Intellectually Disabled Students Wins Dorm Suit : NPR

Intellectually Disabled Students Wins Dorm Suit : NPR: Like many kids with intellectual disabilities these days, Micah Fialka-Feldman went to his neighborhood high school in Michigan and graduated. Then he wanted to try college. Nearby Oakland University is one of many schools and community colleges that are setting up programs for students with intellectual disabilities. But it wouldn't let Fialka-Feldman live on campus so he sued, and a judge has ruled that he was discriminated against.

Poet, anti-apartheid activist Dennis Brutus dies - washingtonpost.com

Poet, anti-apartheid activist Dennis Brutus dies - washingtonpost.com: NEW YORK -- South African poet and former political prisoner Dennis Brutus, who fought apartheid in words and deeds and remained an activist well after the fall of his country's racist system, has died. He was 85.

Brutus' publisher, Chicago-based Haymarket Books, said the writer died in his sleep at his home in Cape Town on Saturday. He had been battling prostate cancer, according to Patrick Bond, who directs the Center for Civil Society at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in Durban, where Brutus was an honorary professor.

Brutus was an anti-apartheid activist jailed at Robben Island with Nelson Mandela in the mid-1960s. He helped persuade Olympic officials to ban South Africa from competition from 1964 until apartheid ended nearly 30 years later.

Percy Sutton, attorney for Malcolm X, dies at 89 - washingtonpost.com

Percy Sutton, attorney for Malcolm X, dies at 89 - washingtonpost.com: NEW YORK -- Percy Sutton, the pioneering civil rights attorney who represented Malcolm X before launching successful careers as a political power broker and media mogul, has died. He was 89.

Marissa Shorenstein, a spokeswoman for Gov. David Paterson, confirmed that Sutton died Saturday. She did not know the cause. His daughter, Cheryl Sutton, declined to comment when reached by phone at her New York City home on Saturday before midnight.

The son of a slave, Percy Sutton became a fixture on 125th Street in Harlem after moving to New York City following his service with the famed Tuskegee Airmen in World War II. His Harlem law office, founded in 1953, represented Malcolm X and the slain activist's family for decades.

Black men hit hard by unemployment in Milwaukee - washingtonpost.com

Black men hit hard by unemployment in Milwaukee - washingtonpost.com: ...At this moment, Milwaukee is a hauntingly jobless place for African Americans, who are more likely to be out of work than whites, Hispanics or Asian Americans. It's a reality reflected in the Matthews home, where Radolph's wife, Daniela, is the family's provider. His mother-in-law is disabled. His wife's sister has a newborn and is unemployed, and his wife's brother, who stays with them sometimes, also has no job.

For black people in Wisconsin, the jobless numbers reached a new high in October, the month Matthews lost his job. The unemployment rate for African Americans surpassed that of every other state, reaching an average of 22 percent for the past 12 months, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Nationally, the unemployment rate is 10 percent, but according to the Census Bureau's American Community Survey, nearly one out of every two black men in Milwaukee is not working, compared with 18.1 percent of white men and 22.1 percent of Hispanic men.

Unemployment or fear of it consumes conversations in corners of this city of 600,000, and it sounds nothing like the talk about jobs in Washington.

Minority Hires a Priority On Capitol Hill

Minority Hires a Priority On Capitol Hill: With the economy still reeling, Hampton University didn't get its usual contingent of 100 employers at its fall 2009 career fair for students and alumni. But one sector was there in force - federal government agencies looking for candidates for career positions.

'Government agencies come every time,' says Vivian David, director of the university's career center. Agencies such as the FBI, Census Bureau, State Department and Patent and Trademark Office are among those that frequently send recruiters to Hampton for such events. 'They actively recruit,' David says, and students seem to respond positively. 'It's a brand that's popular on campus.'

Recruitment of African-Americans, Hispanics, Native Americans and Asian-Americans is a priority across the federal government. The U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) must report annually on minority employment, and its findings show some gains. Overall, minorities were 33 percent of the federal work force in 2008, meaning they were over-represented in government compared with the rest of the U.S. work force. Together, these groups represented 29 percent of the civilian labor force last year.

Advocates Want More Help for Jobless Blacks

Advocates Want More Help for Jobless Blacks: PHILADELPHIA -- In the battle against Black unemployment, places like the Opportunities Industrialization Center are ground zero.

Savory aromas wafted from a king-size kitchen one recent day as the instructor demonstrated a fish recipe to a dozen aspiring cooks. Nearby, a mock hotel room was waiting to be cleaned. Downstairs, electrical fixtures hung from an exposed wall, ready to be wired. Here, the goal is 'helping people help themselves' through literacy programs and training for hotel, clerical, building, retail and other jobs. 'We have to give people transferable skills,' said Robert C. Nelson, president and CEO of the Philadelphia OIC. There is a growing outcry among Black advocates for the Obama administration to target Black joblessness with similar training programs and direct job creation.

Black unemployment has climbed from 8.9 percent to 15.6 percent since the recession began in December 2007. In comparison, the nation's overall rate has risen from 4.9 to 10.0 percent. The White rate climbed from 4.4 percent to 9.3 percent.

Hispanic College Fund President Steps Down

Hispanic College Fund President Steps Down: The president of the Hispanic College Fund (HCF) announced Tuesday she will resign from the position she has held since 2007.

Idalia Fernandez joined the HCF as a volunteer 10 years ago and became a scholarship program manager. Since then she has helped the organization's revenue and programming grow. She moved up to vice president, then chief operating officer in 2001 and was named president two years ago.

'We have transformed this organization from a scholarship-granting entity to an organization that offers targeted, effective support to Hispanic students through all stages of their education,' Fernandez said.

Latino Leaders Push Census, to Avoid Undercount - NYTimes.com

Latino Leaders Push Census, to Avoid Undercount - NYTimes.com: MIAMI — Fearing that millions of illegal immigrants may not be counted in the 2010 census, Latino leaders are mobilizing a nationwide drive to urge Hispanics to participate in the survey, including an intense push this week in evangelical Christian churches.

Latino groups contend that there was an undercount of nearly one million Latinos in the 2000 census, affecting the drawing of Congressional districts and the distribution of federal money. Hispanic organizations are far better organized for next year’s census, but they say that if illegal immigrants — an estimated eight million of whom are Latino — are not included, the undercount could be much greater.

One study suggests that Congressional delegations in eight states with large Hispanic populations could grow if all Latinos — the nation’s largest minority at some 47 million — are counted.

But the obstacles to an accurate count are significant. Many illegal immigrants are likely to be reluctant to fill out a government form that asks for their names, birthdates and telephone numbers. And the count comes three years into an immigration crackdown that was initiated by President George W. Bush but has continued apace, though less visibly, under President Obama.

Obama Naming Hispanics to Top Posts at Record Pace

Obama Naming Hispanics to Top Posts at Record Pace: MIAMI - President Barack Obama is on track to name more Hispanics to top posts than any of his predecessors, drawing appointees from a wide range of the nation's Latino communities, including Mexicans, Puerto Ricans, Dominicans and Colombians.

That won't necessarily give the president a free pass on issues such as immigration, but it may ease Hispanics' worries about whether Obama will continue reaching out to a group that was key to his winning the White House.

Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor is by far Obama's most famous Hispanic appointee. In less than a year in office, the president has also tapped at least 48 other Hispanics to positions senior enough to require Senate confirmation. So far, 35 have been approved."

Column: Sunday morning TV talk shows need to break color barrier - Opinion - USATODAY.com

Column: Sunday morning TV talk shows need to break color barrier - Opinion - USATODAY.com: Stephanie Jones didn't waste any time firing off a letter to ABC once she learned that the musical chairs that followed the retirement of World News anchor Charles Gibson had landed George Stephanopoulos a promotion.

Since 2002, the former senior adviser to President Clinton had served as moderator of This Week, ABC's Sunday morning political talk show. Earlier this month, he was named host of Good Morning America, replacing Diane Sawyer, who got Gibson's job.

'As you know, none of the major Sunday morning talk shows currently features a minority host, and the lack of racial diversity is an ongoing concern we have urged you to address,' Jones wrote to ABC News President David Westin and Ian Cameron, executive producer of This Week.

Three years ago, Jones, who heads the National Urban League Policy Institute, criticized the 'paucity' of blacks on TV's five leading Sunday morning news talk shows — This Week, NBC's Meet the Press, CNN's Late Edition, FOX News Sunday and CBS' Face the Nation. Next year, she will issue a follow-up report that credits the networks for making some progress, Jones told me.

Judge orders NYPD to reveal racial data on all people shot at by cops from 1997 to 2006

Judge orders NYPD to reveal racial data on all people shot at by cops from 1997 to 2006: A judge Monday ordered the NYPD to turn over the racial breakdown of all people shot at by police officers between 1997 and 2006.

The New York Civil Liberties Union sued the NYPD in 2008 for racial data about shooting victims.

The NYPD agreed to release the racial breakdown of those injured by police gunfire, but not data about those who were shot at but not hit.

In an opinion dated Dec. 15, Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Joan Madden ruled the NYPD had not met its burden under the state's Freedom of Information Law to withhold the data.

After the fatal police shooting of Sean Bell in 2006, the NYCLU filed a Freedom of Information request for the NYPD's annual statical reports on police shooting from 1996 to 2006, as well as the race of civilians cops fired at.

The department produced the reports, but not the racial data.

In October 2007, it filed a formal request for the NYPD's annual statistical reports on police shootings from 1996 through 2006 as well as the race of civilians shot at by police.

'The court's decision makes clear that the NYPD had no basis for withholding this data, which is necessary to conduct a complete study of the role race plays in police shootings,' said NYCLU Associate Legal Director Christopher Dunn, lead counsel in the case.

Scholar Renders Deft History of Civil Rights Era

Scholar Renders Deft History of Civil Rights Era: Even after nearly 50 years, the names bear repeating: Franklin McCain, David Richmond, Ezell Blair and Joseph McNeil.

They were freshmen at North Carolina A&T State University on Feb. 1, 1960, when they took their seats at the Whites-only lunch counter at Woolworth's in downtown Greensboro. Four young Blacks tired of segregation laws, they were refused service and asked to leave. But they remained until the counter closed, and when they walked back to their dorm exhilarated, they had set in motion an act of civil disobedience - the sit-in - that took the civil rights movement by storm.

The next day, 25 sit-in protesters showed up. Then 63 filled all but two seats at Woolworth's. The protest spilled over to the nearby Kress department store, and as word spread across North Carolina and across the South, so did the sit-in: By mid-April, more than 50,000 protesters - ordinary Americans, most of them young - had attacked Jim Crow at the counter.

Minority farmers seek redress, claim USDA discrimination - washingtonpost.com

Minority farmers seek redress, claim USDA discrimination - washingtonpost.com: In November, the Agriculture Department began negotiations with Native American farmers in a class-action suit alleging systematic discrimination in the agency's farm loan program. About 15,000 black farmers have received almost $1 billion since the settlement of a similar class-action suit, known as the Pigford case.

Hispanic farmers who have filed similar lawsuits hope this means the government may settle with them, too, even though a federal judge has denied them class certification. Female farmers also filed suit but have been denied class certification.

All four groups allege that they were denied farm loans and given loans with impossible conditions because of their race or gender.

Alberto Acosta, a New Mexico chili farmer, sought help a decade ago from the loan program meant as a last resort for farmers who cannot secure private financing. In 1998 and 1999, he was granted $92,000 in loans by the department.

Study: TV May Perpetuate Race Bias - TIME

Study: TV May Perpetuate Race Bias - TIME: Most people regard watching television as a passive activity. You sit, you watch. Occasionally, you change the channel. But a new study reveals that even this passive diversion may lead to actively damaging effects, particularly when it comes to issues of race.

In a series of intricately designed experiments, psychologists at Tufts University demonstrate that subtle racial biases are often expressed by characters on popular television shows, and that viewers not only pick up these attitudes but allow them to shape their own outlooks on race. The most insidious part of this cultural traffic, the researchers found, is that the transmission of race bias appears to occur subconsciously, unbeknownst to the viewer.

Led by Max Weisbuch, a postdoctoral student in the lab of Tufts psychology professor Nalini Ambady, researchers designed the multipart study to examine the communication of race bias on television to white college-age volunteers.

Continuing Segregation Is Hurting U.S. Competitiveness - The Top 10 Everything of 2009 - TIME

Continuing Segregation Is Hurting U.S. Competitiveness - The Top 10 Everything of 2009 - TIME: Talk about a dream deferred. African-American and Latino schoolchildren are more segregated, according to a January report from UCLA's Civil Rights Project, than they were at the time of Martin Luther King Jr.'s death, in 1968. Nearly 39% of blacks and 40% of Latinos attended schools composed of 90% to 100% students of color in the 2006-07 school year, the report found, and blacks and Latinos are far more likely than their white peers to attend high-poverty schools and 'dropout factories' where huge numbers of students don't graduate. With the segment of nonwhite American students at 44% and climbing, the potential economic consequences are dire. 'In a world economy where success is dependent on knowledge,' the report said, 'major sections of the U.S. face the threat of declining average educational levels as the proportion of children attending inferior segregated schools continues to rise.'

New civil rights chief vows more hate-crimes enforcement - CNN.com

New civil rights chief vows more hate-crimes enforcement - CNN.com: WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Obama administration's new civil rights chief said Thursday that he was 'shocked' to learn of the steep decline in hate-crime prosecutions during the Bush presidency and vowed to combat violence stemming from hatred and bias.

Assistant Attorney General Thomas Perez, newly confirmed head of the Justice Department Civil Rights Division, said that 25 hate-crime cases have been filed this year, the largest number since 2001. He produced statistics showing the number of hate-crime cases had peaked at 49 in 1996 had dwindled to 12 in 2006.

He declined to speculate on the reasons, but another civil rights official said hate-crime enforcement 'was clearly not a priority of the previous administration.'

Perez said he plans to hire more than 100 employees, including more than 50 attorneys, to beef up enforcement of civil rights laws. That includes enforcing the new provision of the hate-crimes law that expands its protections to people targeted because of their sexual orientation.

Civil Rights Commission Probes Possible Gender Bias at Colleges

Civil Rights Commission Probes Possible Gender Bias at Colleges: PHILADELPHIA - A federal civil rights agency investigating possible gender discrimination in college admissions will subpoena data from more than a dozen mid-Atlantic universities, officials said Thursday.

The probe by the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights is focusing on whether some colleges favor men by admitting them at higher rates than women or by offering them more generous aid packages.

Commission members voted Wednesday to authorize subpoenas for 19 universities within a 100-mile radius of where the commission meets in Washington - the geographical extent of their subpoena authority.

The schools represent a mixture of sizes and include public, private, religious, secular, historically Black and moderately selective to highly selective institutions. There are six in Maryland, five in Pennsylvania, three in Washington, two each in Virginia and Delaware and one in West Virginia.

Women outnumber men nearly 60 to 40 percent in higher education nationally. The probe grew out of anecdotal stories that admissions officials are discriminating against women to promote a more even gender mix, said commission spokeswoman Lenore Ostrowsky.

Academia Jobs Forecast Bleak

Academia Jobs Forecast Bleak: In one of many consequences of the national economic downturn on higher education, the Modern Language Association (MLA) projects a significant drop in faculty opportunities in English and foreign languages and literature, according to a report released today.

In the steepest decline in more than three decades, the positions advertised in MLA's Job Information List - an authoritative collection of faculty positions in languages and literature at the nation's colleges and universities - are expected to plummet by 37 percent this academic year.

This comes after the job list had a 26-percent drop last year, the second biggest backslide since its launch in the 1975-76 academic year.

Immigration Reform Next for Obama Cabinet

Immigration Reform Next for Obama Cabinet: Labor Secretary Hilda Solis and Commerce Secretary Gary Locke took a page from their personal histories in making an economic argument for why immigration reform should be the next domestic agenda item for President Barack Obama's administration.

The pursuit of a better life, both said, gives immigrants an extra motivating factor to take risks and reach further than their circumstances for a dream.

Immigrants 'are generating businesses, they are employing people, and I'm happy to say, they are paying their taxes,' Solis said. 'There is great potential for our country in so many different ways.'

Speaking at an event Wednesday at the Washington think tank Center for American Progress, Solis and Locke shared their stories as the children of Hispanic and Asian immigrants, respectively, and offered their opinions on the best way to address national immigration issues.

Violence based on hate has to stop - CNN.com

Violence based on hate has to stop - CNN.com: San Diego, California (CNN) -- Don't look now, but Pennsylvania might be the new Mississippi.

Some Americans resist any attempt to compare the modern plight of Latino immigrants to the civil rights movement of the 1960s.

Likewise, when it comes to race issues, many whites in the Northeast like to think of themselves as morally superior to their counterparts in the South. Both these groups need to brush up on their history -- and pay closer attention to current events.

In 1967, the Justice Department brought to trial 18 men -- including at least one law enforcement officer -- in Meridian, Mississippi, charging them with conspiracy to deny three slain civil rights workers their civil rights 'under the color of state law.'

Michael Schwerner, Andrew Goodman and James Chaney became martyrs for the civil rights movement when they were beaten and shot to death in June 1964 for what some of the locals considered the unpardonable sin of helping register blacks to vote during Mississippi's 'freedom summer.'

State authorities refused to prosecute the case, so the federal government had to intervene by filing federal civil rights charges. Ultimately, seven of the 18 defendants were found guilty.

Growing What Works Database | EdExcelencia.org

Growing What Works Database | EdExcelencia.org: Identifying what works for Latino students in higher education is an important step to reach our national goals of degree completion, a highly competitive workforce, and civic leadership. The Growing What Works database is the tool to help you take this step.

This database provides information on promising practices at the associate, baccalaureate, and graduate levels at institutions across the country with evidence of effectiveness in improving Latino student success.

To identify programs that most closely match your interests, search the database by academic level, location, program area, institution, and/or year reviewed in the drop down boxes. You may also browse the database by location using an interactive map.

Taking Stock: Higher Education and Latinos | EdExcelencia.org

Taking Stock: Higher Education and Latinos | EdExcelencia.org: The focus of this brief is to reconcile what we know with what we hear to inform what we can do to address the realities facing Latino students in a manner integrated into the broader policy agenda and discussions in higher education. This brief takes stock of the current higher education environment and integrates the perspectives of elected officials, students, and service providers from interviews and focus groups with data to better understand the role of Latinos in the future access, persistence, and completion of higher education in the United States and puts this information together to articulate what we can do to address critical policy issues affecting Latino students in the current higher education context.

Taboos Silence Opponents Of Uganda Anti-Gay Bill : NPR

Taboos Silence Opponents Of Uganda Anti-Gay Bill : NPR: In Uganda, a bill designed to eradicate homosexuality has strong support in the government and among evangelical Christians. Proponents of the bill link homosexuality to the West. And under the bill, Uganda would withdraw from any international treaties or protocols that recognize the human rights of gay people.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton calls Uganda's anti-homosexuality bill a 'very serious potential violation of human rights.' But few in Uganda are willing to speak against it because those who do are labeled gay.

In the lobby of Uganda's parliament building is an installation showing the potentially disastrous effects of climate change. The sign says: 'The Choices, Actions and Agreements Made Now Will Determine Which Future Becomes Reality.' Whoever wrote that might well have been describing the country's political climate.

Ugandans may soon have a choice to make. Homosexuality has been illegal there for more than 100 years, but now lawmakers are considering legislation that would go further. The Anti-Homosexuality Bill of 2009 would jail consenting adults who engage in gay sex. It would give life sentences to people in same-sex marriages. It would extradite gay Ugandans living abroad and prosecute them.

Asian Americans drive Army recruiting boom in L.A. -- latimes.com

Asian Americans drive Army recruiting boom in L.A. -- latimes.com: Asians have traditionally joined the military at the lowest rate among all races, but -- lured by job security, college aid and, for some, citizenship -- they are signing up in larger numbers. Their enlistments rose 80% in L.A. County.

... the biggest Army recruitment boon for Los Angeles in two decades -- led by an 80% increase in Asian enlistments in the last year. Asians have traditionally joined the military at the lowest rate among all races.

But lured by job security, enhanced tuition aid and, for some immigrants, the chance for U.S. citizenship, Asians this year made up 22% of all active-duty recruits, nearly twice their proportion in the Los Angeles County population.

Latino enlistments increased by 37%, while African Americans rose by about 14% and whites, 15%.

Overall, the Los Angeles Recruiting Battalion signed up 2,300 new recruits, a 34% increase over last fiscal year.

The Southern California Recruiting Battalion, which handles Orange, San Diego, San Bernardino and Riverside counties, also reported the biggest recruiting year in two decades -- including a 33% increase in Asian recruits.

Groups urge better census count of African-Americans in 2010 - CNN.com

Groups urge better census count of African-Americans in 2010 - CNN.com: Washington (CNN) -- Civil rights leaders Wednesday lobbied Commerce Secretary Gary Locke and top Census Bureau officials to press for a better count of African-Americans in the 2010 census.

The U.S. government already plans a nearly $200 million advertising campaign aimed at getting people to respond to the census, which is used to set congressional and legislative districts and allocate federal funds. But National Urban League President Marc Morial said more needs to be done to make sure underrepresented communities are included.

'My takeaway from the meeting is that the secretary listened intently and took our concerns very seriously,' Morial told reporters after the meeting. But he added, 'We still feel there are important, significant steps that need to be taken to ensure that there is a complete count in the 2010 census.'

Benjamin Jealous, president of the NAACP, said the 2000 census undercounted African-Americans by nearly 3 percent. He said the Census Bureau needs to hire more black managers and subcontractors so 'the firms that know these communities best are calling the shots.'

Black leaders urge census to change how it counts inmates - washingtonpost.com

Black leaders urge census to change how it counts inmates - washingtonpost.com: A coalition of African American leaders concerned about minorities being undercounted in the 2010 Census called Wednesday for inmates at federal and state prisons to be tallied in their home communities instead of the towns where they are incarcerated.

Marc H. Morial, president of the National Urban League and chairman of a census advisory committee, said the practice now shortchanges communities in money and democratic representation. Census statistics are used to calculate the allocation of more than $478 billion in federal funds and to draw political boundaries.

Noting that about 1.2 million of the nation's 40 million African Americans are in prison, Morial said, "What we have in the prison population issue is a built-in undercount."

Morial and about a dozen other black leaders brought up the prison count during a meeting with Commerce Secretary Gary Locke to discuss how to make the census more accurate, a perennial problem. In 2000, about 1.3 million people were overcounted, mostly because of duplicate counts of whites with multiple homes. In contrast, about 4.5 million people, mostly black and Hispanic, were not counted.

3 police officers among 5 people indicted in race-related beating - CNN.com

3 police officers among 5 people indicted in race-related beating - CNN.com: Washington (CNN) -- Five people, including three police officers, have been indicted on charges related to the beating death of a Latino man in rural Pennsylvania in July 2008, the Justice Department said Tuesday.

Two indictments charge the five with federal hate crimes, obstruction of justice and conspiracy in what authorities are calling a racially motivated attack.

The indictments come almost six months after a Schuylkill County jury acquitted two teens of aggravated assault and one of murder in the death of Luis Ramirez.

The undocumented Mexican immigrant was beaten into a coma during a street brawl involving the teens and their friends on a residential street in Shenandoah. The incident divided the small, rural mining town along racial lines and became a flash point for racial tensions nationwide.

After the verdict, Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell denounced the attack as racially motivated and called on the Justice Department to intervene.

Changing the Measures of Success for HBCUs

Changing the Measures of Success for HBCUs: While graduation rates have long withstood criticism for being considered a prime indicator of institutional success in higher education, a group of predominantly Black colleges and universities are now calling for a new index that will factor in the unique barriers their students overcome to graduate.

Representing the public historically Black colleges and university (HBCU) sector, the New York-based Thurgood Marshall College Fund (TMCF) Monday released Making the Grade: Improving Degree Attainment at Historically Black Colleges and Universities, a white paper arguing for a new index that places emphasis on factors such as students’ socioeconomic status and academic preparedness. Public HBCUs, in particular, are facing renewed concern about their relevance as policymakers and the public have increased scrutiny of public college outcomes.

Black unemployment keeps trending higher - Dec. 4, 2009

Black unemployment keeps trending higher - Dec. 4, 2009: NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- While the overall unemployment rate for Americans fell in November, the jobless gap between African-Americans and all other races actually rose, continuing a disturbing trend that has many lawmakers up in arms.

The black community has suffered the hardest during the economic downturn, with an unemployment rate that currently stands at 15.6%. That's a much higher rate than for all of the other races that the Labor Department tracks, including Hispanics (12.7%), whites (9.3%) and Asians (7.3%).

The jobless rate for blacks has also grown much faster than for other races.

The difference between the unemployment rates for blacks and whites fell to an all-time low of 3.5 percentage points in August 2007. As the economy fell into a recession, that gap rapidly grew. By April 2009, the gap hit a 13-year high, doubling to a staggering 7 percentage points.

Though the separation between white and black jobless rates has narrowed slightly since the spring, it is still trending higher, rising to 6.3 percentage points in November from 6.2 points in the previous month.

College admission rates for women spur civil rights probe - washingtonpost.com

College admission rates for women spur civil rights probe - washingtonpost.com: Civil rights investigators will soon begin reviewing admissions data from a sampling of colleges in the Washington region to determine whether, after decades of progress toward sexual equity, female students have become so plentiful in higher education that institutions have entered a new era of discrimination against them.

Women apply in greater numbers than men to most colleges in the D.C. area. They make up at least three-fifths of the applicant pool at a number of schools, including the College of William and Mary in Virginia, Goucher and St. Mary's colleges in Maryland and American University in the District.

Anecdotal evidence suggests that some schools are favoring men by admitting them at higher rates than women to try to preserve a male-female balance on campus. Conventional admissions-office wisdom dictates that colleges dominated by either sex are less appealing to applicants in general.

Rights complaint planned in Philly school attacks - washingtonpost.com

Rights complaint planned in Philly school attacks - washingtonpost.com: PHILADELPHIA -- A national Asian American advocacy organization says it plans to file a federal civil rights complaint against the Philadelphia School District after a series of attacks on Asian students at a high school.

The Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund said Friday that it would accuse the Philadelphia School District of violating the equal protection rights of the students.

Dozens of students have been boycotting classes at South Philadelphia High School. They say that the Dec. 3 assaults were racially motivated and that the school hasn't done enough to prevent the violence.

The principal has apologized to students. The school says it is getting better security and plans diversity programs.

Superintendent Arlene Ackerman says she wants to meet with students and their parents after they return to school.

Houston voters elect first openly gay mayor - washingtonpost.com

Houston voters elect first openly gay mayor - washingtonpost.com: HOUSTON -- Annise Parker made history Saturday by becoming Houston's first openly gay mayor, seizing 53.6 percent of the vote in the city's hotly contested election.

'This election has changed the world for the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered community. Just as it is about transforming the lives of all Houstonians for the better, and that's what my administration will be about,' Parker told supporters after former city attorney Gene Locke conceded defeat.

Of the more than 152,000 residents who turned out to cast ballots in the fourth largest U.S. city Saturday, 81,652 chose Parker - some 11,000 votes more than were placed for Locke.

The election battle leading up to Saturday's balloting was marked by fierce campaigning and anti-gay rhetoric.

Parker is a lesbian who has never made a secret or an issue of her sexual orientation. But that orientation became focus of the race after anti-gay activists and conservative religious groups endorsed the 61-year-old Locke and sent out mailers condemning Parker's 'homosexual behavior.'

Meanwhile, gay and lesbian political organizations nationwide rallied to support the 53-year-old Parker by raising money for her campaign and making calls urging people to vote.

Louisiana serves as model in teacher assessment - washingtonpost.com

Louisiana serves as model in teacher assessment - washingtonpost.com: ...How much they advance will affect not only the students and their school, but also the university a few miles away that trained Bower. Through an initiative that Education Secretary Arne Duncan calls a model for the nation, Louisiana has become the first state to tie student test scores into a chain of evaluation that reaches all the way to teacher colleges. Those that fail to perform on this new metric someday could face shake-ups or, in extreme cases, closure.

"It's accountability on steroids," said E. Joseph Savoie, president of the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, which trained Bower.

The movement to overhaul public education through high-stakes testing has accelerated since the 2002 No Child Left Behind law mandated an expansion of standardized exams and put low-performing schools in jeopardy. Now, the Obama administration wants to use test scores to help evaluate teachers and the institutions that train them. Louisiana provides the most aggressive example.

Mentoring helps immigrants' children aim for college - washingtonpost.com

Mentoring helps immigrants' children aim for college - washingtonpost.com: Although there is mounting concern about the large number of U.S.-born children of Hispanic immigrants who drop out of high school or get pregnant as teenagers, there are also hundreds of thousands who are getting the college educations they need to enter the middle class. In fact, one in five of these 'second-generation' Hispanics graduates from college -- a notable achievement given that so many of their immigrant parents, mostly Mexicans and Central Americans, entered the United States without finishing high school.

Their success stories are important, researchers say, because they point the way forward for a generation that will play an outsize role in the country's workforce.

Those who study high achievers say they often have a natural affinity for school and an innate drive to succeed. Many also have parents who set lofty goals for their children and find ways to compensate for their unfamiliarity with American schools.

Children on Medicaid Found More Likely to Get Antipsychotics - NYTimes.com

Children on Medicaid Found More Likely to Get Antipsychotics - NYTimes.com: New federally financed drug research reveals a stark disparity: children covered by Medicaid are given powerful antipsychotic medicines at a rate four times higher than children whose parents have private insurance. And the Medicaid children are more likely to receive the drugs for less severe conditions than their middle-class counterparts, the data shows.

hose findings, by a team from Rutgers and Columbia, are almost certain to add fuel to a long-running debate. Do too many children from poor families receive powerful psychiatric drugs not because they actually need them — but because it is deemed the most efficient and cost-effective way to control problems that may be handled much differently for middle-class children?

The questions go beyond the psychological impact on Medicaid children, serious as that may be. Antipsychotic drugs can also have severe physical side effects, causing drastic weight gain and metabolic changes resulting in lifelong physical problems.

Mentorship Program Empowers Asian-American Students at Penn

Mentorship Program Empowers Asian-American Students at Penn: University of Pennsylvania student Joanna Wu recalls this invitation shortly before her freshman year: Would she like an Asian-American upperclassman mentor? 'The overachiever in me was trying to get ahead academically,' Wu says with a laugh.

But what she discovered - once she was admitted into one of the signature programs of Penn's Pan-Asian American Community House (PAACH) - was a cornucopia of opportunities for personal growth, leadership training and ethnic-identity exploration.

'My mentor was impressive,' says Wu, a 20-year-old junior majoring in biology with minors in chemistry and Asian-American studies. 'She influenced me to become more of a leader myself. She helped organize conferences that brought thousands of people to campus. I saw how I could make an impact too.'

Since its inception in 2000, PAACH'S education mission has bridged Asian-American studies to student life.

Still Waiting For Disney's First Black Prince : NPR

Still Waiting For Disney's First Black Prince : NPR: Black women across America gave a collective 'It's about time' when Disney announced pre-production on a film featuring a black princess.

Disney has traveled a long road to move from its early caricatures of lazy, big-lipped, bug-eyed, zoot-suited blacks to Princess Tiana, an energetic, smart and in-charge heroine. But as the national release of The Princess and the Frog approaches, I join those who are disappointed that Disney chose not to give their first black princess a black prince.

Surely at some point in the brainstorming sessions, someone had to question the wisdom of Naveen, Tiana's white love interest. The existence of interracial relationships on the screen does not offend me. The nonexistence of healthy, positive, inspiring black relationships offends me.

Despite Struggles, Pioneering Black Studies Department Presses Forward

Despite Struggles, Pioneering Black Studies Department Presses Forward: Since completing his Ph.D. in African American studies at Temple University in 1998 and joining the Howard University Afro-American studies department in 2001, Dr. Greg Carr has helped steer about a dozen Howard students to Temple's graduate program in African American studies. Carr's advocacy underscores his conviction that the Black studies program at Temple remains among the best in the academy.

'What students have at Temple is the ability to extend themselves intellectually and the space to pursue the development of the discipline,' Carr says.

At San Diego State University, Dr. Adisa Alkebulan, a Ph.D. alumnus of Temple's African American studies department, has also advised and steered students to the Temple program. But in recent years he has grown hesitant to do so because he believes the department's leadership has not fought for a coherent and sustainable vision for Black studies that ensures respect and adequate institutional support for students and faculty.

Swine flu death rate elevated for American Indians, Alaska natives - washingtonpost.com

Swine flu death rate elevated for American Indians, Alaska natives - washingtonpost.com: The death rate from pandemic H1N1 influenza is four times higher in American Indians and Alaska natives than in the rest of the U.S. population, government epidemiologists reported Thursday.

An examination of flu deaths in 12 states found that Indians and Alaska natives suffered 3.7 deaths per 100,000 people, compared with 0.9 deaths per 100,000 for all other ethnic groups.

Indian and Alaska-native flu victims were slightly more likely than other Americans to have preexisting illnesses (81 percent vs. 78 percent), and were twice as likely to have asthma (31 percent vs. 14 percent) or diabetes (45 percent vs. 24 percent).
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The cause of this difference in mortality is not known. Thomas R. Frieden, director of the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told reporters that the findings are more likely 'a reflection of environmental factors and underlying conditions . . . [and] access to health care rather than genetics or ethnicity.'

Struggles of a Latino second generation: Mothers too young - washingtonpost.com

Struggles of a Latino second generation: Mothers too young - washingtonpost.com: ...Even as the teen pregnancy rate for other racial and ethnic groups has fallen substantially in the past 15 years, it remains stubbornly high among Latinas. As many as one in four Hispanics born in the United States to immigrant parents has a child before her 20th birthday, according to a statistical analysis by the Centers for Disease Control and Child Trends, a nonpartisan research center. Only Hispanics who come to the United States as immigrants have a higher teen birth rate.

Teen parenthood often adds an extra hurdle for the offspring of Latino immigrants. Many are already struggling to get enough education to overcome their parents' high level of poverty, limited schooling and lack of legal status.

Accreditation Reaffirmed for Fisk University, Three Other HBCUs

Accreditation Reaffirmed for Fisk University, Three Other HBCUs: Four historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs), including financially troubled Fisk University, had their accreditation by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS) reaffirmed for another 10 years Tuesday.

The 77-member SACS board took the action during its winter meeting this week in Atlanta. In addition to Fisk, SACS reaffirmed accreditation for Florida A&M, Kentucky State and North Carolina Central universities.

SACS, which sets standards of performance for hundreds of colleges across the South, also removed two HBCUs-Alabama A & M and Florida Memorial universities - from warning status. In addition, SACS approved 'substantive' program changes proposed by South Carolina State and Fayetteville State universities.

Texas Southern University, site of a financial scandal in its administration several years ago, had its accreditation continued by SACS for 'good cause.' However, SACS officials placed the popular school on probation for six months, citing its continuing need to resolve several outstanding financial management issues.

Mooney's Memories: 'Black Is The New White' : NPR

Mooney's Memories: Black Is The New White: NPR: Paul Mooney has spent decades behind the scenes as a writer for shows such as Saturday Night Live, In Living Color and Chappelle's Show. Now he takes the spotlight in his memoir about his life in comedy, Black Is The New White.

Mooney joins Neal Conan to discuss his friendship with the late comedian Richard Pryor, and also his life and work. Mooney believes that stand-up is the only place in the entertainment industry where a black man can speak honestly, and shares his battles with Hollywood to illustrate his point.

Eco-wall or segregation: Rio plan stirs debate - CNN.com

Eco-wall or segregation: Rio plan stirs debate - CNN.com: Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (CNN) -- Cement-block walls are being built around the shantytowns of Rio de Janeiro. Authorities say it's to save rainforests. The city's poorest residents say it's an attempt to shut them out.

When Francisco de Moraes looks at the wall, it angers him. He has one of the best views of Rio, overlooking the city, its shimmering beaches and Sugarloaf Mountain jutting from the sea.

'We don't have the right to have our opinion heard,' he said.

He speaks during a break from a soccer game on a makeshift cement field that's wedged in by the wall. The 'eco-wall,' as officials call it, runs up next to his house and around most of the Santa Marta shantytown where he and about 7,000 others live.

'The state government walled us in, so more houses wouldn't be built in the forest,' de Moraes said. 'But people felt imprisoned, like they were setting borders and limiting when we could come and go.'

The state of Rio de Janeiro began building the wall around Santa Marta in March, and it plans to spend $17 million on similar walls around the shantytowns.

African-Americans: Blacks in Cuba 'treated with callous disregard' - CNN.com

African-Americans: Blacks in Cuba 'treated with callous disregard' - CNN.com: Havana, Cuba (CNN) -- A group of prominent African-Americans has challenged Cuba's race record, accusing the island nation of harassing its black citizens and cracking down on civil rights activists.

Sixty intellectuals and artists, including Princeton University professor Cornel West, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright and actress Ruby Dee, have signed a declaration of protest.

'We cannot sit idly by and allow for decent, peaceful and dedicated civil rights activists in Cuba, and the black population as a whole, to be treated with callous disregard,' the declaration says.

The declaration also calls for the release of Darsi Ferrer, a jailed mixed-race dissident who organized human rights marches.

Cuba has struck back with a letter written by its intellectuals and distributed by the government.

'To say that there is a 'callous disregard' among us for black Cubans, that civil liberties are repressed for reasons of race and to demand an end to 'the unnecessary and brutal harassment of black Cubans who defend human rights' would seem to be a delusional farce,' they respond.

Cubans are proud of their racial mix, but racism is often an uncomfortable topic.

Immigrants prop up metro areas - USATODAY.com

Immigrants prop up metro areas - USATODAY.com: ...Despite a slowdown fueled by fewer jobs in construction and service industries, immigrants are helping metro areas such as Chicago, Miami and New York make up for the net loss of residents to other parts of the USA.

Los Angeles gained about 90,000 more immigrants, people from other countries, than it lost from 2007 to 2008. The trend was reversed for residents leaving Los Angeles for other parts of the state or the country: 115,000 more left than moved in.

"The ups and downs of the economy don't affect immigrants as much," says demographer William Frey, who wrote The Great American Migration Slowdown for the Brookings Institution, a non-profit think tank. People who move within the USA "are much more susceptible to the pushes and pulls of the housing market and job market" than those coming from other nations.

This recession has marked a turning point in the nation's pattern of settlement by greatly reducing long-distance moves.

"We've been a nation on the move ever since people settled here from Europe, and we've been moving westward," Frey says. "All of a sudden, this stopped because of external forces. People stopped moving for housing reasons. People stopped moving for jobs reasons. The exurban growth stopped."

Government, Indians to settle suit over 1880s land trusts - washingtonpost.com

Government, Indians to settle suit over 1880s land trusts - washingtonpost.com: The Obama administration said Tuesday it would pay $1.4 billion to a group of American Indians who said the government mismanaged a century-old system of Indian land trusts.

The settlement, which would end one of the epic lawsuits of modern Washington, would be divided among more than 300,000 people, the descendants of Indians to whom the government assigned plots of tribal land under an 1887 law. Many of the plots are controlled by hundreds or even thousands of heirs, and a federal system designed to track claims and distribute revenue generated by the parcels has broken down."

Children of illegal immigrants twice as likely as other kids to be poor - washingtonpost.com

Children of illegal immigrants twice as likely as other kids to be poor - washingtonpost.com: ...Of all the disadvantages that U.S.-born children of Hispanic immigrants might confront, none is more significant than being raised by parents who are in the country illegally.

Forty percent -- or 3.3 million of these children -- have at least one parent who is an illegal immigrant, mostly from Mexico or Central America, according to a recent analysis of census data by demographer Jeffrey S. Passel of the Pew Hispanic Center. And researchers warn that the long-term consequences for the country could be profound.

'The fact that so many in this population face these initial disadvantages has huge implications in terms of their education, their future labor market experience, their integration in the broader society, and their political participation,' said Roberto Gonzales, a professor at the University of Washington who has studied this generation.

Chinese college students flocking to U.S. campuses - USATODAY.com

Chinese college students flocking to U.S. campuses - USATODAY.com: ///President Obama announced plans last month to 'dramatically expand' to 100,000 the number of U.S. students who study in China over the next four years, calling such exchanges 'a clear commitment to build ties among our people in the steady pursuit of cooperation that will serve our nations, and the world.' But Sun, who grew up in China's Jiangxi province, is part of a surge already taking place in the other direction. Last year alone, 98,510 Chinese graduate and undergraduate students poured into U.S. colleges and universities, lured by China's emphasis on academic achievement and the prestige of U.S. higher education.

China is second only to India when graduate students and undergrads are counted. But undergraduates such as Sun are the newer phenomenon. Nationally, an 11% growth in undergrad enrollments last year was driven largely by a 60% increase from China, a report by the Institute of International Education says. Grad student enrollments were up 2%.

For Black Women, Breast Cancer Strikes Younger : NPR

For Black Women, Breast Cancer Strikes Younger : NPR: Many African-American women don't fit the profile of the average American woman who gets breast cancer. For them, putting off the first mammogram until 50 — as recommended by a government task force — could put their life in danger.

'One size doesn't fit all,' says Lovell Jones, director of the Center for Research on Minority health at Houston's M.D. Anderson Cancer Center. Jones says the guidelines recently put out by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force covered a broad segment of American women based on the data available. 'Unfortunately,' he says, 'the data on African-Americans, Hispanics and to some extent Asian-Americans is limited.'

So while the recommendations may be appropriate for the general population, he says, it could have a deleterious affect on African-American women who appear to have a higher risk of developing very deadly breast cancers at early in life.

Surgeon General: More Minority Doctors Needed

Surgeon General: More Minority Doctors Needed: ATLANTA - The new U.S. Surgeon General on Thursday called for stepped-up efforts in increasing the number of minority physicians.

In what was one of her first speeches to a large crowd since she was sworn in Nov. 3, Dr. Regina Benjamin noted that the proportion of U.S. physicians who are minorities is only 6 percent --the same proportion as a century ago.

'There's something wrong with that,' said Benjamin, speaking at a conference on health disparities at a hotel in downtown Atlanta.

The numbers come from a 2004 estimate of the percentage of U.S. physicians that are Black or Hispanic. Blacks and Hispanics account for roughly 28 percent of the U.S. population, according to 2008 figures from the U.S. Census Bureau.

In a 27-minute speech, Benjamin told health leaders in the audience to encourage young minorities to pursue careers in medicine or other ambitions.

Reviving A Neglected National Treasure

Reviving A Neglected National Treasure: When Dr. Michelle R. Howard-Vital became president of one of the nation's oldest historically Black universities (HBCU) in 2007, she knew she 'inherited a national treasure that has produced some extraordinary leaders.'

Howard-Vital also knew Cheyney University was riddled with debt, ending the fiscal year with a $2.16 million deficit in a $27 million budget. Cheyney, she says, was also grossly 'misunderstood,' when it came to the caliber of its students and teaching. Furthermore, it was in a state of disrepair and lacking infrastructure. But this past June, Cheyney's board of trustees announced the appointment of a five-member advisory panel chaired by H. Patrick Swygert, former president of Howard University.

Second-generation Latinos struggle for a higher foothold - washingtonpost.com

Second-generation Latinos struggle for a higher foothold - washingtonpost.com: ... As a result of the arrival of more than 20 million mostly Mexican and Central American newcomers in a wave that swelled in the 1970s and soared during the 1990s, the offspring of Latino immigrants now account for one of every 10 children, both in the United States and the Washington region.

Largely because of the growth of this second generation, Latino immigrants and their U.S.-born children and grandchildren will represent almost a third of the nation's working-age adults by mid-century, according to projections from U.S. Census Bureau data by Jeffrey S. Passel, a demographer with the nonpartisan Pew Hispanic Center in Washington.

Not since the last great wave of immigration to the United States around 1900 has the country's economic future been so closely entwined with the generational progress of an immigrant group. And so far, on nearly every measure, the news is troubling.

Second-generation Latinos have the highest high school dropout rate -- one in seven -- of any U.S.-born racial or ethnic group and the highest teen pregnancy rate. These Latinos also receive far fewer college degrees and make significantly less money than non-Hispanic whites and other second-generation immigrants.

Digital divide narrows, but gap remains for many - washingtonpost.com

Digital divide narrows, but gap remains for many - washingtonpost.com: The digital divide has narrowed dramatically in the last ten years. Roughly two-thirds of American households now report using the Internet at home, according to the U.S. Census. In the affluent Washington suburbs, the numbers are even higher; more than 90 percent of Fairfax households with children have home computers, according to a recent survey by the school system.

But even in Fairfax, the digital divide lives on in the study carrels of Woodrow Wilson library. Most afternoons, the Falls Church library is crowded with students from low-income or immigrant families using computers. While they live in one of the richest counties in the nation, these students recount skipping lunch to work at school labs or trudging up to 45 minutes to the library after the school day is over.

Such effort is necessary because students are doing more and more of their work online -- reading textbooks, watching podcasts, posting on discussion boards and creating PowerPoint presentations. The most searched-for term in the D.C. area this year was 'fcps blackboard' according to Google. That's the county's 24-hour online system where teachers post homework assignments and study guides, children ask questions or participate in discussion groups, and parents monitor classwork and grades.

Study Says Toddlers Born to Latina Immigrants Lag Behind Whites in Basic-language Skills

Study Says Toddlers Born to Latina Immigrants Lag Behind Whites in Basic-language Skills: Children born to immigrant Latinas are generally born healthy, but by age 2 or 3, they tend to lag behind in basic-language and cognitive skills, a new University of California, Berkeley study shows.

'We've known, for the last 10 years... that Latino kids on average are beginning kindergarten with preliteracy skills that fall below middle-class White kids,' said Dr. Bruce Fuller, a professor of education and public policy who led the study. 'But we didn't know when it emerged. The new breakthrough is that we can now identify this fall-off in cognitive growth between 9 months and 3 years of age.'

The findings, based on a nationwide tracking study of 8,114 infants born in 2001, appeared in the Maternal and Child Health Journal, and a companion report will be published this winter in the medical journal Pediatrics.

Harvard Law School Suspends Program Giving Students Free Tuition - NYTimes.com

Harvard Law School Suspends Program Giving Students Free Tuition - NYTimes.com: Less than two years after announcing that it would waive tuition for third-year students who pledge to spend five years working for nonprofit organizations or for the government, Harvard Law School is suspending the program — in part because almost twice as many students as expected signed up.

“This was always an experiment and just one of many ways we were trying to encourage students to explore public interest careers,” said Martha Minow, the dean of the law school, adding, “What we found is that we had less trouble than we thought encouraging that.”

But the recession was also a factor. “It’s really a function of the endowment going down drastically,” said Robb London, the law school’s assistant dean for communications.

Report shows wide disparity in college achievement - washingtonpost.com

Report shows wide disparity in college achievement - washingtonpost.com: A new report, billed as one of the most comprehensive studies to date of how low-income and minority students fare in college, shows a wide gap in graduation rates at public four-year colleges nationwide and 'alarming' disparities in success at community colleges.

The analysis, released Thursday, found that about 45 percent of low-income and underrepresented minority students entering as freshmen in 1999 had received bachelor's degrees six years later at the colleges studied, compared with 57 percent of other students.

Fewer than one-third of all freshmen entering two-year institutions nationwide attained completion -- either through a certificate, an associate's degree or transfer to a four-year college -- within four years, according to the research. The success rate was lower, 24 percent, for underrepresented minorities, identified as blacks, Latinos and Native Americans; it was higher, 38 percent, for other students.

Only 7 percent of minority students who entered community colleges received bachelor's degrees within 10 years.

Perspectives: The Role of Privilege in Diversity Education

Perspectives: The Role of Privilege in Diversity Education: I am a White heterosexual male who works in a diversity education office. My presence as a person who retains several privileged cultural identities (privilege defined as acquiring rewards based on ascribed statuses and not merit) working in a diversity education office at an institution of higher education is a fact that seems counter-intuitive to many.

Offices that enhance diversity on campus serve traditionally under-represented students who are more likely to trust and utilize an office staffed by professionals who can relate to their backgrounds and experiences. Diversity offices also assume leadership for providing diversity education, and, while the importance of hiring professionals from traditionally oppressed groups is intuitive, I feel it is most beneficial to supplement that staff with people from privileged backgrounds so these offices may better reach and educate privileged students.

Documentarian Develops Curricula to Dispel HIV/AIDS Myths in Black Community

Documentarian Develops Curricula to Dispel HIV/AIDS Myths in Black Community: ...In 2006, Blacks accounted for 46 percent of the 1.1 million people in the U.S. living with HIV, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Homophobia, shame and secrecy stymie African-Americans from dealing with the spread of the disease, Pryor says.

'It's a Black disease,' but no one wants to hear that, she said.

Pryor set out in the hardest-hit African-American and African communities to discover the myriad reasons for the rampant spread of the disease, backed by a Science Education Partnership Award grant from the National Institutes of Health's National Center for Research Resources.

She went to Pittsburgh's Westinghouse High School, in a Black, low-income neighborhood, where the HIV/AIDS rate reflected the national average, to find her study participants. She found 20 students, none of whom knew if they were HIV-positive, who would give their opinions on HIV/AIDS over an 18-month period as they learned about the subject. The project transformed as the students took on a larger role, becoming interviewers and posing questions to health experts and subjects living with HIV/AIDS. They finished the documentary in 2008.

In Job Hunt, College Degree Can’t Close Racial Gap - NYTimes.com

In Job Hunt, College Degree Can’t Close Racial Gap - NYTimes.com: ...That race remains a serious obstacle in the job market for African-Americans, even those with degrees from respected colleges, may seem to some people a jarring contrast to decades of progress by blacks, culminating in President Obama’s election.

But there is ample evidence that racial inequities remain when it comes to employment. Black joblessness has long far outstripped that of whites. And strikingly, the disparity for the first 10 months of this year, as the recession has dragged on, has been even more pronounced for those with college degrees, compared with those without. Education, it seems, does not level the playing field — in fact, it appears to have made it more uneven.

College-educated black men, especially, have struggled relative to their white counterparts in this downturn, according to figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The unemployment rate for black male college graduates 25 and older in 2009 has been nearly twice that of white male college graduates — 8.4 percent compared with 4.4 percent.

Report: Many minorities shun banks - USATODAY.com

Report: Many minorities shun banks - USATODAY.com: More than one in four American households, including more than half of black households, use check cashers, payday lenders or pawnbrokers rather than a bank, according to a Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation report to be released today.

Nearly 30 million households have no bank account or have one but also use alternate financial services at least occasionally, according to the FDIC report. The survey, the FDIC's first in-depth study of the issue, was conducted by the Census Bureau.

The problem is most acute among minorities: 53% of African-American households and 43% of Hispanic households use check cashers or similar services instead of or in addition to banks.

Buying money orders and cashing checks are the most frequent transactions, the survey shows. Those using check cashers and other services say they are faster, cheaper and more convenient than banks — even though they pay a fee to cash a check they could deposit in a bank account for free.

Plan to merge black colleges meets with ire - USATODAY.com

Plan to merge black colleges meets with ire - USATODAY.com: JACKSON, Miss — Gov. Haley Barbour's proposal to merge Mississippi's three public historically black universities is sparking debate over its racial undertones and raising questions over the state's funding of those colleges.

Barbour has proposed combining the smaller Mississippi Valley State and Alcorn State universities into Jackson State University. The campuses would continue to exist, he said.

The Republican made the recommendation last month as part of his budget proposal for fiscal 2011, but he has acknowledged savings would not be realized for at least a year.

Many legislators, including leaders of the Legislative Black Caucus, have vowed to block any merger that involves the historically black colleges. 'I am opposed to any measure that would reduce access and opportunity to quality education at any level,' said House Universities and Colleges Committee Chairman Kelvin Buck, a Democrat.

Many of the questions about the proposal focus on its legality under the 2002 Ayers settlement, which ended a 27-year-old federal lawsuit filed in 1975 by the late Jake Ayers Sr., the father of a Jackson State University student.

HBCUs Step Up to the HIV Challenge

HBCUs Step Up to the HIV Challenge: Nearly three decades after HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, was discovered, health and medical researchers know at least half of all new infections are in people under age 25. Still, the nation's estimated 17 million college students have not been considered by health care providers to be a high-risk group for contracting HIV/AIDS, says Craig Roberts, an epidemiologist who chairs the American College Health Association's Sexual Health Education and Clinical Care Coalition.

But not all HIV/AIDS risk is equal, points out Dr. Peter Leone who five years ago uncovered an outbreak of HIV among 84 young men on nearly 40 North Carolina university campuses. That disturbing upsurge of HIV infections was driven by college-aged Black men aged 17-27 who have sex with men , said Leone, the incoming chairman of the National Coalition of STD Directors and an associate professor of infectious diseases at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill School of Medicine. The rate of infection among that population signaled 'a public health emergency' for Leone and others on the frontline of the epidemic that isn't showing signs of abating.

Independent Scholar Examines Cotton and Race in Book

Independent Scholar Examines Cotton and Race in Book: JACKSON, Miss. - Gene Dattel grew up in the segregated South and was one of the few Mississippians enrolled at Yale University in 1962 when his home state became ensnared in a bloody confrontation over integration.

More than 1,200 miles and a cultural universe away from the land of cotton, the White freshman found himself answering questions about the violent resistance to James Meredith's court-ordered admission as the first Black student at the University of Mississippi.

'I was really put on the defensive,' Dattel, now 65 and living in New York, recalled recently.

He said his struggle to answer questions, and to understand what led to events of the day, prompted him to begin an intense course of study. He earned a bachelor's degree in history from Yale in 1966 and a law degree from Vanderbilt University in 1969.