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With immigration rapidly changing the face of European and
Dutch society, some leaders are looking to confront rising racial and class
divisions through solutions rooted in the American civil rights movement. See story from
Christian Science Monitor
Tensions are running high in the latest affirmative-action
battlegrounds. In Arizona, Nebraska, and Colorado, supporters of ballot
initiatives that would ban "preferential treatment" are counting up
petition signatures – and opponents are scrutinizing their validity – to see if
there's enough support to bring the issue to voters in November. See story from
Christian Science Monitor
One of the last bastions of racial segregation will be
breached next month. Trailing most US states, California will start fully
integrating its prison cells beginning July 1, 2008. The change has both
inmates and prison guards nervous about racial violence in America's largest
state prison system. They depict race relations behind bars as a delicate truce
in which one transgression can trigger a riot. See story from Christian
Science Monitor
The US Supreme Court has affirmed a lower court ruling that
multinational companies can be sued in a US court for allegedly aiding and
abetting the former apartheid government in South Africa. See story from
Christian Science Monitor
Public school districts may not use race as the deciding
factor in assigning students to schools. While the race of a student can be
one of many characteristics taken into consideration to achieve diversity in
the student body, it may not become the predominant criterion that determines
which students are admitted to the most popular schools in a district. The US
Supreme Court struck down race-based public school enrollment plans in Seattle
and Louisville, Ky., that were designed to maintain racially integrated student
populations. The majority justices said the plans were unconstitutional because
they relied too heavily on race in violation of the mandate that all Americans
be treated equally regardless of skin color or ethnicity. See story from
Christian Science Monitor Dissenting Justices: Breyer, Ginsburg, Souter,
Stevens
Minorities are starting to fight employers over the use of
credit history in hiring. See story from
Christian Science Monitor
From Maryland to Tennessee to Ohio, the 2006 elections
already hold a place in the history books: More black candidates from both
major parties are mounting serious campaigns for upper-tier office - senator or
governor - than ever before. See story from
Christian Science Monitor
The Senate dashed efforts to give native Hawaiians some of the same powers of self-governance granted to American Indians. See story from Inside Bay Area See vote chart
A new study by Harvard says that the "No Child Left Behind" education plan by the Bush Administration will miss its goals by 2014, since it has not been able to achieve its racial achievement gaps. See story from All Headline News
Despite enormous wealth and various federal and social welfare schemes at work, the United States is failing to help millions of its people trying to get out of poverty, according to an independent United Nations rights expert. "Resource constraints have limited the reach of the assistance programs and social discrimination has aggravated the problems in many situations resulting in poverty clearly seen as a violation of human rights," Dr. Arjun Sengupta declared after visiting the United States last month Despite enormous wealth and various federal and social welfare schemes at work, the United States is failing to help millions of its people trying to get out of poverty, according to an independent United Nations rights expert. See story from One World Net
European leaders are watching with apprehension the violence spread across districts of France that are heavily populated by disaffected Muslims, in what European media call the "French intifada". Western Europe is home to roughly 20 million Muslims. The largest concentration -- about five million -- live in France. Belgium, Germany, Britain, the Netherlands and Italy also have large populations of Muslims. Many believe that the problem stems from a long history in Europe of identifying nationhood with ethnicity which has hampered the assimilation of immigrants, leaving second and third generations feeling persecuted and excluded. See story from Voice of America
Black and Hispanic students continue to narrow the gap in the reading and math achievement tests. See story from Christian Science Monitor
An important new book - The Shame of the Nation: The Restoration of Apartheid Schooling in America - examines how the promise of equal education has been systematically dismantled in America's cities. See story from Christian Science Monitor
The Bush Administration faces steep challenges in dealing with the aftermath of Katrin because of a domestic agenda that envisions deep cuts in long- standing anti-poverty programs and relationships with many black leaders frayed by years of mutual suspicion. See story from Washington Post
The fact that the white South wants to pursue decades-old cases involving racial hatred indicates that many people want to get right on the racial question and repent for the history that these miscarriages of justice have represented. As a result, they are feeling an immense burden lifted off them. See story from Christian Science Monitor
The U.S. Senate approved a resolution apologizing for its failure to enact federal anti-lynching legislation decades ago, marking the first time the body has apologized for the nation's treatment of African Americans. The U.S. House of Representatives three times passed measures to make lynching a federal offense, but each time the bills were knocked down in the Senate. Excerpts from the Congressional Record show some senators argued that such laws would interfere with states' rights. Others, however, delivered impassioned speeches about how lynching helped control what they characterized as a threat to white women and also served to keep the races separate. See story from Washington Post
Hispanics account for about half the current growth rate of the US population, according to new figures released by the US Census Bureau. Hispanics rose 3.6% to 41.3m in the year to July 2004. Overall, the US population went up 1% to 296m. In contrast to the 1990s, births in the US have now overtaken immigration as the largest source of Hispanic growth. See story from BBC
Two recent Supreme Court decisions make it easier to challenge even the appearance of racial bias in the jury selection process, analysts say. The decisions also send a message to trial and appeals-court judges that they must be more attentive to allegations of racial inequality in jury selection and take more aggressive steps to investigate bias allegations. See story from Christian Science Monitor
American Indians are better off today than they were a decade ago. Per capita income is up, poverty and unemployment rates have dropped, overcrowding in housing has decreased, education levels have risen. Some of this is tied to casino income. But Harvard researchers, analyzing the most recent census data, find that the economic and social improvements on reservations and other Indian-owned land have occurred in tribes without gambling revenues as well. See story from Christian Science Monitor
The indictment of Edgar Ray Killen for the murder of three civil rights workers some 40 years ago has reverberated from one side of this town to another, with its echoes of a sordid past. But it's also sparked a bout of introspection, and an evolving sense of how far Mississippi has come since that long, violent summer ended amid clouds of tear gas. Since the 1960s, the Klan has dwindled from about 80,000 members to perhaps 7,000 nationwide, with many of its members living outside the South. See story from Christian Science Monitor
Although SAT scores remained unchanged, several minority groups made noteworthy gains. Mexican- Americans improved their average overall score by four points; "other" Hispanic students by five points; and Native Americans by nine points. But a huge gap persists between whites and non-Asian minorities taking the three-hour test - a gap that still needs closing. Whites out-performed African-Americans by 202 points and Hispanics by 133 points. See story from Christian Science Monitor
Authorities' targeting of people because of their racial background or religious affiliation is a deep-rooted problem in the United States, with nearly 32 million people reporting they've been racially profiled, according to a new report from Amnesty International. See story from Associated Press
As the Brown vs. The Board of Education of Topeka anniversary nears, many children still attend racially separate, unequal schools. They're not segregated by law -Brown stopped that. But black and white children are now separated largely by how much their parents earn and where they can afford to live. Across the USA, the result is practically the same: In 2000, 71% of minority students attended schools where they were in the majority. Minorities accounted for nearly 4 in 10 public school students; yet 43.4% of white students went to schools in which fewer than 1 in 10 was a minority. See story from USA Today
Black Americans are less likely than white Americans to own homes, don't earn as much as whites, don't live as long, and don't do as well in school, according to a report by the National Urban League. See story from USA Today
American Indians are better off today than they were a decade ago. Per capita income is up, poverty and unemployment rates have dropped, overcrowding in housing has decreased, education levels have risen. Some of this is tied to casino income. But Harvard researchers, analyzing the most recent census data, find that the economic and social improvements on reservations and other Indian-owned land have occurred in tribes without gambling revenues as well. See story from Christian Science Monitor
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Racial Issue Links
About.Com: Race Relations
Almanac of Policy Issues: Civil Rights and Affirmative Action
Yahoo: Racial Profiling
Yahoo: Affirmative Action
Yahoo: African American News
Yahoo: Latino and Hispanic Americans
Yahoo: Native American News
Yahoo:Asian Americans
PBS Report: Two Nations of Black America
Atlantic Forum: Race in America
New York Times: Racial Issues and Identities: A Guide to Resources on the Web
Census Information on Black Population
Civil Rights Organization
Brookings: Racial and Ethnic Preference in College Admissions
Federal Reserve Study: Black-White Wage Inequality in the 1990s: A Decade of Progress
National Academy - America Becoming: Racial Trends and Their Consequences
Data from Council of Economic Advisers Report
Census Bureau - Links to Ethnic/Race Data
Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies
UCSB Affirmative action site
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
Congress of Racial Equality
National Public Radio: Slavery Reparations
National Coalition of Blacks for Reparations in America
National Council of La Raza
The National Asian Pacific American Bar Association
National Congress of American Indians
Racial Profiling in America - includes personal accounts and a 1999 report on racial profiling in the U.S. From the ACLU.
Driving While Black or Brown - questionnaire regarding race-based traffic stops by police. From the Northern California chapter of the ACLU.
Issues: Racial Profiling - issue profile page from the Center for Policy Alternatives.
Policy: Racial Profiling - includes federal goverment texts, key documents, legislation, and speech transcript by officials. From the U.S. Department of State.
Racially Biased Policing: A Principled Response - full text of research report from the Police Executive Research Forum.
Resource Guide on Racial Profiling Data Collection Systems - November 2000 report from the Department of Justice
UN World Conference Against Racism (WCAR) (3) Perspectives on Race Relations in the United States - from the International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Includes law and race, affirmative action, and hate crimes.
Race Relations - stories from PBS's Online Newshour concerning issues of race.
ICARE (Internet Centre Anti-Racism Europe) - anti-racism portal for Europe featuring resources, databases, discussion, chat, conferences, and news.
Crosspoint Anti Racism - directory of links categorized by country or topic.
Television Race Initiative - diverse, character-driven, high-profile television broadcasts create a spine for sustained community dialogue and problem solving around the issue of race relations.
Applied Research Center - policy, educational, and research institute emphasizing issues of race and social change.
Hoover Institution: Beyond the Color Line: New Perspectives on Race and Ethnicity in America
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