Free Republic

Amanda Blanc: 'No non-diverse hire at Aviva without it being signed off by me' Chief executive revealed policy to MPs on Treasury select committee yesterday The boss of Aviva has revealed senior white male recruits have to get a final sign-off from her and the chief people officer as part of the firm's drive to improve diversity. Amanda Blanc, who became the insurer's first female chief executive in 2020, said the policy formed part of its efforts to end sexism in the financial services industry. The 56-year-old told MPs on the Treasury select committee that 'there is no non-diverse hire...

CEO of IBM Arvind Krishna admits to using coercion to fire people and take away their bonuses unless they discriminate in the hiring process. “You got to move both forward by a percentage that leads to a plus on your bonus," Krishna said about hiring Hispanics, "and by the way if you lose, you lose part of your bonus.” After pulling ads from X for 'racism,' IBM chief Arvind Krishna says he will fire, demote or strip bonuses from execs who don't hire enough blacks, Hispanics — or hire too many Asians "Asians are not an underrepresented minority in tech...

The Biden administration is sending $100 million to colleges that primarily serve minority Americans A news release last week from the Department of Education announced Historically Black Colleges and Universities, Tribally Controlled Colleges and Universities and Minority-Serving Institutions are eligible for a pot of almost $100 million in grants for infrastructure improvement and what the release calls “improved student outcomes for underserved students.” The release stated that $25 billion in funding has been poured into those colleges during the Biden administration.

In a historic ruling, The Supreme Court on Thursday ruled that the Harvard and UNC race-based affirmative action programs are unconstitutional. Schools nationwide will no longer be able to discriminate against students on the basis of race. How outlandish were Harvard’s affirmative action policies? An African American student placed within the 40th percentile of their academic index is more likely to gain admission than an Asian student who ranks in the topmost, 100th percentile. Similarly, Black students who fall within the 50th percentile have greater chances of acceptance than White students who are at the pinnacle of their academic performance....

MSNBC host Al Sharpton said Thursday on “José Díaz-Balart Reports” that the U.S. Supreme Court ruling on affirmative action programs for college admissions was a “dagger in our backs.” Sharpton said, “Well, I think that this is tantamount to sticking a dagger in our back because what they have said now is that it is unconstitutional to even consider race. And given the racial history of the country, let’s not act like blacks are behind because there’s something in our genes that made us behind. It was against the law for us to even read and write until 160 years...

2:22 President Joe Biden slammed the U.S. Supreme Court for its decision striking down racial preferences in college admissions on Thursday, declaring in the White House: “This is not a normal court.” Biden scheduled a press event to react to the decision in Students for Fair Admissions v. President and Fellows of Harvard College, in which a group representing Asian-American students sued Harvard and the University of North Carolina over their affirmative action programs. The court struck down racial preferences in college admissions that could not meet the “strict scrutiny” standards of the Constitution’s Fourteenth Amendment.

Posted by: Hugh Hewitt at 8:42 AM When Politico.com surfaced the 1995 questionnaire that Barack Obama filled out while running for the Illinois state senate --the one with Obama's hand-written notes on it-- it contained a "biographical sketch," one obviously supplied by the campaign. That sketch included the statement that Obama's "commentaries have been heard on national Public Radio." This caught my eye as I worked for PBS Los Angeles-affiliate KCET throughout the '90s, and knew that the radio commentaries from our sister network would sometimes make for pretty far out listening. Off I went to the transcript data base...

Give us racial harmony In the 1970s, most orchestras adopted the practice of blind auditions: Candidates play from behind screens [...] In the final round, once they have been winnowed down to three or four, the screens often come down so that the music director and the panel of orchestra members can meet their potential colleagues. But would a more multihued orchestra also be a more multitalented one? Absolutely, argues Aaron Dworkin, founder of the 10-year-old Michigan-based Sphinx Organization, dedicated to advancing the cause of minorities in classical music. Dworkin argues that a greater variety of musicians would bring more...

Racial tiebreaker will stand By Sanjay Bhatt Seattle Times staff reporter The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals yesterday upheld Seattle Public Schools' use of race as a tiebreaker in assigning students to popular high schools, and the plaintiffs vowed to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. The ruling comes on the heels of decisions by federal appellate judges in the 1st and 6th Circuits upholding local school authorities' use of race as a factor in student-assignment plans in Massachusetts and Kentucky. Plaintiffs in all three cases sued on the basis that the school districts' plans violated their individual rights...

California lawmakers improperly and unconstitutionally adopted legislation two years ago that violated the state's ban on race-based preferences, a Sacramento Superior Court judge ruled Thursday. Ward Connerly called the ruling by Superior Court Judge Thomas M. Cecil another "nail in the coffin of preferences" based on race, sex, color, ethnicity or national origin. Connerly had argued in the suit that Assembly Bill 703, signed into law by Gov. Gray Davis, was an "end run" around Proposition 209, a 1996 initiative banning preferences in state hiring, contracting and education. "This is a happy day for me, personally, and for all of...

City schools have a discipline problem, but it's not necessarily about cursing out the teachers, smoking in the bathrooms or brawling in the halls. It's about race. (Edit) * Though black students made up about a quarter of school enrollment, they received nearly two-thirds of suspensions each year. (Edit) * More black females were suspended each year than white males, even though education researchers say that boys are much more likely to engage in disruptive behavior. * Black males accounted for nearly half of suspensions each year, more than white and Hispanic students combined. They also received multiple suspensions more...