Bill To End Racial Profiling Given New Life By Trayvon Martin Outcry: WASHINGTON -- Hoping to seize on the renewed national debate over race and discrimination following the trial of George Zimmerman, two Democratic lawmakers on Tuesday introduced legislation that would seek to end racial profiling at the hands of law enforcement.
Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) and Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.) banded together for a second time to announce companion versions of the End Racial Profiling Act of 2013, legislation they had previously pushed in 2011 and that appeared before Congress in 2001, 2004 and 2007 as well. The legislation would attack racial profiling by several means, including mandating training for federal law enforcement officials on racial profiling issues, submitting data on all routine and spontaneous investigatory activities to the Department of Justice, providing Justice Department grants for the development and implementation of protocols that discourage profiling, and requiring the attorney general to make periodic reports assessing the nature of any ongoing discriminatory profiling practices.
Tuesday, July 30, 2013
Cheryl Boone Isaacs Elected The First African-American President Of The Academy of Motion Picture Arts And Sciences
Cheryl Boone Isaacs was elected by the board of governors to lead the Academy on Tuesday night, The Hollywood Reporter said.
Boone Isaacs, a veteran marketing executive who currently heads CBI Enterprises, is only the third woman to lead the 86-year-old Academy. The first two female presidents were actress Bette Davis and screenwriter Fay Kanin.
Boone Isaacs has previously served as president of theatrical marketing for New Line Cinema and executive vice president of worldwide publicity at Paramount Pictures. Earlier this year, she produced the 4th annual Governors Awards for the Academy.
Boone Isaacs will replace Hawk Koch, a producer who left the board because of term limits. According to Entertainment Weekly, one of her first jobs will be to select a host for the March 2 Oscar telecast.
Italy’s first black cabinet minister: Racist insults hurt both me and ‘civil conscience’ | The Raw Story
People “should debate with ideas, not with insults, even when they have different ideas,” Kyenge, who is minister for integration, told reporters.
“These attacks hurt me but also hurt the civil conscience of the majority of this country,” said Kyenge, an eye doctor born in the Democratic Republic of Congo who is now an Italian citizen.
Kyenge, 48, has so far played down the onslaught, including being likened to an orangutan by senior party member and Senate deputy speaker Roberto Calderoli.
But on Tuesday she appealed directly to the leader of the Northern League, Roberto Maroni, who is also governor of the Lombardi region, to end the racism.
She said that otherwise she would not take part in a conference with the Northern League this week.
“I feel I can respect this engagement only if Maroni appeals to his activists to immediately cease their continual attacks against me,” she said.
‘PowHerful Summit’ Continues to Fortify Young Women - Higher Education
“I think this year we’ve really hit our stride,” said CNN’s Starting Point anchor and enterprise journalist Soledad O’Brien, coming out of a flurry of flashbulbs on the red carpet. “The goal was to have 25 young women. And I remember when we had nine, and last year we were coming on 15 and it felt like it was a little bit of a distant goal. This year we have 25 young women we are supporting—and we have met our goal.”
Just as her work in New Orleans covering Hurricane Katrina served as the impetus for much of the foundation’s efforts, O’Brien’s reporting on Hurricane Sandy was one of the inspirations to host the benefit in Manhattan over the Hamptons. “It just felt we have a lot of supporters who are here in the city, and so it was time to stay in New York City and bring a little New Orleans to New York City,” she said of an evening that featured a Southern-style menu, jazz band, and Mardi Gras masks and beads.
In Nation's First Black Public High School, A Blueprint For Reform : Code Switch : NPR
But it wasn't always that way. Once upon a time, the yearbook read like a Who's Who of black America.
"It's really amazing because we're talking about people who literally changed America, who changed the United States," journalist Alison Stewart tells host Audie Cornish on All Things Considered. "The architect of school desegregation, Charles Hamilton Houston, was a Dunbar graduate. Elizabeth Catlett, the artist. Billy Taylor, the jazz musician. The first black general in the Army. The first black graduate of the Naval Academy. The first black presidential Cabinet member. The lists go on and on."
Monday, July 29, 2013
Diverse Docket: New Jersey University Lawful in Terminating Former Black General Counsel - Higher Education
Now, a state appeals court says the university had a ‘legitimate, non-discriminatory reason” to discharge Vivian Sanks King and upheld dismissal of her race, gender and age bias suit.
As the university’s chief legal officer, Sanks King’s duties included oversight for compliance at a time when UMDNJ allegedly engaged in systematic double-billing for medical services, the court said.
According to the court, in 2001 Sanks King learned that University Hospital had likely engaged in illegal Medicaid reimbursement practices but didn’t notify the state Medicaid program until 2004.
Black Women Willing to Participate in Medical Research, Survey Finds - Higher Education
That’s one of the conclusions being drawn from a new survey being released today by the Mayo Clinic that suggests Black women are willing to participate in medical research, but many are not being asked to.
The survey found that, despite few respondents reporting they had ever been asked to participate in a health-related research study, more than one-third were “extremely willing” to participate in a “biobank” or in genetic studies. Biobanks are repositories that store biological samples for research.
The survey also found that 13 percent of respondents were “extremely willing” to enroll in a clinical trial and that roughly a fourth were “extremely willing” to allow their medical records to be used for research.
Urban League Issues a Call to Action for Education, Jobs, Voting Rights - Higher Education
They also sought to drum up public support for the upcoming commemorative March on Washington, scheduled to take place in Washington, D.C., on August 24, 2013.
“They would say, ‘That’s the way it is. Don’t get in trouble.’ But one day, I was inspired to get in the way and get in trouble,” said Rep. John Lewis, who spoke at the 1963 March on Washington where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his famous “I Have a Dream Speech.”
Lewis, who was beaten in Selma in 1965 by Alabama State troopers as he tried to cross the Edmund Pettus Bridge, received the National Urban League’s Civil Rights Champion Award.
“For more than 50 years I have been getting into what I call good trouble, necessary trouble,” Lewis said.
Sunday, July 28, 2013
Dusten Brown, Birth Father Of 'Baby Girl' Veronica, Asks Supreme Court To Block South Carolina Adoption Ruling
The filing by Dusten Brown is the latest legal maneuver in a drawn-out fight for custody of 3-year-old Veronica. She lived the first 27 months of her life with adoptive parents Matt and Melanie Capobianco in South Carolina and the past 18 months with Brown in Oklahoma.
The Capobiancos won a Supreme Court ruling in June, and the South Carolina high court last week ordered a family court to finalize the adoption of Veronica by the Capobiancos.
Brown wants the justices to intervene again because he says the state judges misread the June ruling and did not take account of Veronica's interests. The Cherokee Nation, of which Brown is a member, also joined in the plea to the Supreme Court.
Lois DeBerry Dead: Longtime Tennessee Lawmaker Dies At 68
The Memphis Democrat was surrounded by family and friends when she died at a Memphis hospital, her nephew, Gary DeBerry, told The Associated Press.
First elected in 1972, DeBerry was the longest-serving member of the state House of Representatives. Nationwide, only two other female lawmakers elected in 1972 are still serving, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
She also was the second African-American woman to serve in the Tennessee General Assembly.
As the first female speaker pro tempore in the House, she was respected by her colleagues, who gave her the honorary title of speaker emeritus. Legislative leaders on both sides of the aisle sought her support on key legislation.
After Trayvon, Renewed Conversation on Stigma Facing Black Men in America | PBS NewsHour | July 25, 2013 | PBS
After Trayvon, Renewed Conversation on Stigma Facing Black Men in America | PBS NewsHour | July 25, 2013 | PBS: JEFFREY BROWN: And finally tonight, in the aftermath of the Trayvon Martin shooting and the acquittal of George Zimmerman, a conversation about being a black man in America today.
Last Friday, President Obama spoke about the issue bluntly and emotionally.
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: And the fact that a lot of African-American boys are painted with a broad brush and the excuse is given, well, there are these statistics out there that show that African-American boys are more violent -- using that as an excuse to then see sons treated differently causes pain.
JEFFREY BROWN: Speaking a day before planned protests over the acquittal of George Zimmerman, the president said the circumstances of Trayvon Martin's death at just 17 years old played to a larger issue.
BARACK OBAMA: We need to spend some time in thinking about how do we bolster and reinforce our African-American boys? And this is something that Michelle and I talk a lot about. There are a lot of kids out there who need help who are getting a lot of negative reinforcement. And is there more that we can do to give them the sense that their country cares about them and values them and is willing to invest in them?
Last Friday, President Obama spoke about the issue bluntly and emotionally.
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: And the fact that a lot of African-American boys are painted with a broad brush and the excuse is given, well, there are these statistics out there that show that African-American boys are more violent -- using that as an excuse to then see sons treated differently causes pain.
JEFFREY BROWN: Speaking a day before planned protests over the acquittal of George Zimmerman, the president said the circumstances of Trayvon Martin's death at just 17 years old played to a larger issue.
BARACK OBAMA: We need to spend some time in thinking about how do we bolster and reinforce our African-American boys? And this is something that Michelle and I talk a lot about. There are a lot of kids out there who need help who are getting a lot of negative reinforcement. And is there more that we can do to give them the sense that their country cares about them and values them and is willing to invest in them?
Stories Of Race In America Captured On Quilt And Canvas : NPR
The National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington is showing an earlier aspect of Ringgold's art: big, strong, vivid paintings from the 1960s that reflect the violence and social upheaval of that time.
Faith Ringgold is now 83 — and still stunning with her long braids and colorful beads. "[It] was important to be determined," she says of her time developing as an artist in the 1960s. The stop signs that appeared in the pop art movement spoke to her: "There were a lot of stop signs in my life. ... People telling you what to do, when to do it, and so on," she says.
Saturday, July 27, 2013
Dream Deferred: Are We Leaving Black Students Behind?
There was that time one teacher confused him for a special-education student, so she mistakenly told Davis' mother that he would be held back.
In fourth grade, Davis auditioned for choir, singing "It's A Small World." The choir teacher -- whose name Davis can't recall -- started laughing. It was devastating.
The next year, a friend in the school's science club encouraged Davis to join. "He was from a middle-class family, I was not," Davis recalls. Enthralled by his friend's extensive science knowledge, he asked the club’s teacher if he could join. She rolled her eyes and said no. "It was pretty horrible," he says. "I don't know what happened. She maybe had a Zimmerman moment and thought that because of how I dressed and looked, I was unworthy."
Bananas Thrown At Black Italian Minister, Cecile Kyenge, During Speech
Integration minister Cecile Kyenge, who was born in Democratic Republic of Congo, has angered far-right groups with her campaign to make it easier for immigrants to gain Italian citizenship.
Shortly before the incident on Friday, members of the right-wing Forza Nuova group left mannequins covered in fake blood at the site of the rally in Cervia, central Italy, in protest against Kyenge's proposal to make anyone born on Italian soil a citizen.
"Immigration kills," was written on leaflets accompanying the dummies - a slogan Forza Nuova has previously used when referring to murders committed by immigrants in Italy.
Friday, July 26, 2013
Race-blind admissions: White privilege is too often ignored in movies and in life - The Washington Post
It’s New Year’s Eve in San Francisco. On a crowded street, while waiting for his date to go to the bathroom, Oscar strikes up a conversation with a white man around his age, who, like Oscar, has committed a crime. Unlike Oscar, he has clearly rebounded. After they chat about the women in their lives, the stranger confesses that he was so broke when he married his wife that he had to steal her ring. He issues a warning about going down the same road, then cheerfully tells Oscar that he now owns a business and gives him his card.
How White Are the Reporters Covering Obama? Very, Stats Show - ABC News
How White Are the Reporters Covering Obama? Very, Stats Show - ABC News: The face of the nation is changing fast, but the White House press corps remains the same.
A new report in The Washington Post details how the news media, and especially the White House press, is disproportionately whiter and less diverse than the country as a whole.
"At a time when one of the most contentious subjects in Washington is immigration reform — an issue of great import to many Hispanics — the people questioning the president on a regular basis are unlikely to be Hispanic themselves," the Post's Paul Fahri writes.
Here are some of the figures that illustrate the news media's lack of racial diversity, which the Post pulled from the American Society of News Editors' annual survey.
A new report in The Washington Post details how the news media, and especially the White House press, is disproportionately whiter and less diverse than the country as a whole.
"At a time when one of the most contentious subjects in Washington is immigration reform — an issue of great import to many Hispanics — the people questioning the president on a regular basis are unlikely to be Hispanic themselves," the Post's Paul Fahri writes.
Here are some of the figures that illustrate the news media's lack of racial diversity, which the Post pulled from the American Society of News Editors' annual survey.
- 12.4 percent: The proportion of U.S. newspaper journalists who are racial minorities.
- 21.5 percent: Proportion of minority TV journalists.
- 11.7 percent: Proportion of minority radio journalists.
- 37 percent: The U.S.'s minority population.
- 7: Number of full-time White House correspondents who are African-American or Asian-American, out of 53. That's 13.2 percent. Figures for other groups weren't available.
- 3: Number of African-Americans who have served on the White House Correspondents Association board in its 99-year history.
Feds probing Arizona school’s ‘Redneck Day’ after student wears Confederate flag | The Raw Story
Civil rights leaders contacted the ED after a photo emerged of a student wearing a large Confederate Army battle flag as a cape during May spirit week at Queen Creek High School.
“I found it to be offensive,” Civil Rights Activist Rev. Jarrett Maupin told KTVK. “I think many in the community did and the department responded.”
In its letter to Maupin, the ED wrote that it would “determine the remedy, including moderating conversations between school administrators and civil rights community leaders to shape new policy and racism prevention measures.”
But the department said that that investigation would not include the Confederate flag display, and that the scope would “be limited to whether a racially hostile environment was created due to language and actions that were not protected by the First Amendment.”
Thursday, July 25, 2013
What's in a name? Debate rages over Tulsa landmarks honoring Ku Klux Klan member - U.S. News
A shoe salesman by trade, the brash and ambitious Missourian saw an opportunity and seized it. He opened a general store, followed by a hotel — the first with baths.
By the time Oklahoma became a state in 1907, Brady was a celebrated city father. He signed Tulsa's incorporation papers, started a newspaper and chartered a train filled with boosters, including humorist Will Rogers, to promote the new boomtown to people in the East.
But a lesser-known side of Brady has become the focus of debate in his adopted hometown nearly 90 years after his death. The son of a Confederate veteran, Brady was a member of the local Ku Klux Klan. And new questions have emerged about his involvement in the most notorious event in Tulsa history, a 1921 race riot that left 300 black residents dead.
Archaeologists, historians uncover settlement of free African Americans in Easton - baltimoresun.com
Piece by piece, archaeologists and historians from two universities and the local community are uncovering the history of The Hill, believed to be the earliest community of free African Americans in the United States, dating to 1790.
Not only is The Hill likely the oldest settlement of free African Americans, but it also could be the largest community of free blacks in the Chesapeake region. During the first census in 1790, some 410 free African Americans were recorded living on The Hill – more than Baltimore's 250 free African Americans and even more than the 346 slaves who lived at nearby Wye House Plantation, where abolitionist Frederick Douglass was enslaved as a child.
Free African Americans in Easton lived alongside white families, said Dale Green, a Morgan State University professor of architecture and historic preservation who is working with the University of Maryland's Marke Leone on The Hill project.
"It's not just a black story. It's an American story," Green said.
Researchers and students are in the midst of a three-week dig at a property on The Hill, owned by the Talbot County Women's Club, where free African Americans were recorded as residents. The census lacked details about the African Americans, but does note the property owner was James Price, a white man who was the register of wills at the time.
More Latinos Consume News in English, Report Finds - NYTimes.com
More Latinos Consume News in English, Report Finds - NYTimes.com: An increasing number of Hispanics in the United States are getting their news in English, according to a report released on Tuesday by the Pew Hispanic Center.
Eighty-two percent of Latino adults surveyed said that at least some of the news they followed in 2012 was in English, an increase from 78 percent in 2006. Nearly a third of Hispanics, 32 percent, said they got their news exclusively in English, according to the report, compared with 22 percent in 2006. At the same time, the consumption of Spanish news decreased among Hispanic adults, with 68 percent saying they got some of their news in Spanish, compared with 78 percent in 2006.
Part of what is driving these changes is the shifting demographics among the 52 million Latinos in the United States. Immigration of Hispanics to the United States is slowing, and more of the Latino population was either born or raised in the United States, increasing the level of English fluency. More than half of the adult Latino population in the United States, 59 percent, speaks English proficiently.
Eighty-two percent of Latino adults surveyed said that at least some of the news they followed in 2012 was in English, an increase from 78 percent in 2006. Nearly a third of Hispanics, 32 percent, said they got their news exclusively in English, according to the report, compared with 22 percent in 2006. At the same time, the consumption of Spanish news decreased among Hispanic adults, with 68 percent saying they got some of their news in Spanish, compared with 78 percent in 2006.
Part of what is driving these changes is the shifting demographics among the 52 million Latinos in the United States. Immigration of Hispanics to the United States is slowing, and more of the Latino population was either born or raised in the United States, increasing the level of English fluency. More than half of the adult Latino population in the United States, 59 percent, speaks English proficiently.
Willie Reed, who risked his life to testify in the Emmett Till murder trial, dies at 76 - The Washington Post
Willie Reed, who risked his life to testify in the Emmett Till murder trial, dies at 76 - The Washington Post: Willie Reed did not know Emmett Till, the young black man whose murder in the Mississippi Delta became one of the most infamous lynchings in the history of the Jim Crow South. Mr. Reed saw him only once — on Aug. 28, 1955, during the last hours of Till’s life — in the back of a green and white Chevrolet pickup truck.
Mr. Reed, an African American sharecropper, risked his life at 18 to appear as a surprise witness in the prosecution of the white men accused of the crime. He became the momentary hero of the Till trial, an event that helped spur the civil rights movement but left a moral stain on the American legal system.
Mr. Reed died July 18 at a hospital in Oak Lawn, Ill. He was 76, and he had lived in Chicago under a different name — first in secrecy and later in relative obscurity — since fleeing Mississippi for his safety nearly 60 years ago. For decades, he had worked as a hospital orderly.
Till, who would have turned 72 on Thursday, was, in 1955, a Chicago teenager unacquainted with the strain of racism prevalent in the South. Accused of whistling at or otherwise affronting a white woman, he was abducted from his relatives’ home near the hamlet called Money, then beaten and executed.
Voting Rights Of Black Americans Trampled By ‘New Jim Crow', Civil Rights Advocates Say
But, barring some unforeseen policy change, he won’t ever get the chance to practice law in his state. And this promising, African-American law student isn't allowed to vote.
Nearly two decades ago, after a struggle with drugs and alcohol led to a series of run-ins with the law, Meade served three years in prison. In 2005, he checked himself into a substance abuse program and stopped using drugs. Yet, because of a policy adopted by Florida Gov. Rick Scott in 2011, he is prohibited not only from voting, but also from serving on a jury and becoming a member of the Florida bar.
“I was in prison because I had an addiction to drugs and alcohol," he said. "Should I be ostracized for the rest of my life because I fell victim to the grip of addiction? No. Should I pay the price for any crimes I committed? Yes, I should pay the price. But once I serve my time, I'm still an American."
Report: Steady College Enrollment Growth for Underrepresented Minorities, College Completion Rates Increasing More Slowly - Higher Education
In the organization’s “Intentionally Successful: Improving Minority Student College Graduation Rates” brief, Education Trust officials described the findings as “encouraging news for those concerned about closing access and success gaps” in American higher education.
Between 2009 and 2011, the nation’s Black undergraduate population jumped by 8.5 percent and Latino undergraduates rose 22 percent, while White college enrollment increased only 2.7 percent. During that same time period, graduation rates also increased. Six-year graduation rates for Latino, White and Black students increased by 4.7 percent, 2.1 percent and 2 percent, respectively.
Wednesday, July 24, 2013
How Musicians Helped Integrate The Silver Screen : Code Switch : NPR
How Musicians Helped Integrate The Silver Screen : Code Switch : NPR: Swing was sweeping the country in the 1930s, long before schools, buses, baseball or even the military felt any pressure to integrate. Back then, every expert had his own definition of swing, but none saw what seems so obvious today: When orchestras started to swing, millions of young, white, middle-class fans suddenly began listening to the same music black audiences had been hearing for years.
African-American musician had been playing "Minnie the Moocher's Wedding Day" in Harlem since 1933, but it wasn't until five years later, in white musician 's hands, that the whole country started hearing it.
Goodman became a national sensation, and he capitalized on stardom fearlessly. He made vibraphonist and pianist Teddy Wilson, both black musicians, part of his quartet because they were unique. A decade before Jackie Robinson would integrate Major League baseball, Hampton and Wilson integrated American popular music.
African-American musician had been playing "Minnie the Moocher's Wedding Day" in Harlem since 1933, but it wasn't until five years later, in white musician 's hands, that the whole country started hearing it.
Goodman became a national sensation, and he capitalized on stardom fearlessly. He made vibraphonist and pianist Teddy Wilson, both black musicians, part of his quartet because they were unique. A decade before Jackie Robinson would integrate Major League baseball, Hampton and Wilson integrated American popular music.
Being In The Minority Can Cost You And Your Company : Code Switch : NPR
The larger the city, the larger the racial wage gap, according to researchers Elizabeth Ananat, Shihe Fu and Stephen L. Ross, whose findings were recently by the National Bureau of Economic Research.
"The average racial gap in metropolitan areas of around one million people – and you can think of a place like Tulsa, Okla. – is about 20 percent smaller than the gap in the nation's largest metro areas of Chicago, L.A. and New York," said Ananat in an interview.
Ananat's research suggests that the racial gap is not directly the result of prejudice or, at least, prejudice conventionally defined. Rather it has to do with patterns of social interactions that are shaped by race – and a phenomenon that economists call spillovers.
Economists have long noted that multiple companies in an industry often congregate in an area – think of movie companies in Hollywood or investment bankers on Wall Street – and observed that these firms become more profitable. Indeed, this may be one reason why an up-and-coming tech company would want to locate in Silicon Valley, rather than in Tennessee, where costs are far cheaper.
Whites-only enclave resurrects old pains - The Washington Post
Whites-only enclave resurrects old pains - The Washington Post: KLEINFONTEIN, South Africa — At the entrance to this rural settlement is a well-kept shrine to the primary architect of apartheid. Nearby rests an old wheelbarrow, a symbol of the white Afrikaners who once ruled the country. Inside the coffee shop, at the bank, everywhere, there are only white faces.
A white security guard, wearing gray camouflage, checks cars at a gate on the main road. Race is a key factor for entry. No blacks are allowed to buy or rent houses here.
Two decades after the end of apartheid, a system of brutally enforced segregation, this hamlet exemplifies the deep racial divides that still preoccupy South Africa. The existence of Kleinfontein and places like it has set off a debate about the type of country that South Africa should be today.
As Nelson Mandela, the country’s first black president, battles a serious lung infection many South Africans are examining whether their nation has lived up to his vision of equality, engaging in conversations about race, politics and the economy. That has drawn new attention to all-white communities and the festering legacy of apartheid.
A white security guard, wearing gray camouflage, checks cars at a gate on the main road. Race is a key factor for entry. No blacks are allowed to buy or rent houses here.
Two decades after the end of apartheid, a system of brutally enforced segregation, this hamlet exemplifies the deep racial divides that still preoccupy South Africa. The existence of Kleinfontein and places like it has set off a debate about the type of country that South Africa should be today.
As Nelson Mandela, the country’s first black president, battles a serious lung infection many South Africans are examining whether their nation has lived up to his vision of equality, engaging in conversations about race, politics and the economy. That has drawn new attention to all-white communities and the festering legacy of apartheid.
Tuesday, July 23, 2013
Bennett More Than a ‘First’ at Southern Mississippi - Higher Education
Not only does Bennett’s appointment highlight the state’s progress in race relations, it also leads to reflection on its dismal past. Southern Miss, like its higher-profile sister Ole Miss (University of Mississippi), took extreme measures to resist desegregation. In the 1950s, Clyde Kennard, the first Black applicant to Southern Miss, was sent to prison on bogus charges of stealing chicken feed to keep him from repeatedly seeking admission.
Recent racial incidents in Mississippi have reminded the nation of the state’s history of intolerance. Among them: an angry protest with racial epithets at Ole Miss after the re-election of President Barack Obama last November and, earlier this year, vigorous opposition from the mayor of Madison, Miss., to historically Black Jackson State University establishing a satellite campus in her town.
Illegal immigrant workersask not to be deportedwhile Congress debates - The Washington Post
Illegal immigrant workersask not to be deportedwhile Congress debates - The Washington Post: ...Lopez and a group of other immigrants facing deportation are spending this week in the capital as part of a campaign by the National Day Laborer Organizing Network (NDLON) and several other organizations to call attention to the problems of working immigrants who are in the country illegally. Organizers said thousands continue to be deported, even though many illegal immigrant students were granted a reprieve from deportation by the president last year.
The groups have set up a week-long exhibit of artwork about immigrants at the plaza at 1300 Pennsylvania Ave. NW. One hand-painted poster showed two enormous fists smashing into walls and homes and grabbing a terrified, naked, brown-skinned family.
The event coincides with a traveling one-week fast against deportations that is being held in various cities. It is being observed in the District by some immigrants and church activists.
The groups have set up a week-long exhibit of artwork about immigrants at the plaza at 1300 Pennsylvania Ave. NW. One hand-painted poster showed two enormous fists smashing into walls and homes and grabbing a terrified, naked, brown-skinned family.
The event coincides with a traveling one-week fast against deportations that is being held in various cities. It is being observed in the District by some immigrants and church activists.
Monday, July 22, 2013
BBC News - Nelson Mandela improvement 'sustained'
However, he remains in a critical condition, said the statement from President Jacob Zuma's office.
Mr Mandela was admitted to a private hospital in the capital, Pretoria, on 8 June with a recurring lung infection.
Revered as the father of the nation, he celebrated his 95th birthday in hospital last week.
Mr Zuma visited Mr Mandela on Monday and assured him of "the love and support of all South Africans", the statement said.
Zimmerman verdict: 86 percent of African Americans disapprove
Zimmerman verdict: 86 percent of African Americans disapprove: African Americans have a mostly shared and sharply negative reaction to the shooting of Trayvon Martin and the not-guilty verdict in the resulting trial, while whites are far more divided, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.
At least eight in 10 African Americans say the shooting of the Florida teenager was unjustified, recoil at the verdict in the trial and want the shooter, George Zimmerman, tried in federal court for violating Martin’s civil rights.
On the Martin shooting in particular, the racial gaps are extremely wide.
Among African Americans, 87 percent say the shooting was unjustified; among whites, just 33 percent say so. A slim majority of whites (51 percent) approve of the not-guilty verdict in the Zimmerman trial, while African Americans overwhelmingly and strongly disapprove. Some 86 percent of blacks disagree with the verdict — almost all of them disapproving “strongly.”
At least eight in 10 African Americans say the shooting of the Florida teenager was unjustified, recoil at the verdict in the trial and want the shooter, George Zimmerman, tried in federal court for violating Martin’s civil rights.
On the Martin shooting in particular, the racial gaps are extremely wide.
Among African Americans, 87 percent say the shooting was unjustified; among whites, just 33 percent say so. A slim majority of whites (51 percent) approve of the not-guilty verdict in the Zimmerman trial, while African Americans overwhelmingly and strongly disapprove. Some 86 percent of blacks disagree with the verdict — almost all of them disapproving “strongly.”
Harvard’s Nasir Jones Fellowship Shows Hip-Hop’s Impact, Scholars Say - Higher Education
Harvard’s Nasir Jones Fellowship Shows Hip-Hop’s Impact, Scholars Say - Higher Education: The announcement last week that Harvard University is establishing the Nasir Jones Hip-Hop Fellowship has drawn praise from scholars lauding the work of the Queens, N.Y.-born rapper, as well as for the scholarship of Dr. Marcyliena Morgan, who is credited with laying the groundwork for the fellowship.
To his fans, 39-year old Nasir Jones is simply known as “Nas,” and the multi-platinum Def Jam Recordings artist is admired as one of hip-hop’s most celebrated lyricists. The fellowship, a joint project between Harvard’s Hip-Hop Archives and W.E.B. Du Bois Institute, will fund artists and scholars who demonstrate innovative scholarship and creative potential in hip-hop and hip-hop inspired art.
“I think for anybody who grew up listening to hip-hop, Nas is, without question, a pioneer, and as an artist, he is someone who exemplifies the connection between artistry, ideas, ambition and insight,” says Dr. Ruth Nicole Brown, an assistant professor of education policy, organization and leadership in the college of education at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC).
To his fans, 39-year old Nasir Jones is simply known as “Nas,” and the multi-platinum Def Jam Recordings artist is admired as one of hip-hop’s most celebrated lyricists. The fellowship, a joint project between Harvard’s Hip-Hop Archives and W.E.B. Du Bois Institute, will fund artists and scholars who demonstrate innovative scholarship and creative potential in hip-hop and hip-hop inspired art.
“I think for anybody who grew up listening to hip-hop, Nas is, without question, a pioneer, and as an artist, he is someone who exemplifies the connection between artistry, ideas, ambition and insight,” says Dr. Ruth Nicole Brown, an assistant professor of education policy, organization and leadership in the college of education at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC).
Sunday, July 21, 2013
Black Americans Welcome President Obama's Entry To Race Discussion : Code Switch : NPR
In dozens of cities across the country on Saturday, protesters held coordinated rallies and vigils over the not-guilty verdict in the shooting death of unarmed 17-year-old Trayvon Martin in Sanford, Fla. Many African-Americans insist that understanding the context for black distress over the Zimmerman verdict is key to honest discussions about race.
In Washington, D.C., Djems Wolf Narcisse was visiting the Martin Luther King Memorial. He was not at the D.C. protest, but he does say that few white Americans can understand why black Americans don't look at race the same way they do.
"You know we're not looked upon as the people who fought for this country; we're looked upon as the burden of this country," he says.
The Voting Rights Act: Hard-Won Gains, An Uncertain Future : NPR
The law was created to tackle such injustices, but in June, the of the legislation. Section 4 established a formula determining which states and localities had to get federal approval (known as pre-clearance) before changing their voting procedures.
The provision applied to nine states, mainly in the South, with a history of voter discrimination. The court deemed it unconstitutional for relying on old data.
It is now up to Congress to figure out where the Voting Rights Act goes from here. Both the House and Senate held hearings this past week.
The Challenge For Congress
One of the first questions in these hearings was the threshold question, says NPR congressional correspondent Ailsa Chang. In other words: Do we even need Section 4, or can we rely on some other provision of the law? One of those other provisions might be Section 2.
"[It] allows people to bring lawsuits after voting changes have been made," Chang tells weekends on All Things Considered host Jacki Lyden. "But critics of that provision say litigation isn't a substitute [for Section 4]."
If, instead, Congress decides to write an updated formula for Section 4, it has quite a challenge ahead.
"Congress has to figure out what newer data would point to places where there is so much voter discrimination, those places need continual scrutiny," Chang says.
Far From The Mountaintop: Black America Still Reaching For MLK's Dream
His parents were Southern sharecroppers who moved to Baltimore for a better life. The budding civil rights movement was active in the city, and schools and public facilities became integrated when he was a boy. They were excellent, and he went on to become student body president at Howard University, earned a law degree and now serves as a Democrat in the House, representing the city in which he grew up.
He recently took his 86-year-old mother, Ruth Cummings, to meet his close friend, Barack Obama. A Pentecostal preacher, she told the president, "I want you to know, son, I pray for you every day."
"She called him 'son'!" Cummings recalled with a laugh. "I said, 'Mom, he's the president.' She told me it was the best day of her life. It blew her mind to meet a black president."
Saturday, July 20, 2013
'Justice For Trayvon' Rallies Held In Numerous Cities : The Two-Way : NPR
The Rev. Al Sharpton's National Action Network organized the events following last Saturday's verdict in Sanford, Fla., in which six jurors accepted Zimmerman's claim of self-defense during a scuffle with Martin in Feb. 2012.
Trayvon Martin's mother, Sybrina Fulton, attended the event in New York, where Sharpton called on those gathered to create a new, peaceful movement for change, reports NPR's Dan Bobkoff.
"Not only do I vow to you to do what i can for Trayvon Martin, I promise you I will work hard for your children too because it's important," Fulton told the crowd.
Sharpton said he wants to fight Florida's 'Stand Your Ground' laws and for the Department of Justice to pursue civil rights charges against George Zimmerman.
Baltimore protest among several rallies nationwide to protest Zimmerman verdict - baltimoresun.com
"It would be hypocritical for us to come on this corner and cheer and shout and wave signs for Trayvon Martin and remain silent for the 120 black babies in Baltimore who have been killed with no rally," Bryant told the crowd.
"If in fact we really value life, it cannot just be a life in Sanford, Florida; it got to be lives on North Avenue. ... Every life has got to be of some value."
The rally Saturday in Baltimore was among dozens held in cities around the country in a bid to keep up pressure on U.S. Department of Justice, which is weighing federal charges in the shooting death of Martin. Among the demonstrations, Martin's mother, Sybrina Fulton, protested in New York, while his father, Tracy Martin, was in Miami.
Law on Racial Diversity Stirs Greenwich Schools | NYTimes.com ← NPE News Briefs
Law on Racial Diversity Stirs Greenwich Schools | NYTimes.com ← NPE News Briefs: GREENWICH, Conn. — Just a few minutes’ drive from the polo fields, the fieldstone walls guarding 10-acre estates and the Greenwich Country Day School, from which the elder George Bush graduated in 1937, is far denser terrain, where the homes are smaller and closer together and part of a public housing complex that seems escaped from New York City.
This, too, is Greenwich, and the two public elementary schools in this part of town look, demographically, nothing like most schools in the whiter, wealthier areas. At both, minority students make up at least two-thirds of the enrollment, including some students who are the children of housekeepers, landscapers and construction workers who keep up the lavish homes in the backcountry.
And that is putting the town on a collision course with the State of Connecticut.
Segregation within school districts is not unique to Greenwich — one need look no farther than New York City to find mostly white schools a few blocks from mostly black schools. But Connecticut is one of a few states that forbid districts from letting any of their schools deviate too much in racial makeup from any of their other schools.
This, too, is Greenwich, and the two public elementary schools in this part of town look, demographically, nothing like most schools in the whiter, wealthier areas. At both, minority students make up at least two-thirds of the enrollment, including some students who are the children of housekeepers, landscapers and construction workers who keep up the lavish homes in the backcountry.
And that is putting the town on a collision course with the State of Connecticut.
Segregation within school districts is not unique to Greenwich — one need look no farther than New York City to find mostly white schools a few blocks from mostly black schools. But Connecticut is one of a few states that forbid districts from letting any of their schools deviate too much in racial makeup from any of their other schools.
Friday, July 19, 2013
English-Speaker Sues Pima Community College Over Spanish Use In Classroom
Terri Bennett’s lawsuit, supported by advocacy group ProEnglish, alleges that Pima Community College violated Arizona’s state constitution, which declares English as the official language. The case puts a new spin on the issue of language discrimination, in which Spanish speakers generally say they are the ones facing reprisals.
Pima Community College "denies that any of Ms. Bennett's legal rights were violated and denies that the lawsuit has any basis," spokesperson C.J. Karamargin told the Tucson Sentinel.
The problem began in 2012, when a student sat in the row in front of Bennett during one of her courses. “This other student constantly talked during the class and disrupted the class,” the complaint says. “She spoke primarily in Spanish.”
How Racism Is Bad for Our Bodies - Jason Silverstein - The Atlantic
But racial profiling is not only a danger to a person's legal rights, which guarantee equal protection under the law. It is also a danger to their health.
A growing literature shows discrimination raises the risk of many emotional and physical problems. Discrimination has been shown to increase the risk of stress, depression, the common cold, hypertension, cardiovascular disease, breast cancer, and mortality. Recently, two journals -- The American Journal of Public Health and The Du Bois Review: Social Science Research on Race -- dedicated entire issues to the subject. These collections push us to consider how discrimination becomes what social epidemiologist Nancy Krieger, one of the field's leaders, terms "embodied inequality."
NPR.org Study: Whites Think Black People Feel Less Pain
MICHEL MARTIN, HOST: Now we have another guest who has a very interesting perspective on what we just talked about. He says that a lot of racist behavior may stem from the belief held by many white people that African-Americans do not actually feel as much pain. Jason Silverstein looked into what he calls the racial empathy gap as part of his work with Harvard's W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African-American Research. He wrote about this in the recent Slate article "I Don't Feel Your Pain," and he's with us now. Welcome. Thank you so much for joining us.
JASON SILVERSTEIN: Thank you for having me.
MARTIN: Now you drew, for your piece in Slate, on research that was actually published in May of 2011. It was published in Italy. And in the piece, you said that when white people were shown a picture of a white person in pain, they actually reacted differently than they did when the person was black. Could you talk a little bit more about that?
SILVERSTEIN: Sure. So basically what had happened was the researchers decided to show a group of participants videos, videos of people who were experiencing the same stimuli. One was very painful, or at least might appear to be, a needle touching their skin. And another was potentially harmless, just an eraser. And it turned out that when viewers saw the white people receiving a painful stimuli, they responded much more dramatically than they did for black people. This wasn't the only time we've seen this. We've seen this in other studies, as well. And this is basically what we call the racial empathy gap.
MARTIN: But you also noted that, you know, that African-Americans also experienced this, that they also - that there have been studies that've shown that African-Americans also don't react as strongly when they are shown pictures of black people in pain. Why might that be? And, I mean...
SILVERSTEIN: Sure.
MARTIN: You think there's a global explanation. And what is the global explanation for why that is, the theory?
SILVERSTEIN: Well, there was a follow-up that was done, and it basically then tried to look at white people, it tried to look at black people and it also tried to look at nurses and nursing students 'cause this is a big problem that we have with black people not getting pain medicine when they need it the most. And what these researchers found was that all of the participants, white, black, nurses, nursing students, all assumed that black people felt less pain than white people.
And what they said was, well, it doesn't really make sense to say that racial prejudice or animosity is entirely to blame here. It may be something else. And when they pressed on this, they started to see that it had a lot to do with whether or not participants assumed that black people in the study had faced more hardship or more adversity. And basically, what they ended up seeing was that they felt that black people could just sort of take more pain. And we can see how this - it just creates this cycle of pain, then. Right?
Is It Time To See Each Other's Tears? : NPR
Is It Time To See Each Other's Tears? : NPR: As I was heading home the other day, I was thinking about a situation I encountered a while ago when I landed back in the Washington, D.C., area after a trip.
I was hungry and saw that one of my favorite lunch spots had opened an outpost at the airport. So I ducked in there and was just about to order when I realized that a young woman standing next to me was having some sort of confrontation. It was loud, and getting louder.
I turned to look at her. She was a "big girl," as my parents would say. Tall, stout, and she had one of those wigs or weaves that — if you were having a mean moment — you might be asking, "Why is she wearing that?" If you must know, she actually looked a little bit like in a recently concluded trial. So I had to decide what to do. I could have walked away and gotten my sandwich somewhere else, but I decided not to. I did the kind of thing that makes my husband — a former prosecutor — crazy, but I insist on doing anyway. I asked her, "Are you OK? Can I help?"
And you know what happened next? A big, fat tear rolled down that girl's cheek, and she ducked her head and told me what happened. Somebody behind the counter, who was supposed to be making her sandwich, had made fun of her hair. It hurt her feelings, and she felt humiliated. And, this is me talking now, she had no words for her hurt feelings. But she did have words for her anger. So she started yelling.
I was hungry and saw that one of my favorite lunch spots had opened an outpost at the airport. So I ducked in there and was just about to order when I realized that a young woman standing next to me was having some sort of confrontation. It was loud, and getting louder.
I turned to look at her. She was a "big girl," as my parents would say. Tall, stout, and she had one of those wigs or weaves that — if you were having a mean moment — you might be asking, "Why is she wearing that?" If you must know, she actually looked a little bit like in a recently concluded trial. So I had to decide what to do. I could have walked away and gotten my sandwich somewhere else, but I decided not to. I did the kind of thing that makes my husband — a former prosecutor — crazy, but I insist on doing anyway. I asked her, "Are you OK? Can I help?"
And you know what happened next? A big, fat tear rolled down that girl's cheek, and she ducked her head and told me what happened. Somebody behind the counter, who was supposed to be making her sandwich, had made fun of her hair. It hurt her feelings, and she felt humiliated. And, this is me talking now, she had no words for her hurt feelings. But she did have words for her anger. So she started yelling.
How To Fight Racial Bias When It's Silent And Subtle : Code Switch : NPR
Scientists agree there's little doubt that hate-filled racism is real, but a of social science research suggests that racial disparities and other biased outcomes in the criminal justice system, in medicine and in professional settings can be explained by and stereotypes.
Subtle biases are to police cadets being more likely to shoot unarmed black men than they are unarmed white men. (Some academics have also linked the to the Trayvon Martin case.)
Calvin Lai and Brian Nosek at the University of Virginia recently challenged scientists to come up with ways to ameliorate such biases. The idea, said Harvard University psychologist Mahzarin Banaji, one of the researchers, was to evaluate whether there were rapid-fire ways to disable stereotypes. Groups of scientists "raced" one another to see if their favorite techniques worked. All the scientists focused on reducing unconscious racial bias against blacks.
HBCUs Urged to Develop Strategic Plans for International Education Programs - Higher Education
This was one of the key points speakers from the American Council on Education (ACE) emphasized Thursday morning to more than 50 historically Black college and university (HBCU) administrators and faculty members during the Institute on Internationalization at HBCUs. The institute is a training forum aimed at helping HBCUs develop their international program capabilities.
“We have a very important job to do, and those of who are represented in this room today are at the cutting edge,” Patti McGill Peterson, the ACE presidential advisor for global initiatives, told institute participants.
“You’ll make the difference on whether or not we have institutions that struggle … or are creating the forward movement to lead them to be solid and attractive places that will be good for your own students and good for the international students who come to you,” she noted.
Thursday, July 18, 2013
Language Wars: Should Spanish-Speaking Students Be Taught in English Only? | PBS NewsHour | July 18, 2013 | PBS
Special correspondent John Tulenko reports on a Connecticut school district that's taking a different road, one that may yield results, but is sparking a battle over its approach.
JOHN TULENKO: From kindergarten to third grade, these are the reading years. But when students exit them, national tests show, only 35 percent read proficiently.
Here in New Britain, Conn., the figure is just 25 percent, among the lowest in the state. But this urban, mostly Latino school district is trying to turn that around.
The effort began with home visits to address chronic absenteeism among kindergartners.
JOE VAVERCHAK, New Britain Public Schools: Chronic absenteeism last year was 30 percent. So, that means we had approximately 1,000 -- around 1,000 kids last year. And 30 percent of them were missing at least 18 days of school.
JOHN TULENKO: Attendance officers Joe Vaverchak and Jerrel Hargraves have made some 400 home visits this year.
JOE VAVERCHAK: We're not there to put a hammer to the parent, because there's lots of issues that cause truancy and absenteeism, a lot.
WOMAN: The good thing about the school is that they're helping me potty-train him. That's why his attendance has...
BBC - Culture - A renaissance of black cinema?
And Fruitvale Station has special poignancy being released in US cinemas on the same weekend as a Florida jury found neighbourhood watchman George Zimmerman not guilty in the fatal shooting of black teenager Trayvon Martin last year.
Before the end of 2013 some ten movies made by black filmmakers – telling black stories – will be released by US studios and production companies – a very significant increase over the same period last year. These pictures include a broad range of films from historical dramas to musicals.
Activist Son of Key Racist Leader Renounces White Nationalism | Hatewatch | Southern Poverty Law Center
Activist Son of Key Racist Leader Renounces White Nationalism | Hatewatch | Southern Poverty Law Center: Derek Black, son of the former Alabama Klan leader who now runs the largest racist Web forum in the world, has renounced white nationalism, saying that he had been through “a gradual awakening process” and apologizing for his past activism.
In an E-mail (pdf) to the editor of this blog earlier this week, Black, 24, wrote that he had come to see the arguments of white nationalism as “principally flawed,” adding that he had realized that American society is marked by an “overwhelming disparity between white power and that of everyone else” and that white nationalism was really about “an entrenched desire to preserve white power at the expense of others.”
“Advocating for white nationalism means that we are opposed to minority attempts to elevate themselves to a position equal to our own,” wrote Black, who recently finished his third year at the elite New College of Florida. “It is an advocacy that I cannot support, having grown past my bubble, talked to the people I affected, read more widely, and realized the necessary impact my actions had on people I never wanted to harm.”
In an E-mail (pdf) to the editor of this blog earlier this week, Black, 24, wrote that he had come to see the arguments of white nationalism as “principally flawed,” adding that he had realized that American society is marked by an “overwhelming disparity between white power and that of everyone else” and that white nationalism was really about “an entrenched desire to preserve white power at the expense of others.”“Advocating for white nationalism means that we are opposed to minority attempts to elevate themselves to a position equal to our own,” wrote Black, who recently finished his third year at the elite New College of Florida. “It is an advocacy that I cannot support, having grown past my bubble, talked to the people I affected, read more widely, and realized the necessary impact my actions had on people I never wanted to harm.”
Florida Case Spurs Painful Talks Between Black Parents and Their Children - NYTimes.com
When she thinks of Trayvon Martin and his cropped hair and smooth face, Ms. Wolff says, she wonders, “If that can happen to the clean-cut kid who looks like a good student, then what’s going to happen to my son, who dresses sloppy?” She is considering talking to him about reconsidering his look.
“I don’t want to tell him how to dress,” she added. “He’s a grown man; do what you want to do, but keep in mind these are the things going on.”
On cable news programs and in protests around the country, the acquittal of George Zimmerman in the shooting death of Mr. Martin, an unarmed black teenager, in Sanford, Fla., has been fodder for an intellectual discussion on race and justice. But for many black residents, the verdict has spawned conversations far more personal and raw: discussions of sad pragmatism between parents and their children.
Racial Disparities in Life Spans Narrow, but Persist - NYTimes.com
Racial Disparities in Life Spans Narrow, but Persist - NYTimes.com: The gap in life expectancy between black and white Americans is at its narrowest since the federal government started systematically tracking it in the 1930s, but a difference of nearly four years remains, and federal researchers have detailed why in a new report.
They found that higher rates of death from heart disease, cancer, homicide, diabetes and infant mortality accounted for more than half the black disadvantage in 2010, according to the report by the National Center for Health Statistics, the federal agency that tracks vital statistics for the United States.
Still, blacks have made notable gains in life expectancy in recent decades that demographers say reflect improvements in medical treatment as well as in the socioeconomic position of blacks in America. Life expectancy at birth was up by 17 percent since 1970, far higher than the 11 percent increase for whites over the same period.
They found that higher rates of death from heart disease, cancer, homicide, diabetes and infant mortality accounted for more than half the black disadvantage in 2010, according to the report by the National Center for Health Statistics, the federal agency that tracks vital statistics for the United States.
Still, blacks have made notable gains in life expectancy in recent decades that demographers say reflect improvements in medical treatment as well as in the socioeconomic position of blacks in America. Life expectancy at birth was up by 17 percent since 1970, far higher than the 11 percent increase for whites over the same period.
As Nelson Mandela Turns 95, South Africa Celebrates : Parallels : NPR
President Jacob Zuma's office has said that Mandela is in "critical but stable" condition, though Mandela's daughter Zindzi said Wednesday that her father was making "remarkable progress" and could be released soon.
The Nelson Mandela Center of Memory asked South Africans and people around the world to spend 67 minutes Thursday volunteering in their communities in tribute to the ailing former president. The 67 minutes represents the 67 years Mandela gave in public service fighting against the apartheid system of segregation and later as a statesman.
Ever since he was hospitalized more than a month ago, small shrines to Mandela have popped up all across the country. His picture hangs in shop windows. The newspapers and TV stations give daily updates on Madiba, his clan name that many use when referring to him.
Hampton University to Lead Minority Male Health Initiative - Higher Education
The Hampton University Men’s Health Initiative has identified six core areas on which it will implement comprehensive solutions to health disparities that disrupt and cut short the lives of minority males, particularly that of African-American men. The initiative is focusing on prostate cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, obesity, melanoma in Hispanics and violence prevention. The researchers will be implementing a sustainable collaborative research model in each of the six areas to bring about improved health outcomes for minority men.
Wednesday, July 17, 2013
The 40-Year-Old Photo That Gives Us A Reason To Smile : Code Switch : NPR
The slice of life he caught that day was a picture of five young friends in a rain-washed alley in downtown Mount Clemens. And what distinguishes it are its subjects: three black children, two white ones, giggling in each others' arms.
"It was just one of those evenings," Crachiola remembers. "I saw these kids — they were just playing around. And I started shooting some pictures of them. At some point, they saw me and they all turned and looked at me and struck that pose that you see in the picture. It was totally spontaneous. I had nothing to do with the way they arranged themselves."
Death by Diversity: Securing the Success of Minority Students and Faculty Beyond Recruitment - Higher Education
Pardon my cynicism here, but who exactly do these recruitment programs really benefit? Successful recruitment in this regard creates a visual diversity that looks good on college brochures and websites, but it is only skin-deep. A recent episode of Modern Family referenced this visual diversity when oldest Dunphy daughter Haley made the following observation about a community college mailer she received:
“At least this one doesn’t have that fakie lunchtime shot of the Black guy, Asian girl and an Indian … oh, wait; there it is! Wow; that wheelchair kid is really cracking everybody up.”
N.C. A&T Alzheimer’s Study Targets Blacks, The Group Most Affected by the Disease - Higher Education
This state-of-the-art facility will house Dr. Goldie Byrd—lead investigator of the African Americans Alzheimer’s Disease Study and Nathan F. Simms Endowed professor of biology at A&T—and her research team and other support staff. This study aims to discover why Alzheimer’s strikes Blacks more than any other racial group in the United States. Researchers from A&T and three other colleges—the University of Miami, Vanderbilt University and Columbia University—aspire to enroll 7,000 volunteers in their groundbreaking effort. So far, 1,620 have signed up, a far cry from the few dozen Black volunteers who signed up for the study when it was housed at Duke University until moved to historically Black A&T in 2003.
Study Calls Attention to NYC Effort on Black and Latino Male College Readiness - Higher Education
“Among students scheduled to graduate in 2010, only 9 percent of Black males and approximately 11 percent of Latino males graduated [from high school] ‘college ready,’” reports Moving the Needle Exploring Key Levers to Boost College Readiness Among Black and Latino Males in New York City, which was published by the New York University-based Research Alliance for New York City Schools research group.
“High school graduation rates for Black and Latino males increased by 14 percentage points—from 43 and 45 percent, respectively, among those who entered high school in 2002, to 57 and 59 percent, respectively, among those who entered in 2006,” states the study. “Our analysis of the educational outcomes of Black and Latino males in New York City over the last decade shows that, while graduation rates are improving, college readiness rates for young men of color remain startlingly low.”
Tuesday, July 16, 2013
Gender Gaps Appear as Employment Recovers From the Recession - NYTimes.com
Gender Gaps Appear as Employment Recovers From the Recession - NYTimes.com: ALL the jobs lost by women during the Great Recession have been recovered, at least in the private sector. But men still have a way to go before that happens.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported last week that women held 54,623,000 private sector jobs in June, an increase of 116,000 from the previous month and 63,000 more than they held in December 2007, when the previous high was set. The gap between records — 65 months — was the longest such period since the government began keeping track of the gender of job holders in 1964.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported last week that women held 54,623,000 private sector jobs in June, an increase of 116,000 from the previous month and 63,000 more than they held in December 2007, when the previous high was set. The gap between records — 65 months — was the longest such period since the government began keeping track of the gender of job holders in 1964.
Men have been gaining jobs as well, but the 59,428,000 jobs they now hold is 1.8 million jobs below the previous high, reached in June 2007.
The relatively better performance of women does not appear to be the result of employer preference for female employees. In fact, the opposite may be true. In most industries, women’s share of the labor force is down from what it was when the recession began. But some professions with a predominantly female work force have done better than the economy as a whole.
Monday, July 15, 2013
America Is in Dire Need of 'White, Liberal Guilt' | Charles Clymer
Regardless of what has been said about the case, here are three irrefutable facts: 1) Zimmerman had a history of making unnecessary 911 calls about "suspicious" black persons in his neighborhood, 2) he followed Trayvon Martin, got out of his truck, and further pursued him despite being told not to by dispatch, and 3) he did so with a gun.
We can argue over the reasons for a "not guilty" verdict, all day: the prosecution team was weak, the judicial system technically did its job but is very flawed, etc.
But one thing is clear: a light-skinned, prejudiced man followed an unarmed black teenager for no reason more than that he "looked suspicious", and this led to that teen's death.
And here's a sad truth: I'll still continue my late night walks in D.C. because white men don't get pursued and shot in this country without consequences. We may be the victims of crime, but if the suspect is non-white and is caught (guilty or not), more than likely, a price will be paid.
Civil rights leaders, protesters seek action after Zimmerman verdict - latimes.com
Civil rights leaders, protesters seek action after Zimmerman verdict - latimes.com: SANFORD, Fla. -- After a day of nationwide demonstrations protesting the verdict in the George Zimmerman murder case in Florida, civil rights leaders prepared to step up their calls for justice for Trayvon Martin, the unarmed teenager killed more than a year ago.
The Rev. Al Sharpton, a prominent civil rights activist and a television host on MSNBC, announced that his National Action Network will hold demonstrations and prayer vigils in 100 cities across the country on Saturday. Sharpton, who has been active in supporting Martin’s parents, Sybrina Fulton and Tracy Martin, made his announcement on NBC’s "Today" program.
Zimmerman, 29, was acquitted this last Saturday of murder charges in the shooting of Martin, 17, on Feb. 26, 2012, in Sanford. Martin, an African American, was returning home from a convenience store where he had purchased Skittles and a drink.
The Rev. Al Sharpton, a prominent civil rights activist and a television host on MSNBC, announced that his National Action Network will hold demonstrations and prayer vigils in 100 cities across the country on Saturday. Sharpton, who has been active in supporting Martin’s parents, Sybrina Fulton and Tracy Martin, made his announcement on NBC’s "Today" program.
Zimmerman, 29, was acquitted this last Saturday of murder charges in the shooting of Martin, 17, on Feb. 26, 2012, in Sanford. Martin, an African American, was returning home from a convenience store where he had purchased Skittles and a drink.
Birds of a Feather: Florida Prosecutors and George Zimmerman - Higher Education
“The veil of racial progress in America has been lifted from the world’s eyes tonight,” I typed, staring injustice in its ugly face.
Trayvon Martin, the jury told us, caused his own death. Zimmerman, who racially profiled, disobeyed police, killed an unarmed teenager, and left the murder scene without any major injuries, cannot be blamed and punished for it. How anyone could reach this conclusion is beyond the pale of common sense. But common sense rarely appears and sits next to racism in America.
In the aftermath of the verdict, some pundits are pointing to the prosecution’s conscious decision to take racism, or more precisely racial profiling, off the table of arguments. And many conscious Americans are nodding their heads in agreement. I am nodding too, but nodding to a point.
Sunday, July 14, 2013
Marian Wright Edelman statement on the Zimmerman verdict: ‘justice denied’ | theGrio
The outrage over the killing of an unarmed Black teenager who was doing nothing wrong must continue until some semblance of justice is achieved. People who want to keep faith in American justice feel uncomfortable, upset and disheartened. Where is the justice if walking while Black is enough to get you “stopped and frisked” in New York City and fatally shot in Florida with its senseless violent “Stand Your Ground” law that allows people to defend themselves with deadly force anytime and anywhere they imagine they are or say they feel threatened even if they are the stalker?
Civil Rights Groups Call Zimmerman Verdict A 'Miscarriage' : The Two-Way : NPR
After the outcome became known late Saturday, the NAACP Legal Defense Fund said it would push for the Department of Justice to bring civil rights charges against Zimmerman, who was accused in the fatal shooting of 17-year-old black youth Trayvon Martin.
Speaking to NPR's Weekend Edition Sunday, NAACP president and CEO Benjamin Jealous compared the Zimmerman trial to the one six decades ago of two white men who were acquitted for the kidnapping and murder of Emmett Till, a black teen in Mississippi.
"We hoped that the verdict this time would reflect the gravity of what happened," he told host Rachel Martin. "The reality is that if Mr. Zimmerman had done what the police had asked and stayed in his vehicle, Mr. Martin would still be with his family today."
Trayvon Martin 'Not Guilty' Verdict Sparks Hoodie Sunday At Black Churches
"My phone and texts just started blowing up -- they all said, 'they found him not guilty,'" Lee said.
Realizing that he was going to have to preach in the morning, the pastor began thinking of what he would say to his largely black congregation called Community of Hope outside of Washington, D.C. Many in the congregation have lost loved ones to gun violence, and are simultaneously grieving and seething from what is being widely experienced in the black community as an injurious miscarriage of justice.
"I knew I would be wearing my hoodie while preaching," Lee said, "and I wrote to all the pastoral staff that hoodies are welcome."
As church communities gather on the Sunday after the "not guilty" verdict in one of the most racially fraught trials in recent memory, black pastors are offering both pastoral and prophetic responses from their pulpits.
Lee is preaching on the topic "Where Do We Go From Here," in which he uses the Martin Luther King Jr. speech of the same title.
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