Home appliance brand, Whirlpool, has partnered up with Black-owned app, Magnusmode, to help further support the autistic community through technology. What is Magnusmode? Magnusmode, founded by Nadia Hamilton in 2021, was inspired by her autistic brother Troy who found it challenging to carry out certain everyday tasks. To help her brother with tasks like brushing his teeth, Hamilton decided to hand-draw a step-by-step guide on cards. Hamilton says that the cards became a go-to guide for her brother, providing him with the structure and confidence he needed to carry out
The Congressional Black Caucus Institute (CBCI) is launching a new AI tech platform that matches public policy corporations with CBCI-vetted job seekers. Founded in 2000, the CBCI is a nonprofit social welfare organization that aims to educate and empower the African American community around issues that impact it the most. The CBCI’s latest initiative, the Career Placement Initiative (CPI), aims to diversify hiring in the public policy space. The Career Placement Initiative So how does it work? Employers bulk upload communications, legal, public policy, and government relations job openings to the platform. The
The Lip Bar Inc., the holding company for the beauty brands The Lip Bar and Thread Beauty, has closed a new funding round. The $6.7 million round, led by Pendulum, will focus on expanding The Lip Bar and Thread Beauty’s distribution as well as incubating a third beauty brand. Endeavor and The Fearless Fund also contributed to the fund. Melissa Butler, the business’ founder and Chief Executive Officer, said the round came after years of consistent growth unencumbered by the pandemic. “Our lip sales were crazy during the pandemic—we sold
Black coder, Sean Wiggs, has created a platform online for writing code to spam and troll companies that are unjust and discriminatory. Wiggs recently used his coding skills to oppose a Texas law banning women from having an abortion after six weeks of pregnancy. After successfully shutting down that website, he has set his eyes on a new target, the Job Creators Network’s anti-student loan forgiveness campaign. Earlier this year, President Joe Biden announced a new plan to cancel $10,000 of student loan debt, allowing millions of Americans to apply. However, despite many people
According to residents and internet watchdog NetBlocks, Iran has restricted residents’ access to social media platforms like Instagram and WhatsApp following a week of protests over the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini. What happened to Mahsa Amini? The protests, which began earlier this month, have seen protests spread across Iran following the death of Mahsa Amini, a young Kurdish woman who died in custody after being arrested by morality police for allegedly wearing her hijab incorrectly. Both men and women across Iran have taken to the streets in protest. However,
Five years after the disastrous Hurricane Maria, another destructive storm has hit civilians living in Puerto Rico, exposing the vulnerability of the island’s electricity system. Hurricane Fiona, which first struck Puerto Rico on Sept 18, has already caused severe damage to the island’s economic development. According to the Washington Post, President Biden agreed to issue a major disaster declaration earlier this week. The storm brought an average of 10 to 16 inches of rain across Puerto Rico, killing four people. Since Sunday, 1.5 million people living and working in Puerto Rico
San Francisco-based communications company, Twilio, has announced that they will be cutting 11% workforce to help restructure the company after a period of rapid expansion. In a memo to employees, Twilio CEO, Jeff Lawson, clarified that all staff cuts will be made through an “Anti-Racist” and “Anti-Oppression” lens which took many by surprise. Despite right-wing publications such as Daily Caller, describing the move as “race-based,” Lawson’s actions come at a very critical time for POC workers who more times than not, are forced to suffer the brunt of staff layoffs and redundancies.
As the world has become more digitized, more accessible payment systems such as Cash App, PayPal and Venmo have become hugely popular. According to data, Cash App has generated over 40 million monthly active users and over 100 million downloads. Recent research reveals that 59% of Black Americans report using Cash App, compared to 37% of Hispanic Americans and even a smaller percentage of white and Asian Americans. Hackers and scammers The popularity of these payment systems among Black and Hispanic Americans is in spite of concerns about security and
Navigating the world of dating apps is no easy feat, but what’s exponentially worse than trying to figure out if someone is actually six feet tall like their profile promises? Receiving messages that are inappropriate because of your skin color. Despite hours of scrolling, clicking, swiping, or answering personality questions, POC often find that they are as isolated on these apps as they were in a bar or at a party. Gendered racism on dating apps is not news. Yet we know rather little about how the daters experience gendered racism and how online
Guetto Institute, a Rio de Janeiro-based non-profit organization is enabling access to cutting-edge technology and a brighter future for Black Brazilians while tackling systemic racism. It’s focused on equipping its target audiences with skills for the new economy and fostering black entrepreneurship. How did the organization begin? It started from a Facebook group created in 2016 by sociologist Vítor Del Rey. At the time, Del Rey was studying at the prestigious business school Fundação Getúlio Vargas with a scholarship provided by Educafro, an organization focused on education inclusion for black
