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The Respect Rundown
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The Respect Rundown is an update blog for the Foundation’s diversity newsletter, Respect, published FREE three times a year. Posts for the Rundown will update a story that was recently published in Respect but has had some development since publication. Posts will be added periodically. Check back often to get the Rundown!
NOTE: Beginning with the fall 2019 edition of Respect, we will be posting to the blog stories that have been published in the newspaper (complete with discussion questions) so they may be used as individual handouts.
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Long-Awaited Decision Not a Piece of Cake
by Maria Wood Freedom of religion is a hot button issue for most Americans, and so is the protection of LGBTQ rights. So when the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear Masterpiece Cakeshop vs. Colorado Civil Rights Commission, a case in which a Colorado baker declined to...
Harvard Lawsuit Tests Limits of Affirmative Action
by Maria Wood It would be great if everyone who applied to higher education were judged on merit alone and affirmative action was not needed. But, as Andre M. Perry, an education advocate who focuses on race and inequality, wrote in a column, “The historic denial of...
Explaining the Roots of Institutional Racism
by Phyllis Raybin Emert Individual acts of racism are easy to identify. A young white man shoots members of a black church. The n-word is painted on a family’s home. Black people are beaten or terrorized because of the color of their skin. Instances of institutional...
School Discipline Harsher for Black Students
by Michael Barbella The way a disciplinary incident involving a sixth-grader was handled at a school in Florida is reflective of the racial bias that has existed in American school discipline policies for at least half a century, according to a 2018 report issued by...
You’ve Got Bail—If You Have the Cash
by Alice Popovici The Eighth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution states: “Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishment inflicted.” Despite this provision, the U.S. has the highest incarceration rate in the world,...
Convicting With a Divided Jury
by Phyllis Raybin Emert John Adams, Founding Father and our second president, once said: “It is the unanimity of the jury that preserves the rights of mankind.” The federal justice system operates on this premise, as well as 48 state courts—the other two states, not...
Fighting Against Hate
by Maria Wood According to statistics compiled by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), in 2018, there were more than 7,100 reported hate crime incidents nationwide. The bulk of those hate crimes, nearly 2,000, were against African Americans. The Bureau of...
Does Technology Discriminate?
by Michael Barbella We all come into contact with facial recognition software everyday, sometimes without even knowing it. The technology is used in everything from unlocking iPhones to opening doors to paying for purchases. Facial recognition technology has grown in...
Can Hate Be Banned From Social Media?
by Phyllis Raybin Emert Freedom of speech is the foundation of the United States. Social media has changed the landscape of free speech but essentially the same rules apply. The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution states: “Congress shall make no law…abridging the...
Selecting the Perfect Jury Without Bias
by Maria Wood In general, attorneys—whether on the defense or prosecution—want to obtain a jury that is favorable to their side. The practice of jury selection, however, has come under scrutiny because of the potential for prosecutors to exclude jurors based on race....