Monday, January 13

Journalism

Tips for tactful texting
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Journalism

Tips for tactful texting

The Emily Post Institute’s guidelines include, for example, these two emphatic texting no-nos We hope you love these items as much as we did! Gannett may collect a share of sales from links on this page. The first text message — “Merry Christmas” — was sent Dec. 3, 1992. Since then, billions of texts have been sent. And even though texting is far from the practice of formal letter writing, some of the same etiquette principles apply. The Emily Post Institute’s guidelines include, for example, these two emphatic texting no-nos: 1. Informing someone of bad news. 2. Breaking off a relationship or friendship. Verywellmind.com in September offered some do’s and don’ts: ‒ Do compliment, send funny memes, comment positively, encourage, etc., in order to build a relationship. ‒ Don’t text exc...
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We asked kids to send us their burning questions – here are 5 of our favorites from 2019
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Journalism

We asked kids to send us their burning questions – here are 5 of our favorites from 2019

But why? But why?Out of the mouths of babes… comes a never-ending stream of questions. So this year, The Conversation US jumped on a great idea dreamed up by our colleagues in Australia and launched a series of articles meant to answer questions kids ask, but that everyone probably wonders about. The Conversation’s editors collect children’s questions and then look for scholars who can provide clear answers based on their own research and expertise. Below are a few of our favorite “Curious Kids” articles from the past year. And whatever your age, if you have a question you’d like an expert to answer in 2020, send it to curiouskidsus@theconversation.com. Curiosity has no age limit! Why is money green? This one could only have come from an American kid. Marek, age 12, asked the question; ...
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Revenge porn is sexual violence, not millennial negligence
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Revenge porn is sexual violence, not millennial negligence

U.S. Representative Katie Hill was the latest victim of a form of sexual abuse that’s become increasingly common: revenge porn. Intimate photos of her were leaked to the media and published, without her consent, for the world to see – a transgression Hill suspects her estranged husband was behind. The photos implicated Hill in a sexual relationship with a congressional staffer, an accusation that potentially put Hill in violation of House ethics rules. Hill, a 32-year-old freshman representative, ended up resigning her seat on October 27. Yet some of the ensuing coverage, instead of zeroing in on the leaked photographs, centered on blaming Hill for not being careful enough. “The best way to avoid being a victim of revenge porn is to not take nude selfies and send them to people,” polit...
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Deaf Christians often struggle to hear God’s word, but some find meaning in the richness of who they are
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Journalism

Deaf Christians often struggle to hear God’s word, but some find meaning in the richness of who they are

For years, my husband would say after we returned from the church, “I thought the sermon was good.” To that, I would reply, “I didn’t hear the sermon, as usual.” As a person with a severe to profound hearing loss, I nearly left the church out of frustration and anger. In addition to hymns, spoken readings and testimonies, Christian worship focuses on the spoken word. As scripture says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” I am not alone in feeling discouraged by so much focus on the word of God and spoken words in Christian tradition. Many people with hearing loss leave or disengage from their Christian faith. But that doesn’t have to happen. As a theologian, I study how adults with hearing loss worldwide engage with their Christian faith thr...
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Nonprofits that empower leaders of color are more apt to do something about racial inequality
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Nonprofits that empower leaders of color are more apt to do something about racial inequality

The U.S. is becoming more racially diverse. Since 2010, 96% of all U.S. counties registered an increase in their percentage of nonwhite residents. Yet the people who lead nonprofits in the U.S. remain disproportionately white. This mismatch can make it difficult for such organizations to understand and address racial inequality in their community and throughout the country. As a scholar of diversity, I know most nonprofits want to become more racially diverse. However, many struggle to achieve this goal. While researchers, funders and community leaders often highlight the dismal levels of racial diversity among nonprofit boards, an even greater disparity often goes overlooked. Not mentioned is the fact that scarcely 10% of nonprofit executive directors are people of color. Current reali...
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Confederate Christmas ornaments small statues that send the same racist message
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Confederate Christmas ornaments small statues that send the same racist message

As Christmas approaches, many families undertake a familiar ritual: an annual sojourn to the attic, basement or closet to pull out a box of treasured ornaments bought, created and collected over years, even generations. Hanging these ornaments on the tree is an opportunity to reconnect with memories of personal milestones, holiday icons and, in many cases, destinations visited. But, I argue, it may be time to take some of these old travel keepsakes off the tree. Decorated with ornaments purchased, created and inherited for years, even generations, Christmas trees are a reflection of a family’s history and tastes. John Morgan/flickr, CC BY-SA In researching my 2019 book, “Confederate Exceptionalism,” I studied sites throughout the American South whose histories are tied to enslaved labor....
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White ladies cooking in plantation museums are a denial of history
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White ladies cooking in plantation museums are a denial of history

Fall is almost gone and winter is coming, as are hundreds of hearth cooking demonstrations at countless historic homes and plantations throughout the nation. Like an automated clock, historic kitchens become the center stage for historical storytelling at this time of year. In New England, these stories sit firmly in the mythos of Thanksgiving, focusing on sterilized versions of the 1621 feast between Pilgrims and Wampanoag. In the mid-Atlantic, these stories blend their Amish, German and Dutch roots to talk about Colonial fare in early America. But while these two regions must always deal with issues of accuracy, the South’s historic sites have remained locked in a myth of their own. Misrepresenting reality I spent a decade researching and writing about enslaved plantation cooks and le...
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Journalism

New studies show discrimination widely reported by women, people of color and LGBTQ adults

In recent years, U.S. public opinion has been divided about the existence and seriousness of racism, sexism and other forms of discrimination. Amid growing racial divides in civil and political views, our research team at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, in partnership with NPR and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, asked 3,453 adults about their experiences of discrimination. We surveyed adults who identified as members of six groups often underrepresented in public opinion research: blacks, Latinos, Native Americans, Asian Americans, women and LGBTQ adults. U.S. public opinion is divided over who faces discrimination. fizkes/Shutterstock.com Our studies, published in December, show that people from these groups report high levels of discrimination from both institutions ...
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Payday lenders have embraced installment loans to evade regulations – but they may be even worse
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Payday lenders have embraced installment loans to evade regulations – but they may be even worse

Installment loans seem like a kinder, gentler version of their “predatory” cousin, the payday loan. But for consumers, they may be even more harmful. A little cash can be costly. AP Photo/Sid Hastings https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/ Use of the installment loan, in which a consumer borrows a lump sum and pays back the principal and interest in a series of regular payments, has grown dramatically since 2013 as regulators began to rein in payday lending. In fact, payday lenders appear to have developed installment loans primarily to evade this increased scrutiny. A closer look at the differences between the two types of loans shows why we believe the growth in installment loans is worrying – and needs the same regulatory attention as payday loans. Possible benefits At first ...
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Muhammad breaks into top 10 most popular US baby names in 2019
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Muhammad breaks into top 10 most popular US baby names in 2019

For the first time, Muhammad makes list of top 10 baby names, after steady climb in BabyCenter's annual list. Muhammad has, for the first time, broken into the top 10 names for baby boys in the United States, according to data recently released by a parenting firm that tracks the information. Muhammad had long climbed in BabyCenter's annual list, and its rounding out of the latest top 10 is due in part to the firm combining its variant spellings. "While non-Muslim families have a seemingly limitless range of possible names to choose from, tradition is still very important for Muslim families, including the custom of naming a son after the Prophet," BabyCenter said as it released its list on Wednesday. BabyCenter said that while Social Security data shows Muhammad...
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