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Race
Quick Hit
by Ashlee Rezin
1:12pm
Mon May 20

CPS Policies Reinforce Segregation In Chicago, Finds CTU Report

On the 59-year anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court's landmark decision to end segregation in public schools, Brown v. Board of Education, the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) released a report claiming widespread segregation still exists in Chicago Public Schools (CPS) and the district’s administration is doing nothing to address it.

In the 2011-2012 school year, 69 percent of African-American students in CPS were in schools with more than 90 percent of the student body composed of the same ethnicity, according to Friday’s report, titled “Still Separate, Still Unequal” (PDF).

“The newest CPS leadership frames the district’s current inequities as an inevitable result of demographic trends,” the report reads. “Their fraudulent attempts to absolve corporate reform of any culpability in our separate and unequal school system are an extension of the resistance that enforcement of desegregation faced in the decades after Brown v Board.”

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Quick Hit
by Ashlee Rezin
3:02pm
Fri Mar 1

Report: Racial Wealth Gap Nearly Tripled Over Last 25 Years, Home Ownership A Factor

Derived from a long history of discrimination, a staggering opportunity gap has widened financial disparities between black and white Americans, condemning African Americans to less home equity, according to a new report by the Institute on Assets and Social Policy (IASP) at Brandeis University.

After studying 1,700 American families for 25 years, the report examines the major causes of America’s racial wealth gap. Researchers found that the total wealth gap between white and African American families had almost tripled during the study, increasing from $85,000 in 1984 to $236,500 in 2009.

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PI Original
by Steven Ross Johnson
3:11pm
Fri May 18, 2012

GOP Super PAC Considers A Play On Race, Cultural Lines With Rev. Wright Attack Ads

Recent reports about a conservative Super PAC’s plan to run attack commercials based on President Barack Obama’s relationship with his former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright - and the backlash that has come as a result - has raised questions as to how much an impact ads intended to divide along racial or cultural lines will have during this election season.

Quick Hit
by Brandon Campbell
10:58am
Fri Feb 10, 2012

School Council Members File Suit To Stop Proposed Turnarounds, Closings (VIDEO)

Ten members of nine local school councils Thursday filed a lawsuit with the Circuit Court of Cook County seeking to stop the Chicago Public Schools Board from closing or turning around their neighborhood schools.

With financial and legal backing from the Chicago Teachers Union, the LSC members allege that CPS is targeting a disproportionately high number of schools with predominantly African American student bodies for these actions.

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PI Original
by Angela Caputo
11:16am
Fri Jun 12, 2009

Complaint: Renaissance 2010 Hiring Racially Biased

It's now been six years since Chicago Public Schools officials began plowing forward with the Renaissance 2010 school reform initiative. As the dust begins to settle, the effects of closing and reorganizing dozens of troubled schools is starting to come to light. The ...

PI Original
by Josh Kalven
11:09am
Fri Jan 2, 2009

The Rush Effect (UPDATED)

The New York Times listens in on WVON:

Throughout Wednesday the telephone lines were burning in the studios
of WVON, a black talk radio station in Chicago, where scores of callers
voiced their outrage at what they described as the racist efforts to
block Mr. ...

PI Original
by Josh Kalven
2:45pm
Sat Oct 18, 2008

Even The Racists Are Voting For Obama

About two weeks ago, I posted an item headlined "Even The Racists Are Undecided" that offered up anecdotal evidence that some Americans who think it's okay to call Barack Obama a "n***ger" are also leaning towards voting for him.  Well, here's your latest ...