Tag Archive: Race in America

  1. Jon Stewart makes fun of East Haven mayor

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    Remember that time the mayor of East Haven said he would support Latinos by eating tacos? Jon Stewart remembers, too.

    On last night’s episode of The Daily Show, host Jon Stewart discussed how Rick Santorum said Mitt Romney was “the worst Republican in the country to put up against Barack Obama.” Stewart one-upped Santorum, showing the now-infamous clip of East Haven Mayor Joseph Maturo telling a reporter “I might have tacos when I go home” when asked about how he could support the Latino community.

    According to Stewart, Romney is at least a step up from “taco mayor.” Watch the clip here — Stewart makes the Maturo joke at the 3:40 mark.

  2. YLS offers tenure to Latino scholar

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    At a Yale Law School town hall on faculty diversity, the school’s faculty hiring committee announced it offered tenure to a Hispanic professor. The school has never had a tenured Latino faculty member.

    Six sources who attended the town hall said the professor offered tenure was Cristina Rodríguez ’95 LAW ’00. The town hall was closed to the press, and all six sources asked to remain anonymous because the news was presented as confidential. Law school spokeswoman Janet Conroy said an offer was made to a Latina professor, but she declined to confirm Rodriguez’s name.

    Rodriguez was a visiting professor in fall 2009, when she taught the course “Immigration Law and Policy” and was nominated for Yale Law Women’s excellence in teaching award. A former Rhodes scholar, Rodriguez is a renowned scholar in immigration law. She is currently a faculty member at the New York University School of Law.

    Watch the clip below to hear Rodríguez speak on immigration law.

  3. Harvard, Princeton investigated for discrimination

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    The U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights is investigating a complaint that Harvard and Princeton discriminate against Asian-Americans in undergraduate admissions, Bloomberg reported late last week.

    The complainant is an anonymous Asian-American applicant who says that Harvard and Princeton rejected him on the basis of his race and national origin. The student’s father told Bloomberg that his son was among the top students in his California high school, and that their family originally came from India.

    Harvard spokesman Jeff Neal said Harvard does not comment on the specifics of complaints under federal review, but added that it “does not discriminate against Asian-American applicants.” Sixteen percent of Harvard undergraduates in the 2010-2011 academic year were Asian-American, a two percent dip from the number of Asian-American undergraduates in 2005-2006, according to the university’s website.

    At Princeton, meanwhile, Asian-Americans now comprise 17.7 percent of undergrads, up from 14.1 percent in 2007-’08.

  4. East Haven Police Chief resigns

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    East Haven Police Department Chief Leonard Gallo announced his resignation, effective last Friday, at a Monday morning press conference at East Haven Town Hall.

    Gallo has come under scrutiny since agents with the Federal Bureau of Investigation arrested four of his officers on Tuesday for systematic mistreatment of Latino residents. The officers were indicted on several counts of excessive force, false arrest and conspiracy against rights — that conspiracy, the indictment said, included a “Co-conspirator 1” who impeded investigation into the misconduct and helped create a “climate of fear” in the local community. Fred Bow, the chairman of the East Haven Board of Police Commissioners, identified Gallo as “Co-conspirator 1.”

    Gallo’s resignation comes even as calls intensify for East Haven Mayor Joseph Maturo Jr. to step down. Three members of the Latino and Puerto Rican Affairs Commission met with Maturo Monday morning and urged him to resign, according to the Hartford Courant.

    “The Latino community feels [Maturo and Gallo] are not fit to be our stewards, so to speak,” commission member Isaias Diaz said.

    As of Monday morning, over 15,000 people had signed an online petition telling Gallo to resign from his post.