Colorlines Magazine articles from December 2003

Colorlines Magazine archives from December 2003

In the eye of the spin.
December 22, 2003... I started out as a daily newspaper reporter. Among the newsroom minorities I gravitated to, mutual support ran high to push for diversity in news coverage and hiring. A muckraking idealism also characterized many of the journalists I met. I...

Court restores oversight of NYPD.(Race Files)
December 22, 2003... In 'Every Move You Make...," (Fall 2003), Color Lines reported that Federal Judge Charles Haight had reversed the Handschu decree to give the NYPD mole flexibility for fighting terrorism. The 1985 court decree, named after one of the activists...

Kidnapped at Federal Plaza.(Race Files)
December 22, 2003... Dozens of immigrants in New York City have been swiftly deported upon appearing for misleading summons to process their status at Manhattan's Federal Plaza. Community activists from Families for Freedom and Immigration Defense Project...

Pleading our own cause: people of color are leading an effort to define media justice as a movement not for content-neutral reforms but a vision of racial justice.(framed!)
December 22, 2003... Drawing its inspiration from the environmental justice movement and their efforts to advance a different analysis from the "mainstream" environmental movement, media justice proponents are developing race, class, and gender conscious frameworks...

Playing the game of race: Hunter Cutting tries out a new metaphor for understanding the rules and systems of racial inequality.(framed!)
December 22, 2003... The definition of race and racism is a hot point in media debate, and for good reason. Establishing the definition is key to controlling the terms of debate. At the same time, placing race and racism into a clear context for public consumption...

Winning race: Rinku Sen dissects the language and strategies of the campaign that defeated another racist California proposition.(framed!)
December 22, 2003... In the movie Head of State, Chris Rock plays Mays Gilliam, a Washington, D.C. alderman who unwittingly becomes the Democratic candidate for President. Party leaders choose him to replace the recently-deceased white candidate because he is...

Uncle Sam says Hi: the State Department sets out to win hearts and minds in the Middle East with a glossy lifestyle magazine.(framed!)
December 22, 2003... As America's standing with the Arab public continues to drop, many Americans ask just what the world's greatest superpower must do to improve its image. The latest U.S. venture in public diplomacy, a glossy, Arabic-language monthly called Hi,...

Which war were you watching? News coverage of the invasion of Iraq reveals the gap in perception between America and the rest of the world.(framed!)
December 22, 2003... The American media's portrayal of the routing of Saddam Hussein as a great military victory and a step toward world peace is almost incomprehensible outside of the U.S., for the rest of us were watching a very different war. Here in Granada, I...

Death of a journalist: Mazen Dana was shot by U.S. troops while filming in Iraq.(framed!)
December 22, 2003... I read about his death in disbelief. Mazen Dana, 43, a cameraman for Reuters news agency, had been killed on assignment in Iraq. I pictured his ruddy, smiling face. Then I saw him crumpled in the dust. He was shot dead by U.S. troops in...

Would America fight for me? What does organizing against militarism mean for youth of color? Not simply protesting a distant war in another country, but challenging a war industry firmly rooted within their own communities.(report)
December 22, 2003... It's hard to imagine that Roberto Harris had once been a proud member of the Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps (JROTC) program at Thomas Jefferson High School, or that his bedroom had been adorned with a huge American flag and Marine Corps...

Fear of persecution: as the Department of Justice seeks to restricts gender-based asylum claims, what will happen to women escaping domestic violence.(report)
December 22, 2003... It was midsummer and Rosa Sanchez * found herself staring down the barrel of a revolver. Her common-law husband, Manuel Ortega, had decided to pay her a visit at the family home in Guatemala. Just as he had done countless times before, Ortega...

Small town justice: in Mattawa, Washington, 46 Latina daycare providers face jail and deportation after local prejudice, backed by government authorities, led to raids and bizarre accusations of fraud.(report)
December 22, 2003... For 70 days, steel bars and concrete separated former childcare provider Maria Rodriguez from her children. Her eight-month-old baby girl didn't understand why her mother was gone. Her five-year-old daughter, who has Downs syndrome and relies...

The diversity industry.(report)
December 22, 2003... In a scene from the comic strip, The Boondocks, a white suburban teacher is panic-stricken to discover that his new student is a "ghetto youth." Luckily, the principal announces he has already procured money for "sensitivity training." He...

Working the street: distrust of immigrant street vendors is rising even as New York Chinatown's counterfeit business grows.(report)
December 22, 2003... At 9:15 a.m., Canal Street only begins to wake. The main artery of New York's Chinatown looks no different than it does at dawn. Except for the locals who disappear into convenience stores or banks to run errands, the street of one of New...

Borderland security: vigilantes are far from the fringe in Arizona. Instead, organizers say, ranchers and border agents mirror a violent border society where racial profiling abounds and prosecution of abuse is rare.(action)
December 22, 2003... Thirteen-year-old Rosita Gonzales * heard strange noises while she and her brothers were playing in a tent they had set up in the backyard. She grabbed her backpack and ran toward the house. Behind her home in Pirtleville, AZ, a tiny desert...

Soundtrack to struggle: the Last Poets are still making music about what is happening in the streets, using the language of streets.(culture)
December 22, 2003... By 1968, hopefulness in black communities was fading away. Lyndon Johnson's Great Society program was undermined by the high cost of the Vietnam War, Martin Luther King, Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy were both assassinated, and the country was...

The British, invaded: a music documentary chronicles the rebellious rise of the "Asian underground" amidst England's social turmoil.(culture)
December 22, 2003... "Don't believe your fucking Gandhi films!"--Asian Dub Foundation State of Bengal's "Flight IC408" opens, predictably, in the air. The single was originally part of Talvin Singhs Anokha: Sounds of the Azian Underground, a compilation...

Rocking out and race in the documentary afro-punk.(culture)
December 22, 2003... The "Black Rock" revolution, anticipated given the popularity of bands such as Living Colour and Fishbone in the late 80s and early 90s, never arrived. But the brief movement did succeed in spawning and representing a generation of black fans...

Keeping Up with the Dow Joneses: Debt, Prison, Workfare.
December 22, 2003... BY VIJAY PRASHAD Vijay Prashad's latest book makes a solid contribution to the tools available for political education, analysis, and planning. Prashad, a professor of history at Trinity College, pumps out a slim volume or two annually,...

Ella Baker and the Black Freedom Movement: a Radical Democratic Vision.
December 22, 2003... BY BARBARA RANSBY For those who work for racial justice, finding one's way without mentors can be all but impossible. But not all who would teach us sit next to us everyday. As a high school student in rural Georgia, I read Alice Walker's...

Mississippi (SRC/Universal): David Banner.(race records)(Brief Article)
December 22, 2003... The allure in David Banner's brash, mouth-of-the-South shtick is that he's not sure he's got all the answers himself. For every hedonistic "Like a Pimp" there's a thoughtful, God-fearing-but-loving "Cadillac on 22's,"and the balance makes this...

Rough Americana (RA): Mutamassik and Morgan Craft.(race records)(Brief Article)
December 22, 2003... DJ Mutamassik and guitarist Craft collaborate on this intense, freethinking improvised set that veers from noise to wrenched-apart anthems to soft ambient tones. Not for the faint of heart but a spirited and occasionally rewarding...

Fuel for the Fire (Uncle Trouble): Kabir.(race records)(Brief Article)
December 22, 2003... We're suckers for righteous, topical, Bush-is-a-demon raps. We're also suckers for solid, hard-hitting, no-frills beats. Cambridge, MA's Kabir, perhaps the only son of a Nobel laureate to share a stage with KRS-One, has got both. (For the...

Bay Area Funk (Ubiquity): Various Artists.(race records)(Brief Article)
December 22, 2003... There's been a renewed interested in the raw, independent funk of the late-1960s and 1970s and this is one of the first widely-distributed comps to look at the trickle-down effect folks like Sly Stone, James Brown, and Tower of Power had on the...

Dis-Jointed (Dis-Joint): Various Artists.(race records)(Brief Article)
December 22, 2003... San Francisco's Groove Merchant, one of the U.S.' premier specialty record shops, delivers this fantastic volume of historical obscurities and the new compositions they've inspired. There's early-1980s reggae and rap from Brooklyn's celebrated...

Deliverance (Interscope): Bubba Sparxxx.(race records)(Brief Article)
December 22, 2003... Bubba, the humble pig-wrestling white-boy prodigy of star-maker Timbaland, drops a touching, countrified album of hip-hop confessional. Great production, surprisingly introspective and highly recommended.

Black Voices.(Black News Portals)
December 22, 2003... www.blackvoices.com Articles from major press wires contribute to this website's comprehensive news listings, which are broken down into sections like health, technology and business; it's kind of like USA Today for black people. The...

Black Electorate.(Black News Portals)
December 22, 2003... www.blackelectorate.com No fluff, no ads, no staff writers, this site's incredible simplicity makes it a great place to get updated on what's going on. Monday through Friday, links to the day's most interesting and/or relevant news stories...

Seeing Black.(Black News Portals)
December 22, 2003... www.seeingblack.com Head here if you're seeking the "funky, alternative site for black reviews, opinions, and voice. "The site caters to artsy middle class folks and is easy to navigate. Articles can be somewhat out of date, but they're...

Black Press USA.(Black News Portals)
December 22, 2003... www.blackpressusa.com Touting itself as the "independent source of news for the African American community," news reported on this site comes from NNPA News Service--a wire service made up exclusively of black journalists and press...

Black Commentator.(Black News Portals)
December 22, 2003... www.blackcommentator.com Updated every Thursday, this online publication Offers "commentary and analysis" on issues facing the black community. The site also features Khalil Bendib's often hysterically funny political cartoons. Articles...

Badmash: the South Asian weekly comic strip.(cartoon)
December 22, 2003... We interrupt Joe Gazillionaire for an emergency broadcast from The President... Uh-Oh My fellow Americans we now have evidence that Badmashistan has nuclear families. We'll have to attack these brown evildoers immediately. Oof!...