Archive for the ‘Civil Rights’ Category
Saturday, July 9th, 2011
(The News Tribune) Sixteen years ago, soon after she gave birth to her first baby, Maricela Mares-Alatorre joined residents of three small California farmworker towns who alleged they were being discriminated against by environmental regulators, because all three of the state's toxic waste dumps were located in or near poor rural Latino communities.
But the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which received that civil rights complaint when Bill Clinton was president, hasn't addressed it and all the dumps continue to operate.
Trucks filled with PCBs, benzene, and asbestos continue to pass within three miles of Mares-Alatorre's home in Kettleman City on their way to one of the country's biggest toxic landfills, where they're treated, stored or buried. That dump and another one, in Buttonwillow, are in the state's sprawling Central Valley, while the third is to the south, just outside the hamlet of Westmorland.
A federal suit filed in Fresno, Calif., last week by a community group founded by Mares-Alatorre's parents and another community organization alleges that the EPA has failed to respond to the complaint within the mandated period. Mares-Alatorre's 16-year-old son is part of the group that filed the lawsuit.
Environmental groups claim the case is proof of the long-standing neglect of environmental justice by previous administrations, and they argue it casts doubts on whether the administration of President Barack Obama has made it a priority.
Full story…
Tags: Buttonwillow, California, environmental justice, Environmental Protection Agency, EPA, Kettleman City
Posted in Civil Rights, Healthcare, Hispanic American, Politics | Comments Off
Friday, July 8th, 2011
(Washington Post)In 1862, Abraham Lincoln went to visit Camp Barker, a contraband camp just south of U Street NW where freed and escaped slaves found sanctuary.
Nearly 150 years later, a photograph of camp residents — the slaves themselves were considered contraband of war — hangs in a museum in that same neighborhood. It shows the campers lined up, holding their hymnals and waiting for the president on a summer day.
The African American Civil War Museum is back in the business of telling the stories of slaves’ and freed blacks’ participation in that conflict. The museum, which first opened in 1999 with about 700 square feet, has moved across Vermont Avenue to 5,000 square feet in a former school building. The $5 million move and renovation, funded by the city, will be celebrated with three days of activities, ending with a ribbon-cutting July 18.
Full story…
Tags: Camp Barker, Civil War, museum, Washington DC
Posted in African American, Civil Rights | Comments Off
Friday, July 8th, 2011
(People's World) "How does a documented person look? Can a Border Patrol agent tell by physical appearance, or name, if someone is documented or not, a criminal or not?"
These questions were asked by Dawud Walid, director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) in Michigan, at a June 30 press conference outside Hope of Detroit Elementary School in Southwest Detroit.
Physical appearance or religious affiliation cannot determine citizenship, Walid declared. However, he said, CAIR has documented dozens of cases where those characteristics have been used by government officials to harass people.
Walid accused Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents of "racially profiling our community, of Latinos, Arab Americans and Africans."
Full story…
Tags: arab american, Council on American Islamic Relations, Detroit, latino
Posted in African American, Civil Rights, Hispanic American, Immigration, Racial profiling | Comments Off
Thursday, July 7th, 2011
(People's World) The city's new police chief, Garry McCarthy, sermonized recently that federal gun laws are equivalent to "government-sponsored racism," and they "facilitate" illegal gun trafficking into the urban centers of this country.
McCarthy, Newark, N.J.'s former top cop, said to the predominantly black congregation at St. Sabina Church, "[L]et's see if we can make a connection here. Slavery. Segregation. Black codes. Jim Crow. What did they all have in common? Anybody getting scared? Government sponsored racism.
"Now I want you to connect one more dot on that chain of the African American history in this country, and tell me if I'm crazy: Federal gun laws that facilitate the flow of illegal firearms into our urban centers across this country, that are killing our black and brown children," he said.
St. Sabina's priest is Father Pfleger, a well-known anti-violence, anti-racist activist here. Pfleger and McCarthy are both white. McCarthy said he isn't afraid to address the issue of "race."
Full story…
Tags: Chicago, gun control, handguns, racism
Posted in African American, Civil Rights, Politics | Comments Off
Friday, July 1st, 2011
(News & Observer) New data released today by the U.S. Department of Education show wide gaps still exist in what's offered to low-income and minority students in school districts across the country. For instance, the data show schools serving mostly African-American students are twice as likely to have teachers with one or two years of experience than are schools within the same district that serve mostly white students.
The Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC) project is overseen by DOE's Office for Civil Rights, the same group that's investigating the Title VI complaint that the NAACP filed against Wake.
"Despite the best efforts of America's educators to bring greater equity to our schools, too many children—especially low-income and minority children—are still denied the educational opportunities they need to succeed," said Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Russlynn Ali in the press release. "Transparency is the first step toward reform and for districts that want to do the right thing, the CRDC is an incredible source of information that shows them where they can improve and how to get better."
Tags: CRDC, Department of Education, experience, NAACP, school district, schools, teachers
Posted in African American, Civil Rights, Education | Comments Off
Friday, July 1st, 2011
(Politico) Some of the leading nonprofits and civil rights organizations that have urged federal regulators to approve AT&T’s mega-deal with T-Mobile have former and current employees — and lobbyists — for the wireless company serving on their boards.
Among the groups that have AT&T representatives on their boards of directors and have written to the FCC to back the AT&T/T-Mobile deal are the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation, the National Puerto Rican Coalition and the National Hispanic Caucus of State Legislators.
"Over the past several weeks, we have engaged in intensive discussions with AT&T representatives, and with merger opponents. In those discussions, our focus has been on the key issues of the impact of the merger on adoption and jobs. Based on our due diligence, we have now reached the definitive view that the merger deserves to be approved," the National Urban League wrote to the FCC June 20, in a joint filing with the National Action Network.
Rayford Wilkins, AT&T's CEO of diversified businesses, is a trustee on the National Urban League's board.
A similar perceived conflict of interest proved toxic last week for the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, which came under fire from gay bloggers for weighing in on the AT&T/T-Mobile deal while a former AT&T executive and registered lobbyist, Troup Coronado, sat on the board. Amid the backlash, GLAAD President Jarrett Barrios and eight board members — including Coronado — resigned.
So far, other key minority groups haven’t experienced the same type of internal turmoil for backing AT&T’s proposed T-Mobile purchase.
Full story…
Tags: Alliance, ATT, cellphone, gay, GLAAD, Hispanic Caucus, Lesbian, merger, mobile phone, TMobile
Posted in African American, Civil Rights, Consumer, Hispanic American, Politics | Comments Off
Thursday, June 30th, 2011
(Examiner.com) US Airways, which operates a hub out of Charlotte-Douglass Airport, is accused of racism after it was discovered an unidentified white male wearing lingerie was allowed to fly six days before an African American college football player was not allowed to fly and arrested when he refused to pull up his pajama bottoms which were sagging below his waist even though the airline says it has no dress code. Joe O'Sullivan, an attorney for DeShon Marman said, "A white man is allowed to fly in underwear without question, but my client was asked to pull up his pajama pants because they hung below his waist."
Jill Tarlow, an airline passenger took a picture on June 9 of an unidentified white male dressed in female underwear that flew on a US Airways flight. A US Airways spokesperson in defending the decision to allow the white male to fly said, "We don't have a dress code policy, obviously, if their private parts are exposed, that's not appropriate…So if they're not exposing their private parts, they're allowed to fly." The attorney for DeShon Marman countered by pointing out that his client’s private parts were not exposed and video surveillance tape will prove it. After refusing to pull up his clothing, Marman was arrested for suspicion of trespassing, battery of a police officer and obstruction. Prosecutors have not filed charges in the Marman case and have until July 18 to do so.
Full story…
Tags: air travel, airlines, Charlotte, Deshon Marman, dress code, Jill Tarlow, Racial profiling, US Airways
Posted in African American, Civil Rights, Consumer, Racial profiling | Comments Off
Thursday, June 30th, 2011
(Los Angeles Times) An African American student at Santa Monica High School says fellow members of the wrestling team chained him to a locker and hung a noose around a brown wrestling dummy.
The alleged racial incident is being investigated by Santa Monica police and school officials, who sent an email to parents earlier this month calling it a "serious matter that warranted a swift and appropriate response." The students accused were given "appropriate disciplinary consequences, including suspension," Principal Hugo A. Pedroza said in the email to parents.
The student and his mother, Victoria Gray, reported the incident to police on June 21. The incident happened more than a month ago, but Gray told The Times she was never notified by the school and didn't find out about the incident until May 31, when she heard about it from a parent she did not know.
Full story…
Tags: Hugo Pedroza, Santa Monica, Victoria Gray
Posted in African American, Civil Rights, Hate crime | Comments Off
Tuesday, June 28th, 2011
(The Root) 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. For generations we have been raised by grandmothers or nurtured by aunts and uncles, and have found ourselves estranged from the mothers who bore us, the fathers we never knew, and sisters and brothers who all had different last names. In some respects, the civil rights movement gave birth to a new kind of freedom — freedom to redefine the meaning of family and empower individuals, not governments, in the quest for love.
Full story…
Tags: Civil Rights Movement, gay marriage, same-sex marriage
Posted in African American, Civil Rights, Politics | Comments Off
Tuesday, June 28th, 2011
(SF Gate) The leader of the San Francisco chapter of the NAACP said Friday that US Airways engaged in discriminatory conduct by requiring an African American passenger to pull up his pants before boarding a plane, but allowing a white man to board another flight wearing little but women’s undergarments.
The Rev. Amos Brown said the group’s national leaders would contact airline officials to suggest sensitivity training for executives and ask them to “atone, repent and show their wrongness is understood.”
“The NAACP, in no uncertain terms, contends that this young man was profiled,” Brown said in reference to Deshon Marman, the 20-year-old passenger who was asked to lift up his pants by an employee before he boarded a June 15 flight at San Francisco International Airport. “He’s been a victim of racial injustice, and US Air owes to him and his mother an apology.”
Full story…
Tags: Amos Brown, Deshon Marman, NAACP, San Francisco, Southwest Air
Posted in African American, Civil Rights | Comments Off
