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Back in 2010, the University of North Carolina’s student newspaper, The Daily Tar Heel, was approached by roughly 30 students with a petition containing over 430 signatures that demanded that the paper use gender neutral terms- chairperson instead of chairman, first-year instead of freshman.
This week the paper decided to make the change to gender neutral terms.
“We don’t really believe in leaving things the same way just because it’s the way it’s always been, and now more than ever, we all see a pressing need to be inclusive in the way we write about people.” Paige Ladisic, editor of the paper said in a message explaining the decision.
These changes, like the Associated Press Stylebook, considered by many as the Bible of journalistic standards, seem to reflect society.
For example, Jose Antonio Vargas, an undocumented immigrant, tracked news media’s use of “illegal alien” to convince outlets to use the term “undocumented immigrant” instead.
But was the Daily Tar Heel in the right to make the change?
“Gender neutral titles have slowly been making their way into everyday usage for decades. For instance we don’t call a female flight attendant a ‘stewardess’ anymore,” Jason Parsley, Executive Editor of South Florida Gay News said in an interview. “As for ‘chairperson’ there doesn’t need to be separate terms for men and woman because both positions are equal. Men and women are equal. Period. And ultimately that’s what this gender neutral movement is all about.”
Marimar Toledo, a 20 year old freelance journalist also supports the use of gender neutral usage, because it was more respectful to people in the LGBT community.
“You’re just never gonna know- and just to be on the safe side, and be on the respectful side, you should use the gender neutral terms, rather than the ones that specify which sex you are.”
While people may be of different opinions, The Daily Tar Heel‘s decision seems here to stay.
Rise News reached out to DTH editor Paige Ladisic and will update this story when she responds.
Like this piece? Rise News just launched a few weeks ago and is only getting started. Follow us on Facebook and Twitter to stay up to date with global news. Have a news tip? Send it to us- [email protected] (We can keep your identity hidden.)
Cover Photo Credit: William Yeung/Flickr (CC By 2.0)
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So What Is Bill Cosby Exactly Being Charged With?
The Montgomery County District Attorney’s Office, based just outside of Philadelphia, PA announced this morning that they are charging famed comedian Bill Cosby with aggravated indecent assault, a first-degree felony, in a 2004 sexual assault case.
This is the first criminal case against Cosby regarding his behavior toward women, which has gotten renewed scrutiny in the past year.
The case could be the biggest Hollywood celebrity trial in the social media era, and could possibly send the 78-year-old comic to prison.
District Attorney Risa Vetri Ferman overrode the decision of the previous DA, Bruce L Castor Jr, who decided not to charge Cosby in 2005.
A Temple University employee, Andrea Constand, met him though the women’s basketball team at the university, where he was a trustee. She told police that the comic drugged and assaulted her. Contand settled a civil case with Cosby in 2005 out of court.
Pennsylvania law has a 12-year statute of limitations for felony sexual assault, which this case reaches next month.
Castor, the previous District Attorney, was sued by Constand for declining to file charges against Cosby, arguing that he defamed her by attacking her credibility.
Cosby has maintained that the sex was consensual.
Cosby created and starred in the well-known 1980s sitcom the Cosby Show, considered groundbreaking television as it depicted a loving black family, headed by two well-educated parents. He maintained a fatherly figure off-screen, often scolding young people to “pull their saggy pants up and act responsibly.”
In recent years, over 50 women have come forward with allegations of sexual assault against the comedian. The women’s stories are similar, them claiming he drugged and assaulted them, but they only began to receive attention in late 2014 after comedian Hannibal Buress mocked Cosby as a hypocrite and called him a rapist during a standup routine.
Cover Photo Credit: The World Affairs Council of Philadelphia/ Flickr (CC By 2.0)
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It’s Time For The U.S. To Do More About The Refugee Crisis
Earlier this month, the photograph of 3-year-old Aylan Kurdi, who drowned trying to flee to Greece with his brother and mother, horrified the world and focused its attention on the ongoing refugee crisis in Syria and throughout the Middle East.
Since the Syrian Civil War started nearly five years ago, more than 210,000 Syrians have been killed, and an estimated 10 million Syrians have been displaced inside the country or in camps in neighboring countries. As the Syrian Refugee crisis worsens and now spreads to Europe, many now question what the responsibility of the western world is in helping to resolve both the refugee crisis and the ongoing conflict in Syria.
Many nations and world leaders have attempted to lend aid to refugees seeking asylum. Turkey has taken in over 1.9 million refugees who have fled the conflict in Syria. Another 1.1 million have fled to Lebanon, nearly 637,000 have been taken in by Jordan, and Germany is expected to take in 800,000 refugees by the end of the year.
While many have been welcoming to the refugees, many throughout Europe have come out viscerally against accepting refugees. The Prime Minister of Slovakia has refused to accept any refugees and while a spokesperson for the Hungarian Government said they would abide resettlement of refuges, the government has also constructed a 109-mile razor tipped fence around its border to keep migrants out of their country.
Meanwhile the United States has accepted 1,500 refugees thus far and is preparing to accept at least 10,000 Syrian refugees. This figure would be allocated out of a U.S. quota of 75,000 total refugee admissions slated for the next fiscal year. Many Americans; however, fear that even this is too many. Congressional Republicans have raised concerns for months over the possibility that Syrian extremists, including ISIS sympathizers, could enter the country passing themselves off as refugees.
It is understandable that when the world is faced with a horrific crisis, that fear seizes the hearts of many. Undeniably, there are challenges when meeting a crisis of this magnitude. While the future is unclear; however, history is always there to guide us.
History most clearly remembers actions, or the lack there of. Following Kristallnacht, thousands of Jewish refugees from Germany and Austria fled to the United States trying to escape the growing shadow of Nazism. Then as now, the conflict seemed to many Americans to be a distant one and none of our affairs. Then as now, many people feared what would happen if we accepted these refugees in the wake of the nation’s economic turmoil. Ultimately the United States never increased its quotas for refugees, and as a result many lives that could have been saved were lost.
We are once again faced as a nation with people seeking refuge from a faraway conflict. Men, women, and children all hoping to find peace and mercy in a world that they know is far too often chaotic and unmerciful. We can either chose to commit the same mistake twice, or we can act like the world leader that we truly want to be.
Cover Photo Credit: Takver/Flickr (CC by SA-2.0)
Like this piece? Rise News just launched a few weeks ago and is only getting started. Follow us on Facebook and Twitter to stay up to date with global news. Have a news tip? Send it to us- [email protected]
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Alabama Starman Catches Alien Migraine (Or Something Like That)
By Chance Willie
An anonymous Tuscaloosa, AL stargazer reported an almost poetic UFO sighting early Tuesday morning.
The account appeared on a message board hosted by the UFO Stalker website, which catalogs UFO sightings from around the country.
The sighting allegedly occurred when the observer stepped outside to smoke a cigarette and was greeted by an object resembling a shooting star darting across the sky, abruptly changing directions and leaving trails of green and orange light in its wake.
The observer reports being stricken by a mysterious headache as the object shot away into the dusk. Whether the account was fact or fiction, it makes for an interesting read.
RISE NEWS has reached out to the website to try to get in touch with the person who made the post. We’ll update with any additional information.
Here’s the full account posted to the website:
“At exactly 4:01 A.M. I went outside on my balcony to smoke a cigarette. I spend a lot of time looking up at the sky at night, and I have seen many shooting stars. Shootings stars move extremely fast and appear to zoom across your range of vision in an instant. The “light” I saw tonight did no such thing. While it did vanish in an instant, it did not zoom across my range of vision. Directly in the center of the sky, what appeared to be a large aircraft, lit up in the darkness–without making a sound. It instantly propelled itself into the distance leaving behind a momentary trail of green and orange light. What was most unusual about this sighting was that the object changed direction. The object also moved much more quickly than any shooting star that I have ever seen. I could not determine its exact location or distance. However, initially after lighting up, the size of the object appeared three to four times larger than the stars in the sky. This means that the object was either much larger and/or much closer than our closest stars. After the incident, I felt slightly uncomfortable–as if I had a headache, but only in the front half of my brain.”
Ever see anything strange? Either in the sky or on a city council balance sheet? Send us a news tip to [email protected]
H/T to Tuscaloosa News reporter Stephen Dethrage
Cover Photo Credit: maxime raynal/ Flickr (CC By 2.0)
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