Mastodawn

Who gets access to research funding - and who doesn’t?
In the UK, funding success rates are around 27% for white applicants compared to 17% for ethnic minority researchers, with average grants over £100,000 lower. When inequalities are built into systems, discrimination becomes harder to detect - and harder to enforce against. But, equal rights require more than equal rules.
📖https://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/university-academics-ethnic-minorities-funding-grants-research-a9200316.html

Minority Rights Mar 25

China is implementing a new "Ethnic Unity" law to mandate national assimilation. The legislation requires all citizens and organizations to prioritize a "common consciousness," enforces Mandarin-only education from kindergarten through high school, and allows for the prosecution of overseas critics. Experts warn this effectively ends the constitutional promise of minority autonomy and poses a strategic threat to different cultural identities.
📖: https://www.opb.org/article/2026/03/11/china-is-expected-to-push-for-an-ethnic-unity-law-that-critics-say-will-cement-assimilation/

China is expected to push for an ethnic unity law that critics say will cement assimilation

China is expected to approve a sweeping “ethnic unity” law that critics say tightens assimilation and weakens minority rights. On Thursday, legislators at the National People’s Congress are expected to approve it.

OPB

Minority Rights Mar 24

Can the validity of historical treaties be challenged today? In the 19th century, Coast Salish Indigenous communities signed treaties that transferred vast areas of land to the United States, often under unequal conditions or without full understanding. Today, disputes over land and fishing rights continue, showing how these agreements still shape present-day inequalities. If consent is unequal, can the outcome ever be just?
📖https://www.ebsco.com/research-starters/politics-and-government/treaties-and-agreements-american-indians-united-states

Ponce de León Claims Florida for Spain | History | Research Starters | EBSCO Research

<p>Juan Ponce de León is credited with claiming Florida for Spain on April 8, 1513, during his exploration of the region. He was born around 1460 in Spain and had previously accompanied Christopher Columbus on his second voyage to America. After serving as a governor in Hispaniola and Puerto Rico, he sought new adventures, motivated by both the prospect of discovery and the allure of mythical riches, including the legendary Fountain of Youth. Ponce de León's expedition set sail from Puerto Rico in March 1513, ultimately landing on Florida's coast, where he claimed the land for the Spanish crown, naming it "La Florida" due to its lush landscape and the timing of his arrival during the Easter season. Despite facing resistance from native tribes and finding no signs of gold or the fabled spring, his journey contributed significantly to the geographical knowledge of the region. Ponce de León attempted a second expedition to establish a colony in 1521, but it ended in failure due to conflict and disease, leading to his death shortly thereafter. His initial claim laid the groundwork for future Spanish exploration and colonization, culminating in the establishment of St. Augustine in 1565, the oldest city in the United States.</p>

EBSCO

Minority Rights Mar 16

The Uyghurs - a Muslim minority often described as a nation without a state - facing everyday repression in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. Reports describe mass detention in “re-education” camps, pervasive digital surveillance, forced labor allegations, and restrictions on religious and cultural practices. For many observers, the situation raises one of the most serious human rights concerns of our time - and difficult questions for international law.
📖https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/documents/countries/2022-08-31/22-08-31-final-assesment.pdf

Minority Rights Mar 13

Still not including minorities? A report reveals that in UK TV newsrooms 63% of minority staff report racism and 70% see no path to leadership. Diversity efforts fail to provide career progression and minority staff experience daily judgement because of claims that they are oly a “diversity hire”.
📖: https://www.theguardian.com/media/2026/mar/04/journalism-minority-newsroom-jobs-report

Minority Rights Mar 11

Does secular neutrality protect pluralism or narrow it? Faith and Politics in Kosovo: The Status of Religious Communities in a Secular Country discusses debates around secularism and the hijab ban in public schools.

📖 https://www.academia.edu/15299700/Faith_and_Politics_in_Kosovo_The_Status_of_Religious_Communities_in_a_Secular_Country

Minority Rights Mar 9

For centuries, Native American enslavement has been hidden in plain sight -- renamed as “servitude,” buried in archives, and left out of national memory. In a powerful piece for The New Yorker, Geraldo Cadava explores how Indigenous slavery operated across North America, shaping economies, empires, and settler expansion, and how a new public history project is working to confront this erased past.
Why the silence, and what does it mean to finally name it clearly?
📖https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/the-hidden-history-of-native-american-enslavement

Minority Rights Mar 5

India’s Dalits (Untouchables) are 1/6th of the population. Compared to other minorities and despite constitutional prohibitions on discrimination on grounds of caste, they continue to encounter exclusion and violence, esp. based on religious beliefs. Annapurna Waughray argues castes should be conceptualized as sui generis entities and that institutions should reconsider “minority” paradigms and castes’ roles in them.
📖 https://www.jstor.org/stable/24675791

Minority Rights Mar 4

Can segregation be “invisible”?
In D.H. and Others v. the Czech Republic, the ECtHR found indirect discrimination when Roma children were disproportionately sent to “special schools.”
Nearly 20 years later, has segregation disappeared or just become less visible?
📖 https://hudoc.echr.coe.int/eng?i=001-83256

Minority Rights Mar 3

Is the 'green transition' just new-age colonialism? 🌍 Christina Allard’s 2025 study explores how renewable projects in Sápmi often bypass Indigenous rights. Finding: "Sustainability" is being used to re-legitimize old extractivist patterns, threatening Sámi sovereignty.

Read this study here: https://doi.org/10.36368/jns.v17i1.1221

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