Summary:   "The 20-year-old daughter of a Chinese mother and an African-American father who left the country before she was born, Lou [Jing] was a highly unusual entrant to Shanghai-based Dragon TV's Go Oriental Angel. Her appearances--she became one of five finalists--have provoked a storm of abuse on the internet, a rare debate on racism in the media, and a bout of self-examination in a country where skin colour is a notoriously sensitive subject. China officially lists 56 approved ethnic minorities within its borders, but discussion about ethnic differences is largely taboo. Racial tensions have recently broken out between the Muslim Uighur population, who look more like Europeans, and the 'Chinese'-looking majority. Many Chinese remain unaware that certain forms of behaviour and language are unacceptable in multicultural societies elsewhere." (The Observer) This article discusses the prevalent racism in China and gives an example of a girl who was discriminated against because she is both African American and Chinese.
Subjects:  China, China, Ethnic relations, Civil rights, Race discrimination, Racism, Civil rights, Global Impact

Summary:   "However, though I passionately believe in free speech, I am not an absolutist nor a hypocrite. The only real argument is where the line is drawn. Perhaps fundamentalists like Fry will now be more honest and accept that there are limits. Seven events this month [October 2009] reveal the increasing tension between freedom and responsibility. Each case is testing and spawns its own, particular dilemmas. Only libertarian fools and fanatics would give set-piece answers. Words do violence to humans, more sometimes than sticks and stones. They can disable you to the point of insanity. Don't get me wrong. More and more freedom is what we must strive for, but a complete lack of restraint leads to anarchy and dehumanisation." (The Independent) This article discusses examples of controversial free speech incidents and how to find a balance between free speech and restraint.
Subjects:  Freedom of speech, Homophobia, Racism, Freedom of speech, Global impact

Summary:   "A government sting operation targeting hundreds of employers across Britain has uncovered widespread racial discrimination against workers with African and Asian names. Researchers sent nearly 3,000 job applications under false identities in an attempt to discover if employers were discriminating against jobseekers with foreign names. Using names recognisably from three different communities--Nazia Mahmood, Mariam Namagembe and Alison Taylor--false identities were created with similar experience and qualifications. Every false applicant had British education and work histories. They found that an applicant who appeared to be white would send nine applications before receiving a positive response of either an invitation to an interview or an encouraging telephone call. Minority candidates with the same qualifications and experience had to send 16 applications before receiving a similar response." (The Observer) This article examines practices of racial discrimination against Africans and Asians in British employment.
Subjects:  Civil rights, Discrimination in employment, Great Britain, Race relations, Race discrimination, Racism, Civil rights, Global Impact

Summary:   "A teenager trying to get into his apartment after school is confronted by police. A man leaving his workplace chooses a different route back home to avoid officers who roam a particular street. These and hundreds of thousands of other Americans in big cities have been stopped on the street by police using a law-enforcement practice called stop-and-frisk that alarms civil libertarians but is credited by authorities with helping reduce crime. Police in major U.S. cities stop and question more than a million people each year--a sharply higher number than just a few years ago. Most are black and Hispanic men. Many are frisked, and nearly all are innocent of any crime, according to figures gathered by The Associated Press. And the numbers are rising at the same time crime rates are dropping. Civil liberties groups say the practice is racist and fails to deter crime. Police departments maintain it is a necessary tool that turns up illegal weapons and drugs and prevents more serious crime." (Ithaca Journal) This article reviews the law enforcement practice of stop-and-frisk and whether it deters crime or is a racist search practice that undermines civil liberties.
Subjects:  American Civil Liberties Union, Civil rights, Crime prevention, Police-community relations, Racism, Searches and seizures, Racial profiling

Summary:   "Next to the gray, impersonal city hall, in a small garden covered with scorched, end-of-summer grass, a group of 50 parents and children, all Ethiopians, stands sadly, protesting against the mayor, the educational system, the religious schools, the leaders that let them down--and, above all, against the racism in Israeli society that is keeping their children out of school." (Jerusalem Report) The refusal of Orthodox schools in Israel to accept Ethiopian children because they don't meet the schools' religious acceptance criteria is detailed.
Subjects:  Education, Israel, Ethiopians, Israel, Israel, Religion, Israel, Social conditions, Racism, Religion, School enrollment

Summary:   "Barack Obama is, you might have heard, America's first postracial president. Yet Obama was never as postracial as advertised. Despite its charms, Obama's first memoir, Dreams from My Father, is filled with racialist moments--from his attraction to Jeremiah Wright's church to the admission that he once broke up with a girlfriend because she was white. Even during the presidential campaign, Obama would occasionally lapse into race-consciousness. But the first black president has been anything but postracial as chief executive. It would be nice if our first postracial president would begin the postracial phase of his presidency." (Weekly Standard) This article reviews how the author believes President Obama is not a postracial president despite past ideas to suggest the contrary.
Subjects:  Civil rights, Race awareness, Race discrimination, Racism, Obama, Barack

Summary:   "Protesters marched on Washington carrying signs that read 'Bury Obamacare with Kennedy,' 'Impeach the Muslim Marxist,' and 'We came unarmed...this time.' A member of Congress shouted down the president and raked in more than $1.5 million in campaign contributions in the days that followed. Cable TV's hottest personality just called the commander-in-chief a 'racist' with a 'deep-seated hatred for white people.' The vast majority of the president's harsh critics are rightfully concerned about the size of government. But there's also little doubt that some of the vehemence directed at the president is racially motivated. It can't be proven, and it can't be quantified. But logic dictates that if the protests are driven entirely by worries over the expanded reach of government and increased federal deficit, there would have been signs of similar agitation during the [George W.] Bush administration." (Philadelphia Inquirer) This article examines the racially motivated criticisms against President Obama and how those criticisms are similar to those against John F. Kennedy.
Subjects:  Civil rights, Kennedy, John F. (1917-1963), Kennedy, John F. (1917-1963), Assassination, Race discrimination, Racism, Obama, Barack

Summary:   "The collapse of the housing market, the government bailout of Wall Street, record job losses, long-term unemployment, trillion-dollar deficits, shrinking retirement funds, growing government intervention, foreign economic competition and America's changing demographic landscape left many Americans angry at the direction of the country, confused about the source of their problems and fearful about the future. In this summer [2009] of discontent, much of that outrage, rightly or wrongly, has been trained on President Obama. While it's an occupational hazard that comes with the turf at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., some of the criticism of Obama has the unmistakable stench of racism. No one symbolizes the changing face of America more than Obama does. 'I think hundreds of thousands of whites are taking these very real changes and attributing them to the race of the president,' [Mark] Potok said. (McClatchy Newspapers) This article discusses how certain Americans are criticizing President Obama based on his race and not necessarily his actions.
Subjects:  Civil rights, Race discrimination, Racism, Republican Party (U.S.), White supremacy movements, Obama, Barack

Summary:   "As a black man who has felt the sting of prejudice, President Obama is not only empathetic but uniquely positioned to advance the cause of equality in a country where skin color remains, for many, a barrier to opportunity and achievement. Yet throughout his career, Obama has been careful to avoid being pigeonholed as serving mainly the interest of African Americans; otherwise, he never would have been elected in November [2008]. The result is a duality to Obama's presidency. He brings aspects of the black experience into the White House--using occasional street slang, installing a bust of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in the Oval Office. But he tries to keep enough distance from racial issues--transcendence may be his way of seeing it--to avoid undermining the notion of a colorblind administration." (Los Angeles Times) This article reviews how Barack Obama deals with the duality of his presidency due to his race in a society that is not yet post-racial.
Subjects:  Civil rights, Race discrimination, Racism, Presidents, Conduct of life, Obama, Barack

Summary:   "Stung by accusations from some Democrats that bigotry underlies virulent opposition to President Obama and wary of further setbacks among minority voters, some Republicans are lashing back with a new mantra: We are not racists. That theme was on display over the weekend [Sep 19, 2009] at an annual pep rally for conservative voters where several of the GOP's potential 2012 challengers to Obama began laying out their arguments to unseat the man who made history as the country's first black president. Republicans are walking an aggressive but delicate line as they try to assure voters that their profound displeasure with the president is based on his policies, not his race. But some Democrats, such as former President Carter, have alleged that the heated opposition to Obama that has surfaced this summer came about chiefly because he is black." (Los Angeles Times) This article discusses whether certain members of the Republican party are against President Obama because of his policies or his race.
Subjects:  Civil rights, Race discrimination, Racism, Republican Party (U.S.), Obama, Barack

Summary:   "At the Children's Research Lab at the University of Texas, a database is kept on thousands of families in the Austin area who have volunteered to be available for scholarly research. In 2006 Birgitte Vittrup recruited from the database about a hundred families, all of whom were Caucasian with a child 5 to 7 years old. The goal of Vittrup's study was to learn if typical children's videos with multicultural storylines have any beneficial effect on children's racial attitudes. We might imagine we're creating color-blind environments for children, but differences in skin color or hair or weight are like differences in gender--they're plainly visible. Even if no teacher or parent mentions race, kids will use skin color on their own, the same way they use T-shirt colors. [Rebecca] Bigler contends that children extend their shared appearances much further--believing that those who look similar to them enjoy the same things they do. Anything a child doesn't like thus belongs to those who look the least similar to him." (Newsweek) This article examines the race relations among children and how racism and racial profiling are evident at a young age, even if parents are unaware of the issue.
Subjects:  Minority students, Race discrimination, Race relations, Race, Statistics, Racism, Racial profiling, Whites, Race identity

Summary:   "How does our first post-racial president deal with identity politics? Not very well at all, according to [Shelby] Steele, who raised this question in an op-ed piece for the Wall Street Journal by predicting that this explosive issue will continue to plague [Barack] Obama throughout his presidency. Steele argues that, by nominating Sonia Sotomayor for the Supreme Court, Obama committed the cardinal sin of identity politics: attempting to elevate people more for their gender and race rather than for individual merit or achievement. Steele contends that Obama had run on a platform of post-racial idealism that earned him the support of many whites, while actually delivering something far worse by selecting Sotomayor in what Steele calls 'a crude form of racial patronage.'" (USA Today) This article reviews opinions made by Shelby Steele regarding Barack Obama, Sonia Sotomayor, affirmative action programs, and the idea of a post-racial society.
Subjects:  Affirmative action programs, African Americans, Political activity, Civil rights, Race discrimination, Race relations, Racism, Steele, Shelby, Obama, Barack, Sotomayor, Sonia

Summary:   "With the nation’s first black president in the White House, some pundits have started employing the narrative of a 'post-racial' America to frame events. In this view, Barack Obama's election has leveled the playing field and obviated the struggle for racial equality. In many ways Obama has played along, scrupulously avoiding comment on racial matters since he began his presidential campaign. Yet racism persists in the Obamaera, the supposedly post-racial world. According to culture critic and author Henry Giroux, this racism is different from the historical 'crude racism with its biological referents and pseudo-scientific legitimations.' Instead, he writes, this new breed of racism 'cynically recodes itself within the vocabulary of the civil rights movement, invoking the language of Martin Luther King Ir., to argue that individuals should be judged by the 'content of their character' and not by the color of their skin.' Race relations in the United States are complex, nuanced and multi-layered. Our nation was bequeathed this enduring problem by the oxymoron at our inception: a slave-holding nation dedicated to human equality." (In These Times) This article examines the idea of a post-racial society in the United States, and how President Obama must handle the scrutiny related to race relations in the public sphere.
Subjects:  Civil rights, Race discrimination, Race relations, Racism, Racial profiling, Obama, Barack, Sotomayor, Sonia

Summary:   "But there is also a powerful social catalyst: The recession has savaged whites and middle-aged men to a degree unseen in most people's lifetimes. And that has helped make many in those groups desperately, angrily anxious about change. Just nine months after [August 2009] the historic election of the first African-American president set off an apparent glow of racial reconciliation, conservative commentator Patrick J. Buchanan invoked an icon of the 1990s culture wars--the 'Angry White Man'--to explain the outcry over health care reform. Nationwide, there have been other signs of the Angry White Man phenomenon. The numbers of racial hate groups and anti-government citizen militias are surging. Guns sales appear to be climbing. Complaints of racial discrimination across the country are running higher than they have in at least a decade. Some experts say one reason why so many health care protesters have been white is that, at least until now, Latinos, blacks, American Indians and Asian-Americans have had a much higher risk of being uninsured than whites." (San Jose Mercury News) This article discusses the concept of the "Angry White Man" and health care reform and how that is related to a shift in government power and overall population in America.
Subjects:  Civil rights, Health care reform, Race discrimination, Racism, Reverse discrimination, Obama, Barack

Summary:   "Mistreatment by the police, however, remains a shared experience for many African Americans. And it's members of the black upper class...who are most sensitive to overzealous policing and racial profiling. When it comes to encounters with law enforcement, they are uniquely aware of how quickly their accolades can be rendered irrelevant." (Time) The author discusses the relationship between blacks and the police, focusing on blacks with high social status.
Subjects:  Discrimination in criminal justice administration, Racism, Police, Complaints against

Summary:   "What is the future of group preferences in America? Doesn't a black president render them obsolete? Or does an incident like the arrest of Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates--with its implication of racial profiling--point to the continuing need for affirmative action? Unfortunately, this preoccupation with preferences may be a fool's errand. With black youths performing worse on the SAT in 2000 than in 1990, the obsession with affirmative action may only help us avoid the more troubling reality: the ongoing underdevelopment that keeps so many blacks non-competitive. It is important to remember that the original goal of affirmative action was to achieve two redemptions simultaneously. As society gave a preference to its former victims in employment and education, it hoped to redeem both those victims and itself. When America--the world's oldest and most unequivocal democracy--finally acknowledged in the 1960s its heartless betrayal of democracy where blacks were concerned, the loss of moral authority was profound. In their monochrome whiteness, the institutions of this society--universities, government agencies, corporations--became emblems of the very evil America had just acknowledged." (News-Journal) This article examines the idea of whether affirmative action and racial preference are still necessary in society, and if they make blacks and other minorites more or less competitive.
Subjects:  Affirmative action programs, Civil rights, Racism, U.S. Supreme Court, Decisions, Affirmative action, African Americans, Social life and customs, Gates, Henry Louis, Racial profiling

Summary:  This article provides a timeline of racism in America, from colonial days to the present.
Subjects:  Affirmative action programs, African Americans, Civil rights, African Americans, Crimes against, Civil rights, Ethnic relations, Hate crimes, Race discrimination, Race relations, Racism, Segregation, Racial profiling, African Americans, Attitudes toward, Ethnic relations, Timeline, Hate crimes, Timeline, Racial profiling, Timeline, Racism, Timeline

Summary:  This article provides a timeline of affirmative action in the United States.
Subjects:  Affirmative action programs, Civil rights, Racism, Affirmative action programs, Timeline, Civil rights, Timeline, Racism, Timeline

Summary:   "In striking another blow against the use of racial quotas last week [June 29, 2009], the Supreme Court challenged the nation's first minority president and Congress to help lead us to a post-racial America. In Ricci v. DeStefano, New Haven, Conn., had refused to promote white firefighters who had received the highest scores on written and oral tests for lieutenant and captain positions because the right number of minorities had not passed, too." (Philadelphia Inquirer) A lengthy appeals process ensued after the city of New Haven dismissed the test's results and the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the city's actions were racially motivated and improper. "'All the evidence demonstrates that the city rejected the test results because the higher scoring candidates were white,' the court found." The author comments on the case's impact on U.S. policy on race relations and concludes that, "the court is pushing President [Barack] Obama to live up to his campaign promises."
Subjects:  Affirmative action programs, Minorities, Employment, Racism, Reverse discrimination in employment, U.S. Supreme Court, Decisions, Affirmative action, Race relations in the workplace, Discrimination in employment, Law and legislation

Summary:   "However, sociological research shows discrimination is more often the result of organizational practices that have unintentional racial effects or are based on cognitive biases linked to social stereotypes. Racial profiling--stopping or searching cars and drivers based primarily on race, rather than any suspicion or observed violation of the law--is particularly problematic because it’s a form of discrimination enacted and organized by federal and local governments. Routine patrol patterns and responses to calls for service, too, can produce racially biased policing. And, unconscious biases among individual police officers can encourage them to perceive some drivers as more threatening than others (of course, overt racism, although not widespread, among some police officers also contributes to racial profiling). Racially biased policing is particularly troubling for police-community relations, as it unintentionally contributes to the mistrust of police in minority neighborhoods. But, the same politics and organizational practices that produce racial profiling can be the tools communities use to confront and eliminate it." (Contexts) This article discusses the issue of racial profiling and racially biased policing in relation to law enforcement and racism against minorities.
Subjects:  Civil rights, Criminal justice, Administration of, Discrimination in criminal justice administration, Discrimination in law enforcement, Police-community relations, Race discrimination, Racism, Motor vehicle drivers, Racial profiling

Summary:   "In one of the more dramatic scenes in modern diplomacy, a resolution describing Zionism as a form of racism, adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1975, was excoriated by Daniel Patrick Moynihan, America's UN ambassador, as an 'infamous act' and a 'terrible lie'. Then in 1991, the resolution was reversed and (to quote another senior American diplomat) consigned 'to the dustbin of history'. In both votes, the outcome matched the times: the first resolution was promoted by a Soviet-Muslim coalition in a spirit of cold-war antagonism; the second reflected expectations of a 'new world order' with America at the helm. To judge by the disorderly scenes that unfolded in Geneva this week [April 2009], at a UN conference on racism, today's international climate is far more rancorous than it was 18 years ago, and not too far from the poisonous mood that prevailed in 1975." (Economist)
Subjects:  Racism, United Nations, Ahmadinejad, Mahmoud, United Nations Human Rights Council, Holocaust denial

Summary:   "The United Nations racism conference approved the final declaration Tuesday [April 21, 2009]. The conference regained momentum, leaving behind the unpleasantness of the first day, when Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad made a divisive opening speech. The text adopted strengthens mechanisms for fighting racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance, but omits any reference to the controversial aspects that had weakened the declaration and plan of action adopted at the 2001 racism conference in Durban, South Africa. In addition, 10 countries--Australia, Canada, the Czech Republic, Germany, Israel, Italy, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Poland and the United States--boycotted or walked out of the Durban Review Conference that opened Monday [April 20, 2009] at U.N. offices in Geneva." (Global Information Network) This article discusses the U.N.'s decision to approve the final document and how "with this decision, the U.N. proclaims and demonstrates that anti-Semitism, xenophobia and Islamophobia are a cancer eating away at our societies."
Subjects:  Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945), Human rights, Racism, United Nations, World Conference Against Racism, Ahmadinejad, Mahmoud, United Nations Human Rights Council, Holocaust denial

Summary:   "Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's tirade [at] the United Nations' 'antiracism' conference should not have surprised anyone. The Iranian president denounced Israel, or the 'Zionist entity' as he calls it, which, according to his version of history, was created by Europe and the U.S. on the 'pretext of Jewish suffering' in World War II. He spoke of a world-wide Zionist conspiracy, referring to Israelis as 'those racist perpetrators of genocide.' Many people walked out, including those European diplomats whose governments had ignored the warning signs and chosen to participate in this conference." (Wall Street Journal) This article describes the setting at the U.N. conference on racism, noting that its anti-Semitic tone could have been predicted.
Subjects:  Racism, United Nations, Ahmadinejad, Mahmoud, United Nations Human Rights Council, Holocaust denial

Summary:   "Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad accused the West of using the Holocaust as a 'pretext' for aggression against Palestinians, prompting walkouts yesterday [April 20, 2009] by every European Union country at a UN conference on racism....Ahmadinejad--the first government official to take the floor--restarted and delivered his speech for more than a half-hour, saying the United States and Europe had helped establish Israel after the Second World War at the expense of Palestinians." (Waterloo Region Record) This article describes Ahmadinejad's statements, which prompted the walkout by some 40 diplomats from Britain and France and other European Union countries."
Subjects:  Racism, United Nations, Israel, Ethnic relations, Ahmadinejad, Mahmoud, United Nations Human Rights Council