On Race, the Silence Is Bipartisan - NYTimes.com

On Race, the Silence Is Bipartisan - NYTimes.com: THE economic crisis in the United States is also a racial crisis. White Americans are hurting, but nonwhite Americans are hurting even more. Yet leaders in both political parties — for different reasons — continue to act as though race were anachronistic and irrelevant in a country where an African-American is the president.

In July, the unemployment rate was 8.2 percent for whites, but 16.8 percent for blacks and 11.3 percent for Latinos. The Pew Research Center estimates that in 2009, the median household net worth was $5,677 for blacks, $6,325 for Hispanics and $113,149 for whites — down from $12,124, $18,539 and $134,992, respectively, in 2005.

U.S. colleges seek foreign students for intellectual stimulus, better bottom line - The Washington Post

U.S. colleges seek foreign students for intellectual stimulus, better bottom line - The Washington Post: ...These students are joining the fast-growing international population at U.S. colleges. There were about 690,000 foreign students in the 2009-10 school year, up 26 percent from a decade before. In the same time, the total at the University of Virginia rose 44 percent.

China is the biggest supplier of foreign students, providing 18 percent of the nationwide total, according to the Institute of International Education, although India (15 percent) and South Korea (10 percent) are not far behind. This academic exchange offers U.S. universities a chance to influence a rising generation of global business and political leaders.

Driving the growth are affluent families, many from Asia, who value Western education and can afford to pay full price. U-Va. recruiters in China also find it helps to be able to mention the school’s famous founder, Thomas Jefferson.

Slide Show: Newborn Mortality Rates Around the World | The Rundown News Blog | PBS NewsHour | PBS

Slide Show: Newborn Mortality Rates Around the World | The Rundown News Blog | PBS NewsHour | PBS: The number of global newborn deaths each year fell by 1.3 million over the last two decades, but the first month of life is still one of the most dangerous times for infants and children.

Newborn deaths dropped from 4.6 million in 1990 to 3.3 million in 2009, a new report by the World Health Organization, Save the Children and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine shows. The burden is far higher in the developing world, where 99 percent of newborn deaths occur.

Half of the 3.3 million deaths in 2009 were in just five countries -- India, Nigeria, Pakistan, China and Democratic Republic of the Congo -- in part because of their very large populations.

The U.S. newborn mortality rate in 2009 was 4.3 deaths for every 1,000 live births, and a reported 19,170 newborns died in the U.S. that year. In global rankings, the U.S. newborn mortality rate placed 41 out of the 194 countries, below Malaysia, Cuba and the Czech Republic, among others.

Confederate Flag Banned in VA Town | NBC Washington

Confederate Flag Banned in VA Town | NBC Washington: The flag that once divided this nation is now dividing one small, historic Virginia town. The city council in Lexington, Va., just voted to prohibit flying the Confederate flag on city-owned poles.

The decision sparked anger among some Lexington residents, who see the Confederacy as a link to the town's past.

The Sons of Confederate Veterans showed up in force for a rally protesting the ban. Other opponents to the ordinance, white and African American alike, spoke at a city council meeting. One man remained quiet during his allotted three minutes, devoting the time as a moment of silence in memory of those killed in the Civil War.

Supporters of the ban call the Confederate flag offensive and don't want it associated with their town.

Grady-Fresenius Talks Fail, and Dialysis Patients Go Untreated - NYTimes.com

Grady-Fresenius Talks Fail, and Dialysis Patients Go Untreated - NYTimes.com: After the collapse of negotiations between Atlanta’s public hospital and the world’s largest dialysis provider, a dozen immigrants suffering from renal failure were refused treatment at an Atlanta clinic on Thursday and advised to wait until their conditions deteriorated enough to justify life-saving care in an emergency room.

Unless the deadlock is broken, 22 patients, most of them illegal immigrants, face a debilitating cycle. Rather than receiving dialysis three times a week, as is standard protocol for cleansing their blood of toxins, they must wait until they are in sufficiently serious jeopardy to trigger the federal law that requires hospital care.

Dialysis patients said that typically means placing themselves at risk of serious impairment or death. “Trust me, it is just like dying,” said Bineet Kaur, 28, an illegal immigrant from India who was turned away on Thursday morning from the clinic, operated by Fresenius Medical Care.

Racial-Profiling Case Against New York Police Is Allowed to Proceed - NYTimes.com

Racial-Profiling Case Against New York Police Is Allowed to Proceed - NYTimes.com: A federal judge on Wednesday rejected an effort to dismiss a case claiming that New York City police officers use race as a factor in stopping people on the streets, sometimes to frisk them, saying there is enough evidence for a jury to decide.

Lawyers for the city had argued that no trial was necessary and moved to dismiss a lawsuit against the city and its police force. In the suit, the Center for Constitutional Rights alleges a widespread pattern of stops based not on reasonable suspicion of individuals but on racial profiling in the Police Department’s “stop, question and frisk” policy.

As a practical matter, the stops display a measurable racial disparity: black and Hispanic people generally represent more than 85 percent of those stopped by the police, though their combined populations make up a small share of the city’s racial composition.

The judge, Shira A. Scheindlin of Federal District Court, ruled that the evidence submitted so far raised enough questions to allow a trial to go forward to determine whether the department’s practices amounted to a pattern of race-based stops. She said the racial claims appeared “difficult to discern.”

Smithsonian To Host Exhibit On Jefferson, Slavery

Smithsonian To Host Exhibit On Jefferson, Slavery: The Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture is planning an exhibit with Thomas Jefferson's Monticello to explore the third president's history with slavery.

Museum officials say "Jefferson and Slavery at Monticello: Paradox of Liberty" will tackle the sensitive subject of slavery during the American Revolution. Jefferson called slavery an "abominable crime" but was a lifelong slaveholder.

The exhibit announced Tuesday will open in January at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History. The black history museum is under development and is slated to open in its own building on the National Mall in 2015.

At Monticello in Virginia, curators are beginning a long-term restoration of Mulberry Row, which included 21 dwellings for enslaved and free workers at the plantation. An exhibit on Mulberry Row opens in February.

Study: Hispanic-Serving Colleges Continue Steady Increase

Study: Hispanic-Serving Colleges Continue Steady Increase: The number of Hispanic-serving institutions, or HSIs, nationwide has increased by 24 percent since 2004 and could grow by another 40 percent if “emerging” HSIs in 18 states and Puerto Rico continue to grow, a new study says.

The data from Washington, D.C.-based Excelencia in Education found 293 nonprofit higher education institutions in 2010 with 25 percent or more total undergraduate Hispanic enrollment, qualifying them as HSIs. Another 204 higher education institutions are “emerging HSIs,” with undergraduate Hispanic enrollment that soon may reach the 25 percent threshold.

“We know how close we are to attaining even greater numbers of HSIs,” Deborah Santiago, Excelencia in Education’s vice president of policy and research, told Diverse. Colleges with 25 percent enrollment are eligible for federal funding specifically dedicated to HSIs.

Commentary: A Finding in Search of an Explanation

Commentary: A Finding in Search of an Explanation: An August 19, 2011 report in Science magazine, “Race, Ethnicity, and NIH Research Awards,” finds that, “After controlling for the applicant’s educational background, country of origin, training, previous research awards, publication record and employer characteristics, we find that Black applicants remain 10 percentage points less likely than Whites to be awarded NIH research funding. Our results suggest some leverage points for policy intervention.”

Five New Minority FBS Head Coaches Bring Total To Highest Ever

Five New Minority FBS Head Coaches Bring Total To Highest Ever: The 2011 college football season is packed plenty with exciting matchups, classic rivalries and all the traditions that make college football a favorite American pastime. The 2011 season also will see the most ever minorities leading Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) teams as head coaches when game action gets underway Sept. 1. Five schools in the 120-team FBS, college football’s elite level, hired African-Americans as head coaches, bringing the total to 16 for Blacks and 18 minorities overall, which is the most to start any season.

Commentary: Reacting to the Changing Face of U.S. Demographics

Commentary: Reacting to the Changing Face of U.S. Demographics: “Do you feel concerned or hopeful about the fact that racial minorities will soon make up a majority of the U.S. population?”

If your dinner table talk resembles some I’ve encountered recently, then you’ve experienced the passionate range of emotions—from head-hanging pessimism to button-popping optimism to shoulder-shrugging ambivalence—that this question usually sparks in private, just-among-friends debates. But rarely does such talk enter polite, public conversation. I suspect that’s because few people are daring enough to ask, fearing the backlash that almost always follows honest discussions involving race.

For Public HBCUs, A New Type of Advocacy

For Public HBCUs, A New Type of Advocacy: Though it has been just two years since Dr. Lorenzo Esters joined the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities, or APLU, his efforts to orchestrate new partners while forging coalitions appear to be yielding fruit. Esters is charged with representing the interests of 18 Black land-grant colleges and public Black colleges and universities.

“My advocacy for the public Black land-grant universities is primarily in the area of partnership-building with the federal, business and philanthropic community,” says Esters, vice president of the Office for Access and the Advancement of Public Black Universities at APLU.

Minorities become a majority in Washington region - The Washington Post

Minorities become a majority in Washington region - The Washington Post: Washington is among eight big-city metropolitan regions in which minorities became a majority in the past decade, according to a new analysis of census data showing white population declines in many of the largest metro areas.

Along with Washington, the regions surrounding New York, San Diego, Las Vegas and Memphis have become majority-minority since 2000. Non-Hispanic whites are a minority in 22 of the country’s 100-biggest urban areas.

The white population shrank in raw numbers in 42 of those big-city regions. But every large metro area showed a decline in the percentage of whites.

The shifts reflect the aging of the white population as more people get beyond their childbearing years and the relative youth of the Hispanic and Asian populations fueling most of the growth.

David 'Honeyboy' Edwards Dead At 96: Blues Legend Found In Chicago Apartment

David 'Honeyboy' Edwards Dead At 96: Blues Legend Found In Chicago Apartment: Grammy-winning Blues musician David "Honey Boy" Edwards, believed to be the oldest surviving Delta bluesman and whose roots stretched back to blues legend Robert Johnson, died early Monday in his Chicago home, his manager said. He was 96.

Edwards had a weak heart and his health seriously declined in May, when the guitarist had to cancel concerts scheduled through November, said his longtime manager, Michael Frank of Earwig Music Company.

Born in 1915 in Shaw, Miss., Edwards learned the guitar growing up and started playing professionally at age 17 in Memphis.

He came to Chicago in the 1940s and played on Maxwell Street, small clubs and street corners. By the 1950s Edwards had played with almost every bluesman of note – including Howlin' Wolf, Little Walter, Charlie Patton and Muddy Waters. Among Edwards' hit songs were "Long Tall Woman Blues," "Gamblin Man" and "Just Like Jesse James."

Georgia Professors Offer Course to Undocumented Students

Georgia Professors Offer Course to Undocumented Students: As college students return to campus in Georgia, a new state policy has closed the doors of the five most competitive state schools to undocumented immigrants, but a group of professors has found a way to offer those students a taste of what they've been denied.

The five University of Georgia professors have started a program they're calling Freedom University. They're offering to teach a rigorous seminar course once a week meant to mirror courses taught at the most competitive schools and aimed at students who have graduated from high school but can't go to one of those top schools because of the new policy or because of cuts to state scholarship programs.

Despite Postponement of Memorial Dedication, King Legacy Remembered in D.C.

Despite Postponement of Memorial Dedication, King Legacy Remembered in D.C.: As Hurricane Irene threatened to roil through the East Coast, activists and a Harvard sociologist gathered at the AFL-CIO headquarters in Washington, D.C., on Friday to reflect on Martin Luther King's legacy and its implications for the future of the labor movement.

The event was meant to be a companion to the unveiling of the Martin Luther King memorial in Washington, D.C., on Sunday, though the unveiling—as well as the commemorative march—was postponed because of the impending storm.

Land-Grant Institutions Alleged to Drift from Their Public Missions

Land-Grant Institutions Alleged to Drift from Their Public Missions: While many land-grant flagships strive to keep costs low for students, they have not been as successful in yielding high graduation rates, and, as a result, many students—including high numbers of Blacks and Latinos—fall through the cracks.

Dr. José Cruz, the vice president for higher education, policy and practice at the Education Trust, a nonprofit organization that pushes high academic achievement and seeks to narrow opportunity and achievement gaps—especially among minority students from pre-kindergarten to college—says that most of the nation’s land-grant institutions have neglected their mission to educate diverse populations in favor of recruiting high-achieving students from relatively wealthy families who can help the schools climb in national rankings.

Stetson Kennedy, Exposer Of Ku Klux Klan Secrets, Dies At 94

Stetson Kennedy, Exposer Of Ku Klux Klan Secrets, Dies At 94: MIAMI -- Author and folklorist Stetson Kennedy, who infiltrated the Ku Klux Klan six decades ago and exposed its secrets to authorities and the public but was also criticized for possibly exaggerating his exploits, died Saturday. He was 94.

Kennedy died at Baptist Medical Center South near St. Augustine, where he had been receiving hospice care.

In the 1940s, Kennedy used the "Superman" radio show to expose and ridicule the Klan's rituals. In the 1950s he wrote "I Rode with the Ku Klux Klan," which was later renamed "The Klan Unmasked," and "The Jim Crow Guide."

"Exposing their folklore – all their secret handshakes, passwords and how silly they were, dressing up in white sheets" was one of the strongest blows delivered to the Klan, said Peggy Bulger, director of the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress, in a 2007 interview with The Associated Press. She was a friend of Kennedy for about 30 years and did her doctoral thesis on his work as a folklorist.

"If they weren't so violent, they would be silly."

Heinz Hofmann And Thomas Buckley, Two White Male Cops, Sue San Francisco Citing 'Racial Bias'

Heinz Hofmann And Thomas Buckley, Two White Male Cops, Sue San Francisco Citing 'Racial Bias': A white male cop, reportedly reassigned in 2005 when his unit's refrigerator was found stocked with booze, claims he was passed over for a promotion in 2007 because of racial bias.

"The city has a longstanding custom and practice in discriminating against white males," according to a lawsuit complaint filed Aug. 16 by officers Heinz Hofmann and Thomas Buckley.

"The reason plaintiffs were passed over for lower-ranking minorities," the complaint says, "was because plaintiffs are white."

The suit does not mention, however, that in 2005 the media reported that Hofmann was reassigned from his post at the Department's tactical unit, after internal affairs investigators discovered the
squad's Hunters Point headquarters stocked with beer and hard liquor.

Sheila C. Johnson: Remembering Our Past, Taking Responsibility for Our Future

Sheila C. Johnson: Remembering Our Past, Taking Responsibility for Our Future: To see Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s majestic likeness rise from the shore of the Tidal Basin, to brush a hand across his words, chiseled in granite, is an extraordinary thing. And this week's unveiling of the King memorial in Washington, D.C., is an extraordinary moment for the African-American community, for America, and for people everywhere who continue to draw inspiration from Dr. King's legacy.

Yet I can't help but reflect on this momentous occasion with mixed emotions. As I think about the prospects for our community, and for our country, I'm worried. It's been almost half a century since Dr. King spoke of transforming the "dark yesterdays" of our heritage into "bright tomorrows." Yet, can we say that African-Americans' tomorrow will be better than today?