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Third in a Series Professor Charles Ogletree of Harvard Law School launched the Racial Justice Conference in Frisco, Tex., earlier this month with a thought provoking discussion covering a range […]

In the 1980s and early 1990s, racial discrimination in mortgage lending resulted in less access to home loans for predominantly black and Latino borrowers and neighborhoods. Home mortgages were a [...]

An academic study has shown that ethnic minorities in the United Kingdom are discriminated against in the workplace despite legislation to prevent it. Ethnic minorities are more likely to be out of work than white people, they earn less, especially Pakistanis who only earn 31% of the wage a white person receives. Ethnic employees are discriminated against because they tend not to get promoted. The Council for Racial Equality encourages firms to write policies to promote racial equality and 300 companies have committed to this. The will has to be there for any progress to be made.

John Melenchuk said his complaint with the Canadian Human Rights Commission about Saskatoon Member of Parliament Jim Pankiw is going to mediation. Pankiw outraged many people--Native and non-Native alike-in December [...]

A culture of political correctness has been blamed for serious errors in childcare practice by Islington Social Services but the evidence is that the errors stemmed not from equal opportunity policies, but from poor management. The number of complaints of racial discrimination made to the Commission for Racial Equality in 1994 was 19% higher than in 1993, despite claims of excessive political correctness. Weak management and corrupt practices allow anti-racist zealots to exploit weaknesses and deficiencies for their own benefit. Fairness, equality and justice are behind racial equality standards, not political correctness.

Considerable progress has been made in race relations over the last few years in the UK, and people from ethnic minorities are now in top positions at organisations such as the Commission For Race Equality and the Runnymede Trust. However, almost all UK institutions are still guilty of discriminatory practices, and there is growing hostility towards some religious minorities. Against this background, it is strange that the greatest pressure for ending discrimination has come from traditionally conservative groups rather than from black-led campaigning organisations.

The outbreak of riots following the verdict on the Rodney King case is a consequence of inner city decline and the denial by US authorities that racial discrimination is practiced. However there is also an element of self-destructive behaviour amongst the black population, which is reflected by the fact that by the age of 35, 70% of blacks have been arrested.

As humanists, we like to emphasize the importance of critical intelligence in solving the world's problems. Most of us believe that, though we cannot all be scientists, most of us [...]