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Is feminist art going to be institutionalized or just going to gain wider acceptance? NY Times has a story following MOMA's new initiatives.

By HOLLAND COTTER

“Well, this is quite a turnout for an ‘ism,’ ” said the art historian and critic Lucy Lippard on Friday morning as she looked out at the people filling the Roy and Niuta Titus Theater at the Museum of Modern Art and spilling into the aisles. “Especially in a museum not notorious for its historical support of women.”

Ms. Lippard, now in her 70s, was a keynote speaker for a two-day symposium organized by the museum that was titled “The Feminist Future: Theory and Practice in the Visual Arts.” The event itself was an unofficial curtain-raiser for what is shaping up as a watershed year for the exhibition — and institutionalization, skeptics say — of feminist art.

For the first time in its history this art will be given full-dress museum survey treatment, and not in just one major show but in two. On March 4 “Wack! Art and the Feminist Revolution” opens at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, followed on March 23 by “Global Feminisms” at the Brooklyn Museum. (On the same day the Brooklyn Museum will officially open its new Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art and a permanent gallery for “The Dinner Party,” Judy Chicago’s seminal proto-feminist work.)

Such long-withheld recognition has been awaited with a mixture of resignation and impatient resentment. Everyone knows that our big museums are our most conservative cultural institutions. And feminism, routinely mocked by the public media for 35 years as indissolubly linked with radicalism and bad art, has been a hard sell.

But curators and critics have increasingly come to see that feminism has generated the most influential art impulses of the late 20th and early 21st century. There is almost no new work that has not in some way been shaped by it. When you look at Matthew Barney, you’re basically seeing pilfered elements of feminist art, unacknowledged as such.

The MoMA symposium was sold out weeks in advance. Ms. Lippard and the art historian Linda Nochlin appeared, like tutelary deities, at the beginning and end respectively; in between came panels with about 20 speakers. The audience was made up almost entirely of women, among them many veterans of the women’s art movement of the 1970s and a healthy sprinkling of younger students, artists and scholars. It was clear that people were hungry to hear about and think about feminist art, whatever that once was, is now or might be.

Continue reading "Feminist Art Finally Takes Center Stage" »

Kmart's infamous line of children's t-shirts are not just making an accurate reflection of capitalism's representation of women, but is being promoted to sell well. Since pictures speak a thousand words, we'll merely let the image do the telling.


A report follows:

A T-Shirt, that is being sold at the Kmart stores which shows a picture of a stick figure boy pushing a girl over with the words “Problem Solved” has caused a demonstration outside a store in Alexis Road in Toledo, Ohio. Over fifty demonstrators turned up with signs reading "Attention Shoppers: Kmart has an attitude problem. Recall violent merchandise" and "Attention! Domestic violence in Aisle 7." The t-shirt is designed to be worn by young children and has already received complaints from many parents but the store so far has refused to remove the offending shirt. Many drivers passing by honked their support towards the demonstrators, many of which are parents of youngsters that have died through violence and members of the Toledo chapter of the National Organization for Women. Kmart claims that the T-Shirt is intended to be light hearted but many people are complaining that the T-Shirts show that domestic violence is acceptable.

Parents of children who have been killed through violence gave a letter of complaint that was addressed to Aylwin Lewis who is the chief executive and president of Sears Holdings Corporation, the parent firm of the Kmart stores to a man named Charlie because they were not allowed into the building. A spokesman for Kmart said "We've heard and respect the opinions of our customers and the item is no longer available at Kmart. And we have no plans to reorder it." This store is the only store where demonstrators have protested about the T-Shirts but there have been complaints in other areas. A mother said that if such shirts were available at Kmart then "No wonder kids do the things they do." Another parent added "I think people need to speak out about corporations selling violence."

Today's NY Times has an insightful review of an instructive book, "The Dark History of Medical Experimentation on Black Americans From Colonial Times to the Present" (Harriet A. Washington. 501 pages. Doubleday. $27.95)

White Doctors, Black Subjects: Abuse Disguised as Research

By Denise Grady The most notorious medical experiment in American history was surely the Tuskegee syphilis study, in which 400 black men with syphilis were left untreated for 40 years, from 1932 until 1972, so government doctors could study the course of the disease. The experiment ended only because a journalist exposed it, igniting a firestorm of public outrage over its racism and cruelty. By then, as many as 100 of the men had already died of syphilis.

Tuskegee was just part of a pattern of experimental abuse, one of many shameful chapters in what Harriet A. Washington calls “the long, unhappy history of medical research with black Americans.”

Ms. Washington, a journalist and research scholar in ethics, writes in “Medical Apartheid” that this history has left blacks with an ugly legacy of distrust for research and even treatment, and that it is a lingering stain on the history of medicine.

She does not oppose medical research or blacks’ inclusion in it. On the contrary, she calls research “utterly essential,” and blacks’ participation necessary. “African-Americans,” she writes, “desperately need the medical advantages and revelations that only ethical, essentially therapeutic research initiatives can give them.”

But first, she argues, the air must be cleared. She is certainly the one to do it. She has unearthed an enormous amount of shocking information and shaped it into a riveting, carefully documented book.

Continue reading "Abuse Disguised as Research" »

A new Yale University study has found that discrimination against black doctors is pervasive and results in demoralization.

Black doctors often feel devalued, stereotyped and rejected on the job, a new Yale study has found, and pervasive discrimination can leave them demoralized and likely to seek career change.

Although race allowed them to connect better with some colleagues, patients and staff, the doctors said they were left out of crucial information and social networks that could lead to promotion.

"I do not see us in those leadership pipelines," one doctor told the researchers. "We're not in the corridors of power and it has nothing to do with intellectual capacity or ambition."

"Increasing racial and ethnic diversity in the physician workforce is a national priority and has been offered as one solution to addressing health inequities," says researcher Marcella Nunez-Smith, MD, who authored the study. "But any efforts to increase numbers also needs to address the role of race within health-care institutions to successfully recruit and retain ethnic and racial minority physicians."

The study was based on interviews with 25 doctors of African, African-American and Afro-Caribbean descent and published in this month's Annals of Internal Medicine.

In her column “Broadly Speaking”, Adda Birnir compares sexism with racism in an instructive manner, while making the intersections appear as relevant as they actually are:

Sexual harassment is tricky because of three considerations: the nature of the activity, whether the action is welcome and, most importantly, the context. Noam Rudnick, writing for the Hippolytic blog, compared Schlessinger’s actions to instances of unwanted sexual advances perpetrated on a female undergraduate by a male undergraduate at Toad’s Place. But unwanted sexual advances and sexual harassment are not the same. A guy inappropriately grabbing a girl at Toad’s is not an example of sexual harassment because Toad’s is a social space where it is reasonable and expected that people are making sexual advances toward one another. Because of its context, such an action is harassment of a sexual nature, not sexual harassment.

Basha Rubin, writing for the Broad Recognition blog, countered Rudnick’s comments by saying that it does a disservice to women in the workplace to compare Schlessinger’s actions to sexual advances at a nightclub, because it gives credence to the idea that a male boss who sexually harasses a female employee is simply incapable of controlling his sexual desire. The workplace is not a space where it is typically appropriate to express one’s sexual interest. For this reason, harassment at the workplace is critically different from harassment at Toad’s.

So if sexual harassment is based on a drive for power, why does it so often take a sexual form? I find that comparing sexism to racism is instructive because it allows for a case study in which sexual desire is not a factor. To answer this question, I would like to compare these instances of sexual harassment to the Michael Richards case. This past November, Richards, who played Kramer on “Seinfeld,” gained notoriety for shouting racist slurs at audience members during a stand-up comedy performance. Apparently frustrated by what he deemed to be rude interruptions by a group of black male audience members, Richards stopped his act to yell angrily at the men, calling them all sorts of names, including the N-word.

Continue reading "Sexism’s power struggle mirrors historical racism" »

Goodyear Tire company has settled a gender discrimination case.

Goodyear Tire Company agreed to a $925,000 settlement to be disbursed among some 800 women who were not hired for entry-level, tire-building jobs at the company’s plant in Danville, Virginia. The lawsuit, which was filed by the US Department of Labor on behalf of the complainants, alleged that the company practiced gender-discriminatory hiring from January 1998 to June 1999.

Because Goodyear is a federal contractor and therefore prohibited from discriminating on the basis of race, color, religion, gender, or national origin, the Department of Labor brought the case against the company. Charles E. James Sr., deputy assistant labor secretary for the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs, said the settlement serves to put "federal contractors on notice that the Labor Department is serious about eliminating systemic discrimination," Women's eNews reports.

In addition to the settlement sum, Goodyear will also offer entry-level jobs to as many as 60 women who meet the company's employment requirements, the Beacon Journal reports.

The Supreme Court is currently reviewing a second gender-discrimination lawsuit against Goodyear Tire Company, in which the plaintiff allegedly worked for the company for 19 years for a salary that was significantly less than that of her male counterparts who had the same or less experience.

The Virginian-Pilot reports that two patrons have sued a Virginia Beach nightclub alleging race discrimination.

Two patrons who were turned away from a Virginia Beach nightclub have filed a federal discrimination lawsuit alleging they were denied entry because of their race.

The lawsuit, filed Thursday in U.S. District Court, seeks unspecified monetary damages and an injunction stopping the owner of Kokoamos from enforcing his entry rules.

Kokoamos owner Barry Davis has said he was simply enforcing a dress code, which prohibits cornrows, dreadlocks and braids.

However, the American Civil Liberties Union, which filed the suit on behalf of Kim Hines and Myron Evans, says the rule essentially prohibits mostly blacks from entering the club, located on Marina Shores Drive, off North Great Neck Road.

ACLU attorney Rebecca K. Glenberg said Thursday that efforts to resolve the issue outside of court have been unsuccessful since the hairstyle issue came to light last summer.

“We are concerned that dress codes can be used as a pretext for racial discrimination,” she said. “This sort of restriction obviously excludes a lot of African Americans.”

Continue reading "Nightclub sued for race discrimination" »

JSU employee sues over alleged harassment

An office manager at Jackson State University says her boss exposed himself to her, pulled on her underwear and asked what color it was and conducted a campaign of retaliation against her when she complained, according to a complaint filed in Hinds County Circuit Court.

But a university investigation into Kushauntia L. Jones' sexual harassment allegations found "no evidence" to support them.

"Jackson State University has investigated the claims, conducted a grievance panel hearing and found these allegations to be unsubstantiated," JSU's attorney, Regina Quinn, said in a written statement.

The complaint, which represents one side of a legal argument, was filed Jan. 10.

Jones is seeking unspecified damages, and wants back pay for time off work to deal with stress. She names the university and its director of communications, Anthony Dean, as defendants.

In her complaint, Jones alleges Dean sexually harassed her for most of 2005, causing her psychological problems and a prolonged absence from work.

Continue reading "University employee alleges harassment" »

Opulence of wealth has truly married the filth of mind in an extravaganza that ridicules the last remnants of decency in our vulgar capitalism. As a result, even the age-old diplomacy that shrouded the despicable aspects of money market has given way to a new exhibitionist class society, and to that effect, New York Magazine has begun to celebrate classism and sexism.

An event titled “Natural Selection Speed Date—Rich Guys and Hot Girls” is being organized by Pocket Change and New York Magazine. Scheduled for February 7th, this Darwinian slip unashamedly declares that “Women want money in a man, men want beauty in a woman – this is a factual force of nature.”

Yes, you read it right. The Pocket Change event goes on to celebrate what it finds desirable, in its own words: “This genetic cleansing is how the wealthy stay beautiful.” Not only the event not finds such “genetic cleansing” criminal by intent and design, but it also decides to rejoice over the sordid class difference to commemorate the wealthy men, and their prize catches.

New York Magazine/Pocket Change may have found this beautiful and desirable, but we are sure for millions of sensible people, this is outright ugly, hideous and mocking. What’s worse, such an event is sexist to its core and inhuman in its essence.

In conversation with Womensrightsblog, a Pocket Change newsletter subscriber Patricia Delhannon reverberated the views of most readers that were suppressed by mainstream publications such as New York Magazine in the due course of their decision to go ahead with such an event:

"I am personally a realistic woman, I recognize gender differences and I have never really called myself a feminist. I do however believe in the strength of women and (find) this is offensive and I feel offended as a woman. I'm not really experienced at any type of social action, but thought at least something should be done. I think as women, we can't support this or even allow this type of thing to take place.”

The leading precept of this event is that men who will enter into this exclusive contest will be solely judged by their wealth. Each must have all the following properties: a minimum of half a million earning, with invested assets of more than 1 million and trust money worth more than 4 million dollars.

What happens to women who want to enter the contest? Do they also need to be “successful”? Hell no. They are not expected to be working. They should only be rich in their “beauty”, which will be judged by celebrity matchmaker Janis Spindel.

So we are back in the ages where men are supposed to earn and women to be their slaves. Precisely, going by this “Natural Selection” event that will judge the “Rich Guys and Hot Girls”.

Readers of such media are bound to get shocked in a city that witnesses deaths due to winter, homelessness and lack of health coverage. But are the media any more bothered? Hardly, saving a few.

Faking Good Breeding has covered the story. So has Sex and The Upper East Side. And finally, Feministing has a compelling note.

But that’s mostly about it. Have we just been rendered less sensitive or are we choosing to get less educated? Jack Tuckner of Tuckner, Sipser, Weinstock & Sipser, LLP, says:

“Ideally, our corporate media should find interest in running this sordid story, and that would be wonderful; but decisions are often made to run stories for their own pecuniary reasons that have nothing to do with its newsworthiness or utility. This is the world of Girls Gone Wild shown increasingly on network television. This is the world where a nanosecond of Janet Jackson's breast is considered scandalous but Viagra advertisements depicting men staring lasciviously at women's lingerie are shown during the same Super Bowl presentation with nary a whimper of protest.”

A Virginia state legislator Frank D. Hargrove told a Charlottesville newspaper, "Slavery ended nearly 140 years ago with the Civil War, and our black citizens should get over it." "Terrence Says" blog responds to the statement by asking some pertinent questions:

While I don't obsess, and quite truthfully, rarely think of African Captivity in America, usually when a racist like Hargrove and people of his ilk tell Black people, whose ancestors were captives in America, to "get over slavery" it is usually a pitiful attempt to belittle and transfer blame.

The State of Virginia, as did many other states, allowed African captivity to flourish. Instead of perceiving an apology as an act of reconciliation for the advancement of humanity, unfortunately, antagonists are reminded of the dastardly deeds of their forefathers. Telling Blacks "to get over slavery" is blame reversal and a coping mechanism for them.

Should we (Blacks) be paralyzed by such events in American history? Certainly not. But even for Blacks, like me, who could care less about an apology and are not holding our breaths for an apology for our ancestors, admonishing Blacks to "get over slavery" is counterproductive to improving race relations and mean-spirited.

What they also fail to realize is that true efforts by America to make all citizens equal didn't occur until the mid-to-late 60's. Are we supposed to forget that too? In reality, if Hargrove and people of his ilk had their way, African Captivity would still be very much an institution in America.

In the bigger scheme of things, I think that it is important for African-Americans to not get terribly bent-out-of-shape ie. offended by such comments. We should not surrender too much of our power to these racist idiots - especially one's that have one foot in the grave. Hopefully, they'll be going back to the hell they came from in (over) due time.

Almost a perfectionist in his profession, but his dirty spots are beginning to be noticed now. A classic case of race bias in the invisible workplaces.


A Top Chef’s Kitchen Is Far Too Hot, Some Workers Say

By KIM SEVERSON and ADAM B. ELLICK

DANIEL BOULUD can’t stand to see a detail out of place. As pans slam around him during dinner service in the Upper East Side restaurant that bears his first name, he will pause to request that a spoon be polished. How best to marry braised endive to seared beef can absorb him as utterly as the lilies in the dining room that haven’t opened on schedule.

He’s also a man who has cultivated the news media over his 23 years in New York. He is quick to get on the phone with a writer and can engineer a smart publicity move, like creating the world’s most expensive hamburger, which won him worldwide attention in 2003.

Outside the restaurant, Mr. Boulud is known for his generosity. Last year he helped raise nearly $2 million, much of it for Citymeals-on-Wheels, on whose board he sits.

On top of all that, Mr. Boulud is a social animal. His fellow four-star chefs would vote him the guy most likely to lead the conga line.

In short, he is a perfectionist who is accustomed to being liked. All of which helps explain why Mr. Boulud, 51, cannot grasp why a group of restaurant-worker advocates keep showing up outside Daniel with a 12-foot inflatable cockroach, singing “We Shall Overcome” and chanting that he is a racist.

“Racism is a vicious charge,” Mr. Boulud said in an interview. “It is too easy to accuse someone of that, and it is very hard to defend yourself.”

And yet Mr. Boulud is being forced to do just that. In December, seven current and former employees filed suit in Federal District Court in Manhattan accusing him of discrimination. Similar charges against Mr. Boulud are before the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

According to the lawsuit, dining room workers at Daniel have been denied promotion because they were Latino or Bangladeshi. The employees also say that Mr. Boulud and other managers yelled racial slurs. At one point, they say, Spanish was banned among employees; only English and French were allowed. Those are examples, they say, of how the working culture at Daniel favors white Europeans at the expense of other groups.

Continue reading "A Top Chef’s Kitchen Is Far Too Hot" »

Just about time for someone like Christopher Edley Jr. to challenge the race-blind populist policies, for the anti-affirmative action amendments may be populist, but certainly not popular.

At Berkeley Law, a Challenge to Overcome All Barriers

By JONATHAN D. GLATER

BERKELEY, Calif.: Growing up in Philadelphia in the 1960s, Christopher Edley Jr., dean of the flagship law school of the University of California, learned early about racial discrimination. After all, his father, one of the few African-American graduates in Harvard Law School’s class of 1953, could not get a job in a Philadelphia law firm.

“They’d hired William T. Coleman from Harvard a couple of years earlier,” Mr. Edley recalled, referring to the former transportation secretary, and ardent defender of civil rights. “And they were waiting to see how that experiment worked out before hiring another one.”

Mr. Edley’s father went on to become a prosecutor in Philadelphia, then the first black program officer at the Ford Foundation and president of the United Negro College Fund. He was never, Mr. Edley said, bitter about the obstacles in his way. But civil rights and related subjects were the topics of discussion around the dinner table. From age 5, the son wanted to be a lawyer.

Now Mr. Edley, in his third year at Boalt Hall, as the law school here is known, finds himself defending affirmative action policies intended to overcome barriers like those his father confronted.

The job is a challenge; under California law, the law school cannot use race as a factor in admissions. But tackling that challenge was an important reason he took it.

Continue reading "An alternative discourse at Berkeley Law" »

NY Times published a story today about a top firm mired with controversies.

Gay Lawyer’s Suit Accuses Firm of Bias

By JULIE CRESWELL

An associate at one of the country’s most prestigious law firms, Sullivan & Cromwell, filed a state lawsuit in Manhattan yesterday accusing the firm of a systematic campaign of discrimination and retaliation against him because of his sexual orientation.

Aaron B. Charney, 28, who is a fourth-year associate, asserts in the lawsuit, filed in New York State Supreme Court in Manhattan, that several partners in Sullivan & Cromwell’s highly regarded mergers and acquisitions practice subjected him to “lewd and illegal conduct,” beginning in the fall of 2005. He is seeking a jury trial and unspecified compensatory and punitive damages.

In his lawsuit, Mr. Charney accuses members of the firm of demanding he be terminated for carrying on an “unnatural” gay relationship with another Sullivan & Cromwell associate; Mr. Charney denies the relationship. The suit also contends that after he filed a formal internal complaint, members of the firm suggested that he move to a foreign office and then fabricated reviews to accuse him of overbilling clients, among other things.

While Mr. Charney has not been terminated, he says he was told he should not come to the office while an internal investigation is continuing.

Continue reading "Gay Lawyer’s Suit Accuses Firm of Bias" »

Wal-Mart policies continue to hurt. Costco Wholesale employees are not amused, and a lawsuit on behalf of 700 female workers, has been finally granted. More on New York Times this Friday:

By STEVEN GREENHOUSE and MICHAEL BARBARO

A federal judge granted class-action status yesterday to a lawsuit filed on behalf of more than 700 female workers at Costco Wholesale claiming that the retailer had systematically discriminated against women seeking jobs as managers.

In the lawsuit, the lead plaintiff — a former assistant store manager who was upset about not being made a store manager — asserts that Costco discriminated against women in promotions because 13 percent of the company’s store managers were women, while nearly half of its employees were women.

The lawsuit undercuts Costco’s image as one of retailing’s most benevolent companies, with generous wages and benefits that make it more attractive for employees than competitors like Wal-Mart Stores.

In her ruling yesterday, Judge Marilyn Hall Patel of Federal District Court in San Francisco concluded that the case should be certified as a class action because “plaintiffs have presented strong evidence of a common culture at Costco which disadvantages women.”

The lawsuit, filed in August 2004, contends that at Costco, the highest-paid store management positions — assistant general manager and general manager — are doled out through an informal, word-of-mouth system that favors men over women.

Unlike most competitors, Costco neither posts openings for such positions nor accepts applications for them, the lawsuit said. Instead, it said, a largely male group of senior executives handpicks managers.

Brad Seligman, the plaintiffs’ lead lawyer, said, “Costco has a blind spot in its employment policies, which has allowed a glass ceiling to fester.” He called on the company, based in Issaquah, Wash., to start posting jobs and to adopt objective standards to determine who should qualify to be a store manager.

Continue reading "Costco Bias Suit Is Given Class-Action Status" »

A reflective piece on Sunday Washinton Post:
What's Lost in Prenatal Testing
Why Encourage Testing for Down Syndrome

By Patricia E. Bauer
Sunday, January 14, 2007; Page B07

She was a fresh-faced young woman with a couple of adorable kids, whiling away an hour in the sandbox at the park near my home. So was I, or so I thought. New in town, I had come to the park in hopes of finding some friends for myself and my little ones.

Her eyes flicked over to where my daughter sat, shovel gripped in a tiny fist, and then traveled quickly away. The remark that followed was directed to the woman next to her, but her voice carried clearly across the playground. "Isn't it a shame," she said, an eyebrow cocked in Margaret's direction, "that everyone doesn't get amnio?"

It's been more than 20 years, but I saw the face of that woman again when I read about the recommendation from the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) this month that all pregnant women get prenatal screening for Down syndrome. I worry that universal screening brings us all closer to being like that woman at the sandbox -- uninformed, judgmental and unable to entertain the possibility that people with disabilities have something to offer.

Continue reading "What's Lost in Prenatal Testing" »

Boston Globe editorializes:
Ideally, the nation's public schools should be havens where discrimination and poverty are overcome by hard academic work. But many public schools are dragging along, starved for books, anemic from high drop out rates, and struggling to boost students to grade-level achievement.

The full article:

IN NOVEMBER, Michigan voters faced a ballot question drenched in controversy. Proposal 2 called for changing the state constitution to ban programs that discriminate against or give "preferential treatment" to people based on race, gender, ethnicity, or national origin. In other words, a constitutional ban on affirmative action.

The choice was reduced to one dimension: Either America treats everyone fairly or it doesn't.

"Vote YES . . . if you are sick and tired of handouts and unfair quotas," one blogger advised. On Election Day, 58 percent voted yes.

A blow for education

It was a hard slap for Michigan's public colleges and universities. In 2003, affirmative action survived a tough legal fight when the Supreme Court ruled in two cases that the University of Michigan could, in limited ways, consider race in its admissions processes. Notably, Sandra Day O'Connor said that, yes, race still matters, and deliberately seeking racial diversity is still a social good. But she warned that race shouldn't matter forever; in 25 years, society should have moved on.

Then Ward Connerly showed up. A former University of California regent and an African-American, he led a successful fight to end affirmative action in California. He supported Proposal 2 in Michigan. And last month, he said he would be visiting nine other states -- Arizona, Colorado, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, Oregon, South Dakota, Wyoming, and Utah -- to consider launching similar campaigns.

Continue reading "Affirmatively active" »

Maternity company settles suit alleging pregnancy discrimination

PHILADELPHIA - A maternity-clothing retailer has agreed to pay $375,000 to settle a lawsuit alleging it refused to hire qualified applicants because they were pregnant - and then fired an assistant manager who complained about it.

The suit filed last year against Philadelphia-based Mothers Work Inc. was based on alleged incidents at a Motherhood Maternity store in Florida.

Continue reading "Mothers Work Inc. settles pregnancy suit" »

Racism against American Indians is well alive. A recent meet highlighted the issue.

American Indians address racism

BY JOHN R. CRANE
Racism against American Indians is alive and well in Cortez and the Four Corners and a solution must be found, said attendees at a meeting Wednesday night to address prejudice against American Indians.

Violence and prejudice against American Indians has been a fact of life in Montezuma County for too long, said Art Neskahi, founder and director of Southwest Intertribal Voice.

Three attacks on American Indians occurred in Cortez around Thanksgiving. One involved a homeless man who suffered fractured ribs after being assaulted by two Hispanic male youths. In the others, two white males attacked two homeless American Indian men, and two white males assaulted an American Indian couple from Luckachukai, Ariz., throwing the female on the ground and kicking her.

No one has been charged in the attacks, mostly due to lack of victims' identification of suspects.

"This has been going on a long time," Neskahi said. "I'm hoping to figure out what we can do so our children don't have to go through this."

Continue reading "American Indians address racism" »

Pentagon has concerns over the judiciary. And none at all heartening. The senior official who recently expressed his dismay at nation's top law firms, is a victim of his own motives that are suspect.

Looked from another angle, here is an official who actually wants that human rights be denied to people under the country's legal system that claims to espouse freedom and justice. Is it typical of "responsible" officials at power corridors, or is he an exception? Considering that Charles Stimson is a senior Pentagon official, either of the case appears to be dangerous.

New York Times has a detailed report today:

Official Attacks Top Law Firms Over Detainees
By NEIL A. LEWIS

WASHINGTON, Jan. 12 — The senior Pentagon official in charge of military detainees suspected of terrorism said in an interview this week that he was dismayed that lawyers at many of the nation’s top firms were representing prisoners at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, and that the firms’ corporate clients should consider ending their business ties.

The comments by Charles D. Stimson, the deputy assistant secretary of defense for detainee affairs, produced an instant torrent of anger from lawyers, legal ethics specialists and bar association officials, who said Friday that his comments were repellent and displayed an ignorance of the duties of lawyers to represent people in legal trouble.

“This is prejudicial to the administration of justice,” said Stephen Gillers, a law professor at New York University and an authority on legal ethics. “It’s possible that lawyers willing to undertake what has been long viewed as an admirable chore will decline to do so for fear of antagonizing important clients.

“We have a senior government official suggesting that representing these people somehow compromises American interests, and he even names the firms, giving a target to corporate America.”

Mr. Stimson made his remarks in an interview on Thursday with Federal News Radio, a local Washington-based station that is aimed at an audience of government employees.

Continue reading "Pentagon Official Upset with Law Firms" »

Taylor Mason of New Music First, writes about the discrimination suit pending against Sony-BMG.

Former BMG marketing rep Tamieka Blair is expected to file a racial discrimination lawsuit against Sony BMG Music, alleging her wrongful termination upon the merging of Sony and BMG in 2004, according to Billboard.

The suit follows on the heels of the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission's (EEOC) finding that Blair was "a victim of race discrimination" last fall when an investigation by the EEOC revealed that 42 percent of African American employees of the sales enterprise unit were involuntarily terminated after the merger. Though Sony offered their employees a voluntary separation package, Blair was under the impression that her field marketing position in the BMG sales unit was secure and hesitated to accept the package out of fear that it might signal that she wanted to leave. The EEOC’s investigation concluded that Sony BMG "failed to provide a verifiable explanation for the overwhelmingly negative impact on black BMG employees, that is, that 42 percent of blacks and no whites were involuntarily terminated," the letter states. Officials at Sony BMG told the EEOC that they "sought to retain the 'best players,' but there is no documented procedure regarding the retention of said 'best players.'" At this time, there are no related claims pending on Sony BMG with the EEOC. The EEOC stated that they worked with associated parties after the conclusion, but there was no settlement.

A recent Harvard Law School report discusses an innovative method to tackle potential increase in domestic violence perpetrators.

Domestic violence monitoring initiative proposed by Rosenfeld is signed into law.

Domestic abusers who violate their restraining orders will be required to wear a GPS tracking device, according to a new Massachusetts state law spearheaded by HLS lecturer Diane Rosenfeld '96. Signed into law on January 4, the GPS initiative was first presented to the Governor’s Commission on Sexual and Domestic Violence by Rosenfeld in early 2005.

Under the new law, if a domestic abuser enters a geographic "exclusion zone"—a court-determined restricted area, such as a victim’s home or workplace, or a child’s school—the GPS device will immediately alert both the domestic abuse victim and the police. According to existing Massachusetts law, any individual who violates his restraining order is eligible for a $5,000 fine and a prison sentence of more than two years.

Rosenfeld has also championed legislation that would create a universal danger assessment program, allowing police departments to screen every domestic abuse situation for "lethality factors"—common warning signs gathered from domestic homicide cases over the past 25 years.

Rosenfeld emphasized that the goal of the GPS law is to prevent future violence, while allowing battered women to stay in their homes and their communities without fear. "This legislation puts the responsibility for battering where it belongs—on the offender," she said.

Former Lieutenant Governor Kerry Healey, who chaired the Governor’s Commission on Sexual and Domestic Violence, called the GPS bill a longtime personal priority. Many victims of domestic violence continue to be abused even after they have obtained restraining orders against their batterers, Healey said. The victims are often forced into hiding, fleeing their jobs, their homes and their families.

KERRY HEALY AND JARRETT BARRIOS
Technology against violence

By Kerry Healy and Jarrett Barrios | January 11, 2007

WHEN assessing domestic violence cases, threats to kill a woman and her children, abuse during pregnancy, and sexual jealousy are all lethality factors taken into account. Had they been used in issuing and enforcing Lien Lam's restraining order against her estranged husband, perhaps her infant daughter and the woman baby-sitting her would not be recovering from burns inflicted by the baby's father, Dung Van Tran, who is also recovering from burns.

According to court records, the Boston man had a long history of abusive violence toward his estranged wife, including violations of restraining orders. What can be done to stop those who seem bent on continuing their abusive behavior when their partner seeks to end the relationship? With the help of Diane Rosenfeld of Harvard Law School, we looked at how to improve the criminal justice system's response to domestic violence. On the last day of the 2005-2006 legislative session, a bill we filed was signed into law that will help remedy the loss of a victim's safety.

Under the new law, an offender who violates a domestic violence order of protection can be required by a judge to wear a device that provides Global Positioning System monitoring. The GPS helps enforce the restraining order by preventing the batterer from entering "liberty zones," such as the battered partner's domicile and place of work, their children's schools, and the residences of extended family members. Probation agents will monitor offenders to ensure that they do not breach these zones. If they do, a record of a restraining order violation will be made, thus making stalking and further violent attacks more difficult. Further, police and the victim are automatically phoned if the offender breaches the battered partner's liberty zone, thus minimizing the victim's fears of an unexpected confrontation with the batterer.

Continue reading "Technology against domestic violence" »

Diverse Issues in Higher Education quotes a new study by a UCLA Professor which may prompt a lawsuit. The reason: Hollywood’s institutionalized discriminations.

“Spiderperson 4”— Coming to a Theater Near You
Hollywood has given us “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner” (1967) and “Crash” (2005) — just two of the several movies that have tackled issues of race. But now a California scholar is hurling charges of racism and sexism against casting directors for “gender and race-based casting.” A Title VII lawsuit is just around the corner.

The study, “Hollywood's Race/Ethnicity and Gender-Based Casting: Prospects for a Title VII Lawsuit,” conducted by Russell K. Robinson, acting professor of law at the University of California, Los Angeles, is intended to confront hidden discrimination — but is he taking political correctness to the extreme? The study points out that 82 percent of lead roles in major motion pictures are filled by Whites, while Blacks claim only 11 percent of the roles. That stat would be hard to argue, but the same report also considers denying an actress a role intended for a man to be discriminatory.
Just imagine British actor Hugh Grant in “Big Momma’s House” or Halle Berry as “The Terminator.” It just doesn’t work.

It’s true, more often than not, that Hollywood promotes stereotypes; and Robinson, a former entertainment lawyer, sees sinister forces lurking behind the camera.
“What appears to be audience preferences for White, male protagonists are socially constructed choices based in part on the industry’s history of discrimination and stereotyping in casting,” he says. 
Let the legal battle begin.

An interesting dialogue is initiated by Inside Higher Ed that deals with who have the responsibility to teach America about race relations.

One thing is certain: Americans have strong perceptions — and misperceptions — about the meaning and significance of race. Attempting to poke holes in prejudices and provide the latest scientific and scholarly understanding of the issue, the American Anthropological Association has created an interactive educational program called RACE: Are We So Different? Also featured is a traveling museum exhibition, and project organizers are developing educational materials for teachers and organizing future conferences.

“We have taken a comprehensive look at race in America and have spent five and a half years pulling this together,” said Peggy Overbey, the program’s project director.

The project’s Web site presents quizzes, timelines and other interactive activities designed to consider questions on the history of race in America, human variation across the planet, and race as a “lived experience.”

Continue reading "To Teach America About Race" »

San Antonio faces a surge in the rate of domestic violence incidents. And this has put the administration in a fix. District Attorney is exasperated. She says “I am fed up with me who kill their wives”. Here is the detailed report:

Alarming Number of Domestic Violence Cases in SA

An alarming number of wives and girlfriends are dying at the hands of so-called "loved ones."

In San Antonio, the rate of domestic violence murders has almost doubled since 2005. Out of 119 total murders in the city in 2006, 31 people were killed by an acquaintance, 25 were the victims of domestic violence.

From jealous boyfriends to ex-husbands who cannot deal with a divorce, the numbers are frustrating for those who have waged a battle to stop domestic violence.

"Well, I'm fed up with men who kill their wives," said District Attorney Susan Reed. She added, "We have been working to make awareness of domestic violence a high priority."

In November, 50 billboards went up around the city to help bring awareness to the domestic violence problem. A year ago the Family Justice Center opened its doors. The facility is devoted to helping victims and families of domestic violence opened up.

Despite these moves, the numbers aren't going down.

The goal is to get to those living in an abusive relationship before things get out of control. Reed said only then can the lives of hundreds of San Antonio victims be saved.

By Jack Tuckner, Esq.

In NY Times today, the article "For $7.93 an Hour, It’s Worth a Trip Across a State Line" is an empirical study that proves the thesis that affluent, business folk who identity as Republicans (including our fearless leader, his coterie of wealthy, power-hungry, morally vacuous advisors and congressional heavyweights), are hypocritical, mean-spirited, duplicitous, full-of-baloney landowners who want it all for themselves at whatever the cost.

The article describes how the state of Washington pays the highest minimum wage in the nation, almost $8.00 per hour, which is almost $3.00 per hour more than the minimum wage paid in neighboring Idaho. When the law raising the wage was passed almost 10 years ago, business owners decried voter’s largesse and predicted dire consequences and shriveling profits. Instead, business is booming in Washington “far beyond” the expectations of the worried rich. Another fascinating study in the power politics of money.

The complete story:

By Timothy Egan

Liberty Lake, Wash., Jan. 9 — Just eight miles separate this town on the Washington side of the state border from Post Falls on the Idaho side. But the towns are nearly $3 an hour apart in the required minimum wage. Washington pays the highest in the nation, just under $8 an hour, and Idaho has among the lowest, matching 21 states that have not raised the hourly wage beyond the federal minimum of $5.15.

Nearly a decade ago, when voters in Washington approved a measure that would give the state’s lowest-paid workers a raise nearly every year, many business leaders predicted that small towns on this side of the state line would suffer.

But instead of shriveling up, small-business owners in Washington say they have prospered far beyond their expectations. In fact, as a significant increase in the national minimum wage heads toward law, businesses here at the dividing line between two economies — a real-life laboratory for the debate — have found that raising prices to compensate for higher wages does not necessarily lead to losses in jobs and profits.

Continue reading "Capital in the Capitol: The Power Politics of Money" »

In a very insightful investigation into how corporate charity is in fact a facade to whitewash the greater cataclysms they wreak, L.A. Times reports about the most famous of them: Gates Foundation.

Dark cloud over good works of Gates Foundation

The world's largest philanthropy pours money into investments that are hurting many of the people its grants aim to help.
By Charles Piller, Edmund Sanders and Robyn Dixon, Times Staff Writers

First of two parts
Ebocha, Nigeria - Justice Eta, 14 months old, held out his tiny thumb.

An ink spot certified that he had been immunized against polio and measles, thanks to a vaccination drive supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

But polio is not the only threat Justice faces. Almost since birth, he has had respiratory trouble. His neighbors call it "the cough." People blame fumes and soot spewing from flames that tower 300 feet into the air over a nearby oil plant. It is owned by the Italian petroleum giant Eni, whose investors include the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Justice squirmed in his mother's arms. His face was beaded with sweat caused either by illness or by heat from the flames that illuminate Ebocha day and night. Ebocha means "city of lights."

The makeshift clinic at a church where Justice Eta was vaccinated and the flares spewing over Ebocha represent a head-on conflict for the Gates Foundation. In a contradiction between its grants and its endowment holdings, a Times investigation has found, the foundation reaps vast financial gains every year from investments that contravene its good works.

In Ebocha, where Justice lives, Dr. Elekwachi Okey, a local physician, says hundreds of flares at oil plants in the Niger Delta have caused an epidemic of bronchitis in adults, and asthma and blurred vision in children. No definitive studies have documented the health effects, but many of the 250 toxic chemicals in the fumes and soot have long been linked to respiratory disease and cancer.

"We're all smokers here," Okey said, "but not with cigarettes."

The oil plants in the region surrounding Ebocha find it cheaper to burn nearly 1 billion cubic feet of gas each day and contribute to global warming than to sell it. They deny the flaring causes sickness. Under pressure from activists, however, Nigeria's high court set a deadline to end flaring by May 2007. The gases would be injected back underground, or trucked and piped out for sale. But authorities expect the flares to burn for years beyond the deadline.

The Gates Foundation has poured $218 million into polio and measles immunization and research worldwide, including in the Niger Delta. At the same time that the foundation is funding inoculations to protect health, The Times found, it has invested $423 million in Eni, Royal Dutch Shell, Exxon Mobil Corp., Chevron Corp. and Total of France — the companies responsible for most of the flares blanketing the delta with pollution, beyond anything permitted in the United States or Europe.

Indeed, local leaders blame oil development for fostering some of the very afflictions that the foundation combats.

Oil workers, for example, and soldiers protecting them are a magnet for prostitution, contributing to a surge in HIV and teenage pregnancy, both targets in the Gates Foundation's efforts to ease the ills of society, especially among the poor. Oil bore holes fill with stagnant water, which is ideal for mosquitoes that spread malaria, one of the diseases the foundation is fighting.

Investigators for Dr. Nonyenim Solomon Enyidah, health commissioner for Rivers State, where Ebocha is located, cite an oil spill clogging rivers as a cause of cholera, another scourge the foundation is battling. The rivers, Enyidah said, "became breeding grounds for all kinds of waterborne diseases."

The bright, sooty gas flares — which contain toxic byproducts such as benzene, mercury and chromium — lower immunity, Enyidah said, and make children such as Justice Eta more susceptible to polio and measles — the diseases that the Gates Foundation has helped to inoculate him against.

Investing for profit

At the end of 2005, the Gates Foundation endowment stood at $35 billion, making it the largest in the world. Then in June 2006, Warren E. Buffett, the world's second-richest man after Bill Gates, pledged to add about $31 billion in installments from his personal fortune. Not counting tens of billions of dollars more that Gates himself has promised, the total is higher than the gross domestic products of 70% of the world's nations.

Like most philanthropies, the Gates Foundation gives away at least 5% of its worth every year, to avoid paying most taxes. In 2005, it granted nearly $1.4 billion. It awards grants mainly in support of global health initiatives, for efforts to improve public education in the United States, and for social welfare programs in the Pacific Northwest.

It invests the other 95% of its worth. This endowment is managed by Bill Gates Investments, which handles Gates' personal fortune. Monica Harrington, a senior policy officer at the foundation, said the investment managers had one goal: returns "that will allow for the continued funding of foundation programs and grant making." Bill and Melinda Gates require the managers to keep a highly diversified portfolio, but make no specific directives.

Continue reading "Gates Foundation: Corporate Charity for Higher Profits" »

Finally, some good words to contain the Fascist Standards of Beauty. Health guidelines have been suggested for models to that effect. Eric Wilson of New York Times has a detailed story.

The fashion industry sells modish trapeze dresses and $800 platform ankle boots. But it also sells women an ideal of beauty embodied by the models who walk the runways and appear in fashion magazines.

And since the fall, American designers have been under increasing pressure to respond to a wave of dangerously thin models who have set the aesthetic standards of global fashion.

Now the industry has decided to issue guidelines to designers, aimed at promoting healthier behavior among its highly paid clothes hangers.

The guidelines, which fall short of modeling restrictions announced in recent months by fashion show organizers in Madrid and Milan, were introduced yesterday at a meeting of the Council of Fashion Designers of America in Manhattan. But the group’s recommendations, which will be sent to designers next week in anticipation of the fall fashion shows that begin in New York on Feb. 2, seem unlikely to satisfy many critics of fashion’s embrace of ultra-thinness.

According to participants at the meeting, the recommendations are likely to include scheduling fashion-show fittings with younger models during daylight hours, rather than late at night, to help them get more sleep; urging designers to identify models with eating disorders; and introducing more nutritious backstage catering, where a diet of Champagne and cigarettes is the norm.

Continue reading "Health Guidelines Suggested for Models" »

Researches indicate majority of homeless people in the country are victims of domestic violence. Time to focus.
A perceptive analysis by Fred Gray for Petoskeynews.com

By far the largest segment of the homeless population in Northern Michigan, as well as in the rest of the country, is made up of women and children who have suffered from domestic violence.

For the past 30 years, the Women's Resource Center of Northern Michigan has provided support for battered women and their children, including shelter, and has sought to educate the public of the problem.

The center recognizes that men can be victims as well, and are eligible for their services, although their numbers are far fewer than women.

Recently the Continuum of Care, a collaborative group that represents 19 organizations in Emmet and Charlevoix counties working to alleviate homelessness, included in its 10-year plan specific strategies toward ending homelessness for victims of domestic abuse

“We are committed to ending domestic violence in our community as well as offering supportive services to people that are experiencing it,” said Jamie Winters, chairperson of the Continuum of Care as well as safe home coordinator of the Women's Resource Center.

Continue reading "Domestic violence a major cause of homelessness" »

New York City is still languishing in poverty, and the infant mortality continues to be a matter of concern. And yet, this is one of the least spoken truth.
Helen Klein for Courier-Life decides to break a story about Brooklyn’s darkest shame, its dying babies.

A human tragedy continues to unfold in central Brooklyn.

The communities at the heart of the borough persist as an epicenter of infant mortality, due in large part to the fact that access to quality, timely health care is limited, both for mothers-to-be and their young infants.

Sadly, this situation endures despite the fact that there have been some gains made in certain areas, thanks to intensive grass-roots efforts at working with mothers-to-be in neighborhoods traditionally under-served in the arena of health.

Indeed, the risk of death is more than three times as high for a black baby in his or her first year of life as it is for that baby’s white counterpart, and more than twice as high for a Puerto Rican infant as for a Caucasian infant, according to Ngosi Moses, the executive director of the Brooklyn Perinatal Network (BPN).

The impact of this on Brooklyn residents is anything but theoretic. The borough is second to the Bronx in the rate of infant mortality (with an average of 6.6 infant deaths per 1,000 live births, compared to 7.1 in the Bronx), according to the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH).

In addition, Moses stressed, six of the 10 community districts in the city with the highest infant mortality rates are in Brooklyn, with five in central Brooklyn. “Some parts have had improvements, but not what we would like to see,” noted Moses.

Even more frightening, while New York City infant mortality rates have decreased overall (to 6.1 per 1,000 live births in 2004, a six percent reduction from 2003), the rate for black infants has risen, particularly in certain neighborhoods, Moses said.

“One of our big concerns is that national trends in black infant mortality went up, and it also went up in New York City,” she explained. “We have seen disparities increase from two-fold to three-fold.”

Increasing Disparity

Using DOHMH statistics from 2004, Moses pointed out that the disparity in infant mortality rate between blacks and whites, “Has been increasing over the past four years as blacks’ infant mortality rate increased by 16 percent while the white infant mortality rate declined by almost the same amount (15 percent) over the same period.”

Continue reading "Brooklyn's darkest shame: Its dying babies" »

Supreme Court has agreed to hear Coca-Cola's appeal in a race discrimination case. 0

The Supreme Court Friday agreed to consider a discrimination case in which a Coca-Cola bottling company fired a black employee, one of seven cases the court added to its docket. Coca-Cola asked the Supreme Court to hear the lawsuit, which involves allegations that a supervisor of employee Stephen Peters was motivated by racial bias and influenced a human resources manager to fire the worker.

Such circumstances are sometimes referred to as "cat's paw" or "rubber stamp" liability. Coca-Cola fired Peters for insubordination after he refused a request to work on a weekend during his scheduled days off.

A federal appeals court reinstated a lawsuit brought on Peters' behalf by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The appeals court said a federal judge placed too much emphasis on the fact that Peters' immediate supervisor made no express recommendation to fire him.

In asking the court to hear the case, the company asked the justices to consider when an employer may be held liable for intentional discrimination when the person who fired an employee harbored no discriminatory bias. Peters worked at the Coca-Cola facility in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The case is BCI Coca-Cola Bottling Company of Los Angeles v. EEOC, 06-341.

Another Possible Hall of Shame.
Sports announcer Jim Lampley has been accused of domestic violence.
News follows:

LOS ANGELES - Sports announcer Jim Lampley denied wrongdoing Thursday after being arrested for investigation of felony domestic violence.

The 57-year-old Lampley was taken into custody Wednesday and booked on the felony charge and investigation of violating a restraining order and dissuading a witness, both misdemeanors, said Mary Helmen, the supervisor of investigators of the San Diego County Sheriff's Department's domestic violence unit.

Sheriff's Capt. Glenn Revell said Lampley was released from the Vista Detention Facility after posting $35,500 bail.
"The circumstances are that there was an altercation between Mr. Lampley and a 28-year-old female with whom he reportedly has a dating relationship," said Revell, adding he could release no additional details pending the presentation of a completed investigation to the district attorney's office.

According to court records, Candice Sanders wrote in an application for a restraining order that Lampley attacked her in her Encinitas apartment on New Year's Eve.

"I received injuries to my head, neck and back from his throwing me against the walls and door," she wrote.

Continue reading "Jim Lampley accused of domestic violence" »

Planning is underway for establishing animal shelter for pets of domestic violence victims in North Carolina. A news report:

WILMINGTON (AP) -- Some groups in New Hanover County are trying to raise money to provide help for pets of domestic violence victims.

The idea is to make it easier for people to get out of abusive situations.
Assistant District Attorney Joy Alford says any time an offender can gain the upper hand or control over their victim, they will use any means to do it.

Rick Hairston, executive director of Carolina Canines for Service, says that probably half of the more than a thousand victims who passed through Domestic Violence Shelter and Services doors in 2006 had pets.

Hairston says Carolina Canines' existing kennel doesn't have enough room to take on a project to help those victims and other families. Carolina Canines' volunteers will be on call 24 hours a day to pick up the animals once the shelter opens. The New Hanover County sheriff's office is donating a K-9 vehicle to pick up the animals and a cell phone for an on-call volunteer.

Actor Tyrese Gibson has been accused of domestic violence by his girlfriend. News report says:

Washington, Jan 5(ANI): Tyrese Gibson is in the center of a domestic violence investigation, after his pregnant girlfriend whose identity remains undisclosed, alleged that the 2 Fast 2 Furious star got violent with her during a verbal dispute.

The three-month pregnant live-in girlfriend claimed that the actor hit her twice in her arm and leg after the verbal quarrel in his Hancock Park home, following which he left the place and has not been seen since.

She was taken to a hospital, where the Los Angeles police say that she was examined and discharged with no visible injuries.

No arrests have taken place and the police are looking out for the actor for further inquiries.

Continue reading "Tyrese Gibson accused of domestic violence " »

Chronicle of Higher Education reports that a former Dean has accused University of Wisconsin at Whitewater of race bias. A federal lawsuit has been filed.

A former dean at the University of Wisconsin at Whitewater has filed a federal racial-discrimination lawsuit against the university, after campus officials demoted him when an audit found he had misspent university money, the Associated Press reported late Tuesday.

Lee J. Jones began working as dean of graduate studies and continuing education at Whitewater in 2004. In the fall of 2005 the university completed the audit and stripped him of his dean’s position, reassigning him as a tenured professor of education. Mr. Jones then filed a racial-discrimination complaint with Wisconsin’s Equal Rights Division, saying the audit had “found no intentional wrongdoing” and charging that his demotion had been “motivated by unlawful race discrimination.” He resigned from the university last April.

In 1999 Mr. Jones helped found Brothers of the Academy, a nationwide group aimed at increasing the number of black men who earn Ph.D.’s and work in academe.

Even as bickerings continue over minimum wage of workers in the United States and no headway is made in the direction of improving the lots of huge majority of working class population, the salaries of the chief executives in big companies have tended to grow at an exponential rate. In fact, studies suggest they have increased 600 percent over the last two decades!

In a recent article in New York Times, more lights are shed.

Compensation Experts Offer Ways to Help Curb Executive Salaries By ERIC DASH

Nothing, it seems, can put the brakes on runaway executive pay.

Shareholder advocates and lawmakers have harshly criticized huge compensation packages. Better disclosure has led only to bigger gains. Even when investors get the chance, they rarely vote against outsized pay.

Despite the growing attention over the last 25 years, the average chief executive’s compensation at big companies has increased more than 600 percent, to $8 million dollars a year after adjusting for inflation. Meanwhile, the ratio between the average pay for a top executive and a worker, which held steady in the 30 years before 1980, has more than quadrupled, to a multiple of 170, according to recent academic research.

“I don’t actually believe we have made any real progress — or very, very little,” said Robert A. G. Monks, a longtime corporate governance advocate. “If we cannot effectively monitor and control what the principal executives are paid, we are kidding ourselves if we can control anything else.”

So what can be done to tie pay more closely to performance, and cut back on excessive benefits and perks?

Executive compensation issues are tricky; the devil is often deep in the footnotes of proxy statements, employment agreements and stock option plans. It will take a concerted effort by both investors and boards to effect real change. Otherwise, lawmakers have threatened to get involved. “It’s not like Iraq, where everybody says it is bad, but nobody says what to do,” said Lucian Bebchuk, a Harvard Law School professor who has been an outspoken critic of executive pay. “The problem is making the process and the people who play a key role in making the decisions want to make improvements.”

Here are eight steps that compensation experts say might help rein in executive pay:

HIRE INDEPENDENT ADVISERS Despite what appears to be an obvious conflict of interest, it is still common for a compensation consultant, hired by the company’s top managers for lucrative actuarial or benefits work, to also help the board evaluate those same executives’ pay.

New Securities and Exchange Commission rules will require companies to disclose the name of their pay adviser. But unlike the rules for auditors, they stop short of requiring them to parse out their other financial ties to the company.

“You certainly don’t want the outside adviser to the compensation committee to become beholden to the company,” James F. Reda, an independent compensation consultant, said.

Continue reading "The Gap Widens: CEOs have the cake and eat it too" »

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According to Justice Department, domestic violence rate has fallen sharply in the US during the last decade. The International Herald Tribune says it could be thus owing to implementation of 1994 Violence Against Women Act that facilitated better police training and more funding for prosecution.
However, what is alarming is that racial disparities remain at large. Following is the detailed report:

WASHINGTON: Domestic violence rates fell sharply between 1993 and 2004, the Justice Department said, noting that American Indian women and native Alaskan women are far more likely to be victimized than whites and other minorities .

The Bureau of Justice Statistics said that "intimate partner violence" rates fell by more than 50 percent. The decline mirrored a decade-long trend in other violent crimes, and the department did not suggest a cause.

"There's still generally no consensus about why any crime in general has dropped," said Shannan Catalano, the study's author said Thursday. "It's safe to say it's more than one factor that went into it."

Some experts attribute the decline to better training for police and more funding for prosecution, two key elements of the 1994 Violence Against Women Act. Investigators increasingly are better trained to handle abuse cases and bring them to court.

"For the first time, there are entire domestic violence units in law enforcement," said Lonna Stevens, director of the Sheila Wellstone Institute, a domestic violence organization. "We've had protocols and policies developed for responding to this."

In 1993, there were about 5.8 incidents of nonfatal violence for every 1,000 U.S. residents above the age of 12. By 2004, that number had fallen to 2.6, the agency said. Homicides fell by about 30 percent, from 2,269 in 1993 to 1,544 in 2004.

The Justice Department defines intimate partner violence as violence by a current or former spouse, boyfriend or girlfriend or a same-sex partner.

Stevens said police have been less successful responding to and deterring abusive behavior in some minority communities, where racism and cultural differences can keep reporting rates low.

Over the 12-year reporting period, about 18 out of every 1,000 American Indian and native Alaskan women were victimized — a violence rate three times higher than among white women.

Black women were more likely than white women to be abused but the study also found that they were more likely to report their abuse to the police than white women.

Women in their early 20s and women who were divorced or separated had the greatest risk of being abused, the study found. Violence was also more common in low-income households.

Asian males, white males and the elderly reported the lowest rates of partner violence.

Click on the picture to visit the irrepressible Mark Fiore's Annual "Twelve Days of Whoopsmas!" Happy New Year, 2007.