Jun 17th, 2009
Posted by Nahal Zamani, Human Rights Program at 5:39pm	Human Rights, Racial Justice

U.N. Expert Provides the U.S. “A Real Roadmap Forward”

Yesterday, Githu Muigai, the U.N. expert on racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and other related forms of intolerance presented his findings on contemporary forms of racism before the U.N. Human Rights Council. As you may remember, the former Special Rapporteur on racism was invited by the Bush administration State Department to tour the U.S. last year as part of a fact-finding mission and the Rapporteur issued his report in April.

This is the first session of the UNHRC in which the U.S. is participating as a member. After the Special Rapporteur’s presentation yesterday, the U.S. government had the opportunity to respond to his report. The U.S. praised the report’s findings, saying this nation “appreciates the Special Rapporteur’s report and its constructive spirit.”

So what did the Rapporteur have to say about the United States?

"Racism and racial discrimination have profoundly and lastingly marked and structured American society. The U.S. has made decisive progress... However, the historical, cultural and human depth of racism still permeates all dimensions of life and American society."

We couldn’t agree more!

Chandra Bhatnagar, staff attorney with the ACLU Human Rights Program, joined other human rights advocates yesterday on GRITtv with Laura Flanders. Chandra spoke of how the Special Rapporteur on racism’s findings provided a “real roadmap forward” for the United States to address racism.

Learn more about our work with the Special Rapporteur on Racism.

Permalink |	Human Rights, Racial Justice

Tags: Human Rights Program

1. Maggie Says:
   Jun 18th, 2009 at 6:55pm

   What kind of discrimation are you talking about? Does it include all races or just the chosen few?

2. will Says:
   Jun 21st, 2009 at 5:10pm

   peaple of special needs 21 year old high school grad being denied the the right to live at home with the mother thats gave birth and has fought her hole life to make she she had her needs met.after being stolen haven the kid napper die my neice is still held against her will. my 3 is 360 547 2073

3. will Says:
   Jun 21st, 2009 at 5:13pm

   my niece of special needs her rights how to get her a voice in the courts

4. Una Says:
   Jun 28th, 2009 at 1:01pm

   For those of us with mixed ethnicity such "choose only one" ethnicity is frustrating and more than that, it carries a sense of exclusivity: including only those with pure ethnicity genetics, ignoring even the possibility that one can be of mixed genetics. How can an intelligent research designer imply that my existence is not possible? In that sense the "choose only one ethnicity" directive is insulting.

   I am mixed Native American, Spanish sephardic jew with those origins originally from Egypt (so African) and Saudi Arabia (so Arabic), and part Scandinavian.

   I know that NIH requires ethnicity data collected on NIH grant projects, in part to monitor the inclusiveness of the research. It is thus a travesty of civil rights justice that the question is designed to minimize the value of one's identity, humiliate, and exclude one if one is a mixed ethnicity person.

   The new frontier in civil rights activism should be to fracture the images of racial profiling by legitimizing and legalizing mixed ethnicity reporting, making "choose only one ethnicity" an abusive and illegal directive. It is a saddistic directive that rather violently orders a respondent to chose an identity that does not fit. It is a directive that forces a respondent to either betray their own identity or be gagged because their voice will not be heard or counted without an ethnicity label attached to it.

   The "choose only one ethnicity" directive contributes to data misused in racial profiling. Thus forcing the respondent of any ethnicity to contribute to data that will be used to damn themselves and their people to the prejudicial consequences of racial profiling.

5. Samuel Augustus Jennings Says:
   Aug 1st, 2009 at 7:26am

   COPY OF LTR I SENT TO WALGREENS HEADQUARTERS.

   GUILTY (Crime: Black Male)

   I was shopping at neighborhood store about 11am, Monday, July 20, 2009. I browsed several items, including photo, to compare prices with CVS across the street before I made my purchased. The store clerk, a black woman with an African or Caribbean island accent left her post to spy on me...leaving the front desk unattended. I am used to racial profiling since I am a 65 year old black male and know from experience that many prejudiced people stereotype all black males as thieves, drug dealers, and rapists.

   I left the store only to return immediately because I had forgotten to check out the floss threaders. The same clerk followed me and two other young black males in the store while ignoring white browsers. I confronted her and asked her, "Do you follow white customers like you have been following me? Yes, I am a black male, but I do not steal and I resent racial profiling. While you're watching me white customers (like Heddy Lamar and Winona Ryder) are stealing your store blind. Besides most stealing is done in-house by employees."

   I am a highly paid resident of Dupont Circle and don't have to steal to survive nor am I addicted to stealing like Miss Lamar and Miss Ryder. I hope to resolve this issue with Walgreens management without having to take my case any further, because I often shop at this store and will not tolerate being followed around and treated like a thief or common criminal.

   Samuel Augustus Jennings

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