Feds Lose $7M Reverse-Discrimination Lawsuit But Won't Have to Pay Up
A Philadelphia jury found that the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) had "intentionally discriminated" against George W. Marthers III and Jude T. McKenna, two white DEA agents, by creating a hostile work environment because of their race, reports The Philadelphia Daily News. Marthers and McKenna's former supervisors, Dempsey Jones and Johnny Fisher, are black. The jury found that Jones and Fisher retaliated against Marthers and McKenna after they filed internal complaints with the DEA in March 2002 and later with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, alleging constant verbal and physical harassment. Both Marthers and McKenna went on sick leave in April 2002 because of the stress but were soon replaced in their positions and found to be unfit for duty by DEA's psychologists, reports the Daily News. But Marthers and McKenna will get far less than the $7-million judgment because compensatory damages for employment-discrimination claims against the federal government are capped at $300,000 per plaintiff.
For more on reverse discrimination, the white-male question, read the upcoming Jan./Feb. 2008 issue of DiversityInc magazine. Subscribe now.
(See also: After $3.7M Reverse-Discrimination Lawsuit, New Orleans District Attorney Resigns)
Parts of Five States Withdraw From U.S.
Parts of Nebraska, South Dakota, North Dakota, Montana and Wyoming will soon issue their own passports and driver's licenses and provide tax-free living if residents renounce their U.S. citizenship and join the Lakota, a tribe of Native Americans who announced they will withdraw from the United States. FOX News reports that Lakota leaders told the U.S. Department of State that the tribe was unilaterally withdrawing from treaties they signed with the U.S. federal government, some that are more than 150 years old. The Lakota control land in the five states. Lakota leaders also visited the Bolivian, Chilean, South African and Venezuelan embassies, telling of their withdrawal. The U.S. "annexation' of Native American land has resulted in once-proud tribes such as the Lakota becoming mere "facsimiles of white people,' said long-time Native American--rights activist Russell Means.
(See also: Who is A Native American?)
Capitol's Emancipation Hall to Commemorate Slaves
Black-American slaves who helped build the original Capitol in the 18th and 19th centuries will finally be remembered with the new visitor's center, a $621-million project expected to be ready for tourists in the fall, which will feature Emancipation Hall to emphasize historical education. "This is an overdue exercise of historical candor," reads a New York Times editorial. "Researchers found slaves were rented as Capitol labor by the federal government for $5 a month--the proceeds directly pocketed by local slave owners. 'Negro hires' was the term used in the construction of what early on was called, no irony recorded, the 'Temple of Liberty.' The slaves worked six days a week, 12 hours a day, quarrying stone, sawing timber and hauling supplies."
(See also: Why Do White Americans Ignore Their 'White Privilege?')
Pepper Spray, Stun Guns? New Orleans Protest Erupts Into Violence
Violence erupted at a New Orleans City Council meeting in which the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) further revealed plans to demolish public housing damaged by Hurricane Katrina in 2005 so developers can take advantage of tax credits and build new mixed-income neighborhoods. The redevelopment was in the works before Katrina hit and will mark the end of New Orleans' failed public-housing experiment that lumped the poor into crime-ridden complexes and sequestered them outside of the city, says HUD, reports CNN. Critics say the plan will drive poor blacks out of the city and that the public housing is mostly brick structures that will outlast any of HUD's buildings. As dozens of protesters tried to force their way through an iron gate at New Orleans' City Hall, police used chemical spray and stun guns to hold them off, reports CNN.
(See also: Racial Wounds Fester in New Orleans Two Years After Katrina)
More News Digest >>
