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Volume 122 No. 11
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OCTOBER 19, 2013 - OCTOBER 25, 2013
Protesters Rally for Higher Wages in Northeast D.C. By Zachary Lester AFRO Staff Writer
Members of the Our DC activist group staged two protests Oct. 15, one to highlight the findings of a report from the University of California, Berkeley, that found that taxpayers lose when fast food workers are forced to seek public assistance to take care of their families and another to demand that companies increase worker pay. Participants came from the District, Northern Virginia and suburban Maryland and Continued on A4
By Zenitha Prince AFRO Contributing Correspondent A federal judge’s ruling that Maryland violated the constitutional rights of the students at its historically Black college and universities by perpetuating segregation will have a significant impact both within and beyond the state’s borders, experts said.
“…allowing traditionally White institutions to duplicate programs already offered by historically Black colleges and universities…created de facto segregation in its higher education system.”
– Judge Catherine Blake
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Federal District Judge Catherine Blake ruled Oct. 7 that Maryland, by allowing traditionally White institutions to duplicate programs already offered by historically Black colleges and universities, had created de facto segregation in its
Continued on A3
Black UCLA Professor Collecting Data on Racial Profiling A new national database on racial profiling, the first ever in the United States, will break new ground in promoting equity in law enforcement, researchers and activists said. “You’re not going to see anybody marching about it, but getting this data all together in one place may be the most revolutionary act in promoting racial equity in law enforcement,” said Phillip Atiba Goff, a Black social psychology professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, and director of the Center for Policing Equity. Goff recently received a grant from the National Science Foundation to create the database, which will be launched later this month. The expert on racial profiling said the impetus was the feedback from law enforcement departments across the country who said they “desperately” needed someone to come in and help them tackle the issue. But the lack of a standardized system of data
collection made that difficult, he said. “There was no consensus on how to collect the data or how to analyze it if it was collected,” Goff said, “[and] you can’t manage Prof. Phillip Goff hopes something racial profiling will be that can’t be reduced. measured.” Racial profiling has been a longtime scourge upon Black and Brown people in America. In cases from the fatal shooting of Trayvon Martin by George Zimmerman, to attacks on dozens of Black men and boys each year by police officers, the motivation for violence perpetrated on Blacks is often attributed to racial profiling.
“The practice of racial profiling goes back to the beginnings of this country,” said Hilary Shelton, the NAACP’s Washington Bureau chief and senior vice president for advocacy and policy. From Native Americans to the enslaved African Americans and their descendants, and from Hispanic immigrants to Muslim worshipers, non-Whites in the U.S. have been the targets of unfair policing practices, as in the case of New York’s stop-andfrisk policy, which a federal judge recently deemed “unconstitutional.” The impact of racial profiling has been devastating, Shelton said. “Unfortunately this is a practice that is not only discriminatory, but it has also proven ineffective in meeting law enforcement goals,” he said. “It undercuts much of the progress made by police departments that are working hard to implement the law because it diminishes the trust between law enforcement and the community.” At first, overtly racist attitudes formed the main impetus of racial profiling in America. In Continued on A3
October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month
Breast Cancer: A Major Health Concern for Black Women
According to the American Cancer Society, in 2013 about 232,340 new cases of invasive breast cancer will be diagnosed in women and about 39,620 women will die When Linda Williams first from breast cancer. There are learned that she had breast cancer, more than 2.8 million breast cancer she felt doomed. survivors in the “Cancer seems United States. always associated Breast cancer with death,” is of particular Williams said. concern to African“I was feeling American women, defeated, like I had officials said. to succumb.” October is Though White National Breast women are slightly Cancer Awareness more likely to Month. National develop breast public service cancer than Africanorganizations, American women, professional in women under Breast cancer survivor medical 45, breast cancer is Linda Williams associations, more common in and government African Americans. agencies work together to promote African-American women also are the need for women to conduct more likely to die of breast cancer monthly breast self-exams, have than other groups, statistics show. annual mammograms and take “ Their tumors often are found at Continued on A3 control of their breast health. By Zachary Lester and Maria Adebola AFRO Staff Writers
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Kamesha Brown, a low-wage fast food worker, addresses the crowd as D.C. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson, Our DC spokesman Inicenzio Quiones and Jack Temple of NELP look on.
By Zenitha Prince Special to the AFRO
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Maryland Case Has Implications for Nation’s HBCUs
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The Iveys, left to right: Aaron (sitting), Glenn, Joanna, the late Joseph Stephenson (sitting), David, Jolene, Troy (sitting), Alex and Julian
Prince George’s Political Duo, Jolene and Glenn Ivey Focus on Family By Zenitha Prince Special to the AFRO He’s a former two-term state’s attorney for Prince George’s County who is now a partner in the prestigious K Street law firm of Leftwich & Ludaway. She’s the chairman of the Prince George’s delegation in the Maryland House of Delegates and a candidate for lieutenant governor of Maryland. At the characterization that they
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are a “power couple,” however, Glenn Ivey, 52, laughs heartily. Jolene Ivey, also 52, has a similar reaction. “We find that pretty amusing,” she said with a soft chuckle. “We’re always buried in laundry and trying to get our children to soccer practice.” The hectic lives of the two professionals, who are the parents of five boys, kicked into even higher gear when Maryland Attorney General Douglas S. Gansler, a candidate for Continued on A4