Andrew Blomberg, an ex-Houston Police Officer, looks into the audience before his trial for beating a teenage burglary suspect in the Harris County Criminal Justice Center in Houston.

Andrew Blomberg, a former Houston police officer, was acquitted Wednesday in the alleged beating of a black 15-year-old burglary suspect during a videotaped arrest.

The acquittal by an all-white jury upset community leaders who criticized the verdict as unjust and racist.

Blomberg, 29, was the first of four fired police officers to stand trial for their roles in the alleged beating of Chad Holley during a daylight arrest on March 2010. The incident involving the youth, now 18, prompted fierce public criticism of the police department by community activists who called it another example of police brutality against minorities.

Blomberg could have faced up to a year in jail if convicted of official oppression, a misdemeanor that alleged Blomberg as a public servant intentionally mistreated Holley by kicking him.

During his trial, Blomberg, who is white, testified that he didn’t mistreat Holley and denied kicking or stomping on the teen’s head or neck. He said he only used his foot to move Holley’s arm after he refused to comply with an order to put his hands behind his back.

Community activists who were gathered in the hallway outside the courtroom yelled "Racism!" and "Injustice!" after hearing the outcome.

"It is pathetic. It is unacceptable," the Rev. James Dixon of the Community of Faith Church said of the jury’s decision. "This kind of expression says to me, to my children and to every black child in the city, `Your life is not worth manure.’"

Quanell X, the community activist who had released the video of the alleged beating to the media, called the verdict "wrong" and criticized the lack of blacks or other minorities on the six-person jury.

"They knew what they were doing with an all-white jury," he said.

Blomberg denied that his actions during the arrest were racially motivated. To those who insist Holley was treated a certain way because of his race, Blomberg said, "They weren’t out there that day."

His attorney, Dick DeGuerin, also said "it is not and was not a racial thing."

"It’s been made into that by others for their own reasons," he said.

Asked why there weren’t any blacks or minorities on the jury, DeGuerin said most of the African-Americans in the jury pool had already made up their minds that Blomberg was guilty.

Harris County District Attorney Pat Lykos said while she respectfully disagreed with the jury’s decision, she also accepted it.

The other officers also are charged with official oppression. Two of them face another misdemeanor as well: violating the civil rights of a prisoner. Their trial dates have not been set.

In the video footage from a security camera, which jurors were shown in court, Holley is seen falling to the ground after trying to hurdle a police squad car. He’s then surrounded by at least five officers, some who appear to kick and hit his head, abdomen and legs.

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504083_162-57436364-504083/andrew-blomberg-ex-houston-police-officer-acquitted-of-beating-teen-suspect/

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A Colorado second-grade student tried to honor Martin Luther King Jr., but ended up sparking a debate about racism.

Sean King, 8, dressed up like MLK as part of a history project assigned by his teacher, according to a report from Colorado television station KRDO.

King’s mother told KRDO her son was excited and wanted to wear a black suit, a mustache and paint his face black.

But before King’s presentation, his mother said, the teacher told them a staff member and other students were offended and he had to wash the face paint off.

When they refused, they were asked to leave the school.

"I worked very hard. I tried my best. I don’t want to be mean to them," King told KRDO. "It’s just a costume. I don’t want to insult anybody."

School district officials said there weren’t guidelines given for the class project, but that wearing face paint violates the school’s dress code policy.

http://www.fox19.com/story/18503960/boys-mlk-jr-tribute-sparks-racism-debate-in-colorado

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England manager Roy Hodgson admitted to being ‘concerned’ about racism in Ukraine

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England manager Roy Hodgson admitted to being ‘concerned’ about racism in Ukraine. Foreign Office warns fans ahead of tournament despite blanket denials by Ukrainian authorities

The Foreign Office has reiterated its advice to any black or Asian supporters going to Ukraine for this summer’s European Championship that they face the possibility of being racially abused. On Wednesday Theo Walcott’s family said they would not be travelling to Ukraine, where England will play their three group games, because of worries over racism. The Independent has been contacted by England fans who have cancelled trips to the finals for fear of receiving abuse, although the Ukrainian authorities insist it will not be a problem for any supporters.

The Foreign Office website, last updated at the end of April, advises: "Travellers of Asian or Afro-Caribbean descent should take extra care."

A spokesperson for the Foreign Office said yesterday: "You cannot rule out the possibility of racism towards visiting fans. There is a risk in Poland and Ukraine as with many other countries where England play. We encourage visiting fans to report any incidents to the police."

Roy Hodgson drew fresh attention to the issue this week. Speaking after naming his squad for the finals, the England manager said: "There’s no doubt that the issue of racism, and the Sky report into hooliganism, and the violence in the Ukraine is a concern to us all, not least the supporters who are going to go and maybe risk getting beaten up if they don’t happen to be white."

Ukrainian authorities dismissed the Sky report, which highlighted the issue of hooliganism among local supporters, as the actions of a "few idiots". They also sought to downplay the likelihood of ethnic minorities being abused, claiming there have been few recent reported incidents.

"We would like to stress that there is absolutely no problem of this sort in Ukraine," said Volodymyr Khandogiy, the country’s ambassador to the UK. "We are surprised by this issue being raised now. We have had a few minor incidents and the reaction was how it should be. There is no need to have fear for the Euros. I guarantee that all fans, no matter their nationality or colour, will enjoy the football festival."

Over 80,000 police and stewards in Ukraine are receiving anti-discrimination training ahead of the finals, which begin on 8 June.

The attitude of the Ukrainian police towards racist attacks has been highlighted by the US State Department. Its advice to travellers to Ukraine says: "The police and government’s slow response to hate crimes is a continuing concern. Although senior government officials have publicly deplored these hate crimes, street-level law enforcement officials are either unwilling or unable to deter hate crimes effectively or protect racial minorities adequately."

http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/international/its-official-expect-to-be-racially-abused-at-euros-7763895.html

It’s official: The United States is officially "tan." According to the U.S. Census Bureau’s first population estimate by age, race, ethnicity, and sex since the 2010 Census, "50.4 percent of our nation’s population younger than age 1 were minorities as of July 1, 2011. This is up from 49.5 percent from the 2010 Census taken April 1, 2010. The population younger than age 5 was 49.7 percent minority in 2011, up from 49.0 percent in 2010."

As expected, media flurry ensued. The Associated Press was among the first outlets to pick up the story reporting, "For the first time, racial and ethnic minorities make up more than half the children born in the U.S." USA Today noted the nation’s changing complexion and described the Census Bureau’s report as "a sign of how swiftly the USA is becoming a nation of younger minorities and older whites." And according to the New York Times, "such a turn has been long expected, but no one was certain when the moment would arrive."

Now that the moment is here we must reckon with it. Today’s Census statement marks a social milestone for a nation that has struggled with issues of diversity, privilege, and power. But, as I suggest in my forthcoming book Clearly Invisible: Racial Passing and the Color of Cultural Identity, the tanning of America might be only skin deep. Or, putting it differently: Is the U.S. passing as "tan"?

Some say no. Among them is entertainment marketing icon Steve Stoute. Stoute writes that "tanning" is more than a change of complexion for our nation. "Tanning" is a change of mind that can lead to increased participation in media, culture, politics, technology, and economics for our nation’s youth. The LA Times, for one, hopes that Stoute is right:

The new numbers indicate that the upcoming generations will be more diverse and could have an increasingly broader view of issues — such as immigration reform — that are based on race and ethnicity. There will also be cultural changes — as there have been in recent years, with foods, music and ideas from Latino cultures, for example, spreading into the mainstream.

But a quick Facebook poll shows that many people are doubtful that the effects "tanning" has had in the worlds of culture and marketing will be seen in the worlds of politics and privilege. Take the focus on language: "the irony of the phrase ‘majority minority’" or "minorities, really? New terms needed badly" or "Yep. Oxymoron somewhat." Responses like these show that we don’t even have the proper language to have a full color conversation about our nation’s changing demographics. Then there’s the political angle: "This does not mean that white supremacy disappears, one can look at places such as South Africa where even though whites may be in the ‘minority’ they hold the most power;" or "it appears that the more the numbers change, the more the white establishment digs in;" or "What is the hard work we do now to make that a new reflection of representative democracy?" Responses like these show that looking at demographics without also looking at political representation and effects of legal and social histories does not imply social justice.

Here’s why you should care. Because looking at tomorrow’s "tanning" generation in demographic terms only subtly promotes them as the chosen ones who can and will dismantle racism that took centuries to build. When we take this perspective we are shifting the responsibility of solving institutional and structural racism off those of us who were born before July 1, 2011 and off our legal and social histories. This is not only unfair — it’s unrealistic. Predicting the demise of racism by the rising number of nonwhite births is probably not the best way to fulfill our desire for a more just society. Wouldn’t the present-day elimination of disparities in income, employment, health care, education, crime, punishment and family structure for this new generation (as well as their parents) be more accurate measures?

Before we rush to judgment on whether an "tanning" or "majority-minority" nation is finally doing away with its troubled racial past, we would be wise to remember that having the conversation in demographic terms only forces us to isolate the concepts of race, ethnicity, and racism from the legal, political, and social customs that got us into this mess in the first place. A demographics-only conversation also makes ending racism and ethnocentrism by legal, political, and cultural means all the more difficult to imagine.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/marcia-alesan-dawkins/minority-births_b_1525238.html

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Amie Breeze Harper didn’t allow the racist comments she faced on her Internet blog to get in the way of her end goal.

Imagine you’re walking down a dark tunnel and you hear voices yelling at you.

You can’t tell where the voices are coming from or whose hurtful words they are.

This is analogous to the world of discrimination on the Internet.

With the easy accessibility to email, social media and the Internet for the younger generation, concerns of cyberbullying are on the rise. But an even more alarming concern is when that bullying is taken one step further to cyber-racism, where racially offensive language or comments are used at a targeted audience.

Amie Breeze Harper, a Ph.D. candidate in geography at the University of California, Davis, has encountered intense racist commentary in her attempt to build an online black female vegan community. She created a website, “Sistah Vegan” and wrote a book, addressing the racialized-gender vegan experience in the United States.

“I was trying to promote the book and my online website by looking for black women who were interested in joining my movement,” Harper said. “I got a lot of white people angry and they weren’t afraid to say it online.”

On her website, there is a display of varying comments — some supportive, some constructive. Others are accusatory and others very hurtful.

“You can see the evidence of bullying in the comments on my blog posts,” Harper, 36, said. “A lot of people don’t want to acknowledge, like I do, that race is an issue but it is. They react in mean ways.”

Professor Gary Bailey, of Simmons College’s School of Social Work in Boston, said there has been a “proliferation of hate speak on the Internet that is alarming” and it raises an enormous concern for those who see these types of things happening.

Through his studies and Internet usage, Bailey suggests that technology serves as the gateway to cyber-racism.

“Social media — it’s what I refer to as the ‘new white sheets on horseback in the night,’ ” Bailey said. It allows people to spew forth such venom and hatred and to do so from the comfort of their living rooms.”

He highlights the idea of cyber-racism taking place from the seclusion of one’s own home, shielded from the outside world.

“People feel that they can say far more in cyberspace than they ever dare face to face — that is what I mean by the new white sheets — which is a reference to the KKK and how they hid their identities behind sheets and aren’t held accountable for what one is saying that in my mind is hateful speech,” Bailey said.

Harper strived to make an online community where women of color could bond together to discuss alternative health and food consumption, like veganism and vegetarianism.

“I faced a lot of anger from people on my blog,” Harper said. “They didn’t like my ideas on race and food and that was just too bad. I was annoyed how people just blasted away on the website when I was trying to tie women together.”

Bailey said racism is still alive and sadly flourishing, and women continue to struggle despite the gains of feminist pioneers.

Martha Nussbaum, a professor of Law and Ethics at the University of Chicago, said racist or discriminatory postings on the Internet, like the ones Harper faced, can be subject to legal consequences.

“Material on the Internet can be legally actionable under the familiar torts of defamation, invasion of privacy, and intentional infliction of emotional distress,” Nussbaum said. “But there is a catch.”

Nussbaum, who wrote the book “The Offensive Internet: Speech, Privacy, and Reputation” along with Saul Levmore, said there is a difference in responsibility of speech on the Internet verses in print.”

“However, section 230 of the Communications Decency Act immunizes website owners and providers of all legal liability for damages, as is not the case for newspapers, which do bear legal liability for defamatory material that they publish,” Nussbaum said.

As Bailey’s argument emphasized, the privacy of the Internet causes a problem for prosecution.

“The posters are potentially liable, but the anonymity shielded by the Internet makes it virtually impossible to sue,” Nussbaum said.

A recent example of cyber-racism, where offenders could not be punished, made headlines in the sports world.

“A sad example is the incident with my own Boston Bruins and the racist attacks on Washington player Joel Ward after he scored the winning goal in the playoffs leading up to the Stanley Cup,” Bailey said.

“Twitter went wild with angry Bruins fans spewing racist rants and the "N" word at Ward who happens to be Black,” Bailey said.

The Bruins Association publicly apologized and distanced itself from the behavior of their fans, but the damage was already done.

“Many people have told me with my vegan blog I am playing the race card, but I think there are important racial issues that should be discussed online,” Harper said. “I’m not just going to make white people not feel uncomfortable by keeping quiet.”

Nussbaum also points out that cyberbullying that is sexist or racist may be a civil rights violation. But the same problem applies: “If you don’t know who is doing it, then it is hard to take action,” Nussbaum said.

Referring to people’s freedom to post comments anonymously on her site, Harper said, “I like that, and I feel like if you’re a racist at least I know what I’m working with. Cyberspace allows me to experience racism that I wouldn’t normally encounter in real life and then I learn how to deal with it, not in a physical space.”
For younger and less well-known people, Nussbaum said racist and hurtful comments online can be significant, because it defines them in the public realm.

“The fact that the Internet circulates everywhere and is virtually indelible makes it unlike traditional gossip and slander,” Nussbaum said.

But Harper said she does see a light at the end of the dark tunnel of the Internet and will continue her work on her online vegan community.

“No matter how people abuse it now or in the future, the Internet is a great place for us to come together and share experience and find support within one another.”

http://news.medill.northwestern.edu/chicago/news.aspx?id=205716

At some of Lebanon’s beaches, domestic workers may enter but not swim while at others they are banned outright.

The Tourism Ministry has opened the summer beach season by banning resorts from discriminating on the basis of race, nationality or disability, but reports of bias in entry policies persist and some owners appear unwilling to conform to the new regulations. The issue of racism at Lebanon’s popular beach clubs is not new.

In 2010, the activist group Anti-Racism Movement caused a stir with a video that showed a black woman being denied entry to Beirut’s Sporting Club. This week, the group posted another clip about racism at beach clubs, highlighting what has become a focal point in the discrimination debate: policies that forbid migrant domestic workers from entry, or restrict their access to swimming facilities.

The Daily Star has obtained a copy of a circular issued in late April by Nada Sardouk, director-general of the Tourism Ministry, addressed to the owners of beach clubs and pools.

It urges “quality in receiving customers, with no discrimination in terms of race, nationality or … special needs.” Among the circular’s other stipulations are lifeguards and free drinking water.

A ministry spokesperson told The Daily Star that it will conduct periodic spot checks of resorts, and those who fail to conform to the circular will be issued warnings and fines.

The spokesperson added that the ministry would move to close repeat violators. The circular “directs the attention to those concerned that the ministry will be firm in implementing them [the requirements] and will unfortunately be forced to take the appropriate legal measures against those who violate it.”

At Beirut’s Sporting Club, which has long been accused of racist policies, public relations manager Walid Abu Nasser told The Daily Star he was aware of the circular, but considered it “totally wrong. I asked them [the ministry] to please specify, in a complete list, all people I should let into private clubs. They should first of all decide what the rules are for private clubs, and what the rules are for public beaches.”

According to Abu Nasser, Sporting Club’s policy “has always been that any kind of worker, bodyguard, security, escort, maid – any help except for those medically required – are not allowed on the premises.” He added that he considered this to be “social,” rather than racial selection.

Abu Nasser said Sporting Club does screen non-members at the door.

“We screen the clients as to whether they have come introduced by someone at the club,” he said. “They also have to fit a certain profile that we require to maintain a homogeneous atmosphere regardless of whether [potential entrants] are Lebanese, workers or foreigners – it doesn’t matter.”

He continued that the club’s policy was not related to “racial issues,” and that the club reserves the right to turn away anyone at its door, including families with many children, or unaccompanied men.

“It has nothing to do with anything except for what we deem is reasonable for the club’s members to feel comfortable in the environment that they are used to. The same thing happens at any nightclub,” Abu Nasser said, adding that the club has foreign members including employees of the United Nations and embassies.

But in the opinion of Human Rights Watch’s Beirut director Nadim Houry, the nightclub comparison hits at the center of prejudice in the policies of Sporting Club and other beaches and pools.

“Nightclubs discriminate and that is intolerable,” he said. “The issue here is there needs to be no discrimination on socioeconomic status, gender, race, or nationality. That has to be fought.”

Lebanon currently has no all-encompassing anti-discrimination law.

“In addition to racism there is classism in Lebanese society, but that doesn’t make [discrimination on that basis] any more OK,” Houry added.

A public relations official at Beirut’s Les Creneaux, which does not allow domestic or other workers such as bodyguards into its pool, similarly denied that his club discriminates on the basis of race.

“As a worker, in general you can accompany [an employer] but you cannot use the facility … you have to pay to use the facility.” He said that as the club requires membership for entry, domestic workers may use the facilities as invitees.

The policies of other clubs vary. Martisol Rizk, senior marketing executive at Beirut’s Riviera, said that domestic workers can “come in normally and swim.”

Raya Salame, co-owner of the Portemillio in Kaslik, told The Daily Star that officially domestic workers are not allowed into the pool, but unofficially they are permitted to swim “for the safety of the kids.”

She said she is aware of the circular, and added that “we don’t discriminate.” Salame said the only way to access the resorts’ facilities are with a visitor’s card, or by renting a chalet, hotel room or cabin. Anyone, including domestic workers, Salame said, can use a visitor’s card or rent a place at the resort.

Villamar in Khalde declined to comment on its policies, and Beirut’s Coral Beach Resort did not reply to a request for comment. Both places reportedly forbid domestic workers from swimming.

At Edde Sands in Jbeil, marketing manager Joanne Zarife said that domestic workers are allowed access to the pool if they come with or without their employers, as long as they are wearing proper bathing attire.

She added that occasionally, employers ask that domestic workers enter the pool in uniform and “this is discrimination” against workers, hence the bathing suit policy.

Human Rights Watch’s Houry said that while he found the circular “encouraging” in principle, the key will be whether it is enforced.

The ministry said that as it cannot monitor all clubs and resorts constantly, it encouraged anyone who has been the victim of discrimination or witnessed any other violations of the circular’s regulations to file a formal complaint with the ministry.

On balance, Houry pointed out that most of the country’s beaches, even those that allow everyone in, are practically inaccessible to most migrant domestic workers due to their high entrance fees.

“But it is the principle,” Houry added. “It is the visible tip of the iceberg of discrimination.”

http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Local-News/2012/May-18/173793-tourism-ministry-bans-discrimination-at-beaches.ashx#ixzz1vArZ5scl
(The Daily Star :: Lebanon News :: http://www.dailystar.com.lb)