Tag: Human Rights

Coincidence? Well,

I don’t believe it is.

MIT’s Black student enrollment drops significantly after Supreme Court affirmative action ruling

The university’s white and Asian American student populations have increased, while all others have declined — some even down to zero, according to MIT. 

Aug. 21, 2024, 3:33 PM CDT By Char Adams

Enrollment for Black and Latino students dropped at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the first class formed after the Supreme Court found race-conscious admissions in colleges unconstitutional.

The university’s admissions department on Wednesday released its first-year class profile, showing a sharp drop in its Black student population. About 5% of MIT’s incoming class of 2028 is Black, a significant drop from its 13% average in recent years. Latino students make up 11% of the class of 2028, compared to a 15% average in recent years. Overall, 1,102 students make up the incoming class.

Stu Schmill, MIT’s dean of admissions, attributed the drop to the high court’s 2023 decision to end consideration of race in the admissions process.

“We expected that this would result in fewer students from historically underrepresented racial and ethnic groups enrolling at MIT,” Schmill said of the ruling. “That’s what has happened.”

The white and Asian American student populations have increased, while all other groups have declined — some even down to zero, the profile shows. (snip-More) (grrrr)

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/nbcblk/mits-black-student-enrollment-slides-affirmative-action-supreme-court-rcna167622

Peace & Justice History

for 8/22

August 22, 1958
President Dwight Eisenhower announced a voluntary moratorium on nuclear weapons testing. A report outlining a system for monitoring and verifying compliance of a complete ban on such testing had been released just the day before. The Conference of Experts, as it was known, had been meeting in Geneva, Switzerland, to work out the details on detection of violations of such a treaty. The U.S. delegation was led by Nobel physics laureate Ernest Lawrence from the University of California (the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory is named after him).
Eisenhower predicated his moratorium on U.S.S.R. and U.K. agreement to the same limitations. All three countries agreed to the one-year halt in testing and to begin negotiations on a complete test ban at the end of October; all three performed last-minute (atmospheric) tests before the opening of talks.
August 22, 1964
Fannie Lou Hamer, leader of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP), testified in front of the Credentials Committee at the Democratic National Convention. She was challenging the all-white delegation that the segregated regular Mississippi Democrats had sent to the presidential nominating convention.

Singing at a boardwalk demonstration: Hamer (with microphone), Stokely Carmichael (in hat), Eleanor Holmes Norton, Ella Baker
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Mississippi’s Democratic Party excluded African Americans from participation. The MFDP, on the other hand, sought to create a racially inclusive new party, signing up 60,000 members.
The hearing was televised live and many heard Hamer’s impassioned plea for inclusion of all Democrats from her state.The hearing was televised live and many heard Hamer’s impassioned plea for inclusion of all Democrats from her state. In her testimony she spoke about black Mississippians not only being denied the right to register to vote, but being harassed, beaten, shot at and arrested for trying. Concerned about the political reaction to her statement, President Lyndon Johnson suddenly called an impromptu press conference, thereby interrupting television broadcast of the hearing.
Hear her testimony   Link to photo gallery 
August 22, 1971

The FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation) arrested twenty in Camden, New Jersey, and five in Buffalo, New York, for conspiracy to steal and destroy draft records. Eventually known as the Camden 28, most were Roman Catholic activists, including four priests, and a Lutheran minister. “We are not here because of a crime committed in Camden but because of a war committed in Indochina….” Cookie Ridolfi The Camden 28 
August 22, 1972
Rhodesia’s team was banned from competing in the Olympic Games with just four days to go before the opening ceremony in Munich, Germany. The National Olympic Committees of Africa had threatened to pull out of the games unless Rhodesia was barred from competing. Though the Rhodesian team included both whites and blacks, the government was an illegal one, controlled by whites though they represented just 5% of the country’s population. It had broken away from the British Commonwealth over demands from Commonwealth member nations that power be yielded to the majority.
Read more 
August 22, 1986

The Kerr-McGee Corporation agreed to pay the estate of the late Karen Silkwood $1.38 million ($2.68 in 2008), settling a 10-year-old nuclear contamination lawsuit. She had been active in the Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers union, specifically looking into radiation exposure of workers, and spills and
leaks of plutonium.
The story of Karen Silkwood 

Radio personality gets emotional while reading open letter to men by his female co-host

“To the good men out there, do something more.”

Jacalyn Wetzel 08.21.24

08.21.24

domestic violence; Australia violence against women; violence against women; radio host reads letter; woman's emotional plea to men

Photo credit: Canva

Radio host tears up reading open letter to men by female co-host

All across the globe, men and women have different experiences from childhood through adulthood. We are socialized differently which causes us to walk through the world differently. Since much of the world is still patriarchal, women’s lived experiences are vastly different than men’s. These different experiences can make it feel nearly impossible to understand what it feels like to move through the world as the opposite gender.

In Australia there has been an increase in violence against women. This prompted a popular radio show host, Carrie, from the “Carrie and Tommy Show” to write an open letter to men in Australia. But instead of reading it herself, she asked her co-host, Tommy to read her words.

“I wondered whether it’s time for you guys to stand up and speak up and speak loudly. And I think sometimes men don’t think about what it’s like to walk in the shoes of a woman. So I’m thinking if you read out the thoughts that I wrote down. I don’t know if it might mean more people will listen or if it might give a different perspective of what it feels like to be a woman in this country at the moment,” Carrie says to her co-host.

Tommy immediately obliges Carrie’s request and begins to read the letter. The co-host doesn’t make it too far into the letter before beginning to look visibly uncomfortable and before long he’s choking back tears.

“Not only do we have to sleep in fear of what possible man outside, or the man inside, or the taxi driver, the Uber driver, a former partner, a current partner, a man we’ve never met, we now have to be the ones to fix the issue too. No not all men are monsters but we live in fear of the ones who are. We change our behaviors for the bad men not the good ones because the risk is too high for us not to,” Tommy reads while attempting to hold back emotions.

The open letter is raw and full of struggles women face on a daily basis. Hearing it read by a man made some commenters feel appreciative of the way the two co-hosts used their platform to spread the message as well as being thankful that Tommy agree to read the letter.

“Thank you for using your platform to raise awareness of the severity of this issue,” someone writes.

“Extremely powerful.. I wish I had been more vocal… I wish I had left sooner, I wish I had him reported.… I wish a lot of things. I was scared, but I am alive.. and I will always protect and teach my daughters moving forward. Thank you for putting such a powerful message out there,” another person shares.

Turns out this moment was an amazing teaching moment for parents of boys, “my 14 year old son was in silence and almost in tears listening to your words. We had a fabulous conversation afterwards. Teaching our boys now, is such an important part.”

One woman is joining the chorus of asking the good men to help women advocate, “Carrie hit the nail on the head. I love the idea of having men we trust speaking for us to help us advocate even further. Us women worry every single day, multiple times during the day for our safety, without even realizing we’re doing it. Lock the car as soon as you get in it. Always making sure you’re not being followed. So so so many things we do for our safety that most men don’t even think about, ever. This video is so important.”

https://www.upworthy.com/violence-against-women-open-letter

Kansas will pay $50,000 to settle a suit over a transgender Highway Patrol employee’s firing

Kansas will pay $50,000 to settle a federal lawsuit filed by a former state Highway Patrol employee who claimed to have been fired for coming out as transgender

ByJOHN HANNA Associated Press August 15, 2024, 6:11 PM

TOPEKA, Kan. — Kansas will pay $50,000 to settle a federal anti-discrimination lawsuit filed by a former state Highway Patrol employee who claimed to have been fired for coming out as transgender.

Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly and eight leaders of the Republican-controlled Legislature unanimously approved the settlement during a brief online video conference Thursday. The state attorney general’s office pursued the settlement in defending the Highway Patrol, but any agreement it reaches also must be approved by the governor and top lawmakers.

Kelly and the legislators didn’t publicly discuss the settlement, and the amount wasn’t disclosed until the state released their formal resolution approving the settlement nearly four hours after their meeting. Kelly’s office and the offices of Senate President Ty Masterson and House Speaker Dan Hawkins did not respond to emails seeking comment after the meeting.

The former employee’s attorney declined to discuss the settlement before state officials met Thursday and did not return a telephone message seeking comment afterward. The lawsuit did not specify the amount sought, but said it was seeking damages for lost wages, suffering, emotional pain and “loss of enjoyment of life.”

The ex-employee was a buildings and grounds manager in the patrol’s Topeka headquarters and sued after being fired in June 2022. The patrol said the ex-employee had been accused of sexual harassment and wasn’t cooperative enough with an internal investigation. The lawsuit alleged that reason was a pretext for terminating a transgender worker.

The settlement came four months after U.S. District Judge John Broomes rejected the state’s request to dismiss the lawsuit before a trial. Broomes ruled there are “genuine issues of material fact” for a jury to settle.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2020 that a landmark 1964 federal civil rights law barring sex discrimination in employment also bars anti-LGBTQ+ bias.

Court documents said the former Highway Patrol employee, a Topeka resident sought to socially transition at work from male to female. The ex-employee’s last name was listed as Dawes, but court records used a male first name and male pronouns. It wasn’t clear Thursday what first name or pronouns Dawes uses now.

In a December 2023 court filing, Dawes’ attorney said top patrol leaders met “a couple of months” before Dawes’ firing to discuss Dawes being transgender and firing Dawes for that reason.

The patrol acknowledged the meeting occurred but said the leaders decided to get legal advice about the patrol’s “responsibilities in accommodating Dawes” in socially transitioning at work, according to a court filing by a state attorney in November 2023.

Court filings said the meeting wasn’t documented, something Dawes’ attorney called “a serious procedural irregularity.”

The patrol said in its court filings that Dawes’ firing was not related to Dawes being transgender.

It said another female employee had complained that in May 2022, Dawes had complimented her looks and told her “how nice it was to see a female really taking care of herself.” Dawes also sent her an email in June 2022 that began, “Just a note to tell you that I think you look absolutely amazing today!” The other employee took both as sexual advances, it said.

Dawes acknowledged the interactions, but Dawes’ attorney said Dawes hadn’t been disciplined for those comments before being fired — and if Dawes had been, the likely punishment would have only been a reprimand.

The patrol said it fired Dawes for refusing the first time an investigator sought to interview him about the other employee’s allegations. The patrol said Dawes claimed not to be prepared, while Dawes claimed to want to have an attorney present.

Dawes was interviewed three days later, but the patrol said refusing the first interview warranted Dawes’ firing because patrol policy requires “full cooperation” with an internal investigation.

“Dawes can point to no person who is not transgender who was treated more favorably than transgender persons,” the state said in its November 2023 filing.

https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/kansas-pay-50000-settle-suit-transgender-highway-patrol-112879491

Peace & Justice History for 8/20:

August 20, 1619
The first enslaved Africans brought to North America arrived in Jamestown, Virginia, aboard a Dutch ship.
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August 20, 1964
A nearly $1 billion (about $5 billion in current dollars) anti-poverty measure, the Economic Opportunity Act, which created Head Start, VISTA (Volunteers In Service To America), and other programs that became part of the “War on Poverty,” was signed into law by President Lyndon Johnson.


Sargent Shriver & LBJ
Sargent Shriver, the first director of the Peace Corps, drafted the legislation and became director of the Office of Equal Opportunity which implemented the new law. The “Great Society” 

https://www.peacebuttons.info/E-News/peacehistoryaugust.htm#august20

A quote for the day-

lifted from my SoJo email.

Voice of the day

The will to abolish is what comes forth when pessimism about the possibility for effecting justice hits rock bottom and careens back up in the form of righteous fury.
– Joshua Dubler and Vincent W. Lloyd, “Restructuring a World Without Prisons”

Peace & Justice History for 8/19

August 19, 1791

Benjamin Banneker, the first recognized African-American scientist, a son of former slaves, sent a copy of his just-published Almanac to Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson, along with an appeal about “the injustice of a state of slavery.”
More about Benjamin Banneker, his achievements and his letter to the president
August 19, 1953
Prime Minister Dr. Mohammed Mosaddeq
Royalist troops surrounded, bombarded and burned the residence of the Mohammed Mosaddeq, the recently dismissed elected Iranian Prime Minister. After having briefly fled his country for Italy due to the rioting over his unconstitutional dismissal of Mosaddeq, Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi was returned to the Peacock throne with dictatorial power. All this was done with the planning, financing and assistance of the CIA and its British counterpart, MI6.

Background on Mosaddeq
Stephen Kinzer on the U.S.-Iran relationship in perspective 
August 19, 1958
The NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) Youth Council in Oklahoma City, led by Clara Luper, a high school history teacher, began sit-ins to desegregate lunch counters, inspired by success in Wichita, Kansas.
[see August 11, 1958].

Clara Luper
TV interview with Clara Luper  More about Clara 
August 19, 1970
The U.S. deployed Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missiles near Greeley, Colorado. It was the first missile with multiple (then three-170 kiloton) nuclear warheads known as MIRVs (Multiple Independently targetable Re-entry Vehicles).

The MIRV: each cone is a warhead
All the details about this fearsome armament 
August 19, 1989

Anglican Bishop and Nobel Peace Prize-winner Desmond Tutu was among hundreds of black demonstrators, members of Mass Democratic Movement who were whipped and blasted with sand stirred up by helicopters as they attempted to picnic on a “whites-only” beach near Cape Town, South Africa.

Peace & Justice History for 8/18

I’ve been away from the computer a lot again today, and I apologize. I’ve had ideas, decided against them, maybe one or two will still make it but another day, you know how it goes. I would be unforgiveably remiss to not post this history for this date, though, so here it is!

August 18, 1914
In another step in the ethnic intimidation that led ultimately to the Armenian genocide in Turkey, looting was reported in Sivas, Diyarbekir, and other provinces. Under the guise of collecting war contributions (WWI had just begun), stores owned by Armenian and Greek merchants were vandalized. 1,080 shops and stalls owned by Armenians were burned at the Diyarbekir bazaar. Chronology of the Armenian Genocide
❎💃🥂⭐🥂💃❎
August 18, 1920
Women throughout the U.S. won the right to vote when the Tennessee legislature approved the 19th amendment to the U.S. Constitution (the last of 36 states then required to approve it). An amendment for universal suffrage was first introduced in Congress in 1878, and Wyoming had granted suffrage in state law by 1890.

This amendment to enfranchise all American women had been introduced annually for 41 years without passage; it had gotten two-thirds of both houses of Congress to approve it just the year before. “The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.” In the Tennessee House, 24-year-old Representative Harry Burn surprised observers by casting the deciding vote for ratification.  At the time of his vote, Burns had in his pocket a letter he had received from his mother urging him, “Don’t forget to be a good boy” and “vote for suffrage.
“
Teaching With Documents: Woman Suffrage and the 19th Amendment (National Archives)
August 18, 1963
 James Meredith
James Meredith, the first African American to attend the University of Mississippi, became the first to graduate. His enrollment at “Ole Miss” a year earlier had been met with deadly riots, forcing him to attend class escorted by heavily armed guards.
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James Meredith being escorted to his classes by
U.S. marshals and the military.  Who was James Meredith
August 18, 1964
South Africa was banned from taking part in the 18th Olympic Games in Tokyo due to the country’s refusal to reform its racially separatist apartheid system.
Read more 
August 18, 1977
Steve Biko, the leader of the Black Consciousness Movement resisting apartheid, was arrested at a roadblock outside King William’s Town. He died while in custody from abuse during the weeks of interrogation that followed.

Steve Biko
“So as a prelude whites must be made to realise that they are only human, not superior. Same with Blacks. They must be made to realise that they are also human, not inferior.””The most potent weapon in the hands of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed.” – Biko speech in Cape Town, 1971

Recommended:

Sunra Rainz Makes Poetry from Anti-Racism

Starry, Starry Nights at Dark Sky Preserves

Dark sky tourism is on the rise as travelers head to remote destinations to catch a glimpse of the dazzling night sky.

Crai S. Bower

Some time ago, many animals, including saber-toothed tiger and woolly mammoth, failed in their attempts to rid the community of grizzly bear, whose mean-spirited behavior had upset nature’s balance. That is until the birds, led by robin, pierced grizzly’s heart. Grizzly’s blood reddened the robin’s breast and, as he shook in pain, cloaked the autumn leaves in red and orange.

“The Creator placed the grizzly bear constellation in the night sky to remind us that bullying others carries consequences,” says Matricia Bauer, an Indigenous Knowledge Keeper from Sturgeon Lake Cree Nation. “Our creation story also tells of the star woman falling from the sky to become our people.”

It’s a brisk March evening, and I’m sitting with Bauer by the fire beside Beauvert Lake in Jasper, Alberta, waiting for the gunmetal-colored sky to darken and reveal a palette of seemingly infinite stars. I’m visiting to explore the most accessible and second-largest Dark Sky Reserve in the world.

Shining star: Matricia Bauer, Indigenous Knowledge Keeper from Sturgeon Lake Cree Nation, leads Warrior Women, a collective presenting cultural education through drum and song. (Courtesy Tourism Jasper)

“An elder taught me that when you used to look at the night sky and see all the stars, the Creator also looked down on Earth and saw our fires in reflection. Today, instead of fires sparkling across the landscape, our continents are outlined by the glare of artificial light. People must travel to find the night sky.” (snip-MORE )