Diversity Headlines

NEW YORK--When I was 16, a health educator came to my high-school gym class, corralled the girls in the locker room and talked about breast health. My experience that day proved fateful for me, and those memories came back this... Jessica González-Rojas http://publisher.namx.org/mt-cp.cgi?__mode=view&blog_id=19&id=103

This February, I challenge every immigrant in the country to attend or engage in at least one Black History Month activity each week. If you're a person who would do this anyway, make a special effort to take another immigrant with you who would be less inclined without your invitation, pushing or cajoling.

There are so many reasons that immigrants need to know a lot about black history.

The relationship between black Americans and immigrants of every stripe has historically been touchy, and our alliances have been built against the best efforts of slave holders, corporations and politicians to maintain racial hierarchies that served white supremacy right up to, well, today. European immigrants in New York City rioted when they were drafted to fight for the Union in the Civil War, and Vijay Prashad has written eloquently in "The Karma of Brown Folk" about the ways in which South Asian immigrants have tried (fruitlessly) to identify with white folks, whom we were taught to see as the "real" Americans long before we ever arrived on these shores.

Second, today's immigrants, with large numbers coming from Africa, Asia, the Pacific Islands and Latin America, would not be here at all if it weren't for the moral pressure of the Civil Rights Movement forcing changes in 1960s immigration policies.

Finally, in my own experience building multiracial organizations for 25 years, it is all too easy for black Americans to fall off the grid. People see other faces of color, and find it convenient not to notice that black people aren't among them. While the modern racial justice discussion needs to reach beyond black and white, neither is it okay to just leave out the black.

For those of you who are readers, consider participating in the Facebook virtual book discussion of "The Warmth of Other Suns" that our Drop the I-Word campaign has launched. The virtual book club will meet over the next five weeks, in partnership with the Black Alliance for Just Immigration.

"The Warmth of Other Suns" was the best piece of non-fiction I read last year. Journalist Isabel Wilkerson follows three black Southerners on their journeys West and North, giving us a picture of the enormous internal migration that black folks engaged over half a century. Black Americans are not immigrants--their entry into the United States was forced by the trans-Atlantic slave trade. But the story of the Great Migration is about the descendants of enslaved people taking their destinies into their own hands. It didn't solve all their problems, to be sure, but it did open up a space in American politics and culture that didn't exist before the migration.

These migrants escaped Jim Crow--the segregation that ruled Southern life as whites reacted to Emancipation with new rules enabling the ongoing theft of black labor, the violence that controlled black communities and the institutional arrangements that made it impossible for black people to get their feet under them. Wilkerson places the Great Migration in the context of the pilgrims escaping religious persecution, the Irish escaping hunger, the Jews escaping Nazism and the Chinese escaping the implications of being landless. "What binds these stories together was the back-against-the-wall, reluctant yet hopeful search for something better, any place but where they were," she writes. "They did what human beings looking for freedom, throughout history, have often done. They left."

Starting this week, people who care about dropping the i-word, of all colors and all ages will reading this book and discuss it online. The discussion will take place every Wednesday from 2 p.m. EST on the comment section of the Drop the I-Word Facebook page, which you can access by liking the page itself. If you're not on Facebook, creating a profile is very easy. Ask the nearest 10-year-old to show you how.

And if this isn't the way you want to celebrate Black History Month, there will be no dearth of resources to help you find a way that suits. Whatever that way, the important thing is that immigrants engage. We can only move forward on immigrant rights and racial justice with a clear and deep knowledge of how black communities have sustained themselves over a long time, against the greatest odds.

Visit the Drop the I-Word blog to learn how the book club works.

Ramarley Graham, 18, was shot and killed by a NYPD officer in the Bronx on Thursday afternoon after running into his home as undercover officers pursued him. He's the third person the NYPD have killed in a week. According to the police spokesperson, he was unarmed.

Paul J. Browne, the New York Police Department's chief spokesman, said there was "no evidence that he was armed" when the officer, a member of a narcotics unit, shot him once in the upper left chest, the New York Times reports.

The Graham shooting is the third time in a week that a member of the NYPD had killed a suspect. On Jan. 26, an off-duty police lieutenant shot a 22-year-old carjacking suspect in Cypress Hills, Brooklyn. And on Sunday, an off-duty detective shot a 17-year-old in Bushwick, Brooklyn, during a mugging, authorities said.

In Graham's case, police found a small bag of marijuana in the toilet at the home he entered after the pursuit, the NY Times reports. "It's likely the story will thicken and the NYPD will argue the cop acted in self defense, but right now it looks like the cops killed a kid trying to get rid of a little pot," said Seth Freed Wessler, Colorlines.com's investigation reporter. 

"Despite directives from the NYPD Commissioner to stop arresting people for simple possession of marijuana, the NYPD actually conducted more marijuana arrests in 2011 than in the previous year," Wessler said.

In New York City, marijuana arrests strike people of color the hardest. Last year the NYPD made a near-record number of low-level marijuana arrests, making 2011 the second-most prolific period for marijuana arrests in NYC history. Close to 87 percent of those arrested for marijuana were black or Latino, while only 10 percent were white.

"The daily practice of harassing black and Latino kids with stop and frisk policing and then arresting them for simple possession of pot would be bad enough even if it did not lead to shootings. In this case in the Bronx, it looks like the day-to-day drug war left this 18-year-old kid dead," Wessler said.

Style blogs are wildly popular these days. There's the "Sartorialist," Bill Cunningham's "On the Street" and now there's "Children with Swag."

Check out some of the miniature street style below and visit Childrenwithswag.tumblr.com for more.

We're ending the day as often as possible by celebrating love. We welcome your ideas for posts. Send suggestions to submissions@colorlines.com, and be sure to put Celebrate Love in the subject line. You can send links to videos, graphics, photos, quotes, whatever. Or just chime in to the comments below and we'll find you. Be sure to let us know you've got the rights to share any media you send.

To see other Love posts visit our Celebrate Love page.

MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell had a hard hitting interview with Komen founder and CEO Nancy Brinker on Friday. Hours later she also went on to issue an apology on Komen.org.

Brinker said the entire Komen drops Planned Parenthood controversy is a "mischaracterization" because they "still have three grants they are committed to at least another year through the end of the grant cycle."

And in a backtracking moment she also said "Planned Parenthood will probably be eligible in the next grant cycle."

Brinker also said Karen Handel, the self-identified "staunchly and unequivocally pro-life" vice president of public policy, had "nothing to do with this decision."

"We want to apologize to the American public for recent decisions that cast doubt upon our commitment to our mission of saving women's lives," Brinker wrote on Komen.org's blog.

"Our only goal for our granting process is to support women and families in the fight against breast cancer. Amending our criteria will ensure that politics has no place in our grant process. We will continue to fund existing grants, including those of Planned Parenthood, and preserve their eligibility to apply for future grants, while maintaining the ability of our affiliates to make funding decisions that meet the needs of their communities," Brinker went on to write.

The image above is part of a great "Florida Primary" photo essay put together by the New York Times. The picture above is of Santorum addressing the congregation at the Worldwide Christian Center in Pompano Beach on Jan. 22. The look on the face of the kids in the back is priceless.

And another picture that's actually disturbing is the one below. "Punching puppets of Mr. Romney and Mr. Obama on the Romney campaign bus. Mr. Gingrich had stressed that he was the best Republican candidate to challenge Mr. Obama in debates, but Mr. Romney challenged that notion with his strong showings in Florida."

(h/t HuffPost)

FAAN Mail, a media literacy/media activism project formed by women of color, have created the hashtag #WishiLearnedinHS to call attention to the Ethnic Studies ban in Arizona.

FAAN Mail explains why they started the hashtag:

This hash-tag has been created in response to the Ethnic Studies ban in Arizona. It is designed to bring attention to the cultural gaps in our education; the gaps that widen as governments and school districts privilege some histories, while silencing other cultures and points of view. Over the next 5 days, beginning February 1, we ask that you Tweet, Facebook, or blog what you wished you learned in high school, in response to the below question: What do you wish you learned in high school as it relates to various cultural identities, histories, and perspectives?

[View the story "#WishiLearnedinHS Updates" on Storify]

New York Giants wide receiver Victor Cruz wore a sombrero during Media Day ahead of Super Bowl XLVI.

"If he wins the Super Bowl, he's going to have the best of two worlds: the English-speaking culture and a Spanish-speaking culture," Daniel Vinas, an associate producer with Univision in Miami, told Yahoo! Sports. "It's going to be unbelievable. We've had some Hispanic players who have done great things in the NFL ... but the whole crossover appeal that Victor will have? It's going to be unreal."

I don't know if it was Cruz that decided to put that sombrero on but who ever came up with that brilliant idea to show his 'crossover appeal' should Wikipedia 'sombreros' because they come from Mexico. Cruz is of African-American and Puerto Rican descent

Total nonfarm payroll employment rose by 243,000 in January, and the unemployment rate decreased to 8.3 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS )reported Friday.

The number of unemployed persons declined to 12.8 million in January. Among the major worker groups, the unemployment rates for adult men (7.7 percent) and blacks (13.6 percent) declined in January. The unemployment rates for adult women (7.7 percent), teenagers (23.2 percent), whites (7.4 percent), and Latinos (10.5 percent) were little changed.

Black unemployment saw the biggest drop -- from 15.8 to 13.6 percent. And for the first time in a long time, those numbers aren't being fudged (much) by people who have dropped out of the workforce. Unemployment overall is at 8.3 percent now, and the BLS says that workforce participation is holding steady.

"These numbers are important because one, we now have the lowest unemployment rate in nearly three years. It's also one of the biggest drops in black unemployment--nearly two points--that the BLS has recorded in years," said Shani O. Hilton, Colorlines.com's D.C. Correspondent.

"What makes this particularly heartening, though, is that unlike other points in the decline, the decline isn't happening because Americans are giving up looking for work. The BLS reports that workforce participation is holding steady," Hilton went on to say.

UPDATE 2/3/2012 2:00pm EST: Komen's founder has issued an apology and said Planned Parenthood will "probably" be eligible for future grants. For the latest visit Colorlines.com/planned-parenthood.

The Atlantic is reporting Komen's top public health official, Mollie Williams, resigned in protest immediately following the board's decision to cut off Planned Parenthood. The news comes hours after Komen.org was temporarily hacked and as Planned Parenthood is announcing they're experiencing a surge in donations.

Jeffrey Goldberg at The Atlantic reports on Williams' resignation:

The decision, made in December, caused an uproar inside Komen. Three sources told me that the organization's top public health official, Mollie Williams, resigned in protest immediately following the Komen board's decision to cut off Planned Parenthood. Williams, who served as the managing director of community health programs, was responsible for directing the distribution of $93 million in annual grants. Williams declined to comment when I reached her yesterday on whether she had resigned her position in protest, and she declined to speak about any other aspects of the controversy.

According to sources close to both Williams and Komen, "Williams believed she could not honorably serve in her position once Komen had caved to pressure from the anti-abortion right."

Donors reacting to Komen's decision to cut off funding to Planned Parenthood contributed $650,000 in 24 hours, nearly enough to replace last year's Komen funding, Planned Parenthood executives told the Washington Post on Wednesday.

Planned Parenthood averages 100-200 donations on any given day, but when the Komen decision made headlines it received contributions from more than 6,000 online donors.

"People respond powerfully when they see politics interfering with women's health," Tait Sye, a spokesperson for the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, told the Post. "That's why we've seen a tremendous outpouring of support." 

Hackers also made their own contribution early Thursday morning. 

"For the few that accessed the site around 12:30AM on Thursday, they were redirected from the regular site (www.komen.org) to an artificial site made by the hackers (ww5.komen.org). The job was so inclusive that even in search engines, you were only able to find the hacked site," Gather.com reported.

The hackers re-designed a Komen banner ad that promoted its marathon to read "Help us run over poor women on our way to the bank."

Only 46% of Americans approve of the job Obama is doing as President but chances are a lot more people approve of the image above.

The photo above of President Obama holding three-year-old Arianna Holmes was released by the White House yesterday. Her mom works as a Special Assistant in the International Economic Affairs office of the National Security Staff.

The image inspired the slideshow below. Captions come from the White House.

July 5, 2011 - President Barack Obama gets a hug from a little girl as he greets Wounded Warriors and their families in the State Dining Room of the White House. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

Sept. 5, 2011 - President Barack Obama hugs a woman in the crowd after addressing the Labor Day celebration in Detroit, Mich. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

May 23, 2011 - President Barack Obama embraces Liz Sherwood-Randall, Senior Director for European Affairs, at College Green in Dublin, Ireland. Sherwood-Randall was blown over by strong winds earlier in the day and injured her wrist. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

This one isn't exactly a hug photo but just read the caption... it might as well just be a hug.

May 8, 2009 - President Barack Obama bends over so the son of a White House staff member can pat his head during a family visit to the Oval Office. The youngster wanted to see if the President's haircut felt like his own. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

Jan. 25, 2010 - President Barack Obama hugs retiring White House butler James Ramsey, as First Lady Michelle Obama looks on, in the Diplomatic Reception Room of the White House. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

June 15, 2011 - "Call him the baby soother. At the Congressional picnic on the South Lawn, the First Lady held a young baby who began crying (top photo). The President then came over to hold the same baby and was able to quiet her down as the First Lady reacted in astonishment in the background of the bottom photo." (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

May 19, 2009 - "The President was leaving the State Floor after an event and found Sasha in the elevator ready to head upstairs to the private residence. He decided to ride upstairs with her before returning to the Oval Office." (Official White House photo by Pete Souza)

Sept. 9, 2009 - President Barack Obama hugs Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton as he enters the House Chamber at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C.. (Official White House Photo by Lawrence Jackson)

May 13, 2010 - A patron hugs President Barack Obama during a lunch stop at Duff's Famous Wings in Cheektowaga, N.Y. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

April 27, 2009 - President Barack Obama hugs First Lady Michelle Obama in the Red Room of the White House while Senior Advisor Valerie Jarrett smiles prior to the National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA) reception, March 20, 2009. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

This last one isn't the President but it's included in here because it does include a hug attack!

May 4, 2009 - First Lady Michelle Obama is hugged by students during a visit to the LAMB bilingual school May 4, 2009, as a lead-up to the Mexican Cinco de Mayo holiday. (Official White House Photo by Samantha Appleton)

NEW YORK-We’re relieved for millions of women across the country who will not be cut from access to critical health care services. We think the reaction over the last 48 hours really demonstrates the power of women when we speak loudly and act together. It also demonstrates the power of social media to enact change [...]

Published in it's entirety, below is a statement by Cecile Richards, Planned Parenthood Federation of America president, regarding Komen's recent decision.

"The outpouring of support for women in need of lifesaving breast cancer screening this week has been astonishing and is a testament to our nation's compassion and sincerity.

"During the last week, millions spontaneously joined a national conversation about lifesaving breast cancer prevention care and reinforced shared values about access to health care for all. This compassionate outcry in support of those most in need rose above political, ideological, and cultural divides, and will surely be recognized as one of our nation's better moments during a contentious political time. Planned Parenthood thanks each and every person who has contributed to elevating the importance of breast cancer prevention for so many women in need.

"In recent weeks, the treasured relationship between the Susan G. Komen for the Cure Foundation and Planned Parenthood has been challenged, and we are now heartened that we can continue to work in partnership toward our shared commitment to breast health for the most underserved women. We are enormously grateful that the Komen Foundation has clarified its grantmaking criteria, and we look forward to continuing our partnership with Komen partners, leaders and volunteers. What these past few days have demonstrated is the deep resolve all Americans share in the fight against cancer, and we honor those who are at the helm of this battle.

"Planned Parenthood has been a trusted partner with the Komen Foundation in early cancer detection and prevention services. In particular, Planned Parenthood helps the Komen Foundation reach vulnerable populations -- low-income women, African-American women, and Latinas -- especially in rural areas and underserved communities where Planned Parenthood health centers are their only source of health care. With Komen Foundation grants, over the past five years, Planned Parenthood health centers provided nearly 170,000 clinical breast exams and more than 6,400 mammogram referrals. With the outpouring of support over the past week, even more women in need will receive lifesaving breast cancer care."

Musician/actor Taiyo Na, backed by the funk and soul-influenced band Dirty Boots, will rock the Hyphen "Survival" Issue Release Party.

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Media technologist & strategist Deanna Zandt started a Tumblr this week that includes stories submitted by "women whose lives were saved or changed because they had access to affordable healthcare like cancer screenings though Planned Parenthood."

"I know I keep saying WOW, but-- in just a couple days, @PPSavedMe has gotten ~1000 followers on Tumblr," Zandt tweeted Friday. (Zandt is a board member of ARC, which publishes Colorlines.com.)

Below is a sample of the touching stories:

Just married with no health insurance, PP was the only place I could go to get affordable birth control and screenings. A pap smear turned up abnormal cells that could develop into cervical cancer. If I had waited until I had full health insurance to get screened it might have been too late to prevent cancer. I AM PRO-LIFE BUT I STILL SUPPORT PLANNED PARENTHOOD!

and another one:

I was a young latina with no money and living in a fairly conservative house where going to a "woman's doctor" meant only one thing, pregnancy. So I went to Planned Parenthood for a gyn chek up and they found abnormal cells in my pap smear.

and another one:

I was alone in a new city, between jobs and without health insurance, when I discovered a lump in my breast. After worrying about it for several weeks, I gave in and made an appointment with Planned Parenthood. The doctor there assessed my situation, agreed I should see a specialist, and referred me to a no-cost program. Luckily, my lump turned out to be normal breast tissue.

There's plenty more. Visit PlannedParenthoodSavedMe.tumblr.com for more stories and/or to submit your own story.

 SAN FRANCISCO--Women are recovering from the recession at a slower rate than men according to a new report by the California Budget Project (CBP) published in partnership with the Women’s Foundation of California.The report, titled, “Falling Behind: The Impact of... Zaineb Mohammed http://publisher.namx.org/mt-cp.cgi?__mode=view&blog_id=19&id=1440

Just a week after news broke that the NYPD showed 1,500 of its officers grossly Islamophobic propaganda, the AP is reporting new evidence that the police department is profiling on the basis of religion, conducting surveillance specifically of Shia Muslim, Iranian and Palestinian communities.

The May 2006 NYPD intelligence report obtained by the AP is entitled, "US-Iran Conflict: The Threat to New York City," made a series of recommendations, including: "Expand and focus intelligence collections at Shi'a mosques."

The AP describes the report:

The report, drawn largely from information available in newspapers or sites like Wikipedia, was prepared for Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly. It was written at a time of great tension between the U.S. and Iran. That tension over Iran's nuclear ambition has increased again recently.

Police estimated the New York area Shiite population to be about 35,000, with Iranians making up about 8,500. The document also calls for canvassing the Palestinian community because there might be terrorists there.

"The Palestinian community, although not Shi'a, should also be assessed due to presence of Hamas members and sympathizers and the group's relationship with the Iranian government," analysts wrote.

The secret document stands in contrast to statements by Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who said the NYPD never considers religion in its policing. Kelly has said police go only where investigative leads take them, but the document described no leads to justify expanded surveillance at Shiite mosques.

The AP also reports that the NYPD is engaged in intelligence gathering and surveillance work in other states and in at least 11 foreign cities.

"The report specifically documents efforts by the NYPD to monitor 15 different mosques throughout the Tri-State Area. This is despite the fact that no illegal, or even suspicious activity, has ever been reported at these religious centers," read a joint statement signed by a broad coalition of civil liberties, human rights, Muslim, and interfaith organizations on Thursday. The coalition includes the Council on American-Islamic Relations - New York (CAIR-NY) and the Arab Muslim American Federation.

The coalition's statement calls for the "NYPD to acknowledge this wrongdoing, immediately cease all such activities, and create more transparency."

"It's another crystal clear indication that the NYPD is out of control and is running roughshod over the civil rights and civil liberties of New York's Muslim and Middle Eastern residents," Colorlines.com's Seth Freed Wessler said about the AP's findings.

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Nightline's "Stolen Babies? Controversy in Missouri" segment that aired Wednesday.

On Wednesday night Colorlines.com's publisher Rinku Sen appeared on ABC's "Nightline" to provide context on a story about a young child who was put up for adoption because his biological mother is undocumented. Sen cited our "Shattered Families" investigation, which found an estimated 5,000 U.S citizen lingering in children in foster care due to the detainment or deportation of their parents. 

In 2008, Circuit Court Judge David C. Dally decided Encarnacion Romero of Guatemala had abandoned her child when she was caught in an immigration raid and had little to offer to her son.

"Illegally smuggling herself into the country is not a lifestyle that can provide any stability for the child," Judge Dally said.

"We're creating a collateral consequence in which thousands of children are ripped away from their families with no real process for being reunited," Sen said on "Nightline."

An estimated 15,000 children will face the threat of permanent separation from their families in the next five years, Colorlines.com investigative reporter Seth Freed Wessler found, in a story we published in November.

President Obama acknowledge the findings in a subsequent briefing with reporters and said it was a real problem.

Parts of Sen's interview also aired on World News Tonight.

If you were moved by this story here's three things you can do:

SHARE - Share this story on Facebook, Twitter and anywhere else you can. You can hit the social sharing buttons at the top of this article.

LEARN MORE - Visit the "Shattered Families" page on our publisher's website to download the  full report and other resources that are also available in Spanish too.

DONATE - And lastly, please consider supporting more Colorlines.com investigations like "Shattered Families" by making a donation today.

Questions of greatness will consume this Super Bowl weekend as Brady and Manning legacies clash once again. But the real contest for the greatest takes place on the day before the Super Bowl in Canton, Ohio, where former Pittsburgh Steelers running back Jerome Bettis is a finalist for induction to the Hall of Fame, the highest NFL honor. And while Tim Tebow has garnered attention for political activism of a smellier kind, Bettis has been doing his own campaigning--for a cause most people can breath easier with.

Since his days on the field (Bettis retired in 2006), Bettis has been an advocate for children suffering from asthma. He has asthma himself, and NFL fans probably remember the catharsis after many of his memorable runs when, whether for a tough-earned five yards or a 50-plus yard break away, he'd end up on the bench with an inhaler pumping into his mouth, trying to catch his breath. Bettis developed the health condition as a young teenager, growing up in Detroit, where the air above is often misted with soot and toxic metals from factory clusters. It didn't stop him from becoming an outstanding football player both in high school and in close-by Notre Dame for college.

Since a pro, first with the St. Louis Rams and then finally with the Steelers, where he played for 13 years, Bettis amassed a spectacular career on the field, ranking fifth in NFL history for yards rushed and making the Pro Bowl six times before retiring after his 2005 season-capping Super Bowl win, earned in his native Detroit.

Off the field, he raised money and created special programming and camps for children with asthma, a breathing condition that's grown worse for children over the decades, particularly for children of color. Last year, Bettis took a step beyond, when he teamed with the Environmental Protection Agency to produce a public service announcement in support of their new Mercury and Air Toxics rules [MATS], which will regulate the amount of pollution that large factories can emit. And it's for this reason alone that Bettis ought to be inducted into the Hall of Fame--if not in Canton, then the Hall of Fame in the minds of those who cherish professional heroism in general.

After a meeting with EPA administrator Lisa Jackson, Bettis said, "I don't think I'm courageous or anything. ... She said I was courageous."

Here's why he is courageous. When Jackson thanked Bettis for his courage, she also explained to him that he was "going to meet some resistance."

The Resistance: The Republican Party, not to mention Big Industry in general, which has profited handsomely for decades by not having to control the amount of particulate matter, lead, mercury, dioxides and other pollutants that diminish the quality of the air. These pollutions have harmed the lives of people who live near factories, and mostly without the offending companies paying a dime for the neurological, respiratory and economic damage they've caused in thousands of communities from Detroit to Pittsburgh and beyond.

The Republican Party, well funded with lobbying dollars from energy companies that operate the polluting facilities, have been the energy industry's staunchest defenders, calling not only for a revocation of the MATS rules--House Republicans preemptively passed a bill blocking EPA's move--but often calling for the shuttering of EPA itself.

The rivalry between EPA and Big Industry is deeper and much more costlier than the most hostile rivalry between any two NFL teams. And Bettis has marched right into the middle of it, despite the fact that companies could pull advertising from the NFL games in which Bettis is a commentator (some have already waged their own anti-MATS commercial campaigns during football games), and despite the fact that he's trying to raise money for his The Bus Stops Here Foundation, which helps children with asthma. That's to say nothing of his many endorsement deals, which often scare athletes away from politics of any sort.

Bettis could have taken an easier road, or in NFL terms, picked a weaker schedule. He didn't need to team with EPA--probably the most electric political football of all federal departments and agencies right now--to continue his advocacy around asthma. He had already been doing so for years without them. He also could have waited until after 2012, side-stepping an election year when every conceivable opponent will be blitzing EPA on every play until November. Keep in mind that Bettis's work with EPA doesn't amount to a mere YouTube video. He's also traveled with EPA officials and the Clean Air Council to meet with Congress members, urging them to support the new stricter mercury rules.

But Bettis understands that the stakes are highest for the kids suffering, and dying, from asthma as well. As he told Sen. Bob Casey of Pennsylvania, "This needs to happen sooner than later. ... It's pretty simple. Everybody's health is at stake."

Asthma has been a growing problem for children in general, but for children of color it's more severe, affecting kids who grew up in the ghettos of Detroit, as Bettis did, and children growing up in the White House--President Obama's daughter Malia suffers from asthma, a condition she's carried since living in the well-to-do Hyde Park neighborhood of Southside Chicago.

For African American children, the death rate from asthma was seven times higher than that of white children from 2003 to 2005, Bettis's final three years in the league. African-American children have a 80 percent higher prevalence of asthma than white children. The death rate for Puerto Rican children was 400 percent higher than for whites in 2003. And while Asian-American children have lower asthma rates than white children, they died from it at a 30 percent higher rate than white children.

EPA's new MATS rules address the kind of pollution that can lead to asthma and other health disorders by requiring coal-powered power plants, incinerators, boilers and other electricity generating facilities to upgrade themselves with equipment that's called "Utility Maximum Achievable Control Technology," or UMACT. Along with targeting mercury, which has been linked not only to asthma but also nervous system damage and early development disorders, the rules also aim to control pollutants such as cyanide, lead, acid gas and arsenic, which are linked to similar problems and can cause cancer. EPA anticipates that its new safeguards will prevent 130,000 cases of childhood asthma symptoms and lead to 6,300 fewer cases of acute bronchitis among children each year. They will also drop premature deaths by as many as 11,000 per year, and 4,700 less heart attacks a year.

The new standards have the additional economic benefits of creating thousands of new short- and long-term jobs for construction workers, who will be needed to help facilities comply. (They have three years to upgrade, with the extension of an additional year if the official deadline is too early to meet.) So you'd think these are rules we could all comfortably live with--you'd think. But Sen. Jim Inhofe, ranking Republican on the Environment and Public Works committee, has vowed to overturn them, saying they are "a thinly veiled electricity tax that continues the Obama administration's war on affordable energy and is the latest in an unprecedented barrage of regulations that make up EPA's job-killing regulatory agenda."

Bettis's position on mercury and toxic air standards is pro-life, but you wouldn't know it since he doesn't get the kind of press that Tim Tebow does for his version of pro-life activism. Advocating on behalf of kids with health problems shouldn't be branded as political, but given the current climate, there's no way to escape the label. In that context, he's joined a very tiny pool of NFL "greats" who've taken up political causes. Hall of Famers like Jim Brown and Reggie White also took up political causes in their post-NFL years, but both had their own problems--Brown with domestic violence, and White's own political positions mirrored Tebow's.

Looking at someone like Muhammad Ali, who's not without his own personal problems, you find someone whose greatness was achieved not just because of his boxing titles, but because of the positions he took on racism and war. Both of those issues were widely controversial during the 1960s. Making the air cleaner for children to breath and live with shouldn't be viewed with the same level of controversy. But the political reality has determined otherwise. Bettis hasn't shied away, which is why he deserves to be ranked with the greatest.

On Sunday afternoon, about 10 men and a couple of women were gathered inside La Bamba's, a Latino-owned bar on Main Street in East Haven, Conn. "Look at this place," said manager Esdras Marin, gesturing toward the empty bar. "On a Sunday afternoon like this, this place would have been full. People are afraid to come. The police come by here and harass us."

In November 2008, an officer waiting outside of the bar pushed Marin's brother to the ground, driving his chin into the concrete and drawing blood. The officer handcuffed the man's hands behind his back and then proceeded to kick him repeatedly.

"The cops are out of control," said Marin.

Each of the men and women in the bar on Sunday had a story to tell about the police harassment. A 40-year-old construction worker who'd come to East Haven from Ecuador a decade ago recalled, "It was winter and they took my car when they stopped me and they made me walk through he snow." He added, "My friend left and went back to Ecuador out of fear. They arrested him and beat him up in jail. He got out and left."

The stories are the same all over town: Latino residents who've been profiled, beat up, followed and taunted by local police officers. They're the stories that populate dozens of pages of recently released legal documents manifesting a clear pattern of unchecked police violence.

In December, the Justice Department issued a report charging that the East Haven cops systemically profile and harass Latinos. Last week, the FBI arrested four of East Haven's 49 active-duty officers on related criminal charges. East Haven's Mayor Joseph Maturo then made national headlines when he offered to solve the city's racism problems by eating tacos for dinner. On Monday, facing growing outcry from across the country, including the mocking delivery of 500 tacos to his office, Maturo announced that his police chief, Leonard Gallo, would resign.

The swirling events in the 30,000-person town have for good reason been focused on needed change in the city's government and police force. Advocates and residents have long understood East Haven to be a hotbed of racism from a lawless and unaccountable police force. Many people of color have left the area. Others continue to live in fear.

But the events unfolding in East Haven point to a related problem that's gone largely without discussion in the last two months of disarray. As East Haven's police have been profiling and harassing Latino residents for the last five years, they have also been shuttling them into deportation proceedings.

After profiling, falsely arresting and often brutalizing Latinos in town, the cops routinely called ICE to report those without papers, locals charge. "When they come into this bar," explains Marin, "the first thing they check is immigration status. And then they'll probably call immigration."

Even as the Department of Justice was investigating the police for alleged civil and criminal violations, another federal agency, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, was acting in cahoots with the East Haven cops' assault on immigrants.

ICE has consistently claimed that its enforcement practices do not rely on racial profiling to find immigrants and that it only deports serious criminals. The unfolding drama in East Haven does significant damage to that claim.

From Italian to Latino

In the middle of the 2000s, the demographics of East Haven began to shift. Latinos from surrounding areas began moving to East Haven for cheaper rent and a calmer life. Shops with names like Los Amigos and La Bamba's opened on Main Street. The Latino population grew from 4 percent of the city's residents in 2000 to 10 percent in 2010.

For some white residents, the changes felt like an existential threat.

Ferdinando Cerrato, a 79-year-old man dressed in a worn corduroy jacket, stood in the town office building waiting to pay his taxes after the mayor announced Gallo's departure on Monday. "They've destroyed our culture and our history," he said. "Everything you see and everywhere you go, everything is in Spanish."

Referring to the FBI's recent arrests, Cerrato told Colorlines.com, "The cops are the wrong ones to be arrested. The Latinos should be arrested because they are illegal."

Cerrato says his parents were Italian immigrants who "came to the U.S. in 1928 and waited in line to come in. Back then, we came the right way. Now you can enter illegal and then they get rewarded instead of arrested."

The only book on Italian immigration to Connecticut in the town's public library paints a different picture of that history. The book's author wrote that in 1927 her Italian father and uncle "didn't have enough money for the trip ... so a friend of theirs helped them to stow away on the ship." He was later deported.

Under the leadership of Gallo, the police department of the predominantly Italian-American town forgot this history as it honed in on Latino migrants, in what appears to be a ruthless attempt to drive them out.

On Sunday afternoon, a man named Fernando stood chatting with others inside My Country Store, another Latino-owned business on Main Street. "Basically," explained Fernando, who works for a company fixing train tracks in New Haven, "if you're Latino they don't ask you to open your window. They pin you up against the car and hit you. And then they threaten you with deportation and call immigration."

East Haven cops have a long history of targeting and brutalizing communities of color. In 1997, an East Haven police officer followed a 21-year-old unarmed black man named Malik Jones from East Haven to New Haven and shot him to death.

The year after Jones was murdered, newly elected Mayor Maturo appointed Gallo as chief. It was a questionable decision: Gallo had been a rising star officer in nearby New Haven, but known for brutish police tactics. According to the New Haven Independent, in 1990 he was demoted to a post in the city's animal shelter as new leadership attempted to move toward a community policing model and reign in cops known for targeting residents of color.

In 2009, after years of intensified profiling and harassment of Latinos under Gallo's leadership, the East Haven Police made the mistake of broadening their assault and arresting a local Catholic priest--a white man named Father James Manship--as he tried to record a group of police officers as they harassed the owners of My Country Store.

The arrest made headlines like nothing in the town had since Malik Jones was shot, and by September 2009, the Department of Justice had rolled into town to investigate.

Too Much Power

The police department under Gallo's reign was out of control and beyond reproach. Firing a police chief is rarely easy, even for a mayor with the will to do so. In 2010, after the DOJ investigation began, then Mayor April Capone put Gallo on leave while the investigation proceeded. Capone wanted to fire Gallo but could not, according to a source close to city government who asked not to be named. "To fire a police chief is next to impossible," said the source. "The just-cause statute and the union power is so tight and so strong that a mayor just can't do it."

In October 2010, pressure on the department grew when a Yale University Law School clinic filed a civil rights action on behalf of Manship, the two owners of My Country Store and seven other Latino plaintiffs who claimed to have been the victims of the East Haven Police Department's abuse. The complaint lists as defendants the East Haven Police Department and two fifths of its active duty cops.

The Yale complaint paints a frightful picture of the police department that's echoed by residents who live there. In one March 2009 incident described in the complaint, the same officer who regularly harassed customers at My Country Store pulled over four Latino men as they drove them down Main Street on their way to La Bamba's.

According to the complaint, that officer screamed slurs at the men, pulled them from their car and with the help of another officer arrested them. When they arrived at the police station, one of the men asked why he'd been arrested and an officer replied by spraying him in the face with mace. The officer then proceeded to open the back door of the cruiser and punch the now blinded man in the face repeatedly as he pulled him to a cell. According to the police report, at least three other officers watched as the man was brutalized.

Later that night, the Yale complaint says, three of the arrested men overheard the police beating the fourth man. The three others feared they would be next.

On December 19, 2011, the Department of Justice released the findings of its two-year civil and criminal investigation of "allegations that EHPD officers engage in biased policing, unconstitutional searches and seizures, and the use of excessive force."

The DOJ documented officers targeting Latino-owned businesses and issuing Latino drivers tickets disproportionately, often roughing them up before falsifying police reports to cover up police violence.

The federal investigation also expressed concerns that East Haven police were inappropriately enforcing immigration laws by inquiring into the immigration status of non-citizens and reporting them to federal immigration authorities without the legal authority to do so.

The East Haven Police Department "does not have an agreement with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's Immigration and Customs Enforcement," the report states. But nonetheless, the department "allowed its officers to engage in haphazard and uncoordinated immigration enforcement efforts to target Latino drivers for traffic stops ... [as a] means for EHPD officers to harass and intimidate the Latino community."

On January 18, a grand jury indicted four East Haven officers for conspiring to "injure, oppress, threaten, and intimidate various members of the East Haven community" and for use of "unreasonable force."

All four men face jail sentences of over 10 years if found guilty.

Retiring police chief Gallo was not yet charged criminally by the feds, but at a press conference on Monday, his attorney admitted that his client is "Co-Conspirator 1" in the indictment and may face charges.

"My sense from the community is that there is a sense of vindication, that we have been listened to," said Father Manship after he finished Mass on Sunday for the 800 Latino congregants of his church in nearby Fair Haven. "But nobody thinks this is over with."

A Widespread Problem

Though the DOJ makes clear that the East Haven police abused their powers in enforcing immigration law, neither the federal indictment nor the Yale complaint address the impact of those efforts.

Even if East Haven's lawlessness is fixed, questions remain that go far beyond its city limits. According to a number of advocates and attorneys in the East Haven area, the issue was not just that the local cops wanted to deport immigrants; it's that federal immigration authorities obliged them, even as the DOJ was investigating the East Haven police.

John Lugo, an organizer with the New Haven group Unidad Latina en Accion told Colorlines.com that several of the group's members and many others have been deported as a result of East Haven's racist policing.

Michael Boyle, an attorney who practices immigration law in nearby North Haven, says that in the last couple of years he's seen a number of immigrants who've been arrested by the East Haven police and then sent into deportation proceedings.

"ICE says it has more of a focus on people with criminal problems," says Boyle, "but then the question is what kind of problems result in a call to ICE. In a place like East Haven, everything gets called in."

And in a place like East Haven, virtually every Latino Colorlines.com interviewed had been profiled or arrested.

In July 2011, almost two years after the DOJ began investigating, Boyle says a young Ecuadoran man came into his office for immigration help. He'd been pulled over by the East Haven police and arrested for driving without proper registration. "The police called ICE and the next morning ICE showed up and told him he'd have to appear in immigration court."

"It was one of these cases where he'd been staked out by the police at an Ecuadorian bakery. He was a really nice young man with a U.S.-citizen wife and he was targeted by the police there."

Boyle decided to send the case over to the Yale law clinic, thinking that the man had been a victim of the very practices the clinic was litigating.

Ultimately, according to Boyle, the clinic succeeded in getting the man relief from deportation. "But," he said, "had I taken the case and done the normal stuff without the civil rights claim, he'd be back in Mexico now."

Another local immigration attorney, Glenn Formica, said he'd had a couple of cases from East Haven that resulted in deportation. Formica argued that even when ICE did not respond to calls from the East Haven Police over people picked up for simple traffic violations, the local police know what to charge immigrants with so that ICE will respond.

"Five years ago the cops in the area didn't really think much about getting people deported," said Formica. But as the federal government shifted its enforcement tactics to target local jails, "police departments that want to get people deported can do so pretty easily."

"All you have to do is charge someone with the right thing. The East Haven police learned what to charge people with to get them deported."

On Wednesday, clergy members in the East Haven area, including Father Manship, held a press conference to demand that the Connecticut state attorney make a full review of all convictions in the last four years based on arrests by the indicted East Haven officers. The clergy argue that any arrest colored by racial profiling or discrimination should be immediately vacated.

Yet some of those who were pegged with these convictions based on tainted arrests have already been deported.

According to John Lugo and some of the men gathered in La Bamba's, ICE has just recently stopped picking people up from the East Haven Jail.

ICE did not answer Colorlines.com's specific questions about whether the agency has continued to deport people from East Haven. An ICE spokesperson responded with the statement, "The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) take allegations of racial profiling and other complaints relating to civil rights and civil liberties violations very seriously."

ICE may have backed off of East Haven in recent months--as it did in Maricopa County, Ariz. following the DOJ's investigation of civil rights violations there--but what about the agency's cooperation with the East Haven cops before the DOJ issued it's report? And, in towns and cities around the country where local police are wise enough to avoid arresting social justice minded Catholic priests and therefore avoid federal investigation, it's unlikely that ICE has any way to ensure it's not deporting the victims of racial profiling and police misconduct.

ICE is rapidly expanding programs that use local police to enforce immigration laws. Mostly significantly, the Secure Communities program, which the Obama administration says will be fully operational in every jail around the country by 2013, automatically checks the immigration status of anyone booked by local police. The government claims that the program avoids racial profiling because it's simply checking the immigration status of those already booked into jail. But that may be precisely the problem: the automated immigration check system can't discern who is and who is not a victim of racial profiling.

Nearby New Haven has joined a growing cohort of counties and cities around the country who want to opt-out of the Secure Communities program. Mayor John DeStefano has warned that Secure Communities will undermine trust between local residents and the police. He and other city leaders have asked that ICE not implement the program in their city.

But the federal government has repeatedly said that localities can't opt out. The result will be that every emerging Gallo, every East Haven police department, will now find it even easier to push their de jour undesirables into deportation.

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