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WASHINGTON (AP) — When North Carolina drew its most recent political maps, state leaders split a historically black university in Greensboro into two congressional districts that critics say diluted the voting power of African Americans on campus. Lawmakers defended it as partisan gerrymandering — a tactic that the U.S. Supreme Court refused to block Thursday. But opponents cite it as a classic example where political gerrymandering can have racial consequences. "It's partisan, but it's also based on race as well," said Kylah Guion, a jun...
WASHINGTON (AP) — A rare bipartisan deal in Congress to overhaul federal sentencing laws passed after a few black ministers, leaders and lawmakers forged an alliance with President Donald Trump, who some have condemned as racist for the last two years. The reforms could offer a path to freedom for hundreds of black and Latino inmates who were sent to prison by a justice system that critics say has long been stacked against minorities. "It's like threading a needle politically," said Marc Morial, the National Urban League's president and CEO. "...
ODENTON, Md. (AP) — Gun-rights advocates like to say, "The only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is with a good guy with a gun." Some black gun owners, though, are not so sure it's a wise idea for them to try to be the good guy and pull out a weapon in public. Twice in the span of 11 days last month, a black man who drew a gun in response to a crime in the U.S. was shot to death by a white police officer after apparently being mistaken for the bad guy. Some African-Americans who are licensed to carry weapons say cases like those make them h...
WASHINGTON (AP) — Marcus Dixon was sentenced to 10 years behind bars in Georgia for having sex with an underage white girl when he was 18. Dayonn Davis, another black youth, got a five-year prison sentence for stealing a $100 pair of shoes at gunpoint when he was 15. It's cases like those that minorities and others point to with frustration when they hear some of Brett Kavanaugh's defenders say the sexual assault and underage-drinking accusations against the Supreme Court nominee fall under the category of "Boys will be boys." Some see a r...
WASHINGTON (AP) — For years, Omarosa Manigault Newman stood at Donald Trump's side, making her deeply unpopular with African-Americans who see her as a sellout for aligning herself with a president who has hurled one insult after another at black people. Her falling out with Trump and her decision to call him a racist as she sells her new book — and in turn, his calling her a "dog" — have not been enough for many African-Americans to invite her back to the family picnic. Too little, too late, many said. "Her tell-all mea culpa won't win her a...
Foster care advocates say the government won't likely be able to reunite thousands of children separated from parents who crossed the border illegally, and some will end up in an American foster care system that is stacked against Latinos and other minorities. With few Spanish-speaking caseworkers, it's a challenge tracking down family members of the children who live south of the U.S.-Mexico border, and other relatives living in the states might be afraid to step forward to claim them because of fears of being detained or deported themselves....
GREAT MILLS, Md. (AP) — A teenager armed with a handgun shot and critically wounded a girl inside a Maryland school on Tuesday and the shooter was killed when a school resource officer confronted him moments after the gunfire erupted. A third student was in good condition after he was shot. The shooting at Great Mills High School, a month after 17 people were killed at a Florida high school, increased calls for Congress to act on gun violence at schools. This weekend, students across the country plan an anti-gun violence march on the n...
WASHINGTON (AP) — National Geographic acknowledged on Monday that it covered the world through a racist lens for generations, with its magazine portrayals of bare-breasted women and naive brown-skinned tribesmen as savage, unsophisticated and unintelligent. "We had to own our story to move beyond it," editor-in-chief Susan Goldberg told The Associated Press in an interview about the yellow-bordered magazine's April issue, which is devoted to race. National Geographic first published its magazine in 1888. An investigation conducted last fall b...
WASHINGTON (AP) — National Geographic acknowledged on Monday that it covered the world through a racist lens for generations, with its magazine portrayals of bare-breasted women and naive brown-skinned tribesmen as savage, unsophisticated and unintelligent. "We had to own our story to move beyond it," editor-in-chief Susan Goldberg told The Associated Press in an interview about the yellow-bordered magazine's April issue, which is devoted to race. National Geographic first published its magazine in 1888. An investigation conducted last fall b...
WASHINGTON (AP) — A majority of Americans living in struggling communities say they have respect for and confidence in the police who patrol their neighborhoods, according to a survey released Sunday. More than 7 in 10 Americans who live in these communities said they have some or a lot of confidence in the police who patrol their neighborhoods, according to the State of Opportunity in America survey. The numbers go up even higher when asked about respect for the police: 86 percent of people in struggling neighborhoods said they had some or a...
WASHINGTON (AP) — Once again, black women showed up for Democrats, with nearly all of them voting in Alabama for new Sen. Doug Jones, just as they did for Democratic candidates up and down the ballot in other states over the last few months. The same women, having proven their loyalty by voting 98 percent for Jones, now wonder whether the Democratic Party will return the favor by sharing some of the party's political power, handing over places at the negotiating table and pushing legislation that speaks to their unique issues. "Black women s...
With a new school year dawning, education officials are grappling with whether to remove the names, images and statues of Confederate figures from public schools — especially since some are now filled with students of color. The violence at a white nationalist rally over a Robert E. Lee statue in Charlottesville, Virginia, is giving school officials a new reason to reconsider whether it's appropriate for more than 100 schools to be named after Confederate generals and politicians from the Old South. "It does not make sense to have schools n...
WASHINGTON (AP) — Adults think that black girls are less innocent, less in need of protection and nurturing, and seem older than similarly aged white girls, which could lead to stiffer punishments in school, a new report said Tuesday. The report also said American adults think black girls know more about adult topics and about sex than white girls of the same age. And those perceptions are greater when it comes to younger black girls ages 5-9 and 10-14. The discrepancy continues to a lesser degree with girls ages 15-19. "This new evidence of w...
