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Showing posts with label bias. Show all posts
Showing posts with label bias. Show all posts
Wednesday, January 17, 2024
MD Stop the Hare is January 18th
Wednesday, January 3, 2024
Hate Crimes Against Jewish and Muslim Americans Continue to Surge
Reports of hate crimes and bias incidents targeting Jews, Muslims and Arabs continue to surge across the U. S. New data from the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) and the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) indicate a marked rise in reported incidents of both antisemitism and anti-Arab and anti-Muslim bias.
The ADL said it recorded 2,031 antisemitic incidents in the two months after the October 7th Hamas attack on Israel, including reports of physical assault, vandalism, and “anti-Israel rallies that included classically antisemitic, anti-Zionist and/or terror-supportive rhetoric.” The organization said it received reports of 465 antisemitic incidents during the same two-month period in 2022. The new data constitutes an over 330% increase in reported incidents of antisemitism from the 2022 time period. “This is historic but can be directly linked back to the Israel-Hamas war as a majority of the incidents referenced the conflict in one form or another,” said Jake Hyman, a spokesperson for the ADL.
CAIR said it has tracked a similarly serious rise in requests for help and reports of anti-Arab and anti-Muslim bias. After recording an “unprecedented” spike in bias incidents during the first month of the war, the nation’s largest Muslim advocacy group said 2,171 requests for help and reports of bias have been made to its U. S. national headquarters and chapters since October 7. Those reports include incidents of hate crimes and hate speech, as well as workplace discrimination and incidents described as “violations of an individual’s right to free speech and expression."
Attorney General Merrick Garland instructed law enforcement officials across the country to “remain vigilant in the face of risks of terrorism and hate-fueled violence” at the recent National Violent Crime Reduction Summit in Indianapolis. Garland discussed how the U. S. Department of Justice is “closely monitoring” the impact of the Israel-Hamas war, and how the conflict in the Middle East is inspiring extremists both at home and abroad. He also noted the spike in hate-fueled violence “comes at a time when law enforcement agencies and communities across the country have already been facing significant challenges regarding violent crime.”
The increase in reported hate and bias motivated incidents has produced a climate of fear for many Jewish, Muslim, and Arab people living in America. Jews across the country told CNN they are changing the way they celebrate Hanukkah this year. Some have broken with yearslong traditions and removed the menorah from their windows. Others have grown more defiant and have chosen to boldly declare their Jewish identity despite the rise in antisemitism.
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Wednesday, December 20, 2023
Free Implicit Bias Training on January 10th
Source: Maryland Commission on Civil Rights email, December 20, 2023. |
Monday, November 27, 2023
HOW TO REPORT HOUSING DISCRIMINATION WITH HUD
https://www.hud.gov/fairhousing/fileacomplaint
If you believe your rights may have been violated, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) encourages you to report housing discrimination. Because there are time limits on when an allegation can be filed with HUD after an alleged violation, you should report housing discrimination as soon as possible. When reporting housing discrimination, please provide as much information as possible, including:
- Your name and address.
- The name and address of the person(s) or organization your allegation is against.
- The address or other identification of the housing or program involved.
- A short description of the event(s) that cause you to believe your rights were violated.
- The date(s) of the alleged violation.
What is Housing Discrimination?
Discrimination under the Fair Housing Act (including housing that is privately owned and operated) is:
- Discrimination in renting or buying a home, getting a mortgage, seeking housing assistance, or engaging in other housing-related activities.
- Discrimination on the basis of: race, color, national origin, religion, sex (including gender identity and sexual orientation), familial status, disability).
Who May File an Allegation - Anyone who has been or will be harmed by a discriminatory housing practice.
Who May Have an Allegation Filed Against Them - Property owners, property managers, developers, real estate agents, mortgage lenders, homeowners associations, insurance providers, and others who affect housing opportunities.
You can Report Housing Discrimination with HUD
ONLINE in English (also available in Español, 中文, Tiếng Việt, 한국인, العربية, Русский, ខ្មែរ, and Soomaali).
BY PHONE. HUD speaks your language! Talk with a HUD intake specialist by calling: 1-800-669-9777. You can also call your regional FHEO office at the phone numbers on this list.
BY MAIL. You can print out this form (also available in Español, 繁體中文, Tiếng Việt, 한국인, عربي, Русский, ខ្មែរ, and Soomaali) and mail it to your regional HUD office at the address on this list.
Assistance for Persons with Disabilities
HUD welcomes and is prepared to receive calls from individuals who are deaf or hard of hearing, as well as individuals with speech or communication disabilities. To learn more about how to make an accessible telephone call, please visit Telecommunications Relay Service - TRS.
Assistance for Persons with Limited English Proficiency
You can report housing discrimination in any language. For persons with limited English proficiency, HUD provides interpreters. HUD also provides a Spanish language version of the online report housing discrimination form. You can find descriptions of your fair housing rights in several languages other than English here.
Retaliation Is Illegal
It is illegal to retaliate against any person for making an allegation, testifying, assisting, or participating in any manner in a proceeding under HUD’s allegation process at any time, even after the investigation has been completed.
It is illegal to retaliate against any person because that person reported a discriminatory practice to a housing provider or other authority.
The Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) also makes it illegal for a public housing agency, owner, or manager of housing assisted under a VAWA covered housing program to retaliate against someone for seeking or exercising VAWA protections for themself or another. This includes protection for people who testify, assist, or participate in any VAWA matter on their own, or another’s, behalf.
If you believe you have experienced retaliation, you should report housing discrimination!
Types of Allegations Investigated
HUD investigates allegations, which may be one or both of the following:
(1) Discrimination under the Fair Housing Act.
(2) Discrimination and other civil rights violations in housing and community development programs, including those funded by HUD.
(3) Discrimination Under the Violence Against Women Act.
Additional Resources
Learn About the Reporting Process
Get Help Before Reporting Housing Discrimination
Reporting in Languages Other than English
Housing Discrimination Under the Fair Housing Act
HUD Multifamily Housing Complaints
Housing Choice Voucher and Public Housing Complaints
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Source of Information: HUD’s Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity.
Friday, September 29, 2023
Fed Regulator Warns AI & Machine Learning Can Worsen Lending Bias
AI & Automated Decisions Determine Credit Rating, Loan Terms, Hiring, Housing, etc.
“While these technologies have enormous potential, they also carry risks of violating fair lending laws and perpetuating the very disparities that they have the potential to address,” the Fed’s vice chair of supervision, Michael Barr, said at the recent National Fair Housing Alliance (NFHA) 2023 national conference. While new artificial intelligence tools could cheaply expand credit to more people, machine learning and AI may also worsen bias or inaccuracies inherent in data used to train the systems or make inaccurate predictions.
As concerns grow over increasingly powerful artificial intelligence systems like ChatGPT, the nation’s financial watchdog says it’s working to ensure that companies follow the law when they’re using AI. Automated systems and algorithms help determine credit ratings, loan terms, bank account fees, and other aspects of our financial lives. AI also affects hiring, housing and working conditions.
In the past year, the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau said it has fined banks over mismanaged automated systems that resulted in wrongful home foreclosures, car repossessions, and lost benefit payments, after the institutions relied on new technology and faulty algorithms.
One problem is transparency. Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act and Equal Credit Opportunity Act, for example, financial providers legally must explain any adverse credit decision. Those regulations likewise apply to decisions made about housing and employment. Where AI make decisions in ways that are too opaque to explain, regulators say the algorithms shouldn’t be used. “I think there was a sense that, ‘Oh, let’s just give it to the robots and there will be no more discrimination,’” Chopra said. “I think the learning is that that actually isn’t true at all. In some ways the bias is built into the data.”
EEOC Chair Charlotte Burrows said there will be enforcement against AI hiring technology that screens out job applicants with disabilities, for example, as well as so-called “bossware” that illegally surveils workers. The Fed recently announced two policy initiatives to address appraisal discrimination in mortgage transactions. Under the proposed rule, institutions that engage in certain credit decisions would be required to adopt policies, practices, and control systems that guarantee a “high level of confidence” in automated estimates and protect against data manipulation.
In April, 2023, about one-fourth of federal agencies, including the Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Justice, announced their commitment to cracking down on automated systems that cause harmful business practices.
Sam Altman, the head of OpenAI, which makes ChatGPT, said government intervention “will be critical to mitigate the risks of increasingly powerful” AI systems, suggesting the formation of a U.S. or global agency to license and regulate the technology. The Electronic Privacy Information Center said the agencies should do more to study and publish information on the relevant AI markets, how the industry is working, who the biggest players are, and how the information collected is being used - like regulators have done with previous new consumer finance products and technologies.
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Read the July 19, 2023 The Hill article.
Read the June 15, 2023 Federal Times article.
US District Court Judges are Mostly White
25 of the 94 Federal District Courts have Never Had a Non-White Judge - Including Pennsylvania Middle and All New England States
According to a recent Bloomberg Law analysis of federal court records, 8 states in the South and 15 from the Northeast to the upper Great Plains have courts that never have had a non-White judge. While there are not any formal requirements to be considered for a federal judgeship, many trial court judges come from major law firms, US attorney’s offices, or were already judges in other courts. Black Americans have historically been underrepresented in those jobs in many states.
President Barack Obama significantly diversified the federal courts: about one-fifth of his judicial appointees were Black, and President Joe Biden already has done more. He has gotten confirmed a far higher percentage of women (67.1%) than President Donald Trump (23.9%) or President Barack Obama (41.9%). Overall, 66% of Biden’s nominees have been people of color, according to the White House. Some 30% of Biden’s confirmed judges have been African American, compared to 3.9% under Trump and 17.9% under Obama.
Many Black lawyers have not had the elite professional experiences and political connections that help elevate White lawyers to the US bench, according to local Black lawyers. The result is a major deficit in the administration of justice on the court when ever-deepening political polarization has increased the power of a single district judge. Their rulings at the trial district court level frequently start high-profile battles over immigration, public health, criminal justice, and other contentious social issues.
One example of the impact of the proportionate deficit of black judges is the Southern District of Georgia - the cities of Savannah and Augusta and 43 counties on the coast and in state’s southeastern corner. Nearly one-third of the district’s residents are Black, making it the most diverse of any judicial district that has only ever had White judges. There is a disproportionate number of Black criminal defendants, at times 70% to 80% of the defendants charged were people of color.
Research is mixed on how a judge’s racial identity impacts their decision-making in criminal cases. Some studies have found that Black judges are more punitive though others are not. One former prosecutor said to avoid disproportionate harm to some communities, the justice system needs to reflect a diversity of life experiences and perspectives.
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Read the September 5, 2023 Bloomberg Law News article.
Read the July 30, 2023 Washington Post article.
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