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A Look at the Three Immigration Reform Bills in Congress
Congress is expected to enact the first major overhaul of immigration policy since 1996. On the table are three immigration reform bills that could dramatically reshape the country’s immigration policy on key issues including legalization, guest worker programs, deportation, employer sanctions and police and border enforcement. The bills, proposed by Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas); Senators John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.); and Senators John Cornyn (R- Texas) and Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.), present three distinct plans for immigration reform.
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A New Hope for Dreams Suspended by Segregation
FARMVILLE, Va. - Warren Brown was about to enter first grade in 1959 when officials chained up the public schools in Prince Edward County rather than allow black children to sit beside white children in a classroom.
Leola Bailey, Alda Boothe, Warren Brown, Rita Moseley and Barbara Springwere among those locked out of Virginia schools in the 1950's.
Without the resources to send him away, his mother kept him at home for four years, until she found a local church offering classes to black children.
Mr. Brown graduated from high school in 1972, winning basketball scholarships from three colleges, only to turn them down because he feared the academics would have been too challenging.
"I didn't get a proper foundation," he said. "If you're not prepared, what good is the school going to do for you?"
This fall, however, Mr. Brown, at the age of 51, plans to go to college to study criminal justice.
Five decades after Virginia ignored the actions of Prince Edward County and other locales that shut down their public schools in support of segregation, the state is making a rare effort to confront its racist past, in effect apologizing and offering reparations in the form of scholarships. ...Full Story
Al Sharpton's New Focus of Harmony: Los Angeles
The Rev. Al Sharpton announced Monday he was forming a coalition to promote racial unity between blacks and Latinos in the city, hoping to ease a long-running rivalry over jobs, housing and schools.
"Neither community can be what it needs to be unless we are together. We are not each other's enemies," Sharpton said at a news conference. "We cannot turn on each other at a time that there are those that exploit, oppress and suppress all of us." ...Full Story
All Ears for Tom Cruise, All Eyes on Brad Pitt
Some of us in the news media have been hounding President Bush for his shameful passivity in the face of genocide in Darfur.
More than two years have passed since the beginning of what Mr. Bush acknowledges is the first genocide of the 21st century, yet Mr. Bush barely manages to get the word "Darfur" out of his mouth. Still, it seems hypocritical of me to rage about Mr. Bush's negligence, when my own beloved institution - the American media - has been at least as passive as Mr. Bush.
Condi Rice finally showed up in Darfur a few days ago, and she went out of her way to talk to rape victims and spotlight the sexual violence used to terrorize civilians. Most American television networks and cable programs haven't done that much.
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Board Stalemates on Signatures; Anti-Affirmative Action Ballot Initiative Moves to Courts
On July 19, the Michigan State Board of Canvassers deadlocked (2-2) in its consideration of certification of the so-called "Michigan Civil Rights Initiative" (MCRI), which has been championed by affirmative action opponent Ward Connerly. The Michigan Court of Appeals will now consider certification of the initiative over the coming weeks.
Connerly is best known as the businessman and former University of California regent who successfully led anti-affirmative action ballot initiatives in California (1996) and Washington (1998). Connerly and anti-affirmative action proponents were galvanized by the Grutter decision, which upheld the consideration of race as one of many factors in higher education admissions, and switched their focus to Michigan.
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British Teen's Slaying Called Racist Attack-Several Men Followed the 18-year-old Black Youth, Striking Him with an Ax, Police Say.
LIVERPOOL, England — A black teenager who was followed through a park by a group of men shouting racist taunts died Saturday after being attacked with an ax, British police said.
Anthony Walker, 18, was waiting for a bus with his girlfriend and a cousin when a man started shouting at them late Friday near his home, officers said.
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Congressional Hispanic Caucus Responds to Roberts Nomination to Supreme Court
Washington, DC - Following reports that President George W. Bush will nominate Judge John G. Roberts to the U.S. Supreme Court, the Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC) expressed disappointment that the President did not nominate a Latino to fill the seat to be vacated by Associate Justice Sandra Day O'Connor. The CHC previously called on the President to fill the vacancy with a qualified Hispanic dedicated to equal justice and a judicial system that is fair to the Latino community.
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Court Finds Bias in Policy of Schools for Hawaiians
The Kamehameha Schools in Hawaii are practicing unlawful race discrimination by restricting enrollment to Native Hawaiian children, a federal appeals court panel in San Francisco ruled yesterday.
The schools, the only beneficiary of a $6 billion legacy of a 19th-century Hawaiian princess, have an enrollment of about 5,100 students, from kindergarten through 12th grade, on campuses on three islands. Yesterday's ruling means that the plaintiff in the case, a teenager, will start his senior year at one of the schools in the next few weeks, one of his lawyers, Eric Grant, said.
The schools' admissions policy requires prospective students to prove that at least one ancestor lived on the Hawaiian Islands in 1778, when the British explorer Capt. James Cook arrived. ...Full Story
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Farmworker Collapses in Heat, Dies: The Second such Death in a Year Prompts Labor Leaders to Renew Calls for New Safety Regulations.
The second San Joaquin Valley farmworker in a year has died of heat exposure in triple-digit temperatures, sparking renewed calls from labor leaders for worker safety regulations in extreme heat. Witnesses said Salud Zamudio Rodriguez, 42, was picking bell peppers in Arvin, Calif., south of Bakersfield, in 105-degree heat Wednesday when he complained of feeling ill, according to Lupe Martinez, a vice president of United Farm Workers of America.
Rodriguez began to shudder, collapsed and was taken to Mercy Hospital in Bakersfield, where he died an hour later, Martinez said. The Kern County coroner's office attributed his death to heat exposure.
Last year, Asuncion Valdivia, 53, died of heat stroke July 28 after collapsing in a grape field near Bakersfield.
Rodriguez died as a worker safety bill is being considered by the state Legislature. ...Full Story
Listeners Irate Over the Hate
Harmon Gray was shocked at the acrid brew of racism, misogyny and profanity spewing from his radio.
"I couldn't believe it," Gray, 41, recalled yesterday. "Clear Channel took the Doug Banks show off to bring Richmond some garbage like that?"
He was talking about "Star & Buc Wild," the self-styled "universal haters," whose syndicated morning show is now broadcast weekdays on The Beat 106.5 WBTJ, a Clear Channel Communications station.
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Looking At The Mexican Stamp And Beyond
The widespread denunciation of the "Memin Pinguin" stamp recently circulated by Mexico's postal service is absolutely righteous. The stamp presents a hardcore, all-too-familiar racist stereotype. "It's a good thing it happened," commented Ron Wilkins, a Black activist, teacher and photographer in Santa Monica who often visits Afro-Mexican villages on the West Coast. Those villages were settled by descendants of the more than 200,000 enslaved Africans brought to Mexico by Spain after the Conquest. "The issue of Mexico's racism," Wilkins continued, "has been raised, loud and clear, as never before."
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Mexico Struggles to Understand Embedded Racism in Diverse Society
MEXICO CITY - (KRT) - The man visiting from the south of Spain was having a revelation as he walked along Michoacan Street in the city's fashionable Condesa section.
"There are an awful lot of brown people on the street," he exclaimed. "You don't get that at all from the TV and advertising."
Foreigners in Mexico City who look at Mexican television - or movies or magazines or anything with human faces on it - could be excused for thinking they had landed in a European city. ...Full Story
On Farthest U.S. Shores, Iraq Is a Way to a Dream
SAIPAN, Northern Mariana Islands - By jogging at sunset on the white sands of a palm-fringed beach here, 17-year-old Audrey O. Bricia is doing more than toning up for her next try in this island's Miss Philippines contest. She is getting in shape for United States Army boot camp.
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Everett Kennedy Brown/European Pressphoto Agency, for The New York Times
Ross Delarosa, left, was among those waiting to take an aptitude test at the Army Reserve Center on Saipan, in the Northern Mariana Islands.
Bomb Kills 2 Private Guards for British Consulate in Iraq (July 31, 2005)
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Everett Kennedy Brown/European Pressphoto Agency, for The New York Times
Audrey O. Bricia, 17, in the Northern Marianas, sees the Army as a way to nursing school.
To gain an edge on the competition for enlistment, she reserved a seat two days in advance to take Army's aptitude test on a recent Saturday morning here. Safely ensconced in her seat, she watched an Army recruiter turn away 10 latecomers, all new high school graduates.
"I am scared about Iraq, but I am going to have to give something in return for those benefits I want," said Ms. Bricia, a daughter of Filipino immigrants whose ambition is to attend nursing school in California. ...Full Story
Shaw Shuns 'Little Ethiopia' Black Leaders Note Immigrants' Pride But Resist Designation
Derege Zewdie pointed at the gleaming kitchen where cooks will serve up lamb and beef stews, fish and flat bread in the convenience store he plans to open in a few weeks. The rich oak shelves along the wall, he said, will be stocked with coffees, spices and music cassettes from his Ethiopian homeland.
Zewdie is among a cluster of Ethiopian entrepreneurs who have brought life to a long-neglected strip in Northwest Washington. They have worked long hours buying and renovating properties, opening restaurants and shops and offices, including one planned as a headquarters for an Ethiopian Chamber of Commerce. ...Full Story
The Voting Rights Act at 40
When the Voting Rights Act hits its 40th anniversary on Aug. 6, the date will hold far more significance than most historic commemorations. That's because the law's history is still being written.
Some of the act's more controversial provisions will be up for renewal by Congress in two years. They include a section that requires several states, mostly in the South, to have every potential change in voting procedures cleared by the Justice Department or a federal court. ...Full Story
Hispanics New Target of Hate Groups
Chattanooga, Tenn. - Organized hate groups like the Ku Klux Klan have historically terrorized blacks and Jews in the Southeast. But the recent influx of Hispanic immigrants to the region has given hate groups a new target, and officials say Hispanics are increasingly targets of hate crimes.
Former Klansman Daniel Schertz, a 27-year-old from the southeast Tennessee town of South Pittsburg, was indicted in June on charges of building pipe bombs to kill Hispanic immigrants.
Imperial Wizard Billy Jeffery of the North Georgia White Knights denied any connection to the bomb plot and said he banished Schertz from the group, but he readily admits he isn't happy with the flow of immigrants to the region. ...Full Story
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