Heidi Anderson, president of the University of Maryland Eastern Shore (UMES), has filed a $1 million defamation lawsuit against former professor Donna Satterlee over Satterlee’s allegations of plagiarism and racism. Anderson, who is Black, holds a Ph.D. in pharmacy administration from Purdue University, according to The Washington Post. She became UMES president in 2018. In July 2025, Satterlee, who is white, had filed a lawsuit against UMES, Anderson, and other individuals at the school, citing wrongful termination. And later, she filed a complaint with the school accusing Anderson of plagiarizing parts of her 1986 dissertation. On Oct. 15, Satterlee appeared on the Newsmax network, repeating the plagiarism claims, calling Anderson a “scam artist,” and alleging reverse discrimination. “We cannot litigate the case in the press,” Anderson’s attorney, James Walker, told The Post. “We spoke to the school, and they reassured us verbally, in writing, and in an affidavit that Dr. Anderson...
Florida has sued Starbucks Coffee Co. over alleged diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives, claiming the coffee chain violated state civil-rights law by favoring minority employees in hiring and pay. Since beginning his second term on Jan. 20, 2025, President Donald Trump has signed several executive orders aimed at dismantling federal DEI initiatives. Following his actions, some companies and universities followed suit, AFROTECH™ previously reported. Attorney General James Uthmeier filed the 21-page lawsuit on Wednesday, Dec. 10, 2025, The Tallahassee Democrat reports. The suit claims Starbucks used racial quotas and hiring goals that discriminated against “non-favored races,” including white, Asian, and multiracial workers. “ Starbucks made DEI more than a slogan,” Uthmeier said in a post on X. “They turned it into a mandatory hiring and promotion system based on race. The coffee empire set numerical racial targets for their workforce, and they tied executive bonuses to...
The Walt Disney Co. is making a $1 billion equity investment in OpenAI following a major deal where both companies commit to the responsible use of AI that protects user safety and creator rights. Announced by both companies on Thursday, Dec. 11, 2025, the three-year licensing deal aims to advance human-centered AI and respectful storytelling by bringing Disney characters into Sora, OpenAI’s text-to-video model that generates realistic, animated videos from text descriptions. “Technological innovation has continually shaped the evolution of entertainment, bringing with it new ways to create and share great stories with the world,” Robert A. Iger, CEO of The Walt Disney Co., said in a statement. “The rapid advancement of artificial intelligence marks an important moment for our industry, and through this collaboration with OpenAI , we will thoughtfully and responsibly extend the reach of our storytelling through generative AI , while respecting and protecting creators and their...
Grambling State University (GSU) criminal justice major Janiah Tims graduated on Friday, Dec. 5, 2025, with a decorated resume — and a graduation cap to match. With a 3.94 GPA, Tims graduated as valedictorian and the highest-ranking student of GSU’s Fall 2025 class, Grambling State News reports . She completed her degree in just two and a half years, having entered college with 21 dual-enrollment credits earned while attending Bastrop High School in Bastrop, LA. Although the curriculum was “pretty hard,” Tims said it helped prepare her for success as she arrived at the Historically Black College and University, per the outlet. “I was really doing the same kind of work in the dual enrollment courses that I ended up doing in college,” Tims told Grambling State News. “So there really wasn’t a big difference.” Tims said she completed most of her core college requirements through dual enrollment, including English 101 and 102, History 101 and 102, Music Appreciation, and Psychology 102....
NFL legends Marshawn Lynch and Michael Robinson have partnered with Pine Sports, a sports-focused AI startup that has rapidly grown its community of bettors and fantasy players since launching in 2020. A key part of the partnership is Jaxon, Pine’s proprietary large language model — likened to OpenAI’s ChatGPT but built specifically for sports betting and fantasy, according to a news release shared with AFROTECH™. Beta-launched in 2024, Jaxon is trained exclusively on Pine’s sports data and live markets, blending data , sportsbook integrations, and advanced analytics to deliver actionable insights in seconds. “This is dope, it’s taken me a minute to fully grasp all that AI can do and be, but this right here… is a no brainer,” Lynch said in a statement. “I see what Pine’s doing with Jaxon, and I’m with it, why wouldn’t you use something that helps you play smarter, ya’ know what I mean?” Robinson added, “This tech is real. Fans want quick, smart answers. They want to know what...
The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), the world’s largest HR organization, has been hit with an $11.5 million ruling after a former employee accused the group of racial discrimination and retaliation. A Colorado jury found SHRM liable on Dec. 5, 2025, and awarded $1.5 million in compensatory damages and $10 million in punitive damages to Rehab Mohamed, Business Insider (BI) reports . “We are very happy that the jury spent a week listening very closely to the evidence and that they decided, as a result, to hold SHRM accountable,” said Mohamed’s attorney, Ariel DeFazio, per BI. The verdict will “send a message to workplaces in the entire country,” she added. The Reason Behind SHRM’s Employee Lawsuit Mohamed, who worked as an instructional designer from 2016 to 2020, filed her lawsuit against SHRM in 2022. She accused a white supervisor of racial discrimination and claimed SHRM retaliated after she reported the behavior, per BI. Mohamed said she repeatedly raised concerns...
As AI continues to spread across the United States and its influence shows no signs of fading, several Democratic lawmakers reintroduced the Artificial Intelligence (AI) Civil Rights Act on Wednesday, Dec. 3, 2025. Senator Edward J. Markey (D-MA) first introduced the AI Civil Rights Act in 2024 to “establish protections for individual rights with respect to computational algorithms, and for other purposes,” The Grio reports . On Dec. 2, the progressive senator explained that AI tools are “biased against marginalized communities,” per the outlet. “We must address AI-powered bias and discrimination in the AI age,” Markey said in a news release shared on Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley’s website. “Under the AI Civil Rights Act, America would show leadership in AI — not just technological leadership, but moral leadership ,” he continued . “We cannot abandon our principles in reckless pursuit of technological superiority. Otherwise, we risk building a future where innovation races ahead,...
The New York Times reported on Friday, Dec. 5, 2025, that it has filed a lawsuit against AI start-up Perplexity for alleged copyright infringement. According to the media company, Perplexity continues to use its content despite multiple requests over the past 18 months to stop until an agreement can be reached. Founded in 2022 by former OpenAI engineer Aravind Srinivas and other entrepreneurs, Perplexity is a free AI-powered answer engine that aims to provide “accurate, trusted, and real-time answers to any question,” according to its website. Filed in a New York federal court, the suit claims Perplexity’s search engine pulls large portions of information from The Times’ website or database to generate responses for users, which goes beyond fair use by offering content that directly competes with the newspaper. “Perplexity provides commercial products to its own users that substitute for The Times, without permission or remuneration,” the suit said, per The Times. The Times also...
Amazon employees are pushing back against the company’s AI-heavy pivot, accusing leadership of prioritizing AI investments over climate commitments and the human workforce. Thousands have signed an open letter to CEO Andy Jassy and senior leadership. The letter, published last week, has drawn more than 1,000 signatures from Amazon employees — who can sign anonymously while listing their roles — and over 2,000 people outside the company. “We, the undersigned Amazon employees, have serious concerns about this aggressive rollout during the global rise of authoritarianism and our most important years to reverse the climate crisis. We believe that the all-costs-justified, warp-speed approach to AI development will do staggering damage to democracy, to our jobs, and to the earth,” the letter states. “We’re the workers who develop, train, and use AI, so we have a responsibility to intervene.” In the letter, employees accused Amazon of “casting aside its climate goals to build AI,” noting...
The Prada Group finalized its $1.38 billion cash acquisition of Milan luxury fashion rival Versace on Dec. 2, 2025, after securing all regulatory approvals, The Associated Press (AP) reports . Prada — known for its minimalist aesthetic and use of unconventional materials — said the 47-year-old Versace label, famed for its maximalist aesthetic and sensual silhouettes, holds “significant untapped growth potential,” per AP. Donatella Versace, the brand’s artistic director and co-owner, celebrated the deal in an Instagram post that also honored her late brother, company founder Gianni Versace, on his birthday. “Today is your day and the day Versace joins the Prada family. I am thinking of the smile you would have had on your face,” Versace wrote. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Donatella Versace (@donatella_versace) First announced in April 2025, the highly anticipated deal is expected to help relaunch Versace’s fortunes. Capri Holdings, which also owns Michael Kors and...
Starbucks will pay $38.9 million after New York City’s Department of Consumer and Worker Protection (DCWP) found the company violated fair work schedule laws over half a million times since 2021. New York Mayor Eric Adams and the DCWP announced the settlement in a news release on Monday, Dec. 1, 2025, calling it the largest worker protection payout in the city’s history. “It does not matter how big your business is or how much money your company makes, if you violate our workers’ rights, you will pay the price,” Adams said in a statement. “With this landmark settlement , we’ll put tens of millions of dollars back into the pockets of hard-working New Yorkers and reinforce every New Yorker’s right to a reliable schedule, full hours, and basic dignity.” DCWP launched its investigation in 2022 after receiving dozens of worker complaints at several Starbucks stores in the city. After uncovering “a pattern of systemic violations,” the agency expanded the probe to every Starbucks location...
U.S. shoppers spent a record $11.8 billion online during Black Friday (Nov. 28), the annual shopping event held the day after Thanksgiving, according to Reuters. Per the outlet, Adobe Analytics reported a 9.1% jump in sales from 2024, driven in part by the rise of AI-powered shopping tools. This year, shoppers increasingly skipped crowded stores and instead used chatbots to compare prices and find discounts. Adobe Analytics, which tracks 1 trillion online retail visits, found that AI-driven traffic to U.S. retail sites surged 805% from last year, which was before tools like Walmart’s Sparky and Amazon’s Rufus had launched. “Consumers are using new tools to get to what they need faster,” said eMarketer analyst Suzy Davidkhanian, per Reuters. “Gift giving can be stressful, and LLMs (large language models) make the discovery process feel quicker and more guided.” LEGO sets, Pokémon cards, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5 consoles, Apple AirPods, and KitchenAid mixers were among the...
Miami Art Week, the international art fair held annually, returns to Miami Beach, FL, from Dec. 1-7, 2025. This year continues to highlight the importance of Black art , thanks in large part to efforts spearheaded by architect Neil Hall. At Art Basel in 2008, Hall noticed a lack of representation for Black art galleries and artists, according to the Miami Herald. “It astounded me because the diaspora has so much creativity all over the world, and I didn’t see it,” Hall said, per the Miami Herald. “I decided that it was not acceptable.” A few years later, Hall and several friends hosted a Black-centered art fair in an empty parking lot in the historically Black Overtown neighborhood, known as the Harlem of the South. That event would become Art Africa Miami, reports the Miami Herald. While Hall no longer presents Art Africa in Overtown, his efforts to elevate the Black art scene during Miami Art Week have inspired others to carry on the mission. Across Miami, Black curators continue...
Students at Queens High School for the Sciences — the New York borough’s only specialized high school — are pushing to move to a brand-new building, relocating from the second floor of York College’s Jamaica building. Citing issues including overcrowding and the lack of a kitchen and auditorium, students hope to move into the new city-built school at 165-15 88th Ave., scheduled to open in fall 2026, ChalkBeat New York reports . Sophomore Vinny Dong has twice addressed the Panel for Educational Policy, the school board that handles school location proposals, about his school’s conditions. “We have a gym shared with a college that’s two blocks away, for 514 students. We have a library that’s also shared, even though it’s critical for our educational content and classes,” Dong told the panel in October 2025, per ChalkBeat. At least three of the seven parent boards in the borough, along with the citywide high school parent council, also support relocation or creating an entirely new...
Dillard University has joined the growing list of historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) to earn philanthropic donations from MacKenzie Scott . The New Orleans, LA-based HBCU has received a historic $19 million contribution — the largest single gift in the university’s history, according to a news release. The contribution follows a $5 million donation in 2020 from the MacKenzie Scott Foundation and underscores Scott’s continued investment in HBCUs nationwide. “If anyone ever doubts the difference one person can make, look no further than MacKenzie Scott and how her generosity will resonate across generations,” Dillard president Dr. Monique Guillory said in the news release. “This gift will strengthen the university at a moment when our mission has never been more urgent.” The unrestricted gift will enable Dillard to accelerate key strategic priorities, including enhancing student success, expanding scholarship opportunities, and strengthening institutional...