Expert: Stratification Undermines American Higher Education’s Capacity for Enabling Social Mobility

Expert: Stratification Undermines American Higher Education’s Capacity for Enabling Social Mobility: Although a college education has increasingly become the sole path into the shrunken middle class, social stratification within the world of higher education threatens to undermine the American Dream.

That was one of the major points that economist Anthony Carnevale made during a presentation Monday at the annual at the 2012 NCCEP/GEAR UP Conference.

“Our post-secondary system has become highly segregated by class, by race and by ethnicity,” Carnevale, director of the Georgetown Center on Education and the Workforce, said during a workshop titled, “The Growing Importance of Higher Education, Attaining Middle Class Earnings, and the Increasing Stratification of Access.”

“It is more and more the case that the four-year college system is whiter and more affluent, [while] the two-year system is browner and blacker and more working class and some poor,” Carnevale said, noting that, for the most part, four-year degrees trump two-year degrees in terms of the salaries they command.

With Penn State’s Loss, Grambling’s Eddie Robinson Regains Coaching Title

With Penn State’s Loss, Grambling’s Eddie Robinson Regains Coaching Title: Reaching milestones in college athletics is usually a time for jubilant celebration. Monday’s major college sports news was an exception.

Grambling University learned Monday its legendary football coach, Eddie G. Robinson, had regained his rank as the winningest coach in college football history.

The ranking, which Robinson lost just last year, came after the NCAA stripped Joe Paterno, another college football legend who had coached for decades at Penn State University, of all his victories from 1998 to 2011.

The harsh move by the NCAA was part of a sweeping penalty against Paterno, now deceased, and the university for failing to report their knowledge of alleged child alleged sex crimes committed by a former Paterno assistant coach.

Sally Ride dies at 61; was first American woman sent into space - The Washington Post

Sally Ride dies at 61; was first American woman sent into space - The Washington Post: Sally Ride, an astronaut and physicist who in 1983 became the first American woman sent into space and reluctantly served as an idol of feminist strength and a hero of women’s progress, died Monday at her home in La Jolla, Calif. She was 61.

She had pancreatic cancer, said Terry McEntee, her assistant.

Ms. Ride made history on June 18, 1983, when she orbited the Earth aboard the space shuttle Challenger. At 32 years and 23 days old, she was the youngest American to go into space.

In a statement, President Obama said that Ms. Ride “inspired generations of young girls to reach for the stars.”
He continued, “Sally’s life showed us that there are no limits to what we can achieve and I have no doubt that her legacy will endure for years to come.”

Young gay black men at high risk of HIV - The Washington Post

Young gay black men at high risk of HIV - The Washington Post: Unless improvements are made, more than half of all young black men who are gay or bisexual will be infected with HIV within the next decade, according to findings presented Monday at the 19th International AIDS Conference.

The 2009-10 study of 1,553 American black men who have sex with men found that among those who are age 30 or younger, the infection rate was nearly 6 percent a year.

The overall rate of new HIV infection among all black gay and bisexual men in the study was 2.8 percent a year — nearly 50 percent higher than among white gay and bisexual men. The study was conducted in six cities, including Washington.

If those infection rates are projected over a decade, one-third of all gay and bisexual black men will have HIV infections, as will more than 50 percent of young men in that group, said Kenneth H. Mayer, one of the lead researchers. Mayer is an AIDS specialist and medical research director of the Fenway Institute in Boston.

Chart of the Day: Voter ID and Racial Resentment | Mother Jones

Chart of the Day: Voter ID and Racial Resentment | Mother Jones: Who supports voter ID laws? Obviously, Republicans support them more than Democrats. Since voter ID laws are mostly aimed at suppressing the Democratic-leaning vote, that makes sense.

But there are differences even among voters who identify as either Republican or Democratic. According to a new survey from the Center for Political Communication at the University of Delaware, 53% of Democrats with low levels of racial resentment oppose voter ID laws. Among Democrats with high levels of racial resentment, that plummets to 23%.

Ditto for Republicans. Among those with low racial resentment scores, 13% oppose voter ID laws. Among Republicans with high racial resentment scores, that's cut in half, to 7%.

Racial resentment is measured by responses to only three questions, which makes it a little less robust than we might like. On the other hand, the questions are admirably straightforward. The first one, for example, is this: "I resent any special considerations that Africans Americans receive because it’s unfair to other Americans." That's pretty clear.

Jefferson H.S., Fairfax schools shut out blacks and Latinos, complaint alleges - The Washington Post

Jefferson H.S., Fairfax schools shut out blacks and Latinos, complaint alleges - The Washington Post: The disproportionately low number of black and Latino students admitted to Fairfax County’s prestigious Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology — long a subject of debate — has triggered a federal civil rights complaint.

The 17-page complaint was filed with the U.S. Department of Education on Monday by the Coalition of The Silence, an advocacy group led by former county School Board member Tina Hone, and the Fairfax chapter of the NAACP.

The complaint alleges that black and Latino students, as well as students with disabilities, are being shut out of Thomas Jefferson, or TJ, long before they apply in eighth grade because of Fairfax County Public Schools’ systematic failure to identify them for gifted-education programs that begin in elementary school.

Fairfax school officials could not comment because they had not had a chance to review the complaint, said spokesman John Torre.

Blacks more likely to have surgery for breast cancer, throat cancer - chicagotribune.com

Blacks more likely to have surgery for breast cancer, throat cancer - chicagotribune.com: Blacks in the U.S. with throat cancer are more likely than whites to have surgery that leaves them unable to speak than to get gentler voice-preserving treatments, a new study finds.

Previous research has found a similar racial disparity in breast cancer treatment, with blacks more often having the entire breast removed instead of just the cancerous lumps.

It's unclear why the gap exists. But Dr. Allen Chen, who led the new study, said poverty, less education and deep-rooted historical biases could all be at work.

"There could be an underlying distrust among African Americans where they feel anything less than surgery might be considered quote-unquote experimental," Chen, a radiation oncologist at University of California, Davis, told Reuters Health.

Virginia State University Hosts College Prep Program for Latino Students

Virginia State University Hosts College Prep Program for Latino Students: Among the 80 Virginia high school students that participated in the Hispanic College Institute at Virginia State University (VSU), Monica Negron found plenty of encouragement during the institute for the college plans she nurtures as a rising high school senior.

“I have to go to college and make something of myself. I have to show [my siblings] that people are going to tell you 'no', but that doesn't have to keep you down,” Negron said.

For Negron and the others, faculty and administrators at Virginia State, a historically Black university in Petersburg, Va., along with volunteers and Latino professionals, sought to make college life appear to be a natural and inevitable destination for these ambitious students.

Afro-American newspaper honors paperboys and girls in anniversary celebration - baltimoresun.com

Afro-American newspaper honors paperboys and girls in anniversary celebration - baltimoresun.com: For Marian Anderson Bell, selling copies of the Afro-American newspaper on Baltimore streets as a 12-year-old papergirl in 1945 felt like freedom.

Now 79 years old, Bell reminisced Saturday about stashing away the pennies she earned to buy school supplies and bobby socks. She was one of dozens of one-time paperboys and girls who gathered for breakfast at theReginald F. Lewis Museumof Maryland African American History and Culture as part of the paper's 120th anniversary.

Bell said earning her own money meant she didn't have to go to her mother for a handout. The job also taught her an important life lesson, Bell said.

"It encouraged us to economize and to learn to save our money," she said.

The paper, founded in 1892, was once sold from New York to Florida and throughout the South, and for six decades the newspaper boys and girls were its "legs," said publisher John J. "Jake" Oliver Jr. The paper is the longest-running African-American family-owned newspaper in the country, according to the media company.

U.S. Poverty On Track To Rise To Highest Since 1960s

U.S. Poverty On Track To Rise To Highest Since 1960s: The ranks of America's poor are on track to climb to levels unseen in nearly half a century, erasing gains from the war on poverty in the 1960s amid a weak economy and fraying government safety net.

Census figures for 2011 will be released this fall in the critical weeks ahead of the November elections.

The Associated Press surveyed more than a dozen economists, think tanks and academics, both nonpartisan and those with known liberal or conservative leanings, and found a broad consensus: The official poverty rate will rise from 15.1 percent in 2010, climbing as high as 15.7 percent. Several predicted a more modest gain, but even a 0.1 percentage point increase would put poverty at the highest since 1965.

Poverty is spreading at record levels across many groups, from underemployed workers and suburban families to the poorest poor. More discouraged workers are giving up on the job market, leaving them vulnerable as unemployment aid begins to run out. Suburbs are seeing increases in poverty, including in such political battlegrounds as Colorado, Florida and Nevada, where voters are coping with a new norm of living hand to mouth.

Native American Communities Affected by Climate Change Plan for the Future | PBS NewsHour | July 19, 2012 | PBS

Native American Communities Affected by Climate Change Plan for the Future | PBS NewsHour | July 19, 2012 | PBS: ... HARI SREENIVASAN: Our series on Coping With Climate Change has included multiple examples of how Native American populations are feeling the impacts and adapting.

We took you to coastal Louisiana, where tribal people are experiencing relative sea level rise in a very personal way. Their islands are shrinking and their burial grounds will soon be underwater.

The Quileute Tribe in Washington State, whose reservation was down to its last square mile, until they recently won rights to move to higher ground in the nearby national park.

Last night, we showed you how the Swinomish Tribe is trying to plan ahead and adapt to faster glacial snowmelts, higher stream temperatures, and changes in fishing grounds.

Changes are being felt by Native peoples throughout the country, and it was the reason for the First Stewards conference at the Smithsonian Museum.

We sat down with a few representatives.

Joining me here at the National Museum of the American Indian to tell us how their communities are coping with climate change are Micah McCarty from the Makah Tribe in Washington, Kitty Simonds from Hawaii, Mike Williams from the Akiak Native Community in Alaska, and Jeff Mears from the Oneida Tribe in Wisconsin.

Soul Food Fans Say Goodbye To 'Queen' Sylvia : The Salt : NPR

Soul Food Fans Say Goodbye To 'Queen' Sylvia : The Salt : NPR: Sylvia Woods, known as the Queen of Soul Food, died yesterday at age 86. She opened the legendary Sylvia's restaurant in Harlem 50 years ago, around the corner from the Apollo Theater, and it soon became a gathering place for prominent African Americans, politicians, and foodies of all ages and races.

Woods' secret, she told a TV reporter back in 2003, was "a little of this and a little of that and you mix it all together. But a whole lotta love has to go in it. If you don't have that, you have nothing at all." (Hear our colleague Joel Rose's remembrance above and on All Things Considered tonight.)

She made chicken and waffles cool long before today's current crop of retro-comfort food seeking hipsters ever thought about installing a deep fryer.

Former Bank Of America, Cantor Fitzgerald Employees Sue Over Alleged Racial Discrimination

Former Bank Of America, Cantor Fitzgerald Employees Sue Over Alleged Racial Discrimination: Two separate lawsuits alleging racial discrimination were filed in federal court in New York on Friday, against Bank of America and investment bank Cantor Fitzgerald.

Jack Mitchell, who is black and worked as a manager at Bank of America from February 2007 to July 2008, alleges the bank maintained an "apartheid" system of business allocation, believing white clients would not want to be served by African American employees.

Under this system, Mitchell alleges, employees such as himself were routinely assigned to branches in low-income black communities, negatively affecting his compensation. Mitchell claims he was fired in retaliation for complaining about "the bank's racist practices."

Bank of America spokesman Bill Halldin declined to comment on the suit but said that "diversity and inclusion are part of Bank of America's culture and core values."

Voter ID Law Support Linked To Attitudes About African Americans, Study Finds

Voter ID Law Support Linked To Attitudes About African Americans, Study Finds: A new study has found that support for voter ID laws, especially among those who lean Democratic, is linked to one's feelings toward African Americans.

In the study, conducted by the University of Delaware's Center for Political Communication, respondents were asked several questions, and their answers were used to create a spectrum of "racial resentment." The more resentment a person conveyed, the more likely they were to support voter ID laws.

Voter ID laws require people to show some form of government identification before they can cast a ballot. According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, 32 states have some form of voter ID law, with varying degrees of strictness. Since Republicans won control of 20 state governments in the 2010 midterms, at least 11 states have pushed through voter ID laws. Supporters of the laws say that they help prevent voter fraud, in spite of the fact that studies have shown electoral fraud to be exceedingly rare.

South Africa celebrates Mandela’s birthday | The Raw Story

South Africa celebrates Mandela’s birthday | The Raw Story: Anti-apartheid hero Nelson Mandela celebrated his 94th birthday in “good” spirits on Wednesday as millions of South Africans joined in the global praise for the much-loved statesman.

Mandela, whose 1990 release from an apartheid prison put South Africa on the path to democracy and reconciliation, spent a quiet day with his close family in his home village of Qunu, where he has retired from public life.

“He is in good spirits and looking very well,” granddaughter Ndileka Mandela told AFP by phone from Qunu.

The Forgotten Orphans, From D.C. to Zimbabwe | PBS NewsHour | July 18, 2012 | PBS

The Forgotten Orphans, From D.C. to Zimbabwe | PBS NewsHour | July 18, 2012 | PBS: Zimbabwe and the District of Columbia. They’re 8,000 miles apart and nearly as distant economically. But the two share at least two things in common: Both have some of the highest HIV/AIDS rates in the world. And in both places, ordinary people are living remarkably similar lives. As Washington prepares to host the International AIDS Conference July 22-27, the PBS NewsHour will profile some of the parallel stories unfolding around the epidemic on opposite ends of the globe. We begin with AIDS orphans.

Judy's Notebook: Civil Rights for the Next Generation | PBS NewsHour

Judy's Notebook: Civil Rights for the Next Generation | PBS NewsHour: ...Wednesday as I spent time with one of the many groups of young people who flock to Washington during our hot summers. This was a special group: 51 Free Spirit Journalism Scholars, high school students from all over the country who had come to the nation's capital for a week to learn and to be inspired. The young people are carefully selected from all 50 states plus the District of Columbia to attend an annual conference run by the Freedom Forum, a nonpartisan foundation dedicated to free press and free speech. The competitive process, named in honor of Forum founder Al Neuharth, saw applications from 600 rising high school seniors.

They're treated to talks by prominent politicians and journalists and encouraged to ask questions, which they eagerly do. I was fortunate to sit in on a session with three heroes of the Civil Rights movement. I came away impressed with the students, but blown away by the three much older men who played a central role in the Freedom Riders movement, the campaign by civil rights activists in 1961 to ride interstate buses into the South to confront state laws and customs enforcing segregation.

What If George Zimmerman Were Black? - The Daily Beast

What If George Zimmerman Were Black? - The Daily Beast: Making his first television network appearance last night on Fox News, a perfectly coifed George Zimmerman apologized for killing 17-year-old Trayvon Martin—while in the same breath admitted he’d do nothing different if he had the chance. As Zimmerman, who appeared dazed during parts of the interview, discussed the events that led to the death of an unarmed high-school student simply walking home from the 7-Eleven, it was difficult to imagine a similar chain of events occurring if the tables were turned.

Just prior to yesterday’s interview, Zimmerman’s lawyer Mark O’Mara released a statement boldly admitting that part of the reason for the appearance on Fox was to raise money for his client’s defense. Zimmerman has already received a pretty staggering amount of donations since his arrest this past April. So much so that in June, his bail was revoked due to the fact he failed to report at least $150,000 in an online account donated from his many supporters. What if every criminal was allowed a prime time interview in order to raise money for his or her defense? 

Gay, bisexual black men at high risk for HIV – - CNN.com Blogs

Gay, bisexual black men at high risk for HIV – - CNN.com Blogs: Only one in 500 Americans is a black gay or bisexual male, but black men who have sex with men (MSM) account for one in four new HIV infections in the United States, according to a new report by the Black AIDS Institute (BAI).

Just days away from the first International AIDS Conference to be held on U.S. soil in 22 years, the BAI, a national think tank focused on African-Americans, released a somber account detailing how the virus continues to disproportionately infect and kill young black men who have sex with other men.

According to the report, "Back of the Line: The State of AIDS Among Gay Black Men in America 2012" a black gay man has a one in eight chance of becoming infected by the time he's 20 years old. By the age of 40, the likelihood is 60%.  It also says black men having sex with men are more affected by the disease than any other group in the developed world.
"Black MSM continue to be first in line when it comes to need, but remain at the back of the line when it comes to assistance," said Phill Wilson, founder and executive director of the Black AIDS Institute. "This report not only highlights the gaps and why they still exist after 30 years, but it also provides a blueprint for how to close the gaps and move those most at risk up to the front."

Black Education Statistics: Separating Fact From Fiction

Black Education Statistics: Separating Fact From Fiction: U.S. census data show that when you look at Americans ages 15 to 25, there are 3.9 million fewer white males now than there were in 1970, and 2.5 million more black males. So why do we so often hear phrases like, "The reality is ... African-American males are a dying breed"? (And have you ever noticed that "breed," "extinct" and "endangered" are terms reserved for animals and black males?)

Questioning such notions, which are not based on fact but are repeated so often that they have been treated as gospel truth, is the mission of Show Me the Numbers. This new monthly series, published in association with Howard University's Journal of Negro Education, of which I am editor-in-chief, will provide a big-picture analysis of some of the most pressing educational and social issues facing African Americans. The series will also break down national data to dispel common myths and challenge conventional wisdom about education in black America.

Why we need to relentlessly pursue diversity in schools - The Answer Sheet - The Washington Post

Why we need to relentlessly pursue diversity in schools - The Answer Sheet - The Washington Post: “In education, the road worth traveling.”

The promise of integrated schools began with Mendez et al v. Westminster School District et al, a 1946 federal court case that challenged racial segregation in Orange County, Calif. schools. It was followed by Brown v. Board of Education, the 1954 landmark case in which the U.S. Supreme Court declared state laws establishing separate public schools for black and white students unconstitutional.

After a period of school desegregation, poorer public schools have become increasingly re-segregated. At least 70 percent of white students attend schools where at least 75 percent of the student body is white, and more than half of all black students attend poor urban schools where 90 percent are members of “minority” groups, according to the U.S. Department of Education.

After Decades, Academic Careers Still Elusive for Many Black, Latino Scholars

After Decades, Academic Careers Still Elusive for Many Black, Latino Scholars: Despite decades of research and recommendations, a revolving door continues to cycle Black and Hispanic faculty into and out of predominantly White higher education institutions.

Interviews with the scholars and researchers who have examined this issue in recent years suggest that, although some institutions have ramped up their recruitment and retention efforts, more proactive measures need to be taken. In addition, numerous racial incidents on university campuses have focused attention on the composition of faculty at many top universities.

A lawsuit filed this year by a surgeon at UCLA, the only tenured African-American faculty member in his department, raised the specter of racism to a new level. Dr. Christian Head sued the board of regents in April for a series of discriminatory actions including a slideshow in 2006 depicting him as a gorilla being sodomized by his White supervisor; it was shown at a UCLA School of Medicine graduation roast.

BBC News - India school faces inquiry for 'humiliating' poor children

BBC News - India school faces inquiry for 'humiliating' poor children: Officials in India are investigating claims that staff at a private school deliberately humiliated poorer children it was legally obliged to take in.

Parents of four children at the school in Bangalore complained that staff cut off tufts of their hair and denied them the same uniform as other students.

The children are reportedly from low-caste Hindu communities, enrolled under a recent anti-discrimination law.

There has been no response so far from the school itself.

A senior official in the Karnataka state department of education, Kumar Nayak, told the BBC that an inquiry was under way.

"Necessary action will be taken if the charge is proved," he said.

Indian schools are supposed to reserve up to a quarter of their places for children from poorer backgrounds.

Public service marks Mandela's birthday - CNN.com

Public service marks Mandela's birthday - CNN.com: South Africans celebrated Nelson Mandela's 94th birthday Wednesday by participating in good deeds nationwide to honor the legacy of the famous statesman.

The frail icon has not appeared in public for years, but he is celebrated worldwide on his birthday for his role in reconciling a country torn apart by apartheid.

In South Africa, citizens performed at least 67 minutes of public service on his birthday, a reference to the number of years he devoted to helping others.

In Mandela's childhood village of Qunu, relatives, including children and grandchildren, gathered to mark his birthday and perform community service at the local health centers.

The family will get together for a meal that will include a champagne toast -- which the ailing Mandela cannot partake in -- and his favorite dish of tripe, a meat delicacy.

Children With Disabilities Are Victimized More Often - NYTimes.com

Children With Disabilities Are Victimized More Often - NYTimes.com: Children with disabilities are almost four times more likely to be victims of violence than other children, according to a new report commissioned by the World Health Organization.

The report, published in The Lancet on Thursday, found that disabled children were 3.6 times more likely to be physically assaulted and 2.9 times more likely to be sexually assaulted.

The most common victims of sexual assault were those with mental illness or retardation, and institutionalized children were attacked more often than those living at home.

Last week’s report was a meta-analysis of 17 other studies that collectively gathered evidence on 18,374 children, all of them living in wealthy countries, from the United States to Europe to Israel. About 3 percent of children in rich countries and up to 6 percent in poor ones have disabilities.

Rediscovered Black Travel Guide Series adds to U.S. Segregation Era History

Rediscovered Black Travel Guide Series adds to U.S. Segregation Era History: A travel guide series for African-Americans dating back to 1936 has resurfaced in recent years, attracting considerable attention in the news media and in popular culture. The guide, The Negro Motorist Green Book (also called The Negro Travelers' Green Book) was published by Harlem postal worker and civic leader Victor H. Green and it listed Black-friendly destinations based on accounts from travelers, who had to navigate across a nation that had severely curtailed motorist amenities for Blacks.

Reporting in the TheRoot.com, writer Dr. Nsenga K. Burton mentions how Green’s travel series inspired Atlanta playwright Calvin Alexander Ramsey to write a play entitled The Green Book. The play spins a tale in which a Black military officer and his wife stay in a "tourist home" (private homes identified as safe places for travel) with a Holocaust survivor on the eve of a speech being given by W.E.B. Du Bois in Jefferson City, Mo.

Piecing Together Stories Of Families 'Lost In Slavery' : NPR

Piecing Together Stories Of Families 'Lost In Slavery' : NPR: For decades, slavery tore apart African-American families. Children were sold off from their mothers, and husbands were taken from their wives. Many desperately tried to keep track of each other, even running away to find loved ones. After the Civil War and emancipation, these efforts intensified. Freed slaves posted ads in newspapers and wrote letters — seeking any clue to a family member's whereabouts.

In Help Me to Find My People, author Heather Andrea Williams examines the emotional toll of separation during slavery and of the arduous journey many slaves took to reunite their families.

Williams uses letters, public records, slave narratives and other historical documents to re-create the wrenching scenes of separation that happened on plantations and farms, in marketplaces and on auction blocks.

Md. student achievement growth is tops in the nation, report finds - Maryland Schools Insider - The Washington Post

Md. student achievement growth is tops in the nation, report finds - Maryland Schools Insider - The Washington Post: Maryland students led the nation in growth in reading, science and math performance on a national test, according to a report released this week.

The analysis by a Stanford economist and Harvard education policy expert surveyed student performance on the National Assessment of Educational Progress between 1995 and 2009 to see whether reforms, such as the introduction of school accountability programs or increased spending on education, were making a difference in a yawning international achievement gap.

American students gained the equivalent of one additional year of learning over that time, they estimated. And in top-performing states, including Maryland, students acquired an additional two years of learning in the same period.

William Raspberry dies at 76: Washington Post columnist wrote about social issues including race, poverty - The Washington Post

William Raspberry dies at 76: Washington Post columnist wrote about social issues including race, poverty - The Washington Post: William Raspberry, a Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist for The Washington Post whose fiercely independent views illuminated conflicts concerning education, poverty, crime and race, and who was one of the first black journalists to gain a wide following in the mainstream press, died July 17 at his home in Washington. He was 76.

He had prostate cancer, said his wife, Sondra Raspberry.

Mr. Raspberry wrote an opinion column for The Post for nearly 40 years before retiring in 2005. More than 200 newspapers carried his syndicated columns, which were filtered through the prism of his experience growing up in the segregated South.

His writings were often provocative but seldom predictable. Although he considered himself a liberal, Mr. Raspberry often bucked many of the prevailing pieties of liberal orthodoxy. He favored integration but opposed busing children to achieve racial balance. He supported gun control but — during a time when the District seemed to be a free-fire zone for drug sellers — he could understand the impulse to shoot back.

Economic Mobility For African Americans May Be A Myth, Pew Report Shows

Economic Mobility For African Americans May Be A Myth, Pew Report Shows: The fine line between the American Dream and the African-American Dream is becoming more distinct, according to a recent report by the Pew Charitable Trusts, a nonprofit research organization.

The survey of economic mobility across generations compared the income and wealth of Americans with that of their parents at the same age, and it offered a promising outlook for most Americans -- 84 percent to be exact -- who were shown to have higher incomes than their parents, when adjusted for inflation.

African Americans, however, haven't had the same success, with just 23 percent of blacks raised in the middle class surpassing their parents’ family wealth, compared to 56 percent of whites.

The study's project manager, Erin Currier, said the results aren't far off from what a simliar 2008 survey found. "With this newest update to the data, we can see that not much has changed with a few more years of data added in," Currier told The Huffington Post. "Specifically, African Americans are much more likely than whites to be stuck at the bottom of the income ladder over a generation, and also at the bottom of the wealth ladder," she said. They're also more likely to fall from the middle.

Pride and Prejudice | Mother Jones

Pride and Prejudice | Mother Jones: "Unbranded" is a series of images taken from magazine advertisements targeting a black audience or featuring black subjects, which I digitally manipulated and appropriated. In this work-in-progress project that will ultimately span from 1969 through the present, I have removed all aspects of advertising information, e.g., text, logos, in order to reveal what is being sold. Nothing more has been altered. I believe that in part, advertising's success rests on its ability to reinforce generalizations around race, gender, and ethnicity that can be entertaining, sometimes true, and sometimes horrifying, but which at a core level are a reflection of the way a culture views itself or aspirations. By "Unbranding" advertisements I can literally expose what Roland Barthes refers to as "what-goes-without-saying" in ads, and hopefully encourage viewers to look harder and think deeper about the empire of signs that have become second nature to our experience of life in the modern world.

‘The Voice’ silenced: Britain’s largest black newspaper barred from Olympic Stadium | theGrio

‘The Voice’ silenced: Britain’s largest black newspaper barred from Olympic Stadium | theGrio: Black Britons have expressed outrage that Britain’s longest serving and biggest black newspaper, The Voice, has been denied accreditation to the Olympic Stadium.

In an interview with theGrio, Sports Editor Rodney Hinds says staff at the paper “are stunned by the decision” and the “outpouring of support from our community has been overwhelming.”

The paper’s managing director George Ruddock said “he was extremely disappointed The Voice will not be inside the stadium,” despite the high number of black British athletes on the national team.

Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio faces civil racial profiling suit | The Raw Story

Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio faces civil racial profiling suit | The Raw Story: The self-proclaimed “toughest sheriff in America”, Joe Arpaio, will be called to account in a courtroom this week over long-standing accusations that he is waging an unlawful campaign of discrimination and harassment against Latinos.

Arpaio, the sheriff of Maricopa County, Arizona, will be questioned before a federal judge in Phoenix in a class action lawsuit over allegations that his so-called “crime suppression” sweeps racially profile Latinos and those who look like them rather than target any evidence of criminal activity.

The sheriff, who has endorsed Mitt Romney for president and was in the audience at the televised Republican debate in Arizona, is already the subject of a civil lawsuit brought by the justice department, in a similar but broader case accusing him of widespread civil rights abuses.

UNCF/Merck Grants Awarded To Address Minority STEM Underrepresentation

UNCF/Merck Grants Awarded To Address Minority STEM Underrepresentation: The UNCF/MERCK Science Initiative (UMSI) announced on Monday that it is awarding 37 scholarships and fellowships to African-American students in biological science and engineering disciplines.

Since 1995, the United Negro College Fund (UNCF) and Merck, one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world, have partnered to award scholarships and fellowships to 627 undergraduate, graduate, and postdoctoral students, as a means to address a national problem of the underrepresentation of African-Americans in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math).

According to the National Science Board's report “Science and Engineering Indicators 2012,” U.S. undergraduates are pursuing degrees in the STEM disciplines at a significantly lower rate than in other countries. Only 16 percent of U.S. undergraduates graduate with a natural science and engineering degree, compared to 24 percent in the EU and 44 percent in China.

Report: California Schools Serving Socially Disadvantaged Students Send Too Few to College

Report: California Schools Serving Socially Disadvantaged Students Send Too Few to College: The vast majority of California high schools that serve high numbers of low-income students and students of color do a poor job of sending their students on to college, a new report has found.

“The implications are pretty bad,” said Orville Jackson, senior research analyst at The Education Trust – West and lead author of the report, titled “Repairing the Pipeline: A Look at Gaps in California’s High School to College Transition.”

A major finding of the report is that college-going rates for African-American and Latino ninth-grade students lag behind the rates of White and Asian students by 20 to more than 30 percentage points. Fewer than half of such ninth-graders go to college upon graduation from high school or shortly thereafter, and the college-going rates for low-income students were just as low, the report found

“This is our population. It’s a growing population,” Jackson said of students of color in California. “We’re actually underserving the majority of our population in this state.”

African Union chooses first female leader | The Raw Story

African Union chooses first female leader | The Raw Story: A South African politician has become the first female leader of the African Union (AU), ending months of bitter deadlock at the continental body.

Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, South Africa’s home affairs minister, was elected chair of the African Union Commission on Sunday at a summit of heads of state and government in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

Cheering broke out at the AU’s headquarters as supporters of Dlamini-Zuma, 63, celebrated her victory over the incumbent Jean Ping of Gabon.

“We made it!” a grinning Zimbabwean delegate shouted, reflecting the strong support Dlamini-Zuma’s candidacy received from fellow members of the Southern African Development Community.
The South African president, Jacob Zuma, former husband of the winning candidate, emerged from the conference hall where the voting had taken place to announce that “Africa is happy!” Her victory would empower women, he added.

Gordon Parks's Alternative Civil Rights Photographs - NYTimes.com

Gordon Parks's Alternative Civil Rights Photographs - NYTimes.com: Gordon Parks’s portrait of Mr. and Mrs. Albert Thornton Sr., an older black couple in their Mobile, Ala., home in 1956, appears to have little in common with the images we have come to associate with civil rights photography.

It is in color, unlike most photographs of the movement. Its subject matter was neither newsworthy nor historic, unlike more widely published journalistic images of the racial murders, police brutality, demonstrations and boycotts that characterized the epic battle for racial justice and equality.

... Throughout a century of oppression, photography served as a ray of light for black Americans, illuminating the humanity, beauty and achievements long hidden in the culture at large. By allowing a people to record and celebrate the affirmative aspects of their lives, the camera helped to countermand the toxic effects of stereotypes on their self-esteem.

Morgan State Hosts White House Meeting on African-American Affairs

Morgan State Hosts White House Meeting on African-American Affairs: About 150 people gathered at Morgan State University Friday to pose questions, concerns and complaints at a contingent of Obama administration officials promoting the president’s “An America Built to Last” platform.

The event—the fourth and final “White House African American Regional Policy Forum”— vacillated in tone between the Administration’s buoyant promotion and subdued skepticism from audience members.

On the one hand, administration officials touted a number of initiatives—from boosting Pell grants to enabling mortgage modifications—that they contend staved off worse economic woes than what they say would have otherwise befallen many African-Americans in the aftermath of the recession that commenced toward the tail end of the Bush administration.

Why isn’t the Cosby Show for a new generation on network TV? - The Washington Post

Why isn’t the Cosby Show for a new generation on network TV? - The Washington Post: Today, the only way some Americans get insight into what life is like for a black family is by watching snippets of the Obamas on the nightly news. No English-language network program centers around a black family — or an Asian or Hispanic family either — except Fox’s “The Cleveland Show.” And that’s animated.

I never thought that I’d have to search so hard on television to find a family that looks like the one I grew up in. My TV experience began in the age in which “The Cosby Show” was the king of television viewing among black and white families alike. Twenty years later, after the Huxtables went off the air, not one show on any of the major networks can even remotely challenge its place as the standard of black family life.

How Did Ex-Slave's Letter To Master Come To Be?

How Did Ex-Slave's Letter To Master Come To Be?: The photograph, scratched and undated, is captioned "Brother Jordan Anderson." He is a middle-aged black man with a long beard and a righteous stare, as if he were a preacher locking eyes with a sinner, or a judge about to dispatch a thief to the gallows.

Anderson was a former slave who was freed from a Tennessee plantation by Union troops in 1864 and spent his remaining 40 years in Ohio. He lived quietly and likely would have been forgotten, if not for a remarkable letter to his former master published in a Cincinnati newspaper shortly after the Civil War.

Treasured as a social document, praised as a masterpiece of satire, Anderson's letter has been anthologized and published all over the world. Historians teach it, and the letter turns up occasionally on a blog or on Facebook. Humorist Andy Borowitz read the letter recently and called it, in an email to The Associated Press, "something Twain would have been proud to have written."

Atty: Pa. beating case no race-bias bellwether | ajc.com

Atty: Pa. beating case no race-bias bellwether | ajc.com: ...But a federal trial that begins Monday in a police brutality lawsuit isn't the latest chapter on how Pittsburgh officers treat young black men — even though all three officers accused of wrongfully arresting and beating the 20-year-old black plaintiff, Jordan Miles, are white, his attorney said.

"I don't think this case is the kind of case that's a bellwether," said Miles' attorney J. Kerrington Lewis. "I think this is the kind of case that happens when you have policemen who are cutting corners and are actually rogue-type cops."

Jordan Miles was an 18-year-old violist at the city's performing arts high school when he was beaten and arrested walking to his grandmother's house in his crime-ridden neighborhood the night of Jan. 12, 2010. Officers Richard Ewing, Michael Saldutte and David Sisak contend Miles was acting suspiciously and they thought a bulge in his coat pocket was a gun. They later said they found only a soda bottle.

KKK Banner Found Outside Rockingham County Schools Administration Building (PHOTO)

KKK Banner Found Outside Rockingham County Schools Administration Building (PHOTO): A racially offensive banner referencing the Ku Klux Klan was found outside the Rockingham County Schools administration building in Eden, N.C., Wednesday morning, WFMY-TV reports.

Based on a picture of the banner obtained from the Rockingham County Sheriff's Office, the sign's text reads "We will get our monument back and no N----- loving City Council will stop us! The REAL KKK does not play!"

According to the Greensboro News & Record, the monument in question was knocked down by a driver last year. In May, the North Carolina United Daughters of the Confederacy got the green light to erect a new statue in the city-owned cemetery for Confederate soldiers. But the Historic Preservation Action Committee, however, wanted the statue fixed and moved to a downtown Reidsville location.

Wet Seal Looked For Workers With 'Blond Hair And Blue Eyes,' Ex-Employees Claim

Wet Seal Looked For Workers With 'Blond Hair And Blue Eyes,' Ex-Employees Claim: Wet Seal Inc has been sued by three former employees who accused it of discriminating against black store managers because they did not fit the image the U.S. retailer, which sells clothes for young women, wanted to convey.

According to a complaint filed Thursday in a federal court in Santa Ana, California, "the most senior executives" of Wet Seal adopted a "policy and practice" of discriminating against black store managers at Wet Seal and Arden B stores from at least 2008 because those workers did not fit its "brand image."

Wet Seal in a statement said it is an equal opportunity employer with a diverse workforce.

"We deny any and all allegations of race discrimination and will vigorously defend this matter," the company said.

The Wet Seal complaint quotes, among others, a senior vice president of store operations who allegedly emailed subordinates on March 3, 2009, after touring 20 stores in the Philadelphia area and Maryland, writing: "Store teams - need diversity/African American dominate - huge issue."

Trial of Soccer Star Terry Revolves Around Foul Language - NYTimes.com

Trial of Soccer Star Terry Revolves Around Foul Language - NYTimes.com: LONDON — When a soccer player named Anton Ferdinand took the stand in the trial of John Terry, an opposing player who is accused of racially abusing him in a game last year, he seemed embarrassed to tell the court what he himself had said first.

“Please do not worry about the language,” the prosecutor, Duncan Penny, told Mr. Ferdinand. “What did you call Mr. Terry?” 

There followed the first of many paint-peeling profanities, as Mr. Ferdinand, 27, and then Mr. Terry, 31, tried to lay out for the bemused spectators at London Magistrates’ Court what constitutes acceptable on-field chat in a typical professional soccer game. 

If it was an odd spectacle, hearing such language in a sober British courtroom full of sober British lawyers, so was this an odd case, one seemingly without precedent in British soccer history. Mr. Terry, captain of the Premier League team Chelsea, and captain of the England national team before his arrest, is charged with committing a racially aggravated public order offense — using a racial slur — against Mr. Ferdinand, a defender for Queens Park Rangers, in a game last October.

Wells Fargo To Pay Millions To Settle Accusations Of Racial Discrimination

Wells Fargo To Pay Millions To Settle Accusations Of Racial Discrimination: Wells Fargo Bank will pay at least $175 million to settle accusations that it discriminated against African-American and Hispanic borrowers in violation of fair-lending laws, the Justice Department announced Thursday.

Wells Fargo, the nation's largest residential home mortgage originator, allegedly engaged in a pattern or practice of discrimination against qualified African-American and Hispanic borrowers from 2004 through 2009.

At a news conference, Deputy Attorney General James Cole said the bank's discriminatory lending practices resulted in more than 34,000 African-American and Hispanic borrowers in 36 states and the District of Columbia paying higher rates for loans solely because of the color of their skin.

Cole said that with the settlement, the second largest of its kind in history, the government will ensure that borrowers hit hard by the housing crisis will have an opportunity to access homeownership.

How Stereotypes Can Drive Women To Quit Science : NPR

How Stereotypes Can Drive Women To Quit Science : NPR: Walk into any tech company or university math department, and you'll likely see a gender disparity: Fewer women than men seem to go into fields involving science, engineering, technology and mathematics.

Over the years, educators, recruiters and government authorities have bemoaned the gender gap and warned that it can have dire consequences for American competitiveness and continued technological dominance.

It isn't just that fewer women choose to go into these fields. Even when they go into these fields and are successful, women are more likely than men to quit.

"They tend to drop out at higher rates than their male peers," said Toni Schmader, a psychologist at the University of British Columbia. "As women enter into careers, the levels of advancement aren't as steep for women as for men.

Study: Native Americans came to the New World in three waves – USATODAY.com

Study: Native Americans came to the New World in three waves – USATODAY.com: Native Americans streamed into the New World in at least three waves of migration starting more than 15,000 years ago, a gene study released Wednesday suggests.

North and South America were totally empty of people until the first arrivals from Siberia crossed a land bridge into Alaska, spreading in a few thousand years to the tip of South America. The genetic study may help settle a debate between a long-held view that the populating of the continents came as one event instead of the more recently supported notion, backed by this study in the journal Nature, that the migration happened in three distinct waves. 

"Our study makes clear that mixing of these three ancient populations is the story of Native American arrival," says geneticist David Reich of Harvard Medical School, lead author of the study.

ACLU alleges Michigan school district violated students’ ‘right to learn to read’ - The Washington Post

ACLU alleges Michigan school district violated students’ ‘right to learn to read’ - The Washington Post: In the first case of its kind, the American Civil Liberties Union is charging that the state of Michigan and a Detroit area school district have failed to adequately educate children, violating their “right to learn to read” under an obscure state law.

The ACLU class-action lawsuit, to be filed Thursday, says hundreds of students in the Highland Park School District are functionally illiterate.

“None of those adults charged with the care of these children . . . have done their jobs,” said Kary L. Moss, executive director of the ACLU of Michigan. “The Highland Park School District is among the lowest-performing districts in the nation, graduating class after class of children who are not literate. Our lawsuit . . . says that if education is to mean anything, it means that children have a right to learn to read.”

- The Washington Post

- The Washington Post: Charles E. Davis, 63, hustled down Constitution Avenue on Wednesday, perspiration beaded on his face and passing out fliers while every so often joining in with the protesters he was trailing and chanting, “Our City! Our Jobs!”

He was one of hundreds of people demonstrating around the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture construction site between 14th and 15th streets NW and demanding fair-hiring practices from Clark Construction.

The protesters, sponsored by D.C. Jobs or Else, have accused the Bethesda-based company of not doing enough to hire local residents, specifically minority-owned businesses. Clark is the largest construction contractor for the District.

Research Initiative to Examine Asian American and Pacific Islander Student Success

Research Initiative to Examine Asian American and Pacific Islander Student Success: The Asian and Pacific Islander American Scholarship Fund and the National Commission on Asian-American and Pacific Islander Research in Education (CARE) have secured $2 million in foundation grants to fund one of the largest research projects to explore Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) college student success.

The funding announcement came late last month during the Asian and Pacific Islander American Scholarship Fund (APIASF) third annual education summit in Washington D.C. More than 200 people attended, including college and university presidents, scholars, and foundation leaders. APIASF and CARE announced the Partnership for Equality in Education through Research (PEER) project, a three-year $2 million initiative funded by The Kresge Foundation, USA Funds, and The Walmart Foundation.

NAACP Convention To Tackle New Voting Laws

NAACP Convention To Tackle New Voting Laws: The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People says its newest battle is really an old one.

This year's NAACP national convention, which kicks off this weekend in Houston, is focusing on voter participation and the civil rights organization's efforts to fight what it sees as restrictive voting laws that have been passed by various states the last few years.

Between 6,000 and 7,000 members are expected to attend the group's 103rd convention. Vice President Joe Biden, Attorney General Eric Holder and Mitt Romney, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, are among the scheduled speakers.

The theme of the convention, which starts Saturday and runs through July 12, is "NAACP: Your Power, Your Decision - Vote." NAACP officials said their main priority this year is making sure that everyone, regardless of race, creed or economic status, will have the right to vote during this fall's elections.

Texas To Test Voting Rights Act In U.S. District Court

Texas To Test Voting Rights Act In U.S. District Court: The Voting Rights Act - a cherished safeguard for minority voters since 1965 - has been under siege for two years and this week faces one of its toughest tests on an apparent path to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Twenty-five hours of argument, starting on Monday and spread over five days, will help the judges of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia decide whether Texas can require voters to present a photo identification at the polls.

Formulated at a time of racial turmoil, the Voting Rights Act passed 77-19 in the U.S. Senate and 333-85 in the House of Representatives. The votes transcended party lines to protect black voters of all political ideals.

Ever since, it has served as the U.S. government's chief check on the fairness of election rules imposed by local governments.

'Endgame: AIDS In Black America' Explains Origins Of Crisis, Looks For End In Sight (VIDEO, LIVE CHAT)

'Endgame: AIDS In Black America' Explains Origins Of Crisis, Looks For End In Sight (VIDEO, LIVE CHAT): In the time it takes to read this article, someone in the United States will contract HIV and, according to recent statistics, there's a 50 percent chance he or she will be black.

HIV/AIDS is a health crisis that has long since reached epidemic proportions, yet many say racial disparities among those affected by the disease have garnered too little attention.

"The story of HIV in black America is about the private consequences of the politics of race," filmmaker Renata Simone says. Her work on the subject spans some 20 years, from the first national series on HIV in 1989, "The AIDS Quarterly with Peter Jennings," to an edition of the PBS network's "Frontline" called "ENDGAME: AIDS in Black America," airing Tuesday night.

First a noose, now a swastika found on Davis school campuses - latimes.com

First a noose, now a swastika found on Davis school campuses - latimes.com:  Last month, a hangman's noose was found hanging from a goalpost on the Davis High School football field. Now a second school in Davis is the site of a possible hate incident after a swastika was found burned on a junior high campus.

The symbol was charred on some picnic tables at Holmes Junior High. Police say the incident could have occurred anytime between Friday and Monday.

The noose incident prompted a heated community meeting over the prominence of reported hate crimes in Davis over the years.

Police said they had not collected any evidence that suggested the swastika incident was related to the noose that was found. No suspects have been identified, but police are still investigating.

Experts: Expanding Age Gap between Whites and Minorities May Increase U.S. Racial Divide

Experts: Expanding Age Gap between Whites and Minorities May Increase U.S. Racial Divide: A generation gap in several states between older Whites and younger Latinos and African-Americans has race relations experts concerned that age differences in the population are influencing spending and public policy in areas such as education, transportation, immigration and infrastructure.

As the United States rapidly advances toward having a majority-minority population, Whites continue to grow older, while non-Whites are increasingly younger. Evidence is mounting that what has been considered a racial divide in the country is also crystallizing into a generational divide.

Newly-released U.S. Census data demonstrate a rapidly widening racial age gap. The median age for white Americans is 41, but is 32 for Blacks, 31.6 for Asians and 27 for Latinos. Across the country, 80 percent of senior citizens are White, while nearly half of the nation’s youth are of color. Such significant age disparities, some experts on race relations say, may be having far-reaching implications on resources invested in programs and areas benefiting younger generations.

Targeting Blacks, Latinos for College Success: No Man Left Behind

Targeting Blacks, Latinos for College Success: No Man Left Behind: This winter, Jacobbie Watts, a young man from Lexington, Ky., enrolled at the College of New Rochelle School of New Resources to study business and education. “I want to get a ‘good’ job,” he said enthusiastically. “I have worked since graduation from high school, but only in low-paying jobs where I could not see a future beyond the position that I was in. Getting a college education means better living, success, higher self-esteem and probably relieves a little stress.”

Watts joins the ranks of hundreds of Black and Latino men who enrolled in college this term. Many are aware there will be challenges, but many of those who find those challenges daunting will also find supportive programs to help them reach their goals.

In Jasper, Texas, a political battle inflames racial scars - latimes.com

In Jasper, Texas, a political battle inflames racial scars - latimes.com: Reporting from Jasper, Texas—
On June 11, just before the City Council fired this town's first African American police chief, the Rev. John D. Hardin addressed the packed council chambers, blacks sitting on one side, whites on the other.

Hardin, the 82-year-old pastor of the black Mount Olive Missionary Baptist Church, paraphrased lyrics from an old song by Texas country legends Willie Nelson and Waylon Jennings, "Just to Satisfy You":

Somebody's gonna get hurt before we're through,

And don't be surprised

If that somebody is you.

It wasn't so much a warning as a plea for this East Texas logging town to avoid racial conflict.

For black Americans, financial damage from subprime implosion is likely to last - The Washington Post

For black Americans, financial damage from subprime implosion is likely to last - The Washington Post: The implosion of the subprime lending market has left a scar on the finances of black Americans — one that not only has wiped out a generation of economic progress but could leave them at a financial disadvantage for decades.

At issue are the largely invisible but profoundly influential three-digit credit scores that help determine who can buy a car, finance a college education or own a home. The scores are based on consumers’ financial history and suffer when they fall behind on their bills.

For blacks, the picture since the recession has been particularly grim. They disproportionately held subprime mortgages during the housing boom and are facing foreclosure in outsize numbers. That is raising fears among consumer advocates, academics and federal regulators that the credit scores of black Americans have been systematically damaged, haunting their financial futures.

Land-grant College Anniversary Celebration Includes Cultural Dimension

Land-grant College Anniversary Celebration Includes Cultural Dimension: Considering the steel pan drum originated in Trinidad and Tobago, few people associate the state of West Virginia with steel drum bands. However, the West Virginia University steel drum ensemble has received standing ovations following daily performances at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival in Washington, D.C., over the past week and a half.

Led by Dr. Michael Vercelli, director of the World Music Performance Center at West Virginia University (WVU), the band has played a wide variety of songs, from traditional Trinidadian tunes to "The Star-Spangled Banner" to even a cover of "On the Floor" by Jennifer Lopez.

“[The West Virginians are] representing a musical style and culture that isn't their own, but it's something that they've embraced,” says Cristina Diaz-Carrera, program coordinator of the Campus and Community section at this year’s Smithsonian festival. “I think this is what the festival is all about—exploring cultural boundaries."

A Prescription for Diversity among Medical Doctors

A Prescription for Diversity among Medical Doctors: Former U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Louis Sullivan is all too familiar with the myriad of challenges plaguing the medical profession.

For one, he says, the nation’s longstanding critical shortage of primary care physicians lingers on. In addition, he notes that, although 30 percent of Americans are African-American, Latino or Native American, those populations now make up less than 10 percent of those working as physicians and dentists.

Sullivan hopes his newly-launched initiative will help address those issues in Ohio and create a model that may be replicated nationwide.

The Education for Service model is a key element in the partnership between Northeast Ohio Medical University (NEOMED) and Cleveland State University (CSU). The initiative aims to encourage minorities to become primary care doctors working in underserved Northeast Ohio neighborhoods.

AIDS In Black America: A Public Health Crisis : NPR

AIDS In Black America: A Public Health Crisis : NPR: Of the more than 1 million people in the U.S. infected with HIV, nearly half are black men, women and children — even though blacks make up about 13 percent of the population. AIDS is the primary killer of African-Americans ages 19 to 44, and the mortality rate is 10 times higher for black Americans than for whites.

A new Frontline documentary, Endgame: AIDS in Black America, explores why the HIV epidemic is so much more prevalent in the African-American community than among whites. The film is produced, written and directed by Renata Simone, whose series The Age of AIDS appeared on Frontline in 2006.

On Thursday's Fresh Air, Simone is joined by Robert Fullilove, a professor of clinical sociomedical studies at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health, and chairman of the HIV/AIDS advisory committee at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Unemployment rises among black Americans, figures show | Business | guardian.co.uk

Unemployment rises among black Americans, figures show | Business | guardian.co.uk: One of the most jarring figures in the labour statistics is a rise in unemployment among African Americans, from 13.6% to 14.4%, double the rate for the white population.

The proportion of white Americans out of work was static at 7.4%, and while the jobless rate for Latinos remained high at 11%, it too was unchanged from May.

Algernon Austin, the director of the race, ethnicity and economy programme at the Economic Policy Institute, said the figure for black Americans had been hovering at or above 14% for the past three years, even with a 'recovery' supposedly under way. "It is an extremely high rate to be stuck at," Austin said. "That is the really important news."

Alabama pastors conference invites only ‘white Christians’ | The Raw Story

Alabama pastors conference invites only ‘white Christians’ | The Raw Story: A group of pastors in Alabama says that they are not racist even though only “white Christians” were invited to their three-day conference, which will include a cross burning and be attended by Ku Klux Klan (KKK) members.

Residents in Guin, Alabama became outraged earlier this week after they noticed flyers posted around the town that read, “Annual Pastors Conference All White Christians Invited.” The groups Christian Identity Ministries and the Church of God’s Chosen told WIAT that they just didn’t have the “facilities” to accommodate non-whites.

“We’re seldom ever have been invited to black Muslim events and we never have been invited to NAACP events and we never have been invited to join Jewish synagogues events and stuff,” Christian Identity Ministries Pastor William J. Collier explained.

Why 'illegal immigrant' is a slur - CNN.com

Why 'illegal immigrant' is a slur - CNN.com: Last month's Supreme Court decision in the landmark Arizona immigration case was groundbreaking for what it omitted: the words "illegal immigrants" and "illegal aliens," except when quoting other sources. The court's nonjudgmental language established a humanistic approach to our current restructuring of immigration policy.

When you label someone an "illegal alien" or "illegal immigrant" or just plain "illegal," you are effectively saying the individual, as opposed to the actions the person has taken, is unlawful. The terms imply the very existence of an unauthorized migrant in America is criminal.

In this country, there is still a presumption of innocence that requires a jury to convict someone of a crime. If you don't pay your taxes, are you an illegal? What if you get a speeding ticket? A murder conviction? No. You're still not an illegal. Even alleged terrorists and child molesters aren't labeled illegals.

Have We Learned Our Language Lesson? In Spite of Massachusetts’ Decade-Old English-Only Law, Two-Way Bilingual Programs Demonstrate Promise and Enjoy Enduring Popularity � One Nation

Have We Learned Our Language Lesson? In Spite of Massachusetts’ Decade-Old English-Only Law, Two-Way Bilingual Programs Demonstrate Promise and Enjoy Enduring Popularity  One Nation: “We put the language majority kids in the position where they have to learn something from the Spanish speaking kids. And having students integrated together and being able to see and negotiate that…is at the basis of how you build a socially connected or interconnected group of students, and school community and society.” – Deborah Sercombe, principal, the Amigos School in Cambridge, Massachusetts

A decade ago, Massachusetts implemented a contentious English-only law that effectively banned bilingual education in its public schools. Largely overlooked in the political battle, though, was that this law did not apply to the several “two-way” bilingual/dual immersion schools that bring children from distinct linguistic backgrounds together to learn in two languages. Ten years later, these culturally and linguistically integrated dual immersion schools provide a hopeful contrast to a largely disappointing “English-only” mandate. Dual immersion schools enjoy wide popularity, academic success and provide a promising educational model in an increasingly diverse state and nation.

Not Your Father’s Suburb: Race and Rectitude in a Changing Minnesota Community � One Nation

Not Your Father’s Suburb: Race and Rectitude in a Changing Minnesota Community  One Nation: “You don’t sign up for these jobs to do nothing. You sign up for them to do what you think is the best thing for kids and their educations.” – Melissa Krull, former superintendent, Eden Prairie Public Schools

The otherwise quiet, uneventful city-suburb of Eden Prairie, erupted last year after educators proposed a new school assignment map designed to reduce racial and economic segregation. This former farming community quickly became the poster child for the racially and culturally shifting suburban landscape and a harbinger of storms to come. What differentiates Eden Prairie from the dozens, if not hundreds, of places similarly situated, is that educators here refused to cave under pressure from an organized, privileged class who saw no reason to mess with a “neighborhood school” organization that incorporated economic and racial segregation into its design. In thisStory from the Field, we learn that courage and flexibility may be the qualities educators in the changing American suburb need most of all.

Commentary: Graduate Diversity Officers Play Key Role in Helping STEM Departments Diversify

Commentary: Graduate Diversity Officers Play Key Role in Helping STEM Departments Diversify: I’m honored to have contributed to a piece recently published in the 2012 summer edition of The Review of Higher Education. The article focuses on efforts to diversify graduate education at research-intensive universities across the country. While underrepresented minority students comprise about a quarter (and growing) of the nation’s undergraduate population, just 11 percent of science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) doctoral degrees were granted to minorities in 2009.

Most readers know that building a diverse student body doesn’t happen by accident. And though there is much effort invested in and discussion about undergraduate recruitment and admissions, there is a lesser known group of individuals working to build a diverse student body of entering graduate students: Graduate Diversity Officers.

Campuses under Pressure to Improve Safety, Social Climate for Women

Campuses under Pressure to Improve Safety, Social Climate for Women: In light of several high-profile cases, colleges are being called to a higher level of accountability when it comes to rape and the treatment of women on campus.

“Unfortunately, campus sexual assault is fairly common,” said Holly Kearl, program manager, American Association of University Women (AAUW) Legal Advocacy Fund. “The Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network reports that college-aged women are four times more likely than any other group to face sexual assault.”

“The reasons for this vary from students being new and in unfamiliar environments or maybe being in environments where they can drink for the first time. In many sports and [fraternity settings], there is a strong need to prove manhood,” she noted, adding that campuses are feeling the pressure to respond more quickly and publicly to sensitive issues of sexual assault.

Student Loan Deal Keeps Low Interest Rate Intact

Student Loan Deal Keeps Low Interest Rate Intact: Ending a months-long stalemate that threatened to drive up costs for students, President Obama and Congress agreed to extend for one year the current low 3.4 percent interest rate on subsidized student loans for college.

Without action by July 1, rates would have doubled to 6.8 percent for an estimated 7 million students, adding about $1,000 to the cost of a typical loan.

“Congress listened to students and their families and delivered a bill that stops student loan interest rates from doubling,” said Rich Williams, higher education advocate for US PIRG.

He said the agreement “is another important step in getting rising student loan debt under control.”

Scholar Says Minority Health Has Much to Gain with Affordable Care Act

Scholar Says Minority Health Has Much to Gain with Affordable Care Act: The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to uphold the Affordable Care Act means that many people of color will see expanded access to healthcare, including those in underserved urban communities gaining increased prevention care. In a column for TheGrio.com, Dr. Brian D. Smedley, vice president at the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, notes that under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) minorities, who are more likely to live in segregated and impoverished conditions, can expect to get help with services that reduce health risks.

Smedley writes that by “expanding access to private insurance through state health exchanges, improving access for more people who live in poverty through Medicaid expansions, and other reforms, more than 32 million uninsured Americans will gain coverage. All of these provisions would improve the current state of health care for people of color, who are disproportionately un- and under-insured and who face greater barriers than Whites to receiving high-quality care, even when insured.”

US racial gap in life expectancy reaches new low - Health - Christian Science Monitor - msnbc.com

US racial gap in life expectancy reaches new low - Health - Christian Science Monitor - msnbc.com: The gap in life expectancy between blacks and whites in the United States, long attributed to socioeconomic disparities and a range of other factors, continued its historical decline between 2003 and 2008 and is now the smallest ever, Canadian researchers say in a new report.

The study, which drew on data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and other sources and was published in the June 6 edition of the Journal of the American Medical Association, found an increase in life expectancy for both men and women, black and white.

The researchers from McGill University in Montreal noted a convergence in the rate of deaths from HIV and heart disease as contributing to the narrowing of the life expectancy gap.

However the biggest factor in the narrowing of the gap, the researchers said, was an increase in the number of deaths among whites attributed to prescription drug abuse.