digg this | mixx! | reddit | del.icio.us | Newsvine | |  e-mail article |  print | post comments | NEWSLETTER ©DiversityInc. Reproduction in any format is absolutely prohibited.

Is Biden Dissing Blacks Again?

Delaware Sen. Joe Biden put his foot in his mouth again. Biden, a Democratic presidential contender, told The Washington Post Wednesday that improper black parenting is the reason Washington, D.C., has low-performing schools, reports CNN. "When you have children coming from dysfunctional homes, when you have children coming from homes where there's no books, where the mother from the time they're born doesn't talk to them--as opposed to the mother in Iowa who's sitting out there and talks to them, the kid starts out with a 300 word larger vocabulary at age three. Half this education gap exists before the kid steps foot in the classroom," said Biden. The senator's office quickly released a statement to The Washington Post attempting to explain that Biden was not making a "race-based distinction" but a "socioeconomic" one, CNN reports. This is not the first time Biden's has relied on stereotypes to describe people of color.

Refusing Gay Scouts Costs Boy Scouts $200,000

Philadelphia is charging its local Boy Scouts organization fair market value of $200,000 for property it rents from the city because the organization does not permit gay scouts, reports The Associated Press on the blog The Raw Story. The Scouts organization, Cradle of Liberty Council, currently pays $1 in rent. It is illegal to rent taxpayer-owned property for a vastly decreased sum to a private organization that discriminates, say city officials. To pay the higher rent, money "would have to come from programs. That's 30 new Cub Scout packs, or 800 needy kids going to our summer camp," said Jeff Jubelirer, spokesperson for the Cradle of Liberty Council. "It's disappointing, and it's certainly a threat." The Supreme Court ruled in 2000 that the Boy Scouts, as a private group, have a First Amendment right to bar gays from membership.

What if Ann Coulter Came to YOUR School?

Ann Coulter told an audience at the University of Southern California (USC) Wednesday night that America should stop "genuflecting before Islam."

"The fact of Islamo-Fascism is indisputable. I find it tedious to detail the savagery of the enemy ... I want to kill them. Why don't Democrats?" said Coulter, reports the Chicago Tribune. Coulter is part of a national series of events on college campuses called "Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week," organized by conservative writer David Horowitz. While Coulter spoke inside USC's Annenberg Auditorium, about 150 Muslim, Jewish and Christian students and community members protested outside. "This is a greater threat than the Nazis or the communists because these people have modern technologies," Horowitz, a leftist-turned-neoconservative, told the Chicago Tribune. "They want to exterminate Jews and impose religious law on everyone through the state." Coulter's remarks from earlier in the month, however, sound very close to Nazi propaganda. Coulter told a television talk show host that Jews need to be "perfected" and that the country would be better off if everyone were Christian. Jewish leaders and others have condemned the remarks, saying that's the rationale behind 2,000 years of anti-Semitism.

Don't Spend on Nov. 2! Activists Protest Hate Crimes

Radio personality Warren Ballentine is urging Americans not to spend money on Nov. 2 to protest the federal government's handling of hate crimes, healthcare, immigration, the mortgage crisis and the war in Iraq, reports FOX News. "The impact it's going to have is this: Think how scary it is. We've done this one day. If you don't listen, then maybe next time, we'll do it for three, four or five days," said Ballentine. Truckers have called Ballentine to say they'd refuse to move products, and small-business owners have vowed to sacrifice profits and shut down that day, the radio host says. People of all races and ethnicities are telling him they plan not to spend money.  "The American people have had enough," said Ballentine. "It's gotten to the point now where America shouldn't be so black and white anymore. We're global now. Everybody is tired of what's going on in this country."

Giuliani Says He'll End Undocumented Immigration in 3 Years

Trying to emphasize his hard-line stance on undocumented immigration, GOP presidential contender Rudy Giuliani says that if he is elected president, he will end undocumented immigration in three years, reports CNN. His strategy mirrors the methods he used to decrease crime in New York City. Giuliani said he would boost the number of border-security agents, build a fence along the U.S.-Mexican border with technological monitoring, and deploy federal agents along the border at 50-mile intervals that use high-tech monitors to detect undocumented immigrants entering the country. "If you do this for two or three years, you'll change behavior," Giuliani said. "If people come to the border and figure they can't get in, they'll stop." Read more DiversityInc coverage of Election '08.

(See also: How Would Your Presidential Candidate Vote on Immigration?)

Blacks, Latinos Get Subprime Car Loans Too

Black and Latino car buyers are steered into higher interest rates on average than white car buyers, reports the Atlanta Journal-Constitution (AJC). Even when accounting for a difference in credit scores, the average black new-car buyer pays an interest rate that's 40 percent higher than the average white new-car buyer, while Latinos pay interest rates that are slightly higher than those of whites. The AJC advises black and Latino car buyers to get pre-qualified for a car loan to keep from paying more than they should. Go to a local credit union because they offer lower rates than banks, the AJC says.

(See also: Killing Predatory Lending? What New Bill Means for Latinos, Blacks)

Who's Disappointed in Obama?

After LGBT activists criticized Sen. Barack Obama's "Embrace the Change" tour in South Carolina for including gospel singer Donnie McClurkin, who says one's orientation  is a choice, Obama invited Rev. Andy Sidden, a South Carolina pastor who is openly gay, to appear. The Human Rights Campaign (HRC), a national gay and lesbian advocacy group, discussed Sidden's inclusion with Obama Thursday. HRC thanked Obama for including Sidden but added that it was still disappointed McClurkin remained part of the program."There is no gospel in Donnie McClurkin's message for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people and their allies," said Joe Solmonese, president of the Human Rights Campaign. "That's a message that certainly doesn't belong on any presidential candidate's stage."

Religious Progressives, Evangelicals Come Together

Third Way, a "strategy center for progressives," recently released "Come Let Us Reason Together: A Fresh Look at Shared Cultural Values Between Evangelicals and Progressives," a broad statement of principle signed by progressive and evangelical leaders, reports The Wall Street Journal (WSJ). "We are not talking about compromising each other's values but instead creating an approach that will inevitably lend itself to progress and change," said Jill Pike, Third Way's deputy director of public affairs. The two groups want "the same protections, public benefits, and opportunities" for LGBT people and better access to contraception and more sex education to reduce abortion rates among young people, reports the WSJ.

More News Digest >>

digg this | mixx! | reddit | del.icio.us | Newsvine | |  e-mail article |  print | post comments | NEWSLETTER

Send Your Comments About This Article Now