The Nazi Party of Colorado has sponsored a mile long stretch of US Highway 85. An official Colorado state Adopt-a-Highway placard announces that the highway is sponsored by the “National Socialist Movement Denver Unit.” Fox 31 News KDVR writes that the National Socialist Movement members “are inspired by teachings of Hitler, believe interracial relationships and homosexuality should be crimes, and they want to start a separate all-white country.” Adopting a highway is a good public relations and recruiting tool, the Nazi party says. Though the Colorado Department of Transportation did not want to accept the Nazi’s application to sponsor the highway, the law is on the Nazi’s side; courts around the country have permitted white supremacists to sponsor adopt-a-highway signs. “ ‘To have our freedom we have to have all kinds of speech, and this is a case where hate speech is protected,’ ” Anti-Defamation League Director Bruce DeBoskey said; “ ‘This organization stands for hate. It’s a white supremacist group. It’s a neo-Nazi group.’ ”
Civil Rights
Facing Today helps educators connect the study of history to issues in our world today. We select current websites, articles, films and blogs that reflect universal themes, such as identity, membership and participation, represented in our scope and sequence. Each media resource is linked to related Facing History materials, including study guides, videos and lessons.
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February 1, 2010
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January 27, 2010
A French parliamentary committee has proposed banning Islamic face veils in schools, government offices, hospitals, and on public transportation, BBC News writes. In the near 200-page report, the committee states that “ ‘the wearing of the full veil is a challenge to our republic. This is unacceptable. We must condemn this excess.’ ” The committee recommends refusing residence cards and citizenship to anyone who shows “visible signs of ‘radical religious practice.’ ” As speaker Bernard Accoyer said to the French National Assembly when presenting the report, the face veil “ ‘is the symbol of the repression of women, and … of extremist fundamentalism. This divisive approach is a denial of the equality between men and women and a rejection of co-existence side-by-side, without which our republic is nothing.’ ” Though polls suggest most French people support a full ban, the report does not call for a ban explicitly, because “there is also a fear that an outright ban would not only be difficult to implement but would be distasteful and could make France a target for terrorism.” Another reason the committee did not call for a full ban, Accoyer said, was because “ ‘no-one should feel stigmatized’ by any eventual law.”
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December 16, 2009
On December 3, 2009, twenty-six Asian students at South Philadelphia High School were assaulted both inside and outside the school by a large group consisting mostly of African Americans, Philly.com reports. Some people, including Superintendent Arlene Ackerman, suggest the attacks were in retaliation to an assault that took place the previous day when “two Asian students beat up an African-American student after school near a drugstore,” Education Week states. Seven students went to the hospital to seek medical treatment. The Associated Press writes, “Asian students at South Philadelphia High School say two off-campus fights and a lunchroom attack left them feeling unsafe and helpless, in part because they say school security guards often turn a blind eye.” These attacks stem from “a long history of intolerance, assaults and racial slurs targeting Asian students at South Philadelphia High School,” Education Week reports. Executive director of Asian Americans United, Ellen Somekawa, quoted a Vietnamese student: “ ‘As soon as we open our mouths and speak, they treat us like we’re animals.’ . . . ‘Where are you from?’ ‘Hey, Chinese.’ ‘Yo Dragon Ball.’ ‘Are you Bruce Lee?’ ‘Speak English.’ ” The student was referring to comments made by adult staff at the high school—staff who let the attacks happen. About 50 Asian students boycotted classes for a week, and protesters carried signs with such poignant messages as “Grown-ups Let Us Down” and “It’s Not a Question of Who Beat Whom, but WHO LET IT HAPPEN.” As quoted in an article by Philly.com, President of Black Men at Penn Chad Dion Lassiter said “in a society in which immigrants are seen as the ‘other’ . . . prejudice is ‘deeply rooted’ and ‘then we act out aggressively against something we don’t understand.’ ”
