Campus Informer
Muppets Split from Chick-Fil-A for Marriage Equality; VA School Accused of Keeping Minorities Out
Study Says Mississippi Suppression Efforts Could Hurt Thousands. A recent survey from the Brennan Center for Justice found that the state of Mississippi’s new voter ID law could wipe 48,000 low-income legal residents off the voter roll this fall. The high number of disaffected voters in the state would constitute one-tenth of the total number of Americans that are negatively impacted by the laws, a stat that has caught the eye of the Center, which aims at expanding voter participation. “Every American citizen should have the opportunity to vote, but these restrictive laws could make it harder for hundreds of thousands to exercise that right,” said the survey’s co-author, Sundeep Iyer. The survey by the Center comes as the Justice Department debates whether or not to approve the law, which must be passed by the Department, as stated in the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The DOJ’s decision on the law will come after they determine whether or not it could harshly impact the state’s minority population, which would constitute a clear violation of the Act. [The Jackson Clarion Ledger]
Virginia High School Accused of Shutting Out Minority Students. Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology in Fairfax County, Virginia was discovered to have disproportionately low number of minority students. The motion was filed by the Department of Education, and was brought forth by The Coalition of Silence, along with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored Persons (NAACP). The motion alleges that the school knowingly kept minority and disabled applicants from being admitted to the gifted-education program. According to the Fairfax County Public Schools’ annual student demographic breakdown, African-American and Hispanic students combined, makeup 20 of the 454 total admitted students to the school. Former Fairfax County School Board member Tina Hone suggested the lack of diversity results from a lack of preparedness on the part of the county’s minority students, who are not ready to enter the school’s gifted program. “The solution to the problem of the lack of diversity in TJ (Thomas Jefferson) admissions is not necessarily a fix just to the TJ admissions process,” Hone said. “There has to be a fix to the pipeline that feeds the process.” [The Washington Post]
The Muppets Quit Chick-Fil-A Over Anti-LGBT Policies. Boston Mayor Thomas Menino, along with the Muppets denounced Chick-Fil-A in response to their Chief Operating Officer Dan Cathy's comments regarding the LGBT community. Cathy told the Baptist Press that the company was “guilty as charged” for fighting against same-sex marriage. “Chick-Fil-A doesn’t belong in Boston,” said Menino on Monday. “You can’t have a business in the city of Boston that discriminates against a population. We’re an open city, we’re a city that’s at the forefront of inclusion.” The Jim Henson Company, which recently teamed up to provide Muppets cartoon toys for the company, has also shot back at at the fast food chain. “The Jim Henson Company has celebrated and embraced diversity and inclusiveness for over fifty years and we have notified Chick-Fil-A that we do not wish to partner with them on any future endeavors,” the company said in a statement. “Lisa Henson, our CEO is personally a strong supporter of gay marriage and has directed us to donate the payment we received from Chick-Fil-A to GLAAD (The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation)”. [Gawker]
Christopher Boan is a journalism intern with Campus Progress.
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