Colorlines Magazine articles from June 2002

Colorlines Magazine archives from June 2002

Note from the editor.
June 22, 2002... To look at the mainstream media, you would think the recession came and went this year with little visible impact other than more laid-off hipsters in cafes or ex-dotcommers heading to graduate school. After awhile, economists and newspaper...

Note from the publisher.
June 22, 2002... Several years ago I had an organizing staff study the ways in which gender identities were manipulated to reinforce racial and class hierarchies. When I posed the question, "If we were to organize people into a best-scenario identity, what...

Racefile.(protests by immigrant airport screeners who stand to lose their jobs for being non-US citizens)(includes news about campaign against Taco Bell advertising with the chihuahua and boycott against Cincinnati for its race policies)
June 22, 2002... Neither Job nor Airport Security Airport screeners across the country are speaking out against the new law prohibiting noncitizens from working as airport screeners. The new citizenship requirement in the Aviation and Transportation...

Detained or disappeared? before the 9/11 round-ups, INS detention had already grown into a system handling 150,000 immigrants a year. Tram Nguyen looks for the connections. (To the Point).(Desis Rising Up and Moving group's investigations into jailed immigrants)
June 22, 2002... Paterson, New Jersey. The bus pulls to a stop a block away from Passaic County Jail. My companions, Fernando Reals, a Puerto Rican activist, and Shubh Mathur, a doctoral student from India--regular visitors to immigrant detainees--have tried to...

Can context trump content? Gary Delgado watches the siege to see if a racist movie can be prophetic. (To the Point).(film 'The Siege' that portrays all Arabs and Muslims as terrorists)
June 22, 2002... Can a significant change in political context change whether we judge a film to be racist? Almost four years ago, Twentieth Century Fox released The Siege, a 116-minute flick that features bomb attacks on U.S. soil by "Arab terrorists." Arab...

A time to riot: L.A. uprising 1992; a decade has passed since Los Angeles bore the nation's largest social upheaval of the 20th century, it's a time most of the city would rather forget. This writer included. (To the Point).
June 22, 2002... Although I've long since tried to come to terms with the riots, a resolution has yet to present itself. A recently transferred reporter in the Los Angeles Times' San Diego edition, I was dispatched back to L.A. in 1992 to cover disturbances...

Bitter harvest: Gail Smith discusses the renewed fight against poverty in the new South Africa. (South Africa in Focus).
June 22, 2002... Seven years after the first democratic elections in South Africa, the promises of the revolution have turned into a bitter harvest for the majority of South Africans. Nearly 50 percent are unemployed and 53 percent live in conditions of abject...

Erasing history: eight years after apartheid, school segregation persists and history is out of style. (South Africa in Focus).
June 22, 2002... On January 29, 1995, the Washington Post devoted its front page to the newly integrated South African schools. Comparing this event to desegregation in the U.S. South in the 1960s, the Post wrote with admiration, "Not a politician has stood in...

Safety net sinking; welfare reform during recession: Discrimination and poor access to education and job training make the hard times harder. (Race and Recession).
June 22, 2002... Even now, as economists and media spokespeople begin to rejoice for the rise of recovery; it's clear the recession isn't over for everybody. Across the board, people of color living at or under poverty levels, working or not, have borne the...

Fighting Bush's welfare proposal. (Race and Recession).
June 22, 2002... With his proposal in February, Bush pushed the welfare reauthorization debate even further to the right--calling for tougher work requirements, no relief for immigrants, and millions to promote marriage among single parents. The draconian...

Stamp of approval. (Race and Recession).
June 22, 2002... President George Bush proposes a better food stamp benefit restoration policy for legal immigrants than the Senate Democrats in the Farm Bill. A Republican Senator from Indiana leads the fight for more money for the food stamp program and...

No roof over my head: Silja J.A. Talvi explains how and why people of color now represent the majority of those living homeless in the United States. (Race and Recession).
June 22, 2002... When Mikala Berbery, an African American woman and single mother, went from earning $21,000 a year to losing her job, her life suddenly plunged into a dangerous abyss of homelessness. Altogether, Berbery spent two and a half years of her...

Keeping safe: native women mobilize their own coalition against domestic violence. (Action).
June 22, 2002... Cindy Widell is the only domestic violence advocate for four Oklahoma tribes (Otoe, Ponca, Tonkawa, and Paw). In 2001, she received a call from two sisters who had survived years of domestic abuse at the hands of one of their boyfriends. They...

Flight: in the summer of 2001, a man's body fell out of the sky from a plane headed to London. Amitava Kumar searches for death of a transnational migrant. (Culture).(story of Mohammed Ayaz, a Pakistani stowaway who after sneaking onto a wheel of a British Airways plane while trying to escape to the UK)
June 22, 2002... The writer Rabindranath Tagore flew in a plane in 1932. He had awoken at three-thirty in the dark morning and was in the air at four. Tagore was traveling in what was then called Persia; at half-past eight the plane reached Bushire. "Now comes...

From sweatshop to hip-hop: once ignored by fashion, youth of color become the focus of its marketing. (Culture).
June 22, 2002... India Arie is smiling down at you from a Gap billboard. A half-mile later, it is progressive hip-hop crew Black Eyed Peas looking fresh in Levi's Silver Tab jeans. Rewind two years, and it was Mos Def and Talib Kweli, then De La Soul. ...

The writing on the wall: why are graffiti and vandalism bad words in the left? (Culture).
June 22, 2002... On January 29 2002, the city of San Francisco slapped IBM and advertising agencies Ogilvy & Mather and Mindshare with a $20,000 fine for its "Peace, Love, and Linux" campaign. The three companies had apparently hired youths to illegally spray...

Activist web.
June 22, 2002... On March 13, 2002, newspaper headlines declare that a late night resolution has been approved by the United Nations Security Council backing the creation of a Palestinian state for the first time. At the same time, Israeli Defense Forces...

Blazing arrow (MCA). (Blackalicious).
June 22, 2002... Bay Area duo Gift of Gab and Chief Xcel drop one of the most soulful hip-hop albums of the year, collaborating with everyone from Saul Williams to Gil Scott-Heron. Check "Release" for a gritty, awe-inspiring nine-minute jam session featuring...

Still blazing (VP). (Capleton).
June 22, 2002... One of Jamaican dancehall's most conscious entertainers picks up where 2000's righteous More Fire left off. "Rootical prophetics" and some wicked digital riddims to match.

Cee-Lo green and his perfect imperfections (Arista). (Cee-Lo).
June 22, 2002... Fresh off his scene-stealing turn on the last De La Soul record, the Goodie Mob crooner debuts with a funky blend of Southern soul, crunkedup hip-hop, and "basehead jazz."

The edge of heaven (Indigo). (Gary Lucas).
June 22, 2002... Ex-Captain Beefheart guitarist Lucas covers a stirring selection of Chinese pop songs from 1950s starlets Bai Kwong and Chow Hsuan. While the liner notes are admittedly problematic, Lucas's interpretations and musicianship are absolutely...

Our times is coming (Tommy Boy). (Masters at Work).
June 22, 2002... Latin soul brothers Louie Vega and Kenny Dope issue the long-awaited follow-up to their Nu Yorican Soul project, an impressive collection featuring all-star collaborations (Roy Ayers, Namaste) and their sought-after house tribute to Afrobeat...

Life is...(K7). (Smith and Mighty).
June 22, 2002... What is it about British artists rearranging preexisting genres? The third much-improved album from Bristol's Rob Smith and Ray Mighty is yet another impressive blend of big beats, jazzy soul, and the suffocating feeling of dub.

Booniay! a compilation of West African funk (Afrondisiac). (Various artists).
June 22, 2002... Some random guys visited Africa, bought a bunch of records, and had the wild idea of issuing a compilation! Highlighting the more independent and super-obscure local artists, Booniay! is even more delightful and funky than the guy making funny...