Town struggles with fallout from immigrant's fatal beating - CNN.com

Town struggles with fallout from immigrant's fatal beating - CNN.com: SHENANDOAH, Pennsylvania (CNN) -- By the time help arrived, Luis Ramirez lay convulsing in the middle of the street, foam running from his mouth.

Blows had struck the 25-year-old illegal Mexican immigrant with such force that they left a clotted, bruised impression of Jesus Christ on the skin of his chest from the religious medal he wore.

His attackers were white teenagers, including star students and football players, witnesses told police.

After a night of drinking, the teens taunted the undocumented worker with racial epithets, pummeled him to the ground and then kicked him in the head, court documents charge. He died in a hospital two days later.

It took almost two weeks for arrests to be made. But on July 25, Colin J. Walsh, 17, and Brandon J. Piekarsky, 16, were charged as adults with homicide and ethnic intimidation.

iReporters: Improve awareness to fight AIDS among blacks - CNN.com

iReporters: Improve awareness to fight AIDS among blacks - CNN.com: (CNN) -- Since she was 12 years old, Suzanne Africa Engo has been working to raise AIDS awareness.

"Black women are an endangered species," she said in a phone interview.

AIDS is the leading cause of death among black women between 25 and 34, and the second-leading cause of death in black men from 35 to 44, according to a report released Tuesday.

The report , by the Black AIDS Institute, was compiled using just-released data from UNAIDS and research from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Census Bureau.

"For a lot of young black women, what's putting them at risk is emotion," the 29-year-old iReporter said. "Young women are going to men for security -- you're talking about a fatherless home and a girl looking for approval. That's the kind of thing that puts them at risk."

Engo plans to run from New York to Chicago in September to promote the New York AIDS Film Festival, which she organizes each year. She expects the run to take two months.

Poor health care also contributes to the AIDS epidemic in the black community, she said.

"People are not financially in a place to deal with the news" of being HIV positive, she said. "You're also talking about people with other things that put your immune system at risk, like weaker health in general."

House apologizes for slavery, 'Jim Crow' injustices - CNN.com

House apologizes for slavery, 'Jim Crow' injustices - CNN.com: WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The House of Representatives on Tuesday passed a resolution apologizing to African-Americans for slavery and the era of Jim Crow.

The nonbinding resolution, which passed on a voice vote, was introduced by Rep. Steve Cohen, a white lawmaker who represents a majority black district in Memphis, Tennessee.

While many states have apologized for slavery, it is the first time a branch of the federal government has done so, an aide to Cohen said.

In passing the resolution, the House also acknowledged the "injustice, cruelty, brutality and inhumanity of slavery and Jim Crow."

"Jim Crow," or Jim Crow laws, were state and local laws enacted mostly in the Southern and border states of the United States between the 1870s and 1965, when African-Americans were denied the right to vote and other civil liberties and were legally segregated from whites.

The name "Jim Crow" came from a character played by T.D. "Daddy" Rice who portrayed a slave while in blackface during the mid-1800s.

Study: Public HBCUs Experience Increasing Enrollment

Study: Public HBCUs Experience Increasing Enrollment Despite nagging financial problems, accreditation troubles and relatively low graduation rates, historically Black colleges continue to remain an integral part of the educational equation for African-Americans and are growing in popularity, according to a comprehensive new study by the Thurgood Marshall College Fund.

Although HBCUs only comprise 3 percent of American colleges and universities, they enroll nearly one in every four African-American college students. The annual report, “Thurgood Marshall College Fund Demographic Report,” is based on the 2005-06 academic year and reveals an enrollment growth trend at public HBCUs. In 2002, public HBCUs enrolled 206,000 students; that number increased significantly by 2006, totaling 235,000.

In 2004, nearly 34,000 first-time freshmen enrolled at TMCF member institutions, public HBCUs such as Bowie State University in Maryland or Alabama A&M University. In 2005, 62 percent of these students returned to continue their education.

Black male enrollment at public HBCUs increased more than 3 percent over the past two years, the study reports. Female students, however, represent 63 percent of total enrollment at TMCF member institutions.

Report: Black U.S. AIDS rates rival some African nations - CNN.com

Report: Black U.S. AIDS rates rival some African nations - CNN.com: LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- The AIDS epidemic among African-Americans in some parts of the United States is as severe as in parts of Africa, according to a report out Tuesday.

"Left Behind - Black America: A Neglected Priority in the Global AIDS" is intended to raise awareness and remind the public that the "AIDS epidemic is not over in America, especially not in Black America," says the report, published by the Black AIDS Institute, an HIV/AIDS think tank focused exclusively on African-Americans.

"AIDS in America today is a black disease," says Phill Wilson, founder and CEO of the institute and himself HIV-positive for 20 years. "2006 CDC data tell us that about half of the just over 1 million Americans living with HIV or AIDS are black."

Although black people represent only about one in eight Americans, one in every two people living with HIV in the United States is black, the report notes.

The report uses just-released data from UNAIDS and existing CDC and Census data to highlight grim statistics:

• AIDS remains the leading cause of death among black women between ages 25 and 34. It's the second-leading cause of death in black men 35-44. Explainer: AIDS: A black disease »

Teens charged in fatal beating of Mexican immigrant - CNN.com

Teens charged in fatal beating of Mexican immigrant - CNN.com: PORT CARBON, Pennsylvania (AP) -- Three white teens were charged Friday in what officials said was an epithet-filled fatal beating of an illegal Mexican immigrant in a small northeast Pennsylvania coal town.

Brandon J. Piekarsky, 16, and Colin J. Walsh, 17, were charged as adults with homicide and ethnic intimidation in the July 12 attack on Luis Ramirez.

A third teen, Derrick M. Donchak, 18, was charged with aggravated assault, ethnic intimidation and other offenses. All are from Shenandoah, where the attack occurred.

Ramirez, 25, was beaten to death after an argument with a group of youths that police said included high school football players. Authorities could not immediately say if any of the suspects were members of the team, but they confirmed that all three used ethnic slurs during the fight.

"As a result of this crime, a young man has lost his life. Many other lives have been devastated, and the borough of Shenandoah has been filled with tensions between many ethnic groups," Schuylkill County District Attorney James Goodman said.

"Now that the criminal charges have been filed, we must let this case be handled in the criminal justice system," he said.

Diversity in news media could falter - USATODAY.com

Diversity in news media could falter - USATODAY.com: CHICAGO — As the economy sputters and media companies slash jobs, diversity in U.S. newsrooms is likely to suffer, minority journalism leaders here said Thursday.

With minority journalists meeting this week in one of the world's largest conventions of journalists, Unity President Karen Lincoln Michel says diversity is 'taking a back seat' to the financial woes of newspaper companies.

But Michel and other minority journalists contend that the media industry must realize that diversity and profits 'go hand-in-hand.' The business imperative is stronger than ever, they say, especially as the nation grows more diverse.

Media diversity during the economic slowdown has been the most widely discussed topic at Unity, a professional alliance of the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ), the National Association of Hispanic Journalists (NAHJ), the Asian American Journalists Association (AAJA) and the Native American Journalists Association (NAJA).

'Math class is tough' no more: Girls' skills now equal boys' - USATODAY.com

Math class is tough no more: Girls skills now equal boys - USATODAY.com: "WASHINGTON — Sixteen years after Barbie dolls declared, 'Math class is tough!' girls are proving that when it comes to math they are just as tough as boys.

In the largest study of its kind, girls measured up to boys in every grade, from second through 11th. The research was released Thursday in the journal Science.

Parents and teachers persist in thinking boys are simply better at math, said Janet Hyde, the University of Wisconsin-Madison researcher who led the study. And girls who grow up believing it wind up avoiding harder math classes.

'It keeps girls and women out of a lot of careers, particularly high-prestige, lucrative careers in science and technology,' Hyde said.

That's changing, though slowly."

Financial aid limits can be roadblock

Community colleges pride themselves on being the best bargains in higher education, yet affordability remains a barrier for many low- and moderate-income students.

Tuition, though it's rising faster than inflation, isn't the main culprit. At $2,361, last year's average community college cost was just 38% of what public four-year universities charged, says the non-profit College Board, which tracks annual tuition increases. Bigger factors:

• Costs related to going to college. The College Board says the average budget for community college undergraduates last year was $13,126, and more than 80% went toward transportation, books and supplies, room and board and other expenses such as child care.

• Financial aid eligibility. State and federal aid tends to be geared toward full-time, traditional college students, says Amy-Ellen Duke of the non-profit Center for Law & Social Policy in Washington. And most community college students don't qualify for federal tax credits and deductions, which generally benefit higher-income families attending high-tuition schools.

• Awareness of aid. A recent study by the non-profit Project on Student Debt found that two-thirds of community college students don't apply for financial aid, about twice as many as students at public and private universities. A report released in May by the federal Student Advisory Committee for Financial Assistance says reasons vary, but many students "just don't think they qualify, or they're intimidated" by the process, says David Baime of the American Association of Community Colleges.

Tom Shales - CNN's 'Black In America' Is An Expressive Portrait - washingtonpost.com

Tom Shales - CNN "Black In America" Is An Expressive Portrait - washingtonpost.com: "Going back to such ancient classics as 'The Plow That Broke the Plains' and 'Harvest of Shame,' the best documentaries have been those that engage the heart as well as the brain. Two new entries in CNN's ongoing 'Black in America' project manage precisely that feat, reporting in words and pictures of equal expressiveness on the current state of African American life in the United States.

A viewer is likely to come away with memories not of statistics but of images -- the real-life anecdotes and vignettes that supplement numbers with faces and experiences. In Part 1, airing tonight, among the most poignant stories is that of a 60-year-old woman, whom we first meet apologizing for her tears as she languishes in a Harlem hospital bed, correspondent Soledad O'Brien at her side."

Behind the Scenes: Black and shopping in America - CNN.com

Behind the Scenes: Black and shopping in America - CNN.com: (CNN) -- For Atlanta native Leah Wells, it's the humiliation she remembers most.

Not long ago, Wells sent me a note and forwarded a letter she had just mailed to Glenn Murphy, chairman and CEO of Gap Inc. The letter detailed what happened when Wells and two girlfriends decided to ditch the gym during an office lunch break and do some 'power-shopping' instead. The three young women, all in their 20s and all black, ended up detained for shoplifting.

'We were dressed professionally,' Wells told me. 'It was casual Friday. We had on dresses and casual office wear. We were racially profiled. It was as simple as that.'

Wells says she and her friends were detained by six Gwinnett County, Georgia, police officers for 'about an hour and a half' at the entrance of an Old Navy store, owned by Gap. Their crime, as Wells sees it, was being black in America.

In her letter to Murphy, Wells describes enduring 'disdainful stares from the mothers and grandmothers and children entering the store.' Police responded to a call from mall security about a gang of shoplifters in the store. They found no stolen merchandise on Wells or her friends. No one -- not the police, not the store managers -- bothered to apologize.

CNN Political Ticker: All politics, all the time Blog Archive - Poll: Blacks, whites don’t see eye-to-eye on race relations - Blogs from CNN.com

A new national poll suggests that black and white Americans don’t see eye-to eye-on race relations and racial discrimination.

In a CNN/Essence Magazine/Opinion Research Corporation poll released Tuesday morning, 43 percent of African-Americans questioned say that racial discrimination against blacks is a very serious problem, with only 11 percent of whites agreeing. On the flip side, 42 percent of whites surveyed say that racial discrimination against blacks is not a serious problem, with only 12 percent of blacks agreeing.

More than half of blacks questioned say they’ve been the victim of racial discrimination. But only 32 percent of white respondents said they’ve been a victim of discrimination because of their race, a difference of 24 points.

There’s also a difference of opinion when it comes to the future. Fifty-one percent of blacks polled say that race relations will always be a problem in the U.S. Only 41 percent of white respondents agreed.
When it comes to their children, a slight majority, 55 percent, of black respondents with kids under the age of 18 say they feel financially secure to provide for their children. That number rises to 72 percent for whites questioned in the survey.

After 60 years, black officers rare - Race & ethnicity- msnbc.com

After 60 years, black officers rare - Race & ethnicity- msnbc.com: WASHINGTON - Sixty years after President Truman desegregated the military, senior black officers are still rare, particularly among the highest ranks.

Blacks make up about 17 percent of the total force, yet just 9 percent of all officers. That fraction falls to less than 6 percent for general officers with one to four stars, according to data obtained and analyzed by The Associated Press.

The rarity of blacks in the top ranks is apparent in one startling statistic: Only one of the 38 four-star generals or admirals serving as of May was black. And just 10 black men have ever gained four-star rank — five in the Army, four in the Air Force and one in the Navy, according to the Pentagon.

The dearth of blacks in high-ranking positions gives younger African-American soldiers few mentors of their own race. And as the overall percentage of blacks in the service falls, particularly in combat careers that lead to top posts, the situation seems unlikely to change.

AIDS Among Latinos on Rise - washingtonpost.com

AIDS Among Latinos on Rise - washingtonpost.com: SAN YSIDRO, Calif. -- AIDS rates in the nation's Latino community are increasing and, with little notice, have reached what experts are calling a simmering public health crisis.

Though Hispanics make up about 14 percent of the U.S. population, they represented 22 percent of new HIV and AIDS diagnoses tallied by federal officials in 2006. According to a survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation, Hispanics in the District have the highest rate of new AIDS cases in the country.

So far, the toll of AIDS in the nation's largest and fastest-growing minority population has mostly been overshadowed by the epidemic among African Americans and gay white men. Yet in major U.S. cities, as many as 1 in 4 gay Hispanic men has HIV, a rate on par with sub-Saharan Africa.

Blacks still have the highest HIV rates in the country, but language difficulties, cultural barriers and, in many cases, issues of legal status make the threat in the Hispanic community unique. For those who arrived illegally, in particular, fear of arrest and deportation presents a daunting obstacle to seeking diagnosis and treatment.

Explorations in Black Leadership

Explorations in Black Leadership: Oral history provides a richly textured layer to the history recorded in books and articles. This site features a collection of interviews of leaders in the black community. Conducted chiefly by Julian Bond, national chairman of the NAACP and professor of history at the University of Virginia, these oral histories focus on issues of black leadership and the transformational role of the civil rights movement in America.

By concentrating on leadership in equal measure to the remembered past of peoples' lives, the conversations implicitly connect the ways in which historical circumstances create the conditions for the future.

I AM: Black in America - CNN.com

I AM: Black in America - CNN.com:

The story
I AM is a new CNN.com feature built on the belief that the labels we use for one another don't really reveal who we are.

We present a collection of people who may surprise you. They not only defy their labels, but they've done it in very public and dramatic ways.

This week, I AM presents four African-Americans who challenge conventional notions of blackness. But then defining what it means to be black has long been a matter of debate within the African-American community. The R&B singer, Billy Paul, once had a song called, "Am I Black Enough?" Well are they? You be the judge. Barbara Hillary -- At the age of 75, she became the first African American woman to reach the North Pole.

Spanish-language Media Market In a Growth Phase

Spanish-language Newspapers in the United States from 1970-2003


Spanish-language Media Market In a Growth Phase: As reports of layoffs, cutbacks and buyouts sweep through America’s most influential newspapers like the Chicago Tribune, Miami Herald and The Washington Post, publishing companies struggle to stretch resources and keep newspapers afloat. Despite declining circulation and shrinking advertising revenue, one niche market is holding steady.

“Unlike the slowing English-language media markets in the United States, the Hispanic market remains in a growth phase,” says Deana Myers, senior analyst for SNL Kagan, a Virginia-based media research firm.

While the circulation of traditional English-language daily newspapers has dropped nearly 10 percent over the last decade, the circulation of Spanish-language dailies has increased. Since 1970, the combined circulation of Spanish-language daily newspapers has grown from 140,000 to over 1.7 million in 2002, according to Latino Print Network.

ImpreMedia Inc., one of the largest Spanish-language publishing companies in the nation, is reaping the benefits of Spanish-language media expansion. As owner of the largest daily Spanish-language newspaper in the nation, Los Angeles’ La Opinión, and a handful of other weekly Spanish-language newspapers, the ImpreMedia network reaches nearly 5 million U.S. Hispanics every week, and industry insiders are confident these numbers will grow.

Philadelphians Reflect On City's Racial Legacy

Weekend Edition Sunday is traversing Philadelphia during a month-long series to shine a light on what it means to be an American. During a recent trip, NPR's Liane Hansen spoke with an African-American family whose personal history spans three generations of Philadelphia's history.

The end of the 19th century saw the growth of industry and infrastructure in Philadelphia. The Pennsylvania Railroad was established in the early 1900s, and by 1908, the first subway trains were rumbling below the city's streets.

It also saw major demographic changes. For decades, African-Americans had been leaving segregated cities in the South for better economic and social opportunities north of the Mason-Dixon Line.

Philadelphia — which had the largest free black population in the United States at the time of the Civil War and was the epicenter of the abolitionist movement — became a magnet for African-Americans. Today, they comprise nearly half of the city's population.

Anna Henderson, 108, was part of this "Great Migration." She came to Philadelphia from Georgia with her parents in 1922. When she moved into her neighborhood, "the whole thing was white," she says. There were a "fair few colored in Preston Street, very few … maybe two or three."

This would change as neighborhoods once racially homogenous became a bustling mix of minorities and Europeans immigrants during a wave of immigration in the 1920s.

Many who came to Philadelphia during that period settled in the western part of the city. This included Jewish immigrants who, like blacks, faced discrimination and abuse. These tensions were amplified by growing economic difficulties as the nation settled into the Great Depression.

Findings - John Tierney - Science Has Become the New Frontier for Title Nine - NYTimes.com

Findings - John Tierney - Science Has Become the New Frontier for Title Nine - NYTimes.com: Until recently, the impact of Title IX, the law forbidding sexual discrimination in education, has been limited mostly to sports. But now, under pressure from Congress, some federal agencies have quietly picked a new target: science.

The National Science Foundation, NASA and the Department of Energy have set up programs to look for sexual discrimination at universities receiving federal grants. Investigators have been taking inventories of lab space and interviewing faculty members and students in physics and engineering departments at schools like Columbia, the University of Wisconsin, M.I.T. and the University of Maryland.

So far, these Title IX compliance reviews haven’t had much visible impact on campuses beyond inspiring a few complaints from faculty members. (The journal Science quoted Amber Miller, a physicist at Columbia, as calling her interview “a complete waste of time.”) But some critics fear that the process could lead to a quota system that could seriously hurt scientific research and do more harm than good for women.

At Struggling School, Pride Displaces Failure - Series - NYTimes.com

At Struggling School, Pride Displaces Failure - Series - NYTimes.com:"WHEN the first round of state test results for the Newton Street School came back in late June, the teachers double-checked the numbers, then triple-checked. No mistake: The scores were up.

Relief turned to satisfaction that Newton was not just another failing school with low test scores. This time, nearly 80 percent of its fourth graders had passed math, 69 percent language arts, and 77 percent science, all double-digit increases from the previous year, and one of the biggest overall gains in the Newark school system. The third-grade scores also rose, with 56 percent passing math and 67 percent language arts (there is no third-grade science test).

The Next Kind of Integration - Class, Race and Desegregating American Schools - NYTimes.com

The Next Kind of Integration - Class, Race and Desegregating American Schools - NYTimes.com: In June of last year, a conservative majority of the Supreme Court, in a 5-to-4 decision, declared the racial-integration efforts of two school districts unconstitutional. Seattle and Louisville, Ky., could no longer assign students to schools based on their race, Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in his lead opinion in Meredith v. Jefferson County School Board (and its companion case, Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School District No. 1). Justice Stephen Breyer sounded a sad and grim note of dissent. Pointing out that the court was rejecting student-assignment plans that the districts had designed to stave off de facto resegregation, Breyer wrote that “to invalidate the plans under review is to threaten the promise of Brown.” By invoking Brown v. Board of Education, the court’s landmark 1954 civil rights ruling, Breyer accused the majority of abandoning a touchstone in the country’s efforts to overcome racial division. “This is a decision that the court and the nation will come to regret,” he concluded.

Foundation Unveils Bilingual Scholarship Program for Social Work

A bilingual scholarship program that will offer up to $1 million to Spanish-speaking students at accredited graduate social work programs in Texas in the next three years has been approved by the he Hogg Foundation for Mental Health.

Baylor University, in announcing the statewide program, said it the first of its kind in Texas and possibly in the United States.

“This is a bold, forward-thinking program to encourage linguistic and cultural diversity in higher education and attract more interest in social work as a profession” said Dr. Gregory J. Vincent, vice president for diversity and community engagement at the University of Texas at Austin. The foundation is part of the Division of Diversity and Community Engagement.

The university said people of color are under-represented in social work and other mental health professions, resulting in less-effective mental health services that do not meet their cultural and linguistic needs.

Extra-Curricular Activities Are the Glue to Keep Students in School, Researcher says

Extra-curricular activities, the kinds of programs most likely to be cut when state budgets shrink, may well be the glue that keeps students in school, a University of California at Riverside study indicates.

'Census statistics indicate nearly half a million students drop out of school each year, and Mexican origin youth are especially susceptible to not completing school on time' said Robert Ream, an assistant professor in UCR's Graduate School of Education. 'Our study shows that student engagement behaviors--including participating in extracurricular activities--contribute to the formation of friendship networks which arc toward educational attainment; the same behaviors detract from the likelihood that students will become susceptible to the social and behavioral influences of others who drop out of school.'

The study shows that socioeconomic disadvantage may keep Mexican American adolescents from being more engaged.

UMDNJ Probing Extent of ‘KKK’ Hazing Incident

UMDNJ Probing Extent of ‘KKK’ Hazing Incident: The president of the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey says the school is looking into whether more people were involved in an apparent racist hazing incident.

Three paramedics were fired last week after cell phone camera images surfaced showing paramedic trainees at University Hospital in Newark clad in white sheets resembling Ku Klux Klan robes and holding a wooden cross.

UMDNJ spokeswoman Terri Guess said last week that students from Northeastern University in Boston were the trainees involved in the incident, which took place on July 6.

UMDJ President William F. Owen said he expects a report to be completed within two weeks.

He briefed the school’s board of trustees on the investigation Tuesday.

Does Eating at Abuela’s Make Children Fat?

Hispanic children who eat at the homes of friends or relatives are more likely to gain weight, according to a study by San Diego State University. The report, recently published in the research journal 'Obesity,” is part of a larger study (The San Diego Grocery Store Project) to prevent excess weight gain in children by partnering with restaurants, schools and grocery stores.

It looked at other environmental factors that can place children at risk for obesity, such as eating away from home at the homes of friends, relatives and neighbors.

Guadalupe X. Ayala, associate professor at the San Diego Graduate School for Public Health, who conducted the study in conjunction with the San Diego Center for Prevention Research, said although it is known that eating at fast food restaurants can be a factor in obesity, less known is how relationships with friends, family or neighbors can be a factor in childhood obesity.

The study, focused on children in kindergarten through 2nd grade from 13 Southern California elementary schools, is one of the first to examine the impact of close family ties on children’s eating habits. Ayala said that eating away from home once a week or more at a relative, neighbor or friend put a child at higher risk for obesity.

Perspectives: Time for a Fresh View of African Civilization

Perspectives: Time for a Fresh View of African Civilization: Almost 100 years ago, Carter G. Woodson called upon Black intellectuals, not only to defend their integrity and examine the values of their contributions to America, but also, to put an end to the lies that were being perpetuated by the self-declared scholars, historians and pseudo-scientists, who began their degrading and humiliating attack on Africa and the Africans. These anti-African groups went to describe Africa as the “Dark Continent,” full of savage tribes and devoid of any attributes of civilization before the coming of Europeans. Writing and lecturing, in the tradition of Thomas Jefferson, they made every effort to justify the inferior social economic and political positions America assigned to Black citizens. Woodson saw that the celebration of Black History Month may help to educate both whites and blacks about the Black contribution to America and the world and thus may help to enhance efforts to improve race relations at home. He also saw that by demonstrating to the world that Africa and people of African descent have and continue to contribute to the advancement of world civilization, he would regain a respectful place for Africa in the world community.

Diversity Experts Discuss Best Practices for Diversity Training

Diversity Experts Discuss Best Practices for Diversity Training: As American work environments become more diverse, tension and conflict are more likely to occur, making the need for research and theory about diversity education important, a panel of diversity training experts said at a conference in Arlington, Va., on Friday.

Research and theory have shown potential drawbacks and outcomes of diversity education and also illustrate how educators can conduct diversity initiatives to be more consistent and efficient, scholars said in a panel during the George Mason University-sponsored conference, “Teaching and Training Workplace Diversity: Bridging the Research-Practice Gap,” held from July 10-12.

“A lot of emotions are involved in diversity, people attach a lot of values to it and it’s a very personal thing,” said Dr. Derek R. Avery, an associate professor of psychology at the University of Houston.

If done incorrectly, diversity training can do more harm than good, leading to more conflict, polarization and tension, Avery said. Done properly, it can improve communication, cohesion and productivity between individuals in professional settings."

Congressional Leaders, Scholars Gather to Strategize on Black Male Issues

Congressional Leaders, Scholars Gather to Strategize on Black Male Issues: NEW YORK — For the third consecutive year, more than a 1,000 academics, activists and political leaders gathered in New York on Friday to strategize on the problems that beset young Black males.

The gathering, which was convened by Charles J. Ogletree, who teaches and directs the Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race and Justice at Harvard University’s Law School, is part of “The Pipeline Crisis/Winning Strategies Initiative,” a national effort aimed at identifying ways to tackle the many barriers that limit the number of young Black men in the pipeline to higher education and professional endeavors.

Ogletree’s initiative calls on the legal, financial services and business communities to partner with the public sector to address the needs of young Black men in five target areas: early childhood education, public school education, employment and economic development, criminal justice, prison reform and re-entry, and opportunities for high potential youth.

Everybody Into the Pool - washingtonpost.com

Everybody Into the Pool - washingtonpost.com: ... Mason leads 130 students, 104 of whom are black, ages 2 1/2 to 14 at a Prince George's County learn-to-swim program. They come to Fairwood Community Pool in Bowie five days a week with bright faces, their hands clasping beach-themed towels and sunscreen. The large black representation is in contrast to a study released in May that said almost 60 percent of black children can't swim, about twice as many as white youth.

"When you're in the water," said Jessica Lewis, 13, drying herself under a canopy, "you just feel free."

The program was one of the first of its kind. In 1988, SwimAmerica, a national learn-to-swim program, began with five pilot programs, one of which included Mason's. He held lessons at Bowie State University and attracted children from Crofton and north Bowie, predominantly white areas. In 2003, the school decided not to rent its pool to outside groups and Mason was forced to look elsewhere.

The move changed the demographics of his clientele. He relocated about 12 miles southwest, to the Prince George's Sports & Learning Complex adjacent to FedEx Field in Landover. (Sessions are held only at Fairwood Community Pool during the summer.) By the 2000 census, the population of greater Landover was 92 percent African American. Mason's students reflected the figures.

Jobless Rate for Youths Is Increasing - washingtonpost.com

Jobless Rate for Youths Is Increasing - washingtonpost.com: ... Young adults seeking low-skill service jobs for the summer must contend with older, laid-off workers, illegal immigrants and college graduates who cannot find work in their fields, as well as with cuts in federal summer jobs programs.

As a result, the national youth jobless rate for June was at its highest in six decades, with 37 percent of teenagers ages 16 to 19 employed, compared with 51 percent in June 2000, according to Northeastern University's Center for Labor Market Studies, which analyzed Labor Department data.

'They say they don't want to hire teenagers -- they think we aren't as responsible,' Macias said. He wants to work so he can help his mother, who cleans office buildings at night.

The center's earlier study of 10 major cities showed that the District had the highest youth joblessness rate, 86 percent, followed by Chicago, with 85 percent, and Detroit and New York at 82 percent.

The study did not use the usual definition of "unemployment," meaning people actively looking for work. Instead, it measured the proportion of youth who are working.

The Science of Racism | Views | TheRoot.com

The Science of Racism | Views | TheRoot.com: The Science of Racism
By Henry Louis Gates Jr. | TheRoot.com

Last fall, James Watson, the father of DNA, spoke the unspeakable, saying that blacks are intellectually inferior. In a conversation with The Root Editor-in-Chief Henry Louis Gates Jr., Watson clarified his views about race and genetics. Read what he says now — and why Gates regards him as 'a racialist.'

June 2, 2008--James Watson has long assumed a certain special status among American scientists. The molecular biologist was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1962, along with Francis Crick and Maurice Wilkins, for, as the Swedish Academy put it in its announcement for the prize, "their discoveries concerning the molecular structure of nucleic acids and its significance for information transfer in living material." Watson and his British colleague Crick are remembered popularly for identifying the elegant and unexpected "double helix" three-dimensional structure of deoxyribonucleic acid, commonly known as DNA. Watson's important contribution to this uncanny discovery was to define how the four nucleotide bases that make up DNA—guanine (G), cytosine (C), adenine (A) and thymine (T)—combine in pairs to form its structure. These base pairs turn out to be the key to both the structure of DNA and its various functions. In other words, Watson identified the language and the code by which we understand and talk about our genetic makeup.

Leading Hispanic Educator Voted NEA Vice President

Leading Hispanic Educator Voted NEA Vice President Lily Eskelsen, an elementary school teacher from Utah, has been elected vice president of the National Education Association by the nearly 10,000 delegates at its 146th Annual Meeting here, the NEA announced.

“I am grateful for the continued support of our membership, and will continue to work to make public education the number one priority for America's lawmakers,” said Eskelsen. “We must provide our teachers with the resources they need to ensure that all children receive the great public school education they deserve.”

Eskelsen has served two three-year terms as secretary-treasurer of the NEA, the nation's largest professional organization, representing 3.2 million educators. The association said she is one of the highest-ranking labor leaders in the country and one of its most powerful Hispanic educators.

Eskelsen has held leadership positions n the NEA since her 1990 write-in election as president of the 18,000-member Utah Education Association. She served in this post until 1996, when she was elected to the nine-member NEA Executive Committee.

Proposal Seeks to Improve America’s Image Abroad

Proposal Seeks to Improve America’s Image Abroad: Legislation would lessen financial barriers that prevent low-income, minority students from participating in foreign exchange programs.

Minority-serving institutions (MSI) and members of Congress are making a final push for legislation to draw more low-income and minority students into foreign exchange programs and bring more students from developing countries to the United States.

“There is an urgent need to improve America’s image abroad,” says Rep. Ruben Hinojosa, D-Texas, chairman of the House of Representatives’ Subcommittee on Higher Education, Lifelong Learning and Competitiveness. One goal of the Uniting Students in America proposal is to increase participation in study abroad programs to at least 1 million college students per year, a four-fold increase from the current level of 223,000.

The proposal would focus on this goal by creating a new U.S. government-sanctioned corporation that would raise private sector funds and offer competitive grants to universities, consortiums and individuals. The foundation would be named for former Sen. Paul Simon, D-Ill., a champion of higher education who died in 2003.

In Search of Young Mouths To Feed In Summer - washingtonpost.com

In Search of Young Mouths To Feed In Summer - washingtonpost.com: Montgomery County officials dispatch a school bus daily to roam a Silver Spring neighborhood with an unlikely task: find children interested in going to school, in midsummer, for the food.

Children from low-income homes are entitled to federally subsidized meals year-round. Yet the free or reduced-price meals reach fewer than one in five eligible children nationwide during the summer break. The task of getting food to kids falls to a patchwork of schools and community groups with summer programs, a network that cannot match the scope of what's available during the school year. Millions of children pass July and August malnourished and idle, conditions that promote obesity and widen the well-documented learning gap between haves and have-nots.
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Recent initiatives in Montgomery, the District and elsewhere in the region are part of a national movement to mend this inequity. Bologna sandwiches, chocolate milk, seasonal fresh fruit and the like are shipped by the refrigerated truckload to more than 30,000 schools, community centers and churches nationwide throughout the summer. The eventual goal is for disadvantaged children to eat as well when school's out as they do when school's in.

Black community denied water for decades, jury says - CNN.com

Black community denied water for decades, jury says - CNN.com: COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) -- Residents of a mostly black neighborhood in rural Ohio were awarded nearly $11 million Thursday by a federal jury that found local authorities denied them public water service for decades out of racial discrimination.

Each of the 67 plaintiffs was awarded $15,000 to $300,000, depending on how long they had lived in the Coal Run neighborhood, about 5 miles east of Zanesville in Muskingum County in east-central Ohio.

The money covers both monetary losses and the residents' pain and suffering between 1956, when water lines were first laid in the area, and 2003, when Coal Run got public water.

The lawsuit was filed in 2003 after the Ohio Civil Rights Commission concluded the residents were victims of discrimination. The city, county and East Muskingum Water Authority all denied it and noted that many residents in the lightly populated county don't have public water.

Coal Run residents either paid to have wells dug, hauled water for cisterns or collected rain water so they could drink, cook and bathe.

Designer Sought for African American Museum - washingtonpost.com

Designer Sought for African American Museum - washingtonpost.com: The National Museum of African American History and Culture began the formal process of designing a building yesterday, one that will include a slave cabin and a Jim Crow railroad car.

The museum is not scheduled to open until 2015. But there is a certain urgency to identifying large artifacts that are likely to influence the shape of the exhibit space, said Lonnie G. Bunch III, the founding director of what will be the Smithsonian's 19th museum.

Yesterday, the museum issued a document inviting architectural firms to present their qualifications. The building will be on a five-acre site on Constitution Avenue, within the shadow of the Washington Monument.

The museum will be 350,000 square feet, slightly smaller than the National Museum of the American Indian at 400,000 square feet, and surpassing its cost at $500 million. Half of that figure will come from Congress. For the Native American museum, the federal government paid two-thirds of the cost. For the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center, part of the National Air and Space Museum, the Smithsonian covered all expenses.

Doctors' Group Plans Apology For Racism - washingtonpost.com

Doctors' Group Plans Apology For Racism - washingtonpost.com: The country's largest medical association is set to issue a formal apology today for its historical antipathy toward African American doctors, expressing regret for a litany of transgressions, including barring black physicians from its ranks for decades and remaining silent during battles on landmark legislation to end racial discrimination.

The apology marks one of the rare times a major national organization has expressed contrition for its role in the segregation and discrimination that black people have experienced in the United States.

In a commentary in the July 16 Journal of the American Medical Association, Ronald M. Davis, the organization's immediate past president, noted that many of the organization's questionable actions reflected the 'social mores and racial discrimination' that existed for much of the country's history. But, he wrote, that should not excuse them.

The Meyerhoff Model

The Meyerhoff Model: In a sea of bad news concerning the lack of Black male representation on college campuses, an oasis of minority male scholarship exists at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, through the Meyerhoff Scholarship Program.

Launched in 1988 via the generous philanthropy of real estate entrepreneur Robert Meyerhoff and his wife, Jane, the Meyerhoff program was initially focused on increasing the number of Black males pursing higher education in the fields of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) but now has been expanded to include women and other underrepresented students.

In April, the Meyerhoff program held a two-day 20th Anniversary Research Symposium and Celebration, bringing back many of the 200 alumni who have completed doctorates, medical degrees and other STEM graduate degrees.

Congressional Proposal Seeks to Increase Study Abroad Participation

Congressional Proposal Seeks to Increase Study Abroad Participation: Minority-serving institutions (MSI) and members of Congress are making a final push for legislation to draw more low-income and minority students into foreign exchange programs and bring more students from developing countries to the United States.

“There is an urgent need to improve America’s image abroad,” says Rep. Ruben Hinojosa, D-Texas, chairman of the House of Representatives’ Subcommittee on Higher Education, Lifelong Learning and Competitiveness. One goal of the Uniting Students in America proposal is to increase participation in study abroad programs to at least 1 million college students per year, a four-fold increase from the current level of 223,000.

The proposal would focus on this goal by creating a new U.S. government-sanctioned corporation that would raise private sector funds and offer competitive grants to universities, consortiums and individuals. The foundation would be named for former Sen. Paul Simon, D-Ill., a champion of higher education who died in 2003.

Preschool Helps Close Achievement Gap

Preschool Helps Close Achievement Gap
Attending a high-quality preschool gives minority students an academic edge as they prepare to enter kindergarten, according to a new study released in June by the independent nonprofit research organization RAND Corp. The authors say the study represents the first comprehensive look at the quality and use of early-childhood care and education programs in California.

Among its key findings, the study showed that the children who start out behind in kindergarten tend to stay behind in elementary school. The study also indicated that those who could especially benefit from preschool are the least likely to be in it: Latino-Americans, African-Americans, and those who come from less-educated or economically disadvantaged families. Only about 15 percent of children from these groups are enrolled in a high-quality preschool program, the study found.

'These low participation rates in high-quality programs represent a missed opportunity to promote the cognitive and social development of more disadvantaged children,' the report said.

The study found that Hispanic students have lower levels of proficiency than their White peers. These gaps in second and third grade are particularly large, exceeding 20 percentage point differences, said the study.

Students Learning English Are Isolated in Poor Schools, Study Finds

Students Learning English Are Isolated in Poor Schools, Study Finds
Gaps in test scores narrow when students who have not mastered English are not isolated in low-achieving schools, according to a new report from the Pew Center for English-Language learning.

The report released June 26 noted that students designated as English language learners (ELL) tend to go to public schools with low standardized test scores – schools where other groups are also struggling. These schools generally have high student-teacher ratios, high student enrollments and high student poverty rates, the report said.

The report focused on public schools in Arizona, California, Florida, New York and Texas, states that educated about 70 percent of the nation’s students enrolled in English language learning (ELL) programs.

As defined in the report, “English language learner (ELL) students are designated by public schools as students who cannot excel in an English language classroom. Designation procedures vary across states and school districts but often include a test of the student’s English reading and writing skills as well as listening and speaking abilities.”

Librarians Call for More Black Males in Field

Librarians Call for More Black Males in Field: Librarians issued a clarion call for substantially more Black males in their field this past weekend at the American Library Association’s annual conference in Anaheim, Calif.

Black men make up a dismal 0.5 percent, or 572 of the 110,000 of the nation’s librarians. And about 1 in 10 Black librarians are men, according to figures in an ALA diversity report issued last year, which were discussed in the ALA conference panel “An Endangered Species: The Black Male Librarians.”

“The need for Black male librarians is crucial given the lack of diversity of our library organizations,” says panelist Dr. Alma Dawson, the Russell Long Professor in Library and Information Science at Louisiana State University. “There is a great need for Black males as reflected in crime statistics, low levels of literacy, and other areas. Black male librarians can make a difference.”

The stereotype pervading American society that a librarian is an old White woman with glasses steers Black males away from the profession, says Damon Austin, agricultural sciences librarian at the University of Maryland and one of the experienced Black library professionals who participated in the panel.

Harlem School Aces Math Test

The Bryant Park Project, July 1, 2008 · In a society obsessed with school testing, one public school in New York City has achieved the perfect score.

One hundred percent — every single student — of the eighth grade at Harlem Village Academy passed the state's math test.

What's the key to the school's success? It's not a selection process: Students are admitted to the charter school by lottery, not any sort of screening. It's not small class size: There can be 28 or more students in a class.

Deborah Kenny, founder of Harlem Village Academies, says that with all the dire warnings about failing schools, officials try to analyze exactly what successful schools like hers do and then require all other schools to do the same.

"It's a completely incorrect way to transform education," she says. Teaching shouldn't be compliance-driven, she says. "Education is all about the person standing at the front of the room."

Kenny says that the key to her school's success is attracting, developing and retaining great teachers.

"How do you create an amazing environment for teachers?" she asks. "And when you start to give enough thought and put enough time into that, you begin to come up with the answers."

Harlem Village's teachers all work together to create common goals and guidelines for expected behavior from students. Kenny says it's about consistency.

New evidence collected in 1946 lynching case - CNN.com

New evidence collected in 1946 lynching case - CNN.com: ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- State and federal investigators said Tuesday that they spent the past two days gathering evidence in the last documented mass lynching in the United States: a grisly slaying of four people that has remained unsolved for more than six decades.

In a written statement, the FBI and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation said they collected several items on a property in rural Walton County, Georgia, that were taken in for further investigation.

On July 25, 1946, two black sharecropper couples were shot hundreds of times and the unborn baby of one of the women cut out with a knife at the Moore's Ford Bridge. One of the men had been accused of stabbing a white man 11 days earlier and was bailed out of jail by a former Ku Klux Klan member and known bootlegger who drove him, his wife, her brother and his wife to the bridge.

The FBI statement said investigators were following up on information recently received in the case, one of several the agency has revived in an effort to close decades-old cases from the civil rights era and before.

"The FBI and GBI had gotten some information that we couldn't ignore with respect to this case," GBI spokesman John Bankhead said.

Georgia state Rep. Tyrone Brooks, a longtime advocate for prosecution in the Moore's Ford case, called news of the search encouraging.

2008 Enrollment In U.S. Expected To Set Record - washingtonpost.com

2008 Enrollment In U.S. Expected To Set Record - washingtonpost.com: Public school enrollment across the country will hit a record high this year with just under 50 million students, and the student population is becoming more diverse in large part because of growth in the Latino population, according to a new federal report.

Nationwide, about 20 percent of students were Hispanic in 2006, the latest year for which figures were available for ethnic groups, up from 11 percent in the late 1980s. That trend is reflected in many Washington area schools. In Fairfax County, about 17 percent of students are Hispanic, jumping from about 4 percent two decades ago.

Overall, about 43 percent of the nation's students are minorities, according to the Condition of Education, a congressionally mandated annual look at enrollment and performance trends in schools and colleges.

Educators and activists, pointing to the shifting demographics, say it is becoming urgent to find ways to boost achievement of minority and low-income students, who often lag behind white and middle- to upper-income peers.

"Latino students have long underperformed versus Anglo students . . . and they are continuing to underperform," said Peter Zamora, regional counsel for the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund. "When Latino students were a small percentage of the population, this maybe didn't need to be a significant concern of policymakers. But when one out of five students is Hispanic, this isn't a Latino issue, this is an American issue."

Study looks at test scores of limited English speakers | Dallas Morning News | News for Dallas, Texas | News: Education

Study looks at test scores of limited English speakers | Dallas Morning News | News for Dallas, Texas | News: Education: Most students with limited English-speaking skills are concentrated in low-performing public schools. Many of them don't do well on standardized tests, but neither do black or white students who attend the same schools.

A study released Thursday by the Pew Hispanic Center analyzed standardized testing data for public schools in Texas, Arizona, California, Florida and New York.

The findings, however, have less to do with who the students are and more with what their schools are like.

The study, based on an analysis of three U.S. Department of Education databases, points out that these public schools with large numbers of English language learners usually have high student-teacher ratios, large student enrollments and high numbers of students who are eligible for free and reduced lunches.

The study finds that English language learners performed better on standardized tests when they were not concentrated in low-performing schools. But so did their white and black peers.

Thirty-Six Students Receive a Total of $72,000 in Hispanic Heritage Youth Awards Sponsored by Sallie Mae

Thirty-Six Students Receive a Total of $72,000 in Hispanic Heritage Youth Awards Sponsored by Sallie Mae

RESTON, Va.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sallie Mae, the nation’s leading saving- and paying-for-college company today announced the 36 regional winners of the Hispanic Heritage Youth Awards ”Leadership” category. The awards, given by the Hispanic Heritage Foundation (HHF) in an annual contest, honor academically successful Hispanic high school seniors with educational grants ranging from $1,000 to $8,000. Sallie Mae’s sponsorship of HHF’s Youth Awards is part of the company’s commitment to helping students and families pay for college.

“Through the support of Sallie Mae, the ‘Leadership’ category allows us to celebrate the next generation of emerging Hispanic leaders,” said José Antonio Tijerino, HHF president and CEO. “These young leaders have demonstrated a high level of achievement in classrooms and communities across the country and are positioned as role models for their peers.”

One such young leader is the Gold Medallion winner from Washington, DC, Veronica Torres. Torres attends Theodore Roosevelt Senior High School, where she is an AP and Honors student with a 4.0 GPA, a commitment to community service and multiple awards for academics and leadership. Torres will attend George Washington University in the fall. Born in El Salvador, she will be the first in her family to attend college.

Traditional Languages in Danger, Minnesota Lawmaker Says

Traditional Languages in Danger, Minnesota Lawmaker Says
BEMIDJI, Minn. A Minnesota state senator says American Indian languages could become extinct unless language- immersion programs are renewed.

Senator Mary Olson of Bemidji says immersion programs and textbooks written in Ojibwe are needed. That is the fourth most spoken Native American language in North America after Navajo, Cree, and Inuktitut. The number of fluent speakers of Dakota and Ojibwe in Minnesota is declining rapidly, with fewer than 100 fluent speakers of Ojibwe and 30 fluent speakers of Dakota.

Education Commissioner Alice Seagren and members of the Minnesota Indian Affairs Council have been meeting this week at the Capitol to discuss language preservation.

Olson, a Democrat, wrote a bill authorizing the state Board of Teaching to establish a task force for language immersion programs for Dakota and Ojibwe language preservation. The Board of Teaching would collaborate with the Minnesota Indian Affairs Council to identify barriers to teacher licensing and certification for the teaching of Dakota and Ojibwe languages from prekindergarten to grade 12.