All posts tagged: Black

Supreme Court lets Alabama use congressional map diluting Black vote

Supreme Court lets Alabama use congressional map diluting Black vote

Published by Sam Flores

The Supreme Court on Tuesday night allowed Alabama to use in November’s elections a new map for congressional districts that a lower federal court ruled was discriminatory to Black voters. The 6-3 ruling by the Supreme Court, which will eliminate one of the two majority Black districts in Alabama, is expected to result in Republicans gaining one seat from the state in the House of Representatives in the upcoming midterm elections. The 2nd District seat currently held by Rep. Shomari Figures, a Democrat, is now expected to be won by a Republican. Republicans hold a razor-thin majority in the House. Since last year, they have forced redistricting in a number of states in an effort to retain that majority in the upcoming elections, which in turn led to identical efforts by Democrats in other states. The ruling by the Supreme Court’s six-member conservative majority was unsigned. It will allow Alabama to use the disputed map, for now, until a legal fight over it is ultimately resolved. Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote a dissent that was joined …

To Catch a Cult Predator: Black Women Beware

To Catch a Cult Predator: Black Women Beware

Published by Sam Flores

In the beginning of the grooming process, there is sweetness and light. The groomer wants you, acts like you’re the only one in the room, showers you with adulation, folds you into the embrace of a gushingly warm 24/7 community and immerses you in the seductive quicksand of their budding nation/family/tribe, anchored by the benevolence of a shiny new “god” who becomes mother, father, lover, sister, brother, confessor, judge, jury and executioner all rolled up into one. The cult honeymoon phase is like the waystation before the Sunken Place. Lulling and dreamy as a Lorelei song. Lately, it’s been nearly impossible to watch any streaming platform without stumbling onto a new saga about a heretofore obscure cult. One of the most recent exposés spotlights the downward spiral of the Black-led “Carbon Nation” group, which joins a long line of religious regimes powered by misogynoir (or anti-Black misogyny) and toxic masculinity. As chronicled in a new Hulu series called “The Cult of Natureboy,” Carbon Nation was an Afrocentric back-to-the-land group founded in 2016 by a YouTube …

South Carolina Jury Finds Store Owner Not Guilty of Murder in Killing of Black Teen

South Carolina Jury Finds Store Owner Not Guilty of Murder in Killing of Black Teen

Published by Sam Flores

COLUMBIA, S.C (AP) — A South Carolina jury on Monday found a store owner not guilty of murder in the 2023 shooting of a Black 14-year-old. The jury returned the verdict for Chikei Rick Chow. Chow, 61, who is Asian, shot Cyrus Carmack-Belton in the back after chasing him from his convenience store in Columbia. He maintained he acted to defend his son. The killing sent waves of anguish and grief through the African American community in Richland County, where nearly half the population is Black. After the verdict was read, sobs and cries of distress could be heard coming from Carmack-Belton’s family seated in the gallery. Chow sat silently frozen before slowly bowing his head onto his interlocked hands. Defense lawyer Jack Swerling said they’re very pleased with the verdict but also feel for Carmack-Belton’s family. “My heart goes out to them, but 14-year-old kid should not be roaming the streets of Columbia or South Carolina with semiautomatic pistol loaded and ready to fire,” he said. Carmack-Belton’s family did not speak to reporters outside …

Black founders raise highest amount of quarterly funding since 2022, but there’s a catch

Black founders raise highest amount of quarterly funding since 2022, but there’s a catch

Published by skeptic

According to Crunchbase’s latest data around black founders, $643 million has poured into US Black-founded startups since the beginning of the year — an amount not seen since 2022, when Black founders raised $653 million in funding. For context, Black founders raised $942 million of all venture dollars last year (that’s 0.32% of the $290 billion total, per Crunchbase estimates). That means in just a few months, Black founders have already raised almost 70% of what was they raised in all of last year.  Driving this funding are just a handful of deals (34, to be exact, per Crunchbase), most notably the $350 million Series E raised by AI hardware company SambaNova, followed by the sports prediction startup Noviq (which raised a $75 million Series B) and the YC-backed AI insurance platform Harper (which raised $47 million). Still, though the $643 million raised so far is a record sum compared to the past few years, Crunchbase makes note that it’s still quite small compared to the $252 billion U.S startups have raised overall in the …

What’s the safest swimsuit color? Skip blue and black.

What’s the safest swimsuit color? Skip blue and black.

Published by Jenni Sidey

Get the Popular Science daily newsletter💡 Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent six days a week. By signing up, you confirm you are 16+, will receive newsletters and promotional content and agree to our Terms of Use and acknowledge the data practices in our Privacy Policy. You may unsubscribe at any time. A pleasant swim at the beach or pool can quickly turn deadly. Every year, over 4,000 people die from unintentional drowning across the United States.  Swim safety experts say drowning is highly preventable. They recommend learning basic swimming skills, designating “water watchers” to keep an eye on children in the water, and avoiding swimming alone or under the influence. But what if your outfit could stop you from drowning? Swim safety experts say wearing the right color on your next beach day is a good way to stay visible and out of harm’s way—especially for inexperienced swimmers and kids. So what are the safest swimsuit colors? Lisa Zarda, Executive Director of the U.S. Swim School Association, says people wearing bright, neon colors are …

Can’t-Miss Thrillers for Fans of Black Mirror

Can’t-Miss Thrillers for Fans of Black Mirror

Published by Jenni Sidey

Blackstone Publishing and Marc-Uwe King Sixteen-year-old Lena Palmer has gone missing when a violent video of her assault by masked men goes viral. Yashira, chief inspector at the German FBI and the single mother of a sixteen-year-old girl herself, has been put in charge of the case. Together with her partner Michael they follow all the usual suspects, nut nothing in this case seems to follow any of the usual patterns, and Yashira is running out of time. Views is a compulsive thriller that explores the toxic relationship between technology and humanity, and the fallout after unthinkable lines are crossed. With the news that Black Mirror has been renewed for a season eight, fans of the dystopian science fiction series wait in anticipation for any word on when it’ll be released. In the meantime, why not read a thriller like the iconic, thought-provoking, and often uncomfortable TV show that has us all hooked? Whether you like the anthology aspect of the series or enjoy the way the series tackles modern societal issues head-on, you’re sure …

Simpsons to spoof Black Mirror as three new episodes come to Disney+

Simpsons to spoof Black Mirror as three new episodes come to Disney+

Published by Daniella Wilson

Get the latest entertainment news, reviews and star-studded interviews with our Independent Culture email Get the latest entertainment news with our free Culture newsletter Get the latest entertainment news with our free Culture newsletter Disney+ has announced that three new episodes of The Simpsons will arrive on the streaming service this summer. The long-running and beloved animated sitcom completed its 37th season on Fox earlier this year, a run which included the show’s landmark 800th episode. A 38th season is expected to begin sometime this Fall. Before that, three episodes will be available exclusively via Disney+. The first is a double-episode set to arrive on June 17 titled “Extreme Makeover: Homer Edition.” According to the show’s official logline: “Homer and Marge’s fun couples’ date night goes off the rails when Marge learns Homer left the kids unsupervised with only the doorbell camera as a babysitter. Frustrated with her imperfect husband, a tipsy Marge stirs up a trilogy of fantasies of a different Homer. The special guest stars Betty Gilpin, with musical guests Laufey and Tegan …

Millions of planets might form around supermassive black holes

Millions of planets might form around supermassive black holes

Published by skeptic

The disc of material swirling around a supermassive black hole may give birth to many planets NASA and M. Weiss/Chandra X-ray Center The active centres of galaxies might be regions of extraordinary planet formation, where millions of worlds are born. Most galaxies in the universe, such as our own Milky Way, host a supermassive black hole at their centre. Most of the time, these black holes are quiescent, as there is no matter falling into them. But occasionally they become active and consume huge amounts of dust and gas, perhaps from a merger with another galaxy, becoming an active galactic nucleus for millions of years. Barry McKernan at the City University of New York and his colleagues modelled the disc of dust and gas around a typical active galactic nucleus. They found it would be a prime location for planet formation, with the dust easily clumping together into bigger and bigger objects. Eventually planets would begin to grow in huge numbers, and with strange properties. “This is a really amazing new pathway to form very …

Alabama asks Supreme Court to House map that dilutes Black vote

Alabama asks Supreme Court to House map that dilutes Black vote

Published by Sam Flores

A map of a GOP proposal to redraw Alabama’s congressional districts is displayed at the Alabama Statehouse in Montgomery, Ala., Tuesday, July 18, 2023. Kim Chandler | AP The state of Alabama asked the Supreme Court on Wednesday to pause a lower-court order barring the state from using a controversial congressional district map for the 2026 midterm elections. The order prohibited the map, which was submitted in 2023, from being used for the upcoming congressional elections in Alabama because it would dilute the votes of Black people. The state’s request to the Supreme Court came a day after a three-judge panel in U.S. District Court in Birmingham, Ala., reiteratred a prior ruling that found that the 2023 redistricting map “intentionally discriminated based on race in violation of the Constitution.” “We again cannot understand the 2023 Plan as anything other than intentionally discriminatory,” the decision by the panel said. Two judges on the panel were appointed by President Donald Trump. The panel had been instructed by the Supreme Court to revisit the question of whether the …

The Universe is creating black holes in many different ways

The Universe is creating black holes in many different ways

Published by Jenni Sidey

When black holes collide, they do not all seem to follow the same cosmic script. A sweeping new analysis of the latest gravitational-wave catalog suggests the universe is producing merging black hole pairs through several distinct channels, not one. Some of those systems appear to come from ordinary stellar evolution, while others carry signs of stranger histories, including black holes that may already be the remnants of earlier mergers. The study draws on GWTC-5.0, the newest release from the LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA Collaboration, which includes data through the second part of the fourth observing run. In the population analysis, researchers examined 267 compact binary merger candidates, up from 161 in the previous catalog update. Of those, 259 were classified as binary black hole candidates for black-hole-only population studies. That expanding sample is changing the field’s focus. Instead of treating each signal as a one-off curiosity, researchers can now look for patterns across the population. This newest version of the “Masses in the Stellar Graveyard” plot compares the numbers and masses of black holes and neutron stars discovered …