Racial Discrimination

WASHINGTON - The historic Voting Rights Act appeared to be in deep trouble Wednesday after the Supreme Court's conservative justices argued during a racially charged debate that targeting the South for special scrutiny was no longer fair. The unusually tense discussion split along ideological lines. Justices from the left and right took turns arguing the case - and arguing with one another over whether racism and racial discrimination remain problems. At one point, Justice Antonin Scalia referred to the law as a "perpetuation of racial entitlement," a phrase that irked Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who voiced strong objection earlier this week to a Texas prosecutor's focus on defendants' race.

A jury awarded former Inglewood Police Officer Jeremy Morse and partner Officer Bijan Darvish $2.4 million Tuesday, finding that they were unfairly disciplined after the videotaped beating of a black teenager more than two years ago. The officers had claimed in their lawsuit in Los Angeles Superior Court that because they were white, they were punished more harshly than a black officer who struck the suspect with a flashlight but was not videotaped.

Frank Ricci -- a firefighter in New Haven, Conn. -- spent months listening to study tapes as he drove to work and in the evenings, preparing for a promotional test. It was a once-a-decade chance to move up to a command rank in the fire department. Ricci earned a top score but no promotion. The city had coded the test takers by race, and of the top 15 scorers, 14 were white and one was Latino. Since there were only 15 vacancies, it looked as though no blacks would be promoted.

Denny's restaurants signed a proposed agreement Thursday with the U.S. Department of Justice to settle government claims that the chain has discriminated against black customers. The chain, with nearly 1,500 restaurants nationwide, acknowledged there had been "isolated customer concerns" about some since-abandoned policies, but denied its acts constituted a "pattern of racial discrimination."

"The Will Rogers Follies," which defeated "Miss Saigon" for the best Broadway musical Tony, has now replaced its rival on the hot seat of the continuing issue of minority casting. "Rogers" opened on May 1 with no minorities in the cast. A group called Performers Against Racism on the Theatrical Stage sent a letter of complaint to the New York City Commission on Human Rights in June.

An investigation into allegations that several managers of Torrance's municipal bus system engaged in sexual harassment and racial discrimination has revealed "fundamental supervision problems," according to City Manager LeRoy J. Jackson. The finding, disclosed in a recent letter Jackson wrote to disgruntled drivers, has stepped up the drivers' calls for disciplinary steps against the supervisors.

The city of South Gate has paid out $18 million to settle lawsuits filed by a group of officers who said they faced racially-motivated discrimination, harassment and retaliation in the aftermath of the ouster of a Latino police official in 2002, the officers' attorney said Tuesday. Sixteen police officers filed suits against South Gate, a working-class, predominantly Latino city with an annual budget of about $100 million, alleging that they were subjected to racial slurs and false internal affairs investigations, unfairly disciplined, and passed up for promotions.

Denny's restaurants were accused Wednesday in a federal class-action lawsuit of imposing cover charges on black patrons, forcing them to pay in advance and other acts of discrimination. The suit charged that Denny's also had refused service to some African-Americans, subjected them to derogatory remarks and refused to honor their requests for its free "birthday meal" offer.

It was there in the photos, had anyone thought to look. A picture from a prom, where the theme was "Welcome to the Jungle," shows four beefy boys posing with hands chest high, fingers forming a white power salute in front of their ruffled tuxedo shirts. A snapshot, confiscated from a bulletin board in one young man's bedroom, reveals teenagers pointing their handguns at the camera lens.

Mary Amaya was stunned that day in May, 1987, when she opened a letter from Alder Junior High School in Fontana and read what it had to say about her younger son, Demond Crawford. What disturbed her was not the recommendation that her son be tested for learning disabilities. She had been baffled by Demond's recent poor performance in school and welcomed the chance to get to the bottom of things. What did upset her, she said last week, was the letter's postscript.