Whats Hillary Clintons Promise to Black Voters?

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What's Hillary Clinton's Promise to Black Voters?

Compiled by the DiversityInc staff

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What's Hillary Clinton's Promise to Black Voters?

In her efforts to woo black voters, Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton is pulling out one of her biggest weapons: her husband, Bill, whom famed author Toni Morrison once called "the first black president." Clinton wants black voters to know that when she's president, "it's another Clinton presidency," reports CNN. "[W]e're going to be doing everything we can to get this country to be on the side of ... people who are working hard and struggling so that they can have a better chance," Clinton said in a taped interview with TV One's "One on One" program. Last weekend, she received endorsements from black Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., who helped catalyze the 1960s civil-rights movement, and the Alabama Democratic Conference.

Hair, Clothes, Laugh: The Focus on Hillary

It's tough running for president as a woman--people focus far more on your appearance than your politics, Hillary Clinton told ABC's "The View," reports CNN. Persistent media attention to Clinton's "cackle," blouse styles and hairdos reminds many of the days when women were "seen and not heard." Is the 21st century really any different? Although Clinton's image has been encumbered by numerous affronts on her femininity--and how that might affect her presidential prowess--she spiritedly discounts claims that being a woman will make her any less capable of being president, or less capable of conducting diplomatic relations with countries less progressive when it comes to women's rights. "You know, I've been to 82 countries," Clinton said on the show. "And I have met with the leaders of a lot of countries that are not exactly in the forefront of giving women their rights. And I've never found that to be a problem."

Should Hanging a Noose Be a Hate Crime?

Civil-rights activists are urging Congress to expand hate-crime legislation to include hanging a noose among the list of offenses, reports The Associated Press. National outrage over noose-hangings in Jena, La., has sparked copycat incidents across the country, and many want stricter laws and tougher punishments for those who leverage racist symbols to make a point, regardless of what that point may be. The House Judiciary Committee heard testimony on this and increased violence in public schools in the aftermath of the Jena 6 case Tuesday.

"Children of color in our country are being groomed for prison rather than college. High schools are not way stations until students graduate to prison, and children aren't inmates waiting for a sentence," Jesselyn McCurdy, legislative counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union, said in a statement. "Schools are places to learn, and all students deserve that opportunity. Jena is a disgrace for the nation, but we hope Congress will seize it as an opportunity to learn from our mistakes and eliminate racism in the justice system at its roots."

(See also: DiversityInc Noose Watch)

No Help for Failing Schools

More than 6,000 California schools will be forced to close down by 2014 under new No Child Left Behind provisions regarding math and reading, reports The New York Times. Schools in Florida, Maryland, Baltimore and New York also have been labeled "chronic failures" for missing their achievement targets year after year, yet in 87 percent of "failing schools," there have been no significant changes in school leadership to rectify the situation. California groups have even sued the state and the federal government for failure to make change, only to have been more or less rebuffed.

All-White Runways Shun $20B Market

Black women in the United States spend more than $20 billion on apparel annually, reports The New York Times, but the dearth of black models on the runway doesn't exactly cater to black women's emphasis on beauty. More than a third of the 101 presentations on Style.com showcasing the New York runway reason, which ended last month, include zero black models, and few others portray more than one or two, according to the Times. Models of color currently and formerly employed in the industry are saying that things are worse than ever, but it's unclear what the industry plans to do about it.

NPR: Can Civil-Rights Battles Still Be Won in the Courts?

Civil-rights leaders have leveraged the U.S. court system to enact social change since former Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall and Brown v. Board of Education, reports NPR as part of its month-long civil-rights series. Now, the conservative-leaning nature of the Supreme Court threatens to cut off the legal system as an avenue for advancing civil rights. What are past and present leaders of the movement planning to do about it? Listen to the audio on NPR.org.

Should Undocumented Immigrants Get Driver's Licenses?

New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer's new plan to allow undocumented immigrants to apply for driver's licenses is causing trouble for Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) Commissioner David Swarts, reports The New York Times. Swarts responded to a torrent of criticism Tuesday from Republican senators who threatened to cut funding to the DMV should it adopt Spitzer's proposal, under which they said Osama bin Laden, for example, could get a driver's license in New York. More than 72 percent of New Yorkers oppose the plan, reports the Times, but despite weakening approval ratings, Spitzer is plowing forward with his agenda, which he says would improve state security by encouraging undocumented immigrants to emerge from the shadows, improve traffic safety, lower insurance costs and contribute to economic viability. The makeup of the two senate committees on the hearing suggests racial politics also were at play, with the 10 all-white Republicans leading the discussion in the middle of the table and the five Democrats, four of whom were black or Latino, sitting at the far ends.

Read the September 2007 issue of DiversityInc magazine, available now online, to learn more about "The Business Case for Immigration."

Schwarzenegger Vetoes DREAM Bill

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed the DREAM bill to the grave disappointment of many who pushed to make it easier for undocumented students to get financial aid and attend college, reports InsideHigherEd. Last year, Schwarzenegger vetoed the bill because he thought the pool of undocumented students would compete unfairly with in-state residents for limited state funds, and immigration activists thought the revisions they made this time around would help push it through. There also is a federal DREAM Act that Congress is trying to attach to another piece of legislation to get it by the stalwart Republicans, but they have so far been unsuccessful.

New Study Assesses Link Between Genetics, Orientation

A federally funded study led by Chicago researchers will use blood and saliva samples to determine whether people have genetic predispositions to be lesbian or gay, reports CBS. Many psychiatrists believe an interaction of genetic, psychological and sociological factors are at play, but they note that if they can make a genetic connection to orientation, it would be much easier to get the courts to protect lesbian and gay people from discrimination on the basis of orientation. At the same time, others fear that being able to identify a gene or genes that affect orientation may erupt in extensive prenatal testing and even abortions to "eliminate" lesbian and gay people, Joel Ginsberg of the Gay and Lesbian Medical Association told CBS.

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