EthnicMajority

(SF Appeal) Arguing that spending on prisons is out of control, civil rights leaders gathered in San Francisco today to unveil a campaign in support of federal legislation to review the nation’s criminal justice system.

At a news conference at City Hall, NAACP representatives joined local political leaders in support of the National Criminal Justice Commission Act. They warned that the difficulties facing California’s prison system mirror those across the nation.

“It seems like the number-one priority in California is incarceration,” said Alice Huffman, president of the California NAACP.

Huffman was among several speakers who said money would be better spent on education and rehabilitation.

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(Business News Daily) Hispanic-owned businesses are a hotbed of job growth in the United States, according to a new report.

Employment at these firms grew by 26 percent from 1.5 million to 1.9 million over the five-year period from 2002 to 2007, significantly higher than that of non-minority owned firms, according to a report released by the U.S. Commerce Department’s Minority Business Development Agency (MBDA).

The number of Hispanic-owned firms also outpaced the growth of non-minority-owned businesses, jumping by 44 percent over the same period from 1.6 million to 2.3 million. In spite of this growth, though, Hispanic businesses are underrepresented in the American economy, the report showed. While Hispanics now represent 13 percent of the adult population, Hispanic businesses still account for only 9 percent of all classifiable businesses.

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(Pittsburgh Post Gazette) Steelers wide receiver Hines Ward has had plenty of speaking engagements in his time, but he said his appearance Tuesday before a packed auditorium in the U.S. Capitol was the toughest.

Ward said he was nervous and humbled in brief remarks after being sworn in as a member of President Barack Obama’s Advisory Commission on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders.

Born in Seoul, South Korea, to a Korean mother and African-American father, Ward said he endured taunts as a child and was often resentful of his mixed heritage. But he credited his mother because she “instilled in me a great attitude and appreciation for who I am.”

The commission advises Obama, Education Secretary Arne Duncan and Commerce Secretary Gary Locke on ways to improve quality of life for Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders.

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(Hudson Press) Annual data released recently by the U.S. Census Bureau indicates that 43.6 million Americans – one in seven people – now live in poverty. This is the largest number of people in poverty in the 51 years for which the estimates are available. The figures also show that African Americans experience poverty at a much higher rate than whites.

“It’s troubling that, in one of the world’s wealthiest nations, one in four African-American households struggle to provide for their families,” said Bishop Don DiXon Williams of Bread for the World’s Church Relations department. “The vast disproportion in poverty rates between African Americans and whites suggests that we must urge our nation’s leaders to do more to end poverty and hunger.”

In 2009, the poverty rate for African Americans reached 25.8 percent – almost twice as high as that of the general population. One in three African-American children now lives in families that have trouble providing for them. Participation in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or SNAP (formerly called food stamps) has hit record levels, with African-Americans accounting for 22.6 percent of the 40.5 million Americans who receive SNAP benefits each month. This figure is projected to rise in 2011.

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(Detroit Free Press) Six months after it was signed into law, the Affordable Care Act of 2010 continues to spark vigorous debate, even though most Americans have yet to feel its impact. That begins to change Thursday, when many people who need health care — particularly racial and ethnic minorities, who suffer disproportionately from illness and disability — should find it easier to obtain needed services. Several important provisions of the new law will take effect that are expected to help consumers find and keep their health insurance coverage, protect their choice of doctors, and put patients in charge of their health care.

That’s why repeal and other health-reform nullification efforts, which have gained media attention recently, are so disappointing. Business and political leaders who want to block the implementation of health reform are, in effect, turning their backs on this population.

Many people of color face poorer health than white Americans from the cradle to the grave, in the form of higher rates of infant mortality, chronic disease and disability, and premature death.

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(USA Today) The popularity of LeBron James has taken a big hit since he decided to leave Cleveland for Miami. But the African American community has stayed loyal to the NBA superstar.

SLAM magazine columnist Vincent Thomas writing for ESPN.com explains that the more James is disliked by others, the bond from the black community makes for a tighter circle.

…The more America shuns LeBron, the more Black America retreats to his corner. In fact, as America hates LeBron more and more, Black America’s collective hug embraces LeBron tighter and tighter. It’s called black protectionism.

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(Google News) A promotional television advertisement has outraged several African-American former stars of the National Basketball League who say a scene featuring a black player hopping into bed with a white couple is insensitive and racist.

The commercial shows a series of Australian basketball players throwing a ball around a suburban house. Near the end, Sydney Kings forward Taj McCullough, who is African-American, leaps onto a white couple’s bed and nuzzles up to the woman. McCullough is the only black player featured in the commercial.

Former Melbourne Tigers player Darryl McDonald slammed the advertisement.

“It puts black Americans in a bad light,” McDonald, who is also African-American, told Sydney’s Daily Telegraph. “That commercial has nothing to do with basketball. Nobody else would present their sport this way.”

In a statement Friday, the NBL defended the ad as “lighthearted and fun.”

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(Washington Post) The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights is debating its own existence, again.

When the panel was formed 53 years ago, its mission was clear: to investigate denials of civil rights.

Today, its members disagree vehemently about what its aims should be, and some inside and outside of the group question whether it has any useful purpose at all.

The debate around the panel, which is credited with laying the foundation for important civil rights legislation passed in the 1960s, reflects the difficulty that many traditional civil rights groups face as they try to remain relevant.

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(Examiner.com) It does not pay to get sick. Or to be an arrogant trash talker. Since there wasn’t much else available in the “Top Chef” season 7 finale, that left Kevin Sbraga, 30, of Willingboro, New Jersey, as the winner of “Top Chef: DC.”

Kevin is currently the Executive Chef at Rat’s at the Grounds for Sculpture in Hamilton, N.J. He is of African American and Italian descent and said before the show that he’s the “Barack Obama of the cooking game” and wants to prove that “he can.”

With the win he became the first African American chef to win the Bravo reality show.

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(Barron’s) SHARES OF East West Bancorp (ticker: EWBC) should be heading north.

The Pasadena, Calif.-based regional bank, with $20 billion in assets, was hit hard early on in the downturn, but has since done an excellent job of refocusing and cleaning up its balance sheet, so much so that it’s completed two favorable Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.-assisted acquisitions in the past year.

With a low stock valuation, plenty of room for growth, and a focus on the reliable Chinese-American market in California, East West shares should see continued gains.

The stock trades at just 12 times forward earnings, despite having profit margins above 70% and a long-term growth rate of 34%, almost quadruple the industry average.

East West stands out from its peers, according to Keefe, Bruyette & Woods analyst Julianna Balicka, as it is “the only Chinese-American bank to make money in the second quarter of 2010 and the first Asian-American bank to return to sustainable profitability.”

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