San Diego city officials and activists came together to call on business and government officials to address pay inequities for Latinas in San Diego, CA on Dec. 8, 2022.
Matthew Bowler | KPBS | Sipa USA
Latina women working full time, year-round earn 58 cents for every dollar paid to white, non-Hispanic men, according to data collected by the National Women’s Law Center.
Latina Equal Pay Day, which this year falls on Oct. 3, marks the additional days into the new year that Latinas must work to earn as much as the typical annual salary of white, non-Hispanic male workers.
That gap in pay translates to a loss of nearly $1.3 million over a 40-year career. Break that down further and Latinas lose $32,070 in wages per year, or $2,672 every month, compared with the dominant cohort.
While 58 cents per dollar is a penny improvement compared with the previous year, NWLC notes that even though wages have been increasing, so too has the total wage gap over a lifetime — which last year totaled $1,218,000.
“The increase in lifetime losses and widening of the wage gap for all Latina workers, including part-time workers, is likely because white men’s wages are increasing at a faster rate than other demographic groups,” said Ashir Coillberg, NWLC senior research analyst.
Assuming a Latina and her white, non-Hispanic male counterpart both begin work at age 20, NWLC notes, the wage gap means a Latina would have to work until she is 89 years old — eight years beyond her life expectancy — to be paid what a white, non-Hispanic man has been paid by age 60.
Despite the narrow improvement for full-time workers, the gap actually widens for part-time and part-year Latina workers, falling to 51 cents on the dollar compared with 52 cents last year.
The wage gap varies widely for certain Latina communities, and for some in the United States it’s even more extreme.
While full time, year-round Argentinean and Spanish Latina workers remain closest to parity at 84 cents and 81 cents, respectively, wages for Honduran, Guatemalan and Salvadoran women remained the widest at 47 cents, 48 cents and 51 cents, respectively.
“Most other marginalized populations — and women as a whole — saw a slight widening of the wage gap this year, for both full-time, year-round workers as well as when including part-time workers,” Coillberg said.
Guatemalan, Cuban and Spanish women saw the greatest increase in losses over a 40-year career.
Latinas are more likely to hold low-wage jobs, but NWLC research finds pay disparities at all education levels.
While continued education can be a benefit to earnings potential, NWLC data suggests getting more education does not shield them from the wage gap. Latinas are typically paid less than white, non-Hispanic men with the same educational attainment and are often paid less than white, non-Hispanic men with less educational attainment.
Some of the most educated Latinas have some of the most striking pay gaps compared to their white non-Hispanic men counterparts, according to the NWLC. For example, the center said a Latina with a professional degree stands to lose more than $2.9 million to the wage gap over a 40-year career.
“Unequal pay means Latinas have less money to cover current expenses and forces them to miss key opportunities to build wealth and build economic security throughout their lifetimes,” the NWLC notes in the report.
Instead of prioritizing continued education, pay equity experts are advocating for comprehensive legislative reform.
“A comprehensive approach includes requiring equal pay for equal work, pay transparency policies from lawmakers, eliminating the subminimum tipped wage, protection from caregiver discrimination, safety from harassment and health hazards for all workers, prohibiting salary history to determine future pay, and increased access to higher-paid jobs for women,” said Noreen Farrell, Equal Pay Today chair. “That’s how you actually close the gap.”
“The widening gap underscores the urgency of tackling this issue to ensure equitable economic opportunities for Latinas,” Farrell said. “Latinas do not have one more day to wait for equal pay.”
Demonstrators take part in a rally against the far right following the announcement of the results of the first round of the French parliamentary elections at Place de la Republique in Paris on June 30, 2024.
Nurphoto | Nurphoto | Getty Images
“We’re scared of what might happen,” Amel, 34, told CNBC ahead of the final round of voting in France’s snap election this weekend.
The vote is being closely watched by all quarters of French society to see if the nationalist, anti-immigration National Rally (RN) builds on its initial win in the first round of voting, or whether centrist and leftwing parties have been able to thwart the party’s chances of entering government.
“It’s a very, very tense time. And it’s the first time that the far right is winning at the first turn [the first round of the ballot]. So it’s a very big deal,” Amel, a therapist who said she will vote for the leftwing New Popular Front, added.
“We are very anxious and we are trying to get everyone to vote, trying to tell people who don’t vote to go and vote, and to try to convince people who vote for the extreme right that they are not a good answer [to France’s problems].”
France’s far-right RN rejects the “extremist” label, saying it stands up for French values, culture and citizens at a time when many are fed up with France’s political establishment that’s been led by President Emmanuel Macron since 2017.
But RN’s opponents and critics warn France is on the brink of a political catastrophe if an overtly anti-immigration, nationalist and euroskeptic party wins a majority in this snap election called by Macron after his party lost heavily against the hard-right in European Parliament elections in June. Prime Minister Gabriel Attal has said French voters now have a “moral duty” to halt the party’s advance.
For young, left-leaning voters like Amel, RN’s surge in voter polls, and the fact it won the most votes in the first round of the election last weekend, are worrying developments that make them fear for France’s societal cohesion.
“I am worried about the country’s future. I think it’s getting worse and worse,” Amel, who preferred to only give her first name due to the sensitive nature of the situation, said. “It’s going be like a kind of civil war. I hope it will not reach that, but people will just not mix anymore and will be scared of each other. And this is very scary.”
The snap election has thrown the country’s political polarization into sharp relief as polls ahead of the final round of voting on Sunday imply a deeply divided nation.
The first round of the election resulted in the far-right RN winning 33% of the vote, with the leftwing New Popular Front (NFP) garnering 28% and the coalition of parties supporting Macron (Ensemble, or Together) winning 20% of the vote.
Left wing supporters react as the results of the first round of French parliamentary elections are announced in Nantes, western France on June 30, 2024.
Sebastien Salom-gomis | Afp | Getty Images
Since the results of the first ballot, parties on the center-right and left have gone all-out to prevent RN’s advance in the second ballot, aiming to prevent a parliamentary majority for the party at all costs. Joining forces in a so-called “Republican Front,” centrists and leftwing parties have withdrawn candidates in many constituencies where one of their candidates was better placed to beat the RN.
By offering voters a starker choice and fewer options, the anti far-right front hopes that the electorate will vote for the non-RN candidate. Whether it will work remains to be seen and analysts point out that French voters might not take kindly to being directed how to vote, or who to vote for.
The final result on Sunday evening — the outcome of a snap election Macron did not need to call — will show just how hard it could be to find a consensus in national politics and government going forward.
How the nation will react to the result is also uncertain. France is no stranger to civil unrest given the widespread “Yellow Vest” anti-government movement of recent years, and street protests since the first round of voting on June 30.
France’s Interior Ministry appears to be preparing for more trouble after Sunday’s poll, reportedly ready to deploy around 30,000 officers across France on Sunday night amid fears of violence after polls close. Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin is reported to have said 5,000 police would be on duty in Paris and its surrounding areas to “ensure that the radical right and radical left do not take advantage of the situation to cause mayhem.”
Tension rises as demonstrators gather in Place de la Republique, to protest against the rising right-wing movement after the Rassemblement National’s victory in the first round of early general elections in Paris, France on June 30, 2024.
Anadolu | Anadolu | Getty Images
A member of the gendarmerie, France’s military force in charge of law enforcement and public order, told CNBC that the “French elections are a mess” and that the “public divide has rarely been so flagrant in France.”
“People’s opinions are becoming more and more divided and this is felt in everyday life,” the gendarme, who asked to remain anonymous due to the nature of his job, told CNBC.
The officer — a father of three who’s in his 40s, and a right-leaning voter — said the polarization in French society was “very worrying, but unfortunately normal with the ‘diversity’ of our society.”
“More and more people with different values and educations are being forced to co-exist, and this clearly doesn’t work,” the officer, who works in Bordeaux in southwestern France, said.
“I am worried about the country’s future, because we are too generous to people who aren’t willing to integrate and contribute to our society, this can not last.”
The police officer said he expected civil unrest after the vote, whichever party gained the most votes.
“There will be civil unrest whoever is elected, this is France and the people speak their mind.”
Political experts agree that the current febrile atmosphere of French politics, and antagonism between the main bodies of voters, are the ingredients for further civil unrest.
“You’ve got here all the recipe for a super-polarized political scene and that, of course, translates into civil society as a whole,” Philippe Marlière, professor of French and European politics at University College London, told CNBC.
“If you’ve got only 33-34% of people voting for the far-right it means the rest is wary of that, or completely opposed to it, so that will translate on every level of politics — institutional politics, party politics, the National Assembly, but also in society. You will have a very polarized society in which younger people, ethnic minorities, women, and in particular feminists, would be very worried,” he said.
Marlière did not discount the possibility of violence on the streets if a far-right party was elected to government. “We’re not there yet. But if there are very unpopular, very antagonizing and very hostile policies to some groups, there will be demonstrations on a scale that you have unrest in the street,” he said.
Like other hard-right parties in Europe, the National Rally has tapped into voter insecurities regarding crime, immigration, national identity and economic insecurity. RN’s 28-year-old leader Jordan Bardella has told voters he will “restore order,” curb immigration and tackle delinquency but he and party figurehead Marine Le Pen have rowed back on some of their more strident promises and rhetoric, back-pedaling over taking France out of NATO, for example, and moderating the party’s traditionally pro-Russian stance.
Bardella said he would still support the sending of arms to Ukraine but not the deployment of ground troops, as Macron suggested was a possibility.
Marine Le Pen and Jordan Bardella at the final rally before the June 9 European Parliament election, held at Le Dôme de Paris – Palais des Sports, on June 2, 2024.
Nurphoto | Nurphoto | Getty Images
It’s uncertain how many of National Rally’s policies would be enacted even if the party made it into government. The “Republican Front” also appears confident ahead of the second round of voting that its strategy to hurt the RN’s vote share is working.
An opinion poll published by Ifop on July 3 suggested voters might tend toward a centrist pro-Macron or leftwing candidate rather than the RN candidate if that is the choice they are presented with on the ballot paper on Sunday. If the choice was between a far-left and far-right candidate, however, the picture was more nuanced, showing a split vote.
Analysts predict that RN is less likely to be able to achieve an absolute majority of 289 seats in the 577-seat National Assembly, but is still likely to gather the most votes, creating a hung parliament scenario and headache for Macron and uncertainty for France’s political and economic outlook.
“The political landscape is in turmoil and can’t really work any longer, at least not by the old rules,” Ipsos analyst Mathieu Doiret told CNBC Thursday.
“We are in a situation so far from our traditions and political habitus that it’s very difficult to adapt to this new situation for every stakeholder.”
A former D.C. corrections officer was sentenced to more than three years behind bars Friday for assaulting a handcuffed inmate by ramming the inmate’s head into a metal door frame in 2019.
A former D.C. corrections officer was sentenced to more than three years behind bars Friday for assaulting a handcuffed inmate by ramming the inmate’s head into a metal door frame in 2019.
Marcus Bias, 28, was handed down a sentence of 42 months in prison followed by 24 months of supervised release.
“This defendant had a duty to treat people in his custody humanely,” Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke, of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, said in a statement.
“The defendant is being held accountable for violently ramming an inmate’s head into a metal door frame while the victim was handcuffed, surrounded by six officers and posed no threat. The Justice Department will vigorously investigate and prosecute such excessive force against prisoners and will insist that corrections officers respect the civil and constitutional rights of those entrusted to their care,” she added.
U.S. Attorney for D.C. Matthew M. Graves said: “Like any other law enforcement officer, the defendant had a duty to protect the constitutional rights of anyone who was in his care and custody.”
Graves added that Bias ignored that responsibility when he assaulted the inmate and that similar assaults are “civil rights violations that will be prosecuted” by his office.
According to the Justice Department, the victim, identified only as J.W., “had his hands handcuffed behind his back, was suffering from the effects of O.C. spray, was surrounded by five other officers and was not resisting. J.W.’s injuries required emergency medical attention at a hospital.”
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Guard Caitlin Clark #22 of the Iowa Hawkeyes listens as the crowd cheers after breaking the NCAA women’s all-time scoring record during the game against the Michigan Wolverines at Carver-Hawkeye Arena on February 15, 2024 in Iowa City, Iowa.
Matthew Holst | Getty Images
Women’s sports reached an inflection point in 2023, propelled by major new broadcast deals, once-in-a-lifetime players and record-breaking audiences that dramatically changed the sports landscape.
Revenue generated by women’s elite sports could surpass $1 billion this year, a 300% increase from 2021, according to estimates from Deloitte.
Bigger media deals and more commercial sponsors are driving record valuations for women’s sports, with several teams’ values expected to exceed $100 million in 2024, according to Deloitte.
Last year saw record media deals for women’s sports as the NCAA and NWSL both inked groundbreaking agreements. And investors from private equity to celebrities are lining up to get in the game.
Yet, there’s still a lot of work to be done, specifically, in the areas of equal pay, prime-time access and even the need for more historical data.
CNBC surveyed some of the most high-powered women executives in sports, ranging from league commissioners to team owners and CEOs, to hear their thoughts on the state of women in sports. Some of their answers have been edited for style, clarity and length.
Renie Anderson, executive vice president and chief revenue officer for the NFL: The obstacle, or really the opportunity, for today is to continue to amplify the spectacular athleticism of these women. Rather than be shocked and surprised that women are spectacular at sport, we need to do a better job of weaving in the message of greatness when highlighting the greatness in men’s sports. It’s there. It just doesn’t get the attention it deserves.
Jessica Berman, National Women’s Soccer League Commissioner
Jesse Grant | CNBC
Jessica Berman, commissioner of the National Women’s Soccer League: Because the world has woken up to women’s sports, the expectations on how fast this can grow, from all stakeholders, is really challenging. We’re 100 years behind men’s sports, and so it’s not to say that we should move slowly. It is to say that it is challenging to sort of build the plane as quickly as so many stakeholders expect it to be built — and to do it in a way that’s sustainable and commercially viable.
WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert speaks to the media to award Breanna Stewart #30 of the New York Liberty with the 2023 Kia WNBA Most Valuable Player Award before the game against the Connecticut Sun during round two game two of the 2023 WNBA playoffs on September 26, 2023 in Brooklyn, New York.
David Dow | Getty Images
Cathy Engelbert, commissioner of the Women’s National Basketball Association: One of the obstacles is the undervaluation of our assets. Whether it’s a patch on the uniform or an ad buy on a broadcast, we need to change the model. It’s based on decades-old spreadsheet models that are tailored to men’s sports and in those models, a lot of things that companies are now supporting in women’s sports aren’t being accounted for like their diversity, their community, the fact that they are not the “one and done” type.
Jessica Gelman speaks during the 15th Annual Sports Business Journal Awards ceremony at New York Marriott Marquis Hotel on May 18, 2022 in New York City.
John Lamparski | Getty Images
Jessica Gelman, KAGR CEO and founder of the MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference: A major obstacle has been available data on performance which supports and enhances storytelling. These stories create interest and drive (i.e. see Caitlin Clark’s NCAA scoring record quest). This past year the MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference donated to Sports-Reference to support the addition of college women’s data back to 1987.
Jayna Hefford, senior vice president of operations for the Professional Women’s Hockey League: Women’s sports still struggle to secure prime broadcast windows, consistent airtime and traditional media coverage. Furthermore, the scarcity of traditional media coverage has historically forced women’s teams and leagues, as well as women-owned media companies, to take the lead in promoting their own narratives. This limited visibility has made it challenging to attract brand support, even though research indicates that companies investing in women’s sports see lucrative returns.
Haley Rosen, Just Women’s Sports
Source: Just Women’s Sports
Haley Rosen, CEO and founder of Just Women’s Sports: One of the biggest obstacles hindering the progress of women’s sports today is relying on the legacy platforms. Legacy platforms aren’t set up to support women’s sports and build on the momentum. Yes, they’ll air the games. But there’s only so much time in the day for the shoulder programming and coverage needed to amplify the women’s leagues, and legacy platforms are always going to prioritize men’s sports. Viewership numbers are rising, but the relative percentage of women’s sports coverage on legacy platforms hasn’t changed.
Mollie Marcoux Samaan, LPGA Commissioner, speaks during the State of the Association press conference during the first round of the CME Group Tour Championship at Tiburon Golf Club on November 16, 2023 in Naples, Florida.
Michael Reaves | Getty Images
Mollie Marcoux Samaan, commissioner of the Ladies Professional Golf Association: Women’s sports today face two primary obstacles: investment and exposure. At the LPGA we’ve made some great strides. Our total revenue has gone up 65% in the last four years, and total purses — the prize funds players’ play for each week — has grown 70% since 2021. That’s because of investment, because of partnerships, because of corporate decision makers seeing not only the significant commercial value of the LPGA but also the opportunity to have a positive impact on the world.
NEW YORK, NY – AUGUST 22: USTA President Katrina Adams speaks during the Louis Armstrong Stadium Dedication Ceremony at USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center on August 22, 2018 in New York City. (Photo by Steven Ryan/Getty Images)
Steven Ryan | Getty Images Sport | Getty Images
Katrina Adams, former pro tennis player and ex-CEO of the United States Tennis Association: I think what the Women’s Tennis Association has done for many years, is shown other professional sports what can be achieved if they use your voice and their talent, that they can survive. When you look at the players of today — you know, we talk about the [Caitlin Clark types] and Sabrina Ionescu and Coco Gauff, who was the highest paid athlete last year — there’s so many opportunities for these young women to use their platform to really speak up and speak out on what it means to be on a level playing field week in and week out.
Berman: I think we have to go from these being moments to being part of a movement, so that we get out of the default of having these reference points be episodic, or transactional or in isolation, so that it can translate to more sustainable growth and investment. I think the more we can demonstrate and talk about some of those consistent data points that show that the business is actually being built in a more consistent way, the easier it’ll be to debunk the narrative that these are one-off success stories.
Pamela Duckworth
Source: FuboTV
Pamela Duckworth, head of Fubo Studios at FuboTV:Female athletes are multifaceted — they are also mothers, businesswomen, philanthropists, media moguls and more. We can use the momentum from attention-grabbing sports moments to bring athletes’ stories to the forefront and connect with broader audiences that way.
Engelbert:Sports is about marketing, marketing, marketing. If you look back at the history of the NBA that put the league on the map and the multibillion-dollar deals, it was a rivalry coming out of college, Magic Johnson and Larry Bird. Then it was a marketing genius with Michael Jordan and Nike. But you need capital to market and advertise. I think the marketing strategy we put in place now that we have this capital is to build household names, create rivalries, and promote games or events of consequence.
Fanduel CEO Amy Howe attends The Future of Everything presented by the Wall Street Journal at Spring Studios on May 18, 2022 in New York City.
Steven Ferdman | Getty Images
Amy Howe, FanDuel CEO: Women’s sports need to continue to position their star athletes (i.e. Ionescu, A’ja Wilson and Breanna Stewart of WNBA) in the mainstream at parity with their male counterparts – the 3-point competition was a perfect example. Not surprisingly, all of this investment and support is fueling greater performance from female athletes which is driving added success in places like FanDuel’s business, where we saw a 270% increase in bet counts on women’s sports and 101% increase in handle, or amount wagered. It’s a real flywheel effect.
Rosen: There are tens of millions of sports fans out there waiting to be onboarded into this space. We have to make it easy and fun for them to be a women’s sports fan and not just rely on the stand-alone moments. That means meeting them every day on their feeds, creating content that engages them and keeps them continually connected to this space.
Adams: I think it’s an opportunity for our women to finally be recognized and actually make a living. The men, they’ve had this opportunity for years, for decades, “under the table,” if you will, now the women are able to do it legally with the NIL. For them to make a little money and really grow the sport in their communities, in their cities in their college towns, etc. I think it’s great. They’re learning how to become entrepreneurs at a younger age, and they’re doing extremely well.
A portrait of Renie Anderson NFL SVP, Chief Revenue Officer.
Source: NFL
Anderson: I think NIL helps likely a small few through their social media. I’m not sure outside of a handful of amazing athletes/influencers it’s going to be spread out throughout college sports for women, like it is for football for men. But I guess we wait and see. I don’t think it hurts, but for those few women that do benefit, it’s an opportunity for them to lift up other women.
Duckworth: NIL opens doors for female athletes to build their own brands in ways that weren’t possible before. Why shouldn’t a female athlete make money the same way her male counterpart can? Money equals independence in my book. Kudos to major sports stars like Angel Reese or Caitlin Clark on showing young women just what can be built.
Billie Jean King and Jayna Hefford walk to centre ice for the ceremonial puck drop before Toronto plays New York in their PWHL hockey game at the Mattamy Athletic Centre on January 1, 2024 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Mark Blinch | Getty Images
Hefford: The positive impact of NIL on women’s college athletics has reverberated throughout women’s sports, creating a scenario where all boats rise. As more female athletes become household names, the investment in women’s sports is likely to increase, encouraging more young girls to start — or continue participating in — sports.
Rosen: On paper, it’s great and we should celebrate anything that helps women athletes grow their brand and monetize their talents. There are obviously still some details that need to be ironed out, especially when it comes to team dynamics and the potential for NIL deals to force players into taking the short-term profit at the cost of their long-term development.
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC) headquarters in Washington, DC, US, on Monday, March 13, 2023.
Al Drago | Bloomberg | Getty Images
A former high-ranking lawyer at the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation pleaded guilty Tuesday in federal court to conspiring to sexually exploit multiple children and now faces a mandatory minimum prison sentence of 15 years.
The lawyer, Mark Black, also previously served as president of the board of the Arlington Aquatic Club, a renowned Virginia swim club that includes U.S. Olympic swimmers among its alumni. Black resides in Arlington.
Black, 50, most recently was special counsel in the general counsel’s office of the FDIC, which insures the deposits of U.S. commercial and savings banks, according to his LinkedIn page. He has worked in the legal division since April 2013, his LinkedIn page says.
The Department of Justice said Black, who is married and has teenage sons, was a member of “two online groups dedicated to exploiting children.”
“The goal of the two groups was to locate prepubescent girls online and convince them to livestream themselves engaging in sexually explicit conduct,” the DOJ said in a press release.
“Black and his co-conspirators would covertly record this conduct and share the videos with each other,” the DOJ said.
Black pleaded guilty Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Virginia, to one count of conspiracy to produce child pornography and one count of coercion and enticement.
He is due to be sentenced on April 30. He faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 15 years in prison and a maximum sentence of life behind bars.
The FDIC told CNBC it was “deeply shocked and disturbed about the allegations” against Black, who was suspended by the agency when it learned about the investigation of him last year.
The FDIC said Black’s criminal activity “had nothing whatsoever to do with the FDIC,” and did not involve the use of agency computers or other devices. The agency also said it had cooperated with the FBI and DOJ in the criminal probe.
CNBC has requested comment from Black’s defense attorneys and from the Arlington Aquatic Club.
On Jan. 5, Black was deemed indefinitely ineligible by the U.S. Center for SafeSport, a nonprofit group that has the authority to resolve abuse and misconduct reports in sports associated with U.S. Olympic programs.
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Court documents show that Black, who previously was an attorney at the firm Steptoe & Johnson, was arrested in mid-September after being indicted on six criminal counts related to the production, advertisement, receipt, distribution and possession of child pornography.
The indictment says Black engaged in that criminal conduct from January 2018 through October 2021.
He has been held without bond since his arrest due to the ages of the victims in the case, the weight of the evidence, and his risk of lengthy incarceration, according to court documents.
Black’s lawyers, in a court filing in September seeking his release, offered as a third-party custodian for him Genevieve Holm, who was described as “a retired, career 40-year trial attorney with the Department of Justice, who also has served as” a state court magistrate.
The filing said authorities executed a search warrant at Black’s home on June 6 last year in connection with the child-porn probe.
After material was seized from the home, Black “voluntarily self-referred to counseling” with a certified sex offender treatment provider, the filing said.
The provider, in a statement cited by defense lawyers, said Black “is an excellent candidate for continued outpatient treatment.”
“Mark Black is 50 years old, and the remaining months may be his last opportunity to see his teenage sons and make final arrangements to secure the stability of his family before he is incarcerated for a lengthy period of time,” defense lawyers wrote.
“This time in the community is important in order to make sure all necessary appropriate legal and financial steps for his family for many years to come, may be his last opportunity in his life to spend some meaningful time with his family, and will with appropriate conditions not be a danger to the community.”
A judge denied that request shortly after it was made.
Shortly after the murder of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police in 2020, Google was among many tech companies that set up new programs aimed at supporting Black employees. The goal, CEO Sundar Pichai wrote, was “to build sustainable equity for Google’s Black+ community, and externally, to make our products and programs helpful in the moments that matter most to Black users.”
Google’s vocal commitments included improving representation of underrepresented groups in leadership by 30% by 2025; more than doubling the number of Black workers at nonsenior levels by 2025; addressing representation issues in hiring, retention and promotions; and establishing better support for the mental and physical health for Black employees.
The move was part of a broader trend in the wake of the Floyd killing, which sparked societal unrest and drew attention to the power imbalances in corporate America and the tech industry specifically. Corporations pledged to invest millions of dollars to improve diversity in their ranks and support external groups doing work on diversity, equity and inclusion, or DEI.
But in 2023, some of those programs are in retreat.
By mid-2023, DEI-related job postingshad declined 44% from the same time a year prior, according to data provided by job site Indeed. In November 2023, the last full month for which data was available, it dropped 23% year over year.
That’s a sharp contrast with the period from 2020 to 2021, when those postings expanded nearly 30%.
In line with this broader trend, both Google and Meta have cut staffers and downsized programs that fell under DEI investment.
The year’s cuts have also impacted smaller, third-party organizations who counted on big tech clients for work, despite the continued growth of those tech giants.
“Whenever there is an economic downturn in tech, some of the first budgets that are cut are in DEI, but I don’t think we’ve seen such stark contrast as this year,” said Melinda Briana Epler, founder and CEO of Empovia, which advises companies and leaders to use a research-based culture of equality.
“When George Floyd began to become the topic of conversations, companies and executives doubled down on their commitments and here we are only a couple years later, and folks are looking for opportunities to cut those teams,” said Devika Brij, CEO of Brij the Gap Consulting, which works with tech companies’ DEI efforts. Brij said some of her clients had cut their DEI budgets by as much as 90% by midyear.
However, more than just broken promises are at stake, experts told CNBC in a series of interviews.
The cuts come at a time when technology companies are forging ahead on the biggest technology shift in a decade: artificial intelligence. If diverse people are not included in AI development, that may result in even greater power imbalances for both corporate workers, as well as consumers who will use their products.
“Our commitment to DEI remains at the center of who we are as a company,” a Meta spokesperson wrote in a statement to CNBC. “We continue to intentionally design equitable and fair practices to drive progress across our people, product, policy and partnerships pillars.”
“Our workforce reductions and company-wide efforts to sharpen our focus span the breadth of our business,” said a Google spokesperson, saying that the company remains committed to underrepresented communities and DEI work. “To be absolutely clear, our commitment to that work has not changed and we invested in many new programs and partnerships this year.”
The Google spokesperson did not dispute any specifics in this story, but pointed to new investments in partnerships this year, including committing more than $5 million to historically Black colleges and universities to help build a stronger pipeline to the tech industry for underrepresented talent, and launching the Google for Startups Women Founders Fund to help women entrepreneurs.
In 2021,after facing complaints about pay equity in its Engineering Residency program, Google said it would be sunsetting the program and replacing it with a new one called Early Career Immersion, or ECI, which is aimed at helping underrepresented talent develop skills. (Google said sunsetting Engineering Residency was an unrelated business decision.)
But Google decided not to hire a 2023 cohort of ECI software engineers, citing an uncertain hiring outlook, according to correspondence viewed by CNBC. It also laid off some staffers associated with the program.
Participants in a separate Google program called Apprenticeships also lodged complaints about a lack of pathways and pay inequities in the last year, CNBC found.
“Apprentices become part of our mission to build great products for every user, and their different experiences help ensure that our products are as diverse as our users,” Google’s Apprenticeships website states.
But Apprenticeships participants complained they were getting paid less than other engineers during the course of the 20-month program despite doing similar work. They said they were doing “Level 3” work with L3 expectations and contributing significantly to Google’s codebase while earning half of full-time L3 software engineers’ base salary, according to internal correspondence seen by CNBC.
The apprentices even confronted the executive sponsor of the program, Aparna Pappu, vice president of Google Workspace, pointing out the executive’s prior stated goal “to increase representation of underrepresented talent across Google.”
The company said that apprentices are paid a salary for the learning and training they receive as part of the program, and that it reviews compensation annually to ensure alignment with the market.
The Apprenticeships program, which included real-work job training for underrepresented backgrounds, followed other failed efforts to improve diversity. In 2021, for instance, Google said it shut down a long-running program aimed at entry-level engineers from underrepresented backgrounds after participants said it enforced “systemic pay inequities.” That same year, CNBC found the company’s separate program that worked with students from historically Black colleges, suffered extreme disorganization, racism and broken promises to students.
Google and Meta also made cuts to personnel who were in charge of recruiting underrepresented people, according to several sources and documentation.
Nearly every member of Meta’s Sourcer Development Program, more than 60 workers, was let go from the company as part of its layoff of over 11,000 workers, CNBC learned. They claimed to have received inferior severance packages compared with other workers who were laid off in the same time period. Meta’s Sourcer Development Program was intended to help workers from diverse backgrounds obtain careers in corporate technology recruiting.
Google also cut DEI leaders who worked with Chief Diversity Officer Melonie Parker, while Meta made cuts to several DEI managers — some of whom it hired in 2020.
Layoffs at Google and Meta also included employees who held leadership roles in their respective Black employee resource groups, known as ERGs.
“There’s a lowering of physiological safety with layoffs or impending layoffs, and holding ERGs accountable for that is not fair and can lead to even more burnout,” Epler said.
In addition to cutting staff who worked on DEI programs and ERGs, both Meta and Google cut planned learning and development training for underrepresented talent, according to multiple sources who asked not to be named due to fear of retaliation. Meta said that learning and development programs were “merely streamlined to make them more impactful.”
“There’s a consistent amount of folks who have completely failed, mostly because they don’t have the internal teams to keep the mission forward,” said Simone White, who is a senior vice president at Blavity, a media organization that focuses on content for the Black community, and puts on AfroTech, which became a popular tech conference for Black tech talent and companies seeking to hire them.
While internal DEI programs have suffered, the cuts were arguably even harder for external organizations who expected the same amount of corporate sponsorship and support from tech companies in 2023 as they had the prior few years.
In early 2023, big tech leaders, including Google and Meta were among companies that lessened their work with third parties that were counting on projects, according to several organizations and sources who spoke with CNBC.
Brij, CEO of Brijthe Gap Consulting, explained how the steep cuts have affected her firm, which consults with companies on building an effective workforce for underrepresented workers and includes workshops and programs.
“Right now with these budgets being entirely limited or cut, we’re just really backpedaling on so much of the work that we’ve done.”
Brij said some companies have even asked her to provide work for free.
“A lot of companies we worked with started to make progress before the cuts,” Epler said. “Now, it’s like some of them are essentially wiping away that work.”
Stefania Pomponi, founder of Hella Social Impact, said executives have blamed cost-cutting as they’ve canceled contracts with the firm, which consults with companies’ leadership to create more inclusive workplaces through programs and training.
“I’ve been telling them, ‘look, your bottom line is also your people and these types of cuts are going to impact your business’” Pomponi said, pointing to various studies on diverse teams producing higher performance outcomes.
“As I talk to my colleagues across the space, some of the monies that were set aside around the time of George Floyd’s murder have not been fully extended, and that says to me that organizations like ours are needed now more than ever,” said Brenda Wilkerson, CEO of AnitaB.org, which puts on Grace Hopper, the largest women’s tech conference, which took place in September.
Some large tech companies, including Meta, pulled back from sponsorship or attendance for employees to attend Grace Hopper 2023, according to sources who asked to remain anonymous because they are not authorized to speak to the media. Some companies, including Microsoft, ended up sending some leaders to attend virtually so they wouldn’t have to pay for travel, according to two sources who wished to remain anonymous.
Microsoft said it still sent some employees physically, and both Microsoft and Meta told CNBC that Grace Hopper’s virtual option allowed more employees to participate.
Other companies such as Google, which still had a presence at the conference, retracted travel for some employees who had previously been approved to attend, according to several sources who asked to remain anonymous. Google is also among companies to reduce their spending with Blavity, the organization that puts on AfroTech, according to sources who asked not to be named due to being unauthorized to speak.
“We do have a significant amount of our existing corporate partners that are telling us ‘Hey, we can’t participate this year because our DEI team doesn’t even exist anymore,’” said Blavity’s Simone White, who declined to name specific companies. “Week to week, we have new contacts at companies, and folks we worked with for years to organize this work are no longer there.”
“To say our progress is not in peril would not be truthful,” AnitaB.org’s Wilkerson said, although she’s optimistic the tide could turn around in 2024. “We’re working with multiple challenges in our society, so we have made a lot of the progress but some of that was erased in the last year. Then you have this backlash against racial reckoning.”
The backlash she referred to includes things like the Supreme Court’s June decision to end affirmative action at colleges, as well as backlash against DEI programs in conservative circles. “You have this ‘wokeism’ drama.” Wilkerson said, pointing to Florida legislation such as banning books and downplaying Black history, as well as laws impacting the LGBTQIA+ community.
Because of that backlash, 2023 will be the last year the organization will hold Grace Hopper in Florida, Wilkerson said. It will be held in Philadelphia next year.
A Meta spokesperson said that it increased its engagement with some third-party organizations such as The Executive Leadership Council, which aims to increase Black leadership in C-suites.
Wilkerson was among experts who told CNBC that DEI work is more important than ever given the growing work on artificial intelligence, which hit breakneck speed in 2023.
“We’re in a big technology inflection point, and what happens is as AI begins to take off and if organizations are less inclusive, the product is not reflective of the users,” Wilkerson said.
Apple, Google and other tech giants are still grappling with displaying and identifying images accurately. A New York Times investigation this year found Apple and Google’s Android software, which underpins most of the world’s smartphones, turned off the ability to visually search for primates for fear of labeling a person as an animal.
“We know that AI is trained on historic data and that historic data is missing critical segments of the population, and having women and noncentered folks as decision-makers is going to be critical to making sure it doesn’t happen again,” Wilkerson said.
White said companies who made cuts this year may have a difficult time building future relationships with DEI stakeholders, and it may impact their ability to attract and retain talent, should they decide to build up again in the future.
“Younger generations increasingly care who has a seat at the table,” White said. “And they’re going to remember who did what they said they were going to do.”
Three Palestinian students were shot and wounded Saturday night, according to a police report.
The Burlington Police Department in Vermont reported that two of the three 20-year-old men are in stable condition, while the other is facing more serious injuries.
The victims were on their way to a Thanksgiving dinner at one of their relative’s homes and two of them were wearing Palestinian keffiyeh scarves, according to the police. The police report said the shooter fired at least four rounds from a pistol, striking all three students. Officers from the Burlington Police Department, the University of Vermont police department and other local forces immediately responded to the scene.
The three are Palestinian students attending colleges in the United States.
“In this charged moment, no one can look at this incident and not suspect that it may have been a hate-motivated crime. And I have already been in touch with federal investigatory and prosecutorial partners to prepare for that if it’s proven,” Burlington Police Chief Jon Murad said in a statement.
Hate crimes are considered federal offenses. A spokesperson for FBI Albany, which covers Vermont, said in a statement following news of the shooting that the bureau was investigating the incident to see if there was evidence of a “federal violation.”
The Council on American-Islamic Relations, or CAIR, is offering a $10,000 reward for any reports or information that could help arrest and convict the shooter.
Sen. Bernie Sanders issued a statement on the shooting in a social media post on Sunday.
“It is shocking and deeply upsetting that three young Palestinians were shot here in Burlington, VT. Hate has no place here, or anywhere. I look forward to a full investigation. My thoughts are with them and their families,” the Vermont independent lawmaker said in a post on X, formerly Twitter.
JPMorgan did not admit any wrongdoing in the settlement, which will give $55 million to Virgin Islands charities and the American territory’s anti-trafficking efforts.
The remaining $20 million will cover attorneys’ fees incurred by the Virgin Islands as part of the litigation in federal court in New York.
The Virgin Islands said the deal “includes several substantial commitments by JPMorgan Chase to identify, report, and cut off support for potential human trafficking, including establishing and implementing comprehensive policies and procedures.”
Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell attend de Grisogono Sponsors The 2005 Wall Street Concert Series Benefitting Wall Street Rising, with a Performance by Rod Stewart at Cipriani Wall Street on March 15, 2005 in New York City.
Joe Schildhorn | Patrick McMullan | Getty Images
The territory said that $10 million of the money received would be used to create a fund to provide mental health services for Epstein’s victims.
JPMorgan also said Tuesday that it had reached a settlement with Jes Staley, a former executive at the bank who had been friends with Epstein, to resolve claims by JPMorgan that he was responsible for any civil damages and costs associated with Epstein-related litigation.
The terms of the agreement with Staley are confidential.
JPMorgan said that it “deeply regrets” its association with Epstein, who was a client from 1998 until 2013.
Virgin Islands Attorney General Ariel Smith said the agreement settles what was the first enforcement action against a bank for facilitating and profiting from human trafficking.
“As part of the settlement, JPMorgan has agreed to implement and maintain meaningful anti-trafficking measures, which will help prevent human trafficking in the future,” Smith said in a statement.
“This settlement is an historic victory for survivors and for state enforcement, and it should sound the alarm on Wall Street about banks’ responsibilities under the law to detect and prevent human trafficking.”
Jes Staley, former chief executive officer of Barclays Plc, arrives at the offices of Boies Schiller Flexner LLP in New York, US, on Sunday, June 11, 2023. Staley has faced his first day of testimony about his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein as part of lawsuits alleging the bank enabled the late financier’s sex-trafficking. Photographer: Stephanie Keith/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images
The deals come months after a separate $290 million settlement by JPMorgan with victims of the now-dead predator. That earlier deal ended a similar lawsuit by one of those victims in U.S. District Court in Manhattan.
As with that prior agreement, the new pacts let the bank avoid a trial on the Virgin Islands’ allegations in that same court, which was due to start Oct. 23.
The territory had said it would ask jurors at that trial to award it at least $190 million in damages from JPMorgan.
The Virgin Islands previously obtained a $105 million settlement from Epstein’s estate, and another $62.5 million from billionaire investor Leon Black to resolve potential claims related to Epstein.
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JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon and other top bank executives had been questioned by lawyers for the Virgin Islands as part of its suit against the firm.
Related court filings and hearings have led to a stream of embarrassing headlines about the bank since the case was filed in late 2022, more than three years after Epstein killed himself in a Manhattan jail following his arrest on federal child sex trafficking charges.
The Virgin Islands claimed JPMorgan effectively ignored repeated red flags that Epstein was trafficking women to his private island in the territory because it wanted to retain his business and that of his wealthy and powerful friends.
Among those red flags was Epstein’s 2008 guilty plea in Florida to a state charge of soliciting sex from an underage girl, a conviction that led to a 13-month jail stint.
In late August, a JPMorgan attorney told Judge Jed Rakoff that after Epstein died, the bank notified the Treasury Department that it since had identified more than $1 billion in transactions related to “human trafficking” by him dating back 16 years.
But the bank also had alleged in court filings that the Virgin Islands was complicit in Epstein’s crimes, saying he gave high-ranking territory officials money, advice, and favors in exchange for their allowing him to traffick women there unhindered.
In a press release announcing the new agreement with the Virgin Islands, JPMorgan said it “believes this settlement is in the best interest of all parties, particularly for those who can benefit from efforts to combat human trafficking, and for survivors who suffer unimaginable abuse at the hands of these criminals.”
“While the settlement does not involve admissions of liability, the firm deeply regrets any association with this man, and would never have continued doing business with him if it believed he was using the bank in any way to commit his heinous crimes,” the statement said.
“The firm will continue to work with law enforcement to combat human trafficking and help to identify improper money movement into the global payments systems.”
JPMorgan said that under the deal a large portion of the money will got to the Virgin Islands “to enhance the infrastructure and capabilities of law enforcement to prevent and combat human trafficking and other crimes in their territories.”
The bank said it will pay millions more”to support USVI charitable organizations whose work is aimed at addressing social ills, including fighting human trafficking and other sex crimes, and to support survivors on their paths to healing.”
With the remaining money going to attorneys’ fees, JPMorgan is paying the same amount, $75 million, that Deutsche Bank agreed to pay Epstein victims to settle a third Manhattan federal court lawsuit that alleged that bank facilitated his sex trafficking when he was a customer from 2013 through 2018.
Deutsche Bank had taken on Epstein as a customer after JPMorgan ended its relationship with him when Staley left the bank.
Epstein for years socialized with high-profile people such as former President Donald Trump and Bill Clinton, Britain’s Prince Andrew, and had business relationships with billionaires such as Black and former L. Brands CEO Les Wexner.
Ghislaine Maxwell, a British socialite who once was Epstein’s girlfriend, was convicted at a federal criminal trial in Manhattan in December 2021 of procuring underage girls to be sexually abused by him.
Maxwell later was sentenced to 20 years in prison.
Staley, the former JPMorgan executive has denied claims of wrongdoing, including an allegation that he sexually assaulted a woman identified as “Jane Doe,” whose class action suit led to the prior settlement with the bank.
In November 2021, Staley stepped down as CEO of Barclays after an investigation by British bank regulators into how he had characterized his relationship with Epstein.
Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman attends the G20 Leaders’ Summit via videoconference in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on October 30, 2021.
Royal Court of Saudi Arabia | Anadolu Agency | Getty Images
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman lit up social media with his blunt response to accusations that his government is “sportswashing,” or using sports to distract attention from its controversial human rights record.
Quite simply, he made it clear that he did not care.
“If sportswashing is going to increase my GDP by 1%, then we will continue doing sportswashing,” the de-facto Saudi leader said in an interview with Fox News that aired Wednesday night. “I don’t care. I have 1% growth in GDP from sport, and I am aiming for another 1.5%. Call it whatever you want.”
Human rights organizations immediately seized on the comments, criticizing what some said was proof of a state policy of hiding human rights violations behind an expensive veneer of big-ticket sports acquisitions and tournaments.
“He’s done more than say he doesn’t care,” Minky Worden, Human Rights Watch’s director of global initiatives, told NBC News. “He’s really endorsed the idea of sportswashing as a way of covering up the country’s very serious human rights abuses. We’ve now heard from the top that this is state policy.”
She added in a post on social media site X: “Huge investments in #sportswashing by #SaudiArabia+MBS won’t cover up grave #HumanRights abuses: killing of hundreds of unarmed migrants, jailing women’s rights advocates+ murder of journalist #JamalKashoggi.”
A demonstrator dressed as Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (C) with blood on his hands protests outside the Saudi Embassy in Washington, DC, on October 8, 2018, demanding justice for missing Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
Jim Watson | AFP | Getty Images
Jamal Khashoggi was a Saudi journalist who was murdered in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in 2018. U.S. intelligence findings pointed to Mohammed bin Salman as having approved the murder, which he forcefully denies. His government says the act was carried out by rogue Saudi agents.
The group NUFC Fans Against Sportswashing, made up of fans of the EPL soccer team Newcastle United, posted on X: “If MBS ‘doesn’t care’ about sportswashing accusations why does he spend a fortune on PR & employs an army of bots & trolls to silence opposition?”
Saudi Arabia’s massive sovereign wealth fund, the PIF, purchased Newcastle United in 2021 for a reported $409 million. Amnesty International called the takeover a “PR tool to distract from the country’s abysmal human rights record.”
Champion Team Captain Dustin Johnson of 4 Aces GC and caddie Austin Johnson celebrate on stage during the team championship stroke-play round of the LIV Golf Invitational – Miami at Trump National Doral Miami on October 30, 2022 in Doral, Florida.
Chris Trotman/liv Golf | Getty Images
Andrew Feinstein, an activist and author of the book “The Shadow World: Inside the Global Arms Trade,” wrote on the platform X: “MBS claims not to care about sportswashing. We would expect nothing less … Opposition to Saudi’s extortionately expensive efforts to wash/launder its misogyny homophobia corruption & brutality is clearly angering him.”
CNBC has reached out to the Saudi Foreign Ministry for comment.
The crown prince, in response to an interview question about the kingdom’s human rights abuses, said that there are “bad laws” in the country he does “not like,” but that he cannot interfere with the judiciary. Saudi observers and rights activists immediately rejected that assertion, saying that his near absolute power means he could change any laws he wanted to with the stroke of a pen.
Karim Benzema acknowledges the fans as they are presented to the crowd during the Karim Benzema Official Reception event at King Abdullah Sports City on June 08, 2023 in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
The Saudi kingdom’s multi-billion dollar investments in sports are part of a wider effort to transform the conservative Muslim country’s image, attract foreign investment and diversify its economy away from oil.
The 38-year-old Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman launched a series of liberalizing reforms since coming to power, allowing previously-banned things like women driving, movie theaters and concerts.
But the accusations of rights campaigners highlight the simultaneous crackdown on dissent and imprisonment of political activists.
Just in August, a 54-year-old Saudi teacher was sentenced to death over his activity on Youtube and X, formerly known as Twitter, that was deemed by the government to undermine or threaten the Saudi state.
Several female activists remain in jail with multi-decade long sentences for things like social media posts critical of the kingdom’s laws.
Amnesty International reported that Saudi Arabia in 2022 oversaw the highest number of yearly executions in the kingdom in 30 years, with 196 people killed.
The government of the U.S. Virgin Islands in a court filing Friday estimated that it will seek damages of at least $190 million from JPMorgan Chase in a lawsuit accusing the big bank of facilitating sex trafficking by its former long-time customer Jeffrey Epstein.
The Virgin Islands also said it wants an order requiring JPMorgan to take a series of steps to protect young women and girls from other predators in the future.
“These sets of recommendations aim to address the same core problem: JPMorgan’s knowledge of and failure to report Epstein’s trafficking because it lacked the economic incentive and motivation to place compliance with the law and prevention of trafficking ahead of its own profits,” the filing in U.S. District Court in Manhattan says.
The American territory also said it will seek further compensatory damages specifically for victims of Epstein beyond the nearly $300 million JPMorgan agreed to pay victims last month to settle a lawsuit by one of his accusers. The filing did not give an amount for those additional damages from the bank, which has staunchly denied any wrongdoing.
The new filing came in response to a request last week by Judge Jed Rakoff that the territory detail the damages it seeks in the case as it heads toward a scheduled Oct. 23 trial.
The Virgin Islands’ suit accuses JPMorgan of benefiting from Epstein’s trafficking of young women to be abused by him and others during the 15 years he was a client of the bank, which is the largest in the United States.
The complaint alleges JPMorgan allowed Epstein to keep many millions of dollars in accounts at the bank, which he used to fund his trafficking of women, despite multiple red flags about him raised by bank employees over the years.
“We are pursuing this enforcement action because JPMorgan Chase’s institutional failure enabled Jeffrey Epstein’s sex trafficking, and JPMorgan Chase must make significant changes to detect, report and stop human trafficking,” said U.S. Virgin Islands Attorney General Ariel Smith in a statement Friday.
“Financial penalties, as well as conduct changes, are important to make sure that JPMorgan Chase knows the cost of putting its own profits ahead of public safety,” said Smith.
She said that if the Virgin Islands wins its suit, it will uses the monetary damages it receives “to support efforts to strengthen, inform, and expand local law enforcement and enhance the Virgin Islands’ services for victims of human trafficking and other victims of crime.”
A JPMorgan spokeswoman, when asked for comment about the filing, indicated for what appears to be the first time that the bank’s attorneys have discussed a possible settlement of the lawsuit with lawyers for the Virgin Islands, which would avoid a trial.
“This document does not reflect the nature of settlement conversations,” said the spokeswoman, Patricia Wexler. ” As for the USVI’s misdirected damages theories, they are not well founded and are being challenged by JPM in court.”
It is common in civil litigation for cases to be settled without trial.
The filing says the Virgin Islands wants at least $150 million in civil penalties alone. The filing also says that it wants JPMorgan to disgorge at least another $40 million in fees that Epstein generated for the bank, and that JPMorgan received from “many ultra-high net worth clients” he referred to the bank.
Those people, the filing said, included Google co-founder Sergey Brin, Microsoft founder Bill Gates, Lex Wexner, the founder of Limited Brands, and the billionaire Glenn Dubin.
A spokesperson for Gates contacted CNBC after this article first was published, and in an email, “Mr. Gates was never a client of JP Morgan.”
In addition to the monetary damages, the Virgin Islands also is asking JPMorgan be compelled “to implement new policies, including separating its business and compliance functions and designating an independent compliance consultant, to prevent human trafficking,” according to a press release by Smith’s office.
JPMorgan in its own court filings has accused the Virgin Islands itself of being “complicit in the crimes of Jeffrey Epstein.”
The bank alleges Epstein gave high-ranking officials there money, advice and favors in exchange for looking the other way when he trafficked young women to be abused there.
Epstein had a residence on a private island in the territory, where accusers say he and other people sexually abused them.
Last month in the same court where the Virgin Islands is suing the bank JPMorgan agreed, without admitting wrongdoing, to pay $290 million to victims of Epstein to settle a suit by one of his accusers.
In May, Deutsche Bank agreed to pay Epstein victims $75 million to settle a separate lawsuit by an accuser who accused that back of abetting his sex trafficking of her and others. Deutsche Bank took on Epstein as a customer after JPMorgan severed ties with him in 2013, years after bank employees first voiced concerns about him.
Deutsche Bank previously agreed to pay New York state’s Department of Financial Services a $150 million penalty for failure to detect or prevent millions of dollars of suspicious transactions related to Epstein, which included “payments to Russian models and to numerous women with Eastern European surnames,” the filing Friday by the Virgin Islands noted.
Epstein, who had been a friend to former Presidents Donald Trump and Bill Clinton, as well as Prince Andrew of Great Britain, pleaded guilty in 2008 to a Florida state charge of soliciting sex from an underage girl. He served 13 months in jail, but spent much of that time on work release each day.
Epstein, then 66, killed himself in a federal jail in New York in August 2019, a month after he was arrested on federal child sex trafficking charges.
EL PASO, Texas — The Texas man who fatally shot 23 people at an El Paso Walmart in a targeted attack against people of Mexican descent was sentenced Friday to 90 consecutive life sentences.
Patrick Crusius, of Allen, agreed in February to the back-to-back life sentences when he pleaded guilty to 90 federal counts, including 45 hate crime charges.
The judge asked that he is sent to ADX Florence, a maximum facility prison in Fremont County, Colorado, and requested he receive mental health treatment.
The shooter traveled almost 600 miles from North Texas to El Paso before opening fire on shoppers on Aug. 3, 2019, with a WASR-10 rifle.
Minutes before the attack, he posted a hate-filled racist screed online in which he referred to an “invasion” of immigrants to the United States, the Justice Department said.
Sentencing began Wednesday, and for days relatives of those killed spoke to Crusius about their anger and about the damage he did.
“Look at my son,” Francisco Javier Rodriguez, whose 15-year-old son Javier Amir was killed, said Thursday as an image of the teenager was on a screen.
Kathleen Johnson told Crusius that he shot her husband, David Johnson, at close range in Aisle 3 that day.
“His innocent blood was everywhere. He was our provider, loving father and grandfather,” said Johnson, who has night terrors and post-traumatic stress disorder.
“I don’t even want to look at you,” she said.
Thomas Hoffman spoke about his father, Alexander Hoffman, and shared a photo of his parents who had been married 40 years and of a plane ticket for a flight his father was supposed to take that day.
“You shot my dad in the back,” he said Wednesday. “You are a coward.”
The shooter bought the WASR-10, which is a Romanian-made semi-automatic variant of the AK-47 assault rifle, as well as 1,000 rounds of 7.62mm hollow-point ammunition, almost two months before the attack, according to the indictment.
He drove overnight from Allen, which is north of Dallas, to El Paso before opening fire on people who were shopping at the Walmart on a Saturday morning.
When Crusius was indicted on federal hate crime charges, then-Assistant U.S. Attorney General for Civil Rights Eric Dreiband called the mass shooting, and other acts of hate like it, heinous crimes intended to terrorize and intimidate.
The shooter pleaded guilty on Feb. 8 to 45 counts of violating the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act and 45 firearm counts, the Justice Department said at the time.
— Kayla McCormick reported from El Paso, Phil Helsel reported from Los Angeles.
The ruling is a massive blow to decades-old efforts to boost enrollment of minorities at American universities through policies that took into account applicants’ race.
“Eliminating racial discrimination means eliminating all of it,” wrote Chief Justice John Roberts in the majority opinion, which all five of his fellow conservative justices joined in.
Roberts wrote said that both Harvard’s and UNC’s affirmative action programs “unavoidably employ race in a negative manner, involve racial stereotyping, and lack meaningful end points.”
“We have never permitted admissions programs to work in that way, and we will not do so today,” Roberts wrote, finding that the universities’ policies violated the equal protection clause of the Constitution’s 14th Amendment. The clause bars states from denying people equal protection under the law.
Protesters gather in front of the U.S. Supreme Court as affirmative action cases involving Harvard and University of North Carolina admissions are heard by the court in Washington on Monday, October 31, 2022.
Bill Clark | Cq-roll Call, Inc. | Getty Images
The chief justice added, however, that “nothing prohibits universities from considering an applicant’s discussion of how race affected the applicant’s life, so long as that discussion is concretely tied to a quality of character or unique ability that the particular applicant can contribute to the university.”
Justice Clarence Thomas, a Black conservative who wrote a concurring opinion, said that the schools’ affirmative action admissions policies “fly In the face of our colorblind Constitution.”
“Two discriminatory wrongs can not make a right,” wrote Thomas.
In her dissent to the majority, liberal Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, who is Black, called the ruling “truly a tragedy for us all.”
Her fellow liberal, Justice Sonia Sotomayor, said, “Today, this Court stands in the way and rolls back decades of precedent and momentous progress.”
Sotomayor, calling the ruling “profoundly wrong” and “devastating,” said that the majority “holds that race can no longer be used in a limited way in college admissions to achieve such critical benefits.”
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor
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In doing so, she argued the Supreme Court “cements a superficial rule of colorblindness as a constitutional principle in an endemically segregated society where race has always mattered and continues to matter.”
Thursday’s ruling dealt with two separate, but related cases, one for Harvard, the other for UNC.
In the Harvard case, the vote on the decision was 6-2, with Jackson taking no part in considering the case. Jackson last year during her Senate confirmation hearings agreed to recuse herself in the case involving Harvard, whose Board of Overseers she served on until early 2022.
Proponents for affirmative action in higher education rally in front of the U.S. Supreme Court before oral arguments in Students for Fair Admissions v. President and Fellows of Harvard College and Students for Fair Admissions v. University of North Carolina on October 31, 2022 in Washington, DC.
Chip Somodevilla | Getty Images
In the UNC case, the vote was 6-3, with Jackson participating in considering the case and dissenting with Sotomayor and Justice Elena Kagan, the court’s third liberal.
President Joe Biden said, “The court has effectively ended affirmative action in college admissions, and I strongly, strongly disagree with the court’s decision.”
“Discrimination still exists in America,” Biden said at the White House, repeating that phrase several times. “Today’s decision does not change that.”
Asked by a reporter if “this a rogue court,” Biden paused at a door he was about to exit through, and was silent for several seconds.
“This is not a normal one,” Biden finally said.
People exit Harvard Yard in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on June 29, 2023.
Joseph Prezioso | AFP | Getty Images
Harvard in a lengthy statement said, “We will certainly comply with the Court’s decision.”
But the statement added, “In the weeks and months ahead, drawing on the talent and expertise of our Harvard community, we will determine how to preserve, consistent with the Court’s new precedent, our essential values.”
Harvard, which began classes in 1636, did not admit Black undergraduates until 1847, the university noted.
UNC Chancellor Kevin Guskiewicz, in a statement, said, “Carolina remains firmly committed to bringing together talented students with different perspectives and life experiences and continues to make an affordable, high-quality education accessible to the people of North Carolina and beyond.”
“While not the outcome we hoped for, we will carefully review the Supreme Court’s decision and take any steps necessary to comply with the law,” Guskiewicz said.
Jean Camejo, a student at the University of North Carolina, speaks on campus to Reuters about affirmative action as the Supreme Court weighs the issue of race-conscious admissions to colleges, in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, U.S., March 28, 2023.
Jonathan Drake | Reuters
Former President Donald Trump, who is seeking the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, in a statement said, “This is a great day for America.”
“We’re going back to all merit-based — and that’s the way it should be!” said Trump, who graduated from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, an Ivy League school like Harvard, after growing up the son of a wealthy New York real estate developer.
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In a footnote to the majority opinion in the case, Roberts indicated that the decision does not apply to the United States military academies.
The Biden administration had filed a legal brief arguing that race-based admissions to American colleges further “compelling interests” at the military academies, Roberts noted.
“No military academy is a party to these cases, however, and none of the courts below addressed the propriety of race-based admissions systems in that context,” he wrote. “This opinion also does not address the issue, in light of the potentially distinct interests that military academies may present.”
NAACP CEO Derrick Johnsonblasted the ruling, saying in a statement, “Today the Supreme Court has bowed to the personally held beliefs of an extremist minority.”
“We will not allow hate-inspired people in power to turn back the clock and undermine our hard-won victories,” said Johnson.
“The tricks of America’s dark past will not be tolerated. Let me be clear – affirmative action exists because we cannot rely on colleges, universities, and employers to enact admissions and hiring practices that embrace diversity, equity and inclusion. Race plays an undeniable role in shaping the identities of and quality of life for Black Americans.”
Artificial intelligence algorithms are increasingly being used in financial services — but they come with some serious risks around discrimination.
Sadik Demiroz | Photodisc | Getty Images
AMSTERDAM — Artificial intelligence has a racial bias problem.
From biometric identification systems that disproportionately misidentify the faces of Black people and minorities, to applications of voice recognition software that fail to distinguish voices with distinct regional accents, AI has a lot to work on when it comes to discrimination.
And the problem of amplifying existing biases can be even more severe when it comes to banking and financial services.
Deloitte notes that AI systems are ultimately only as good as the data they’re given: Incomplete or unrepresentative datasets could limit AI’s objectivity, while biases in development teams that train such systems could perpetuate that cycle of bias.
Nabil Manji, head of crypto and Web3 at Worldpay by FIS, said a key thing to understand about AI products is that the strength of the technology depends a lot on the source material used to train it.
“The thing about how good an AI product is, there’s kind of two variables,” Manji told CNBC in an interview. “One is the data it has access to, and second is how good the large language model is. That’s why the data side, you see companies like Reddit and others, they’ve come out publicly and said we’re not going to allow companies to scrape our data, you’re going to have to pay us for that.”
As for financial services, Manji said a lot of the backend data systems are fragmented in different languages and formats.
“None of it is consolidated or harmonized,” he added. “That is going to cause AI-driven products to be a lot less effective in financial services than it might be in other verticals or other companies where they have uniformity and more modern systems or access to data.”
Manjisuggested that blockchain, or distributed ledger technology, could serve as a way to get a clearer view of the disparate data tucked away in the cluttered systems of traditional banks.
However, he added that banks — being the heavily regulated, slow-moving institutions that they are — are unlikely to move with the same speed as their more nimble tech counterparts in adopting new AI tools.
“You’ve got Microsoft and Google, who like over the last decade or two have been seen as driving innovation. They can’t keep up with that speed. And then you think about financial services. Banks are not known for being fast,” Manji said.
Rumman Chowdhury, Twitter’s former head of machine learning ethics, transparency and accountability, said that lending is a prime example of how an AI system’s bias against marginalized communities can rear its head.
“Algorithmic discrimination is actually very tangible in lending,” Chowdhury said on a panel at Money20/20 in Amsterdam. “Chicago had a history of literally denying those [loans] to primarily Black neighborhoods.”
In the 1930s, Chicago was known for the discriminatory practice of “redlining,” in which the creditworthiness of properties was heavily determined by the racial demographics of a given neighborhood.
“There would be a giant map on the wall of all the districts in Chicago, and they would draw red lines through all of the districts that were primarily African American, and not give them loans,” she added.
“Fast forward a few decades later, and you are developing algorithms to determine the riskiness of different districts and individuals. And while you may not include the data point of someone’s race, it is implicitly picked up.”
Indeed, Angle Bush, founder of Black Women in Artificial Intelligence, an organization aiming to empower Black women in the AI sector,tells CNBC that when AI systems are specifically used for loan approval decisions, she has found that there is a risk of replicating existing biases present in historical data used to train the algorithms.
“This can result in automatic loan denials for individuals from marginalized communities, reinforcing racial or gender disparities,” Bush added.
“It is crucial for banks to acknowledge that implementing AI as a solution may inadvertently perpetuate discrimination,” she said.
Frost Li, a developer who has been working in AI and machine learning for over a decade, told CNBC that the “personalization” dimension of AI integration can also be problematic.
“What’s interesting in AI is how we select the ‘core features’ for training,” said Li, who founded and runs Loup, a company that helps online retailers integrate AI into their platforms. “Sometimes, we select features unrelated to the results we want to predict.”
When AI is applied to banking, Li says, it’s harder to identify the “culprit” in biases when everything is convoluted in the calculation.
“A good example is how many fintech startups are especially for foreigners, because a Tokyo University graduate won’t be able to get any credit cards even if he works at Google; yet a person can easily get one from community college credit union because bankers know the local schools better,” Li added.
Generative AI is not usually used for creating credit scores or in the risk-scoring of consumers.
“That is not what the tool was built for,” said Niklas Guske, chief operating officer at Taktile, a startup that helps fintechs automate decision-making.
Instead, Guske said the most powerful applications are in pre-processing unstructured data such as text files — like classifying transactions.
“Those signals can then be fed into a more traditional underwriting model,” said Guske. “Therefore, Generative AI will improve the underlying data quality for such decisions rather than replace common scoring processes.”
But it’s also difficult to prove. Apple and Goldman Sachs, for example, were accused of giving women lower limits for the Apple Card. But these claims were dismissed by the New York Department of Financial Services after the regulator found no evidence of discrimination based on sex.
The problem, according to Kim Smouter, director of anti-racism group European Network Against Racism, is that it can be challenging to substantiate whether AI-based discrimination has actually taken place.
“One of the difficulties in the mass deployment of AI,” he said, “is the opacity in how these decisions come about and what redress mechanisms exist were a racialized individual to even notice that there is discrimination.”
“Individuals have little knowledge of how AI systems work and that their individual case may, in fact, be the tip of a systems-wide iceberg. Accordingly, it’s also difficult to detect specific instances where things have gone wrong,” he added.
Smouter cited the example of the Dutch child welfare scandal, in which thousands of benefit claims were wrongfully accused of being fraudulent. The Dutch government was forced to resign after a 2020 report found that victims were “treated with an institutional bias.”
This, Smouter said, “demonstrates how quickly such disfunctions can spread and how difficult it is to prove them and get redress once they are discovered and in the meantime significant, often irreversible damage is done.”
Chowdhury says there is a need for a global regulatory body, like the United Nations, to address some of the risks surrounding AI.
Though AI has proven to be an innovative tool, some technologists and ethicists have expressed doubts about the technology’s moral and ethical soundness. Among the top worries industry insiders expressed are misinformation; racial and gender bias embedded in AI algorithms; and “hallucinations” generated by ChatGPT-like tools.
“I worry quite a bit that, due to generative AI, we are entering this post-truth world where nothing we see online is trustworthy — not any of the text, not any of the video, not any of the audio, but then how do we get our information? And how do we ensure that information has a high amount of integrity?” Chowdhury said.
Now is the time for meaningful regulation of AI to come into force — but knowing the amount of time it will take regulatory proposals like the European Union’s AI Act to take effect, some are concerned this won’t happen fast enough.
“We call upon more transparency and accountability of algorithms and how they operate and a layman’s declaration that allows individuals who are not AI experts to judge for themselves, proof of testing and publication of results, independent complaints process, periodic audits and reporting, involvement of racialized communities when tech is being designed and considered for deployment,” Smouter said.
The AI Act, the first regulatory framework of its kind, has incorporated a fundamental rights approach and concepts like redress, according to Smouter, adding that the regulation will be enforced in approximately two years.
“It would be great if this period can be shortened to make sure transparency and accountability are in the core of innovation,” he said.
Gender bias and discrimination remain a persistent problem in the workplace.
Women are just as ambitious as men at the start of their careers, but they’re more likely to experience microaggressions, take on additional unpaid labor and face other barriers that deter them from advancing, according to research from LeanIn.org and McKinsey & Company.
To achieve true gender equality, more men need to become allies in the workplace.
Allyship is essential to fostering an inclusive, welcoming and equitable office culture, says Joanne Lipman, a lecturer at Yale University and bestselling author.
When women are able to thrive in the workplace, it benefits men, too: Men who work well with women and use the talents of a diverse team outperform their peers, LeanIn reports.
Here are five things men can do right now to support their female colleagues, per Lipman:
Several studies have found that men talk and interrupt more often than women.
Getting interrupted might seem like a small thing, but it’s a powerful tactic for asserting status and power in the workplace.
In work meetings, women might feel pressured to stay silent when they’re interrupted, rather than speak up and risk jeopardizing their reputation, says Lipman.
That’s when it’s helpful for men to step in. “Listen for your female colleague being interrupted, and interrupt the interrupter,” says Lipman. “Look at them directly and say, ‘You know, [insert name of an interrupted colleague here] was speaking, I’d love to hear her finish her thought.’”
Research has shown that women get less credit while working in groups than men do.
“Women will say something in a meeting, and are met with blank faces or shrugs,” says Lipman. “Then two minutes later, a man will repeat exactly what she said, and get credit for the idea.”
To make sure your female colleagues are getting credit for their ideas, and they aren’t getting lost in the discourse, Lipman recommends using a technique calledamplification. “You, as their ally, repeat what she said at a pause during the meeting, and give her credit by name,” she says.
Women are often discouraged from boasting about their achievements in the workplace. When they do brag, it oftenelicits a negative reaction from the person on the receiving end, who may cast the woman as being “abrasive” or “pushy,” says Lipman.
She encourages men to pair up with their female colleagues and become “brag buddies,” setting up periodic coffee chats (whether once a week or once a quarter) where you each talk about your accomplishments and reflect on something you’re proud of.
If the benefit is available to them, another move men can make to help level the playing field for women in the workplace is to take paternity leave.
“It’s not only supportive of your partner who is having the baby but also your female colleagues, as women are more likely to take parental leave and be the primary caregiver,” Lipman explains. “It can help you better empathize and understand our reality.”
Paternity leave is good for dads, too: Men who take paternity leave report stronger bonds with their children than those who don’t, according to the ACLU.
Lipman recalls a time earlier in her career when she was offered a promotion but turned it down as she was a new mom and struggling to balance parenting and her existing job responsibilities.
As Lipman recalls, she was never penalized for her decision — instead, her manager continued to flag promotion opportunities to her. About five years later, Lipman felt ready to take on more responsibilities at work and applied to a manager position that her then-boss said he was hiring for.
“It is so, so important to let women decide what is best for their careers, rather than assuming what’s best for them,” says Lipman. “You’d be surprised how many people will say, for example, ‘Oh, Joanne just had a baby, she’s not going to want to take on that extra responsibility.’”
The takeaway is: Don’t penalize a female colleague for turning down an opportunity, and don’t make assumptions about what she wants to do with her career.
“That’s the best way you can be an ally to the women you work with,” says Lipman. “Give them every opportunity to take charge in their career.”
JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon looks on during the inauguration of the new French headquarters of US’ JP Morgan bank on June 29, 2021 in Paris.
Michel Euler | AFP | Getty Images
JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon testified last week that a top executive at the bank, Mary Erdoes, who had raised concerns about long-time customer Jeffrey Epstein, had the power to boot him as a client, according to a transcript of his deposition obtained by CNBC on Wednesday.
Dimon’s testimony Friday came after disclosures that Erdoes as early as 2006 was aware of suspicious transfers of money out of Epstein’s accounts, which lawsuits now allege were used for sex trafficking of young women.
Dimon also testified that JPMorgan’s then-general counsel Stephen Cutler had “the ultimate authority to kick him out if” issues surrounding Epstein “had gone too far.”
“He was delegating reputational decisions to somebody els” Dimon said.
During the deposition, Dimon was shown an email that Cutler sent Erdoes an email about Epstein on July 21, 2011, in which Cutler wrote: “I would like to put it and him behind us. Not a person we should do business with, period.”
Epstein was terminated as a customer in 2013, two years after that email and five years after he pleaded guilty to a Florida state charge of soliciting sex from a minor.
Dimon also testified he was not informed that Epstein was indicted in Florida for sex crimes in 2006, or of other concerns about him that others at the bank raised, the deposition reveals.
“I don’t recall knowing anything about Jeffrey Epstein until the stories broke sometime in 2019” Dimon said, referring to when Epstein was arrested on federal child sex trafficking charges.
“I was surprised that I didn’t even — had never even heard of the guy, pretty much. And how involved he was with so many people,” Dimon said.
A lawyer asked Dimon: “As CEO of private [banking] or asset and wealth management, Mary Erdoes could have decided to terminate Jeffrey Epstein as a customer, as a client, of JPMorgan; is that right?”
Dimon answered, “I generally would say that’s true, yes.”
JPMorgan is accused in two lawsuits of enabling and benefiting from sex trafficking by Epstein.
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Dimon was deposed at JPMorgan’s headquarters in New York by lawyers for the plaintiffs, and for former bank executive Jes Staley, who JPMorgan argues is responsible for any civil liability a jury might find.
“I think what happened to these women is atrocious, and I’m horrified at the amount of human trafficking that takes place,” Dimon said when asked if the accusers of Epstein deserved an apology.
“And I wouldn’t mind personally apologizing to them, not because we committed the crime, we did not, and not because we believe we’re responsible, but that any potential thing, what little role that we could have eased it or helped catch it quicker or something like that, or get it to law enforcement quicker or get law enforcement to react to it quicker, which they obviously didn’t, you know, I would apologize to them.”
LA VISTA, Neb. — A former employee at the Oriental Trading Co. has been sentenced to prison for leaving a noose on a floor scrubber that a Black colleague was set to use.
The Nebraska U.S. Attorney’s office said Bruce Quinn, 66, was sentenced Friday to four months in prison and one year of supervised release for leaving the noose for his coworker to find. He pleaded guilty in September to a federal civil rights violation.
Prosecutors said a 63-year-old Black man who worked for Oriental Trading found the noose made out of orange twine sitting on the seat of the equipment in June 2020. He told investigators that he was scared by the noose and viewed it as a death threat.
“Federal courts have long recognized the noose as one of the most vile symbols in American history,” said Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke for the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. “Individuals, like this defendant, who use a noose to convey a threat of violence at a workplace will be held accountable for their actions.”
ST. LOUIS — A federal judge has denied a request from a 19-year-old woman to allow her to watch her father’s death by injection, upholding a Missouri law that bars anyone under 21 from witnessing an execution.
Kevin Johnson is set to be executed Tuesday for killing Kirkwood, Missouri, Police Officer William McEntee in 2005. Johnson’s lawyers have appeals pending that seek to spare his life.
His daughter, Khorry Ramey, had sought to attend the execution, and the American Civil Liberties Union had filed an emergency motion with a federal court in Kansas City. The ACLU’s court filing said the age requirement served no safety purpose and violates Ramey’s constitutional rights. But U.S. District Judge Brian C. Wimes ruled late Friday that Ramey’s constitutional rights would not be violated by the law.
“I’m heartbroken that I won’t be able to be with my dad in his last moments,” Ramey said in a statement. “My dad is the most important person in my life. He has been there for me my whole life, even though he’s been incarcerated.”
While the judge acknowledged that the law would cause emotional harm for Ramey, he found that was just one part of the court’s consideration and the law did not violate her constitutional rights.
Ramey said she was praying that Gov. Michael Parson would grant her father clemency. Johnson’s lawyers have filed appeals seeking to halt the execution. They don’t challenge his guilt but claim racism played a role in the decision to seek the death penalty, and in the jury’s decision to sentence him to die. Johnson is Black and McEntee was white.
Johnson’s lawyers also have asked the courts to intervene for other reasons, including a history of mental illness and his age — he was 19 at the time of the crime. Courts have increasingly moved away from sentencing teen offenders to death since the Supreme Court in 2005 banned the execution of offenders who were younger than 18 at the time of their crime.
In a court filing to the U.S. Supreme Court, the Missouri Attorney General’s Office stated there were no grounds for court intervention.
“The surviving victims of Johnson’s crimes have waited long enough for justice, and every day longer that they must wait is a day they are denied the chance to finally make peace with their loss,” the state petition stated.
SAN FRANCISCO — Carol Leigh, a San Francisco activist who is credited with coining the term “sex work” and who sought for decades to improve conditions for prostitutes and others in the adult entertainment business, has died. She was 71.
Kate Marquez, the executor of her estate, said Leigh died Wednesday of cancer, the San Francisco Chronicle reported Thursday.
A former prostitute, Leigh devoted herself to campaigning on behalf of those in the “sex work industry,” a term she coined as the title for a panel discussion she attended at a feminist anti-pornography conference in 1978, according to an essay she wrote.
The term has become generally used by public health officials, academic researchers and others.
“Carol defined sex work as a labor issue, not a crime, not a sin,” Marquez said. “It is a job done by a million people in this country who are stigmatized and criminalized by working to support their families.”
“Ultimately, Leigh argued that until sex workers are included in the conversations about feminism, sexuality and legality -– conversations from which they have historically been excluded -– sex workers will remain fragmented rather than collective, and stigmatisation will abound,” said a tweet Thursday from SWARM (Sex Worker Advocacy and Resistance Movement), which describes itself as a sex worker-led collective founded in the United Kingdom in 2009.
Leigh co-founded BAYSWAN, also known as Bay Area Sex Worker Advocacy Network, which according to its website works with human rights activists to address problems such as human trafficking in the industry as well as labor and civil rights violations.
Leigh was deeply involved in advocacy for and aid to sex workers both in the United States and overseas and her concerns ranged from decriminalization to poverty, drug use and HIV. She also was a video artist and produced award-winning documentaries on “women’s issues and gay/lesbian issues,” according to her BAYSWAN biography.
She wrote and frequently performed a one-woman political satire play called “The Adventures of Scarlot Harlot,” and wrote a 2004 book titled “Unrepentant Whore: The Collected Work of Scarlot Harlot.” She also helped produce the San Francisco Sex Worker Film and Arts Festival.
Born in New York City, Leigh had a bachelor’s degree in creative writing when she moved to San Francisco in 1977. She began working as a prostitute to earn money but her focus changed after she was raped by two men at a sex studio in 1979, she told SFGate in a 1996 interview.
She couldn’t file a crime report because her workplace would have been closed.
“The fact that I couldn’t go to the police to report the rape meant that I was not going to be able to protect other women from these rapists,” she said. “And I vowed to do something to change that.”
Leigh’s papers will be archived at Harvard University’s Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America, Marquez said.
VALLEJO, Calif. — A San Francisco Bay Area city will pay the mother of a 21-year-old man shot and killed by police in 2017 nearly $3 million to settle a wrongful death and federal civil rights lawsuit.
The family of Angel Ramos filed the lawsuit against the city of Vallejo as well as Vallejo Police Officer Zach Jacobsen, who killed Ramos, the East Bay Times reported.
“There will never be a dollar amount high enough to measure the value of Angel’s life and what our family lost,” Angel’s sister Antoinette Saddler said in a statement. “We have experienced pain, terror and anxiety that no words can ever explain, and no family should ever have to experience.”
On Jan. 23, 2017, Jacobsen and his partner responded to a 911 call about a disturbance at a home. According to a report by the officers, Jacobsen said he saw two men fighting on a second-story balcony and began shouting at them to stop but they didn’t. Jacobsen said Ramos was holding a knife and he opened fire to save the other man’s life.
An autopsy revealed that Jacobsen shot Ramos from the first floor and that Ramos was shot at the base of his neck, and three times in the chest. At the time of his death, Ramos had a blood alcohol level of .26 — just over three times the legal limit.
Although Jacobsen claims Ramos had a knife, Ramos’ family and the other person in the fight have said that Ramos wasn’t armed. A knife at the scene was never found.
Ramos’ family and their attorney, Melissa Nold, are still upset about the original press release sent by the Vallejo Police Department on the night of Angel Ramos’ death stating that he was armed with a knife.
Nold said it “was patently untrue and calculated to conceal the truth. To date, the City of Vallejo has never issued a retraction of their fabrication that Angel was ‘holding a knife’ when he was shot.”
In April 2018, a board of review convened by the Vallejo Police Department cleared Jacobsen, saying the officer used reasonable force when he shot Ramos. The board also said, however, that Jacobsen should have activated his body-worn camera, the newspaper reported.
In December, a judge said that he found sufficient evidence to hold a trial, and denied several claims filed by the City of Vallejo, including a motion for summary judgment.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — An attorney for a death row inmate in Tennessee who cut off his penis shortly after asking to be placed on suicide watch filed a complaint against prison officials Friday.
Kelley Henry filed a motion for a temporary restraining order in Nashville’s Davidson County Chancery Court, asking the judge to declare that the prison’s treatment of Henry Hodges violates his constitutional rights.
Hodges returned to Riverbend Maximum Security Institution from the hospital on Oct. 21. Since then, he has been held naked in 4-point and 6-point restraints on a thin mattress over a concrete slab, according to the complaint.
“Mr. Hodges treatment by Defendants places him at risk of permanent nerve damage, paralysis, pain, suffering, bed sores, sepsis, malnutrition, and death,” Henry states.
According to the complaint, Hodges periodically suffers from psychotic episodes. One of those began around Oct. 3, when Hodges started smearing feces on the walls of his cell. Rather than provide him with mental health treatment, prison officers began withholding food from Hodges, according to the complaint.
On Oct. 7, Hodges broke a window out in his cell and used a razor to slit his left wrist. In the infirmary, he told the treatment provider he needed to go on suicide watch. However, he was returned to the cell with the broken window. Less than an hour later, he severed his penis from his body with a razor blade, according to the complaint.
Hodges was taken to Vanderbilt University Medical Center, where surgeons reattached his penis. Despite holding Hodges’ medical power of attorney, Henry was not allowed to see him during the two weeks he was there.
When he returned to the prison, he was placed naked in restraints in a cell with “no television, radio, or any other means of mental stimulation” that is lit up day and night. He was left to lie in his own defecation and has stopped eating, according to the complaint.
Henry is asking the court to order the Tennessee Department of Correction to release him from his restraints, provide him with clothing, and appoint an independent monitor of his mental and physical health treatment.
Hodges was sentenced to death in 1992 by a Nashville jury that found him guilty of murdering telephone repairman Ronald Bassett in May 1990. He also was sentenced to 40 years in prison for robbing Bassett.
He was convicted of a separate murder in Fulton County, Georgia, for the killing of a North Carolina chemical engineer in an Atlanta hotel, shortly after Bassett’s killing.
