Current and former employees sue Meta, alleging discrimination in using AI to conduct layoffs; CNBC, July 14, 2026

 Jonathan Vanian, CNBC ; Current and former employees sue Meta, alleging discrimination in using AI to conduct layoffs

"A coalition of current and former Meta employees have sued the social media giant, alleging that the company used artificial intelligence in its latest round of layoffs in a way that was discriminatory.

In a lawsuit filed Monday, plaintiffs allege that Meta violated various protected-leave laws and discrimination acts related to pregnancies and disabilities, among others, and said they wish to pursue their claims individually in arbitration."

Secret Vetting and Blocked Promotions: Inside Hegseth’s War on Diversity; The New York Times, June 19, 2026

 Greg Jaffe and Kate Kelly, The New York Times ; Secret Vetting and Blocked Promotions: Inside Hegseth’s War on Diversity

A Black admiral fixed one of the Navy’s worst messes. Mr. Hegseth blocked his promotion anyway.

"In books and speeches, Mr. Hegseth has maintained that the Pentagon’s push over the past decade to build a more diverse force had elevated women and minority officers to senior jobs that they had not earned.

“When I think about my career in uniform, in almost every instance where there has been poor leadership or people in positions they’re not qualified for, it was based on either the reality or the perception of a ‘diversity hire,’” Mr. Hegseth, a former major in the Army National Guard, wrote in his 2024 book “The War on Warriors.”

As defense secretary, he has promised to install a new promotion system that will be “ruthlessly meritocratic” and “focused squarely” on “warfighting ability.”

In practice, though, his approach has made it harder for Black and female officers to get promoted to senior ranks, even when their records are exemplary."

Hegseth Strikes Female and Black Navy Officers From Promotion List; The New York Times, June 1, 2026

 Greg Jaffe and Kate Kelly, The New York Times; Hegseth Strikes Female and Black Navy Officers From Promotion List

"In a move that disproportionately targets women and minority officers, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth recently blocked the promotions of at least seven Navy officers who had been selected by a board of senior Navy admirals.

The net result of Mr. Hegseth’s intervention is a slate of 22 nominees to be one-star admirals that bears little resemblance to the broader force these officers will help lead.

At least two of the officers removed by Mr. Hegseth from the promotion list are women and two are Black men. An additional three are white men.

Mr. Hegseth’s actions, which appear to violate the rules governing a promotion system that is supposed to be apolitical and merit-based, were described by four current and former defense officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive personnel matters.

No female officers were included on the new one-star list, which was released publicly in late May, despite the fact that women make up about 21 percent of the active-duty Navy. The list appears to include only two nonwhite officers, even though sailors who identify as racial minorities make up about 38 percent of the active-duty Navy.

Mr. Hegseth’s removal of the officers from the one-star list is highly unusual, said the current and former defense officials. According to Pentagon rules, the defense secretary is only supposed to pull officers from the list for moral, mental, physical or professional failings that raise questions about the officers’ fitness to lead.

Mr. Hegseth’s actions are the latest in a series of firings and personnel interventions that seem to be driven by his anti-diversity politics rather than the officers’ performance. Taken together, they could reshape the military’s top ranks for years to come."

Hegseth Strikes Two Black and Two Female Officers From Promotion List; The New York Times, March 27, 2026

 Greg Jaffe, Eric Schmitt, Helene Cooper and Adam Entous , The New York Tiimes; Hegseth Strikes Two Black and Two Female Officers From Promotion List

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s highly unusual decision to remove officers from a one-star promotion list has spurred allegations of racial and gender bias.

"Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is blocking the promotion of four Army officers to be one-star generals, a highly unusual move that has prompted some senior military officials to question whether the officers are being singled out because of their race or gender.

Two of the officers targeted by Mr. Hegseth are Black and two are women on a promotion list that consists of about three dozen officers, most of whom are white men, senior military officials said.

Mr. Hegseth had been pressing senior Army leaders, including Army Secretary Daniel P. Driscoll, for months to remove the officers’ names, military officials said. But Mr. Driscoll, citing the officers’ decades-long records of exemplary service, had repeatedly refused.

Earlier this month, Mr. Hegseth broke the logjam by unilaterally striking the officers’ names from the list, though it is not clear he has the legal authority to do so. The list is currently being reviewed by the White House, which is expected to send it to the Senate for final approval. A few female and Black officers remain on the list, military officials said.

It is exceedingly rare that a one-star list draws such intense scrutiny from a defense secretary. The battle highlights the bitter rifts opened by Mr. Hegseth’s campaign to reverse policies that he says are prejudiced against white officers.

Mr. Hegseth has said repeatedly that he is determined to change a culture corrupted by “foolish,” “reckless” and “woke” leaders from previous administrations. But his heavy scrutiny, especially of female and minority officers, is eroding confidence in a promotion system that is supposed to be apolitical and merit based, his critics have said.

This article is based on interviews with 11 current and former military and administration officials who requested anonymity to discuss sensitive personnel matters."

Hegseth announces new name of US navy ship that honored gay rights icon Harvey Milk; The Guardian, June 27, 2025

 Edward Helmore, The Guardian ; Hegseth announces new name of US navy ship that honored gay rights icon Harvey Milk

[Kip Currier: The money quote in this Guardian article is Pete Hegseth's statement that:

“People want to be proud of the ship they are sailing in."

It's an intentionally offensive statement against gay rights pioneer Harvey Milk. It's also a coded slur meant to troll LGBTQ+ people -- delivered at the tail end of Pride Month -- by suggesting which vessel names inspire feelings of pride and which do not.

Recall, too, that Hegseth kicked off June and Pride Month by announcing he would be renaming naval vessels that had been given the names of historical figures and civil rights activists, several of whom were veterans, like Harvey Milk, Cesar Chavez, and Medgar Evers.]

[Excerpt]

"The US defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, has formally announced that the US navy supply vessel named in honor of the gay rights activist Harvey Milk is to be renamed after Oscar V Peterson, a chief petty officer who received the congressional Medal of Honor for his actions in the Battle of the Coral Sea in the second world war.

“We are taking the politics out of ship naming,” Hegseth announced on Friday on X.

In an accompanying video-statement, Hegseth added: “We are not renaming the ship to anything political. This is not about political activists, unlike the previous administration. Instead, we are renaming the ship after a congressional Medal of Honor recipient.”

“People want to be proud of the ship they are sailing in,” Hegseth added."

The Tech Industry Tried Reducing AI’s Pervasive Bias. Now Trump Wants to End Its ‘Woke AI’ Efforts; Associated Press via Inc., April 28, 2025

 Associated Press via Inc.; The Tech Industry Tried Reducing AI’s Pervasive Bias. Now Trump Wants to End Its ‘Woke AI’ Efforts 

"In the White House and the Republican-led Congress, “woke AI” has replaced harmful algorithmic discrimination as a problem that needs fixing. Past efforts to “advance equity” in AI development and curb the production of “harmful and biased outputs” are a target of investigation, according to subpoenas sent to Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft, OpenAI and 10 other tech companies last month by the House Judiciary Committee.

And the standard-setting branch of the U.S. Commerce Department has deleted mentions of AI fairness, safety and “responsible AI” in its appeal for collaboration with outside researchers. It is instead instructing scientists to focus on “reducing ideological bias” in a way that will “enable human flourishing and economic competitiveness,” according to a copy of the document obtained by The Associated Press.

In some ways, tech workers are used to a whiplash of Washington-driven priorities affecting their work.

But the latest shift has raised concerns among experts in the field, including Harvard University sociologist Ellis Monk, who several years ago was approached by Google to help make its AI products more inclusive."

A Judge Tried to Get Out of Jury Duty. What He Said Cost Him His Job.; The New York Times, February 6, 2025

 Ed Shanahan, The New York Times ; A Judge Tried to Get Out of Jury Duty. What He Said Cost Him His Job.

[Kip Currier: A bedrock principle of the American judicial system is a commitment to equity and fairness by those who are entrusted to be impartial adjudicators. This story reveals an individual who makes a mockery of that ethical imperative.]

[Excerpt]

"When Richard Snyder was running to be a town justice in tiny Petersburgh, N.Y., in 2013, he told a local news site that he would be fair and honest on the bench. Because he was not a lawyer, he also said he was “looking forward to learning about the law.”

He just learned something about it the hard way.

Mr. Snyder, a Republican, was unopposed in that 2013 race and won it with 329 votes. But in December he resigned after a disciplinary panel found that he had tried to get out of grand jury duty by introducing himself as a town justice and saying he could not be impartial based on his opinion of those who appeared in his court.

“I know they are guilty,” Mr. Snyder said in arguing to be excused, according to a court transcript. Otherwise, he explained, “they would not be in front of me.” (The judge dismissed him and notified the disciplinary panel.)"

The true story of a famed librarian and the secret she guarded closely; NPR, October 29, 2024

 Jordan-Marie Smith , NPR; The true story of a famed librarian and the secret she guarded closely

"The name Belle da Costa Greene might not ring a bell, but New York's historic Morgan Library and Museum is trying to change that.

A new exhibit called "A Librarian's Legacy" opened this month, just in time for the Morgan's 100th anniversary. It traces Greene's life and her lasting influence as the library's first director.

It was an unusually prominent role for a woman at the time — a Black woman who chose to pass as white to survive in a highly segregated America."

In Covid Vaccine Data, L.G.B.T.Q. People Fear Invisibility; The New York Times, May 7, 2021

 Jillian Kramer, The New York Times; In Covid Vaccine Data, L.G.B.T.Q. People Fear Invisibility

"Agencies rely on population data to make policy decisions and direct funding, and advocates say that failing to collect sexual orientation and gender identity data on Covid-19 vaccine uptake could obscure the real picture and prevent vaccine distribution decisions and funds from positively impacting this population.

When it comes to Covid-19 vaccine distribution, “how can you design interventions and know where to target your resources if you don’t know where you’ve been?” said Dr. Ojikutu.

A February study showed that L.G.B.T.Q. people with high medical mistrust and concern about experiencing stigma or discrimination were least likely to say they would accept a Covid-19 vaccine.

“The reason we need to do data-driven, culturally responsive outreach is that medical mistrust — and along with that, vaccine hesitancy — among L.G.B.T.Q. people is rooted in the stigma and discrimination that this community has experienced over time,” said Alex Keuroghlian, a psychiatrist and director of the National LGBTQIA+ Health Education Center and the Massachusetts General Hospital Psychiatry Gender Identity Program."

Wrongfully Accused by an Algorithm; The New York Times, June 24, 2020

Kashmir Hill, The New York Times; Wrongfully Accused by an Algorithm

In what may be the first known case of its kind, a faulty facial recognition match led to a Michigan man’s arrest for a crime he did not commit.

"Clare Garvie, a lawyer at Georgetown University’s Center on Privacy and Technology, has written about problems with the government’s use of facial recognition. She argues that low-quality search images — such as a still image from a grainy surveillance video — should be banned, and that the systems currently in use should be tested rigorously for accuracy and bias.

“There are mediocre algorithms and there are good ones, and law enforcement should only buy the good ones,” Ms. Garvie said.

About Mr. Williams’s experience in Michigan, she added: “I strongly suspect this is not the first case to misidentify someone to arrest them for a crime they didn’t commit. This is just the first time we know about it.”"

NYC wants a chief algorithm officer to counter bias, build transparency; Ars Technica, November 25, 2019

Kate Cox, Ars Technica; NYC wants a chief algorithm officer to counter bias, build transparency

"It takes a lot of automation to make the nation's largest city run, but it's easy for that kind of automation to perpetuate existing problems and fall unevenly on the residents it's supposed to serve. So to mitigate the harms and ideally increase the benefits, New York City has created a high-level city government position essentially to manage algorithms."

A face-scanning algorithm increasingly decides whether you deserve the job; The Washington Post, October 22, 2019

Drew Harwell, The Washington Post; A face-scanning algorithm increasingly decides whether you deserve the job 

HireVue claims it uses artificial intelligence to decide who’s best for a job. Outside experts call it ‘profoundly disturbing.’

"“It’s a profoundly disturbing development that we have proprietary technology that claims to differentiate between a productive worker and a worker who isn’t fit, based on their facial movements, their tone of voice, their mannerisms,” said Meredith Whittaker, a co-founder of the AI Now Institute, a research center in New York...

Loren Larsen, HireVue’s chief technology officer, said that such criticism is uninformed and that “most AI researchers have a limited understanding” of the psychology behind how workers think and behave...

“People are rejected all the time based on how they look, their shoes, how they tucked in their shirts and how ‘hot’ they are,” he told The Washington Post. “Algorithms eliminate most of that in a way that hasn’t been possible before.”...

HireVue’s growth, however, is running into some regulatory snags. In August, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D) signed a first-in-the-nation law that will force employers to tell job applicants how their AI-hiring system works and get their consent before running them through the test. The measure, which HireVue said it supports, will take effect Jan. 1."

'Disastrous' lack of diversity in AI industry perpetuates bias, study finds; The Guardian, April 16, 2019

Kari Paul, The Guardian;

'Disastrous' lack of diversity in AI industry perpetuates bias, study finds

"Lack of diversity in the artificial intelligence field has reached “a moment of reckoning”, according to new findings published by a New York University research center. A “diversity disaster” has contributed to flawed systems that perpetuate gender and racial biases found the survey, published by the AI Now Institute, of more than 150 studies and reports.

The AI field, which is overwhelmingly white and male, is at risk of replicating or perpetuating historical biases and power imbalances, the report said. Examples cited include image recognition services making offensive classifications of minorities, chatbots adopting hate speech, and Amazon technology failing to recognize users with darker skin colors. The biases of systems built by the AI industry can be largely attributed to the lack of diversity within the field itself, the report said...

The report released on Tuesday cautioned against addressing diversity in the tech industry by fixing the “pipeline” problem, or the makeup of who is hired, alone. Men currently make up 71% of the applicant pool for AI jobs in the US, according to the 2018 AI Index, an independent report on the industry released annually. The AI institute suggested additional measures, including publishing compensation levels for workers publicly, sharing harassment and discrimination transparency reports, and changing hiring practices to increase the number of underrepresented groups at all levels."

Digital Ethics: Data is the new forklift; Internet of Business, December 17, 2018

Joanna Goodman, Internet of Business; Digital Ethics: Data is the new forklift

"Joanna Goodman reports from last week’s Digital ethics summit.

Governments, national and international institutions and businesses must join forces to make sure that AI and emerging technology are deployed successfully and responsibly. This was the central message from TechUK’s second Digital Ethics Summit in London.

Antony Walker, TechUK’s deputy CEO set out the purpose of the summit: “How to deliver on the promise of tech that can provide benefits for people and society in a way that minimises harm”.

This sentiment was echoed throughout the day. Kate Rosenshine, data architect at Microsoft reminded us that data is not unbiased and inclusivity and fairness are critical to data-driven decision-making. She quoted Cathy Bessant, CTO of Bank of America:

Technologists cannot lose sight of how algorithms affect real people."

Current Events Classroom lesson from the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), re the Tree of Life shooting in Pittsburgh, October 30, 2018

Current Events Classroom lesson from the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), re the Tree of Life shooting in Pittsburgh:

[Kip Currier: I'm posting helpful information below, received from my former and now-retired University of Pittsburgh colleague Dr. Ellen Detlefsen, whose son David Reynolds works within the Anti-Defamation League's (ADL) Education Division. As Ellen wrote: 

"David...has put together a lesson plan and resource page about the tragedy in Pittsburgh.  He has asked us to share this widely, and we urge you to do the same!  Sadly, it is more needed now than ever, so please see that this is shared with teachers, preachers, health workers, and your friends, neighbors, and relatives!"] 

"ADL has a new HS Current Events Classroom lesson: Deadly Shooting at the Tree of Life Synagogue.

 On the morning of October 27, at Sabbath services, Robert Bowers entered the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, PA and yelled “All Jews must die,” then opened fire upon the congregants. He was armed with an assault rifle and several handguns and killed eleven congregants and wounded six others, four of whom are police officers.  When surrendering to law enforcement, Bowers told an officer that he “wanted all Jews to die” and that Jews “were committing genocide against his people.” This shooting is the deadliest attack on the Jewish community in the U.S. This lesson provides an opportunity for students to analyze this incident in the context of the shooter’s background and history of anti-Semitism, as well as the nationwide rise of anti-Semitic incidents over the last year.  In this lesson, students will learn more about the incident, understand and consider the larger context of anti-Semitism in the U.S., explore how the escalation of hate operates and how allyship can make a difference.

We also posted a new blog: The Week in Hate and Bias and How to Talk with Young People

Here is a landing page with all the related resources that I’ve been sending the past few days plus these—all in one place!  After the Deadly Shooting at a Pittsburgh Synagogue: Resources for Educators

Dave Reynolds, Director of Professional Development and Regional Support

40 Court St. Boston, MA 02108

t: 617.406.6345 | email: dreynolds@adl.org
adl.org"

Equity pending: Why so few women receive patents; The Christian Science Monitor, July 2, 2018

E'oin O'Carroll, The Christian Science Monitor; Equity pending: Why so few women receive patents

"The causes for the gender gap are varied and complex, but much of it can be explained by women’s underrepresentation in patent-intensive jobs, particularly engineering. Research shows women make up roughly 20 percent of graduates from engineering schools, but hold less than 15 percent of engineering jobs. Female engineering grads are not entering the field at the same rate as their male counterparts, and they are leaving in far greater numbers.

“It’s the climate,” says Nadya Fouad, a professor of educational psychology at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. “The organizational environment is very unforgiving.”

Professor Fouad, who spent three years surveying women with engineering degrees about their career choices, cites inflexible schedules, a lack of opportunities for advancement, and incivility toward women. “It’s not the women’s fault,” she says, noting that she found no difference in levels of confidence in those who stayed and those who left.

Other barriers women face are an absence of supportive social networks and implicit bias on the part of venture capitalists."

Starbucks won’t have any idea whether its diversity training works; The Washington Post, April 23, 2018

By Hakeem Jefferson and Neil Lewis, Jr., The Washington Post; Starbucks won’t have any idea whether its diversity training works

"Without the expertise to know what makes an intervention more or less successful, it is hard to imagine that Starbucks or any other organization stands much of a chance of developing a successful diversity training program that has long-term, sustainable effects on its culture. Moreover, Starbucks claims that it is interested in knowing whether the training program it will implement will be effective. As social scientists, we know firsthand how difficult it is to measure the effects of an intervention, and we wonder who on Starbucks’s team is sufficiently equipped to do this. The track record of those Starbucks has included in its announcement is remarkable, but it is social scientists — not lawyers or activists — who are trained to adequately and rigorously assess whether this intervention works, or if it will join the long list of those that don’t.

The inclusion of social scientists at every stage of the process can make diversity training more than feel-good PR moves that are of little consequence. Yes, engaging the scholarly community will mean that the process will be slower. But as bias expert Brian Nosek said, if Starbucks and its corporate peers think interventions like this are worth doing, they should certainly think that it’s worth doing well."

Jeremy Vine criticised after calling ‘Black Panther’ cast “overwhelmingly black”; NME, February 10, 2018

Larry Bartleet, NME; Jeremy Vine criticised after calling ‘Black Panther’ cast “overwhelmingly black”

"When stars Chadwick Boseman (Black Panther) and Danai Gurira (Okoye) appeared on The One Show to discuss the film yesterday (February 9), Jeremy Vine said: “Chadwick, it is a remarkable film, it’s very different the film that you’re both in, because you go in the cinema and it is overwhelmingly a black cast.”

In response to Vine’s remark Boseman paused and smiled, responding: “Yeah, I guess that is very striking,” before joining in with an outbreak of laugher from the audience and continuing: “It’s weird because I’m used to it now, having been on this film for over a year, with this family of people… because we carried part of that cast into Infinity War. So it’s sort of a normal thing. I don’t go to work every day going: ‘Wow I’m around all these black people.'” The moment can be seen at the 16:25 mark on iPlayer.

On Twitter, Vine’s wording was labelled “strange and uncomfortable”. The man himself was called a “typical middle-aged white male” by one user, while another remarked: “no one called Avengers: Age of Ultron ‘overwhelmingly white'”, adding that the moment was “a stark example of racism being solidly entrenched”."

Native American Actors Work to Overcome a Long-Documented Bias; New York Times, 5/4/15

Cara Buckley, New York Times; Native American Actors Work to Overcome a Long-Documented Bias:

"While mainstream portrayals of native peoples have, Mr. Wente said, become “incrementally better” over the decades, he and others say, they remain far from accurate and reflect a lack of opportunities for Native American performers. What’s more, as Native Americans hunger for representation on screen, critics say the absence of three-dimensional portrayals has very real off-screen consequences.

“Our people are still healing from historical trauma,” said Loren Anthony, one of the actors who walked out. “Our youth are still trying to figure out who they are, where they fit in this society. Kids are killing themselves. They’re not proud of who they are.” They also don’t, he added, see themselves on prime time television or the big screen. Netflix noted while about five people walked off the “The Ridiculous Six” set, 100 or so Native American actors and extras stayed.

But in interviews, nearly a dozen Native American actors and film industry experts said that Mr. Sandler’s humor perpetuated decades-old negative stereotypes. Mr. Anthony said such depictions helped feed the despondency many Native Americans feel, with deadly results: Native Americans have the highest suicide rate out of all the country’s ethnicities.

The on-screen problem is twofold, Mr. Anthony and others said: There’s a paucity of roles for Native Americans — according to the Screen Actors Guild in 2008 they accounted for 0.3 percent of all on-screen parts (those figures have yet to be updated), compared to about 2 percent of the general population — and Native American actors are often perceived in a narrow way."

This Man Changed His Name From José To Joe And Immediately Got More Job Interviews; Yahoo.com

Yahoo.com; This Man Changed His Name From José To Joe And Immediately Got More Job Interviews:

""I had to drop a letter to get a title.""