When It Comes To Health Care, There Are 2 Americas, And These Maps Are Proof

When It Comes To Health Care, There Are 2 Americas, And These Maps Are Proof: ...The states that stay out could fail to improve, or fail to improve as fast as other states that choose to participate,” Schoen said. “In some of these states, staying where you are is not very good performance.”

Black Americans are likely to suffer disproportionately from these policies. More than two-thirds of poor, uninsured blacks live in states not expanding Medicaid, according to a December 2013 New York Times report. Already, the rate of avoidable early deaths among blacks is twice as high as among whites in many states, Commonwealth found. That gap is even wider in states with higher early death rates overall.

The Pathology of the ‘Neo-Peculiar Institution:’ Sport, Race and the ‘New Normal’ - Higher Education

The Pathology of the ‘Neo-Peculiar Institution:’ Sport, Race and the ‘New Normal’ - Higher Education: There were a number of things that went through my head as I listened to the taped conversation NBA owner Donald Sterling had with his girlfriend (mistress in some writings). I had also just listened to the Supreme Court affirmative action deliberations on a mildly conservative news show and juxtaposed the racially charged conversation with the ruling, the racial and current context, and with thoughts and questions about the pathology of race.

The owner’s conversation speaks to the very real manner in which certain folks of color, in this case Black, are excluded from the structure and administration of large organizations — including sports. The discussion reeked of institutionalized racism in its most rudimentary form. The owner speaks from authority when he states that the current culture of the world acts exclusively — and that is normal. There is no right or wrong, this is the way the world acts. That is not racism.

International Conference Focuses on Preparation for Competition in Global Market - Higher Education

International Conference Focuses on Preparation for Competition in Global Market - Higher Education: MIAMI — Global experts from 70 countries have gathered here this week to strategize about a broad range of issues that will impact the future of international higher education.

The three-day annual conference, titled “Inclusion, Innovation, and Impact,” kicked off yesterday at the Miami Beach Convention Center and is being sponsored by the British Council, an international organization that promotes educational opportunities and cross-cultural relations around the world.

“Urbanization plus digital communications plus education is a combination that is as revolutionary as railways and the new industrial manufacturing techniques of the 19th century,” says Sir Martin Davidson, the chief executive of the British Council.

Study: Asian Americans Gaining Equity Ground with AANAPISI Designation - Higher Education

Study: Asian Americans Gaining Equity Ground with AANAPISI Designation - Higher Education: If colleges and universities are going to leave race-based affirmative action cases up to the states during the admission process based on the Supreme Court Decision last Tuesday, then the minorities already enrolled in post-secondary education need services and support to successfully matriculate now more than ever.

“Measuring the Impact of MSI-Funded Programs on Student Success,” released by New York University’s National Commission on Asian American and Pacific Islander Research in Education (CARE) and the Asian and Pacific Islander American Scholarship Fund (APIASF) on three Asian American Native American Pacific Islander Serving Institutions (AANAPISIs), underscores the significance of minority-serving institutions (MSIs).

This Is What Discrimination In Schools Looks Like

This Is What Discrimination In Schools Looks Like: A recent guide from The National School Board Association (NSBA) on how to ensure student success includes an explainer on the reasons why students often leave school before graduating. According to the guide –- as well as various reports from the U.S. Department of Education and the Discipline Disparities Research-to-Practice Collaborative -- one of the factors that can contribute to student disengagement are disciplinary disparities that lead to higher suspension rates for students of color and students with disabilities.

But a graphic from the NSBA report really drives the point home.

As shown in the graphic below, which is based on data from the 2011 – 2012 school year, one out of 5 African-American students were suspended from school at least once, as compared to one out of 50 Asian-Americans.

NBA Hits Clippers Owner Sterling With Lifetime Ban, $2.5 Million Fine : The Two-Way : NPR

NBA Hits Clippers Owner Sterling With Lifetime Ban, $2.5 Million Fine : The Two-Way : NPR: Update at 2:15 p.m. ET: NBA Bans Sterling, Levies $2.5 Million Fine

The NBA is banning Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling, league Commissioner Adam Silver announced Tuesday, saying that its investigation has verified Sterling made racist comments in an audio recording that was made public Friday.

Saying that the NBA's investigation included a discussion with Sterling, Silver stated that the views he expressed "are deeply offensive and harmful."

Silver said he was outraged by the remarks; he also apologized to former players and anyone else offended by the sentiments in the recording.

Video: Latino college students speak out on rise in hate crimes against Latinos | Latina Lista

Video: Latino college students speak out on rise in hate crimes against Latinos | Latina Lista: LatinaLista — Earlier this year, the Bureau of Justice Statistics released their report on 2012 hate crimes. In the report, it was revealed that hate crimes against Latinos had risen dramatically.

Some analysts attribute the rise in hate crimes against Latinos to a response in the shifting demographics in the country with whites losing majority in the foreseeable future. The fear and anger displayed by perpetrators of these hate crimes has resulted in Latinos being assaulted, some so severely that a few have died from their injuries.

News of these hate crimes was presented to some students at the University of Pennsylvania by staff at Philadelphia’s Al Dia NewsMedia organization. Each student interviewed had a clear response to this disturbing trend, expressed a belief that discrimination and racism is still rampant in the nation and how the nation is struggling with two realities.

More Latino Than White Students Admitted To University Of California Schools CBS San Francisco

More Latino Than White Students Admitted To University Of California Schools  CBS San Francisco: SAN FRANCISCO (CBS / AP) — More Latino than white students in California have been offered admission to the state’s premier public universities for the first time, officials said Friday, a milestone that reflects the diverse racial makeup of a state where Latino children represent a majority of students in public schools.

Preliminary admissions data show that 17,589 Latino students have been accepted as freshmen at one of the University of California’s nine undergraduate campuses for the fall, or 29 percent of all 61,120 in-state applicants who were offered a spot. That compares to 16,378 white residents, who made up 27 percent of the admitted applicants.

Asian Americans remained the largest single ethnic group represented in the accepted freshman class, making up 36 percent of all Californians admitted. Black students received 4 percent of the admission offers.

Latino students equal white peers in Nevada’s college grad rate | Las Vegas Review-Journal

Latino students equal white peers in Nevada’s college grad rate | Las Vegas Review-Journal: The good news is that Latinos graduate from college at the same rate as whites in Nevada.

The bad news is that those numbers are still below the national average.

Excelencia in Education, a Washington, D.C.-based research and advocacy organization, found that 39 percent of Silver State Latinos and whites graduate from college in four years, compared with 41 percent and 50 percent nationally.

Thirty-nine percent of Nevada’s population is Latino.

The 2014 report, conducted by co-founder Deborah Santiago, was based on 2009-2011 U.S. Census data.

“This is one of the very few states were there is no equity gap in graduation rates,” Santiago said.

If Latino students enroll as first-time, full-time freshmen, their success rates are equal to white students.

College graduation rates show an overall improvement from 2007-2008 Census numbers, when Nevada’s Latino and white graduation rates were 33.9 percent and 37.7 percent.

Part-time and nontraditional students, however, graduate at rates of 12 percent for Latino students and 15 percent for white students, which is lower than the national average.

Still, it also has improved from a gap of 3.7 percent in the organization’s previous report.

Cornell Daily Sun

Cornell Daily Sun: Students said they hope President David Skorton’s successor will focus on unifying the Cornell community and will encourage cultural diversity at an open forum for students held by the Presidential Search Committee Monday.

Four members of the Board of Trustees — Chair Bob Harrison ’76, Alan Mittman ’71, Lisa Skeete Tatum ’89 and Ross Gitlin ’15 — hosted the forum, which asked students to identify recent initiatives that have been “critical to Cornell’s success” and qualities they hope to see in Cornell’s next president, according to Gitlin.

Several students mentioned President Skorton’s “approachability” and their hope that his successor would have a similar presence on campus.

“One thing that stood out to me that I would like to see in our next president was that [Skorton] is so involved,” said Angelica Cullo ’15. “I think that Cornell really benefits from a president who is concerned with reaching out to the community.”

The Public School Where The Duke Lives On : NPR

The Public School Where The Duke Lives On : NPR: Duke Ellington didn't consider himself a jazz musician.

He said he was a musician who played jazz. And what a musician: pianist, bandleader, composer of more than 1,000 songs including standards like "Don't Get Around Much Anymore," "It Don't Mean a Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing)," "Satin Doll" and "Sophisticated Lady."

Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington was born on this date 115 years ago in Washington, D.C. And it may just be that Ellington lives on most profoundly, every day, at a public arts high school that bears his name. The goal of the Duke Ellington School of the Arts is to give a free arts education to very talented students in the D.C. area — young people who might never have the benefit of private lessons. The school celebrated its own 40th birthday last weekend.

UMass Boston Breaking Through in Bid to Bring Diversity to STEM - Higher Education

UMass Boston Breaking Through in Bid to Bring Diversity to STEM - Higher Education: Under a new, Harvard-trained dean of science and mathematics, the University of Massachusetts Boston set out to increase the number and diversity of students enrolled in STEM.

Seven years later, Boston’s only public university has achieved both goals, despite competition from MIT, Harvard and other private universities that fuel the growing technology sector of the area’s economy. Enrollment in the College of Mathematics and Science at UMass Boston has nearly doubled and, at the same time, become majority-minority. About 56 percent of the students are of color, with 35 percent enrollment from minorities who are underrepresented in STEM.

Donna Brazile Looks to Inspire Women to Enter Politics, Effect Change - Higher Education

Donna Brazile Looks to Inspire Women to Enter Politics, Effect Change - Higher Education: WASHINGTON ― It’s a Wednesday afternoon at Georgetown University and Donna Brazile is interrogating her students about the latest political happenings in the news. The conversation abruptly shifts to whether Hillary Clinton might run for president in 2016.

“We all know that Hillary is in the process of writing her memoirs of her years in the State Department, but that has not stopped the news media from trying to figure out what else she might be up to,” Brazile quips with a cynical smirk. “So, of course, every week we get treated to what I call ‘Clinton du jour.’”

The students laugh in unison.

UNC-Chapel Hill Students Want School To Rename Building Honoring KKK Leader

UNC-Chapel Hill Students Want School To Rename Building Honoring KKK Leader: Students at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill want the school's trustees to rename Saunders Hall, a building on campus currently titled in honor of a former Ku Klux Klan leader.

UNC-Chapel Hill, considered the nation's oldest public university, named the building for William L. Saunders in 1922. Saunders was a UNC alum and a colonel in the Confederate Army during the Civil War.

But as the university readily admits on its website, Saunders "became known as the chief organizer of the Ku Klux Klan in North Carolina and Chapel Hill," and led a "terror campaign" intended to upend Reconstruction in the 1860's, according to the Daily Tar Heel.

U.S. public high schools reach milestone graduation rate | The Rundown | PBS NewsHour

U.S. public high schools reach milestone graduation rate | The Rundown | PBS NewsHour: WASHINGTON — U.S. public high schools have reached a milestone, an 80 percent graduation rate. Yet that still means 1 of every 5 students walks away without a diploma.

Citing the progress, researchers are projecting a 90 percent national graduation rate by 2020.

Their report, based on Education Department statistics from 2012, was presented Monday at the Building a GradNation Summit.

The growth has been spurred by such factors as a greater awareness of the dropout problem and efforts by districts, states and the federal government to include graduation rates in accountability measures. Among the initiatives are closing “dropout factory” schools.

In addition, schools are taking aggressive action, such as hiring intervention specialists who work with students one on one, to keep teenagers in class, researchers said.

Growth in rates among African-American and Hispanic students helped fuel the gains. Most of the growth has occurred since 2006 after decades of stagnation.

This Is How Racist Your Air Is | Mother Jones

This Is How Racist Your Air Is | Mother Jones: Earlier this month, environmental scientists at the University of Minnesota came out with a startling nationwide study showing that different demographic groups are exposed to drastically different amounts of air pollution each year. The study overlaid US Census data with exposure levels of a pollutant called nitrogen dioxide, or NO2, which is created by combustion in vehicles and power plants. The results: Each year, people of color are exposed to 46 percent more NO2 than white people.

NO2 is associated with increased heart disease, lung cancer, asthma, and pre-term births, and is one of six "criteria pollutants" that the Environmental Protection Agency regulates in accordance with the Clean Air Act. Interestingly, the exposure gap between races was far larger than the gap between income brackets. If your household income is more than $70,000, you're exposed to NO2 only three percent less than someone who lives in a household making under $20,000.

NAACP On Sterling: Local Chapters Need 'Better Vetting Process' For Awards

NAACP On Sterling: Local Chapters Need 'Better Vetting Process' For Awards: The NAACP's national office told TPM on Monday there clearly needs to be a better vetting process for awards given out by its local chapters after its Los Angeles branch was embarrassed into withdrawing an award it planned to give to basketball team owner Donald Sterling.

The comments came after Sterling, who owns the Los Angeles Clippers, was reportedly caught on audio making racially charged remarks.

Contacted by TPM about why Sterling was being given a lifetime achievement award in the first place, a spokesman at the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People's national office said that it is "in the process of developing specific guidelines for selecting recipients moving forward."

"At the national office, we can't speak to the intentions of those in the LA Branch who selected Mr. Sterling as an award winner in 2009 or recently, but clearly there needs to be more scrutiny of potential recipients and a better vetting process," Derek Turner, the NAACP's director of communications, told TPM in an email. "We are in the process of developing specific guidelines for selecting recipients moving forward."

Donald Sterling’s Free Speech and Latest Ruling on Affirmative Action - Higher Education

Donald Sterling’s Free Speech and Latest Ruling on Affirmative Action - Higher Education: To understand Los Angeles Clippers’ owner Donald Sterling is to understand the modern racist.

It’s all about, “Do as I say, not what I do.”

How else do you reconcile the statements of a man who makes millions living off Black elite athletes yet doesn’t want a female friend to “promote” that she fraternizes with Blacks in public, brings them to games and even posts pictures with Blacks on Instagram.

Even President Obama has called the statements racist.

As Sterling allegedly said on a recorded conversation with a girlfriend, “I want you to love them privately. Every day you can be with them … every single day of your life … but why publicize it on Instagram and why bring them to my games?”

It’s unbelievable till you hear it, complete in full repetitive glory, f-bombs and all.

The Bottom Line Not the Answer in College Choice - Higher Education

The Bottom Line Not the Answer in College Choice - Higher Education: The Atlantic recently published an article titled “These U.S. Colleges and Majors are a Big Waste of Money.” We noticed the article being posted on Facebook and shared on Twitter at a fairly rapid pace. Unfortunately, neither the article’s authors nor those sharing the article provided any context and this resulted in yet another negative story about Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). Five of the top eleven “biggest wastes” were HBCUs, although the author Derek Thompson didn’t point to this fact.

From our perspective, there are a number of problems with The Atlantic’s list:

First, college outcomes cannot be measured solely by income. Of course no one would argue that being able to work post graduation is important. Nor would one argue that a college education is a large monetary investment that should be taken lightly or entered into flippantly for students or their families.

Former Admissions Officers Sue Art Institute of Pittsburgh’s Parent Company - Higher Education

Former Admissions Officers Sue Art Institute of Pittsburgh’s Parent Company - Higher Education: A group of former admissions officers who alleged discrimination and retaliation at the Art Institute of Pittsburgh in 2012 and 2013 have filed three lawsuits in federal court in Pennsylvania seeking $6.75 million.

In their April 24 filings, Darrell Evans, LaMont Jones, Jr., and Michael Scott allege a pattern of broken promises and terminations based on age and race discrimination. At the for-profit Art Institute of Pittsburgh (AIP) — a school that is owned and operated by the Education Management Corp. (EDMC), one of the nation’s largest for-profit education companies — the group has previously alleged that they were pressured to enroll as many students as possible to bolster company income and were encouraged to focus their efforts squarely on underrepresented minority students.

Study: Female Leaders in Higher Ed Face Different Expectations than Males - Higher Education

Study: Female Leaders in Higher Ed Face Different Expectations than Males - Higher Education: A recent study of top female college and university leaders finds that although there are lots of glimmers of optimism, female higher education administrators still face subtle barriers such as being held to different expectations than male counterparts, some lack of support, discouragement and sometimes sabotage. The findings of the study were released earlier this month following a summit of female higher education executives convened by Human Education Resource Services, a Denver-based organization that provides leadership training to women seeking to rise to top leadership positions in higher education The study, which was conducted by HERS, was the culmination of about two years of work.

Segregated From Its History, How 'Ghetto' Lost Its Meaning : Code Switch : NPR

Segregated From Its History, How 'Ghetto' Lost Its Meaning : Code Switch : NPR: The word "ghetto" is an etymological mystery. Is it from the Hebrew get, or bill of divorce? From the Venetian ghètto, or foundry? From the Yiddish gehektes, "enclosed"? From Latin Giudaicetum, for "Jewish? From the Italian borghetto, "little town"? From the Old French guect, "guard"?

In his etymology column for the Oxford English Dictionary, Anatoly Liberman at each of these possibilities. He considered ever more improbable origins — Latin for "ribbon"? German for "street"? Latin for "to throw"? — before declaring the word a stubborn mystery.

But whatever the root language, the word's original meaning was clear: "the quarter in a city, chiefly in Italy, to which the Jews were restricted," as the OED puts it. In the 16th and 17th centuries, cities like Venice, Frankfurt, Prague and Rome forcibly segregated their Jewish populations, often walling them off and submitting them to onerous restrictions.

Clippers Protest Owner's Alleged Racist Remarks - ABC News

Clippers Protest Owner's Alleged Racist Remarks - ABC News: The Los Angeles Clippers players have declined to speak about the scandal surrounding the team owner, Donald Sterling, but they opened their playoff game today with a silent demonstration of their feelings.

The team came to the center of the court and dumped their warmup jerseys, then ran through their pregame drills wearing their red Clippers T-shirts inside out, hiding the team name, a day after a tape recording was posted online in which a man -- purportedly Sterling -- goes on a racist rant in an argument with a woman identified as V. Stiviano.

They also wore black wristbands or armbands, and all wore black socks with their normal jerseys.

Clippers Coach Doc Rivers said the team had considered boycotting the game today against the Golden State Warriors, but decided to play.

President Obama Calls Alleged Racist Remarks By Clippers Owner ‘Incredibly Offensive’ - ABC News

President Obama Calls Alleged Racist Remarks By Clippers Owner ‘Incredibly Offensive’ - ABC News: KUALA LUMPUR – President Obama said the alleged “incredibly offensive” racist remarks by Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling “kind of speak for themselves” and that he’s confident the NBA will address the issue appropriately.

“I don’t think I have to interpret those statements for you,” Obama said during a news conference with Prime Minister Najib Razak. “They kind of speak for themselves … When ignorant folks want to advertise their ignorance, you don’t have to do anything, you just let them talk.”

An audio recording obtained and released by TMZ reveals a person identified as Sterling criticizing his girlfriend for “associating with black people,” a reference to a photo she posted on Instagram posing with former Los Angeles Lakers star Magic Johnson.

NFL players talk about race with Harvard students | theGrio

NFL players talk about race with Harvard students | theGrio: CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (AP) — Richard Sherman was called all kinds of names after his raging rant at the end of the NFC championship game. It was worth it, the Seattle cornerback said, because it gave him a chance to talk about the perception of black athletes to a wider audience.

First, at the Super Bowl.

On Wednesday, at Harvard.

“I wanted to educate the uneducated,” Sherman said in a discussion at the Harvard Business School. “I felt the need to turn the discussion on its head.”

Sherman was mostly known only by football fans before his admittedly overexcited postgame trash-talk about Michael Crabtree after the Seahawks beat the San Francisco 49ers to win the NFC title. As he became the center of attention during Super Bowl week, Sherman chose not to back down from the comments.

Man finds noose hanging inside workplace twice in one week | theGrio

Man finds noose hanging inside workplace twice in one week | theGrio: Houston, Texas — A man said he found a noose hanging inside his workplace.

Jeremee Molo said he first noticed a noose hanging from a piece of equipment at Atlas Copco on Tuesday.

“It caught my attention, right then and there,” said Molo.

Molo used his cellphone to take pictures of the noose. He said he understands the noose is historically a symbol of racial hatred.

“It kind of hit me hard because of my grandparents and they used to tell me about it all the time,” said Molo.

Molo said he complained to a co-worker, hoping it would be gone by the time he returned to the job site for his next shift.

‘Hurricane’ Carter went to the mat for the wrongfully accused | theGrio

‘Hurricane’ Carter went to the mat for the wrongfully accused | theGrio: With the death of Rubin “Hurricane” Carter, we have lost a great fighter in the ring and a powerful advocate for the wrongfully convicted. In many ways, he helped open the eyes of many to the injustices of a system that far too often throws innocent people behind bars.

Carter knew firsthand about the plight of the wrongly accused because he had spent 19 years behind bars for crimes he did not commit. He and co-defendant John Artis were charged with a triple murder at the Lafayette Grill in Paterson, New Jersey in 1966. There was little physical evidence in the case, and the so-called eyewitnesses who testified against them were two convicted felons. And Carter and Artis maintained their innocence and passed a lie detector test. However, an all-white jury found them guilty. Carter was sentenced to three life sentences.

Brown v. Board of Education 60 years later: Are U.S. schools becoming more segregated again? | theGrio

Brown v. Board of Education 60 years later: Are U.S. schools becoming more segregated again? | theGrio: Nearly sixty years have passed since the landmark case Brown v. Board of Education, which prohibited Southern states from segregating schools by race.

The Court’s decision in Brown sparked a disruption of white supremacy and Jim Crow in the South and forced the federal government to pass civil and voting rights legislation.

However, a new report by the Economic Policy Institute makes the argument that while the 1954 Supreme Court decision did achieve the goal of raising awareness about the inherent segregation and unfairness in the separate but equal concept, it has failed miserably at its central mission: to desegregate schools in the United States.

DC triplets can take their pick of Ivy League schools | theGrio

DC triplets can take their pick of Ivy League schools | theGrio: Sibling rivalry usually comes with bickering and taunts — but in one household, it has turned into a friendly competition that has resulted in a stellar outcome.

Malik, Ahmad and Khalil Jones are triplets who attend Georgetown Day School in Washington D.C., and they have each earned major achievements in both academics and athletics.

The brothers, who all have a 3.7 GPA, have earned acceptance into some of the nation’s most prestigious schools and only have a few weeks to make their final decision.

The impressive trio credits their success to the discipline and work ethic instilled in them from their parents and the tough competition they have among each other.

“You can’t let the other person be better than you, because you don’t want to be the worst one right?” Khalil jokingly told NBC Washington. “So, it’s kind of like we’re always pushing each other.”

Why Lupita Nyong'o's 'People' Cover Is So Significant : Code Switch : NPR

Why Lupita Nyong'o's 'People' Cover Is So Significant : Code Switch : NPR: It has been a very good 12 months for Lupita Nyong'o: piles of awards (including an Oscar for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for her portrayal of Patsy in 12 Years a Slave), a contract to be the face of Lancôme Paris cosmetics, and now this: the cover of People's annual "50 Most Beautiful" issue.

Counting Nyong'o's new crowning, there are now three black women who have been on People's cover in the 25 years the "Most Beautiful" issue has been published. Halle Berry was first in 2003, followed by Beyonce in 2012. But as Wall Street Journal columnist Teri Agins says, Nyong'o is not racially ambiguous: "She has African features, she's dark-skinned with nappy hair. And — she's beautiful."

EPA Chief Asks African-Americans To Become 'Climate Justice Advocates'

EPA Chief Asks African-Americans To Become 'Climate Justice Advocates': ATLANTA -– Environmental Protection Agency leaders have something to tell African-American communities about the agency's work on climate change: We need you.

That was the message from EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy in her first visit to the Southeast as head of the agency. McCarthy spoke at the historically black Clark Atlanta University on Thursday night, at an event hosted by the youth advocacy group Hip Hop Caucus that aimed to build support among young, black audiences for climate change action.

The EPA, McCarthy said, is "making sure we hear from those who are most vulnerable to climate change."

"That's an incredibly important piece of all this," McCarthy said. "That's one of the main reasons I am here today. We need a broad, diverse coalition of champion climate justice advocates."

RELEASE: New Report Finds Poor and Minority Students are More Likely to be Taught by Ineffective Teachers | Center for American Progress

RELEASE: New Report Finds Poor and Minority Students are More Likely to be Taught by Ineffective Teachers | Center for American Progress: Washington, D.C. — Today, the Center for American Progress released a new report that finds that poor and minority students are more likely to be taught by a teacher rated ineffective and less likely to be taught by one who is exemplary.

“We’ve known for awhile that poor and minority students attending U.S. public schools are more likely to be taught by underqualified or brand-new teachers,” said Jenny DeMonte, co-author of the report and Associate Director for Education Research at the Center for American Progress. “Our new report takes this idea a step further. Using new evaluation data, we found that these same children are also more likely to be taught by a teacher rated ineffective.”

The report presents a tale of two states, Louisiana and Massachusetts, which are two early adopters of new teacher evaluation systems that have both released effectiveness data from the 2012-13 school year using new measures. CAP’s experts combined this information with data on student enrollment to glean information about the distribution of teachers across school demographics.

Fund minority community colleges - The Columbia Chronicle: Opinion

Fund minority community colleges - The Columbia Chronicle: Opinion: Since 1991, minority enrollment in higher education has risen among all races and ethnicities. President Barack Obama’s support for minority-serving institutions, or MSIs, has been steady despite increasing costs. However, backing from the government needs to further extend to community colleges to better serve minority students.

Approximately 45 percent of minority students attend two-year community colleges, which are more affordable but less cost-efficient than four-year colleges. On average, MSI community colleges spent $500 less per student on instruction, academic support and student services than four-year MSI universities in 2013, which spent $912 more than the average university, according to an April 10 Center for American Progress report.

The report showed grants and monetary aid programs are more effective when they target a specific funding goal, and with that in mind, the federal government should reevaluate its funding initiatives to ensure that MSI students have the same access to professors, educational materials and services as four-year students.

Minority Students Don't Only Get Less Experienced Teachers, They Also Get Less Effective Ones

Minority Students Don't Only Get Less Experienced Teachers, They Also Get Less Effective Ones: It's already known that low-income students of color generally have less experienced teachers, but a new study from the Center for American Progress reveals they have less effective teachers, too.

The Center For American Progress report, released Friday, analyzed the evaluation scores of teachers in low-income and affluent districts in both Massachusetts and Louisiana.

Throughout the past few years, states have been incentivized to adopt new teacher evaluation systems through Race To The Top funding. The teacher evaluations in Massachusetts and Louisiana -- two states that are unique in making evaluation scores public -- rate teachers based on measures like student scores on standardized tests and effectiveness during classroom observation sessions.

Manchester settles with federal civil rights agency over minority students in advanced courses | New Hampshire Local & County Government

Manchester settles with federal civil rights agency over minority students in advanced courses | New Hampshire Local & County Government: MANCHESTER — The school board has largely welcomed a settlement with a federal civil rights agency aimed at increasing the number of minority students in advanced high school courses, while minority groups applauded the district for acknowledging what they say is a persistent problem.

The U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights announced the agreement last week, the culmination of a review that began three years ago. A report released by the agency found that black, Latino and English-learning students were disproportionately under-enrolled in the district's Advanced Placement (AP) courses.

Study: Top Minority, Disadvantaged Students Fall Off During High School - US News

Study: Top Minority, Disadvantaged Students Fall Off During High School - US News: Despite entering high school at the tops of their classes, many high-performing minority and disadvantaged students finish with lower grades, lower AP exam passage rates and lower SAT and ACT scores than their high-achieving white and more advantaged peers, according to a report released Wednesday by The Education Trust.

The gaps based on race and socioeconomic status suggest "differential learning experiences" while the students are in high school, the report says. Overall, high-achieving students of color and those from low socioeconomic backgrounds were twice as likely as their white and more advantaged counterparts to not take college admissions tests, for example. And when they did take the SAT, high-achieving black students and those from low socioeconomic backgrounds scored nearly 100 points lower, the report says.

The US needs more Hispanic medical students - Quartz

The US needs more Hispanic medical students - Quartz: In the coming weeks, nearly 17,000 medical school students will graduate across the US and begin their career in medicine. While this seems like a large number, it does not nearly meet the demand in our country. It is estimated that by the end of the decade there will be a shortage of over 90,000 physicians. But the profile of those receiving their degrees is increasingly homogenous and exclusive, particularly when it comes to Hispanic and Latino doctors.


Despite the fact that Hispanics make up 17% of the US population, they only represent a fraction of the physician workforce. Between 1978 and 2008, only 5.5% of graduating physicians in the US were Hispanic. While the number of Hispanic applicants to medical school has tripled over the past 30 years, the percentage who matriculate or graduate from medical school has remained relatively stable over the past few years. The problem is multifaceted: Talented Hispanic students may be choosing not to pursue a career in medicine, applicants to medical school are not competitive enough to be admitted, and once in medical school, a percentage of Hispanic students choose to leave, thus, creating a workforce gap.

The Top 22 Last-Minute Summer Internships For Minority Students -- It's Not Too Late! | BlackNews.com

The Top 22 Last-Minute Summer Internships For Minority Students -- It's Not Too Late! | BlackNews.com: Nationwide — Summer is near, and many students are anticipating their summer jobs or summer internships. Many, however, are procrastinating and have not yet applied for the many opportunities that are available. Each year, minority students especially seem to be waiting to the last minute to apply.

Last summer for example, the Black teen unemployment rate was at an alarmingly high rate, and this added to the already devastating statistics of Black unemployment.

With all that being said, it is not too late and there are many programs that are still accepting applications – not just for not just for the summer, but also for the upcoming fall and winter.

Click here for a list of the top 2014/2015 minority internships.

Minority Students Should Weigh Pros, Cons of Online Education - US News

Minority Students Should Weigh Pros, Cons of Online Education - US News: Trina Jordan, a 49-year-old single mom from Nashville, Tenn., was always aware of her race in college.

As an African-American undergraduate at Tennessee State University, a historically black school, she felt like other students were judging her for her dark skin. But that all changed when she signed up for an online master's degree in professional studies at Middle Tennessee State University. There, Jordan was comfortable with her virtual classmates – and her skin color –​ in ways she never was in an on-campus setting.

"With an online course, nobody knows who you really are," says Jordan, who works for the Tennessee Board of Regents​, ​ the state's higher education system. "They don't know your ethnicity unless you have a picture on your profile. I felt like, 'I can do this. There is no one stereotyping me.'"

Campus diversity study assesses student experiences | Cornell Chronicle

Campus diversity study assesses student experiences | Cornell Chronicle: The voices of nearly 400 Cornell students discussing their experiences with diversity on campus form the basis of a new study completed this month. Students engaged with diversity scholar Sylvia Hurtado and her team in focus-group discussions during fall 2013 for the study, “The Climate for Diversity at Cornell University: Student Experiences.”

In October, the research team engaged in face-to-face interactions with 99 students in 14 focus groups representing diverse constituencies including Latino, Asian, black, Native American and LGBT. A website collected individual comments and recommendations from an additional 298 students (190 undergraduates and 108 graduate students). The researchers then identified emergent themes, focused on authentic forms of engagement; diversity skills and knowledge; bridging diverse communities; bias, discrimination and harassment; and power dynamics and equity.

UI named mentoring center for minority graduate students | Iowa Now - The University of Iowa

UI named mentoring center for minority graduate students | Iowa Now - The University of Iowa: The University of Iowa has been awarded a three-year, $1.2 million grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation to establish one of only five University Centers of Exemplary Mentoring (UCEM) in the nation.

The centers are located at universities with proven records of educating underrepresented minority graduate students in STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) disciplines. Participating universities are expected to expand, strengthen and institutionalize minority recruitment, mentoring, educational support and professional development.

Philip Kutzko, mathematics professor and the principal investigator on the UCEM grant, says the designation will allow the UI to attract some of the most talented minority doctoral students in the nation.

Editorial: The minority STEM crisis — Brown Daily Herald

Editorial: The minority STEM crisis — Brown Daily Herald: Last semester, The Herald published a series called “Missing Scientists” exploring the minority students at Brown involved in what is colloquially known as STEM — science, technology, engineering and mathematics. Both at Brown and across the country, students who describe themselves as underrepresented minorities — American Indian, Alaskan native, black, Hispanic/Latino, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander — are much less likely to receive degrees in the sciences, specifically the hard sciences, than the general student population. Last spring, for instance, students who self-identified as one of the aforementioned categories constituted 13.5 percent of the graduating class, but received only 5.6 percent of physical science degrees and 9 percent of engineering degrees. From 2009-13, according to the Office of Institutional Research, 4 percent of URM students graduated with degrees in physical sciences, compared to 12 percent of students who identified as non-URM.

Professors are Less Likely to Mentor Female and Minority Students, Especially in Business School - The Wire

Professors are Less Likely to Mentor Female and Minority Students, Especially in Business School - The Wire: According to Wharton professor Katherine Milkman's new study, released on Tuesday, professors are less likely to want to mentor female and minority students. Especially in fields that lead to the most lucrative careers.

Milkman explained her research on NPR's Morning Edition. To determine how professors respond to different students looking for mentoring, Milkman and her colleagues Modupe Akinola and Dolly Chough created fake student emails with names that are representative of different genders and racial groups. These "students" emailed professors at top universities to see if they could meet about their work. Professors were more likely to respond, and respond positively, to white men. Even female and minority faculty are more likely to help the white guys. Milkman explains,

There's absolutely no benefit seen when women reach out to female faculty, nor do we see benefits from black students reaching out to black faculty or Hispanic students reaching out to Hispanic faculty.

White Supremacists Hide Easter Eggs With Racist Notes In VA Neighborhood

White Supremacists Hide Easter Eggs With Racist Notes In VA Neighborhood: An Easter egg hunt in Henrico County, Va. was interrupted on Sunday when the parents of a three-year-old son found an egg filled with racist notes.

"My husband noticed the last Easter egg and I knew it wasn't one that put out,” Jackie Smith told WRIC. "We opened it and it's got the white supremacist stuff in it."

The piece paper inside the egg contained language including "diversity = white genocide" and “mass immigration and forced assimilation of non-whites into our lands is genocide."

Smith and her husband, Brandon Smith, went around their neighborhood alerting other parents, and found several more eggs in other yards.

“We don't want other kids around here who can read being like, 'Hey mommy what's the million man white march or what's the genocide project?' Most of us don't want to explain genocide to our 6-year-olds,” Jackie Smith said.

Lower-income teens aren't getting enough sleep, researchers say - chicagotribune.com

Lower-income teens aren't getting enough sleep, researchers say - chicagotribune.com: African American high school students and boys in low- to middle-income families reported short, fragmented sleep, and that could play a role in their health risks, researchers reported Monday.

Anyone who’s ever lived with a teenager knows they often don’t get the eight to nine hours of sleep the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends. Researchers writing in the journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics looked at one group of young people — those in a lower socioeconomic community.

A sample of 250 students from western Pennsylvania, ages 14 to 19, took part in the study over a week. Based on a diary and a monitor worn by the students, most of the students slept around six hours a night during the week. They reported more time, about 6.8 hours, in their diaries, but the researchers said that included time they tried to go to sleep.

Racial Equality Loses at the Court - NYTimes.com

Racial Equality Loses at the Court - NYTimes.com: A blinkered view of race in America won out in the Supreme Court on Tuesday when six justices agreed, for various reasons, to allow Michigan voters to ban race-conscious admissions policies in higher education.

In 2003, the court upheld such a policy at the University of Michigan Law School because it furthered a compelling governmental interest in educational diversity. Opponents of affirmative action moved to amend the State Constitution to ban any consideration of race or sex in public education and employment. In 2006, voters passed the amendment by a wide margin.

Affirmative action supporters sued to strike down the amendment, arguing that by changing the rules of the game in a way that uniquely burdened racial minorities, the amendment violated the equal protection clause. A closely divided federal appeals court agreed.

Baseball's Demographic Shifts Bring Cultural Complexities : Code Switch : NPR

Baseball's Demographic Shifts Bring Cultural Complexities : Code Switch : NPR: This week, baseball fans celebrated Jackie Robinson Day, 67 years after Robinson became the first black player to participate in a Major League Baseball game. Coincidentally (or not), the racial, ethnic and cultural dynamics of the sport today are the topics of much discussion in this week's news.

Decline In Percentage Of Black Players

According to an article published this week by the Pew Research Center, the proportion of black baseball players in the major leagues has steadily declined in recent years. Jean Manuel Krogstad writes:

"The share of black MLB players reached a high of 18.7 percent in 1981, according to the Society for American Baseball Research. In 2014,  8.3 percent of players on opening day rosters were black. Before the most recent decade's decline, the last time baseball had such a small share of black players was 1958."

In Silicon Valley, Immigrants Toast Their Way To The Top : Code Switch : NPR

In Silicon Valley, Immigrants Toast Their Way To The Top : Code Switch : NPR: Public speaking can be nerve-wracking whatever your native tongue. It can be especially difficult for immigrants who speak English as a second language.

In California's Silicon Valley, some immigrant tech workers strengthen their voices by joining public speaking support groups like Toastmasters clubs.

Members usually meet once a week to practice giving speeches, which are timed to the second and judged for grammar and presentation. There's even a designated counter of ums and ahs.

At a recent meeting of the "ArtICCulators" Toastmasters Club in Milpitas, Calif., engineer Nidhi Agarwal confronted her fear of public speaking with laughter.

The Golden Arch Of The Universe Is Long ... : Code Switch : NPR

The Golden Arch Of The Universe Is Long ... : Code Switch : NPR: A member of the Code Switch team — who shall remain nameless, but whose name rhymes with Tatt Mhompson — was recently winding his way through the recesses of Amazon when he stumbled across an ad for McDonald's that appeared in Ebony back in 1972. (Don't trouble yourself trying to figure out just what Ma ... er, Tatt was searching for to come to this result. Your head will hurt.)

Here's what that ad looked like.

'Boondocks' Returns After Four Years To An Altered Comedy Landscape : Code Switch : NPR

...'Boondocks' Returns After Four Years To An Altered Comedy Landscape : Code Switch : NPR: Black Comedy Shifts From Television To Twitter

Julian Chambliss is a professor at Rollins College. There, he studies and teaches comic culture and African American history. He says this season of The Boondocks re-enters a comedy world that is more crowded than it was in 2010, particularly by Black Twitter and Youtube.

"When you think about the digital landscape, now you have a lot more YouTube series created and produced and performed by African-Americans," Chambliss says. "We do have a social media universe that is fueled by black people." But he adds, "Despite the great sort of ... creative energy on a YouTube-produced series, how many of those are being translated into DVD? How many of those can you pick up at Wal-Mart? So, this program still does matter

Playwright Phillip Hayes Dean Dies At 83 : Code Switch : NPR

Playwright Phillip Hayes Dean Dies At 83 : Code Switch : NPR: Playwright Phillip Hayes Dean died earlier this week. His family says the 83 year-old died in Los Angeles of a heart condition. He was in the midst of overseeing a production of his most famous play, "Paul Robeson."

Dean wrote "Paul Robeson" to chronicle the life of the famed scholar, athlete, singer, actor and humanitarian activist. Robeson was best known for his thunderous basso profundo and his rendition of black spirituals and work songs. The play was controversial when it debuted on Broadway in 1978; James Earl Jones starred, and some of Robeson's relatives disagreed with his warts-and-all portrayal.

Book News: Gabriel García Márquez Left An Unpublished Manuscript : The Two-Way : NPR

Book News: Gabriel García Márquez Left An Unpublished Manuscript : The Two-Way : NPR: Gabriel García Márquez left behind an unpublished manuscript when he died last week at age 87, Cristobal Pera, editorial director of Penguin Random House Mexico, told The Associated Press. Pera added that Marquez's family has not yet decided whether to publish it. Meanwhile, the Spanish newspaper La Vanguardia published an extract of the work, tentatively titled We'll See Each Other in August (En agosto nos vemos). In the excerpt, a middle-aged woman named Ana Magdalena Bach has a fling during her annual trip to a tropical island to put flowers on her mother's grave. She stays at a hotel overlooking a lagoon full of herons. Ana, though she's married, meets a man at the hotel and begins an affair with him. The excerpt has a strong sense of place — García Márquez's descriptions are lush with flowers and tropical life – and a ripple of eroticism travels through it, from the touch of perfume Ana puts behind her ear at the beginning of the chapter to the thunderstorm during her encounter with the man from the hotel.

Higher Ed Diversity Advocates Focus on Big Picture After Supreme Court Setback - Higher Education

Higher Ed Diversity Advocates Focus on Big Picture After Supreme Court Setback - Higher Education: A state’s rights decision Tuesday by the United States Supreme Court may further impede the ability of racial minorities to attend state-supported colleges and universities in Michigan and six other states, yet does not change the court’s overall position that the use of race is still a valid consideration in other states for devising admissions strategies.

The 6-2 decision by the nation’s highest court, upholding the legality of voter-approved state constitutional amendments, was the underlying issue in a case centered on Michigan voter approval in 2006 of a proposed constitutional amendment, known as Proposition 2.

The amendment, championed by Black California conservative activist Ward Connerley, was approved by 58 percent of citizens voting. It prohibits “affirmative action programs that give preferential treatment to groups or individuals based on race, gender, color, ethnicity or nation origin for public employment, education or contracting purposes.”

Evidence Of Racial, Gender Biases Found In Faculty Mentoring : NPR

Evidence Of Racial, Gender Biases Found In Faculty Mentoring : NPR: STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

Now, when preschoolers get to college, some will have professors who take sustained interest in guiding them. This often happens because a student reaches out for a mentor. Now let's hear how that time-honored process suffers from bias.

Our colleague David Greene sat down with NPR's Shankar Vedantam.

DAVID GREENE, HOST:

We should be clear of what we're talking about here. This is not professors who sort of help students acclimate to a university, give them directions. We're talking about professors who really invest in a student.

SHANKAR VEDANTAM, BYLINE: That's right, David. And perhaps the most important thing is this is intellectual guidance. This is guidance to say: Here's how you should best use your skills.

GREENE: And what's the bias you found?

VEDANTAM: The bias has to do with how faculty seem to respond to these requests, David. Group of researchers ran this interesting field experiment. They emailed more than 6,500 professors at the top 250 schools pretending to be the students. And they wrote letters saying, I really admire your work. Would you have some time to meet? The letters to the faculty were all identical, but the names of the students were all different.

Let me read you some of the names and you can tell if you can pick up a pattern.

Arizona tribe set to prosecute first non-Indian under a new law - The Washington Post

Arizona tribe set to prosecute first non-Indian under a new law - The Washington Post: on PASCUA YAQUI INDIAN RESERVATION, Ariz. — Tribal police chief Michael Valenzuela drove through darkened desert streets, turned into a Circle K convenience store and pointed to the spot beyond the reservation line where his officers used to take the non-Indian men who battered Indian women.

“We would literally drive them to the end of the reservation and tell them to beat it,” Valenzuela said. “And hope they didn’t come back that night. They almost always did.”

About three weeks ago, at 2:45 a.m., the tribal police were called to the reservation home of an Indian woman who was allegedly being assaulted in front of her two children. They said her 36-year-old non-
Indian husband, Eloy Figueroa Lopez, had pushed her down on the couch and was violently choking her with both hands.

Fraternity closes chapter following vandalism of statue

Fraternity closes chapter following vandalism of statue: JACKSON, Miss. -- Citing an internal investigation following the desecration of a historic James Meredith statue in February, a national fraternity is closing its chapter at the University of Mississippi.

"Sigma Phi Epsilon is committed to being a different kind of fraternity – one that recognizes the importance of the out-of-classroom experience and is committed to making that experience the safest and most empowering part of a college male's life," the fraternity's CEO Brian Warren, told members in a video conference Friday afternoon.

"Though it's always painful to close a chapter, these students' actions clearly illustrate a determination to perpetuate an experience based on risky and unconstructive behavior. In these cases, we have no choice but to close the chapter and return to campus at a later date." In the pre-dawn hours of Feb. 16, vandals placed a noose around the neck
of the statue and draped over its face a pre-2003 Georgia state flag with a Confederate battle emblem.

Salsa Legend Cheo Feliciano Dies : Alt.Latino : NPR

Salsa Legend Cheo Feliciano Dies : Alt.Latino : NPR: Three days of mourning have been declared in Puerto Rico following the death of salsa great Cheo Feliciano in a car accident there early Thursday. The singer was 78. "His music embodied the rhythm of Puerto Ricans living in New York City," U.S. Rep. Nydia Velazquez (D-NY) said in a statement, "and his lyrics helped tell our collective story."

José Luis Feliciano Vega was born in 1935 to a working class family in the southern Puerto Rican city of Ponce. At 17 the family joined the massive Puerto Rican diaspora of the 1950s, and moved to New York. That's where Cheo started to train with the big Latin dance orchestras and develop the sound that would make him an icon in both New York and Puerto Rico.

Black students at Washington and Lee urge administrators to confront school’s past - The Washington Post

Black students at Washington and Lee urge administrators to confront school’s past - The Washington Post: A group of black law students at Washington and Lee University is urging administrators to atone for its Confederate heritage and what they call the “dishonorable conduct” of namesake Robert E. Lee.

The movement has struck a racial divide on the bucolic campus in Lexington, Va., where black students make up about 3.5 percent of the total student population.

Third-year law student Dominik Taylor, a descendent of slaves on his father’s side, said he felt betrayed by admissions representatives who touted the school’s diversity.

“They assured me it was a welcoming environment where everyone sticks together as a community,” Taylor said. “Then I came here and felt ostracized and alienated.”

Gabriel García Márquez Quotes: 20 Sayings From Late Nobel Laureate To Celebrate His Legacy

Gabriel García Márquez Quotes: 20 Sayings From Late Nobel Laureate To Celebrate His Legacy: Colombian author and Nobel laureate, Gabriel García Márquez, has reportedly died at 87 after battling cancer reports El Pais. The Latin American writer recently stayed in the hospital for dehydration and a respiratory- and urinary-tract infection, but was released while he was "very fragile."

In 2012, it was reported that García Márquez's health was on the decline. According to The Guardian, the author's brother, Jaime García Márquez, told students in Cartagena, Colombia that his brother is suffering from dementia and was treated for lymphatic cancer, which he was diagnosed with in 1999.

"Dementia runs in our family and he's now suffering the ravages prematurely due to the cancer that put him almost on the verge of death," said Jaime, reports The Guardian. "Chemotherapy saved his life, but it also destroyed many neurons, many defences and cells, and accelerated the process. But he still has the humour, joy and enthusiasm that he has always had."

Slave who helped build Capitol’s Statue of Freedom honored with historical marker - The Washington Post

Slave who helped build Capitol’s Statue of Freedom honored with historical marker - The Washington Post: Philip Reid, who suffered many indignities in death as well as in life, has finally gotten the recognition due him 134 years after he was first buried.

A former slave who played a pivotal role in casting the giant bronze Statue of Freedom atop the U.S. Capitol dome, Reid now has a historical marker at the National Harmony Memorial Park in Hyattsville noting his contribution and that he died a free man.

The marker was unveiled fittingly on Wednesday, Emancipation Day, which commemorates the day in 1862 President Abraham Lincoln abolished involuntary servitude in the District. That is how the slave who helped construct the symbol of freedom over the Capitol gained his own freedom.

The marker, arranged and paid for by a writer trying to shed light on significant but overlooked moments in American history, is in a section of the cemetery where a garden will be planted and named for Solomon Northup, who wrote “Twelve Years a Slave.”

Excelencia in Education Report Reveals Latino College Completion Strides and Struggles - Higher Education

Excelencia in Education Report Reveals Latino College Completion Strides and Struggles - Higher Education: WASHINGTON ― Despite California having the largest Latino population in the U.S., there are no California higher education institutions in the top five at the associate’s or bachelor’s level, according to a report delivered Tuesday on Capitol Hill.

Excelencia in Education, the data-driven organization that aims to advance the success of Latino students in higher education, also noted in its report “Latino College Completion: United States” that Latinos will need to earn 5.5 million more degrees above current levels by 2020 in order for the U.S. to regain the top ranking in the world for college degree attainment. By reaching this goal, the organization said the U.S. can close the equity gap in college completion, increase the number of degrees awarded and scale up programs and initiatives that work for Latinos and other students.

Latino College Completion: United States | Excelencia in Education

Latino College Completion: United States | Excelencia in Education: For the U.S. to regain the top ranking in the world for college degree attainment, Latinos will need to earn 5.5 million more degrees by 2020.

To reach the degree attainment goal by 2020, the U.S. can: 1) close the equity gap in college completion; 2) increase the number of degrees conferred; and, 3) scale up programs and initiatives that work for Latino and other students. The following is a framework for tracking Latino degree attainment in the U.S.

Light And Dark: The Racial Biases That Remain In Photography : Code Switch : NPR

Light And Dark: The Racial Biases That Remain In Photography : Code Switch : NPR: When Syreeta McFadden was a child, she dreaded taking pictures after a family photo made her skin appear dulled and darkened.

"In some pictures, I am a mud brown, in others I'm a blue black. Some of the pictures were taken within moments of one another," she wrote in a story for Buzzfeed , digging into an "inherited bias" in photography against dark skin.

She tells Tell Me More's Celeste Headlee that certain cameras and photographers who are unfamiliar with different shades of skin often distort the images and color of black and brown people.

McFadden is now a photographer herself. Though technology has improved and allowed her to capture the many hues of brown skin, she says photography still has a long way to go.

Interview: Ramachandra Guha, Author Of 'Gandhi Before India' : NPR

Interview: Ramachandra Guha, Author Of 'Gandhi Before India' : NPR: n 1893, in the bustling seaside city of Durban, South Africa — then under British colonial rule — a young lawyer stepped off a ship from India, eager to try his professional luck far away from home. His name was Mohandas Gandhi and he stayed in in that country for more than 20 years before returning home, where he'd make a name for himself as an anti-colonial agitator and social reformer.

In Gandhi Before India, historian and writer Ramachandra Guha chronicles Gandhi's years in South Africa. He tells NPR's Renee Montagne about how white South Africans treated Indians, Gandhi's entrance into politics and his lasting legacy of non-violent protest.