As the saying goes, the news never stops — but there’s a lot of it out there, and all of it doesn’t always pertain to our readers. In this weekly news roundup, we’ll cover the top news stories that matter most to our diversity focused audience.
1. The Dollar Divide
In a new Fair360, formerly DiversityInc article series called “The Dollar Divide,” Senior Business Writer Linda Bell digs into the inequalities that exist for marginalized groups when it comes to the economy, money and finances.
In this first installment, Bell looks into the rising cost of death and the big business of funerals.
“Traditional funeral burial costs are the third largest expense in the life of the average American,” says Victoria J. Haneman, Frank J. Kellegher Professor of Trusts & Estates at the Creighton University School of Law. “They’re aberrational consumers. We are not shopping for death care in the same way we would shop for other large expenditures. It puts consumers in a compromised position in the context of death care.”
Click here to read the full article.
2. Nonprofit Organizations Launch HBCU Sustainable Communities Initiative
INROADS, Thurgood Marshall College Fund and UNCF announced the HBCU Sustainable Communities Initiative (HBCU SCI) to over 100 partners and supporters this week.
In an email, INROADS President and CEO Forest T. Harper Jr. said the announcement “demonstrated the power of innovative collaboration.” The Southern Company Foundation donated $10 million to HBCU SCI.
Harper added that the three nonprofits involved “see this work as the standard for convening partnerships to deliver impact for HBCUs.”
Watch the video shared by INROADS on LinkedIn for more information.
3. Facts About Indigenous Peoples’ Day
October 10 marks the observance of Indigenous Peoples’ Day this year, which was declared a national holiday by President Joe Biden in 2021. While it is not a federal holiday as Congress hasn’t passed legislation declaring it as one, its national holiday status gives people the ability to celebrate it in place of Columbus Day.
The idea of celebrating Indigenous Peoples’ Day instead of Columbus Day was introduced at a United Nations International Conference on Discrimination against Indigenous Populations in 1977.
South Dakota was actually the first state to do away with Columbus Day and instead replaced it with Native American Day in 1990 when Native American publisher Tim Giago called the Gov. of South Dakota to declare 1990 as the “Year of Reconciliation” between whites and Native Americans. The proposal was voted on unanimously by lawmakers in the state.
Check back to Fair360, formerly DiversityInc to learn more about the history of Indigenous Peoples’ Day.
4. Fair360, formerly DiversityInc’s 2022 Women of Color and Their Allies Recap
On Sept. 21, DEI experts met in Louisville, Kentucky, for the 5th-annual Women of Color and Their Allies Event, hosted by Fair360, formerly DiversityInc in conjunction with Humana (No. 9 on Fair360, formerly DiversityInc’s 2022 Top 50 Companies for Diversity list).
Throughout the event, panelists discussed the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead for women of color in the workplace, how to be a better ally and more.
Click here to read & watch recaps of WOCA 2022.
5. Appeals Court Moves DACA Revisions Back to a Lower Court for Review
A New Orleans-based 5th Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday sent a Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) case back to a lower court in Texas for review. While the DACA program remains in place, for now, its future is up in the air.
In 2021, Texas-based U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen declared DACA was illegal because he said the program “had not been subjected to public notice and comment periods required under the federal Administrative Procedures Act,” NPR reports. The program was left intact at that time for those benefiting from it but it now goes back to Hanen to review a new version of DACA the Biden Administration issued in late August.
In a statement, Biden said the appeals court’s decision was an effort by “Republican state officials to strip DACA recipients of the protections and work authorization that many have now held for over a decade.”
“And while we will use the tools we have to allow Dreamers to live and work in the only country they know as home, it is long past time for Congress to pass permanent protections for Dreamers, including a pathway to citizenship,” he added.
