“Chick-Fil-A Agrees To Cease Funding To Anti-Gay Organizations, Chicago LGBT Group Claims”

Taken from: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/19/chick-fil-a-anti-gay-organizations-funding-ceased_n_1896580.html

September 19, 2012

Could Chick-fil-A be turning over a new leaf?

A Chicago-based lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) advocacy group reports that the restaurant chain – which was at the epicenter of a media firestorm this summer after its president confirmed his company’s anti-gay stance — has agreed to cease donations to right-wing groups that oppose same-sex marriage.

In a press release, the Civil Rights Agenda (TCRA) cites Alderman Moreno as confirming that Chick-fil-A officials declared in an internal document that the company ”will treat every person equally, regardless of sexual orientation.” TCRA reportedly served as an advisor to Alderman as he negotiated these concessions with Chick-fil-A executives, though details of exactly what those negotiations entailed remain unclear.

“We are very pleased with this outcome and thank Alderman Moreno for his work on this issue,” Anthony Martinez, executive director of TCRA, said in the statement. “I think the most substantive part of this outcome is that Chick-fil-A has ceased donating to organizations that promote discrimination, specifically against LGBT civil rights. It has taken months of discussion, both with our organization and with the Alderman, for Chick-fil-A to come forward with these concessions and we feel this is a strong step forward for Chick-fil-A and the LGBT community, although it is only a step.”

Said to be titled “Chick-fil-A: Who We Are,” the fast food chain’s “internal memo” reportedly states that they will “treat every person with honor, dignity and respect-regardless of their beliefs, race, creed, sexual orientation and gender.”

Among those to praise the document was Rick Garcia, policy advisor for TCRA, though he noted his organization still hoped the company would adopt an anti-discrimination policy at the corporate level. “As we have heard from gay employees that work for Chick-fil-A, there is a culture of discrimination within the company and we would like to ensure that employees can speak out and call attention to those practices without fear of reprisal,” Garcia noted. “It takes time to change the culture of any institution and steps like a corporate policy ensure that progress is made.”

TCRA’s statement appears to confirm earlier reports which indicated that Chick-fil-A might be reconsidering their LGBT stance. Last month, reliable sources who did not wish to be identified told the HuffPost Gay Voices team that Dan Cathy, the fast food chain’s president, “welcomed campus leaders to a private luncheon in Atlanta…to discuss diversity, hospitality and the opportunity to find common ground,” though no further information regarding exactly which college groups were present was provided.

The recent backlash against the Atlanta-based fast food chain was sparked by Cathy’s remarks in a July 16 interview with the Baptist Press. When writer K. Allan Blume asked Cathy, the son of company founder S. Truett Cathy, about the restaurant group’s “support of the traditional family,” the president glibly responded, “Well, guilty as charged.”

Cathy went on to note, “We are very much supportive of the family — the biblical definition of the family unit. We are a family-owned business, a family-led business, and we are married to our first wives. We give God thanks for that…we know that it might not be popular with everyone, but thank the Lord, we live in a country where we can share our values and operate on biblical principles.”

Yet even before the national controversy, students at colleges and universities have been among the most vocal critics of Chick-fil-A’s well-reported donations to groups like Exodus International, Focus on the Family and the Family Research Council. In February, New York University student Hillary Dworkoski launched a petition against the fast food chain, calling for NYU to close its Chick-fil-A franchise, reportedly the only one in Manhattan.

“N.Y. Mom Fired After Donating Kidney to Help Her Boss”

Taken from: http://gma.yahoo.com/n-y-mom-fired-donating-kidney-help-her-162333834–abc-news-health.html

April 23, 2012

A New York Long Island woman said she was fired after she donated a kidney to help save the life of her boss.

Debbie Stevens, a 47-year-old divorced mother of two, filed a formal complaint with the New York State Human Rights Commission last Friday, claiming her boss used her for her organ then fired her “after the woman got what she wanted.” Stevens’ boss, 61-year-old Jackie Brucia, is one of the West Islip controllers for Atlantic Automotive Group, a billion-dollar dealership operator. Brucia hired Stevens in January 2009 as an assistant.

“She just started treating me horribly, viciously, inhumanly after the surgery,” Stevens told ABCNews.com. “It was almost like she hired me just to get my kidney.” Although Stevens turned out to be less than a perfect kidney match for Brucia, Stevens donated her organ to an out-of-state stranger so that Brucia could move up on the organ donor list.

Stevens left the company in June 2010 to move to Florida. She returned to New York in September to visit her daughter, and decided to stop in at the dealership, according to the complaint. It was during this visit that Brucia told Stevens of her need for a kidney transplant. ”She said she had a possible donor, a friend or something,” Stevens said. “But I told her if anything happened that I’d be willing to donate my kidney. She kind of jokingly replied, ‘You never know, I may have to take you up on that one day.’”

A few months later, Stevens moved back to Long Island and asked Brucia if she had any job openings. Brucia hired her within weeks.

Then, in January 2011, Stevens said her boss called her into her office and asked if she was serious about donating her kidney. ”I said, ‘Yeah, sure. This isn’t a joking matter,’” Stevens said. “I did not do it for job security. I didn’t do it to get a raise. I did it because it’s who I am. ”I didn’t want her to die,” Stevens said.

When tests revealed that Stevens was not the best match, doctors agreed to let her give her kidney to someone in Missouri, which gave Brucia a higher place on the organ donor list.

Stevens underwent surgery on Aug. 10, 2011. She said doctors hit a nerve in her leg, causing her discomfort and digestive problems.

She returned to work four weeks later, and said that’s when the problems began. ”I don’t have words strong enough or large enough to describe her treatment of me,” Stevens said. “Screaming at me about things I never did, carrying on to the point where she wouldn’t even let me leave my desk. It was constant, constant screaming.” Stevens said she was demoted and moved to a car dealership 50 miles from her home. She said the mental stress got even worse, with her supervisor calling her an “actress.” ”It got so bad that I’d start to tear up at times,” Stevens said.

After consulting a psychiatrist for her mental stress, Stevens’ hired attorneys who sent a letter to Atlantic Automotive Group.

Stevens was fired within a week.

When reached by ABC News, AAG referred all calls about the case to Jackie Brucia, Stevens’ supervisor, who could not be reached for comment, at either the car dealership or her home. It is not known whether Brucia has legal representation at this time.

Stevens’ attorney, civil rights lawyer Lenard Leeds, said he planned to file a discrimination lawsuit against AAG, and would likely seek millions of dollars in compensation. ”Our ultimate goal is to bring this before federal court,” Leeds said. “We’re alleging they discriminated against her for her disability and they retaliated against her when she complained about the harassment.”

Leeds said the damages sought will be for Stevens’ lost pay, psychological and physical well being. ”I have no comment on her. I’m just going walk ahead and live my life,” Stevens said.

“Trayvon Martin’s Girlfriend Recalls Final Call, Justice Dept Steps In”

Taken from: http://colorlines.com/archives/2012/03/trayvon_martins_girlfriend_was_on_phone_with_him_she_recalls_his_final_moments.html

March 20, 2012

On Monday morning ABC News published an interview with a 16-year old girl who is believed to have been on the phone with Trayvon Martin moments before neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman shot him dead.

“He said this man was watching him, so he put his hoodie on. He said he lost the man,” Martin’s friend said told ABC News, in an interview with lawyers asking the questions because the girl is underage. “I asked Trayvon to run, and he said he was going to walk fast. I told him to run but he said he was not going to run.”

ABC News verified phone records and the girl’s statements are believed to be accurate.

“Trayvon said, ‘What, are you following me for,’ and the man said, ‘What are you doing here.’ Next thing I hear is somebody pushing, and somebody pushed Trayvon because the head set just fell. I called him again and he didn’t answer the phone,” the girl went on to say.

But at the moment Martin’s call ended, several 911 call recordings pickup right as someone is heard screaming for help in the background. And this is where some say local police have shielded Zimmerman.

The Miami Herald provides more details:

Several witnesses said they heard cries that sounded like a boy wailing — howling silenced by the crack of gunfire — and were shocked to hear police later portray the cries as Zimmerman’s. One witness said police ignored her repeated phone calls.

The police chief was accused of telling lies big and small in ways that shielded Zimmerman. The family hired attorneys who helped devise a national campaign to demand a federal investigation.

According to a statement by the Justice Department, “The department will conduct a thorough and independent review of all of the evidence and take appropriate action and the conclusion of the investigation. … The government must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that a person acted intentionally and with the specific intent to do something which the law forbids. Negligence, recklessness, mistakes and accidents are not prosecutable under the federal criminal civil rights laws.”

Close to 550,000 people have signed an online petition on Change.org urging law enforcement officials to step in and arrest Zimmerman. ColorOfChange.org has also launched a petition that calls for the local police department be made accountable for mishandling Martin’s case.

A grand jury will also look into the shooting death of Martin, Brevard County State Attorney Norm Wolfinger announced on Tuesday.

“Pennsylvania Photo Voter ID Bill is Now Law, HBCUs in the Crosshairs”

Taken from: http://colorlines.com/archives/2012/03/pa_photo_voter_id_bill_is_now_law_hbcus_in_the_crosshairs.html

March 15, 2012

Pennsylvania Republican Gov. Tom Corbett wasted no time signing HB 934 into law after the legislature voted it through with not one Democrat in support and in fact a few Republicans that opposed. That vote happened yesterday afternoon and Corbett’s ink was on the bill by the evening. The law goes into effect today mandating that all voters have photo identification issued by state or federal government, a state university or a nursing home. The state becomes the 16th with a photo voter ID bill, and the ninth with a strict photo voter ID bill, meaning unlike other states there’s no alternative non-photo ID that can be used if you show up without proper photo identification.

The granting of nursing home IDs (is there such a thing?) as an eligible voting ID was fought in as an amendment by groups like AARP, a voting bloc that Corbett and fellow Republicans apparently care about. Other groups, like low-income, college students, didn’t fare as well. ACLU legislative director Andy Hoover told me that amendments that didn’t make the final bill included one made for people to sign an affidavit to vote if they didn’t bring photo ID and another to qualify a Medicare card as an eligible ID to vote.

Local civil rights group Black Political Empowerment Project told Gov. Corbett in a letter that allowing nursing home IDs is fine, but there are thousands of elderly voters who are cared for at home, not at care facilities. Those would be senior citizens from low-income families who can’t afford nursing homes.

As for college students, there are plenty in the state whose student ID cards don’t have expiration dates. PA’s voter ID bill allows only for college IDs with expiration dates. These are identical to the student IDs and there is no expiration date, only an issue date.

On the topic of college students, they seem to be a group that have had a hard time voting in Pennsylvania historically, especially black college students. After the 2008 presidential elections, when hundreds of students from the HBCU Lincoln University stood up to seven hours in the rain to vote, the ACLU filed a federal lawsuit on their behalf because the county had moved the polling place to a small facility far from Lincoln’s campus. At the university, voter registration drives had anticipated a record turnout for the election that brought about the first African-American president, but Chester County wouldn’t move the polling place to a larger facility on campus that could accommodate the huge swell of new registered voters.

“After voters complained about conditions in the 2008 election, in which some people waited as long as seven hours to vote, the county responded by moving the polling place even further away from campus,” ACLU’s Hoover told me.

They successfully sued the county, which at the time was headed by a commissioner named Carol Aichele. Aichele is now the Secretary of State under Gov. Corbett and was by his side when he signed the bill into law. After the signing she said, “No one entitled to vote will be denied that right by this bill, but by preventing those not legally allowed to vote from casting ballots, we will make sure every vote carries the weight it should in deciding elections.”

Who is she talking about when she says “those not legally allowed to vote”?

“I don’t know who she’s talking about,” said Pennsylvania voting rights activist Celeste Taylor. “If she’s talking about voter impersonation, then just say that. I think she has broadened the meaning of voter fraud to stopping people from voting who are eligible to vote, but just don’t have the right ID. The impacts of this law will be on people who meet all legal requirements to be able to vote. That’s unacceptable to me.”

Taylor has worked on voting rights, GOTV, voter registration and voter protection campaigns since 1999 at national, state and local levels. She works with a coalition that includes dozens of organizations around the state including not only civil rights groups like the NAACP and League of Young Voters, but also the County Commissioners Association of Pennsylvania. The County Commissioners are not an advocacy organization. They are an association of county government administrators who are on the frontlines of every election, staffing the polls and dealing with all the problems that occur on election days. And they oppose this new law.

But Gov. Corbett believes he has signed a “law of prevention” against voter fraud.

But voter fraud “just isn’t happening,” says Taylor. “I’m just so upset because I’ve seen how hard it is to get people to participate in this democracy and utilize the vote as their voice. Between the Citizens United ruling and corporations now having so much power — and now voter ID laws superceding what people’s rights are — so many people just don’t get it.”

“Ruling over controversial pool sign stands”

Taken from: http://news.yahoo.com/ohio-panel-sticks-white-only-pool-sign-ruling-151624022.html

January 11, 2012

A Cincinnati landlord who claimed a black girl’s hair products clouded an apartment complex’s swimming pool discriminated against the child by posting a poolside “White Only” sign, an Ohio civil rights panel said Thursday in upholding a previous finding. The Ohio Civil Rights Commission voted 4-0 against reconsidering its finding from last fall. There was no discussion.

The group found on Sept. 29 that Jamie Hein, who is white, violated the Ohio Civil Rights Act by posting the sign at a pool at the duplex where the teenage girl was visiting her parents.

The parents filed a discrimination charge with the commission and moved out of the duplex in the racially diverse city to “avoid subjecting their family to further humiliating treatment,” the commission said in a release announcing its finding.

An investigation revealed that Hein in May posted on the gated entrance to the pool an iron sign that stated “Public Swimming Pool, White Only,” the commission statement said. Several witnesses confirmed that the sign was posted, and the landlord indicated that she posted it because the girl used chemicals in her hair that would make the pool “cloudy,” according to the commission. Hein told the commission she received the sign from a friend, and Ronnell Tomlinson, the commission’s housing enforcement director, said at Thursday’s hearing it was an antique. The sign says “Selma, Ala.,” at the bottom, followed by the date “14 July 31.”

The girl’s father, Michael Gunn, in brief comments Thursday, described his shock last spring when venturing out for a lunch break by the pool. ”My initial reaction to seeing the sign was of shock, disgust and outrage,” Gunn said. He also told the commission that his daughter was saddened months later to learn the reason they moved from the apartment complex “was in a way related to the color of her skin.” Gunn declined to speak with reporters.

Hein’s attorney, who informed the commission by email Wednesday that Hein would not attend the hearing, did not return phone and email messages Wednesday and Thursday from The Associated Press. A recording on Thursday said Hein’s voicemail was full and could not accept messages.

“I was trying to protect my assets,” she told the commission’s housing enforcement director in a Sept. 27 interview.

Racial discrimination has particular resonance in Cincinnati, whose population is 45 percent black, far higher than the rest of Ohio, which is about 12 percent black. Surrounding Hamilton County is 26 percent black.  Cincinnati was the scene of race riots in April 2001 when police and demonstrators clashed in a blighted neighborhood following the shooting of a black suspect by police. The commission’s statement said that its investigation concluded that the posting of such a sign “restricts the social interaction between Caucasians and African-Americans and reinforces discriminatory actions aimed at oppressing people of color.”

It still would be possible for the parties to reach a settlement overseen by the commission before any legal action is taken. If those discussions don’t bear fruit, the commission would issue a formal complaint and refer the matter to the Ohio attorney general’s office, which would represent the commission’s findings before an administrative law judge. That judge would determine any penalties, which could include a cease-and-desist order and punitive damages. Any decision by the administrative judge could be appealed to Hamilton County Common Pleas Court in Cincinnati.

“NYC Muslim Leaders Encourage Residents to Know Their Rights”

Taken from:  http://colorlines.com/archives/2011/11/nyc_muslims_less_like_to_collaborate_with_police_after_one_too_many_undercover_stings.html 

November 15, 2011

Leaders in New York City’s Muslim community are warning people to be watchful of potential undercover NYPD and FBI informants. So they’re holding teach-in’s to help members of the community diagnose the problem and understand their rights.

Insiders say the government’s surveillance efforts are certain to further strain relations between NYPD and the Muslims in the city. The Associated Press is reporting that Muslim community leaders are openly teaching people how to identify police informants, encouraging them to always talk to a lawyer before speaking with the authorities, and reminding people already working with law enforcement that they have the right to change their minds.

The news comes after the AP released an investigation that revealed the NYPD dispatched plainclothes officers to eavesdrop in Muslim communities. The report found hundreds of mosques and restaurants were infiltrated to build a database on what the department later called “daily life inside Muslim neighborhoods.”

In a story published Monday, the AP describes some methods being used in the teach-in’s:

At a recent “Know Your Rights” session for Brooklyn College students, someone asked why Muslims who don’t have anything to hide should avoid talking to police.“Most of the time it’s a fishing expedition,” answered Ramzi Kassem, a law professor at the City University of New York. “So the safest thing you can do for yourself, your family and for your community, is not to answer.”

…

A recently distributed brochure from the City University of New York Law School warns people to be wary when confronted by someone who advocates violence against the U.S., discusses terror organizations, is overly generous or is aggressive in their interactions. The brochure said that person could be a police informant.“Be very careful about involving the police,” the brochure said. “If the individual is an informant, the police may not do anything … If the individual is not an informant and you report them, the unintended consequences could be devastating.”

Muslim communities nationwide have faced a increased amounts of surveillance since 9/11. In a Colorlines.com story published in September, Asraa Mustufa wrote about Muslims in Irvine, California whose communities were being infiltrated by FBI and CIA informants. The policies that allow the agencies to conduct undercover surveillance in Muslim neighborhoods are sanctioned by the Obama administration. To make matters even worse, the administration strengthened a national security provision that makes it nearly impossible for communities and individuals to protect their rights through lawsuits after they’ve been infiltrated.Mustufa explained on Colorlines:

The provision, known as the state secrets privilege, permits the government to block discovery in a lawsuit of any information that, if disclosed, could adversely affect national security or foreign relations.

During his first presidential campaign, Barack Obama vowed to end the type of undercover surveillance that Muslim communities around the country are now dealing with. Of course, that didn’t happen. But not only did it not happen, government surveillance and the legal mechanisms to protect is has reached nearly unprecedented levels.

“Court blocks Alabama from checking student status”

Taken from: http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D9QC8DBG0.htm

October 14, 2011

A federal appeals court on Friday blocked a key part of Alabama’s law that requires schools to check the immigration status of students, temporarily weakening what was considered the toughest immigration law in the nation.

The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals also blocked a part of the law that allows authorities to charge immigrants who do not carry documents proving their legal status. The three-judge panel let stand a provision that allows police to detain immigrants that are suspected of being in the country illegally.

The decision doled out partial victories to both sides of the law. It also let stand other provisions that barred state courts from enforcing contracts involving illegal immigrants and make it a felony for an illegal immigrant to do business with the state for basic things like obtaining drivers licenses.

Alabama House Speaker Mike Hubbard, who championed the law, said the “most effectual parts” of the law will remain in place. ”We’ve said from the beginning that Alabama will have a strict immigration law and we will enforce it. Alabama will not be a sanctuary state for illegal aliens, and this ruling reinforces that.”

The advocacy groups who challenged the law said they were hopeful the panel would block the remainder of the law within months after they review more arguments from both sides. ”I think that certainly it’s a better situation today for the people of Alabama today than it was yesterday,” said Omar Jadwat, an attorney for the ACLU, which challenged the law along with the Obama administration. “Obviously we remain concerned about the remainder of the provisions, and we remain confident that we will eventually get the whole scheme blocked.”

Alabama Republicans have long sought to clamp down on illegal immigration and passed the law earlier this year after gaining control of the Legislature for the first time since Reconstruction. Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley signed the measure, saying it was crucial to protect the jobs of legal residents amid the tough economy and high unemployment.

The law has already had a deep impact in Alabama since a federal judge upheld much of it in late September. Many frightened Hispanics have been driven away from Alabama, fearing they could be arrested or targeted by police. Construction workers, landscapers and field hands have stopped showing up for work, and large numbers of Hispanic students have been absent from public schools. To cope with the labor shortage, Alabama agriculture commissioner John McMillan at one point suggested farmers should consider hiring inmates in the state’s work-release program. It’s not clear exactly how many Hispanics have fled the state. Earlier this week, many skipped work to protest the law, shuttering or scaling back operations at chicken plants, Mexican restaurants and other businesses.

Immigration has become a hot-button issue in Alabama over the past decade as the Hispanic population has grown by 145 percent to about 185,600 people, most of them of Mexican origin. The Hispanic population represents about 4 percent of the state’s 4.7 million people, but some counties in north Alabama have large Spanish-speaking communities and schools where most of the students are Hispanic.

Requiring school officials to check the immigration status of students in public schools helped make the Alabama law stricter than similar measures enacted in Arizona, Utah, Indiana and Georgia. Federal judges in those states have blocked all or parts of those laws.

Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer earlier this year asked the U.S. Supreme Court to resolve the legal fight over her state’s tough immigration law. The Justice Department called the Alabama law a “sweeping new state regime” in court filings last week and urged the appeals court to forbid states from creating a patchwork of immigration policies. The agency also said the law could strain diplomatic relations with Latin American countries, who have warned the law could impact millions of workers, tourists and students in the U.S. ”Other states and their citizens are poorly served by the Alabama policy, which seeks to drive aliens from Alabama rather than achieve cooperation with the federal government to resolve a national problem,” the attorneys have said in court documents.

Thomas Perez, head of the Justice Department’s civil rights division, said Friday before the ruling that a team of attorneys is in Alabama trying to determine whether the law was leading to civil rights violations. The school requirement was an area of particular worry, and the federal government is trying to determine how many absentees and withdrawals might be linked to the law, Perez said. ”We’re hearing a number of reports about increases in bullying that we’re studying,” he said after a meeting with leaders and advocates for the Hispanic community.

Legal experts are closely watching the Alabama case, which they say has the potential to be considered by the U.S. Supreme Court. I’m not convinced that the Supreme Court is going to take it up. But it depends on how 11th Circuit will rule in this case,” said Charles Kuck, a Georgia attorney who is the former president of the American Immigration Lawyers Association. “They are holding the key hand here. But you just never know.”

“From Jim Crow to Juan Crow: Alabama’s Civil Rights Legacy”

Taken from: http://newamericamedia.org/2011/10/alabama-depriving-water-to-immigrants-stirs-civil-rights-memories.php

October 12, 2011

Last week the Water Works — in the ironically named community of Allgood, Ala. — informed local residents that they must now present a valid driver’s license or ID. Otherwise, the notice threatened, “You may lose water service.” The warning stems from part of Alabama’s drastic new immigration law stipulating that no one can qualify for a driver’s license or any other government service in the state unless they can prove citizenship or are otherwise authorized to be in the United States — especially those who are brown or have a Spanish accent.

Water as a Racial Divide

The official notice from the Allgood Alabama Water Works was not the first time the good citizens of the Cotton State have used water as a racial divide.

Similar images flowed through my mind during a long bus ride 46 years ago. I was on my way to join the 1965 civil rights march from Selma to Montgomery. That was a time of shocking black-and-white TV pictures of police blasting demonstrators off their feet with water canons, a time of separate toilets and water fountains — legislated by other laws — for blacks and whites.

Today, Jim Crow has become Juan Crow.

Last week’s eager decision on the Water Works by the Allgood mayor streamed from the unexpected ruling by U.S. District Judge Sharon Lovelace Blackburn in Birmingham. Although she nullified much of Alabama’s new anti-immigrant law, she left intact clauses that authorize police to demand “papers” showing citizenship or immigration status, such as during traffic stops, and denying the parched but undocumented so much as a tap of water.

Frightened by Judge Blackburn’s decision, Alabama’s growing Latino population is now fleeing that state in huge numbers. One small town, Albertville, lost a substantial part of its Hispanic population — including those with documentation to be in the United States — practically overnight. While local farmers and contractors complain that the exodus leaves them without enough labor to harvest crops and complete their jobs, I wonder how many of those in flight from the prospect of police harassment are fully established U.S. citizens, born and bred here – like me, and maybe you, too.

Judge Blackburn also preserved a requirement compelling public schools to verify the immigration status of children and their parents. That, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center is “a provision that will have a chilling effect on children’s access to public schools.” Of course, outrage and condemnation over the immigration law will continue to flare in the coming weeks, and the Obama administration has asked for a federal court injunction to stop implementation of the law until it can work its way through the federal judiciary.

Rolling Toward Selma

But the Alabama decision–coming the same week that witnessed the death of Fred Shuttelsworth, who co-founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference with Martin Luther King, Jr., andDerrick Bell, the Harvard law civil rights advocate–sent my mind rolling back through Birmingham on a chartered bus full of college students almost a half-century ago.

I was 19 and one of about 20,000 people wheeling in from around the country following Bloody Sunday. That was the police riot that left protesters like John Lewis — now a member of Congress — bloodied as they tried peacefully to cross the Edmund Pettus Bridge on the first leg of a march to the state capital in Montgomery. Decades before Twitter feeds existed, and long before anyone called us baby boomers, calls had gone out for student support. Organizers at the University of Minnesota, where I was a sophomore, mustered enough of us to fill two, maybe three buses.  In the ensuing days after the attack on the marchers, U.S. Attorney General Bobby Kennedy called out the National Guard to protect marchers from the likes of the Klan and police thugs, such as Selma Sheriff Jim Clark and Birmingham’s Commissioner of Public Safety, one Eugene “Bull” Connor.

As our Minnesota bus traveled south through the afternoon and night, I hunched sleepily against a bus window. In the aisle seat next to me was my college roommate, Teferi, a fellow journalism student from Ethiopia.

In the early morning light, I felt the bus pull into a gas station. Drowsy at first, I took in the station’s homespun blue-and-white paint job. Then I found myself wide awake at a sight I’d only read about until that moment. Two water fountains were marked “For Whites” and “Colored.” I was not prepared for the jarring emotional impact that sight had on me. As I glanced over at my ebony friend and idol, Teddy (whom we on the Minnesota Daily staff all called the coolest, most worldly guy), I felt tears moisten my eyes and anger tighten my chest. There it was, right in front of us, in all of its banal, institutionalized expression of fear and hatred. The prosaic sight now before me was somehow even more unsettling than the televised images of police dogs, Billy clubs and flailing limbs in water.

By Alabama law, Teddy and I simply could not share the same spout for a drink of water because — because why? The gas-station stop was quick, and only those with a morning urge got off the bus; we were trying to get to Selma and the Brown AME Church as soon as possible before heading out to join march.

The decades have rolled by like so many state “Welcome To …” signs, and the years have sped along fueled by many causes, loves and regrets, among the latter a falling out with Teddy — all my fault — that remains unrepaired. But in the miles toward Selma that morning — and again now — I couldn’t help but think of the folk-music inquiry of those days, “When will they ever learn?” Sad to say, even after this “long time passing,” the answer remains, not yet…

“Alleged Racial Discrimination in Bronx Apartment Rentals Revealed”

Taken from: http://www.newsjunkyjournal.com/alleged-racial-discrimination-in-bronx-apartment-rentals-revealed/2521321/

October 11, 2011

A Bronx landlord of a Riverdale building is being sued by the Justice Department for race discrimination, a civil rights violation in New York. Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara filed the civil rights violation lawsuit (Case # 11-06713) against the landlord, management company and superintendent for allegedly discriminating against African-Americans seeking apartments. The lawsuit claims they offered apartments to whites but not to African-Americans. The race discrimination lawsuit was filed in Manhattan federal court.

According to the civil rights violation complaint, Loventhal Silver Riverdale LLC, Goodman Management Co. and superintendent Jesus Velasco had “engaged in conduct constituting illegal discrimination” since at least April of 2009.

The civil rights violation lawsuit also charges the operators of the building with violating the Fair Housing Act (FHA). “There are a number of reasons a landlord can legitimately reject a tenant, including a bad credit report or an unstable employment history. However, landlords can’t treat tenants or potential tenants differently because of a personal characteristic or feature like race or disability,” said New York civil rights violation lawyer David Perecman, founder of The Perecman Firm, one of New York’s civil rights violation law firms.

As New York civil rights violation lawyers understand, the federal Fair Housing Act makes it illegal for a landlord to refuse an apartment or house rental application based on race, color, religion, national origin, sex, disability and familial status.

In addition, New York has anti-discrimination laws that are stronger than the FHA. For example, New York civil rights laws make it illegal to refuse to rent to persons based upon characteristics such as marital status and sexual orientation. “It is hard to fathom that in this day and age, there are still landlords who engage in race discrimination,” Bharara said, adding “illegal discrimination will not be tolerated.”

According to the New York Daily News, Loventhal, Goodman and Velasco were caught after African-American and white “testers” were sent to the building to inquire about empty apartments. As reported by CBS New York, four teams of testers visited the building, posing as would-be renters. In all cases the African-Americans were allegedly discouraged and whites were helped. As reported by the New York Daily News, Velasco refused to give a black tester a rental application on April 8, 2009, but a short while later provided a white tester with an application, according to the New York race discrimination lawsuit. On May 8 and Nov. 18, 2009, Velasco steered away African-American testers while offering apartments to white testers at discounts, according to the civil rights violation lawsuit.

The New York discrimination lawsuit seeks an injunction against the defendants’ discriminatory practices, as well as monetary damages for victims of discrimination and a civil penalty against the defendants. “This civil rights violation lawsuit should strongly remind other landlords that they will be held accountable if they engage in or enable others to engage in discrimination against prospective tenants in New York,” civil rights violation lawyer Perecman said.

The civil rights violation case is being handled by the Office’s Civil Rights Unit.

If a person suspects that he or she has been treated unfairly because of his or her race, they should contact an experienced New York civil rights violation lawyer. Lawyers at The Perecman Firm are knowledgeable of New York state, New York City and federal legislation that protects people of all races, ethnicities, and gender.

The expert civil rights violation lawyers at The Perecman Firm handle all types of workplace discrimination and employment discrimination claims.

“Hertz suspends 34 Muslim shuttle-bus drivers in prayer dispute”

Taken from: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/nationnow/2011/10/34-muslim-shuttle-bus-drivers-suspended-indefinitley-from-hertz.html

October 7, 2011

Should Muslims have to clock out when they pray? That question arose earlier this week when 34 Muslim shuttle bus drivers were suspended indefinitely by Hertz Rent-A-Car for not clocking out when they went to pray. The suspended drivers, who work for Hertz at the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, are all Somali Muslims. The mass suspension occurred Sept. 30 and has caused heated debate in the Seattle area. Now, the story has been picked up by the national news media.

Earlier this week, a couple of dozen people assembled in front of the Hertz office with signs that read “Hertz hurts my faith” and “Hertz: Respect me, respect my religion.”

The company defends its actions. Under Washington state law, employees are entitled to two paid 10-minute breaks during an eight-hour shift. Religious Muslims pray five times a day, and it takes between three and five minutes to perform the prayers. On a normal day, workers would pray once or twice during a shift. In a statement sent to The Times, a Hertz spokesperson wrote: “While the employees, all Muslims, were using the breaks for prayers, the breaks were typically extended long beyond the time necessary to complete religious obligations, which is why the company, to be fair to all of its employees in Seattle, implemented the clocking requirement.” The company said employees were warned in person and in writing that if they did not comply with the clocking rules, they would be suspended.

But Tracey A. Thompson, secretary-treasurer of Teamsters Local  117 Union (which is representing the workers), said in a statement: “This is an outrageous assault on the rights of these workers and appears to be discriminatory based on their religious beliefs.” The Teamsters said the implementation of the clocking rule represented a sudden policy shift on the part of Hertz management. In the same statement, Maryan Muse, a five-year Hertz employee, is quoted as saying that Hertz managers made fun of her and her Muslim colleagues as they prayed.

Ahmed Jama, executive director of the Somali Community Services Coalition, told The Times that the issue of Muslims praying at work comes up frequently. He expects it might be a couple of weeks before the two sides might come to an agreement.

“Civil Rights Leader Shuttleworth Dies”

Taken from: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44788700/ns/us_news-life/#

October 5, 2011

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — The Rev. Fred L. Shuttlesworth, who was bombed, beaten and repeatedly arrested in the fight for civil rights and hailed by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. for his courage and tenacity, has died. He was 89.

Relatives and hospital officials said Shuttlesworth died Wednesday at a Birmingham hospital. A former truck driver who studied religion at night, Shuttlesworth became pastor of Bethel Baptist Church in Birmingham in 1953 and soon emerged as an outspoken leader in the struggle for racial equality. ”My church was a beehive,” Shuttlesworth once said. “I made the movement. I made the challenge. Birmingham was the citadel of segregation, and the people wanted to march. In his 1963 book “Why We Can’t Wait,” King called Shuttlesworth “one of the nation’s most courageous freedom fighters … a wiry, energetic and indomitable man.”

Mayor William Bell ordered city flags lowered to half-staff until after Shuttleworth’s funeral. Bell, who is black, said he would not be mayor if not for leaders like Shuttlesworth. ”Dr. Shuttlesworth means so much to this city and his legacy will continue for generations,” he said.

Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth right,  escorts Dwight Armstrong, 9, and his brother Floyd, 11, from the Graymont Elementary School in Birmingham, Ala, Sept. 9, 1963. State troopers, on order from the governor, opened the school but turned the African Americans away.

Shuttlesworth survived a 1956 bombing, an assault during a 1957 demonstration, chest injuries when Birmingham authorities turned fire hoses on demonstrators in 1963, and countless arrests. ”I went to jail 30 or 40 times, not for fighting or stealing or drugs,” Shuttlesworth told grade school students in 1997. “I went to jail for a good thing, trying to make a difference.” Alabama’s first black federal judge, U.W. Clemon, said Shuttlesworth flung himself at injustice well knowing he could be killed at any moment. “He was the first black man I knew who was totally unafraid of white folks,” said Clemon, who retired from the bench and is now an attorney in private practice. Shuttlesworth remained active in the movement in Alabama even after moving in 1961 to Cincinnati, where he was a pastor for most of the next 47 years. He moved back to Birmingham in February 2008 for rehabilitation after a mild stroke. That summer, the once-segregated city honored him with a four-day tribute and named its airport after him. His statue also stands outside the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute.

In November 2008, Shuttlesworth watched from a hospital bed as Sen. Barack Obama was elected the nation’s first African-American president. The year before, Obama had pushed Shuttlesworth’s wheelchair across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma during a commemoration of the Selma-to-Montgomery voting rights march — a moment Obama recalled Wednesday. In Washington, Obama released a statement lauding Shuttlesworth as a “testament to the strength of the human spirit” and said America owes him a “debt of gratitude” for his fight for equality.

“As one of the founders of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, Reverend Shuttlesworth dedicated his life to advancing the cause of justice for all Americans,” Obama said. In the early 1960s, Shuttlesworth had invited King back to Birmingham. Televised scenes of police dogs and fire hoses being turned on black marchers, including children, in the spring of 1963 helped the rest of the nation grasp the depth of racial animosity in the Deep South. ”He marched into the jaws of death every day in Birmingham before we got there,” said Andrew Young, the former Atlanta mayor and U.N. ambassador who served as an aide to King.

Young said it was Shuttlesworth’s fearlessness that persuaded King to take the struggle to Birmingham. ”We shouldn’t have been strong enough to take on Birmingham … But God had a plan that was far better than our plan,” Young said. “Fred didn’t invite us to come to Birmingham. He told us we had to come.” Referring to the city’s notoriously racist safety commissioner, Shuttlesworth would tell followers, “We’re telling ol’ ‘Bull’ Connor right here tonight that we’re on the march and we’re not going to stop marching until we get our rights.” According to a May 1963 New York Times profile of Shuttlesworth, Connor responded to the word Shuttlesworth had been injured by the spray of fire hoses by saying: “I’m sorry I missed it. … I wish they’d carried him away in a hearse.” Fellow civil rights pioneer the Rev. Joseph Lowery said Shuttlesworth was determined. ”When God made Bull Connor, one of the real negative forces in this country, He was sure to make Fred Shuttlesworth.” Lowery said.

While King won international fame, Shuttlesworth was relatively little known outside Alabama. But he was a key figure in Spike Lee’s 1997 documentary, “4 Little Girls,” about the September 1963 Birmingham church bombing that killed four black children.

Shuttlesworth was born March 18, 1922, near Montgomery and grew up in Birmingham. As a child, he knew he would either be a minister or a doctor and by 1943, he decided to enter the ministry. He began his theological courses at night while working as a truck driver and cement worker by day. He was licensed to preach in 1944 and ordained in 1948. It was 1954 when King, then a pastor in Montgomery, came to Birmingham to give a speech and asked to stop by Bethel Baptist and meet Shuttlesworth. Then in late 1955 in Montgomery, Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a city bus, prompting the boycott led by King that gave new impetus to the civil rights movement. In January 1956, King’s Montgomery home was bombed while he attended a rally. Eleven months later, on Christmas night 1956, 16 sticks of dynamite were detonated outside Shuttlesworth’s bedroom as he slept at the Bethel Baptist parsonage. No one was injured in either bombing, although shards of glass and wood pierced Shuttleworth’s coat and hat left hanging on a hook. The next day, Shuttlesworth led 250 people in a protest of segregation on buses in Birmingham.

“After Ruling, Hispanics Flee an Alabama Town”

Taken from: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/04/us/after-ruling-hispanics-flee-an-alabama-town.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&sq=after%20ruling,%20hispanics%20flee&st=cse&scp=1

October 4, 2011

ALBERTVILLE, Ala. — The vanishing began Wednesday night, the most frightened families packing up their cars as soon as they heard the news. They left behind mobile homes, sold fully furnished for a thousand dollars or even less. Or they just closed up and, in a gesture of optimism, left the keys with a neighbor. Dogs were fed one last time; if no home could be found, they were simply unleashed. Two, 5, 10 years of living here, and then gone in a matter of days, to Tennessee, Illinois, Oregon, Florida, Arkansas, Mexico — who knows? Anywhere but Alabama.

The exodus of Hispanic immigrants began just hours after a federal judge in Birmingham upheld most provisions of the state’s far-reaching immigration enforcement law.The judge, Sharon Lovelace Blackburn, upheld the parts of the law allowing state and local police to ask for immigration papers during routine traffic stops, rendering most contracts with illegal immigrants unenforceable and requiring schools to ascertain the immigration status of children at registration time. When Judge Blackburn was finished, Alabama was left with what the governor called “the strongest immigration law in this country.” It went into effect immediately, though her ruling is being appealed by the Justice Department and a coalition of civil rights groups.  In the days since, school superintendents have reassured parents — one even did so on television in Spanish — that nothing had changed for children who were already enrolled. Wary police departments around the state said they were, for now, awaiting instructions on how to carry out the law.

For many immigrants, however, waiting seemed just too dangerous. By Monday afternoon, 123 students had withdrawn from the schools in this small town in the northern hills, leaving behind teary and confused classmates. Scores more were absent. Statewide, 1,988 Hispanic students were absent on Friday, about 5 percent of the entire Hispanic population of the school system.

John Weathers, an Albertville businessman who rents and has sold houses to many Hispanic residents, said his occupancy had suddenly dropped by a quarter and might drop further, depending on what happens in the next week. Two people who had paid off their mortgages called him asking if they could sell back their homes, Mr. Weathers said.

Grocery stores and restaurants were noticeably less busy, which in some cases may be just as well, because some employees stopped showing up. In certain neighborhoods the streets are uncommonly quiet, like the aftermath of some sort of rapture.

Drawn by work in the numerous poultry processing plants, Hispanic immigrants have been coming to Albertville for years, long enough ago that some of the older ones gained amnesty under the immigration law of 1986. But the influx picked up over the last decade, and the signs on Main Street are now mostly bilingual, when they include English at all.

What the new immigration law means on a large scale will become clearest in a place like Albertville, whether it will deliver jobs to citizens and protect taxpayers as promised or whether it will spell economic disaster as opponents fear.

Critics of the law, particularly farmers, contractors and home builders, say the measure has already been devastating, leaving rotting crops in fields and critical shortages of labor. They say that even fully documented Hispanic workers are leaving, an assessment that seems to be borne out in interviews here. The legal status of family members is often mixed — children are often American-born citizens — but the decision whether to stay rests on the weakest link.

Backers of the law acknowledge that it might be disruptive in the short term, but say it will prove effective over time. “It’s going to take some time for the local labor pool to develop again,” said State Senator Arthur Orr, Republican of Decatur, “but outside labor shouldn’t come in and just beat them every time on cost and put them out of business.”  Mr. Orr said there were already signs that the law was working, pointing out that the work-release center in Decatur, about 50 miles to the northwest, was not so long ago unable to find jobs for inmates with poultry processors or home manufacturers. Since the law was enacted in June, he said, the center has been placing more and more inmates in these jobs, now more than 150 a day.

On Monday morning, one of the poultry processing plants in Albertville had a job fair, attracting an enormous crowd, a mix of Hispanic, black and white job-seekers, lining up outside the plant and down the street. “This needed to be done years ago,” Shannon Lolling, 36, who has been unemployed for over a year, said of the law. Mr. Lolling’s problem seemed to be with the system that had brought the illegal-immigrant workers here, not with the workers themselves. “That’s why our jobs went south to Mexico,” he said. “They pay them less wages and pocket the money, keep us from having jobs.”

Not far from the plant, in the Hispanic neighborhoods, it is hard to differentiate the silence of the workday, the silence of abandonment or the silence of paralyzing fear.

Many Hispanics have chosen to stay for now, saying, with little apparent conviction, that the law will surely be blocked by the president, the judge, “the government.” Until then, they are not leaving their homes unless absolutely necessary. They send others to buy their groceries and tell their children to quit the soccer team and to come home right after school. Rumors of raids and roadblocks are rampant, and though the new law has nothing to say about such things, distrust is primed by anecdotes, like one told by a local Hispanic pastor who said he was pulled over outside Birmingham on Wednesday, within hours of the ruling. His friend who was driving — and who is in the United States illegally — is now in jail on an unrelated misdemeanor charge, the pastor said, adding that while he was let go, a policeman told him he was no longer welcome in Alabama.“I am afraid to drive to church.,” a 54-year-old poultry plant worker named Candelaria said, adding, “The lady that gives me a ride to work said she is leaving. She said she felt like a prisoner.”

All summer long, Allen Stoner, a lawyer in Decatur, has been helping his Hispanic clients fill out forms appointing friends or family members as guardians of their children, who are in many cases American-born citizens. This way, the children would not be transferred to social services if the parents were arrested and deported.

Much of this was done by the time the judge’s ruling came down, though last week Mr. Stoner’s clients began to contact him immediately to ask what they should be doing. Monday was quiet. “We had a lot of phone calls Thursday and Friday,” Mr. Stoner said, “but it has plummeted.” He did not know for sure, but he figured his clients were gone.

***

The United States may be the land of immigrants, but apparently Latinos don’t fit into into the grand scheme of things. It’s so infuriating and depressing to learn how much the legacy of Arizona SB 1070 and bills akin to it are gaining so much traction. Also, i‘m surprised to see that “New York Times” out of all newspapers still uses the term “Hispanic”… 

“Mississippi Family of a Hate Crime Victim Promotes Forgiveness; Time to Talk about Race, Diversity, Capital Punishment and What Social Scientists are Telling Us”

Taken from: http://civilrightsnewsreleases.blogspot.com/

September 15, 2011

June in Mississippi was a time to kill…for a white racist teen who tracked down a black man and took his life. To the perpetrator, the crime made perfect sense. It was an act of hate that he seems destined to perform.

This past week, I was moved to read that the family of James Craig Anderson is asking the alleged murderer not be executed. They are sending a message to Mississippi officials of forgiveness — a rare message into a state that typically ignores the deep consequence of hate crimes, intolerance or inequality.

If you have not followed this horribly sad story, Anderson, 49, was targeted solely because of his “race” and run over by a white teenager in a pickup truck on June 26. His death, captured on a hotel surveillance video, stoked anger across the country when the footage went public.

Until CNN showed the video, after being approached by angry Mississippi citizens, the state of Mississippi had done very little concerning this crime. One official suggested that Anderson had probably done something to make the young man angry.

Drew Griffin and Scott Bronstein of the CNN Special Investigations Unit report today that Anderson’s sister, Barbara Anderson Young, wrote to the county’s district attorney, saying her family does not want anyone to face the death penalty. She cited the family’s Christian beliefs and opposition to capital punishment. ”Those responsible for James’ death not only ended the life of a talented and wonderful man,” says her letter, dated Tuesday. “They also have caused our family unspeakable pain and grief. But our loss will not be lessened by the state taking the life of another.”

Deryl Dedmon, 19, was arrested on a charge of capital murder, which is punishable by death or life without parole. He has not been indicted and it will be up to a grand jury to decide on the formal charges. Dedmon and a group of teens had been partying late that night in suburban Rankin County when he asked a group of them to go out looking for a black man to “mess with,” police reports state. Seven people allegedly loaded up in two cars and headed to Jackson.
***
So let the dialogue begin; here is my contribution, considering what scientists and social scientists tell us about race:

We are not teaching very well in school, at church, at work, at our civic groups or anywhere else what these academics are finding, and this is a grave mistake. One person’s eyes are blue and your eyes are green. They have dark hair and your hair is light. Their skin is black and your skin is white. People may look a little different, but what do these differences mean, and do they even matter?

Here is the scientific answer in a nutshell: These differences are small, they mean nothing and basically do not matter. Yet, despite solid scientific information, for some people, “race” seems to be a real issue. These differences, they believe, really matter.  So what is race? Is it “real” — has race always been with us? How does race affect people today? Why would skin color make such a difference, so that some white teens would go out at night, looking for a black person, to kill?

These questions have answers.

Exceptionally helpful answers about “race” have been around for quite some time. I particularly respect the easy-to-understand information that was presented over eight years ago in a special documentary, RACE – The Power of an Illusion, produced by California Newsreel in association with the Independent Television Service (ITVS). Major funding was provided by the Ford Foundation and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting Diversity Fund.

First — Race is a new idea; it has not been around for ages.

The Greeks and other ancient societies didn’t divide people according to physical difference. They broke up groups by looking at religion, class, language, status, and so forth. We didn’t even have the term “race” in the English language until William Dunbar wrote a poem using the word – referring to a line of kings.

Second – is not a scientific reality; there is no genetic basis for the concept of race.

There are no characteristics, traits or gene differences in members of one “race” and another. Susan (me), a white woman, has no charactertistics or genetic differences than Larry (my friend from Zimbabwe) who is black.Period. End of story. Tell this to Rush Limbaugh or Glenn Beck – anyone who tries to stir up trouble by stereotyping of people, according to “race.” Or to someone who makes disparaging remarks about President Barack Obama – because of his “race.” Ancient societies, like the Greeks, did not divide people according to physical distinctions, but according to religion, status, class, even language. The English language didn’t even have the word ‘race’ until it turns up in 1508 in a poem by William Dunbar referring only to a line of kings.

Third – humans do not have subspecies.

We have not been around long enough to isolated enough to evolve into separate “races” or subspecies. We might look a little different from each other – I don’t look much like my friend, Larry – but those differences are only on the surface. People are one of the most similar of all species. We have few differences, even though we make look quite a bit different from some others.

So, Fourth – Skin color really is only skin deep. 

Most distinguishing characteristics, or traits, are inherited independently from one another. This means that the genes (units of heredity) influencing skin color have nothing to do with the genes influencing hair form, eye shape, blood type, musical talent, athletic ability or forms of intelligence. Knowing someone’s skin color does not tell you much else about him or her. (Not all black people are musicians or athletes. This is not an accurate assumption to make.)

Fifth – Most variation is within, not between, “races.” 

Of the small amount of total human variation, some 85% exists within any local population, be they Italians, French, Koreans or Navajo. About 94% can be found within any continent. “That means two random Chinese may be as genetically different as an Austrian and an Italian.

Sixth – Slavery came before the idea of race.

Throughout much of human history, societies have enslaved others, often after conquest or war, or even due to debt. But people were not enslaved because of physical characteristics or a belief in natural inferiority. In the United States, because of perhaps unique historical events, we set up the first slave system where all those enslaved shared similar physical characteristics – their skin was black.

Seventh – Race and freedom came about together.

The U.S. was founded on the radical new principle that “All men are created equal.” But our early economy was based largely on slavery. How did this happen? The new idea of race helped rationalize why some people could be denied the rights and freedoms that others were given.

Eighth – Race made it possible for social inequalities to be considered natural.

As people latched on to the idea of race, along came white superiority as “common sense” in America. This justified not only slavery but also the killing off of Indians, exclusion of Asian immigrants, and the taking of Mexican lands by a nation that professed a belief in democracy. Manifest destiny was used to explain away racial practices that were institutionalized within American government, laws, and society.

Ninth – Race is not a biological fact, but racism is a real problem.

Race is a powerful social idea that allows some people complete access to opportunities and resources while taking away opportunities for others. If you do not believe this, visit a public school in a primarily black or Hispanic neighborhood. Our government and social institutions give tremendous advantages that disproportionately channel wealth, power and resources to white people. You may or may not be aware of this, but regardless, you are affected in some way.

Tenth – Finally, insisting that Racism does not exist, will not end racism. 

“We are all one family.” How many times have you heard a company owner or executive make this statement? Or…“I treat everyone the same, no matter the color of their skin.”  Sorry, we are not all the same family and people’s differences need to be understood and respected – embraced. Everyone is not alike. And this is good news! We are not a melting pot in this country – we are a tossed salad —a nd to pretend what we call race doesn’t exist is not the same as creating equality. Race, while it is not a scientific or biological reality, still exists – and “racism” is more than harmful stereotypes and individual prejudice. We need to identify and remedy social policies and institutional practices that come to us via “race” – practices that give tremendous advantage to some groups at the enormous expense of others.

Practices that preach hate and cause horrific crimes to take place, crimes such as the killing of a man because of his skin color.
***
The Mississippi family members who lost their beloved son and sibling because of this murder, deserves our nation’s attention and respect. They have experienced an enormous loss, returning their sorrow only with love and a request that we start talking.

So, let us begin talking; the time surely is now. We have an obligation to James Craig Anderson and his family, and to ourselves and each other.
***
Susan Klopfer, a New Mexico author and former Prentice Hall editor, has written three books on the history of the Mississippi civil rights movement, Emmett Till and related topics. She is currently working on a book about a gay Mississippi civil rights attorney who was murdered in 1997. Forensic questions about his death remain, she believes. For more information, visit her website at http://susanklopfer.com where you can link to her blogs and other sites.