2012: A Year in Review - Higher Education

2012: A Year in Review - Higher Education: When historians review 2012 for its noteworthy moments, events and milestones, they will find the year was a trying one for the American higher education system, despite its being able to educate and enlighten thousands in search of more choices and preparation for adult self-sufficiency.

Many academicians and students worked for and celebrated the re-election of President Barack Obama to a second term. Obama’s re-election helped ensure higher education would continue having a strong advocate in the White House as the nation continues to navigate perilous economic waters that increasingly threaten public support for education. Also, Obama is expected to reinforce his DREAM Act agenda, building on his decision barring the deportation of undocumented immigrants who meet certain requirements outlined in the proposed DREAM Act.

Penn State holds silent march for Latino students after sorority’s offensive Mexican-themed party photo leaks - NY Daily News

Penn State holds silent march for Latino students after sorority’s offensive Mexican-themed party photo leaks - NY Daily News: Penn State students fired up over a sorority’s offensive Mexican-themed party photo are holding a silent march on campus Thursday to reach out to Latinos.

Members of the university’s Chi Omega chapter were blasted after a photo of several girls wearing sombreros and fake mustaches at a party leaked online. Two students were holding signs that read, “Will mow lawn for weed and beer,” and “I don’t cut grass. I smoke it.”

The stereotype-loaded photo infuriated the school’s small but active Latino community, who organized the march.

US court upholds $1 million for Latino student harassed in high school - CSMonitor.com

US court upholds $1 million for Latino student harassed in high school - CSMonitor.com: A federal appeals court on Monday upheld a $1 million jury award to a Latino man who endured 3 1/2 years of racial threats and harassment at a rural high school in New York.

The three-judge panel of the Second US Circuit Court of Appeals in New York City upheld the award against the Pine Plains Central School District after rejecting the district’s appeal.

The judges said the $1 million in compensatory damages to the former student, Anthony Zeno, was an appropriate amount given that school officials were aware of the ongoing harassment but did not take effective action to stop it.

“We conclude there was sufficient evidence in the record to support the jury’s finding that the District’s responses to student harassment of Anthony amounted to deliberate indifference to discrimination,” Judge Denny Chin wrote for the unanimous panel.

U.S. Hispanic Students Slip in International Education Ranking as They Age - ABC News

U.S. Hispanic Students Slip in International Education Ranking as They Age - ABC News: American students scored above average on international math and reading tests, but they still lag behind students from Asian countries, according to two studies of 2011 scores released this week.

The studies compared U.S. fourth and eighth graders to students at the same schooling levels from around the world. Even though the reading test is conducted every five years, by evaluating students at the same grade levels, educators are more accurately able to compare these skills.

While the U.S. ranking may sound favorable, it factors in test results from countries with much fewer resources, and some with less-than-democratic political systems. Iran, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates participated in the studies, as did Morocco, Colombia, Azerbaijan and Honduras.

Two Decades After Crown Heights, What's It Like to Be Black and Orthodox Jewish? -- New York Magazine

Two Decades After Crown Heights, What's It Like to Be Black and Orthodox Jewish? -- New York Magazine: The ad, plastered in the subway in the sixties, showed an African-American boy eating a rye sandwich: YOU DON'T HAVE TO BE JEWISH TO LOVE LEVY'S. If you were black, in other words, you weren’t Jewish. And to be black and Orthodox—that would mean encountering disbelief at your very existence.

Estimates for the number of black Jews in the U.S. vary wildly, from 20,000 to more than 150,000, with some experts saying the population is too small to accurately measure. But MaNishtana Rison, who has become a prominent voice for Jews of color thanks to his advocacy work and dating website, estimates there are probably only 50 or 60 blacks among the roughly 500,000 Orthodox in Greater New York. “For the most part, we know each other,” Rison says. “It’s what we call Jewish geography—even if we’ve never met, we at least know someone in common.”

Wayne Lawrence became interested in photographing black Jews after he moved to Crown Heights, where memories still linger of the 1991 riots, and noticed a few black Orthodox living up the street. “It’s not that they identify as black Jews, but the fact that they identify as Orthodox,” he says. “What was surprising to me is that they’d want to be a part of something that didn’t necessarily want them there.”

Urban Living Legend - Higher Education

Urban Living Legend - Higher Education: During Dr. Robert Bullard’s first stint at Texas Southern University, researching assorted urban issues while also teaching, he linked where some people live with their comparative lack of household finances, and from there, parsed how those dual forces factor into what gets dumped in their proverbial backyards.

Landfills, garbage incinerators, industrial plants and other polluters are more likely to be situated in areas populated by poor, politically powerless people, Bullard concluded, as he began backing up what he knew was true anecdotally with empirical evidence.

He also concluded that those living near landfills, toxic smokestacks and such also tend, disproportionately, to travel outside of their neighborhoods for well-stocked supermarkets. They confront shortages of affordable, habitable housing and insufficient means of transportation. They are less likely to get hired by major employers — including industrial polluters operating in their communities — who pay wages that reasonably sustain a family.

Members of Presidents’ Round Table Confront Challenges on Diverse Campuses - Higher Education

Members of Presidents’ Round Table Confront Challenges on Diverse Campuses - Higher Education: In an age of increasing pressures on the future workforce, the Presidents’ Round Table, a network of African-American community college presidents and chief executives, seeks to meet the demand for supplying and training the next generation of educated employees for the evolving job picture.

Among its varied goals, the Round Table works to empower and provide community college leaders with the skills to keep the nation’s community colleges viable.

To get a glimpse into the of the needs and stresses facing community college leaders, Diverse: Issues In Higher Education spoke with two of the Round Table’s leaders: Dr. Andrew C. Jones, chancellor of Coast Community College District in Southern California and convener of the Round Table, and Dr. Charlene M. Dukes, president of the Prince Georges Community College in suburban Maryland, outside of Washington, D.C., who is secretary of the Round Table.

Hiring of Black College Football Coaches Still Lagging - Higher Education

Hiring of Black College Football Coaches Still Lagging - Higher Education: Every college student knows the end of November marks the ending of a semester, which also means grades. The Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport (TIDES) released a report card on the hiring of minority football coaches at the Division I level on November 29, which showcased mixed results.

The report shows there were 18 coaches of color at Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) schools in the 2012 season. That number included three African-American coaches and one Polynesian that were hired prior to the season.

At the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) level, there are nine coaches of color, bringing the total of qualifying coaches of color to 27. These totals exclude FCS coaches employed at historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs).

The study found that just six of the 39 hiring searches in the 2011-2012 hiring cycle resulted in the hiring of minority coaches. Texas A&M’s hire of former Houston head coach Kevin Sumlin was the only minority hire out of 12 openings at the FBS level during that period.

Election Study: Black Turnout May Have Surpassed That Of Whites : It's All Politics : NPR

Election Study: Black Turnout May Have Surpassed That Of Whites : It's All Politics : NPR: African-Americans voted this year at a higher rate than other minorities and may have topped the rate for whites for the first time, according to a new study by the Pew Research Center.

Blacks make up 12 percent of all eligible voters but contributed 13 percent of the votes in the presidential election — duplicating their record turnout in 2008, according to exit polls analyzed in the study. Latinos, whose turnout reached a historic high in actual number, made up 10 percent of the total.

Before the election, many strategists predicted black turnout could be disproportionately harmed by new Republican-backed state laws that required photo identification, reduced early voting hours and curtailed voter registration drives.

Instead, Democratic and civil rights groups used the threat of "voter suppression" to rally blacks.

Census Bureau Rethinks The Best Way To Measure Race : NPR

Census Bureau Rethinks The Best Way To Measure Race : NPR: Possible revisions to how the decennial census asks questions about race and ethnicity have raised concerns among some groups that any changes could reduce their population count and thus weaken their electoral clout.

The Census Bureau is considering numerous changes to the 2020 survey in an effort to improve the responses of minorities and more accurately classify Latino, Asian, Middle Eastern and multiracial populations.

Potential options include eliminating the "Hispanic origin" question and combining it with the race question, new queries for people of Middle Eastern or North African heritage, and spaces for Asians to list their country of descent. One likely outcome could be an end to the use of "Negro."

Asian-Americans speak out against Google app they call offensive – In America - CNN.com Blogs

Asian-Americans speak out against Google app they call offensive – In America - CNN.com Blogs: The maker of a Google app thinks it's fun to make yourself look Asian by changing the shape of your eyes and wearing a Fu Manchu mustache and rice paddy hat.

Another app - "Make Me Indian" - makes you a Native American with brown skin, war paint and a feather headband.

“This is just a fun app (that) lets you indulge you and your friends," says the description of the "Make Me Asian" app created by user KimberyDeiss and available on Google Play.

"You can for a few seconds to make (yourself) a Chinese, Japanese, Korean or any other Asians," the description says.

Not amusing or cute, say Asian-American organizations that launched a petition to get Google to remove both apps.

The apps use dated and racist stereotypes of Asians and Native Americans, said the online campaign 18 Million Rising, named after the number of Asian-Americans in the United States.

Obesity declining in young, poorer kids - Vitals

Obesity declining in young, poorer kids - Vitals: The number of low-income preschoolers who qualify as obese or "extremely obese" has dropped over the last decade, new data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show.

Although the decline was only "modest" and may not apply to all children, researchers said it was still encouraging.

"It's extremely important to make sure we're monitoring obesity in this low-income group," said the CDC's Heidi Blanck, who worked on the study.

Those kids are known to be at higher risk of obesity than their well-off peers, in part because access to healthy food is often limited in poorer neighborhoods.

The new results can't prove what's behind the progress, Blanck told Reuters Health - but two possible contributors are higher rates of breastfeeding and rising awareness of the importance of physical activity even for very young kids.

Education parity: School choice equals opportunities for Hispanics

Education parity: School choice equals opportunities for Hispanics: The Latino population is one of many groups affected by a national education reform. One of the most discussed programs is that of school choice, which varies from state to state, and offers families the opportunity to choose a school for their children other than the one assigned by geographic default.

Take for instance in Indiana, where a private-school choice program has more than 9,300 students involved.

“There’s a fairly extensive sort of tiered school choice/voucher program in its second year where based on income, kids could qualify for partial or full dollar amounts of what the state would spend on them in their district,” Indiana Commission on Hispanic and Latino Affairs Executive Director Daniel Lopez tells VOXXI. “It could be applied either partially or fully to a private school of their choice.”

Nelson Mandela Hospital Stay: South African Leader In Good Spirits In Hospital

Nelson Mandela Hospital Stay: South African Leader In Good Spirits In Hospital: JOHANNESBURG — South Africa's presidency says former leader Nelson Mandela, who has been in a hospital since Dec. 8, is looking better and in good spirits.

Presidential spokesman Mac Maharaj said Wednesday that 94-year-old Mandela's condition "remains as it was yesterday."

President Jacob Zuma had joined Mandela's wife, Graca Machel, and other family members in wishing a Merry Christmas to Mandela at his hospital bedside in Pretoria, the South African capital.

Mandela, a leader of the anti-apartheid movement, was diagnosed with a lung infection and also had a procedure to remove gallstones. Officials have said Mandela is improving, but note doctors are taking extraordinary care because of his age.

Black juveniles account for 85 percent of teens charged as adults in Balto. region - baltimoresun.com

Black juveniles account for 85 percent of teens charged as adults in Balto. region - baltimoresun.com: Close to 85 percent of teens charged with adult crimes in the region are black, according to an snapshot of recent data from local jails in Baltimore and its surrounding counties.

Every one of the 45 juveniles housed at the Baltimore City Detention Center on a recent day was an African-American. But blacks only account for 63.7 percent of the city's population, according to the 2010 U.S. Census.

Camilla Roberson, an attorney with the Public Justice Center, said overrepresentation of minorities in the criminal justice system is a long-standing issue. But finding a starting point to address the matter faces one major barrier: The state doesn't track such data.

Texas school board bans Confederate battle flag - Yahoo! News

Texas school board bans Confederate battle flag - Yahoo! News: BUDA, Texas (AP) — A Central Texas school board is banning the Confederate battle flag from district property and district-sponsored events.

Hays board members voted 5-2 Monday to amend the student code of conduct to ban the flag, which was formerly displayed with the Hays High School Rebel mascot. The ban also covers any imagery deemed to be racially hostile, offensive or intolerant.

The action comes after two students were accused of writing racial slurs and urinating on the door of a black teacher's classroom in May at Hays High. The school is in Buda, 15 miles south of Austin.

In October, the Hays board decided to keep "Dixie" as the school fight song. The Confederate anthem has been known to evoke the traditions of proud state and region, but also slavery and prejudice.

Racist Burger King spitting incident settled out of court | The Raw Story

Racist Burger King spitting incident settled out of court | The Raw Story  A Burger King franchise in Pennsylvania settled a lawsuit out of court with a black Ohio truck driver who claimed that his Whooper Jr. was served with spit.

Glenn Goodwin settled the civil rights lawsuit with Fast Food  Enterprises #3, which operates the Burger King franchise on Interstate 90 in Fairview, Penn.

Goodwin’s suit claimed that the spitting was racially motivated. He said he was the only black customer in the Burger King on Nov. 11, 2008 when he ordered a burger.

HBCU Highlights This Week: Historically Black Colleges Bring Holiday Joy To Their Communities

HBCU Highlights This Week: Historically Black Colleges Bring Holiday Joy To Their Communities: Historically black colleges and universities are popularly known for the cultural contributions they provide America through academics, sports, marching band and homecoming culture and Greek life, but many black college students, faculty and staff work as unheralded heroes in outreach efforts for minority communities across the U.S.

Here are a few black colleges service initiatives ensuring brighter holidays for neighborhoods and families throughout the nation.

Cordish Cos. named in Louisville, Ky. lawsuit alleging racism - baltimoresun.com

Cordish Cos. named in Louisville, Ky. lawsuit alleging racism - baltimoresun.com: A division of the Baltimore-based Cordish Cos. has been named as a co-defendant in a lawsuit alleging discriminatory practices at The Maker's Mark Bourbon House and Lounge, a tenant at Cordish's Fourth Street Live! property in Louisville, Ky.

The lawsuit, filed Wednesday, alleges that the lounge's employees "demanded to know the ratio of 'black people' to 'white people'" who were expected to attend a party, then denied entrance to every black person who showed up.

Andre Mulligan, the plaintiff in the lawsuit, is suing Louisville Bourbon LLC (doing business as Maker's Mark Bourbon House and Lounge) and Cordish Operating Ventures LLC of Baltimore in Jefferson County Court in Kentucky.

HIV Rate In United States: Decreasing Among Black Women, Increasing Among Gay Men, Report Finds

HIV Rate In United States: Decreasing Among Black Women, Increasing Among Gay Men, Report Finds: While the general rate of new HIV infections in the United States has remained the same over the last decade, a new government report shows that it is decreasing among black women and increasing among young gay and bisexual men.

The findings from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention detail the most recent HIV/AIDS numbers in the United States. They show that in 2010, there were 47,500 people who were newly infected with HIV, down from 2007's number of 53,200. The authors of the report noted that the rate of new HIV cases in the U.S. has stayed at around 50,000 each year since the '90s.

From 2008 to 2010, black women experienced a 21 percent decrease in new HIV infections (from 7,700 to 6,100). But overall, African Americans are the racial group most affected by HIV (with an HIV rate almost eight times higher than white people), comprising 44 percent of all the new infections in 2010.

'Miss Subways': A Trip Back In Time To New York's Melting Pot : The Picture Show : NPR

'Miss Subways': A Trip Back In Time To New York's Melting Pot : The Picture Show : NPR: For more than 35 years, riders on the New York City subways and buses during their daily commute were graced with posters of beaming young women. While the women featured in each poster — all New Yorkers — were billed as "average girls," they were also beauty queens in the nation's first integrated beauty contest: Miss Subways, selected each month starting in 1941 by the public and professionally photographed by the country's leading modeling agency.

Photographer Fiona Gardner, captivated by old Miss Subways posters she'd seen, worked with journalist Amy Zimmer to track down 40 of the more than 200 former pageant winners. They've juxtaposed images of those women today with their Miss Subways photographs in their book, Meet Miss Subways. Several former winners featured in the book also shared their stories with the audio documentary project Radio Diaries.

Faculty Diversity Initiative Seeks to Boost Liberal Arts College, Research University Cooperation - Higher Education

Faculty Diversity Initiative Seeks to Boost Liberal Arts College, Research University Cooperation - Higher Education: Three renowned liberal arts colleges have announced the launch of a faculty diversity initiative that seeks a new paradigm for how liberal arts institutions interact with research universities on faculty development and recruitment.

Connecticut College, Middlebury College, and Williams College are spearheading the initiative, known as the Creating Connections Consortium, or C3, that “will implement strategies designed to accelerate the recruitment of students from historically underrepresented backgrounds into faculty positions.” The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation is supporting C3, which is targeting low-income, first-generation, and minority college students, with a $4.7 million grant over three years.

Tarantino: Drug incarcerations are ‘slavery’ from ‘fear of the black male’ | The Raw Story

Tarantino: Drug incarcerations are ‘slavery’ from ‘fear of the black male’ | The Raw Story: Django Unchained director Quentin Tarantino says that race relations in America have gotten a lot better, but that that the so-called War on Drugs has “decimated the black male population” and it is continuing for “all the same reasons they had for keeping slavery going.”

“It’s very depressing,” Tarantino told CBC host George Stroumboulopoulos. “This War on Drugs and the mass incarcerations that have happened pretty much for the last 40 years has just decimated the black male population. It’s slavery. It’s just slavery through and through.”

“And it’s the same fear of the black male that existed back in the 1800s,” he explained. “Even having directed a movie about slavery and the things that we have in the slave town — the slave auction town where they’re moving back and forth — well, that looks like standing on the top tier of a prison system and watching the things go down. And between the private prisons and the public prisons and the way prisoners are traded back and forth.”

Expert suggests putting all black students in IB - Class Struggle - The Washington Post

Expert suggests putting all black students in IB - Class Struggle - The Washington Post: I don’t know anyone who cares more or knows more about Montgomery County public schools then Joseph Hawkins, a senior study director at the Westat research company.

He tried in 2000 to start a charter school in the county to challenge low-income minority kids. The Board of Education said no, concerned, among other things, that the charter’s plan to have all students in the International Baccalaureate diploma program was too strenuous.

Hawkins still wants more rigorous classes for the students least likely to be in them. In a recent post on the Rockville Patch blog, he suggested the following: At the eight county schools that offer IB classes, black students must go for the full IB diploma, which requires six three-to-five-hour exams and a 4,000-word research paper. His reasons are interesting.

NewsHour Extra: Can Longer School Days Close the Achievement Gap? Lesson Plan | PBS

NewsHour Extra: Can Longer School Days Close the Achievement Gap? Lesson Plan |PBS: Eleven districts across five states -- Colorado, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New York and Tennessee -- will extend school time by at least 300 hours, starting in 2013. The three-year pilot program hopes to make American students more competitive with their counterparts in other countries who rank higher in math and reading.

The extra time does not necessarily mean more classes. Some schools are expected to incorporate more recess so that students can move around, tutoring to work on academic weaknesses, and arts and science programs that have been cut in recent years.

Four HBCUs Among Six Institutions Selected in NCAA Grant Program - Higher Education

Four HBCUs Among Six Institutions Selected in NCAA Grant Program - Higher Education: In an initiative designed to boost student-athlete academic performance, the NCAA has selected six universities to participate in its Limited-Resources Institutions Grant Program Pilot. The schools, which include four historically Black institutions, will receive grants totaling more than $4.3 million that will help them better fulfill NCAA Division I requirements.

NCAA officials say the grant program pilot funds will be supporting new initiatives and expand existing campus programs, such as “summer bridge programs, summer financial aid, and mentoring and tutoring.” The schools are expected to hire additional academic support staff and purchase technology as instructional aids.

“As the academic expectations for Division I student-athletes continue to increase, the NCAA is proud to offer assistance to those institutions that have demonstrated need and a plan for using these funds to contribute to student-athlete success,” NCAA Executive Vice President Dr. Bernard Franklin said in a statement.

NCAC Presidents’ Council Wins Inaugural Diversity and Inclusion Award - Higher Education

NCAC Presidents’ Council Wins Inaugural Diversity and Inclusion Award - Higher Education: The North Coast Athletic Conference Presidents’ Council will receive the inaugural Award for Diversity and Inclusion from the NCAA and the Minority Opportunities Athletic Association.

“The North Coast Athletic Conference’s Presidents’ Council has done a phenomenal job introducing strategic and thoughtful practices and programs that not only encourage diversity and inclusion, but also ensure that a variety of voices and perspectives will be heard within its member schools and conference,” said Bernard Franklin, NCAA executive vice president and chief inclusion officer.

The award will be presented at the NCAA Convention Association Luncheon on Jan. 17 in Grapevine, Texas.

Alabama football player booted for calling Obama ‘n*gger’ during Newtown speech | The Raw Story

Alabama football player booted for calling Obama ‘n*gger’ during Newtown speech | The Raw Story: A University of Northern Alabama football player has reportedly been kicked off the team after he sent out a racist tweet during President Barack Obama’s speech at a vigil for the victims of last week’s school massacre in Newtown, Connecticut.

While the president was speaking to the grieving residents of Newtown on Sunday night, DeadSpin noted that a number of football fans sent out insensitive tweets because the 49ers-Patriots game had been preempted by the speech.

“Take that n*gger off the tv, we wanna watch football,” one Twitter user named Bradley Patterson wrote.

Scholars Gather to Launch Book About Black Immigrant Children in U.S. - Higher Education

Scholars Gather to Launch Book About Black Immigrant Children in U.S. - Higher Education: With the aim of enriching immigration policy discussions and policy development, a Washington-based think tank convened a group of noted scholars and research analysts late last week to launch a book that documents the social, economic and health status of Black immigrant children in the U.S.

The publishing of Young Children of Black Immigrants in America: Changing Flows, Changing Faces by the Migration Policy Institute (MPI) represents an effort to bring attention to a cohort of children whom scholars and policy have overlooked, according to MPI officials.

“We think the book is useful because it brings together a wide range of disciplines all the way from education to economics to anthropology. It taps a wide range of data sources from the usual suspects like the American Community Survey to less usual suspects,” said Michael Fix, book co-editor and MPI senior vice president, during a book launch panel discussion.

Turmoil in Temple’s African-American Studies Program Taking Its Toll - Higher Education

Turmoil in Temple’s African-American Studies Program Taking Its Toll - Higher Education: Drew Brown had several admission offers from prestigious doctoral programs across the country when he decided two years ago to further his graduate study.

But Temple University’s doctoral program in African-American studies quickly rose to the top of his list. Its esteemed faculty members, coupled with the school’s reputation as the first degree-granting doctoral program in African-American studies in the world, appealed to this native from Windsor Ontario, Canada, who has plans to one day become a university professor.

“It just seemed like a natural fit,” says Brown, whose mentor, Dr. Daniel Black—a rising academician at Clark Atlanta University—also earned his Ph.D. in African-American studies from Temple. “Students and graduates are doing cutting-edge research and scholarship.”

Lawrence Guyot, civil rights icon, memorialized by hundreds at D.C. service - The Washington Post

Lawrence Guyot, civil rights icon, memorialized by hundreds at D.C. service - The Washington Post: Decades after they stood as foot soldiers in a multiracial army to integrate the South, veterans of the civil rights battles of the 1960s gathered in a Northwest Washington church Saturday to celebrate the life of Lawrence Thomas Guyot Jr.

Mayor Vincent C. Gray, U.S. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.) and Council member Marion Barry all were seated in the pulpit of the Goodwill Baptist Church to pay tribute to Guyot, a man who went from being a Mississippi activist during the bloodiest chapter of the civil rights movement to a community leader in the city for decades.

“Lawrence Guyot was an unsung hero among thousands of unsung heroes who were not looking for anything. They were there because they loved freedom,” Barry said during the memorial service, which attracted hundreds, including civil rights veterans, community leaders and elected officials.

Real Geronimo was wily fighter whose skill lay in avoiding war, author claims | The Raw Story

Real Geronimo was wily fighter whose skill lay in avoiding war, author claims | The Raw Story: Who was Geronimo? For white Americans, he was the most feared and hated Indian warrior of his time – the epitome of the merciless savage bent on slaughering them and their families.

Later, as the US came to terms with its harsh treatment of Native Americans, the Apache leader would emerge as a different figure: the noble hero fighting to defend his land, people and way of life.

A new book strips away both simple perceptions. The figure who emerges is a complex one: a spiritual warrior, who converted to Christianity before he died, with a deep and abiding hatred of Mexicans rather than Americans, and who was capable of great brutality.

Geronimo is the latest book by Robert Utley, one of the greatest contemporary writers on the American west and author of an acclaimed 1993 biography of the Sioux chief Sitting Bull.

The new book captures a life full of drama and surprise. Those who associate Geronimo with prowess in fighting may be shocked to learn that his birth name was Goyahkla: One Who Yawns – hardly a moniker that presages a career defined by guerrilla warfare.

Mandela undergoes surgery, remains hospitalized - CNN.com

Mandela undergoes surgery, remains hospitalized - CNN.com: Nelson Mandela on Saturday morning underwent endoscopic surgery to have gall stones removed, President Jacob Zuma's office said in a statement.

The procedure was successful and Mandela, who has been hospitalized since last weekend due to a recurring lung infection, is recovering, the statement said.

Mandela has not appeared in public since the 2010 World Cup hosted by South Africa. The former president gets round-the-clock care since abdominal surgery this year and an acute respiratory infection in 2011.

The Nobel Peace Prize laureate spent 27 years in prison for fighting against oppression of blacks in South Africa. He became the nation's first black president in 1994, four years after he was freed from prison.

Despite his rare appearances, Mandela retains his popularity and is considered a hero of democracy in the nation.

A Civil Rights Figure's Long Road — To Carnegie Hall : NPR

A Civil Rights Figure's Long Road — To Carnegie Hall : NPR: You know the old joke: "How do you get to Carnegie Hall? Practice, practice, practice." Myrlie Evers-Williams took a different route.

Her late husband, Medgar Evers, was the Mississippi head of the NAACP; he was assassinated for his work in 1963. Evers-Williams wound up moving to Southern California, where she became an educational, corporate and political leader and, in the 1990s, chairwoman of the NAACP.

But music has always been one of her loves, and she's about to fulfill a longtime dream: Myrlie Evers-Williams is playing Carnegie Hall, backed by the genre-spanning orchestra Pink Martini. They'll take the stage for the second of two shows this evening.

Thoughtful bribes for AP students - Class Struggle - The Washington Post

Thoughtful bribes for AP students - Class Struggle - The Washington Post: Some people at the National Math and Science Initiative think I don’t appreciate them, but that’s not quite right. I enjoy their engaging television ads on great teachers and international competition. Few other private groups have done as much to make high schools more rigorous. They have some of the smartest school reformers I know.

The Dallas-based nonprofit organization has spent nearly $80 million, much of it from the ExxonMobil Foundation, in nine states. The first 136 schools in its program of teacher training, weekend study sessions and student supports have seen the number of passing scores on Advanced Placement math, science and English tests increase 137 percent for all students and 203 percent for African American and Hispanic students in three years. It now has 462 schools, including some in southern Virginia.

My hesitation to embrace its approach has to do with the way I was raised. My parents never paid me for good grades, while students at National Math and Science Initiative schools can get $100 for every AP exam they pass.

‘Changing America’ exhibit explores America’s press for freedom for blacks - The Washington Post

‘Changing America’ exhibit explores America’s press for freedom for blacks - The Washington Post: Beyond the unifying symmetry of the numbers, what binds and animates the new “Changing America: The Emancipation Proclamation, 1863, and the March on Washington, 1963” exhibit at the Smithsonian’s Museum of African American History and Culture gallery is the great press of American people toward freedom.

It is a constant, relentless force before, during and after these iconic moments in history, with a sweep that is nationally momentous and deeply personal. It winds between the artifacts, giving them weight and suasion.

The gallery, inside the American History Museum, divides into two sides and organizes around a quote from labor and civil rights leader A. Philip Randolph: “Freedom is never given, it is won.”

To the left of the quote is the distant history of slavery and the Emancipation Proclamation, to the right is recent history, the March on Washington, such that visitors who were there will look to try to find their faces.

“Looking at these two moments in time, these two kinds of struggles for inclusion, freedom and participation, you see more than 100 years,” said Harry R. Rubenstein, co-curator of the exhibition. “You see the history of the nation.”

Black jobless rate is twice that of whites

Black jobless rate twice that of whites-: In the quarter-century that Armentha Cruise has run her Silver Spring staffing firm, the nation has made strides toward racial equality. Voters have twice elected a black president, African Americans shine among Hollywood’s brightest stars, and the number of blacks who graduate from college has tripled.

But this stubborn fact remains: The African American jobless rate is about twice that of whites, a disparity that has barely budged since the government began tracking the data in 1972. In last week’s jobs report, the black unemployment rate was 13.2 percent, while the white rate stood at 6.8 percent.

Discrimination has long been seen as the primary reason for this disparity, which is evident among workers from engineers to laborers. But fresh research has led scholars to conclude that African Americans also suffer in the labor market from having weaker social networks than other groups.

Having friends and relatives who can introduce you to bosses or tell you about ripe opportunities has proved to be one of the most critical factors in getting work. Such connections can also help people hold onto their jobs, researchers say.

HBCU Leaders Must Acclimate Themselves with Corporate Practices to Remain Relevant - Higher Education

HBCU Leaders Must Acclimate Themselves with Corporate Practices to Remain Relevant - Higher Education: Washington – In order to ensure the future vitality of HBCUs, leaders of the institutions must position their faculty and students inside the corporate world to learn needs of business and how to speak business language.

It also pays to have administrators who know how to navigate the federal contract process and have principal investigators who have the requisite “depth and breadth” of knowledge that it takes to compete for coveted government contracts.

Those were some of the key pieces of advice that a top military research administrator proffered Thursday at the UNCF Special Programs Corporation 2012 Knowledge Forum.

“Talk to corporations about how you can help them with their R&D,” said Dr. Reginald Brothers, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Research within the U.S. Department of Defense. “Try to understand what a particular laboratory is doing.”

The Institute of American Indian Arts Celebrates its 50th Anniversary - Higher Education

The Institute of American Indian Arts Celebrates its 50th Anniversary - Higher Education: Linda Lomahaftewa, a noted painter, has taught at much bigger places than the Institute of American Indian Arts.

But Lomahaftewa, who is Hopi-Choctaw, and others on the faculty of IAIA are intensely devoted to the mission of this small but unique school.

IAIA — the nation’s only four-year fine arts institution devoted to American Indian and Alaska Native arts — is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year.

Since its creation in 1962, the tribal college near Santa Fe, N.M., has produced thousands of painters, sculptors, writers and filmmakers.

Some have attained national and international reputations in the art world, including Earl Biss, T.C. Cannon, Doug Hyde and Roxanne Swentzell. Renowned contemporary artists have also taught at IAIA, including Allan Houser, Fritz Scholder and Charles Loloma and his wife, Otellie Loloma.

How A Middle-School Principal Persuaded Students To Come To School : Planet Money : NPR

How A Middle-School Principal Persuaded Students To Come To School : Planet Money : NPR: Shawn Rux took over as principal of MS 53, a New York City middle school, last year. At the time, 50 or 60 kids were absent every day. You could understand why they stayed away: The school was chaos.

Twenty-two teachers had quit, the entire office staff had quit, and hundreds of kids had been suspended. The school was given a grade of F from the city's department of education.

"It was in a bad place," Rux says.

Rux decided he needed to create incentives for kids to come to school. Incentives that were more obvious to middle-school kids than, "If you come to school you'll be better off 20 years from now."

He handed out raffle tickets to anyone who showed up to school on time. One of the prizes was an Xbox. And he threw in an element of randomness: The first kids in line when the doors opened might get 20 tickets.

Va. College Student Expelled for Racial Election Uproar - Local News - Washington, DC - Washington D.C. | NBC News

Va. College Student Expelled for Racial Election Uproar - Local News - Washington, DC - Washington D.C. | NBC News: One student has been expelled and three others are being punished for their roles in a racially charged uproar on a Virginia college campus the night of President Barack Obama's re-election, the school said Thursday.

They were among approximately 40 students who gathered outside the Minority Student Union at Hampden-Sydney College on the night of Nov. 6 within minutes after Obama won a second term. Some shouted racial slurs, tossed bottles, set off fireworks and threatened physical violence. No one was injured inside the house, and some left the building to peacefully confront the crowd, as did other students.

The four were found guilty by a student court of violating the college's student code of conduct, the school said in a statement released to The Associated Press. Hampden-Sydney spokesman Thomas H. Shomo said the students are not being identified, and that college administrators never comment on student court verdicts.

U.S. Will Have No Ethnic Majority, Census Finds - NYTimes.com

U.S. Will Have No Ethnic Majority, Census Finds - NYTimes.com: The term “minority,” at least as used to describe racial and ethnic groups in the United States, may need to be retired or rethought soon: by the end of this decade, according to Census Bureau projections released Wednesday, no single racial or ethnic group will constitute a majority of children under 18. And in about three decades, no single group will constitute a majority of the country as a whole.

As the United States grows more diverse, the Census Bureau reported, it is becoming a “plurality nation.” 

“The next half century marks key points in continuing trends — the U.S. will become a plurality nation, where the non-Hispanic white population remains the largest single group, but no group is in the majority,” the bureau’s acting director, Thomas L. Mesenbourg, said in a statement. 

The new projections — the first set based on the 2010 Census — paint a picture of a nation whose post-recession population is growing more slowly than anticipated, where the elderly are expected to make up a growing share of the populace, and that is rapidly becoming more racially and ethnically diverse. All of these trends promise to shape the nation’s politics, economics and culture in the decades to come.

The Meaning of Minority - NYTimes.com

The Meaning of Minority - NYTimes.com: America’s white majority just bought itself another year.

According to census figures released Wednesday, 2043 is now the year that whites will no longer make up the majority of Americans. That’s one year later than previous projections.

But one year is nothing in the grand sweep of things. We as a society must begin to consider now what this change will mean for a nation mired in a majority/minority swamp of privilege, expectations, historical benefits and systematic discrimination.

The browning of America is very real and unrelenting. Our task is to find a way to move into this new Ecru Era with as much ease and grace as we can muster.

Researcher finds slaves quarried sandstone used to build Smithsonian Castle - The Washington Post

Researcher finds slaves quarried sandstone used to build Smithsonian Castle - The Washington Post: The iconic red sandstone used to build the Smithsonian Castle, one of Washington’s most recognizable buildings, was quarried by slaves, including some who were once most likely owned by Martha Washington, according to new historical research to be published Thursday.

The discovery by anthropology professor Mark Auslander adds to what has been a years-long reckoning with slavery’s role in Washington landmarks, including the Capitol and the White House, and adds nuance to the historical portrait of the Smithsonian Castle, which was built between 1847 and 1855.

Auslander, a native Washingtonian, said in an interview that the Smithsonian has been reluctant over the years to address whether slave labor might have played a part in the history of the Castle. “It’s just an area of total silence,” said Auslander, whose findings are to be unveiled in Southern Spaces, an online, peer-reviewed journal published in cooperation with Emory University’s Robert W. Woodruff Library. “The Smithsonian hasn’t gone through the truth-and-reconciliation process that a lot of institutions have gone through. But I think there’s a willingness to do so.”

TV meteorologist fired after responding to racial remarks on Facebook | The Raw Story

TV meteorologist fired after responding to racial remarks on Facebook | The Raw Story: A black meteorologist said she was fired from her job at an ABC affiliate in Louisiana after responding to racially-problematic remarks left on the station’s Facebook page.

The Maynard Institute blog Journal-isms reported on Tuesday that Rhonda Lee was fired from her job at KTBS-TV on Nov. 28 without being shown the station’s social media policy, which management said forbids on-air personnel from responding to viewer comments online.

“They told me the policy I violated isn’t written down, but was mentioned in a newsroom meeting about a month-and-a-half prior,” Lee said of a Dec. 7 meeting she had with General Sales Manager George Sirven and News Director Randy Bain. “A meeting I didn’t attend. So when I asked what rule did I break there isn’t anything to point to.”

White Britons no longer a majority in London - CNN.com

White Britons no longer a majority in London - CNN.com: White Britons no longer make up the majority of people in London for the first time, according to the latest census data which pointed to a cosmopolitan capital increasingly divergent from the national economy around it.

The 2011 data also revealed a population of England and Wales that is generally better educated but less religious than it was a decade ago -- and less likely to live in a home that they own.

The total population rose by 3.7m to 56.1m, an increase of 7 per cent from the previous census in 2001. Migration was responsible for 60 per cent of that growth -- 2.1m people.

Of the 13 per cent of the population who were born outside the UK -- 7.5m residents -- just more than half arrived within the past 10 years. This compares with the 2001 census, when 9 per cent of the population was born outside the UK.

Black Male Student-Athletes and Racial Inequities in NCAA Division I College Sports | Center for the Study of Race & Equity in Education

Black Male Student-Athletes and Racial Inequities in NCAA Division I College Sports | Center for the Study of Race & Equity in Education: The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) noted in a recent television commercial that Black male student-athletes are ten percent more likely to graduate than are their same-race male peers who are not members of intercollegiate sports teams. This is not true across the six major NCAA Division I conferences whose member institutions routinely win football and basketball championships, play in multimillion-dollar bowl games and the annual basketball championship tournament, and produce the largest share of Heisman trophy winners.

The purpose of this report is to make transparent racial inequities in the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC), Big East Conference, Big Ten Conference, Big 12 Conference, Pac 12 Conference, and the Southeastern Conference (SEC). Data from the NCAA and the U.S. Department of Education are presented for the 76 institutional members of these six athletic conferences. Specifically, the authors offer a four-year analysis of Black men’s representation on football and basketball teams versus their representation in the undergraduate student body on each campus. They also compare Black male student-athletes’ six-year graduation rates (across four cohorts) to student-athletes overall, undergraduate students overall, and Black undergraduate men overall at each institution.

Controversial King memorial inscription set to be erased, not replaced - The Washington Post

Controversial King memorial inscription set to be erased, not replaced - The Washington Post: The government has decided to remove a controversial inscription on the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial rather than replace it, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announced Tuesday.

Fearing for the structural integrity of the three-story-tall memorial, officials plan to erase the paraphrase of a quotation from King’s famous “drum major” speech that appears on the memorial.

In February, the government announced that it was aiming to remove the brief, original inscription and carve in the entire quotation, which the inscription paraphrases.

“The plan to remove, instead of replace, the quote was recommended by the original sculptor, Master Lei Yixin, as the safest way to ensure the structural integrity of the memorial was not compromised,” the Interior Department said in a statement.

“After close consultation with all parties, Secretary Salazar, the National Park Service, the King family and the Memorial Foundation, and Master Lei Yixin all concur that this is the best path.”

A Black And White 1860s Fundraiser : The Picture Show : NPR

A Black And White 1860s Fundraiser : The Picture Show : NPR: They look like any other 19th century vignettes and portraits of children kneeling in prayer or cloaked in the U.S. flag.

But these cartes de visite (a calling card with a portrait mounted on it that was all the rage during the 1860s) featured Charles, Rebecca and Rosa — former slave children who looked white.

I saw a couple of the cards on Tumblr and wanted to know more about them, so I called Mary Niall Mitchell, associate professor of history at the University of New Orleans. Mitchell had researched the group for her book, Raising Freedom's Child: Black Children and Visions of the Future After Slavery, and gave me some history and context for the images.

James H. Taylor, first black circuit court judge in Pr. George’s County, dies - The Washington Post

James H. Taylor, first black circuit court judge in Pr. George’s County, dies - The Washington Post: ames H. Taylor, a pathbreaker in suburban Maryland legal circles who in 1969 became the first black circuit court judge in Prince George’s County, died Oct. 31 at his home in Upper Marlboro of congestive heart failure. He was 86.

The death was confirmed by his wife, Jan Taylor.

Judge Taylor completed law school at American University in 1953, becoming the school’s earliest known African American graduate. Three years later, he was one of the first blacks admitted to the Prince George’s County Bar Association.

The county remained dominated by a conservative white establishment for many years to come, but Judge Taylor continued rising in positions of prominence. In 1963, he was named Maryland’s first black assistant state’s attorney. In 1969, he was appointed by Gov. Marvin Mandel (D) to the state’s 7th Judicial Circuit. He served 18 years on the bench, mainly handling family and juvenile cases, before he retired in 1987.

As a young lawyer, Judge Taylor was widely known as a “gutsy prosecutor,” The Washington Post reported in 1987. While serving on the court, he was accused at times of being too compassionate and forgiving in judicial rulings involving minors.

U.S. students continue to trail Asian students in math, reading, science - The Washington Post

U.S. students continue to trail Asian students in math, reading, science - The Washington Post: Students across the United States have made some gains but continue to lag behind many of their Asian counterparts in reading, math and science, according to the results of two international tests released Tuesday.

U.S. fourth-graders’ math and reading scores improved since the last time students took the tests several years ago, while eighth-graders remained stable in math and science. Americans outperformed the international average in all three subjects but remained far behind students in such places as Singapore and Hong Kong, especially in math and science.

Jack Buckley, commissioner of the National Center for Education Statistics, said the results leave him “optimistic” about the United States’ performance, particularly given that many higher-
performing nations do not deal with the same wide range of student and family income, backgrounds and language ability.

Several Court Cases Will Not Persist - Higher Education

Several Court Cases Will Not Persist - Higher Education: Ohio State University had a legitimate, non-discriminatory reason to deny tenure to an African-American assistant history professor whose teaching failed to meet university standards, an appellate court has ruled.

As a result, the Ohio Court of Appeals refused to reinstate Dr. Stephen Hall’s Title VII suit against OSU.

Hall earned his doctorate at OSU, taught briefly at Central State University and initially returned to OSU as a visiting faculty member. In 2002, he was appointed to a tenure-track position.

A 2008 promotion and tenure committee review cited Hall’s “excellent and important body of scholarly research and good service to the department and profession.”

Making It: How HBCU Education Helped Shape Will Packer - Higher Education

Making It: How HBCU Education Helped Shape Will Packer - Higher Education: Graduating magna cum laude with a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering is not the typical pathway to becoming a successful filmmaker, but then again, there’s nothing typical about Florida A&M University graduate Will Packer. Despite the fact that his course of study was not directly related to what he would ultimately do for a living, Packer attributes a good deal of his success to his alma mater.

“Attending an HBCU set the foundation for me to be successful in my career,” says Packer, a proud recipient of FAMU’s highest honor, the Meritorious Achievement Award. “The nurturing environment and the unyielding push for excellence [at FAMU] provided me with the analytical skills that I have needed to navigate the business world. I go back and give back every chance I get.”

He befriended colleague and future business partner Rob Hardy while attending the Tallahassee-based university, and the rest, as they say, is filmmaking history. In 1994, while still in school, Hardy and Packer started making films. Later, when major studios turned down their projects, the pair marketed them independently.

Mexican-American star singer Jenni Rivera killed in plane crash | The Raw Story

Mexican-American star singer Jenni Rivera killed in plane crash | The Raw Story: A small plane carrying Mexican-American star singer Jenni Rivera crashed in northern Mexico on Sunday, leaving no survivors and sparking an outpouring of grief among fans and fellow celebrities.

The wreckage of the Lear Jet, which was carrying six other people, was found by farmers in the state of Nuevo Leon hours after it had taken off from Monterrey on its way to Toluca, in the center of Mexico, authorities said.

Radio contact with the plane was lost shortly after it took off at 3:15 am. The singer had given a concert in Monterrey Saturday night and was supposed to participate in a television show in Mexico City on Sunday, local media said.

Black Men Face Cycle of Hostility, Vulnerability and Victimization - Higher Education

Black Men Face Cycle of Hostility, Vulnerability and Victimization - Higher Education: A few weeks ago on November 6, election night 2012, more than 40 Hampden Sydney College students rallied outside the campus Black Fraternity house and Student Union residence shouting racial epithets, hurling beer bottles and engaging in other forms of violent behavior. The majority of the victims of this incident were Black men. Students, faulty, staff, and university administration officials of the all-male institution, including the college president, who is Black, expressed genuine shock that such an ugly spectacle erupted on the all-male campus and have vowed to take proactive steps in an effort to prevent future acts of intolerance.

World War 2 Veterans | Tuskegee Airmen | PBS

World War 2 Veterans | Tuskegee Airmen | PBS: n 1941, amidst a segregated military and a country divided by Jim Crow laws, the first African-American fighter pilots were commissioned to aid the defense of bombers in war-torn Europe. Known as the Tuskegee Airmen, these brave and sometimes forgotten patriots fought skillfully to save lives by protecting Allied bombers from enemy fighters.

Revisit the exceptional story of the Tuskegee Airmen through these first-person accounts.

Black and Jewish Music, Kentucky Cabinets, Magician Posters - NYTimes.com

Black and Jewish Music, Kentucky Cabinets, Magician Posters - NYTimes.com: Framed sheet music has been hung throughout the Harlem restaurant Settepani, and the song titles and graphics at times caricature African-Americans.

One 1898 cakewalk is called “Who Dat Say Chicken in Dis Crowd.” The music for a 1918 number, “Somebody’s Done Me Wrong,” is illustrated with a black pastor who has a gun concealed in his pulpit and is glaring balefully at his congregation. John T. Reddick, a Harlem historian who is African-American, has spent three years assembling the memorabilia on view. He has also pieced together how the neighborhood’s black composers, performers and music publishers collaborated with Jewish counterparts to sell ragtime, jazz, blues and patriotic marches.

African slave traditions live on in U.S. - CNN.com

African slave traditions live on in U.S. - CNN.com: Along the lush sea-islands and the Atlantic coastal plains of the southern East coast of America, a distinctive group of tidewater communities has stuck together throughout the centuries, preserving its African cultural heritage and carving out a lifestyle that is uniquely its own.

The Gullah/Geechee people are direct descendants of West African slaves brought into the United States around the 1700s. They were forced to work in rice paddies, cotton fields and indigo plantations along the South Carolina-Georgia seaboard where the moist climate and fertile land were very similar to their African homelands.

After the abolition of slavery, they settled in remote villages around the coastal swath, where, thanks to their relative isolation, they formed strong communal ties and a unique culture that has endured for centuries.

"The Gullah/Geechee Nation is an extremely tightly knit community," says Chieftess Queen Quet, who was chosen to represent the Gullah/Geechee people in 2000. "It is as tightly knit as a sweet grass basket that's sewn together and as tightly knit as a cast net is sewn together -- there's strength in it and that means if you pull on it, you can't just get it to break apart."

To Trim Down, Spelman Trades Sports For Fitness : NPR

To Trim Down, Spelman Trades Sports For Fitness : NPR: For the past decade, Spelman College, a historically black women's school in Atlanta, has fielded NCAA teams in basketball, volleyball, soccer, softball and other sports. But when its small Division III conference started dwindling, college President Beverly Tatum says the school decided it was time to change focus.

"We have to ask ourselves: What is the cost of the program and who is benefiting? How many people are benefiting? Is the benefit worth the cost?" Tatum asks.

So the school decided to drop its NCAA athletics program, which will save about $1 million a year, school officials say.

Richest Black Woman In The World, Folorunsho Alakija, Was A Major Fashion Designer In Africa

Richest Black Woman In The World, Folorunsho Alakija, Was A Major Fashion Designer In Africa: We didn't think it was possible, but Oprah Winfrey has been dethroned as the richest black woman in the world. The new leading lady is oil baroness Folorunsho Alakija from Nigeria.

While drilling oil has reportedly made the 61-year-old owner of FAMFA Oil Limited a very rich woman -- she is estimated to be worth at least $3.2 billion -- Alakija started her ascent to financial supremacy in fashion.

Born into a wealthy family, Alakija studied fashion design in England back in the '80s and soon after founded the Nigerian clothing label Supreme Stitches. Her one-of-a-kind creations were worn by the who's who of African society, quickly making her the premier fashion designer in the West African country. In fact, she has been called one of the "pioneers of Nigerian fashion" and stays connected to the industry through the Fashion Designers Association of Nigeria (FDAN).

Penn State Sorority Apologizes for Insensitive Photo - Higher Education

Penn State Sorority Apologizes for Insensitive Photo - Higher Education: STATE COLLEGE, Pa. — A Penn State sorority has apologized after a photo of members wearing sombreros and holding offensive signs circulated on the Internet.

One of the signs in the photo of Chi Omega sisters says “will mow lawn for weed beer” and another reads “I don’t cut grass I smoke it.” The two women holding signs are wearing fake mustaches.

Chapter president Jessica Riccardi tells the campus newspaper The Daily Collegian the sisters are sorry for “portraying inappropriate and untrue stereotypes.”

The Penn State Panhellenic Council is investigating. The Chi Omega national council says it is working on “educational directives” for the Penn State chapter and does not condone “personal degradation.”

Deferred Deportation Hasn’t Alleviated Immigrants’ Uncertainty - Higher Education

Deferred Deportation Hasn’t Alleviated Immigrants’ Uncertainty - Higher Education: When President Barack Obama announced that he would direct the Department of Homeland Security to grant deferred deportation and a work permit for two years to undocumented immigrant youth who meet certain criteria, he renewed hope for a better future for a million young people.

“There aren’t really words to express how we felt at that time,” says Lorella Praeli, policy coordinator for the immigrant advocacy organization, United We Dream. Since the June 15 announcement, tens of thousands of people like Frida, 18, an undocumented student at San Jacinto Community College in Texas, have started to gather personal documents and apply for the program.

The teen, who did not want to disclose her last name for privacy reasons, says she first went to the Mexican Consulate to get official identification to provide the U.S. government for her application. Her aunt then sent her the forms to fill out and send in. Yet, the jargon-filled documents stopped her in her tracks and fear started to set in.

Another white man pleads guilty in death of black man run over by pickup - U.S. News

Another white man pleads guilty in death of black man run over by pickup - U.S. News: JACKSON, Miss. -- Another white man has pleaded guilty to a hate crime charge in the death of a black man who was run over by a pickup truck in Mississippi.

Three other white men have already pleaded guilty to hate crime charges in the death of James Craig Anderson, who was beaten and then run over in Jackson on June 26, 2011.

None of the men have been sentenced.

William Montgomery pleaded guilty Tuesday during a hearing in U.S. District Court in Jackson to two hate crime counts -- one involving the fatal rundown of Anderson and the other involving the assault of another black man, who was not identified in court documents. In addition, Jonathan Gaskamp pleaded guilty to two hate crime counts in the assault of the unidentified black man.

Young Latino Students Don’t See Themselves in Books - NYTimes.com

Young Latino Students Don’t See Themselves in Books - NYTimes.com: Like many of his third-grade classmates, Mario Cortez-Pacheco likes reading the “Magic Tree House” series, about a brother and a sister who take adventurous trips back in time. He also loves the popular “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” graphic novels.

But Mario, 8, has noticed something about these and many of the other books he encounters in his classroom at Bayard Taylor Elementary here: most of the main characters are white. “I see a lot of people that don’t have a lot of color,” he said.

Hispanic students now make up nearly a quarter of the nation’s public school enrollment, according to an analysis of census data by the Pew Hispanic Center, and are the fastest-growing segment of the school population. Yet nonwhite Latino children seldom see themselves in books written for young readers. (Dora the Explorer, who began as a cartoon character, is an outlier.)

Efforts to Recruit American Indian Males to College are Working - Higher Education

Efforts to Recruit American Indian Males to College are Working - Higher Education: When Dwight Carlston of Fort Defiance, Ariz., began his college career a few years ago, little did he know that he was doing a lot more than making his family proud by pursuing a college education.

While setting an example for his family, Carlston, now a 25-year-old environmental science major at Navajo Technical College with a 3.8 grade point average, was also helping tribal colleges throughout the continent in their efforts to get more American Indian males on reservations to further their education.

The ambitious efforts to recruit American Indian males are working, despite an abundance of hurdles, including lack of money to pay for college, few peer and mentor incentives, and important family obligations that don’t seem to leave much time for pursuits like college.

American Indian male enrollment at tribal colleges and universities has risen 19 percent in the past six years, according to the American Indian Higher Education Consortium. That translates into 5,807 male students out of a total tribal enrollment of some 18,400, according to AIHEC data.

Tie Government Funding to Ending College Athletics’ Discriminatory Hiring Practices - Higher Education

Tie Government Funding to Ending College Athletics’ Discriminatory Hiring Practices - Higher Education: It’s been five decades since Alabama, which will play Notre Dame in January for college football’s national crown, hired its first Black football coach, John Mitchell, who, before becoming an assistant, had been its first Black football player. It’s been almost 10 years since the Fighting Irish fired its first and only Black head football coach, Tyrone Willingham, three years into a five-year contract.

Yet, not much has changed in between when one looks at diversity in the leadership of college athletics.

“College sport still lags behind professional sports with opportunities for women and people of color for the top jobs,” declared Richard Lapchick, director of the Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport at the University of Central Florida, upon issuing his annual report card last week on hiring in college athletics. “The percentages remained stagnant in most categories of [top division college athletic] leadership, highlighting the general picture that White men run college sport.”

Lapchick’s research found that 90 percent of college presidents, 87.5 percent of athletic directors, and all of the commissioners of the 11 major conferences, representing 120 schools, were White.

And while there were 18 minority head coaches among those 120 schools in 2012, down one from a record the previous year, the number of Black coaches slipped last week when Colorado fired Jon Embree after just two seasons.

Experts Say More Minority STEM Programs are Vital to National Growth - Higher Education

Experts Say More Minority STEM Programs are Vital to National Growth - Higher Education: The need to enhance minority targeted STEM programs is not just on the radar for education administrators, but also has been a priority for several government officials, especially members of President Barack Obama’s cabinet. According to a recent report released by the President’s Council of Advisory on Science and Technology (PCAST), investing resources in secondary and postsecondary science education could be a key ingredient for rebuilding a nation as technologically advanced as China’s.

“Science and technology are foundational to this nation and are of more than passing importance to the American economy, which most measures suggest more than half of its growth is due to science, technology and innovation,” said John Holdren, assistant to the president for science and technology and co-chair of PCAST.

‘White Student Union’ tests college’s boundaries | The Raw Story

‘White Student Union’ tests college’s boundaries | The Raw Story: An American university student is working to create the country’s first white student union, triggering debate over the limits of free speech.

“White culture is dying,” Matthew Heimbach, 21, lamented as he distributed flyers on campus denouncing the building of a mosque near Towson University, where he is in his last year.

“Every other single group has a union — Jewish, black. Why don’t white students get equal treatment?” said the tall, slightly heavy history major wearing a khaki jacket and a “sons of liberty” T-shirt.

Towson University, where two out of three students are white, is located just outside the east coast city of Baltimore, where most of the population is black.
Yet, “we live on a campus where there is discrimination against whites,” Heimbach asserted, referring to the school’s affirmative action programs.

Beyond Black and White in the Mississippi Delta - NYTimes.com

Beyond Black and White in the Mississippi Delta - NYTimes.com: WATCHING the American political conversation over the last two years, you might easily have assumed that everything and everyone was working from the same playbook of partisan and racial polarization. That is, unless you were watching the Mississippi Delta, where, over the last few years, three towns — Greenville, Greenwood and Indianola — with overwhelmingly African-American populations elected white mayors.

The Delta, which lies roughly between the Yazoo and Mississippi Rivers, is a complex and historically star-crossed region. It has been majority black since the early 19th century, when its fertile land became the heart of the cotton kingdom and the chattel slavery system that exploited it.

Today, America associates the region with blues music and civil rights history. Heritage markers throughout the Delta identify civil rights landmarks, including the site of the murder of Emmett Till and the grave of the activist Fannie Lou Hamer. The first pro-segregation Citizens Council was founded in Indianola — which was also the boyhood home of B. B. King.

E.E.O.C. Finds Race Bias In Firing at Wet Seal Store - NYTimes.com

E.E.O.C. Finds Race Bias In Firing at Wet Seal Store - NYTimes.com:  The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission said in a statement released Monday that Wet Seal, a nationwide apparel retailer for young women, illegally discriminated against a former store manager after one of the company’s executives complained about too many black employees at the manager’s store in Pennsylvania.

Citing unusually blatant evidence of racial discrimination, the director of the commission’s Philadelphia office noted in a “determination” released Monday that Wet Seal’s “corporate managers have openly stated they wanted employees who had the ‘Armani look, were white, had blue eyes, thin and blond in order to be profitable.’ ” 

The federal agency found that Wet Seal terminated Nicole Cogdell, the African-American former manager of its store in King of Prussia, Pa., in 2009, the day after the retailer’s senior vice president for store operations had inspected that store and several others in the area and sent an e-mail saying, “African Americans dominate — huge issue.”

Downer Remains on Front Line of Fight Against HIV/AIDS - Higher Education

Downer Remains on Front Line of Fight Against HIV/AIDS - Higher Education: With each word, her lilting voice can serve up the warmth of her native Jamaica. But when the topic is HIV/AIDS and the young people the disease threatens, it almost always grows large and urgent. Goulda Downer, Ph.D., a health scientist, has ferried her share of frantic college students to clinics testing them for the virus that causes AIDS. She has sat with others eagerly awaiting or dreading results that could change their young lives in an instant.

The first time that Downer, a nutritionist, saw AIDS patients it was in 1987, when the disease was new and deadly. She says many of them were wasting away from malnutrition because they couldn’t eat. Since then, Downer’s curiosity about the disease and focus on the role that food and nutrition play in AIDS management has kept her on this path.

Morgan State University Expected to be First HBCU to Announce MOOC Deal - Higher Education

Morgan State University Expected to be First HBCU to Announce MOOC Deal - Higher Education: The deepening reach of the movement to develop free Massive Open Online Courses, or MOOCs, is taking a new path with two historically Black public universities seeking partnerships with Udacity, one of the leading MOOC platform organizations.

One of the schools, the Baltimore-based Morgan State University, reports that it is close to completing an agreement with Udacity that would enable school faculty members to develop courses for delivery through the company’s MOOC platform. The agreement, which Morgan State officials expect to announce publicly by late January, is also supposed to allow Morgan State students the option of earning academic credit for MOOCs taken through Udacity.