EthnicMajority

(New York Times) A group of African-American pastors in New Mexico, along with the Albuquerque chapter of the N.A.A.C.P., said Tuesday that they have filed a complaint with the Justice Department alleging that black faculty and staff members at the University of New Mexico and its hospital are subject to discrimination.

The Title VI complaint, which was also filed with the federal Department of Education, says university administrators have created a racially hostile environment for black faculty members, students and the staff.

Specifically, it asserts that African-Americans have been excluded from positions in the school’s upper administration; that black women at New Mexico were virtually left out of all positions of authority; and that blacks on the faculty faced disparity in salaries compared with fellow minority colleagues.

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(Atlanta Journal Constitution) The U.S. Justice Department launched a civil rights investigation Thursday into whether Miami police officers engaged in a pattern of excessive use of deadly force in the fatal shootings of seven African-American suspects over an eight-month span.

Thomas Perez, assistant attorney general for civil rights, and Miami U.S. Attorney Wifredo Ferrer said the probe will focus not on the individual officers but on whether the Miami Police Department's policies and practices on use of force led to violations of constitutional rights. The investigation is not criminal in nature.

"We're looking at systems. We're not looking at individual culpability," Perez told reporters. "We will follow the facts where the facts lead us. We will peel the onion to its core."

The shootings in inner-city Miami, from July 2010 to February 2011 and including two others that were not fatal, sparked outrage in the African-American community and led to protests at City Hall. The NAACP and American Civil Liberties Union, among others, demanded a federal investigation.

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(People's World) Energized by President Obama's bold call for passage of the American Jobs Act, civil rights and labor groups are calling for a national march in Washington, D.C., on October 15 to support it. The following day Obama will deliver remarks at the Martin Luther King Jr. memorial.

Both events were rescheduled after Hurricane Irene forced postponement of the previous August dates.

Speaking at a press conference announcing the event, Rev. Al Sharpton said, "We will bring forth the masses who have not been heard in the midst of the jobs debate. As the president fights for a jobs act, as supercommittees meet, they need to hear marching feet. This is to send a message to Congress."

The National Action Network along with the NAACP and several labor unions including the National Education Association and the Communications Workers of America are key organizers of the event.

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(The Wrap) When Comcast was angling to take over NBCU, the cable giant promised prominently to increase the profile of minorities at the company and launch eight independent cable networks, including four under African-American control.

That includes a recent disastrous meeting between Comcast executives and Oprah Winfrey, in which Comcast executives rebuffed the media queen's request for support for her OWN network.

Leading entrepreneur Russell Simmons was rebuffed when he approached NBCU CEO Steve Burke about acquiring the Style network.

The National Urban League, NAACP and Al Sharpton's National Action Network, major civil rights groups, see several trouble spots with their efforts to work with Comcast, TheWrap has learned.

NBCU, for example, has yet to fill the post of chief diversity officer. It has been vacant since Paula Madison, executive vice president, retired in May.

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(RBR) The NAACP has already lashed out at CNN for passing on yet another opportunity to diversity its all white primetime lineup with the exit of Eliot Spitzer. Now the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ), NAACP and other civil rights groups are conferring on a plan of attack to deal with CNN and its all-news cable competitors.

The NABJ deplored an “ostensible trend in cable news to pass over African American talent for prime time programming” in announcing that it is in discussions with several civil rights organizations to address the matter and direct a definite course of action.
 
"We appreciate the support of like-minded organizations stepping up to affect change as black journalists are ignored and in turn, black communities get shortchanged in the coverage of important issues," said NABJ President Kathy Y. Times. "We are dedicated to getting this issue resolved."
 
Currently, there are no African American anchors hosting prime time news hours for any major cable network. “While MSNBC is reportedly on the verge of offering civil rights activist Al Sharpton his own prime time slot, there are no black journalists who can tout a similar promotion,” NABJ noted.

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(Huffington Post) Approximately 20 protesters stood on the curb outside the U.S. Airways ticket counter at San Francisco International Airport Monday afternoon shouting calls of justice for Deshon Marman.

Marman's story instantly became a national lighting rod after airline employees ejected him from a U.S. Airways flight for wearing pants they deemed too baggy. The 20-year-old African American man was later arrested after refusing to comply with crew member instructions to leave the aircraft as it was parked at the gate.

Holding a sign reading, "U.S. Airways must be sentenced repentance," Rev. Renard Allen of San Francisco's Third Baptist Church said the protestors, organized by the local chapter of the NAACP, were there to "protest injustice, inequity, decimation and racial profiling." He added, "we're saying this will not fly in the land of the free and the home of the brave."

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(Multichannel News) Apparently CNN’s revamped primetime lineup does not sit well with the NAACP.

The civil rights organization today expressed its “profound disappointment” that CNN continued a “multi-network” trend in excluding African American news anchor and hosts from primetime news lineups after the network reconfigured its schedule following yesterday’s cancellation of Eliot Spitzer’s  news talk show In the Arena.

CNN will move its 10 p.m. Anderson Cooper 360 show to In the Arena’s former 8 p.m. timeslot beginning Aug. 8, and will rebroadcast Cooper 360 at its former 10 p.m. timeslot. The network also said it will debut its new Erin Burnett program at 7 p.m. (with a re-air at 11 p.m.) when it premieres in late September.

None of the shows in the network’s revamped primetime lineup features an African-American anchor, which NAACP president and CEO Benjamin Todd Jealous deemed a “glaring omission.” In a press release the organization pointed out that currently no African American hosts or anchors reside on any national cable or broadcast news show from the hours of 5PM-11PM – “the most influential hours in daily news,” according to the organization.

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(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."

(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.”

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(TV Guide) To paraphrase NBC’s marketing slogan, has prime time become “less colorful”? Looking at the casting of this fall’s new TV series, the groups that monitor TV diversity think so.

Unlike last year, when at least nine new shows boasted leading roles for black, Latino and Asian-American actors (including NBC’s now canceled Undercovers and Outlaw and The CW’s returning Nikita), next year most minority characters are supporting roles. The networks are also airing more comedies next fall — and in recent years, half-hour sitcoms have been less diverse than dramas.

That’s why there’s concern that the strides made by network diversity efforts are being erased. The trend is to “sprinkle in some African-Americans or Latinos as the second or third character,” says Vic Bulluck, who heads the NAACP’s Hollywood branch. That’s despite 2010 census data, which show that the U.S. Hispanic/Latino population now makes up 16.3 percent of the country, while Asian-Americans and Pacific Islanders constitute 5 percent and African-Americans 12.6 percent.

Execs say they take diversity seriously but could do better. “Network TV has come a long way…but there is always a need for and a desire to improve,” says Nicole Bernard, Fox’s senior VP of audience strategy.

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