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Racism is truly life or death when it comes to Black Americans. Thankfully, one man is alive to tell his story. During a delivery, Amazon Driver Associate, Nikolas Mayrant was harassed by a white man who would then go on to complain and leave Mayrant suspended indefinitely. The entire interaction was caught on a Ring Doorbell. REVOLT reports that the incident took place in Cornelius, NC, where, just like any other day, Mayrant set out to conduct his daily deliveries for the marketplace giant. However, when he arrived at the home of Brad Boynton, another Amazon employee, things took a turn for the worst. Boynton alleges that Mayrant broke several Amazon policies, which included accusations of parking his car incorrectly and walking across a lawn. Mayrant says that he “park[ed] awkwardly on a narrow street” in an effort to avoid surrounding parked cars. After Boynton submitted the video to an Amazon colleague and station manager, Mayrant was terminated (Yes, in a pandemic). He then...
Sep 9, 2021
Julie Wenah doesn’t necessarily want to address the elephant in the room about Facebook, but she knows she has to. “When it comes to the product, itself, I know there’s a lot of work to be done,” she told AfroTech. “Leaving aside the privacy concerns, there is also no shortage of safety concerns, as well. The trust in our brand is lost amongst a certain segment of the population — we understand that, and we appreciate that. But more than anything, we’re doing everything we can to re-establish the trust in the brand, in the product — and we thank people, in advance, for their patience.” The shattered trust in the Facebook brand, of course, comes from a combination of sources. Black people in general — and Black women, in particular — don’t feel safe in the space; according to Pew Research, almost 60 percent of all Black Internet users say they have experienced a form of online harassment — and social media platforms, like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram could be incubators for such...
Jun 24, 2021
After a five year legal battle, Byron Allen — media mogul and owner of The Weather Channel — and Comcast have come to a mutual settlement. According to Black Enterprise, the communications company has agreed to pick up three channels that are a part of Allen’s Entertainment Studios: JusticeCentral.TV, Recipe.TV, and Comedy.TV. Allen filed a $20 billion civil rights lawsuit against Comcast in 2015 citing the Civil Rights Act of 1866 which prohibits racial discrimination in business contracts. Allen asserted that Comcast’s channel lineup featured Caucasian-owned channels that didn’t measure up to the mainstream visibility of his channels. The Supreme Court threw out Allen’s suit , handing it back over to lower courts to determine if Comcast’s decision to not pick up his cable channels involved race. Earlier this year New York City Comptroller, Scott Stinger, encouraged Comcast to settle the suit with Allen over nine million Comcast shares worth $423 million that are a part of the New...
Jun 12, 2020
A recent study by the National Institute of Standards of Technology revealed that facial recognition software delivers flawed results when assessing minority populations. The study has sparked yet another debate about the controversial technology, given its frequent use in the apprehension of suspects. The NIST study tested nearly 200 facial recognition algorithms. The results illustrated a higher rate of misidentification and other errors among subjects who identified as people of color. “ With mug shot images, the highest false positives are in American Indians, with elevated rates in African American and Asian populations ,” according to the study. False positives refer to the instances in which the software identified an incorrect match; false negatives refer to situations in which the software failed to recognize a match. The report also showed greater instances of false positives among African American women . The study has given advocacy groups and politicians more ammunition...
Dec 26, 2019
The heat has been turned up on a lawsuit involving telecommunications giant Comcast and media mogul Byron Allen. This week, New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer contacted the telecom company — one of the largest cable and broadcast companies in the world — encouraging it to settle the suit with Allen. Black Enterprise reported that “ 9 million Comcast shares worth an estimated $423 million ” are part of New York City pension fund investments . Stringer has a vested interest in ensuring that the financial magnitude of the case does not weigh heavily on long-term investors. The comptroller has another interest as well. He believes that the racial discrimination lawsuit could leave a bitter taste in the hearts and minds of many, adding to an ever-divisive national climate. Allen sued Comcast for $20 billion in 2015, citing racial discrimination when Comcast failed to include several of his networks in its programming. Allen affirmed that other white-owned networks appeared in...
Dec 19, 2019