This article was originally published at Prism. It’s part three in a series about the harassment of marginalized journalists. Read parts one and two of the series here.
Being a reporter is a public-facing profession by nature, and the exposure that accompanies a byline often comes with harassment, unwanted critiques, and ridicule from strangers and sources.
Recent election cycles have seen a surge in the number of women, particularly women of color, running for elected office. Now, months after the highly anticipated 2020 election came to a close, two women have already their eyes set on two major elected positions in their county—and if they’re elected, they could make history.
JoAnn Walker and Pamela Price are running on a joint bid for Alameda County sheriff and district attorney, respectively.
Maria Montessori Academy, a charter school in North Ogden, Utah, made headlines this month after allowing several families to opt their children out of Black History Month curriculum. The principal of the school wrote in a Facebook post that he “reluctantly” gave parents the option in order to allow them “to exercise their civil rights.
At a time when a global pandemic is affecting and killing Black and brown Americans at a significantly higher rate than white Americans, reluctance to get inoculated can have especially dangerous consequences. Taking time to build trust in communities that are hesitant to get vaccinated is crucial—and when people are desperate to return to some semblance of normalcy, time is something there isn’t much of.
Content creators in Hollywood are known to bend the truth. When it comes to potraying abortion plotlines on the screen, things are no different. A new report by Advancing New Standards in Reproductive Health (ANSIRH) at the University of California, San Francisco, looked into the ways abortion patients and topics are portrayed on TV and in movies. Researchers have been compiling annual data since 2012, and publicly releasing the reports since 2016.
Octavia Yearwood has dedicated her life to mentoring and supporting young people who have experienced adversity. Yearwood is no stranger to adversity herself, having spent several years in foster care. Now, she’s using her knowledge, experience, and expertise to mentor teens in youth prisons in her program, “How the Hell Did You Do That?!”
The supplementary program is based off of Yearwood’s 2017 interactive book with the same title.
President-elect Joe Biden has some ambitious plans for his first 100 days in office, and unlike the agendas of other presidents, it prioritizes several issues that aim to help communities of color, both directly and indirectly. Biden has pledged to take several bold, sweeping actions once he steps into the Oval Office, with some people questioning whether he’ll be able to do it all in the allotted time frame.
This election cycle has brought massive get-out-the vote efforts and awareness campaigns, but the ones by artists are arguably the most fun and entertaining. Art has never been apolitical, and the last four years have brought a surge in the number of artists using their craft to resist the current administration and speak out about ongoing injustices.
Horror films are created with a goal of eliciting fright and angst from the audience by evoking their worst fears, nightmares, or playing out worst-case-scenarios. One commonality exists within all horror stories: an outside element or villain—whether it be a clown, a shark, a vampire, a monster, or something supernatural—coming to cause mayhem, death, and wreak havoc on peoples’ lives. When it comes to Black horror, however, the villain is oftentimes more recognizable.
After a summer filled with passionate racial justice demonstrations, people and institutions around the country have been forced to reckon with their involvement in institutionalized racism. A recent survey found a dramatic shift in race relations in California, with an increasing number of white people acknowledging that people of color face frequent discrimination that consequently holds them back from jobs, promotions, and educational opportunities.
On Monday, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis revealed his plan to curb violence at racial justice demonstrations by introducing a proposal that would impose harsh criminal penalties for “violent or disorderly assemblies”—a move that has left organizers fuming about its potential impact on the Black community.
The world has changed a lot since Broadway shuttered its doors in March, and now questions remain as to how they’ll be addressing systemic racism within the industry once performances resume for the public.
When Edeline Mackey’s daughter was getting ready to enter kindergarten in the late ‘90s, her mother knew the public school system might present some challenges against receiving a quality education. At the time, Mackey was a teaching assistant in Broward County, Florida, and had witnessed the ways students of color were treated differently by teachers and administrators.
Protest songs have seen a major spike in streaming numbers in recent weeks, and the timing of the upsurge is no coincidence: Black Lives Matter uprisings around the country have brought renewed attention to the history and power of Black-led civil unrest in the U.S., of which music has long been an integral part. According to Billboard, protest songs from artists like Kendrick Lamar, Childish Gambino, Beyoncé, James Brown, and others have been streamed at high numbers.
Fat shaming and obsessing over womens’ bodies is a longstanding problem. Toxic internet commentary, unattainable societal weight expectations, and misinformation surrounding obesity have only exacerbated the problem. Fat shaming often stems from “fatphobia,” an aversion to people who are in a heavier weight group for whatever reason and don’t adhere to society’s standards of what an “attractive” body should look like.