Richmond’s housing struggle has a ‘fierce’ new advocate: Nikki Beasley

Nikki Beasley is executive director of Richmond Neighborhood Housing Services, a nonprofit developed in the 1980s to address housing inequities, particularly those created by practices such as redlining and discriminatory lending. She’s served in her current position for little more than a year, but in that time she’s made it clear she’ll be showing up and speaking her mind when it counts.

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A new Great Migration: the disappearance of the black middle class

After the great recession of 2008, inequality widened along racial lines as people lost their homes, often their only major asset. Earlier this month the Institute for Policy Studies, a Washington, D.C. think tank, reported in “Billionaire Bonanza: The Forbes 400 and the Rest of US,” that the average white family today has net assets of $141,900, compared with the $11,000 for African American families. This hollowing out of the African American family asset base is a nationwide phenomenon that can be explained by the shrinking African American middle class. It’s even more a factor in “strong market” regions like the Bay Area, where housing costs are soaring.

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RPD discrimination lawsuit prepares for Federal Court

Five months after a jury cleared Richmond Police Chief Chris Magnus of racial discrimination allegations, the case is now set to reappear in federal court in November. The plaintiffs — seven prominent African-American police officers — originally filed a suit in 2007 that alleged that Magnus discriminated by race when choosing officers for promotion. In…

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Dueling economics in Richmond police discrimination suit

edwin medina

Just how much money have the seven African-American police commanders suing the city of Richmond lost due to alleged discrimination stalling their promotions? It depends on which economic expert you ask. Whose numbers the jury buys could heavily weigh the outcome the lawsuit against Police Chief Chris Magnus, former Deputy Chief Lori Ritter and the…

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Chief investigator takes stand in Richmond police discrimination trial

ray marshall

The man who conducted an investigation into alleged discrimination in the Richmond Police Department testified Thursday that he was inundated with complaints from both sides of the issue in mid-2007. Ray Marshall, a Harvard-educated attorney whose firm was paid more than $300,000 by the city for his fact-finding mission, testified that bickering on both sides…

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City manager calls Magnus ‘good leader,’ credits him for reforms during testimony in discrimination case

bill lindsay left jeff ritterman

As police command staff officials began peppering his hand-picked police chief with complaints of discrimination, Richmond’s most powerful executive official did all he felt he should do: Initiate an independent investigation, pass the complaints on to his Human Resources manager and issue a department-wide letter reiterating conduct policies. “I felt like I was doing exactly…

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Economist testifies in discrimination suit about lost earnings

cleveland brown jonathan matthews

The plaintiffs in the discrimination suit against Richmond Police Chief Chris Magnus, former Deputy Chief Lori Ritter and the city aren’t suing for a specific dollar amount. But Wednesday’s testimony for the first time hinted at the costs they may have incurred from allegedly discriminatory promotion processes. According to an economist’s testimony, the total amount…

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