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PBS, Latino Community Resolve Film Issues
By Aysha Hussain
April 12, 2007
PBS, Latino Community Resolve Film Issues
PBS and the National Council of La Raza (NCLR), the largest national Latino civil-rights and advocacy organization in the United States, have finally reached a truce regarding the station's upcoming documentary, "The War," a series chronicling America during World War II. The network has agreed to include the Latino-American contributions to the war effort by adding footage to the existing work, which started protests amongst Latino veterans in the first place. Ken Burns, the film's producer, has agreed to hire a Latino producer to assist in the process. Read more.
Calif. Judge Finds Loophole in Affirmative-Action Ban
An Alameda County Superior Court judge ruled Friday that Berkeley's public-school districts are allowed to consider race as a factor in an enrollment system designed to ensure diversity where geographic, economic and educational disparities along racial/ethnic lines would otherwise cause segregation. This is the first such ruling since California voters banned affirmative action in public education, employment and hiring in 1996 when they approved Proposition 209. The proposal was initiated by anti-affirmative-action foe Ward Connerly, who has campaigned successfully to ban affirmative action in two other states--Washington state and most recently, Michigan--and plans to attack the legislation in up to nine more states in 2008.
Judge Winifred Smith said the 9,000-member Berkeley Unified Public School District district's enrollment system, which uses students' race and parents' income and educational attainment to give each neighborhood a "diversity rating," works within the confines of Prop. 209 because students' assignments aren't based on race alone.
Not surprisingly, the ruling will be appealed on behalf of Connerly's American Civil Rights Foundation--the nonprofit arm of his anti-affirmative-action enterprise--by Sharon Browne of the Pacific Legal Foundation, which litigated two Supreme Court cases opposing voluntary school integration in December. Read more.
The Supreme Court decisions, which are expected by the end of June, will most likely impact Smith's ruling and affect countless voluntary school-integration programs nationwide. Read more about the impact of the impending Supreme Court decisions--the first such cases since Brown v. Board of Education--in DiversityInc's April issue on The Business Case for Affirmative Action, which features a 13-member affirmative-action roundtable with participants on both sides of the issue, including Connerly and University of Michigan President Mary Sue Coleman.
(See also: School Integration on Trial: Whose Money Is Pushing This?)
Clinton Reaches Out to Prominent Latino Leader
Latinos are one of the fastest-growing voter groups in the United States, especially in the South and West, and Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton is ready to acquire their support. To spearhead this effort, Clinton has announced that Raul Yzaguirre, a prominent Latino activist and former president of the National Council of La Raza (NCLR), would co-chair her presidential campaign and lead its outreach to Latino voters. Can Clinton win the Latino vote? National exit polls showed that 69 percent of Latino voters favored Democratic candidates in 2006, compared to 30 percent for Republicans. In 2004, 44 percent of Latinos voted for President Bush, who is Republican, reports The Associated Press.
Controversial Former President Returns to Harvard
Controversial Harvard University ex-President Lawarence Summers is back on campus. Summers, the university's 27th president, serving from 2001 to 2006, will be returning to Harvard as an economics faculty member. Like the quality of his résumé, Summers, also a former secretary of the U.S. Treasury to the Clinton administration and chief economist at the World Bank, is known for his offensive remarks toward women. While president of the university, Summers on more than one occasion suggested women's intellectual inferiority to men. At a National Bureau of Economics Research Conference on Diversifying the Science & Engineering Workforce in 2005, Summers said that "socialization" could explain why more men end up in high-end science and engineering positions than women. He suggested one reason was because men possess certain innate abilities and hold a preference among employers. After an incident where a female attendee made Summers' remarks public, he's received criticisms that he's sexist. Read more.
N.C. Passes Slavery-Apology Bill
North Carolina is the latest state to formally express their apologies for its unjust and cruel involvement during slavery days. The House passed the apology resolution 117 to 0, along with a resolution that previously passed in the Senate apologizing for the state's Jim Crow laws and other legalized segregation. Both resolutions recount a long history of discrimination against North Carolina's black population beginning with the practices of "involuntary servitude" dating back to the 17th century when it was a British colony. Other states that have shown their regret toward their state's role in slavery include Virginia and Maryland and a similar measure is being considered by Georgia lawmakers. Read more.
Do You Have a Gay Car?
If you drive a Mini Cooper, are you gay or straight? For some men and women, your car of choice is a direct indication of your sexual orientation. As car makers aggressively take on gay consumers and mainstream culture continues to associate gay tastes with TV images from shows like "Will & Grace" and "The L Word," there is a perception among some motorists that certain cars can, in the right context, be an expression of your sexual preference. Read more.
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