angry right-wing politicians and influencers like Daily Wire's Matt Walsh, who are using both franchises as an example of Hollywood and liberal " wokeness " run amok.

On the historical accuracy of diverse hobbits and mermaids

On their face, the arguments over Rings of Power and The Little Mermaid are superficially absurd. The "historical inaccuracy" argument falls apart any way you look at it.

For starters, as many fans have noted, hobbits and mermaids aren't real, so it shouldn't matter what race they are. For another thing, even though Tolkien's setting for Middle Earth is based on Europe, people of color lived throughout medieval Europe, so a diverse Middle Earth is historically accurate.

As for Hans Christian Andersen's short story "The Little Mermaid," it was originally a sublimated allegory for a closeted queer man, and its original setting was "far out in the ocean." Seeking historical accuracy from this type of fairy tale seems like grasping at best; but to further put to rest the argument that such characters have to be white, consider that the firstDisney version made Ariel's home a fictional amalgam of Greek and Mediterranean mythology somewhere in the middle of the North Atlantic sea. So the idea of strictly Caucasian mermaids from this vicinity is a stretch.

"Well the original little mermai-"

The original The Little Mermaid is a queer man's self-insertion character, longing to be able to be in a relationship with another man, and at the end the mermaid dies.

You don't care about the original, mate.
- Nome (@NomeDaBarbarian) September 12, 2022

Again, all of this is the stuff of fantasy, so really, who cares whether they're played by white or Black actors?

As it turns out, the answer is lots and lots of people.

A key cry among these kinds of fans is that such productions are insisting on what they've dubbed"forced diversity." Detractors claim that the goal isn't really to meaningfully inject realistic representation into the universe, but rather to advance a "woke ideological agenda." This argument has been particularly loud among right-wing politicians and conservative influencers.

The ideal for such fans would be something they tend to describe as "organic diversity" - something that would arise naturally from the canonical descriptions of characters. For instance, one Tolkien scholar complained to CNN that since Tolkien described elves as "fair-faced," anything too tawny would ruin the authenticity of the show.

"This is not something organic that's coming out of Middle Earth," Tolkien expert Louis Markos told CNN. "This is really an agenda that is being imposed upon it."

Framing the mere existence of nonwhite characters in mediaas an inherently political stance is itself an ideological agenda. Moreover, it contradicts the long legacy of fantasy adaptations deviating from canonical descriptions of characters, and fans usually not minding - as long as the casting still reinforces a white, male-centric worldview.

Tyrion Lannister was specifically described as "One green eye and one black one peered out from under a lank fall of hair so blond it seemed white". There was no outcry when he showed up in the show looking like this pic.twitter.com/6vZnKdAela
- Laura Shortridge-Scott (@DiscordianKitty) September 5, 2022

This brings us to the larger issue at play. This isn't just about hobbits and "fair-faced" elves and redheaded mermaids, but about the existence of real people in our nonfictional world.

Welcome to the culture war, for the 8 millionth time

The endless culture war over increasingly diverse media has famously targeted everything from games to Ghostbusters, and now it has arrived to a fantasy universe near you. See the latest series, or Captain Marvel, or Black Panther, or , or Star Wars again - or pretty much every familiar franchise being adapted or remade these days with women and/or Black protagonists.

Usually, the audience that resists change will decry every reason except racism and misogyny for their hatred of these changes. For example, they might argue that casting actors of color is a cheap aesthetic change that does nothing to deepen the worldview of a story. Or, if the casting does result in a shift in worldview, they might argue that said worldview isn't faithful to the original creator's vision. (This usually makes it clear they never understood the creator's original vision at all, because these narratives nearly always have deeply humanist and optimistic themes that align far more closely with a progressive worldview than with a traditionalist worldview - especially a racist one.)

Diverse casting can come with pitfalls and sometimes can be a shortcut to appearing progressive without actually being progressive. (See: Bridgerton and .) Studios such as Disney are often more invested in rebooting their existing IP rather than taking chances on new and exciting stories from minority creators. Fans argue that this emphasis on simply redoing an old story with a casting facelift has led to a repetitive, tedious emphasis on pointless reboots and tired retreads rather than something truly meaningfully different and expansive.

However, these arguments often drown out the voices of fans of color who are overjoyed when they see themselves reflected in the legacy media they love - like the parents who celebrated the new Little Mermaid trailer by sharing photos and videos of their Black daughters reacting ecstatically.

What's more, when high-powered studios like Disney do take such chances on new original work, the resulting wonderful work often also draws tremendous amounts of inflamed backlash. Pixar's sleeper hit Turning Red became a surprise culture war target because of its culturally unique place and subject, as well as its characters.

This all suggests that the arguments for less diversity are just as shallow and political, just as racist and sexist, as they sound. Journalist and period drama expert Amanda-Rae Prescott learned this lesson well when she began tracking the fandom for the cult PBS series Sanditon. The series, an adaptation of Jane Austen's unfinished novel, features one character of color - hardly the racially diverse cast of much more high-profile period dramas such as Bridgerton and The Gilded Age. As Prescott observed, despite many fans wanting more characters of color to also have more screentime, the majority of the show's white fandom was committed to "maintaining Sanditon as the anti- Bridgerton " - in other words, to preserving its mainly white cast.

Prescott next saw a similar form of racist gatekeeping around the recent Netflix adaptation of Austen's Persuasion, with white Austen fans masking racism behind other critiques of the movie as well as ostensibly lighthearted memes making fun of the film in oblique ways.

Both types of racist objections have attached to these new adaptations. The Little Mermaid trailer comments are currently wall-to-wall with haters making fun of people who like the trailer, using a variant of a copy/paste meme to mock the idea of liking the movie at all. The meme, like so many politically motivated memes, masks the real racist agenda behind it.

The repetitive nature of all these forms of discourse, Prescott points out, is part of the system.

"The same people who were angry about a Black Queen and a South Asian Viscountess on Bridgerton are the same people who are now angry about BIPOC elves, witches, and mermaids," Prescott told me in an email. "You can copy and paste racist comments about diverse period dramas onto the racist comments about these fantasy franchises. There are people in period drama fandom who watch these series because they don't want to see Black or POC characters, and it's the same trend in speculative fiction."

Prescott said she believes a driving theme of these campaigns is obfuscation - the use of some other argument to mask the real one. With historical dramas, it's the argument for "historical accuracy." With fantasy and science fiction adaptations, it's the argument for preserving whatever version of the franchise you grew up with. "Racists weaponize childhood nostalgia to oppose diverse casting in these sci-fi/fantasy series because they cannot rely on whitewashed history to oppose diverse casting," Prescott wrote.

Here, again, though, these arguments prove facile and flimsy. After all, generations of Disney fans who grew up with the beloved 1997 version of Cinderella, a.k.a. " the Brandy Cinderella," didn't subsequently have meltdowns over later adaptations that cast Cinderella as white. Instead, last year's Cinderella saw Billy Porter's genderless fairy godmother facing - sigh - transphobic backlash, because if there's one thing fairies are famous for, it's their rigid gender binary.

In other words, the backlash only ever works in one direction, and it only ever has one ultimate aim: erasing and threatening difference and deviance.

Prescott doesn't have much hope that it will stop anytime soon.

"I believe racists are going to attack ANY series that they believe should have been 100% white," Prescott wrote. "Racists are going to get mad at the next superhero or horror show that racebends a character, and they'll be outraged over whatever the next Bridgerton is. Their goal is to stop all efforts to diversify Hollywood."
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The racist backlash to The Little Mermaid and Lord of The Rings is exhausting and extremely predictable

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Two new adaptations of The Lord of the Rings and The Little Mermaid are prompting deep outrage and indignation among fans who are arguing that the projects' increased diversity has weakened their faithfulness to the original story.

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A group of students at a highschool in my hometown bought a black doll and proceeded to dress it according to negative black stereotypes. Next, the stomped on it, beat it, and ran it over while taking videos of such actions that were posted to a dedicated instagram account. This incident was really disheartening as it happened at a school only a mile away from my own high school. It made national news and remains as a stark reminder that racism is not dead and even thriving in our own communities.

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Salinas High School has been marred in controversy after multiple students participated in racists acts at the Football Jamboree at the Salinas pit on Friday, Aug. 20. Since then, the school's administration has sent out several letters to parents and students from the district flooded the Salinas Union High School District board meeting on Tuesday, Aug. 24, to speak out against the incident. What happened? The incidents happened on Friday at a jamboree event, involving a Black doll that students stomped on, drove over, brutalized and then posted it all over social media. The doll was named "Shaniqua.""They drew crosses on the eyes, they put a bandana around her neck and was spinning her around and they put an ankle monitor, and it's just really disgusting," said Julian Henderson, a Salinas High senior.The doll was brought out during Friday's Football Jamboree at the Salinas pit. Cheerleaders took pictures with the doll and by the weekend, the video of the doll had gone viral and was all the talk on social media.An Instagram account was made for the doll. Why is it getting so much attention?The incident and the social media posts quickly circulated among students in Salinas, but the racism garnered national attention after a TikTok video about the doll went viral. The video, which was posted by TikTok user Kimmberllym, received more than 31,000 views and 700 comments even after it was taken down and had to be reposted. On Instagram, a re-share of the video by Monterey County Protest got more than 18,000 likes and nearly 1,000 comments. The story has been covered by national news outlets like the Los Angeles Times and Newsweek. The Monterey County chapter of the NAACP also responded to the racist incidents stating they were "saddened and outraged by the racist actions..."The president, Yvonne Thomas, said she planned to meet with district leaders Monday afternoon. Soon after the meeting, Thomas released a statement urging the district to "send a strong message and make it crystal clear that there will be consequences to their very serious actions."A Change.org petition titled "addressing the racism at shs" had received 13,377 signatures by noon on Aug. 25. How did the school respond?The administration said they will investigate, including identifying those directly involved. The district said they will also continue to work to show that racism and social injustice have no place in their schools. The school district also announced that a third party will be brought in to investigate. The statement the school district released Sunday:"The SUHSD does not condone this type of behavior and although the District has taken steps to support our African American students and staff, this recent incident demonstrates how much more support is needed. We urge families to also take time to talk with their students about the damaging effects of racist behavior. Counseling is available at all of our school sites for any students who may need support."Racism and racial injustice are in direct opposition to the District's values. Our District will continue our efforts to show that racism and racial injustice have no place in our schools. We are committed to maintaining a safe, positive school environment where all students, staff, parents/guardians, and community members are treated with respect and dignity."On Monday, Aug. 23, the school district released a second statement. Read the full statement here. In a snippet, the school said the investigation would take time. "We understand that our community is looking for immediate answers and consequences, but in order to investigate properly and accurately we must have time. We will continue the investigation over the next few days, releasing what information we can. Once the investigation is complete we will have a formal message."How are students responding? On Tuesday, Aug. 24, the Salinas Union High School District held a board meeting focusing on the racist act. Students, parents and activists all came together at the board meeting. Enough people showed up that an overflow section was set up outside of the board meeting. Many who spoke Tuesday night said they are hoping for accountability and beyond that, real change.Salinas Union High School District Superintendent Dan Burns said action will be taken against students involved- "They will face consequences in our district that include but are not limited to suspension from school."How have other organizations responded? Across the county, Monterey Peninsula Unified School District released a statement on Aug. 23 saying they take a strong stand against racism. "While these recent racist images and words did not occur in our school district, we want to reaffirm to students, staff and our community that they do not reflect MPUSD values and reassure our community that we take speech that is motivated by hate, ignorance or causes harm to others very seriously," reads the statement. The Monterey County Office of Education declined to comment when reached for comment by KSBW 8. The Salinas League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) branch released a statement condemning the actions.

Salinas High School has been marred in controversy after multiple students participated in racists acts at the Football Jamboree at the Salinas pit on Friday, Aug. 20.

Since then, the school's administration has sent out several letters to parents and students from the district flooded the Salinas Union High School District board meeting on Tuesday, Aug. 24, to speak out against the incident.

What happened?

The incidents happened on Friday at a jamboree event, involving a Black doll that students stomped on, drove over, brutalized and then posted it all over social media. The doll was named "Shaniqua."

"They drew crosses on the eyes, they put a bandana around her neck and was spinning her around and they put an ankle monitor, and it's just really disgusting," said Julian Henderson, a Salinas High senior.

The doll was brought out during Friday's Football Jamboree at the Salinas pit. Cheerleaders took pictures with the doll and by the weekend, the video of the doll had gone viral and was all the talk on social media.

An Instagram account was made for the doll.

Why is it getting so much attention?

The incident and the social media posts quickly circulated among students in Salinas, but the racism garnered national attention after a TikTok video about the doll went viral.

The video, which was posted by TikTok user Kimmberllym, received more than 31,000 views and 700 comments even after it was taken down and had to be reposted. On Instagram, a re-share of the video by Monterey County Protest got more than 18,000 likes and nearly 1,000 comments.

The story has been covered by national news outlets like the Los Angeles Times and Newsweek.

The Monterey County chapter of the NAACP also responded to the racist incidents stating they were "saddened and outraged by the racist actions..."

The president, Yvonne Thomas, said she planned to meet with district leaders Monday afternoon. Soon after the meeting, Thomas released a statement urging the district to "send a strong message and make it crystal clear that there will be consequences to their very serious actions."

A Change.org petition titled " addressing the racism at shs" had received 13,377 signatures by noon on Aug. 25.

How did the school respond?

The administration said they will investigate, including identifying those directly involved. The district said they will also continue to work to show that racism and social injustice have no place in their schools. The school district also announced that a third party will be brought in to investigate.

The statement the school district released Sunday:

"The SUHSD does not condone this type of behavior and although the District has taken steps to support our African American students and staff, this recent incident demonstrates how much more support is needed. We urge families to also take time to talk with their students about the damaging effects of racist behavior. Counseling is available at all of our school sites for any students who may need support.

"Racism and racial injustice are in direct opposition to the District's values. Our District will continue our efforts to show that racism and racial injustice have no place in our schools. We are committed to maintaining a safe, positive school environment where all students, staff, parents/guardians, and community members are treated with respect and dignity."

On Monday, Aug. 23, the school district released a second statement. Read the full statement here. In a snippet, the school said the investigation would take time.

"We understand that our community is looking for immediate answers and consequences, but in order to investigate properly and accurately we must have time. We will continue the investigation over the next few days, releasing what information we can. Once the investigation is complete we will have a formal message."

How are students responding?

On Tuesday, Aug. 24, the Salinas Union High School District held a board meeting focusing on the racist act. Students, parents and activists all came together at the board meeting. Enough people showed up that an overflow section was set up outside of the board meeting.

Many who spoke Tuesday night said they are hoping for accountability and beyond that, real change.

Salinas Union High School District Superintendent Dan Burns said action will be taken against students involved- "They will face consequences in our district that include but are not limited to suspension from school."

How have other organizations responded?

Across the county, Monterey Peninsula Unified School District released a statement on Aug. 23 saying they take a strong stand against racism.

"While these recent racist images and words did not occur in our school district, we want to reaffirm to students, staff and our community that they do not reflect MPUSD values and reassure our community that we take speech that is motivated by hate, ignorance or causes harm to others very seriously," reads the statement.

The Monterey County Office of Education declined to comment when reached for comment by KSBW 8.

The Salinas League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) branch released a statement condemning the actions.

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Salinas High School racism: What you need to know

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Salinas High School has been marred in controversy after multiple students participated in racists acts at the Football Jamboree at the Salinas pit on Friday, Aug. 20. Since then, the school's administration has sent out several letters to parents and students from the district flooded the Salinas Union High School District board meeting on Tuesday, Aug.

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An article I found interesting since playing video games is one of my hobbies

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Protests across the U.S. over police violence and systemic racism against Black Americans have sparked gaming companies like Electronic Arts, Epic Games and Sony Interactive Entertainment/PlayStation to publish statements of their support and make donations to relevant advocacy organizations.

These are positive actions, but the most impactful thing game companies can do is take action internally. Racial bias is baked, usually unintentionally, into games by those who develop them. This creates a recurring pattern of Black and Latinx characters being stereotyped or completely absent in games, which is invalidating and demeaning.

There are 2.5 billion gamers in the world, a group that includes consumers across every ethnicity and age (especially in mobile gaming, the largest market segment). Quartz has noted that "57% of video game players in the U.S. between the ages of 6 and 29 will be people of color in less than 10 years." Black and Latinx youth in the US spend more time per day, on average, on both mobile games and console games than white youth. For hundreds of millions of gamers globally - particularly in demographics driving the industry's rapid growth - there are very few games whose stories center on characters like them. That is also a missed business opportunity.

"Telling these stories isn't as niche as people think it is. Look at [the Marvel movie] Black Panther," says Rashad Redic, co-founder and Chief Creative Officer of Brass Lion Entertainment, "The content is defined by whether it's entertaining, period."

Beyond characters' skin color, there are subtle aspects of game development that contribute to underrepresentation or misrepresentation. The consistent view among gaming executives and researchers I interviewed for this article is that the lack of diversity among employees at leading gaming companies results in leadership remaining largely oblivious to this.

Raising this simple critique isn't always welcome. Games industry journalist Gita Jackson, for example, has described the criticism she gets anytime she mentions the race of characters within a game. "I think the presence of more video game characters who are women of color is good ... These should not be controversial statements - I'm simply stating something I appreciate, something that's relevant to me," she wrote last year, "and yet some readers responded as if I'd suggested that all gamers should amputate their pinky toes."

Character representation

One of the most extensive studies of racial representation in games was a 2009 study that analyzed 150 of the most popular titles. Black characters comprised 10.7% of characters, roughly on parity with the then-most recent census data that 12.3% of Americans are Black, and only 2.7% of characters were Latinx (relative to 12.5% representation in the U.S. population). But Dmitri Williams, a professor at the University of Southern California and the lead author of that study, says that Black representation is even lower if you only look at primary characters and that in any case "athletes in sports games account for most of the Black characters in those games."

Kishonna Gray, a professor at the University of Illinois-Chicago, highlights that merely tracking the number of Black characters present in games misses the point of how they are represented. "In film, there have historically been three roles you see Black characters in: Black as violent, Black as the sidekick, Black as the help. This has also been true in video games."

Furthermore, she argues that "sports games should be removed from those analyses since they are just copying real people from the real world" and mask the statistics that would show how infrequently Black characters arise from the creative process at most game studios.

Casting specific demographics in a certain light in any form of media has an impact on consumers' perception of those demographics in the real world. At least one academic study found that white participants were more likely to associate Black faces with negative words after playing a violent video game as a Black character than after playing a violent video game as a white character.

When the only option to experience the fantasy worlds of many games is through white characters, it internalizes in many gamers that those fantasy worlds weren't designed for them. "Anything is possible in games," Gray told me in reference to her passion for the industry, "But anything is only possible for white characters. When they add Black characters to a game they root them only in their real world context ... why can't Black characters ride dragons?"

Game developer demographics

Data has shown that the representation of different races within games correlates to the racial makeup of the game development community. According to Williams. "It was pretty much a one-for-one representation."

The International Game Developers Association (IGDA) found in the 2019 edition of its annual survey that among game developers worldwide:

81% identify as "white/Caucasian/European"

7% identify as "Hispanic/Latinx"

2% identify as "Black/African-American/African/Afro-Caribbean"

"People draw their inspiration from their experience," explained Gray, "that's why we still have a problem with representation." Redic said that during his career - which includes roles at top gaming companies like Bethesda and Crytek - he has frequently been "the only - or one of very few - Black guy among hundreds of game devs at a company."

Tanya DePass, founder of the nonprofit I Need Diverse Games, makes the point that for companies wanting to improve diversity in their content, "the biggest thing is diverse staff, and diverse staff at leadership level." Moreover, her advice to game studios is to hire outside experts who can review their development plans and give feedback on where their content may stereotype or misrepresent an ethnic group: "Bring in diversity consultants in the beginning, not a month before launch, and treat it seriously."

One company that uses consultants is Niantic, the studio behind Pokémon Go and Harry Potter: Wizards Unite. It has also implemented "Diversity and Inclusion check-ins through a game's concept, preproduction and postproduction phases," according Trinidad Hermida, the company's Head of Diversity and Inclusion. "These check-ins look at everything from character design to evaluating whether the internal Niantic team working the product is diverse," she explained, "Every new game we publish must go through this process to launch."

Good intentions, slow progress

That IGDA survey last year also found that 87% of game developers said "diversity in game content" is "very important" or "somewhat important," which offers optimism that representation can improve as developers are pushed to think of diversity less in the abstract and more in the context of the specific games they work on.

The number of Black or Latinx characters across popular games is indeed growing, even if that progress is quite slow relative to the pace at which the demographic makeup of the gaming community is diversifying. Examples can be found in Moby Games' list of games with Black protagonists through 2017 and the list of Black video game characters on Wikipedia.

Giving users lots of options to customize their avatar's appearance goes a long way in helping different demographics of gamers feel welcomed and emotionally attached to a game. This is increasingly common in games, but there are often more limited options for Black avatars, like the ability to choose natural hair styles. DePass says that game developers "are often not thinking about the fact that there are other people who also want to see themselves [in creating their avatar]." And when they do, the homogeneity of their team can lead to foreseeable mistakes. For example, DePass expressed that "If Black hair is available at all, it looks bad. Sometimes there's 5 inches between braids; or Afros look like steel wool. It's like, 'Have you ever met a Black person or seen photos of black hairstyles?'"

Cyberbullying

Cyberbullying is a big issue in games, MMOs in particular, and in their efforts to combat it, gaming executives should recognize that both female gamers and Black and Latinx founders are particularly targeted with abuse, often denigrated with slurs and racist jokes.

A small but important step that developers can take, according to Gray, is giving players the option to mark racist behavior as the reason for submitting a complaint against another user. Many games have added the ability to mark a complaint as being due to gender discrimination, she notes, but the lack of a similar option for racism permits game studios to remain ignorant about how often racism occurs on their platform. Collecting data on a problem allows for more measurement of that problem and more effective action to address it.

Building for an underserved market

As DePass noted in our call, "There aren't a lot of Black creators of games, but there are a lot of Black buyers of games." There is business opportunity in creating content that better speaks to often-overlooked segments of the gamer community.

The natural question here is: If making games with narratives that center on Black or Latinx characters is a compelling business opportunity, why hasn't it already been tapped? Leadership at established gaming companies "have a sense of who is a gamer, and who isn't, that is very archaic" says Glow Up Games CEO Mitu Khandaker, whose studio is developing a mobile game leveraging IP from the HBO show "Insecure."

Likewise, she explains, entrepreneurs who found their own studios with this thesis quickly find that the major funding sources (publishers and venture capitalists) are composed of ethnically homogenous teams who are quick to judge such games as niche.

As a result, the game developers focused on building games that speak to Black and Latinx audiences remain stuck in the indie games space, lacking the resources or industry credibility to develop a AAA title.

There's a long list of societal problems that contribute to the disproportionately small number of Black software engineers entering the games industry or in leadership roles in the industry, from less access to high-quality STEM education in K-12 to employers devaluing degrees from historically Black colleges and universities to the well-researched pattern of resumes with white-sounding names receiving dramatically more job interviews.

Khandaker noted that the perceived lack of representation and role models for Black engineers looking at the gaming industry causes many to avoid the sector altogether, and many who enter the industry leave it in frustration.

Taking responsibility

On our recent call, Williams shared his memory of speaking on a panel about racial bias in games at the DICE Conference for game executives: "In the few minutes of transition between the prior session and my panel, roughly 90% of the audience left."

A repeated sentiment among several of those I interviewed for this post was that the problem is not gaming executives with harmful intent so much as gaming executives lacking the interest or empathy to treat diversity as an issue that they personally should dedicate time to address. Discussion of diversity, whether at conferences or otherwise, is still too often treated as a token matter for purposes of political correctness, not a pressing business problem to solve.

If the current news cycle is helping change that attitude and energize executives in the industry to step up, the most impactful action they can take is to approach diversity as a product development priority not as a PR issue.

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Protests across the U.S. over police violence and systemic racism against Black Americans have sparked gaming companies like Electronic Arts, Epic Games and Sony Interactive Entertainment/PlayStation to publish statements of their support and make donations to relevant advocacy organizations. These...

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Lack of diversity in the cosmetics industry

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Lack of diversity in the cosmetics industry

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This article talks about how historically, the cosmetics industry has been very white-centric, excluding other races. It also explains how consumer voice plays a vital role in demanding diversity and influencing brand decisions.

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Dr Diane Kalendra, Discipline Leader Marketing and Entrepreneurship, Australian Institute of Business

Dr Bora Qesja, Marketing Lecturer, Australian Institute of Business

Diversity is defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as 'the practice or quality of including or involving people from a range of different social and ethnic backgrounds and of different genders, sexual orientations etc'. When it comes to diversity in marketing, over the past decade, an increasing number of initiatives have been undertaken by brands in an attempt to better connect with consumers and address their needs. However, many of these initiatives have come as a result of increasing consumer activism and backlash faced on social media, indicating the growing power of consumer voice in shaping brand decisions and the overall market. This article examines the cosmetics industry where lack of diversity (especially relating to skin colour) has been of key focus in the last few years, highlighting the role consumer voice has played in shaping the direction the industry is taking when it comes to product inclusivity.

Lack of Diversity in the Cosmetics Industry

Much like the fashion industry, which has exhibited a much-discussed problematic lack of body diversity, the cosmetics industry has historically been very white-centric, focusing its attention on Caucasian females to the exclusion of other races, ethnicities, and skin colours. This lack of diversity can have a negative psychological impact on individuals of any ethnicity, causing them to feel excluded and generating feelings of anxiety, frustration and low self-esteem.

One particular and longstanding issue in the cosmetics industry is the lack of diversity in product shades of foundations to suit consumers of darker-skinned ethnicities. Many cosmetic brands have only provided a limited range of almost exclusively white (i.e., Caucasian) shades. While this lack of diversity in the cosmetic world has in many cases created an opportunity for niche brands to position themselves exclusively to fulfil this unmet need (Black Opal Beauty, US 1994; MDM Flow in the UK, 2015), consumers are no longer accepting brands that do not cater to all skin colours.

The success of these niche brands paved the way for one of the most successful diversity marketing campaigns to date, which managed to tap into this huge opportunity most makeup brands had been failing to take. In 2017, celebrity and popstar Rihanna teamed up with luxury multinational fashion group LVMH (which owns Louis Vuitton, Fendi, Christian Dior, Moet Hennessy and many others) to launch Fenty Beauty, a cosmetics line centred around ethnic diversity. Initially offering 40 foundation shades that encompass a huge number of skin tones (and, thus, ethnicities), the company created a new industry benchmark. Fenty's diversity-based brand positioning was hugely successful, generating US $100 million in its first 40 days of operation, indicating just how strongly consumers reacted to a brand finally getting it right.

Consumer Backlash: Swift and Fierce

In the wake of Fenty's success, consumer expectations have risen-consequently, other brands have been harshly criticised for missing the mark. Tarte Cosmetics was a well-loved brand that had been admired for its pledge to remain cruelty-free and vegan-friendly while delivering high-quality products. However, in 2018, it rushed its much-hyped Shape Tape foundation to market without due consideration. The company was met with an avalanche of criticism due to the lack of inclusivity in the offered range of shades-15 options in total and only three that catered to medium or deep skin tones.

In this case, consumer voices were loud and swift, using social media platforms such as Instagram, Twitter and YouTube to further amplify their criticisms. The response was vehement, with beauty influencers taking up the cause in taking a stance, and being criticized when the stance is not strong enough. In a video review alongside Alissa Ashley that garnered 5 million views, popular beauty blogger Jackie Aina said, 'I don't appreciate the blatant erasure of a whole spectrum of people. It doesn't even look like they tried.'

After a backlash from followers, NikkieTutorials, one of the most popular beauty influencers, retracted her review with the statement: 'I am putting my Tarte Shape Tape video offline. Thank you for showing me the importance of showcasing my voice... the Tarte shade range is an absolute mess and I should've spoken up about it more than I did.'

Tarte Cosmetics apologised to its customers and announced that new shades were underway:
It may be too little too late, but we can assure you this was not meant in any kind of malicious way.... We wanted to get the product out as fast as possible, & we made the decision to move forward before all the shades were ready to go. We know there is no excuse, & we take full responsibility for launching this way. We lost sight of what's really important in this industry, & for those who feel alienated in our community, we want to personally apologize. We're doing everything in our power to bring those unfinished shades to market as fast as we can, at any cost. We CAN and WILL DO BETTER.
However, the brand's response really was too little, too late. Only 10 new shades were added, with an explanation that 'additional shades are usually added seasonally, which makes sense because your complexion tends to be paler in winter and darker in summer months'. Unfortunately, this only added fuel to the fire by implying that people of colour become pale in the wintertime.

In early 2019, Tarte Cosmetics pulled Shape Tape foundation from the market and launched Face Tape, a redesigned line of foundation that included 50 shades and five undertones, with 17 shades for darker skin-a third of the whole range-in the effort to win back its customers' trust. Admitting that the brand had made a huge mistake, founder Maureen Kelly said, 'we were moving so fast and doing so much. It was like, " God, how did we miss the mark so badly." Sometimes you just have to press the reset button.'

This series of events comprised a major lesson for the cosmetics industry about the importance of listening to consumer voices, particularly in relation to diversity, indicating that what is perceived to be an excuse will no longer be accepted as reason for lack of inclusivity. However, some brands failed to pay attention.

As Tarte Cosmetics was launching its redesigned range, luxury beauty brand Givenchy also missed the mark in a significant way. It faced a similar consumer backlash when it was revealed that its new line of foundations showed a disappointing lack of shade diversity. Despite offering 20 different colours, only two were darker shades. Jeffree Star, a popular beauty influencer, called the new range a 'joke' and refused to review it:

It's 2019, stop making People Of Colour an afterthought. I won't be doing a review and promoting this foolery.

Later in 2019, Sephora, the world's largest cosmetics retailer, made a similar blunder. Despite being known in the US for its inclusive approach, Sephora carried only a limited range of shades when it opened its first store in South Korea. Shockingly, the company also did not allow customers to order darker shades from Sephora overseas. This left many customers extremely dissatisfied, boycotting the store 'until their product lines become inclusive of diverse skin colours'.

Looking Forward

Over the past four years, many major brands such as L'Oreal owned Lancôme, Rimmel, Dior and CoverGirl have expanded their foundation ranges. Further, Fenty Beauty, the superstar diversity brand, now offers 50 shades.

Consumer voice is playing an increasingly vital role in demanding diversity and influencing brand decisions to tackle these issues. However, while the outlook is optimistic, there is a long way to go-diversity should not be an afterthought or only in response to criticism. If some of the trends described in this article continue, we can look forward to a future in which brands are kept accountable by the voice of the consumer to positively contribute to creating a more inclusive world.

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The Importance of Diversity in the Cosmetic Industry - AIB Review

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Dr Diane Kalendra, Discipline Leader Marketing and Entrepreneurship, Australian Institute of Business Dr Bora Qesja, Marketing Lecturer, Australian Institute of Business Diversity is defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as 'the practice or quality of including or involving people from a range of different social and ethnic backgrounds and of different genders, sexual orientations etc'.

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This article is about the recent acknowledgement of racist and insensitive team names in sports, specifically baseball. As most of us know, in football the Washington football team were urged to, and eventually did, change their name from a racist native-american term. Now the cleveland gaurdians also did the same thing. Now it is up to atlanta's baseball team to do the same in order to keep this positive trend on the right trajectory.

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White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre encouraged the Atlanta Braves to have a "conversation" about picking a new name Monday - hours after President Biden hosted the team to celebrate their 2021 World Series championship.

Jennifer Jacobs of Bloomberg News asked Jean-Pierre at her regular briefing for Biden's position on the Braves' name as well as the controversial "tomahawk chop" cheer.

"We believe that it's important to have this conversation, you know, and Native American and indigenous voices, they should be at the center of this conversation," Jean-Pierre responded.

"That is something that the president believes, that is something this administration believes, and he has consistently emphasized that all people deserve to be treated with dignity and respect," she added.

"You hear that often from this president. The same is true here. And we should listen to Native American and indigenous people who are the most impacted by this."

Biden himself had no qualms about saying the baseball team's name during a celebration in the White House East Room - and noted that its use dates back more than a century, when the Boston Rustlers became the Boston Braves in 1912.

President Biden himself had no qualms about saying the team's name during a celebration in the White House East Room.

REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst

"My grandfather was an All-American football player at Santa Clara, and he was a newspaper guy up in Scranton, Pa. His name was Ambrose Finnegan. And when it was the Boston Braves, he didn't like it. But at any rate, that's another story," Biden joked.

The president, congratulating the team on their championship, added that "the Braves will be forever remembered for the unstoppable, joyful run that this team made last year."

Biden also paid tribute to the late Hank Aaron, who played for the franchise in Milwaukee and Atlanta for 21 seasons.

Aaron "shattered a lot of records, but he shattered them in racism as well, with dignity and with class," the president said.

"It was a rough start [last year], plagued by injuries. The All-Star break, not one day of a winning record. Given a 0.4 percent chance of winning on CNN. No, I'm only joking," Biden went on.

"At any rate - but the franchise never quit. It never gave in. You rebuilt the whole outfield practically overnight. Play by play, inning by inning, you grinded and you ground it out, and you did it together."

Biden even worked in a joke about his own narrow victory in Georgia in the 2020 election.

"People counted you out. Heck, I know something about being counted out. And I know in Georgia, you show up when it counts," he said.

President Biden paid tribute to the late Hank Aaron, who played for the franchise in Milwaukee and Atlanta for 21 seasons.

Geoff Burke-USA TODAY Sports

Sports teams across the country have faced pressure to change their names in deference to Native American activists who say it's offensive to use their culture for commercial branding.

The Washington Redskins gave into a long-running pressure campaign in July 2020 to change the football team's name, which some advocates said historically was used as a racial slur. The team is now known as the Commanders.

The Cleveland Indians baseball team dropped their name last year and became the Guardians.

There is ambiguity on whether American Indians want the Braves to rename themselves, however.

Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred said last year that American Indians support the Braves name.

President Joe Biden holds an Atlanta Braves jersey during an event celebrating the Major League Baseball 2021 World Series champion Atlanta Braves in the White House.

AP Photo/Evan Vucci

"The Braves have done a phenomenal job with the Native American community," Manfred said. "The Native American community in that region is wholly supportive of the Braves program, including the chop. And for me that's kind of the end of the story. In that market, taking into account the Native American community, it works."

Richard Sneed, principal chief of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, based in western North Carolina, defended the Braves name in 2020.

"To me, the Washington Redskins name was probably the only team name that I could look at and say that's derogatory, that's a racial slur," the chief said. "But all the rest - they're an affirmation of the honor and strength and courage and the warrior spirit of native people."

Other groups oppose the Braves name. The National Council of American Indians and the Muscogee Nation, based in Oklahoma but historically from the American Southeast, want the team to rename itself.

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White House urges conversation on Atlanta Braves name change... on same day Biden hosts team

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White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre encouraged the Atlanta Braves to have a "conversation" about picking a new name Monday - hours after President Biden hosted the team to celebrate their 2021 World Series championship. Jennifer Jacobs of Bloomberg News asked Jean-Pierre at her regular briefing for Biden's position on the Braves' name as well as the controversial "tomahawk chop" cheer.

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Article on Forehead thermometers may be less accurate at detecting fevers in Black people

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Article on Forehead thermometers may be less accurate at detecting fevers in Black people

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This article discusses how studies found the overall temperature readings tended to be lower than the oral temperature readings in Black people but not in White people.

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Forehead thermometers may be less accurate at detecting fevers in Black people, study finds

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A new study finds that temporal thermometers -- used to measure body temperature on the forehead -- may be less accurate than oral thermometers at detecting fevers among hospitalized Black patients.

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I follow this instagram page called @ardtakeaction and they focus on exposing current racial-bias problems that are currently taking place in the world. They keep you well informed with accurate information. In this post they discuss racism that is still present against the Islamic culture since 9/11. Its been over a decade since this catastrophe has taken place yet Islamophobia is still rising due to political polarization and white supremacist ideals. "The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) reported that the number of civil rights complaints it received from Muslims in the U.S. has increased by 9% since 2020." Many students from university share their experiences with racism and how it effects their education. Some women even feel the need to take off their hijabs in class to even feel safe. Every culture should be comfortable presents their own beliefs and we need to educate ourselves on how to be less biased in our society.

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View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Anti-Racism Daily (@ardtakeaction)

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This article examines the results of two Swedish Economist survey finding out which parts of the world has the most racist people. They asked 80 countries the same question, whether or not they would want someone of a different race being their neighbor. And their results are extremely interesting, pointing out different parts of the world that I would not have previously believed to be racist.

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Click to enlarge. Data source: World Values Survey

When two Swedish economists set out to examine whether economic freedom made people any more or less racist, they knew how they would gauge economic freedom, but they needed to find a way to measure a country's level of racial tolerance. So they turned to something called the World Values Survey, which has been measuring global attitudes and opinions for decades.

Among the dozens of questions that World Values asks, the Swedish economists found one that, they believe, could be a pretty good indicator of tolerance for other races. The survey asked respondents in more than 80 different countries to identify kinds of people they would not want as neighbors. Some respondents, picking from a list, chose "people of a different race." The more frequently that people in a given country say they don't want neighbors from other races, the economists reasoned, the less racially tolerant you could call that society. (The study concluded that economic freedom had no correlation with racial tolerance, but it does appear to correlate with tolerance toward homosexuals.)

Unfortunately, the Swedish economists did not include all of the World Values Survey data in their final research paper. So I went back to the source, compiled the original data and mapped it out on the infographic above. In the bluer countries, fewer people said they would not want neighbors of a different race; in red countries, more people did.
If we treat this data as indicative of racial tolerance, then we might conclude that people in the bluer countries are the least likely to express racist attitudes, while the people in red countries are the most likely.
Compare the results to this map of the world's most and least diverse countries.

Before we dive into the data, a couple of caveats. First, it's entirely likely that some people lied when answering this question; it would be surprising if they hadn't. But the operative question, unanswerable, is whether people in certain countries were more or less likely to answer the question honestly. For example, while the data suggest that Swedes are more racially tolerant than Finns, it's possible that the two groups are equally tolerant but that Finns are just more honest. The willingness to state such a preference out loud, though, might be an indicator of racial attitudes in itself. Second, the survey is not conducted every year; some of the results are very recent and some are several years old, so we're assuming the results are static, which might not be the case.

Here's what the data show:

* Anglo and Latin countries most tolerant. People in the survey were most likely to embrace a racially diverse neighbor in the United Kingdom and its Anglo former colonies (the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand) and in Latin America. The only real exceptions were oil-rich Venezuela, where income inequality sometimes breaks along racial lines, and the Dominican Republic, perhaps because of its adjacency to troubled Haiti. Scandinavian countries also scored high.

* India and Jordan by far the least tolerant. In only two of 81 surveyed countries, more than 40 percent of respondents said they would not want a neighbor of a different race. This included 43.5 percent of Indians and 51.4 percent of Jordanian. (Note: World Values' data for Bangladesh and Hong Kong appear to have been inverted, with in fact only 28.3 and 26.8 percent, respectively, having indicated they would not want a neighbor of a different race. Please see correction at the bottom of this post.)

* Wide, interesting variation across Europe. Immigration and national identity are big, touchy issues in much of Europe, where racial make-ups are changing. Though you might expect the richer, better-educated Western European nations to be more tolerant than those in Eastern Europe, that's not exactly the case. France appeared to be one of the least racially tolerant countries on the continent, with 22.7 percent saying they didn't want a neighbor of another race. Former Soviet states such as Belarus and Latvia scored as more tolerant than much of Europe. Many in the Balkans, perhaps after years of ethnicity-tinged wars, expressed lower racial tolerance.

* The Middle East not so tolerant. Immigration is also a big issue in this region, particularly in Egypt and Saudi Arabia, which often absorb economic migrants from poorer neighbors.

* Racial tolerance low in diverse Asian countries. Nations such as Indonesia and the Philippines, where many racial groups often jockey for influence and have complicated histories with one another, showed more skepticism of diversity. This was also true, to a lesser extent, in China and Kyrgyzstan. There were similar trends in parts of sub-Saharan Africa.

* South Korea, not very tolerant, is an outlier. Although the country is rich, well-educated, peaceful and ethnically homogenous - all trends that appear to coincide with racial tolerance - more than one in three South Koreans said they do not want a neighbor of a different race. This may have to do with Korea's particular view of its own racial-national identity as unique - studied by scholars such as B.R. Myers - and with the influx of Southeast Asian neighbors and the nation's long-held tensions with Japan.

* Pakistan, remarkably tolerant, also an outlier. Although the country has a number of factors that coincide with racial intolerance - sectarian violence, its location in the least-tolerant region of the world, low economic and human development indices - only 6.5 percent of Pakistanis objected to a neighbor of a different race. This would appear to suggest Pakistanis are more racially tolerant than even the Germans or the Dutch.

Update: I've heard some version of one question from an overwhelming number of readers: "I've met lots of Indians and Americans and found the former more racially tolerant than the latter. How can these results possibly be correct?" I'd suggest three possible explanations for this, some combination of which may or may not be true. First, both India and the U.S. are enormous countries; anecdotal interactions are not representative of the whole, particularly given that people who are wealthy enough to travel internationally may be likely to encounter some subsets of these respective populations more than others.

Second, the survey question gets to internal, personal preferences; what the respondents want. One person's experiences hanging out with Americans or Indians, in addition to being anecdotal, only tell you about their outward behavior. Both of those ways of observing racial attitudes might suggest something about racial tolerance, but they're different indicators that measure different things, which could help explain how one might contradict the other.

Third, the survey question is a way of judging racial tolerance but, like many social science metrics, is indirect and imperfect. I cited the hypothetical about Swedes and Finns at the top of this post, noting that perhaps some people are just more honest about their racial tolerance than others. It's entirely possible that we're seeing some version of this effect in the U.S.-India comparison; maybe, for example, Americans are conditioned by their education and media to keep these sorts of racial preferences private, i.e. to lie about them on surveys, in a way that Indians might not be. That difference would be interesting in itself, but alas there is no survey question for honesty.

Correction: This post originally indicated that, according to the World Values Survey, 71.7 percent of Bangladeshis and 71.8 percent of Hong Kongers had said that they would not want a neighbor of a different race. In fact, those numbers appear to be substantially lower, 28.3 percent and 26.8 percent, respectively. In both cases, World Values appears to have erroneously posted the incorrect data on its Web site. Ashirul Amin, posting at the Tufts University Fletcher School's emerging markets blog, looked into the data for Bangladesh and discovered the mistake. My thanks to Amin, who is Bangladeshi and was able to read the original questionnaire, for pointing this out. His analysis is worth reading in full, but here's his conclusion:

The short answer is, yes, someone did fat finger this big time. "Yes" and "No" got swapped in the second round of the survey, which means that 28.3% of Bangladeshis said they wouldn't want neighbors of a different race - not 71.7%.

26K Facebook likers and 2.5K Tweeters, take note.

Amin adds, "Bangladeshis are a tolerant bunch - it's ok to come visit." The error in the Hong Kong data, first discovered by Chinese-speaking users on Reddit, was flagged by Engadget Chinese editor Richard Lai. Ng Chun Hung, a University of Hong Kong professor who was the principal investigator on World Values' survey there, confirmed via e-mail that the data had been transposed on the survey company's Web site. He added that he has written the World Values Survey team to alert it to this and ask it to remove the faulty data. My thanks to him, as well as to Lai and the Reddit users who dug through original Chinese-language survey forms to demonstrate the error.

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A fascinating map of the world's most and least racially tolerant countries

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Placeholder while article actions load When two Swedish economists set out to examine whether economic freedom made people any more or less racist, they knew how they would gauge economic freedom, but they needed to find a way to measure a country's level of racial tolerance.

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In this article, readers see that while everyone was trying to escape the war many colored people faced some kind of racism. The article gets information from a Nigerian student who reported to Axios (news website) that he witnessed three forms of racism against colored people while trying to flee the war. They were divided into different groups in Poland between whites and people of color.

It's crazy to think that racism is everywhere. What can be done about it? This question has stumbled me for years after facing it myself. Racism is unacceptable in any situation but it was wild for me to read that people were facing it even in the midst of a war.

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A number of Black people living in Ukraine, many of them exchange students, report being blocked as they tried to board trains to escape the war.

Why it matters: The racist incidents - some documented on video, as the hashtag #AfricansInUkraine flooded Twitter - added individual agony to the desperate nationwide exodus.

Zoom in: Among the more than 1.5 million people who have fled Ukraine since Russia's invasion is Alexander Somto Orah, a 25-year-old Nigerian student who told Axios he witnessed three separate incidents of racial discrimination against evacuees by Ukrainian authorities during the long journey from Kyiv to Warsaw.

1. At a Kyiv train station, police officers said they'd prioritize entry to women and children, Orah said. But they denied access to a group of African women - some of whom were pregnant - even as African men pleaded with authorities to let them pass.

2. At a station in Lviv, officers said only Ukrainian nationals could pass, "but I saw them take only white people," Orah said. The authorities didn't respond when he and others confronted them to ask how they knew who was Ukrainian without checking passports, he recalled.

3. At the Ukraine-Poland border, white and nonwhite people were separated by a barricade, Orah said. Authorities allowed the white group to move quickly and in large numbers, while mostly ignoring people of color.

Orah said white Ukrainians and Poles have been kind and helpful to their fellow refugees who are nonwhite: "The problems were only with the authorities."

Officials in Ukraine and Poland have vehemently denied there has been racism, and suggested the reports were part of Russian disinformation campaigns.

But Ukraine, in what appeared to be an acknowledgement of the reports, said Wednesday it has set up hotlines to help "African, Asian and other students wishing to leave Ukraine."

Zoom out: Accounts like Orah's have sparked fears that Eastern Europe's often-forgotten minority groups could be treated as second-class refugees.

Europe is reeling from the continent's fastest mass migration since World War II.

The governments of Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, Gabon and leaders in Africa have denounced the incidents, with the African Union calling it "shockingly racist and in breach of international law."

An attack on refugees of color who came from Ukraine by Polish white supremacists last week, first reported by the newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza ( could heighten fears about how refugees of color will be treated.

Local police in Poland acknowledged the attack, but warned of fake reports of violence toward refugees aimed at deterring them from coming.

The context: Kimberly St. Julian-Varnon, a historian and University of Pennsylvania doctoral candidate who studies Ukraine's Black population, told Axios: "Unfortunately, as a person who's worked on the region for over 10 years, this is not surprising."

"What we're seeing is a culmination of racism that has always existed in this region, and it's being exacerbated by the chaos of war," St. Julian-Varnon said about the accounts of discrimination as people fled Ukraine.

Racist groups are likely to feel emboldened to commit acts of hate amid the chaos of war, St. Julian-Varnon said. While they are representative of their countries' populations, they get an outsized amount of media attention.

St. Julian-Varnon, who's been communicating with Black students fleeing Ukraine since the war began, said they've seen less discrimination since condemnation started pouring in from around the world.

What we're watching: Marta Udoh is a Polish-Nigerian lawyer based in London who is co-author of the Instagram page @blackispolish, which has sought to build visibility and community among Poland's relatively small Black population.

She and the three other Black-Polish women who run the page have provided resources to Black Ukrainians looking to evacuate, and found housing once they've arrived.

Udoh told Axios more than a hundred people in Poland have told the group they'd be willing to house a refugee - a sign that Polish people will be empathetic toward all refugees, she said. The country has accepted nearly a million refugees since the invasion.

Go deeper:

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#AfricansInUkraine: Escaping students describe rejection at the border

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A number of Black people living in Ukraine, many of them exchange students, report being blocked as they tried to board trains to escape the war. Why it matters: The racist incidents - some documented on video, as the hashtag #AfricansInUkraine flooded Twitter - added individual agony to the desperate nationwide exodus.

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This article is about a man who was just being a nice neighbor, watering his neighbor's plants while they are out of town and a neighbor across the street didn't recognize him at first. The police racially discriminated him after he said he lives next door and didn't believe him until the neighbor who had called the cops came and told them he does actually live next door.

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A Black pastor who was arrested in May after a neighbor reported a "suspicious person" in a yard watering flowers, said he is considering filing a racial discrimination lawsuit against his local police department.

After returning from his church's Sunday service, Pastor Michael Jennings of Childersburg, Alabama, said he was doing a neighborly deed -- watering his out-of-town neighbor's flowers on May 22, 2022 at their request -- when a woman down the street called police to report a suspicious person and car.

The neighbor who called 911 said she did not recognize Jennings at first, according to body camera footage released this week.

When responding to the call, police asked Jennings for an I.D., the video depicts.

Pastor Michael Jennings was watering his neighbor's flowers while they were out of town when he was reported to the police for suspicious activity.

After he refused, claiming he wasn't committing a crime, police arrested and charged Jennings for obstruction of governmental operations.

In the body camera footage, Jennings, who is Black, accuses the officers of racially profiling him, which they deny in the video.

Jennings told ABC News he was confused and "agitated" but feared resisting arrest would have life-threatening consequences.

"I was trying to cooperate even though I didn't understand what was going on," he told ABC News. "I was angry, but I knew to comply."

Phyllis Jennings, the pastor's wife, ran from their home to the scene after her husband was arrested, bringing his wallet and identification.

Pastor Michael Jennings recounts the details of his arrest in May 2022.

"I was so horrified. I thought for sure he had been shot, God forbid dead," she told ABC News. "Watering flowers constitutes this?"

The body camera footage depicts the same neighbor who originally reported Jennings to the police arriving at the scene to clear up the situation. She can be heard telling the officers, "He lives right next door and he would be watering their flowers. This is probably my fault."

Harry Daniels, the pastor's attorney, said he and his co-counsel plan to file a federal discrimination lawsuit against the Childersburg Police Department on Jennings' behalf.

"The law is very clear that Pastor Jennings was not doing anything wrong," Daniels said. "In fact, he was doing everything right. He was being a good neighbor."

In Alabama, like many other states, people are not obligated to show an officer an ID if they don't suspect them of committing a crime.

"The neighbor, a white woman, they asked her, 'Do he have a right to be there?' She said, 'Yes, I believe so,'" Daniels added. "And they took her word as gospel truth. But the pastor who preached the gospel every Sunday, they didn't take his word at all."

Childersburg Police Department Interim Chief of Police Kevin Koss told ABC News, "there is no comment" that he can provide at this time "due to pending litigation."

The charges against Jennings were ultimately dropped, but he said the traumatic memories still linger.

During his arrest, Jennings said he was reminded of a pair of antique handcuffs from the 1800s in his personal collection of Black history memorabilia.

A pair of antique handcuffs are seen from the 1800s from Pastor Michael Jennings' Black history memorabilia collection.

"This thing came to my mind, that to be shackled and to have your freedom taken away from you, it's something else. It's dehumanizing," he said. "It's something that gives you nightmares."

Jennings said he is leaning on his faith as he recovers from the emotional toll the arrest has taken on his family.

"My faith helped me a lot because I knew that God would work the situation out," he said. "You have to forgive people because you can't judge people and hold things against people."
ABC News' Eric Jones and Karolina Rivas contributed to this report.

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Black pastor arrested while watering flowers speaks out about newly released body camera footage, plans for discrimination lawsuit

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A Black pastor who was arrested in May after a neighbor reported a "suspicious person" in a yard watering flowers, said he is considering filing a racial discrimination lawsuit against his local police department.

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Hi many of you are familiar with the show Stranger Things and a lot of people like the character Lucas because he is black.And a lot of people don’t like him too because he’s black and a history in the show in which in the first season he was mean to the character eleven.And because of that he became the least favorite character and a lot of people who view the show gave Lucas an identity as being mean and self centered alongside with his real identity and Lucas explains that he fits the role of the stereotype of African American.And he was just following the role which he was given but when all people see is the color of your skin you don’t see the other parts instead of viewing him as an emotional unstable and irrational African American it made a lot of American viewers who watch the show give them racist point of views and to treat Lucas differently even at the time he was only 13 years old now he’s older he can speak up and tell people what it was like and how it’s wrong to treat people wrong based off characters roles in a show and how they shouldn’t be put together like that.

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"Sometimes it's hard to talk about and for people to understand, but when I was younger it definitely affected me a lot," the actor shared at the Heroes Comic Con Belgium convention.

McLaughlin appeared at the Heroes Comic Con Belgium convention on Sunday and spoke from the stage about the racism he was shown by some of the Stranger Things fans.

"It definitely took a toll on me as a younger kid," the actor said, as seen in video shared by one of the panel's attendees. "My very first Comic-Con, some people didn't stand in my line because I was Black. Some people told me, 'Oh I didn't want to be in your line because you were mean to Eleven.' Even now some people don't follow me or don't support me because I'm Black. Sometimes overseas you feel the racism, you feel the bigotry. Sometimes it's hard to talk about and for people to understand, but when I was younger it definitely affected me a lot."

McLaughlin, now 20, has portrayed Lucas Sinclair - a member of the core Dungeons and Dragons crew with Finn Wolfhard's Mike, Noah Schnapp's Will, and Gaten Matarazzo's Dustin - since season 1 of Stranger Things, which debuted in 2016 when he was 14. After the two-part fourth season, which streamed on Netflix this summer, the actor will return for the fifth and final season.

McLaughlin acknowledged at the panel that he was getting into a "deep conversation," but said his kid self would feel like, "Why am I the least favorite? The least amount of followers? I'm on the same show as everybody from season 1."

"My parents had to be like, 'It's a sad truth, but it's because you're the Black child on the show... Because I was born with this beautiful chocolate skin, I'm not loved," he said. "But that's why with my platform I want to spread positivity and love because I do not give hate back to people who give hate to me."

Black actors from other franchises, like Steve Toussaint and Ismael Cruz Córdova, have also recently addressed their experiences with racism among fandoms.

Game of Thrones prequel House of the Dragon reimagines the seafarers of House Velaryon as wealthy Black conquerors, instead of the pale skin and purple eyes described in George R.R. Martin's books. Toussaint, who stars on the show as Lord Corlys Velaryon, had said, "It seems to be very hard for people to swallow. [Fans] are happy with a dragon flying. They're happy with white hair and violet-colored eyes, but a rich Black guy? That's beyond the pale."

Córdova, in turn, revealed his DMs were filled with "pure and vicious hate speech" since becoming the first person of color to portray an elf in a fantasy franchise with The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. "I fought so hard for this role for this very reason," the actor said. "I felt that I could carry that torch. I made sure that my elf was the most Elven, the most incredible, because I knew this was coming."

Episode Recaps

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'Stranger Things' star Caleb McLaughlin calls out racism from fans

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"Sometimes it's hard to talk about and for people to understand, but when I was younger it definitely affected me a lot," the actor shared at the Heroes Comic Con Belgium convention. McLaughlin appeared at the Heroes Comic Con Belgium convention on Sunday and spoke from the stage about the racism he was shown by some of the Stranger Things fans.

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Here is an article revealing racism in the NBA. Phoenix Sun owner Suspended and finned for racist comments. Later he did resign, but in my opinion he shouldn't of had that opportunity and instead fired. There is no room for racism inside the NBA

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Robert Sarver, majority owner of the NBA's Phoenix Suns and the WNBA's Phoenix Mercury, announced plans Wednesday to find new buyers for the franchises. The move came a week after he received a one-year suspension from the NBA and a $10 million fine for racist and sexist workplace conduct.

In an independent investigation, the NBA concluded Sarver, repeatedly used the N-word when retelling the statements of others, made many sex-related comments in the workplace, commented on the physical appearance of female employees, and engaged in demeaning and harsh treatment of employees.

"Whatever good I have done, or could still do, is outweighed by things I have said in the past," Sarver, whose 35% stake in the team would be valued at an estimated $630 million, said in a statement on Wednesday. "For those reasons, I am beginning the process of seeking buyers for the Suns and Mercury."

The 60-year-old also blamed the current culture for not being able to stay on with the team after the forced time away.

"As a man of faith, I believe in atonement and the path to forgiveness. I expected that the commissioner's one-year suspension would provide the time for me to focus, make amends and remove my personal controversy from the teams that I and so many fans love," he wrote.

"But in our current unforgiving climate, it has become painfully clear that that is no longer possible - that whatever good I have done, or could still do, is outweighed by things I have said in the past."

Sarver added that he's also choosing to sever his connection to the teams so as not to be a distraction.

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After his suspension for racist conduct, Phoenix Suns owner says he's selling the team

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Robert Sarver, majority owner of the NBA's Phoenix Suns and the WNBA's Phoenix Mercury, announced plans Wednesday to find new buyers for the franchises. The move came a week after he received a one-year suspension from the NBA and a $10 million fine for racist and sexist workplace conduct.

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I'm from San Francisco, and my hometown is the home to a massive asian population which is a huge part of our community. I'll be talking about an incident of unprovoked racism which happened on March 17th of this year. Xiao Zhen Xie was walking down the street when a man punched her in the face and shouted obscure things at her. She gave a punch right back and due to this sustained several injuries of her own. This is not an uncommon incident and asian racism around the Bay area has been a problem for decades.

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A 75-year-old Asian woman who was attacked in the street is taking the nearly $1 million donated for her medical bills and using it to combat racism, her family says.

After Xiao Zhen Xie was punched in the face on March 17 in San Francisco in what police say was an unprovoked assault, she returned a punch of her own. "He bullies old people," Xie said in a video taken after the attack by CNN affiliate KPIX. "So I gave a punch."

After the attack, Xie suffered two black eyes, a swollen wrist, and post-traumatic stress disorder that made her too scared to step outside of her home, according to a GoFundMe page set up by her family to raise money for medical bills.

The GoFundMe raised more than $930,000 within a week of the attack. The original goal was $50,000.

Now her family says Xie wants the money to go to the Asian American community to combat racism, saying the issue is bigger than her, according to the online fundraiser.

The page also says Xie's mental and physical health has improved. She can now open her injured eye and is "in better spirits."

Anti-Asian attacks on the rise

The San Francisco Police Department said at the time that a 39-year-old man had attacked an 83-year-old Asian man and was being chased by a security guard when he hit Xie.

The suspect was taken to San Francisco County Jail and was expected to appear in court later this month.

After the attack, police said investigators were "working to determine if bias was a motivating factor."

San Francisco police have increased patrols in predominantly Asian neighborhoods following "an alarming spike in brazen anti-Asian violence in recent weeks" in the Bay Area, the department said.

Anti-Asian attacks have increased dramatically across the United States during the Covid-19 pandemic. The group Stop AAPI Hate says it received more than 500 anti-Asian hate incident reports in the first two months of 2021.

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An Asian woman assaulted in San Francisco plans to donate almost $1 million to fight racism | CNN

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A 75-year-old Asian woman who was attacked in the street is taking the nearly $1 million donated for her medical bills and using it to combat racism, her family says. After Xiao Zhen Xie was punched in the face on March 17 in San Francisco in what police say was an unprovoked assault, she returned a punch of her own.

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Home Appraised With a Black Owner: $472,000. With a White Owner: $750,000.

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RACIAL DISCRIMINATION IN HOME APPRAISALS

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RACIAL DISCRIMINATION IN HOME APPRAISALS

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I think racial bias in home appraisals deserves more attention. Undervaluing black and brown homes denies home owners the opportunity to have generation wealth. The racial gap continues to widen in home values. In 1980 the gap was about  $50,000 in Chicago area. In 2015, the gap was more than $324,000 when compared to black/latinx neighborhoods and white neighborhoods.
What is being done to prevent this?
In March 2022, Biden announced
PAVE, the property appraisal and valuation equity action plan, is aimed to solve appraisal inequalities.

Another eye opening article below
https://www.chicagoreporter.com/racial-bias-in-home-appraisals/

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Home Appraised With a Black Owner: $472,000. With a White Owner: $750,000. (Published 2022)

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Nathan Connolly and his wife, Shani Mott, say an appraisal company undervalued their home based on their race. The couple has filed a lawsuit in Maryland.

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Racist Incidents at the University of Utah

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Racist Incidents at the University of Utah

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The University of Utah has recently been dealing with several incidents of racial harassment and racial threats. To start, a while male was delivering food on campus began to verbally berate a black professor who taught at the University of Utah with racial slurs and threats. The professor said that he was genuinely afraid and that the incident is now being considered a "hate crime" by the University of Utah. Another incident involved a 17 year old male calling in a bomb threat to the University, stating that he had planted bombs in several building and specifically including the BCC (Black Culture Center). University of Utah is working hard to rid the campus of acts such as these. They are still investigating both incidents and say that the people will face consequences. Regardless, it is still extremely disheartening to see stories like this in the news. Incidents like these really show how far away we are as a society from people of different ethnicities or cultures being able to live their life without being racially harassed.

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Nearly a week before the start of the University of Utah's Fall 2022 Semester, a white male completing a delivery on campus threatened and verbally attacked a Black professor with racial slurs while he was waiting for public transportation. On the weekend after the first week of classes, a resident of campus housing reported another student for saying sexual things to female residents and yelling a racial slur.

Earlier this year, the Black Cultural Center was Other incidents of bias and their statuses can be found on the targeted by a bomb threat when a crisis center in California received a call from a 17-year-old boy who "claimed to have planted bombs at several buildings at colleges and universities around the country, including the BCC." One U Thriving website, with guidance from the U to "be vigilant and speak up."

Interim Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs Martell Teasley, Vice President for Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Mary Ann Villarreal, Vice President for Student Affairs Lori McDonald and Chief Safety Officer Keith Squires released a joint statement about the two incidents in August on Sept. 2.

"Until members of our Black community can work, and study, and live at the University of Utah without the threat of outsiders or insiders assaulting them with words and actions, it will remain unacceptable," the statement read.

The statement also included different policy changes that have been made in response to similar incidents - they strengthened their code of conduct , escalated student consequences for prejudice and bias-motivated behaviors and increased awareness about the Racist and Bias Incident Response Team through marketing campaigns.

"We updated our changes to ensure that the use of racial epithets will not be tolerated," Teasley said. "We want it to be known that microaggressions and racial epithets would not be tolerated. So that was much more defined in our student code of conduct."

Teasley said the individual who was threatened by the delivery person was stricken and afraid. The incident has now been labeled a hate crime.

"[This] actually lends itself to other people who may be afraid of such activities on campus, which is why we released a statement and basically stated that ... such incidents will not be tolerated and we will promote a safe campus as possible for our students, faculty and staff," Teasley said.

According to Teasley, the U wanted to be as transparent as possible as soon as possible with the community.

"I can assure you that the university will continue its investigation process and take appropriate action," Teasley said.

For the campus community, and specifically students and faculty of color, Teasley wants to assure them that the U will do its best to create safe environments for students to go to class and engage in activities without being threatened.

"If such activities happen, we will take swift and immediate action to cease and desist such action, and maybe even remove such individuals from campus who are perpetrating such activities," Teasley said.

In the specific description of the Aug. 16 hate crime, the U stated their commitment to equity, diversity and inclusion, saying this incident "is rooted in the hateful act of striking fear among our community members."

"These targeted acts leave our Black students, staff and faculty feeling overwhelmed, exhausted, angry, and continuously on edge," the description read. "While we work to ensure that they can find a place of safety and belonging as a part of our campus community, we know that is not enough."

In the description for the Aug. 28 incident, bystander intervention was noted as a way to combat such harm.

The statement made by U leadership highlighted that while the U is launching investigations and working with law enforcement to pursue penalties against perpetrators, "it falls to each of us to rebuild the lost support, security and sense of belonging that comes each time these incidents occur."

"We affirm that the U community includes the Black community and other impacted communities, and we will continue to work to strengthen the protective power of inclusion, acceptance and appreciation within our collective until each of us feels welcome, whether we are professors, students, health care workers or others," the statement concluded.

Individuals can report an incident involving racism and/or bias via this public form.
@chronykayleigh

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Two Racist Incidents Reported in Beginning of U's Fall 2022 Semester

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Nearly a week before the start of the University of Utah's Fall 2022 Semester, a white male completing a delivery on campus threatened and verbally attacked a Black professor with racial slurs while he was waiting for public transportation. On the weekend after the first week of classes, a resident of campus housing reported another...

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The racist backlash to The Little Mermaid

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The racist backlash to The Little Mermaid

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This is Disney's new twist on "The Little Mermaid". It features a black woman as Ariel which brings much backlash since it does not "fit the criteria" of Ariel in the past and has weakened the original story line.

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Two new adaptations of The Lord of the Rings and The Little Mermaid are prompting deep outrage and indignation among fans who are arguing that the projects' increased diversity has weakened their faithfulness to the original story.

Detractors of Amazon's new Lord of the Rings series, which debuted this month, claim that casting Black and Asian actors undermines the show's faithfulness to Tolkien's world. Meanwhile, some ostensible fans of Disney's animated Little Mermaid are rejecting the new live-action version for swapping out the titular mermaid's famous blue eyes and red hair for the features of Black actress Halle Bailey.

The Lord of the Rings: Rings of Powerfirst drew widespread anger from fans because it casts Black and Asian actors as characters across the spectrum of fictional Middle Earth races. Fans' chief complaint was that the decision to include nonwhite characters had ruined the authenticity of Tolkien's world, because he had never described his elves, hobbits, men, and dwarves as anything other than white. Then last week, Disney released the first trailer for The Little Mermaid, featuring Bailey singing "Part of Your World." Thousands of YouTube users brigaded, leaving more than 2 million dislikes and countless derogatory comments on the trailer, and creating memes ridiculing the film for casting Bailey and mocking all of its supporters.

To anyone who's paid any attention to geek culture over the past decade or so, these arguments probably feel endless and exhausting. After all, this is the same cycle of backlash that plays out when any beloved story gets rebooted (or, in the case of Tolkien's The Silmarillion, adapted to film for the first time) and makes any changes, big or small. The anger intensifies to a new level when they're big changes that shake the foundations of a story that was originally framed within a white, male worldview. Let's face it: Most of the stories that have been passed down to us throughout the centuries have been created for us by white men.

From a progressive standpoint, stories all could use a good shake-up by varying their points of view through casting, and pop culture is full of narratives ripe for retelling. Taking the detractors at face value, however, you have apantheon of geeks who just want to see their beloved tales left alone. These fans now face repeated battles as they watch one franchise after another fall into the clutches of progressive directors and writers who insist on - gasp - casting women in the lead roles, or - gasp - casting actors of color in roles long reserved for white people.

The negative attention on The Little Mermaid and The Lord of the Rings has fueled a groundswell of support from other fans who view such anger as founded in racism. Complicating all of these arguments are angry right-wing politicians and influencers like Daily Wire's Matt Walsh, who are using both franchises as an example of Hollywood and liberal " wokeness " run amok.

On the historical accuracy of diverse hobbits and mermaids

On their face, the arguments over Rings of Power and The Little Mermaid are superficially absurd. The "historical inaccuracy" argument falls apart any way you look at it.

For starters, as many fans have noted, hobbits and mermaids aren't real, so it shouldn't matter what race they are. For another thing, even though Tolkien's setting for Middle Earth is based on Europe, people of color lived throughout medieval Europe, so a diverse Middle Earth is historically accurate.

As for Hans Christian Andersen's short story "The Little Mermaid," it was originally a sublimated allegory for a closeted queer man, and its original setting was "far out in the ocean." Seeking historical accuracy from this type of fairy tale seems like grasping at best; but to further put to rest the argument that such characters have to be white, consider that the firstDisney version made Ariel's home a fictional amalgam of Greek and Mediterranean mythology somewhere in the middle of the North Atlantic sea. So the idea of strictly Caucasian mermaids from this vicinity is a stretch.

"Well the original little mermai-"

The original The Little Mermaid is a queer man's self-insertion character, longing to be able to be in a relationship with another man, and at the end the mermaid dies.

You don't care about the original, mate.
- Nome (@NomeDaBarbarian) September 12, 2022

Again, all of this is the stuff of fantasy, so really, who cares whether they're played by white or Black actors?

As it turns out, the answer is lots and lots of people.

A key cry among these kinds of fans is that such productions are insisting on what they've dubbed"forced diversity." Detractors claim that the goal isn't really to meaningfully inject realistic representation into the universe, but rather to advance a "woke ideological agenda." This argument has been particularly loud among right-wing politicians and conservative influencers.

The ideal for such fans would be something they tend to describe as "organic diversity" - something that would arise naturally from the canonical descriptions of characters. For instance, one Tolkien scholar complained to CNN that since Tolkien described elves as "fair-faced," anything too tawny would ruin the authenticity of the show.

"This is not something organic that's coming out of Middle Earth," Tolkien expert Louis Markos told CNN. "This is really an agenda that is being imposed upon it."

Framing the mere existence of nonwhite characters in mediaas an inherently political stance is itself an ideological agenda. Moreover, it contradicts the long legacy of fantasy adaptations deviating from canonical descriptions of characters, and fans usually not minding - as long as the casting still reinforces a white, male-centric worldview.

Tyrion Lannister was specifically described as "One green eye and one black one peered out from under a lank fall of hair so blond it seemed white". There was no outcry when he showed up in the show looking like this pic.twitter.com/6vZnKdAela
- Laura Shortridge-Scott (@DiscordianKitty) September 5, 2022

This brings us to the larger issue at play. This isn't just about hobbits and "fair-faced" elves and redheaded mermaids, but about the existence of real people in our nonfictional world.

Welcome to the culture war, for the 8 millionth time

The endless culture war over increasingly diverse media has famously targeted everything from games to Ghostbusters, and now it has arrived to a fantasy universe near you. See the latest series, or Captain Marvel, or Black Panther, or , or Star Wars again - or pretty much every familiar franchise being adapted or remade these days with women and/or Black protagonists.

Usually, the audience that resists change will decry every reason except racism and misogyny for their hatred of these changes. For example, they might argue that casting actors of color is a cheap aesthetic change that does nothing to deepen the worldview of a story. Or, if the casting does result in a shift in worldview, they might argue that said worldview isn't faithful to the original creator's vision. (This usually makes it clear they never understood the creator's original vision at all, because these narratives nearly always have deeply humanist and optimistic themes that align far more closely with a progressive worldview than with a traditionalist worldview - especially a racist one.)

Diverse casting can come with pitfalls and sometimes can be a shortcut to appearing progressive without actually being progressive. (See: Bridgerton and .) Studios such as Disney are often more invested in rebooting their existing IP rather than taking chances on new and exciting stories from minority creators. Fans argue that this emphasis on simply redoing an old story with a casting facelift has led to a repetitive, tedious emphasis on pointless reboots and tired retreads rather than something truly meaningfully different and expansive.

However, these arguments often drown out the voices of fans of color who are overjoyed when they see themselves reflected in the legacy media they love - like the parents who celebrated the new Little Mermaid trailer by sharing photos and videos of their Black daughters reacting ecstatically.

What's more, when high-powered studios like Disney do take such chances on new original work, the resulting wonderful work often also draws tremendous amounts of inflamed backlash. Pixar's sleeper hit Turning Red became a surprise culture war target because of its culturally unique place and subject, as well as its characters.

This all suggests that the arguments for less diversity are just as shallow and political, just as racist and sexist, as they sound. Journalist and period drama expert Amanda-Rae Prescott learned this lesson well when she began tracking the fandom for the cult PBS series Sanditon. The series, an adaptation of Jane Austen's unfinished novel, features one character of color - hardly the racially diverse cast of much more high-profile period dramas such as Bridgerton and The Gilded Age. As Prescott observed, despite many fans wanting more characters of color to also have more screentime, the majority of the show's white fandom was committed to "maintaining Sanditon as the anti- Bridgerton " - in other words, to preserving its mainly white cast.

Prescott next saw a similar form of racist gatekeeping around the recent Netflix adaptation of Austen's Persuasion, with white Austen fans masking racism behind other critiques of the movie as well as ostensibly lighthearted memes making fun of the film in oblique ways.

Both types of racist objections have attached to these new adaptations. The Little Mermaid trailer comments are currently wall-to-wall with haters making fun of people who like the trailer, using a variant of a copy/paste meme to mock the idea of liking the movie at all. The meme, like so many politically motivated memes, masks the real racist agenda behind it.

The repetitive nature of all these forms of discourse, Prescott points out, is part of the system.

"The same people who were angry about a Black Queen and a South Asian Viscountess on Bridgerton are the same people who are now angry about BIPOC elves, witches, and mermaids," Prescott told me in an email. "You can copy and paste racist comments about diverse period dramas onto the racist comments about these fantasy franchises. There are people in period drama fandom who watch these series because they don't want to see Black or POC characters, and it's the same trend in speculative fiction."

Prescott said she believes a driving theme of these campaigns is obfuscation - the use of some other argument to mask the real one. With historical dramas, it's the argument for "historical accuracy." With fantasy and science fiction adaptations, it's the argument for preserving whatever version of the franchise you grew up with. "Racists weaponize childhood nostalgia to oppose diverse casting in these sci-fi/fantasy series because they cannot rely on whitewashed history to oppose diverse casting," Prescott wrote.

Here, again, though, these arguments prove facile and flimsy. After all, generations of Disney fans who grew up with the beloved 1997 version of Cinderella, a.k.a. " the Brandy Cinderella," didn't subsequently have meltdowns over later adaptations that cast Cinderella as white. Instead, last year's Cinderella saw Billy Porter's genderless fairy godmother facing - sigh - transphobic backlash, because if there's one thing fairies are famous for, it's their rigid gender binary.

In other words, the backlash only ever works in one direction, and it only ever has one ultimate aim: erasing and threatening difference and deviance.

Prescott doesn't have much hope that it will stop anytime soon.

"I believe racists are going to attack ANY series that they believe should have been 100% white," Prescott wrote. "Racists are going to get mad at the next superhero or horror show that racebends a character, and they'll be outraged over whatever the next Bridgerton is. Their goal is to stop all efforts to diversify Hollywood."
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The racist backlash to The Little Mermaid and Lord of The Rings is exhausting and extremely predictable

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Two new adaptations of The Lord of the Rings and The Little Mermaid are prompting deep outrage and indignation among fans who are arguing that the projects' increased diversity has weakened their faithfulness to the original story.

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Brazil forward Richarlison racially abused

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Brazil forward Richarlison racially abused

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In this article it is talked about the racism coming from a fan at a soccer game after a victory. Multiple items including a banana was thrown at the player.

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Brazil's impressive end to its World Cup preparation was overshadowed by racist abuse as forward Richarlison had a banana thrown at him by a fan during the 5-1 victory over Tunisia in Paris on Tuesday.

The Tottenham Hotspur star scored Brazil's second goal but as he celebrated a banana was thrown at him among other objects. Teammate Fred was then seen kicking the banana off the pitch.

After the match Richarlison posted on Twitter: "As long as they stay 'blah blah blah' and don't punish, it will continue like this, happening every day and everywhere. No time bro! #racismonao [racism no]."

Brazil's football federation (CBF) released a statement condemning the actions of the perpetrator and called for stronger action against racism.

"Unfortunately a banana was thrown on the pitch towards Richarlison, scorer of the second Brazilian goal," read a CBF statement on Twitter.

"The CBF reinforces its position to combat racism and repudiates any manifestation of prejudice."

CBF President Ednaldo Rodrigues later added: "This time, I saw it with my own eyes. This shocks us. We must always remember that we are all equal, regardless of color, race or religion.

"The fight against racism is not a cause, but a fundamental change to sweep this type of crime from the planet. I insist on saying that the punishments need to be more severe."

CNN Senior Sports Analyst Darren Lewis tweeted: "Football has always known that you address racism by docking points & throwing clubs/countries out of competitions. Zero tolerance.

"Until then, players should walk. Surely one day they will realise their commercial power & take action across the board."

Prior to kick off, Brazil's players had posed in front of a sign that read, "Without our black players, we wouldn't have stars on our shirt." The stars refer to the record five World Cup titles that Brazil has won.

The players made the statement in response to the racist abuse that Brazil winger Vinicius Jr. had experience from Atletico Madrid fans in the Madrid derby.

The Real Madrid star was subject to abusive chants, including monkey chants, before and throughout the match.

"They say that happiness bothers," Vinicius said on his experience. "The happiness of a victorious black Brazilian in Europe bothers much more.

"But my desire to win, my smile and the sparkle in my eyes are much bigger than that. You can't even imagine it. I was a victim of a xenophobic and racist comment. But none of that started yesterday.

"Weeks ago they began to criminalize my dances. Dances that are not mine.

"They belong to Ronaldinho, Neymar, [Lucas] Paqueta, [Antoine] Griezmann, Joao Felix, Matheus Cunha ... they belong to Brazilian funk and samba artists, reggaeton singers, and black Americans.

"Those are dances to celebrate the cultural diversity of the world. Accept it, respect it. I'm not going to stop."

Other players like compatriot Gabriel Jesus had already raised the issue of Vinicius' abuse. The Arsenal forward paid tribute to his Brazil teammate by performing Vinicius' celebration when he scored against Brentford 10 days ago.

Football world governing body FIFA did not immediately respond to CNN's request for comment. FIFA President Gianni Infantino was at Tuesday's game at the Parc des Princes.

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Brazil forward Richarlison racially abused as fan throws banana at him during 5-1 victory over Tunisia in France | CNN

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Brazil's impressive end to its World Cup preparation was overshadowed by racist abuse as forward Richarlison had a banana thrown at him by a fan during the 5-1 victory over Tunisia in Paris on Tuesday. The Tottenham Hotspur star scored Brazil's second goal but as he celebrated a banana was thrown at him among other objects.

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This article talks about the death of a man, named Orgorchukwu, in Italy from a racially motivated attack. Many go as far to deny that the attack is racially motivated and instead blame it on “petty” reasoning. This murder happened in the middle of the day on a public street while many people watched. Some attempted to tell to get the man to stop his hateful crime, but no one truly took any action, only showing any care once Orgochukwu lost his life. Many say that Italy is a safe place for Black people because they want the country and people to be seen as welcoming. Unfortunately, this gives false hope to many and people don’t receive the same welcome they are promised.

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The killing of a Nigerian man in broad daylight on the streets of an Italian seaside town while onlookers watched has sparked outcry and renewed a conversation about racism and crimes against migrants in the country ahead of elections next month.

Alika Ogorchukwu, 39, was chased, hit withhis own crutch and then beaten "to death with bare hands" while on the ground by the assailant, who also stole his mobile phone, Macerata police said.

Video footage of the attack, which took place in the eastern coastal town of Civitanova Marche, was captured by a bystander, but nobody was seen physically intervening in one portion of the clip.

A woman can be heard shouting "stop, stop immediately" in the video, and a man shouts: "You are killing him." The footage was published by Italian media after being shared online.

The incident took place at 2 p.m. on Friday in the main central street of Civitanova Marche, Luconi said. Ogorchukwu was found dead at the scene by paramedics, the police statement on Sunday added.

Macerata police officer Matteo Luconi told CNN on Monday that the killing "was not racially motivated," and a police statement on Sunday said it was likely due to "petty reasons."

A 32-year-old Italian citizen, Filippo Ferlazzo, has been arrested for murder and robbery, police said. One of Ferlazzo's lawyers, Federica Trifoglio, told CNN Monday that his client has psychiatric issues and they intend to file a psychiatric report.

The Nigerian embassy in Rome condemned the killing, saying "the incident occurred on a busy street and infront of shocked onlookers, some of whom made videos of the attack, with little or no attempt to prevent it."

The embassy said it was collaborating with Italian authorities to ensure justice is served and to provide assistance to the victim's family.

Ogorchukwu's wife, Charity Oriachi, told journalists Friday that she wanted justice for her husband. "Italy, don't leave me alone," she said.

She told journalists that when she last saw her husband on Friday morning, "I gave him a croissant, I told him 'eat this'. I gave him the croissant and haven't seen him since. Then many people came to call me: 'Your husband, come!' I needed someone with the car and when I arrived in Civitanova I saw him lying down on the street."

Francesco Mantella, the lawyer representing Ogorchukwu's wife, Charity, told CNN that Ogorchukwu had been in Italy for about nine years with a regular residence permit and worked as a street vendor.

Ogochukwu was left with a limp after he was run over by a car last year while on his bicycle. He used a crutch to help him get around, Mantella said.

He sold small things, lighters and tissue paper, the lawyer said. He commuted every day from his home, in the small village of San Severino Marche, to the larger town of Civitanova Marche, hoping to do better business.

The mayor of Civitanova Marche has announced the expenses for Ogorchukwu's funeral will be paid by the municipality, Mantella said, and a fundraiser has been started to help his widow and their 8 year-old son.

The killing has shaken the country, where right-wing factions could gain increased support at the upcoming elections.

Four years ago, a man draped in an Italian flag shot six African immigrants in a racially motivated attack in Macerata, less than 20 miles from where Ogorchukwu was killed.

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Nigerian street vendor killed in broad daylight in Italy, sparking national outrage | CNN

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The killing of a Nigerian man in broad daylight on the streets of an Italian seaside town while onlookers watched has sparked outcry and renewed a conversation about racism and crimes against migrants in the country ahead of elections next month.

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Racism in Brazil’s World Cup preparation

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Racism in Brazil’s World Cup preparation

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https://apple.news/ADlnXttvhQXSGVCyR8OxFVg
Team member, Richarlison de Andrade had a banana thrown at him proceeding a victory for his team in France. This is not the first time racism has been seen in the sports industry, CBF president says he is shocked to see it with his own eyes this time and something needs to change.he says, “"The fight against racism is not a cause, but a fundamental change to sweep this type of crime from the planet. I insist on saying that the punishments need to be more severe."(CNN Haworth) In the beginning of the game the team members stood in front of a sign that read “"Without our black players, we wouldn't have stars on our shirt." The stars refer to the record five World Cup titles that Brazil has won.”(CNN howworth)

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Brazil forward Richarlison racially abused as fan throws banana at him during Brazil's 5-1 victory over Tunisia in France - CNN

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Brazil's impressive end to its World Cup preparation was overshadowed by racist abuse as forward Richarlison had a banana thrown at him by a fan during the 5-1 victory over Tunisia in Paris on Tuesday.

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A 25-year-old African-American man name Ahmaud Arbery was jogging in a suburb in Georgia when three men followed and entrapped him. This is a racially motivated hate crime by a trio who perceived a black person as a criminal and thief. The three men; a father, his son, and a neighbor, used their vehicles to block his path leading to a confrontation with Arbery who was fatally shot by Travis McMichael. The events and pursuit were videotaped by the neighbor's cellphone, gaining national attention, and was eventually used in court.

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A look at the major moments between Mr. Arbery's killing in a Georgia suburb and the arrest of two suspects, both charged with murder.

A rally in Brunswick, Ga., on Friday to protest the fatal shooting of Ahmaud Arbery. Credit... Sean Rayford/Getty Images

Ahmaud Arbery loved to run. A former high school football standout, he had been jogging near his home on the outskirts of Brunswick, Ga., when he was shot and killed after being pursued by two white men with guns, according to the authorities.

The men, Travis McMichael, 34, and his father, Gregory McMichael, 64, were charged on Thursday with murder and aggravated assault - two days after a graphic video of the shooting of Mr. Arbery, a 25-year-old black man, became public, and more than two months after the killing itself.

The case has generated a wave of outrage and raised concerns about persistent racial inequities in the justice system.

Here is a timeline of the events leading up to the arrests this week.

Feb. 23

Ahmaud Arbery Credit... via Reuters

Mr. Arbery was killed shortly after 1 p.m. on Sunday, Feb. 23, in Satilla Shores, a suburban neighborhood about 15 minutes from downtown Brunswick.

The authorities said he was shot after an encounter with Gregory and Travis McMichael, who had grabbed two guns and followed Mr. Arbery in a truck after he jogged past them.

Gregory McMichael told the police that he thought Mr. Arbery looked like a man suspected in several break-ins in the area. The Brunswick News, citing documents obtained through a public records request, reported that there had been just one burglary in the neighborhood since January: the theft of a handgun from an unlocked truck parked outside Travis McMichael's house.

Feb. 27

The Brunswick District Attorney's Office and the Glynn County Police Department conducted the initial investigation into the killing.

On Feb. 27, the Brunswick district attorney, Jackie L. Johnson, recused herself from the case, pointing out that Gregory McMichael, a former Glynn County police officer, had been a longtime investigator in her office until his retirement last May.

April 1

After a public records request, The Brunswick News reported details of the Glynn County Police Department's records on the shooting. The police report was based almost entirely on the responding officer's interview with Gregory McMichael. The records claimed that after the McMichaels pursued Mr. Arbery, Travis McMichael and Mr. Arbery "started fighting over the shotgun, at which point Travis fired a shot and then a second later there was a second shot."

Early April

The case was taken over by George E. Barnhill, the Waycross district attorney, who advised the police that there was insufficient cause to arrest Mr. Arbery's pursuers. He argued that they had acted legally under Georgia's citizen arrest and self-defense laws, according to documents obtained by The New York Times.

Under pressure from Mr. Arbery's family, Mr. Barnhill then recused himself from the case because his son had worked in the Brunswick prosecutor's office with Gregory McMichael. Mr. Barnhill asked the Georgia Attorney General's Office to help find another district attorney to handle the case.

April 13

On April 13, the case was transferred to a third prosecutor, District Attorney Tom Durden of the Atlantic Judicial Circuit.

April 26

Image

Protests have been mostly limited to Brunswick, Ga. Credit... Bobby Haven/The Brunswick News, via Associated Press

For two months, the shooting received little attention outside Brunswick. As the coronavirus pandemic dominated headlines and shut down communities around the country, The Times spoke with Mr. Arbery's friends and family, who were by then concerned the case might quietly disappear in their Deep South community, because social distancing restrictions had made it difficult for them to gather and protest.

May 5

By Tuesday evening, a graphic video of the fatal encounter had begun to circulate online. It galvanized an already growing chorus of voices calling for charges to be brought in the case.

Recorded from inside a vehicle, it shows Mr. Arbery running along a shaded two-lane residential road when he comes upon a white pickup truck, with a man standing beside its open driver-side door. Another man is in the truck bed. Mr. Arbery runs around the vehicle and disappears briefly from view. Muffled shouting can be heard before Mr. Arbery emerges, tussling with the man outside the truck as three shotgun blasts echo.

That same day, Mr. Durden said that he wanted to send the case to a grand jury to decide whether to bring charges. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation said that night that it would be taking over the case at Mr. Durden's request.

The Times later learned that WGIG, the Brunswick radio station that first posted the video, had obtained the footage from a local criminal defense lawyer who had informally consulted with the suspects. The lawyer, Alan Tucker, said in an interview on Friday that he had leaked the video to dispel rumors that he said had fueled tension in the community.

"It wasn't two men with a Confederate flag in the back of a truck going down the road and shooting a jogger in the back," he said.

May 7

Gregory and Travis McMichael were arrested at home on Thursday evening and booked into a jail in Glynn County, according to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. Both were charged with murder and aggravated assault. It was not clear on Thursday whether the men had retained legal counsel.

Protestors commemorated Ahmaud Arbery's birthday on Friday in Brunswick. Credit... John Bazemore/Associated Press

Mr. Arbery would have turned 26 on May 8. The hashtag #IRunWithMaud was shared thousands of times across social media, as supporters documented 2.23-mile runs and walks, to commemorate the date of Mr. Arbery's killing.

Georgia's attorney general, Chris Carr, through a spokeswoman, said on Friday that he planned to start a review of all of the relevant players in the case.

May 10

Mr. Carr, a Republican, urged the Justice Department to initiate a sweeping investigation into the case.

Justice Department officials later said that they were weighing whether to bring federal hate crime charges, and had asked state officials to pass along relevant information as they considered beginning an investigation.

May 11

Mr. Carr appointed the fourth prosecutor to handle the case. She is Joyette M. Holmes, the district attorney in Cobb County, a populous Atlanta suburb, where she is the first African-American to hold the office. Mr. Carr also requested that the Georgia Bureau of Investigation investigate possible prosecutorial misconduct by Mr. Barnhill and Ms. Johnson.

May 12

An autopsy report showed Mr. Arbery was shot twice in the chest and had a third wound on a wrist. He had no drugs or alcohol in his system and the manner of death was homicide, the report said.

May 21

The man who filmed the fatal encounter between Mr. Arber and the McMichaels was arrested on Thursday, the authorities said. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation said that the man, William Bryan, 50, was being charged with felony murder and criminal attempt to commit false imprisonment.

Richard Fausset, Michael Levenson and Sarah Mervosh contributed reporting.

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Ahmaud Arbery Shooting: A Timeline of the Case

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A look at the major moments between Mr. Arbery's killing in a Georgia suburb and the arrest of two suspects, both charged with murder. Ahmaud Arbery loved to run. A former high school football standout, he had been jogging near his home on the outskirts of Brunswick, Ga., when he was shot and killed after being pursued by two white men with guns, according to the authorities.

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Lack of Racial Representation Among Children's Toys 

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Lack of Racial Representation Among Children's Toys 

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Often we don't think about the toys that kids are offered in schools or daycares and how they influence them. Ibram X. Kendi discusses this issue in his article "My Daughter's White Doll" where he speaks out about a personal experience, the impact it made on him, and how he planned to implement change towards better representation in the children's toy industry. Kendi, a black father, discovers his daughter is only offered white dolls at daycare and gets extremely upset. Children's views are extremely moldable, so only giving them dolls with light complexions can silently form racial biases. Kendi works with his daughter to form a positive view about her physical appearance and contacts the daycare to make them aware of the problematic nature of only suppling white toys to children. By writing this article and publicly speaking out on a social platform, Kendi was able to have this problem heard on a wide scale and the daycare began to offer toys that were more representative of all types of skin colors.

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This article was featured in One Story to Read Today, a newsletter in which our editors recommend a single must-read from The Atlantic, Monday through Friday. Sign up for it here.
I noticed. I didn't make much of it. The day care was closing. I walked over to Imani, took the blue-eyed white doll out of her hands, picked her up off the carpet, and raised her high. She frowned. I smiled. Her frown turned to a smile.

It was the summer of 2017. My partner, Sadiqa, and I had just moved to Washington, D.C. We'd selected our neighborhood, Columbia Heights, because we liked its walkability, access to public transit, and racial diversity. We had enrolled Imani, our 1-year-old daughter, in a day care about 10 minutes from our new home.

The next day, when Sadiqa picked Imani up, she, too, noticed our daughter playing with the white doll. We laughed it off. We expected Imani to start playing with a different doll or toy soon.

But she didn't. Her frown on day one turned into a sharp "No!" on day two, when Sadiqa tried to take the doll out of her hands, which turned into a car ride of whining on day three, and into an all-out tantrum on day four as she held on firmly to the doll, not wanting to go home.

Sadiqa and I were probably unduly sensitive about the whole situation. But we wondered if our Black child's attachment to a white doll could mean she had already breathed in what the psychologist Beverly Daniel Tatum has called the "smog" of white superiority.

Maybe our minds were sounding a false alarm. Maybe the eye and skin color and hair texture of the doll had no bearing on why Imani had become attached. I did not know. No one knew. But I did know why the alarm was ringing.
Read: The never-ending task of shielding Black kids from negative stereotypes
In 1897, the father of American child psychology, G. Stanley Hall, published his influential A Study of Dolls with Alexander Caswell Ellis. They found that white dolls with "fair hair and blue eyes are the favorites." Children who played with nonwhite dolls, Hall and Ellis posited, often did so because the dolls' appearance made them " 'funny' or exceptional."

Mass-produced toys of all kinds had begun to enter American homes around this time, and many of them exploited racist tropes. Consider the mechanical banks then popular among children. The kids who played with the "Always Did 'Spise a Mule" mechanical bank could push a button and make a Black man fly off a mule face-first, a simulation of racial violence presented, during the lynching era, as a game. Playing with the "Shamrock Bank," later nicknamed "Paddy and the Pig," children pulled a lever to make a pig kick a penny into an Irishman's mouth. The "Reclining Chinaman" mechanical bank featured a Chinese man flashing a handful of aces with a rat at his feet. The cards suggested a deceitful competitive advantage, evoking the idea, widely held at the time, that Chinese immigrants were stealing work from white people.
Ibram X. Kendi: Opponents of critical race theory are arguing with themselves
What lessons did these toys teach the children who played with them? For the social scientist Mamie Phipps, such racist caricatures were anything but humorous. Growing up in segregated Arkansas in the 1920s, Phipps lived in the shadow of that racism. "You had to have a certain kind of protective armor about you, all the time," she later said.

In 1934, Phipps enrolled at Howard University, where she met a psychology master's student named Kenneth Clark. He encouraged her to major in psychology; the two later married.

The Clarks entered a discipline dominated by eugenicists determined to prove, scientifically, the superiority of the white race. But some social scientists, at least, had come to recognize the dangers of eugenicists' work. These researchers wanted to use social science, instead, to understand the origins of racist sentiment. Were humans born prejudiced or were they socialized to be that way? This question turned scholarly attention to the racial attitudes of children.

Research in the late 1920s by the social worker and writer Bruno Lasker had demonstrated that "race prejudice," as he called it, was not an inborn trait but the result of acquired habits-habits that even children as young as 5 years old could develop.

Starting in 1940, the Clarks surveyed 253 Black children ranging in age from 3 to 7. Their goal was to determine whether the children had a concept of racial difference, and if so, whether they expressed racial preference. A little more than half of the children attended segregated nursery schools and public elementary schools in Arkansas, while the rest went to integrated schools in Massachusetts. Each child was shown two dolls with yellow hair and white skin, and two with black hair and dark-brown skin. "Give me the doll you like to play with," the Clarks instructed the children. Most of the children gave them a white doll. When they prompted the children to "give me the doll that is a nice doll" or "the doll that is a nice color," most of the children again gave them a white doll. As Kenneth Clark later wrote, the doll study showed "that at an early age Negro children are affected by the prejudices, discrimination, and segregation to which the larger society subjected them."
Read: Toys are more divided by gender now than they were 50 years ago
Social scientists suspected that segregation had negative effects on white children too, even if they lacked the data to prove it empirically (more recent research has borne this out). In 1948, the psychologists Max Deutscher and Isidor Chein surveyed 517 social scientists. Ninety percent, they found, thought that segregation had detrimental effects on the "segregated" group, and 83 percent thought that it had negative effects on the "segregating" group as well. "Enforced segregation builds up attitudes of superiority not based on achievement but upon definitions which cannot be supported when subjected to reality testing," one psychologist explained.
The Court had struck down segregated schools, but it had not struck down the racist idea that the whiter the school, the better.
In 1950, Kenneth Clark presented the doll research, along with Deutscher and Chein's survey results, at the Mid-century White House Conference on Children and Youth. The following year, as the NAACP mounted the legal challenge to school segregation that would become Brown v. Board of Education, its lawyers asked Clark to submit a similar report. Thirty-two of the era's leading anthropologists, psychiatrists, psychologists, and sociologists co-signed its conclusion: Racism and segregation "potentially damage the personality of all children."

On May 17, 1954, the Court issued a unanimous ruling, written by Chief Justice Earl Warren, striking down the "separate but equal" doctrine. "Segregation of white and colored children in public schools has a detrimental effect upon the colored children," Warren wrote. But the decision overlooked the experts' argument about segregation's effects on white children.The Court had struck down segregated schools, but it had not struck down the racist idea that the whiter the school, the better.

Some Americans saw school integration as a chance to facilitate Black assimilation into white American culture. In the '40s and '50s, Italian, Jewish, and Irish immigrants had been assimilated or were assimilating into the broader racial category of "white." But the newly capacious white American identity still had no room for Blackness.
From the October 2018 issue: Ibram X. Kendi's "A House Still Divided"
You can follow this history through the evolution of American toys. By mid-century, toy makers had mostly stopped producing the toys that ridiculed purported ethnic and racial differences; instead, they ignored these differences. Popular games like Chutes and Ladders and Candy Land presented white children on their boxes and boards. In 1959, Mattel introduced the Barbie doll at the American International Toy Fair as a white "Teen-age Fashion Model." White children continued to play Cowboys and Indians, but in the world of manufactured toys, people of color virtually ceased to exist.

Things started to change in the '60s. By 1968, James Brown was singing the anthem of a new anti-assimilation consciousness: " Say it loud-I'm Black and I'm proud. " Black had become beautiful during the Black Power movement, which inspired the Red Power, Brown Power, and Yellow Power movements in the late '60s and the '70s.
From the September 1967 issue: Jonathan Kozol's "Death at an Early Age"
This environment compelled at least some companies to produce a more diverse assortment of toys. Mattel released its first explicitly Black Barbie in 1968, and Remco's line of Black dolls appeared that same year. These dolls, though, were mostly marketed to Black children.

Not until the 1980s were nonwhite characters marketed to a wide audience, and then only gradually. A Hispanic Barbie and an Asian Barbie (called "Oriental Barbie") arrived in that decade; though Hasbro had released a Black G.I. Joe in 1965, it didn't make an explicitly Hispanic G.I. Joe doll until 2001. Still, by 2019, 55 percent of all Mattel dolls sold globally depicted a historically marginalized group in some way, in terms of either race, ethnicity, religion, gender expression, or body type.

The toy market was coming closer to reflecting America's diversity. But had children's attitudes shifted since the Clarks' era? In 2010, CNN commissioned the child psychologist Margaret Beale Spencer to design an updated version of the doll test. Her team interviewed 133 kids, ages 4, 5, 9, or 10, hailing from both majority-white and majority-Black schools in the New York City and Atlanta areas.

The Clarks had not studied white children, but Spencer did. She found that they displayed a high rate of "white bias," identifying lighter skin tones with positive attributes and darker hues with negative ones. As the Clarks had found 70 years earlier, Black children, too, displayed some white bias-but far less than their white peers. The reason, Spencer suggested, is because Black parents actively work to protect their children from bias by "reframing messages that children get from society" about racial preference. By contrast, Spencer posited, white parents "don't have to engage in that level of parenting."

Regardless of your race, it's never too early to consider the messages a child is receiving from the world around them. Color blindness is not an option. Research has demonstrated that even at 1 year old, our children notice different skin colors. We can impress upon children the equality of dark and light colors.

At this age, books are a key tool. Among Imani's favorites were Matthew A. Cherry's Hair Love, which shows children the beauty of different hair textures, and Joanna Ho's majestic Eyes That Kiss in the Corners, which emphasizes the equality of differently shaped eyes.

Dolls, too, can make a great teaching tool. We can use dolls to acknowledge difference in skin color but dismiss the racist notions that the darker, the worse. A diverse assortment of toys in general can "open dialogue around prejudice and enable discussion and empathy," the psychologist Sian Jones has written. "If such toys are not there, the opportunity for this discussion is lost."

At home, Imani had a wide array of diverse toys. But Sadiqa and I hadn't thought about their presence at Imani's day care.

On day five, Sadiqa and I arrived at the day care together. Imani loved when both of us picked her up. When we walked in, she tossed the white doll aside and ran to hug us. "Group hug!" Sadiqa shouted, widening her arms as I did the same. Imani buried her face between our legs. Sadiqa and I made eye contact.

Doll 4, Parents 1.

When Imani released her grip, I walked around the day care and found the large toy chests. I rummaged through the toys and did not come across a single doll that looked Asian, Native, Latino, Middle Eastern, or Black. Every single doll I saw looked white.

Anger overtook me. Not at the day care's owner-at myself. Imani had been going here for several weeks, and not once did I examine the toy chests.

Imani did not choose to play with the white doll over dolls of color, I realized; she hadn't had another option. After all these years, how many children still don't have another option in their toy chests, libraries, or schools? What does the overrepresentation of white dolls tell children about who their caregivers think is important?

We told the owner about the white dolls before leaving for the day. Changes came. But I had failed my doll test.

This essay has been adapted from Ibram X. Kendi's book How to Raise an Antiracist. It appears in the July/August 2022 print edition with the headline "My Family's Doll Test."​

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child psychologist margaret beale spencer

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This article was featured in One Story to Read Today, a newsletter in which our editors recommend a single must-read from The Atlantic, Monday through Friday. Sign up for it here. I noticed. I didn't make much of it. The day care was closing.

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The fallout of explicit racist housing policies is still affecting people of color today

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The fallout of explicit racist housing policies is still affecting people of color today

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The segregation of schools in the mid 20th century forced black schools to be built in undesirable locations and as a result black families would be forced to live nearby. This along with black veterans from WW2 being unable to obtain mortgages because the banks said they were "high risk" made it incredibly difficult for black families to own valuable property. While these policies would eventually be changed in the 60s, it along with many other aspects of systemic racism would leave the black community disenfranchised to this day. The zoning laws that were originally targeting specifically people of color now targets affordable and high density housing. This is seen all over the country but funnily enough where it happens the most is in California, the flagship of liberal states. Zoning laws in places like Palo Alto reserve almost 70 percent of their city for low density high value housing. When policies to change zoning laws are presented in city counsels they are almost always shot down. The argument against affordable housing is always the same and it goes something like "If we want to keep the values that we hold dear to our community and keep it safe for our kids to walk home from school we cannot have these housing complexes built." The racist undertones of this statement are just absolutely mind-boggling and it is happening in our back yard!  If you truly are in support of an equal America then you are in support of affordable housing built in your neighborhood.

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Atticus is the CEO of , an affordable, shared housing model that creates financial independence for workers.
If you ask a person of color, they'll likely tell you they've been unjustifiably pulled over while driving. We hear this example often when discussing racism in our society, and it's for good reason. Not only are there countless anecdotes to rely upon, there's a tremendous amount of data to examine. In the book Suspect Citizens, which analyzed more than 20 million traffic stops, the authors reported that Black drivers were twice as likely to be pulled over as white drivers, even though Black individuals did not drive as often.

As a white male, I can say that I haven't been needlessly pulled over while driving, nor have I been the victim of racism in any way, shape or form. I acknowledge that systemic racism exists in our society, however, and I believe it's important to be an ally and anti-racist to enact change.
The Ugly History Of Explicit Racism In Housing Policies
As the founder of an affordable housing startup that's based in Atlanta, I've learned that unfortunately, much like other policies across the country, the evolution of housing policy has both implicit and explicit racial bias. While racial segregation was seemingly addressed by the Supreme Court in 1917 and 1948, and by the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Fair Housing Act of 1968, racism undoubtedly persists today in zoning and housing laws. It may not be as easy to see when compared to the criminal justice system, but it's still insidiously there, hidden in a patchwork of nuanced zoning definitions and regulations. These are policies that evolved over time to meet federal guidelines against explicit discrimination, so they are technically legal today, yet they still contribute to racial inequality.

Zoning laws in the U.S. originated in the early 20th century, and for many cities, these zoned areas were specifically segregated by race. Uses that were undesirable or more industrial in nature were often constrained to areas for only racial or ethnic minorities.

In 1917, the Supreme Court ruled in Buchanan v. Warley that race-based zoning was unconstitutional, so cities began relocating segregated schools instead. School segregation would still be legal for several more decades, and moving the schools to undesirable areas forced Black families to live close by them, creating de-facto zoning segregation in the process.
How Racism In Housing Exists Implicitly Today
When Black war veterans returned from World War II, the Federal Housing Administration did not allow them to obtain mortgages. Despite fighting - and in many cases, dying - to support the U.S. mission, Black soldiers were explicitly discriminated against because they were viewed by banks and the federal government as "higher risk" loans. In order to obtain federal funding, local developers were required to include in their codes a refusal to sell to people of color. These policies changed in the 1960s, but by then the damage had been done. The homeownership boom, spurred by the federal government to boost the economy, deliberately and unconscionably prevented Black homeownership and thus prevented generational wealth or class mobility to take place as it would for white America.

We still live with vestiges of these policies today, as accumulated wealth in real estate has appreciated and been passed from generation to generation. As importantly, many of our zoning laws that prohibit multifamily buildings, require minimum square footages or restrict the number of unrelated people per home carry on these systemic inequities and continue to segregate cities and neighborhoods based on income and race while preventing historically marginalized populations from ascending the housing ladder.

Consider the example that we see here in Atlanta: Often referred to as an equalizer city for Black households, the reality is that Atlanta ranks first in the U.S. for income inequality.

Why? There's no question that Atlanta suffers from the same systemic inequity that every other city does, except that we've also layered on some of the country's longest commute times with limited access to public transportation and a gentrifying urban core. The result has been that Black households with lower incomes that were intentionally prevented from receiving mortgages decades earlier to build up class wealth have now been disproportionately pushed into the suburbs and exurbs. They have had to drive to where housing is affordable, and the resulting long commutes have created even greater financial instability. So it shouldn't be surprising that affordable housing options close to the urban core, jobs and public transportation have seen very high demand.
Systemic Racism In Housing Is A Major Issue
At the same time, zoning laws rooted in racist land-use policies continue to place constraints on the number of unrelated individuals who can live together, and limit the amount of multifamily housing that can be built in certain neighborhoods. These laws continue to keep low-income people of color out of higher income, lower density housing - and farther away from work, school and opportunity - preventing them from accruing generational wealth in the first place.

As we see the historic protests decrying racial inequality in our criminal justice system, I write this article to call attention to the fact that systemic racism exists in our housing policies as well.

According to an Economic Policy Institute study, the median white household has 12 times more wealth than the median Black household, and more than 1 in 4 Black households have zero or negative net worth; that's compared to less than 1 in 10 for white families. As the study succinctly demonstrates, in a country where housing equity makes up about two-thirds of median household wealth, "the racial wealth gap is primarily a housing wealth gap."

Black lives matter, and Black livelihood also matters. The implicit racism in our housing policies only underscores growing socioeconomic issues and further barriers to achieve economic prosperity. We must illuminate these issues and enact changes now if we're really serious about leveling the playing field and creating a system of equal access to economic opportunity.

Forbes Real Estate Council is an invitation-only community for executives in the real estate industry. Do I qualify?

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Council Post: How Systemic Racism Exists In U.S. Housing Policies

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Atticus is the CEO of , an affordable, shared housing model that creates financial independence for workers. If you ask a person of color, they'll likely tell you they've been unjustifiably pulled over while driving. We hear this example often when discussing racism in our society, and it's for good reason.

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The state of Mississippi is refusing to fund improvements of water quality in the city of Jackson. Those who live there believe that this is due to the majority of citizens in Jackson being of color. In the last 25 years, Jackson has received funds for water improvement only 3 times. When the citizens of Jackson tried to fund it themselves, Mississippi government denied their efforts. The descrimination against Jackson is so apparent that "NAACP president Derrick Johnson lives in Jackson and joined other local residents in filing the complaint with the EPA under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which forbids anyone who receives federal funds from discriminating based on race or national origin.  In the past, this part of the law has rarely been used on environmental matters." The NAACP is looking for equal distrabution of funds throughout the state of Mississippi, regardles.

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JACKSON, Miss. (AP) - In a federal complaint Tuesday, the NAACP said Mississippi officials "all but assured" a drinking water calamity in Jackson by depriving the state's majority-Black capital city of badly needed funds to upgrade its infrastructure. The organization asked the Environmental Protection Agency to investigate the state's alleged pattern of steering money to white communities with less need.

The group said the state's refusal to fund improvements in Jackson culminated in late August when the water system suffered a near-total collapse after a heavy rainstorm. Over 25 years, it said, Jackson received funds from an important federal program only three times. When Jackson tried to fund improvements itself, those efforts were repeatedly blocked by Mississippi state political leaders, according to the complaint.

NAACP president Derrick Johnson lives in Jackson and joined other local residents in filing the complaint with the EPA under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which forbids anyone who receives federal funds from discriminating based on race or national origin. In the past, this part of the law has rarely been used on environmental matters, but the Biden administration has promised to step up enforcement in communities overburdened by pollution.

"Jackson's majority-Black population has been repeatedly ignored, spurned, or ridiculed, resulting in the most recent water access inequity and crisis," the NAACP said.

The group wants the EPA to make sure that from now on federal funds are distributed equitably.

The U.S. Justice Department is working to improve Jackson's water system. If a voluntary improvement plan isn't reached with the city, the department threatened Monday to file legal action under a different law, the Safe Water Drinking Act, which regulates harmful substances in tap water. The city has repeatedly violated this law in recent years.

There were warnings the Jackson water system was struggling before it failed. Roughly 300 boil-water notices were issued over the previous two years. Racism and neglect created a particularly bad situation in the city.

EPA Administrator Michael Regan visited the community Monday to talk to city officials and ensure they can "deliver long overdue relief for Jackson residents."

Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves, a Republican, has blamed Jackson's water problems on mismanagement by city leaders. Reeves declared an emergency for the water system in late August and brought in out-of-state crews to help make repairs. Before the city's latest water crisis, though, Reeves expressed his own opposition to state funding for Jackson water improvements, saying he wants to hold down Mississippi's overall debt level.

The Biden administration has several other environmental civil rights investigations open. The Justice Department is looking into how local and state officials in Alabama allowed chronically bad wastewater problems to fester in majority-Black Lowndes County, and for the first time the EPA initiated its own investigation into Colorado's air program.

More than 80% of Jackson residents are Black and roughly a quarter live in poverty. About a decade after the public schools integrated in the 1970s, white flight began. Mississippi's largest city now struggles with a shrinking tax base.

Denecka Samuels, a mother of six children, lives in one of the poorest parts of Jackson. When water was not flowing from the tap, she said she had to fetch it from a barrel and cart it home to bathe her children. Samuels said frequent boil-water notices also make life much harder.

"It's a constant struggle," Samuels said. "I have to keep reminding my younger kids, 'Do not drink the water out of that faucet.' ... They're young and they don't understand."

Samuels was among several people who spoke Monday evening at a Poor People's Campaign protest to bring attention to Jackson water problems. The event was near the Governor's Mansion.

"I did not choose to be Black. I did not choose this life to not have no water," Samuels said. "It chose me."

In addition to her family responsibilities, Samuels said she has been working with the Poor People's Campaign to distribute bottled water to Jackson residents.

It is crucial for water systems to maintain pressure so that untreated groundwater doesn't seep into cracks in the pipes. After heavy rain, the quality of water entering Jackson's treatment plants changed, which the system couldn't handle, causing a drop in pressure. Residents were told to boil water to kill potentially harmful bacteria.

Officials lifted Jackson's citywide boil-water notice Sept. 15, nearly seven weeks after it was issued. But new boil-water notices have been issued for several neighborhoods within the city since then because of broken pipes.

In other legal actions earlier this month, four Jackson residents filed a proposed class action against current and former local officials, an engineering firm and a business contracted to replace water meters. They want lead pipes and equipment replaced and the system fixed, plus damages.

The EPA said it would decide whether to investigate within 25 days.

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Phillis reported from St. Louis.

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The Associated Press receives support from the Walton Family Foundation for coverage of water and environmental policy. The AP is solely responsible for all content. For all of AP's environmental coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/climate-and-environment

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NAACP says Jackson's water problems are civil rights issue

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JACKSON, Miss. (AP) - In a federal complaint Tuesday, the NAACP said Mississippi officials "all but assured" a drinking water calamity in Jackson by depriving the state's majority-Black capital city of badly needed funds to upgrade its infrastructure. The organization asked the Environmental Protection Agency to investigate the state's alleged pattern of steering money to white communities with less need.

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The Gift of Life; Inequality in the Healthcare systems

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The Gift of Life; Inequality in the Healthcare systems

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"Everyone deserves an equal chance at living a full life." It is so horrible to know that inequality and racism has the power to chose who's lives should be save and who shouldn't.

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Alexis Jeffrey, a gymnast who is not African American, was said to be singing lyrics that included the N-word. Her teammates later confronted her about the situation. Jeffrey refused to come clean and apologize about the situation. The coaches of UCLA told the other gymnasts to be "tolerant" of her actions due to her declining mental health. It was also reported that she was afraid of the other African American gymnasts and was intimidated by them. This in no way, shape or form gives Alexis Jeffrey the right to use a racist and derogatory term regardless of her mental health standing or social status with her teammates. Gymnasts of UCLA were not satisfied with how the coaches handled the situation after Jeffrey transferred to another university.

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For years, UCLA gymnasts have tumbled across our screens. In viral videos of their floor routines, the team's melanated gymnasts flip and dance to the music of Beyoncé, Janet Jackson or Rihanna as their teammates in the background do their choreography and the packed crowds in Pauley Pavilion cheer thunderously. UCLA's program has been praised for embracing Black athletes and music in a sport that has often appeared to be overwhelmingly white.

The routines painted a picture of a space that seemed to be in such contradiction to elite gymnastics, the more traditional (and for many, the more boring) version we all watch every four years at the Olympics. Through the lens of UCLA gymnastics, the college version looked like a place of camaraderie, jubilant expression and freedom.

But in January, we were all reminded that UCLA gymnastics is still a part of a sport with a long history of exclusivity. News broke that since the fall, the team had been dealing with the fallout from Alexis Jeffrey, a gymnast who is not Black, reportedly singing lyrics that included the N-word. When her teammates approached her about it, she denied any wrongdoing and refused to apologize. Earlier this year, Jeffrey transferred to Louisiana State. But the gymnasts remaining at UCLA were unhappy with how the team and the athletic administration handled everything, including that coaches told the gymnasts to be tolerant of Jeffrey because they feared for Jeffrey's mental health and told some Black gymnasts that Jeffrey was "scared" or "intimidated" by them. Margzetta Frazier told the Los Angeles Times the administration's response was "abstract conversations that didn't specifically address racism on the team" and that "her requests for help ... 'were neglected and brushed under the rug.'" The cost of all of this was obvious at times in the gymnastics itself, especially at their season opener in January, when the team score was the in seven years.

As news about Jeffrey and how the school responded was emerging, the UCLA gymnastics program amplified their Black Lives Matter meet with images of gymnasts wearing shirts with the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s famous "injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere" quote. The sharp contrast between the school's internal handling of racism and the team's external proclamations of antiracism were glaring.

It felt surprising because of the reputation UCLA had built over the last few years, but it shouldn't have been. UCLA is not even the only college program to have faced reports of racism from Black gymnasts recently. In the summer of 2020, Black gymnasts from , and all revealed the racism they faced on their collegiate teams. It turns out college gymnastics is still a lot like its elite counterpart, a sport still coached and managed by predominantly white staffs.

None of this is new. This is always what has made it a hard sport to exist in as a Black girl.

Gymnastics has a long, fraught history when it comes to racism. We know this well because for the last year, we have been tracing the history of Black girls in U.S. gymnastics in order to tell the story of how they have gone from the margins of the sport to its core. For our new podcast, "American Prodigies," we talked to gymnasts, judges, coaches and choreographers about the ways in which Black girls' bodies are judged more harshly, their hair scrutinized, their music choices critiqued and their experiences discounted.

(Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)

We have an episode on UCLA gymnastics that we've been working on for months, long before this news broke. In it, we probe the genesis of these viral routines. What we learned is that these viral moments reveal less about college gymnastics itself and more about the ways in which these Black gymnasts have used college gymnastics to carve out a space for themselves in a sport that often requires them to check their culture at the door.

The sport of gymnastics is nothing without its expectations and exactitudes that are policed so heavily at every level of the sport, but especially so at the elite one. So much of the sports aesthetic historically has been white. As Rebecca Schuman at Slate, "women's gymnastics was, until fairly recently, a space almost exclusively dominated by whiteness. White athletes were considered the standard. Floor music came in two varieties: classical and elevator." College gymnastics, spearheaded by UCLA, emerged as a counter to the stuffiness - the whiteness - of elite gymnastics. It was, instead, a place that emphasized team unity, showmanship and creativity. It was a door left ajar in the sport, one that these gymnasts could walk through and they did.

Sophina DeJesus created her 2016 routine, one of the earliest to go viral, with her mom, Maria, at their home. When she performed it, with her curly ponytail bright blue, she told us "it was like an out-of-body experience, like my Olympic moment."

Hallie Mossett had her viral moment in 2017, when her routine started with her lying flat on the floor, one leg behind her head, a fist up in the air. The first beats of Beyoncé's "Formation" set the tone. Mossett told us, "I felt like, me being very L.A. and being very proud of my Blackness, I wanted to bring all of that into the choreography and the routines that I did." In fact, Mossett probably choreographed one of your favorite routines. She told us she choreographed close to 20 in her five years at UCLA. Her favorite part was working with the gymnasts and asking them, "Do you like this? Hey, tell me if you don't like this move. If this makes you feel uncomfortable, we'll change it." She remembers that their eyes would light up when she'd ask. "It fills me with a little bit of joy," she said. "Knowing that they have choices and that their voice matters. So many gymnasts' voices did not."

Nia Dennis had two viral routines, her first in 2020 and another in 2021. The former routine was inspired by Beyoncé's "Homecoming" performance at Coachella and incorporated her dad's love of stepping. While watching the latter and talking to us about that experience, Dennis said, "Black culture in gymnastics is not common. It's not really recognized. And that's what I wanted to do [with that routine]."

As these routines became more common, people have pointed out that UCLA participated in the commodification of these routines, of the Blackness of them. In fact, the embrace of Black gymnasts often seems conditioned on the ability to commodify and capitalize on their labor and their Blackness. UCLA's recent reckoning around race and racism in their program reminds us of this fact. The seeming contradiction between the diversity in the program and the recent revelations is not one at all because the appearance of Blackness on the surface rarely, if ever, indicates systemic change underneath. It does not require a regime change.

But make no mistake, these athletes are not naïve. Black gymnasts remain resolute in their desire to bring their whole self into the sport they love. When Sekai Wright rocks her Afro while she tumbles across the floor at Pauley, she's continuing a long line of Black gymnasts at UCLA and beyond who continue to push boundaries of their sport and compel gymnastics, one floor routine at a time, into the future where all gymnasts can find freedom in the air.

Or perhaps Angie Denkins, the 1986 U.S. balance beam champion, said it best when we spoke to her: "It's just a wonderful feeling for me to see more sisters and young ladies of different cultures that are up there and are really doing the doggone thing. ... Embrace it. It's inevitable. We damn good. So move over. Go sit down and enjoy the show."
Amira Rose Davis is an assistant professor of history and African American studies at Penn State University and Jessica Luther is an investigative journalist. They are the showrunner and producer of the new season of "American Prodigies." Davis and Luther are both based in Austin, Texas.

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Commentary: Black gymnasts, including UCLA's biggest stars, grapple with sport's racism

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For years, UCLA gymnasts have tumbled across our screens. In viral videos of their floor routines, the team's melanated gymnasts flip and dance to the music of Beyoncé, Janet Jackson or Rihanna as their teammates in the background do their choreography and the packed crowds in Pauley Pavilion cheer thunderously.

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Almost everyone knows the hit TV show Stranger Things, and has watched the cast grow up for the past few years in the media. One of the main characters of the show, Caleb McLaughlin, recently spoke out about the unfairness he'd been treated with outside of the show. In the article, he mentioned how he was liked the least, how he had the least amount of followers on any social media and even how people didn't want to meet him all because of his skin color. He was on the same show as everyone else, why would he be treated this way? It's really heartbreaking to see how someone's appearance can change the way people act towards the.

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Stranger Things star Caleb McLaughlin has said he has faced racism from fans of the show.

The 20-year-old, who plays Lucas Sinclair in the Netflix hit, said the experience "took a toll" on him.

"My very first Comic-Con, some people didn't stand in my line because I was black," he told fans at a Belgian convention.

The actor has starred in the show since he was 14, and will appear in the fifth and final season.

He is one of Stranger Things' five main characters alongside Finn Wolfhard, Gaten Matarazzo, Noah Schnapp and Millie Bobby Brown, all of whom also joined the cast in season one.

The other actors have more Instagram followers than Caleb - something that he discussed with fans during an on-stage appearance at Heroes Comic Con in Brussels.

In a video shared on Twitter by an attendee, he says he asked his parents why he was the "least favourite" even though he was "on the same show as everybody".

"My parents had to be like, 'It's a sad truth, but it's because you're the black child on the show'.

"Because I was born with this beautiful chocolate skin, I'm not loved."

He said people had avoided him at early meet-and-greet events, telling him it was "because you were mean to Eleven", referring to Lucas's hostility towards Millie Bobby Brown's character in season one.

"Even now some people don't follow me or don't support me because I'm black," he told fans in Belgium.

"Sometimes overseas you feel the racism, you feel the bigotry.

"Sometimes it's hard to talk about and for people to understand, but when I was younger it definitely affected me a lot."

Despite being a worldwide hit, Stranger Things has faced some criticism for its lack of casting diversity and accusations of sidelining its black characters.

Caleb is the latest black star to talk about receiving backlash because of the shows they were a part of.

Lord of the Rings actors recently condemned the "relentless" racist abuse suffered by cast members of the newly released spin-off series The Rings Of Power.

Non-white actors were trolled online for portraying a range of white fictional characters.

Speaking at this summer's Comic-Con event in the US, the star of another fantasy drama spin-off, House of the Dragon, hit out at racist trolls who criticised his casting in the new Game of Thrones series.

Steve Toussaint, who plays Lord Corlys Velaryon, said it was "an issue they have to deal with, I don't have to".

And Disney's recently released trailer for a new live-action version of the Little Mermaid, starring black actress Halle Bailey, generated criticism from people upset because the cartoon version featured a white mermaid.

Fellow Disney actor Rachel Zegler came to her defence, saying: "If you don't support my girl Halle, who is the perfect Ariel, you don't support any of us."

Despite his experiences, Caleb said he was determined to not be drawn into negativity.

"With my platform I want to spread positivity and love because I do not give hate back to people who give hate to me," he said.

Listen to Newsbeat live at 12:45 and 17:45 weekdays - or listen back here.

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Stranger Things star Caleb McLaughlin speaks about racism from fans

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Stranger Things star Caleb McLaughlin has said he has faced racism from fans of the show. The 20-year-old, who plays Lucas Sinclair in the Netflix hit, said the experience "took a toll" on him. "My very first Comic-Con, some people didn't stand in my line because I was black," he told fans at a Belgian convention.

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As someone who is from the bay area, reading this article gave me the chills. Hate crimes against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders increased by 567%. There were allegedly 60 victims in 2021 but it's suspected to be higher because many people don't report these type of hate crimes. "The Stop AAPI Hate coalition out of San Francisco State University tracked more than 10,000 incidents of hate from March 2020 through September 2021." There are many videos and photos of people attacking many Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. Many people tend to stay inside now because of how common these hate crimes are.

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The mayor of San Francisco expressed despair over the increase in reported hate crimes against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders last year, up an astonishing 567 percent from the previous year, according to preliminary figures released by the police department on Tuesday.

Mayor London Breed pledged continued support for the community, saying she suspects actual numbers are much higher because people are reluctant to report to the police.

The initial count shows 60 victims in 2021, up from nine in 2020. Half of last year's victims were allegedly targeted by one man. Officials did not name the man, but appeared to be referring to the case of a man accused of vandalizing at least 20 establishments.

It would have broken her heart if the grandmother who raised her had been attacked "in the way that we see so many of our seniors of the AAPI community being attacked," Breed said at Tuesday's press conference. "But that did not happen. Because as a community we protected one another. And that's what we have to do now more than ever."

Hateful attacks against the AAPI community - Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders - surged nationally during the pandemic, fueled in part by then-President Donald Trump's calling Covid-19 a derogatory nickname that insulted China. The Stop AAPI Hate coalition out of San Francisco State University tracked more than 10,000 incidents of hate from March 2020 through September 2021.

In San Francisco and elsewhere, video clips of Asian Americans being attacked and robbed on public streets alarmed the community so much that frightened seniors stayed home. Most recently, former San Francisco Bay Area resident Michelle Go died in New York City after a mentally disturbed man pushed her in front of a subway. Officials there say there is no indication the man was motivated by racial bias, but Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders are still rattled.

San Francisco Police Chief Bill Scott said at Tuesday's news conference they have expanded the crime tip line to include more languages and are sharing safety tips for Lunar New Year celebrations. But he also acknowledged his department is only part of a criminal justice system that includes prosecution and judges.

Statistics do not show the whole picture because not everyone reports incidents. Also, prosecutors are unable to tack on hate crime enhancements without a clear statement of bias by the alleged attacker. This has frustrated some victims and their families, who see the charge as a sign of accountability.

San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin, who faces a recall election in June, has come under fire from some Asian American victims.

On Tuesday, lawyers for Anh Lê filed a federal lawsuit against Boudin, saying his office has systemically refused to uphold the rights of Asian Americans victimized by racial violence. Lê says the DA's office never informed him of a lenient plea deal cut with his attackers or the lack of a hate crime charge until after the fact.

Rachel Marshall, a spokeswoman for the DA, said in a statement that Boudin has been a "steadfast advocate" for improved services and support for the AAPI community. He has added multilingual advocates to his office and launched an AAPI elder abuse steering committee, she said.

The mayor at Tuesday's news conference declined to comment on the lawsuit.

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San Francisco reports major rise in anti-Asian hate crimes

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The mayor of San Francisco expressed despair over the increase in reported hate crimes against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders last year, up an astonishing 567 percent from the previous year, according to preliminary figures released by the police department on Tuesday.

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players for the Hawthorn Hawks claimed coaches pressured them to stop seeing their partners and, in one case, to have a partner’s pregnancy terminated, to focus on training,

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Bans on teaching about racism in schools

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Bans on teaching about racism in schools

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Combating racism starts with educating the people! With out learning African American history we are bound to repeat it. Passing a bill to stop educating about racism simply because they don't want kids to feel "discomfort" is something I find very sad and unsympathetic to those who felt very uncomfortable now and many years back.

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Congressional Democrats didn't mince words when they sent a message this week to their GOP colleagues, Republican state leaders and conservative school board members mounting efforts to sanitize U.S. history by stripping teachings and banning books on divisive topics like race, racism and gender.

"It is our moral imperative to tell the truth about our past to finally reconcile with this nation's history of racism and white nationalism," Rep. Jamaal Bowman, a New York Democrat and former teacher and principal, said in a statement announcing legislation aimed at protecting and promoting the teaching of African American history in K-12 schools.

"The moment we are in requires of us a clear-eyed vision to ensure that not just our children but people of all ages, have access to resources and education that accurately recount African American history," he said. "As a Black man and an educator, I cannot make clear enough how important it is to the success of our democracy for us to come to a collective understanding and agreement that we must take our commitment to learn from our past seriously."

The legislation itself has the modest goal of directing some $10 million a year over five years to the National Museum of African American History and Culture, which would in turn use the funds to develop and make available high-quality teaching materials related to teaching African American history, provide professional development for early childhood, elementary and secondary teachers, establish a teacher fellowship program and engage with local and state leaders interested in incorporating the museum's resources into their curriculum.

Editorial Cartoons on Education

But it comes amid a major backlash among conservatives to critical race theory - the academic assertion that racial inequity exists in all facets of American life, including education, health care, the criminal justice system and more.

As it stands, at least 36 states have introduced bills to restrict how educators can teach racism, sexism and other divisive topics - at least 14 of them have passed such measures. And school librarians across the country are being bullied into pulling books about Martin Luther King Jr., the civil rights movement, former first lady Michelle Obama and others that center on LGBTQ characters off the shelves of their libraries.

The efforts are almost entirely driven by white parents and supported by Republican lawmakers.

In some of the most dramatic examples, legislation proposed in GOP-controlled Florida would ban public schools from making people feel "discomfort" when being taught about racial discrimination in U.S. history, and in Virginia, Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin established a tip line for parents to report instances when educators teach "divisive" subjects.

In total, 17.7 million public school students - more than a third of all students in the country - have had their learning restricted by such local and state policies, according to a new study from the University of California, Los Angeles.

"Let's start with a basic fact: You cannot understand American history without knowing African American history," Randi Weingarten, President of the American Federation of Teachers, said in a statement.

The AFT, along with the National Education Association and dozens of additional education and civil rights advocacy organizations, are backing the legislation.

"Some people are making this a wedge issue - even bullying teachers and trying to stop us from teaching students accurate history," Weingarten said. "This bill will make sure every student learns about the history and contributions of African Americans throughout the years. And every educator should have the training and tools they need to engage and teach African American history."

Bowman's legislation, which is co-sponsored in the Senate by New Jersey Democrat Cory Booker, also comes amid a sudden and alarming increase in bomb threats being made against historically Black colleges and universities. On Jan. 31, six HBCUs received bomb threats, followed on Feb. 1 - the first day of National Black History Month - when an additional 12 HBCUs received bomb threats.

"The story of Black people in America is inextricably linked to the story of America," Booker said in a statement. "This story must be reckoned with so that we can honestly reflect upon our nation's past moral wrongs and the long and ongoing quest for justice that has been undertaken by Black Americans."

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Congressional Democrats Target Bans on Teaching About Racism in Schools

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Congressional Democrats didn't mince words when they sent a message this week to their GOP colleagues, Republican state leaders and conservative school board members mounting efforts to sanitize U.S. history by stripping teachings and banning books on divisive topics like race, racism and gender.

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An african American surfer gets yelled at in the water by another surfer telling him, "to go back to the streets". La manager of the surf fondation said localism, which is the belief of ownership and control of an area that you've been going to can be a viel for racism.

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Ask a local surfer in Manhattan Beach about "the incident" on Presidents Day, and people will know exactly what you're talking about. It started as a normal South Bay outing for Justin "Brick" Howze and Gage Crismond, two friends who have been regulars there since they started surfing together eight months ago. They made the trek from Hollywood. Did the dance of getting into their skintight wetsuits as the sun rose. Waxed their surfboards while blasting music in the parking lot.

The waves weren't that great when Brick, a 24-year-old musician, producer, creative director and DJ, found himself in the middle of a couple of traffic collisions in the water. First, a surfer dropped in on Brick's wave, resulting in Brick's board thrashing the other surfer's board. The second time, it was Brick who accidentally cut someone off. "Get the f- out of the way," the surfer told Brick. An argument ensued.

Collisions and aggression are typical in surf culture, along with vague codes of conduct that vary from beach to beach. Manhattan Beach has a reputation for invoking the latter to justify the former, especially when it comes to surfers deemed by locals as outsiders; "localism," as it is known, is the culture that surfers adhere to. Some say it's surfers just being protective of their home turf. Others think it's a guise for something more insidious. Dan Cobley, 42, who has been surfing in Manhattan Beach for 30 years, says localism reigns because of the quality of the waves.

"We're in an unregulated sport, so we drop some rules [on sharing waves], which make a lot of sense," he says. "But now they're 100-plus-year-old rules."

Graham Hamilton, L.A. chapter manager of the Surfrider Foundation and a surfer of 20 years, believes localism can be a veil for racism. "It's rooted in this false sense of ownership," he says. "Like, 'I live on this block. This is my beach. If you don't live here, get the f- out,' you know?"

As emotions climaxed, a different surfer - white and older - inserted himself into the fray. He began calling Brick the N-word repeatedly. Then he called him a "donkey" and violently splashed water in his face. He also called Gage, a 25-year-old dancer and choreographer with painted nails and arms full of scribbly tattoos, a gay slur and told him to "go back to the streets."

"Go down there ... that's where the Blacks used to surf," the man added, referencing Bruce's Beach, a once-thriving Black-owned resort at the center of a fierce land battle in Manhattan Beach today. (The property was taken through eminent domain more than 100 years ago. Local activists are calling for Los Angeles County to return the land to the living descendants of the Bruce family and for the city of Manhattan Beach to publicly apologize and provide restitution for its role in institutionalized racism.)

As the altercation ensued, a crowd of mostly white surfers surrounded Brick and Gage and refused to intervene. A Black passerby named Rashidi Kafele took notice and started filming. He wasn't used to seeing Black surfers in the water and, upon hearing the N-word, knew he had to document it.

This was the first time Brick and Gage had been involved in a racially charged altercation in the water, but locals had seen instances like this before. Kavon Ward, founder of the organization Justice for Bruce's Beach, says the situation "shows that nothing has changed in Manhattan Beach."

"I know a lot of Black people that I've talked to feel the same way," she says. "When they come into Manhattan Beach, there's this air of, like, they just don't belong or they're not wanted. And it's unfortunate that the residents of Manhattan Beach don't see that. They don't notice that."

Jessa Williams, another beginner Black surfer, says that in December she was called the N-word multiple times in the water at El Porto, one mile north of the Manhattan Beach Pier. "I felt almost re-triggered since it happened with Brick and Gage," she says.

In the moment, Brick retreated into a meditative state. "I was just aware of my surroundings, and aware of who I am, and aware of what this moment actually is and what this moment actually means," he said later on Instagram. The easy reaction would have been to punch the guy in the mouth, Brick said. "But do you want to be exactly what they want you to be in that moment?"

Later that day, Brick and Gage went on Instagram Live for 37 minutes, broadcasting to Brick's 76,000 followers. Brick recounted the morning in detail, while Gage rolled a joint and filled in the blanks. They also posted the images captured by Kafele of the surfer splashing Brick in the face to the Black Sand Instagram account, a surf and arts collective they started in October. The posts got the attention of organizations including 1 Planet One People, which advocates for inclusivity in surfing and encouraged the friends to create a call to action.

Paddling for peace

Brick and Gage wanted to "reset the tone." They knew that last summer, after the killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery, surfers organized "paddle-outs" in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement. Traditionally, surfers paddle out a few yards from shore and join hands in a circle to memorialize someone from their community who has died. Brick and Gage thought that the paddling out was a powerful gesture. And, if they did it on the same stretch of Manhattan Beach where Brick was called the N-word, it had the potential to make a statement. They blasted it out on their Instagrams.

On Feb. 21, 200 surfers showed up, along with camera crews, journalists and observers from the pier. Many surfers who attended the Peace Paddle said it was the freest they'd ever felt in the water, despite it being too crowded for anyone to catch a solid wave without collisions.

"It was really just about Black joy," says Danielle Black Lyons, co-founder of 1 Planet One People, a collective supporting climate action and racial and social equality, and Textured Waves, which aims to boost participation among women of color in surfing. "That was the focus of the day: being around your people, being free to be whoever you are and surf your face off without worrying about if you were going to make some white guy angry for accidentally dropping in."

After the Peace Paddle, the South Bay's Easy Reader newspaper published a story about the events. The headline, "Localism at the Manhattan Beach pier triggers racial reckoning for surfers," struck a lot of the Peace Paddle participants as problematic - an echo of the root cause of "the incident."

"The toxicity of localism is heightened and enhanced and exacerbated when race comes into play," Hamilton says.

Many surfers of color have a story like this.

Bobby Kim, the Asian American co-owner of streetwear brand the Hundreds, remembers a run-in while surfing in Santa Monica that escalated from territorialism to racism. "It's that subtle nuance that people of color and minorities understand," he says.

There are other nuances too, including misogyny.

"I'm not trying to take anything away from terrible, racist things happening to men," says Williams, a Black woman who was surfing with members of Color the Water, a group offering free surf lessons to BIPOC, when she was called a racial slur by a white man. "They have their own unique layer of danger and vulnerability, but what I think is hard for people to remember is that when something like that happens to a woman, it's not just about feeling angry, or humiliated, or disrespected. I was afraid."

'The most free I've ever felt'

When Brick and Gage started surfing last year, they knew about the lack of representation in surf culture. But it wasn't top of mind - at least not at first.

"I was just going for the ocean," Brick says.

When it became clear that their new hobby wasn't historically friendly to people who looked like them, they were already in too deep to be deterred.

"I made a promise to myself early on," Brick says. "I'm not going to care what anybody out here thinks about what I'm doing and how I'm doing it. I'm not here to impress anybody. This is my disconnect from the world that I know. So I'm not going to come over to this world and get all self-conscious."

In the water, everything else just became noise.

"I felt the most free I've ever felt," Gage describes. "It's almost like magic. You always think about the oceans and how we don't know too much and how the moon controls the tides, but you never really immerse yourself in it. And then when you're sitting in it, and you're forced to think that this is a whole different world upside down ... it's kind of artistic. There's no way to just say you're an athlete; surfing is more of a spiritual thing."

For Brick, "surfing is like that feeling when you get a check - some extra money," he says. "Now imagine if you had control over that feeling and you could make that happen every day. Surfing pays your soul."

The surfing lifestyle comes down to routine. On a typical day, unless it's raining or the wave report isn't good, the two men wake up before dawn and make the trek to the coast to surf for a few hours. Afterward, they'll grab coffee and breakfast. Brick is a foodie and has been dragging Gage to Gjusta in Venice lately for a post-surf meal. Then they work on projects for Black Sand, the collective they started with their friend Tre'lan Tillman, a Black surfer who lives on Kauai. They're usually in bed by 10 p.m. and do the entire thing over again the next day. The commitment is real: Brick even stopped taking meetings in the morning unless they were on the Westside and were scheduled for after he surfed.

Brick, who is from L.A., took up surfing in August. He was sitting at the beach alone one day and bought a $10 boogie board off a vendor out of sheer boredom. There was something about being in the water past the break while still being supported by a tangible object. He was hooked; he wanted to feel that sense of both weightlessness and security again. The next day, he borrowed a surfboard from a friend, bought a wetsuit on OfferUp and took to the water alone.

Gage, who is from Holly, Mich., had never even gone swimming in the ocean before he started surfing last summer. He was searching for something much more than a hobby. In retrospect, he says, he was searching for an anchor in a turbulent time. He moved to L.A. two years ago to pursue his dance career, and then the pandemic hit with a double whammy: He lost all his dance jobs and went through a devastating breakup with his then-fiancée.

When he rented his first wetsuit and board in Venice late last summer, he had been living in his car for almost five months, parking near the ocean every night and surfing a couple of times a week on his own. It was only a few weeks before contacting Brick that he'd found housing again.

"Not even to be cheesy like, 'Surfing saved my life,' but I mean it kind of did," says Gage.
Individually, Brick and Gage noticed the weird glances they'd get from non-Black surfers in the water. Brick describes paddling into the lineup while Black as "wearing basketball shorts to a nice restaurant."

But a direct message on Instagram would change that. When Brick posted a photo of himself with a surfboard, Gage responded unsolicited.

"Bro, hell yeah," read the message from Gage. "Let me know when y'all go out again. I surf too - and no n- surf ..."

They've been surfing together almost every day since, which has brought a sense of security and humor to an otherwise uncomfortable situation. It almost feels like a secret club.

"We were just on this idea of just making sure that we were creating our own space," Gage says, "our own lane in surf, because that's just naturally what we do with everything."

From surfers to activists

Before the Peace Paddle, the friends didn't think of themselves as activists. They were just two Black dudes trying to surf and make art.

Their place in the water means more now, Brick says. "You don't really have the option to [say] 'I'm not an activist' in this type of a moment. ... Yes, you are. If you thought that was wrong, and there's a solution to it that needs to be found - yes, you have a responsibility.

"That's where we stand right now."

Since the Peace Paddle, people have asked: "What's next?"

For Brick, that's like being asked, while lying on the ground after getting hit by a car, where the nearest hospital is. "Like you are supposed to be figuring that out right now!"

Brick and Gage are currently more concerned with getting people to join Black Sand - their effort to encourage people of color to thrive in spaces where they've been historically underrepresented. They recently released a Peace Paddle capsule collection of T-shirts and crewnecks and are donating proceeds to local surf organizations and Bruce's Beach activists.

"Its purpose and goal now," Brick says, "is just increased visibility for people like us in the water and to inspire others who have just tried to be different in spaces that they may not have previously felt comfortable in."

Both Brick and Gage want to move to Manhattan Beach. They've been religiously sharing the work of Justice for Bruce's Beach on Instagram, and digging into the town's racist history. Brick has his sights set on finding the perfect spot near the water. He's been scanning Zillow listings for two months.

Sure, Black people make up less than 1% of the population there. "I'll become 151 of the 150 black people that live there right now," he says. It's more like 191. Brick hopes even more will catch the wave.

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They met in the DMs. Now they've sparked a movement to end racism in L.A. surf culture

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Ask a local surfer in Manhattan Beach about "the incident" on Presidents Day, and people will know exactly what you're talking about. It started as a normal South Bay outing for Justin "Brick" Howze and Gage Crismond, two friends who have been regulars there since they started surfing together eight months ago.

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This article dives into the subtle negative context associated with race in public school textbooks. It is stated that "The overwhelming majority of them treated the introduction of African Americans in American society as a “problem”(Waxman). For such a easily accessed resource to be corrupted with racism is extremely sad and unfair to millions.

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How Racism Was Baked into U.S. History Textbooks

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In Teaching White Supremacy: America's Democratic Ordeal and the Forging of Our National Identity, out Sept. 27, Harvard University researcher Donald Yacovone analyzed 220 history textbooks from 1832 to the present day

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Analysis: A definitive rebuttal to every racist ‘Little Mermaid’ argument

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Analysis: A definitive rebuttal to every racist ‘Little Mermaid’ argument

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The released trailer for the 2023 film 'Little Mermaid' recently caused an uproar on social media. The casting of African American actress, Halee Bailey, to play Ariel seemed to upset many people because a person of color was cast in a role considered "traditionally" white. The hashtag #notmyariel was trending across various platform following the film's trailer release.

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Ever since Disney released the first look for its 2023 live-action remake of "The Little Mermaid," the internet has been sodden with wave after wave of racist critics complaining that Ariel, the completely fictional underwater fish woman, shouldn't be Black. Hashtags like #notmyariel are bouncing around social media, and YouTube hid the dislike counter on the official video after it was bombarded with racist comments and more than 1.5 million "dislikes." One group of critics went as far as to share a digitally altered version of the teaser that featured a White woman in place of the movie's star Halle Bailey, who they called a " woke actress."

By now, we know it's not unusual to see racist responses whenever a person of color is cast in a role considered "traditionally" White. While there are plenty of legitimate reasons to dislike a movie, these critics often hide their discomfort behind other thin arguments, claiming historical or cultural accuracy or, of all things, science.

Here are some real arguments people have levied to protest the casting choice. The facts prove they just don't hold water.

Claim: 'The Little Mermaid' is a Danish story, therefore Ariel should be White

The original "Little Mermaid" story was written by Hans Christian Andersen and first published in 1837. If we're going to dignify this argument, according to the text, Ariel and the rest of her mermaid kin are from "far out in the ocean" (literally the opening lines of the story) at the "bottom of the sea." So, not Denmark or anywhere near it.

If critics are truly worried about staying faithful to the original story, we shouldn't gloss over the original ending where the mermaid is instructed to kill her prince, but throws the knife away in despair and dissolves into sea foam instead. Not to mention, while the 1989 Disney version has a Prince Eric with bright blue peepers, Anderson specifically described the prince as having "coal-black eyes" and "raven hair." (Also "The Little Mermaid," who doesn't even have a name in the original story, isn't real.)

Claim: Mermaids live under the sea and therefore would not have dark skin

"From a scientific perspective, it doesn't make a lot of sense to have someone with darker skin who lives deep in the ocean." So says far-right pundit Matt Walsh, who opined about the "Little Mermaid" casting on "The Matt Walsh Show." He claims he framed the comment as a joke, since he goes on to say that "​​not only should the Little Mermaid be pale, she should, actually, be translucent." However, the context of his comment is still racially charged, and he still implies pale skin is closer to a "scientific" mermaid than dark skin.

Again, if we're going to take an academic look at these unnecessary bits of discourse, not all abyssal creatures are pale. Not all underwater creatures are pale. Also, since mermaids also get close enough to the surface to see other humans, if you want to look at it scientifically, mermaids would probably have a specific type of pigmentation that allowed for both a deep sea and shallow water existence. We also know that, centuries ago, seafarers often mistook one particular animal for a mermaid: the manatee, which is not pale. (Also "The Little Mermaid" isn't real.)

Claim: Mermaids are a European mythological figure and therefore Ariel should be White

Numerous Twitter scraps have cropped up with people trying to argue European folklore, or even Homerian epics like "The Odyssey," have some sort of monopoly on the idea of mermaids. In reality, it's fascinating to see how many different cultures throughout history have arrived at parallel folklorical themes. Humanoid creatures that dwell in the water are part of innumerable mythologies around the world.

East Asian and Oceanic folklore is replete with stories of underwater kingdoms and merpeople both good and evil, from the Magindara in some Philippine regions to the tale of the Indian Princess Suriratna or Hwang-ok that reached South Korea. Middle Eastern folktales compiled in the classic "Arabian Nights" collection, which dates back more than a thousand years, feature several accounts of sea-dwelling human creatures. In parts of continental Africa and among the African diaspora, folklore describing water spirits, oftentimes in the shape of beautiful women, are common. According to Shona mythology in Zimbabwe, the "njuzu" are mermaids who occupy lakes or rivers.

(Also, not all Europeans are White. Also, "The Little Mermaid" isn't real.)

Claim: Making Ariel Black is ruining childhoods and changing the character

On message boards and comment sections across the internet, people are debating whether a new, dark-skinned Ariel somehow negates or erases the classic 1989 version.

Disney's 1989 "The Little Mermaid" is still available to watch, own and share. The animated character of Ariel is part of Disney's wildly profitable "Disney Princess" franchise and her name and image are valuable and heavily trademarked Disney properties. The red-haired, fair-skinned Ariel is here to stay.

Far from ruining childhoods, many fans think making a different iteration of Ariel will only increase the Disney magic. Just look at the sweet reactions of young Black children and the praise of Disney icons like Jodi Benson, the voice of the original Ariel.

More importantly, the remake of one film doesn't erase the existence of the previous films: 1999's Mr. Darcy and 2005's Mr. Darcy live in harmony with every other character from the roughly 300 "Pride and Prejudice" film remakes. Pennywise looks different in every "It" iteration, as does Frankenstein's monster. The story of "Cinderella," which predates even the famous Brothers Grimm version, seems to have a different remake out every year. One notable version, 1997's "Rodgers & Hammerstein's Cinderella," featured a racially diverse cast that included singer Brandy as the first Black Cinderella and Whitney Houston as the fairy godmother. It aired on TV as part of the "Wonderful World of Disney."

While Disney has produced a very famous iteration of "The Little Mermaid," it isn't the first, only, or universally definitive work. No one owns the concept of mermaids or what they look like. A White, red-haired animated teenager is not the only version of "The Little Mermaid" to exist.

Also - and this is very important - "The Little Mermaid" isn't real.

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Analysis: A definitive rebuttal to every racist 'Little Mermaid' argument | CNN

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Ever since Disney released the first look for its 2023 live-action remake of "The Little Mermaid," the internet has been sodden with wave after wave of racist critics complaining that Ariel, the completely fictional underwater fish woman, shouldn't be Black.

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Systemic Racism - Wealth and Education Gap

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Systemic Racism - Wealth and Education Gap

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Despite well-intentioned programs aimed at alleviating racism and its repercussions, the systemic nature of racism makes this really difficult. This podcast addresses the successes and failures of an exchange program designed to expose low-income and BIPOC students at an underfunded high school to the opportunities that elite private schools can offer. Some of the students went on to receive scholarships that would launch them into college tuition-free, but others describe the challenges of being the only black student in a classroom, receiving negative messaging due to their skin color or socioeconomic status, and falling through the cracks in institutions that failed to support their needs as first-generation college students. In a note at the end of the episode, the host shares that almost all of the students interviewed have gone on to become educators. This doesn't erase the many shortcomings of the American education system, especially for racial minorities, but I think this is one way that systemic racism can be disrupted. By choosing to invest and engage in a faulty system, those who recognize its problems can work towards a more holistic solution.

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You Can Help Melanie

Nancy Updike goes to Iraq to try to figure out what it's like to be a private citizen working in the middle of a war zone.

The U.S. government spent two years on a sting operation trapping an Indian man suspected of being an illegal arms dealer.

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What happens when of a group of public school students in the Bronx goes to visit an elite private school three miles away.

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These findings from the Collingwood Football club reports that within community sports clubs racism is prevalent in the present and all the way to the beginning of many athletes careers.

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The findings of the Collingwood Football Club-commissioned report - that the club's culture and processes are ineffective and sometimes counter-productive in combatting racism - were unsurprising.

Having done extensive research with community sports clubs, it's clear that racism is a feature of sport that is present from the start of many athletes' careers.

Collingwood's report calls for diversification of club boards and leadership. Picture: AAP

The report's findings are consistent with critical race theory, which argues that racism is a part of everyday life that benefits white elites in predominantly white societies like Australia.

Since it is part of everyday business, it is invisible and insidious, and it is hard to shift because it permeates all institutions. Since racism benefits the dominant group, they are reluctant to effect real change because it means a shifting of power to others.

According to this theory, change will only come about if the dominant group will benefit and/or when the cost of not making the change is higher than cost of making it.

Race, sport and media: Questioning the status quo

A good example of this was the racial vilification rules implemented by the AFL in the 1990s - public perception was shaped by the leadership of key Aboriginal footballers and it became too embarrassing for the league to continue to tolerate on-field racism.

In this way there was interest convergence - the interests of the white majority and the minority footballers converged so that change was possible.

Despite the success of its vilification policies, racism continues to be a feature of football clubs. The Do Better report brings this type of racism to the fore.

The report found that racism was experienced by players and fans at Collingwood; "...it is clear that players and fans have experienced incidents of racism and that Collingwood's response to these incidents has been ineffective, or at worst exacerbated the impact of racist incidents".

Collingwood had commissioned the review after a former player, Héritier Lumumba, spoke out about racism. Picture: Getty Images

The report found that there were no effective means of making complaints about racism at Collingwood, and when a complaint was made, the response was defensive (more concerned with media coverage than helping victims), and the complainant would pay a high price for complaining.

This isn't surprising to us because it is exactly what we found in our study of community sport and what is reflected in scientific literature on complaints as a means for supporting diversity.

The lack of effective means for making complaints of racism are present in many organisations, not just in sport.

Reconciliation and the Anglo-Australian Football League

For those experiencing racism, they must weigh up the likelihood that their complaint will be received well, the likelihood that the racism will stop as a result of the complaint, and the career damage that complaining will cause.

In our research, the costs of making a complaint was almost always considered too high. Only very rarely do victims of racism complain - they know that they are unlikely to be believed or supported, and very likely that they will be pulled from play or experience other repercussions.

It is easier to let it slide. It has to be very bad for someone to complain.

Rather than punishing those who complain, clubs should be fostering a culture where it is unacceptable to speak or act in racist ways to teammates, competitors or colleagues. We need to reward and support people to speak out, and there needs to be accountability and consequences for acts of racism.

Clubs should be fostering a culture where it is unacceptable to speak or act in racist ways. Picture: Getty Images

Collingwood's report calls for diversification of club boards and leadership, including appointing First Nations people to the board.

We would go further - clubs should prioritise developing the leadership potential of First Nations and other non-white players, hire diverse coaching and other staff, and listen to them particularly when they say racism is occurring.

Equally, organisations need to be careful that it's not tokenistic. There needs to be a critical mass of non-white voices, and they need to have genuine decision-making power.

Sports can show Australia's better face

Dismantling racism cannot be the responsibility of those on the receiving end. It's everyone's responsibility, especially white people ( this is where Collingwood failed spectacularly).

White players and staff should notice and speak out when racism is present. Bystander intervention is one of the most effective ways to combat racism and reduces the risk of repercussions for its victims.

A key finding of the report is that there is a gap between what Collingwood says it stands for and what it practices around diversity and inclusion.

It is easy to say "we are welcoming and inclusive", but in order to be welcoming and inclusive, there needs to be a zero-tolerance approach to racism.

The report found that players and fans have both experienced incidents of racism. Picture: Getty Images

Culture change must be accepted and supported organisation-wide and not be left to individuals. Change has to come both from the top down (board/leadership), and from the bottom-up (individuals speaking out).

Perhaps now is a moment when interests converge and real change is possible.

The Do Better report provides recommendations to Collingwood that should be considered across the sector. Because make no mistake, our research at the community level would suggest that Collingwood isn't the only club where racism is part of the culture.

Banner: Getty Images

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Professor Karen FarqhuarsonProfessor of Sociology; Chair of the Anti-Racism Hallmark Research Initiative; President of Academic Board at University of Melbourne

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Professor Ramon SpaaijCollege of Sport and Exercise Science, Victoria University

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Why we're not doing better at racism in sport

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A University of Melbourne expert says Collingwood isn't the only AFL club where racism is part of the culture, but real change in Australian sport is possible.

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Stranger Things star Caleb McLaughlin calls out racism from fans: 'It definitely took a toll on me'

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Stranger Things star Caleb McLaughlin calls out racism from fans: 'It definitely took a toll on me'

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This article discusses the racism a popular actor of Gen-Z shares both on and off set. He brings light to the racism he has experienced as well as how it's been excused most his life because of his skin color

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"Sometimes it's hard to talk about and for people to understand, but when I was younger it definitely affected me a lot," the actor shared at the Heroes Comic Con Belgium convention.

McLaughlin appeared at the Heroes Comic Con Belgium convention on Sunday and spoke from the stage about the racism he was shown by some of the Stranger Things fans.

"It definitely took a toll on me as a younger kid," the actor said, as seen in video shared by one of the panel's attendees. "My very first Comic-Con, some people didn't stand in my line because I was Black. Some people told me, 'Oh I didn't want to be in your line because you were mean to Eleven.' Even now some people don't follow me or don't support me because I'm Black. Sometimes overseas you feel the racism, you feel the bigotry. Sometimes it's hard to talk about and for people to understand, but when I was younger it definitely affected me a lot."

McLaughlin, now 20, has portrayed Lucas Sinclair - a member of the core Dungeons and Dragons crew with Finn Wolfhard's Mike, Noah Schnapp's Will, and Gaten Matarazzo's Dustin - since season 1 of Stranger Things, which debuted in 2016 when he was 14. After the two-part fourth season, which streamed on Netflix this summer, the actor will return for the fifth and final season.

McLaughlin acknowledged at the panel that he was getting into a "deep conversation," but said his kid self would feel like, "Why am I the least favorite? The least amount of followers? I'm on the same show as everybody from season 1."

"My parents had to be like, 'It's a sad truth, but it's because you're the Black child on the show... Because I was born with this beautiful chocolate skin, I'm not loved," he said. "But that's why with my platform I want to spread positivity and love because I do not give hate back to people who give hate to me."

Black actors from other franchises, like Steve Toussaint and Ismael Cruz Córdova, have also recently addressed their experiences with racism among fandoms.

Game of Thrones prequel House of the Dragon reimagines the seafarers of House Velaryon as wealthy Black conquerors, instead of the pale skin and purple eyes described in George R.R. Martin's books. Toussaint, who stars on the show as Lord Corlys Velaryon, had said, "It seems to be very hard for people to swallow. [Fans] are happy with a dragon flying. They're happy with white hair and violet-colored eyes, but a rich Black guy? That's beyond the pale."

Córdova, in turn, revealed his DMs were filled with "pure and vicious hate speech" since becoming the first person of color to portray an elf in a fantasy franchise with The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. "I fought so hard for this role for this very reason," the actor said. "I felt that I could carry that torch. I made sure that my elf was the most Elven, the most incredible, because I knew this was coming."

Episode Recaps

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'Stranger Things' star Caleb McLaughlin calls out racism from fans

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"Sometimes it's hard to talk about and for people to understand, but when I was younger it definitely affected me a lot," the actor shared at the Heroes Comic Con Belgium convention. McLaughlin appeared at the Heroes Comic Con Belgium convention on Sunday and spoke from the stage about the racism he was shown by some of the Stranger Things fans.

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The Dangerous Impact Of Racial Trauma On The Black Community

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Impact of Racial Trauma on the Black Community

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Impact of Racial Trauma on the Black Community

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This article discusses how the trauma of racism effects people and the different types of trauma that can be experienced. The trauma one experiences can affect mental and physical health. This is so sad because mental health can already be a struggle and to throw another factor in such as racism is really taking a step back.

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Frustrated excluded outstand african american man suffers from bullying or racial discrimination ... [+]
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Psychologists use the term trauma to describe an emotional response to a terrible event like an accident, rape, or natural disaster. Racial trauma, or race-based traumatic stress, refers to the specific mental and emotional harms linked to racism and discrimination. The high rate of people who experience racism, and subsequent racial trauma, highlights the need to address the heinous nature of systemic racism in the US. Race-based trauma is serious and can lead to severe effects, psychologically and medically.

What Is Racial Trauma?

Race-based trauma (or race-based traumatic stress) refers to the emotional and mental injuries that result from continued exposure to racism, ethnic discrimination, racial bias, and hate crimes. In the United States, Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) communities tend to be most vulnerable to racial trauma because of the culture and history of racism in the country, but it's worth noting that any individual who suffers emotionally because of a racist encounter can experience racial trauma. Racial trauma can happen on a micro or macro scale. Macroaggressions that can cause racial trauma include society-level events or policies that discriminate against Black people, such as examples of police brutality, like the murder of George Floyd in 2020.

Microaggressions that cause racial trauma include direct individual interactions and experiences of racism, sexism, heterosexism, and nationalism, such as when someone clutches their purse when they walk past a group of young Black men. Having intrusive thoughts, feeling a lowered sense of self-worth or self-esteem, socially withdrawing, or having heightened feelings of anxiety can all be symptoms of racial trauma. But, it's important to keep in mind that each person reacts somewhat differently to racial trauma and stress, and will have a different tolerance or threshold to withstand the weight of it.

According to the American Psychological Association (APA), other signs and symptoms that might indicate someone is experiencing racial trauma include:

· Avoiding situations that are reminders of past racist experiences.

· Distrusting others due to multiple past losses or letdowns.

· Feeling triggered by reminders of a previous racist experience, which can lead to strong emotional or physical responses (such as crying or rapid heartbeat).

· Extreme paranoia or hypervigilance.

Other Terms Used to Understand Racial Trauma

Some other terms and concepts psychologists and other mental health professionals use to understand racial trauma and its effects include:

Structural Racism Structural racism as the multiple ways systems, policies, procedures, and laws perpetuate racial discrimination by mutually reinforcing racial bias in systems of housing, education, employment, earnings, benefits, credit, media, healthcare, and criminal justice. These patterns and practices reinforce discriminatory beliefs, values, and distribution of resources.

Intergenerational Trauma Intergenerational trauma is the phenomenon of descendants of a person who experienced a distressing event presenting with adverse behavioral, psychological, and emotional reactions to the event similar to those of the person who initially experienced the traumatic encounter. Black Americans who are descendants of former slaves may experience intergenerational trauma because of the injustice of the United States' history of slavery. And descendants of other groups who have experienced a trauma, such as descendants of individuals who suffered during the Holocaust, other genocides, or the internment of Japanese Americans in World War II, may experience intergenerational trauma, too.

Historical Trauma Like intergenerational trauma, historical trauma is the distress descendants of a particular community, racial or ethnic group, or other group experience because of major oppression that group previously faced. The Holocaust, other genocides, and the intentional maltreatment of Black Americans who were part of the Tuskegee experiments are all examples of events that could cause historical trauma for people in subsequent generations of the affected communities.

Intersectionality Race scholar and professor at the University of California Los Angeles' School of Law and Columbia University's Law School, Kimberlé Crenshaw, Ph.D., coined the term "intersectionality" in a 1989 paper to describe the unique experience of marginalization that Black women face because of being part of two marginalized groups. The already established feminism theory and antiracist policy discourse did not accurately describe the experience of Black women, she wrote in the paper: "Because the intersectional experience is greater than the sum of racism and sexism, any analysis that does not take intersectionality into account cannot sufficiently address the particular manner in which Black women are subordinated."

Today, the term "intersectionality" is widely used to describe how our various cultural identities, such as biological sex, gender identification, sexuality, class, ability, and race interact with one another to perpetuate various systems of injustice and inequality. Addressing these intersections simultaneously is needed to prevent one form of inequality from reinforcing others.

How Race-Based Trauma Affects Mental and Physical Health

The effects of racial trauma on health and well-being are complex and well documented and can be severe.

For marginalized groups, like Black people and other BIPOC communities, continuous discrimination and racism become a form of chronic stress. Research shows this, as well as that the health consequences of racism and discrimination can be passed down from one generation to the next.

Data from the Jackson Heart Study (an ongoing study that started in 2000, following more than 5,000 African Americans to better understand disparities in cardiovascular disease) has revealed that higher levels of perceived discrimination among African Americans in the US are linked with poorer health behaviors, such as sleeping less and smoking, as well as worse health outcomes, such as higher incidence of obesity.

Part of what makes racial trauma so insidious is that many of the symptoms stem from the fear that similar traumas will happen again. There's a fear of not just how a person of color may be treated or of an isolated event, but that their safety is at stake and that this can happen again. When you're mentally and emotionally always on guard like that, it creates a physiological stress response - it produces cortisol, she explains. That's normal and healthy if it happens on occasion in response to a stressor you need to deal with. But if it's happening all the time it can cause all sorts of damage to the body and contribute to anxiety, heart disease, depression, and psychological or cognitive impairment.

Those symptoms can include such as:

· Hypervigilance

· Depression

· Avoidance

· Suspiciousness

· Chronic stress

· Physical symptoms like headaches, heart palpitations, and others

The intersection of multiple marginalized identities can also compound the effects of racial trauma.

Coping With Race-Based Trauma and Eliminating Its Sources

Experts say that solutions for coping with race-based trauma must happen on a societal, as well as individual, level.

There's a structural and cultural environment that allows racism to continue, along with its insidious effects. That's when safety and healing can occur. Changing the culture and changing the environment depends on people in positions of power at companies and other organizations. It will require making sure the voices and experiences of Black people and other marginalized racial groups who experience racial trauma are part of the conversation to review and revise policies, practices, and workplace cultural norms that either reinforce or challenge structural racism or bias (such as when it comes to hiring and promotions within organizations).

If you or someone you know has been or continues to be exposed to racial trauma, what can you do individually to help take care of yourself and your loved ones? Try the following:

· Find safe spaces to express and discuss your thoughts and emotions. Connect with friends, family, and support groups that are supportive and allow you to process your thoughts and emotions.

· Engage in regular check-ins with yourself. Be aware of and recognize the symptoms of racial trauma so that you can take steps to address them when they show up.

· Seek professional help if you need additional support. If you or someone you know is experiencing extreme paranoia, lack of motivation increased anxiety, or severe feelings of withdrawal from others, consider seeking professional mental help.

· Engage in activism. Feeling empowered involves participating in actions to solve difficulties. Agency and self-advocacy are associated with leadership, school engagement, self-esteem, and prosocial behaviors, also.

· Engage in mindfulness, spiritual practices, and prayer. Engaging in activities that increase happiness and that are calming can help.

· Limit social media use. This can help reduce exposure to negative images of racial violence and messaging directed toward people of color.

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The Dangerous Impact Of Racial Trauma On The Black Community

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Psychologists use the term trauma to describe an emotional response to a terrible event like an accident, rape, or natural disaster. Racial trauma, or race-based traumatic stress, refers to the specific mental and emotional harms linked to racism and discrimination.

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Racist Police Prevented Jeffrey Dahmer from being caught earlier 

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Racist Police Prevented Jeffrey Dahmer from being caught earlier 

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All of Jefferey's victims were young black men. One was almost able to escape but because of the racist negligence of the police, he was sent back to Dahmer's apartment. They ignored calls from his neighbors about weird smells and sounds, and infact, in the new Netflix series, they play the real recording between police and Jeffreys neighbor. She is asking why the boy was returned to his apartment because he looked so young and "drunk". (he was actually drugged by Jeffrey) Dahmer had claimed to be his boyfriend, yet this made no sense to the neighbors( or anyone with a brain)because the boy was so young and Dahmer was so old. If the police did not have a dislike and bias towards mainly black populated towns and of black people, he would've been caught much sooner and less people would have been dismembered.

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Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story, Netflix's newest true crime limited series, presents a fictionalized retelling of American serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer's life, while also touching on his gruesome murders and terrible crimes.

Most of Dahmer's victims-boys and men between the ages of 14 and 33-were also people of color or Black men. And several people of color who raised the alarm about Jeffrey Dahmer, calling the police about his strange behavior, were ignored, including his neighbor, Glenda Cleveland, and Tracy Edwards, the very man who escaped from Dahmer's clutches and turned him in to the police.

Another prominent figure in the unfolding of these murders was Reverend Jesse Jackson, Sr. After Dahmer's arrest, Jackson visited Milwaukee to speak out against the handling of the case and the double standard the local police held for Black and white citizens.

Ahead, learn about Reverend Jackson, why he traveled to Milwaukee, and how Glenda Cleveland fits in with his story.

Who is Jesse Jackson?

Jesse Jackson is an American civil rights leader, Baptist minister, and politician, per Encyclopedia Britannica. He also played a significant role in Jeffrey Dahmer's crime story by speaking out against the way the local police department handled his crimes. But more on that in a sec.

The police ignored the Black community and communities of color as Dahmer committed his crimes.

As the Dahmer story unraveled, it became clear that Dahmer had mostly targeted gay men of color-and that police had ignored warnings and calls from Black community members. Instead, law enforcement gave Dahmer the benefit of the doubt.

In one instance, Glenda Cleveland's daughter and niece, Sandra Smith and Nicole Childress, witnessed a "dazed and naked" teenager named Konerak Sinthasomphone, trying to escape Jeffrey Dahmer in an alley on May 27, 1991, per the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. They called the police.

Sinthasomphone was the child of Laotian immigrants, while Smith and Childress were Black women.

When Officer John Balcerzak and his partner arrived at the scene, Dahmer claimed the 14-year-old was his drunk 19-year-old boyfriend and that they'd just been fighting. And although the women asked that the boy be taken to a safe place, police officers allowed Dahmer to take him back to his apartment, where he was later murdered. (Both officers were later fired after being found guilty of gross negligence, according to Justia, but were then reinstated.)

It didn't stop there. After seeing Sinthasomphone's photo in the newspaper a few days later, Cleveland called the police again, only to be ignored once more. She even tried calling the FBI, per the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Five more people were murdered by Dahmer after Cleveland's calls, including 14-year-old Sinthasomphone, according to .)

Dahmer was only arrested after one of his potential victims escaped and finally convinced the police to search the killer's apartment.

Why did Jesse Jackson come to Milwaukee after the Dahmer news broke?

Rev. Jesse Jackson went to Milwaukee in August of 1991 to address the Black community there, as well as to encourage the authorities to take accountability for their actions. He gave a speech, which is reenacted in the limited series that highlighted the double standard between police treatment of Black and white citizens, per and the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

At the time, Jackson stated that police at the local, state and national level should be scrutinized for racism, the Associated Press reported. ″There must be some results from the investigation and there must be some remedy,″ he told the outlet.

Friends and family of Sinthasomphone also planned a demonstration asking for a federal investigation into the Milwaukee Police Department, according to the Tampa Bay Times.

Jackson met Dahmer's neighbor, Glenda Cleveland.

During Jackson's visit, he met with Milwaukee Mayor John O. Norquist for about a half hour and later said he was ″in no position to judge″ the police chief, per the Associated Press.

Later that same day, Jackson spoke from the steps of St. Luke's Baptist Church in Milwaukee on August 8, 1991, during a rally for the families of Dahmer's victims, leading roughly 1,000 people in the chant, ″Keep hope alive," the AP and the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported. He also led a march from Dahmer's apartment to the church.

Jackson also met with Cleveland, telling her, "Police chose the word of a killer over an innocent woman," per the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

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What did Jesse Jackson say about the police?

In the eighth episode of Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story, Jackson addressed a large crowd with the following speech, per :

"Today, the city of Milwaukee is hurting. Jeffrey Dahmer's heinous crimes have not only shocked the nation, they've inflicted a painful, devastating wound on this community," he said. "Now, some folks have asked me 'Reverend why you going out to Milwaukee? Dahmer's been caught aren't you just stirring up more division?' to those folks I say I come here today not to sow division but to call for accountability."

Jackson continued: "Dahmer's crimes weren't committed in a vacuum, many people including officers of the law turned a blind eye which is why he was able to do what he did for so long."

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Why Rev. Jackson Called Out Police Racism In The Jeffrey Dahmer Case

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Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story , Netflix's newest true crime limited series, presents a fictionalized retelling of American serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer's life, while also touching on his gruesome murders and terrible crimes. Most of Dahmer's victims-boys and men between the ages of 14 and 33-were also people of color or Black men.

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This article describes how a BYU fan yelled racial slurs which eventually lead to threats at African-American volleyball players from Duke during their game. Duke sophomore Rachel Richardson said her and her teammates were racially heckled throughout the entirity of the match causing them to feel unsafe. This is incredibly sad, frustrating and unacceptable that these kinds of incidents still occur today. Minority groups of BYU students are extremely frustrated to see "business as usual" on this campus with an 81% white student body. While some professors have taken to Twitter calling out BYU for their silence, still very little is being done to address this.

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Brigham Young University started the new school year Monday after spending the weekend in the national spotlight.

A BYU fan yelled racist slurs at a Duke volleyball player during a match in Provo on Friday. Duke sophomore Rachel Richardson said in a statement that she and her fellow African American teammates "were targeted and racially heckled throughout the entirety of the match. The slurs and comments grew into threats which caused us to feel unsafe."

BYU Athletics released a statement Saturday saying the person who was yelling racial slurs was not a BYU student and has been banned from all the university's athletic venues.

Felipe Larrocha, a Latino sociology student at BYU, was disappointed to hear what happened at the volleyball match but said he wasn't surprised.

The incident was on Larrocha's mind when he went on campus. He talked about it with his peers.

"The mood among my friends and other minority students feels different, like exhaustion and frustration," Larrocha said. "Walking around campus though, seems like business as usual."

Larrocha said it didn't come as a surprise that he didn't see many white students talking about it. BYU's undergraduate student body is about 81% white.

"If it doesn't affect people personally, then they're not going to care about it," he said.

For Noriadnys Gomez de Bybee, another Latino BYU sociology student, what happened during the game weighed on her throughout the first day of school.

"Every time I see another minority student walk past me on campus, which is infrequent, I wonder if they're feeling the same way," she said. "It's funny how hyper-aware you become of how different you are from those around you, not just in how you look, but in those under the surface feelings of anxiety and sadness that follow you throughout the day every time another 'incident' of racism happens in the BYU community."

Larrocha thinks more BYU students and faculty should be talking about what happened.

"You've got to ask yourself: as a BYU student, am I OK if another person insults somebody in my presence? What does that say to me about my moral code? About my religious code?"

Larrocha thinks it would've been a good idea for BYU to direct its faculty to talk about the game on the first day of school and provide talking points for professors.

"Maybe point to some resources in school where students of color or other marginalized students might go," he said.

Some BYU professors called on the school via Twitter to do better and said they would be talking about the incident with their students.

BYU associate communications professor and KUER advisory board member, Joel Campbell, agreed that the first day of classes felt like a normal first day.

"There was a couple of comments about the game and how it was reported," Campbell said. "At the same time, most of the students are shocked that this happened on our campus, unlike what it says on Twitter."

Campbell feels some of the reporting of the incident mischaracterized BYU. Campbell talked with his students about the game.

"They did not hear the slur and said they would have responded if they had," he said. "We agreed that there's still work to do on campus, but students said they believe blanket statements about students holding racist attitudes are unfair and were critical of media coverage that didn't check out basic facts."

Sociology student Rachel Weaver is a member of The Black Menaces, a group of current and former Black BYU students known for their viral TikToks. Weaver was disappointed by what happened at the game and what it says about the campus.

"The people at the top are so set in their ways and really refuse to acknowledge the role that they played in racial issues. It's hard for me to have hope," Weaver said.

In a statement on Twitter, The Black Menaces showed solidarity with Rachel Richardson and criticized those at the game for not doing more.

"As black representatives and students at Brigham Young University, we are deeply disturbed by the occurrences at the BYU vs Duke volleyball game," the statement reads. "First, we are sorry to Rachel Richardson, we hurt for you."

The group also called on BYU to take steps to prevent incidents like this from happening in the future. It recommended mandatory anti-racism training for all BYU staff, faculty and students. The goal of these training sessions would be to "root out internal racism and learn how to respond correctly in these incidents."

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BYU students of color see 'business as usual' on campus following racial heckling incident

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Brigham Young University started the new school year Monday after spending the weekend in the national spotlight. A BYU fan yelled racist slurs at a Duke volleyball player during a match in Provo on Friday. Duke sophomore Rachel Richardson said in a statement that she and her fellow African American teammates "were targeted and racially heckled throughout the entirety of the match.

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Very sad, the segregation of schools has been over for about 70 years give or take and we're still being faced with challenges of making school an environment to expand the mind for every child past what is taught in our history books.

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How social-emotional learning became a frontline in the battle against CRT

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Nationwide, community members are protesting the teaching of social-emotional learning – largely because conservatives have linked it with another flashpoint in public education: critical race theory.

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In this article Tat Bellamy-Walker tells us about how an all white school board in Pennsylvania banned books that had to do with history and the stories of the lives of black people. In response to this situation students formed unions in order to keep education diverse and equal by not getting rid of work or stories of black people in their school. Parents joined in as well by protesting. Banning books as such with these stories takes away from students learning about real life events and real life experiences that others have gone through, specifically black people and the history there is with this country and society in general. Protesting and standing up with people who have power to control what is learned in an education setting is big, it stops them from not letting others learn about true moments with history and discrimination.

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Christina and Renee Ellis, students at Central York High School, a predominantly white school in Pennsylvania, helped reverse a book ban targeting the work of Black authors.

For about a month, the sisters and several of their classmates in the Panther Anti-Racist Union, a student-led racial and social justice advocacy group, protested the challenge after an all-white school board banned diverse educational materials, including a book about Rosa Parks; "Hidden Figures," a story about Black female mathematicians; and the documentary "I Am Not Your Negro," about the author and cultural critic James Baldwin.

Dozens of students, parents and educators held brightly colored signs with slogans like "BLM" and "Education is not indoctrination" outside the school. Edha Gupta, one of the organizers, also wrote letters to the editor of the city's newspaper, while others read excerpts of the banned books on Instagram. Renee said the protests were an important step in holding the district accountable for fostering an inclusive environment for students of color.

"We didn't want history to repeat itself, with hiding history, hiding the experiences of people of color in this country," Renee said. "We also wanted to make sure that the younger kids underneath got a full education, especially with the murder of George Floyd and the murder of Breonna Taylor and so many other social justice issues in America."

Christina said it's crucial for young Black students to see themselves in books.

"If a little girl or Black girl goes into her school library and can't find a single book that represents her and people are telling her that she doesn't really matter, she will treat herself as such. She will act like she doesn't matter, and that's how a cycle continues," Christina said.

The Ellis sisters are two examples of young people who are fighting back after a conservative wave of activism led to books' being banned in schools and libraries. Even though some parents claim that their children would be uncomfortable reading literature about race and LGBTQ issues, students initiate fewer than 1 percent of book challenges in the U.S., while parents and patrons account for more than half, according to the American Library Association, a book monitoring group.

In addition, the bans aren't keeping students away from diverse literature.

"There's nothing more attractive to a kid than a forbidden book," author Mikki Kendall said last month. "I'm watching kids respond by saying, 'Well, I read the book to see what they were so upset about.'"

Jaiden Johnson, a seventh grader at Meridian World School in Round Rock, Texas, said his school library temporarily had a section of banned books, which became extremely popular among students.

"There was a bunch of kids crowded trying to get through trying to check out all the books, because they wanted to read them before they went away again," said Jaiden, who is 12.

He is one of two Black middle school students who started the Round Rock Black Students Book Club, a virtual student-led community group in which students of color can read books about characters that represent them.

Jaiden said he hopes Black kids can have access to a diverse range of stories - not just ones focused on pain and suffering.

"I wanted a chance for all the Black kids in my community to get together and know each other better and read about Black characters that inspire us and not just about Black people and slavery," he said.

Kharia Pitts, 12, another club leader, echoed that many books lack stories about people of color.

"I have books that star Black people, but I don't have a lot of them," said Kharia, who is in the sixth grade. "I was thinking of other kids who don't think that there are books about Black people, and I want to change that, because that's almost what I thought."

The book club is reading books by the banned Black author Jason Reynolds, including his 2017 novel "Miles Morales," about a Black Spider-Man, and Brandy Colbert's 2019 novel "The Only Black Girls in Town," about two Black girls who find a hidden collection of journals. Two years ago, parents in Florida challenged Colbert's book "Little & Lion," claiming it includes inappropriate language and sexually explicit content, the Sun Sentinel reported.

Jaiden said he was forced to leave his former school because teachers often subjected him to racist microaggressions, such as confusing him with other Black students or asking whether other Black students were his siblings.

Through the book club, he said, students of color finally have the power to center Black voices, which rarely get the same spotlight as those of their white peers in the classroom.

"It makes me feel good when I read about characters and they have the same skin color as me and they're not just, like, background characters, like in most books," he said.

As for the opposition to books about Black characters, Kharia said it's unfortunate that some parents want to hide racism from their children.

"If kids of all other races learn about the truth and what happened to all types of people, then we won't have to go back and repeat it," she said. "That way, we're not stuck in an endless cycle."

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An all-white school board banned diverse books. Black students are still reading them.

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Christina and Renee Ellis, students at Central York High School, a predominantly white school in Pennsylvania, helped reverse a book ban targeting the work of B

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Racism in school and the lack of help from the school

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Racism in school and the lack of help from the school

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Janaye Majer spoke about being alone in the racism with no help from teachers. Majer faced constant derogatory comments and blatant racism throughout highschool.

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Flipping through her high school yearbook doesn't spark nostalgia in Janaye Majer.

"Memories I don't miss at all," she said of her time at Queen Elizabeth Secondary.

Majer, who is Black, says she was bullied and targeted with racial slurs at the Surrey, B.C., high school. Over the years, she says she was subjected to the N-word and told "really derogatory racial things about myself."

"I was told to kill myself and just very terrible things that I had to go through."

Majer says, in her case, teachers and administrators failed to stop the bullying.

"I felt so alone. I didn't know I had support. I didn't know where to go. I would sit and eat lunch in the bathroom because that's how badly I was bullied."
WATCH | Majer recounts her years of experiencing racism at school:

Majer's experience is one of many documented in two reports commissioned by the Surrey School District that found evidence of explicit racism in its schools, citing the "discomfort" of school staff and administrators in trying and failing to address it.

The reports, the result of 39 listening circles conducted by an outside company, also highlighted a lack of diversity among the leadership.

One looked specifically at Queen Elizabeth Secondary, and another examined the entire district.

The Surrey School District says it is committed to tackling racism within the school system and created a new committee that made its own recommendations, which include creating a new racial equity department and developing a five-year racial equity plan.

"This isn't a five-year plan where you'll only see the results in five years," said district spokesperson Ritinder Matthew. "A lot of these recommendations can be implemented immediately."

Rina Diaz, president of the Surrey District Parent Advisory Council (DPAC), said in an interview on CBC's Early Edition Tuesday that it often receives inquiries from parents about how to file a complaint against a teacher.

"Their child has come home telling them that they do not feel comfortable sitting in their classroom ... not because of the subjects that are being discussed themselves, more so about the views that the teacher has expressed," Diaz said.

She recounted a recent report from a parent who contacted the DPAC.

"The child of this parent came up to this parent and said, 'You know, I think my teacher is actually teaching hate,'" said Diaz, adding that the DPAC agrees with many of the changes that the reports suggest.

For Majer, who is in her second year at Simon Fraser University studying psychology and education, the changes can't come soon enough.

"I held my voice for so long because I was so scared, and I was always the one being punished," she said. "But I think I always speak out because at the end of the day, the truth does come out, and the truth is out now."

For more stories about the experiences of Black Canadians - from anti-Black racism to success stories within the Black community - check out Being Black in Canada, a CBC project Black Canadians can be proud of. You can read more stories here.

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Former student recalls years of racial abuse as reports find evidence of explicit racism in Surrey schools | CBC News

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Flipping through her high school yearbook doesn't spark nostalgia in Janaye Majer. "Memories I don't miss at all," she said of her time at Queen Elizabeth Secondary. Majer, who is Black, says she was bullied and targeted with racial slurs at the Surrey, B.C., high school.

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Racism against Asians is typical the most normalized form of racism, especially in western societies. This is a topic that needs to be addressed and positive change is needed going forward in our society. This article discusses a shooting that killed 6 Asian women in a racially motivated attack.

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Liz Mineo Harvard Staff Writer DateMarch 24, 2021October 10, 2023

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A long history of bigotry against Asian Americans

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Anti-Asian hate crimes were on the rise in the wake of the COVID-19 public health crisis, but after the Atlanta shootings that left eight people dead, six of them women of Asian descent, there is renewed sense of urgency to denounce racism and scapegoating.

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This is an article about how racism is far too prevalent in modern professional sports. I found it very interesting that the article compares the inclusiveness of many professional sports including the NBA, MLB, NFL, and NHL. It also dives deep into the public protests against police brutality led by Colin Kaepernick and the criticism he faced within the sports world.

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When thinking of sports, many people like to remember the epic highlights and the feel-good comeback stories. What is often overlooked is the systematic oppression that underrepresented groups have faced in sports over the years. Black people in particular have faced significant racial barriers in sports, and the fight is still ongoing.

Baseball is one of numerous sports with a deep-rooted legacy of racial segregation. Although Jackie Robinson was the first Black player in Major League Baseball, Moses Fleetwood Walker was actually the first Black professional player in the sport. Fleetwood Walker was the catcher for the Toledo Blue Stockings in the American Association of professional baseball. He played minor league baseball until 1889 when the " " was enforced and would remain in effect until the arrival of Jackie Robinson in 1946. The Color Line excluded Black players from Major League Baseball and its affiliated Minor Leagues.

Jackie Robinson would break the colour barrier permanently, although racism in baseball was still rampant. In 1946, Robinson joined the Montreal Royals, the Brooklyn Dodgers' second team. He was promoted to the Dodgers in 1947 and became the first Black player in the MLB.

Robinson was forced to prove to the professional baseball community that he belonged there. He had to be the best in order to overcome the prejudices held by most players and non-Black fans.

Today, only eight per cent of Major League players are Black. Derek Jeter, the manager of the Miami Marlins and former shortstop for the Yankees, is the only Black manager in the MLB. This issue of representation is not just prevalent in the MLB-numerous professional sports leagues are seriously lacking representation.

The NHL runs a campaign called "Hockey is for Everyone," yet the league has a history of racial exclusion and violent ridicule from fans. In 1958, when Willie O'Ree stepped on the ice for the Boston Bruins in a game against the Montreal Canadiens, he became the first Black player in NHL history, over 40 years after the league's founding. Throughout his career, he faced racial abuse from fans, players, and coaches. He detailed his experiences in an during the 22nd Anti-Defamation League conference in Boston.

"Every time I went to the ice, I was faced with racial slurs because of my colour, and my brother taught me names will never hurt you unless you let them," O'Ree said. "I had black cats thrown on the ice and told me to [go] back to the cotton fields and pick cotton."

Racial abuse in the NHL is not just an issue of the past. In 2011, when Wayne Simmonds was playing for the Philadelphia Flyers, he had a banana thrown at him by a Detroit Red Wings fan in an exhibition game in London, Ontario. In 2012, after Washington Capitals forward Joel Ward scored an overtime winner, knocking the Bruins out of the playoffs, he was bombarded with racist abuse from Boston fans on social media. Even this year, when New York Rangers prospect K'Andre Miller participated in a question and answer session with fans on Zoom, he was repeatedly harassed with racist taunts. As much as the NHL wants to believe that "hockey is for everyone," they continue to facilitate anti-Black racism, proving that professional hockey, even today, does not have the best interest of racialized players in mind.

The NFL has had perhaps the most recent protests regarding police brutality and the oppression of BIPOC. In 2016, 49ers quarterback and activist Colin Kaepernick knelt during the national anthem in solidarity with marginalized communities that did not have a platform to speak out about racial oppression. This came after Kaepernick was seen during the anthem in the preseason games. When confronted by the media, he that he would not stand until the anthem represented something to be proud of.

Needless to say, Kaepernick's resistance was met with criticism from every corner of the sporting world. In an interview with , Saints quarterback Drew Brees his discontent with Kaepernick's actions.

"[T]here's plenty of other ways that you can [speak on important issues] in a peaceful manner that doesn't involve being disrespectful to the American flag," Brees said.

More recently, Marcus Smart, a point guard for the Boston Celtics, wrote an in the playerstrib detailing the hate he has received from basketball fans, including a specific incident where a woman called Smart a racial slur in front of her young son.

Black representation in the NBA front-office is also severely lacking. While Black players make up 74.2 per cent of the NBA, there are only four Black head coaches and eight Black managers in the entire league of 30 teams. Although the NBA may be the most progressive league in the world in terms of player activism, Black representation is still desperately needed amongst team management.

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Racism is all too prevalent in professional sports | The McGill Tribune

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When thinking of sports, many people like to remember the epic highlights and the feel-good comeback stories. What is often overlooked is the systematic oppression that underrepresented groups have faced in sports over the years. Black people in particular have faced significant racial barriers in sports, and the fight is still ongoing.