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The Race Relations Reporter is a weekly electronic bulletin of news, surveys, and a chronicle of race-related incidents of discrimination, hate crimes, and hate group activity from across the United States. This bulletin is sent to subscribers each week at their personal e-mail account address. Subscriptions are $24 for 52 weekly issues. See sample, below: THE RACE RELATIONS REPORTER Weekly Bulletin February 21, 2007 * QUOTE OF THE WEEK: “Until the pain of this word no longer lingers in society for any of us, we cannot continue to use the N-word. Every time we use the N-word it is a slap in the face of our elders and a blatant disrespect to our ancestors. We have not only lost our minds, but we’ve lost consciousness.” — from the home page of the new Web site http://www.AbolishTheNWord.com ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ * NEW LEGISLATION SEEKS TO GIVE BLACK FARMERS A CHANCE TO PROVE THEY WERE VICTIMS OF RACIAL DISCRIMINATION: U.S. congressman Bobby Scott has introduced legislation seeking to help black farmers recover damages from racial discrimination suffered at the hands of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. In 1998 Congress enacted legislation that eliminated the statute of limitations for racial discrimination cases against the Department of Agriculture. This permitted black farmers to file claims based on discrimination as far back as 1983. But Congress placed a deadline for when claims had to be made. Many black farmers, especially in rural areas of the South, were not informed of the new program and as many as 75 percent of the new claims filed did not meet the deadline stipulated by Congress. Representative Scott’s new bill will allow those black farmers who filed late to receive damages if they can prove they were victims of racial discrimination. Congressman Scott said, “Some will win and some will lose, but none should be barred from being heard on a technicality.” * STUDY SAYS THERE MAY BE A GENETIC FACTOR IN RACIAL DISPARITIES IN PRETERM BIRTHS: Researchers at Washington University in St. Louis have found that African-American mothers are three times as likely as white mothers to give birth prematurely. The study, published in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, found that black mothers were more likely to have premature births than whites even when education level, socioeconomic factors, and smoking history were identical. Louis Muglia, associate professor of pediatrics at the School of Medicine at Washington University and lead author of the study, concludes that “these findings highlight the importance of race and suggest a genetic component that may underlie the public health problem presented by the racial disparity in preterm birth.” * NEW EFFORT TO PASS HATE CRIME LEGISLATION IN ARKANSAS: Arkansas is one of only a handful of states that have yet to enact hate crime legislation. A new effort to pass a bill is under way in the current legislative session. The bill, introduced by state senator Henry Wilkins, calls for the establishment of a hate crime offense for any person who selects his or her victim because of race, religion, color, disability, sexual orientation, national origin, or ancestry. The bill provides for increased penalties for other crimes when it can be proven that the assailant’s motivation was hate. In some cases the hate crime penalty could add five years to a prison term and increase permissible fines from $1,000 to $10,000. * RACIAL DIFFERENCES IN SCREENING FOR COLORECTAL CANCER: Screening for colorectal cancer is now available to all senior citizens through Medicare. But new data shows that blacks and other minorities are less likely than whites to take advantage of these cancer screening tests. Researchers at the Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee examined records of all Medicare colorectal cancer screenings for 2002 and 2003. Slightly more than 18 percent of all senior citizens had some type of test to detect colon cancer during the period. But only 9.7 percent of black seniors were tested. Although Medicare covers the costs of the testing, people who lived in zip codes with a low median income were about half as likely to be tested as people in high income zip codes. * SMITHSONIAN TO EMBARK ON MAJOR ORAL HISTORY PROJECT OF 2,000 BLACK FAMILIES: The Corporation for Public Broadcasting plans to collect the oral histories of 2,000 African-American families. The audiotapes will be placed in the archives of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African-American History and Culture, which will be constructed on the Mall in the nation’s capital. A mobile recording studio will be used to tape the oral histories of blacks in nine cities across the United States. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ * WAUWATOSA, WISCONSIN: A white man was attacked by a group of young blacks on a bus in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin. The victim was the only white person on the bus. Several black teens began to taunt him and pull his hair. According to police, when the white man protested he was kicked in the head by one of the teens. When he rose to get off the bus he was punched. During the attack the white man was called “cracker” and other racially derogatory terms. The attack was recorded on the bus videotape surveillance system. (Wauwatosa News-Times, 2-8-07) * BATON ROUGE, LOUISIANA: The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has filed a lawsuit against a home builder in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The suit alleges that a worker routinely harassed a black colleague. The black worker was repeatedly referred to as “Buckwheat.” A white worker is accused of telling racist jokes in the workplace and telling a contractor that she hated black people. Another white worker was allegedly fired for complaining about the racist behavior in the workplace. (The Advocate, 2-9-07) * BAY MINETTE, ALABAMA: A white teacher at a high school in Bay Minette, Alabama, was suspended after he was accused of using a racial slur several times while trying to break up a fight between two African-American girls. Both girls were hitting the teacher and a third student entered the fray to defend his sister. The teacher claims he does not remember whether he used the slur. (Mobile Register, 2-9-07) * ST. PAUL, MINNESOTA: A “politically incorrect” party was held on the campus of Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota. One student came to the party dressed in a Ku Klux Klan outfit. He was accompanied by another student in blackface who wore a noose around his neck. Other students wore costumes deemed offensive to several racial and ethnic groups. Blacks are less than 4 percent of the nearly 1,900-member student body at the college. (Minneapolis Star-Tribune, 2-10-07) * WHEATFIELD, NEW YORK: A fair housing agency filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development against the town of Wheatfield, New York. The complaint alleges that the town is trying to block the development of a housing project for low-income families. Fliers warning that the project would bring people “of all colors” to the neighborhood were distributed to residents of adjoining properties. The complaint also alleges that the town took steps to prevent access to the construction site. (Buffalo News, 2-10-07) * STOCKTON, CALIFORNIA: Two security guards were attacked by a group of four white teenagers in Stockton, California. The teens poured gasoline on the street. They then lured the guards to the scene and hurled a Molotov cocktail igniting the gasoline on the street. The teens yelled racial slurs at the guards. One of the guards is an African American and the other is an Asian American. (Stockton Record, 2-11-07) * BOULDER, COLORADO: A white supremacist group called the National Coalition conducted a “Love Your Race” campaign in Boulder, Colorado. The group placed fliers on car windshields and distributed them to homes in several neighborhoods throughout the city. The fliers showed a photograph of a blond woman and the slogan “Love Your Race.” The fliers also included the group’s Web address. (Colorado Daily, 2-14-07) * TROY, MICHIGAN: A black coach for a high school wrestling team from Highland Park, Michigan, was ejected from a match at a high school in Troy, Michigan, after arguing with an official. The coach said that when he was leaving the arena a white fan yelled obscenities and called him a “nigger.” (Detroit News, 2-14-07) * TRACKING HATE CRIMES: For week February 11-17 the term “hate crime” appeared in the nation’s major newspapers and magazines 199 times. This is less than the 263 mentions of the term in the prior week. So far in 2007 the term hate crime has appeared in the press 1,839 times. In the January 1 to February 17, 2006 period, hate crimes were mentioned in the press 1,739 times. To contact The Race Relations Reporter, e-mail us at RRR@jbhe.com or call (212) 399-1084. © 2007 The Race Relations Reporter Past Race Relations Reporter
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