Axios: Exclusive: Meta to study race of Instagram users. “The company says it wants to make sure that its products and AI systems operate fairly across racial lines, but feels it can’t do that without better knowing its customers. By working with a third party it aims to both protect privacy and ensure customers are more comfortable sharing their information.”
New-to-Me, from WWD: The Fashion and Race Database Wants to Correct the Mis-Education of Fashion. “Born in 2017, the result of collecting scarce and scattered materials for the Fashion and Race course [Kimberly M.] Jenkins created and was teaching at Parsons School of Design, The Fashion and Race Database culls and curates articles (scholarly and otherwise), books, profiles, images and other relevant content that deals with ‘thorny’ topics, as Jenkins notes, like ‘colorism, cultural misappropriation and where the construct of race comes from and how it impacts beauty, culture, discrimination in retail.’ Organized into six sections, the database has a library of content addressing the aforementioned matters, particularly as they pertain to fashion.”
Texas Monthly: 14 Resources for Teaching Your Kids About Racial Injustice. “We’ve talked about racism and the history of violence against African Americans that extends to this day, and their teachers have led discussions on tolerance, fairness, and inclusiveness. Still, as the questions keep coming along with a need for more understanding, I turned to the minds behind the state’s African American Studies high school elective, which was based on an initiative conceived by board member Aicha Davis and piloted in Dallas schools last school year. This past fall, when the Texas State Board of Education was considering implementing the class, students testified to the course’s benefits. Not only did it help them understand more about African American history, they said, it helped them understand the ways that historical events led to oppression today—and think about ways they can promote justice.”
Swiped off Sarah’s Facebook wall, from Minnesota Monthly: U of M Press Uploads 22 Racial Justice Books for Free . “Across social media platforms and news outlets, resources to learn about racism are yours for the taking as the battle to turn rage and sorrow into reform continues. Charging the cops involved in Floyd’s case is not the end. If you’re in a place of privilege, you can always keep learning and listening. To help, the University of Minnesota Press has created a 22-book Reading for Racial Justice collection, free to read online through August 31.”
Phys.org: Coronavirus is not the ‘great equalizer’—race matters. “The fear and mistrust of health systems expressed by many in Black, Indigenous and racialized communities stem from historical eugenic practices of both governments and individual doctors. These communities have experienced systemic racist violence for generations. They have recently experienced xenophobic responses to COVID-19 and historically, other health crises. I have worked for over 25 years in community health and as a health scholar. I have worked with survivors of trauma who have experienced colonial violence. I am concerned how anti-Black racism, anti-Indigenous racism and other forms of intersectional violence will impact the health of our communities during this crisis.”
BBC: Facial recognition fails on race, government study says. “A US government study suggests facial recognition algorithms are far less accurate at identifying African-American and Asian faces compared to Caucasian faces. African-American females were even more likely to be misidentified, it indicated.”
Cornell Chronicle: Study finds racial bias in tweets flagged as hate speech. “Tweets believed to be written by African Americans are much more likely to be tagged as hate speech than tweets associated with whites, according to a Cornell study analyzing five collections of Twitter data marked for abusive language.”
Larry Ferlazzo: A Beginning List Of The Best Resources For Teaching About Reparations. “I have resources on reparations at NEW & REVISED: THE BEST RESOURCES I’VE USED (OR WILL USE) IN LESSONS ABOUT RACE & RACISM. However, especially now with the idea being taken more seriously in the public debate, I thought I’d take the materials there – and add more – to create a new ‘Best’ list to add to all my resources on race and racism.”
Nature: Cancer geneticists tackle troubling ethnic bias in studies. “… most studies and genetic databases are populated mainly by data from people of European descent. This knowledge gap exacerbates disparities in cancer incidence and outcomes around the world. In the United States, for example, African American men are about twice as likely as white men to die of prostate cancer. But researchers who study these inequities say they are encouraged by renewed interest in closing the data gap from their colleagues and funders, including the US government.”
Nextgov: Congress Moves to Ban Discriminatory Advertising on Social Media. “The DATA Privacy Act, introduced by Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., explicitly bars Facebook, Twitter and other companies from allowing advertisers to use consumer data to discriminate by race, gender or sexual orientation. Under the legislation, the Federal Trade Commission would issue clear guidance on what constitutes online discrimination and gain new powers to penalize organizations that violate the rules.”
University of Kansas: Study: With Twitter, Race Of The Messenger Matters. “When NFL player Colin Kaepernick took a knee during the national anthem to protest police brutality and racial injustice, the ensuing debate took traditional and social media by storm. University of Kansas researchers have found that tweets both in support of and opposed to the protests can influence how young people think about the issue and, like in many aspects of life, the messenger’s race matters.”
NDWorks: Klau Center announces project to collect and archive narratives on race. “The Klau Center for Civil and Human Rights, a part of the Keough School of Global Affairs, has announced a new initiative, With Voices True, to collect and record the voices of the Notre Dame community on the topic of race. The goal is to establish a permanent archive of narratives that can serve as a resource for reflection, research and engagement. The envisioned archive will include audio recordings, video interviews, written narratives, photography, and art.”
New-to-me, from Dazed: This exhibition spotlights the next gen artists exploring fashion and race. “Kimberly M. Jenkins, a fashion educator and independent researcher, began developing an academic initiative. It began with the course ‘Fashion and Race’, which she has taught at the New School’s Parsons School of Design since Autumn 2016. ‘The first thing we do in the class is to go about discussing what race, systemic oppression, and white privilege are to set up the terms we will be relying upon in order to look at how the construction of race has shaped fashion and beauty industries,’ Jenkins explains. Driven to bring her vision to the public, Jenkins created The Fashion and Race Database Project, an online archive filled with vital source materials.”
Sojourners: New Database Lets You Search Racial Disparities in School Districts. “ProPublica has released a new interactive database that allows users to examine racial disparities in more than 96,000 individual public and charter schools, and 17,000 districts across the United States.”
Cornell University: Empathy project goes online. “Since its launch in September 2016, the Cornell Race and Empathy Project has recorded, archived and shared the everyday stories of Cornellians that evoke racial empathy. The physical incarnation of the project – a cozy listening booth shaped like a stylized ear – is showing wear and tear and will have to be retired. To continue fostering the ability to identify and understand the feelings of someone of a different background, the project has evolved into an online presence.”
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