A criminal record has become the surrogate for race-based discrimination throughout the United States, serving the same function as did the Black Codes and Jim Crow in earlier times.

Inspired by the founding of William Lloyd Garrison's newspaper The Liberator, Nell decided to challenge race-based discrimination and segregation, as his father had.

Common Ground, the Advancement Project and Tulane advanced the argument that race-based discrimination was taking place, injuriously affecting the working class African American community populating the Lower 9th Ward of New Orleans.

However, in addition to the race-based discrimination faced in their country of birth, Afro-Korean orphans were still picked over by adopting American families based on skin color preferences.

The answer is that race-based discrimination in favor of some groups is always at the same time discrimination against other groups, which violates a fundamental principle of our country: equality of opportunity for individuals.

Some historians consider Ervin's position to be one of "cognitive dissonance" because he opposed federal legislation to combat race-based discrimination, but did not do so in harsh, ugly terms.

Such programs should be mandatory and include classes that explicitly address issues of race-based discrimination and harassment in schools.

"If anything," Ms. Messinger said, "I'm aware of race-based discrimination in a slightly more acute way, because it's directly related to a piece of my family."