Month: April 2019

Former CBS Exec Whitney Davis: 'CBS Has a White Problem'

~ mcequality

In the wake of a major independent investigation into CBS’s culture after the departure of former CEO Les Moonves—who was ousted after sexual misconduct allegations—one former executive described the network as “a workplace fraught with systemic racism, discrimination, and sexual harassment.”

In a post for Variety, former CBS exec Whitney Davis wrote about racism at the company, which she says stalled the development and careers of talented people of color and led to increased, isolating harassment. When she reported the issues in a lengthy two-hour interview to the two lawyers investigating CBS, there was no follow-up, she says. She realized “CBS, sadly, doesn’t value a diverse workplace.”

via Former CBS Exec Whitney Davis: 'CBS Has a White Problem'

“I’m either too black or not black enough”: One teenager’s experience – BBC News

~ mcequality

Don’t get me wrong, I’ve been a minority before. Technically, all people of African descent are minorities in America, the place where I’ve lived most of my life. Yet, this is the first time I’ve been aware of it. There are so few black students at my school that by next year, there’s a good chance that no one in secondary will have black skin.
Should that not be scary?
Is it weird for me that it is?
It’s not that I’m scared to be the only black person at the school; that’s not really the issue. It’s that there’s part of black culture that has spread throughout the student population that reeks of ignorance. I hear the N-word on a daily basis; I see gang signs being tossed around as if they hold no other significance than a flick of the wrist.

via “I’m either too black or not black enough”: One teenager’s experience – BBC News

Chloë Grace Moretz: ‘No age limit’ for learning acceptance – BBC News

~ mcequality

US actress Chloë Grace Moretz knows a thing or two about LGBT education.
Growing up in the conservative Christian town of Rome, Georgia, two of her brothers felt they had to “pray the gay away” before coming out.
That led to her taking a role in last year’s Miseducation of Cameron Post, where she played a character who was sent to a gay conversion therapy centre.
Now, with stories about equality teaching hitting the headlines, Moretz tells the BBC that there should be “no age limit” for learning about these issues.
Speaking from Los Angeles ahead of the release of her new psychological thriller, Greta, the star says: “I think children know what you teach them.
“I had two gay brothers in my family, and our little cousins have known my brothers as gay from the time they were little bitty babies.

via Chloë Grace Moretz: ‘No age limit’ for learning acceptance – BBC News

How this date rape wristband can tell if your drink has been spiked – BBC News

~ mcequality

A wristband that lets wearers check if their drink has been spiked with a date rape drug has gone on sale on Germany.
And its creator, Kim Eisenmann says she wants to bring it to the UK as well.
She invented the Xantus Drinkcheck Band after someone she knew was drugged and assaulted.
Last summer 25-year-old Kim went to a festival with friends. The day after, she was told a girl, who was part of her social circle, was found naked and hurt in a city park.
Police said she’d been the victim of a date rape drug.

via How this date rape wristband can tell if your drink has been spiked – BBC News

Inside the Thai Spiritual Haven Run by an Alleged Sexual Abuser

~ mcequality

Koh Phangan is a small island in southeast Thailand known to tourists for its parties and beautiful beaches. The beauty of the locale also lures visitors in search of relaxation and spiritual awakening. Among the island’s most popular schools is Agama, a yoga community led by Swami Vivekananda Saraswati, whose teachings have attracted thousands of students since opening in 2003.

Only recently have allegations of sexual assault by the Swami come to light, as reported by the Guardian. (Agama and the Swami deny these allegations.) This short documentary is an in-depth look at how the school—led by one charismatic leader—is accused of fostering a culture of abuse and manipulation under the guise of healing and enlightenment. Janja Lalich PhD, a sociologist and specialist in coercive influence, also explains how leaders can assert power in isolated groups.

via Inside the Thai Spiritual Haven Run by an Alleged Sexual Abuser

Artificial intelligence is on the brink of a ‘diversity disaster’

~ mcequality

The consequences of this issue are well documented, from hate speech-spewing chatbots to racial bias in facial recognition. The report says that these failings — attributed to a lack of diversity within the AI sector — have created a “moment of reckoning.” Report author Kate Crawford said that the industry needs to acknowledge the gravity of the situation, and that the use of AI systems for classification, detection and predication of race and gender “is in urgent need of re-evaluation.”

Indeed, the report found that more than 80 percent of AI professors are men — a figure that reflects a wider problem across the computer science landscape. In 2015 women comprised only 24 percent of the computer and information sciences workforce. Meanwhile, only 2.5 percent of Google’s employees are black, with Facebook and Microsoft each reporting an only marginally higher four percent. Data on trans employees and other gender minorities is almost non-existent.

via Artificial intelligence is on the brink of a ‘diversity disaster’

Former Employee Alleged Oil Company Has Culture of ‘Treating Women as Sexual Playthings’

~ mcequality

Several former employees at Andarako Petroleum Corporation, an oil company that employs more than 4,000 people, are alleging sexual harassment at the company’s Denver office. The report is a particularly egregious example of workplace sexual harassment, in an industry that is around 80 percent male.

Bloomberg reports on a 2017 letter written by former employee Robin Olsen with the help of a lawyer, in which she wrote, “Anadarko has a culture of treating women as sexual playthings who are present at work merely for men’s sexual gratification.”

Outstream Video

00:00
00:00

Six former anonymous employees also alleged serial sexual misconduct and alleged gender-based discrimination.

via Former Employee Alleged Oil Company Has Culture of ‘Treating Women as Sexual Playthings’

A Bookstore of One’s Own – The New York Times

~ mcequality

LONDON — Lamb’s Conduit Street seems almost too adorable to be real, as if Ye Olde Fantasy Englande, the one that exists in your head, had suddenly sprung to life. But it feels exactly right that this cobblestone thoroughfare in Bloomsbury, filled as it is with idiosyncratic shops selling artisanal cheese and homemade cakes and other rarefied items, should also be home to Persephone Books, a gem of a place devoted mostly to overlooked works by female writers of the mid-20th century.

Walking into the shop feels for a moment like walking back in time. Vintage posters exhort wartime women to, for instance, Join the Wrens, the British women’s naval service. But the present is here, too. In the window is a blowup of Senator Mitch McConnell’s ill-tempered remarks about Senator Elizabeth Warren in 2017, using language that sounds decidedly “Jane Eyre”-ish: “She was warned. She was given an explanation. Nevertheless, she persisted.”

via A Bookstore of One’s Own – The New York Times

In Copenhagen, Reaction to an Anti-Muslim Event Turns Violent – The New York Times

~ mcequality

COPENHAGEN — After an anti-Muslim provocateur publicly desecrated the Quran in Copenhagen, demonstrations against him on Sunday and early Monday descended into violent clashes between protesters, who set about 70 fires in the streets, and the police, who made 23 arrests.

The unrest in the Norrebro district of the Danish capital began on Sunday after Rasmus Paludan, the founder of a tiny far-right party, tossed a book he claimed was the Quran into the air and let it fall to the ground.

via In Copenhagen, Reaction to an Anti-Muslim Event Turns Violent – The New York Times

‘Automated Racism’: Chinese Police Are Reportedly Using AI to Identify Minority Faces

~ mcequality

According to a report from the New York Times published on Sunday, the Chinese government is using a facial recognition system to track Uighurs, the country’s Muslim minority. The technology reportedly targets this population based on their physical appearance.

According to government procurement documents obtained by the Times, beginning last year, nearly two dozen police departments in China wanted technology that could identify and track Uighur individuals. And the documents reportedly indicate that the interest in this type of tech has grown in the last two years. In Yongzhou, for instance, police wanted software that could “characterize and search whether or not someone is a Uighur.”

via ‘Automated Racism’: Chinese Police Are Reportedly Using AI to Identify Minority Faces