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Grindr, a popular gay dating app, will remove ethnicity filters from its app, the company tweeted today. The decision is meant to show solidarity with protests in the US over police brutality against black women and men. The filters, which allow people to pay to avoid seeing people of certain ethnicities, will be removed in the next app update.

The ethnicity filters have been controversial for years, but they went unchanged even as Grindr launched an anti-racism campaign on the platform in 2018. That same year, Landen Zumwalt, Grindrs former head of communications, told The Guardian that the company discussed removing the ethnicity filters but wasnt ready to get rid of them. The team wanted to talk to its users first, he said, and the filters gave people in minority groups a chance to match more easily with one another.

While I believe the ethnicity filter does promote racist behavior in the app, other minority groups use the filter because they want to quickly find other members of their minority community, he said.

Other apps, including The League and Hinge, allow users to filter out people of certain ethnicities as well. The League CEO Amanda Bradford told The Verge in 2019 that these filters didnt encourage racism and instead are useful for people of color to find people similar to them. She used an example of an Indian woman wanting to find an Indian man; the apps filters are more effective and efficient than searching through thousands of profiles.

At the same time, researchers have found that people of color are rejected more often than white people on dating apps. The filters could allow people to continue to discriminate against people of color, enforcing racist attitudes. OkCupid published a report in 2014 that found, for example, white women were much less likely to be interested in black or Asian men.

Grindrs removal of the filters might stop people from communicating their race preferences to the app, but it doesnt necessarily mean theyll be matching with people who look different from them. Their matching behaviors could still inform Grindrs algorithms, too, because the app could learn from users behaviors, and if they dont match with people of color, the app could learn to deprioritize those profiles. Algorithms learn racial bias across industries, so removing filters is only one step to making people of colors experiences more pleasant and similar to white peoples.

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Grindr will remove ethnicity filters in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement - The Verge

As thousands in Philadelphia marched to end police brutality against black Americans on Monday, a group of white men carrying bats, golf clubs, and other improvised weapons gathered in the citys Fishtown neighborhood.

Drawing comparisons to brownshirts, the group of about 50 to 70 men were filmed heckling and threatening a small group of protesters in the neighborhood.

One of the men was recorded ripping up a protesters Black Lives Matter sign while yelling homophobic slurs. A producer for WHYY, the local public radio station, tweeted that he was beaten up after trying to film the group. A few men were spotted with rifles.

Clara, 30, a Fishtown resident who encountered the group as she set out of her house on Monday evening with two of her roommates carrying Black Lives Matter signs, told the Guardian that one of the men shoved her roommate and spat on her.

He said he had Covid, said Clara, who asked the Guardian to identify her by her nickname for fear of reprisal. If they felt so bold as to spit on us and shove us in broad daylight, in front of a police station, what would they do to a more vulnerable person?

And whereas the Philadelphia police kettled in hundreds of peaceful protesters marching along the expressway just southwest of Fishtown, and doused them in teargas even before the citys 6pm curfew hit on Monday, they did little to rein in the group of white self-described vigilantes, witnesses said.

They were carrying baseball bats and golf clubs the most white bully weapons, said Josh Goldbloom, 39, a Fishtown resident who encountered the armed, self-described vigilantes on Monday as he made his way back from the protest in other parts of the city. And they were acting like a bunch of street police.

Goldbloom said he was teargassed while protesting earlier that day, but that the 12 to 15 police officers patrolling a main thoroughfare in Fishtown did little to rein in the armed men. These guys who were obviously looking for some trouble werent being policed at all, he said, even as they converged in front of the local police precinct.

They were screaming things like You pussy ass cunt, said Jill St Clair, 30, who encountered the men while walking her dog with her boyfriend. St Clair said she was dismissed by a 911 dispatcher. She said an officer at the local precinct told her to be grateful for those men and they were indeed keeping me safe.

St Clairs boyfriend John Entwistle, 33, said one of the on-duty officers he spoke with said he was friends with some of the armed locals who had gathered in Fishtown. He said they knew each other through local athletic leagues or whatever, Entwistle said. And when you saw them, there were smiles. It was friendly.

A spokesperson for the Philadelphia police department told the Guardian that the incident is being investigated. In a news conference on Tuesday, police commissioner Danielle Outlaw said her department does not support the group, which had congregated just outside the 26th police district on Monday night.

Goldbloom said it was disheartening, though not entirely surprising, to witness the scene in Fishtown, a long-standing white-majority neighborhood in the northeast of the city. Its weird because Im fighting with my own neighborhood, he said. The historically working-class Irish-Catholic neighborhood has recently seen an influx of new, younger residents move in.

I am absolutely not surprised this happened, said Noel Cazenave, a sociologist at the University of Connecticut and author of Killing African Americans: Police and Vigilante Violence as a Racial Control Mechanism.

Race relations have been very intense in Philadelphia, said Cazenave, who lived in the city for 13 years. When my family and I drove down to try to find housing in Philadelphia, lets just say we had some interesting encounters in the north-east.

Amid nationwide protests against police brutality and systemic racism against black Americans, a gathering of white vigilantes sends a chilling message. We need to recognize that whats happening with the police and vigilantes is closely related, he said. Slave patrols and vigilante committees made the earliest roots of the American policing system.

Vigilantes and neighborhood watchers dont have to hurt or kill black people as they did in the cases of Ahmaud Arbery and Philando Castile in order to spark fear, Cazenave explained.

Chasing someone with golf clubs or what have you Id say that is a form of non-lethal lynching that maintains white racial control, he said. It sends a message that states: Youre not supposed to be in this area. Its justified by the notion that black people, no matter what theyre doing, are criminals.

On Tuesday, protesters convened outside Philadelphias 26th police precinct, where the armed men had gathered the night before. Some residents stood across from the demonstrators, behind a line of police, saying All lives matter, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported.

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The armed white men who terrorized Philadelphias Black Lives Matter supporters - The Guardian

As the country reels from the police killings of black Americans and thousands protest across the nation, lawmakers have been divided in their response. POLITICO examined how members of Congress facing tight reelection bids are responding.

Using POLITICOs election forecast tool, we identified 78 lawmakers in the most competitive races contests where its not clear whether having President Donald Trump at the top of the GOP ticket will be a boon or burden. Then, we combed through these lawmakers social media posts, websites and interviews and pulled their statements. Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler (R-Wash.) issued a public statement after this article was first published.

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All have condemned George Floyds death or made calls to hold the police officers accountable. Thirty lawmakers focused on the protests, and 42 assessed Trumps response. Not surprisingly, party loyalty often determined reactions, with Democrats mostly condemning Trumps response and Republicans more likely to denounce violence and looting.

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Where do lawmakers stand on Trumps response to nationwide Black Lives Matter protests? - POLITICO

Some moderators on Nextdoor, who have the power to remove posts and comments, are livid that the company that runs the neighborhood social networking platform voiced its support for Black Lives Matter, according to internal communications obtained by BuzzFeed News.

In a private group called the National Leads Forum, where thousands of volunteer moderators from across the US communicate, members lambasted Nextdoors statement in solidarity with racial justice. Many people in the discussion voiced the phrase all lives matter, a refrain meant to undercut the message of Black Lives Matter, and tied the nationwide demonstrations to looting and vandalism of businesses.

On Sunday, Nextdoor, a site used by a reported 26.8 million people a month, followed a slew of other companies in posting supportive messages of the movement, tweeting, Black lives matter. You are not alone. Everyone should feel safe in their neighborhood. Reach out. Listen. Take action. The message rang hollow for many people who use the site, as well as its critics, who have said the neighborhood social network enables racial discrimination and vigilantism, while perpetuating fear and bigotry.

On Wednesday, BuzzFeed News reported that moderators had censored people's posts stating Black Lives Matter and stifled conversations about race, police brutality, and protests. Nextdoor later restored some of those posts after BuzzFeed News inquired about the takedowns, with the company attributing the issue to confusion among its leads.

Despite this claim, forum posts obtained by BuzzFeed News showed anger and confusion among many of Nextdoors moderators, an unpaid group that numbers in the thousands. (Nextdoor declined to say how many leads it had.) In a heated thread that started Sunday and has lasted for several days, moderators skewered the platform for supporting the movement.

Of all the dumb things Ive ever seen [Nextdoor] do, this is by far the most stupid move (by far IMO), [Nextdoor] has ever made, a moderator from Durham, North Carolina, wrote on May 31, calling Black Lives Matter a topic thats going to ignite people.

A lead from Orlando said she wanted to see a White Lives Matter statement, or one saying Red Lives Matter because her husband was an American Indian.

Sometimes we need to remember All lives matter! she wrote. Nineteen other people agreed with her post, according to screenshots sent to BuzzFeed News.

Leads from other communities, like Killeen, Texas, and Las Vegas, agreed, demanding to know why the platform had chosen to wade into what they felt was a national, triggering political issue that they did not want to be involved with, and that should not involve them. Nextdoor has a policy that typically prevents national political issues being discussed on its site, as well as rules like Dont use Nextdoor as a soapbox.

While many demonstrations against the police killings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor have been peaceful, some leads conflated Black Lives Matter with looting and vandalism.

The problem is the rioting, said a moderator from Anaheim, California. Nobody should support violence of any kind. I think [Nextdoor] should rethink their posting and change it...do not fuel violence and no post should be made by them that creates controversy and grey areas and upset anyone.

The Orlando lead agreed, writing: it sickens me that businesses are being burned, homes vandalized, all because black lives matter

The company has since moved to distance itself from the views of some moderators.

We want all neighbors to feel welcome, safe, and respected when using Nextdoor, a company spokesperson told BuzzFeed News on Thursday. As a community-building platform, racism has no place on Nextdoor and is completely counter to our purpose, values, and Community Guidelines.

But Josh, a lead in a Los Angeles neighborhood who only wanted to be identified by his first name, told BuzzFeed News the companys guidelines arent really followed: its kind of the wild west.

There's very little, if any guidance or leadership from Nextdoor in regards to their moderation policies, he said. And because of the lack of guidance, that almost always falls directly in line with their personal politics. They give their army of free moderators zero guidance and free reign to do whatever they want.

Josh said Nextdoor handed him the reins to moderate his community after he complained about posts perpetuating violence against people experiencing homelessness. Watching how other moderators discuss issues in their regions, he said the platforms wishy-washy policies have enabled racial bias.

In an attempt to quell the furor, Gordon Strause, the companys director of community, wrote on the leads forum on Monday from his own perspective and not on behalf of Nextdoor. Noting that its of course absolutely true all live [sic] matters, whether they are black, white, brown, blue, or any other color, he explained his views on Black Lives Matter.

The goal of the BLM movement, at least as I understand it, is simply to make the point that black lives matter as much as any other lives but too often in America that isnt actually what happens in practice and this dynamic needs to change, he wrote.

While no one that I know or respect believes that looting helps anything, there are folks that I respect (including people in my own family) who believe that riots may be a necessary step to help the country finally understand the scale of injustice that has been happening," he wrote, "while other folks I respect believe that the riots will be counterproductive and will only undermine the goals they are meant to achieve. Strause then went on to recommend a book from psychologist Jonathan Haidt and urged leads to listen and not to judge.

While Nextdoor is generally not the place for discussions of national issues, I think its going to [sic] hard to restrain those discussions in the coming days without being perceived as taking sides. So rather than trying to do so, I would recommend that Leads instead focus on a different goal: keeping the discussions as civil and issue focused (rather than personality focused) as possible, he wrote.

That plea has not appeased some leads. According to one moderator who spoke with BuzzFeed News on the condition of anonymity, Nextdoor, which has the ability to share company-generated content, has been sharing stories on how to help Black-owned businesses in neighborhood feeds across the country, much to the dismay of some of his fellow community leaders.

Nextdoor posted a highly offensive post that I cant report or downvote, a lead from Austin complained on the forum on June 3. I have received numerous comments about it being discriminatory-guidelines state posts or comments that discriminate against, threaten, or insult groups, based on race, color are not allowed! What can I do?

The post, which the moderator called discriminating, was a list of black-owned Austin-area businesses you can support and linked to a story from local news outlet KVUE.

I had a similar one posted here, a lead from San Antonio replied. Not much anyone can do about it, seems [Nextdoor] is a big supporter of BLM despite their well documented controversies. [Nextdoor] has also singled out black-owned businesses as needing help in a time when all small businesses are suffering.

Scott Micciche, a 51-year-old former lead for a community in Sacramento, told BuzzFeed News that he had never experienced racism when sifting through community content for more than four years, but he would often see it come up in the National Leads Forum. The decisions to take action on posts were sometimes arbitrary, he said, depending on the way people were brought up and less on the actual rules.

An African American guy on the street with two bikes would always automatically be seen as a crime, he said. There is deep-rooted racism in Nextdoor, like with the woman in Central Park and the man who was watching birds. Its a lot like that.

Micciche noted that Nextdoors leads often perpetuate those biases because new leads are sometimes picked by current or outgoing leads who know them.

Its really loose at that level, really unmanaged, he said. National doesnt pay too much time because they dont want to pay anybody. And its unclear what someones ethical values are until theyre tested as a lead.

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Some Nextdoor Moderators Are Unhappy With The Companys Decision To Say Black Lives Matter - BuzzFeed News

Art#Black Lives Matter#public art#street art

Artist Simone Leigh has painted a massive tribute to Black Lives Matter on the street leading to the White House in Washington, D.C. Completed in permanent street paint with the assistance of numerous volunteers, activists, and DC city employees, the message features bold, yellow letters that span more than a block of 16th Street and marks a historic moment in the United States after weeks of protests.

Mayor Muriel Bowser commissioned the banner-style piece, which was started at 3 a.m. Friday morning ahead of weekend demonstrations. The new message is just two blocks north of Lafayette Square, where police charged peaceful protestors and released tear gas and flash-bang shells to clear the crowd for a photo-op for President Trump earlier this week. It sits at the foot of St. Johns Church.

Update: Black Lives Matter D.C. has denounced the public display, saying, This is performative and a distraction from her active counter organizing to our demands to decrease the police budget and invest in the community. Black Lives Matter means Defund the police.

This piece has been updated to add that artist Simone Leigh painted the mural with the assistance of DC city employees and volunteers.

Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member and support independent arts publishing. Join a community of like-minded readers who are passionate about contemporary art, apply for our annual grant, and get exclusive access to interviews, partner discounts, and event tickets.

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A Bold Black Lives Matter Statement Transforms a Street Leading to the White House in Washington D.C. - Colossal