A Roadmap for Fighting Racism

On this day in 1960, white police officers in Sharpeville, South Africa, opened fire on a peaceful anti-apartheid demonstration killing 69 black South African protestors. To mark the solemn occasion of what came to be known as the "Sharpeville Massacre," the international community proclaimed this day as the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination – an occasion to amplify efforts to eliminate racism.

Closer to home, today is a particularly appropriate time to remind the Obama administration that it needs to make good on a promise it made to the international human rights community to come up with a concrete plan to battle discrimination and fully comply with its obligations under the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms or Racial Discrimination, also known as ICERD.

When it comes to racism, putting partisan differences aside should be easy. We can all agree that racial discrimination violates the fundamental human right to equality that all people enjoy. People of good conscience of all political stripes can agree that our government can and should do more to combat racial discrimination and promote inclusion and opportunity.
But how do we get there from here?

Read on...

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