EthnicMajority

(FoxNews) Pay below the national average persists among the majority of Latino women, who earn, on average, 40 percent less than white non-Hispanic men, according to the Labor Council for Latin American Advancement.

The LCLAA, which represents 2 million Latino union members, presented a report stating that Hispanic males also earn less than their Anglo and African-American peers.

Specifically, women of Hispanic origin in 2010 earned an average of $508 per week, compared with $592 for black women and $684 for white-non-Hispanic females.

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(The Root) Don't get enough of the Obama family from their annual family photos and occasional inside-the-White House interviews? The next-best thing might be The First Family from Byron Allen's Entertainment Studio. The sitcom, about an African-American family living in the White House, is set to air on NBC this fall.

From the Times Leader:

Entertainment Studios, Inc., (www.es.tv) the largest independent producer and distributor of first-run syndicated television programming for broadcast television stations, and owner of seven 24-hour HD television networks, announced that is has ordered 104 episodes of the new show.

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(The Root) McDonald's has announced that current President Donald Thompson will take over as CEO on July 1 of this year, becoming the first African American to head the fast-food chain since it was founded in 1955.

From USA Today:

Thompson, who has long been considered among the top candidates to succeed Skinner, will be the first African American to head McDonald's since it was founded in 1955.

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(Entertainment Weekly) Queen Latifah is joining the star-studded cast for Lifetime’s all-African-American Steel Magnolias reboot as M’Lynn, the character played by Sally Field in the 1989 feature film of the same name. Condola Rashad will play her diabetes-stricken daughter, Shelby (played by Julia Roberts), and Rashad’s mother Phylicia will reinterpret the role of Clairee (portrayed by Olympia Dukakis). Alfre Woodard will tackle the irascible Ouiser, who was unforgettably played by Shirley MacLaine, Jill Scott looks to fill Dolly Parton’s shoes as understanding hairdresser Truvy, and Pariah breakout Adepero Oduye will play insecure newcomer Annelle, made famous by Daryl Hannah.

“The caliber of talent associated with this film is astounding,” said Nancy Dubuc, President and General Manager of Lifetime Networks. “Queen Latifah, Phylicia, Alfre, Jill, Adepero, and Condola are some of the most celebrated women in music, film, television and stage — and we could not be more thrilled and honored for them to bring Robert Harling’s poignant story about the strength of women to a whole new generation.”

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(Examiner.com) Latino civil rights groups met with the Chicago Police Department on Friday to discuss the lack of minority hires in the department. Over 70 percent of Chicago residents are minorities, but only 40 percent of police dept. employees in Chicago are from minority backgrounds. There are particularly not many Latino hires.

(Yahoo) Black actresses Viola Davis and Octavia Spencer are Oscar frontrunners on Sunday, but the reality is that non-whites remain hugely under-represented at the Academy Awards, a new study says.

Halle Berry and Denzel Washington were famously lauded as having made a breakthrough for winning best actress and actor Oscars in 2002, but while there has been some progress in the decade since, it remains too little.

Also that year Will Smith was nominated for best actor, and Sidney Poitier received an honorary Oscar for lifetime achievement, said the study, "Not Quite a Breakthrough: The Oscars and Actors of Color."

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(California Watch) More than a decade after California law banned race-conscious admissions, outreach and financial aid at public universities, the state's most selective public university system has seen a significant impact on its ability to increase enrollments of African American, Latino and American Indian students.

A ruling by the Supreme Court ending race-based preferences in college admissions would have a limited effect in California because state law already prohibits it. But as other states consider the effects of a Supreme Court ruling on their own college populations, they might observe what's happened in the Golden State.

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(Business Insider) Microsoft has added John W. Thompson, the former CEO of security software giant Symantec, to its board of directors.

Thompson has deep enterprise experience. He started at IBM, then increased Symantec's revenue 10x, to more than $6 billion a year, during his decade as the company's CEO.

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(ABC News) The Supreme Court could decide this week whether to delve into yet another hot-button social issue: affirmative action.

At issue is a lawsuit brought by Abigail Fisher, a white student, who said she was denied admission to the University of Texas because of the color of her skin. If the justices vote to hear the case, it could mean a majority of the court is willing to curtail or further restrict race-conscious admissions policies  at public universities.

The court is set to discuss the case in its closed-door conference this week and could announce as early as Friday whether it will add the case to next term’s docket.

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(NPR) Once upon a time, Asian-American artists would have taken their anger to the streets.

That's what happened in 1990, when Asian-American actors, outraged over a Caucasian actor's yellowface performance in Miss Saigon, staged public protests over the casting choice. It was one of the most divisive debates over racial representation in the history of the American theater. Twenty-two years later, the battle is still being waged — though now it's via social media and a PowerPoint presentation.

At the RepresentAsian conference, a three-hour wrangle at Fordham University on Monday, it wasn't about slogans, signs or sit-ins. Cold numbers, pie charts and bar graphs told what Asian-American advocates say is a sad fact about casting. Based on data the group compiled from the past five theater seasons, Asian-Americans are the only minority group whose share of New York acting roles declined, and they were also the least likely to be selected for roles that would traditionally be played by white actors.

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