Should My Plans To Have Children Be My Employer’s Business?

A recent Wall Street Journal article delves into how employers are using outside firms to determine which prospective employees might get sick. Yep, you read right. To cut back on health-care costs, employers are using data to find out who might develop a serious (and costly) condition. And as if this isn’t disturbing enough, they are also using data to determine which female employees might be planning on getting pregnant soon. Yes, an algorithm is being used to find out if you plan on having a child. Talk about an invasion of privacy. The last time I checked, my decision to procreate was a private issue between the person I want to procreate with and myself. Why on earth would an employer have the right—or the nerve—to collect data to help determine if I plan on getting pregnant?…

[MadameNoire]

Why Do Women Typically Have Lower Credit Scores Than Men?

… According to a report from CreditSesame.com, women have lower average credit scores (621) than men (630). Although women generally have less debt than men, their analysis of 2.5 million Credit Sesame users tallied that men’s scores are boosted typically because their paycheck earnings are higher. The Frisky also points out that overall it’s a domino effect: “Women’s income tends to be lower than men’s, which means that their debt-to-income ratio is higher than men’s (18 percent for women to 17 percent for men), both of which factors influence women’s credit limits, which also tend to be lower, which then means that women are using more of their credit limits than men are.” The analysis also highlights that men carry more credit card debt than women (average balance of $3,854), but because their credit limits are higher, they actually are using less of their available credit…

[MadameNoire]

Oscars Banking On Chris Rock For Ratings Bump

How’s this for irony—the Academy Awards of #OscarsSoWhite fame are hoping the return of Chris Rock will mean big ratings. It turns out the last time Rock, a Black man, hosted in 2005, the Oscars show enjoyed one of its biggest viewing audiences ever, despite people hating on comedian/actor. Reports the New York Times: The last time Chris Rock hosted the Oscars, he was judged by many to be a bust. “Loud, snide and dismissive, he wasn’t just a disappointment,” wrote the USA Today critic Robert Bianco in 2005. “He ranks up there with the worst hosts ever.” Other reports noted that the audience for Mr. Rock’s show had dropped by 5 percent, to about 42.2 million viewers, from the year before, when Billy Crystal did the honors. But a funny thing happened on the way to the future…

[HipHopWired]

• Thunder Fan Tells LeBron James To “Suck It Up,” He Responds On Instagram [Vibe]
• Big Ang: Big Funeral [TMZ]
• We Absolutely Could Give Reparations To Black People. Here’s How. [HuffingtonPost]
• Demi Lovato Slams Taylor Swift After $250,000 Donation To Kesha [StarPulse]