10 Reasons Why We Need Diversity on College Campuses. By Sophia Kerby, Center for American Progress | October 10, 2012 at 5:30 pm This article is part of our campaign on Civil Rights & Justice.
Check out more reporting, research, and actions on Civil Rights & Justice → Download this fact sheet (pdf) The Supreme Court will begin hearing arguments tomorrow in Fisher v. University of Texas, a constitutional challenge to race-conscious admission policies at colleges and universities. As a nation we have come a long way in terms of inclusiveness—in 2008 we elected our first African American president—but our work is far from done. Here are 10 reasons why diversity on college campuses is crucial for all students. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10.
As our nation becomes more diverse, it is crucial that institutions of higher education reflect this diversity. Sophia Kerby is a Special Assistant with Progress 2050 at the Center for American Progress, our parent organization. Numbers USA Ad Pits Black Voters Against Immigrants. NumbersUSA Launches Ads In Baltimore Asking If Maryland's Leaders Really Believe African Americans Don't Want To Work.
BALTIMORE, Oct. 9, 2012 -- BALTIMORE, Oct. 9, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Today, NumbersUSA launched a TV and radio ad blitz in Baltimore, Maryland calling attention to the fact that America's leaders will admit one million immigrant workers next year to take American jobs despite millions of U.S. citizens unable to find work, including more than three million African Americans.
In Baltimore, Black Americans are two and a half times more likely to be unemployed than other workers, the second worst ratio in the country. Only two of Maryland's 10 members of Congress have acted to reduce foreign labor competition. The setting for the TV commercial is a typical American kitchen, where an African American family is cleaning up following a meal. After proclaiming he's "tired of the stereotype that black Americans don't want to work," the father concludes the ad by asking if our leaders continue to admit immigrant workers because "they really believe Black Americans don't want to work.
" NumbersUSA ad pits black Americans against immigrants. The anti-immigration group NumbersUSA was anything but subtle when it launched an ad last night which some say pits black Americans against immigrant workers.
The ad aired last night before the first presidential debate between President Barack Obama and Republican candidate Mitt Romney. “I’m tired of the stereotype that black Americans don’t want to work,” an African-American man says at the beginning of the ad. “I’ve worked hard my whole life but I got laid off and I’ve got mouths to feed. I need a job.” “What I don’t understand is why our leaders are going to admit another million immigrant workers next year to take jobs when 3 million black Americans can’t find work,” he continues. NumbersUSA wants to see the rate of legal immigration to the United States decrease. “Importing hundreds of thousands of foreign workers into those occupations is a profound policy of injustice against the Americans struggling in them already,” the site reads.
Social Construction of Race = Conservative Goldmine. Update: In the light of Jason Richwine, the push for immigration reform, and Trayvon Martin, I’ve re-read this 2012 post.
The dates and references change, but the comments continue to apply to our headlines, consistent with comment streams that pop up when people try to confront these issues intelligently. While it is difficult to believe that people never look at their own US Census forms from 2000 and 2010–or ever reflect on how race and racism work in the United States–that is our ongoing reality. See White-Race Problems: White Hispanic, White Black, Geraldo Rivera and for some of the latest research, Anthropology of Race: Genes, Biology, and Culture. The assertion and oft-caricatured mantra that race is a social construction, or the social construction of race, is quite old. Regularly pilloried and attacked, the social construction of race is also defended and celebrated as the backbone of not just scientific understandings of human variation but as a liberal political plank.