Tenant Screening Algorithms Enable Racial and Disability Discrimination at Scale, and Contribute to Broader Patterns of Injustice (Center for Democracy and Technology, Lydia X. Z. Brown)
Explanation of the discriminatory logic baked into applicant-screening processes for rental properties.
Denials based on recent evictions and poor rental payment history are legal, but can disproportionately deny housing to disabled people and people of color. FCRA permits tenant screening companies to report eviction and nonpayment records within the last seven years, but tenant screening companies and landlords might include older information that can result in unfairly denied applications. Disabled people and people of color experience poverty and unemployment at higher rates than nondisabled or white people. People with unstable or limited income are also less likely to be able to make consistent rental payments, and have a harder time securing housing with landlords skeptical of rental subsidy programs. This can mean that disabled people and people of color are less likely to have a stable rental history or proof of sufficient funds or income.
Denials based on characteristics or experiences associated with survivors of domestic violence can also violate the law. People of color and disabled people are more likely to be victimized by family violence or intimate partner abuse. People who are subjected to domestic violence may have trouble leaving an abusive situation due to lack of control over or access to finances, and difficulty building up independent credit. These issues are worse for disabled people who might rely on an abuser for access to housing or health care. As a result, algorithmic systems that report more positively on people with higher credit scores or longer rental history could inadvertently penalize disabled victims or survivors of domestic violence.
Ancestors of Palestinian Liberation (Anemoia Projects)
Preservation project documenting the work of prominent Palestinian artists and theorists.
Ancestors of Palestinian Liberation is a project aiming to uplift, learn from and celebrate the lives and work of some of the Ancestors that have shaped the diverse and resilient fabric of Palestinian culture — past, present, and forthcoming. In light of western attempts at historical erasure, this project serves as a tool to bring Palestinian names, faces, and histories into everyday spaces. Let us learn from the stories and voices of these Ancestors to further deepen our understanding of Palestinian contributions to our world today.
Disability Inclusion Pledge (Disability & Philanthropy Forum)
A set of guidelines and resources for working to reduce ableism and promote disability rights as part of an inclusive feminism.
The last few years have challenged philanthropy and the communities we serve in unprecedented ways, and now more than ever, leadership in the fight for equity, inclusion and social justice matters. The COVID-19 pandemic, economic recession, and racial injustice have shined a light on what we have all known for far too long: people with disabilities have been disproportionately impacted by each crisis, each budget cut, and each rollback of civil rights.
Simply put, social justice requires disability inclusion. To meet the urgency of this moment, the Presidents’ Council on Disability Inclusion in Philanthropy has developed the Disability Inclusion Pledge.
Skin, Tooth, and Bone spiral-bound, 194-page book (Dancers Group, Sins Invalid)
An introductory guide to the disability rights movement written by a prominent activist and performance group.
The Second Edition of Skin, Tooth, and Bone: The Basis of Movement is Our People is available now! This Disability Justice Primer, based in the work of Patty Berne and Sins Invalid, offers concrete suggestions for moving beyond the socialization of ableism, such as mobilizing against police violence, how to commit to mixed ability organizing, and access suggestions for events. Skin, Tooth, and Bone offers analysis, history and context for the growing Disability Justice Movement. The Second Edition includes the addition of a new section on Audism and Deafhood written and edited by members of the D/deaf community, and a Call to Action from Survivors of Environmental Injury, as well as disability justice timelines, an extensive glossary, and a resource list for learning more.
Posting Into the Void (Hacking//Hustling)
Data gathered by sex worker activists on the sex work industry’s shift online in the wake of COVID-19 and how the online space impacts workers.
As more sex workers and activists, organizers, and protesters (AOP) move online due to COVID-19, the sex working community and organizing efforts are being disrupted through legislative efforts to increase surveillance and platform liability. Sex worker contributions to movement work are often erased,1 despite the fact that a significant amount of unpaid activ-ism work (specific to sex work or otherwise) is funded by activists’ direct labor in the sex trades. This research aims to gain a better understanding of the ways that platforms’ responses to Section 2302 carve-outs3 impact content moderation, and threaten free speech and human rights for those who trade sex and/or work in movement spaces. In this sex worker-led study, Hacking //Hustling used a participatory action research model to gather quantitative and qualitative data to study the impact of content moderation on sex workers and AOP (n=262) after the uprisings against state-sanctioned police violence and police murder of Black people. The results of our survey indicate that sex workers and AOP have noticed significant changes in content moderation tactics aiding in the disruption of movement work, the flow of capital, and further chilling speech.4 The negative impact of content moderation experienced by people who identi-fied as both sex workers and AOP was significantly compounded.
Introducing the Rape Culture Intervention Toolkit (EventBrite)
A July 22nd web seminar with a pay-what-you-can attendance fee.
The Rape Culture Intervention Toolkit was inspired by Mia Mingus’s quote “death by a thousand little cuts” — a reference to the way that we do a terrible job of responding to the kind of lower-level harm that often leads to an accumulation of unchecked trauma. The objectives of the curriculum are to provide people with an understanding of how rape culture maintains the status quo in the US (and abroad), identify what power we have to check and transform rape culture, and to provide people with skills on how to make amends for harm from an abolitionist perspective.
Counting Crime: A Lecture on the Politics of Crime Data and Its Uses (EventBrite)
A July 27th web seminar with a pay-what-you-can attendance fee.
Politicians, pundits, and mainstream media are claiming crime is going up and some are blaming defund the police campaigns. But how we measure crime is a socially constructed, political process and more data literacy on this topic can be useful in this political moment. In this educational lecture we will learn about some of the history of counting crime during the post-Emancipation period, who has pushed for crime data to be collected, some of the major data sources (including the samples and methods), and how crime data is deployed for various purposes.
While this event and all of our events are freely available, we ask that those who are able make a solidarity donation in support of this important work. Part of the proceeds from this event will go to the National Bail Fund Network.
THREAD: Collection of Black trans folks’ crowdfunding campaigns.
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