Colorlines Magazine articles from March 2008

Colorlines Magazine archives from March 2008

A love letter to ColorLines.(Editorial)
March 1, 2008... I ARRIVED IN OAKLAND as a young journalist only a few years out of UCLA. That day in the old, fortress-like office of ColorLines and the Applied Research Center, I was taken on a whirlwind tour of the operation by my boss, then-editor Bob Wing,...

In response to police shootings.(LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
March 1, 2008... I am writing in response to an editorial that appeared in the Perry County News on Nov. 29. I have a few opinions about "Too Many Police Shootings Mean More Than a Few Bad Apples." [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] No one needs to be concerned...

Why Michael Vick?(LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
March 1, 2008... I am sorry. I don't get your position on supporting Michael Vick ("Why Black People Support Michael Vick," colorlines.com Sept./Oct. 2007). Yes, we must, and I do, work to stop the over incarceration of people of color. I have worked for years...

Elvis: the Asian outsider?(IN FOCUS)(Elvis Presley fans)(Brief article)
March 1, 2008... WHILE TRAVELING ACROSS THE COUNTRY to produce my book Looking for Asian America, my wife and I came across this headline: "Man Sees Image of Elvis on Tree." The article in Texas Monthly was only one paragraph, and the man was identified as the...

Flash point: a police officer's killing in Phoenix leads to plans for expanding police involvement in immigration enforcement.(NEWS)
March 1, 2008... ON SEPTEMBER 18, 2007, Phoenix police officer Nick Erfle, the father of two children, was shot and killed by a man he'd approached for jaywalking. What happened to Erfle was unfortunate, and very sad. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Also sad...

Uranium clean up stalled: Navajos are still fighting for Congress to act.(NEWS)
March 1, 2008... PERHAPS NOWHERE IN THE UNITED STATES is the impact of nuclear disaster more acute than on the Navajo reservation, a 26,000-square-mile expanse that covers parts of Arizona, Utah and New Mexico and is home to about 250,000 people. "The rez," as...

Black elders more likely to be hospitalized.(NEWS)
March 1, 2008... BLACK PEOPLE LIVING in nursing homes are more likely to be admitted to a hospital than their white counterparts, according to a new study published by Health Services Research, Researchers surveyed half a million residents in more than 9,000...

The fight for public housing: New Orleans has become ground zero in the battle for affordable homes.(GULF COAST UPDATE)
March 1, 2008... SAM JACKSON, A FORMER RESIDENT of New Orleans public housing, is outraged that the federal government plans to demolish his home. "We didn't leave of our own will," he said. "They forced us out of this city at gunpoint. Then they put fences...

Who gets the Bachelor's degree?(CHECK THE COLOR LINE)(Brief article)
March 1, 2008... Everywhere you turn these days, someone is talking about the global economy and what a necessity college degrees have become. Ever wonder how communities of color are faring in this regard? Here are the sobering numbers. Of course, don't let...

Penny-wise and pound-foolish.(READING BETWEEN THE HEADLINES)
March 1, 2008... THE FAST-FOOD GIANT BURGER KING is refusing to pay farm workers one cent more for every pound of tomatoes harvested. In a 12-hour shift, migrant farm workers earn just 45 cents for every 32-pound bucket of tomatoes they pick. The Coalition of...

Deadly immigrant work.(READING BETWEEN THE HEADLINES)
March 1, 2008... TWO NEW JERSEY MEN, VICTOR DIAZ AND CARLOS DIAZ, were found dead in December inside of a 20,000-gallon dry cleaning chemicals storage tank that they were cleaning. The two men were not trained for the job at the Linden, New Jersey linen company...

More poverty down south.(READING BETWEEN THE HEADLINES)(Brief article)
March 1, 2008... THE ATLANTA-BASED SOUTHERN EDUCATION FOUNDATION released a study with grim news. In 14 states, the majority of public school students are poor. Eleven of those states are in the South, which has higher birth rates of Latino and Black children...

Racism hurts--even on painkillers.(READING BETWEEN THE HEADLINES)
March 1, 2008... ACCORDING TO A REPORT in the Journal of the American Medical Association, researchers found that 31 percent of whites receive strong prescription drugs compared with 23 percent of Blacks and 24 percent of Latinos. The study, which looked at...

Manicurists fight tooth and nail.(READING BETWEEN THE HEADLINES)(Susan Kim )(Brief article)
March 1, 2008... NEW YORK CITY MANICURIST SUSAN KIM won $182,000 in back pay, overtime and damages in a lawsuit after she was fired for requesting a break in the middle of her 10-hour day at 167 Nail Plaza in Manhattan. Her long shifts among harsh chemicals...

More trouble on the stage.(READING BETWEEN THE HEADLINES)(Theater review)(Brief article)
March 1, 2008... ALICE CHILDRESS'S OBIE-AWARD-WINNING PLAY, Trouble in Mind, opened to positive reviews on Broadway last fall. Childress weaves complicated themes about race into a sophisticated play-within-a-play conceit. Trouble in Mind chronicles the lives...

Dole has to pay.(READING BETWEEN THE HEADLINES)
March 1, 2008... A LOS ANGELES JURY awarded five Nicaraguan banana plantation workers $2.5 million in damages after working with the pesticide DBCP on Dole Food Company's banana plantations left farm workers sterile. DBCP was powerful enough to boost harvest...

Living wages at hotels.(READING BETWEEN THE HEADLINES)
March 1, 2008... A CALIFORNIA APPEALS COURT unanimously upheld a law in December that will require hotels around Los Angeles International Airport to pay a living wage for 3,500 hotel workers. The campaign, led by UNITE HERE and the Los Angeles County...

Vivian Chang: the environmental justice activist talks about green economies, organizing in Asian immigrant communities and the battle against Chevron.(Q & A)(Interview)
March 1, 2008... You were part of the first National People of Color Environmental Leadership Summit in 1991. How does today's push for green jobs and state-led emissions control measure up to the goals you helped develop in the early years of the environmental...

Blog bits: who says blogs are only for online reading? If you missed the recent posts at racewire.org, have no fear. Here are a few gems we dug up for you.
March 1, 2008... JAMES BALDWIN'S AMERICA HASN'T CHANGED Author and essayist James Baldwin died 20 years ago. Baldwin's biographer and close friend, David Leeming, called his essays "prophetic," as they articulated an eerily clear-eyed view of America's...

Going green: don't drop the justice.(TO THE POINT)(environmental justice among people of color)
March 1, 2008... "THE ENVIRONMENT, FOR US, is defined as where we live, work and play." These were the words Jeanne Gauna, co-director of the SouthWest Organizing Project, spoke as she began training neighborhood residents fighting environmental racism in their...

Who gains from the green economy? Making sure the "green wave" doesn't leave out communities of color.
March 1, 2008... LAST YEAR, THE OAKLAND-BASED Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, with a miniscule staff and budget, worked relentlessly to pass the Green Jobs Act in Congress--a bill that if authorized will direct $125 million to green the nation's workforce...

Wind power: an energy source that could fuel the future of reservations.(FEATURE)
March 1, 2008... PINE RIDGE, SOUTH DAKOTA resident Alex White Plume and his family are trying to "bring every form of alternative economic development" to the reservation, he says. This includes raising hormone-free beef cattle and hemp crops (which government...

Toxic policies: activists battle pesticides in communities of color.(FEATURE)
March 1, 2008... AMONG SCIENTISTS, PESTICIDES were long regarded as an agricultural issue. They studied the impact of these chemicals on crops, rural residents and farmworkers--while by and large failing to examine their equally toxic effects in cities. ...

Reclaiming radio: alternative radio projects attempt to take back the public sphere.(FEATURE)
March 1, 2008... A MOTHER'S VOICE stretched over the air to a son spending the holidays in a Virginia prison: "Keep your head up. I love you. Just do what you gotta do to survive." [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The hushed message was one of dozens featured on...

Ground zero for immigration? Latinos are fleeing Arizona as crackdowns increase in the border state.(FEATURE)
March 1, 2008... NOTHING BETTER reflects the social tension and cultural clashes of the immigration debate in Arizona than the sidewalk across from Pruitt's Furniture store on the corner of Thomas Road and 35th Street in the heart of Phoenix. [ILLUSTRATION...

The legacy of a murder: racial killings from the civil rights era still haunt families and the country.(FEATURE)
March 1, 2008... "I HEARD A SCREAM, and I said, 'That's Mother, that's Mother.' And we all started running to look." It was August 14, 1959, near midnight, in Centreville, Mississippi. Laura O'Quinn Smith, then 33, and her brother Clarence, then 32, rushed...

Spotlight: Zili Misik; Music from the African diaspora.
March 1, 2008... ZILI MISIK'S MUSIC is not for the faint of heart. This Boston-based band plays joyful, boisterous songs that transport listeners around the world in a couple of bars. On "Praia," from their first full-length album New World Soul, a brisk and...

Where Islam meets rock 'n' roll: Salman Ahmad introduced the world to Sufi rock and now to the culture behind the music.(PROFILE)
March 1, 2008... CLAD IN JEANS AND A T-SHIRT, Salman Ahmad stands center stage, intently strumming his guitar to a hall full of mostly young South Asian Americans in Seattle. The guest tabla player strains to Keep up. The audience rocks to legendary poets...

Atlanta's new face: a debut novel examines gentrification.('Them')(Book review)
March 1, 2008... THEM By Nathan McCall Atria, 352 pages THE SETTING IN NATHAN MCCALL'S debut novel, Them, is a tree-lined street in Atlanta, but the racial drama that unfolds echoes a territorial friction occurring across American cities wherever...

Racial Oppression in the Global Metropolis: a Living Chicago History.
March 1, 2008... RACIAL OPPRESSION IN THE GLOBAL METROPOLIS: A LIVING CHICAGO HISTORY By Paul Street Rowman & Littlefield, 312 pages PPEOPLE LOOKING FOR POSITIVE NEWS about Black progress in Chicago should not read this book Replete with data the...

Snitch: Informants, Cooperators & the Corruption of Justice.
March 1, 2008... SNITCH: INFORMANTS, COOPERATORS & THE CORRUPTION OF JUSTICE By Ethan Brown Public Affairs, 273 pages BY THE TIME "Stop Snitchin'" hit mainstream awareness last year--with a memorable moment when the rapper Cam'ron told Anderson...

Philadelphia Divided: Race and Politics in the City of Brotherly Love.
March 1, 2008... PHILADELPHIA DIVIDED: RACE AND POLITICS IN THE CITY OF BROTHERLY LOVE By James Wolfinger University of North Carolina Press, 336 pages IN THE EYES OF many liberals, working-class whites' votes for the Republican party are...

We Make Change: Community Organizers Talk about what They Do--and Why.(Book review)
March 1, 2008... WE MAKE CHANGE: COMMUNITY ORGANIZERS TALK ABOUT WHAT THEY DO--AND WHY By Kristin Layng Szakos and Joe Szakos Vanderbilt University Press, 280 pages WHAT DO PEOPLE KNOW about community organizers? Not enough, according to Kristin...

Black Ivory: Don't Turn Around (Today Records/Available through Dusty Groove America).(Sound recording review)
March 1, 2008... THOUGH THEY ARE best known for the international disco hit "Mainline" (Buddah Records, 1979) and the production style of former lead singer Leroy Burgess III that became the template for Chicago "house" music, Black Ivory first came to public...

Sweet Honey in the Rock: Experience ... 101 (Appleseed Recordings).(Sound recording review)(Brief article)
March 1, 2008... The fourth children's record--and 21st recording since 1976--by venerable women's a capella troupe Sweet Honey In The Rock is yet another example of the group's continued dedication to creativity and artistic innovation. Conceived as a...

Indigenous: Chasing The Sun (Vanguard Records).(Sound recording review)
March 1, 2008... Indigenous' fifth release since 1998 (and first full-length since their single major label effort, Circle, in 2003) finds Nakota guitarist/lead vocalist Mato Nanji with a mostly new band following the departure of siblings Pte (bass) and Wanbdi...

Ledisi: Lost & Found (Verve Forecast).(Sound recording review)(Brief article)
March 1, 2008... A fixture on the independent R & B and jazz scenes for the past 15 years, Ledisi Young has built a career on her versatility as a vocalist and her refusal to be categorized stylistically. Carrying a reputation for transcendent, electric live...

The other inconvenient truths.(OFF COLOR)(tortillas and green living)
March 1, 2008... THE TRUTH IS, I'M A BONA FIDE TORTILLERA. It's in my nature to breathe, live and eat tortillas. It is also my business. I am one of those rare Xicanas artists who ingeniously, if I may so myself, figured out a way to convert the purchase of...