Respond to prefers-color-scheme dark in app web views

Follow section front redirects in Spectrum

Enable NLP source in PCS for load testing

Switch off the News Alerts Survey Widget when we have enough responses

Poll to determine if new LUF updates are available

Allows the winning A/B test variant to be turned on without Spectrum deployment

Show infinite scrolling sections in Assembler MultiView

Show option for NLP article summaries in Action Bar

Show NLP summaries collection recirc on article pages

A general feature flag for Recipe Features that aren't yet released

Feature flag for media team features that aren't yet released

Use new Orca video player for preroll plugin in Spectrum

Show the snow tracker (instead of the heat tracker) on Spectrum

Photos of his mom at lunch are a balm people didn’t know they needed

Dog hit by car loses leg, is adopted by firefighter who helped her

Postal worker finds WWII-era letters, drives 5 hours to deliver them

Johnson says he does not see national abortion ban next year, even under Trump

The data that explains Biden’s new Israel red line

Biden raising money in San Francisco, Seattle areas

Miss Manners: Journalist posts on social media about a typo at another outlet

Carolyn Hax: Why is he trying to sabotage his partner’s very public success?

Ask Amy: What do I say about my former walking buddy who yelled at me?

Courtroom photo ban adds to hurdles for Trump trial journalists

Israel’s shameful ban on Al Jazeera

Checks, not sex, and other takeaways from Trump’s New York hush money trial

The urgent air defense lessons of April 16 

Are smartphones destroying childhood? It’s complicated.

In the campaign against Donald Trump, do the ends justify the means?

Kristi Noem’s dog killing is pure Southern gothic

Claire Messud turns her family’s history into a masterpiece

Joseph Epstein, conservative provocateur, tells his life story in full

Nats win opener at Fenway behind Patrick Corbin and a lockdown bullpen

Vegetables star at Mita, where you get taste after taste (after taste)

To get outs with his fastball, Trevor Williams put his ego aside

Israel orders new evacuations in Rafah as U.N. says more than 150,000 have fled

Malaysia’s appetite for oil and gas puts it on collision course with China

Battles rage around Rafah’s edge as more than 100,000 flee the city

The case for eating at Italian gas stations

Cruise ship drags dead whale into New York, prompting investigation

5 big travel lessons from an accomplished conservationist

In photos: Extreme solar storm brings spectacular northern lights

Bishop vanished. His species can still be saved.

What Trump said in his 10 gag order violations

Apple apologizes for iPad ad after blowback 

Google’s new ‘Find My’ device network is useful but a stalking risk

Hack targeting hospital chain Ascension is impacting patient care

US-POLITICS-BIDEN

©2019 OMNI Docs

When Langston Miller was 8, he’d fill page after page with characters that looked like him, and staple those pages together. He was already thinking about a distribution plan for his books. He wanted to see them in Barnes &amp; Noble.

His mother, Victoria Scott-Miller, arranged an excursion to a local store in Raleigh, N.C., to do market research befitting a curious and determined elementary-schooler.

“Let’s see if we can find five books that represent the type of work that you’re doing and represent you as a little Black boy,” she told him. “And let’s see how long it takes us, because we want people to be able to find your books."

Two and a half hours later, they found five books — “literally going on a scavenger hunt in the children’s section,” she said.

As Langston, now 9, said in a recent interview, he was looking for books that depicted “how brilliant, handsome, smart and how amazing we [Black boys] are. … In the picture quality, I’m not looking for things that show us with big lips, big bodies, big noses. I’m looking for things that actually represent us, show who we actually are. I’m a brilliant, handsome, intelligent Black boy, just like my brother.” For good measure, he repeated, “And handsome.”

His 4-year-old brother, Emerson — named for the transcendentalist writer, just as Langston was named for the Harlem Renaissance poet — chattered in the background.

Immediately after that disappointing shopping trip, Scott-Miller and her husband, Duane Miller, brainstormed how to create a different kind of bookstore, one where Black families wouldn’t have to search so hard to find books where Black children were the heroes of the stories.

They didn’t have money for a brick-and-mortar store, no investors and, Scott-Miller said: “No one is going to stand behind the concept. So it’s something we’re going to have to do from the trunk of our car.” With the family coffers running low and rent worries, the couple took their last $250 and bought a small stash of discounted books that they sold at a profit.

Langston’s ambitions, and the need they exposed, had inspired a family business.

<a href="https://www.liberationstationbookstore.com/">Liberation Station</a>, the independent pop-up bookstore the couple founded a year ago, sells only children’s literature in which Black children are the main characters.

Before the pandemic, it was a mobile bookseller, setting up shop around central North Carolina in places such as a boutique hotel lobby or an art gallery. Now it sells a curated selection of about 500 books online and has a warehouse with about 5,000 volumes.

Business is booming. Liberation Station grossed about $15,000 in the first year but earned $12,000 in two weeks in June. The <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/coronavirus/" target="_blank" class="contextual_link">coronavirus</a> restrictions that closed libraries and shut down story times created a surge in the demand for book purchases that could be delivered. On top of that, the May killing of George Floyd and White Americans’ resulting <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/white-antiracist-allyship-book-clubs/2020/06/11/9edcc766-abf5-11ea-94d2-d7bc43b26bf9_story.html">desire to read about racial injustice</a> swelled the New York Times bestseller list with titles by Black authors, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/jun/11/new-york-times-bestseller-list-black-authors">taking all top 10 spots for the first time</a> in the list’s history.

“It’s so bittersweet,” Scott-Miller said of the increased sales. “I want to be happy and joyful and excited. But it’s really hard to be happy, because [Floyd’s killing] shouldn’t have happened. It shouldn’t have had to happen for us to have mattered so much. Black bookstores should be a resource, period, for all communities.”

Scholars and activists have long noted that literature can be a social force — to normalize little-told stories about Black life and to help Black children form their identities.

“Children must be exposed to diverse literature as early and as often as possible,” said Nicole Johnson, executive director of the nonprofit group <a href="https://diversebooks.org/">We Need Diverse Books</a>, which pushes publishers to release more multicultural books for young people. “Black children need to be given the opportunity and access to books with characters that look like them.”

Rudine Sims Bishop wrote about books being a mirror, Johnson said, referring to the influential children’s-literature scholar’s essay “<a href="https://scenicregional.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/Mirrors-Windows-and-Sliding-Glass-Doors.pdf" target="_blank">Mirrors, Windows, and Sliding Glass Doors</a>.” “And we should present Black children with mirrors — characters who are whole, have fun and joy, and [help them] learn their history.”

The University of Wisconsin’s Cooperative Children’s Book Center <a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/entry/diversity-kids-books-statistics_ca_5d0bb0f8e4b0859fc3db38c3">analyzed about 3,100 children’s books published in 2018</a> and found that White characters were featured in half of the books. Books with animal characters were the second-most common, clocking in at 27 percent, and books featuring Black protagonists came in third at 10 percent of the total. Works with Latinx, Asian American and Indigenous characters trailed even further behind, the study said, with American Indians making up 1 percent of characters.

Next year, Liberation Station plans to expand to include books about other children of color, in addition to setting up more public reading stations stocked with its diverse books, like a few they have installed in public places around the city of Durham, N.C.

The Millers do not need the statistics to know that there is a representation problem particularly for Black children in literature, even as the number of books featuring Black children have jumped since Scott-Miller read Virginia Hamilton’s classic folk-tale collection “<a href="https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1985-11-10-8503170632-story.html" target=_blank>The People Could Fly,</a>” first released in 1985.

Scott-Miller isn’t curating just any books with Black children: She avoids titles that confine Black history to the oversimplified Rosa Parks or Martin Luther King Jr. narratives, that present sports as the province of Black boys or that exaggerate or denigrate Black physical features in ways that echo Sambo stories, as well as those ever-popular people-as-animals stories.

Kesha Lee, former director of the Hurston/Wright Foundation, which promotes greater Black representation in publishing, calls for diversity of subjects within books about and for Black children. She founded <a href="https://www.facebook.com/Ward8Reads/" target=_blank>#Ward8Reads</a>, a nonprofit that establishes community libraries in barbershops, community centers and Metro stations in one of <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2016/07/where-books-are-nonexistent/491282/">D.C.’s predominantly Black “book deserts.”</a>

“Publishers and decision-makers are <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/01/books/book-publishing-black.html">overwhelmingly White</a> — and a lot of the books are about Black history or cultural elements that adults want their kids to know about,” Lee said. “Those are important, but what about the books with little Black kids riding skateboards and talking about space aliens? Where are the Black girl characters who are really into anime and decide to travel to Japan?”

“Those books aren’t getting greenlighted,” Lee said. “We need as many access points to get books and also books that show Black children possibilities. And likewise for children who are not people of color, because we need not to raise racist children.”

OMNI Docs

On a sunny day last November, parents and children crowded the lobby of the Durham Hotel to see Liberation Station’s offerings. Duane — whom Scott-Miller calls Liberation Station’s “energy conductor” — kept a watchful eye on their sons, circulated quietly and straightened tables laden with color-drenched books. Among the selections were <a href="https://www.booklistreader.com/2020/04/07/books-and-authors/the-shelf-care-interview-susan-muaddi-darraj-and-siman-nuurali/" target=_blank>Siman Nuurali’s</a> “Sadiq and the Green Thumbs,” a serial novel about a Somali American boy who discovers a new side to his Koranic schoolteacher through gardening; “<a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/576200/memphis-martin-and-the-mountaintop-by-alice-faye-duncan-illustrated-by-r-gregory-christie/" target=_blank>Memphis, Martin, and the Mountaintop</a>,” a fictionalized childhood account of the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/retropolis/wp/2018/02/12/i-am-a-man-the-1968-memphis-sanitation-workers-strike-that-led-to-mlks-assassination/">1968 strike by sanitation workers</a>; and “<a href="https://www.alangratz.com/writing/ban-this-book/" target=_blank>Ban This Book</a>,” about a fourth-grader’s crusade to get her favorite book back on her school library’s shelves.

That pop-up story time was a turning point. Scott-Miller could hardly take a breath with all the parents crowding around and asking for her recommendations. Many of those parents were White, shopping for multicultural books for their children. The hotel had thought maybe 20 sets of parents and children might attend the first-time event, but more than 100 showed up.

Open for just more than a year, Liberation Station has gained the attention of cultural institutions. Scott-Miller had long wanted to partner with the North Carolina Museum of Art. This year, the Raleigh museum reached out and held a <a href="https://youtu.be/MnWakd6LVno">virtual story time for Juneteenth</a> in one of its galleries.

“As Duane said so eloquently,” Scott-Miller said, “there’s a difference between being a participant and being a partner. Last year, I would have been a participant.”

That’s when the family was living off Duane’s military-disability check. After subtracting rent, they had only about $500 per month to pay other expenses. They could not afford gas to drive the children to school, a factor in their switch to home schooling. They stretched their food stamps, going to a farmers market that would double their benefits. Those experiences taught them a minimalism that they refused to see as deprivation. Instead, the time defined what a “full sustainable life” looked like for their household — including “purging the ideology of wanting more” material things — and it made way for the full-family creativity to come, Scott-Miller said.

Starting the business has been a sacrifice and a commitment. Before the pandemic made it too risky, the family delivered books in person, wrapped in the Pan-African tricolor of red, green and black, to porches and mailboxes. Duane said the time spent together “delivering books and finding a way to make it a family event, sourcing books, reading books, all of us reading them,” has meant a lot to them.

Among other things, Duane and Victoria get their sons’ opinions, “so it’s not just an adult perspective," Duane said. "But it’s a lot of work that doesn’t seem like work, because we’re conversing back and forth.”

And Langston, still reading and writing, has gotten a gig. The state art museum asked him to join his mom for further events and deliver his own commentary about the books she reads for story times.

He answered with two questions: “Will I have a contract as well? And will I be paid for my time?”

Cynthia Greenlee, PhD, is a North Carolina-based independent historian, writer and deputy editor at <a href="https://www.colorlines.com/" target=_blank>Colorlines</a>.

Join our <a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/onparenting/">discussion group here</a> to talk about parenting and work. You can <a href="https://subscribe.washingtonpost.com/newsletters/#/newsletters?itid=lk_inline_manual_48&itid=lk_inline_manual_56&itid=lk_inline_manual_42&itid=lk_inline_manual_42&itid=lk_inline_manual_45&itid=lk_inline_manual_37">sign up here</a> for our newsletter.

<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/2020/06/12/9-things-parents-should-consider-when-searching-anti-racist-media-their-kids/" target="_blank">Nine things parents should consider when searching for anti-racist media for kids</a>

<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/2019/11/22/childrens-books-can-help-start-conversation-about-race-parents-have-continue-it/" target=_blank>Children’s books can help start a conversation about race. Parents have to continue it.</a>

<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/on-parenting/they-were-raised-to-be-colorblind--but-now-more-white-parents-are-learning-to-talk-about-race/2019/02/26/02dfc976-3072-11e9-813a-0ab2f17e305b_story.html" target="_blank">They were taught to be ‘colorblind.’ But now more White parents are learning to talk about race.</a>

Cynthia R. Greenlee is a historian and the senior editor at Rewire.

Cynthia R. Greenlee

washpost

Parents’ business highlights kids’ books with Black characters

the-washington-post

Jamila R. Davenport

handout

name

iptc-media/society/family

iptc-media/arts_culture_entertainment_and_media

iptc-media/society

iptc-media/arts_culture_entertainment_and_media/arts_and_entertainment/literature

iptc-media/arts_culture_entertainment_and_media/culture

iptc-media/science_and_technology

iptc-media/arts_culture_entertainment_and_media/culture/library_and_museum

iptc-media/arts_culture_entertainment_and_media/arts_and_entertainment

iptc-media/economy_business_and_finance/economic_sector/media

iptc-media/economy_business_and_finance/economic_sector/media/book_industry

iptc-media/science_and_technology/social_sciences

iptc-media/economy_business_and_finance

client-blocklists/Client List: Morgan Stanley KWs - INCLUDES ANY

client-blocklists/Client List: Becton Dickinson KWs - EXCLUDES ALL

client-blocklists/CLIENT LIST: Nomura KWs 2021 - EXCLUDES ALL

client-blocklists/Boeing KWs 2021- INCLUDE ANY

client-blocklists/Client List: Exxon Mobil  - INCLUDES ANY

client-blocklists/Client List: Microsoft KWs 2 - INCLUDES ANY

client-blocklists/GEICO KWs - INCLUDES ANY_4.26.21

client-blocklists/Client List: T. Rowe Price KWs - INCLUDES ANY

client-blocklists/T. Rowe Price KWs - INCLUDES ANY

advertising/B2_Arts & Entertainment_legacyaux_btb

advertising/B2_Asian Content_legacyaux_8xg

advertising/B2_Asian Lifestyle Content_legacyaux_im0

advertising/B2_Automotive Interest 2.5.15_legacyaux_jqs

advertising/B2_Books, Comics and other Literature_legacyaux_p1a

client-blocklists/HBO KWs - INCLUDES ANY

client-blocklists/Ford/Lincoln KWs - INCLUDES ANY

client-blocklists/ExxonMobil 03312021 KWs - INCLUDES ALL

client-blocklists/Bank of America KWs - INCLUDES ANY

advertising/Flu, Sickness & Virus Content

client-blocklists/WaPo: Combined Disaster Keyword List - INCLUDES ANY

advertising/Coronavirus Content

client-blocklists/Client List: Navy Federal Credit Union NFCU KWs 2 - EXCLUDES ALL - 12.23.20

advertising/B2_Classical Music Keywords_legacyaux_zev

client-blocklists/Client List: Eli Lily KWs - INCLUDES ANY

advertising/B2_Corporate Responsibility_legacyaux_FTM

client-blocklists/Client List: Purina KWs - INCLUDES ANY

advertising/Qualcomm Custom KW - 5G

advertising/B2_Family & Parenting_legacyaux_v02

advertising/B2_Health and Beauty_legacyaux_3fv

advertising/Client Keywords: On Running

advertising/Racing and Nascar Enthusiasts

client-blocklists/BP KWs - INCLUDES ANY

advertising/B2_Lifestyle_legacyaux_ipv

advertising/B2_Lifestyle_legacyaux_stu

advertising/B2_Luxury_legacyaux_75o

advertising/B2_Positive News_legacyaux_hlt

advertising/B2_Race and Ethnicity_legacyaux_n7j

advertising/B2_Shopping_legacyaux_sa6

advertising/B2_Social Issues Content_legacyaux_8C2

advertising/B2_Society_legacyaux_0cz

advertising/B2_Summer Travel_legacyaux_1ot

advertising/B2_Women's Beauty_legacyaux_9jv

advertising/B2_Men's Grooming_legacyaux_1ve

client-blocklists/Client List: Google KWs

client-blocklists/Client List: GEICO KWs

client-blocklists/Client KWs : FBI

client-blocklists/Client List: KPMG KWs - EXCLUDES ALL

client-blocklists/Client List: Navy Federal Credit Union NFCU KWs - EXCLUDES ALL

client-blocklists/Client List: Novo Nordisk KWs - EXCLUDES ALL

client-blocklists/Client List: Siemens KWs - EXCLUDES ALL

client-blocklists/Client List: Cisco KWs - INCLUDES ANY

client-blocklists/Client List: Capital Concerts KWs - EXCLUDES ALL

client-blocklists/Client List: AT&T ALT KWs - INCLUDES ANY

client-blocklists/Mercedes KWs - INCLUDES ANY

client-blocklists/FX Excludes All Disney

client-blocklists/Client List: Inpixon KWs - INCLUDES ANY

client-blocklists/Client List: Boeing KWs - INCLUDES ANY

client-blocklists/Client List: Google KWs - EXCLUDES ALL

client-blocklists/Client List: AT&T KWs 2021 - INCLUDES ANY

client-blocklists/Philip Morris KWs - INCLUDES ANY 

client-blocklists/Dupixent neg kws - EXCLUDES ALL

client-blocklists/Capital One KWs 2 - INCLUDES ANY - 1.4.21

client-blocklists/Bank of America Merrill Lynch KWs - INCLUDES ANY

client-blocklists/CME KWs - EXCLUDES ALL

client-blocklists/Google PG KWs - EXCLUDES ALL

client-blocklists/Client List: Office Depot KWs - EXCLUDES ALL

client-blocklists/Chase KWs - EXCLUDES ALL

client-blocklists/Client List: ETrade KWs - EXCLUDES ALL

prism://prism.query/site-and-discussions-not-future,/lifestyle/on-parenting&limit=20

Parenting

News, advice and essays that impact parents everywhere.

prism://prism.query/site-articles-only,/lifestyle&limit=20

Lifestyle

Washington Post Lifestyle gives you the latest fashion and beauty trends, home d&eacute;cor pointers, food and recipe ideas and reviews, relationship advice, travel ideas, wellness tips and much more.