A U.S. Department of Justice report released Oct. 12 found racial disparities in traffic stops and searches, problems in the handling of use of force incidents and a lack of transparency or analysis of office discipline cases in the San Francisco Police Department, among other issues. The report, produced by the department’s Community Oriented Policing […]
Federal review of SFPD finds racial disparities in stops and searches, lack of accountability
October 27, 2016 by Leave a Comment
Minorities face more subtle housing discrimination, HUD finds
June 27, 2013 by Leave a Comment
WASHINGTON — While the “blatant acts of housing discrimination†that minorities face has continued to decline in the U.S., “more subtle forms of housing denial†continue, states a U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Urban Institute in a study that was released June 11. According to “Housing Discrimination Against Racial and Ethnic […]
A comprehensive and complex look at multiethnic Asian American identities
January 1, 2013 by 1 Comment
WHEN HALF IS WHOLE: MULTIETHNIC ASIAN AMERICAN IDENTITIES By Stephen Murphy-Shigematsu (Palo Alto, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 2012, 248 pp., $21.95, paperback) The whole spectrum of the mixed race, multiethnic Asian American experience could never be contained in a single book. That said, Stephen Murphy-Shigematsu’s new book, “When Half is Whole,†comes pretty close (without […]
THE GREAT UNKNOWN AND THE UNKNOWN GREAT: A tribute to Dr. Setsuko Matsunaga Nishi, sociologist, activist and race relations advocate
January 1, 2013 by Leave a Comment
This week’s column focuses on the distinguished sociologist and activist Dr. Setsuko Matsunaga Nishi, a pioneering scholar of race relations who died Nov. 18, 2012. Unlike virtually all the people I write about in “Great Unknown,†I got to know her personally. Because of our friendship and my knowledge of her career, I helped the […]
THE GREAT UNKNOWN AND THE UNKNOWN GREAT: How labor and civil rights groups overturned exclusion of minorities in bowling
December 6, 2012 by Leave a Comment
Professional sports have served as one of the most visible areas of society for promotion of civil rights. Surely the most famous example of this is Jackie Robinson, who broke professional baseball’s “unwritten law†of racial segregation when he took the field for the National League’s Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947. Not only did Robinson’s on-the-field […]
A universal, though simplified, account of Nikkei immigration
January 1, 2012 by Leave a Comment
JAPANESE CANADIAN JOURNEY: THE NAKAGAMA STORY By N. Rochelle Yamagishi (VICTORIA, British Columbia: Trafford Publishing, 2010. 112 pp., $12.95, paperback) N. Rochelle Yamagishi has produced a simple, short, accessible, and celebratory story of the Japanese Canadian experience by introducing the story of Ryutaro Nakagama, who left Kagoshima Prefecture, Japan and arrived as an 18-year-old in […]
AFFIRMATIVE (RE)ACTION: Cal’s pay-by-race bake sale gets yawn from Asian students
October 6, 2011 by Leave a Comment
BERKELEY, Calif. — The debate over colorblind admissions policies in California’s four-year public colleges is heating up again. The passage of Prop. 209, the anti-affirmative action initiative passed by state voters in 1996, prohibited public institutions from considering race, sex or ethnicity. SB 185, one of hundreds of bills currently before Gov. Jerry Brown awaiting […]
Hispanics and African Americans missing in gaming industry
September 15, 2011 by 1 Comment
The pixilated elephant in the room of the multi-billion dollar gaming industry: African Americans and Hispanics play and purchase video games more than any other ethnic group in the U.S., yet the overwhelming majority of characters in games are young white males. According to the video game industry, we don’t need another hero? A recent […]
Latest CA redistricting maps satisfy most minorities — but not Latinos
August 4, 2011 by Leave a Comment
LOS ANGELES — Now that the California Citizens Redistricting Commission has approved new political boundaries for the state, civil rights groups are weighing what impact the maps will have on communities of color. On July 29, the commission voted 13-1 to approve final maps for the state Assembly, Senate and Board of Equalization and 12-2 […]
Increasing the relevance of minority voters, from an ethnic media perspective
In May 2012, minority newborns began to outnumber their white counterparts in the U.S. But even with an African American president and huge growth of minority populations, why is it we as minorities are still far from exercising the full potential of our political power as voters? Our voter turnout numbers are relatively low because […]