bias

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Alexa Has 'Drastically Different' Answers on Trump, Harris

Amazon says it has fixed glitch that made virtual assistant appear to favor VP over former president

(Newser) - A couple of simple questions to Alexa about the upcoming US election have sent users into a tizzy, with conservative critics railing against what Amazon now says was a tech glitch that seemed to favor Vice President Kamala Harris over former President Trump.
  • Question commotion: Per the Telegraph , the hubbub
...

Data Show Suspects' Treatment in Phoenix Depends on Race

Justice Department releases report examining police department

(Newser) - Phoenix police discriminate against Black, Hispanic, and Native American people, unlawfully detain homeless people and use excessive force, including unjustified deadly force, according to a sweeping federal civil rights investigation of law enforcement in the nation's fifth-largest city. The US Justice Department report released Thursday says investigators found stark...

Job Seekers Get Callbacks Based on Their Names

A new 'Discrimination Report Card' is out, and white-sounding names seem to get more callbacks

(Newser) - In 2004, a study found that job applicants with stereotypically white-sounding names got callbacks for interviews 50% more than applicants with Black-sounding names. Now, scientists have rebooted that research, and while the results are better than they were two decades ago, they show that racial bias still appears to come...

RFK Jr. Flips Again on Jan. 6: 'I Will Right Any Wrongs'

Presidential contender had earlier walked back a campaign email on 'J6 activists'

(Newser) - Last week, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s campaign walked back an email they'd sent in which the independent presidential candidate referred to "J6 activists sitting in a Washington DC jail cell stripped of their Constitutional liberties." The team blamed the insertion of that sentence on a...

A Win for Couple Who Alleged Racial Bias in Home Valuation

Paul Austin, Tenisha Tate-Austin settle lawsuit with appraisal company, hope to bring change

(Newser) - A Black couple who said the value of their California home increased by almost $500,000 when they had a white friend stand in as the owner have settled a lawsuit with the appraisal company. Paul Austin and Tenisha Tate-Austin of the San Francisco suburb of Marin City will receive...

Serena Williams on NYT Photo Flub: 'Even I Am Overlooked'

She calls out paper for using a photo of sister Venus in story about her own venture fund

(Newser) - Serena Williams is one of the most famous and recognizable athletes in the world, with no shortage of images of her that the media can use to complement stories profiling her. The tennis great is now taking one of those publications to task, after it used a photo not of...

We're Ignoring 'Lookism,' and It Isn't Right
We're Ignoring 'Lookism,'
and It Isn't Right
OPINION

We're Ignoring 'Lookism,' and It Isn't Right

Writing for the 'NYT,' David Brooks takes on discrimination against the unattractive

(Newser) - Sexism and racism are bad, but there's another "ism" that David Brooks is concerned about, and one for which there doesn't seem to be much legal recourse: "lookism," the term Brooks uses in his newest op-ed for the New York Times to describe "prejudice...

She Was Almost at Bat. Then: 'Does Anyone Have Scissors?'

Black teen softball player Nicole Pyles cut her hair rather than remove hair beads as umps asked

(Newser) - A Black teen softball player from Durham, North Carolina, says she was humiliated at a game last month in an incident she says led to a discriminatory ask and an impromptu haircut. In an interview with the Southern Coalition for Social Justice cited by the New York Times , 16-year-old Nicole...

Critics: Hospital CEO's Response to Black Doctor's Death 'Ridiculous'

Dennis Murphy cites a 'complex picture' leading to death of Dr. Susan Moore, but others push back

(Newser) - The head of an Indiana hospital has addressed the allegations of Dr. Susan Moore, a Black medical doctor who died last month from coronavirus complications after accusing a doctor and other hospital staff of being biased in their treatment of her—but his comments have only fueled the controversy. In...

Black Doc Who Complained of Bias in COVID Treatment Dies

Dr. Susan Moore said she received unequal treatment at Indiana hospital

(Newser) - A Black doctor who said she was receiving unequal treatment at an Indiana hospital has died from coronavirus complications, weeks after posting a searing video on Facebook . As a medical doctor, Susan Moore knew exactly how to describe the symptoms she was experiencing—but she said a white doctor at...

Facebook Employee Files Racial Bias Complaint

Staffer says company discriminates in hiring and promotions

(Newser) - A black Facebook employee, joined by two others who were denied jobs at the social network, has filed a complaint against the company, saying it discriminates against black workers and applicants in hiring, evaluations, promotions, and pay. The charge was filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission by Oscar Veneszee...

College Probes Professor After 'Black Privilege' Remarks

University of Central Florida looking into complaints of bias against Charles Negy

(Newser) - A longtime tenured psychology professor at the University of Central Florida is under fire after a series of online posts. Per the New York Times , Negy, who has written a book about "white Americans under siege," recently put up multiple tweets that he acknowledged "will infuriate folks....

Whistleblower's Lawyer: Report of Ties to Biden Misleading

Whistleblower's legal team pushes back

(Newser) - On Wednesday, President Trump made another accusation against the Ukraine-call whistleblower—and the whistleblower's legal team is pushing back. The president's assertion : that "the Whistleblower has ties to one of my DEMOCRAT OPPONENTS," leading to a "conflict of interest." The Washington Examiner notes Trump'...

Judge: Teen Accused of Rape 'Comes From Good Family'

James Troiano rebuked by appeals court for noting alleged rapist's likeliness to go to 'good college'

(Newser) - The similarities to Brock Turner haven't gone unnoticed. The New York Times references the Turner case, and others, in mentioning the latest judge to come under fire for the handling of a sexual assault case. In this instance, it's New Jersey Superior Court Judge James Troiano who's...

Deputy Detained 'Suspect' in Court. Except 'Suspect' Was a Lawyer

Attorney Rashad James now has his own attorney after 'lawyering while black' incident

(Newser) - Rashad James tells the Baltimore Sun that what happened to him March 6 in a Harford County, Md., courthouse was "surreal." But he has now gathered his wits and hired his own legal team, which is calling the incident an example of "lawyering while black." Per...

Suit: I Tried to Help My Unconscious Customer, Got Arrested

Eatery owner sues NYPD, says he was arrested for being 'business owner while black'

(Newser) - The NYPD has been accused of "testilying" in the past, and now a Harlem restaurant owner and two of his workers are suing over an incident last year. Clyde Pemberton, who owns the high-end MIST Harlem, says in his lawsuit that he was arrested June 1, 2017, for being...

Parents Outraged by 'Disturbing' School Assignment

Ohio students asked to select who should escape a 'doomed' Earth

(Newser) - "It's disturbing all the way around." That's what one mom is saying about an assignment her eighth-grade son completed at Roberts Middle School in Cuyahoga Falls in Ohio. The assignment involved an Earth that was "doomed for destruction." Students were tasked with choosing who...

Cops Called on Student Eating Lunch: 'All I Did Was Be Black'

Someone called Smith College cops to check on Oumou Kanoute

(Newser) - A Massachusetts college president is apologizing after campus police were called to investigate an undergraduate black student quietly eating her lunch in a common room. Smith College President Kathleen McCartney says in a letter Thursday the college is hiring a "third-party investigator" to review the incident and that every...

All 8K US Starbucks Stores Are Closing Tuesday Afternoon
This Is Why You Can't
Get Starbucks This Afternoon
THE RUNDOWN

This Is Why You Can't Get Starbucks This Afternoon

All 8K US stores closed as workers take part in training on racial bias

(Newser) - If you're looking to get your Starbucks fix Tuesday, make a morning run or find somewhere else to get caffeinated. All Starbucks locations—more than 8,000 nationwide—are closing in the afternoon for training to educate its 175,000-plus workers on racial bias, per Money . The program is...

Artificial Intelligence Can Be Racist, Sexist Like Humans
Machine Learning Has
a Weakness: Humans
new study

Machine Learning Has a Weakness: Humans

Study finds that artificial intelligence can adopt our racism, sexism

(Newser) - Artificial intelligence has come a long way in recent years, and algorithms with machine-learning applications are proving skillful at things like playing poker, lip-reading, and, unfortunately, being biased. Researchers at Princeton proved the point in an experiment involving an algorithm known as GloVe , which has learned about 840 billion words...

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