16 Workers File Racial-Discrimination Lawsuit Against Coca-Cola

16 Workers File Racial-Discrimination Lawsuit Against Coca-Cola: Sixteen black and Hispanic Coca-Cola workers filed a lawsuit against the soda giant claiming they worked in a racist environment, according to the Daily News.

The workers called the environment a "cesspool of racial discrimination." The lawsuit, which was filed in Brooklyn Federal Court, accuses Coca-Cola of relegating minorities to unfavorable assignments and subjecting them to unfair disciplinary action and retaliation for complaining.

The lawsuit concerns two of the company's production plants -- one in Queens, N.Y., and another in Elmsford, N.Y.

The lawyer for the 16 plaintiffs, Steven Morelli, told the Daily News that Coca-Cola described the plaintiffs as "nuts" and "ingrates." He also said that some plaintiffs claimed that they were called racial epithets, and the offenders were not punished.

One of the workers, Sondra Walker, said that when she landed the job she felt like she had won the lotto. But she found that the company she called prestigious is one that practiced racism almost on a daily basis.

Smoking Rates Increase With Perceived Racial Discrimination, Study Says

Smoking Rates Increase With Perceived Racial Discrimination, Study Says: As the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) rolls out its graphic anti-smoking ad campaign next week, researchers at the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis are honing in on what drives people to smoke in the first place.

For racial and ethnic minority groups, discrimination may be a key factor, according to a study of over 85,000 people, which found that the odds of smoking increased among individuals who perceived that they were treated differently because of their race.

In a release highlighting the findings published in the American Journal of Public Health, study author Jason Q. Purnell says the study reveals a potentially high-risk group of individuals who report feeling unfairly treated because of their race and who may be smoking as a means of coping with the psychological distress associated with discrimination.

Trayvon Martin Case: 911 Audio Released Of Teen Shot By Neighborhood Watch Captain

Trayvon Martin Case: 911 Audio Released Of Teen Shot By Neighborhood Watch Captain: Police have released audio 911 tapes in the shooting death of Trayvon Martin, the unarmed teenager killed by a neighborhood watch captain while walking home from a store.

In eight chilling recordings, made the night of February 26, listeners can hear the frightened voices of neighbors calling to report to screams for help, gunshots, and then that someone was dead.

In perhaps the most disturbing of the recordings, a frightened voice cries out for help and pleading “No! No!” and then wailing.

And for the first time, we hear the voice of George Zimmerman, the neighborhood watch captain who admitted to police that he shot Martin, who was walking home from a convenience store to his father's home in the gated community. Zimmerman has not been arrested or charged in the shooting.

“This guy looks like he’s up to no good, or he’s on drugs or something,” Zimmerman tells the 911 operator. “He’s just staring, looking at all the houses. Now he’s coming toward me. He’s got his hand in his waistband. Something’s wrong with him.”

Fairfax investigates allegation of racially insensitive behavior by high school teacher - The Washington Post

Fairfax investigates allegation of racially insensitive behavior by high school teacher - The Washington Post: Fairfax County school administrators are investigating a student’s allegations of racially insensitive behavior by a veteran English teacher at George C. Marshall High School.

Ninth-grader Jordan Shumate said that during class this month, he was reading aloud a poem by acclaimed African American writer Langston Hughes when his teacher interrupted and directed him to read in a “blacker” style.

“She told me, ‘Blacker, Jordan — c’mon, blacker. I thought you were black,’ ” said Shumate, who is African American.

Shumate told his mother, Nicole Cober Page, about the incident Tuesday. She complained to school administrators.

“We take these allegations very seriously, and we’re investigating,” Principal Jay Pearson said Friday. He declined to provide further details.

Shumate, 14, and his mother identified the teacher as Marilyn Bart. Bart did not respond Thursday or Friday to e-mail and phone inquiries about the incident. Records show that Bart has worked in Fairfax schools since 1990.

Trayvon Martin's Family Calls For FBI Investigation

Trayvon Martin's Family Calls For FBI Investigation: SANFORD, Fla. — The parents of a black teenager fatally shot by a white neighborhood watch volunteer called on the FBI Friday to take over the investigation, saying they no longer trust the local police department.

Meanwhile, the shooter's father is defending his son, saying he is not a racist and did not provoke the altercation that led to the shooting.

The parents of Trayvon Martin told an Orlando press conference they no longer trust the Sanford Police Department. Their 17-year-old son was fatally shot last month as he returned to a Sanford home during a visit from Miami.

Tracy Martin and Sybrina Fulton accused Sanford police of botching the investigation and criticized them for not arresting 28-year-old George Zimmerman, who says he shot Trayvon Martin in self-defense. Martin was not armed. They say the police department hasn't arrested Zimmerman because he is white and their son was black.

Two Hopeful Signs for Americans with Disabilities | The Rundown News Blog | PBS NewsHour | PBS

Two Hopeful Signs for Americans with Disabilities | The Rundown News Blog | PBS NewsHour | PBS: As the mother of a son with disabilities, I try to keep an eye out for news that affects people in the large community of which he is a part. Today, I spotted two that can potentially spell positive news for the 30 million-plus Americans who have one or more forms of disability, and especially for those with the most serious limitations.

First, today is the day the U.S. Department of Justice has said government and private building owners must make sure there are no architectural barriers that would prevent people with disabilities from using -- and enjoying -- what they have to offer. There were revised federal guidelines adopted in 2010 that put a special focus on recreational facilities -- standards that were not included in the original law, the Americans with Disabilities Act, enacted almost 20 years earlier. These include gyms and fitness centers, swimming pools, bowling alleys, boating docks, amusement parks, and golf courses, both regular and miniature.

Southern Miss issues apology for band's derogatory chant at NCAA tournament - CNN.com

Southern Miss issues apology for band's derogatory chant at NCAA tournament - CNN.com: A university president apologized after members of a school's band yelled "where's your green card" at a Hispanic player during a NCAA basketball tournament game Thursday.

The incident was captured by television cameras and occurred during the Southern Miss and Kansas State game at Consol Energy Center in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

As Kansas State point guard Angel Rodriguez shot free throws, several people can clearly be heard saying the green card chant.

Rodriguez did not change his expression during the chants and helped push Kansas State to a victory by scoring 13 points.

Southern Miss president Martha Saunders issued an apology.

Birmingham’s Civil Rights Institute Personalizes a Struggle - NYTimes.com

Birmingham’s Civil Rights Institute Personalizes a Struggle - NYTimes.com: THE visitors were old and young, black and white, from neighborhoods nearby and cities on the other side of the world. But on a recent morning in the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute, they were all stopped in their tracks by one particular display.

“It was unnerving,” said Hollie Pich, 21, a white college student from Sydney, Australia.

“Shocking,” said Pat Chambers of Atlanta, a 62-year-old African-American woman.

“Is that real?” asked Kierra Hutchins, 14, one of a group of students from Smith Middle School here, who clustered around the exhibit — a Ku Klux Klan robe and a cross.

The white, hooded robe was donated to the institute anonymously by someone who found it in a trunk in a house. The crude, partly burned wooden cross planted behind it was given to the museum by the local F.B.I. office. Together they stood in a plexiglass case, illuminated by a ghostly ceiling light, at the head of the museum’s aptly named Confrontation Gallery.

Trayvon Martin Case Salts Old Wounds And Racial Tension

Trayvon Martin Case Salts Old Wounds And Racial Tension: When Bill Lee Jr. took over as police chief in Sanford, Fla., last May, he promised to polish the force’s image and clean up an agency that had lost the confidence of many residents, particularly in the black community.

But last month's shooting death of Trayvon Martin -- an unarmed black teenager who police said was shot by a white neighborhood watch captain -- has reopened old wounds. The police have not arrested George Zimmerman, 28, who is white, and who police said admitted to shooting the teen in self-defense.

According to the Sanford Police Department, Zimmerman called 911 before the shooting, identifying Martin as a “suspicious person.” He was then told not to follow the teen, who was walking from a nearby store to his father’s house in the gated community. But Zimmerman trailed Martin, and had a physical confrontation with him, police said. Moments later, Martin was fatally shot.

Graduation Rates of NCAA Women Basketball Players Earns Praise

Graduation Rates of NCAA Women Basketball Players Earns Praise: The college graduation rate for women student athletes playing for NCAA Division I schools in the 2012 national tournament continues to be significantly higher than that for their male counterparts, and the graduation gap between Black women and their female White peers remains narrower than that for Black and White male student-athletes, says a new report issued Wednesday.

“Keeping Score When It Counts,” the annual analysis of NCAA graduation and academic achievement data performed by The Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport, found an 88 percent overall graduation rate for women, compared to 67 percent for men.

As important, the report says, the gap between graduation rates for Black women student-athletes and their White counterparts was 8 percent compared to the 28 percent gap it found between male Black student-athletes and their male White counterparts on Division I tournament teams.
White female basketball student-athletes on the Division I tournament teams graduate at a rate of 93 percent compared to 85 percent for Black women basketball student-athletes, the analysis found. White Male basketball student-athletes on tournament teams graduate at the rate of 88 percent, compared to 60 percent for their male Black counterparts, the study found.

Q&A: NYPD Spies on Muslim Students

Q&A: NYPD Spies on Muslim Students: NEW YORK – A secret New York Police Department program to spy on Muslim businesses, infiltrate mosques and monitor Muslim students on college campuses has ignited a debate over how to strike a balance between civil liberties and national security. The NYPD has vigorously defended the tactics, calling them legal and necessary.

Here's a look, in question-and-answer format, of the key legal and policy issues at play.

Q: What does it mean that police were “spying”?'

A: Since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the NYPD has become one of the nation's most aggressive domestic intelligence agencies. A secret squad known as the Demographics Unit deployed plainclothes officers, typically of Arab descent, into Muslim neighborhoods to photograph mosques and catalog everywhere that Muslims congregate, including restaurants, grocery stores, Internet cafes and travel agencies. The officers eavesdropped inside businesses and filed daily reports on the ethnicity of the owner and clientele and what they overheard. The program was not based on allegations of criminal activity and did not stop at the city line.

The goal was to have complete understanding of the Muslim communities in and around New York, to identify problem areas and prevent attacks.

Celebrating the March Toward Equity

Celebrating the March Toward Equity: When the Lady Bison lacrosse team at Howard University took the field last month for its season opener, the team began what has been a compelling chapter in the history of the nation’s only lacrosse team sponsored by an HBCU. The team also contributes to a larger chapter of American history regarding intercollegiate sports.

The team is an example of how the landscape of intercollegiate athletics has changed since Congress passed Title IX, the federal law that bars discrimination based on sex in educational programs at institutions that receive federal funds. Intercollegiate athletics is covered by Title IX, which marks its 40th anniversary this year.

“We’ve come so far,” says Karen Morrison, director of gender initiatives at the NCAA, echoing the sentiments of other Title IX advocates.

Trayvon Martin Case Sent To State Attorney's Office Amid Growing Tension, Questions About Police Probe

Trayvon Martin Case Sent To State Attorney's Office Amid Growing Tension, Questions About Police Probe: Police have turned over the investigation into last month's killing of Trayvon Martin, 17, to the Seminole County State Attorney’s Office.

The state will now determine if George Zimmerman, a neighborhood watch captain from Sanford, Fla., will be charged in his death.

According to the Sanford Police Department, Zimmerman admitted that he shot Martin Feb. 26, as the teenager walked from a convenience store back to the gated community where his father lived. Zimmerman, the captain of the neighborhood watch, was patrolling and called 911 to report a suspicious person, police said. He was told to stand down and wait for police, according to officials but instead, Zimmerman followed the teenager, got into a physical altercation and ended up shooting him.

Undocumented immigrant becomes Dream Act rallying point - latimes.com

Undocumented immigrant becomes Dream Act rallying point - latimes.com: Reporting from Durham, N.C.—

Two weeks ago, Uriel Alberto interrupted a state legislative hearing in North Carolina and declared himself an undocumented immigrant.

"I am undocumented and I am unafraid," Alberto, 24, told a North Carolina House of Representatives immigration committee in Raleigh. "I refuse to be bullied and intimidated by this committee and choose to empower my community."

Now, thanks to an online petition campaign, Alberto is a rallying point for supporters of the Dream Act, which would give permanent resident status to undocumented students brought illegally to the U.S. by their parents. Supporters have launched a Facebook page, a Twitter hashtag (#FreeUriel) and online petitions; they've also staged rallies outside the jail, the News and Observer of Raleigh reported Monday.

"He took a brave stand for immigration rights, and now he may get deported for it," said a posting on the Facebook page. Alberto's online supporters are urging others to call or write federal immigration authorities to lobby against deportation.

Baltimore County investigation: Investigation highlights Balto. Co. minority hiring struggle - baltimoresun.com

Baltimore County investigation: Investigation highlights Balto. Co. minority hiring struggle - baltimoresun.com: When Baltimore County Police Capt. Andre Davis took command, late in 2010, of recruiting and hiring, he could see that efforts to bring in African-Americans had slipped. Background checks were not being completed on many applicants, and no effort was being made to see that black candidates showed up for physical and written exams.

He said he reformed those practices but acknowledges that it will take much more over many years to reverse a decades-long deficiency in minority hiring. In a county that is 26 percent African-American, the department is 11 percent black, a figure that has changed very little in years. 

Davis, who now commands the Woodlawn precinct and is among the department's three highest-ranking African-Americans, praises the county's recent efforts but adds, "we've made no progress, that has already been made clear."

Now the U.S. Department of Justice wants answers. The agency has opened an investigation into possible violations of the Civil Rights Act in hiring African-Americans for entry-level uniformed positions in the Police and Fire departments.

Blacks, Latinos Lose Major Ground In Home Ownership: Study

Blacks, Latinos Lose Major Ground In Home Ownership: Study: According to a new report by the Bipartisan Policy Center, a Washington think tank, the housing crisis has eliminated large gains in home ownership among blacks and Latinos.

For blacks, the current level of homeownership actually sits lower than 1990 levels. “Between 2004–2006 and 2010, however, homeownership rates dropped sharply, and more so for Hispanic and black households than for white non-Hispanics,” the study reads. “The overall homeownership rate of 65.1 percent in April 2010 was 1.1 percentage points lower than 10 years earlier. Blacks ended the 2010s with a lower homeownership rate, 44.3 percent, than their 1990 rate of 45.2 percent and two percentage points lower than just 10 years earlier.”

George Zimmerman Neighbors Complained About Aggressive Tactics Before Trayvon Martin Killing

George Zimmerman Neighbors Complained About Aggressive Tactics Before Trayvon Martin Killing: A volunteer community watch captain who shot an unarmed Florida teenager to death last month had been the subject of complaints by neighbors in his gated community for aggressive tactics, a homeowner said.

George Zimmerman has not been charged in the Feb. 26 shooting of Trayvon Martin, 17, who was walking home from a convenience store in Sanford, Fla., near Orlando. Zimmerman, who patrolled the Retreat at Twin Lakes development in his own car, had been called aggressive in earlier complaints to the local police and the homeowner's association, according to a homeowner who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

At an emergency homeowner’s association meeting on March 1, “one man was escorted out because he openly expressed his frustration because he had previously contacted the Sanford Police Department about Zimmerman approaching him and even coming to his home,” the resident wrote in an email to HuffPost. “It was also made known that there had been several complaints about George Zimmerman and his tactics" in his neighborhood watch captain role.

Interracial Marriage: Many Deep South Republican Voters Believe Interracial Marriage Should Be Illegal

Interracial Marriage: Many Deep South Republican Voters Believe Interracial Marriage Should Be Illegal: Despite the fact that the number of interracial marriages in the U.S. reached an all-time high this year, there are many who still believe that mixed-race marriage is unacceptable and should be made illegal, according to a new report.

On Monday, polling firm Public Policy Polling (PPP) revealed that 29 percent of likely GOP voters surveyed in Mississippi believe that interracial marriage should be illegal. Fifty-four percent said intermarriage should remain legal, and the rest responded that they weren't sure. The survey also found that 21 percent of likely GOP voters polled in Alabama believe that interracial marriage should be illegal.

Although the last U.S. anti-miscegenation laws were lifted more than four decades ago in 1967, many mixed-race couples in the Deep South are still struggling to feel safe and be accepted in their communities.

Spend Money on Schools Instead of the War on Drugs - Room for Debate - NYTimes.com

Spend Money on Schools Instead of the War on Drugs - Room for Debate - NYTimes.com: If we have any hope of healing the deep wounds of race in this country, we've first got to stop the bleeding caused by mass incarceration and the other ill effects of the failed "war on drugs."

Thanks to our ramped up "war on drugs," when I walk in my old neighborhood I see houses where one or both parents are behind bars or on probation or parole. It didn't use to be that way.

Our prohibition policies, and the "us vs. the man" mentality they have caused in our communities, have badly damaged how young black men are perceived -- and not just by white people. As an African-American narcotics cop in Baltimore, even I fell victim to fear and apprehension when I encountered a group of black teenagers on the street. Making drugs like marijuana illegal has made them incredibly lucrative, and it's not hard to see why many teenagers choose to enlist in the dope game and play for the chance at moving up the chain and raking in tax-free money rather than donning a McDonald's uniform.

Black Men: Stigma, Status and Expectations - Room for Debate - NYTimes.com

Black Men: Stigma, Status and Expectations - Room for Debate - NYTimes.com: Although America has made tremendous progress in its struggle to overcome its tragic racial history, much work remains to be done. This ongoing challenge lies in the degree to which the root cause of racially differential treatment — racial stigma — is resistant to the formal tools generally available to combat racial subordination.

New world slavery both distinguished and explained itself through race. New world slavery, unlike other contemporaneous forms of bondage, was coterminous with skin color: a person’s enslaved status was inherited at birth, for example, because it was skin color, not any sort of personal misconduct, that qualified one for slavery. Likewise, the stigmatization of skin color — the notion that a particular skin color signaled one’s status as a human being — reconciled chattel slavery with progressive Enlightenment values. Racial stigma, moreover, informed that adverse treatment was both appropriate and usually necessary for the stigmatized. According to the United States Supreme Court, black folk were so deficient that they “might justly and lawfully be reduced to slavery for [their] benefit.”

Our Inability to Separate Black Man From Criminal - Room for Debate - NYTimes.com

Our Inability to Separate Black Man From Criminal - Room for Debate - NYTimes.com: When asked during the 2008 campaign if he identified as black, President Obama simply said, "The last time I tried to catch a cab in N.Y.C...." His comment signaled to blacks that he experienced discrimination, while simultaneously illuminating a fatal flaw with race relations in the 21st century — our inability to separate black man from criminal.

In addition to the Department of Education study, sociological research continues to show that blacks and Latinos are more likely to be disciplined in school and stopped by the police. While some may anecdotally argue that black kids are badder than white kids, studies show a more pressing problem — teachers and police officers monitor, profile and police black and Latino youth and neighborhoods more than white ones.

While 75 percent of high school students have tried addictive substances, only specific groups and areas get targeted by the police. As evidence by the e-mail University of Akron sent their black male students, college status does not afford them the privilege to avoid policing. Thus, a black senator is treated similarly to a "potential felon."

For Equality's Sake, We Must Eliminate Discrimination - Room for Debate - NYTimes.com

For Equality's Sake, We Must Eliminate Discrimination - Room for Debate - NYTimes.com: Michelle Alexander is absolutely correct. The war on drugs is a key component of the 21st century’s system of racial control — what I have called in my work for a number of years the racial order. Eliminating draconian drug laws, legalizing marijuana so that its use is treated as what it is —a social drug, with social and medical problems, on the order of alcohol — is a necessary, but by no means sufficient, condition for beginning to rectify the mass incarceration of black males and return a modicum of equity to our criminal justice system and society. Given, however, that the war on drugs is just one component of the racial order that continues to particularly devastate and disadvantage poor black and brown communities, several other steps must be urgently taken if we are actually to build the democratic, just society that has never existed for these communities.

Young, Black and Male in America - Room for Debate - NYTimes.com

Young, Black and Male in America - Room for Debate - NYTimes.com: The news for young black men is not good: they are disproportionately singled out for discipline in school, they are more likely to be stopped and frisked by New York City police officers, and according to Michelle Alexander in her book, “The New Jim Crow,” nearly one-third of black men are likely to spend time in prison at some point in their lives.

Would pulling back on draconian drug laws or legalizing marijuana be enough to fix this imbalance? What else needs to be done?

Emerging Scholars

Emerging Scholars: As always, agonizing over who will make up this year's class of Emerging Scholars was intense, yet this was a happy work. We felt privileged to have the opportunity to read about so many talented young scholars committed to using their gift s to make the world a better place.

One of the most eye-popping nominations for the Emerging Scholars Class of 2012 came in for Geanncarlo Lugo-Villarino, a postdoctoral fellow studying tuberculosis a world away in Toulouse, France, at the French government's equivalent to the NIH. Lugo's Ph.D. in immunology from Harvard is a first clue that he is a bright star on the academic horizon, but the fact that he earned an associate in science degree in general studies from Southwestern College and lists this fact prominently on his CV is an indication of Lugo's true potential.

Among many other things, community colleges have long served as a springboard for high-potential students with meager resources to make it big.

Slight Graduation Rate Jump Seen for Black Men on NCAA Basketball Tournament Teams

Slight Graduation Rate Jump Seen for Black Men on NCAA Basketball Tournament Teams: The disparity between the graduation rates of Black and White athletes playing on NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Tournament Teams is narrowing primarily because fewer Whites are graduating, says a new report on diversity and ethics in sport.

The Graduation Success Rate (GSR) for male Black basketball players rose a point to 60 percent from 59 percent, according to the annual analysis of NCAA data performed by The Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport (TIDES), based at the University of Central Florida. The GSR for White male basketball players dropped to 88 percent from 91 percent. The overall Graduation Success Rate rose by a point to 67 percent, says the study, “Keeping Score When It Counts.”

“…The most troubling statistic in our study is the continuing large disparity between the GSR of White basketball student athletes and African-American basketball students,” says Dr. Richard Lapchick, the primary author of the study and director of the institute.

NAACP heads to U.N. to address suppression of minority voters | The Raw Story

NAACP heads to U.N. to address suppression of minority voters | The Raw Story: NAACP leaders will challenge new voting laws in the United States at the United Nations’ Human Rights Council in Switzerland on Wednesday.

“It was in 1947 that W.E.B. Dubois delivered his speech and appealed to the world at the U.N.,” NAACP president Benjamin Todd Jealous told McClatchy Newspapers. “Now, like then, the principal concern is voting rights. The past year more states in this country have passed more laws pushing more voters out of the ballot box than any point since Jim Crow.”

The NAACP has vocally opposed restrictions on voting and hopes to use its appearance at the U.N. to publicize what it claims are efforts to suppressing the votes of minorities.

Civil Rights Project Co-Founders, San Francisco State President Receiving John Hope Franklin Awards

Civil Rights Project Co-Founders, San Francisco State President Receiving John Hope Franklin Awards: A law school dean, an education school professor, and a longtime university president who have collectively advanced diversity in higher education will be honored by Diverse on Monday at the annual meeting of the American Council on Education.

The three academics—Gary Orfield and Christopher Edley Jr., co-founders of The Civil Rights Project at Harvard, now housed at UCLA, and Dr. Robert A. Corrigan, longtime president at San Francisco State University—all have been selected to receive Diverse magazine’s Dr. John Hope Franklin Award. The award is bestowed annually to recognize individuals and organizations for excellence in higher education.

This year’s awardees embody the principles of the award’s namesake, said Maya Matthews Minter, Vice President of Editorial and Production at Diverse.

“The awardees, just as Dr. Franklin demonstrated during his lifetime, represent the very essence of excellence and integrity in academic leadership and service,” Minter said.

HIV Among Black Women 5 Times Higher Than Previously Thought: Study

HIV Among Black Women 5 Times Higher Than Previously Thought: Study: As the health community geared up to recognize National Women and Girls HIV Awareness Day today, startling new research revealed that the disease is five times more prevalent among African-American women than previously thought.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that 1 in 32 African-American women will be diagnosed with HIV in their lifetime. But a national team of AIDS experts at Johns Hopkins and elsewhere say they are surprised and dismayed by the results of a new study they conducted, showing that the yearly number of new cases of HIV infection among black women is five times previous estimates from the CDC.

The team, called the HIV Prevention Trials Network (HPTN), announced results from its HPTN 064 Women's HIV Seroincidence Study (ISIS) this week, which found that among 2,099 women ages 18 to 44, 88 percent of whom were black, 1.5 percent (32 women) tested positive at the outset of the study, even though they all thought they were negative. Among those who initially tested negative for HIV, the rate of new infections was 0.24 percent within a year after joining the study.

Gordon Parks' D.C. Photography From 1940s Shows Black And White Realities In Nation's Capital

Gordon Parks' D.C. Photography From 1940s Shows Black And White Realities In Nation's Capital: WASHINGTON -- This week marks the passing of celebrated photographer Gordon Parks, who died in March 2006 at the age of 93.

Parks is recognized for many talents beyond his photography. He was a novelist, journalist, activist and film director.

But also worth lauding is the fact that Gordon Parks was, for a time, a resident and observer of the nation's capital.

After an exhibition of one of Chicago's rundown neighborhoods, he won a photography fellowship with the Farm Security Administration in D.C.

Can Stereotyping Girls Harm Boys Too? | MindShift

Can Stereotyping Girls Harm Boys Too? | MindShift: Getty

When Larry Summers, then the president of Harvard, made his infamous remark in 2005 about “intrinsic aptitude” in explaining part of the gap between men and women’s performance in math and science, he was accused of making it harder for women and girls to succeed in those fields. He wasn’t blamed for hobbling the performance of men and boys—but maybe he should have been.

According to new research, both males and females do worse on a spatial reasoning task when they’re told that intrinsic aptitude accounts for the gender gap in the test’s results—even though the gap favors men.

In the study, published in the February issue of the journal Learning and Individual Differences, psychologist Angelica Mo�told a group of 201 high school students that they would be taking a test that measured how well they could mentally manipulate imagined objects. They were also told that males perform better than females on this exercise, known as the Mental Rotation Test. Such pre-test comments are a standard way of inducing what psychologists call “stereotype threat.”

Towson University student group's messages spark debate over racism - baltimoresun.com

Towson University student group's messages spark debate over racism - baltimoresun.com: A controversial student group at Towson University has again drawn criticism from other students who claim it is racist. But school administrators say they won't be taking any action against the group.

On Saturday night, the group, Youth for Western Civilization, chalked messages that included the words "White Pride" at several visible locations on campus, including the Student Union and Freedom Square, said its president, Matthew Heimbach. When discovered Monday, the messages angered other student groups, who saw them as having nationalist connotations.

Five times as many black women in Baltimore infected with HIV than national average - baltimoresun.com

Five times as many black women in Baltimore infected with HIV than national average - baltimoresun.com: African-American women in Baltimore and five other U.S. cities are becoming infected with HIV at a rate five times the national average for black women, and closer to the rates of some African countries, according to a new study.

Researchers at the Johns Hopkins University and around the country who made the findings suspected the rates were higher in these "hot spots" that have battled the epidemic for decades, but the numbers still came as a surprise in a field that tends to focus more on black and gay men.

"This is why it's important to remind people that this is going on right here in our hometown," said Dr. Charles Flexner, the principal investigator for the Baltimore part of the study and a clinical pharmacologist and infectious disease expert at Johns Hopkins.

"Given what is going on in Baltimore, it's hard to be too aggressive with this," he said. "It's a huge public health problem and the earlier we get it under control, the better off we're going to be."

As Aid Bill Lingers, Illegal Immigrants in New York Get Scholarships - NYTimes.com

As Aid Bill Lingers, Illegal Immigrants in New York Get Scholarships - NYTimes.com: ...State proposals that would make government financial aid available for illegal immigrants like Ms. Lopez are pending in Albany. Frustrated with the pace of federal and state legislative action, advocacy groups, with the support of New York City officials, have developed a stopgap solution — for a small number of needy students, at least.

On Thursday, the groups announced the recipients of a new college scholarship specifically for illegal immigrants, the first such program in the state, they said.

The program is financed by foundations and private donors, not public sources. But it has received crucial financing and support from the Fund for Public Advocacy, a nonprofit arm of the office of the city’s public advocate, Bill de Blasio, a likely candidate for mayor in 2013.

Commentary: The Case for Transformation in Undergraduate STEM Education

Commentary: The Case for Transformation in Undergraduate STEM Education: Every day, it seems — and rightly so — there are new calls to strengthen and diversify the science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) pipeline by leaders from across the political spectrum. The education community knows this cause well. As many researchers will tell you, interest in STEM majors and careers by underrepresented students is not the issue. It’s what happens along the way to a STEM degree that poses a problem to the majority of students who start down this path.

According to UCLA’s Higher Education Research Institute, of all Black, Native American, and Hispanic students who aspire to a STEM degree in their first college year, just 19 percent, 20 percent and 22 percent, respectively graduate from a STEM department.

There is wide agreement that students who leave STEM will disproportionately do so in the first two college years. Hence, the growth of activities to support students and stem this tide of attrition — chief among them being bridge programs, cohort learning models and intensive advising in the freshman and sophomore years.

Exploring Civil Rights History over Spring Break

Exploring Civil Rights History over Spring Break: SELMA — Omari Ho-Sang has spent this past week marching along the busy Route 80 corridor in Alabama.

While many of her fellow classmates are spending their spring break in the Caribbean, Ho-Sang is taking the 54-mile trek from Selma to Montgomery.

The 21-year-old Tuskegee University student is among dozens of college students who traveled to Alabama this week to participate in the annual commemoration of the “Bloody Sunday” organized by the National Action Network and other civil rights and labor groups.

The original 1965 march, which happened long before these college students were born, ended in a violent showdown between protestors and police on the historic Edmund Pettus Bridge Undeterred, activists including Dr. Martin Luther King and John Lewis, now a U.S. Representative from Georgia, successfully led two separate marches that marked the political and emotional peak of the civil rights movement and led to the passage of the Voting Rights Act later that year.

Latino and Black Voters Fight for Map Power in Texas Congressional Redistricting - NYTimes.com

Latino and Black Voters Fight for Map Power in Texas Congressional Redistricting - NYTimes.com: ...The state’s Hispanic population is blooming, and its black population grew faster than its Anglo population. But Anglos still dominate the political maps, and Latinos dominate the part of the political maps controlled by minorities.

When the Legislature drew political lines, minority groups were in widespread agreement that the maps didn’t reflect the growth; there were not enough seats where minority voters had the ability to decide elections.

Texas outgrew the other states in the country, so much so that it added 4 seats to the 32 already in its Congressional delegation.

Minority groups argued that growth in minority populations accounted for 89 percent of the state’s growth between 2000 and 2010, and that should be the starting place for how the new seats were divvied up.

But when three federal judges in San Antonio unveiled their Congressional map late last month, two of the four new seats had Latino majorities and two have Anglo majorities.

Judges orders millions paid in NYC firefighter bias case - CNN.com

Judges orders millions paid in NYC firefighter bias case - CNN.com: A U.S. district judge ordered New York City to pay $128 million in to firefighters who allege the city used an entrance exam that deliberately sought to keep African-Americans and Latino Americans off the force. The judge also ordered the FDNY to hire 293 black and Latino applicants.

"It has been in the city's power to prevent or remedy the need for damages proceedings for a decade, and it has not done so," U.S. District Judge Nicholas G. Garufis said in his ruling on the class action lawsuit. He called it the "consequences of the city's decision to ignore clear violations of federal law."

The federal government had sued the city (United States of America and Vulcan Society Inc. vs. City of New York) alleging the city violated the U.S. Constitution and local civil rights laws by using an entrance exam intentionally designed to discriminate based on race.

The lawsuit alleged that the exams had little to do with firefighting and instead focused on cognitive and reading skills. Because of the hereditary nature of the fire department, white candidates were recruited and supported throughout the application process by family or neighborhood contacts and whites consistently passed while minority candidates failed.

Heart disease drug 'combats racism' - Telegraph

Heart disease drug 'combats racism' - Telegraph: Volunteers given the beta-blocker, used to treat chest pains and lower heart rates, scored lower on a standard psychological test of "implicit" racist attitudes.

They appeared to be less racially prejudiced at a subconscious level than another group treated with a "dummy" placebo pill.

Scientists believe the discovery can be explained by the fact that racism is fundamentally founded on fear.

Propranolol acts both on nerve circuits that govern automatic functions such as heart rate, and the part of the brain involved in fear and emotional responses. The drug is also used to treat anxiety and panic.

Experimental psychologist Dr Sylvia Terbeck, from Oxford University, who led the study published in the journal Psychopharmacology, said: "Our results offer new evidence about the processes in the brain that shape implicit racial bias.

CUNY Adjunct Professor Mae Ying Chen ‘Walks the Walk’

CUNY Adjunct Professor Mae Ying Chen ‘Walks the Walk’: Asian children being bullied at school can be a serious problem, and May Ying Chen wanted to let people know a federal-level bullying summit was to be held in New York City.

In October, Chen, a newly appointed member of the president’s Advisory Commission on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, held a news conference to tell the media, especially ethnic newspapers, that the summit was coming up. The news conference was short and informal and mostly attended by Chinese media.

She was disappointed by the turnout. In the future, she says, she will hold a roundtable to bring a wider range of ethnic media, many of which are based in New York City, into the mix.

Many Asians are not getting information about federal programs and resources that can help them, and the ethnic media is key to getting the word out, she says.

“I want to be a link or bridge,” says Chen, a former labor leader and an adjunct professor at the City University of New York’s Murphy Institute for Worker Education and Labor Studies.

Graduation Study Finds Gains, Challenges for Latino Students

Graduation Study Finds Gains, Challenges for Latino Students: Latinos are making major strides in college completion although they continue to trail Whites, African-Americans and Asian Americans in several key areas, a new report says.

During the past decade, the number of Hispanics with a bachelor’s degree or higher increased by 80 percent to 3.8 million, says Excelencia in Education, based in Washington, D.C. However, only 21 percent of Latino adults have an associate degree or higher, compared to 57 percent of Asian Americans, 44 percent of Whites and 30 percent of African-Americans.

“Latino college completion is increasing, but gaps remain,” said Deborah Santiago, Excelencia’s vice president of policy and research.

In Finding Your Workforce: The Top 25 Institutions Graduating Latinos in Key Sectors, 2009-10, the report also focused on a specific school year to examine college success trends.

Number of U.S. Hate Groups on the Rise, Report Says - NYTimes.com

Number of U.S. Hate Groups on the Rise, Report Says - NYTimes.com: Fed by antagonism toward President Obama, resentment toward changing racial demographics and the economic rift between rich and poor, the number of so-called hate groups and antigovernment organizations in the nation has continued to grow, according to a report released Wednesday by the Southern Poverty Law Center.

The center, which has kept track of such groups for 30 years, recorded 1,018 hate groups operating last year.

The number of groups whose ideology is organized against specific racial, religious, sexual or other characteristics has risen steadily since 2000, when 602 were identified, the center said. Antigay groups, for example, have risen to 27 from 17 in 2010.

The report also described a “stunning” rise in the number of groups it identifies as part of the so-called patriot and militia movements, whose ideologies include deep distrust of the federal government.

In 2011, the center tracked 1,274 of those groups, up from 824 the year before.

30 Students Involved In Racial Brawl At California High School

30 Students Involved In Racial Brawl At California High School: Dozens of students battled each other at a California high school Wednesday in a racially motivated brawl between black and Latino students that left four injured and two under arrest, authorities said.

At least 30 students traded punches and kicks in a series of fights that erupted in a Carson High School courtyard during the 10 a.m. recess, said Monica Carazo, a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles Unified School District.

School police and Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies quelled the violence. Four students were sent to the hospital for treatment, but Carazo did not immediately know their conditions or the extent of their injuries.

Two students were arrested on suspicion of assault, while another three were taken into custody. Seven other students were issued citations for fighting.

Commentary: Programs Are in Place to Help Minorities Successfully Pursue STEM Graduate Degrees

Commentary: Programs Are in Place to Help Minorities Successfully Pursue STEM Graduate Degrees: Scientific and technological innovation has had a dramatic effect on today’s society and is a key driving force to the global economy. Such technological advances are the result of the most highly skilled workforce in the world. Unfortunately, both women and minorities have largely been underrepresented in science and engineering education and careers.

It has been sufficiently documented over the last several decades that there exists a great disparity in the number of minority graduates in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, or STEM, disciplines in the United States. Several decades of qualitative and quantitative research studies confirm that anemic minority student participation in STEM majors is attributed to many institutional and non-institutional factors. Increasing the active participation of underrepresented minorities, women and persons with disabilities in STEM fields must remain an important strategic goal in the 21st century.

Civil Rights Data Show Minority Students Often Face Discipline and Less Likely to Have Experienced Teachers

Civil Rights Data Show Minority Students Often Face Discipline and Less Likely to Have Experienced Teachers: In a groundbreaking survey that shines additional light on disparities in public education, federal officials released new data on Tuesday that shows minority students are more likely to face discipline and less likely to have experienced teachers or access to rigorous courses than non-minority students.

At the same time, Department of Education officials stopped short of blaming the disparities on racism or poverty, pointing instead to schools and districts that had bucked the trend as evidence that elimination of the disparities is not an insurmountable task.

“The answer is out there,” Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said in a news conference on Tuesday at Howard University to announce the new data. “We just have to take to scale what’s working.”

Michelle Alexander’s ‘New Jim Crow’ Raises Drug Law Debates - NYTimes.com

Michelle Alexander’s ‘New Jim Crow’ Raises Drug Law Debates - NYTimes.com: Garry McCarthy, a 30-year veteran of law enforcement, did not expect to hear anything too startling when he appeared at a conference on drug policy organized last year by an African-American minister in Newark, where he was the police director.

But then a law professor named Michelle Alexander took the stage and delivered an impassioned speech attacking the war on drugs as a system of racial control comparable to slavery and Jim Crow — and received a two-minute standing ovation from the 500 people in the audience.

“These were not young people living in high-crime neighborhoods,” Mr. McCarthy, now police superintendent in Chicago, recalled in a telephone interview. “This was the black middle class.”

“I don’t believe in the government conspiracy, but what you have to accept is that that narrative exists in the community and has to be addressed,” he said. “That was my real a-ha moment.”

Federal data show racial gaps in school arrests - The Washington Post

Federal data show racial gaps in school arrests - The Washington Post: African American students in large school systems are arrested far more often on campus than their white peers, new federal data show.

The data, from an Education Department civil rights survey to be released Tuesday, provide the government’s most extensive examination yet of how public schools across the country bring police into the handling of student offenses.

The new figures also show continuing racial disparities in out-of-school suspensions and expulsions, which are far more common in schools than arrests and referrals to law enforcement.

“The sad fact is that minority students across America face much harsher discipline than non-minorities — even within the same school,” Education Secretary Arne Duncan said. Duncan cautioned that the government is “not alleging overt discrimination in some or all of these cases.” But he said educators and community leaders should join forces to address inequities.

Black Students Face More Harsh Discipline, Data Shows - NYTimes.com

Black Students Face More Harsh Discipline, Data Shows - NYTimes.com: Black students, especially boys, face much harsher discipline in public schools than other students, according to new data from the Department of Education.

Although black students made up only 18 percent of those enrolled in the schools sampled, they accounted for 35 percent of those suspended once, 46 percent of those suspended more than once and 39 percent of all expulsions, according to the Civil Rights Data Collection’s 2009-10 statistics from 72,000 schools in 7,000 districts, serving about 85 percent of the nation’s students. The data covered students from kindergarten age through high school.

One in five black boys and more than one in 10 black girls received an out-of-school suspension. Over all, black students were three and a half times as likely to be suspended or expelled than their white peers.

And in districts that reported expulsions under zero-tolerance policies, Hispanic and black students represent 45 percent of the student body, but 56 percent of those expelled under such policies.

Donald Payne Dead: New Jersey Congressman Dies After Battle With Cancer

Donald Payne Dead: New Jersey Congressman Dies After Battle With Cancer: Rep. Donald Payne (D-N.J.) has died after a battle with colon cancer, The New Jersey Star-Ledger reports. He was 77.

More from Beth DeFalco of the Associated Press:

U.S. Rep. Donald Payne, the first black elected to represent New Jersey in Congress, died Tuesday. He was 77.

Payne's brother, William, said he died at St. Barnabas Hospital.

The 12-term member of the House had announced in February that he was undergoing treatment for colon cancer and would continue to represent his district.

He had held his congressional seat since 1988 and was elected to a 12th term in 2010. He represented the 10th District, which includes the city of Newark and parts of Essex, Hudson and Union counties.

Blood Donation Campaign Targets Black Community

Blood Donation Campaign Targets Black Community: While high rates of sickle cell anemia and lupus prevail in the black community, often requiring blood transfusions, experts say African Americans currently donate less than one percent of the country's blood supply.

It's a shortage advocates are calling on African-American lawmakers to help turn around, seeking their help to recruit more blood donors from the black community.

In Illinois, the Coalition of Community Blood Centers and the General Assembly's Black Caucus have launched a campaign called "Make Every Drop Count," an effort to raise awareness about the need for blood donations among blacks, the Chicago Tribune reports.

Jada Williams, Student, Allegedly Harassed For Award-Winning Essay Comparing School To Modern Slavery (VIDEO)

Jada Williams, Student, Allegedly Harassed For Award-Winning Essay Comparing School To Modern Slavery (VIDEO): When Jada Williams, a 13-year-old student at Rochester's School No. 3, wrote an essay making comparisons between a slavemaster discouraging Fredrick Douglas from learning to read and modern education struggles in her district, the teen didn't expect a wave of controversy -- but she ended up switching schools because of it, the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle reports.

“When I find myself sitting in a crowded classroom where no real instruction is taking place I can say history does repeat itself,” Jada wrote in her essay, according to the Democrat and Chronicle. “I feel like not much has changed. Just different people. Different era. The same old discrimination still resides in the hearts of the white man.”

Williams said she began to feel singled out by teachers after turning the essay in to her English class, earning "Ds" -- a change from her previous "As. She also said the school's treatment of her changed in general, the Rochester City Newspaper reports.

Marchers honor historic Alabama trek to protest voter ID law – USATODAY.com

Marchers honor historic Alabama trek to protest voter ID law – USATODAY.com:MONTGOMERY, Ala. – Thousands of activists walked across one of America's most famous bridges Sunday, saluting the 1965 Voting Rights Act and calling for the rejection of Alabama's tough new immigration law.

The anniversary of the historic march from Selma to Montgomery, Ala., in 1965 attracted many organizations, from labor unions to civil rights groups.

Al Sharpton mentioned the new immigration law on the Edmund Pettus Bridge, citing past gains and the need for demonstrations. "We're not being beaten on the bridge, but we're being blocked at the ballot box," he said, urging protests of the immigration law.

INTERACTIVE: A closer look at civil rights in America

The annual event commemorates the anniversary of the 1965 demonstration that became known as "Bloody Sunday" after police attacked peaceful protesters.

Civil War hero Robert Smalls seized the opportunity to be free - The Washington Post

Civil War hero Robert Smalls seized the opportunity to be free - The Washington Post: He sat at the conference table next to Frederick Douglass as they tried to convince President Abraham Lincoln that African Americans should be allowed to fight for their own freedom. He served five terms in Congress. He ran a newspaper and helped found a state Republican Party.

But first, he had to win his freedom.

To do that, he conceived a plan that struck a blow against the Confederacy so significant that he was heralded across the nation. Carrying out his mission required bravery, intelligence and precision timing — attributes that many whites at that time thought blacks didn’t possess.
Robert Smalls proved them wrong and changed history in the doing.

D.C. photographer chronicled a host of African American firsts - The Washington Post

D.C. photographer chronicled a host of African American firsts - The Washington Post: Back before Ray Wilson went blind, there was little he loved more than looking at visages through his viewfinder. He preferred them black and historic.

Over three decades, Wilson photographed Buffalo soldiers and Thurgood Marshall, Sidney Poitier and Rosa Parks, Ron Brown and James Brown. Civil rights leader Dorothy Height was a favorite subject, and the city’s black mayors appear frequently in Wilson’s frames.

The septuagenarian shutterbug, who bought the camera that would transform his life in 1975 on a whim, became an eyewitness to black history. He took thousands of pictures of everyday folks and famous African American figures, of minor meetings and momentous events, from the 20th anniversary of the March on Washington to the Million Man March.

On March 14, he will be honored by the Greater Washington Urban League for his photographic work, which he mostly pursued as a passion, not a profession.

William Bryan Jennings, Morgan Stanley Banker, Charged With Hate Crime In Cabbie Stabbing

William Bryan Jennings, Morgan Stanley Banker, Charged With Hate Crime In Cabbie Stabbing: An investment banker was charged with a hate crime Wednesday for allegedly stabbing a cab driver of Middle-Eastern descent after a dispute over the fare from Manhattan back to the banker's multimillion dollar home in Darien, Connecticut.

W. Jennings Bryan turned himself into police Wednesday for the December 22nd incident. Charged with "second-degree assault, theft of services and second-degree intimidation based on race or bigotry" for allegedly calling the cabbie racial slurs, The Stamford Advocate reports, he was released on $9,500 bond and is expected in court on March 7th.

Jennings's lawyer, Gene Riccio, claims his client was a "victim of abduction."

"We have a serious disagreement with the facts as portrayed by the cab driver," Riccio said, and called it "mind-boggling" that the driver hasn't been charged.

Richard Cebull, Montana Federal Judge, Apologizes To Obama For Racist Email

Richard Cebull, Montana Federal Judge, Apologizes To Obama For Racist Email: Richard Cebull, Montana's chief federal judge, apologized to Obama after admitting he forwarded an email comparing African-Americans to dogs and implying that President Barack Obama's mother had sex with animals.

"I sincerely and profusely apologize to you and your family for the email I forwarded," said Cebull's apology letter, which was dated March 1. "I accept full responsibility; I have no one to blame but myself."

Cebull said he requested that the Judicial Council of the Ninth Circuit review the situation.

"Honestly, I don't know what else I can do," Cebull wrote.

Dream Act students long for change: 'I don't feel like I'm doing my potential' | World news | guardian.co.uk

Dream Act students long for change: 'I don't feel like I'm doing my potential' | World news | guardian.co.uk: ...The Dream – or the Development, Relief, and Education of Minors – Act would offer a path to legalisation for young immigrants who arrived in the US before the age of 16. Since it was first introduced to Congress, the Dream Act has become progressively more stringent. To qualify for a predecessor of the bill, known as the Student Adjustment Act of 2001, one had to complete the sixth grade.

As of 2010, the Dream Act requires graduating from high school and then completing at least two years of a four-year university course or two years of military service and it would not provide undocumented students with access to in-state tuition at public universities or federal financial aid.

ACLU Asks for Pennsylvania Probe of NYPD Muslim Monitoring

ACLU Asks for Pennsylvania Probe of NYPD Muslim Monitoring: The American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania called on state authorities on Thursday to investigate the surveillance of Muslim college students by the New York City police.

The ACLU petition was joined by a dozen civil rights groups, including Muslim student groups at the University of Pennsylvania, Penn's law school and Ursinus College.

The chapter asked state Attorney General Linda Kelly to investigate the extent of the surveillance of college students; her spokesman did not immediately return a message.

The demand follows Associated Press reports that the New York Police Department has monitored Muslim college students at Penn and elsewhere in the Northeast. The ACLU chapter in Connecticut also is calling on authorities to investigate spying in that state.

Catholic diocese sorry after punishing girl for speaking native languange | The Raw Story

Catholic diocese sorry after punishing girl for speaking native languange | The Raw Story: The Catholic Diocese of Green Bay has apologized after punishing a 12-year-old girl for speaking her Native American language at Sacred Heart Catholic School in Shawano, Wisconsin.

Miranda Washinawatok explained to WGBA that she wasn’t allowed to play in one basketball game after she spoke in her native Menominee language to two students in her 7th grade class.

“It means I love you,” Washinawatok said, recalling that her teacher, Julie Gurta, reacted with anger.

'Fighting Sioux' Denied Invitation to University of Iowa Track Meet

'Fighting Sioux' Denied Invitation to University of Iowa Track Meet: The North Dakota "Fighting Sioux" will not be fighting at the University of Iowa anytime soon, thanks to UI's strict policy about Native American mascot names.

Mark Abbott, the athletic director at the University of Iowa, will not invite the University of North Dakota to participate in a track meet this April because of their mascot, the Iowa City Press-Citizen reports. University policy prohibits scheduling games with or attending tournaments at schools that use Native American names for their mascots. While UI makes some exceptions for schools that have had the names approved by both the NCAA and the tribe in question, North Dakota's name has been up for debate since 2005.

“There was some discussion about it, but the policy on not competing against institutions that use Native American mascots came into play,” Abbott told the Press-Citizen.

As a result of pressure from the University of North Dakota community, the North Dakota House of Representatives introduced a bill in 1999 to eliminate the nickname "Fighting Sioux." The bill failed, and the name has continued to spark controversy ever since.

More Blacks and Latinos Admitted to Elite New York High Schools - NYTimes.com

More Blacks and Latinos Admitted to Elite New York High Schools - NYTimes.com: The number of black and Latino students who were accepted at one of eight highly selective high schools in New York City increased from last year, according to admissions statistics released on Wednesday by the city’s Education Department. The uptick for the two groups reverses a years-long decline in admissions to the schools, where admittance is based on a single test.

About 730 black and Latino students scored well enough on the test, records show, to qualify for entrance to the specialized schools — a group that includes large, traditional institutions like Stuyvesant High School in Manhattan and the Bronx High School of Science, which enroll thousands of students, and small schools like the High School of American Studies at Lehman College in the Bronx, whose enrollment is 373.

The number was 14 percent higher than last year’s and 12 percent higher than that in 2010, based on the records, giving education officials reason for cautious celebration. Black students received 6 percent of the offers, while Latinos accounted for 8 percent.

To Get Kids To Class, L.A. Softens Its Hard Line : NPR

To Get Kids To Class, L.A. Softens Its Hard Line : NPR: ...Criollo's group got a hold of police data showing that in five years, officers issued 47,000 truancy tickets — most right next to schools in lower-income neighborhoods. Blacks and Latinos received a disproportionate number of the tickets, compared with the makeup of the student population. The daytime curfew only applies to unaccompanied minors. Criollo points out that in richer neighborhoods, tardy kids often escape tickets because their parents drive them to school. Kids in poor neighborhoods usually rely on public buses.

At a recent rally to protest the law, teacher Andrew Terranova explains that tickets meant to scare kids into going to school have had the opposite effect.
"I had students who I'd say, 'Where were you yesterday? You were absent from my class.' 'Oh, Mister, I was late. I missed my connecting bus so I went home.' 'Why'd you go home?' 'Oh, I was afraid of getting another truancy ticket.' "

Michael Nash, the presiding judge for L.A.'s Juvenile Court, where most of the tickets and fines are handled, called the fines crazy.

Federal judge admits he sent anti-Obama, racist e-mail – USATODAY.com

Federal judge admits he sent anti-Obama, racist e-mail – USATODAY.com: HELENA, Mont. – Montana's U.S. District Chief Judge Richard Cebull on Wednesday admitted to sending a racially charged e-mail about President Obama from his courthouse chambers.

Cebull, of Billings, was nominated by former president George W. Bush and received his commission in 2001 and has served as chief judge for the District of Montana since 2008.

The subject line of the e-mail, which Cebull sent from his official courthouse e-mail address on Feb. 20 at 3:42 p.m., reads: "A MOM'S MEMORY."

The forwarded text reads as follow:

"Normally I don't send or forward a lot of these, but even by my standards, it was a bit touching. I want all of my friends to feel what I felt when I read this. Hope it touches your heart like it did mine.

"A little boy said to his mother; 'Mommy, how come I'm black and you're white?' " the e-mail joke reads. "His mother replied, 'Don't even go there Barack! From what I can remember about that party, you're lucky you don't bark!' "

Xavier University is First HBCU to Land a Confucius Institute

Xavier University is First HBCU to Land a Confucius Institute: When officials at Xavier University of Louisiana secured the support they needed to start a Confucius Institute on campus, it helped the university become the first HBCU to land the program meant to promote Chinese language and culture.

Beyond that distinction, university officials also succeeded in taking a critical step toward reaching a goal to offer a more globally relevant education.

Though Xavier’s selection as a Confucius Institute site was first announced after a trade and cultural exchange mission that the National Urban League led to Beijing in 2010, it is a feat university officials are trumpeting anew now that the university formalized the arrangement.

Johns Hopkins Launches Study of Genetic Drivers of Asthma in Blacks

Johns Hopkins Launches Study of Genetic Drivers of Asthma in Blacks: An international team of scientists is undertaking a groundbreaking, $9.5 million study of the genetic coding of Black asthmatics, a group that constitutes a fifth of all Blacks in the United States.

Though zeroing in on hereditary links to the potentially lethal respiratory disorder in Blacks, the research also aims to yield a more comprehensive knowledge of the root causes of certain diseases in Blacks and, thereby, more precisely tailored medical treatment.

“The proof will be in the pudding of what we discover. But this study is the biggest of its kind. It’s the first of its kind,” said Dr. Kathleen Barnes, an immunogeneticist and professor at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and Hopkins’ Bloomberg School of Public Health.

With a disproportionate share of medical research previously enrolling mainly White study participants, this Black-focused asthma research represents an essential departure.

In New Book, Anita Hill Explores Pursuit of American Dream

In New Book, Anita Hill Explores Pursuit of American Dream: In her new book, the renowned professor of law and social policy utilizes an interdisciplinary approach to address issues of race, gender, class and access to the American dream.

At lectures around the country where Anita Hill discusses the subject explored in her most recent book, Reimagining Equality: Gender, Race, and the American Dream, there is a palpable sense of excitement and energy among those in attendance. Audience members connect Hill’s history to their own moments of enlightenment, engagement in issues and sense of purpose.

NHL, Thurgood Marshall Fund Announce Hockey Scholarships

NHL, Thurgood Marshall Fund Announce Hockey Scholarships: In an effort to get inner city youths to aim for the goal of higher education through the game of hockey, the National Hockey League and Thurgood Marshall College Fund teamed up Wednesday to announce a new scholarship for hockey-playing youths.

If anyone harbored any notions that hockey won’t ever catch on in the “hood,” those notions were thoroughly thrashed by several individuals who attended the kickoff event held in a congressional hearing room on Capitol Hill.

They included college aspiring youths such as Dishawn Jackson, 17, a 6-foot-3 center not for anyone’s basketball team, but as a member of one of the after-school hockey teams run by the Ed Snider Youth Hockey Foundation in Philadelphia.

Increase Of Ku Klux Klan Membership In Colorado Tracks National Rise Of Hate Crimes

Increase Of Ku Klux Klan Membership In Colorado Tracks National Rise Of Hate Crimes: The KKK says their membership is “booming” in Colorado, with 12 white supremacist groups active in the state, according to a report by The Durango Herald.

Herald staff writer Chase Olivarius-McAllister reported earlier this week that Cole Thornton, Imperial Grand Wizard of Colorado’s United Northern and Southern Knights Ku Klux Klan group, claims that membership has grown steadily in the past few years.

“I’m really pleased with the kind of people we’re getting in – college-educated, professionals, teachers – even a couple congressmen. People would be amazed to know who I’ve talked with at midnight in isolated areas – it’s almost comical,” Thornton said to the Durango Herald.

Alum Tells Smith College to Quit Admitting Poors

Alum Tells Smith College to Quit Admitting Poors: In recent years, Smith College has been making efforts to improve its diversity. But one alum isn't happy about this. She would like less diversity, please — and she's written a letter warning Smith about the dire consequences of admitting fewer rich white ladies.

Anne Spurzem, class of '84, wrote to the Smith College Sophian on Wednesday. Let's just read the whole letter, shall we?

Collaboration among Colleges, Universities Urged as a Minority STEM Strategy

Collaboration among Colleges, Universities Urged as a Minority STEM Strategy: While the higher education landscape for diversity initiatives fraught with legal pitfalls, institutional leaders can still develop exemplary programs that increase minority participation in STEM fields without running afoul of the law.

That is the crux of a new report released this week by the American Association for the Advancement of Science, or AAAS, and EducationCounsel LLC titled “The Smart Grid for Institutions of Higher Education and the Students They Serve: Developing and Using Collaborative Agreements to Bring More Students into STEM.”

As its name suggests, the report draws an analogy between efforts to enhance the nation’s electric power grid and what is envisaged in the report as “the Smart Grid for institutions of higher education.”

Public University Association, NASA Host Minority Male STEM Symposium

Public University Association, NASA Host Minority Male STEM Symposium: When it comes to increasing the number of minority men who pursue a career in the STEM fields, success largely hinges on a matter of money.

That was one of the key points made Tuesday morning at NASA headquarters during an event billed as the “Symposium on Supporting Underrepresented Minority Males in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM).”

Getting individuals to enter STEM fields and careers is not as much an issue as paying them enough money to want to stay in STEM occupations, said panelist Dr. Nicole Smith, senior economist at the Center on Education and the Workforce at Georgetown University.

“The key reason is pay. Let’s be frank about that,” Smith said during a panel discussion at the symposium titled “Implications from the Minority Male STEM Initiative.”

Filipinos Debate Racism in a Men's Magazine - NYTimes.com

Filipinos Debate Racism in a Men's Magazine - NYTimes.com: Some merely saw an alluring photo of a light-skinned Filipina actress in a swimsuit, Bela Padilla, emerging from a group of dark-skinned models, with the caption, “Stepping Out of the Shadows.” Sexy, they said. Artistic.

Others found the photo to be racist and repugnant.The outcry and outrage were enough that Summit Media, the local publisher of FHM magazine, apologized and pulled the magazine. The company said in a statement that it would release the March issue with a new cover, one that would again feature Ms. Padilla.Summit publishes more than 20 magazines in the Philippines, including Cosmopolitan, Esquire, Disney Junior and Town & Country. Summit says FHM is the largest men’s magazine in the country, with more than 1 million readers a month.

“DISGUSTING representation of colorism and racism in the Philippines!’’ said Michelle Renee See on Twitter.

'Space Chronicles': Why Exploring Space Still Matters : NPR

'Space Chronicles': Why Exploring Space Still Matters : NPR: After decades of global dominance, America's space shuttle program ended last summer while countries like Russia, China and India continue to advance their programs. But astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, author of the new book Space Chronicles: Facing the Ultimate Frontier, says America's space program is at a critical moment. He thinks it's time for America to invest heavily in space exploration and research.

"Space exploration is a force of nature unto itself that no other force in society can rival," Tyson tells NPR's David Greene. "Not only does that get people interested in sciences and all the related fields, [but] it transforms the culture into one that values science and technology, and that's the culture that innovates," Tyson says. "And in the 21st century, innovations in science and technology are the foundations of tomorrow's economy."

He sees this "force of nature" firsthand when he goes to student classrooms. "I could stand in front of eighth-graders and say, 'Who wants to be an aerospace engineer so you can design an airplane 20 percent more fuel-efficient than the one your parents flew?' " Tyson says. "That doesn't usually work. But if I say, 'Who wants to be an aerospace engineer to design the airplane that will navigate the rarefied atmosphere of Mars?' because that's where we're going next, I'm getting the best students in the class. I'm looking for life on Mars? I'm getting the best biologist. I want to study the rocks on Mars? I'm getting the best geologists."