Kentucky church bans interracial couples | The Raw Story

Kentucky church bans interracial couples | The Raw Story: A small church in Pike County, Kentucky has voted to ban interracial couples from most church activities “to promote greater unity among the church body.”

Melvin Thompson, former pastor of Gulnare Freewill Baptist church, proposed the ban after Stella Harville brought her fiance, Ticha Chikuni, to services in June. Harville, who goes by the name Suzie, played the piano while Chikuni sang.

Before stepping down as pastor in August, Thompson told Harville that her fiance could not sing at the church again. Harville is white and Chikuni, a native of Zimbabwe, is black.

Tribal College ‘Beats the Odds’ to Find Academic Success

Tribal College ‘Beats the Odds’ to Find Academic Success: One of the most important and anticipated occasions on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota is graduation day, says Thomas Shortbull, president of Oglala Lakota College, or OLC, the nation’s second-largest and second oldest tribal college. OLC was founded in 1971.

Getting Native American students on the reservation to and through college, however, remains a great challenge, especially when most enter OLC financially strapped and reading at a 10th grade level. Before embarking on college-level work, Shortbull says, 60 percent of OLC freshmen must enroll in remedial reading and writing courses and 60 to 70 percent in remedial math. But in August, the successes and innovative strategies that have come with offering 40 years of higher education to Lakota people landed OLC on a national list of 32 postsecondary institutions that show promise in increasing completion for underrepresented students.

Death of FAMU Band Member Puts Other Universities on Notice

Death of FAMU Band Member Puts Other Universities on Notice: The death of a Florida A & M University (FAMU) band member after a suspected band hazing incident earlier this month is having widespread impact across the higher education landscape.

With FAMU’s internationally known “Marching 100” band suspended for an indefinite period and its image tarnished, presidents, student life officials and band directors at many schools say they are taking new steps to reinforce and strengthen their anti-hazing policies. Hazing on college campuses is a decades-old physical discipline encounter where the rules are set by those administering initiation rites into campus organizations. Hazing has been the target of repeated discipline efforts over the years that have been undermined by a code of silence among participants.

‘Broader, bolder’ strategy to ending poverty’s influence on education - The Answer Sheet - The Washington Post

‘Broader, bolder’ strategy to ending poverty’s influence on education - The Answer Sheet - The Washington Post: While it might seem encouraging for education and civil rights leaders to assert that poverty isn’t an obstacle to higher student achievement, the evidence does not support such claims. Over 50 years, numerous studies have documented how poverty and related social conditions — such as lack of access to health care, early childhood education and stable housing — affect child development and student achievement.

The research never suggests that poor children are incapable of learning or that poverty itself should be regarded as a learning disability. Rather, research suggests that poor children encounter obstacles that often adversely affect their development and learning outcomes.

Whatever happened to…Nancy Guarneros, undocumented student, DREAM Act hopeful? – In America - CNN.com Blogs

Whatever happened to…Nancy Guarneros, undocumented student, DREAM Act hopeful? – In America - CNN.com Blogs: When we first met Nancy Guarneros three years ago, she was a 21-year-old honors student at University of California, Los Angeles working cash jobs as a tutor and babysitter to pay her way. At the time, she was applying for graduate programs.

One by one, letters of acceptance came in: Harvard, Brown, Columbia.

But Nancy couldn’t afford them on her own, and wasn’t eligible for financial aid. In her senior year of high school, when she asked her mother for a birth certificate to apply for a California driver’s license, she learned she was an undocumented immigrant.

Her mother, who worked as a nanny in Los Angeles, brought her into the United States without documents when Nancy was a baby. The revelation closed the door on greatest hope Nancy had for a life out of poverty – an education.

Surge in Free School Lunches Reflects Economic Crisis - NYTimes.com

Surge in Free School Lunches Reflects Economic Crisis - NYTimes.com: Millions of American schoolchildren are receiving free or low-cost meals for the first time as their parents, many once solidly middle class, have lost jobs or homes during the economic crisis, qualifying their families for the decades-old safety-net program.

The number of students receiving subsidized lunches rose to 21 million last school year from 18 million in 2006-7, a 17 percent increase, according to an analysis by The New York Times of data from the Department of Agriculture, which administers the meals program. Eleven states, including Florida, Nevada, New Jersey and Tennessee, had four-year increases of 25 percent or more, huge shifts in a vast program long characterized by incremental growth.

As Public Sector Sheds Jobs, Black Americans Are Hit Hard - NYTimes.com

As Public Sector Sheds Jobs, Black Americans Are Hit Hard - NYTimes.com: ...Mr. Buckley is one of tens of thousands of once solidly middle-class African-American government workers — bus drivers in Chicago, police officers and firefighters in Cleveland, nurses and doctors in Florida — who have been laid off since the recession ended in June 2009. Such job losses have blunted gains made in employment and wealth during the previous decade and undermined the stability of neighborhoods where there are now fewer black professionals who own homes or who get up every morning to go to work.

Though the recession and continuing economic downturn have been devastating to the American middle class as a whole, the two and a half years since the declared end of the recession have been singularly harmful to middle-class blacks in terms of layoffs and unemployment, according to economists and recent government data. About one in five black workers have public-sector jobs, and African-American workers are one-third more likely than white ones to be employed in the public sector.

Nigerian Senate Approves Anti-Gay Marriage Bill : NPR

Nigerian Senate Approves Anti-Gay Marriage Bill : NPR: Nigeria's Senate voted Tuesday to criminalize gay marriage, gay advocacy groups and same-sex public displays of affection, the latest legislation targeting a minority already facing discrimination in Africa's most populous nation.

The bill, now much more wide-ranging than its initial draft, must be passed by Nigeria's House of Representatives and signed by President Goodluck Jonathan before becoming law. However, public opinion and lawmakers' calls Tuesday for even harsher penalties show the widespread support for the measure in the deeply religious nation.

"Such elements in society should be killed," said Sen. Baba-Ahmed Yusuf Datti of the opposition party Congress for Progressive Change, drawing some murmurs of support from the gallery.

Attorney: There Was 'Culture of Hazing' at FAMU

Attorney: There Was 'Culture of Hazing' at FAMU: Florida A&M University had a “culture of hazing” that led to the recent death of a marching band member, an attorney for the student's family said Monday.

Attorney Christopher Chestnut said the family plans to file a lawsuit in the death of 26-year-old Robert Champion, who was found Nov. 19 on a bus parked outside an Orlando, Fla., hotel after the school's football team lost to rival Bethune-Cookman.

Police say Champion, a clarinet player who recently was named drum major, had been vomiting and complained he couldn't breathe shortly before he collapsed. Police suspect hazing but have not released any more details about what may have led to Champion's death. Chestnut also refused to talk about any specifics of the death.

Higher Education Leaders Urged to Improve Data Collection for College Completion Efforts

Higher Education Leaders Urged to Improve Data Collection for College Completion Efforts: Higher education leaders should use historical data to gauge graduation rates among diverse student groups for whom graduation is less likely so they can make institutional improvements that help those students defy the odds.

That’s one of the key recommendations made by the lead researcher of a new report being released today by UCLA’s Higher Education Research Institution, or HERI, that urges college and university administrators to reassess how they go about the business of getting their students to earn a bachelor’s degree in four to six years.

Attorney Says Lawsuit Planned in FAMU Band Death

Attorney Says Lawsuit Planned in FAMU Band Death: The family of a Florida A&M University drum major who died in what authorities suspect was a hazing incident will sue the school, an attorney said Friday.

The family of Robert Champion, 26, spent the holiday weekend planning Champion's funeral, attorney Christopher Chestnut said.

The Atlanta resident was found on a bus parked outside an Orlando hotel the night of November 19 after the school's football team lost to rival Bethune-Cookman. Police said Champion, a clarinet player who recently was named drum major, had been vomiting and complained he couldn't breathe shortly before he collapsed.

The cause of Champion's death hasn't been determined. Preliminary autopsy results were inconclusive, and a spokeswoman with the Orange County medical examiner's office said it could take up to three months to learn exactly what killed him.

The Price of Intolerance - NYTimes.com

The Price of Intolerance - NYTimes.com: t’s early yet for a full accounting of the economic damage Alabama has done to itself with its radical new immigration law.

Farmers can tally the cost of crops left to rot as workers flee. Governments can calculate the loss of revenues when taxpayers flee. It’s harder to measure the price of a ruined business reputation or the value of investments lost or productivity lost as Alabamians stand in line for hours to prove their citizenship in any transaction with the government. Or what the state will ultimately spend fighting off an onslaught of lawsuits, or training and deploying police officers in the widening immigrant dragnet, or paying the cost of diverting scarce resources away from fighting real crimes.

Poor economy slows Hispanic baby boom – USATODAY.com

Poor economy slows Hispanic baby boom – USATODAY.com: The number of babies born to Hispanics dropped below 1 million in 2010, a nearly 11% drop since 2007 that reflects the tough times.

Fewer people of all backgrounds are having babies because of economic concerns but the sharpest drop is among Hispanics, a booming population that contributes almost a quarter of all U.S. births and half of its population growth.

"Hispanic fertility is dropping like a stone," says Kenneth Johnson, demographer for the University of New Hampshire's Carsey Institute.

Hispanic birth rates tumbled 17.6% in three years — from 97.4 births per 1,000 women ages 15 to 44 to 80.3 last year, according to preliminary 2010 data released this month by the National Center for Health Statistics.

Mariela Dabbah: Immigrants Must Learn English Fast

Mariela Dabbah: Immigrants Must Learn English Fast: There's no way around it. If you are an immigrant looking to succeed in the United States, you must learn English.

Coming from countries where English is not taught in public schools early enough (if at all!) and arriving largely without college degrees at a time when most jobs require some kind of post secondary education, Hispanics are confronted with a double disadvantage. Unless they remediate it soon after their arrival it impacts their ability to progress in the U.S. Low hourly rates keep them working two or three jobs which doesn't leave much time for learning English which in turn keeps them trapped in the same low-level jobs. In addition, many Latinos live in close-knit Spanish speaking communities, which reinforces the idea that English is not really necessary to survive.

German 'Brown Babies' Search For True Identity In Documentary (VIDEO)

German 'Brown Babies' Search For True Identity In Documentary (VIDEO): The effects of a world war, race and identity would be challenging subjects individually, but two documentaries are taking on all three issues at once, in an attempt to shed light on a forgotten population.

"Brown Babies: The Mischlingskinder Story," which was released last summer and "Brown Babies: Germany's Lost Children," which aired on German television this fall, reveal the virtually unknown stories of the offspring of white German women and African American soldiers in the years following World War II, CNN reports.

These children, who were called "mischlingskinder," a derogatory term for biracial children, were oftentimes adopted by African American families after their parents were forcibly separated. Both documentaries follow their stories, as they search for their roots.

'Income Achievement Gap' Almost Double Black-White Performance Gap, Report Shows

'Income Achievement Gap' Almost Double Black-White Performance Gap, Report Shows: In a dramatic illustration of the impact of income inequality on how children do in school, the achievement gap between children from high and low income families is far higher than the achievement gap between black and white students, a pathbreaking research report from Stanford University has shown.



The report by Sean Reardon, a Stanford professor of education and sociology, shows that the income achievement gap--the difference in the average standardized scores between children from families at the 10th percentile of income distribution and children at the 90th percentile--is now "nearly twice as large as the black-white achievement gap."

A half century ago, the situation was just the reverse. The black-white gap was one and a half times as large as the income achievement gap as defined in the report, Reardon found.

Glenda L. Partee: Should African Americans Care about the Racial Composition of the Teacher Workforce?

Glenda L. Partee: Should African Americans Care about the Racial Composition of the Teacher Workforce?: Our country faces a population shift that has major implications for the teacher workforce. The proportion of teachers of color is out of step with the increasing racial diversity of our public school students.

African Americans can accept this imbalance as the result of a post-racial society and do nothing. Or we can decide it's to the benefit of our children to have strong educators and role models that look like them. If so, we can work to address this imbalance.

Nationally, students of color make up 40 percent of the public school population, but teachers of color represent only about 17 percent of the workforce.

From the beginning: a history of black life - Philly.com

From the beginning: a history of black life - Philly.com: Coffee-table books are supposed to be heavy, on photos and in pounds. This latest history of black life in America by Henry Louis Gates Jr. is both, with more than 750 photos on nearly 500 pages.

But it offers something more: The distinguished Harvard University professor packs intellectual heft around the pictures. His book updates black history with recent scholarly research, from detailed estimates of the human cargo during the Atlantic slave trade to the DNA test proving almost conclusively that Thomas Jefferson fathered at least one child by his slave Sally Hemings. Interpretive gems are sprinkled throughout.

Besides cataloging achievements, Gates traces the evolution of black thought, activism, and culture, particularly literature and music. The TV dance show Soul Train, he writes, "shaped the tastes of popular American culture in a way that no single program has done before or since."

Miami Police's Fatal Shootings Of 7 African Americans Sparks Justice Dept. Probe

Miami Police's Fatal Shootings Of 7 African Americans Sparks Justice Dept. Probe: The U.S. Justice Department launched a civil rights investigation Thursday into whether Miami police officers engaged in a pattern of excessive use of deadly force in the fatal shootings of seven African-American suspects over an eight-month span.

Thomas Perez, assistant attorney general for civil rights, and Miami U.S. Attorney Wifredo Ferrer said the probe will focus not on the individual officers but on whether the Miami Police Department's policies and practices on use of force led to violations of constitutional rights. The investigation is not criminal in nature.

"We're looking at systems. We're not looking at individual culpability," Perez told reporters. "We will follow the facts where the facts lead us. We will peel the onion to its core."

Basil D’Oliveira, a Symbol for Cricket and for Equality, Dies at 80 - NYTimes.com

Basil D’Oliveira, a Symbol for Cricket and for Equality, Dies at 80 - NYTimes.com: Just as Jesse Owens and Jackie Robinson pursued their athletic dreams and developed superlative skills before altering history, Basil D’Oliveira, who was classified as colored under South African apartheid, wanted only to play at the highest levels of his sport, cricket. His struggle to do that in a country of government-enforced racial segregation became a powerful symbol in the ultimately successful fight against apartheid.

D’Oliveira had to move far from South Africa before his experience could shine a light on its system of racial injustice. Unable to perform there in competition commensurate with his skills, he moved to England, became a British citizen and joined England’s national cricket team. He rose to international prominence when, in 1968, South Africa canceled a much-anticipated visit by the English team because it wanted to include him in the contests, against whites.

Norway Apartheid: High School Segregates Classroom By Ethnicity, City Official Demands End To Pratice

Norway Apartheid: High School Segregates Classroom By Ethnicity, City Official Demands End To Pratice: A Norwegian high school in Oslo has been accused of apartheid after segregating classrooms based on ethnic background, Norway's The Dagasvisen reports.

The Bjerke Upper Secondary School began filling one of the three classrooms with students whose parents come from immigrant backgrounds, The Telegraph reports.

Though classrooms at Bjerke high school have now been shuffled, the news came as a surprise to one city official who demanded an end to the practice.

Torger Odegaard of Norway's Conservative Party, who heads up Oslo's education program, told News And Views From Norway he was shocked by The Dagasvisen report.

After a noticeable drain of white "ethnic Norwegians" attending the high school, the principal decided to introduce the move this fall.

"We made the decision because many Norwegian students were moving to other schools because they were in classes with such a high percentage of students from other nations. They seemed to be in a minority," Gro Flaten, the principal of the school told The Telegraph.

Teach For America Met With Big Questions In Face Of Expansion

Teach For America Met With Big Questions In Face Of Expansion: In a distressed neighborhood north of Miami's gleaming downtown, a group of enthusiastic but inexperienced instructors from Teach for America is trying to make progress where more veteran teachers have had difficulty: raising students' reading and math scores.

"These are the lowest performing schools, so we need the strongest performing teachers," said Julian Davenport, an assistant principal at Holmes Elementary, where three-fifths of the staff this year are Teach for America corps members or graduates of the program.

By 2015, with the help of a $50 million federal grant, program recruits could make up one-quarter of all new teachers in 60 of the nation's highest need school districts. The program also is expanding internationally.

That growth comes as many districts try to make teachers more effective. But Teach for America has had mixed results.

Mexicans in New York City Lag in Education - NYTimes.com

Mexicans in New York City Lag in Education - NYTimes.com: In the past two decades, the Mexican population in New York City has grown more than fivefold, with immigrants settling across the five boroughs. Many adults have demonstrated remarkable success at finding work, filling restaurant kitchens and construction sites, and opening hundreds of businesses.

But their children, in one crucial respect, have fared far differently.

About 41 percent of all Mexicans between ages 16 and 19 in the city have dropped out of school, according to census data.

No other major immigrant group has a dropout rate higher than 20 percent, and the overall rate for the city is less than 9 percent, the statistics show.

This crisis endures at the college level. Among Mexican immigrants 19 to 23 who do not have a college degree, only 6 percent are enrolled. That is a fraction of the rates among other major immigrant groups and the native-born population.

Black Americans free to give thanks, even during slavery

Black Americans free to give thanks, even during slavery: You'll be hard pressed to find the face of an African-American in any artistic depiction of that all-too familiar feast of 1621, like the one where a group of Plymouth colonists share an autumn harvest meal with some Wampanoag Indians.

That was just about the time when the earliest ships of Africans arrived as itemized cargo in America.

Nonetheless, African-Americans have long embraced the honored tradition of Thanksgiving, even during slavery.

When the Continental Congress delivered a 1777 decree for the 13 colonies to give thanks for a victory over the British at Saratoga, African-Americans took part in the regional celebrations, continuing in what had become a familiar custom of rejoicing for bountiful harvests and drought-breaking rains.

Haitian kids exploited by tradition – The CNN Freedom Project: Ending Modern-Day Slavery - CNN.com Blogs

Haitian kids exploited by tradition – The CNN Freedom Project: Ending Modern-Day Slavery - CNN.com Blogs: A Grammy Award-winning musician and actor is using his star power to help rescue children being exploited in Haiti, a nation founded by freed slaves.

In a Freedom Project documentary, Common shines a light on the plight of the Restaveks, the estimated 300,000 children working as domestic servants in Haiti.

The United Nations says the deeply rooted practice is a form of modern-day slavery.

Common said, "I just felt like I was entering another place, another world I had never experienced, and I really had to prepare my mind to be in it."

Bias Complaint Filed Against University of New Mexico - NYTimes.com

Bias Complaint Filed Against University of New Mexico - NYTimes.com: A group of African-American pastors in New Mexico, along with the Albuquerque chapter of the N.A.A.C.P., said Tuesday that they have filed a complaint with the Justice Department alleging that black faculty and staff members at the University of New Mexico and its hospital are subject to discrimination.

The Title VI complaint, which was also filed with the federal Department of Education, says university administrators have created a racially hostile environment for black faculty members, students and the staff.

Specifically, it asserts that African-Americans have been excluded from positions in the school’s upper administration; that black women at New Mexico were virtually left out of all positions of authority; and that blacks on the faculty faced disparity in salaries compared with fellow minority colleagues.

Nursing Program Aims To Train Minority Students for Service in Rural Areas

Nursing Program Aims To Train Minority Students for Service in Rural Areas: Early in the last decade, administrators at Frontier Nursing University noticed that minority students were more likely to drop out because of a lack of family support and other issues, not academic failure. Another concern arose about the same time.

“We were concerned about graduating culturally competent practitioners,” says Dr. Susan Stone, president and dean of the school based in rural southeastern Kentucky.

This year, Frontier Nursing University launched a program designed to help address both problems.

Research Corner: Leadership Affects Tie Between Diversity, Voluntary Turnover

Research Corner: Leadership Affects Tie Between Diversity, Voluntary Turnover: Common sense suggests that leadership should affect the relation between diversity and group performance, but common sense is frequently wrong and invariably imprecise. Fortunately, scientific research can be used to evaluate conclusions based on common sense. A nice illustration is provided in a recent paper by Lisa Nishii of Cornell University and David Mayer of the University of Michigan.

As Nishii and Mayer point out, past research has found inconsistent relations between group diversity and performance. They propose that this inconsistency is due in part to differences in leader behavior.

Specifically, when managers develop good relationships with all their subordinates, the negative effects of diversity are diminished, eliminated or reversed.

Ivy League Trailblazer Ruth Simmons Looks Back at Brown Presidency

Ivy League Trailblazer Ruth Simmons Looks Back at Brown Presidency: Ruth Simmons made a big news splash a decade ago when she was named president of Brown University, making her the first Black president of an Ivy League institution. She made another splash three years later by naming a committee to investigate Brown’s role in the slave trade and to make recommendations on possible reparations.

Reflecting on her tenure as she prepares to retire in June, Simmons, 66, does not mention her historic appointment in 2000 or the daring “Slavery and Justice” report among her most significant accomplishments as president of the prestigious university in Providence, R.I. Instead, her top three are Brown’s full adoption of need-blind admissions, 20 percent growth in the number of faculty, and a new second campus, where expanded laboratory space has increased the flow of federal research dollars.

New Models in Research, Publishing Among Topics Explored During African Studies Meeting

New Models in Research, Publishing Among Topics Explored During African Studies Meeting: It’s easy for scholars in the United States and many European nations to take for granted all of the rich academic resources at their disposal. Often, with a few simple keystrokes on a computer, they can access wellsprings of information to enhance their body of work. Not so on the African continent, where ethical and government lapses, as well as technological disadvantages, prevent scholars and others from accessing and building equitable research materials.

During one session hosted at the African Studies Association’s 54th annual meeting, which was held in Washington, D.C., this past weekend, experts discussed the challenges and promises related to creating useful archives of work and models of research and publishing in African studies.

Black-owned Newspapers Join HBCUs, Black Churches in HIV/AIDS Fight

Black-owned Newspapers Join HBCUs, Black Churches in HIV/AIDS Fight: Saying that “we have been silent for too long,” a group of African-American newspaper publishers have enlisted the support of Black colleges and churches as they prepare to wage a war against HIV/AIDS using their own media outlets to inform readers, advocate for prevention, and hopefully save lives.

By next January, the publishers of more than 50 Black newspapers, most of them weeklies, in Georgia, Tennessee, Florida, South Carolina, North Carolina, Alabama and Mississippi say they plan to start regularly carrying advertising, running columns, publishing news stories, and posting video on their official websites that address the AIDS crisis and what their readers can do to protect themselves against the disease.

Arizona educators clash over Mexican American studies - latimes.com

Arizona educators clash over Mexican American studies - latimes.com: Arizona's public schools chief had heard unsettling reports about what was being taught in the Tucson Unified School District's Mexican American studies program and decided to see for himself.

As he sat in on a Chicano literature class, Supt. John Huppenthal noticed an image of Che Guevera hanging on a wall and listened to a lecturer cast Benjamin Franklin as a racist.

And though teacher Curtis Acosta did not directly portray Mexican Americans as an oppressed minority, he discussed educational theorist Paulo Freire and his "Pedagogy of the Oppressed," which the Tucson High Magnet School students used as a textbook. To Huppenthal, the message was clear and disturbing.

'Colored Only,' Racist Signs Found On SUNY New Paltz Campus (PHOTOS)

'Colored Only,' Racist Signs Found On SUNY New Paltz Campus (PHOTOS): Students and faculty at the State University of New York at New Paltz are planning to hold several forums after a number of racially insensitive signs were found around campus, triggering a police investigation and a campus-wide letter from the university president.

Editor's Note: This story contains racially charged language that some readers may find objectionable.

After celebrating Black Solidarity Day on Nov. 8, students found a sign reading 'Colored Only' above a drinking fountain in a campus building.

"I couldn't believe it was there," SUNY New Paltz senior Ayanna Thomas told The Huffington Post. "I was very appalled. To me that's blatant racism and shouldn't be taken lightly."

'We Still Live Here' Details Effort to Restore Wampanoag Language | PBS NewsHour | Nov. 10, 2011 | PBS

'We Still Live Here' Details Effort to Restore Wampanoag Language | PBS NewsHour | Nov. 10, 2011 | PBS: ...This one is the story of a unique linguistic project, one that's revived the ancient culture of a modern Indian tribe.

The Wampanoag Indians of southeastern Massachusetts stopped speaking their native language 150 years ago. But, in 1993, Jessie "Little Doe" Baird began trying to restore their fluency.

And filmmaker Anne Makepeace chronicled her efforts.

Here's an excerpt from the documentary "We Still Live Here."

MAN: We were discussing whether or not there should be a language program. Do we want to bring it back? You know, should we bring it back? How do we do it?

RUSSELL PETERS, Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe: We had committees from Gay Head and from Assonet and from all the different Wampanoag communities. We had to bring it all together and figure out how we could get it in a cohesive way.

CUNY Panel Explores Challenges Facing Black Gay Males in Higher Education

CUNY Panel Explores Challenges Facing Black Gay Males in Higher Education: Taking its title from renowned author James Baldwin, on Wednesday, the City University of New York’s (CUNY) Black Male Initiative (BMI) presented the panel discussion “Nobody Knows My Name: Exploring Challenges Facing Black Gay Men in Higher Education” on Thursday.

CUNY BMI is a university wide initiative designed to increase the enrollment and retention rates of students from groups that are severely underrepresented in higher education.

“There’s one thing that (author and scholar) Henry Louis Gates Jr. always says that I love. ‘There are about 35 million Black people in the United States and, therefore, there are 35 million different ways of being Black.’ I think that this forum and others we’re going to have are a reflection of that,” said Elliott Dawes, director of CUNY BMI.

Julio Artuz, 15-Year-Old Special Needs Student, Records Teacher Verbally Abusing Him (VIDEO)

Julio Artuz, 15-Year-Old Special Needs Student, Records Teacher Verbally Abusing Him (VIDEO): No one believed 15-year-old Julio Artuz when he said he was being bullied by a teacher at school -- not even his parents.

So the special needs student sought proof, by filming an encounter with said teacher at Bankbridge Regional School in New Jersey, NBC10 reports.

"Don't call me special," Artuz told the teacher.

"What? Oh my god, f-ing. What does the sign on the front of the school say? Special education," the teacher yelled back.

Artuz defended himself by saying that when he got out of the school, the teacher couldn't call him special anymore. In response, the teacher made a threat.

"...I will kick your a-- from here to kingdom-come until I'm 80 years old."

In a statement to NBC10, the school district said officials take allegations of harassment seriously and are carrying out an investigation.

Teach for America wants to recruit more Hispanic teachers - Campus Overload - The Washington Post

Teach for America wants to recruit more Hispanic teachers - Campus Overload - The Washington Post: The number of Hispanic children is surging, but public schools across the country face a shortage of teachers with the same cultural heritage, my colleague Robert Samuels reports. If that changed, experts say students might do better.

In Prince George’s County, which is Maryland’s second-largest school system, 21 percent of students are Hispanic while only 2 percent of teachers are Hispanic. The county is aggressively trying to recruit Hispanic teachers from across the country — as are many other school districts.

A recent initiative: Teach for America and the Hispanic Scholarship Fund partnered last month to urge more Hispanic college students to consider a career in education. Only 8 percent of Teach for America’s incoming corps of teachers are Hispanic, while more than 40 percent of children reached by the organization are Hispanic.

BBC Sport - Luis Suarez charged with racially abusing Patrice Evra

BBC Sport - Luis Suarez charged with racially abusing Patrice Evra: The pair clashed during the teams' 1-1 draw at Anfield on 15 October.

Uruguayan Suarez, 24, has denied Evra's claim that he used racist language to the France international.

Following the FA charge, Liverpool said they would remain supportive of Suarez and that he would plead not guilty on his return from international duty.

The club also said they would expect him to request a hearing.

An FA statement said: "It is alleged that Suarez used abusive and/or insulting words and/or behaviour towards Manchester United's Patrice Evra contrary to FA rules.

"It is further alleged that this included a reference to the ethnic origin and/or colour and/or race of Patrice Evra."

Liverpool boss Kenny Dalglish has previously said that he does not think racism is prevalent at the club.

A Liverpool statement issued after the FA charge was announced read: "The club this afternoon received notification from the Football Association of their decision to charge Luis Suarez and will take time to properly review the documentation which has been sent to us.

High School Basketball Coach Calls Student Future Welfare Recipient (VIDEO)

High School Basketball Coach Calls Student Future Welfare Recipient (VIDEO): A high school basketball coach is coming under fire for making offensive comments to his students after being caught on tape.

Marcus Williams Jr., a senior at Winnetonka High School, filed a racial harassment complaint with the North Kansas School District after coach Derek Howard called him a "future welfare recipient," KCTV5.com reports.

Williams said when photography students asked him to pose for a picture, the coach stopped and said the words "future welfare recipient" should be printed beneath the photo.

"I just felt belittled, crushed and utterly discouraged," Williams told the news network.

Job Discrimination Complaints Hit All-Time High

Job Discrimination Complaints Hit All-Time High: The federal agency responsible for investigating employment discrimination charges reported this week that the number of complaints coming from workers and job seekers has hit an all-time high.

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission received just shy of 100,000 charges from citizens during the 2011 fiscal year, the most logged in a single year in the agency's 46-year history, according to a new report. The agency also managed to obtain a historic amount of monetary relief for alleged victims of job discrimination -- $365 million, the most on record.

The EEOC handles cases involving hiring and pay discrimination based on age, race, sex, religion and disability, among other factors. Christine Nazer, an agency spokeswoman, says the EEOC hasn't tried to account for the rise in complaints this year. "We really don't know why our charges increase or decrease, as we haven't conducted any studies," she says.

With Hispanic students on the rise, Hispanic teachers in short supply - The Washington Post

With Hispanic students on the rise, Hispanic teachers in short supply - The Washington Post: The surge in Hispanic students across the nation is forcing schools to reckon with a deep shortage of teachers who share their cultural heritage.

More than 21 percent of schoolchildren are Hispanic, experts report, compared with 7 percent of teachers. No other racial or ethnic minority group has such a wide disparity. In the struggle to close this gap, the stakes are high: Research suggests that a more diverse faculty might lead to better attendance, fewer suspensions and higher test scores.

President Obama Honors Outstanding Science, Math and Engineering Mentors

President Obama Honors Outstanding Science, Math and Engineering Mentors: Nine individuals and eight organizations were named recipients of the Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics, and Engineering Mentoring. The mentors will receive their awards at a White House ceremony later this year.

The Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics, and Engineering Mentoring, awarded by the White House to individuals and organizations, recognizes the crucial role that mentoring plays in the academic and personal development of students studying science and engineering, particularly those who belong to groups that are underrepresented in these fields.

“Through their commitment to education and innovation, these individuals and organizations are playing a crucial role in the development of our 21st century workforce,” President Obama said.

BCA Hiring Report Card Shows Positive Change in Football

BCA Hiring Report Card Shows Positive Change in Football: The latest Black Coaches and Administrators Hiring Report Card for NCAA, FBS and FCS Football Head Coaching Positions (2010-11) documents a significant increase in head coaches of color since the report’s inception in 2003.

It’s not a coincidence that 22 head coaches of color have been hired by Football Bowl Subdivision, or FBS, and Football Championship Subdivision, or FCS, schools in the eight years since the Black Coaches and Administrators, or BCA, released its first report card. This represents 52 percent of all ethnic minority football coaches ever hired.

“We have been an instrument of accountability,” said BCA executive director Floyd Keith in a telephone interview. “We’ve also provided names of talent that are out there and have been successful, who can do the job. Those coaches have gone in and they have been successful.”

'We Still Live Here' Details Effort to Restore Wampanoag Language | PBS NewsHour | Nov. 10, 2011 | PBS

'We Still Live Here' Details Effort to Restore Wampanoag Language | PBS NewsHour | Nov. 10, 2011 | PBS: JEFFREY BROWN: And finally tonight, another in our Economist Film Project series. This one is the story of a unique linguistic project, one that's revived the ancient culture of a modern Indian tribe.

The Wampanoag Indians of southeastern Massachusetts stopped speaking their native language 150 years ago. But, in 1993, Jessie "Little Doe" Baird began trying to restore their fluency.

And filmmaker Anne Makepeace chronicled her efforts.

Here's an excerpt from the documentary "We Still Live Here."

MAN: We were discussing whether or not there should be a language program. Do we want to bring it back? You know, should we bring it back? How do we do it?

RUSSELL PETERS, Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe: We had committees from Gay Head and from Assonet and from all the different Wampanoag communities. We had to bring it all together and figure out how we could get it in a cohesive way.

New Data Indicates Mexican Migration Decline; A Separate Report Predicts Immigrant Integration

New Data Indicates Mexican Migration Decline; A Separate Report Predicts Immigrant Integration: At a time when statistics suggest that fewer Mexicans are setting out on the perilous journey across the border, a new study projects that newer immigrants, particularly Latinos, are expected to learn English, buy homes and acquire citizenship at high levels in the coming decades.

The data on declining immigration from Mexico along with the projections on integration patterns for newer immigrants appear at a particularly contentious moment in the national immigration debate, with many sectors calling for tighter border controls and more deportations.

The new report from the Center for American Progress, a nonpartisan think tank, offers a portrait of integration patterns that seem to counter the popular notion that Hispanic immigrants are not assimilating to life in the U.S.

Few Minority Teachers In Classrooms, Gap Attributed To Bias And Low Graduation Rates

Few Minority Teachers In Classrooms, Gap Attributed To Bias And Low Graduation Rates: Minority students will likely outnumber white students in the next decade or two, but the failure of the national teacher demographic to keep up with that trend is hurting minority students who tend to benefit from teachers with similar backgrounds.

Minority students make up more than 40 percent of the national public school population, while only 17 percent of the country's teachers are minorities, according to a report released this week by the Center for American Progress.

"This is a problem for students, schools, and the public at large. Teachers of color serve as role models for students, giving them a clear and concrete sense of what diversity in education--and in our society--looks like," the report's authors write. "A recent review of empirical studies also shows that students of color do better on a variety of academic outcomes if they're taught by teachers of color."

FBI: Hate Crimes Target Blacks In 70 Percent Of Race-Based Cases

FBI: Hate Crimes Target Blacks In 70 Percent Of Race-Based Cases: Blacks were the group most likely to be the targets of race-based hate crimes, according to a new federal report.

The report, compiled by the FBI's civil rights division, found that the large majority of racial bias crimes were "motivated by anti-black bias." Latinos were the targets of 66 percent of all hate crimes motivated by ethnicity or national origin. Jews were the targets of most crimes against religious groups, and most crimes against a particular sexual orientation or gender were motivated by "anti-homosexual male bias."

The number of hate crimes remained essentially flat between 2009 and 2010. There were 6,628 hate crimes reported in 2010, up very slightly from 6,604 in 2009. About 47 percent of all the reported hate crimes were racially motivated, with 20 percent motivated by religion, 19.3 percent motivated by sexual orientation, and 12.8 percent motivated by nationality.

Racial Pattern Found In Harris County, Texas Death Penalty Sentencing: Report

Racial Pattern Found In Harris County, Texas Death Penalty Sentencing: Report: The connection between race and capital punishment has been a hot topic this year, and it's likely to remain one after a new study found a shocking pattern in the way one Texas county sentences people to die.

Of the last 13 men that have been sentenced to death in Harris County, 12 of them are black, according to an analysis of prison and prosecution records by the Houston Chronicle. The discovery has prompted some local lawyers to ask for an investigation and calls for more debate around the administration of capital punishment.

"The more the defendant looks like you the harder it is to kill him — human nature being what it is," said Robert Murrow, one of the county's capital defense attorneys. "It's something we have to be thinking about. It's an issue we never should get too far out of the front of our consciousness."

More International Students Enroll at U.S. Campuses

More International Students Enroll at U.S. Campuses: A sharp increase in the number of Chinese college students is helping to fuel another year of record international student enrollment on U.S. campuses.

A report released Monday by the U.S. State Department and the not-for-profit Institute of International Education shows a 5 percent enrollment increase in the 2010-11 academic year. The nearly 724,000 international students attending U.S. colleges and universities represent the fifth straight year of record growth.

The number of Chinese students increased by 22 percent overall from the previous year and 43 percent among undergraduates. Students from China represent nearly one-fourth of all international students in this country.

Another 14 percent of international students in the United States. come from India. South Korea is the third-leading country of origin, accounting for 10 percent of the total.

Parental Mistakes Can Be Costly

Parental Mistakes Can Be Costly: Many families suffer from self-imposed pressure and financial angst that often lead to costly mistakes and blown opportunities to send their children to college.

By 2018 the U.S. workforce is expected to be more diverse with Whites making up a decreased share. At the same time, the U.S. workforce will be shifting to service-providing industries dominated by health care and social assistance as well as professional, scientific and technical and educational services. It also is a time when college enrollment from 2009 to 2020 is expected to increase by 25 percent for Blacks and Asian/Pacific Islanders, according to the Department of Education.

APLU Panel Addresses Challenges of Minorities Enrolled in STEM Fields

APLU Panel Addresses Challenges of Minorities Enrolled in STEM Fields: Despite growing public awareness and collective efforts to increase the ranks of U.S. minority college students seeking degrees in STEM fields, their supporters and advocates still struggle with many of the same issues today as they did several decades ago, a panel of educators says.

That was a consensus during a session this week at the annual meeting of the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU), which runs through Tuesday.

“Minorities are too often steered into low-achieving programs, and they have academic difficulties from a young age,” says Dr. Sharon Matthews, academy coach at Stratford STEM Magnet High School in Nashville, Tenn., adding that too many social and educational institutions hold “low expectations” for youth of color.

UNCF Conference Town Hall Meeting Focus on Creative Strategies for Historically Black Colleges and Universities

UNCF Conference Town Hall Meeting Focus on Creative Strategies for Historically Black Colleges and Universities: ATLANTA, Ga. — First, the bad news: Amid the nation’s ongoing recession, Historically Black Colleges and Universities, or HBCUs, continue to battle budgetary restrictions, diminishing resources and crippling education policy changes. Now, the good news: They can employ creative strategies to overcome them. That was the overarching message conveyed at a United Negro College Fund, or UNCF, town hall meeting held in Atlanta last week.

Presidents Dr. Julianne Malveaux of Bennett College and Dr. Carlton Brown of Clark Atlanta University, or CAU, respectively joined Dr. Forrest Moore, executive VP, Knowledge, Management and Education Liaison for America's Promise, Etienne LeGrand president of the W.E.B. DuBois Society and independent researcher Dr. Jacqueline Fleming, in the panel discussion at the Omni Hotel.

Panelists offered an array of solutions — from beefing up community and corporate partnerships to seeking diversified funding sources — as ways to tackle the problems that show no sign of subsiding.

As Small Towns Wither on Plains, Hispanics Come to the Rescue - NYTimes.com

As Small Towns Wither on Plains, Hispanics Come to the Rescue - NYTimes.com: ULYSSES, Kan. — Change can be unsettling in a small town. But not long ago in this quiet farming community, with its familiar skyline of grain elevators and church steeples, the owner of a new restaurant decided to acknowledge the community’s diversity by adding some less traditional items to her menu. Cheeseburgers. French fries. Chicken-fried steak.

...Hispanics are arriving in numbers large enough to offset or even exceed the decline in the white population in many places. In the process, these new residents are reopening shuttered storefronts with Mexican groceries, filling the schools with children whose first language is Spanish and, for now at least, extending the lives of communities that seemed to be staggering toward the grave.

That demographic shift, seen in the findings of the 2010 census, has not been uniformly welcomed in places where steadiness and tradition are seen as central charms of rural life. Some longtime residents of Ulysses, where the population of 6,161 is now about half Hispanic, grumble over the cultural differences and say they feel like strangers in their hometown. But the alternative, community leaders warn, is unacceptable.

Hrabowski: An educator focused on math and science - CBS News

Hrabowski: An educator focused on math and science - CBS News: Freeman Hrabowski, president of the University of Maryland Baltimore County, has an unusual name - and an even more unusual approach to education. His "Meyerhoff Scholars," for instance, are expected to adhere to a rigorous schedule and strict rules designed to instill discipline and build community. As Byron Pitts reports, what was once a little known commuter school is now graduating outstanding scientists and engineers, many of whom are minorities.

‘Rights Gone Wrong’ by Richard Thompson Ford — Book Review - NYTimes.com

‘Rights Gone Wrong’ by Richard Thompson Ford — Book Review - NYTimes.com: There’s no more polarizing legal battle in America today than the one over the meaning of discrimination. On the left, many progressives insist that any policies and practices that disadvantage people on the basis of race, sex, age or disability should be illegal, and some have carried this principle to illogical extremes — suing to block ladies’ nights at singles bars, for example, or even to forbid Mother’s Day. On the right, many conservatives insist that the Constitution is so colorblind that the government may never take race into account under any circumstances, and the Supreme Court under Chief Justice John Roberts has carried this principle to similarly illogical extremes — claiming that policies designed to integrate public schools, for example, are impossible to distinguish from those designed to segregate them.

Black midtown hotel cook: Two co - workers dressed like the Ku Klux Klans and harassed me - NY Daily News

Black midtown hotel cook: Two co-workers dressed like the Ku Klux Klans and harassed me - NY Daily News: A black midtown hotel cook says two co-workers inside of a year have dressed like the Ku Klux Klan and harassed him, the Daily News has learned.

Julius Jones said the latest incident occurred Tuesday at the Roger Smith Hotel — a day after he hit the hotel and three employees with a $35 million discrimination lawsuit over an alleged racist stunt on Oct. 28, 2010.

In an amended complaint, Jones says painter Ramon Pagan confronted him in the hotel basement wearing a "pure white cone-shaped article on his head.”

Pagan said, "Hey, look at me. I am the Ku Klux Klan," while a hotel manager witnessed the bizarre exchange, according to court papers filed in Manhattan Federal Court.

"I was blown away," Jones, 42, told The News. "[Pagan\] laughed in my face and enjoyed what he was doing. And there was a manager right there looking at him and didn't say a word."

"It was not a painter's mask he was wearing, it was perfectly shaped like a cone," he added.

Morgan State honors its civil rights sit-in pioneers - The Washington Post

Morgan State honors its civil rights sit-in pioneers - The Washington Post: In 1953, seven years before the formal launch of the sit-in movement, students from Morgan State College were lining up daily at the lunch counter of Read’s drugstore. There, some manager or anxious waitress would recite the Maryland trespassing statute and ask them to leave.

Scholars at the historically black university believe that they were the first students in the nation to organize sit-ins for desegregation. This week, their role in the nation’s civil rights movement was finally honored.

“Please rise,” said Larry Gibson, a University of Maryland law professor, addressing a standing-room-only crowd in Morgan State’s movie theater Thursday afternoon. Half of the audience took to its feet: nearly 200 alumni of what is now Morgan State University, the human legacy of a 15-year campaign of sit-ins, picketing and arrests that transformed a segregated Baltimore.

Do black tech entrepreneurs face institutional bias? - CNN.com

Do black tech entrepreneurs face institutional bias? - CNN.com: Wayne Sutton has been asking venture-capital investors and Silicon Valley executives a question that's not often broached here in the epicenter of the technology industry:

"Why aren't there more black people in tech?"

The vast majority of top executives at the leading Silicon Valley tech firms are white men. Women and Asians have made some inroads, but African-American and Latino tech leaders remain a rarity. About 1% of entrepreneurs who received venture capital in the first half of last year are black, according to a study by research firm CB Insights.

This lack of diversity in Silicon Valley made headlines last month when influential tech blogger Michael Arrington, in an interview for CNN's upcoming documentary "Black in America: The New Promised Land: Silicon Valley," said, "I don't know a single black entrepreneur." Arrington later recanted the statement, saying he was caught off guard by the question, but the sensitive issue sparked a public dispute between the newly minted venture capitalist and CNN's Soledad O'Brien.

Federal Court Permits Football Players’ Discrimination Case Against California Community College

Federal Court Permits Football Players’ Discrimination Case Against California Community College: Three Black former football players can pursue their civil rights suit accusing a northern California community college of racial discrimination, verbal abuse and harassment, a federal judge has ruled.

Dr. Ronald Taylor, the president of Feather River College, said he cannot comment on the litigation but that it is “probably a safe assumption” that the college will deny all the allegations in the next stage of the case.

And in court papers, the college blamed the suit on the plaintiffs’ “disappointment at not making the team for their sophomore year” and “not believing that any other players could possibly be better than them.”

Carnegie Corporation to Honor Freeman Hrabowski, Eduardo Padron

Carnegie Corporation to Honor Freeman Hrabowski, Eduardo Padron: The Carnegie Corporation of New York will be honoring Dr. Freeman Hrabowski, president of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, and Dr. Eduardo Padron, president of Miami Dade College, for their leadership and commitment to educational equity and excellence on Thursday in New York. Hrabowski and Padron will be receiving the prestigious Centennial Academic Leadership Award, which comes with a $500,000 award for each recipient.

“They have each committed their institution to serving its community and have demonstrated that excellence in leadership is far more than effective management alone,” said Dr. Vartan Gregorian, president of the Carnegie Corporation of New York, in a statement.

Improved Minority Teacher Recruitment Tied to Increasing Alternative Certification Programs

Improved Minority Teacher Recruitment Tied to Increasing Alternative Certification Programs: A Center for American Progress panel discussion on Wednesday sought to elevate the discussion on the merits of making America’s teaching force more diverse, but it sometimes got snagged by questions about the need to make the case for diversity itself.

“If we are embracing diversity in all aspects, then we need to stop wondering why we need to have diverse teachers,” said Rachelle Rogers-Ard, program manager at Teach Tomorrow Oakland, an alternative teacher certification program, in response to an audience member who asked her and the other panelists to elaborate on the “why” behind the argument for greater teacher diversity.

“That should no longer be a part of the conversation,” Rogers-Ard said during the discussion, held at the Washington-based Center for American Progress and titled “Diverse Schools Need Diverse Teachers: Strategies to Increase Diversity in the Teacher Workforce.”

Poet-Professor Files Federal Charge Against Cleveland State University

Poet-Professor Files Federal Charge Against Cleveland State University: With her employment discrimination case against Cleveland State University heading to trial to begin in a Columbus, Ohio, courtroom this week, Nuala M. Archer has opened a federal legal front, according to documents obtained exclusively by Diverse: Issues in Higher Education.

Archer—who as a tenured associate professor in CSU’s English Department from 1990 until 1 August of this year spoke out for decades about an alleged dearth of minority professors and students in her program and alleged discrimination in the state-court lawsuit—filed a retaliation charge with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission on Friday, 4 November. In the filing, Archer alleges that she was fired 12 weeks ago as retaliation for having formally complained of age, gender and race discrimination and having those claims validated by her case’s making it to trial.

Report: Leadership of Football Bowl Subdivision Programs Showing Slow Progress on Diversity

Report: Leadership of Football Bowl Subdivision Programs Showing Slow Progress on Diversity: On one front, there has been incredibly positive change. At the beginning of the 2011 college football season, 19 head coaches of color, including 17 African-Americans, led teams at the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) schools. This includes six new hires for this season.

Not long ago, there were only six coaches of color and very real threats of Title VII lawsuits by the Black Coaches and Administrators (BCA), which issues an annual hiring report card.

A report released Tuesday by The Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport (TIDES) titled “Mild Progress Continues: Assessing Diversity Among Campus and Conference Leaders for Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) Schools in the 2011-12 Academic Year” addresses the fact that other positions, such as athletic director and conference commissioner, reflect little if any progress.

Washington-area schools confront the ‘gifted gap’

- The Washington Post: The budding scholars in Alexandria’s gifted classes are bright and curious enough to make any teacher beam, but these days they’re also an emblem of what the school system calls one of its greatest failures: a lack of diversity among the academic elite.

Most of the city’s students are black or Hispanic. Most in gifted programs are white.

This imbalance in classes tailored to gifted and talented students is echoed across the region and the nation, a source of embarrassment to many educators.
In theory, a racial enrollment gap in gifted programs should be easier for schools to close than a racial achievement gap. But in practice, experts say, there are many obstacles. Among them, they say, are testing and outreach methods that fail to ensure children from all backgrounds get an equal shot.
In Alexandria, where a bitter struggle to desegregate public schools ended a half-century ago, administrators have vowed over the next year to tackle the problem.

Lumina Foundation Launches Latino College Completion Initiative

Lumina Foundation Launches Latino College Completion Initiative: The Lumina Foundation is giving organizations and colleges that are building a pipeline of Latino students and promoting college completion a boost with a four-year, $600,000 grant for each institution. Lumina Foundation President and CEO Jamie Merisotis told Diverse of the Latino Student Success initiative, “We’re not trying to re-invent the wheel. We want to build on the experience of these organizations and support programs that are already working.”

Twelve programs—ranging from the organization, The Hispanic Federation, in New York to the Arizona two-year school, Phoenix College—in 10 states will be receiving funds from the foundation, which is doling out about $7.2 million total

Record number of Americans in poverty as wealth gap between young and old increases | The Raw Story

Record number of Americans in poverty as wealth gap between young and old increases | The Raw Story: According to new figures released by U.S. Census Bureau, 49.1 million — or 16 percent — of Americans are now living below the poverty line. The numbers are an increase from 2010, when the previous record was at 46.2 million (16 percent). Americans 65 or older had the biggest jump in poverty, hitting 15.9 percent from the previous total of 9 percent.

The poverty rate isn’t the only economic figure setting an unwanted record, as the wealth gap between old and young Americans has also reached its widest ever. A typical U.S. household headed by a person age 65 or older has a net worth 47 times greater than the average household headed by someone under 35, according to the Pew Research Center.

San Francisco May Get First Chinese-American Mayor - NYTimes.com

San Francisco May Get First Chinese-American Mayor - NYTimes.com: This city with the country’s oldest Chinatown appears likely to elect a Chinese-American mayor for the first time on Tuesday, and for many residents it is a milestone long overdue.

“Chinese-Americans feel that they are making history,” said David E. Lee, executive director of the nonpartisan Chinese American Voters Education Committee here. “They feel they are on the cusp of achieving the holy grail of San Francisco politics, electing one of their own into the mayor’s office.”

Edwin M. Lee, who was appointed to the office on an interim basis last fall after Mayor Gavin Newsom was elected lieutenant governor, is considered a strong favorite, although his support has dwindled in recent days as opponents in a scattered field of 16 seized on reports of campaign irregularities by some of his supporters.

Higher Education Videos and Multimedia

Higher Education Videos and Multimedia: A gala event celebrating the 50th anniversary of African-American achievement at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville recently premiered this university-produced documentary short on integration at Tennessee’s flagship institution. The school’s first Black undergraduate students enrolled at the university in 1961.

Merger of Memphis and County School Districts Revives Challenges - NYTimes.com

Merger of Memphis and County School Districts Revives Challenges - NYTimes.com: When thousands of white students abandoned the Memphis schools 38 years ago rather than attend classes with blacks under a desegregation plan fueled by busing, Joseph A. Clayton went with them. He quit his job as a public school principal to head an all-white private school and later won election to the board of the mostly white suburban district next door.

Now, as the overwhelmingly black Memphis school district is being dissolved into the majority-white Shelby County schools, Mr. Clayton is on the new combined 23-member school board overseeing the marriage. And he warns that the pattern of white flight could repeat itself, with the suburban towns trying to secede and start their own districts.

FBI Says The End Is Near For Investigations Into Civil Rights-era Cold Cases

FBI Says The End Is Near For Investigations Into Civil Rights-era Cold Cases: ...The Department of Justice, under its 5-year-old "Cold Case Initiative" and the 2007 Emmett Till Unsolved Civil Rights Crime Act, has combed through that dark period of American history, seeking any cases that could still be prosecuted. Isolating 111 incidents involving 124 deaths, investigators have sought to determine whether those who died were victims of racially motivated crimes – and then whether there's anyone left to charge.

In about two-thirds of those cases, FBI agents have hand-delivered letters to next of kin, informing them that the government had taken things as far as they could.

In some cases, all of the suspects are dead; in others, suspect individuals have been acquitted in the past and cannot legally be retried. In a few, the agency can find no evidence that a crime was racially motivated – or even that the death resulted from foul play.

Study: Proposed University of Wyoming Admission Standards Tough on Minorities

Study: Proposed University of Wyoming Admission Standards Tough on Minorities: CHEYENNE, Wyo. — Minority students would have a tougher time being automatically accepted to the University of Wyoming than White students under new admission standards being considered by the UW board of trustees.

According to a study by the university, 56 percent of Blacks, Native American and Hispanic students who entered UW in 2009 would be assured admission to the state's only four-year university under the new standards, compared with 83 percent of White students.

Dr. Carol Frost, UW vice president for special projects and a geology professor, said UW has few minority students who, in 2009, represented just 109, or 6.8 percent, of the 1,594 students starting their first year of college.

Student Debt on the Rise Again

Student Debt on the Rise Again: Two of every three college seniors graduated with loan debt in 2010, with the typical borrower owing $25,250 and students at some historically Black institutions facing higher repayments, new research shows.

The sixth annual report on graduates’ borrowing from The Project on Student Debt showed that average debt continued to rise for those who completed studies at a four-year public or private non-profit institution. With the students and their families facing a challenging economy, average debt among graduates increased by 5 percent from 2009.

Budget reductions at the state level also likely contributed to the additional borrowing. “State budget cuts led to sharp tuition increases at some public colleges, also increasing the need to borrow,” the organization said in its report, Student Debt and the Class of 2010.

College Prep Summer Programs Target Talented, Low-Income Students

College Prep Summer Programs Target Talented, Low-Income Students: Elite colleges and universities have encountered criticism because students from upscale families have come to dominate the schools’ Black enrollments. African-American alumni of an earlier generation and other critics want more low-income students admitted.

National studies, though, show that only a small percentage of high school seniors from poor Black or Hispanic families even bother to apply to the country’s best colleges. Most of these students incorrectly assume they would never get into top schools or could not possibly afford to attend them.

In D.C. region, more immigrants pursue public office - The Washington Post

In D.C. region, more immigrants pursue public office - The Washington Post: Their journeys began in places as disparate as Colombia and Pakistan. They arrived in the United States speaking Hindi, Korean or Spanish. They worked their way up through engineering school or accounting jobs, keeping their heads down and their names out of the news.

Now, a small but growing number of foreign-born residents in the greater Washington region — home to more than 1 million immigrants from every corner of the globe — are coming out of their cocoons to enter electoral races and public office.

'Father's Day?' Film Addresses Issues of Fatherless Homes

'Father's Day?' Film Addresses Issues of Fatherless Homes: Actresses Ashley Shante and Squeaky Moore are hoping their new film "Father's Day?" will encourage discussion about what they call "the elephant in the room," namely the absence of black fathers from an alarming number of African-American homes.

"No one is mentioning the elephant," Moore, coproducer of the film, told The Huffington Post. "We want to hit them with a story to understand the emotional impact."

The short film was produced by Dear Diary Productions, a film production company Shante founded, whose objective is to raise awareness about the impact of fatherlessness on the black community.

Various reports have been published about the percentage of black babies born to unmarried mothers, with percentages varying from the high 60s to low 70s. According to a study of childbearing among unmarried mothers by the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention, 72 percent of black babies were born to unwed mothers in 2010.

Designer Brings Muslim Fashion To The Runway : NPR

Designer Brings Muslim Fashion To The Runway : NPR: Nailah Lymus is a 27-year-old aspiring designer who had her first runway show during New York's Fashion Week in September, and she has just had another one.

Lymus began designing jewelry when she was 7, and now has a line of clothing called Amirah Creations. She is a devout Muslim, but her dresses will surprise you.

They are full of color: blues, purples, prints and tapestry woven pieces. Lymus is determined to break down many of the stereotypes about Muslim women — like the assumption that all Muslim women are docile and wear black.

U.S.-born children take fight over tuition to court – USATODAY.com

U.S.-born children take fight over tuition to court – USATODAY.com: State governments have been grappling with the question of whether to provide in-state college tuition rates to illegal immigrants who were brought to the U.S. as children.

Now a Florida lawsuit is highlighting a rare practice of forbidding U.S.-born students — citizens by birth — from getting in-state tuition because their parents are illegal immigrants.

Five students, all born in the U.S. to illegal immigrant parents, sued the state last month for denying them in-state tuition rates even though they'd lived in Florida, graduated from state high schools and were entering state colleges and universities. They claim the higher out-of-state rates they were charged either forced them to drop out or take fewer classes, delaying their eventual graduation.

Taking Stock of Diversity at Cornell

Taking Stock of Diversity at Cornell: During the past 10 years, Cornell University has made significant strides in recruiting underrepresented minorities and women in its faculty ranks, but a new internal study at the university is revealing that its success is a mixed bag.

The number of minority faculty has grown about 52 percent, and the number of female faculty members has increased more than 38 percent in the last decade, according to a 2008 report by Dr. Robert Harris Jr., the former vice provost for diversity and faculty development. “Things have not changed dramatically,” he says.

Young Whites More Pessimistic About Future Than Minorities: Study

Young Whites More Pessimistic About Future Than Minorities: Study: White youths are more pessimistic about their economic future than young minorities, though black and Hispanic youth are more likely to be in a worse financial position right now.

Just 12 percent of whites between the ages of 18 and 34 believe that they will be better off economically than their parents, in contrast to 31 percent of young blacks and 36 percent of young Hispanics, according to a study by Demos, a progressive advocacy organization, and Young Invincibles released on Wednesday. Fifty-five percent of young whites believe that they will be worse off than their parents, compared to 40 percent of young blacks and 36 percent of young Hispanics.

Race in America : NPR

Race in America : NPR: Elouise Cobell, the Native American activist whose demand that the U.S. government account for money earned from Indian lands turned into one of the largest class action lawsuits ever settled, died on Sunday in Great Falls, Montana. She was 65.

Cobell, a member of Montana's Blackfeet Tribe, came to national attention when she and four other Native Americans filed suit against the Interior Department, insisting the government explain why it mishandled billions of dollars held in trust for Native Americans. Some of the money came from Native American lands leased for grazing or oil and gas drilling purposes, according to the Native American Times.

Neither the Native American activists nor the government knew completely how much property Indians owned or what they were fully owed for its use, says the Washington Post, because the Interior Department failed to keep accurate reports. Cobell decided to take action as she realized how many people on the Blackfeet reservation alone may have been owed money and were in poverty.

2011 National Math, Reading Test Scores Show Sluggish Growth, Sustained Achievement Gaps

2011 National Math, Reading Test Scores Show Sluggish Growth, Sustained Achievement Gaps: ...The exam found consistently large gaps in the performance of white, black and Hispanic students, despite their gradual narrowing over time. For example, in fourth-grade math, 9 percent of white students performed at or above the highest level, compared to only 2 percent of Hispanic students and 1 percent of black students. A greater number of students than in 2009 were found to be eligible for free- or reduced-price lunch, a common measure of poverty in education.

"It's more of the same: It's good that the long-term improvement trend is being shared among different economic groups and racial-ethnic groups, but we're not seeing closing in gaps," said Kevin Carey, policy director of the D.C.-based think tank Education Sector. "There have been other time periods where we saw rapid gap closing, in the 1970s in particular. We haven't been in that for a long time."

Arizona Immigration Law Faces Lawsuit On Day-Laborer Statute

Arizona Immigration Law Faces Lawsuit On Day-Laborer Statute: Groups opposing Arizona's immigration enforcement law have asked a federal judge to put a stop to a section of the statute that bans the blocking of traffic when people seek or offer day-labor services on streets.

The Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund and other opponents filed a preliminary injunction request on Friday seeking to block enforcement of the provision, saying it unconstitutionally restricts the free speech rights of people who want to express their need for work. The request was filed in an existing lawsuit by the groups.

Yale Study Finds Beverage Industry Targets Minority Children And Teens (VIDEO)

Yale Study Finds Beverage Industry Targets Minority Children And Teens (VIDEO): A new report from Yale University found that beverage companies are targeting children, particularly black and Hispanic youths, in their sales campaigns for sodas, fruit, energy and sports drinks.

A report released today from Yale's Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity said that children and teens were exposed to double the amount of television ads for full-calorie and sugary beverages from 2008 to 2010. The study also reported that black children and teens saw 80- to 90 percent more ads compared with whites, including more than twice as many ads for Sprite, Mountain Dew, 5-hour Energy, and Vitamin Water. Hispanic children saw 49 percent more ads for sugary drinks and energy drinks, with Hispanic preschoolers seeing more ads for Coca-Cola Classic, Kool-Aid, 7 Up and Sunny Delight than their older counterparts.

South Carolina Immigration Law Draws Challenge From Justice Department

South Carolina Immigration Law Draws Challenge From Justice Department: The U.S. Department of Justice filed a lawsuit on Monday challenging a recently enacted South Carolina immigration law, following suits against similar statutes in Arizona and Alabama.

"It is understandable that communities remain frustrated with the broken immigration system, but a patchwork of state laws is not the solution and will only create problems," said Attorney General Eric Holder in a press statement.

The South Carolina law, passed in June, is set to go into effect on Jan. 1, 2012, unless it is blocked by a federal judge. Like the measures against unauthorized immigration in other states, the South Carolina law requires police officers to question the immigration status of individuals stopped for other reasons if the officers suspect them to be undocumented.