Month: March 2017

Public schools in Boston are using a new global map to help show students what the world really looks like.

Boston Public Schools, a network that includes 125 institutions, announced Thursday that instead of just using the widely popular, over 400-year-old Mercator projection map, which grossly distorts the size of the world’s countries and continents, classrooms will be incorporating the Peters projection map because it is more accurate. 

In the Mercator map, which was created in 1569 to help establish and navigate colonial trade routes, many of the world’s countries and continents appear warped when compared to their actual size: Alaska is portrayed as larger than Mexico, which is untrue; South America looks the same size as Europe, when it is nearly twice as large; and Greenland appears mammoth when compared with Africa, but it is in fact 14 times smaller than the continent.

The Peters projection map, which was created by German historian Arno Peters in 1973, shows the world’s landmasses at their true scale. It has been adopted by the United Nations, and Boston school officials believe the newer map will enrich students’ global learning. Both maps are shown below. 

“By incorporating the Peters projection maps — an equal area representation — into classrooms, we are opening the door for students to view the world in a different light,” BPS’ History and Social Studies Director Natacha Scott told The Huffington Post. “Taking the time to analyze different map projections will help facilitate conversations about bias in the classroom, allowing students to become more aware of the world around them.”

Scott says Hayden Frederick-Clarke, director of cultural proficiency of BPS, initiated the discussion around using the Peters projection map in the classroom. He spoke with members of the BPS’ Office of Opportunity and Achievement Gaps as they embarked on a three-year effort to “decolonize the academic curriculum,” which Scott says “means examining and removing instances of bias in all academic disciplines, including social studies, math, science, and English language arts.”

BPS will still use the Mercator maps in schools as a way for students to compare it to the replacement map and spark honest discussion around the world’s landscape. Frederick-Clarke says this is especially important for students of color, who make up 86 percent of the school district.

“Maps that they are presented with generally classify the places that they’re from as small and insignificant,” Frederick-Clarke told radio news station WBUR. “It only seems right that we would present them with an accurate view of themselves.”

While rollout for the replacement map began with second-, seventh- and eleventh-grade social studies classrooms, Scott says that the district plans to eventually purchase the map for all classrooms to use. She says she sees immense value in teachers and students using the Peters projection map to form more factually accurate ideas about the world’s geography and history. 

“Overall, we hope students gain a deeper understanding of the importance of researching and analyzing multiple perspectives in order to develop their own conclusions about the world around them,” she said. “By exploring geography, we also hope to increase an awareness of the relationship between themselves to other countries, communities, cultures, and individuals around the world.”

— This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

Source: HuffPost Black Voices

A new U.S. policy banning certain electronic devices in the cabin on flights coming from parts of the Middle East and North Africa has already put potential travelers on the fence.

The ban ― which mandates that devices larger than a cellphone be checked ― affects passengers on direct flights to the U.S. from 10 airports in Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Qatar, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates. Nine airlines are listed: Egypt Air, Emirates, Etihad Airways, Kuwait Airways, Qatar Airways, Royal Air Maroc, Royal Jordanian, Saudia and Turkish Airlines.

Some who would otherwise have no problem working on long flights or securing their valuables via carry-on are now subject to alarming security and safety concerns.

With roughly 50 flights per day affected by the new rules, thousands of people per week can expect to change the way they fly, sometimes dramatically.

Their questions, as of Tuesday afternoon, have gone unanswered:

What happened to the federal government’s lithium battery warnings?

The Federal Aviation Administration wants to be sure nothing explodes ― inadvertently or otherwise ― on a flight. Small fires and explosions do happen, however, and at least some FAA guidelines try to steer anything that could catch fire into the cabin where it can be managed.

That includes lithium ion batteries. If they’re spare batteries and not already inserted in a device, the general rule is that they have to stay in the cabin. The same rule goes for e-cigarettes. The Transportation Security Administration’s new ban reportedly supersedes those warnings, making it unclear exactly what you should and should not stow in the plane’s hold.

Alicia Anir, a photographer and flight attendant who regularly travels to and from some of the countries listed, said she can’t imagine checking her equipment.

“The thought of checking my camera gear and laptop is sickening,” she told The Huffington Post via email. “Who the hell puts lithium batteries in cargo? If they blow up, we’re SOL!”

What if your employer relies on your in-flight work?

Meredith Morrison, a management consultant based in Dubai, typically flies Emirates from the Middle East back to the U.S. for holidays and family gatherings, she told HuffPost. She’s able to make long flights because she’s able to work on them.

“I definitely need my laptop with me to work on the plane, especially on the 16-hour flight to Houston,” she said.

That may seem like a small price to pay, but the changes will hamper her work to the point where she now plans to switch airlines and add a layover in order to keep using her laptop.

Using it isn’t just essential; losing it could have legal ramifications. Much of the information on her devices is confidential between her and her clients.

“We have layers of security protections on our laptops, but who knows who’d be able to break them,” she said.

Which brings us to our third question:

Isn’t checking expensive equipment a security risk and a liability?

The short answer is absolutely.

Customs agents essentially have blanket authority to search your belongings and the information in your electronics when you arrive after an international flight, though specific rules can get murky. But travelers often want to keep their information and valuables safe from any prying eyes, federal or otherwise.

“I am a researcher, and, just like journalists, we carry data in our laptops,” Banu Akdenizli, an associate professor of communication at Northwestern University in Qatar, told HuffPost. “Checking that data in with luggage is a liability. What if it gets lost or stolen?”

Like Morrison, Akdenizli travels between the U.S. and some of the countries on the list. They join a chorus of people wondering what happens if electronics they’d normally bring aboard get swiped.

Stephanie Block, who contacted HuffPost after the ban news broke, said she’s going on vacation to one of those countries at the end of the month. She wonders now if she needs to cancel. The whole trip relies on her ability to take photos, and she doesn’t know which expensive pieces of equipment she’d be allowed to keep close.

“An electronics ban is a huge inconvenience and potentially a financial setback if something were to happen to our expensive camera equipment that will now be at risk of damage or theft,” she told HuffPost.

“We’ve had stuff stolen from our luggage, like clothes and jewelry. The airlines brush it off and don’t cover certain things, like jewelry …. What are we going to do now? Do we wait and see what happens, or do we risk it by checking equipment?”

— This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

Source: HuffPost Black Voices

Just last week, New York Fashion Week was applauded for featuring at least one model of color in every single runway show this season. 

But a new stunning spread in Allure proves we still have a long way to go when it comes to true inclusion. 

Meghan Markle, Eva Longoria and Padma Lakshmi are just three of the 41 women of color profiled for the glossy’s stunning April cover story, celebrating beauty and diversity. 

Actresses, journalists, models and doctors shared anecdotes and realities of their complicated relationships with their skin, their bodies and the industries they work in. For many, the memories are distant. For some people, such as former model and fashion activist Bethann Hardison, they are still pretty fresh.  

Hardison hosted a town hall meeting in 2007 with various members of the fashion industry. She explained to Allure that during the event, she “sat in front of them and talked about what I thought was inappropriate behavior.” At that point, she said, models of color “were being told, ‘sorry no blacks, no ethnics’” at castings.

Hardison, who said the event sparked articles and a shift in the conversation, added that the phrase “has never been said again.”

There is no denying that things have improved in 10 years since that meeting, but these issues still arise today. Take this season’s Lanvin show, for example. The fashion house came under fire when casting director James Scully claimed he heard “from several agents, some of whom are black, that they have received mandate from Lanvin that they do not want to be presented with women of color.”

It’s so important for magazines like Allure to represent a broad range of women with uniquely beautiful skin tones, shapes, sizes and ages. And it’s equally important for us to hear stories like these. They serve as a constant reminder that there is always more work to be done toward inclusion.

Head to Allure to see the entire spread. 

type=type=RelatedArticlesblockTitle=Related… + articlesList=58cbcf07e4b00705db4e642f,585834bbe4b0b3ddfd8e084f,57488080e4b0dacf7ad4c7af

— This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

Source: HuffPost Black Voices

Fight videos go viral on the internet all the time, but one is gaining popularity for all of the right reasons. 

A video, posted on Facebook on Monday, shows two teens in Atlantic City, New Jersey, in a street fight while about 11 other teens stand around instigating or recording on their phones. A man approached the group and used the moment to teach them a lesson. 

“Everybody with your phones out, all y’all, y’all the real cowards. Record that, too,” the unidentified man said to the onlookers in the four-minute video below. He then began to mediate the confrontation, telling the two feuding teens that their beef stemmed from “ill-advised” information.

“Y’all almost men. Y’all ain’t kids no more. Y’all girls ain’t little girls no more … Start acting like it, yo,” he told all of the teens. “We ain’t gon’ get nowhere like this, yo. Y’all gon’ wind up like the n***as y’all don’t wanna be like, yo.”

The following video contains language that may be offensive to some readers.

When the teen recording the video continued to laugh, the man had no problem calling him out.

“Anybody that could laugh at you while you upset like that, that ain’t ya friend,” he told one of the teens involved in the fight. He turned to the second teen and said, “And they sitting here letting you do the dirty work.”

The man told the group not to take for granted the relatively good neighborhood they live in and the parents that they have, a couple of whom he knew personally. 

He told the teens who were fighting to call a truce and shake hands. The boys were reluctant, but the peacemaker continued to press them.

“I ain’t leaving, bruh,” he said. “If y’all don’t shake hands, bruh, I’m not leaving, bruh.” 

The boys finally shook each other’s hands and began to walk away.

The unidentified man’s intervention made an impact on more than just those Atlantic City teens. The video, which already has more than 11 million views on Facebook, is receiving lots of praise for sending a positive message. LeBron James commended the mediator for breaking up the fight on Twitter.

Watch the full video above.

The Huffington Post reached out to the person who originally posted the video but did not get an immediate response. 

— This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

Source: HuffPost Black Voices

On Monday at a rally in Louisville, Kentucky, President Donald Trump took aim at NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick, who decided last season not to stand for the national anthem in protest of the mistreatment of people of color in the U.S.

“There was an article today … that NFL owners don’t want to pick [Kaepernick] up because they don’t want to get a nasty tweet from Donald Trump,” Trump said. “Do you believe that?”

He added, “I said, ‘If I remember that one, I’m gonna report it to the people of Kentucky because they like it when people actually stand for the American flag.’”

Kaepernick responded Tuesday not with his mouth, but with his money. NFL.com’s Ian Rapoport reported earlier today that the former San Francisco 49ers quarterback was donating $50,000 to Meals on Wheels America, which could face reduced federal funding if Trump’s budget were to be approved. (Worth noting: Meals on Wheels only gets a small percentage of its funding from the Community Development Block Grant and other federal programs that Trump has proposed cutting.)

Additionally, Kaepernick announced through Rapoport that he will donate $50,000 to Love Army for Somalia, a social media campaign to send 60 tons of food and water to Somalia to combat famine.  

The 29-year-old donated the money despite remaining an unrestricted free agent since he opted out of his contract earlier this month. He has said he plans to stand during the national anthem next season should he get signed. 

Meals on Wheels thanked Kaepernick over Twitter on Tuesday for his donation, one of many the organization has received since news of potential budget cuts earned national attention last week. 

— This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

Source: HuffPost Black Voices

There are no hardships, glories and frustrations like those that stem from the experience of black womanhood. 

With the pervasive nature of misogynoir ― seen everywhere from reality TV to the lack of media coverage around missing black girls in Washington, D.C. ― it can be difficult to remember just how exceptional we are. 

So in honor of World Poetry Day and the absurdly moving nature of spoken word, we’ve gathered a few poems that lay out exactly what makes black women so dynamic. These poems are essentially a reminder that we’re the s**t. 

Disclaimer: Some of the following poems contain profanity. 

1. “This Woman,” Alysia Harris

2. “P***y Poem,” Jasmine Williams

3. “10 Things I Want To Say To A Black Woman,” Joshua Bennett

4. “For Women Who Are Difficult To Love,” Warsan Shire

5. “A Message to Women,” Reyna Biddy

6. “Black Girl Magic,” Shasparay Lighteard

7. “Black Girl Blues,” Masterpiece Poet

8. “Black Girls Be Boxing,” Stella Binion

— This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

Source: HuffPost Black Voices

Parents who can’t get a moment to themselves even in the bathroom, this video is for you.

Pediatric nurse and mom of two Leah Hazley captured her daughter, Noelle, on video casually chatting with her ― while she was in the bathroom. Hazley told The Huffington Post she recorded the video a couple weeks before Noelle’s third birthday in January. In it, Noelle talks with her mom and then leaves her to finally have some peace and quiet in the bathroom only to open the door seconds later. Their conversation ranges from Noelle telling her mom she has “brown skin” to reminding her that she loves her.

Hazley, who works part time as a pediatric nurse at the Children’s Hospital of Colorado and is also a blogger, said this happens almost daily and that Noelle also does this to her dad when he’s home alone with the kids. The toddler is known to have “full-on conversations” with her parents in the bathroom.

“I usually don’t allow her to be alone with her sister for very long for fear that an accident may happen,” Hazley said. “Plus it’s easier than hearing her yell and scream if I decide to close and lock the door. It’s much more peaceful this way.”

According to her mom, Noelle is a “spunky girl” who loves singing and dancing and has no problem chatting with adults.

“She is Disney-obsessed and can talk adults under a table,” she said. “She is always introducing herself to people and is the subject of a lot of my blog.”

Hazley submitted the funny video to “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” for its “Ellen, Take Me Away” contest. The host asked moms to send videos that show how much they need a break and will allow the winner to sit in her “kids-free skybox.” The footage of Noelle was featured on the show, but Hazley hasn’t heard if she’s won yet. 

The video has also racked up more than 14 million views on the NTD Television Facebook page as of Tuesday afternoon.

In what might be the funniest twist about the video, Hazley has received many messages from people who offered compliments about the tile in the bathroom and wanted to know more about the decor.

Hazley described the response to the video as “incredible” and knows that so many parents “can relate” to her daughter’s antics.

Follow Hazley and her family on her blog, Facebook and Instagram. 

The HuffPost Parents newsletter, So You Want To Raise A Feminist, offers the latest stories and news in progressive parenting. 

— This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

Source: HuffPost Black Voices

Joey Meek was the only person Dylann Roof talked to about his plan to kill black churchgoers in Charleston, South Carolina, in June 2015. Meek never alerted authorities to his friend’s plot and after Roof’s massacre lied to the FBI about what he knew. 

On Tuesday, a federal judge sentenced Meek to 27 months in federal prison and said he hoped the sentence would deter him from making the same mistakes. 

“The danger he exposed this community to was extraordinary. We want other people in a similar situation to make the right decision that this defendant did not,” U.S. District Judge Richard Gergel said Tuesday, according to the Post and Courier. 

Meek, 22, initially faced a longer stretch behind bars, but he struck a plea deal with prosecutors last year for the chance of a shorter sentence by pleading guilty to “misprision,” which amounts to his failure to tell authorities what he knew about Roof’s actions when they questioned him after the killings happened. Meek, however, avoided prosecution for failing to alert authorities about Roof’s plan ― which Meek had prior knowledge of ― before he committed the crime.

Meek also told some of his own friends about Roof’s plot and discouraged them from contacting police. 

When the FBI interviewed Meek after the shooting, he said he didn’t know about Roof’s plan. He later admitted that he had lied, confirming to prosecutors that he meant to mislead investigators. 

Roof and Meek were childhood friends who authorities said grew apart but later reconnected. Roof slept at Meek’s home several times in the weeks before the 2015 shooting at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church.

When the two men would drink, use drugs and play video games, Roof, an avowed white supremacist, reportedly made his views known: He believed in segregation, he felt that blacks were “taking over” and that he wanted to start a race war. 

Meek has repeatedly said that he never sounded the alarm about Roof’s troubling statements, even as a plan for the shooting took shape, because “I didn’t take him seriously.”

During Tuesday’s sentencing, Meek cried and apologized to the families of the massacre victims, the Post and Courier reports. 

“I’m really, really sorry. A lot of beautiful lives were taken,” Meek said. 

In December, Roof was convicted in a federal trial of slaying nine black AME parishioners and was sentenced to death in January. Roof still faces a state trial which has been delayed indefinitely.

— This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

Source: HuffPost Black Voices

America Ferrera delivered a rousing speech on the importance of representation beyond the media at the Human Rights Campaign’s Los Angeles Gala Dinner on Saturday.

The 32-year-old actress was presented with HRC’s Ally for Equality Award during the ceremony, and in her acceptance speech broke down why it’s important that people of color and in marginalized communities see themselves reflected in culture. 

“We know that representation matters. We know this. Not just in the media but in our schools, in our hospitals, in our boardrooms, in our halls of power ― we know that it makes all the difference to see ourselves reflected by culture, with dignity, with humor, with compassion,” Ferrera said in a video of her speech posted Monday.

“It is how most of us learn what is possible for us,” she continued. “What our place in the world is. And too often we have to spend so many years unlearning what culture has taught us about who we are or ought to be; but it doesn’t have to be that way. We can change that. Every single one of us. We can leave the next generation with a better reflection of their innate worth and their inherent power simply by claiming and living in our own power.”

The Human Rights Campaign, the largest advocacy group in the country for LGBTQ rights, honored both Ferrera and Katy Perry during the gala for being allies and using their platform to elevate the voices of those in the LGTBQ community. The singer received a National Equality Award while Ferrera joined actress Meryl Streep and host Seth Meyers in receiving the Ally for Equality Award in 2017.  

During her speech, Ferrera also explained how she’s lacked role models in her own path to achieve her dreams. 

“I didn’t grow up seeing a lot of examples of short, brown, chubby, poor daughters of immigrant parents grow up to be successful actresses and loud activists,” she said. “I had to use my imagination most of the time.”

The star then thanked the mentors and friends who encouraged her to use her voice, including her high school drama teacher who was in the audience. And she admitted that some days it is “really hard” to be vocal about issues she cares about but feels her own empowerment is connected to the empowerment of other marginalized groups, like the LGBTQ community. 

Watch Ferrera’s full speech above. You can hear her comments on representation at the 10:00 mark. 

— This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

Source: HuffPost Black Voices

The American Civil Liberties Union contends U.S. customs agents should have to obtain search warrants before they rifle through travelers’ electronic devices at border crossings. 

The ACLU, in an amicus brief filed Monday, urged the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit to “hold that searches of portable electronic devices may not be conducted without a warrant or, at an absolute minimum, a determination of probable cause,” by Customs and Border Protection agents.

The Fourth Amendment, which gives people the right against unreasonable searches and seizures, doesn’t apply at the border. Customs agents assert they have the authority to search all electronic devices at the border, “no matter your legal status in the country or whether they have any reason to suspect that you’ve committed a crime,” according to the ACLU.

“We are urging the court to hold that the Fourth Amendment requires a warrant, or at minimum a probable cause, to search electronics because of the huge amount of personal information they contain,” the ACLU lawyer Esha Bhandari told The Huffington Post.

The brief was filed in a case involving a Turkish citizen convicted last year of trying to enter the U.S. with gun parts. Authorities seized his iPhone during the search. Bhandari said the ACLU’s brief is not to defend the Turkish citizen, but to remind the courts about the potential for government overreach. 

“The goal of ours is to have the court think about the implications of ruling in this case for hundreds of millions of other travelers,” Bhandari said. “We want to urge the court ― regardless of whether evidence is warranted enough for this defendant ― to address squarely the Fourth Amendment question.”

The ACLU filed a similar brief in 2015, but that case was dismissed before the appeals court could decide whether warrantless border searches are legal. 

Customs agents sometimes use their broad authority to inspect electronic devices belonging to travelers who may not appear to arouse suspicion of wrongdoing. Last year, a Wall Street Journal reporter said she was detained and asked to hand over her cellphone at Los Angeles International Airport.

Border agents detained a Canadian photojournalist for more than six hours as he traveled to cover to the Dakota Access Pipeline protests in October. Ed Ou, 30, told The New York Times the agents asked for his phone to look through his photos so that they could make sure he wasn’t “posing next to any dead bodies.” He was ultimately denied entrance into the U.S.

The reach of Customs and Border Protection extends to domestic flights as well. In February, federal agents demanded passengers arriving in New York show their identification as they searched for an immigrant who had received a deportation order to leave the country. The person they were seeking was not on the flight, according to The Washington Post.

On Monday, the U.S. banned laptops, tablets and other electronic devices in the cabins of flights from nine airlines operating in parts of North Africa and the Middle East. Meanwhile, President Donald Trump has twice attempted to ban travelers from certain Muslim-majority countries from entering the U.S. Those bans have been temporarily blocked by federal courts.

— This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

Source: HuffPost Black Voices