By Brian Stull, ACLU Capital Punishment Project at 10:20am
At age four, my family moved for "better" schools from Detroit to a suburb just north of 18 Mile Road. Remember the movie 8 Mile, the story of Eminem's emergence from Detroit's suburban borderline? 18 mile road is 10 miles north, but 100 times whiter. With very few nonwhites, school was not a model of diversity or mutual respect. Here was Jeanette, the only Black girl, who squirmed in her seat during the lesson on slavery, not due to the topic but (I believe) because she felt like a spectacle. There was Frank, from a Vietnamese background, whom cruel (and ignorant) children occasionally called "Chink." I remember Rupert, valedictorian, a terrific athlete, and a wit, but known often as the "Indian kid" (if not by a Middle Eastern epithet). We white children lived blind to our own privilege.
By Alex Berger, Legislative Assistant, ACLU at 3:35pm
Just over a year ago, the Senate Judiciary Committee held its first hearing on racial profiling in over a decade on the heels of the murder of 17-year-old Florida resident Trayvon Martin.
His death gave a face to the terrible practice of racial profiling and brought new media scrutiny to the issue.
Over the years, many of our political leaders have recognized the injustice that results from racial profiling. President Obama and President Bush have both urged an end to this discriminatory practice. Former Attorney General John Ashcroft said racial profiling "needs to stop [because] every American has a right to look to law enforcement officials to protect their rights." These sentiments were echoed by Attorney General Eric Holder in 2009 in his testimony before the Senate Appropriations Committee.
The Supreme Court is expected to issue a decision soon in Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin to determine if the University of Texas can consider race as one factor, among many, in attempting to create a diverse educational experience for its students. Yet, what critics of affirmative action often gloss over is that our nation's K-12 schools are more segregated by race and class than when Martin Luther King Jr. was killed, for many students of all races and classes, college is the first time many students are enriched by a diverse environment.
By Alex Berger, Legislative Assistant, ACLU at 4:59pm
Earlier this month, a high school honors student named Kiera Wilmot was charged with felony discharge of a weapon on school property. Her crime? Creating her own science experiment.
When Kiera mixed several household chemicals together in a plastic bottle, she caused a small explosion in her school's parking lot, hurting no one and causing minimal damage. But now she faces up to ten years in prison and a felony criminal record for a crime she had no intention or desire to commit.
By Dennis Parker, Director, ACLU Racial Justice Program at 9:55am
Assessing the legacy of the Fair Housing Act on its 45th Anniversary.
As we celebrate the 45th anniversary of the landmark Fair Housing Act, it is easy to forget how close we came to being denied the benefit of that landmark legislation. After Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1965 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, civil rights supporters were met with fierce Congressional opposition to extend federal anti-discrimination protections to housing. That years-long resistance was only overcome by the anger and frustration that followed the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King and the growing sense of unfairness that Americans of color could be asked to die in Vietnam but could not rely on the promise of fair housing back in the United States.
An international human rights body is set to question the United States on its obligations under a key human rights treaty. The U.N. Human Rights Committee, an independent body of experts tasked with monitoring compliance with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), this week released its list of issues, which will serve as the basis for its upcoming review of U.S. compliance with the treaty. The U.S. ratified the ICCPR in 1992 and is obligated to submit to periodic reviews of its treaty implementation efforts.
By Chandra Bhatnagar, Senior Staff Attorney, ACLU Human Rights Program at 10:34am
On this day in 1960, white police officers in Sharpeville, South Africa, opened fire on a peaceful anti-apartheid demonstration killing 69 black South African protestors...
