Segregation 2.0: America's school-to-prison pipeline | MSNBC

Segregation 2.0: America's school-to-prison pipeline | MSNBC: In an iconic image painted after the Supreme Court’s historic Brown v. Board of Education decision, Norman Rockwell depicted a solitary black girl, dressed in a crisp white dress, walking to class on what is obviously her first day at a newly desegregated school. What sears the image in our memory are her surroundings: four federal marshals, assigned to protect her as she makes her way through a hostile crowd.

Were the painting done today, it might show law enforcement acting in a very different capacity. Instead of leading a black child safely into school, the image might very well be of police officers escorting a child out. Sixty years after the Brown decision, de facto segregation persists because of a complex web of factors rooted in our nation’s long history of discrimination. But segregation is only one of the issues faced by students of color. Increasingly, minority children are drawn into the so-called school-to-prison pipeline – the phenomenon in which draconian disciplinary policies force students  out of the educational system and into the criminal justice system.

Brazile: 60 years after Brown, integration is falling apart - CNN.com

Brazile: 60 years after Brown, integration is falling apart - CNN.com: (CNN) -- On Saturday, we will commemorate the 60th anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education, the U.S. Supreme Court decision that outlawed school segregation. Across the country, people are reflecting on the current state of educational opportunities for children of color.

In Milwaukee, parents, educators, students and community members are coming together to support educational opportunities for young people, and to challenge the increasing segregation and lack of resources facing young people of color today. I will join them in that celebration.

But Milwaukee is among the most racially and economically segregated major metropolitan regions in the country. It registers the largest discrepancy in employment rates between African-Americans and whites. Wisconsin has the widest gap in test scores between black and white students.

Holder: Subtle Racism Is Greater Threat Than 'Outbursts Of Bigotry' : The Two-Way : NPR

Holder: Subtle Racism Is Greater Threat Than 'Outbursts Of Bigotry' : The Two-Way : NPR: During separate commencement addresses, Attorney General Eric Holder and first lady Michelle Obama delivered a similar message: On this 60th anniversary of the landmark Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education, which desegregated schools, we should acknowledge that progress has been made, but in many ways systematic racism still exists, albeit in a more subtle way that is just as sinister.

The Kansas City Star reports that Obama spoke at the graduating ceremony for five Topeka high schools Friday night. According to the paper, Obama said schools, for example, are still segregated and "too often, those schools aren't equal, especially ones attended by students of color, which too often lag behind with crumbling classrooms and less experienced teachers."

Nostalgia For What's Been Lost Since 'Brown V. Board' : Code Switch : NPR

Nostalgia For What's Been Lost Since 'Brown V. Board' : Code Switch : NPR: Brown v. Board of Education became the law of the land when it struck down de jure segregation in Kansas City, Kan., on May 17, 1954, saying, "We conclude that, in the field of public education, the doctrine of 'separate but equal' has no place. Separate facilities are inherently unequal."

The decision overruled several states' two-tiered system of providing very separate and, usually, inherently unequal schools for white and Negro children. It was a first step in trying to create the level playing field Americans believe they value.

Despite the indignities of being made to live within certain physical parameters and being assigned schools based on the color of their skin, many black Americans who are old enough to recall their segregated childhoods remember some aspect of that time with some fondness.

NAACP selects Cornell William Brooks as president, CEO

NAACP selects Cornell William Brooks as president, CEO: The nation's oldest and largest civil rights organization has selected a longtime housing activist and a minister as its new president and CEO.

An overwhelming majority of the organization's board of directors picked Cornell William Brooks late Friday night during a meeting in Fort Lauderdale, NAACP chairwoman Roslyn Brock told USA TODAY. Brooks replaces former president Benjamin Todd Jealous, who announced his resignation last September, saying that he wanted to spend more time with his family.

In a telephone interview with USA TODAY, Brooks said he plans to "fight to insure voting rights, economic equality, health equity and an end to racial discrimination for all people."

At A New Orleans High School, Marching Band Is A Lifeline For Kids : Code Switch : NPR

At A New Orleans High School, Marching Band Is A Lifeline For Kids : Code Switch : NPR: Next week, in New Orleans, 240 students will graduate from Edna Karr High School, including 16 members of the marching band. The band is considered a rising star in a city that treasures music. To play in Edna Karr High School's band is to be somebody, at least within the hallways of the school. But being in the band doesn't just make you popular; it offers a pathway to college — high stakes for poor kids.

On an afternoon this school year, the buses were late, the horns broken. Like most days, the Edna Karr marching band would play on instruments held together with duct tape.

Before heading to the pep rally to perform, Christopher Herrero, the band's director, led the group in a moment of silent reflection. He bowed his head, standing atop a chair in the band room before the kids — 80 in all. He was 27 years old when school started last August, so young that at times he's mistaken for a student. Still, he's transformed the band, doubling its size since taking over four years ago and making it relevant once again, like it was when he marched for Karr.

Dean Baquet becomes first black executive editor of the New York Times | theGrio

Dean Baquet becomes first black executive editor of the New York Times | theGrio: NEW YORK (AP) — The New York Times on Wednesday announced that executive editor Jill Abramson is being replaced by managing editor Dean Baquet after two and a half years on the job.

The company didn’t give a reason for the change. Abramson and Baquet had both been in their current positions since September 2011.

Baquet, 57, who would be the first African-American to hold the newspaper’s highest editorial position, received a Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting in 1988.

“It is an honor to be asked to lead the only newsroom in the country that is actually better than it was a generation ago, one that approaches the world with wonder and ambition every day,” Baquet said in a statement released by the newspaper.

The move comes amid a continued shift in the Times’ focus, and that of the newspaper industry overall, toward digital products and away from traditional print papers as print circulation and advertising revenue declines.

In its most recent quarter, the Times Co. saw overall advertising revenue rise for the first time in three years, jumping 3 percent to $158.7 million. The company’s print and digital advertising rose compared with the same period a year ago.

Before 'Brown V. Board,' Mendez Fought California's Segregated Schools : Code Switch : NPR

Before 'Brown V. Board,' Mendez Fought California's Segregated Schools : Code Switch : NPR: Sylvia Mendez says the only reason she wanted to go to an all-white school in California's Westminster District in the 1940s was because of its beautiful playground. The school that she and other Latino students were forced to attend didn't have monkey bars or swings.

"I was 9 years old," she says. "I just thought my parents wanted us to go to the nice-looking school."

But her parents, Gonzalo and Felicitas, were fighting for integration. Seven years before the Supreme Court's landmark decision in Brown v. Board of Education, the Mendezes brought a class-action lawsuit with other Latino families against four Orange County school districts that had separate schools for whites and Mexicans. Their case went all the way to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. And in 1947 they won: Segregation in those districts ended, and the rest of the state followed.

Federal Goverment Jeopardizes Navajo Family's Ties To Its Land : Code Switch : NPR

Federal Goverment Jeopardizes Navajo Family's Ties To Its Land : Code Switch : NPR: At 89 years old, Stella Peshlakai Smith shuffles around her Arizona yard in white tennis shoes and a long traditional Navajo skirt. She points to her ceremonial home, called a hogan. "My father made this one [almost 100 years ago]," Smith says. Her modern house sits next door.

Over the past few centuries, families settled on what is now the Wupatki National Monument in Flagstaff, Ariz. The National Park Service says Smith is the only person authorized to live on that land. She was born a year before the land became a national monument and the Park Service has given her special permission to stay.

Her descendants want the right to live there, too, but the Park Service has told them they will have to leave when Smith dies.

Five generations have buried their umbilical cords here, a Navajo tradition that ties them to the land. After the U.S. Army forced thousands of Navajos to walk 400 miles to Fort Sumner in the 1860s, the Peshlakai family settled here.

Artist Kara Walker Draws Us Into Bitter History With Something Sweet : NPR

Artist Kara Walker Draws Us Into Bitter History With Something Sweet : NPR: Kara Walker was barely out of art school when she won a MacArthur Foundation "genius" grant, in 1997. Back then, her early work shocked audiences in part because her murals looked so charming from a distance. Black paper shadow portraits of colonial figures seemed to dance on white gallery walls; but lean in and you'd find your nose pressed up against images of slavery's horrors — mammies, masters, lynchings and sexual violence.

In other words, Walker is used to filling a room. But this spring she was asked to fill a warehouse — the abandoned Domino Sugar factory in New York. It's about to be leveled to make way for condos and offices, but before it goes, Walker was asked to use this cavernous, urban ruin for something special.

Walker took me on a tour of the show a day before it opened. The factory is covered in sugar — it almost looks like insulation or burned cotton candy.

"It's a little bit sticky in some areas ..." she said. "There's sugar caked up in the rafters."

I was so busy trying not to get molasses on my shoes that when I turned
the corner, I was stunned. There in the middle of this dark hall was a
bright, white sphinx. The effect is the opposite of those white-walled
galleries; a dark space and a towering white sculpture made of — what
else? — sugar.

Have we abandoned the goals of Brown v. Board of Education? | PBS NewsHour

Have we abandoned the goals of Brown v. Board of Education? | PBS NewsHour: When 17-year-old Jessica Black walks to school, the neighbors she sees mirror her city’s diversity. There are white, Asian, black and interracial families living on her block, which sits at the Northern tip of Washington, D.C. But at Calvin Coolidge High School, where she is a senior this year, the tableau is different.

“I wish my school was a reflection of my neighborhood, and I feel like it should be,” said Black, who is African-American.

Coolidge is what’s known as a “doubly segregated” school, where an overwhelming majority of the students are both minorities and from low-income households.

A new report from UCLA’s Civil Rights Project says the number of doubly segregated schools like Coolidge has grown in the last 25 years. The report, released just days before the 60th anniversary of the Brown v. Board of Education decision, confirms that schools were at their most diverse in the 1980s, but have since slipped back toward operating as two separate systems: one for low-income black and Latino students and another for more affluent white and Asian students.

Unconscious Stereotypes and Black Males - Higher Education

Unconscious Stereotypes and Black Males - Higher Education: A March 6, 2014, article published in Diverse: Issues In Higher Education featured an activity developed by a community college adviser. It was intended to address stereotypes about minority men.

Attendees wrote lists of negative stereotypes that they discussed afterward. The other exercise consisted of responding to a series of “true or false” statements concerning stereotypes about Black men. The participants hoped the discussions would change the attitudes of the staffs at their institutions.

Similar concerns are evident in President Obama’s My Brother’s Keeper initiative. Participating foundations and businesses are committing substantial resources to change the “often-damaging narrative” about young, minority men.

However, any changes that might be made will not be easy, as the problem goes much deeper than most observers assume. Much of the discrimination that occurs today results from unconscious stereotypes that are not widely understood.

Chiang Remembered as Pioneer Biostatistician of Public Health - Higher Education

Chiang Remembered as Pioneer Biostatistician of Public Health - Higher Education: A memorial service is scheduled for Saturday for a University of California, Berkeley biostatistician and a statistician of public health who was a pioneer and world leader in his field, yet never forgot the modest roots from which his career was born.

Dr. Chin Long Chiang, who had been battling pancreatic cancer, died in April at his Berkeley home about seven months shy of his 100th birthday. A professor emeritus in biostatistics, Chiang taught for 40 years at the university where he’d earned two graduate degrees.

Chiang’s use of statistics helped transform the health care field, impacted analyses of public health issues and underscored why biostatistics deserved to become its own discipline.

Dr. Steve Selvin, a UC Berkeley biostatistics professor, praised Chiang’s work as “highly respected and innovative, opening new vistas from health data.”

Celebrating Brown, Confronting Its Challenging Legacy - Higher Education

Celebrating Brown, Confronting Its Challenging Legacy - Higher Education: he landmark 1954 Brown v. Board ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court to outlaw racial segregation in public schools overturned the doctrine of “separate but equal” in American law and cleared the way for public school desegregation.

Six decades later, the promise of Brown, which envisioned high quality education for American children no matter their race or economic background, remains unfulfilled. In marking the decision’s sixtieth anniversary, scholars and social activists are bringing attention to what’s been described as the “mixed legacy” of Brown and are urging a renewed push for racial and economic equity in American education.

“Brown was a major accomplishment and we should rightfully be proud,” said Dr. Gary Orfield, the co-director of the UCLA-based Civil Rights Project, Thursday in a statement. “But a real celebration should also involve thinking seriously about why the country has turned away from the goal of Brown and accepted deepening polarization and inequality in our schools.”

Wealth Gap Show in Latest NCAA Academic Numbers - Higher Education

Wealth Gap Show in Latest NCAA Academic Numbers - Higher Education: INDIANAPOLIS ― The money gap at Division I colleges is continuing to show up on the playing fields and in the classrooms.

Thirty-six teams will be banned from the 2014-15 postseason because of sub-par scores on the newest Academic Progress Rate, which was released Wednesday. Not one of them comes from a power conference. And of the 17 football and men’s basketball teams, eight are from historically Black colleges and universities. Alabama State and Florida A&M made the list in both sports.

Even the NCAA recognizes the disparity now.

“While the low-resource institutions are overrepresented among the population (postseason bans) we’re talking about today, they’ve made improvement, they’ve made significant improvement as a group,” said Walter Harrison, chairman of the NCAA’s committee on academic performance. “They’re just starting at a lower spot. We’re trying to help them with some advice and some financing.”

The NCAA has awarded approximately $4.3 million over the last three years to low-resource schools, defined as those ranking in the bottom 15 percent in funding. The money is intended to help fund extra tutoring or other academic resources that could help keep student-athletes on track to graduate.

Asian Americans Battle ‘Invisibility’ In Bid to Break Through the Bamboo Ceiling - Higher Education

Asian Americans Battle ‘Invisibility’ In Bid to Break Through the Bamboo Ceiling - Higher Education: By all accounts, Dr. Leslie Wong has had a distinguished career in higher education.

After serving as dean of Evergreen State College and provost and interim president at the University of Southern Colorado, Wong was appointed president of Northern Michigan University, a position he held for eight years. In August 2012, Wong became the 13th president of San Francisco State University, which serves more than 30,000 students.

But Wong’s résumé is also unusual in one respect: he’s an Asian American college president.

While African-Americans make up about 6.2 percent of the nation’s college presidents and Hispanics about 5.9 percent, Asian Americans account for only 1.5 percent. The numbers are equally dismal among other executive positions in the academy, including deans, provosts and vice presidents.

An Expanded Cultural Diversity Booklist: SLJ Readers Respond | School Library Journal

An Expanded Cultural Diversity Booklist: SLJ Readers Respond | School Library Journal: The response to our recent list of Culturally Diverse books has been passionate and engaging. Many SLJ readers pointed out the lack of titles focusing on Native American culture—particularly titles by Native authors and illustrators. Others implored the editors to take a closer look at wonderful new books being published by small and independent presses. Some educators and librarians questioned the organization of the list and mused about the problematic nature of dividing multicultural literature into categories such as “specific,” or “neutral.” Many librarians responded on Twitter and other social media by offering specific title suggestions.

Below is an expanded list based on those suggestions as well as favorite new titles selected by Betsy Bird, K.T. Horning, the editors at the Horn Book, and other experts in the field. (Annotations are excerpted from SLJ reviews, except where noted.)

We encourage our readers to continue to post great title recommendations in the comments section.

Culturally Diverse Books Selected by SLJ’s Review Editors | School Library Journal

Culturally Diverse Books Selected by SLJ’s Review Editors | School Library Journal: In her groundbreaking Shadow and Substance: Afro-American Experience in Contemporary Children’s Literature (NCTE, 1982), Rudine Sims Bishop first articulated a concept of multicultural literature that would become the framework by which generations of librarians and educators would think about books for children. She emphasized the critical importance of multicultural literature for children and used the metaphor of “windows and mirrors” to explain the ways in which children experience other cultures and see their own culture reflected and validated through the books they read. She later went on to develop several categories of multicultural literature: “culturally specific,” “generically American,” and “culturally neutral.”

Recent conversations on blogs, listservs, and other social media—as well as alarming new statistics on the state of multicultural literature for children—have underscored the continuing need for books that reflect the growing diversity of an increasingly global society. The debate over which kinds of multicultural literature are best or most needed has also been reignited.

Children’s Books: Still an All-White World? | School Library Jour

Children’s Books: Still an All-White World? | School Library Jour: On March 15, 2014, the New York Times published two op-ed pieces, one by author Walter Dean Myers and the other by his son, author-illustrator Christopher Myers, both asking, “Where are the people of color in children’s books?” It’s not the first time the question has been asked. It’s not even the first time Walter Dean Myers, a former National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature, has asked it. Almost 30 years earlier, he had raised the same issue in an op-ed piece, “I Actually Thought We Would Revolutionize the Industry,” published in the Times on November 9, 1986.

Twenty years earlier, Nancy Larrick had posed the same question in the September 11, 1965 issue of The Saturday Review. Her article, “The All-White World of Children’s Books,” outlined the problem by providing statistics. Larrick, an educator and founder of the International Reading Association, examined 5,206 children’s books produced by 63 publishers from 1962 through 1964, and found that only 349 of them, or 6.4 percent, included one or more blacks in the illustrations. Of these, 60 percent were set outside the United States or took place before World War II, which meant that only four-fifths of one percent of the children’s trade books published in the U.S. from 1962 to 1964 were about contemporary African Americans.

It’s Not Just in the Numbers: Making Campus Diversity Work Post-Schuette - Higher Education

It’s Not Just in the Numbers: Making Campus Diversity Work Post-Schuette - Higher Education: he April 22 U.S. Supreme Court ruling on Schuette v. Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action is the court’s latest ruling to address use of race in college admissions. Unlike previous high-profile cases — namely, Fisher v. University of Texas, Grutter and Gratz v. Bollinger, and Regents of the University of California v. Bakke — the Schuette case centered not on the legality of race-conscious admissions policies but rather on the constitutionality of voter-approved bans of this practice. The court found that Michigan’s 2006 ban is constitutional.

While the Schuette ruling is disappointing, it does affirm the ability of institutions in the vast majority of states to decide for themselves whether race should be a consideration in admissions decisions — and the Department of Education last week sent that point home. It does not, however, protect other states from similar campaigns to ban the practice, as recently explicated by researcher Matt Gaertner. So the clock is ticking.

Ron Stallworth, Police Sergeant, Chronicles His Experience As Undercover KKK Member

Ron Stallworth, Police Sergeant, Chronicles His Experience As Undercover KKK Member: Despite the Ku Klux Klan's haunting history, one black police sergeant risked his life to go undercover as a "Black Klansman."

In 1979, Colorado Springs police investigator Ron Stallworth called the number from KKK newspaper ad on a whim in the hopes of gathering information. What he didn't expect was to be offered a membership, and eventually an invitation to lead the local KKK chapter for being perceived as a "loyal and dedicated" member of the notorious organization.

Throughout his year operating as an undercover member, Stallworth corresponded with the Klan leadership regularly on the phone -- which included speaking with former grand wizard, David Duke. When his physical presence was required, he would send a fellow detective in his place, a friend and narcotic detective Stallworth said he liked to call "the white Ron Stallworth."

Recall That Ice Cream Truck Song? We Have Unpleasant News For You : Code Switch : NPR

Recall That Ice Cream Truck Song? We Have Unpleasant News For You : Code Switch : NPR: EDITOR'S NOTE: This article is about a virulently racist song. Read no further if you wish to avoid racist imagery and slurs.

"Nigger Love A Watermelon Ha! Ha! Ha!" merits the distinction of the most racist song title in America. Released in March 1916 by Columbia Records, it was written by actor Harry C. Browne and played on the familiar depiction of black people as mindless beasts of burden greedily devouring slices of watermelon.

I came across this gem while researching racial stereotypes. I was a bit conflicted on whether the song warranted a listen. Admittedly, though, beneath my righteous indignation, I was rather curious about how century-old, overt racism sounded and slightly amused by the farcical title. When I started the song, the music that tumbled from the speakers was that of the ever-recognizable jingle of the ice cream truck. (For the record, not all ice cream trucks play this same song, but a great many of them do.)

Johnson C. Smith Becomes First HBCU to Admit a Latino Fraternity - Higher Education

Johnson C. Smith Becomes First HBCU to Admit a Latino Fraternity - Higher Education: It may have been just a matter of time. As historically Black colleges and universities promote diversity by recruiting students from various racial and cultural backgrounds, at some point these students would want to establish their own social organizations.

At Johnson C. Smith University, an HBCU in Charlotte, N.C., six Latino students decided the time was right to organize a fraternity. So they began a chapter of Lambda Theta Phi Latin Fraternity, which was recently accepted by the university, making JCSU the first HBCU to admit a nationally recognized Latino fraternity to its campus.

The young men, who are all pursuing degrees in science, engineering and math disciplines, say their common academic pursuits led them to bond and eventually to discuss the idea of creating a fraternity.

Asian American Heritage Month - Higher Education

Asian American Heritage Month - Higher Education: In this edition, Diverse focuses on Asian-Pacific American Heritage Month and examines the underrepresentation of Asian Americans in higher education leadership, as well as the origins of the Asian ‘model minority’ myth. The edition also looks at the creative ways in which some colleges and universities are dealing with the aftermath of Parent Plus Loan (PPL) issues.

In our Spectrum section, we profile James Madison University assistant professor of psychology Dr. Matthew Lee. As a graduate student, Lee developed programs to empower Asian American students. Now in his sixth year at JMU, he heads the Cultural and Racial Diversity Studies Lab which examines areas related to racism, sexism and transphobia.

It’s Not Just in the Numbers: Making Campus Diversity Work Post-Schuette - Higher Education

It’s Not Just in the Numbers: Making Campus Diversity Work Post-Schuette - Higher Education: The April 22 U.S. Supreme Court ruling on Schuette v. Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action is the court’s latest ruling to address use of race in college admissions. Unlike previous high-profile cases — namely, Fisher v. University of Texas, Grutter and Gratz v. Bollinger, and Regents of the University of California v. Bakke — the Schuette case centered not on the legality of race-conscious admissions policies but rather on the constitutionality of voter-approved bans of this practice. The court found that Michigan’s 2006 ban is constitutional.

While the Schuette ruling is disappointing, it does affirm the ability of institutions in the vast majority of states to decide for themselves whether race should be a consideration in admissions decisions — and the Department of Education last week sent that point home. It does not, however, protect other states from similar campaigns to ban the practice, as recently explicated by researcher Matt Gaertner. So the clock is ticking.

NCAA Golf Pioneer Catana Starks’ Story Finally Gets Top Billing - Higher Education

NCAA Golf Pioneer Catana Starks’ Story Finally Gets Top Billing - Higher Education: Catana Starks knows all about beating the odds. Twenty-eight years ago, she was given the task of building — from scratch — the men’s golf program at Tennessee State University. In spite of meager beginnings, Starks persevered and became the first African-American woman to coach an NCAA Division I men’s golf team.

Starks’ inspiring success story is now on the big screen. From the Rough is the cinematic portrayal of her career at Tennessee State University (TSU). The film debuted in select theaters on April 25. It features Oscar nominee Taraji P. Henson in the lead role as the iconic coach. The cast also includes the late Michael Clarke Duncan (The Green Mile), Tom Felton (the Harry Potter film series), Henry Simmons (NYPD Blue TV series) and LeToya Luckett (Preacher’s Kid, Single Ladies TV series).

It’s Starks’ hope that the film sends a resounding message to viewers — that dreams come true for those who diligently pursue their goals.

As Study Abroad Becomes More Crucial, Few Low-Income Students Go - Higher Education

As Study Abroad Becomes More Crucial, Few Low-Income Students Go - Higher Education: TOKYO — When Ricardo Parras flew across the Pacific to study in Japan, the turbulence he encountered was of the emotional variety.

Having grown up in predominantly Hispanic Los Banos, Calif., Parras missed being surrounded by Spanish-speakers from his own culture. He also missed his relatives, some of whom could not understand why he chose to travel more than 5,000 miles to work toward his college degree.

Samantha Rios-Arizala had to struggle financially to afford the cost of studying in Tokyo, but believes the experience will enrich her life enough to make the extra effort worthwhile.

“In Mexican culture, family is very important,” said Parras, who is studying international business at Temple University’s campus in Tokyo. “The fact that I am so far away hurts them and it hurts me. But it’s for my future, and they understand that.”

From Classroom to Community, Professor Advocates for Social Justice - Higher Education

From Classroom to Community, Professor Advocates for Social Justice - Higher Education: Dr. Matthew Lee’s career path in academia has been largely influenced by what he calls “a deep sense of social justice.”

As an assistant professor of psychology at James Madison University, Lee heads the Cultural and Racial Diversity Studies Lab, which examines areas related to racism, sexism and transphobia, or the fear or hatred against the transgender community.

Lee, who has a Ph.D. in clinical/community psychology from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, specifically focuses on the psychology of minority status and the effects of diversity-related coursework on improving attitudes among students. He discusses his cutting-edge scholarship and research not just as an academician, but as an activist.

Report: Foreign Ph.D. Graduates Maintain Steady Presence in U.S. Workforce - Higher Education

Report: Foreign Ph.D. Graduates Maintain Steady Presence in U.S. Workforce - Higher Education: There’s little doubt that immigrant Ph.D. graduates contribute mightily to the global preeminence of U.S. science and engineering research and innovation. A new study reveals that a significant proportion of immigrant Ph.D. recipients in science and engineering fields are finding opportunity and remaining in the U.S. for five years and longer following the completion of graduate school.

In “Stay Rates of Foreign Doctorate Recipients from U.S. Universities, 2011,” a report produced by the Oak Ridge Institute for Science Education (ORISE), the research shows that nearly two-thirds of foreign doctorates are continuing to stay in the United States 10 years after earning their Ph.D. The 2011 stay rate for all foreign science and engineering doctorate recipients, including those on permanent visas at graduation, was 68 percent for those graduating five years earlier and 65 percent for those graduating 10 years earlier. For those science and engineering graduates earning their Ph.D. in 1995, the 16-year stay rate was 61 percent.

60 years after Brown vs. Board of Ed, pockets of segregation remain in Md. schools - baltimoresun.com

60 years after Brown vs. Board of Ed, pockets of segregation remain in Md. schools - baltimoresun.com: At 16, Dorant Wells has experienced the complexities of what Brown v. Board of Education, the landmark school desegregation ruling, has wrought: He attended a middle school full of students of different colors and nationalities, but one where he sometimes felt there were lower expectations for black students.

Now at his nearly all African-American high school, Milford Mill Academy in Baltimore County, he sees value in the special character of the school, while acknowledging he may be less prepared to enter a diverse world. "It keeps us united. We may not agree on everything, but we have each other," said Dorant.

Sixty years after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that racial segregation in 21 states was unconstitutional, diversity is not guaranteed in Maryland's schools. Ten percent of the schools in Maryland have a high percentage of black students, nearly all of them in Baltimore City and Prince George's County, according to a Baltimore Sun analysis. And no political or education leaders are recommending a consolidation of suburban and urban districts that experts say would be needed to truly address an imbalance driven largely by neighborhood demographics.

A Cultural History of Civil Rights

A Cultural History of Civil Rights: Two men sit inside a rural Mississippi community center. One of them, a black civil rights activist, has a shotgun at the ready. Their vigil — in a town where the Ku Klux Klan could strike at any moment — is in a makeshift library whose walls are covered with books.

This compelling photograph, taken during the historic 1964 Freedom Summer, is a reminder of the multiple and sometimes conflicting tactics of the civil rights movement. It is also a hopeful metaphor for the power of knowledge to combat prejudice and oppression.

With this idea in mind, thousands of volunteers, many of them college students from the North, descended on Mississippi in June 1964. Their purpose was to work with local activists to register African-American voters in a state that often denied them that right. To address the racial inequalities in Mississippi’s education system, they set up 30 Freedom Schools in small towns, as well as meeting houses and community centers.

Spain Fines Team Of Racist, Banana-Throwing Fan, But Is It Enough? : Code Switch : NPR

Spain Fines Team Of Racist, Banana-Throwing Fan, But Is It Enough? : Code Switch : NPR: Days after a banana was thrown at a black soccer player in Spain, igniting an uproar over racism in European sports, a new controversy has erupted over how to punish racist fans.

The man behind that now-infamous banana toss, a 26-year-old youth soccer coach, has been banned for life from Villarreal's stadium, where he threw a banana at the Brazilian player Dani Alves as he was about to take a corner kick during an April 27 game. The home team, Villarreal, was fined 12,000 euros (nearly $17,000) by the Spanish soccer federation.

But many black players and anti-racism advocates say that penalty is paltry.

Harrison B. Wilson Getting Honorary Doctorate from University of Kentucky - Higher Education

Harrison B. Wilson Getting Honorary Doctorate from University of Kentucky - Higher Education: LEXINGTON, Ky. ― Harrison B. Wilson, Jr., who was denied admission to the University of Kentucky almost 70 years ago because it wouldn’t accept Black students and who went on to become a university president, is being awarded an honorary doctorate at UK’s commencement Saturday.

The Lexington Herald-Leader says Wilson, 89, and his grandson, 22-year-old Brandon Wilson, will receive degrees together at UK. Brandon Wilson is receiving his master’s in history.

“I consider it an honor,” said Wilson, who also is the grandfather of NFL Super Bowl-winning quarterback Russell Wilson.

Brandon Wilson talked to some of his professors last year about his grandfather, who ended up attending Kentucky State University, coaching basketball at Jackson State in Mississippi and eventually becoming president of Norfolk State University in Virginia—all historically Black universities.

The Nation That Elects The Most Women Is ... : Parallels : NPR

The Nation That Elects The Most Women Is ... : Parallels : NPR: As Rwanda began to rebuild itself from the ashes of the 1994 genocide, something unexpected happened: Women began playing a much more influential role on many fronts, including politics.

Traditions that had limited women previously were cast aside, and President Paul Kagame also actively pushed for women to be in more prominent positions.

Today, women make up 64 percent of the country's lower house of Parliament — a far higher percentage than in any other nation, according to figures compiled by the Inter-Parliamentary Unit.

North Korea’s racist rant against ‘wicked black monkey’ Obama

North Korea’s racist rant against ‘wicked black monkey’ Obama: Did Ted Nugent move to North Korea? I wonder because of the super hot racist rhetoric aimed at President Obama by the Hermit Kingdom’s state-run media. In a January interview with guns.com, Nugent called the president “a Chicago communist-raised, communist-educated, communist-nurtured subhuman mongrel.” But that’s nuthin’ compared to what Obama was called in an article published by the North’s state-run news agency.

As The Post’s Chico Harlan reports, this piece published on May 2 almost escaped notice because it hadn’t been translated into English by the Korean Central News Agency. Thanks to blogger Josh Stanton we know the depth of Pyongyang’s racist hate. An earlier piece translated into English which called Obama a “wicked black monkey” is tame compared to what the untranslated harangue said.

Nation’s Report Card: No Gains for 12th-Graders - Higher Education

Nation’s Report Card: No Gains for 12th-Graders - Higher Education: ...At all levels, there continue to be racial disparities.

Among high school seniors, White and Asian students scored higher on average on the recent results in both reading and math than Black, Hispanic and American Indian students. Asian students scored higher than White students in math but did not do significantly better in reading. As in past years, male students did better than female students in math, but females outperformed males in reading.

These results did not include a global comparison, but U.S. students historically do poorly on international assessments compared to many global peers.

Education Secretary Arne Duncan said in a statement that, even though there has been some good news related to graduation rates and scores in younger grades, high school achievement has been flat in recent years.

“We must reject educational stagnation in our high schools, and as a nation we must do better for all students, especially for African-American and Latino students,” Duncan said.

Report: Funding, Institutional Support Lacking for Historically Black Public Colleges - Higher Education

Report: Funding, Institutional Support Lacking for Historically Black Public Colleges - Higher Education: With states increasingly boosting post-recession spending to improve their higher education systems, historically Black public universities in four states continue to lag behind predominantly White schools in funding and “policy makers are moving toward funding mechanisms that disproportionately disadvantage” historically Black schools, a new report by the Center for Minority Serving Institutions at the University of Pennsylvania finds.

In “America’s Public HBCUs: A Four State Comparison of Institutional Capacity and State Funding Priorities,” report authors Dr. Marybeth Gasman and William Casey Boland examine historically Black institutions in Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, and North Carolina and urge reform in state funding and policy to better support the mission of historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs). The recently released report builds on an influential 2008 study by Dr. James T. Minor, who documented the pre-recession condition and “underlying racial disparities in state and federal allocations to HBCUs” in the four states.

Howard University Awarding School Record 105 Doctoral Degrees - Higher Education

Howard University Awarding School Record 105 Doctoral Degrees - Higher Education: Howard University has maintained it lead as the top producer of on-campus doctoral degrees awarded by Historically Black Colleges and Universities.

The HBCU announced this week that it plans to graduate 105 Ph.D.s from a variety of academic departments—the largest number of doctoral degrees to be conferred in the school’s 147-year history—at Saturday’s commencement ceremony where the keynote speaker is Sean “P. Diddy” Combs.

“Since its founding in 1867, Howard has served as a national leader in educating populations that are traditionally underrepresented in higher education,” says the university’s interim president, Dr. Wayne A.I. Frederick, who earned an M.D. and an MBA from the university. “Without Howard’s contribution to the production of doctoral recipients among African-Americans and other under-represented populations, our nation’s goals of significantly enhanced diversity in higher education and the research community would be much more difficult to achieve.”

Critics Find Little Humor In 'SNL' Writer's Jokes About Slavery : Code Switch : NPR

Critics Find Little Humor In 'SNL' Writer's Jokes About Slavery : Code Switch : NPR: ...Kind of like the outrage in the wake of writer Leslie Jones' maiden on-camera appearance on Saturday Night Live's "Weekend Update." Jones didn't come out in blackface, but she did bug her eyes, roll her neck and make jokes about how she would have been a hot prospect in antebellum life:

"Massa woulda hooked me up with the best brother on the plantation," she told uncertain-looking co-anchor Colin Jost. "And every nine months, I'd be popping out a superbaby: Shaq, Kobe... LeBron!"

After 6 Decades, 'Jet' Magazine Decides To Go All-Digital : Code Switch : NPR

After 6 Decades, 'Jet' Magazine Decides To Go All-Digital : Code Switch : NPR: When I was growing up, my aunt used to stack dozens of magazines high on a side table at the top of her stairs. It was an accidental library of black magazines — lots of Ebony and Essence, the stray Black Enterprise here and there, but especially the digest-sized Jet. When I was at that age where kids want to consume every written word, I would blow through those old issues of Jet by the pile. That's probably the only real way to "read" Jet, since every article seemed to be shorter than 300 words. It was black news, bite-size.

And Jet was everywhere — barbershops, salons, waiting rooms. It was as if John H. Johnson, the magazine's publisher, had decided to gift any black person born before 1975 with a subscription on the occasion of his or her 18th birthday, and folks just never got around to canceling it.

U.S. Companies Often Assume Black Job Applicants Do Drugs

U.S. Companies Often Assume Black Job Applicants Do Drugs: More than any other group, black job applicants are being turned away by U.S. companies under the implicit assumption that they are using illegal drugs, according to a new study published by the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER).

The study’s author, University of Notre Dame economics professor Abigail Wozniak, looked at how hiring practices differ between states with laws that incentivize or encourage drug testing and states with laws that limit or do not require such testing. She found that pro-testing legislation has a “large” and positive effect on black employment and wages, especially among low-skilled black men.

As the chart below shows, enacting pro-drug testing laws improves the share of blacks working in what Wozniak terms high-testing industries, while leading to a decrease in the share of whites working in such industries.

How an Experiment With Dolls Helped Lead to School Integration - NYTimes.com

How an Experiment With Dolls Helped Lead to School Integration - NYTimes.com: This 1947 photograph (by Gordon Parks, for Ebony Magazine) may look simply like a child being observed at play, but, in fact, it reveals an experiment that helped lead 60 years ago this month to the Supreme Court’s monumental decision in Brown v. Board of Education, demanding the racial integration of American public schools.

The social psychologists Kenneth and Mamie Phipps Clark sought to challenge the court’s existing opinion that “separate but equal” public schools were constitutional (Plessy v. Ferguson, 1896) by testing whether African-American children were psychologically and emotionally damaged by attending a segregated school.

As Kenneth Clark recalled in 1985, he would produce white and black dolls and say, “Show me the doll that you like to play with … the doll that’s a nice doll … the doll that’s a bad doll.”

UCLA Officials Propose Diversity Class Requirement - Higher Education

UCLA Officials Propose Diversity Class Requirement - Higher Education: LOS ANGELES ― University of California, Los Angeles officials are proposing that most undergraduate students be required to take a class in racial cultural, gender or religious diversity in order to graduate.

The Los Angeles Times reports that this is the fourth effort to bring such a requirement to UCLA’s College of Letters and Science, which enrolls about 85 percent of undergraduates.

Such a requirement has existed at the Arts and Architecture school for the last six years and is at most UC campuses and many other universities. But the curriculum change has been repeatedly rejected in votes by the college’s faculty group.

Previous proposals have been met with questions about whether students were already overburdened with requirements, whether the university could afford extra classes, or if the classes improve ethnic relations or skew left politically.

After Decades, A University By And For Latinos Will Shut Its Doors : Code Switch : NPR

After Decades, A University By And For Latinos Will Shut Its Doors : Code Switch : NPR: The National Hispanic University was created more than 30 years ago to educate first-generation college students from Latino backgrounds. Next year, the only school of its kind west of the Mississippi will close its doors.

NHU sits in the shadow of the East San Jose foothills in California's Silicon Valley. All the classrooms and faculty offices fit in one modern three-story building in the heart of a working-class Latino neighborhood. But the postwar elementary school right next door used to serve as the institution's hallowed halls.

"I came with my mom and we walked into an elementary school cafeteria, literally: the benches, the tables, everything," says Michelle Pelayo Osorio, about her first visit to NHU 15 years ago. "My mom said, 'This is where you want to come to school?' And I said, 'Let's give it a chance; let's see what it's all about.' "

U.S. Teachers Not Nearly as Diverse as Their Students - Higher Education

U.S. Teachers Not Nearly as Diverse as Their Students - Higher Education: WASHINGTON ― U.S. teachers are nowhere near as diverse as their students.

Almost half the students attending public schools are minorities, yet fewer than one in five of their teachers is non-white.

New studies from the Center for American Progress and the National Education Association are calling attention to this “diversity gap” at elementary and secondary schools in the United States. The groups want more to be done to help teachers more accurately mirror the students in their classrooms.

Teachers are always pushing their students to excel, said Kevin Gilbert, coordinator of teacher leadership and special projects for the Clinton Public School District in Clinton, Mississippi.

It becomes easier for students to believe “when they can look and see someone who looks just like them, that they can relate to,” said Gilbert, a member of the NEA’s executive committee. “Nothing can help motivate our students more than to see success standing right in front of them.”

More than minority students would benefit from a more diverse teacher corps, said Ulrich Boser, the author of the center’s report.

For Minorities’ Educational Needs, Funding Lags Far Behind Effort - Higher Education

For Minorities’ Educational Needs, Funding Lags Far Behind Effort - Higher Education: No one can change the past, but we have the power to change the future if we set our minds to it. Today more than 90 percent of the nation’s population growth is from people of color. Yet we are failing to address the educational needs of these individuals. In the words of Nelson Mandela, “Education is the most powerful weapon you can choose to change the world.” Why are we not using this weapon to address our country’s needs?

Among those attempting to fill the pipeline one student at a time include such individuals as Dr. Rick Cherwitz, founder and director of the Intellectual Entrepreneurship Consortium (IE) and professor in the Department of Communication at the University of Texas at Austin; Dr. Isaiah Warner, Vice Chancellor for Strategic Initiative, Boyd Professor, and Philip W. West professor of Analytical and Environmental Chemistry, Howard Hughes Medical Institute Professor at Louisiana State University at Baton Rouge; and Dr. Freeman Hrabowski, president of the University of Maryland Baltimore County. But they need help! What is required is not a village, but villages striving for the same thing. What are these individuals doing that others should emulate?

University of Georgia Employees Want Gender Identity Protections - Higher Education

University of Georgia Employees Want Gender Identity Protections - Higher Education: ATLANTA ― Faculty members at Georgia’s largest university say they want discrimination against employees for gender identity banned more explicitly, on par with race, sex and religion.

Supporters acknowledge the change is a small one and doesn’t create new protection but said it speaks volumes about the University of Georgia community to current and potential students or faculty. It also brings the Athens campus, located about 60 miles northeast of Atlanta, in line with other universities.

“It says we do not discriminate, and we do not put up with discrimination,” business management professor Janine Aronson said.

A UGA spokeswoman said president Jere Morehead hasn’t reviewed the faculty council’s recommendation, which calls for making gender identity a specific protected category. Morehead must sign the recommendation for it to become effective.

James Baldwin Reappeared Just When We Needed Him Most : NPR

James Baldwin Reappeared Just When We Needed Him Most : NPR: More than once this week I've caught myself reading yet another news story about Donald Sterling or Cliven Bundy, wondering what it means for me, a black gay man, to exist in America at the same time as men like them. Have they been thinking about people like me just as intensely as I, for the past few days at least, have been thinking about them? Are Sterling and Bundy privately wringing their hands? Or are they cursing America for eavesdropping on their bigotry?

I have no answers, only more questions, which is why I'm so grateful for the recent publication of a collection of poems by James Baldwin.

California's Latino Plurality Brings A Sense Of DéjàVu : Code Switch : NPR

California's Latino Plurality Brings A Sense Of DejaVu : Code Switch : NPR: In March, provided California state demographers guessed it right, the state reached a historic milestone: For the first time, Latinos are the largest population group in California.

California Department of Finance demographers predicted that by March, Latinos would outnumber non-Latino whites to become 39 percent of the state's population, while the latter would drop to about 38.8 percent. There won't be hard evidence for months to come, at least, but demographers are standing by their projection.

Low-Income, Black, And Latino Americans Face Highest Risk Of Chemical Spills | ThinkProgress

Low-Income, Black, And Latino Americans Face Highest Risk Of Chemical Spills | ThinkProgress: The people who face the greatest threat from potential toxic chemical disasters are disproportionately low-income, black, or Latino, according to a study released Thursday by three environmental groups.

Compared to the national average, the 134 million people who live closest to U.S. chemical facilities are 75 percent more likely to be black, 60 percent more likely to be Latino, and 50 percent more likely to be poor, the study showed. The demographics of these areas — called “fenceline zones” — show a troubling “pattern of ‘environmental racism,’” among chemical and petroleum companies, the report said.

“The question now is: what will it take for government and industry to finally act to prevent disasters, and protect the communities and workers whose safety and security are unfairly and unequally put in jeopardy?” the report, said. It was written by the Environmental Justice and Health Alliance for Chemical Policy Reform, Coming Clean, and the Center for Effective Government.

Who's Waiting On Death Row? : Code Switch : NPR

Who's Waiting On Death Row? : Code Switch : NPR: News of got us thinking more generally about who is in prison and who is facing the death penalty.

Here are some figures that may surprise you:
6

"Black men were more than six times as likely as white men in 2010 to be incarcerated in federal and state prisons, and local jails" according to a Pew Research Center report issued last September. The incarceration rate for black men in 2010 was 4,347 inmates per 100,000 U.S. residents. And for white men, the rate was 678 per 100,000 U.S. residents. (For some historical context, Pew notes that in 1960, black men were five times as likely as white men to be sent to prison.)
41.7 %

At the end of 2011, that was the percentage of death row inmates who were black, according to the . "The race and sex of inmates under sentence of death has remained relatively unchanged since 2000," Tracy Snell, a statistician for the Bureau of Justice Statistics, wrote in a report from July 2013.

And here's another figure:
13.1 %

That's the percentage of the country's population that's black, from the U.S. Census Bureau.

Also notable, says Richard Deiter who heads the Death Penalty Information Center, a nonpartisan research organization, is that men account for . That's 1325 inmates of the 1338 executed.

Black, Latino Students On Outside Looking In at America’s Top Public High Schools - Higher Education

Black, Latino Students On Outside Looking In at America’s Top Public High Schools - Higher Education: To much fanfare, US News and World Report released their list of the best public high schools in the country this week. They ranked high schools by how well their students performed within their state, how well they prepared their most disadvantaged students, and the extent to which students participated and did well in advanced coursework (Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate courses).

Going to a high school that provides strong academic preparation and support comes with intrinsic advantages. Rigorous coursework is one of the most important factors colleges consider in the application process. Even truer at colleges that are competitive to get into, not enough Advanced Placement or Honors courses can leave admissions officers wondering whether the applicant is a slacker or unable to keep apace with college-level work. But Black and Latino are less likely than their peers to attend a high school that offers rigorous coursework, where some high schools even lack Algebra II, a basic admission requirement of many colleges.

Sterling Controversy Shows Race to Be America’s Achilles Heel - Higher Education

Sterling Controversy Shows Race to Be America’s Achilles Heel - Higher Education: I try very hard not to have knee jerk reactions to events that take place in our society. We should gather the facts about a matter before making a judgment.

Reputations and careers are ruined when false information is put out in the public domain. If we ran with every piece of hearsay and gossip that was out there, where would we be?

Reports surface almost daily about famous people from all walks of life being caught in compromising situations. There are publications that always will have a “hot headline” about someone of perceived importance.

I read both newspapers and review the Internet for current events and interesting stories. To that end, I’ve followed the story, which alleges that National Basketball Association team owner Donald Sterling made some comments about Black people that were based in bigotry.

Six Supremely Absurd Court Statements on Affirmative Action - Higher Education

Six Supremely Absurd Court Statements on Affirmative Action - Higher Education: Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected a challenge to a voter-approved Michigan law that bans affirmative action in the college admissions process. On a 6-2 vote in Schuette v. BAMN, the Supreme Court reversed the opinion of the Sixth Circuit Court that struck down the law.

Over the weekend, I took some time to read all of the opinions from the case. Aside from Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor judicious and forthright 58-page dissent, I felt like I was reading scripts from the theater of the absurd.

I have listed below what I consider the six most absurd statements from the opinions.