racial discrimination

Read the latest news about racial discrimination today on Newser.com

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Paula Deen Wins One: Racial Bias Claim Tossed

She finally gets a slew of favorable headlines

(Newser) - You know you've made it—or something like that—when both the New York Times and TMZ are covering you. Both publications, among a slew of others, report that a federal judge yesterday threw out the racial bias claim filed against Paula Deen by a former restaurant manager. (This,...

Court Takes Ax to Voting Rights Act

Says Congress needs to change it

(Newser) - The Supreme Court dealt what looks like a mortal wound to the Voting Rights Act today, striking down the law's key enforcement metric. The court did not, as some had expected, strike down Section 5, which gives the federal government oversight over states and localities with a history of...

US Sues BMW, Says Criminal Checks Were Discriminating

70 black workers after background probes

(Newser) - The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has filed a lawsuit against BMW for using criminal background checks to screen out employees—a practice, it says, which put 70 black employees out of a job, the Washington Post reports. The background, as per an EEOC press release : A BMW plant in South...

Nurse Sues, Says Hospital Allowed Racist Dad's Demand

Kept black nurses from baby: lawsuit

(Newser) - A black nurse in Michigan has sued her employer, charging that the hospital assented to a white father's demand that no African-Americans handle his baby, reports CNN . Tonya Battle says she learned of the demand when the father himself approached her as she held the baby, showed her a...

Court Strikes Down Florida Early Voting Law

Court rules that it discriminates against minorities

(Newser) - A federal court yesterday ruled that a new Florida law restricting early voting would not be implemented in the five historically black districts covered by the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Section 5 of the Act allows the government to review election laws in places with a history of racial...

Wells Fargo to Pay $175M Over Lending Discrimination

African Americans, Hispanics allegedly got higher rates

(Newser) - From 2004 to 2009, Wells Fargo allegedly discriminated against African-American and Hispanic borrowers, and now the bank will pay at least $175 million to settle the matter, the AP reports. Wells Fargo is accused of charging such borrowers higher rates for loans, thus violating fair-lending laws. A deputy attorney general...

Landmark Racial Ruling Takes Inmate Off Death Row

North Carolina judge says prosecutors kept jury mostly white

(Newser) - A black inmate in North Carolina came off death row today thanks to a controversial new law in the state. A judge reduced the sentence of Marcus Reymond Robinson to life without parole after ruling that prosecutors purposely sought to keep blacks off his jury, reports the News & Observer...

Black Would-Be Contestants Sue Bachelor

They say show, along with 'Bachelorette,' favors white people

(Newser) - Two black men are taking The Bachelor and The Bachelorette to court with a lawsuit that claims the reality shows are blocking contestants of color from starring roles. Nathaniel Claybrooks and Christopher Johnson filed a federal lawsuit in Nashville today against the popular TV shows claiming they are engaged in...

Black Students Face More Arrests Than Whites: US

Arne Duncan: Minorities suffer 'harsher discipline'

(Newser) - African-American students are arrested much more frequently than whites in America's large public schools, according to the government's largest-ever study of the subject. Among school systems with more than 50,000 students, 35% of arrests involved African-Americans, though they represent just 24% of the student body. White students...

'White Only' Pool Sign Just 'Historical,' Landlord Says

Outraged tenant files civil rights complaint

(Newser) - An Ohio landlord says the "White Only" sign in front of a pool at a duplex she owns was just an antique, but a former tenant says her views on race also appear to be from 1930s Alabama. "We invited my daughter, who is African-American, to visit and...

Fan Tosses Banana Peel at Black NHL Player

Philadelphia Flyers' Wayne Simmonds is the on-ice target

(Newser) - Very classy act from a hockey fan in Canada: Someone tossed a banana peel onto the ice as Wayne Simmonds—one of the few black players in the NHL—skated toward the net during a shootout last night, reports the Philadelphia Inquirer . The peel landed in the path of the...

Rick Perry Asked to Halt Tomorrow's Execution

Jury told black men pose greater danger

(Newser) - Lawyers for Duane Edward Buck are urging Texas Gov. Rick Perry to step in and stay their client's execution, scheduled for tomorrow, citing racially biased testimony presented at his sentencing hearing. Texas law requires juries to decide if a defendant poses a “future danger” when deciding whether to...

Black Man Finds Noose on Work Locker

It appeared after Gregory Seabrook filed complaint against FDNY

(Newser) - Gregory Seabrook filed a race discrimination complaint against the Fire Department of New York City in December—and on Thursday, he found a nearly three-foot-long noose in front of his work locker. "There's an ominous message behind it," says his lawyer, who adds that the "elaborately constructed"...

Will.i.am Defends MTV Blackface Performance

'It's not a racial thing,' he tweets

(Newser) - Black Eyed Peas frontman Will.i.am blasted critics who skewered his blackface performance before the MTV Music Video Awards presentation. "It shouldn't be looked at as racial," he tweeted, explaining that he painted his face black "as expression and to emphasize my outfit." To those...

Justice Department Sues Arizona's Sheriff Joe

He won't cooperate with civil rights investigation

(Newser) - The feds have escalated their fight with Arizona's tough-talking Sheriff Joe. The Justice Department filed what it calls an "unprecedented" suit today against Maricopa County's Joe Arpaio because it says he won't cooperate with a civil rights investigation, refusing for more than a year to turn over records, reports...

Vegas Shooter Enraged Over Social Security Cutback

Claimed he'd been racially discriminated against

(Newser) - Police have identified the culprit in yesterday’s Las Vegas courthouse shootout as Johnny Lee Wicks, a black 66-year-old retiree who, they believe, was enraged over a recent Social Security dispute. When Wicks moved from California to Nevada in January 2008, his Social Security check shrank, because he lost a...

Swim Club Discriminated Against Minority Kids: Panel

Suburban Philly club could face millions of dollars in fines for booting camp

(Newser) - A state panel has found that a Philadelphia-area swim club racially discriminated against a day camp group of mostly black and Hispanic children when it canceled an agreement to let them swim, the Philadelpha Inquirer reports. The panel examined the Valley Club's actions and communications before and after the agreement...

Holder to Crank Up Civil Rights Enforcement

Holder restoring Civil Rights Division to pre-Bush status

(Newser) - The Obama administration plans to revitalize the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division and beef up efforts against racial discrimination, the New York Times reports. Attorney General Eric Holder has been working to redirect the focus to tackling discrimination in high-impact areas like housing, voting rights, employment, and bank lending, where...

Wealthy Blacks Say Class No Barrier to Racial Profiling

(Newser) - Money, power, and status count for little in the face of persistent racial profiling by police, African-American men tell the Los Angeles Times. Many say they know all too well how Henry Louis Gates Jr. must have felt in his home last week. The consensus generally seems to be that...

Gates' Real Offense? 'Speaking Truth to Power'

(Newser) - So much for our post-racial society, writes Carol Rose in the Boston Globe. If we needed any evidence that "racism is alive and well," look no further than the arrest of Henry Louis Gates Jr. The Harvard professor was charged with disorderly conduct not because police mistook him...

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