Protest shows colleges are once again becoming civil rights battlegrounds

By | November 10th, 2015|Intergroup Relations|

Protesters at the University of Missouri earned a stunning victory Monday morning when the school’s top administrator bent to their demands and abruptly stepped down.

“It is the right thing to do,” system president Tim Wolfe said, announcing his resignation in the face of spiraling unrest on campus, including student walkouts and a week-long hunger strike, over incidents of racism and his

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Red Tape Slows U.S. Help for Children Fleeing Central America

By | November 5th, 2015|Immigration|

WASHINGTON — President Obama vowed a year ago to give Central American children fleeing violence a new, legal way into the United States by allowing them to apply for refugee status while in their own countries instead of accepting help from smugglers or resorting to a dangerous trek across Mexico.

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As Transgender Students Make Gains, Schools Hesitate at Bathrooms

By | November 4th, 2015|Education, LGBTQ+|

CHICAGO — Asked to call a transgender boy by a male name he has chosen for himself, teachers and administrators around the country have leaned toward a simple response: Sure. Allow a high school student who was born male but identifies as female to join the volleyball team? Fine.

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Houston Voters Reject Broad Anti-Discrimination Ordinance

By | November 4th, 2015|LGBTQ+|

HOUSTON — A yearlong battle over gay and transgender rights that turned into a costly, ugly war of words between this city’s lesbian mayor and social conservatives ended Tuesday as voters easily repealed an anti-discrimination ordinance that had attracted attention from the White House, sports figures and Hollywood celebrities.

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Illinois District Violated Transgender Student’s Rights, U.S. Says

By | November 3rd, 2015|Education, LGBTQ+|

CHICAGO — Federal education authorities, staking out their firmest position yet on an increasingly contentious issue, found Monday that an Illinois school district violated anti-discrimination laws when it did not allow a transgender student who identifies as a girl and participates on a girls’ sports team to change and shower

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Nondiscrimination ordinance puts Houston at the center of latest gay rights battle

By | November 2nd, 2015|LGBTQ+|

But when Parker pushed aggressively for Houston to adopt nondiscrimination protections for gay and transgender people, the mayor’s support was tested and the fourth-largest city in

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Fake Cover Letters Expose Discrimination Against Disabled

By | November 2nd, 2015|Disability, Employment & Housing|

Employers appear to discriminate against well-qualified job candidates who have a disability, researchers at Rutgers and Syracuse universities have concluded.

The researchers, who sent résumés and cover letters on behalf of fictitious candidates for thousands of accounting jobs, found

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Defending Affirmative Action

By | November 2nd, 2015|Education|

No consensus exists in American society about the practice of colleges considering race in admissions decisions. Since the 1970s, colleges have been doing so to try to enroll diverse classes of students (and of course under Jim Crow many colleges considered race to prevent diversity). But the practice has always been controversial — and voters

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Longtime L.A. civil rights leaders dismayed by in-your-face tactics of new crop of activists

By | November 2nd, 2015|Intergroup Relations|

Long before Black Lives Matter made a mark in Los Angeles, there were the Rev. Cecil “Chip” Murray, Najee Ali, Earl Ofari Hutchinson. They and a handful of other black civil rights and religious leaders led the charge whenever issues of race and police brutality arose in South L.A.

They organized marches and held news conferences.

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