(H)afrocentric stars a posse of disgruntled undergrads of color as they navigate their way through Ronald Reagan University. Follow the self proclaimed radical Black feminist, Naima Pepper (who has a White mama), as she deals with the contradictions of her own life in various ways—lashing out in Tourette Syndrome-like rants about gentrification, white supremacy, and apathy. Both she and her brother, Miles Pepper, grew up in a mostly White and Asian neighborhood. Miles Pepper reflects a popular culture aesthetic and mindset. As they navigate through the world with their best friends, Renee Aanjay Brown and El Ramirez, their identities and neighborhood start to change in front of their eyes.
Category Archives: Feminism
A beauty contest was judged by AI and the robots didn’t like dark skin | Technology | The Guardian
The simplest explanation for biased algorithms is that the humans who create them have their own deeply entrenched biases. That means that despite perceptions that algorithms are somehow neutral and uniquely objective, they can often reproduce and amplify existing prejudices. The Beauty.AI results offer “the perfect illustration of the problem”, said Bernard Harcourt, Columbia University professor of law and political science who has studied “predictive policing”, which has increasingly relied on machines. “The idea that you could come up with a culturally neutral, racially neutral conception of beauty is simply mind-boggling.”The case is a reminder that “humans are really doing the thinking, even when it’s couched as algorithms and we think it’s neutral and scientific,” he said.Civil liberty groups have recently raised concerns that computer-based law enforcement forecasting tools – which use data to predict where future crimes will occur – rely on flawed statistics and can exacerbate racially biased and harmful policing practices.“It’s polluted data producing polluted results,” said Malkia Cyril, executive director of the Center for Media Justice.
Source: A beauty contest was judged by AI and the robots didn’t like dark skin | Technology | The Guardian
Donald Trump’s Remarks Show He’s Mistaken on Sexual Assault in Military – The New York Times
Speaking at a candidates’ forum, Mr. Trump defended one of his Twitter posts from 2013 concerning the high number of sexual assaults in the military, and he said that he had been “absolutely correct” in sending out a message that said, “What did these geniuses expect when they put men & women together?”Mr. Trump also suggested that the solution to the problem was the formation of a separate military justice system — although one is already in existence. That system sits at the center of the debate over how to tackle sexual assault.His comments displayed what was apparently a misunderstanding of the Pentagon’s decades-long struggle to curb such assaults and the military justice system already in place to prosecute them.
Source: Donald Trump’s Remarks Show He’s Mistaken on Sexual Assault in Military – The New York Times
Don’t let size fool you! Meet Sweden’s tiniest firefighter – The Local
But although Carlsson demonstrably has the physical strength to handle the job, she insists the firefighter vocation is about more than just muscles and body mass.”You don’t just need to be strong, you need to have the right techniques for carrying, for lifting, for carrying big hoses, there’s a lot of technique, it’s not only about being strong,” she explains.Her first job was a call-out to a forest fire, which saw her and the team battle the blaze for 13 hours straight. But although she says she has not yet had to face the classic scenario most people imagine when they think of firefighters – boldly running into burning buildings to save someone’s life – she will be ready when it comes.”I know that I will have this kind of situation sooner or later and I don’t think you can prepare. When I’m on call, you know, it’s a role, it’s not me as my person, it’s a role and I have to act, I have to do my job, that’s what I’m hired for,” she says.
Source: Don’t let size fool you! Meet Sweden’s tiniest firefighter – The Local
Norway hairdresser on trial for refusing client in hijab – The Local
The 47-year-old hairdresser told the court she saw the hijab as a political symbol representing an ideology that frightens her, rather than as a religious symbol. “I see it as a totalitarian symbol. When I see a hijab, I don’t think of religion, but of totalitarian ideologies and regimes,” she told the judges, cited by daily VG. “A hijab is not religious, it’s political,” she added. Described by Norwegian media as a former activist in Islamophobic movements such as Pegida, Hodne recently told TV2 news channel that the headscarf was a symbol of “Islamic ideology” — which she called “evil” — just like “the swastika is that of Nazism”. She said that accepting a woman in hijab as a client would have meant she would have had to turn away male customers, since the woman would not have been able to expose her hair with men present.
Source: Norway hairdresser on trial for refusing client in hijab – The Local
The Lonely Path – sister-hood magazine. A Fuuse production by Deeyah Khan.

Early next morning I heard quite a commotion. I could see faintly through the fabric placed over the small window. Someone was trying to come in through the door at the other end of the courtyard. Someone was speaking in English!‘Yes, but I’d like to check all the same…’‘Help! In here – behind the green cloth on the window!’ I howled.A few tense moments passed; the door opened, and in came a tall English man, and a Pakistani woman.My father and mother, and various relatives all followed.‘Are you Leyla Ali?’I nodded, my body trembling profusely.‘I’m Roger Ellis, from the British High Commission, and this is my assistant. We’re here to help, if that’s what you want.’I looked at my father’s face, dark with indignation, his nostrils flaring. My mother stood behind him, fear casting a gloomy shadow all around her.I nodded again.My father spoke coldly, but steadily, ensuring I heard every single word. ‘If you leave now, you’re dead to us. You’ll never see your family again. Think carefully before you take this huge step. It can never be undone.’Why did it have to be like this?If I chose my family, I chose a marriage I didn’t want with a man I didn’t love.If I chose not to marry him, I had to leave, and be a stranger to my family forever.That was a choice? Some choice!‘I love you both, but I can’t sacrifice my whole life to a marriage I don’t want, just so you can please your biradari, over and above me, your child. Am I so insignificant? Do I matter so little? Abbu you can’t really love me if you’re prepared to do that. I won’t stay.’I turned to Mr Ellis.‘I am ready.’On the drive to Islamabad, I was told what would happen next; where I would stay, where I would be housed when I got to the UK, what support I would get – but it didn’t help me feel any better. I was petrified of how I would survive alone. The last twenty-one years with my family was all I had known.A spasm of painful sombreness jolted through my body.I didn’t ask to be born. I didn’t ask to be treated so unjustly, yet I had to live with the consequences. I had taken the lonely path; and it was loneliness I feared most.
Source: The Lonely Path – sister-hood magazine. A Fuuse production by Deeyah Khan.
Soledad O’Brien calls out CNN for “mainstreaming racism” Nails it!
“And then Donald Trump will say, ‘Hillary Clinton, she’s a bigot.’ And it’s covered, the journalist part comes in, ‘They trade barbs. He said she’s a bigot and she points out that he might be appealing to racists.’ It only becomes ‘he said, she said.’ When in actuality, the fact that Donald Trump said she’s a bigot without the long laundry list of evidence, which if you looked at Hillary Clinton’s speech, she actually did have a lot of really good factual evidence that we would all agree that are things that have happened and do exist. They are treated as if they are equal.”
Source: Soledad O’Brien calls out CNN for “mainstreaming racism”
What Muslim Women are “Allowed” – sister-hood magazine. A Fuuse production by Deeyah Khan.
Since Trump has clearly no idea about Islam and Muslims, I will present is a short list of women from across nations that could help challenge stereotypes of Muslim women. But first, let’s congratulate our athlete, Ibtihaj Muhammad, for creating history by becoming the first U.S. Muslim woman to have won a medal while wearing a hijab (head scarf) in the Rio Olympics 2016. Ibtihaj Muhammad is also considered by Time as one of the World’s Most Influential Women You Don’t Know Yet. History was also made when the dual honor holder Dalilah Muhammad won a Gold medal at the 400m hurdles Olympic event. Until Dalilah Muhammad, this was the only track event to have never been won before by an American woman.This history was made while Trump was busy degrading some of the core American values based on which the constitution of America was established: unity, domestic tranquillity, equality, and liberty. Hopefully by now Trump and supporters would’ve read the constitution – especially after our fallen hero Captain Humayun Khan’s father Mr. Khizr Khan challenged Trump to do so.
Source: What Muslim Women are “Allowed” – sister-hood magazine. A Fuuse production by Deeyah Khan.
Essentializing Islam will not stop Islamophobia | Nervana
Muslims’ attitudes towards divisive trends have also been disturbing. In fact, Muslims are divided between those who immediately adopt a reflexive defensive attitude in justifying practices such as wearing the Niqab, even if they do not agree with it on a personal level. On the other hand, other Muslims quietly agree with the bans on the Niqab and Burkini, but refrain from saying it loudly for fear of looking as if they are betraying their community.As a result, slowly, but surely, Islam has been essentialized into a religion that is at best benignly conservative, and at worse, rigidly radical. Both the red and blue camp are using the Hijab, Niqab, and Burkini as weapons in their battles, enforcing consciously or sub-consciously the narrative of political Islam, which wrongly portrays itself as the most authentic model of Islam. Yes, the ban on the Burkini has been suspended, but it has left behind an unhealed and divided landscape.That is neither healthy for the Western world nor for the Muslim communities in the West. In fact, it is profoundly disturbing.It is indeed great to see Hijabi Muslim women celebrated for their achievements, and Burkini-wearing Muslims defended against an unjust ban, but we should also accept the right of others, including many Muslims, to voice disdain about the Niqab or Burkini. Freedom of expression goes both ways. Expecting that conservative Islam will be loved and embraced by all native Europeans is simply naïve; forcing respect for regressive Islamic patterns on traditional Western communities can be perceived as provocative.Moreover, while defending freedom, it is crucial not to be an advocate of illiberal multiculturalism, in which Islamist Muslims can demand respect and understanding for their conservative, often illiberal attitudes, while non-Muslims’ illiberalism is damned as sick and unacceptable. It is infantilizing and reductive to portray Muslims as a collective bunch of victims who need more protection and less scrutiny. The notion that Islam is exceptional, and not necessarily liberal, has gained a sympathetic ear from the same people who were outraged at France for its illiberal ban on the Burkini. This hypocritical notion is not just untrue, it will ignite more resentment and anger among many non-Muslims.The Western world needs a centrist approach to its Muslim communities that acknowledges and highlights their diversity, maintains the rights of conservative Muslims, and addresses the fears (even irrational ones) of local communities. The best way to fight Islamophobia is to show sympathy for local anxieties, celebrate and support Islamic diversity, and encourage liberal Muslims’ voices. Reductive emotional outrage, however, will never be part of the solution.
Source: Essentializing Islam will not stop Islamophobia | Nervana
Cher’s Latest Road Show? The Campaign Trail – The New York Times
If there was ever a presidential election perfect for a Cher moment, this is it. Personality, outrage and a quick-off-the-keyboard insult are the political currency of 2016.She has earned a reputation as one of the more effective and entertaining Trump neutralizers on Twitter, largely because she can go toe-to-toe with him both in the sheer volume of tweets she fires off (19,000 and counting) and in her lacerating, no-filter style. She often won’t refer to Mr. Trump by name, for example, but with the toilet emoji. (And that is one of her few jokes that is printable here.)
Source: Cher’s Latest Road Show? The Campaign Trail – The New York Times


















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