discrimination

Council of Christian Colleges and Universities Gets Court Win on Exemptions to Discrimination Law

A judge dismissed a lawsuit by LGBTQ students that challenged the faith-based exemptions that Christian colleges can claim from enforcement of antidiscrimination laws. 

Reports Like Stanford's are Only the First Step for Universities to Rebuild Public Trust

by Ari Y. Kelman, Emily J. Levine and Mitchell L. Stevens

The realities of universities' involvement in unsavory aspects of history – like Stanford's revealed institutional antisemitism – contradict the heroic stories that fill campus promotional materials. But universities can't give a suspicious public any further reason to doubt their honesty.

Leading Expert on Housing Discrimination Suing Appraisers for Discrimination

“We were clearly aware of appraisal discrimination,” said Dr. Nathan Connolly, 44. “But to be told in so many words that our presence and the life we’ve built in our home brings the property value down? It’s an absolute gut punch.”

Visible Activism Key to Protecting Trans People From Discriminatory Laws

by Shay Ryan Olmstead

The legal strategies that LGBT groups have used to defend their rights and dignity in society may be less effective with hard-right judges on the bench. Direct action and activism outside the courts will be needed to make sure that the right doesn't use the law to target trans people for political gain. 

Florida Bill Echoes Anita Bryant's Antigay Crusade in the 1970s

Historians Lillian Faderman, Hugh Ryan and Julio Capó, Jr. trace the links between the Christian entertainer's claims that gay teachers threatened children and the effort to portray them as "groomers" for child abuse today. Also, video of Bryant being hit with a pie.

While "Anti-Grooming" Rhetoric Seems to Come from the Fringe, it Can be Influential

by Mical Raz and Paul M. Renfro

The latest culture war battle revives historical efforts to use the law to institutionalize the slander that LGBTQ people pose an inherent danger to children and families. 

Is "Regulation from Below" Possible? Historian Rebecca Marchiel on Community Housing Activism

"Marchiel’s narrative paints the picture of a remarkably powerful national reinvestment campaign against an almost unstoppable force of ever more inventive flows of capital. Perhaps the lesson should have been that capitalism refuses to work for people."

How Academia Laid the Groundwork for Redlining

by Todd Michney and LaDale Winling

Richard T. Ely and his student Ernest McKinley Fisher pushed the National Association of Real Estate Boards to adopt "the unsupported hypothesis that Black people's very presence inexorably lowered property values," tying the private real estate industry to racial segregation. 

When the Real Estate Industry Led the Fight to Defend Segregation

California's battle over fair housing legislation in the 1960s shows a key development of modern conservatism: raising property rights to an absolute and brooking no infringement on it, particularly for the sake of racial equality, argues Gene Slater, author of a new book on fair housing. 

Redlining Happened, but Not Exactly the Way We've Thought it Did

New economic research reinforces an argument made by historian Amy Hillier, that federal agencies didn't invent "redlining" but responded to widespread public prejudices that imagined Black residents as threats to neighborhood property value. 

Redlining, Race, and the Color of Money

by Garrett Dash Nelson

"Redlining maps reveal how the federal government managed risk for capital—a role that has perpetuated inequality long after the end of explicit discrimination in the housing market."

Racism has Long Undermined Military Cohesion, Just as Gen. Milley Testified

by Natalie Shibley

Right-wing attacks on Gen. Mark Milley's support for military education about racism ignore the long history of similar training in the military and the persistence of the racial inequalities it has tried to address. 

Anti-Trans Legislation has Never been about Protecting Children

by Nikita Shepard

"Tracing the ugly history of conservative efforts to combat school desegregation, welfare, reproductive freedom and gay and lesbian rights by claiming threats to children helps us understand why politicians today think they can gain votes by brutalizing vulnerable children in the name of protecting them."

Heterophobia? Straightwashing on the Academic Job Market

by Rebecca L. Davis

"Heterophobia is a pernicious idea, one that suggests that to question sexuality’s normative history is to hate people who sexually desire people of a different sex."

Cost Of Racism: U.S. Economy Lost $16 Trillion Because Of Discrimination, Bank Says

Citigroup's recommendations aren't new: various studies have shown similar findings and experts have called for similar action for years, though so far progress has been slow.

The Real Reason the American Economy Boomed After World War II

by Jim Tankersley

Citing recent economic research, the author argues that fighting employment discrimination and ending the idea that white men have a privileged claim on good jobs will be a potent engine for economic growth if and when America recovers from the pandemic. 

Trump’s Racist Housing Tweet is Par for His Family

Columnist Jennifer Rubin argues that Trump's appeal to white suburban homeowners echoes the discriminatory rental practices that built the Trump family real estate business. 

‘Nothing About Us Without Us’: 16 Moments in the Fight for Disability Rights

The disability civil rights movement has many distinct narratives, but the prevailing themes are of community, justice and equity.

The Black-White Wage Gap Is as Big as It Was in 1950

Recent research indicates little progress since the Truman administration.

How a Segregationist Paved the Way for a Big Gay Rights Win in the Supreme Court

A segregationist congressman's "poison pill" amendment to include sex discrimination in the 1964 Civil Rights Act became the linchpin of a ruling that LGBTQ people are protected by the act.