The US human rights record domestically: Poor

Later On

Joanna Rothkopf reports in Salon:

The United Nations’ Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination has recently concluded its 85th Session during which time it considered seven state reports, including one on the United States.

The report praised many progressive steps the U.S. has taken to ensure equality, including the termination of the National Security Entry-Exit Registration System, the adoption of the Fair Sentencing Act and the adoption of the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act.

However, the number of issues the report raises is pretty abominable. CERD expressed concern over the following problems:

1. Lack of a national human rights institution
2. Persistent racial profiling and illegal surveillance
3. Prevalence and under-reporting of racist hate speech and hate crimes
4. Disparate impact of environmental pollution in low income and minority communities
5. Restrictive voter identification laws leading to unequal right to vote
6. Criminalization of homelessness when homeless people are…

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What We Expect of Women

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Image from http://www.ehow.com

The Guardian has the best article on the Elliot Rodger shooting that I’ve read so far. It is a careful examination of the man and his motives, as well as how society’s attitudes towards women no doubt played a role in the injury and murder of his victims. We’re all asking why this happened, and this article draws attention to what I consider the most crucial aspects of the crime and Rodger’s personality (from TheGuardian.com):

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Women on Twitter Starting a National Conversation About Misogyny

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Photo from http://www.onepageafrica.com

It’s too bad that it has taken tragedy after tragedy for America to start acknowledging and talking as a nation about the consequences of rampant and overlooked misogyny. Just because American women aren’t forced to  cover themselves from head to toe in public doesn’t mean that there is no sexism in this country.

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