Diversity Chat

Diversity Chat for the Week of September 25th, 2006

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(This may take a few moments, but as always, it's worth the wait!)

Welcome to Diversity Chat for the week of September 25th, 2006! This week, Tony Wade and I discuss reasons and solutions for the continued racial violence that plagues America, why Latvia's new anti-labor discrimination law will make sexual orientation a protected class, next steps now that the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has found a sexual harassment complaint against former NBA all-star Isiah Thomas has reasonable merit, and other issue, too.

First though, here's this round up of some of the week’s top stories in human relations, equal opportunity and diversity:

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice spoke to CBS’s Katie Couric Sunday about the influence growing up in racially segregated, and often racially violent, Birmingham, Alabama, during Jim Crow had on her. Rice credits her parents  and a tight-knit community for her extraordinary success in the face of a childhood spent enduring institutional discrimination.

A handful of African American students staged a sit-in at the administrative building of Ohio Dominican University over a series of incidents involving racial graffiti. The most recent incident involved racial slurs carved into the wall of an elevator in student housing.

Bonnie Bleskachek, the first female fire chief of Minneapolis, is herself under fire after being accused of sexual harassment by three firefighters, each of whom is female. One of the firefighters, Kristina Lemon, claims Bleskachek denied her training and advancement opportunities after Lemon turned down Bleskacheck’s request for a sexual relationship.

The Muslim holy month of Ramadan got off to a violent start in Melbourne, Florida, when a mosque there was hit by gunfire as members celebrated inside. No one was injured and there are no suspects in the attack. But that wasn’t the only violent incident marking the start of Ramadan in America.

Persons unknown left a bullet-riddled Quran was left outside a mosque in Chattanooga, Tennessee, vandalized a mosque in Indiana and there were other incidents at mosques in Maine, Arizona and Maryland.

Meanwhile, Rosh Hashanah began at sundown Friday, marking the start of a new year on the Jewish calendar. Saturday began the year 5767 for those of the Jewish faith.

More than 100 doctors, school leaders and ministers participating Saturday in the North County Racial Harmony and Justice Day say more education and understanding would help heal divisions in their St. Louis-area community. Housing, health care, law enforcement and religion were all reportedly on the agenda at the event held at St. Louis Community College.

Mediator Vince Ready ruled this week that both harassment and sexual harassment did occur at the Richmond, Virginia Fire-Rescue, and that the City of Richmond failed dismally in its efforts to deal with the allegations. Ready had been brought in to mediate a union grievance filed in May of 2005 by the International Association of Fire Fighters against the City of Richmond.

Ready also made three key recommendations, including changing the physical workspace for women firefighters, increasing awareness training and providing a dispute resolution forum. Both the City of Richmond and the Union have signed on to Ready’s recommendations.

A class action discrimination lawsuit filed in 1999 by American Indian farmers against the U.S. Department of Agriculture may finally be coming to trial next year. Plaintiffs in the case say USDA discriminated against American Indians by failing to give them loans and other benefits. The case mirrors one filed by African American farmers in 1997 and settled for hundreds of millions of dollars just two years later.

The passage of California Proposition 209 in 1996, a ballot initiative that eliminated affirmative action in state university admissions, has sharply reduced the number of African American students at UCLA since it took effect. That’s according to Thomas Lifka, UCLA’s Assistant Vice Chancellor for Student Services.

But UCLA officials say they may start taking a more holistic approach to admissions this fall to make UCLA’s admissions process more like that of UC Berkeley, which enrolls more minority students than UCLA.

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission says the charges made by Anucha Browne Sanders of sexual harassment against former NBA great Isiah Thomas and Madison Square Garden have reasonable merit. That emerged in recent court hearings in a civil case filed by Browne Sanders, a former senior vice president of marketing for the New York Knicks organization. Browne Sanders claims she was fired for reporting sexual harassment at the hands of Thomas. Thomas and Madison Square Garden continue to deny the charges.

Latvian President Vaira Vike-Freiberga is set to sign that country’s new anti-discrimination labor law after lawmakers added sexual orientation to a list including race, gender, age, disability, religious and political beliefs. Vike-Freiberga vetoed the bill in June after the Latvian parliament passed a measure that didn’t include sexual orientation as a protected class, which would have put Latvia at odds with the European Union.

And finally...

Henry Dillon, a former New Orleans deputy city attorney, will be spending the rest of his life behind bars after being sentenced last week for using his position to rape two women in his office. U.S District Judge Lance Africk sentenced Dillon more than four months after a jury found him guilty of depriving the women of their civil rights under color of law by aggravated sexual abuse. Dillon raped the women after telling them they needed to come to his office to complete some court business.

Diversity Chat for the Week of September 18th, 2006

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(This may take a few moments, but as always, it's well worth the wait!)

Welcome to Diversity Chat for the week of September 18th, 2006! This week, Tony Wade and I discuss the most recent incident that has inflamed religious tensions in the Middle East and around the world – the implications of a recent incident of racial violence in Tennessee – and take a look at the extraordinary life of Southern Poverty Law Center co-founder Morris Dees. Plus, Tony takes us “Out or About” to a National Association of African Americans in Human Resources Networking event. And we’ll hear what NAAAHR President Carl Jefferson believes is the most critical skill for a human relations professional to have, among other things, in our interview segment.

First, though, here are some of the week’s top stories in human relations, equal opportunity, and diversity:

Pope Benedict issued his second apology in as many days this weekend for remarks he made in an earlier speech that outraged many Muslims. In that speech – Benedict quoted a 14th century text that described the Islamic concept of holy war as evil and inhuman. Muslims across the Middle East protested in response – and an Italian nun in Egypt was murdered.

Closer to home – 57 year old white man Ray Dowell has been charged with felony civil rights intimidation in Portland City, Tennessee, after repeatedly directing racial slurs toward a mixed-race couple and their children after the family moved into Dowell’s neighborhood in July.

Dowell also reportedly urged other neighbors not to let their children play with the new neighbor’s children – and then hung a brown scarecrow from his fence in the direction of the mixed-raced family’s home. Dowell – who’s running for alderman in Portland City – denies the charges – but reportedly told police he doesn’t believe “whites and blacks should mix.”

And here’s an update on a case we told you about in a previous edition of Diversity Chat. Army Specialist Suzanne Swift went AWOL from her unit in January rather than return for a second tour of duty in Iraq – not because she feared enemy bombs or bullets – but because she didn’t want to be sexually harassed or assaulted.

The Army is continuing to investigate her claims. But according to the San Francisco Chronicle – Swift’s immediate supervisor in Iraq has confirmed he complained to her about sexual harassment at the hands of two different superiors.

Morris Dees - the co-founder of the Southern Poverty Law Center - addressed the Federal Bar Association in Oklahoma City this week – touching on issues of racial stereotyping – immigration – and the ongoing threats to his life and the security of the SPLC. Among other things – Dees said the SPLC must spend between a half million and a million dollars a year on security for himself and the Center because of continuous threats from white supremacist groups.

Meanwhile, there’s a growing gap between California’s voters and the state’s actual population. That’s according to a new study from the Public Policy Institute of California – a non-partisan think tank. Of roughly 20 million Californians – just eight million vote. And they are much more likely to be white homeowners than those who don’t. Among the study’s most dramatic findings – that just 14% of California’s Latino population is registered to vote.

Danielle Cornwell used to be known as David Cornwell. And when she began transitioning to a female gender last year, the company she worked for the past 15 years, the Intermountain Testing Company, fired her.

But this week – the Colorado Civil Rights Division ruled ITC’s firing of the transgendered woman amounted to illegal sex discrimination. Cornwell and ITC are now scheduled for mandatory reconciliation meeting next month.

And finally, the question of gay clergy continues to threaten to split the U.S. Episcopal Church. A meeting this week between 11 Episcopal bishops failed to produce an agreement on what to do about seven conservative American dioceses that object to the ordination of gay priests.

Diversity Chat for the Week of September 4th, 2006

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(This may take a few minutes, but as always, it's well worth the wait!)

Welcome to Diversity Chat for the week of September 4th, 2006! This week, Tony Wade and I discuss the uproar over a new California law aimed at ensuring fair treatment for gays, lesbians, bisexuals and the transgendered, explore whether or not the developmentally disabled may be a protected class that’s overlooked when it comes to enforcing civil rights laws, take a look at the implications of recent sexual harassment cases and review some of the most recent insensitive remarks by those that truly should know better.

Plus, in our interview segment, we welcome back Dona Blackman, Director of Human Resources for Value Options of New Mexico, who gives us her insight into dealing with sexual harassment at the corporate level, and practical advice for those dealing with sexual harassment on the individual level.

First, here are some of the week’s top stories in human relations, equal opportunity and diversity:

The U.S. Justice Department this week reached a settlement with the state of Kentucky on civil rights violations involving a center for persons with developmental disabilities. The settlement requires Kentucky to make sure residents of the Communities at Oakwood are adequately protected from harm and have sufficient services – as required by t he Civil Rights of Institutionalized Persons Act of 1980.

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger this week signed Senate Bill 1441 into law, making it illegal for state-funded service providers like police, fire departments and universities to discriminate against gays and lesbians, bisexuals and transgendered persons.

California State Senator Sheila Kuehl sponsored the measure. She says it "closes a crucial gap" in state civil rights law. Opponents of the measure say it opens up organizations and institutions who oppose gay rights to legal challenge, and constitutes an assault on religious freedom.

The fallout from Virginia GOP Senator George Allen’s use of the word “macaca” to describe an Indian American worker for his opponent’s campaign continued this week. Allen declined to accept the Community Leadership award from the Thurgood Marshall Scholarship Fund after donors to the fund threatened to withhold contributions if he accepted the award.

A voter initiative that would eliminate affirmative action will remain on the Michigan ballot, even though a federal judge said promoters of the measure had engaged in systematic voter fraud. U.S. District Judge Arthur Tarnow said supporters of the anti-affirmative action measure had told voters they were signing a petition in favor of affirmative action. But Tarnow said because the deception wasn’t aimed at any particular group it didn’t violate the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

And there’s additional fall-out from a high-profile sexual harassment case in Boston. Dr. Robert Hadad lost his job as President of Caritas Christi Health Care System three months ago. And now, Peter Holden is stepping down as president of one the system’s largest hospitals. Holden’s report on Hadad’s behavior was part of the evidence cited in an internal investigation of the matter.

President Bush traveled to Salt Lake City last week – and about 130 people rallied ahead of his visit in favor of immigration reform that includes a guest worker program and a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants already in the country. Most of the protestors were Latino – but not all. Suleyman Khaliov – a documented immigrant from Russia – also attended the rally. He said he suffered discrimination in Russia because of this Turkish ethnicity – and doesn’t to see the same thing happening to others here in America.
   
And finally...

Colorado GOP Congressman Bob Beauprez stuck his foot in his mouth during an interview recently on KCFR radio. In a discussion about abortion, Beauprez asserted that abortion rates among African American women in Colorado are as high as 70%. In fact, abortion rates among African American women in Colorado are no greater than any other group. Beauprez, who’s running for Colorado governor, later apologized, saying he thought he’d heard the astronomically high number somewhere.