The week of July 9, 2016 was re-reading 100 Years of Solitude in meme form, duh; asking if you wanna be our lover; watching Sweden and Denmark twitter fight over moose and sperm banks; and ugh, winter came too soon.

RIP Alton Sterling. RIP Philando Castile. RIP to the 5 Dallas Police Officers. May we hold tight to our humanity; may we remember empathy above all else; may we find strength to fight for justice. We love you.

Mash-Ups in the News:

15 Things Your City Can Do Right Now to Stop Police Brutality

As of this writing, 509 people have been shot and killed by the police in 2016. Here are tips to try to make it stop. This is also a good reminder that not everything has to exist in opposition to each other. And, check out Newt Gingrich and Van Jones (!) having a completely thoughtful and surprising and necessary conversation about all of the above.

via Mic

Sulu Is Gay!

As an homage to George Takei, who played Sulu in the original Star Trek, Sulu has a kid and a husband. And it’s all just totally chill, as it should be. This is what progress looks like!

via Herald Sun

The Day I Got My Green Card

In nice Mash-Up news, our hearts filled with joy upon reading about how this Indian-born Muslim gay man felt home for the first time when he got his Green Card. Sometimes America really does it right.

via Wall Street Journal

Biggest Share of Whites Are Boomers; Minorities Are Young

Um, the most common age of white people in America is 55, but for America overall it’s 24. Because we Mash-Ups are making those babies! Also, this explains a lot about how fractured we can feel.

 via Pew Research 

From Refugee Chefs, A Taste of Home

In Paris, a group of French chefs worked together with refugees who were chefs in their home countries and made what basically looks like our dream meals. Freekeh with parmesan? Yes please.

via NY Times

An Open Letter to Jared Kushner from One of His Employees

This week Trump tweeted out a picture of Hillary Clinton over some money with a Jewish star that said, “Most Corrupt Candidate Ever.” Cool job with the insidious anti-Semitism Donald! Dana Schwartz works for the NY Observer, which is owned by Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, who is Jewish. She wrote a strong letter about it looks like to turn the other way on hateful rhetoric.

via Observer

$154 Million Will Buy You the Most Expensive House in China

This seems reasonable. Who’s in? Together we can make anything happen, Mash-Ups!

 via Curbed

The Failure of “Forced Diversity”

A new study shows that forcing people to attend “diversity” workshops actually leads them to be more resentful of the ideas being espoused. What works is having integrated workplaces with lots of different programs in place on a day-to-day basis — like mentoring and recruitment — that make people more conscious of other people’s perspectives.

 via KPCC

History Made: 2 Black Women Qualify for USA Olympic Swim Team

Yes yes yes. So long to all the old tropes! This is especially exciting because Mash-Up HQ really loves the swim competition at the Olympics.

via Black Girl Long Hair

To Ramadan, With Love

From our friend Taz Ahmed, let’s all go into this next year with hearts full of love.

via Alt Museum