Racist Slurs in Place-Names Have to Go, Say Geoscientists
An open letter from geoscientists supports a bill to remove racist slurs from federally recognized lakes, creeks, canyons, and other small landforms. Content warning: This article contains examples of racist slurs used in federally recognized place-names. This language has been used to harass and discriminate against people of color. More than a thousand geographic features in […]
Are Your Great-Grandparents in These Immigration Photographs?
The Ellis Island immigration station opened in New York harbor in 1900, just in time for the huge upswing in immigration to the United States that took place in the years leading up to World War I. In 1907, the peak year of immigration, 3,000 to 5,000 newcomers a day were examined at Ellis Island […]
Diversity (and Justice, Equity, and Inclusion) is the New Digital – But it Shouldn’t Be
It seems as if every few years, a new trend sweeps through the business world, calling for widespread transformation and change. In 2021, “diversity” and “inclusion” are the most heard buzz words. To see how trends can quickly fail, let’s first look at the recent digital transformation’s biggest challenges. Based on those lessons learned, three […]
Spanish Art Show Spotlights ‘Hidden’ Digital Divide in Pandemic
A painting of a woman using an iPad, a vase depicting children dreaming of computers – both historical objects with a contemporary twist highlighting the world’s growing digital divide during the coronavirus pandemic. The exhibition at Barcelona’s Analog Museum of Digital Inequality aims to show how this gap – laid bare by COVID-19 -disproportionately affects […]
Cambodia Adds Human Trafficking Lessons to Schools
School students in Cambodia will learn about the dangers and laws around human trafficking from an updated syllabus starting in 2021, officials said. The Southeast Asian country – which faces U.S. sanctions if it does not improve its record on human trafficking by next year – will add lessons for primary and high school students, […]
To Honor Slave Trade Victims, a Memorial in the Depths of the Atlantic
Tributes to victims of the transatlantic slave trade can be found in museums and through statues, but a new proposal is calling for a memorial that can neither be visited nor even seen. A virtual memorial of ribbons on maps of the Atlantic deep seabed could honor the estimated 1.8 million Africans who died at […]
Widow of murdered LGBT+ Politician Vows to Combat Hate With Election Win
Two years after the murder of popular Brazilian councilwoman Marielle Franco, her partner Monica Benicio has also won a council seat and vowed to fight for justice and LGBT+ rights. Franco, a Black openly gay Rio de Janeiro politician, and her driver Anderson Gomes were gunned down in 2018 in what investigators said appeared to […]
“Something to be Proud of”: UK Graphic Novel Highlights Homeless
Passersby ignore a beggar, homophobic insults crowd a wall, a woman burns a note penned to a “victim” – not the usual stuff of comics but all vignettes from a new graphic novel by homeless people that aims to kill the stigma surrounding street life. The Book of Homelessness, launched this week by a youth […]
Aboriginal Names Get Pride of Place In Australian Addresses
Australia Post has backed a months-long campaign to add Aboriginal place names in addresses to recognise the country’s indigenous people and the traditional names of their lands. Rachael McPhail, an Aboriginal woman, began a social media campaign in August to ask Australia Post to add traditional place names to postal addresses. She also started an […]
From Vandalism to Cultural Expression: Boston’s Mural of Hope
The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (MFA), has launched a community mural project co-led by artists-in-residence Rob “Problak” Gibbs and Rob Stull. In collaboration with the City of Boston, Gibbs has begun painting a new outdoor mural — which he calls the Breathe Life series — on the exterior of Madison Park Technical Vocational High […]
