What Would Make a Black Person's Skin Turn White?

"I'm a black man turning white on television and people can see it," Lee Thomas, an anchor and entertainment reporter for the local Detroit FOX Broadcasting Company affiliate, told CNN. "If you've watched me over the years, you've seen my hands completely change from brown to white." The disorder vitiligo is destroying Thomas' pigment-making cells. Vitiligo causes white patches to appear on different parts of the body, tissues in the mouth and nose, and the retina. "There is no cause. There is no cure, and it's very random," Thomas told CNN. "I could turn all the way white or mostly white." While as many as 65 million people worldwide have vitiligo, including up to 2 million in the United States, the disorder became known to most people after Michael Jackson revealed in the early 1990s that he has the disorder. Thomas initially wore makeup to cover his white blotches but now openly talks about vitiligo and how it has affected his life and career. He has written a book titled Turning White: A Memoir of Change and has become a celebrity spokesperson for the Columbus, Ohio--based National Vitiligo Foundation.

Gabrielle Union: Black Bloggers Do a Disservice to Their Race

Gabrielle Union says that black bloggers are doing a disservice to their race. The actress thinks that black bloggers are hypercritical of black actors and instead of covering positive stories about them, they cover the sensational or focus too much on negative misinformation. Black bloggers should be more like Perez Hilton, a Latino blogger who Union says uplifts his race. "We don't have enough black voices, [and] we certainly don't have enough people in entertainment who are trying to do good things for our community, so anytime you try to attack someone's character, you negate their voice for all the things that they're trying to do," the blog Urban Hoopla quotes Union as saying. "If you look at what Perez [Hilton] does … as a man of color, as a Latino, is he never dogs Latinos, ever. I mean, he dogs everybody else, but as a man of color, I applaud you. I can't dog you for not dogging your own people. He never says anything negative about Latinos, ever, and I just wish that we had more of that kind of 'raise up' mentality and pulled each other up instead of dragging each other down."

(See also: Why Does Bill Cosby Strike Such a Nerve?)

Ariz. Judge Won't Block Toughest Immigration Law

Judge Neil Wake of the Federal District Court in Phoenix said business and civil-rights groups that challenged an Arizona law widely considered the nation's toughest against employers who hire undocumented workers erred by not initially suing the county attorneys who will enforce it. Wake said he was not inclined to stop the law from going into effect Jan. 1, reports The New York Times. If the law goes into effect, employers who knowingly hire undocumented workers could have their business license suspended on a first offense and have the license revoked for a second offense. There are two lawsuits pending in federal court to block the law. Last week, Wake dismissed one lawsuit against Arizona's governor and attorney general essentially on the procedural ground that the business and civil-rights groups were suing the wrong people.

(See also: What's the Biggest Cause of Bias Against Latinos? and How Does Your State Measure Up on Discrimination?)

Fired for Teaching Evolution?

The Texas Education Agency has granted the Institute for Creation Research, a Bible-based group, to offer online master's degrees in science education, reports The New York Times. The Texas Education Agency already let go its director of science, Christine Castillo Comer, after superiors accused her of displaying bias against creationism and failing to be "neutral" over the teaching of evolution.

(See also: Religion at Work: Former EEOC Chair Tells What's Legal and What's Not)

Is Military Forcing Christianity on Soldiers?

The Military Religious Freedom Foundation and Army Spc. Jeremy Hall, an atheist, filed a lawsuit against Maj. Freddy J. Welborn and Defense Secretary Robert Gates, alleging that soldiers are pressured to adopt fundamentalist Christian beliefs, reports The Washington Post. Examples at Fort Riley, where Hall is stationed, included a display outside his military police battalion's office with a quote from conservative writer Ann Coulter, saying, "We should invade their countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity." Another photo from Fort Riley shows the book A Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam for sale at the post exchange.

(See also: Elton John: 'I Would Ban Religion Completely')

Transgender Student Claims Discrimination

Kourt Osborn, who is transitioning from being a woman to a man and is undergoing hormone therapy, says he was told he cannot live in a male dormitory because he is still biologically female, reports 365Gay. Osborn, a student at Southern Utah University, says he has not yet had sex-reassignment surgery. The university, through a spokesperson, denies it is discriminating and said that it recognizes transgender students. But transgender students must undergo surgery before being allowed to live in dorms reflecting their corrected sex, the spokesperson said. "They are really asking too much of people," Osborn says, reports 365Gay. "Sexual-reassignment surgery is so expensive and so ineffective that many transgender people, like myself, don't get it."

(See also: Worker Wins Transgender-Bias Case)

Black Farmers' Lawsuit Closer to Reopening

The farm bill approved by the Senate last week moved Congress a step closer to reopening a landmark discrimination case against the federal Department of Agriculture that involves black farmers, reports StarTribune.com. Like its companion bill in the House, the Senate measure would give thousands of black farmers another chance at seeking compensation over claims that they were denied loans or other crop subsidies because of their race.

(See also: Did the USDA Discriminate Against Native Americans?)

AFP Co-Founder Dies  

William R. "Bill" Simms, the last surviving cofounder of the Association of Fundraising Professionals and a key figure in the civil-rights movement, died in New Mexico on Friday while visiting his son. He was 94, reports AFP. Simms created AFP in 1960 with Benjamin Sklar of Brandeis University and Harry Rosen of the Federation of Jewish Philanthropies. "Words cannot express my feelings for Bill and what he has meant to the fundraising profession and AFP," says Paulette V. Maehara, president and CEO of AFP. "He was not only a civil-rights and fundraising pioneer, but also a kind and generous man who truly believed that philanthropy could bring people together to make a difference. His legacy will forever be linked to the development of the fundraising profession, and practitioners around the world will benefit from his vision for years to come."

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