US Supreme Court is set to hear arguments today in two major cases involving Harvard University and the University of North Carolina that could imperil decades-old affirmative action policies that factor race into student admissions to boost Black and Hispanic enrollment on American campuses.
The arguments are set to begin at 10 am (1400 GMT) in appeals by a group founded by anti-affirmative action activist Edward Blum of lower court rulings upholding programmes used at the two prestigious schools to foster student diversity. The court confronts this divisive issue four months after its major rulings curtailing abortion rights and widening gun rights.
The court’s 6-3 conservative majority is expected to be sympathetic toward the challenges to Harvard and UNC.
The suits were filed separately against the two schools in 2014. One accused Harvard of violating Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which bars discrimination based on race, colour or national origin under any programme or activity receiving federal financial assistance. The other accused UNC of violating the 14th amendment.
Blum’s group said UNC discriminates against white and Asian American applicants and Harvard discriminates against Asian American applicants.
The universities have said they use race as only one factor in a host of individualised evaluations for admission without quotas – permissible under Supreme Court precedents – and that curbing the consideration of race would result in a significant drop in the number of students from underrepresented groups.
Many institutions of higher education place a premium on achieving a diverse student population not simply to remedy racial inequity and exclusion in American life but to bring a range of perspectives onto campuses.
Blum’s group told the justices in court papers that the Constitution requires colourblind admissions, quoting a famous line by conservative chief justice John Roberts from a 2007 ruling: “The way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race.”
The two schools and President Joe Biden’s administration, backing them, said categorically banning any consideration of an individual’s race would be inconsistent with equal protection.
UNC said there is a difference between a racist policy like segregation that separates people based on race and race-conscious policies that bring students together. The challengers’ arguments to equate the two “trivialise the grievous legal and moral wrongs of segregation,” the US justice department said in a brief.
Joe Biden has called for the resignation of three LA city council (Los Angeles) members who were caught on tape making racist comments in a meeting last year.
The profanity-laced recordings, which emerged on Sunday, document three Latino city council members and a labor leader discussing the city’s redrawing of council district boundaries amid the redistricting process, as well as the need to re-elect Latino members and protect economic interests within Latino districts.
The recordings capture the then LA city council president, Nury Martinez, mocking the Black son of a white councilman, and her and the council members Gil Cedillo and Kevin de León crudely discussing Black voters and the Indigenous residents of certain LA neighborhoods.
Martinez stepped down as council president and apologized on Monday, saying she was ashamed of her racially offensive language in the recording of the meeting. Martinez, the first Latina to hold the title of president, also said she would take a leave of absence from the council.
Cedillo and de León have apologized but have not vacated their seats.
Karine Jean-Pierre, the White House press secretary, said on Tuesday Biden thought all three members should resign.
“The president is glad to see that one of the participants in that conversation has resigned, but they all should,” she said. She called the language in the recording “unacceptable” and “appalling”.
Previously, many of California’s top politicians, including the governor, Gavin Newsom, US senator Alex Padilla, and the outgoing LA mayor, Eric Garcetti, had encouraged the members to “take responsibility”.
The president of the Los Angeles county federation of labor, Ron Herrera, who also took part in the meeting, stepped down from his position on Monday evening.
Demonstrators filled the LA city council chambers on Tuesday for the first meeting since the story broke, chanting in protest over the trio’s remarks and demanding their resignation. Speakers urged the council to investigate the redistricting process in light of the council members’ comments and address racism in its ranks.
A British shopper was shocked to find Black skincare products were security tagged, meanwhile more expensive skincare products for white skin appeared to be untagged at a Tesco store in Essex, UK. The video garnered thousands of views in just one day, with comments denouncing the store as “racist,” while others claimed the decision was “data-driven.” The supermarket has since apologized for the security locks, adding that the products “should clearly not have been security tagged in this way” and that they have been removed.
In 2018, a California woman sued Walmart in federal court for discrimination over the policy, saying she felt humiliated having to ask a store employee to unlock the beauty products case on three visits to the store, including to buy a comb that cost $0.48.
The woman, Essie Grundy, said she went to a Walmart in Perris, Calif., in Riverside County to buy body lotion by the beauty brand Cantu when she noticed that all of the products “targeted at African-Americans” were locked in a glass case, “from the middle of the aisle to the end.”
Ms. Grundy, who was represented by the lawyer Gloria Allred, dropped the lawsuit in November, court documents show.
Reached on Wednesday night, Ms. Allred would not say if there was a settlement in the case, which was voluntarily dismissed with prejudice — meaning it cannot be brought back before the court. She said that “the matter was resolved.”
Walmart did not comment on the resolution of the lawsuit.
Ms. Grundy declined to comment on the policy change.
CVS and Walgreens have also faced criticism for locking up skincare products sold to black people.
A Walgreens spokeswoman wrote in an email on Thursday that the company was also discontinuing that practice.
“We are currently ensuring multicultural hair care and skincare products are not stored behind locked cases at any of our stores, which has been the case at a limited number of our stores,” the spokeswoman, Emily Hartwig-Mekstan, wrote.
CVS did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Wednesday night.
A US judge has mandated that McDonald’s Corp. defend itself in the $10 billion racism lawsuit filed by media mogul Byron Allen, who claims that the fast-food business engaged in “racial stereotyping” by refusing to advertise in black-owned media.
According to a ruling made on Friday by US district judge Fernando Olguin in Los Angeles, Allen may attempt to show in the racism lawsuit that McDonald’s broke federal and California civil rights laws by excluding his networks from receiving the “vast bulk” of its advertising funds.
In this racism lawsuit, Allen claimed that McDonald’s denied his Entertainment Studios Networks Inc. and Weather Group LLC, which owns the Weather Channel, tens of millions of dollars in annual income by placing them in an “African American tier” with a different advertising agency and a considerably lesser advertising budget.
Olguin referenced claims that Entertainment Studios had made many fruitless attempts since its creation in 2009 to get a contract with McDonald’s, whose “racist” corporate culture damaged Allen, without making a determination about the truth of the allegations.
Olguin stated, “Plaintiffs have asserted sufficient circumstances to warrant an inference of purposeful discrimination when taken together and viewed in the light most favorable to Plaintiffs.
McDonald’s lawyer Loretta Lynch said in a statement yesterday that the Chicago-based corporation felt the evidence would demonstrate there was no prejudice and that the case was “about money, not race.”
According to her, “Plaintiffs’ baseless charges overlook both McDonald’s reasonable economic justifications for not investing more on their channels and the company’s long-standing commercial partnerships with many other diverse-owned partners.”
The issue, according to Allen, is “about the economic participation of African American-owned enterprises in the US economy,” according to a statement.
“McDonald’s robs African American customers of billions while providing nearly little in return.”
According to the complaint, 40% of fast food patrons are black, yet McDonald’s only allocated 0.3% of their $1.6 billion US marketing budget to black-owned media in 2019.
McDonald’s said in May 2021 that it will increase national ad expenditure with black-owned media to 5% from 2% by 2024.
Olguin rejected a previous iteration of Allen’s claim last November after concluding that there was no evidence of deliberate and intentional prejudice against his enterprises.
In the encounter between Inter Miami and D.C. United on Sunday, it is alleged that DCU striker Taxi Fountas used the N-word to refer to Inter Miami defender Damian Lowe. Major League Soccer has said that it will investigate the allegation.
An Major League Soccer official told ESPN that the league “has zero tolerance for abusive and disrespectful behavior and we take these complaints very seriously.” “We will look into this situation as soon as possible. After the inquiry is finished, more details will be given.”
Additionally, a D.C. United representative released the following statement: “The claims against a player during the match versus Inter Miami CF are known to D.C. United. To examine the event, the club will collaborate closely with Major League Soccer and Inter Miami.”
The alleged assault allegedly took place during a 3-2 Miami win, during the 59th minute. It came after an altercation between Lowe and Fountas. Aime Mabika, a Miami defender, then responded furiously against Fountas. Following the incident, referee Ismail Elfath warned both Fountas and Lowe and then spoke with the managers of the two sides, Inter Miami’s Phil Neville and D.C. United’s Wayne Rooney.
Elfath responded to a post-game query from a pool reporter by claiming that neither he nor any other official heard a racist epithet being spoken. Play resumed after a wait of several minutes, but Fountas was replaced in the 66th.
Rooney remarked, “There was a complaint, and I have no doubt that it will be looked at. I don’t have much else to say.”
Neville was left to explain the nature of the conflict.
DeAndre Yedlin, a defender for Miami, subsequently said during a post-game videoconference that the players told Neville they wouldn’t play any further unless something was done about Fountas. Rooney quickly decided to replace Fountas.
Chick-fil-A after assuring a black Twitter user that his “community” will be the first to know when a new menu item is supplied, has come under fire for being racist.
On September 9, the fast-food restaurant responded to a fan who asked when the chain will start serving spicily spiced chicken nuggets.
If spicy goods are added to the permanent menu, your community will be the first to know, Don! wrote Chick-fil-A.
Users immediately began accusing the chain of being racist and inquiring as to if it was referring to the black community in a barrage of tweets.
One reply reads, “What do you mean, ‘your community’????.”
“Your neighborhood?” says another Tweet. I’m going to require an explanation for that statement since “Our” community wouldn’t want others to assume it had racist overtones.
A spokeswoman addressed the outrage on social media in a message to NBC News.
The statement read, “The reaction was a poor choice of words but was in no way intended to be inappropriate or insulting.”
We commonly use the term “community” in a broader sense when referring to places where we operate restaurants and provide local residents services.
Some Twitter users praised the fast-food chain’s remark in response to other messages criticizing it.
One person commented, “All joking aside, they reply like this regularly,” before attaching a screenshot of another tweet from Chick-fil-A that used the same sentence.
The message reads: “Hello there! Since we are aware that our clients enjoy spice, we are trying hot foods in several marketplaces. If spicy goods are added to our regular menu, we’ll be sure to let your community know!
The chain has recently been the target of boycotts in reaction to the business’s prior funding to anti-LGBTQ organizations.
The head of a local NAACP branch in Florida has resigned, citing “racial marginalization” from others in the civil rights organization as a South Asian woman.
Dr. Vanessa Toolsie, an elected vice president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People’s Orange County branch, took over as president in March when Tiffany Hughes resigned to compete for a Florida legislature seat.
She submitted a lengthy resignation letter on the NAACP branch’s Facebook page on Sunday, according to the Orlando Sentinel.
She also posted a brief statement on her personal Facebook page, saying, “I shall NO LONGER TOLERATE ANY RACE ABUSE AGAINST ME FOR BEING A #ProudBrownWoman OF #SouthAsian AND #Caribbean ANCESTRY.” “It is abhorrently sad that I have regularly been forced to face this hateful bigotry in anti-racist spaces,” she continued.
According to the Sentinel, Toolsie accused a member of the organization’s executive board of attempting to exclude her from the annual gala, ignoring her emails, and purposefully failing to send out accurate and timely meeting announcements in a malicious attempt to sabotage her and impede her effectiveness.
It would be “hypocritical” for Toolsie to continue serving as president of an organization that is “against racism and oppression, while I continue to be treated with such bold disproportionate inequality, maliciously racistly oppressed,” she wrote. Toolsie had attempted to resolve this internally for months, but her superiors had not taken any action to stop the harassment and racial marginalization before she announced her resignation.
A Black fireman in western New York claims he was coerced by a supervisor to attend a racist party with disturbing images.
Jerrod Jones stated in a notice of claim filed Thursday that the racist party took place last month at a private residence in a rich area of Rochester. He and two other firemen went after their commander, Jeffrey Krywy, reportedly instructed them they should all go to the party.
Jones, a 14-year department veteran, grew apprehensive when he arrived to the residence and saw a cardboard cutout version of former President Donald Trump, because firemen aren’t permitted to attend partisan political gatherings while on duty, according to his attorney, Nate McMurray.
Jones then witnessed a parody exhibition of the Juneteenth festival, which commemorates the abolition of slavery in the nineteenth century, with Juneteenth flags draped over buckets of fried chicken.
A lady also reportedly impersonated a local Democratic official and did a sexually explicit dance, and photos of Democratic leaders were tied to yard posts.
Jones claimed during a press conference that the event “hurt me very deeply.” “I chose to speak up today because I have two children who may one day want to be firemen, and I don’t want them to go through what I went through.”
Jones stated that he informed his supervisors about the event and requested that he not be assigned to work under Krywy, but was rejected.
The city of Rochester and the fire department are named in the notice of claim, which is a notice of intent to sue. Jones intends to seek at least $3 million in mental anguish compensation and at least $1 million in compensatory damages. Jones is still on leave and fears reprisal, according to McMurray.
On Thursday, email and phone messages were left with the Rochester Fire Department. According to the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, Fire Chief Felipe Hernandez Jr. termed the event “unacceptable and an affront to everyone who works with the RFD and at City Hall,” and said Krywy has been suspended.
Employees at an Amazon warehouse in Joliet, Illinois, have complained to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission about corporate mistreatment, racial discrimination, and retribution.
According to the complaint submitted on Tuesday, a group of Black employees at the MDW2 Fulfilment Centre claimed that since late 2021, a racially hostile work environment has been exacerbated by racist death threats written in bathroom stalls, Confederate symbols on co-workers’ clothing, and a lack of security and accountability.
Institutional abuse and women’s rights lawyer Tamara Holder said her clients are increasingly asking for financial compensation for mental distress brought on by demanding working circumstances in addition to changes in the workplace to properly address and resolve these concerns.
“Right now, we don’t know how much that sum equals. But I can tell you that after working in a racially unfriendly environment, individuals are going through a lot of emotional pain “She spoke with ABC News. “Our message to Amazon is that their actions following our cases being public simply increase our damages since consumers are getting more fearful instead of less,”
Holder expressed concern for the case’s future and the lives of her clients as more attention was given to the situation and that employees were reluctant to voice their concerns further for fear of additional reprisal from the MDW2 Fulfilment Centre management.
According to claims made by Holder, who spoke to ABC News, “They are supposedly warning their staff that if they speak up, they would be fired because they signed an agreement to be silent.”
Davis said that “they were attempting to sweep things under the rug.” “It was weird how this scenario was handled.”
Holder promised to do every effort to see the complaint through and make sure the opinions of her clients are taken into consideration.
A U.S. foreign service officer is still working for the State Department about a year and a half after it was discovered that he was the creator of a racist and antisemitic blog, and he still publishes on the website almost daily.
The owner of the website BloodAndFaith.com, Fritz Berggren, who has worked with Afghan immigrants in Bahrain, routinely criticizes the Jewish religion, members of the LGBTQ community, and Black Americans while promoting the idea that the United States should be a Christian nation-state. Politico broke the news of Berggren’s affiliation with the website, where his name is prominently featured, for the first time in February 2021.
This month, a State-Federal representative informed Jewish Insider that “Mr. Berggren is still a department employee.” The spokeswoman noted that while “we cannot comment on specific personnel situations,” “allegations that an employee has broken a law, rule, or department policy are treated seriously.”
70 Jewish State Department workers demanded Berggren’s dismissal in a letter to Secretary of State Tony Blinken a year ago. Blinken replied by noting that workers who are under investigation for discriminatory behavior may face disciplinary action “up to and including separation where justified,” according to Foreign Policy. Blinken has aimed to advocate diversity within the agency.
Berggren frequently writes about religion. He received his Ph.D. in history from the University of Miami in 2001.
“There may be no way to cross this gap. Who will support Christ in this? Who will support the Jews in this? You can’t hold both at once, he penned in January. The next day, he wrote: “We continue that war against the Jews, who fight against the Prince of God, Jesus Christ,” in a larger post criticizing Jews’ supposed ability to dominate “the narrative.”
His website, which he founded in 2017, exhorts white Americans to forge tighter racial relationships on the About page. “Just as Blacks are proud and Hispanics have extremely strong blood identity groups, Europeans must regain their blood and faith,” asserted Berggren.