EthnicMajority » Workplace

Schwarzenegger to name first #asianamerican to fill chief justice post

Clifford Tong — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 13:40:58 +0000

(LA Times) Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is expected to name 3rd District Court of Appeal Justice Tani Gorre Cantil-Sakauye as the next chief justice, making her the first Asian American to lead the state’s judiciary and giving the California Supreme Court a female majority for the first time in its history.

Cantil-Sakauye, 50, a Sacramento native who rose through the trial courts, served as deputy legislative secretary and deputy legal affairs secretary under former Gov. George Deukmejian. He plucked her from the Sacramento district attorney’s office and later appointed her to the Sacramento Municipal Court.

Former Gov. Pete Wilson elevated Cantil-Sakauye to the Sacramento County Superior Court, and Schwarzenegger named her to the Court of Appeal in Sacramento.

A graduate of the UC Davis School of Law, Cantil-Sakauye was a surprise nominee who is relatively unknown outside judicial circles. She has served two years on the state Judicial Council, the policy-making arm of the courts, and if approved by voters in November, will be responsible for the state’s entire court system.

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Siegal to be first #AfricanAmerican to lead a hospital group

Clifford Tong — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 18:13:18 +0000

(Washington Post) The Washington-based National Association of Public Hospitals plans to announce Monday (July 19) the appointment of a George Washington University health policy professor as its chief executive. The association said it will name Bruce Siegel to the position, making him the first African American to head a hospital group. Siegel, who starts in October, is expected to deal extensively with the health-care overhaul law. He will replace Christine Capito Burch, who held the executive director position and is retiring.

#AffirmativeAction Advocates Consider Recession’s Impact on #Diversity

Clifford Tong — Sat, 03 Jul 2010 03:03:18 +0000

(Diverse Education) Diversity isn’t recession proof, and higher education and corporate officials agreed that institutions of all types must be proactive to prevent the faltering economy from overly impacting one or more underrepresented groups.

That was a theme of discussion during the American Association for Affirmative Action (AAAA) annual meeting in Raleigh, N.C., on Wednesday. The main question: how can organizations maintain diversity when the bottom line forces downsizing?

“You have to pay attention to what’s happening and what decisions are made because downsizing is an opportunity for inequity,” said Dr. Benjamin D. Reese, Jr., vice president of the Office for Institutional Equity at both Duke University and Duke University Health System. “It’s difficult to develop a strategy around diversity. We all want to create an inclusive environment, but in practice, it’s very, very challenging.”

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The importance of #diversity skills in the workplace

Clifford Tong — Sat, 26 Jun 2010 16:22:34 +0000

(Helium) The importance of diversity skills and personal and interpersonal enrichment is valuable in today’s world. Diversity was once a means of separation, but it is now a common ground. Learning diversity skills can lead to personal and interpersonal enrichment.

Diversity skills are like empathy but on more levels than just emotion. When you have empathy you can understand or relate to someone’s feelings or situation. Diversity skills allow you to understand where someone else is coming from even if you are not from or in the same situation. Diversity skills also allow you to see where multiple different perspectives come from. They allow you to listen with an open mind and background knowledge of other people’s circumstances.

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More #AsianAmericans Signing Up For The Army

Clifford Tong — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 21:15:43 +0000

(NPR) In the U.S. Army, Asian-Americans have typically volunteered at the lowest rate of any ethnic group. They make up 4 percent of the population, and only 1 percent of military recruits.

But that seems to be changing. Something is suddenly drawing Asian-Americans in California into the Army at a remarkable rate. And there have been similar increases in other Asian-American population centers, like Seattle and New York.

In Los Angeles County last year, 22 percent of Army recruits were Asian-Americans — almost twice their proportion in the population. In the San Francisco Bay Area, the sign-up rate is also spiking. The proportion of newly enlisted soldiers who are Asian-Americans this year is nearly double that of last year.

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US town votes on plan to ban foreigners renting homes or having jobs. #hispanic

Clifford Tong — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 21:09:42 +0000

(Guardian) A Nebraska town, angry over a surge in the number of Hispanic residents, is voting today in a referendum on a new law that would require foreign nationals to get a licence to live in the town.

The referendum in Fremont has been prompted by a sharp rise in Hispanic people drawn by work at local meatpacking plants combined with fears over job losses and demand placed on the town’s social services because of the economic downturn.

If approved, tenants who are not US-citizens would be required to get an “occupancy licence” from the city council. Even residents of nursing homes would be required to obtain such a licence.

Federal law requires employers to verify the immigration status of workers but the proposed Fremont law would also open violators to local sanctions. Supporters insist it is not racist and is essential to protect jobs, healthcare and education for local people because the town’s Hispanic population has surged from 165 to more than 2,000 in the past 20 years.

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#AsianAmerican labor activists speak out on barriers in the workplace. #glassceiling

Clifford Tong — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 13:57:51 +0000

(Asian Journal) More than a hundred Asian American workers gathered last week to make their voices heard about the unique challenges that Asian Americans face on the job. In a historic meeting arranged by the New York chapter of the Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance (APALA), workers defined the barriers to organizing, the need for improved community and labor partnerships, and shared successful organizing strategies.

“When my rich employer gave me a stale pizza, threw it in the kitchen table without a plate, I was convinced then that after the apartheid era, slavery and racism still exist in this country,” Mona Lunot, a Filipina domestic worker said in the hearing.

Lunot added that she directly experienced slavery, abuse, discrimination, sexual harassment and other violations of human rights from the moment that she left her life in the Philippines in 2000 to become a domestic worker for a diplomat here in the United States.

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Obama’s Push For Court #Diversity Hits Snag

Clifford Tong — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 16:00:07 +0000

(WMAZ) President Obama came into office determined to stop the rightward shift of the federal courts – after eight years of appointments by President Bush – and to add more diversity to the bench.

So far he is setting records for the number of women and minorities nominated to lifetime appointments. Nearly half of the 73 candidates he has tapped for the bench have been women. In all, 25% have been African Americans, 10% Hispanics and 11% Asian Americans.

“What’s happening so far with nominations is extraordinary,” says Sheldon Goldman, a political science professor at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, who has tracked the confirmation process since the 1960s. “Seven out of 10 Obama court nominees are non-traditional,” meaning they have not been white men.

Yet as Obama tries to make gains in diversity among judges, he faces a deeply polarized confirmation process in the Senate. During his first 18 months in office, his administration has been thwarted by unprecedented delays. The situation, which has received little notice against the backdrop of a pending Supreme Court nomination and the administration’s complex legislative agenda, could undercut Obama’s effort to significantly infuse the federal courts with more women and minorities.

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No black-and-white answer for the lack of #diversity on television

Clifford Tong — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 20:21:45 +0000

(LA Times) During Monday’s House Judiciary Committee hearing on Comcast’s proposed takeover of NBC Universal, Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) lamented the lack of TV shows aimed at minority viewers in general and black viewers in particular.

“We don’t have any more of that,” Waters said, adding, “I really liked `Girlfriends.’” She was referring to the sitcom about four African American women that ran on the now-defunct UPN network for six years.

GIRLFRIENDS Waters is right. While the casts of most dramas and many sitcoms have grown more diverse over the last decade (this fall, for example, the dual stars of NBC’s most anticipated drama, “Undercovers,” are African American), programs aimed at minority viewers are harder to find on both broadcast and cable television.

Veteran Producer Suzanne de Passe, a former president of Motown Television, offered up her thoughts on the disparity. Noting that it was not that long ago that the broadcast networks had such shows as “Fresh Prince of Bel Air,” “The Cosby Show” and “Living Single,” she laid the blame on media consolidation.

“I have witnessed what consolidation of content and distribution in entertainment and media has done to significantly slow down and diminish opportunity for minority professionals rather than accelerate and increase it,” she said. The networks that used to make shows aimed at blacks “now only offer a minority cast member here and there and a long list of contributions to minority charities under the catch-all word, `diversity,’ ” she testified.

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#Minority Population Growth Demands Better Education, Groups Say. #africanamerican #hispanic

Clifford Tong — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 20:15:33 +0000

(Business Week) The U.S. risks a deteriorating workforce unless it rapidly improves educational achievement for minority groups who soon will become a majority in the nation, researchers say.

“If we just do a snapshot of minority performance today and project that 20 years out, we’re going to have a poorly skilled workforce,” said Dean Baker, co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington.

Census Bureau data released yesterday show whites of European ancestry will soon bear less than half the nation’s new babies. Blacks, Asians, American Indians, Hispanics and other traditional minority groups had 2.07 million children in the 12 months ended July 1, or 48.6 percent of all births, an increase from 45 percent in 2005, the Census Bureau said.

For the period ending July 1, non-Hispanic whites had 2.19 million children, or 51.4 percent of all births compared with 55 percent four years earlier, Census figures showed.

While the educational performance of blacks and Hispanics has improved in recent decades, they continue on average to score about four grade levels below whites in the 12th grade, said Richard Kahlenberg, a senior fellow at the Century Foundation in Washington.

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