Sonia Sotomayor's Gutsy Start in '78

At the tender age 24, a daring Sonia Sotomayor took on an elite Manhattan law firm -- and won!

So reports the LATimes (At Yale, Sotomayor won apology from law firm - 5/28/09):

While interviewing for jobs during her final year of school, [Sotomayor] accused the firm, then known as Shaw, Pittman, Potts & Trowbridge, of discriminating against her by asking questions about the qualifications of Puerto Ricans and other minorities.

Sotomayor's complaint caused a campus furor. A student-faculty panel found the complaint warranted and ordered Shaw Pittman to write her a letter of apology.

That incident speaks volumes for why Sotomayor is the perfect choice to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court. No shrinking violet...Sotomayor had the guts to take on a wrong -- even if it jeopardized her career with the uber powerful Manhattan corporate legal establishment.

Sotomayor's challenge caused the law firm to reconsider its ways. Remarkably, that firm is now recognized as a leader in diversity. Now that's change we can believe in!

How many Supreme wannabes would dare such a thing?

Severe & Deeply Rooted Housing Discrimination on Long Island

The advocacy group Education Research Advocacy Support to Eliminate Racism (ERASE Racism)'s latest report, The Racial Equity Report Card: Fair Housing on Long Island (pdf), concludes that African Americans and Latinos are still treated unfairly when searching for homes in Long Island (New York).

The discrimination, the report observes, is severe and deeply rooted in the highly segregated society that is Long Island.

A primary culprit? Real estate professionals.

The report found that some Long Island real estate agents routinely practice housing discrimination, despite efforts to crack down on it, including repeatedly steering African Americans and Latinos to rundown neighborhoods.

Seventy three percent (73%) of all housing race discrimination complaints on Long Island from 2000 to 2007 were filed against real estate professionals.

The report also found that local state and federal government agencies failed to act to stem housing discrimination based on race on Long Island.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development under George W. Bush failed to oversee and monitor New York’s human rights cases.

The state’s Division of Human Rights under George Pataki dismissed most housing discrimination complaints. Between 1999 and 2007, 90 percent of the race-based fair housing complaints from Long Island received a “no probable cause” finding.

And local municipalities failed to take “any significant steps towards drafting and implementing community development plans that address inequities caused by racial segregation.”

Links:
Report: Housing discrimination on LI 'routine practice'
Not so fair housing on LI
Housing Barriers Persist on Long Island: New Study Reveals Housing Discrimination on
Long Island Is Severe and Deeply Rooted - report press release
The Racial Equity Report Card: Fair Housing on Long Island