Study in D.C. hospitals reveals disparity in stroke treatment for blacks - The Washington Post

Study in D.C. hospitals reveals disparity in stroke treatment for blacks - The Washington Post: Blacks hospitalized for strokes in the District are one-third as likely as whites to receive lifesaving treatment, according to a study that seeks to understand racial disparities in treatment.

The findings, published online Thursday in the journal Stroke, offer a detailed look at the problem in a predominantly black urban population. Previous studies have shown that such disparities exist during treatment at a hospital. Researchers wanted to know why, so they surveyed stroke treatment by race at all seven acute-care hospitals in the District. Their findings, collected across an entire city with a large black population, are likely to have relevance for other predominantly black urban areas across the country.

Africans bring their continent’s style to the worldwide fashion scene - The Washington Post

Africans bring their continent’s style to the worldwide fashion scene - The Washington Post: The country known for genocide is now giving the world $140 sundresses.

In the hilly Rwandan capital of Kigali, 300 female survivors of the 1994 mass violence are stitching kanga cloth into cocktail dresses for Anthropologie stores and crafting braided banana-leaf bangles for Nicole Miller and Ralph Lauren. Similar women’s cooperatives have opened in the capitals of Uganda, Ghana and Ethiopia, all part of a recent push to bring African fashion — garments that are made by Africans — into high-end American stores.

The effort began several years ago after a group of young African fashion designers working in ateliers in the District and New York noticed that many of Africa’s indigenous textiles and styles were being co-opted by multimillion-dollar fashion houses and thought: Not this time — you can’t steal from Africa anymore.

Marriage Equality: Black Community Paved the Way

Marriage Equality: Black Community Paved the Way: The debate over same-sex marriage has proved a controversial topic among African Americans -- a conflict that reflects the myriad and contrasting opinions across the community. Because of an entrenched religious history and struggle for equality, blacks remain sensitive to the needs of those denied basic human rights but extremely conservative in applying a Christian-values litmus test to all moral subject matter.

Broad debates about the future of the nuclear family, and the crisis of fatherhood in the black community, have garnered attention from the pulpit to the dinner table. The debate over gay marriage has presented a unique stumbling block in which our values don't always mirror our aspirations, as well as a challenge to broaden our understanding of the words 'family,' 'love' and 'marriage.'

African Americans are no strangers to having to redraw the lines. Statistics continue to show that blacks are the least likely of all ethnic groups to marry at all.

Toyota Steers Ads To Bring In More Minority Buyers : NPR

Toyota Steers Ads To Bring In More Minority Buyers : NPR: The Japanese automaker Toyota has taken its fair share of hits in the past year and a half: The earthquake and tsunami in Japan as well as last year's recall fiasco have helped erode the company's share of the U.S. car market.

But one place Toyota remains No. 1 is with minority car buyers — Latinos, African-Americans and Asian-Americans continue to buy more Toyotas than any other car brand, domestic or foreign.

Toyota's claim on the minority market has the Rev. Jesse Jackson questioning other car companies' practices.

'I have a concern about the role onstage, and on the board, and in the marketplace of people of color,' he said at a General Motors shareholders meeting in May.

Recession makes educated women in rich countries postpone having babies | World news | The Guardian

Recession makes educated women in rich countries postpone having babies | World news | The Guardian: Highly educated young women in many rich countries have delayed having children because of the global recession, and may on average wait for a further five-to-eight years if governments slash public spending, say leading demographers.

A study for the European Union by the Vienna Institute of Demography shows a steep decline in fertility rates in the US and Spain in 2009-10, and stagnation in Ireland and most European countries.

However the report coincides with UK government figures that show Britain's population rose by 470,000 in 2010, the highest annual growth rate for nearly 50 years. It rose 0.8% on the previous year and stands at 62.2m – a rise caused by natural change rather than immigration for the third consecutive year, according to the Office for National Statistics.

Study: More College-educated Workers Needed for U.S. Workforce

Study: More College-educated Workers Needed for U.S. Workforce: America needs 20 million more college-educated workers over the next 14 years to sustain healthy economic growth in the U.S., according to a study released this week.

The study by the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce (CEW) contends this goal must be achieved for several reasons: It will add $500 billion annually to the nation’s gross domestic product as well as more than $100 billion annually in tax revenue while reversing the growth of income inequality.

The center's 48-page report called “The Undereducated American” also highlights the fact that, “over the past 30 years, the demand for college-educated workers has outpaced supply,” resulting in the underproduction of college graduates during that period. The trend has seen a growing income disparity between those with college degrees and high school graduates, the report claims.

Kellogg Foundation Pursues College Access Agenda

Kellogg Foundation Pursues College Access Agenda: When the W.K. Kellogg Foundation first approached a group of tribal college presidents in 1994 with a $23 million grant for a handful of their institutions, the tribal college leaders didn’t exactly trip over themselves to get the money.

“They basically [said], ‘That’s not how we want to do it,’” recalls Valorie Johnson, a longtime Kellogg program officer who approached the tribal college leaders with the grant offer.

“‘If there’s $10,’” she says the tribal college leaders told her at the time, “‘we want it to be split among all of us.’”

When then-Kellogg Foundation CEO Russ Mawby asked Johnson if the tribal college leaders were excited about the grant, she told him they were but that “there were a couple of things they wanted to change.”

“I thought [Mawby] was going to be upset, but he was quite the opposite,” Johnson says.

Commentary: Advancing the Race Conversation – Chinese Man vs. Model Minority

Commentary: Advancing the Race Conversation – Chinese Man vs. Model Minority: At this year’s National Conference on Race and Ethnicity in American Higher Education earlier this month, two very different images of Asian-American males were on display.

Oakland’s Lee Mun Wah rings a Tibetan bowl to begin one of his well-attended “StirFry” seminars. The acclaimed filmmaker and educator wears a no-collar Tibetan shirt, his hair in a ponytail, his face anchored by a Confucian-like beard.

When the sound from the bowl fades, he introduces himself simply. “I am a Chinese man,” he says.

Frank Wu comes at you more traditionally. Taller, garbed in a tailored wool suit, his hair is short, his face clean-shaven. He’s sans black-rimmed glasses, but you can imagine them on him. As the chancellor and dean of the University of California’s Hastings College of the Law, he comes with the weight of a keynote’s full introduction.

As one of the highest-ranking Asian Americans in academia, he’s beyond “model minority.” Wu walks the walk and talks like a guy in a suit.

Time To 'Redefine' Media Portrayals Of Black Women : NPR

Time To 'Redefine' Media Portrayals Of Black Women : NPR: On the surface, it might appear that many black women have achieved the American dream; they're excelling in politics, business, media and academia.

But Sophia Nelson, a political commentator and author of Black Woman Redefined: Dispelling Myths and Discovering Fulfillment in the Age of Michelle Obama, says that even though these women have achieved a level of success that their mothers could only dream of, their accomplishments aren't being reflected in popular American culture.

Nelson tells NPR's Lynn Neary that it often feels like successful black women are 'under attack' in America. She cites reaction to Michelle Obama's statements during the 2008 presidential campaign as an example.

Senate Democrats Renew Push For DREAM Act | TPMDC

Senate Democrats Renew Push For DREAM Act | TPMDC: Seeking to breathe new life into its prospects, on Tuesday Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) chaired the first-ever Senate hearing on the DREAM Act. The bill, which was initially proposed in different form in 2001, would grant citizenship to children of undocumented immigrants who 'have maintained good moral character since entering the U.S.,' and who either attend college or serve in the U.S. armed forces.

Three representatives of the Obama administration, a DREAM student, and the Director of Research for the Center for Immigration Studies were among witnesses who testified before the Subcommittee on Immigration, Refugees and Border Security.

Ola Kaso, a student, testified about her experience in the United States, stating: 'I wish to remain in this country to make a difference. I wish to remain in this country to help Americans . . . I grew up here. I am an American at heart.'

HuffPost Greatest Person Of The Day: Dominic Diing, Former Lost Boy Of Sudan, Dedicates His Life To Helping His Homeland

HuffPost Greatest Person Of The Day: Dominic Diing, Former Lost Boy Of Sudan, Dedicates His Life To Helping His Homeland: As Dominic Diing recounted the story of his journey from Sudan to America, it was easy to get swept up in the cinematic scope of events leading up to his current position as a nonprofit leader and PhD candidate.

Dominic spoke, almost casually, of the hundreds of miles he walked at seven years old, from his war torn village in southern Sudan, to Ethiopia, all the while staving off hunger, illness and wild animal attacks.

'Many, many people died,' he said, including his brothers and uncles among the thousands of others who were displaced in the journey. 'Life, it was not very good.'

Dominic recounted the next few years at a refugee camp in Ethiopia, being trained by to kill by local militias. And then, when war began to rage in that region as well, his subsequent yearlong trek to Kakuma, Kenya, where a United Nations-sponsored camp provided 12-year-old Dominic and thousands of other displaced youth with food and education.

Column: Why DREAM Act is right for U.S., young people - USATODAY.com

Column: Why DREAM Act is right for U.S., young people - USATODAY.com: At Miami-Dade Community College's commencement ceremonies last month, 181 students marched across the stage, each carrying the flag of a different country. As each student stepped on the stage, individuals cheered for the flag that represented their heritage. But when the last flag went across the stage — the American flag — everyone applauded.

The scene reminded President Obama, who was there as the commencement speaker, of our national motto —E pluribus unum— out of many, one. The graduation is also a reminder that first-generation Americans are hard-working and understand the value of education. With degrees from Miami-Dade, some of those graduates will become nurses, IT professionals, and the next generation of entrepreneurs and business owners. Others will enroll in four-year universities and graduate ready to be teachers, engineers and leaders in their communities. By earning postsecondary degrees, they will earn 30% to 70% more than high school graduates. With that earning power, they will buy homes, cars and other goods to drive economic growth.

Report: Only five colleges properly serve needy students - College, Inc. - The Washington Post

Report: Only five colleges properly serve needy students - College, Inc. - The Washington Post: A new report from the nonprofit Education Trust finds only five U.S. colleges that properly serve the disadvantaged — by offering a quality education to a significant number of low-income students at a reasonable price.

The report, issued this month, draws this stark conclusion from new federal data on the net price of higher education, after accounting for grant aid.

Dozens — perhaps hundreds — of colleges offer sufficient need-based aid for the neediest students, those with family incomes below $30,200. Those students may pay only a small fraction of the full “sticker” price to attend.

But in EdTrust’s view, most schools don’t do enough. Low-income families received an average of $9,704 in grant aid in 2007, leaving an unmet need of $11,352. That’s about three-quarters of their total income.

The analysis found 275 colleges that require their neediest students to pay more than their total family income to attend.

Oprah Winfrey Receives South African University Honorary Doctorate

Oprah Winfrey Receives South African University Honorary Doctorate: BLOEMFONTEIN, South Africa – Oprah Winfrey accepted an honorary degree from a central South African university infamous for troubled race relations, saying the institution had turned an ugly experience into a model for confronting the challenges of reconciliation and remorse.

Winfrey on Friday came to a school where, five years ago, four White students made a video humiliating Black housekeeping staff—they are shown eating a stew the students had mimed spiking with urine—and expressing opposition to integrating the historically White University of the Free State. Jonathan Jansen, who in 2009 became the university's first Black rector, called for the four to be forgiven and rehabilitated.

Behind Mom's dark glasses: A civil rights leader's biggest fight - CNN.com

Behind Mom's dark glasses: A civil rights leader's biggest fight - CNN.com: Days ago, I sat at my mother's bedside and helped her hold a copy of our 2003 memoir, 'Freedom in the Family: A Mother-Daughter Memoir of the Fight for Civil Rights.'

The cover pictures her leading a protest march when she was 20 years old.

'That's you,' I said, pointing out her face, determined and stoic behind dark sunglasses.

'I remember this,' Mom said, and smiled.

These days, I do not take my mother's memory for granted.

My mother, Patricia Stephens Due, now 71, has thyroid cancer. Although thyroid cancer is considered highly treatable, by the time Mom's disease was diagnosed in the fall of 2009, the cancer had spread throughout her body, including her spine, which was fractured by the tumors. She was in bed for months.

Minorities At The Movies Fill Seats, But Not Screens : NPR

Minorities At The Movies Fill Seats, But Not Screens : NPR: According to a recent study, Hollywood has a little problem that could be costing it a lot of money.

Call it the Tyler Perry paradox. The director's Madea movies, melodramatic comedies featuring Perry in drag as the no-nonsense, busty grandma complete with silver wig, purse and gun, have been hugely profitable for Lionsgate Films. He has a huge following among black moviegoers.

So what's the issue? There seems to be an assumption that this is the only type of movie that black people want to see. Matthew Barnhill, senior director of marketing at BET, says that's not true. A recent BET study says blacks go to exactly the same kind of features as their white counterparts, with one surprising difference, according to Barnhill:

'We see movies 21 percent more often than the general market, and we're 22 percent more likely to have multiple repeat dealings of a movie.'

Students in 'Dropout Factory' Schools Explore Why Kids Quit | The Rundown News Blog | PBS NewsHour | PBS

Students in 'Dropout Factory' Schools Explore Why Kids Quit | The Rundown News Blog | PBS NewsHour | PBS: Nationally, about 70 percent of U.S. students graduate on time with a regular diploma, according to data compiled by Education Week. For Hispanic and African American students, the proportion drops to about 50 percent. And there are currently more than two million teenagers attending so-called 'dropout factory' schools where only 60 percent of the students finish high school in four years.

What does that phenomenon look like to students in so-called 'dropout factories'? PBS NewsHour's Student Reporting Labs teamed up with the People Production House's Radio Rootz program to explore why kids quit school and how the teachers and students themselves feel about being labeled a failing school.

Many of the Radio Rootz journalists come from these very 'dropout factories' in Washington, D.C., and New York City.

Minority education: Minority men falling behind academically, study finds - latimes.com

Minority education: Minority men falling behind academically, study finds - latimes.com: Young black and Latino men lag behind their contemporaries in nearly every measure of educational attainment, with many failing to attend college or earn degrees and large numbers facing the prospect of unemployment or incarceration.

The findings are included in two reports released at a briefing Monday by the College Board Advocacy & Policy Center. It was hosted by Harvard University's W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research in Cambridge, Mass.

The reports cull census data, academic research and in-depth interviews to paint a bleak picture of the educational experiences of young men across four racial and ethnic groups: African Americans, Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, Latinos and Native Americans.

Among the findings:

• 28% of African American men and 16% of Latino men aged 25 to 34 had obtained an associate's degree or higher, compared with 70% of Asian American men and 44% of white men.

• Large proportions of minority men aged 15 to 24 with high school diplomas were unemployed — 34% of black men, 47% of Latinos, 39% of Native Americans and 30% of Asian Americans.

• Incarceration rates are increasing — 10% of black men aged 15-24 were incarcerated, as were 5% of Latinos and 3% of Asian Americans and Native Americans.

Kay Madati: Building Charter Schools While Questioning The Movement

Kay Madati: Building Charter Schools While Questioning The Movement: Kay Madati has doubts about the charter school movement. And he helps run a charter school.

'I'm not sure in aggregate that charter schools are even raising the bar,' he says.

Madati, 39, who oversees entertainment marketing strategy for Facebook, doubles as the chairman of the Atlanta Heights Charter School, in Atlanta, which he founded.

The school just finished its first year only to have a state Supreme Court decision scrap its constitutionality under state law.

Because of issues around how the school was chartered, the court ruled that the school couldn't operate in Georgia until it was re-certified.

Big players in the education reform movement, from Michelle Rhee to Bill Gates to members of the Obama administration, have embraced charter schools with brio. That passion has fed the highly polarized debate around how well charter schools educate students in comparison to traditional public schools.

Madati, who says skepticism is what brought him to the cause of school reform in the first place, avoids taking sides in that argument -- to the extent that he can.

'This is not the be-all and end-all solution,' he said. 'In any one area when a charter school opens up, it only serves one segment of the population. What do you say about other segments of the area? The other 98 percent?'

Matthew Dakotah: Women In Power: How Lisa Jackson, A Young Girl From New Orleans, Became The First African American To Lead The EPA

Matthew Dakotah: Women In Power: How Lisa Jackson, A Young Girl From New Orleans, Became The First African American To Lead The EPA: A special series profiling trailblazers in energy innovation and champions of the environment. See previous stories here.

'From the time I was little I wanted to be a doctor. Back in those days, the thing people would say to a good student was 'Oh, you're going to grow up and be a doctor,'' Lisa Jackson remembers. 'I also had a female pediatrician and I know it sounds a little weird, but from a very early age it never occurred to me that women couldn't be scientists or healthcare professionals.'

Despite those early dreams, that little girl from New Orleans would never work in a hospital and never treat a patient. Instead, she would forge an even bolder path to become the first African American to lead the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in U.S. history.

To Curb Childhood Obesity, Experts Say Keep Baby Fat In Check : Shots - Health Blog : NPR

To Curb Childhood Obesity, Experts Say Keep Baby Fat In Check : Shots - Health Blog : NPR: The number of overweight kids and adolescents in the U.S. has almost tripled since the 1980s. That's pretty troubling, but the Institute of Medicine says we need to be paying more attention to the littlest kids: those under five.

Almost 10 percent of babies and toddlers carry too much weight for their size. And more than 20 percent of children 2 through 5 are already overweight, the IOM says, which could have pretty serious repercussions later in life.

'Contrary to the common perception that chubby babies are healthy babies and will naturally outgrow their baby fat, excess weight tends to persist,' Leann Birch, chair of the IOM's childhood obesity prevention committee, said in a statement. The committee's report released today makes some recommendations on what to do about it.

No time to abandon black colleges - USATODAY.com

No time to abandon black colleges - USATODAY.com: For decades, the relevance of America's historically black colleges and universities has been debated. Since the landmark 1954 Brown v. Board ruling and the mass acceptance of African-American students, the percentage of blacks attending HBCUs has dropped markedly. Before Brown, more than 90% of African Americans of college age attended an HBCU. Today, it's 12%.

...As president of Philander Smith College, an HBCU, I cannot ignore these criticisms. To a degree, they are fair. About 56% of four-year college students graduate in six years. For blacks, that figure drops to 41% and at HBCUs is 38%.

On my campus, we've looked at factors such as race, but more noteworthy are socioeconomic factors. This past year, 76% of students were eligible for Pell Grants, generally meaning that they came from families earning less than $40,000 a year. Research has indicated that socioeconomic background is a strong predictor of college completion. A 2007 study by the Pell Institute found that while 73% of students from the upper quartile of income complete college degrees, only 12% from the bottom do.

New report urges parents to invest early in childhood obesity prevention - USATODAY.com

New report urges parents to invest early in childhood obesity prevention - USATODAY.com: Take the TV set out of the children's bedroom. Teach kids to eat only when they're hungry. Don't restrict their playtime as a punishment.

These are among the recommendations in a new report from the Institute of Medicine (IOM), one of the first comprehensive studies analyzing what should be done to help prevent obesity in children up to five years of age.

In recent years there has been much emphasis on fighting overweight in school-age kids, but weight problems often begin in younger children, the report says.

About 20% of kids are overweight or obese before they go to school, with higher rates among low-income children and African-American and Hispanic children, the report notes. Government data shows a third of school-age children are overweight or obese.

Many young children don't grow out of their baby fat, and that extra weight increases their risk of obesity later in life, says Leann Birch,chair of the IOM committee that prepared the report and director of the Center for Childhood Obesity Research at the Pennsylvania State University.

HBCU Leaders Say They Should Share Their Campus Success Stories

HBCU Leaders Say They Should Share Their Campus Success Stories: HBCUs routinely get denigrated and their academic performance often gets unfairly judged, but that’s largely because leaders at the institutions have done a poor job of sharing their success stories with the public and the press.

That was one of the major themes that emerged Thursday during a gathering of half a dozen HBCU presidents who assembled to discuss ways to counter the longstanding and lingering notion that their colleges and universities lack when it comes to essentiality.

“We have to better tell our own story,” said Dr. Mary Evans Sias, president of Kentucky State University.

“We have not been good at all in coming up with the narrative that explains what we do and what we do very well,” Sias said. “And shame on us for not doing that.”

Wide White-Hispanic Education Achievement Gap Persists, Report Says

Wide White-Hispanic Education Achievement Gap Persists, Report Says: The Hispanic-white educational achievement gap has remained wide over the past two decades, according to a new report by the Department of Education's statistical center that a Department statement calls 'sobering.'

The report released on Thursday by the National Center for Educational Statistics showed that since the 1990s, scores in math and reading for Hispanic students have increased but the gap between Hispanic and white students on the National Assessment of Educational Progress has persisted.

'Race and ethnicity shouldn't be factors in the success of any child in America,' said U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan in a statement. '(Hispanic students) face grave educational challenges that are hindering their ability to pursue the American dream.'

New College Board Research on Young Men of Color Stirs Demand for Action

New College Board Research on Young Men of Color Stirs Demand for Action: ...His remarks came after a discussion of the new report titled “The Educational Experience of Young Men of Color: A Review of Research, Pathways and Progress,” co-authored by John Michael Lee Jr., a co-panelist and policy director at the College Board’s Advocacy and Policy Center.

Among other things, the report delineates the current landscape and projections of degree attainment among minorities in the United States, making note of the fact that, while minorities will collectively rival Whites in numbers in 2019, degree attainment among minorities, with the exception of Asians, trails significantly behind that of Whites. For instance, while 41.6 percent of 25- to 34-year-olds in the U.S. had attained an associate’s degree or higher as of 2008, the rate was 30.3 and 19.8 percent for African-Americans and Latinos, respectively, versus 49 percent for Whites and 70.7 percent for Asians. The report was released with two companion reports that reflect student voices on the issues as well as the federal legal implications.

In African Women’s Soccer, Homophobia Remains an Obstacle - NYTimes.com

In African Women’s Soccer, Homophobia Remains an Obstacle - NYTimes.com: Shortly before she was hired in 2009 as the first female coach of Nigeria’s powerful women’s national soccer team, Eucharia Uche said at a seminar that she was troubled by the presence of lesbians on the squad, calling it a “worrisome experience.”

Over the past two years, as Nigeria progressed toward the Women’s World Cup, which begins Sunday in Germany, Uche said that she has used religion in an attempt to rid her team of homosexual behavior, which she termed a “dirty issue,” and “spiritually, morally very wrong.”

FIFA, soccer’s world governing body, states as part of its mission a desire to use the game in “overcoming social and cultural obstacles for women with the ultimate aim of improving women’s standing in society.” But the story of Nigeria’s Super Falcons illustrates the cultural obstacles that remain for many African women who play soccer decades after more assertive efforts at inclusivity occurred in places like the United States, Germany, Norway, Sweden and more recently in Brazil.

Census: Whites make up minority of babies in U.S. - USATODAY.com

Census: Whites make up minority of babies in U.S. - USATODAY.com: For the first time, whites make up the minority of babies in the U.S., part of a sweeping race change and a growing age divide between mostly white, older Americans and predominantly minority youths that could reshape government policies.

Preliminary census estimates also show the share of African-American households headed by women — mostly single mothers — now exceeds African-American households with married couples, a sign of declining U.S. marriages overall but also of continuing challenges for black youths without involved fathers.

The findings, based on the latest government data, offer a preview of final 2010 census results being released this summer that provide detailed breakdowns by age, race and householder relationships.

Demographers say the numbers provide the clearest confirmation yet of a changing social order, one in which racial and ethnic minorities will become the U.S. majority by midcentury.

"We're moving toward an acknowledgment that we're living in a different world than the 1950s, where married or two-parent heterosexual couples are now no longer the norm for a lot of kids, especially kids of color," said Laura Speer, coordinator of the Kids Count project for the Baltimore-based Annie E. Casey Foundation.

Positioning young black males for success - The Answer Sheet - The Washington Post

Positioning young black males for success - The Answer Sheet - The Washington Post: This was written by Michael T. Nettles, senior vice president and the Edmund W. Gordon chair of the Educational Testing Service’s Policy Evaluation & Research Center.

By Michael T. Nettles

Top educators, researchers and policy experts met to discuss the crisis facing the country's 3.5 million black boys under the age of 9 years and to discuss community programs that are having a positive impact on their lives.

The Educational Testing Service and the Children’s Defense Fund sponsored the achievement gap symposium, where CDF President Marian Wright Edelman described the life status of black males as:

“A toxic cocktail of poverty, illiteracy, racial disparities, violence, massive incarceration and family breakdown is sentencing millions of children to dead end and hopeless lives and threatens to undermine the past half century of racial and social progress.”

Both Sides Square Off at Hearing on Charter School Suit - NYTimes.com

Both Sides Square Off at Hearing on Charter School Suit - NYTimes.com: The debate began an hour before Justice Paul G. Feinman of the State Supreme Court opened a hearing on Tuesday on the lawsuit by the United Federation of Teachers against the New York City Department of Education.

On the sidewalk outside the courthouse in Lower Manhattan, speaking before a phalanx of journalists, each side in the case accused the other of fostering inequality in city schools. Parents held signs — handwritten ones in support of charter schools and printed ones for their opponents.

The union’s lawsuit challenges the city’s attempt to close 22 schools for poor performance and to give 18 charter schools space inside buildings occupied by traditional public schools. According to the city, these initiatives are about expanding educational opportunities. But the teachers’ union and its allies in the suit say they are symbols of all that is wrong with the system.

North Carolina Considers Compensating Forced Sterilization Victims : NPR

North Carolina Considers Compensating Forced Sterilization Victims : NPR: Barely 40 years ago, it wasn't uncommon for a single mother on welfare, or a patient in a mental hospital in North Carolina, to be sterilized against her will.

But North Carolina wasn't alone: More than half of states in the U.S. had eugenics laws, some of which persisted into the 1970s.

North Carolina is now considering compensating its sterilization victims. A state panel heard from some of them Wednesday. They were mostly poor and uneducated — both black and white — and often just girls when it happened.

At N.J. School, Learning Not to Look Away From the Disabled - NYTimes.com

At N.J. School, Learning Not to Look Away From the Disabled - NYTimes.com: ...The unusual lessons are part of a new effort, called the Pearls Project, to promote tolerance and empathy in a school culture where being different can mean social exile. Ridgewood teachers developed it this year in partnership with Positive Exposure, a nonprofit group in New York City founded by Rick Guidotti, a fashion photographer.

Mr. Guidotti, who has photographed supermodels like Cindy Crawford and Claudia Schiffer, began snapping pictures of children with genetic disorders in 1997. A year later, Life magazine published his photo essay on albinism, titled “Redefining Beauty.” His work with these subjects has also been displayed in galleries, medical schools and children’s hospitals, as well as at Harvard University and at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History.

For the Pearls Project, Mr. Guidotti photographed 11 young people, each with a different disability. He also arranged for them to blog about their experiences and answer questions from the Ridgewood students.

Report: Low-income Students ‘Overrepresented’ at For-Profit Colleges

Report: Low-income Students ‘Overrepresented’ at For-Profit Colleges: A brief from the Institute for Higher Education Policy suggests that low-income and minority students are increasingly over-represented at for-profit colleges.

The brief, A Portrait of Low-Income Adults in Education, is the latest in a series of IHEP reports that offer snapshots of the status of low-income students in higher education.

IHEP found that 19 percent of low-income students are enrolled in for-profit institutions. That's up from 13 percent in 2000. Meanwhile, only 15 percent of these students are enrolled in public institutions, down from 20 percent. Low-income minority women also are three times as likely to enroll in for-profit colleges.

Still, though low-income students are overrepresented at for-profits, most of these students still attend public colleges.

Many Black New Yorkers Are Moving to the South - NYTimes.com

Many Black New Yorkers Are Moving to the South - NYTimes.com: ...The economic downturn has propelled a striking demographic shift: black New Yorkers, including many who are young and college educated, are heading south.

About 17 percent of the African-Americans who moved to the South from other states in the past decade came from New York, far more than from any other state, according to census data. Of the 44,474 who left New York State in 2009, more than half, or 22,508, went to the South, according to a study conducted by the sociology department of Queens College for The New York Times.

The movement is not limited to New York. The percentage of blacks leaving big cities in the East and in the Midwest and heading to the South is now at the highest levels in decades, demographers say.

Pennsylvania Legislation Seeks In-state Tuition for Undocumented Immigrants

Pennsylvania Legislation Seeks In-state Tuition for Undocumented Immigrants: Undocumented immigrants would qualify for the less expensive in-state tuition rates at Pennsylvania universities if they meet residency requirements included in proposed legislation introduced Monday.

The DREAM Act would offer an affordable education to college-bound teens who are here illegally through no fault of their own, its primary sponsor, state Rep. Tony Payton Jr., said at a news conference in Philadelphia.

“They grew up Americans, they show civic pride, they have American values,” said Payton, a Democratic lawmaker from the city. “We should not be punishing kids for a choice that their parents made.”

Averting Deportation, Undocumented Student Realizes DREAM

Averting Deportation, Undocumented Student Realizes DREAM: Heavier than the books Mariano Cardoso had to carry to class at Capital Community College in Hartford, Conn., was the weight of the deportation order he lived with for nearly three years. Recently, the 23-year-old not only graduated with an associate degree in liberal arts, but he had the order of removal lifted thanks to a hard-fought, high-profile campaign.

“I feel finally free because I had always had that on my mind — that at any time I could be deported. And [carrying] that idea around … really restricted me [from] focusing on whatever I wanted to do,” says the Mexican immigrant whose family brought him to the United States when he was 22 months old.

With the help of his community; Connecticut Gov. Daniel P. Malloy; U.S. Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn.; and U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn.; and a lengthy petition, Cardoso had the deportation order halted. He says the process shouldn’t be this arduous for students like him — dubbed DREAMers — who would be eligible for the DREAM Act if it passed.

Sao Paulo Fashion Week Protestors Call For 20 Percent Quota Of Black Models

Sao Paulo Fashion Week Protestors Call For 20 Percent Quota Of Black Models: Protestors at this season's Sao Paulo Fashion Week called for a 20 percent quota of indigenous and black models to be used on the event's runways, the Guardian reports.

Back in 2008, the BBC wrote that only 28 out of 1,128 models booked for Sao Paulo Fashion Week that year were black. As one modeling agent said, 'The black models can't get jobs and have no access, don't have a good distribution of money or earnings and live in a sub-world, because there are no job opportunities.'

And the New York Times reported on the issue last summer, writing, '70 percent of the country's models come from three southern states that hardly reflect the multiethnic melting pot that is Brazil, where more than half the population is nonwhite.' Erika Palomino, a fashion consultant in Sao Paulo, told the newspaper, 'I was always perplexed that Brazil was never able to export a Naomi Campbell, and it is definitely not because of a lack of pretty women. It is embarrassing.'

NCAA Forum Aims to Increase Minority Head Coaches

NCAA Forum Aims to Increase Minority Head Coaches: A new wave of college football head-coaching candidates went to school this past weekend.

Seven African-American coaches, including three former NFL players, were participating Friday in The Champion Forum, the top tier of the NCAA's coaching academy, during a weeklong convention of the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics.

The academy is part of the NCAA's effort to increase the number of “ethnic minorities” in head coaching positions at the 583 institutions that have football teams. The message being delivered this year is that today's head coach has to do more than teach blocking and tackling.

“One of the things I've taken is that there are a lot more things to running a program than the X-and-O part of it,” said Notre Dame outside linebackers coach Kerry Cooks, who played for the Green Bay Packers in 1998.

Among them are fundraising and budgeting; media, alumni and booster relations; compliance considerations; and the management of a large staff.

Some of Va.’s Brown v. Board college grants go to whites - The Washington Post

Some of Va.’s Brown v. Board college grants go to whites - The Washington Post: Half a century after many Virginia public schools shut their doors rather than accept black students, the state is offering college scholarships to compensate those whose education suffered in the era of “massive resistance” to desegregation. Among the recipients: white students.

Since 2004, about 70 people have won the scholarships, including a handful of white Virginians whose schooling was disrupted in the late 1950s and early 1960s. A precise count of white scholarship recipients was unavailable, but the total is believed to be fewer than 10. Officials who oversee the state program say they want to spread the word to more white students who might be eligible.

African American unemployment at 16 percent - CBS News

African American unemployment at 16 percent - CBS News: The economy and jobs will be big issues in Washington again this coming week.

While unemployment among the general population is about 9.1 percent, it's at 16.2 percent African Americans, and a bit higher still for African American males.

CBS News correspondent Michelle Miller reports that, historically, the unemployment rate for African Americans has always been higher than the national average. However, now it's at Depression-era levels. The most recent figures show African American joblessness at 16.2 percent. For black males, it's at 17.5 percent; And for black teens, it's nearly 41 percent.

For some, it's crunch time at STRIVE, a job training program in East Harlem, where instructors use drill sergeant-like techniques. They teach job-seekers to correct their mistakes by fining them a quarter each time they make them.

For young men of color, especially black males in New York City, things are especially bad. According to the think tank, the Community Service Society, 34 percent of New York's young black men age 19 to 24 are not working.

City Reduces Chronic Absenteeism in Public Schools - NYTimes.com

City Reduces Chronic Absenteeism in Public Schools - NYTimes.com: ...Poverty and race are closely tied to chronic absenteeism, the study found. Among black and Hispanic children in the study, more than 90 percent of whom qualified for free or reduced-cost lunch, more than one in five were chronically absent. Asian-Americans had the lowest rate of chronic absenteeism, 4 percent, though 84 percent of them qualified for the lunch program; 12 percent of white students in the study were chronically absent, though they were economically better off.

The Campaign for Fiscal Equity’s researchers said the predicted improvement on tests from good attendance amounted to a fifth or a quarter of the achievement gap between black and Hispanic students and their white and Asian classmates.

At P.S. 309, where the students proudly wear their attendance tags around their necks, chronic absenteeism has fallen from one in four students to one in five over the last two years. This year, the principal, Emily Zucal, began an early-morning fitness program to help lure students, as well as monthly assemblies and pizza parties for those who do not miss a day.

Pew Research Study: Dads Spending Much More Time With Children

Pew Research Study: Dads Spending Much More Time With Children: The percentage of American fathers who live apart from their children has doubled over the last half-century. But, to their credit, many of today's dads are spending more than twice as much time with their kids as they did back then.

The role of mothers has changed, too, according to a Pew Research Center report that examines parents and parenting as U.S. marriage rates and traditional family households fall to historic lows.

How a father provides for his family relates to the attention he devotes to his children, the study found. College-educated men who tend to marry and get better jobs are more involved with their children than less skilled men struggling to get by.

Perspectives: Bridging the Research-Practice Gap

Perspectives: Bridging the Research-Practice Gap: There is a cultural divide between diversity practitioners and academic researchers—ironic, given our professional focus on cultural divides. This is unfortunate. It decreases the usefulness of research and the effectiveness of practice. The purpose of this column will be to bridge the gap between diversity researchers (especially academics) and practitioners. While the research-practice gap is real and is substantial, we hasten to add that it is not universal. Some researchers also consult and some practitioners have relevant academic training. Unfortunately, these are the exceptions.

To bridge the research-practice gap, practitioners and academics must talk to one another. So that’s what we’ll be doing in this column. David [Kravitz] is the academic, with a doctorate in social psychology and postdoctoral training in industrial-organizational psychology.

Cancer death rate gap widens based on education - USATODAY.com

Cancer death rate gap widens based on education - USATODAY.com: The gap in cancer death rates between college graduates and those who only went to high school is widening, the American Cancer Society reported Friday.

Among men, the least educated died of cancer at rates more than 2 times that of men with college degrees, the latest data show. In the early 1990s, they died at two times the rate of most-educated men.

For women, the numbers aren't as complete but suggest a widening gap also. The data, from 2007, compared people between the ages of 25 and 64.

People with college degrees are seeing a significant drop in cancer death rates, while people who have spent less time in school are seeing more modest improvements or sometimes none at all, explained Elizabeth Ward, who oversees research done by the cancer society.

The Root: Obama Helps Dads Do It Better : NPR

The Root: Obama Helps Dads Do It Better : NPR: It sometimes rubs people the wrong way. But President Obama has a tendency to talk about parental responsibility, especially as it pertains to absentee dads, when addressing African-American audiences.

'Michelle and I happen to be black parents, so I may add a little 'umph' to it when I'm talking to black parents,' he joked to the National Urban League last summer by way of explanation.

Of course, fatherlessness is hardly an issue specific to black families. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 24 million children in America – one out of three – live in biological father-absent homes. However, the figure rises to nearly two in three among African-American children in particular, and, according to the National Fatherhood Initiative, young people without dads around are more likely to drop out of school, use drugs, engage in criminal behavior, and become young parents themselves.

College Mentoring for Access and Persistence Program Gives Graduating High School Seniors a Boost

College Mentoring for Access and Persistence Program Gives Graduating High School Seniors a Boost: What started as a group of high school students who stopped by for pizza and soft drinks at a monthly meeting with mentors from the Big Four accounting firm Ernst & Young has turned into a cohort of polished college-bound seniors.

On Tuesday, 10 students from Adlai Stevenson High School in the Bronx celebrated their achievements at a reception in Manhattan as the first cohort of the College Mentoring for Access and Persistence (MAP) program, a partnership between Ernst & Young and the nonprofit College for Every Student.

“We can talk about No Child Left Behind, we can talk about Race to the Top, but we don’t have a program that’s working—except here with Ernst & Young,” said Rick Dalton, executive director of College for Every Student.

Blind Law Student Claims Discrimination In Testing : NPR

Blind Law Student Claims Discrimination In Testing : NPR: A prospective law school student in Michigan is suing the American Bar Association over a case he argues is truly a matter of blind justice. The student says he is being denied access to top-tier law schools because of a test he says no one who's blind could possibly pass.

The Law School Admission Test, commonly known as the LSAT, typically features more than a dozen questions where test takers are strongly encouraged to draw out a written diagram to solve the problem.

Law school hopeful Angelo Binno was born blind and has overcome many obstacles. But, the 28-year-old says, he could not overcome the low test scores he kept getting when taking the LSAT. And, because of those scores, he was rejected by the three law schools he applied to.

New Bill Targets College Access, Academic Success in Low-Income Areas

New Bill Targets College Access, Academic Success in Low-Income Areas: Education leaders in the U.S. Senate want to promote college success in low-income communities through a new “cradle-to-career” educational support program in the nation’s highest poverty neighborhoods.

Proposed by U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, chairman of the Senate’s education committee, and five other Democrats, the Promise Neighborhoods Act would create a new national initiative based on a model developed by the Harlem Children’s Zone to serve at-risk students in New York City.

That program, which began on one city block, has spread to cover more than 10,000 Harlem children. Integrated within the Children’s Zone are early childhood education programs, charter schools and support to prepare children for college.

Symposium: National Intervention Urged for African-American Boys

Symposium: National Intervention Urged for African-American Boys: In order to improve long-term educational outcomes for African-American boys—including those who ultimately become college graduates—key developmental supports must be put in place during the earliest years of their lives, particularly for those exposed to a “toxic cocktail” of poverty and all its attendant stressors.

That’s the essential message that emanated from “A Strong Start: Positioning Young Black Boys for Educational Success”—a symposium held at the National Press Club on Monday and jointly sponsored by the Educational Testing Service and the Children’s Defense Fund.

Hate-Crime Arrests Signal 'Victory' For California City : NPR

Hate-Crime Arrests Signal 'Victory' For California City : NPR: Azusa is a small, working-class college city along the train tracks in the San Gabriel Valley, just 25 miles east of Los Angeles. Federal prosecutors say for years, the Varrio Azusa 13 gang has monopolized sales of cocaine, heroin and meth here.

'This gang has waged an insidious, two-decade campaign of violence, fueled not only by drug dealing but by racial animus and hatred,' U.S. Attorney Andre Birotte told reporters in L.A. 'They had an edict dating back to 1992 to basically get rid of African-Americans from Azusa.'

Last week, 51 alleged Azusa 13 members were arrested and charged with federal racketeering and also civil rights violations. Birotte says since 1992, they've terrorized Azusa's black residents.

'This gang made a decision: 'What are we gonna do about the African-Americans in this community? We need to get rid of them,' ' Birotte told NPR. 'They made no bones about it, confronting African-Americans in the community to get out: 'You're not welcome here.' They were explicit racial epithets, spray-painting graffiti with graphic terms of 'f—- the n——-s,' 'you n——-s are not allowed here.' '

Multiracial Students Face Quandary on College Application - NYTimes.com

Multiracial Students Face Quandary on College Application - NYTimes.com: At the beginning of the college application season last fall, Natasha Scott, a high school senior of mixed racial heritage in Beltsville, Md., vented about a personal dilemma on College Confidential, the go-to electronic bulletin board for anonymous conversation about admissions.

“I just realized that my race is something I have to think about,” she wrote, describing herself as having an Asian mother and a black father. “It pains me to say this, but putting down black might help my admissions chances and putting down Asian might hurt it.”

“My mother urges me to put down black to use AA” — African-American — “to get in to the colleges I’m applying to,” added Ms. Scott, who identified herself on the site as Clearbrooke. “I sort of want to do this but I’m wondering if this is morally right.”

Within minutes, a commenter had responded, “You’re black. You should own it.” Someone else agreed, “Put black!!!!!!!! Listen to your mom.”

N.J. Student Aid Bid Rejected Due to Mom's Immigration Status

N.J. Student Aid Bid Rejected Due to Mom's Immigration Status: An American-born high school student from New Jersey has been denied state tuition assistance because her mother is an undocumented immigrant, according to the American Civil Liberties Union.

The ACLU and a Rutgers University legal clinic are representing the high school senior identified only as A.Z. in an appeal filed on her behalf in a case they claim violates both state and federal laws.

The 17-year-old, who has lived in New Jersey for at least a decade and is a graduating senior, applied for a Tuition Aid Grant from the state's Higher Education Student Assistance Authority, or HESAA. Her state aid application was rejected, according to the ACLU, with the explanation that “her parents are not legal New Jersey residents.”

Michigan Two- and Four-Year Colleges Team Up To Boost Minority STEM Enrollment

Michigan Two- and Four-Year Colleges Team Up To Boost Minority STEM Enrollment: A new initiative between nine Michigan community colleges and four public universities aims to use “pre-first year” programs, paid research experiences and other strategies to dramatically expand the number of minority students in STEM majors. The initiative features community colleges in largely urban areas, like the Wayne County Community College District—with campuses in Detroit and its suburbs—and community colleges in Lansing, Macomb and Grand Rapids. But schools in smaller, economically distressed communities also have joined the Michigan Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation.

Despite black parent anger in New York City, NAACP is right - USATODAY.com

Despite black parent anger in New York City, NAACP is right - USATODAY.com: The NAACP is being attacked by parents of New York City schoolchildren who are angered by the civil rights group's support for a lawsuit that seeks to keep 20 charter schools out of buildings that already are occupied by traditional public schools.

The suit also attempts to block the closing of some of the city's underperforming public schools, the kind of schools that make many parents clamor for a way out. In the 20 years since Minnesota enacted the first law allowing charter schools, this hybrid approach to public education has become an increasingly popular escape hatch, especially for black students.

While blacks are 30% of the New York City's 1 million public school children, they are 60% of the youngsters enrolled in the Big Apple's 125 charter schools. So, black parents of charter school students in the city think the NAACP's support of the lawsuit, which was filed last month by the United Federation of Teachers, amounts to an act of racial treason.

Martin Luther King memorial nears completion - USATODAY.com

Martin Luther King memorial nears completion - USATODAY.com: The dedication of the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial on the National Mall in August may draw as many as 400,000 people — more than the 1963 March on Washington, organizers say.

Former secretary of State Colin Powell, Stevie Wonder and Aretha Franklin are among the people expected to participate in five days of concerts, dinners, seminars and prayer services celebrating King's legacy, says Harry Johnson, CEO of the Martin Luther King Jr. National Memorial Project Foundation..

The $120 million memorial, the only one on the Mall that does not commemorate a president or a war, will be dedicated Aug. 28, the anniversary of the march and King's I Have a Dream speech, which drew an estimated 200,000 people.

Johnson says the National Park Service is planning for 400,000 people. Sgt. David Schlosser, spokesman for the U.S. Park Police, would not confirm that figure, saying his office does not give out crowd projections.

Report: Low-Income Students "Priced-Out" of College

Report: Low-Income Students "Priced-Out" of College: A new report from the Education Trust suggests that only a handful of colleges are prepared to meet the needs of lower-income students.

The report, 'Priced Out: How the Wrong Financial Aid Policies Hurt Low-Income Students' looks at 1,186 colleges nationwide, which had comparable data on what lower-income students pay for college.

Success was measured in three key areas: colleges must enroll a proportion of low-income students comparable to the national average, low-income students must pay a portion of their family income that is no greater than what is paid by the average middle-income student and students must have a decent chance of graduating - about 50 percent.

Jill Abramson and Dean Baquet: Why a White Woman and a Black Man Will Lead the USA's Top Paper

Jill Abramson and Dean Baquet: Why a White Woman and a Black Man Will Lead the USA's Top Paper: When I heard the historic announcement from Times Square the other day, that America's top newspaper had named a woman as executive editor, my thoughts drifted back to the 1972-1981 decade at the paper, and the words of Dickens -- almost cliche nowadays -- seemed apt: 'It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.'

The New York Times, where I spent most of my career, appointed Jill Abramson to lead the newsroom. Her No. 2 will be Dean Baquet, named managing editor. It will be the first time the two top positions at the 160-year-old newspaper have been filled by a woman and a black man. That is a groundbreaking team.

The monumental change deserves more attention than the relatively subdued reaction it received. It also deserves more background and history, coming nearly three decades after women and minorities settled separate discrimination lawsuits against the paper. To my mind, the promotions represented the culmination of that legal action.

Policing The Police: U.S. Steps Up Enforcement : NPR

Policing The Police: U.S. Steps Up Enforcement : NPR: The U.S. Justice Department is stepping up its scrutiny of troubled police departments. Federal civil rights lawyers are investigating 15 departments from Arizona to New Jersey, asking whether officers are discriminating against minorities or using too much force.

When it comes to federal oversight of local police, there's only one place to start: the brutal attack on Rodney King. A Los Angeles police chief admitted King had been hit with batons more than 50 times, kicked at least seven times and shocked with a stun gun.

That brutal attack caught on videotape by a witness prompted Congress to give the Justice Department the power to investigate patterns of discrimination by local cops.

Blacks And Poor Americans List Unemployment As Larger Problem Than General Economy: Gallup

Blacks And Poor Americans List Unemployment As Larger Problem Than General Economy: Gallup: To a large number of Americans, an economic recovery without jobs is not really a recovery at all.

Overall, 55 percent of Americans picked either the general economy (29 percent) or joblessness (26 percent) as the country's most important problem, according to a Gallup poll released Friday, making this the fifth straight month of the year that Americans put the economy and unemployment atop their list.

The next most popular answer was the federal deficit, at 13 percent.

But now, there are a number of demographic groups that are identifying unemployment as an even bigger concern than the broader economy. Indeed, unemployment, not the general economy, was the top issue of concern for blacks, senior citizens, and people who earned $30,000 or less per year, according to the Gallup poll.

Alabama - Tough Immigration Measure Becomes Law - NYTimes.com

Alabama - Tough Immigration Measure Becomes Law - NYTimes.com: Gov. Robert Bentley signed a tough immigration law on Thursday, and several civil rights groups said they would sue to stop it from taking effect. The law, which goes beyond an immigration enforcement bill Arizona adopted last year, requires public schools to determine the immigration status of all students starting in kindergarten and makes it a crime to knowingly give a ride in a vehicle to an illegal immigrant. It requires police officers to inquire about the status of anyone they stop if they suspect the person might be an illegal immigrant. Calling the law extreme, the Southern Poverty Law Center, the National Immigration Law Center and the American Civil Liberties Union said they were preparing a lawsuit.

Clara Luper, a Leader of Civil Rights Sit-Ins, Dies at 88 - NYTimes.com

Clara Luper, a Leader of Civil Rights Sit-Ins, Dies at 88 - NYTimes.com: Her name does not resonate like that of Rosa Parks, and she did not garner the kind of national attention that a group of black students did when they took seats at a Woolworth’s lunch counter in Greensboro, N.C., in February 1960. But Clara Luper was a seminal figure in the sit-ins of the civil rights movement.

Ms. Luper, who led one of the first sit-ins — at a drugstore in Oklahoma City 18 months before the Greensboro action — died Wednesday at her home in Oklahoma City, her daughter Marilyn Hildreth said. She was 88.

Ms. Luper was a history teacher at Dunjee High School in 1957 when she agreed to become adviser to the Oklahoma City N.A.A.C.P.’s youth council. The youngsters asked what they could do to help the movement.

On Aug. 19, 1958, Ms. Luper led three other adult chaperons and 14 members of the youth council into the Katz Drug Store in Oklahoma City, where they took seats at the counter and asked for Coca-Colas. Denied service, they refused to leave until closing time. They returned on Saturday mornings for several weeks.

Under suspicion: American Muslims search for identity 10 years after Sept. 11 - The Washington Post

Under suspicion: American Muslims search for identity 10 years after Sept. 11 - The Washington Post: Hungry to be just one of the guys after immigrating to Texas, Palestinian Fawaz Ismail asked everybody to call him “Tony.” The nickname put people at ease at his Dallas high school, where Tony switched from soccer to football and picked up a bit of a Texas twang.

He remained Tony when he moved to Northern Virginia to expand his family’s flag-selling business. The name made him feel as American as his Falls Church store, Alamo Flag, a patriot’s paradise brimming with Stars and Stripes banners, pins and stickers.

Then came the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the day Tony became a foreigner again. That afternoon, people started pouring into Alamo Flag, many wearing sunglasses to hide their crying eyes. Ismail sold thousands of American flags in those days of fear and unity, and he gave away thousands more.

In ‘I Wish You Love,’ race, civil rights and Nat ‘King’ Cole - The Washington Post

In ‘I Wish You Love,’ race, civil rights and Nat ‘King’ Cole - The Washington Post: ...“I Wish You Love” travels back to 1957, when “The Nat ‘King’ Cole Show” — a network variety show hosted by Cole, already a major star — was a television milestone. The play, written by Dominic Taylor and directed by Penumbra founder Lou Bellamy, imagines the behind-the-scenes tensions at Cole’s show as the black entertainer skirmishes with network bigwigs who want him, among other things, to segregate his band. The script juxtaposes this saga against the civil rights movement, with a news-anchor character who reports on such events as school desegregation in Little Rock. The play was a smash hit in St. Paul, so much so that Penumbra will reprise it there next season.

Preschool Leads To Better Jobs And Fewer Arrests, New Study Says

Preschool Leads To Better Jobs And Fewer Arrests, New Study Says: Preschool has surprisingly enduring benefits lasting well into adulthood, according to one of the biggest, longest follow-up studies of its kind.

Better jobs, less drug abuse and fewer arrests are among advantages found in the study that tracked more than 1,000 low-income, mostly black Chicago kids for up to 25 years.

Michael Washington was one of them. Now a 31-year-old heating and air conditioning contractor, Washington attended a year of preschool at Chicago's intensive Child-Parent Center Education Program when he was 4.

The ongoing publicly funded program focuses on language development, scholastic skills and building self-confidence. It involves one or two years of half-day preschool, and up to four additional years of educational and family services in grade school. Preschool teachers have college degrees and are certified in early childhood education, and parents are encouraged to be involved in the classes.

N.A.A.C.P. on Defensive for Suit Against Charter Schools - NYTimes.com

N.A.A.C.P. on Defensive for Suit Against Charter Schools - NYTimes.com: In some ways, it seems like a natural cause for the N.A.A.C.P.: students — many of them poor, most of them black — treated as second-class citizens when the public schools they attended had to share buildings with charter schools. A lawsuit filed last month by the N.A.A.C.P. and the United Federation of Teachers described children having to eat lunch so early it might as well be breakfast, and getting less exercise because gym hours were evenly divided between the schools despite big differences in their enrollment sizes.

But black children have been major constituents of charter schools since their creation two decades ago. So when thousands of charter-school parents, students and advocates staged a rally on May 26 in Harlem, it was not so much to denounce the litigation as it was to criticize the involvement of the N.A.A.C.P.

Since then, a war has broken out within the civil rights community in New York and across the country over the lawsuit against the city and the larger questions of how school choice helps or hurts minority students.

Alabama passes 'toughest illegal immigration law in US' | World news | The Guardian

Alabama passes 'toughest illegal immigration law in US' | World news | The Guardian: The Republican governor Robert Bentley has signed a crackdown on illegal immigration into Alabama law, with both supporters and critics considering the measures to be the toughest in the country.

The crackdown will require public schools to determine the immigration status of students – an aspect not covered in an Arizona law that has been at the forefront of attempts by several US states to crack down on illegal immigrants.

Under the Alabama law, police must detain someone they suspect of being in the country illegally if the person cannot produce proper documentation when stopped for any reason.

It also will be a crime to knowingly transport or harbour someone who is in the country illegally. The law imposes penalties on businesses that knowingly employ someone without legal resident status, and business licences could be suspended or revoked.

The Root: Fly Style Supplements Wack Rhymes : NPR

The Root: Fly Style Supplements Wack Rhymes : NPR: She raps, she's weird and she's white. Now 21-year-old Kreayshawn is also the latest YouTube oddity-turned-overnight celebrity — and no, that's not a good thing.

Three weeks ago Natassia 'Kreayshawn' Zolot — a petite, foulmouthed woman hailing from Oakland, Calif. — posted the video for her song 'Gucci, Gucci' on YouTube, and the Internet went nuts. The song is her self-aggrandizing rant against 'basic b———' and label whores who define themselves by the luxury brands they wear.

The clip — currently at more than 2 million views — features Kreayshawn in her signature huge earrings and a pair of shiny pink Minnie Mouse ears, hanging out in the streets of Los Angeles with her sidekick-doppelganger Lil Debbie and an entourage of young black men. The video has inspired mentions of this Internet sensation and her 'White Girl Mob' on sites such as Complex, GQ and Jezebel. The video was the chum for yet another Internet-media feeding frenzy fueled by an appetite for all things anomalous, ridiculous and, of course, ironic.

Study: Minority Youth Have Big Media Appetite

Study: Minority Youth Have Big Media Appetite: Minority youth spend more than half their day consuming media content, a rate that's 4.5 hours greater than their White counterparts, according to a Northwestern University report released Wednesday.

Television remains king among all youth, but, among minorities who spend 13 hours per day consuming media of various types, electronic gadgets such as cell phones and iPods increasingly are the way such content gets delivered, the report found.

“Children, Media and Race: Media Use Among White, Black, Hispanic and Asian American Children” was touted by researchers as the first national study to focus exclusively on children's media use by race and ethnicity.

Minority youth media consumption rates outpace their White counterparts by two hours when it comes to TV and video viewership, approximately an hour for music, up to 1.5 hours for computer use, and 30 to 40 minutes for playing video games.

IHEP Launches College Completion Coalition

IHEP Launches College Completion Coalition: Under the guidance of a leading Washington-based higher education policy organization, the National Coalition for College Completion (NCCC), which is made up of civil rights organizations, businesses and student advocacy groups, was launched Thursday. A news media conference call announced the launch and it included higher education experts expressing concern about the challenges low-income students face as they try to complete their college education.

The coalition was convened by the Institute for Higher Education Policy (IHEP) and is meant to give a voice to organizations outside of education.

Nearly 1 In 7 People On Earth Is Disabled, Survey Finds : Shots - Health Blog : NPR

Nearly 1 In 7 People On Earth Is Disabled, Survey Finds : Shots - Health Blog : NPR: More than 1 billion people in the world are living with some sort of disability, according to a new international survey. That's about 15 percent of the world's population, or nearly one of every 7 people.

The numbers come from a joint effort by the World Health Organization and the World Bank. The last time anyone tried to figure out the prevalence of disabilities was back in the 1970s, when WHO figured it was about 10 percent. The current report suggests the 15 percent estimate will grow as the world's population ages.

Like the 1970s numbers, today's figures are at best an approximation. Many countries don't collect numbers carefully, and definitions of disability differ from place to place. The World Bank/WHO folks sought out tabulations of people who have trouble seeing, hearing, walking, remembering, taking care of themselves or communicating. Worldwide, the most common disability in people under the age of 60 is depression, followed by hearing and visual problems.

More Hispanic Students Graduating And Attending College, Census Says

More Hispanic Students Graduating And Attending College, Census Says: A higher percentage of young Hispanic adults is finishing high school, and the number attending a two-year college has nearly doubled over the last decade, according to Census data released Wednesday.

The percentage of Hispanic 18- to 24-year-olds who are not enrolled in high school and don't have an equivalent degree was 22 percent in 2008, down from 34 percent in 1998.

Meanwhile, the number attending a 2-year college increased 85 percent, from 540,000 in 2000 to 1 million in 2008.

'It's an amazing level of growth,' said Kurt Bauman, the chief of the Census Bureau's education branch.

Researchers said the numbers on high school completion were the result of several factors, including targeted efforts to reduce the number of Latino students dropping out, as well as an increasing percentage born and attending all their schooling in the United States.

Commentary: Increasing the MBA Diversity Pipeline – What’s the Problem – the Pipe or the Line?

Commentary: Increasing the MBA Diversity Pipeline – What’s the Problem – the Pipe or the Line?: Cultivating an interest in business and business careers among historically underrepresented minorities—African-Americans, Hispanic Americans and Native Americans—has been a formidable challenge for the business community. While data from the National Center for Education suggests that the number of underrepresented minorities pursuing business careers is growing, business people have yet to identify that infallible formula that will establish business as a viable career option for qualified diverse candidates.

Recently we revisited a 2007 report from the Diversity Pipeline Alliance, a collaborative of 16 organizations, examining ways to strengthen the pipeline of diverse talent.

Diversity Still Matters in Michigan

Diversity Still Matters in Michigan: It has been almost five years since Michigan voters chose to ban race-conscious programs from state-funded institutions. The impact of the decision was swift and painful for many, particularly in the state’s public higher education landscape. Minority enrollment in public colleges, which was already low, plummeted in many categories as state-funded minority scholarships disappeared and a bad economy made alternative funds scarce. Programs and services that were targeted solely toward minorities and women vanished.

Today, however, there are some signs of hope for minorities hoping to access higher education in Michigan. Five years after the racially polarizing campaign to pass the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative—widely known as Proposition 2—the state’s public colleges and universities are learning how to adapt to a colorblind campus.