Artwork stating 'Education Destroys Barriers', 'We Demand Treatment', and 'I Need A Chance'

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  • Teen invents playing cards that are gender-equal -- and diverse

    16-year-old Maayan Segal and her father launched Queeng, a deck of cards that represents gender equality and includes a range of racial and cultural identities. The first iteration sold over 50,000 decks but was re-designed after critics cited the lack of racial diversity. The hand-drawn cards include a range of skin tones and facial features, and king cards are replaced by male and female “Monarch” cards, "Dutchess" or "Duke" cards replace queen cards, and "Prince" or "Princess" cards replace jack cards. There are also female jokers. Five days after its release, Queeng 2.0 already sold over 4,000 decks.

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  • After crime plummeted in 2020, Baltimore will stop drug, sex prosecutions

    When Baltimore prosecutors stopped prosecuting most lower-level crimes to ease jail crowding during the pandemic, they discovered that making many fewer arrests did not fuel a crime wave. In fact, crime dropped substantially, counter to what most other cities experienced during the same time. The experiment showed that not prosecuting for drug possession, prostitution, trespassing, and other minor offenses has minimal, if not positive, effects on crime. The policy was made permanent and officials will now connect people with needed health and social services instead of jailing them.

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  • Taking cops out of traffic stops: Would it make a difference? North Carolina examples offer a clue

    For four years, Fayetteville, N.C., police virtually banned their officers from making traffic stops for petty violations having nothing to do with traffic safety, but increased their enforcement of speeding, red-light, and drunken driving violations. During that time, traffic fatalities decreased. So did the use of force by police, complaints about the police, and injuries to drivers and police. About half as many Black drivers' cars were searched. Unnecessary traffic stops can strain police-community relations and show bias against non-white drivers.

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  • The New Push for Corporate Diversity Comes with an Atlanta Address

    Companies are making the move to Atlanta in their efforts to diversify their workforces. Corporate diversity is hard to achieve in places like Silicon Valley. Instead, companies like Pandora have drastically increased the number of diverse employees since moving to the majority-Black city.

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  • Juvenile (in)justice

    Five years after South Dakota replaced a failing, punitive juvenile justice system that emphasized incarceration and probation with approaches focused on rehabilitation and local services for youth, the state's investment has paid off in far lower recidivism, incarceration, and expense. Counties have financial, justice, and moral incentives to follow the evidence of what works and help teens improve their lives. The state also keeps the data needed to track what is working. Neighboring Wyoming does the opposite on all counts, and it has the wrecked lives and high costs to show for it.

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  • Fighting Gentrification

    When gentrification made housing unaffordable for many people in Houston's historically Black Third Ward neighborhood, local activists sought remedies beyond standard federal tax incentives for affordable housing. A city-sponsored Community Land Trust developed a plan for more affordable housing. At the same time, a development catering to low-income, older LGBTQ residents, adjacent to the Third Ward, got developed on donated land. Charlotte has many similar challenges, making Houston a model for what is possible.

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  • A month into pilot program, Portland Street Response Team brings hope to the streets

    In its first month of operation, Portland Street Response Team began intervening with people on the streets who are experiencing substance abuse or mental health problems. The program, modeled on Eugene, Oregon's CAHOOTS program, provides counseling and paramedic services on 911 calls that once were handled only by police or fire officials. The pilot program is limited to one neighborhood and daytime hours, but will expand if results continue to show positive impacts. The target neighborhood was chosen for its cultural diversity and large numbers of people experiencing homelessness.

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  • Avid Bookshop's New Book Club Promotes Literature About Race and Labor

    Georgia’s Racial Justice Centering Committee, part of the University of Georgia’s United Campus Workers, runs the Racial Justice, Labor, and the South Book Club at the Avid Bookshop. The moderator-led discussions provide attendees with exposure to diverse literature and an opportunity to learn about the intersection between labor and race. While University of Georgia students are the target audience, the book club is open to the public. Meetings are currently held on zoom, but in-person meetings at the bookshop introduced a wider audience to the diverse books and increased support of the local business.

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  • An Illinois district proved programs for gifted students can be diverse

    U-46, Chicago's second-largest school district faced a legal suit in 2005 for discrimination of Hispanic students in its gifted programs and is now setting an example for how programs can be upended for good. By 2018 U-46's gifted program consisted of 48% Hispanic students, a better representation of a 57% Hispanic district. The changes implemented by the district included addressing systemic issues by not relying on teacher recommendations and instead testing all third and sixth graders, expanding the number of seats for gifted students. The district also has teachers undergo antiracism training and more.

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  • Nigeria is using radio to provide support for SGBV survivors

    To combat high rates of sexual and gender-based violence in Nigeria, the Spotlight Initiative supports several organizations providing counseling and educational services to victims and to women and girls at risk of abuse. One program from the NEEM Foundation countered the pandemic shutdown by distributing transistor radios to continue its classes for women. Another, Save the Child Initiative, intervened in a child rape case that local authorities ignored, convincing national police to arrest the attacker and providing counseling to the victim and her mother.

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