Minnesota’s other racial disparity: voting
Minnesota’s other racial disparity: voting
Minnesota consistently ranks at the top in terms of voter turnout. It earns accolades for the quality and competence of its election administration. Recently Secretary of State Steve Simon...
Minnesota consistently ranks at the top in terms of voter turnout. It earns accolades for the quality and competence of its election administration. Recently Secretary of State Steve Simon challenged Minnesotans to register and vote so that the state can continue to be the leader when it comes to election turnout. Yet that high turnout comes with a racial gap that is among the worst in the country.
Minnesota is a land of racial disparities, such as in education. Minnesota Department of Education data point to blacks and other students of color scoring 30 points or more lower on achievement tests compared to whites. U.S. Department of Education data show Minnesota near the bottom of the list in on-time high school graduation rates for blacks, with an overall 67 percent graduation for black males (compared to 90 percent for white males), according to the 2015 Schott Foundation for Public Education report. The black/white male graduation gap is one of the highest in the country. A 2014 study found black students 10 times more likely to be suspended or expelled from Minneapolis schools than white students.
Income and employment
Second, look at income and unemployment. A 2013 Minnesota Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights report found the unemployment gap for blacks to be three times that of whites. A 2015 report by the Center for Popular Democracy found the gap to be second worst among states in the nation, only behind Wisconsin. And 2015 U.S. Census data point to Minnesota as having one of the highest black/white gaps in medium family income in the nation. WalletHub, a personal finance site, documented the financial gap between whites and minorities in Minnesota as the biggest in the nation, with median income (4th highest), home ownership (3rd), poverty rate (3rd) and education level (14th).
In criminal justice, groups such as the Sentencing Project note Minnesota among the worst when it comes to racial disparities in terms of incarceration. And the Institute for Metropolitan Opportunity 2015 report “Why Are the Twin Cities So Segregated?” confirmed what john powell and I had documented a generation ago at the Institute on Race and Poverty: that the seven-county metro region has one of the worst residential and educational segregation patterns in the country.
Now consider the racial disparities in voting. WalletHub earlier this year released a study examining political engagement among blacks, using six criteria. It found Minnesota ranked 16th. Among notable failures, Minnesota was 45th in the nation for black voter turnout in the 2014 elections. According to the U.S. Census Bureau in the 2012 elections, 80.2 percent of white non-Hispanic citizens registered to vote, compared to 66.9 percent and 56.1 prcent for blacks and Hispanics. In terms of actually voting, white non-Hispanic turnout was 74 percent, compared to 49.2 percent and 32.5 percent for blacks and Hispanics. For Asian-Americans, their registration was greater overall than for white non-Hispanics at 87.6 percent, but actual turnout was only 56.2 percent.
Why the disparity in registration and voting? It is no coincidence that the poverty, education and incarceration disparities along with the residential segregation are related to the lower voter turnout. Political scientists have long documented the correlations between income, education, and geography. High incarceration rates bring felon disenfranchisement, contributing to decreased eligibility to register and vote.
Low voter turnout compounds other disparities
Low voter turnout among people of color feeds upon itself, compounding other racial disparities and problems. People of color are unable to electorally challenge employment or housing policies. They are unable to challenge policing policies, and they are unable to challenge the voting laws and procedures that may hinder their political engagement.
Minnesota must address the racial voting disparity, especially in light of the growing diversity of the state population. It will require not just addressing problems in the voting laws including felon disenfranchisement, but also tackling the other racial disparities that contribute to the voting problems. If it does not, Minnesota risks perpetuation of a second-class citizenship for many of its people.
By David Schultz
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Fighting for Puerto Rico: The Struggle Against Post-Hurricane Privatization
Fighting for Puerto Rico: The Struggle Against Post-Hurricane Privatization
Today we bring you a conversation with Julio López Varona, the director of Make the Road Connecticut, who also works as a consultant with the Center for Popular Democracy and helps lead the Hedge...
Today we bring you a conversation with Julio López Varona, the director of Make the Road Connecticut, who also works as a consultant with the Center for Popular Democracy and helps lead the Hedge Clippers' corporate accountability campaign on Puerto Rico.
Read the full article here.
Supreme Court deadlocks on immigration case
Supreme Court deadlocks on immigration case
Karla Cano faces uncertainty. She had expected to qualify for deferred action under the Obama administration’s executive orders on immigration. But a tied decision by the U.S. Supreme Court...
Karla Cano faces uncertainty. She had expected to qualify for deferred action under the Obama administration’s executive orders on immigration. But a tied decision by the U.S. Supreme Court creates uncertainty for Cano and her family.
“All that is unjust about my situation will continue,” said Cano, 21, a senior at Mount Mary University and the mother of a 2-year-old son.
“I am in college so I can have a career helping others, but I cannot start a career like that without work authorization,” she said. “We just want to help this country and support our families like anyone else.”
The court on June 23 deadlocked on President Barack Obama’s executive actions taken to shield millions living in the United States from deportation.
The 4–4 tie means the next president and a new Congress will determine any change in U.S. immigration policy. The president said the court’s deadlock “takes us further from the country we aspire to be.”
Hillary Clinton, the Democratic Party’s presumptive nominee for president, called the court ruling unacceptable and pledged to “do everything possible under the law to go further to protect families.”
The dispute before the eight justices — the case was heard in April, after the death of Antonin Scalia — was over the legality of the administration’s orders creating “deferred action for parents of Americans and lawful permanent residents” or DAPA and expanding “deferred action for childhood arrivals” or DACA.
Basically the actions would have provided protection from deportation and three-year work permits to about 5 million undocumented parents of U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents, as well as undocumented people who came to the United States before the age of 16.
The president announced the orders in 2014 and, soon after, they were challenged by 26 states led by Republican governors, including Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker.
Federal district and appeals courts sided with the states and said the executive office lacked the authority to issue orders shielding immigrants from deportation.
The high court tie means the appeals court ruling stands. But the ruling in United States v. Texas did not set any landmark standards in the dispute over immigration.
The U.S. Justice Department brought the case to the Supreme Court, seeking to overturn the appeals court decision.
The American Civil Liberties Union was among the many groups to file a friend-of-the-court brief in the case.
Cecillia Wang, director of the ACLU’s Immigrants’ Rights Project, said, the “4–4 tie has a profound impact on millions of American families whose lives will remain in limbo and who will now continue the fight. In setting the DAPA guidelines, President Obama exercised the same prosecutorial discretion his predecessors have wielded without controversy and ultimately the courts should hold that the action was lawful.”
Reaction from the U.S. progressive community was swift and compassionate.
“This split decision deals a severe blow to millions of immigrant families who have already been waiting more than 18 months for the DAPA and DACA programs to be implemented,” said Alianza Americas’ executive director Oscar Chacón. “The cold fact is that millions of parents and children will go to bed tonight knowing once again that their families could be torn apart at any moment.”
At the Center for Popular Democracy, co-executive director Ana Maria Archila said, “If the highest court in the land cannot find a majority for justice and compassion, there is something truly broken in our system of laws, checks and balances.”
In Wisconsin, Voces de la Frontera held news conferences in Green Bay, Madison and in Milwaukee. LULAC, Centro Hispano and the Southside Organizing Committee also were involved.
“This is very sad for me,” said Jose Flores, a factory worker, father of four and also the president of Voces de la Frontera. “I have been waiting and fighting for reform like DAPA for years. But we are not giving up. I refuse ... to shrink back into the shadows.”
Cano, a member of Voces de la Frontera, said, “I am not giving up on the struggle. We need more people to get involved in the upcoming elections, because this decision shows the importance of both the presidential and U.S. congressional elections and whom the next president will nominate to the U.S. Supreme Court.”
BY LISA NEFF
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Object Action: The "F" Word in a Post-truth Era Opening Reception to Collect For Change Inauguration
Object Action: The "F" Word in a Post-truth Era Opening Reception to Collect For Change Inauguration
Object Action: The "F" Word in a Post-Truth Eramarks the inauguration of Collect For Change-an initiative which collaborates with artists across disciplines, offering artwork with a portion of...
Object Action: The "F" Word in a Post-Truth Eramarks the inauguration of Collect For Change-an initiative which collaborates with artists across disciplines, offering artwork with a portion of sales benefiting a charity personally selected by each artist. As a feminist response to the one-year anniversary of the current administration, the group exhibition highlights "objects" and works by female artists "objecting" to a dominant paradigm through innovative media in the feminist realm.
Featured artists Ana Teresa Fernández, Chitra Ganesh, Michelle Hartney, Angela Hennessy, Nadja Verena Marcin, Sanaz Mazinani, and Michele Pred will donate a portion of all artwork sales to Art & Abolition, The Center For Popular Democracy's Puerto Rico Rebuilding Fund, Girls Garage, Girls Inc., NARAL Pro-Choice California, Planned Parenthood, and 350.org.
Read the full article here.
Labor Activists Applaud First Statewide ‘Fair Scheduling’ Law
Labor Activists Applaud First Statewide ‘Fair Scheduling’ Law
Starting next summer, companies in Oregon will have to give workers at least seven days’ notice about when they’ll have to work, according to legislation signed Tuesday by Governor Kate Brown. A...
Starting next summer, companies in Oregon will have to give workers at least seven days’ notice about when they’ll have to work, according to legislation signed Tuesday by Governor Kate Brown. A handful of major cities have passed “fair scheduling” laws, but Oregon is the first state to do so and the biggest victory on the issue so far for labor activists.
Read the full article here.
Hour by Hour: Women in Today’s Workweek
Nationwide, more than 38 million women work in hourly jobs. Most women, and most Americans, are paid by the hour, yet today’s workweek is changing—the 40 hour workweek and the 8-hour day are no...
Nationwide, more than 38 million women work in hourly jobs. Most women, and most Americans, are paid by the hour, yet today’s workweek is changing—the 40 hour workweek and the 8-hour day are no longer the norm for a significant part of this workforce.
Our nation’s workplace protections are badly out of sync with the needs of today’s working families and we need policies that provide everyone an opportunity to get ahead. Particularly, labor standards have not kept up with rapid changes to the fastest growing industries like retail, healthcare, and food service. Part-time workers in the service sector—overwhelmingly women—have borne the greatest burden of these new just-intime scheduling practices, which have largely gone unregulated. But what begins in these sectors will soon spread, as the distinctions between part-time and full-time work grow increasingly blurred, and more and more Americans experience work hour instability and economic uncertainty.
Women − over a third of whom work part-time in order to juggle economic survival, family responsibilities, and advancing their careers − are at the greatest risk of being further marginalized in the workforce if unsustainable scheduling practices on the part of employers go unchecked. As we seek to create family-sustaining jobs in the burgeoning service sector, we must also consider scheduling practices in low-wage employment. Without an update to labor standards for these workers, more and more workers across the economy will be subject to this type of extreme economic uncertainty. New policies that ensure predictable schedules, give employees a voice in their schedules, ensure quality part-time employment and access to stable, full-time schedules will improve the lives of working people in general and especially benefit working women and mothers.
Download the full report
‘We’ll Give You Whatever We Have:’ How Organizations Are Fighting to Bring Relief to Puerto Rico
‘We’ll Give You Whatever We Have:’ How Organizations Are Fighting to Bring Relief to Puerto Rico
The sixth-floor windows wouldn’t hold in the winds, they knew. So the doctors and staff at the University Pediatric Hospital in San Juan moved the entire neonatal intensive-care unit, the NICU,...
The sixth-floor windows wouldn’t hold in the winds, they knew. So the doctors and staff at the University Pediatric Hospital in San Juan moved the entire neonatal intensive-care unit, the NICU, down three floors as Hurricane Maria closed in. The predicted damage came. Windows cracked, water poured in. The air-conditioning units blew away.
Read the full article here.
Companies End On-Call Scheduling After NY Attorney General’s Letter
Gap Inc. is the latest retailer to end its practice of requiring workers to remain on-call for short-notice shifts following an inquiry from New York’s attorney general.
A spokeswoman for...
Gap Inc. is the latest retailer to end its practice of requiring workers to remain on-call for short-notice shifts following an inquiry from New York’s attorney general.
A spokeswoman for the San Francisco-based retailer says the decision also applies to Gap’s other brands, including Banana Republic, Old Navy and Athleta and was part of an effort to “improve scheduling stability and flexibility” for workers.
Spokeswoman Laura Wilkinson says the change will apply “across our global organization” and that the company is working to establish scheduling systems giving store employees at least 10 to 14 days’ notice.
Attorney General Eric Schneiderman’s office sent letters to Gap and 12 other retailers earlier this year questioning them about on-call scheduling, which required hourly workers to stay on-call for shifts set the night before or the same day, giving them little time to arrange for child care or work other jobs.
“Workers deserve stable and reliable work schedules, and I commend Gap for taking an important step to make their employees’ schedules fairer and more predictable,” said Schneiderman, a Democrat.
Abercrombie & Fitch and Victoria’s Secret also ended the practice this summer.
Carrie Gleason, director of the Fair Workweek Initiative at the Center for Popular Democracy, said in a statement that Gap’s decision reflects not only Schneiderman’s concerns but also a new ordinance in San Francisco requiring chain retailers to set schedules in advance. Similar proposals are pending before other city governments.
“Working people in hourly jobs are starting to speak out about the impact that employers’ scheduling practices has on their lives,” Gleason said in a statement.
Source: CBS DC
Las ciudades advierten a las empresas que no cooperen con Trump
Las ciudades advierten a las empresas que no cooperen con Trump
Las ciudades han sido los principales puntos de resistencia contra la política de Donald Trump, en particular sus planes de tomar medidas contra los inmigrantes.
Las ciudades se han...
Las ciudades han sido los principales puntos de resistencia contra la política de Donald Trump, en particular sus planes de tomar medidas contra los inmigrantes.
Las ciudades se han mantenido firmes y proclamado orgullosamente ser santuarios de inmigrantes ante las amenazas de la Casa Blanca de quitarles fondos federales. Han prometido apoyar el acuerdo de París sobre el clima después del sorpresivo anuncio de Trump de que Estados Unidos dejará de respaldar el histórico pacto.
Lea el artículo completo aquí.
Letter to the Editor: Proposed Legislation in Maryland Would Sacrifice Standards of Charter Schools
Washington Post - March 3, 2015, by Anne Kaiser - I share The Post’s interest in a healthy environment for charter schools in Maryland, as expressed in the Feb. 25 editorial “ Give charter schools a chance.” However, this goal cannot be achieved unless we maintain the high standards for accountability, equity and quality required by Maryland’s charter school law.Over the past decade, I have seen troubling results in states that lowered their standards. A 2014 Center for Popular Democracy report found $100 million in fraud, waste and abuse by charter schools in 14 states and the District. The National Education Policy Center found that charter school teachers face significantly lower compensation and poorer working conditions, leading to high turnover rates and the hiring of unqualified teachers. Michigan, Ohio, Delaware and Pennsylvania have seen wasted taxpayer dollars in their race to expand charter schools.Gov. Larry Hogan’s (R) legislation follows in these flawed footsteps by granting a disproportionate share of funding to charter schools at the expense of traditional public schools, permitting uncertified teachers, allowing union-busting by charter school operators and weakening safeguards for accountability. I will work hard through the legislative process to remove these harmful provisions so that we support charters without sacrificing standards.Anne Kaiser, Annapolis The writer, a Democrat, represents District 14 in the Maryland House, where she is majority leader.Source
11 hours ago
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