Research Roundup: More Hazardous Waste Facilities Located in Minority Areas

Research Roundup: More Hazardous Waste Facilities Located in Minority Areas

New research from the University of Michigan shows that hazardous waste facilities are disproportionately placed in poor, minority neighborhoods.

Dr. Paul Mohai, a professor in UM’s School of Natural Resources and Environment, is the lead author of the study, called “Toxic Waste and Race at Twenty 1987-2007, Grassroots Struggles to Dismantle Environmental Racism in the United States.” He says minorities are living in the areas where hazardous waste facilities have decided to locate.

The report suggests that demographic changes that began before the hazardous waste sites were selected continued afterwards.

Gifted? Autistic? Or Just Quirky? - washingtonpost.com

Gifted? Autistic? Or Just Quirky? - washingtonpost.com

Gifted? Autistic? Or Just Quirky?

As More Children Receive Diagnoses, Effects of These Labels Seem Mixed

By Maia Szalavitz

Special to The Washington Post
Tuesday, February 27, 2007; Page HE01

"Paradoxically liberating" is how Phil Schwarz has described his Asperger's syndrome diagnosis. He was in his late 30s at the time, and he had number of things on his mind: A software developer in Framingham, Mass., Schwarz had been labeled "gifted" as a child and had graduated third in his high school class. For years he had struggled with depression and a feeling that he was not living up to the promise of his past.

What's more, he had begun to worry about his toddler's delayed language development and repetitive play style. But he had no idea how the diagnosis that his son Jeremy would receive might affect his own identity.

Q&A: How Kids Learn Prejudices, Stereotypes - Newsweek Health - MSNBC.com

Q&A: How Kids Learn Prejudices, Stereotypes - Newsweek Health - MSNBC.com
Child-development experts have spent years studying geekdom: what it is that makes one child more likely to be rejected by another. But University of Maryland professor Melanie Killen took a different approach. Instead of focusing on social deficits, Killen, associate director of the Center for Children, Relationships and Culture, focused on another category of rejection—when children are excluded because of gender, race or ethnicity rather than their behavior. Killen calls it “group membership.” Her study, “Children’s Social and Moral Reasoning About Exclusion,” published in this month’s issue of Current Directions in Psychological Science, shows that kids become aware of group membership from at least the time they’re in preschool. But, while kids universally feel that it’s unfair to reject someone based exclusively on their gender, race or religion, there are some situations in which they do so anyway. Killen spoke to NEWSWEEK’s Anna Kuchment about why that’s the case.

Report: In U.S., record numbers are plunged into poverty - USATODAY.com

Report: In U.S., record numbers are plunged into poverty - USATODAY.com

WASHINGTON (AFP) — The gulf between rich and poor in the United States is yawning wider than ever, and the number of extremely impoverished is at a three-decade high, a report out Saturday found.

Based on the latest available U.S. census data from 2005, the McClatchy Newspapers analysis found that almost 16 million Americans live in "deep or severe poverty" defined as a family of four with two children earning less than 9,903 dollars — one half the federal poverty line figure.

For individuals the "deep poverty" threshold was an income under 5,080 dollars a year.

"The McClatchy analysis found that the number of severely poor Americans grew by 26% from 2000 to 2005," the U.S. newspaper chain reported.

"That's 56% faster than the overall poverty population grew in the same period," it noted.

The surge in poverty comes alongside an unusual economic expansion.

"Worker productivity has increased dramatically since the brief recession of 2001, but wages and job growth have lagged behind. At the same time, the share of national income going to corporate profits has dwarfed the amount going to wages and salaries," the study found.

"That helps explain why the median household income for working-age families, adjusted for inflation, has fallen for five straight years.

"These and other factors have helped push 43% of the nation's 37 million poor people into deep poverty — the highest rate since at least 1975. The share of poor Americans in deep poverty has climbed slowly but steadily over the last three decades," the report said.

It quoted an American Journal of Preventive Medicine study as having found that since 2000, the number of severely poor — far below basic poverty terms — in the United States has grown "more than any other segment of the population."

"That was the exact opposite of what we anticipated when we began," said Steven Woolf of Virginia Commonwealth University, a study co-author.

"We're not seeing as much moderate poverty as a proportion of the population. What we're seeing is a dramatic growth of severe poverty."

U.S. social programs are minimal compared to those of western Europe and Canada. The United States has a population of 301 million, but more than 45 million U.S. citizens have no health insurance.

NPR : Students Uncertain About Historically Black Schools

NPR : Students Uncertain About Historically Black Schools: Historically black colleges make up just 3 percent of all colleges and universities in America. But according to the United Negro College Fund, nearly 30 percent of all black undergraduates get their degrees from such universities.

Recent studies released by the U.S. Department of Education have shown that, while the number of black students enrolling in college has risen since 1970, the percentage of black students who choose to attend historically black universities is actually on the decline. These universities have been working hard to draw top students like Burks, who grew up in racially integrated neighborhoods. This newer generation of black students doesn't necessarily feel the same allegiance to historically black schools.

College's invitation to integrate made history

SWANNANOA, North Carolina (AP) -- There is no monument to Alma Shippy.

No plaque describes how, in 1952, the shy teenager packed a bag of clothes, caught a ride in a friend's pickup truck and walked into history on the campus of Warren Wilson Junior College.

It's an obscure vignette in civil rights history. Shippy not only was Warren Wilson's first black student, but one of the few to attend any segregated college or junior college by invitation -- and not by court order and armed escort.

A core of Shippy's family and friends -- some of whom paved his way and some whose path was paved by him -- want wider attention for what they see as a bright moment of brotherhood in one of the South's darkest eras.

"There were no dogs, no guns. He didn't have to be shot at. There was nobody that was beaten up, nobody died because he came here," says Rodney Lytle, a 1974 Warren Wilson graduate and now the school's multicultural adviser. "And that -- that story -- that is beautiful!"

And it didn't happen by chance.

Shippy's presence was the culmination of a decade of work by leaders of Warren H. Wilson Vocational Junior College and Associated Schools, created in 1942 from the merger and expansion of two high schools run by the Presbyterian Church.

Students Stand Up Against Racially Offensive Parties

Students Stand Up Against Racially Offensive Parties: The demise of Chief Illiniwek was a long time coming, but one group that helped pressure the University of Illinois to drop the mascot was a coalition of students, faculty and community members that formed in the aftermath of a “Tacos and Tequilas” party that offended Mexican American students. The party, thrown by five White fraternities and sororities in October, was just one in a series of racially insensitive parties thrown by college students.

The party, the administration’s lackluster response and its support of the Chief Illiniwek mascot deemed racially offensive to American Indians compelled the student-led group Students Transforming Oppression and Privilege, or S.T.O.P., to urge administrators to do more to promote racial tolerance.

“It is important for us and young people in general to speak out, to make sure their campuses have anti-racism platforms and missions,” says Iara Peng, the director of Young People For, or YP4, a national network of young leaders on 65 campuses in 18 states.

NAEP Test Scores and Minorities, GPA

NAEP Test Scores and Minorities, GPA: "According to the National Center for Education Statistics, a typical high school graduate is taking more Advanced Placement courses and earning higher GPAs, but they are failing to show any signs of improvement on their National Assessment of Education Progress, or NAEP, tests.

The NCES released two reports Thursday — “The Nation’s Report Card: America’s High School Graduates” and “The Nation’s Report Card: 12th Grade Reading and Mathematics 2005” — which paint a very conflicting picture of the educational attainment of American high school students. “America’s High School Graduates” reviews the transcripts of 2005 graduates, while “12th Grade Reading and Mathematics 2005” reviews how 21,000 high school seniors at more than 900 schools performed on the NAEP. The data did not include the scores for high school seniors who dropped out before graduating, and it did not take into account variables such as income or poverty.

In 2000, approximately 59 percent of high school graduates had completed at least a standard curriculum. By 2005, the number had increased to about 68 percent. The average GPA had also grown from 2.47 in 1990 to 2.77 by 2005. Although NAEP scores were expected to go up to correspond with the other significant increases, the reports suggest the opposite — the scores have actually been declining substantially since 1992. "

Students travel into civil rights' rich history - USATODAY.com

Students travel into civil rights' rich history - USATODAY.com: MONTGOMERY, Ala. — More than 90 California high school students are crying and hugging their way this week through the hard, bloody years of the civil rights movement.

When it's over, they will have talked to Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., and walked across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, where he and other voter rights demonstrators were bludgeoned by state troopers in 1965.

They will have heard Chris McNair tell of losing his daughter, Denise, in the 1963 Birmingham church bombing.

They will have listened to members of the Vernon Dahmer family discuss the agony of losing a husband and father — killed by Ku Klux Klan members in 1966 after he announced that black voters could pay their poll tax at his store.

They will have stood at the site at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis where Martin Luther King Jr. was shot in 1968.

Before it ends Saturday, they will have seen and heard and felt all of that and much more, on stops in Atlanta, Selma, Montgomery, Birmingham, Hattiesburg, Miss.; Jackson, Miss; Little Rock and Memphis.

There are 93 of them — a diverse group — and they are on a 10-day journey called Sojourn to the Past. The mission: connect the pain of history with a hope for the future.

Students' View of Intelligence Can Help Grades

A new study in the scientific journal Child Development shows that if you teach students that their intelligence can grow and increase, they do better in school.

All children develop a belief about their own intelligence, according to research psychologist Carol Dweck from Stanford University.

"Some students start thinking of their intelligence as something fixed, as carved in stone," Dweck says. "They worry about, 'Do I have enough? Don't I have enough?'"

Dweck calls this a "fixed mindset" of intelligence.

"Other children think intelligence is something you can develop your whole life," she says. "You can learn. You can stretch. You can keep mastering new things."

She calls this a "growth mindset" of intelligence.

Dweck wondered whether a child's belief about intelligence has anything to do with academic success. So, first, she looked at several hundred students going into seventh grade, and assessed which students believed their intelligence was unchangeable, and which children believed their intelligence could grow. Then she looked at their math grades over the next two years.

Black Parents Seek to Raise Ambitions - washingtonpost.com

Black Parents Seek to Raise Ambitions - washingtonpost.com:
... "Middle-class African Americans are still very influenced by the stereotypes that black kids are not academically oriented,' said Pedro A. Noguera, a professor of sociology at New York University who studies achievement gaps.

'You have to defy the stereotypes associated with race or gender. So you need something else working in a very powerful way to show that being black and being academically oriented [are] not at odds. . . . This is where a parent's role is very important.'

In the Washington area, many African American parents are finding new avenues to engage in their children's education.

University to Retire Its Indian Mascot - New York Times

University to Retire Its Indian Mascot - New York Times

URBANA, Ill., Feb. 16 (AP) — The University of Illinois will retire its 81-year-old American Indian mascot, Chief Illiniwek, after the last men’s home basketball game of the season on Wednesday.

The N.C.A.A. in 2005 deemed the buckskin-clad mascot an offensive use of American Indian imagery and barred the university from being a host of postseason events. “This is an extremely emotional day for people on both sides of the issue, but the decision announced today ends a two-decade-long struggle surrounding Chief Illiniwek on this campus,” said Ron Guenther, the university’s athletic director. “Personally, as an alumnus and former athlete, I am disappointed. However, as an administrator, I understand the decision that had to be made.”

American Indian groups and others complained for years that the mascot was demeaning. Supporters of the mascot said it honored the contributions of Indians to the state.

On Friday, a Champaign County Circuit Court judge rejected two students’ request for a court order banning the university from “capitulating to the N.C.A.A. by announcing the retirement of Chief Illiniwek.”

Report: Low-income Students Misinformed About Costs And Benefits of Private Loans

WASHINGTON, D.C.
Low-income undergraduate students are among the least informed about the financial aid process and are more likely to take out private loans to pay for school, according to a new report by the Institute for Higher Education Policy.

In “The Future of Private Loans: Who Is Borrowing, and Why?” the authors say it is crucial for these students to learn about the pros and cons of private loan borrowing before continuing their postsecondary education.

Ten years ago, private loans accounted for less than 5 percent of all student loans; now, private lenders control 19 percent of the student loan market. Currently, 83 percent of private loan borrowers are undergraduate students, 9 percent are graduate students, 7 percent are professional students and 1 percent are post baccalaureate students not in a degree program. Students seeking professional degrees tend to borrow the most money, nearly $11,000 a year, according to the report. By comparison, graduate students borrow more than $8,000 a year and undergraduates borrow about $6,000.

“With some analysts predicting that private loans may surpass federal student loan borrowing by the end of the decade, this study aims to look beyond the recent controversies about private loan marketing to explore critical questions about what the industry may look like in the near future,” says Jamie P. Merisotis, president of IHEP.

Regaining a Lost Heritage

Regaining a Lost Heritage:
Can a simple procedure unlock African-Americans’ genetic history? Or is DNA tracing just an expensive waste of time?
By Toni Coleman

"This year’s Black History Month program at my friend’s Washington, D.C. church won’t just feature kids reading about famous firsts and courageous equality fighters. Added to the mix is a lecture to the congregation on using DNA testing to determine their African lineage.

Increasingly, Blacks are turning to science and not assumptions to put “Africa” back in “African-American.” The eagerness to reconnect is understandable. People robbed of their history innately want to know where they come from. Veteran genealogists say the PBS special, “African American Lives,” in which Harvard University professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. revealed the family histories and African lineages of such celebrities as Oprah Winfrey and comedian Chris Tucker, certainly created a spike in interest in genealogy and DNA testing. "

Study: Dark-Skinned Immigrants Experience More Wage Discrimination in the United States

Study: Dark-Skinned Immigrants Experience More Wage Discrimination in the United States: "Recent immigrants with darker skin tones earn less money on average than their lighter-skinned peers, according to research that will be presented Feb. 19 in San Francisco at the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Dr. Joni Hersch, a professor of law and economics at Vanderbilt University, found that a lighter-skinned immigrant would earn the equivalent of what a darker-skinned immigrant with an extra year of education would earn.
The basis for the study was the New Immigrant Survey 2003, funded by several federal government agencies and the Pew Charitable Trust. The survey took a random sample of 8,500 new legal immigrants over a seven-month period in 2003. Participants were from geographically diverse countries and were interviewed at the location where their green cards were delivered to ensure geographic diversity in the United States as well, Hersch says.

Several other factors were taken into consideration as controls, including people’s actual level of education, English proficiency, work history, occupation, visa status, race, ethnicity and nationality. Despite this, Hersch says there was an 8 percent to 15 percent variable from lightest to darkest skin tone in terms of earnings once immigrants were in the United States."

Sojourner Truth Statue To Permanently Grace U.S. Capitol Building

Sojourner Truth Statue To Permanently Grace U.S. Capitol Building

With the stroke of a pen, President George W. Bush signed legislation on Thursday requiring that a statue of Sojourner Truth be erected in to the United States Capitol.

The historic move came after U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Texas, and U.S Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., authored legislation for the creation of the monument to honor the woman who spent much of her life preaching for the abolition of slavery and women’s suffrage

“I am proud that finally a memorial to Sojourner Truth will take its rightful and permanent place in the heart of our representative government, the United States Capitol,” said Clinton, who was surrounded at a press conference in Washington, D.C., by prominent women activists including Dorothy Height, chairwoman of the National Council of Negro Women, and award-winning actress Cicely Tyson.

Study shows more educational barriers for Hispanic students

Study shows more educational barriers for Hispanic students: PORTLAND (AP) - Hispanics aspiring to college see themselves as facing more roadblocks than their white counterparts, a study led by a University of Oregon professor concludes.
Professor Ellen Hawley McWhirter of the UO School of Education said many of the problems are not subject to a quick fix.
The study, which appears in the February issue of the quarterly Journal of Career Assessment, involved 436 Mexican-American and white students in the Southwest and Midwest. McWhirter said preliminary findings from research under way in the Northwest are finding similar results.
While aspirations for a college degree were equal between Mexican-Americans and whites who participated in the study, 10 percent of Mexican-Americans got a degree against 34 percent of whites even though more Hispanics than ever are attending college.

Black, American Indian Scholars Correct History Books At State of the Black Union 2007

Black, American Indian Scholars Correct History Books At State of the Black Union 2007: This year's marking of the 400th anniversary of the settlement at Jamestown gives America the chance to revisit and correct stories about the relationships between these three groups, the pillaging of American Indian villages, the enslavement of Africans and the impact these events continue to have in 2007, Wood, West and a group of seven other academics said Friday on the campus of the College of William and Mary, in Williamsburg, Va., about 10 miles from the original settlement. Talk show host and author Tavis Smiley convened the group as part of State of the Black Union 2007, an annual discussion he has held since 2000.

Most history textbooks site the arrival of a group of English settlers who arrived in 1620 to Plymouth County, Mass. aboard the Mayflower as the birth of the nation. The group, known as the Pilgrims, had fled England in search of religious freedom, and history books tell the stories of their friendship with American Indians marked by a Thanksgiving celebration.

Diversity Data - Metropolitan Quality of Life Data

Diversity Data - Metropolitan Quality of Life Data: Diversitydata.org allows visitors to explore how metropolitan areas throughout the U.S. perform on a diverse range of social measures that comprise a well-rounded life experience.

These data call attention to the equality of opportunity and diversity of experiences for different racial and ethnic groups in America.

Woman Chosen to Lead Harvard - washingtonpost.com

Woman Chosen to Lead Harvard - washingtonpost.com: Harvard University is about to name its first woman president since its founding in 1636, tapping a Civil War historian to succeed Lawrence Summers, whose tumultuous tenure was marked by controversial remarks about women and clashes with faculty members.

Drew Gilpin Faust, 59, dean of the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study and a leading historian on the American South, will be formally appointed president as early as this weekend, according to a source with knowledge of the decision.

History of Black History Month - CNN.com

History of Black History Month - CNN.com

(CNN Student News) -- February marks the beginning of Black History Month, a federally recognized, nation-wide celebration that provides the opportunity for all Americans to reflect on the significant roles that African Americans have played in the shaping of U.S. history. But how did this celebration come to be -- and why does it take place in February?

We should emphasize not Negro History, but the Negro in history. What we need is not a history of selected races or nations, but the history of the world void of national bias, race hate, and religious prejudice.

- Dr. Carter G. Woodson (1875-1950) on founding Negro History Week, 1926

Dr. Carter G. Woodson, considered to be a pioneer in the study of African American history, is given much of the credit for Black History Month. The son of former slaves, Woodson spent his childhood working in coalmines and quarries. He received his education during the four-month term that was customary for black schools at the time. At 19, having taught himself English fundamentals and arithmetic, Woodson entered high school, where he completed a four-year curriculum in two years. He went on to receive his Masters degree in history from the University of Chicago, and he eventually earned a PhD from Harvard.

Disturbed that history textbooks largely ignored America's black population, Woodson took on the challenge of writing black Americans into the nation's history. To do this, Woodson established the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History. He also founded the group's widely respected publication, the Journal of Negro History. In 1926, he developed Negro History Week. Woodson believed that "the achievements of the Negro properly set forth will crown him as a factor in early human progress and a maker of modern civilization."

In 1976, Negro History Week expanded into Black History Month. The month is also sometimes referred to as African American Heritage Month.

NPR : Colleges Face Challenge of the Class Divide

NPR : Colleges Face Challenge of the Class Divide: "All Things Considered, February 6, 2007 � In the United States, a good education at an elite private college can be a gateway into the upper class. But that education is also very expensive. Tuition and board at the most prestigious colleges now top $45,000 a year. That's even a stretch for many upper-middle-income families. At prices like these, many colleges risk becoming bastions of the rich and super-rich. Like other elite schools, Amherst College in Massachusetts has struggled to become more inclusive by trying to level the economic playing field for students. Amherst College President Anthony Marx sees class as one of the fundamental problems facing American colleges and universities today.

'I think everyone in higher education is aware of the growing economic divide in this country, and the challenges that divide creates for institutions that want the best students from across the society,' he says."

AP Classes – What’s Stopping Black Students?

AP Classes – What’s Stopping Black Students?: Black high school students are significantly underrepresented in AP courses that provide students with a jumpstart on college and serve as an early predictor of college success, according to The College Board’s “Advanced Placement Report to the Nation.” Experts say checking teacher bias and improving identification of qualified Black students can help.

More than 1.3 million students from 16,000 schools participated in the AP program last year, up from 581,000 students and 12,000 schools a decade ago. In 2006, 14.8 percent of all graduating high school seniors scored at least a 3 on one AP exam — which makes them “qualified” in the subject, and earns them college credit for testing out of an introductory course.

Blacks are underrepresented in AP, comprising just 6.9 percent of AP’s class of 2006 but 13.7 percent of the overall student population. American Indians make up 1.1 percent of the overall student population, but 0.6 percent of AP students.

For First Time, Poverty Shifts to the Suburbs - Newsweek Society - MSNBC.com

For First Time, Poverty Shifts to the Suburbs - Newsweek Society - MSNBC.com: Once prized as a leafy haven from the social ills of urban life, the suburbs are now grappling with a new outbreak of an old problem: poverty. Currently, 38 million Americans live below the poverty line, which the federal government defines as an annual income of $20,000 or less for a family of four. But for the first time in history, more of America's poor are living in the suburbs than the cities—1.2 million more, according to a 2005 survey. 'The suburbs have reached a tipping point,' says Brookings Institution analyst Alan Berube, who compiled the data. For example, five years ago, a Hunger Network food pantry in Bedford Heights, a struggling suburb of Cleveland, served 50 families a month. Now more than 700 families depend on it for food.

Percy L. Julian - Documentary - TV - New York Times

Percy L. Julian - Documentary - TV - New York Times: On the day that Percy L. Julian graduated at the top of his class at DePauw University, his great-grandmother bared her shoulders and, for the first time, showed him the deep scars that remained from a beating she had received as a slave during the last days of the Civil War. She then clutched his Phi Beta Kappa key in her hand and said, “This is worth all the scars.”"

Every February, when the curtain lifts on Black History Month, the cast of highlighted lives is often familiar: a Martin Luther King Jr., a Katherine Dunham. But the documentary “Forgotten Genius,” to be broadcast tonight as part of the “Nova” science series on PBS, dramatizes the story of Mr. Julian, a largely neglected black chemist who was nonetheless one of the most important scientists of the 20th century. He is played by the Tony Award-winning actor Ruben Santiago-Hudson, and the moment with his great-grandmother is but one in a film full of the echoes of the country’s painful racial history.

Young blacks feel the sting

Many young black Americans think the government treats most immigrants better than it treats most black people in the USA, according to a national study being released Thursday. It asked 15- to 25-year-olds about issues from politics and government to sex, marriage, health and hip-hop.

Researchers at the University of Chicago's Black Youth Project compared the views of 1,590 young people of different racial and ethnic groups and found that the black experience — and the perception of blacks' experience by others — suggests a demographic group that sees a lot of obstacles.

Among the findings:

•48% of blacks, compared with 18% of Hispanics and 29% of whites, believe the government treats immigrants better than it does blacks.

•68% of blacks believe the government would do more to find a cure for AIDS cure if more whites were infected, compared with 34% of whites and 50% of Hispanics.

•61% of blacks say it is hard for young black people to get ahead because of discrimination; 45% of Hispanics and 43% of whites agree.

•54% of blacks say blacks receive a poorer education on average than whites; 40% of Hispanics and 31% of whites agree.

•79% of blacks, 73% of Hispanics and 63% of whites believe the police discriminate "much more" against blacks than whites.

•14% of blacks say they grew up in a very good neighborhood, vs. 16% of Hispanics and 30% of whites.

Cathy Cohen, a University of Chicago political science professor who heads the project, says the focus on this age group is particularly important as the country looks to the 2008 election and the likely candidacy of Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., who is black and exploring a presidential run.

"I thought it important to put these young black people into that discussion because they suggest that — far from being a completely open society even in this post-civil rights moment — they still face discrimination, limited opportunities and feelings of secondary status," Cohen says.

Though the study suggests that discrimination is a fact of life for blacks, 49% of blacks said they were "rarely or never" discriminated against because of their race.

Researchers asked 240 questions during 45-minute telephone interviews in 2005 with 635 blacks, 567 whites and 314 Hispanics. The remaining interviewees were either Asian/Pacific Islander, Native American or didn't claim a group. The margin of error is plus or minus 2 percentage points.

Although larger studies of black Americans have been conducted for 30 years by researchers at the University of Michigan, those 18 and older were the focus of the research until 1999, when the studies included adolescents ages 13-17.

Cohen calls her study a more generational approach.

Rebecca Bigler of the Gender and Racial Attitudes Lab at the University of Texas-Austin, who is not part of the Chicago study, says the topic needs academic attention because young blacks are a group that academics have "ignored and understudied."

Va. moves to apologize for slavery - USATODAY.com

Va. moves to apologize for slavery - USATODAY.com: Virginia moved forward on Wednesday to apologize for slavery, something no president or legislature has done.

The Virginia House Rules Committee unanimously approved a measure that expresses 'profound regret' for the state's role in the slave trade and other injustices against African-Americans and Native Americans.

The original proposal by Del. Donald McEachin, a Democrat, called for 'atonement.'

'This is a good first step,' says McEachin, whose great-grandfather Archie was a slave.

He says the wording was changed because some lawmakers said an apology could lead to reparations, or cash payments, to slave descendants.

He says the bill, though softened, is important as Virginia celebrates the 400th anniversary of the founding of Jamestown, America's first permanent English settlement and an entry point for African slaves.

A proposal in the state Senate expressing 'profound contrition' won unanimous approval from a subcommittee Monday.

House Speaker William Howell expects both chambers to pass the measure, says his spokesman, G. Paul Nardo. The legislature is scheduled to adjourn Feb. 24.

Congress has apologized to Japanese-Americans held in camps during World War II. President Clinton, in Uganda in 1998, said U.S. participation in the slave trade was 'wrong.'

An apology alone does not heal wounds, says Bruce Gordon, president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. He says it's important to recognize past wrongs, but it's more essential to fix lingering racial inequities.

The Virginia effort to apologize for slavery stirred controversy last month. Del. Frank Hargrove Sr., a white Republican, told The Daily Progress in Charlottesville that blacks 'should get over' slavery instead of seeking a formal apology from the state.

He asked, 'Are we going to force the Jews to apologize for killing Christ?'

Hargrove voted for the revised measure because, he said, it expresses regret 'without apologizing for anything.'

The Virginia Legislature expressed 'profound regret' in 2001 for its role in eugenics, a discredited science that led to the sterilization of more than 7,000 Virginians in the name of purifying the white race between 1924 and 1979.

Recent college parties mocking black stereotypes spark outrage

... James Johnson, a black psychology professor at the University of North Carolina-Wilmington who has researched racial attitudes and teaches a seminar on race and prejudice, said he is more discouraged by the rap performers who perpetuate stereotypes than by the "clueless kids" who imitate them.

"In the civil rights movement, you didn't have blacks who called themselves 'niggers' and who called their women 'bitches' and 'whores' and who glorified being violent and being thugs," he said. "Now these white kids are kind of confused."

These incidents come at a time racial tolerance on college campuses is perceived to be steadily improving. But the truth may be more complicated.

A University of Dayton sociologist who analyzed journals kept by 626 white college students found the students behaved substantially differently when they were in the company of other whites than when they were with other races.

When the students, who were asked to record their interactions with other people, were alone with other white students, racial stereotypes and racist language were surprisingly common, researcher Leslie Picca found. One student reported hearing the "n-word" among white students 27 times in a single day.

The results suggest white students have little sense of shame about racial insults and stereotyping and treat them as simply a part of the culture.

"This is a new generation who grew up watching 'The Cosby Show,"' Picca said. "They have the belief that racism isn't a problem anymore so the words they use and the jokes they tell aren't racist."

Picca said she found it "heartbreaking" to see so many well-educated students perpetuating the stereotypes.