Tag Archives: Northern America

Age, Gender, Nationality + Migration, Race + Color + Ethnicity, Religion + Belief

U.S. News | Minorities

U.S. Supreme Court rules in favor of broad interpretability of Fair Housing Act
  • The 5-4 ruling allows for lawsuits to be filed claiming “disparate impact” of housing policies and practices on minorities–a statistical measure–rather than simply explicit discrimination, which can be difficult to prove as organizations and individuals are rarely obvious in their discriminatory practices.
  • The case involved an organization that supports integrated housing, often involving lower-income minority families attempting to use housing vouchers to move to the suburbs; the group claimed that because a disproportionate number of the low-income tax credits that require that landlords accept the vouchers had been given to landlords in minority neighborhoods, the practice was making it difficult for families to move to white-majority suburbs.
  • However, the ruling did not go so far as to say such practices would be proven to generate disparate impact, only that “disparate impact” was a justifiable legal claim.

“Much progress remains to be made in our nation’s continuing struggle against racial isolation. … The court acknowledges the Fair Housing Act’s continuing role in moving the nation toward a more integrated society.”

Read the full story at the New York Times.

Race + Color + Ethnicity

Alabama News | Racial Symbolism

Alabama governor orders Confederate flags removed from capitol grounds
  • After checking for legal impediments to such a decision, Governor Robert Bentley had the four flags removed, including the iconic battle flag as well as the first, second, and third national flags of the Confederacy.
  • Bentley ordered the removal to preempt a length debate as the state grapples with contentious budget legislation.
  • The first official capital of the Confederacy, Montgomery had the three additional flags installed after a governor tried to remove the battle flag from the grounds in the early ’90s.

Read the full story at NPR.

(Image Credit: Martin Swant/AP, via NPR)

Sexual + Gender Minorities

U.S. News | Transgender

U.S. government orders companies insuring federal employees to include transition-related coverage for transgender individuals
  • The Office of Personnel Management issued the carrier letter ahead of the fall decision timeline it had initially outlined.
  • The office lifted the ban on transition-services coverage a year ago, but mandatory coverage was not yet required.
  • The expanded coverage will go in effect at the beginning of 2016.

“With today’s announcement, transgender federal employees can now access health care that is so fundamental to their well-being and, in the long-term, will make transgender employees happier and more productive workers.”

Read the full story at BuzzFeed.

Age, Gender, Nationality + Migration, Race + Color + Ethnicity, Religion + Belief, Sexual + Gender Minorities

Canada News | Muslim Women

Quebec premier defends proposed legislation banning face-covering attire for certain civic employees and toughening consequences for hate speech
  • Premier Philippe Couillard indicated that the legislation under consideration by Quebec lawmakers would ban face coverings on public servants in roles requiring face-to-face engagement with the public.
  • The draft legislation is a narrower version of the previous government’s proposal to ban the wearing of religious symbols by all public servants.
  • The current draft of the hate speech law creates a Human Rights Tribunal, which would oversee investigations and punitive actions for individuals inciting violence against vulnerable groups.

“The role of the government is to draw a line in the sand. … This issue of face covering for me has very little to do with religion, and a lot to do about the image of women, the status of women in our society. Showing your face is the essence of communication.”

Read the full story at the New York Times.

(Image Credit: Mary Altaffer/Associated Press, via the New York Times)

Race + Color + Ethnicity, Religion + Belief
New York mayor adds Lunar New Year as school holiday, to the relief of Asian-American families
  • The addition had been a campaign promise from Mayor Bill de Blasio, and its passage comes just ahead of the State Legislature’s consideration of an identical measure.
  • Mayor de Blasio also added two Muslim holidays–Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha–to the calendar three months ago.
  • Asian-American students comprise almost 15% of the city’s public school population, and other cities with similarly large populations such as San Francisco have added the holiday before.

“Finally, students of Asian descent will not be forced to choose between observing the most important holiday of the year and missing important academic work. … Lunar New Year is a deeply important cultural observance for nearly 15 percent of public school students, and this designation gives Lunar New Year the respect and recognition it has long deserved.”

Read the full story at the New York Times.

(Image Credit: Ángel Franco/The New York Times)

Race + Color + Ethnicity
Across U.S. Southern states, Charleston massacre gives fresh momentum to calls for removal of Confederate imagery from public sites and symbols
  • South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley has called for the removal of the Confederate flag from state grounds.
  • After a 2001 referendum that saw resounding support for retaining the design of the flag, Mississippi legislators are again pushing for the removal of the “stars and bars” portion of the state’s flag.
  • In Austin, a push to remove a statue of the President of the Confederacy from the University of Texas campus continues, while in Baltimore, city officials hope to rename Robert E. Lee Park.

“We should have been having this conversation a long time ago in the South … because now with every instance of violence you keep seeing the same symbol — the symbol on our state flag.”

Read the full story at BuzzFeed.

(Image Credit: Rogelio V. Solis/AP, via BuzzFeed)

Race + Color + Ethnicity, Religion + Belief
Thousands rally in Charleston in show of solidarity following last week’s mass murder at the Emanuel AME Church
  • While organizers expected 3,000 to participate in the Bridge to Peace unity chain, police estimate around 10,000 attended the demonstration.
  • Local public servants helped organize the event, which took place across the iconic Ravenel Bridge connecting Charleston and Mount Pleasant.
  • The event followed the reopening of the church for Sunday services.

Read the full story at BuzzFeed.

(Image Credit: Mladen Antonov/Getty Images, via BuzzFeed)

Nationality + Migration
Google VP has high praise for Russian engineers, while domestic Russian firms lament lack of resources
  • Mohammad Gawdat, Google’s VP of Business Innovation at Google X, calls Russians Google’s best engineers at economic forum in St. Petersburg.
  • According to Gawdat, Russians account for 25% of Google’s engineers.
  • Deputy Prime Minister Olga Golodets, however, says that domestic companies are suffering as tech profits and talent head overseas.

Read the full story at Meduza.

Gender, Race + Color + Ethnicity
Canadian aboriginal women overrepresented as homicide victims, most often at the hands of their own families and communities
  • Despite representing only 4.3% of the population, aboriginal women represent 16% of female homicide victims nationwide.
  • The Royal Canadian Mounted Police has identified the need to develop new crime prevention strategies in the aboriginal community, which suffers from high levels of poverty, family breakdown, lower life expectancy, and other security-sceptic phenomena.
  • In addition to the 1,017 murdered between 1980 and 2012, another 108 are missing cases from the period.

“Aboriginal women continue to be overrepresented among Canada’s missing and murdered women. And while I applaud the efforts of everyone who is working to lessen violence against aboriginal women, it is clear that much work remains to be done.”

Read the full story at the Guardian.

Religion + Belief
Canada’s transportation security agency amends controversial policy on headgear following outcry from the Sikh community
  • The change rolls back the Canadian Air Transport Security Agency’s April implementation of a new policy that targeted religious headgear for mandatory additional screening at airports.
  • Because travelers wearing non-religious headgear were not subject to the same protocol because the headgear could be removed, the World Sikh Organization released a statement condemning the de facto discriminatory policy on behalf of Sikhs who had identified themselves as targets.
  • The organization met with CATSA, who admitted the policy had been established by the government’s transportation department without consulting faith groups.

“I am being considered a security threat every time I travel for work, even (though) I’m a NEXUS cardholder. CATSA’s policy goes above and beyond what the Transportation Security Administration does in the U.S., and I believe it’s targeting religious minorities such as turbaned Sikhs.”

Read the full story at thestar.com.

(Image Credit: Nicholas Keung/Toronto Star)

Nationality + Migration
Ireland mourns the victims of a deadly balcony collapse in California as the public lashes out against negative attention to the visa program in which the students participated
  • A memorial service was held on the campus of the University of California, Davis, for the six Irish students who died in Berkeley, while another seven remain injured.
  • Outrage has mounted as the construction company responsible for the structure was revealed to have settled a lawsuit for improper balcony construction two years ago.
  • There has been significant backlash against a New York Times piece run following the tragedy drawing attention to negative incidents involving Irish students visiting the U.S. under the J-1, a visa for cultural exchange programs.

“The reaction to the tragedy showed the solidarity of Irish people when adverse events occurred. …We’ve always had this in Ireland; people understand adversity, they understand death, they understand people being taken away.”

More on this story at The Guardian.

(Image Credit: Niall Carson/PA, via The Guardian)

Gender
Iowa Supreme Court declares telemedical abortions legal in the state
  • The practice, where doctors prescribe women pills for a medical abortion prior to the second trimester via medical-conferencing system, first began in 2008 before being effectively being effectively banned in 2013.
  • The Court ruled that the ban placed an undue burden on women in Iowa seeking an abortion, where access to such care is limited.
  • Because the case was analyzed under federal law, the ruling could encourage other states–including the 18 states where the practice is banned–to look into establishing telemedical abortion services.

“Without remote access to medication abortion, more women would have to delay or even forego abortion care. …This is especially true in a state like Iowa, where many women would have to travel hundreds of miles in order to reach an abortion clinic.”

More on this story at BuzzFeed.

(Image Credit: Charlie Neibergall/AP, via BuzzFeed)

Nationality + Migration
Accomplished violinist and Syrian refugee shares her story as she prepares to perform at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., for World Refugee Day
  • Originally from Aleppo, Mariela Shaker has been formally involved in music for a decade and a half, having graduated from the Arabic Institution of Music, Aleppo University, and Monmouth University.
  • Her family remains in war-torn Aleppo, but Shaker has been granted political asylum in the U.S., where she hopes to be a peace ambassador through music.
  • Though violence has created 4 million Syrian refugees, Shaker is one of only 1,000 to whom the U.S. has granted asylum.

“Once I came here, I figured out it was very hard to go back, it’s very dangerous, very risky. …And I got this amazing opportunity to be here and finish my education — I can’t risk it.”

More on this story at BuzzFeed.

(Image Credit: Abdulrahman Ka, via BuzzFeed)

Gender, Health + Ability
Redesigned U.S. $10 bill to feature woman historical figure and new tactility
  • The currency redesign will be the first to include a female figure on a major U.S. bill denomination.
  • The Treasury Secretary has called on the public to offer its opinions on who should grace the bill using the hashtag #TheNew10, with the only stipulations being that the figure not be alive and should represent American democracy.
  • The redesigned bill will debut in 2020 and will also be the first to include tactile features so as to be distinguishable to blind people.

“We have only made changes to the faces on our currency a few times since bills were first put into circulation, and I’m proud that the new 10 will be the first bill in more than a century to feature the portrait of a woman.”

More on this story at CNN.

Race + Color + Ethnicity, Religion + Belief
Nine killed at historic African-American church in Charleston, SC, in apparent hate crime
  • A young white man around the age of 21 walked into the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church during Wednesday evening prayer activities and opened fire; he remains at large.
  • Built in 1891, the church is one of the oldest historically black churches in the U.S., where South Carolina state senator Clementa C. Pickney, among the murdered, was pastor.
  • Eight died at the scene and another died en route to the hospital, with at least one other victim having been hospitalized.

“It is unfathomable that somebody in today’s society would walk into a church while they are having a prayer meeting and take their lives.”

More on this story at The New York Times.

(Image Credit: Richard Ellis/European Pressphoto Agency, via The New York Times)