New research has shed light on the extent of misogynoir across social media platforms. The study comes from the Digital Misogynoir Report by Glitch, a charity tackling the online abuse of Black women and marginalized people. What is Misogynoir? Misogynoir, a term coined by the queer Black feminist Moya Bailey in 2010, describes the anti-Black racist misogyny that Black women experience. Glitch uses the term to detail the “continued, unchecked, and often violent dehumanization of Black women on social media, as well as through other forms such as algorithmic discrimination.” The charity highlights
This summer, Baddies In Tech is hosting its inaugural BaddieCon event to celebrate and connect women of color in tech. BaddieCon Event Baddies In Tech is a professional development and networking community for women of color in tech. Its first-ever BaddieCon will take place in Brooklyn, New York, on August 18, allowing attendees to gain insights from over 30 speakers, connect with employers, and build relationships with each other and a theme of “Sustainable Success.” Through engaging workshops and thought-provoking panels, women of color will also gain career growth insights and the tools
Latina-led venture capital firm Supply Change Capital has announced the close of its inaugural $40 million fund to invest in the future of food. Investing in food, culture, and tech Supply Change Capital, one of the largest Latina-led funds, invests at the intersection of food, culture, and technology to catalyze early-stage sustainable businesses that modernize the food system. The firm has deployed over $13 million across 15 early-stage food and agriculture technology companies since June 2021, with Latine, Black, and/or women founders and CEOs comprising 80% of the portfolio. Limited
Materials Nexus founder Jonathan Bean has joined the small number of Black people in the UK who have been able to raise over £1 million for their startups. Reducing the cost of going green Green technologies, like wind turbines and electric vehicles, hold great promise for a cleaner future. We need to enhance their material components to make them even more effective. However, this often involves heavy mining for rare-earth metals and precious metals. Jonathan Bean, a UK-based theoretical physicist from the University of Cambridge, founded Materials Nexus in 2020
ThriveDX, a global leader in cybersecurity education, and BlackGirlsHack, an international cybersecurity training nonprofit increasing diverse representation in cybersecurity, have launched the BlackGirlsHack Scholars Program. The Scholars Program will enable a cohort of 25 individuals associated with BlackGirlsHack to receive the support and benefits needed to complete the program successfully and secure new cybersecurity employment. Helping Black Women and Girls Thrive In Cyber The BlackGirlsHack Foundation was founded by Tennisha Martin, a Black woman from Washington, D.C., who has worked in the IT and Cyber Space for over 15 years. The nonprofit
Asmelash Teka Hadgu, the visionary behind startup Lesan, is changing the game for language translation, especially for Ethiopian Languages. Acknowledging the limitations of popular translation systems like Google Translate and Facebook, Lesan is on a mission to create language-specific technologies. Translating ‘low-resource’ Languages In an interview with Rest of the World, Hadgu explained that it has become urgent to create language-specific technologies because Google Translate and ChatGPT don’t fit the mark. AI translation models are known to be more accurate for ‘high-resource’ languages like English and Mandarin, and it was recently
Buffalo Massacre Families Sue Meta, Reddit, Discord, Alphabet, And Others For Role In Radicalization
The devastating 2022 Buffalo mass shooting has sparked a legal battle to hold social media companies responsible for their platforms’ role in radicalization. Two lawsuits, launched by the victims’ loved ones, are seeking accountability from tech giants such as Facebook, Reddit, and Alphabet, alleging that the algorithms and content on these platforms contributed to the racist attack that resulted in the deaths of ten Black people. How social media shaped the attack Payton Gendron, an 18-year-old white male, was fueled by white supremacist ideology as he carried out a murderous
Following reported disputes and a lawsuit, Greenwood and The Gathering Spot have announced that they are resolving their outstanding issues as they continue to uplift Black and minority communities. What happened? Last May, The Gathering Spot, a private membership network focused on the Black community, was acquired by Greenwood, a digital banking platform. However, earlier this month, there were reported disputes between the two companies, including reports of a lawsuit filed by The Gathering Spot co-founders Ryan Wilson and T’Keel (TK) Petersen against Greenwood co-founder and CEO Ryan Glover and board
Blair Matthews, a Howard alumnus from Zanzibar, and Giuliana Zaccardelli founded a digital health startup with a mission to provide fertility services to families. Zuri Fertility Zuri Fertility was launched in honor of Infertility Awareness Month as a personal digital fertility clinic in June, Zuri meaning good and beautiful in Swahili. They provide personalized fertility care with an online questionnaire to meet each individual need, a home testing tracker for both partners involved, a message center, and a larger community for the couple to get support from others. It also
Fintech Stratyfy has announced a partnership with Beneficial State Foundation to decrease racial disparities in lending. The Partnership Stratyfy offers accurate, dynamic, and equitable credit underwriting decisions with machine learning solutions, working with institutions to implement AI. Their mission is to accelerate financial inclusion for people and mitigate risk for financial institutions. They address operations such as automated credit risk assessment, fraud detection, bias mitigation, and other tasks without new risks. The Beneficial State Foundation is a team of equity champions who aim to advance financial justice and impactful systematic
