Colorlines Magazine articles from January 2008

Colorlines Magazine archives from January 2008

A little imagination.
January 1, 2008... I'VE FOUND MYSELF thinking a lot about sustain-ability these days. It's a constant challenge to find the balance between staying aware and engaged with the realities we face, and yet being positive and patient enough to keep doing the work for...

Killed by the cops: since the release of our joint national investigation with The Chicago Reporter, we've published a multimedia website and editorials about racial profiling and fatal police shootings. Visit www.colorlines.com and www.chicagoreporter.com for the complete coverage.(OP-ED)(Editorial)
January 1, 2008... THE PROBLEM of fatal police shootings in America goes beyond a few bad apples. It points to persistent and systemic problems that lead to ongoing tragedies for communities of color. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] During the years 1980 to 2005,...

In focus: fighting the stigma.(Birch Family Camp)(Brief article)
January 1, 2008... WHEN: August 17, 2007 WHERE: Putnam Valley, NY DIANA AND HER CHILDREN attend their first year at Birch Family Camp, a summer retreat that supports Black and Latino families whose members are HIV-positive. Initially, Diana (who asked...

Buyer beware: a new scam targets immigrants with English-only mortgage documents.(NEWS)
January 1, 2008... WITH THE SUBPRIME MORTGAGE and foreclosure crisis sweeping across the nation, the California State Assembly is considering a bill to protect immigrant first-time home-buyers who are aggressively targeted by unscrupulous mortgage brokers....

Government spying: Democrats try to implement oversight of the White House's wiretapping.(NEWS)
January 1, 2008... ON OCTOBER 17, the House of Representatives passed the RESTORE Act--an amendment to the surveillance law that civil libertarians have been assailing since August, when, in the hours before summer recess, House Democrats caved to White House...

Europe bans skin bleach.(NEWS)
January 1, 2008... ACROSS THE WORLD, major companies like L'Oreal, Avon and Unilever make a profit off women of color who buy creams that promise to lighten their skin. The creams contain a dangerous ingredient, known as hydroquinone, which "bleaches" the skin...

New Orleans' newest Latinos: the baby boom has hit, and activists and state officials respond.(GULF COAST UPDATE)
January 1, 2008... NEW ORLEANS IS WELCOMING a new surge of Latinos arriving not as day laborers or service workers, but as tiny citizens in delivery rooms and mobile baby units across the slowly recovering city. Latinas, some who have lived in New Orleans for...

Behind the poverty numbers.(CHECK THE COLOR LINE)(Brief article)
January 1, 2008... With the media chatter last year on how poverty levels dropped between 2005 and 2006, many Americans just got a partial picture of what families of color struggle with every day. Little did anyone notice, for example, that poverty actually...

Pride and prejudice.(READING BETWEEN THE HEADLINES)(Brief article)
January 1, 2008... A 13-YEAR-OLD American Indian girl was attacked and beaten by several adults for confronting their racist comments in Lewiston, Idaho. The girl, whose name was not released, was standing outside her apartment when she heard several people...

Another FEMA failure.(READING BETWEEN THE HEADLINES)
January 1, 2008... FEMA ANNOUNCED that 60,000 families displaced by Hurricane Katrina and the break of the levees can move out of trailers and into motel rooms if they are concerned with reports of formaldehyde in the trailers. FEMA failed to report the presence...

Not ghetto enough for VH1.(READING BETWEEN THE HEADLINES)(Brief article)
January 1, 2008... AT A RECENT PRODUCTION MEETING at VH1, a staffer reported that a network executive passed on a show because the executive felt that audiences only want to see Black people in "ghetto" roles. The proposed show, called "Interracial Love." would...

Blacks, they're just like us.(READING BETWEEN THE HEADLINES)
January 1, 2008... BILL O'REILLY recently ate at the famous Harlem eatery Sylvia's with Al Sharpton and was amazed that Black people are fellow human beings. O'Reilly remarked, "It was like going into an Italian restaurant in an all-white suburb in the sense that...

Immigration at the opera.(READING BETWEEN THE HEADLINES)
January 1, 2008... THE HOUSTON GRAND OPERA put on the first showing this fall of The Refuge, a 90-minute performance that tells the stories of Houston's immigrants. It brings a much-needed lens to the lives of Africans, Mexicans and others living in Houston at a...

If you have to sit ...(READING BETWEEN THE HEADLINES)(The Dhamma Brothers)(Brief article)
January 1, 2008... A NEW DOCUMENTARY, The Dhamma Brothers, showcases a meditation program at the Donaldson Correctional Facility, a maximum-security prison in Alabama. The retreat was a 10-day program that taught inmates the ancient practice of silent meditation....

Video game on immigration.(READING BETWEEN THE HEADLINES)
January 1, 2008... BREAKTHROUGH, AN ORGANIZATION that highlights social issues with new media, has created a video game called "ICED!" that allows players to experience the harsh realities of immigration policies in the U.S. Each player gets to be an immigrant,...

Honoring Salazar.(READING BETWEEN THE HEADLINES)(Ruben Salazar)(Brief article)
January 1, 2008... RUBEN SALAZAR, a former LA Times reporter, will be honored this year by the U.S. Postal Service with a commemorative stamp. Salazar, a Mexican American writer, gave voice to Latinos in the 1970s by writing about race issues that affected the...

Farai Chideya: the multimedia journalist talks about the digital media age and why she still believes in the power of journalism.(Q & A)(Interview)
January 1, 2008... The online publication you founded 12 years ago, Pop and Politics (www.popandpolitics.com), is an elder on the Internet. How has it evolved over the years? One of the things that we've consistently done is to reach people in their twenties and...

Blog bits: we searched the recent archives of our blog, racewire.org, to bring you a quick snapshot of what you might have missed or just want to enjoy again.
January 1, 2008... BILL'S BACK. BRACE YOURSELF. Bill Cosby's new book, Come on, People! On the Path from Victims to Victors was released by Christian publisher Thomas Nelson, Inc. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] According to Publishers Weekly, Cosby's book...

Sanctuary's human face: Elvira Arellano showed that faith, not self-interest, moves our people.(TO THE POINT)
January 1, 2008... Deportation [may] result in loss of both property and life, or of all that makes life worth living. --Supreme Court in 1922 Chinese Exclusion Case Ng Fung Ho v. White ELVIRA ARELLANO met with Felipe Calderon in his salon. These...

The innovators: people moving ideas and action in 2008.
January 1, 2008... IN OUR SECOND ANNUAL INSTALLMENT, ColorLines profiles a selection of people of color working for justice--and doing it with creativity, passion and humor. We feature among them an urban farmer who wants to feed the world, a journalist taking on...

Becoming a black man: as more people of color transition between genders, the ways that racism is different for men and women come to the surface.(FEATURE)
January 1, 2008... LOUIS MITCHELL EXPECTED a lot of change when he began taking injections of hormones eight years ago to transition from a female body to a male one. He anticipated that he'd grow a beard, which he eventually did and enjoys now. He knew his voice...

Spotlight: DJ Rekha; The soundtrack of a new generation.(Basement Bhangra party )(Brief article)
January 1, 2008... WHEN DEEJAY REKHA (Rekha Malhotra) started spinning records more than a decade ago, she was frustrated when told to play either Indian music or hip-hop. Born in London and raised in New York City, she decided to create her own space to play a...

The weeping veil: painter Hung Liu excavates the surface of history.(PROFILE)
January 1, 2008... MIDWAY THROUGH OUR INTERVIEW for this article, two beefy firefighters, on a routine inspection of commercially zoned sites in the neighborhood, knock on the door of Hung Liu's Oakland studio. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] "But this is not a...

Huipiles: I bought the traditional embroidered blouses and wondered who had worn them. Why did she have to give them up and where is she now?
January 1, 2008... I started wearing huipiles the summer before the big earthquake hit Mexico City. 1985. I was traveling with my friend and publisher, Norma Alarcon, first to the Mexican capital, then on a bus ride to Oaxaca, and finally to Chiapas on mountain...

Elegy with blue shirt, tie and gun: in this short story, a father's death brings his children more questions than answers.(FICTION)
January 1, 2008... There are ties here. I know it. My old man was a packrat--it was against his nature to throw anything away. He died, suddenly, peacefully and in his sleep in April 1996, while my 7-year-old son and I were visiting my parents at their...

Black men's voices: a collection of stories breaks new ground, but still falls short.
January 1, 2008... BEING A BLACK MAN By The Washington Post and Kevin Merida Public Affairs, 354 pages TRYING TO UNDERSTAND Bob Johnson's perspective on life as a Black man is like playing Twister--it's exhilarating to track the billionaire's...

"America's most wanted" cartoonist.
January 1, 2008... KHALIL BENDIB'S political cartoons elicit a mixture of reactions: anxious laughter, nods of knowing recognition, gasps of righteous indignation. Such is to be expected of an artist unafraid to call out both the left and right, and CEOs and...

Democracy Detained: Secret Unconstitutional Practices in the U.S. War on Terror.
January 1, 2008... DEMOCRACY DETAINED: SECRET UNCONSTITUTIONAL PRACTICES IN THE U.S. WAR ON TERROR By Barbara Olshansky Seven Stories Press, 337 pages WITH THE RECENT, and still limited, debate in the media about the Bush administration's torture...

Shout out: Women of Color Respond to Violence.(Brief article)(Book review)
January 1, 2008... SHOUT OUT: WOMEN OF COLOR RESPOND TO VIOLENCE Edited by Maria Ochoa and Barbara K. Ige Seal Press, 300 pages THE LAST DECADE has witnessed powerful strides in women of color organizing against violence, including the growth of...

Changing Course: Windcall and the Art of Renewal.(Brief article)(Book review)
January 1, 2008... CHANGING COURSE: WINDCALL AND THE ART OF RENEWAL By Susan Wells Heyday Books, 224 pages IN THIS NEW BOOK, philanthropist and psychologist Susan Wells chronicles the unfolding of the Windcall Resident Program, a retreat for veteran...

The Spinners: The Chrome Collection (Atlantic/WEA).
January 1, 2008... UNLIKE MANY BOX SETS THAT FUNCTION as easy-moneymaking nostalgia pieces, the thoughtfully compiled Chrome Collection stands out as a bridge built between several eras in the history of rhythm and blues that served as a seldom-acknowledged...

Sarah Vaughan: After Hours At The London House (Verve Music Group).(Sound recording review)(Brief article)
January 1, 2008... Having long ago established its reputation within the top tier of American jazz labels, Verve Records has continued in that tradition with a series of lovingly remastered CDs by the legendary artists in its extensive library. Taped live in...

The lost generation: Young, Tough and Terrible (Brunswick Records/Original Soul Classics).
January 1, 2008... Coproduced by the Chi-Lites co-lead singer Eugene Record and Brunswick Records house producer, Richard Parker, Young, Tough and Terrible is the second of three albums released by The Lost Generation between 1970 and 1974, Best known for their...

Martin Luther: The Calling (Rebel Soul Music).
January 1, 2008... Better known for his more recent collaborations with hip-hop band The Roots and his 2004 major label debut, Rebel Soul Music, the San Francisco-born, Morehouse College-bred Martin Luther became a sensation on the independent soul music scene...

Pink: the new color of terror.(OFF-COLOR)
January 1, 2008... IN LATE JUNE, I sat chewing away at some spicy eggplant leftovers and channel surfed. Lucky for me, I caught the sensational wave of The O'Reilly Factor and, to my shock and awe, learned, that a national epidemic of lesbian gangs was upon us. I...