New Jersey Drops Charges for Man Imprisoned 19 Years. A family rejoices.
Barry C. Scheck, co-director of the Innocence Project, the Manhattan legal clinic that revived the case, said Mr. Halsey was the 205th inmate nationally, and the fifth in New Jersey, to be exonerated through DNA testing.Mr.Scheck said he hoped Mr. Halsey’s case would bolster efforts in the state to abolish the death penalty, which has not been carried out since 1963. —NYTimes

L’Oréal found guilty of racism in France. But people of color are so in.
The Guardian is reporting that a part of the French company L’Oréal has been found guilty of racial discrimination after it sought in a 2000 campaign to exclude non-white saleswomen from promoting its Garnier Fructis Style shampoo line in supermarkets outside of Paris.—Gay Persons of Color

Students Launch Campaign to Dismantle ‘Asian American’ at UCs. Saying no to othering.
In order to call attention to the plight of smaller APA ethnic groups, UCLA’s Asian Pacific Coalition (APC) is leading a campaign to pressure university administrators to disaggregate the “Other Asian” category, which critics say traps some APAs under the Model Minority Myth. —Pacific Citizen

Arab American Cartoonist’s WMD. We support.
Khalil Bendib is a rare specimen of a vanishing breed - a political cartoonist and an Arab-American. He calls his cartoons weapons of mass deprecation and takes on the US administration and fellow Arabs., corporations and the mass media.—UpFront Radio

Don’t believe reports of the NAACP’s demise. Sinking ship?
On the last day of its term, the U.S. Supreme Court removed minority children from the law’s protection. By a 5-4 vote, the court ruled that race cannot be considered in voluntary student assignment plans. One need look no further than this attack on the NAACP’s greatest legal victory, Brown v. Board of Education, to confirm the continuing need for a vibrant, aggressive NAACP. —Julian Bonds for the Detroit Free Press

Small-Town Resistance Helped to Seal Defeat. of immigration bill; a racist ode to small towns.
A stay-at-home mother of two, Usrey has dreaded shopping at this particular branch ever since a Friday afternoon about five years ago, when she said she suddenly noticed she was the only non-Latino customer. —Washington Post

Posted at 4:56 AM, Jul 10, 2007 in Permalink | View Comments