Media, Race, Culture
“I also think that right now more than ever a lot of young
people are feeling very small, very helpless, and a lot of parents are feeling
very confused, angry, small and helpless … so we bring stories like the Bessie
Coleman story, someone who in [the] 1920s as a black female in the United
States was told, “No, you can’t fly, you’re black, you’re a woman, and we won’t
even teach you how to fly.” At that time, with all the incredible gender and
racial discrimination that was going on in this country … she went [to France]
and was the only African American and Native American female in her class. She
learned how to fly and she comes back home with an international pilot’s
license, which Amelia Earhart didn’t even have yet — she wouldn’t have hers for
two more years.
I think showing kids stories like that [is important] and
really getting to them and going, “Look at that, you can do that, you can do
anything if you really just think outside of what is expected of you.” You look
at obstacles and you say, “That’s not just something that’s in your way. That’s
actually potential for something greater. By overcoming that, you could lead to
something unexpected in yourself.””
~ Karyn Parsons, founder of Sweet
Blackberry
Technology,
AI
"But an increasing body of research and criticism suggests that
algorithms and artificial intelligence aren’t necessarily a panacea for ending
prejudice, and they can have disproportionate impacts on groups that are already socially
disadvantaged, particularly people of color. Instead of offering a workaround for
human biases, the tools we designed to help us predict the future may be
dooming us to repeat the past by replicating and even amplifying societal
inequalities that already exist.
These data-fueled predictive technologies aren’t going away
anytime soon. So how can we address the potential for discrimination in
incredibly complex tools that have already quietly embedded themselves in our
lives and in some of the most powerful institutions in the country?
In 2014, a report from the Obama White House warned that
automated decision-making “raises difficult questions about how to ensure that
discriminatory effects resulting from automated decision processes, whether
intended or not, can be detected, measured, and redressed.”
Over the last several years, a growing number of experts have
been trying to answer those questions by starting conversations, developing best practices and principles of accountability, and exploring solutions
for the complex and insidious problem of algorithmic bias."
Health
Care
"Citing the protracted uncertainty over the
law’s future, many insurers have proposed big rate increases again for next
year even though many are no longer incurring big losses in its marketplaces.
People covered by one insurer in Maryland could see premiums rise by more than
50 percent if proposed rate increases go into effect, and premiums for plans in
Virginia and Connecticut could increase more than 30 percent. In North
Carolina, where rates are already among the nation’s highest, Blue Cross and
Blue Shield of North Carolina wants an increase of nearly 23 percent but said
it would have sought less than half that amount under more predictable
circumstances.
The politics are exceedingly tricky in a
divided and dysfunctional Washington, but economists, insurers, doctors and
health policy experts across the political spectrum agree that immediately
addressing three or four basic shortcomings in the existing system would go a
long way toward making the law more effective and financially stable."
Women’s rights, social media, Afghanistan
"In Afghanistan's patriarchal society, a woman's name should not be revealed, even on her
grave.
"Mr X's" mother, daughter or
sister, the headstone might read, rather than the name of the deceased.
Openly using the names of women is
regarded as inappropriate and even an insult in the conservative Muslim nation.
On a birth certificate there is no sign of
the mother's name. On a wedding invitation the bride's name is not mentioned -
only the names of her father and husband-to-be.
But a women-led campaign on
social media is starting to challenge the old Afghan
tradition."
Sustainability, Economy
"In the face of renewed calls for
trickle-down economic policy—such as proposed tax cuts for the rich and
transnational corporations—we urgently need a clearly articulated theory and
practice of sustainable economics that works for local communities. Enter a
blessing of a book, Anthony Flaccavento’s Building a Healthy Economy from the Bottom Up:
Harnessing Real-World Experience for Transformative Change.
Bottom Up is a comprehensive primer on the
transition to a new economy—the place-based movement to rewire the economy for
equity and ecological sustainability. It is rich in stories and detail for the
curious or discouraged and those seeking a strategy to move toward a
sustainable and equitable future. Flaccavento excels as a storyteller,
reporting on successful “bottom-up” ventures and experiments in building new
systems around food, energy, health services, worker ownership, community
finance, and place-based arts and culture."
