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Lily Lines: Why this state wants Hillary Clinton out of its curriculum

Plus, Brett Kavanaugh’s accuser goes public

By
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September 16, 2018 at 8:23 p.m. EDT

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This week:

Brett Kavanaugh’s accuser goes public, Claudia Li features an all-Asian runway cast, and a snapshot of North Carolina hurricane evacuees.

Texas votes to remove Hillary Clinton from its social studies curriculum

On Friday, the Texas Board of Education, in a preliminary vote, moved to remove certain historical figures from its social studies curriculum for grades K-12, qualifying them as nonessential. Included in the list was Hillary Clinton, the first female presidential nominee of a major party. Helen Keller, the deaf and blind author and activist, was also among those proposed to remove.

The vote was related to a “streamlining” effort to update the curriculum, and the board will hold a final vote in November. This isn’t the first time Texas’s curriculum has been called into question. In 2014, scholarly reviews found a number of inaccuracies and biases in proposed history, geography and government textbooks.

Woman who alleged she was sexually assaulted by Brett Kavanaugh speaks out

Earlier this week, it was reported that Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California, the top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, received a letter from a woman who alleged that Supreme Court nominee Brett M. Kavanaugh had sexually assaulted her more than three decades ago. On Sunday, Christine Blasey Ford, a research psychologist living in northern California, came forward as the woman behind the letter. In an interview with The Washington Post, Ford said that the alleged incident took place at a party in the early 1980s, when the two were in high school together. “He was trying to attack me and remove my clothing,” she said.

Kavanaugh said he “categorically and unequivocally” denied the allegations Friday. The White House stood behind Kavanaugh, while Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) urged a delay on his nomination until the Senate Judiciary Committee hears more from Ford.

Melinda Gates’s research shows tech companies aren’t investing in girls and women

Melinda Gates, in partnership with McKinsey & Company, released research Wednesday that found that, for all the talk of diversifying the tech industry, only 5 percent of companies’ charitable giving went to programs that explicitly invest in women and girls in tech — and less than 0.1 percent of their money went to women of color.

The report has already made waves. Twelve of the 32 companies that participated in the research, including Microsoft and LinkedIn, formed Reboot Recognition Tech Coalition, which aims to double the number of underrepresented women of color graduating with computer science degrees by 2025.

Will Sandra Oh make history at the Emmys?

On Monday, television’s most dazzling stars will gather at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles for the 70th annual Emmy Awards, which viewers can watch on NBC at 8 p.m. ET. While fan favorites “Game of Thrones” and “Westworld” boast the most nominations, it could be a potentially history-making night for others. Sandra Oh is the first Asian American woman to be nominated for a lead actress in a drama for her role in “Killing Eve.”

Some awards have already been given out as part of the 70th Creative Arts Emmy Awards, which were held Sept. 8 and 9. Those were groundbreaking as well — all four of the “guest-actor” awards went to black actors for the first time in Emmy history. Tiffany Haddish started it all off when she won best guest actress in a comedy series for appearing as the first black female stand-up comedian to host “Saturday Night Live” on Nov. 11.

A #MeToo moment for fast food: McDonald’s workers to hold a strike this week

Morocco passes new anti-sexual harassment laws, but activists aren’t satisfied

A new anti-violence-against-women law that took effect in Morocco this week offers protections for reporting harassment, bans forced marriage and mandates punishments for people convicted of harassment in public spaces. But even as the law is being hailed by the government, activists say it doesn’t go far enough.

This all comes less than a month after a video of a teenage Moroccan girl telling local media she had been violently kidnapped, raped and branded by a gang drew international outrage.

China’s biggest celebrity vanished. Could the government be behind it?

Fan Bingbing, an actress, model and singer, is perhaps the best encapsulation of China’s celebrity culture. But she has been missing since July, with virtually no explanation. Rumors have been swirling that China’s Communist Party, which is at odds with the country’s burgeoning entertainment industry, is behind it. This Tuesday, a clue may have emerged: A state-affiliated think tank and Beijing university ranked Fan last in its “Social Responsibility Report,” citing her “negative social impact.” Others are speculating that Fan may be on the hook for tax evasion.

All eyes were on New York, New Hampshire and Rhode Island this week, which were among the last states to hold their primaries. A record number of women ran for office this year, but now that primary season is over, the question becomes: Will they break records come November?

Ahead of New York’s state-level primary Thursday, law professor Zephyr Teachout, who was vying to become the Democratic nominee for attorney general, made news when she released a campaign ad that featured an ultrasound of her future child. That tracks with a theme of women candidates celebrating aspects of their lives and bodies on camera, including breast-feeding in ads.

Teachout, who’s due to give birth in October, ended up losing to Letitia James, the first black woman to win a major statewide nomination. Actress Cynthia Nixon also lost her bid to unseat Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, who easily won the renomination for a third term. Nixon, who ran on a liberal campaign, said Thursday that despite the loss, she had helped change New York’s political landscape by waging a challenge against establishment Democrats.

In New Hampshire, Molly Kelly won the Democratic nomination for governor. She’ll face GOP incumbent Chris Sununu in November, and if elected, she’d become the state’s fourth female governor.

Diversity and daring firsts at New York Fashion Week

From prairie dresses to ugly sneakers, notable new trends emerged at New York Fashion Week, which ran from Sept. 6 to 14. But the biggest stories of the week revolved around firsts in terms of diversity on the runway — and the powerful political messages those designers sent.

Claudia Li’s Spring 2019 show, for one, featured an all-Asian runway cast. The point, according to Li, was to challenge the “singular vision” of Asian beauty: It was an opportunity to shed light on how diverse Asian women really are as a community. Li, who was born in China and raised in New Zealand and Singapore, added to a growing conversation about the visibility of Asians and Asian Americans. Earlier this summer, “Crazy Rich Asians” and Netflix’s “To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before” jumpstarted that conversation in Hollywood.

Designer Kerby Jean-Raymond’s 2019 collection for Pyer Moss also had a powerful message: The collection carved out, and celebrated, a space for black Americans. The clothing itself drew from black American cultural life, including gospel choir white robes matched with Reebok sneakers. One T-shirt read: “See us now?”

And at the close of the week, Rihanna made headlines for featuring two pregnant models wearing lingerie in her Savage x Fenty show.

Kaitlin Prest is known for her work as the creator and host of “The Heart,” an award-winning Radiotopia podcast that delves honestly into all matters of intimacy. These days, Prest is working on a new podcast of a very different nature: “The Shadows” is a story about the anatomy of a relationship, told from three perspectives. It’s a fictional show but is based on some of Prest’s own experiences, and uses real audio of breakups she has gone through in the past. It launches Sept. 25 as a six-part series.

For someone who thinks a lot about relationships, power dynamics and femininity, we wanted to know: What would Prest say to the world, if she were given only a one-minute slot on a podcast to do so? Here’s the script she’d use:

Hurricane Florence had been downgraded to a tropical depression by Sunday, but not before ravaging the Carolinas with unprecedented rain and flooding. At least 17 people have been reported dead, with hundreds more hunkering down in shelters after being evacuated from their homes by boats and helicopters.

On Wednesday, Jeff Fager, the executive producer for CBS’s “60 Minutes,” followed CBS chief Leslie Moonves’s exit and left the company. Fager, too, faced accusations of sexual misconduct, but said his ouster was instead related to a strongly worded text message he sent a reporter.

Later that night, on the CBS Evening News, Jericka Duncan explained the difficulty in reporting on the sexual misconduct at her own network. The text message Fager referenced was one that she had received for pursuing the story. “Be careful. There are people who lost their jobs trying to harm me,” the message from Fager read.

Tongue scraper

I (along with every other Indian kid I knew growing up) have used a tongue scraper my whole life. It wasn’t until I left mine in a hotel room, realized I couldn’t buy one at Target and had to ask my parents to priority ship one to me that I realized it wasn’t mainstream in America. You might think you know what I’m referring to, but if you’re imagining a puny plastic device or something that is already part of your toothbrush, you’re wrong. Try these U-shaped stainless steel or copper ones and your oral hygiene will never be the same.

Neema Roshania Patel, Lily deputy editor

*Have an idea for a news-inspired baiku? Send us your creation at lily [at] washpost [dot] com, and you might see it in the next Lily Lines. We follow 5-7-5.

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