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Racial Justice

The authors of the Declaration of Independence outlined a bold vision for America: a nation in which all people would be free and equal. Yet the forced removal of indigenous peoples and the enslavement of those of African descent marked the beginnings of a system of racial injustice from which our country has yet to break free. Despite important gains made by civil rights activism, the school-to-prison pipeline, mass incarceration, and racial profiling and bias in policing are but a few of the racist injustices that mark the distance between America’s reality and the dream we seek to achieve: liberty and justice for everybody.

Resources

Published: 
Monday, October 25, 2010
When teens get pregnant, most drop out of school. When they drop out of school, they likely face a life of economic insecurity. And the role that discrimination plays in their decisions to drop out raises serious civil rights concerns. Read more
Published: 
Monday, July 12, 2010
While summer days have (finally) arrived, and many of us are thinking most about play and vacations, Washington’s primary election is just around the corner, on August 17. And the registration deadline for the primary election online or in-person is only days away, on July 19.
News Release, Published: 
Friday, July 2, 2010
  Racial, ethnic, disability, sexual orientation, and other kinds of discrimination remains a pervasive problem in Washington schools. Discrimination shows up in a variety of forms, among them harassment, disparate discipline including suspensions and expulsions, over-referral to special education, and under-inclusion in advanced-placement classes. Such discrimination contributes to lower achievement and higher dropout rates among student populations.   Originally published in the Summer 2010 issue of the WSBA Civil Rights Newsletter. 
Published: 
Friday, June 18, 2010
Have you ever gone somewhere and gotten the distinct impression that you were not welcome?  Suppose you were a student of color and a school board member stated his belief that you are incapable of academic success because of your race. What could you possibly make of this? Recently, Marysville School Board Member Michael Kundu told his fellow board members that he believes that academic achievement is genetically determined.    In an e-mail discussion, Kundu asserted that students in certain racial groups are simply incapable of achieving academic success based on biological or genetic disadvantages. In other words, a third of the students in the Marysville School District are almost not worth teaching. Read more
Published: 
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
This is not an isolated incident. The Seattle Police Department has a long history of allowing jaywalking citations to escalate into use of force situations. The pattern is very predictable:  The officer sees a jaywalker, orders the person to come to him, gets angry when the jaywalker either doesn’t respond or argues, and ends up either in a physical confrontation or an arrest for an obstruction charge or both. Read more
Published: 
Friday, June 11, 2010
A recent study confirms that despite a 1986 U.S. Supreme Court ruling outlawing racial bias in jury selection, the problem remains rampant in the South. But did you know that the problem has been raised repeatedly in cases in Washington State too? Read more
Published: 
Friday, May 14, 2010
This session the Washington Legislature passed a landmark civil rights law (HB 3026). The measure explicitly prohibits discrimination based on race, sexual orientation including gender expression or identity, religion, disability, national origin, veteran or military status, and disability in public schools – sex discrimination was previously banned. And it gives the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) the tools to enforce compliance with these prohibitions against discrimination. This is an important step forward. But it's not time to breathe a sigh of relief yet. There is more work to ensure this law does what it is supposed to do. OSPI is hosting town halls across the state to get community members’ input to inform the creation of the Washington State Code (WAC) that will implement the new law.
News Release, Published: 
Friday, April 23, 2010
The ACLU of Washington has filed an amicus brief urging the court to condemn the attorney’s conduct in State v. Kevin Monday in which a King County prosecutor made appeals to racial prejudice in a criminal jury trial.
News Release, Published: 
Thursday, February 18, 2010
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issued a ground-breaking ruling that pervasive racial discrimination in the state’s criminal justice system results in minorities with felony convictions disproportionately being prevented from voting, violating the federal Voting Rights Act of 1965.  
News Release, Published: 
Thursday, January 7, 2010
The Washington Supreme Court has ruled that the government must provide a race-neutral explanation whenever the last minority member is struck from a jury panel. The ACLU-WA had urged the court to adopt such a bright line rule.

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