Category Archives: Race

Six Arkansas schools to offer African American AP course despite restrictions

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Officials have said class will not count toward graduation credit but some schools offer course as ‘local elective’

The six Arkansas schools that planned to offer an Advanced Placement (AP) course on African American studies say they will continue to do so despite state officials saying the class will not count toward a student’s graduation credit.

The North Little Rock and Jacksonville North Pulaski school districts and eStem charter schools said on Thursday they would offer the course as a “local elective” despite the Arkansas education department saying it is not considered a state-approved course. They join two other school districts that have said they will continue offering the class.

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FBI arrest California police officers involved in racist text messages scandal

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A grand jury had indicted officers from Antioch and Pittsburg for a wide range of offenses, including criminal conspiracy

The FBI arrested nine current and former California police officers on Thursday as part of a major criminal investigation into racist text messages of dozens of law enforcement officials, prosecutors said.

Early-morning federal raids, first reported by the Bay Area News Group, rounded up officers from Antioch and Pittsburg, two cities east of San Francisco, after they were charged in four grand jury indictments.

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‘Are you kidding, carjacking?’: The problem with facial recognition in policing

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When a pregnant Black woman was falsely arrested, she fought back. Here’s what happened next. Plus, the week in AI

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Porcha Woodruff was eight months pregnant when police in Detroit, Michigan came to arrest her on charges of carjacking and robbery. She was getting her two children ready for school when six police officers knocked on her door and presented her with an arrest warrant. She thought it was a prank.

“Are you kidding, carjacking? Do you see that I am eight months pregnant?” the lawsuit Woodruff filed against Detroit police reads. She sent her children upstairs to tell her fiance that “Mommy’s going to jail”.

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Tyrese Gibson sues Home Depot for $1m over alleged racial discrimination

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Fast & Furious actor claims staffers at hardware store discriminated against him and two of his workers

The US actor and singer Tyrese Gibson is demanding more than $1m from Home Depot after he says staffers at one of the American hardware giant’s stores racially discriminated against him and two of his workers.

Gibson’s lawsuit, which was filed on Wednesday, recounts how he and two men who regularly provide construction services for the Fast & Furious actor went to a Home Depot in West Hills, California, on 11 February to buy some materials for a building project at the entertainer’s home.

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‘Affirmative action for the privileged’: why Democrats are fighting legacy admissions

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Critics argue that university’s preference toward legacy applicants exacerbates existing inequalities in higher education

In the aftermath of the supreme court’s decision to strike down race-conscious admissions at universities in June, progressive Democrats have turned their outrage into motivation. They are now using their fury to power an impassioned campaign against a different admissions practice that they consider unjust and outdated: legacy admissions.

The century-old practice gives an advantage to the family members of universities’ alumni, a group that tends to be whiter and wealthier than the general pool of college applicants. Critics argue that legacy applicants already enjoy an unfair leg up in the admissions process and that university’s preference toward those students exacerbates existing inequalities in higher education.

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Three white men face assault charges in Alabama riverfront brawl

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One man in custody and two others expected to surrender after a group of white men attacked a Black boat worker in Montgomery

Three arrest warrants were issued on Tuesday by authorities in Montgomery, Alabama, relating to the chaotic riverfront brawl that broke out on Saturday during which punches were thrown, people were hit with chairs, and others were thrown into the river.

Montgomery police chief Darryl Albert announced on Tuesday that one man is in custody and two others were expected to turn themselves in. Montgomery mayor Steven Reed said none of the three are residents of the city.

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‘I shout from the rooftops I exist’: Brazilians identifying as Indigenous up by 90% in 12 years

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A growing number of Brazilians are reclaiming their Indigenous identity, after years of fighting for rights

When a census taker came knocking on Vahnessa de Oliveira Ferreira’s door in Rio de Janeiro in 2010 and asked her how she identified racially, she replied “mixed”. Twelve years later, when asked the same question for Brazil’s 2022 census, she had changed her answer to “Indigenous”.

“Indigenous people learned to justify themselves [as mixed-race] because for a long time, being Indigenous was synonymous with being lazy, a good-for-nothing, a savage,” said Ferreira, a tour guide and social educator who now proudly identifies as a trans Indigenous woman.

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Democrat calls on Biden to stop ‘racists’ in Israeli government from ‘land grab’

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Senator Chris Van Hollen says president should reassess military aid to Israel in light of extreme rightward tilt of government

A leading Democratic senator has called on Joe Biden to “get more personally engaged” in stopping “racists” in the Israeli government from a land grab in the occupied territories and committing “gross violations” of Palestinian rights or risk damage to the US’s credibility.

After a visit to Israel and the West Bank last month, Chris Van Hollen of Maryland told the Guardian in an interview that the US president should begin by reassessing the US’s huge military aid to Israel to prevent it from being used to facilitate annexation of the West Bank and oppression of the Palestinians, including the army’s complicity in escalating settler violence against the Arab civilian population.

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Britons living in deprived areas have poorer sleep quality, study finds

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First large-scale UK investigation of its kind discovers social deprivation and ethnicity both affect sleep

People living in deprived areas of the UK have poorer sleep quality than those in affluent areas, the first large-scale study of sleep across the population has found.

Black people reported the worst sleep overall, with the research finding both social deprivation and ethnicity affect sleep quality, irrespective of age, sex, personal wealth, employment and education.

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Florida tells schools AP Psychology course with LGBTQ+ content violates law

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Ron DeSantis’s government has banned instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity, effectively also banning the class

Florida has told school superintendents that the Advanced Placement psychology course offered to high school students violates the state’s new law prohibiting instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity, effectively banning the class, the non-profit that develops the courses said on Thursday.

The move is the latest by the administration of Ron DeSantis, the Republican governor, to limit instruction about LGBTQ+ issues and race in the state. DeSantis is challenging Donald Trump for the Republican nomination for president in 2024 and has made battles over cultural issues a centerpiece of his campaign.

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Immortal cells: Henrietta Lacks’ family settle lawsuit over HeLa tissue harvested in 1950s

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Cells taken without consent from cancer victim can reproduce indefinitely and were sold for unjust profit by Thermo Fisher Scientific, relatives argued

Laboratory equipment maker Thermo Fisher Scientific has settled a lawsuit brought by the estate of Henrietta Lacks, a long-deceased cancer victim whose “immortal” cells have lived on to fuel biomedical research for decades, lawyers for the estate have said.

The story of Lacks, a young African American woman who died in Baltimore in 1951, was made famous in Rebecca Skloot’s 2010 book The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, which became a movie in 2017 featuring Oprah Winfrey.

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Kamala Harris condemns Florida over curriculum claim of slavery ‘benefit’

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Vice-president decries ‘extremist so-called leaders’ and says new teaching standards will rob children of knowing true US history

Kamala Harris went to Florida on Friday to address the state board of education’s controversial new standards for Black history, which include the contention that some Black people benefited from being enslaved.

In an impassioned afternoon speech, the vice-president predicted the standards would rob children of knowing true US history that the rest of the world has been taught.

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Investigation over fund for French policeman who shot dead teenager

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Prosecutors look into GoFundMe collection set up by far-right commentator for officer whose action sparked nationwide riots

French prosecutors have opened an investigation into an online collection for a policeman who shot a teenager dead in a Paris suburb in late June sparking nationwide riots.

The initiative on GoFundMe.com, launched by far-right media commentator Jean Messiha, received pledges of more than €1.6m (£1.4m) before it was closed in early July.

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Indigenous voice no campaign targets religious voters who opposed marriage equality

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The no campaign plans to tap into the ‘unheard majority’ in Sydney, believing there is a bloc of socially conservative religious voters ripe for its messages

The no campaign in the referendum on an Indigenous voice to parliament is targeting migrant communities and parts of Sydney that voted strongly against marriage equality in the 2017 postal vote, Warren Mundine has said.

The campaign believes there is a cohort of religious and socially conservative voters who are open to its messaging on implications of the voice.

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In a first, Colorado names hiking trail after Black guide and outdoorsman

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Dedication of the 3-mile loop to Winston Walker comes after a push to make national parks more inclusive

As a nature loving little girl, Jessica Newton never understood why the faces on information boards in the state and national parks she visited looked nothing like her.

“My parents would take me to these places and the platforms would tell you about a trail, or a person, but I’d never see anyone that looks remotely close to my color,” she said.

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Jesse Jackson to step down as head of civil rights organisation

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Retirement from Rainbow PUSH Coalition follows several health problems in recent years

The US civil rights leader Jesse Jackson is to step down down as head of the Chicago-based Rainbow PUSH Coalition he founded.

The organisation announced on Friday that the civil rights leader and two-time presidential candidate would be celebrated this weekend at the coalition’s annual convention.

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Tests to assess newborns health not effective for BAME babies in UK

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Minority ethnic newborns risk late diagnosis and poorer health as guidance was developed for white European babies in 1952

Tests to assess newborn babies’ health are not effective for non-white children and should be replaced, according to the NHS Race and Health Observatory.

In the UK, neonatal death rates among black and Asian newborns are much higher than for white babies.

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Judge rejects reparations for Tulsa race massacre in ‘sad miscarriage of justice’

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Civil rights lawyer laments dismissal of suit which attempted to force city to make recompense for the destruction of Black area

An Oklahoma judge has thrown out a lawsuit seeking reparations for the 1921 Tulsa race massacre, dashing an effort to obtain some measure of legal justice for elderly survivors.

The judge, Caroline Wall, on Friday dismissed with prejudice the lawsuit which attempted to force the city and others to make recompense for the destruction of Greenwood, a once-thriving Black district.

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French policing called into question again after brutal arrest at peaceful march

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Youssouf Traoré in hospital after being tackled to ground at rally in memory of his brother, as government bans fireworks for Bastille Day

A brutal arrest during a peaceful march against police violence has again put French law and order under the spotlight, as the government, fearing further unrest, banned fireworks outside authorised displays during the Bastille Day holiday weekend.

Amid continuing tensions after rioting sparked by last month’s fatal shooting of a teenager, police faced further accusations of brutality on Sunday when video emerged of the arrest of the brother of a black man who died in custody seven years ago.

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French officials ban Paris march for black man who died in police custody

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Annual rally in memory of Adama Traoré had been moved to Paris after it was banned in Val-d’Oise

The French authorities have banned people from marching in central Paris to honour Adama Traoré, a 24-year-old black man who died in police custody in 2016.

After a court challenge to overrule a ban on the march being held in the Val-d’Oise, north-west of Paris, failed on Friday, organisers announced it would take place instead at Place de la Républic in the capital.

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