What is Multi-Level Marketing? Have you ever received a DM from a former high school classmate telling you about this “amazing opportunity” to earn some cash on your own time? Did this opportunity include the selling of a product that they swore “works wonders”? Chances are they were trying to get you into a multi-level marketing scheme, or an MLM for short.  An MLM is a company that not only gives the seller a commission based on how much they sell, but they receive a commission based...

Mattel’s official Naomi Osaka doll sold out within hours of it’s release on Monday, July 12th. Osaka joins the Barbie hall of fame as one the extraordinary women honored in Barbie’s Role Model Series. Currently ranked No. 2 by the Women’s Tennis Association, Osaka is the first Asian player to hold the top rank in singles, and is the reigning champion at both the Australian and US Opens. The doll sports Osaka’s Nike outfit that she wore during the 2020 Australian Open along with a miniature...

  Nearly 130 years ago famed journalist and civil rights advocate Ida B. Wells was driven out of Memphis for reporting on the lynching of three Black men; a statue of the former resident will be unveiled in downtown Memphis, honoring the life and work of the journalist, activist, and teacher.  The statue will sit next to the First Baptist Beale Street Church where Wells’ newspaper had its offices. While the erection of the statue certainly serves as a celebration of Wells’ legacy as a journalist and...

Dicky Wafelbakker walks home, carrying a tureen of soup in her hands. It is April 13, 1945, in Nazi-occupied Holland, and soup kitchens have sprung up all over to help keep citizens alive during the devastating famine, created by the Germans, that is gripping the country. Wafelbakker is a 57-year-old retired journalist and children’s book translator who never married and lives alone. She’s also a Nazi sympathizer who recently created a list of names and locations of Jews who are hiding in the area and...

On June 27th, 28-year-old Kataluna Enriquez made LGBTQ and pageant history. Ending Pride Month with a bang, the Filipina-American became the first transgender women crowned Miss Nevada. Not only does this mark the first time a trans-woman has held the title, but Enriquez will also be the first openly transgender contestant to compete in the Miss USA pageant.Acknowledging the significance of her win in an Instagram post, she wrote “My community, you are always in my heart. My win is our win. We just made...

  Nikole Hannah-Jones, the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist of the New York Time’s 1619 Project, has declined the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill Journalism School’s tenure offer after controversy over the latter's original decision to withhold it.  Hannah-Jones made the announcement to instead accept a faculty position at the historically Black, Howard University, on Tuesday’s “CBS This Morning” with Gayle King. Her decision comes after weeks of controversy over UNC’s April announcement that they would be offering Hannah-Jones the Knight Chair in Race and Investigative Journalism (a prestigious...

A recent report by Human Rights Watch, My Life is Not Your Porn: Digital Sex Crimes in South Korea, has detailed the rising epidemic of digital sex crimes in South Korea. Known as molka, these crimes involve the use of illegal cameras to capture non-consensual, voyeuristic images and videos, predominantly of women and girls. The testimony of one woman in the report, Lee Ye-Rin, highlights the largely undetectable nature of these offences, Ye-Rin first described how her married boss, whose advances she had previously rebuffed, gave her a...

You’d think society would have evolved past this by now, but apparently high school principals will always be symbolic stand-ins for the oppressive hand of authority. Robert Tull, principal of New Jersey’s Eastern Regional Camden County High School, decided to really drive home the stereotype on June 17th when he attempted to cut short the valedictorian speech of Bryce Dershem, who wanted to share his experience as a queer teenager.  Dershem began his speech with the usual pleasantries and congratulations before becoming more vulnerable with the audience....

In a win for trans rights, the Supreme Court has declined to take up the case of Gavin Grimm, a transgender person who sued his Virginia school district for not allowing him to use the men's restroom. In declining to take up the case on Monday, the Supreme Court leaves the lower court’s ruling in Grimm’s favor intact, allowing him and other trans students to use the bathroom of the gender they identify with. Grimm, represented by the ACLU, originally went to court in 2015 when—after the...

In case there's any question, #FreeBritney. If you don’t know by now, Jamie Spears is the worst dad ever. Father to the [no introductory adjective will do justice] Britney Spears, his position as her relative feels like a misnomer. What is the familial term for “enabler of egregious injustice to one’s own daughter?” Though this description falls short of encompassing his terribleness, we are not here to talk about Jamie Spears. We are here to talk about some of the unsettling things Britney Spears revealed in her...