14782: Saudi Arabian Airline Campaign Wouldn’t Fly Elsewhere.

This campaign for a low-fare airline in Saudi Arabia might feel like racial-profiling and discrimination in the USA.

13718: #NoMoreBlackTargets.

Learn more about #NoMoreBlackTargets.

13604: Failing The Image Test.

Master Comunicação in Brazil created The Image Test to expose institutionalized racism. Not sure the exercise really presented anything new or surprising. And it’s not clear why all the Brazilian “HR Professionals” appeared to be White. The accompanying blurb on YouTube (copied below) claimed that—thanks to The Image Test—“a debate began in the country.” Began? What the hell took so long?

On the Black Consciousness Day, the Government of Paraná in partnership with NGOs of racial equality, released a video. An experiment called The Image Test, where real human resource professionals were divided into two distinct groups. The first group were showed pictures of white people in everyday situations. The second group were showed pictures with identical situations, only with black people this time. The result? White people pictures were described as successful people while the images of black people were always attributed to be underemployment or even worse, vandals and thieves.

The video went viral and in less than 24 hours more than 15 million people watched it and more than 400,000 shared it on Facebook. The video was commented on all TV channels, newspapers and magazines. And, more importantly, a debate began in the country.

13567: BHM 2017—Truth Initiative.

Okay, it’s technically not a Black History Month moment, but Campaign reported the Truth Initiative is turning smoking into a social justice issue by comparing Big Tobacco’s targeting of Blacks to racial profiling. The concept was hatched by 72andSunny, which adds layers of hypocrisy and deceit to the propaganda. Plus, it’s not even an original notion—simply type “Newport” into this blog’s search field to see. “We hope young people will help us spread the word,” said Truth Initiative CEO and President Robin Koval. “When you see a social injustice, when you see tobacco being advertised up to 10 times more in black neighborhoods, call it out. We’re always looking to get young people to engage with us whether sharing our hashtag or coming to thetruth.com to enroll. The way we’ll stop this is by getting young people engaged.” Hey, wait until the young people gain awareness of the discriminatory exclusivity happening at White advertising agencies like 72andSunny. It’s bona fide social injustice—and that’s the truth.

Truth turns tobacco advertising into a social justice issue

By Alison Kanski

In the new #StopProfiling campaign, Truth Initiative accuses the tobacco industry of profiling African-Americans and people in low-income communities.

The Truth Initiative has made smoking not just a health issue, but a social justice issue in its new campaign #StopProfiling.

One thing the campaign is capitalizing on is the recent surge in protests and renewed focus on social justice issues since Donald Trump’s inauguration. In the past, many of its campaigns have been more lighthearted, like a campaign showing smokers are less likely to get dates on Tinder, said Robin Koval, CEO and president of Truth Initiative.

“We felt that there is a shift in the cultural mood right now,” Koval explained. “Young people are feeling that they want to make a statement about this country and that they care about all the things going on. We know young people care a lot about social justice issues. It felt like a good time to pivot a little bit and take a more serious tone in our advertising.”

The campaign, which began Sunday, takes aim at tobacco’s advertising tactics. The campaign focuses on tobacco’s targeting of African-Americans and people with lower incomes. In two videos featuring comedian Amanda Seales, the campaign points out that black neighborhoods have up to 10 times more tobacco advertisements and low-income neighborhoods are more likely to have tobacco retailers near schools.

“Some people might say, ‘Isn’t the tobacco industry just targeting their best customers? Isn’t that what all brands do?’” said Koval. “It’s not as innocent as that. That’s not just marketing, that’s singling people out and that’s called profiling.”

Along with the videos, which premiered during the Grammys on Sunday night, the Truth Initiative is running a robust digital campaign for #StopProfiling aimed at young people from 15 to 24 years old. The initiative used the MTV Video Music Awards last August to kick off another campaign called #Squadless.

“We like to use these tentpole events where you can aggregate lots of young viewers in a single moment and start to generate awareness,” Koval said. “We’re igniting the spark on a major event like the Grammys, but the real power is in all of our finishers, the people who follow and engage with us afterward.”

The initiative took over YouTube on Sunday with the campaign and promoted the hashtag on Twitter Monday, Koval said. The campaign will also include work with influencers on Snapchat and Twitter.

Truth worked with several agencies to help create the campaign: Ketchum for PR, 72andsunny for advertising, and Assembly for media planning. This campaign is an extension of Truth’s Finish It campaign, which began in 2014 and aims to make this generation of young people the generation that ends smoking.

“We hope young people will help us spread the word,” Koval said. “When you see a social injustice, when you see tobacco being advertised up to 10 times more in black neighborhoods, call it out. We’re always looking to get young people to engage with us whether sharing our hashtag or coming to thetruth.com to enroll. The way we’ll stop this is by getting young people engaged.”

13307: RushCard To Judgment.

From Adweek…

These Clever Mobile Ads Challenge People’s Perceptions of Black Men and Police

RushCard pushes the boundaries of tech and tolerance

By Marty Swant

With the flip of a phone, a mobile video debuting today challenges viewers on how quickly we judge strangers not just by the color of their skin but by the context of their clothing.

The video begins with a black man in a white tank top standing in front of a black backdrop. He speaks straight into the camera, candidly but earnestly.

“This morning before I hit the door to leave the house, my spouse stopped me and told me to please be careful,” he says. “Lately she’s been extra prayerful that I make it through the day. She know how these streets play, and she say because of the way I’m dress makes me target for public disdain.”

But when watching it on a smartphone, flipping the video from vertical to horizontal at any moment tells a different story. In its place is the same man, wearing a full police uniform speaking the same words. Regardless of what he’s wearing, the monologue continues.

“And my kids stomach this pain too because the TV entertains you with story after story of how men who look like me don’t make it home, may even have to listen through the lens of somebody’s mobile phone, all because my life is prone to strike this tone of fear because somehow I appear to be your enemy, your adversary, or too aggressively dangerous or scary that you find it necessary to take my breath away.”

The video—along with a second featuring a different person in the same clothing reciting a different monologue—is the first in a series sponsored by RushCard, the pre-paid credit card company founded by hip hop mogul Russell Simmons. The series, titled Making Moves, is part of a larger ad campaign rolling out this month. The campaign was created by Narrative, an agency also founded by Simmons. (The videos only work on mobile devices.)

According to Narrative CEO Tricia Clarke-Stone, the video is meant to create a discussion around the issues of racial profiling and violence that has swept the nation over the past two years. Future films will address issues faced by other minority groups, such as those who identify as gay, lesbian or transgender. However, she said RushCard noticed that its core customer base has been concerned with growing tensions in some areas between civilians and police officers.

“If you think about it, you can’t make moves if you’re inhibited by judgment, stereotypes and a lack of openness,” Clarke-Stone said.

Working with Narrative, the company wanted to lean into art and poetry as a means of addressing the subject in a way that was “really riveting and highly charged.” So they worked with Gillian Laub, an acclaimed filmmaker and photographer who’s spent her career documenting issues of race.

Clarke-Stone pointed out that people viewing a video on a smartphone usually start off vertically before turning from portrait to landscape to see a clearer picture.

“We said maybe this could work to show an actual shift in perspective,” she said.

To pull off the tech that allows for a seamless transition, Narrative’s engineers built a framework that leverages video tags and HTML canvas that allow for swapping between two videos based on the device orientation. Because this is usually easier for Android devices than for iPhones, Clarke-Stone said Narrative’s engineering team rendered the video through HTML5 canvas but then allowed for two videos in a queue that would bring up each video right at the point when someone flips the phone. They then had to figure out the weighing of phones, along with working with cellular providers to understand how the video would be served to each phone so that it wouldn’t be too large of a file. The videos, shot on an iPhone, were meant to capture the rawness of the spoken word.

Addressing race is a sensitive topic. So what made RushCard feel it had the authority to discuss it in an ad campaign? Narrative and RushCard wanted to drive conversation rather than to ignore an issue that’s important to its target market.

“My hope is that these videos will be a starting point for a nuanced discussion about issues that affect our community and the entire country,” Simmons said in a statement to Adweek. “I believe in the power of art to create change, and these films use art and technology to actually show that change taking place.”

12921: FCB Leader Admits Bias…?

Campaign published a pathetic and patronizing perspective from FCB Global Chief Talent Officer Cynthia Augustine, reprimanding résumé racial profiling and ripping Raven-Symoné. Augustine had the audacity to remark, “Fortunately, most industry leaders are more enlightened than Raven-Symoné. Instead of embracing ignorance and bias, many company leaders actively work against it by creating programs that center around making the unconscious conscious.” Um, which industry leaders is Augustine saluting? They surely can’t be honchos in adland. Additionally, when referencing the recent rants by revolutionary Brad Jakeman and Kat Gordon, Augustine gasped, “What’s happening here? It’s 2015 and we still haven’t solved this.” Augustine also stated, “Most companies, FCB included, have culture and inclusion experts dedicated to adding more diversity to its workforce, ensuring a culture of inclusion and lessening the implicit bias inherent in all of us. After all, bias does indeed live in us all. It is part of what makes us human.” Wow, is that an open admission to the institutionalized discrimination present at White advertising agencies like FCB? Plus, it’s sad for Augustine to display faux dismay that “it’s 2015 and we still haven’t solved this”—seemingly oblivious to former Draftfcb President and CEO Laurence Boschetto’s bold vow that the agency would no longer use the term “diversity and inclusion” by 2014. Augustine should think twice before attacking Raven-Symoné. After all, prorating from a birthdate of December 10, 1985, the former Cosby kid can only have shown bias for less than 30 years. FCB has been unable to shake its cultural cluelessness for at least 140 years.

What’s in a name?

By Cynthia Augustine

Absolutely nothing, says FCB’s global chief talent officer, yet name-based bias happens much too often

Raven-Symoné proudly boasted last month on “The View” that she wouldn’t hire someone with a “ghetto” name. Really? That’s pretty ironic coming from Raven-Symoné. Someone whose first name is uniquely punctuated and uniquely spelled, which — according to the Urban Dictionary — is often the very definition of what’s considered “a ghetto name.”

But who should really care? Because when you think about it, what’s in a name? Absolutely nothing. It’s something someone else decided to call you.

A name doesn’t reveal what a prospective job candidate has done with their life — what they’ve learned and experienced, the skills they’ve developed, the character they have or the obstacles they have possibly overcome. A name doesn’t even reveal a candidate’s ethnicity, no matter what people like Raven-Symoné think. I know a man with the last name Goldstein who was adopted and is actually Chinese. Interviewers are perpetually surprised when they meet him.

Unfortunately, Raven-Symoné is not alone. Many studies conducted between 2003 and today, including those by The University of Chicago and MIT, found that resumes sent out for candidates with African-American-sounding names were 50% less likely to land a job interview than identical resumes sent out under white-sounding names. And, that sorry result is replicated with various other ethnic groups in our country — which does not serve any employer well. Studies like those discussed in Scott Page’s 2008 book The Difference — including one he conducted with Lu Hong of Loyola University Chicago – have consistently shown that diverse teams will outperform and out-innovate homogenous ones.

Fortunately, most industry leaders are more enlightened than Raven-Symoné. Instead of embracing ignorance and bias, many company leaders actively work against it by creating programs that center around making the unconscious conscious.

They have to. It’s a business imperative. PepsiCo.’s Brad Jakeman, president of the global beverage group, just a few weeks ago forcefully told attendees at the Association of National Advertisers conference that he’s tired of talking to a group of white males about his business when it is women who make 85% of the purchase decisions in the category. If the marketing community wants to do more disruptive things, Jakeman said, agencies must bring more diversity to the table, especially women. Kat Gordon’s 3% Conference held last week in New York yet again addressed the dearth of female leadership in the business. What’s happening here? It’s 2015 and we still haven’t solved this.

Forcing ourselves to look at why we haven’t — to ensure we challenge ourselves as much as we challenge a Raven-Symoné — must be a daily occurrence.

Most companies, FCB included, have culture and inclusion experts dedicated to adding more diversity to its workforce, ensuring a culture of inclusion and lessening the implicit bias inherent in all of us. After all, bias does indeed live in us all. It is part of what makes us human. Knowing this, we are committed to raising our collective consciousness with regard to how it may play out in all kinds of business decisions, including hiring. Presently, we are exploring changes to our hiring protocol — like removing names from résumés altogether — so people aren’t influenced by factors that have no relevance at all to whether someone can perform a job. We are also working as an organization to understand, and more effectively and objectively manage, everyday assumptions that live in each of us with regard to criteria we consider when making hiring decisions. We’re not interested in prejudging anyone on irrelevant factors like names, race, gender or educational background that could cause us to miss out on a delightful and completely fabulous job candidate.

If we rely on horribly outdated stereotypes and judgments about people, like whether they have a “ghetto” name, we are perpetuating a deep social injustice and closing our eyes to talent that will move our companies and businesses forward.

Perhaps Hollywood and the media could benefit from the same type of unconscious bias training our industry is undertaking. Maybe we wouldn’t have an Academy Awards season like last year ever again, when all 20 acting nominees were white. Also, doing so may help the Raven-Symonés of the world consider the content of someone’s character first before the number of unique syllables and hyphens in their names.

Cynthia Augustine is global chief talent officer of FCB.

12904: Driving While Black In B&W.

The New York Times published an in-depth report titled, “The Disproportionate Risks of Driving While Black.”

12694: Profiling At PNC.

PNC Bank bans hoodies? Not sure why the sign didn’t simply read: No bank robbers allowed.

12311: Talk About TalkAboutTheTalk.

TalkAboutTheTalk presents its message from The Brotherhood/Sister Sol in a powerful style, ultimately asking the question, “Do we want one America or two?” On the other hand, the video was produced by Saatchi & Saatchi in New York, a White advertising agency that exemplifies the two Americas created by an industry where exclusivity reigns and diversity is a dream deferred and denied. Granted, the Saatchi & Saatchi team included Sheldon Levy, a top-flight professional who deserves recognition and respect. Yet it’s difficult to separate the contradictions posed by these types of efforts.

12289: Stop Cop Abuse Of Black Men.

From The New York Times…

We Must Stop Police Abuse of Black Men

By Eric L. Adams

I CAN recall it as if it were yesterday: looking into the toilet and seeing blood instead of urine. That was the aftermath of my first police encounter.

As a 15-year-old, living in South Jamaica, Queens, I was arrested on a criminal trespass charge after unlawfully entering and remaining in the home of an acquaintance. Officers took me to the 103rd Precinct — the same precinct where an unarmed Sean Bell was later shot and killed by the police — and brought me into a room in the basement. They kicked me in the groin repeatedly. Out of every part of my body, that’s what they targeted. Then I spent the night in Spofford juvenile detention center.

For seven days after that, I stared into the toilet bowl in my house at the blood I was urinating. I kept telling myself that if it didn’t clear up by the next day, I would share this shame and embarrassment with my mother, although I could never bring myself to start that conversation. When clear urine returned, I thought I was leaving that moment behind me. I never told anyone this, not even my mother, until I was an adult.

As I attempted to put that shame and attack on my manhood away, new horror stories kept compelling me to relive those memories: the nightmare experiences of Randolph Evans, Patrick Dorismond, Abner Louima and countless other young men have reminded me of my own secret. Think of all the secrets that young men of color are hiding. How many are concealing some dark truth of the abuse they endured, and what is that darkness doing to them?

In order to finally bring this darkness into the light of day, our nation must address the foundation of this crisis. That starts with acknowledging that the training taught in police academies across the country is not being applied in communities of color. After six months in the police academy, that instruction is effectively wiped out by six days of being taught by veteran cops on the streets.

I learned this myself firsthand. I didn’t want any more children to go through what I endured, so I sought to make change from the inside by joining the police department.

Hours after coming out of the police academy, I was told something as a new rookie officer: You’d rather be tried by 12 jurors than carried by six pallbearers. In my impressionable first days, I saw officers leave the precinct every day touching the lockers of their fallen brothers. They started their shift on the defensive, thinking about protecting themselves, as opposed to the communities they served, regardless of the complexion of those communities. One of my white fellow officers once told me that if he saw a white individual with a gun, he took extra care for himself and the individual. When he saw a black individual with a gun, he took care only for himself.

These are the lessons to which I was exposed, and the reality of what policing communities of color has been, not just in New York City but across America. There is a legacy of inequity that did not just appear overnight, but was carved into the culture of law enforcement over decades.

There is reluctance on the part of police leadership, which has long believed in the nightstick and quick-trigger-finger justice, to effectively deal with officers who have documented and substantiated records of abuse. These individuals need to be removed from the force. That is an essential component of the larger response we must have to address this history of abuse.

We cannot continue to approach policing in an antiquated fashion, and that certainly includes technology. Technology has been used as a crime-fighting tactic, but not as a tool to determine what happens during a police action. New York City has taken the right step in putting body cameras on police officers, but what about cameras on guns themselves? While I was a state senator, I introduced a proposal to allow such devices, which would not interfere with the function of the weapon; this proposal deserves to be revisited. In fact, we can go further, with cameras on police vehicles as well. Not only will technology shine a light on the darkness of these police encounters, it will be significant in advancing community trust that accountability does in fact apply.

Equally important, especially in the wake of what has taken place after the deaths of Michael Brown and Eric Garner, is reform to our grand jury system. Grand juries were established in England in the 12th and 13th centuries, a vestige of a time when people needed to be protected from unfair prosecution from the king and others. There was a necessary element of secrecy — one that need not apply in cases involving police misconduct.

Open, preliminary hearings in court can and should determine if a case should be stepped up to a trial. Additionally, the handling of police shootings should be wholly separated from local grand juries. These bodies cannot handle cases involving local police officers on whom they rely every day.

Special grand juries should be convened for police-related incidents, and independent agencies must gather evidence even before they convene, at the time of police encounters where a death has occurred; the evidence gathered at that moment is the evidence that will shape whether there is an indictment, as well as whether there will be a fair trial based on the facts.

All of these ideas need to be moved forward under the leadership of our president, our governors, the mayors of our major cities and our law enforcement leadership. If we fail to take advantage of this moment that history has laid on our doorstep, we are doomed to more abuse, more division and more chaos.

When my son was 15, he was stopped by the police in a movie theater for no apparent reason. He showed his ID and explained that his father was a retired police captain and a state senator. The response was “So what?” It doesn’t and shouldn’t matter who he is. He shouldn’t have had that experience at all. And until that changes, for all men of color, real reform will never come.

Eric L. Adams is the Brooklyn borough president, a retired New York Police Department captain and the co-founder of 100 Blacks in Law Enforcement Who Care.

12271: Ramming A Protest.

From The New York Daily News…

St. Louis police officers upset over Rams players’ ‘hands up, don’t shoot’ gesture before game, demand apology

St. Louis Police Officers Association called for a ‘very public apology’ and wants the players involved disciplined by the team or NFL after five Rams players came onto the field with their hands raised in a gesture of solidarity with protesters in nearby Ferguson, Mo.

By Nicole Hensley, Reuven Blau, Bill Hutchinson | NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

St. Louis cops are demanding “a very public apology” from their hometown football team after five Rams players did a pregame “hands-up-don’t-shoot” gesture of solidarity with protesters in nearby Ferguson.

The St. Louis Police Officers Association immediately condemned the players, saying it was “profoundly disappointed” in the coordinated move, which came during pregame introductions Sunday at St. Louis’ Edward Jones Dome.

The five black players — Jared Cook, Tavon Austin, Kenny Britt, Stedman Bailey and Chris Given — came onto the field with their hands raised, a pose that has become symbol of the ongoing protest over the police shooting of unarmed black teen Michael Brown.

“I just think there has be to a change,” said tight end Cook. “There has to be change that starts with the people that are most influential around the world.”

The action came during the Rams’ first home game since the Nov. 24 announcement that Officer Darren Wilson would not be indicted for the Aug. 9 shooting of Brown, 18. The players’ gesture also came on day after Wilson resigned from the Ferguson Police Department.

Some witnesses said Brown had his hands raised when he was shot to death, but others, including Wilson, told the grand jury that Brown was charging after the cop when he was shot.

The St. Louis police union statement said the players “chose to ignore the mountains of evidence” released by the grand jury and engaged “in a display that police officers around the nation found tasteless, offensive and inflammatory.”

The group called for the players to be disciplined and accused the Rams and the NFL of being hypocritical.

“We respect and understand the concerns of all individuals who have expressed views on this tragic situation,” the NFL said in a statement to The News.

Union business manager Jeff Roorda said it was “way out-of-bounds” for the players to conduct an on-field protest while being protected by officers who have been working 12-hour shifts and even gave up their Thanksgiving holiday to defend their community.

Meanwhile, Ferguson Mayor James Knowles said Sunday that Wilson did not receive a severance package when he resigned.

Wilson left the force Saturday in response to death threats against other officers, his lawyer said Sunday.

“The information we had was that there would be actions targeting the Ferguson (police) department or buildings in Ferguson related to the police department,” his attorney, Neil Bruntrager, told the Associated Press.

Wilson was on the force for three years.

Wilson’s resignation letter stated that his “continued employment may put residents and police officers of the city of Ferguson at risk, which is a circumstance I cannot allow.”

Nicole Hensley reported from Ferguson, Mo.

With Stephen Rex Brown, Bernie Augustine and News Wire Services

12237: Sephora Stereotyping Stinks.

From The New York Daily News…

Sephora deactivates thousands of Asian customers’ accounts due to racial stereotype: suit

Four women of Chinese descent claim that the cosmetics giant cut off Asian customers’ accounts during a 20% sale due to a racist belief that they would have resold the discounted beauty products for a profit.

By Stephen Rex Brown | NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

It’s a case of racial e-profiling.

Cosmetics giant Sephora has deactivated the online accounts of Asian customers due to its racist belief they take advantage of discount sales to buy beauty products in bulk and resale them for a profit, a class-action suit charges.

“This is an egregious example of a retailer singling out individuals based on racial stereotypes,” said attorney Doug Wigdor.

The suit, brought by four women of Chinese descent, stems from Sephora’s decision to shut down numerous accounts during a 20% sale earlier this month due to reselling, which it called “a pervasive issue.” But that was only part of the story, the Manhattan Federal Court suit charges.

The deactivated accounts were almost exclusively associated with email addresses or names that appeared to signify Asian ethnicity, or tied to Web domains originating from Asia, documents charge.

Many users still have not been able to reactivate their accounts despite pleas they don’t hustle beauty products on the black market, documents claim.

Wigdor would not say how many people were affected by the decision, but said his firm believes “it is well into the thousands as Sephora is one of the largest cosmetic retailers in the world.”

The suit comes after Sephora’s Facebook page was flooded with complaints about the mass-deactivation — mostly from women with Asian surnames.

Two of the plaintiffs named in the suit are New Yorkers: Xiao Xiao of Manhattan and Tiantian Zou of Queens. Wigdor said it’s an example of the “shop and frisk” mentality infiltrating e-commerce.

Wigdor seeks damages to be determined at trial, but estimated he would seek a sum well into the millions.

Sephora did not respond to a request for comment.

12023: Are Cops Color Blind?

From The New York Times…

Are Police Bigoted?

Race and Police Shootings: Are Blacks Targeted More?

By Michael Wines

IF anything good has come out of this month’s fatal shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., it is that the death of the black teenager shined a spotlight on the plague of shootings of black men by white police officers. And maybe now, the nation will begin to address the racism behind it.

That is the conventional wisdom, anyway, and maybe it is true. Only a fool would deny that racial bias still pervades aspects of American society. The evidence is clear that some police law-enforcement tactics — traffic stops, to cite one example — disproportionately target African-Americans. And few doubt that blacks are more likely than whites to die in police shootings; in most cities, the percentage almost certainly exceeds the African-American share of the population.

Such arguments suggest that the use of deadly force by police officers unfairly targets blacks. All that is needed are the numbers to prove it.

But those numbers do not exist. And because of that, the current national debate over the role of race in police killings is being conducted more or less in a vacuum.

Researchers have sought reliable data on shootings by police officers for years, and Congress even ordered the Justice Department to provide it, albeit somewhat vaguely, in 1994. But two decades later, there remains no comprehensive survey of police homicides. The even greater number of police shootings that do not kill, but leave suspects injured, sometimes gravely, is another statistical mystery.

Without reliable numbers, the conventional wisdom is little more than speculation. Indeed, some recent research suggests that it may not even be correct: One study of police data in St. Louis concluded that black and white officers were equally likely to shoot African-American suspects, while another experiment found that both officers and civilians in simulated situations hesitated significantly longer before firing at black suspects than they did at whites.

“It’s shocking,” said Geoffrey P. Alpert, a professor of criminology at the University of South Carolina. “For 20 years, we’ve been trying to get the government to do something. We don’t have a clear picture of what’s going on in the use of lethal force. Are young black males being shot at a rate disproportionate to their involvement in crime? Are white officers shooting black males in areas where they’re not expected to have those sorts of interactions? Is this an aberration, a trend, routine, something going on for a long time? We don’t know.”

Not only do we not know the racial breakdown of police homicides, we don’t know with any precision how many homicides occur, period.

The F.B.I.’s Uniform Crime Reporting Program tabulates deaths at the hands of police officers. So does the National Center for Health Statistics. So does the Bureau of Justice Statistics. But the totals can vary wildly.

By the F.B.I.’s figures, there were between 378 and 414 police homicides in the five years ending in 2012, the most recent year available. Those numbers, however, include only justifiable homicides without reference to race; mistaken or unjustified killings are not reported. Years of academic research indicate that the actual total is considerably higher.

A 2012 study by David A. Klinger, a former police officer and professor of criminology at the University of Missouri-St. Louis, compared 13 years of internal reports on homicides by Los Angeles police officers and sheriffs’ deputies with the figures published by the F.B.I. The result: the 184 homicides reported by the F.B.I. were 46 percent fewer than the 340 logged by the departments themselves.

The lack of reliable data has ramifications that go well beyond merely keeping tabs on one’s local police department. “There is a long list of important research questions — not arcane ones, or of mere interest to the academic research community — that we currently cannot study or systematically analyze because there is no data,” said Richard Rosenfeld, another University of Missouri-St. Louis criminology professor.

Beyond measuring racial inequities, he said, researchers could use data to ferret out differences between homicides and nonlethal shootings, the nature of communities where shootings generally occur, and the character of police departments whose officers are more likely — or less — to be involved in shootings.

Whether or not racial bias is a significant factor in police homicides is very much an open question.

Studies have long concluded that police killings are more common in cities with more violent crime and larger minority populations, yet some researchers have found no positive association between race and killings. Others, however, have concluded that fewer black suspects were killed in cities with black mayors, and, in one city, that blacks made up a greater share of police homicide victims than of arrests overall.

But all those studies used the government’s imperfect data and measured only homicides, excluding the greater number of shootings in which suspects survived. A more comprehensive analysis exists: Dr. Klinger and Dr. Rosenfeld, among others, examined all 230 instances over 10 years in which officers of the St. Louis police fired their weapons (the city’s police, in contrast to the county police involved in Ferguson).

Their conclusions, presented last November at the American Society of Criminology’s annual meeting, were striking. Officers hit their targets in about half of the 230 incidents; in about one-sixth, suspects died. Of the 360 suspects whose race could be identified — some fled before being seen clearly — more than 90 percent were African-American.

But most interesting, perhaps, was the race of the officers who fired their weapons. About two-thirds were white, and one-third black — effectively identical to the racial composition of the St. Louis Police Department as a whole. In this study, at least, firing at a black suspect was an equal-opportunity decision.

In laboratory experiments, meanwhile, subjects who see pictures or videos of threatening activity, and then punch “shoot” or “don’t shoot” buttons befitting their evaluations of the threat, consistently “shoot” black suspects more often than white ones.

But a different experiment last year at Washington State University in Spokane suggested that the opposite might be true: In realistic simulations of confrontations, subjects armed with laser-firing pistols acted in ways that left black suspects less likely to be shot at — not more.

The experiment’s 102 subjects, a mixture of police officers, combat veterans and civilians, were run through a random sample of 60 scenarios drawn from actual police encounters. The scenarios, using white, black and Hispanic actors, were projected in life-size high-definition video on laboratory screens.

Whether officers, veterans or civilians, the subjects consistently hesitated longer before firing at black suspects and were much more likely to mistakenly shoot an unarmed white suspect, the researchers found. And when they failed to fire at an armed suspect — a potentially fatal mistake — the suspect was about five times more likely to be black than white. The study’s 36 police officers were the lone exception in failing to fire: The suspect’s race wasn’t a factor in their decision not to shoot. “The findings were very unexpected given the previous experimental research,” said Lois James, an assistant professor who conducted the research.

“The notion that cops want to shoot anybody is a lot of baloney,” said Dr. Klinger, who has interviewed some 300 officers involved in shootings. “But white officers are much more reticent to shoot a black man than a white man because, all things being equal, they know the social context in which they’re operating.”

By that theory, officers are more careful when confronting black suspects because they know a fatal shooting will open them to controversy.

Which studies reflect reality? Hard to say. But perhaps the death of Michael Brown will help researchers find out.

Michael Wines is a national correspondent for The New York Times. Alain Delaquérière contributed research for this article.

11984: Bashing Barneys.

From The New York Daily News…

11980: Barneys Settles Profiling Cases.

From The New York Daily News…

Barneys agrees to pay $525G to settle racial profiling allegations after civil rights review

In addition to paying fines and legal expenses in relation to the profiling allegations, the upscale retailer will hire an ‘anti-profiling consultant’ for two years, update its detention policy and improve training of security and sales personnel.

By Greg B. Smith | NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

Barneys has agreed to pay $525,000 to settle allegations that the upscale retailer deliberately targeted minorities entering its Madison Ave. flagship store.

State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman’s investigators heard from customers and former employees that a pattern of racial profiling began last year when the high-end store tried to crack down on a dramatic spike in shoplifting and credit card fraud.

Complainants told Schneiderman’s civil rights division that the store’s security team — known as the “loss prevention unit” — made a habit of keeping watch over black and Hispanic shoppers in disproportionate numbers.

“This agreement will correct a number of wrongs,” said Schneiderman, “both by fixing past policies and by monitoring the actions of Barneys and its employees to make sure that past mistakes are not repeated.”

In a 27-page settlement document signed by both parties Friday, Schneiderman released a series of findings from a nine-month review based on interviews with nearly a dozen complainants in the so-called shop-and-frisk case, including shoppers and former employees.

They alleged that black and Hispanic customers were unfairly targeted when they entered the pricey store at 660 Madison Ave.

The store’s own data showed that from October 2012 through October 2013, black and Hispanic shoppers were detained “at rates far greater than their percentage of the store’s customer base.”

The review began this past October in response to a series of Daily News articles exposing numerous complaints about racial profiling at Barneys and Macy’s.

Schneiderman’s review of Macy’s continues, but Barneys executives last week agreed to the settlement.

As part of the deal, Barneys agreed to pay the $525,000 in fines and legal expenses, to hire an “anti-profiling consultant” for two years, to update its detention policy and to improve training of security and sales personnel.

The problems apparently started in March 2013 when Barneys hired a new security executive, the review found. In the ensuing months, door guards “exclusively identified minority customers as warranting surveillance,” complainants told the attorney general.

In-store detectives regularly followed minority customers even after sales associates identified them as frequent patrons of the store, complainants alleged.

Former Barneys employees told Schneiderman the store detectives were regularly pressured to “be more proactive in making stops and getting more ‘cases,’” the settlement states.

In April 2013, shortly after the crackdown began, Trayon Christian, a 19-year-old student, said he was followed by NYPD plainclothes cops outside the store and accused of fraud after he bought a $349 Ferragamo belt.

Kayla Phillips, a 21-year-old nursing student, was surrounded in February 2013 by four plainclothes cops who accused her of credit card fraud after she bought a $2,500 orange suede Celine bag.

In both cases, no charges were filed, and both customers filed lawsuits against the store and the NYPD. The suits are pending.

Barneys CEO Mark Lee said in a statement that the company was “pleased” with the settlement.

“During the entirety of our 90-year history, Barneys New York has prided itself on providing an unparalleled customer experience to every person that comes into contact with our brand,” he added. “We (have) absolutely no tolerance for discrimination of any kind.”

11632: Customers’ Bill Of Rights.

See details here.

11529: Jay-Z On Barneys Bias.

From The New York Daily News…

Jay Z breaks his silence over Barneys furor, says he’s ‘no stranger to being profiled’

After days of backlash over his high-end deal with Barneys, as they face racial profiling accusations.

By Rich Schapiro / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

Jay Z is finally rapping about Barneys.

Facing a backlash over his links to the under-fire department store, the superstar rapper insisted Saturday that he has remained silent until now because he’s been “waiting on facts and the outcome of a meeting between community leaders and Barneys.”

“I am against discrimination of any kind, but if I make snap judgments, no matter who it’s towards, aren’t I committing the same sin as someone who profiles?” Jay Z said in a statement. “I am no stranger to being profiled and I truly empathize with anyone that has been put in that position. Hopefully this brings forth a dialogue to effect real change.”

Jay Z drew ire after two black customers stepped forward this week accusing Barneys of racial profiling.

The Brooklyn-born rapper has a collection with Barneys scheduled to debut on Nov. 20.

“I am not making a dime from this collection; I do not stand to make millions, as falsely reported,” Jay Z said.

“Making a decision prematurely to pull out of this project, wouldn’t hurt Barneys or Shawn Carter, but all the people that stand a chance at higher education,” he added.” I have been working with my team ever since the situation was brought to my attention to get to the bottom of these incidents and at the same time find a solution that doesn’t harm all those that stand to benefit from this collaboration.”

Jay Z insisted the attacks against him are unfair.

“Why am I being demonized, denounced and thrown on the cover of a newspaper for not speaking immediately?” he said. “The negligent, erroneous reports and attacks on my character, intentions, and the spirit of this collaboration have forced me into a statement I didn’t want to make without the full facts.”

11527: Jay-Z & Barneys Odd Couple…?

From The New York Post…

Fans target Jay Z over Barneys ‘racism’

By Tara Palmeri

Fans are targeting Jay Z for continuing to endorse Barneys after the store was accused of racially profiling two young black shoppers.

Brooklyn dad Derick Bowers has set up an online petition to boycott the Upper East Side fashion emporium and pressure the hip-hop mogul to end his collaboration with it for allegedly making false complaints against Trayon Christian and Kayla Phillips.

“Jay Z should be appalled by Barneys’ actions,” Bowers wrote in the petition on Change.org.

“Without his vast wealth and brand power, they would see him the same as they see Trayon Christian.”

Jay Z is collaborating with the store on a collection called “A New York Holiday.” His rep did not respond to calls for comment.

Meanwhile, Barneys yesterday apologized for the way the two black customers were treated, and said the store has hired a civil-rights expert to review what happened.

11340: Swiss Diss For Oprah.

From The New York Daily News…

Oprah Winfrey’s brush with racism in Swiss boutique sparks international uproar after employee refused to show her $38K bag

European nation’s tourism board, Trois Pommes store owner apologize to star of ‘Lee Daniels’ The Butler’ over handbag ‘misunderstanding’

By Ethan Sacks / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

Switzerland is desperately trying to make peace with Oprah Winfrey.

A trip to a tony Zurich shop ended in a disturbing racial encounter for the billionaire media mogul — a national humiliation that forced the Swiss tourism board to issue a public apology.

Winfrey said she was in town for Tina Turner’s wedding last month and stopped in the posh Trois Pommes boutique where she asked a clerk to see a $38,000 Tom Ford bag behind a glass case.

“She says, ‘No, it’s too expensive,’” Winfrey, 59, recounted to Entertainment Tonight this week.

“She said, ‘No, no, no you want to see this one because that one will cost too much. You won’t be able to afford that one.’”

“She refused to get it … she said, ‘I don’t want to hurt your feelings,’ and I said, ‘Okay, thank you so much, you’re probably right I can’t afford it.’ Now why does she do that?”

Winfrey, who Forbes estimates earned $77 million between June 2012 and June 2013, said she left without making a further scene over the “Jennifer” bag, which is named for Jennifer Aniston, rather than give the clerk a commission.

“I could have had the big blow up thing and thrown down the black card but why do that,” Winfrey said during the interview to publicize her new movie, “Lee Daniels’ The Butler.”

Swiss officials are reeling over the bad publicity.

“We are fuming — this person acted terribly wrong. We are sorry this happened to @oprah!,” a rep for the Swiss Tourism office tweeted Thursday.

But the shop’s owner told Reuters the flap was all a big misunderstanding caused by the clerk’s imperfect English.

“This is an absolute classic misunderstanding,” owner Trudie Goetz, who also attended Turner’s wedding, told the news agency, suggesting that her employee had been trying to give Winfrey multiple options.

”Of course that’s not the case (that she was racial profiling). Who wouldn’t want to sell a purse for 35,000 francs?”

In an interview with Switzerland’s Blick newspaper, Goetz also publically apologized to Winfrey for any inconvenience at her store.

The incident comes eight years after Winfrey was turned away from a Hermes store in Paris a few minutes after closing.

The high-end boutique later apologized to Winfrey, but claimed the snub occurred because the shop was closed at the time for a private event.

On Friday, Winfrey tweeted she probably wouldn’t have bought the bag anyway:

“Turns out that store clerk did me a favor. Just found out that bag was $38K!!! She was right I was NOT going to buy.”

11275: Holder Doesn’t Hold Back.

From The New York Daily News…

Attorney General Eric Holder calls Trayvon Martin killing ‘tragic’ and ‘unnecessary’ as Justice Department weighs civil rights charges

In his first remarks since the acquittal of George Zimmerman, Attorney General Eric Holder describe Trayvon Martin’s killing as a “tragic, unnecessary shooting,” and urged the nation to use the case as way to try and better understand one another.

By Associated Press / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

WASHINGTON — Attorney General Eric Holder said Monday the killing of Trayvon Martin was a “tragic, unnecessary shooting” and that the 17-year-old’s death provides an opportunity for the nation to speak honestly about complicated and emotionally charged issues.

In his first comments since the acquittal of George Zimmerman in the Martin case, the attorney general said that Martin’s parents have suffered a pain that no parent should have to endure. He said the nation must not forgo an opportunity toward better understanding of one another.

On Sunday, the Justice Department said it is reviewing evidence in the case to determine whether criminal civil rights charges are warranted.

The Justice Department opened an investigation into Martin’s death last year but stepped aside to allow the state prosecution to proceed.

Holder said, “We are … mindful of the pain felt by our nation surrounding the tragic, unnecessary shooting death of Trayvon Martin in Sanford, Fla., last year.”

“I want to assure you that the [Justice] Department will continue to act in a manner that is consistent with the facts and the law,” said Holder.

“Independent of the legal determination that will be made, I believe that this tragedy provides yet another opportunity for our nation to speak honestly about the complicated and emotionally charged issues that this case has raised,” Holder said in remarks to the 51st national convention of the Delta Sigma Theta sorority.

“We must not — as we have too often in the past — let this opportunity pass,” he added.

The Justice Department says the criminal section of the Justice Department’s civil rights division, the FBI and federal prosecutors in Florida are continuing to evaluate the evidence generated during the federal investigation, plus evidence and testimony from the state trial.

The NAACP and others are calling on the Justice Department to open a civil rights case against Zimmerman. Thousands of demonstrators from across the country protested the jury’s decision to clear Zimmerman in the shooting death of the unarmed black teenager.

Also on Monday, the White House says President Barack Obama won’t involve himself in the Justice Department decision on whether to pursue civil rights charges against Zimmerman. White House spokesman Jay Carney said it would be inappropriate for Obama to express an opinion on how the department deals with Zimmerman.