Is autocorrect racist? The push to stamp out galling ethnic name bias on phones and computers. A new campaign — called I Am Not A Typo — is urging tech companies to fix ethnic bias in their algorithms to stop autocorrect mangling so many people's names.

"You Didn't See Nothin'" is a seven-part investigation of the 1997 racist assault on a Black child in Chicago's Bridgeport neighborhood. (cw for racism and violence--most of the links in this post mention or describe the assault at the center of this podcast.) The podcast is the work of Yohance Lacour, who reported on the nearly fatal assault of Lenard Clark in 1997 for the South Street News, a South Side neighborhood paper. Returning to the story 25 years later, Lacour looks into the local figures who pushed a racial reconciliation narrative on the story and details the mob ties of the primary identified assailant.

Throughout the podcast, Lacour also reflects on his journey from a young aspiring artist and journalist, through a prison sentence for selling drugs, and into his current work. There is some heavy truth-telling on the expectation of forgiveness and reconciliation when Black people are wronged in US society. I learned quite a bit from this podcast even though I was already well familiar with the story. 'You didn't See Nothin'' podcast revisits a 1997 Chicago hate crime and its aftermath, NPR, May 2024 In 1997, a 13-year-old was beaten by white Bridgeport teens. A podcast challenges the racial narrative that followed, Chicago Tribune, June 2023 'You Didn't See Nothin' Podcast Takes A Closer Look At The Lenard Clark Case And Its Impact On A Fractured City, Block Club Chicago, March 2023 The podcast is over a year old, but has gotten a boost recently after it won a Pulitzer. As an aside, Lacour is also a leather artist whose work is featured in this Smithsonian article and on his website.

More than a dozen locations bear this racist term and relic of colonial oppression. It's time to change the place names. There is a small sign in Western Victoria — one of 15 locations around the country, from creeks and waterholes to bores and mountains — that is a racist slur in plain sight.

[CW: eugenics, racism, violent child abuse incident] Guardian: "His little brother, two-year-old Torsten Savage, is on his iPad somewhere upstairs. Simone, 36, in an apron that strains across her belly, has her daughter, 16-month-old Titan Invictus, strapped to her back. The imminent arrival of their fourth child, a girl they plan to name Industry Americus Collins, turns out to be only the first in a string of surprises – and one really shocking thing – that I will encounter during my day with the pronatalists." [Previously: November 2022, You say 'Eugenics' like it's a bad thing (it is)]