NAACP Wins Lawsuit to Protect Poor Potential Indiana Voters
In 2008, Obama Won by About 23,000 Votes
U.S. District Judge Tanya Walton Pratt approved the settlement of a class action lawsuit brought against Indiana officials to bring the State into compliance with the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA). The NVRA requires that state public assistance agencies offer voter registration to
their clients when clients apply for benefits, and when they recertify or submit a change of address. Indiana already began implementation of the settlement prior to its approval by Judge Pratt, and the number of persons submitting registration applications through state public assistance offices in recent months has increased substantially.
Monthly average registration applications are now approximately 4,800, compared to only about 100 prior to the filing of the lawsuit in July 2009. In 2008, Obama won Indiana by about 23,000 votes out of more than 2.7 million cast.
The suit was brought by the Indiana State Conference of the NAACP on behalf of all state public assistance clients injured by the State’s violation of federal law. Plaintiff and the class are represented by attorneys from the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, Project Vote, Demos, the Chicago law firm of Miner, Barnhill & Galland, the NAACP, and the ACLU of Indiana.
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He’s a Great Irish . . . ? |
Obama Wins Because He’s Black?
The Washington Post reported that on CNN’s State of the Union, Virginia governor Bob McDonell (who heads the Republican Governors Association) said of his rival, Maryland governor Martin O’Malley (who heads the Democratic Governors Association),: “He’s a great Irish American, just like me.”
In Slate magazine, Republican Joe Walsh said Obama won because he is Black.
“Why was he elected? Again, it comes back to who he was. He was Black, he was historic. And there’s nothing racist about this. It is what it is. If he had been a dynamic, White, state senator elected to Congress he wouldn’t have gotten in the game this fast. This is what made him different. That, combined with the fact that your profession”—another friendly tap of the bumper sticker—”not you, but your profession, was just absolutely compliant. They made up their minds early that they were in love with him. They were in love with him because they thought he was a good liberal guy and they were in love with him because he pushed that magical button: a Black man who was articulate, liberal, the whole White guilt, all of that.”
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Free Obama 2012 Bumper Sticker
The Obama reelection team is offering free Obama bumper stickers.
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Non-White Youth Media Consumption May Be Hampering Academic Achievement
By Nadra Kareem Nittle
America’s Wire
According to a Northwestern University study on youth media consumption, “Children, Media and Race: Media Use Among White, Black, Hispanic, and Asian American Children,” Non-White youth between ages 8 and 18 use cellphones, television, computers and other electronic devices an average of 13 hours daily. That’s 4-1/2 hours more than their White counterparts.
The study has renewed debate about whether youths spend too much time on media consumption and not enough on reading and studying. While some people insist that the disparity in media consumption contributes to the education gap between Non-White and White youths, others cite it as a positive that can aid a child’s educational growth.
 “I think that the results of this study coupled with the other factors that we know influence student performance. When you combine all of this together, it’s another indication that we need to take extra steps to reach [Non-White] youth,” says Sharon Lewis, research director for the Council of the Great City Schools, an advocate for urban public schools and students.
“Factors such as health, such as preschool experience, such as a sibling that may not have graduated, such as coming from a single-parent household and then you add this [media consumption] to it—it’s another indication,” she continued.
Surprisingly, the Northwestern report showed little difference in numbers of computers in homes of White, Black and Latino. Homes of each of these groups have about two computers, while Asian-American homes average three.
“This runs counter to the digital divide talk of the late ’90s and early part of the millennium when they said that Black and Latino youth would be left behind technologically,” says Félix Gutiérrez, a University of Southern California journalism and communication professor who has written extensively about race and media.
Photo: Sharon Lewis.
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Joe Jackson, father of the late Michael Jackson, honored what would have been his son’s 53rd birthday with a visit to Mister Lucky’s Lounge at 1100 Grant St., Gary, IN where 6-year-old Michael and his brothers did their first local performance.
The August jobs report was dismal for plenty of reasons, but perhaps most striking was the picture it painted of racial inequality in the job market reports CNN. "Even when you compare Black and White workers, same age range, same education, you still see pretty significant gaps in unemployment rates," said Algernon Austin, director of the Race, Ethnicity, and the Economy program at the Economic Policy Institute. "So I do think the fact of racial discrimination in the labor market continues to play a role."