The Rev. Al Sharpton descended upon Phoenix Friday, taking the bombastic Mayor Joe Arpaio up on his challenge for a throw-down over immigration in the Valley of the Sun. Several months ago, the civil rights leader threatened to shine the spotlight on Arpaio, the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Department and the racial-profiling of Mexican Americans, which Sharpton said is both racist and un-American. Calling Sharpton a publicity-seeking, outside interloper, Arpaio dared Sharpton to “bring his circus to town.” Said Sharpton on Friday, “We didn’t come to start trouble; we came to stop trouble.” “Let me make this clear – we are not here about Sheriff Joe as much as we’re here about citizen Jose,” Sharpton told a crowd at Pilgrim Rest Baptist Church in Phoenix. Read more.

Hispanic group wants hate out of the immigration debate. Hate is fueling the debate over U.S. immigration policy, a leading Latino rights organization says. The National Council of La Raza, the largest Hispanic civil rights and advocacy group, is hoping to counter the hate speech and vigilante attitudes of many Americans with the establishment of its Wave of Hope campaign. “The rhetoric of hate groups, nativists and vigilantes – once limited to the fringe of American politics – has gained a strong foothold in the public debate,” the council says on its Web site. ”Their policy positions frame the country’s political discourse, and their members have penetrated the mainstream media.  In short, extremists are defining the debate on immigration – and the portrayal of Hispanic Americans – at every level.” Organization officials say that Hispanics believe “strongly in the values of this nation, in pluralism, and in the ability of every American to share the rights and responsibilities of this great country.  We also believe that hate has detrimental consequences for both policymaking and America’s values, undermining the strength and integrity of our country.  The time has come to take hate out of the debate.  Immigration is a serious issue requiring a reasoned and thoughtful debate.” They want everyone who is concerned about the current national tone of the immigration debate to send a letter to the cable news stations, urging them to “use their airtime responsibly and stop parroting hate speak”; subscribe to the We Can Stop the Hate Action List to receive updates about the campaign; sign up at http://www.truthinimmigration.org/ to receive current information rebutting legal and factual inaccuracies about immigrants and/or Latinos used in various articles and stories; and to sign a pledge to build America together at http://www.fairimmigration.org/petition and reject the policies of division.

New York’s Black teachers are vanishing. New York City’s Black teachers are vanishing. Public school figures show that the number of African-American educators has declined by more than half over the past six years. Between 2001 and 2002, Black teachers comprised 27 percent of New York’s teacher workforce. Since 2002, that percentage has plummeted to an astounding 13 percent. As a result, there has been a dramatic shift in the racial makeup of the city’s teacher population. As of last year, there were 400 more White teachers than in 2002 and more than 1,000 fewer African-American teachers, The New York Sun reports. “We want a school system that values educators who are invested in their students and who reflect the communities of which they are part,” Donna Nevel, a member of the Center for Immigrant Families in uptown Manhattan, told the Sun. The change in racial composition comes at a time when the New York City student population is increasingly becoming less White. What concerns many educators are studies showing that minority students often fair better in educational settings when they have teachers of the same race or ethnic background. This year marks the 40th anniversary of the Ocean Hill-Brownsville crisis, “in which Black community leaders challenged the city to make school staff more representative of the city,” the Sun reports. The blame for the rapid decline in Black teacher ranks lies largely with the state, which mandated that all public school teachers must be certified by 2003, according to Vicki Bernstein, the Education Department’s executive director for teacher recruitment and equality. New York certifies very few Blacks, she says. In 2006-07, African Americans comprised just 4% of new certified teachers. To try and reverse the dwindling Black teacher ranks, Bernstein has launched recruiting trips to historically Black colleges, had special literature published to lure Black and Latino teacher candidates; made a concerted effort to follow through with those candidates as they make their way through the application process.”This is a high priority for us,” Ms. Bernstein said. “We’re looking at it across every level of teacher recruitment.”