The nomination of Loretta Lynch, the black federal prosecutor from the Brooklyn district, has elicited comments about her delayed confirmation vote in the Senate. These two members of Congress are saying some Senate Republicans, five decades after a bipartisan vote passed the Civil Rights Act, are opposed to Loretta Lynch because she is black. A fair parsing of these comments by the president and attorney general also suggests the possibility of racism among Senate Republicans.
Appearing on The Daily Show a few weeks ago, the hip-hop singer and actor Common discussed race relations with Jon Stewart. As the Obama presidency ends, the status quo on race is in a bad place. In some conservative circles, a school of reduction holds that the black vote is gone and the Hispanic vote is a waste of time.

 Racism exists when one ethnic group or historical collectivity dominates, excludes, or seeks to eliminate another on the basis of differences that it believes are hereditary and unalterable. Racism is still a prevalent problem and admits our ancestors' misdeeds. This would involve acknowledging not only racism toward minority groups but also the inherent privileges afforded to white people just for being in the majority group. I am fearful for when Obama leaves office; I  can only hope that America will see African Americans is a better light.

No Child Left Behind Law Faces Its Own Reckoning

President Obama talks to students at Viers Mill Elementary School in Silver Spring, Md. In 2005, the school was selected as a No Child Left Behind Blue Ribbon School.No Child Left Behind Whittled Down Under Obama JULY 6, 2012 As almost all schools began to fall into the failing category and a partisan logjam kept Congress from reauthorizing the law when it expired eight years ago the Obama administration began granting states waivers from its requirements.Over the past three years, schools in all but a few states have been given waivers, allowing them to show success through measures other than test scores and eliminating the 2014 deadline for universal proficiency. The worry is that if you leave it to the states, they will drop the ball, as they did in the past, said Martin West, who studies the politics of kindergarten through high school education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Before No Child Left Behind, 17 states had no accountability systems for their schools, and only two states looked specifically at how well their low-income or minority students were doing. And even after the law went into effect, some states wrote easier exams or lowered their passing scores to inflate the number of students deemed proficient. The Philadelphia School District which has cut 5,000 jobs and closed 31 schools in two years and faces an $80 million deficit for the next fiscal year stood to lose $78 million in federal money under the House bill, according to administration figures.
The achievement gap has been an issue that this country has dealt with since segregation times. Having equality for all students is imperative, yet this has not occurred. With programs like No Child Left Behind  parents, teachers, and students all expect to see a change. But will this change ever come? Even worse, what holds for the future? For the sake of our country the blame needs to be placed evenly so we can find a solution.

Rich, Motoko, and Tamar Lewin. "No Child Left Behind Law Faces Its Own Reckoning." The New York Times. The New York Times, 21 Mar. 2015. Web. 21 Mar. 2015. <http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/22/us/politics/schools-wait-to-see-what-becomes-of-no-child-left-behind-law.html?ref=politics&_r=0>.

Unsettled at Home, Veterans Volunteer to Fight ISIS

Last fall, Patrick Maxwell, a 29-year-old Iraq war veteran now selling real estate in this bustling city, saw something in news footage of Islamic fighters in Iraq that he never saw as an infantry Marine there: the enemy. Mr. Maxwell is one of a small number of Americans many of them former members of the military who have volunteered in recent months to take up arms against the militants in Iraq and Syria, even as the United States government has hesitated to put combat troops on the ground. More than anything, they don't like ISIS and want to help, said Matthew Van Dyke, an American filmmaker who has spent time this winter with four American veterans covertly training a militia of Assyrian Christians in northern Iraq to resist the Islamic State. While the United States authorities have tracked and prosecuted citizens who try to join the Islamic State, it is unclear how they will respond to Americans fighting the group, especially since some Kurdish militias in Syria have ties to groups the State Department classifies as terrorist organizations. Behind the scenes, American officials have pressured the pesh merga to keep Americans out of the fight, according to American military veterans who have been in Iraq.

Oh great just what our country needs is another war! It is frightening to know that another potential threat could arise and that America can get involved in turmoil. With this in mind, the United States military needs to implement a plan to stop ISIS without sending our soldiers back there. After all, former President George W. Bush was widely criticized for his decision to go to war with Iraq even by the majority of Republicans in the United States and that's one reason why he left office with a 21% approval rating. The United States has performed air strikes on Iraq in an attempt to suppress the violence.  

Ferguson Police Routinely Violate Rights of Blacks, Justice Dept. Finds

The racial disparity in the statistics present at Ferguson were so stark that the Justice Department has concluded in a report scheduled for release on Wednesday that there was only one explanation: The Ferguson Police Department was routinely violating the constitutional rights of its black residents. The report, based on a six-month investigation, provides a glimpse into the roots of the racial tensions that boiled over in Ferguson last summer after a black teenager, Michael Brown, was fatally shot by a white police officer, making it a worldwide flash point in the debate over race and policing in America. Holder Jr., the Justice Department has opened more than 20 such investigations into local police departments and issued tough findings against cities including Newark; Albuquerque, N.M.; and Cleveland.But the Ferguson case has the highest profile of Mr. The Justice Department is expected to issue a separate report Wednesday clearing the police officer, Darren Wilson, of civil rights violations in the shooting.It is not clear what changes Ferguson could make that would head off a lawsuit.

Again America has yet to change it's biased against minorities. I don't think we will ever get rid of black and white. It's alarming to know that our justice system is injustice; the sole purpose for a justice system and a government is to protect the rights of the people. Clearly, everyone has their own personal agenda in mind. When people act on their own selfish beings, trouble and chaos occurs for example Ferguson!

Apuzzo, Matt. "Ferguson Police Routinely Violate Rights of Blacks, Justice Dept. Finds." Nytimes.com. © 2015 The New York Times Company, 3 Mar. 2015. Web. 4 Mar. 2015. <http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/04/us/justice-department-finds-pattern-of-police-bias-and-excessive-force-in-ferguson.html?ref=politics&_r=0>.