Blog of Rights
10/18/2011
Three Faces of Racial Profiling

The Three Faces of Racial Profiling: The ACLU Connects the Dots

By Laura W. Murphy, Director, ACLU Washington Legislative Office at 11:32am

Racial profiling not only goes against our Constitution and our country’s value for equality — it also hinders law enforcement officials from doing an effective job.

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12/16/2008
Corporal Punishment in Schools

End Abusive, Discriminatory Discipline in Schools: Give All Students a Chance to Thrive

By Alice Farmer, Human Rights Program at 10:39am

Minority students in schools across the U.S. are not getting a fair chance – in part because they are more likely to be subjected to abusive, degrading disciplinary tactics ranging from overpolicing to corporal punishment. Facing these and other obstacles, minority students are more likely to drop out of school and end up in the criminal justice system. The ACLU has been fighting this trend in the U.S.

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09/06/2012
S.B. 1070

SB 1070: The Fight Continues

By Alessandra Soler, ACLU of Arizona at 2:41pm

For 19-year-old Hugo Carrillo Escobedo, SB1070 is about more than just “showing your papers.”  After “squealing” his tires, Hugo wound up in immigration detention for eight hours. Hugo’s story is particularly compelling because he was initially just given a citation for the traffic violation and immediately released.  But the police officer later showed up at his house, saying: “Do you know about SB1070? If I don’t report you, I could lose my job.” 

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06/01/2012
Anti-Muslim Bias

Muslim Profiling and Behavioral Profiling

By Jay Stanley, Senior Policy Analyst, ACLU Speech, Privacy and Technology Project at 2:24pm

Yesterday I posted about the debate over profiling Muslims at the airport, and how Bruce Schneier persuasively argued that the concept, which seems so intuitively sensible to so many Americans, is a terrible idea even just from a security point of view. He also commented on the other, less tangible costs that such a scheme would impose, such as the alienation of Muslims from American life, and the corruption of our values.

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04/23/2012
McCleskey v. Kemp

A Personal Reflection on McCleskey v. Kemp

By Diann Rust-Tierney

April 22 marked the 25th anniversary of the Supreme Court decision in McCleskey v. Kemp, in which the Court ruled that a defendant cannot rely upon statistical evidence of systemic racial bias to prove his death sentence unconstitutional, no matter how strong that evidence may be. McCleskey has been roundly condemned as a low point in the quest for equality that begs to be revisited. To mark the occasion, last week the ACLU Blog of Rights  featured a new post about McCleskey and its legacy. You can read all the posts here, and visit mccleskeyvkemp.com to learn more.

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11/29/2011
Swept Up By S-Comm

Detain First, Investigate Later: How U.S. Citizens Are Unlawfully Detained Under S-Comm

By Jennie Pasquarella, ACLU of Southern California at 3:32pm

Detain first, investigate later — that is Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s mantra when it comes to its Secure Communities program.

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01/23/2009

Death Penalty Maintains Racial Inequality

By Brian Stull, ACLU Capital Punishment Project at 11:10am

The inauguration of Barack Obama, one day after Martin Luther King Jr. Day, has prompted a healthy discussion in the nation about racial and socioeconomic inequality.

As part of that discussion it is important to point out that, just like the divisions in the Jim Crow south, the death penalty continues to divide us by race and socioeconomic status.

In 1976, when the Supreme Court approved the modern death penalty statutes that were supposed to ensure that death sentences were no longer arbitrary and discriminatory, the Court stated that "capital punishment is an expression of society's moral outrage at particularly offensive conduct . . ."

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05/20/2008

U.N. Expert on Racism Arrives for Tour of U.S.

By Laleh Ispahani, Racial Justice Program at 10:06am

Yesterday, at the invitation of the United States government, the United Nations' foremost expert on race issues — the Special Rapporteur on Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia, and Related Intolerance — arrived in the U.S. The Special Rapporteur, Mr. Doudou Diène, has come here for three weeks to gather first-hand information on these issues, as they manifest themselves in the U.S. During his visit, Mr. Diène will meet with federal and local officials, lawmakers and judicial authorities, and civil society organizations in Washington, D.C., New York, Chicago, Omaha, Los Angeles, New Orleans, Miami, and San Juan, Puerto Rico. Mr Diène, a Senegalese lawyer, will report his findings to the U.N. Human Rights Council next year.

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02/20/2008

Assessing Racial Discrimination in America

By Suzanne Ito, ACLU at 7:03pm
This week, the 72nd Session of the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) is meeting in Geneva. Readers of this blog will have noticed blogging from the ACLU's 10-person delegation at the meeting, addressing issues such a Read More»
02/24/2012
Celebrate Black History

Ain’t I a Woman?

By Alicia Gay, ACLU at 1:20pm

Recently, a colleague here at the ACLU sent around a story about an African-American woman’s experience giving birth that literally left me crying at my desk.

Birthing While Black, was written in the aftermath of the Blue Ivy Carter, luxury delivery rooms hype, but I’m sure Bey wouldn’t be able to relate to what Denene Millner went through. In advance of giving birth, Denene paid $800 on top of usual hospital fees for what she describes as a “Cadillac birthing experience.” Instead of receiving the posh experience she paid for she “was treated like a 14-year-old drug-addicted welfare queen, there to push out yet another daddy-less baby.” Her baby was immediately (and inexplicably) tested for drugs, she was put in a crowded room with other mothers and infants, was treated rudely by hostile hospital staff that were surprised when her husband walked in because who could ever believe a Black woman would be married when she has a child?

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