Black Lives Matter

Visual misinformation is widespread on Facebook – and often undercounted by researchers

Retrieved on:

Friday, June 30, 2023

Fox News, YouTube, Prevalence, Penis, Black Lives Matter, Politics, Facial recognition, Research, Black, Time, QAnon, Knowledge, News, Social media, Publishing, Facebook

Several studies have found that the amount of misinformation on Facebook is low or that the problem has declined over time.

Key Points:

Several studies have found that the amount of misinformation on Facebook is low or that the problem has declined over time.
The biggest source of misinformation on Facebook is not links to fake news sites but something more basic: images.
For instance, on the eve of the 2020 election, nearly one out of every four political image posts on Facebook contained misinformation.

Visual misinformation by the numbers

Overall, our findings are grim: 23% of image posts in our data contained misinformation.
Some previous research had found that misinformation posts generated more engagement than true posts.
Controlling for page subscribers and group size, we found no relationship between engagement and the presence of misinformation.
Misinformation didn’t guarantee virality – but it also didn’t diminish the chances that a post would go viral.
But image posts on Facebook were toxic in ways that went beyond simple misinformation.

Yawning gap in knowledge

While Facebook remains the most used social media platform, more than a billion images a day are posted on Facebook’s sister platform Instagram, and billions more on rival Snapchat.
Videos posted on YouTube, or more recent arrival TikTok, may also be an important vector of political misinformation about which researchers still know too little.
Perhaps the most disturbing finding of our study, then, is that it highlights the breadth of collective ignorance about misinformation on social media.

Rainbows, Stars and Stripes—How 13 Different Flags Impact Where Homebuyers Want to Live

Retrieved on:

Tuesday, June 27, 2023

View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230627124491/en/

Key Points:

View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230627124491/en/
That’s according to a Redfin-commissioned survey conducted by Qualtrics in May and June 2023.
Homebuyers were most put off by the idea of Confederate flags in their neighborhood.
It was followed by Black Lives Matter flags (35.7%) and pro-choice flags (34.8%).
Respondents were also divided when asked about anti-gun flags (29.7% vs 27.5%) and Second Amendment flags (30.3% vs 27.3%).

Arjuna Capital: A Majority of Kroger’s Investors Vote for Racial & Gender Pay Equity Proposal at Annual Meeting

Retrieved on:

Thursday, June 22, 2023

A 51% majority of Kroger’s shareholders approved a shareholder proposal today asking the company to transparently report on racial and gender pay gaps.

Key Points:

A 51% majority of Kroger’s shareholders approved a shareholder proposal today asking the company to transparently report on racial and gender pay gaps.
While an increasing number of peer companies including Target, Lowe’s, and Home Depot have committed to reporting on pay equity, Kroger’s board opposed the racial and gender pay equity proposal.
However, McMullen did not respond to the majority vote and did not make a commitment to fulfill the request of the proposal.
Arjuna Capital has been recognized for using shareholder resolutions to promote racial and gender pay equity in the tech, banking, and consumer sectors.

Juneteenth offers new ways to teach about slavery, Black perseverance and American history

Retrieved on:

Saturday, June 17, 2023

Why, they ask, did I like learning about slavery given that it was so horrible and harsh?

Key Points:

Why, they ask, did I like learning about slavery given that it was so horrible and harsh?
How could I value being taught about something that caused so much hurt and harm?
Students often tell me that they’re not learning much about slavery beyond the suffering and harsh conditions that it involved.

Start early, but keep it positive

But lessons about slavery at that age should avoid the pain and trauma of slavery.
This, the authors of the guide say, will better equip children to later hear about, understand and emotionally process the terrible truths about slavery.

Focus on Black resistance

As Black history education professor LaGarett King puts it, Black people have always “acted, made their own decisions based on their interests, and fought back against oppressive structures.” Stressing this can help students to see that although Black people were victimized by slavery, they were not just helpless victims.
Juneteenth provides opportunities to acknowledge and examine the legacies of Black freedom fighters during the time of slavery.

Connect Juneteenth to current events

Juneteenth can also be a way for educators to help students better understand contemporary demands for racial justice.
That’s what George Patterson, a former Brooklyn middle school principal, did a few years back at the height of protests that took place under the mantra of Black Lives Matter.
“We need to bring it to the forefront.” Educators can make Juneteenth about so much more than the end of slavery.

How the fashion of the Windrush generation shaped British style

Retrieved on:

Friday, June 16, 2023

They had left their previous home behind and, at this stage of the journey, were caught between what was familiar and unknown.

Key Points:

They had left their previous home behind and, at this stage of the journey, were caught between what was familiar and unknown.
Their clothing choices signified their respect both for themselves and for the enormous, life-changing journey they had undertaken.
Others donned more casual, open-neck shirts with the collars worn outside the jacket, all accessorised with berets or fedoras.
This article is part of our Windrush 75 series, which marks the 75th anniversary of the HMT Empire Windrush arriving in Britain.

The aesthetics of presence

Their standout outfits were in some ways a response to feelings of invisibility, which stemmed from the hostility and racism many experienced upon their arrival.
English photographer Bert Hardy’s 1949 photographs of West Indians in Liverpool include the barber known as Pee Wee (above).

‘Diasporic intimacy’ and parties at home

They developed a network of social events including parties, weddings and christenings that took place in homes across Britain.
These events were often enveloped in blue beat and ska, musical styles from Jamaica.
The lyrics and rhythm offered a connection to their homeland that also boosted their sense of self-worth.

The dress of subsequent generations

The clothing worn by the descendants of the Windrush generation is now part of a wider fashion defined as “Black British Style”.
This term captures the myriad styles that have been devised as a distinct statement of belonging for those next generations who grew up in Britain.

Daniel Penny's GiveSendGo campaign: Crowdfunding primarily benefits the most privileged

Retrieved on:

Thursday, June 1, 2023

A GiveSendGo crowdfunding campaign has raised over $2.8 million from 57,000 donations for Daniel Penny’s legal expenses.

Key Points:

A GiveSendGo crowdfunding campaign has raised over $2.8 million from 57,000 donations for Daniel Penny’s legal expenses.
While many people on the left have expressed dismay at the success of this fundraiser, GiveSendGo isn’t necessarily wrong to host it.

Violent crime ban

Penny’s fundraiser was likely created on GiveSendGo rather than the much larger and better known GoFundMe website because GoFundMe has a policy against allowing fundraisers for the legal defence of people accused of violent crimes.
In many cases these fundraisers have been enormously successful, raising hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars.
But helping people accused of violent crimes to defend themselves in court is a different matter.

Unfair advantage

Nonetheless, Penny’s fundraiser shows crowdfunding is a wildly unfair way of securing this and other rights.
He has benefited from the politicization of his actions and wide support on the political right, including calls to support the fundraiser from politicians like Florida Gov.
People with more privileged networks can expect better outcomes than people in positions of greater relative need.

Campaigns with no support

What this means is that crowdfunding isn’t a fair means for people accused of violent crimes to pay for their legal defence.
For every Daniel Penny or Kyle Rittenhouse, there are thousands of campaigns that get little or no public support.
Perhaps their alleged crimes are abhorrent and people would have no interest in financially supporting those accused of them.

Reputational damage

GoFundMe’s decision to ban campaigns for the legal defence of people accused of violent crimes was likely driven by reputational concerns rather than principle.
The problem is that crowdfunding operates largely as a popularity contest, distributing help in deeply inequitable ways.

European soccer is having another reckoning over racism – is it time to accept the problem goes beyond bad fans?

Retrieved on:

Saturday, May 27, 2023

After suffering months of racial abuse on the field and off, Brazilian soccer star Vinícius Júnior had enough.

Key Points:

After suffering months of racial abuse on the field and off, Brazilian soccer star Vinícius Júnior had enough.
Racism is normal in La Liga,” he tweeted in reference to the Spanish top division.

Deep roots of soccer racism

Indeed, as soccer writer Franklin Foer has pointed out, in the early days of Brazilian soccer Black people were not allowed to play for professional clubs or the national team.
While there has been great change since such times, the roots of subtle and overt racism facing Black soccer players run deep – be it in their home countries or playing for prestigious European clubs.

Soccer’s Black Lives Matter moment

For example, in England, the Football Association has long partnered with anti-racist group Kick It Out to create programs and punishments for racist fan behavior.
Meanwhile, the Royal Spanish Football Association has codes for applying financial penalties against clubs with racist fans.
Indeed, after restarting a pandemic-struck season in June 2020, the English Premier League promoted an active Black Lives Matter campaign.
This included “Black Lives Matter” patches on uniforms – although patches were later amended to read “No Room for Racism” – and allowing the taking of the knee before games.
Soccer leagues in southern Europe tended to leave it to clubs and individuals to respond to the Black Lives Matter movement, rather than having any blanket policies akin to that of the English Football Association.

Counter-cosmopolitanism

Continued racism in European soccer comes despite a rise in soccer’s “cosmopolitanism” culture.
But modern-day fans have long become accustomed to supporting a racially diverse team.
If the racial makeup of teams is not reflective of the fan base, it also isn’t reflected in management, or among the people who govern the sport.

Failing the Sterling standard

Moreover, it does little to address more institutionalized racism in the game.
And to date, anti-racism programs and fines have failed to stamp out racism in soccer.

Why the Turner prize shortlist is a cultural barometer of our political times

Retrieved on:

Friday, April 28, 2023

The 2023 Turner prize shortlist has been announced featuring British artists Jesse Darling, Rory Pilgrim, Ghislaine Leung and Barbara Walker.

Key Points:

The 2023 Turner prize shortlist has been announced featuring British artists Jesse Darling, Rory Pilgrim, Ghislaine Leung and Barbara Walker.
With a whirlwind 40-year socio-political history this lens can be applied to the prize.

From Thatcher’s 1980s to Channel 4’s 1990s

Things changed in 1991 with Channel 4 as a hip new sponsor and a ban on artists over 50.
The prize would raise interest in a newly youthful, increasingly fashionable area of UK culture.
The 1990s prizes are remembered for Young British Art.
The televised celebrity-strewn Channel 4 under 50s version of the Turner prize was part of this – feeding the feel-good 1990s vibes, fuelled by PR and underwritten by a debt-driven boom.

2000’s third way

Some of the tax income from a seemingly buoyant economy was spent on the arts, which were newly redefined as consumer services and required to prove value and efficiency using metrics.
Titled State Britain, it was created when Tony Blair passed a law to make it illegal to protest within a mile of Parliament.
Positioned across the perimeter of the one mile from Parliament no-protest-zone, it probed a line between art and politics.

2008’s financial crash and a new outlook

Shortlisted Turner prize art from that time didn’t say much about austerity or that moment, instead looking a lot like the art of the early 2000s.
Anti-austerity movements found a home alongside trade unions in a Labour Party reimagined under the radically social democratic leadership of Jeremy Corbyn.
Lubaina Himid, aged 62, was named winner in 2017, after the Turner prize age cap was dropped.
By implication, the work conveys something about the failure of institutions to provide either basic support or transformative change.
Hope is found instead in a politics of community and care, vulnerability and interconnection, which offers occasional glimpses of better worlds.

Black students in Washington state played key role in the Civil Rights Movement, new book states

Retrieved on:

Friday, April 21, 2023

The Black Student Union, or BSU, at the University of Washington helped connect the Black Panther Party to Seattle.

Key Points:

The Black Student Union, or BSU, at the University of Washington helped connect the Black Panther Party to Seattle.
Black Student Unions are active at numerous colleges and universities in Washington, including the two schools featured in my book, the University of Washington and Washington State University.
Like their 1960s counterparts, progressive Black students today continue to push their institutions to create, maintain and expand initiatives to graduate Black students, hire Black faculty and fund Black studies and related curricula.
Overall, today’s Black student politics and struggles for greater equity continue the legacy of the Black Student Unions of the 1960s.

Arab Americans are a much more diverse group than many of their neighbors mistakenly assume

Retrieved on:

Wednesday, April 12, 2023

In 2022, Joe Biden made history as the first U.S. president to recognize the month, which he did again in 2023.

Key Points:

In 2022, Joe Biden made history as the first U.S. president to recognize the month, which he did again in 2023.
States such as Illinois and Virginia have passed legislation to make the celebration an annual event, and dozens more have commemorated it.
From TV stations to entertainment media, people of Arab descent are often stereotyped as violent, oppressed or exotic.

Arab Christians

For many in the United States, this overlap seems natural, given how often Islam is conflated with Arab identity.
But just as most Muslims around the world are not Arab, not all Arabs are Muslim.
During the first significant wave of Arab immigration to the U.S. in the late 19th century and early 20th century, families more often than not were Syrian, Lebanese and Palestinian Christians.
While the Arab community in the greater Detroit area, a short drive from where I live and work, is majority Muslim, that sets it apart from many other Arab communities in the U.S. Arab American Christians are themselves diverse, identifying as Protestants and Catholics, and with a variety of Eastern Christian traditions, such as Antiochian and Coptic Orthodoxy.

From Mizrahi Jews to Shiite Muslims

Arab Jews, often called Mizrahi Jews, have existed since ancient times and helped shape Arab heritage through their philosophical, poetic and political contributions across centuries.
To be sure, Israel’s establishment and its occupation of Palestinian territories has complicated Arab Jewish identities, with new forms of antisemitism becoming more common within many Arab communities.
Over half identify as Sunni, 16% as Shiite and the rest with neither group, according to a 2017 Pew poll.
Finally, many Arab Americans identify with no religion at all, or with other faiths beyond the Abrahamic traditions.

Many nations, one box

Arab heritage not only includes a variety of religious traditions, but encompasses a wide range of ethnic and racial identities.
It is difficult to make generalizations about Arabs, whose skin tone, facial features, eye colors and hair textures embody the rich histories of human migrations and settlements that characterize western Asia and northern Africa.
And Arab identities in the U.S. are becoming only more complex, given the diversity of national backgrounds reflected in the more recent waves of Arab immigration from the 1960s to today.

Complicated identities

The term Afro Arab is growing as a term of self-description for Black Arab Americans seeking to make space for their multifaceted identities and heritage.
Black communities are a part of every Arab country, from Iraq to Morocco.
These dual identities are still fraught, given the pervasiveness of anti-Black racism within some Arab communities, which often stems from the legacies of the trans-Saharan and Ottoman slave trades.
Still, Tunisia’s president recently provoked outrage after he gave a racist speech targeting African migrants and Black Tunisians.

500-year journey

Based on true accounts, Lalami narrates how he was enslaved and brought to current-day Florida by 16th-century Spanish colonizers.
If heritage months are an opportunity to celebrate the diversity of America, the diversity of the Arab community itself should not be overlooked.