Colorlines Magazine articles from November 2007

Colorlines Magazine archives from November 2007

Telling the truth about race.
November 1, 2007... FOR A WHILE NOW, the idea that race should be at the forefront of social justice efforts in the U.S. has been under attack. It's been dismissed as narrow identity politics, or avoided as divisive or distracting from the "real" issue of economic...

Angry Asian man.(LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
November 1, 2007... As an avid reader of ColorLines, I was very disappointed to see absolutely no coverage of Seung-Hui Cho or the "Virginia Tech massacre" in your May/June 2007 issue. Its absence was particularly deafening given your mission to "prioritize the...

What's the purpose behind any label?(LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
November 1, 2007... Rinku Sen's piece "Are Immigrants and Refugees People of Color?" [July/Aug. 2007] contextualizes the use of the label "people of color," while maintaining a "transitional tone" that maintains an openness to other options. Nevertheless, I...

Are immigrants people of color? A response.(LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
November 1, 2007... My family emigrated to a densely Puerto Rican community in the U.S. mainland when I was 12 years old. Identity, nationalism and anger at the way I felt treated by white people were the defining factors in my early political development. As I...

Soft-peddling anti-Black racism.(LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
November 1, 2007... I recently read Tarso Luis Ramos's article, "L.A. Story," [July/August 2007]. I found it to be an important intervention on the more sensational depictions of racial violence between Blacks and Latinos in the Los Angeles area in particular and...

In focus: the hate debate.(anti-immigration rally)(Brief article)
November 1, 2007... WHEN: May 20, 2006 WHERE: 35th & Dodge Streets in Omaha, Nebraska A CROWD OF ABOUT 30 PROTESTORS gather in front of the Mexican Consulate at a rally organized by neo-Nazi groups to speak out against what they call the "illegal alien...

Town by town: the immigration debate has caught fire at the local level.(NEWS)
November 1, 2007... AS THE NATION REGROUPS after Congress's failure to deliver national immigration reform this summer, anti-immigrant groups frustrated with federal inaction have shifted their focus to local and regional governments to push through restrictive...

Chicago's environmental racism: a new deal gives power plants more time to pollute Latino neighborhoods.(NEWS)
November 1, 2007... OPERATING IN A BASEMENT OFFICE on Chicago's West Side, the Little Village Environmental Justice Organization addresses some of the chief issues facing the city's Latino community--immigrant rights, an inadequate public transportation system and...

Fallen journalist.(NEWS)
November 1, 2007... CHAUNCEY BAILEY was the first reporter to be murdered in the United States in 14 years, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists, an international watchdog group. Bailey, editor of the Black weekly Oakland Post, was fatally shot en...

Wasting away in Margaritaville: Katrina opened the door to casino development and gentrified rebuilding.(GULF COAST UPDATE)
November 1, 2007... TWO YEARS OF POST-KATRINA rebuilding may have rendered many construction projects commonplace, but a new casino development in Biloxi, Mississippi, by the Harrah Casino and country star Jimmy Buffet can hardly be described as common....

Do the right thing--it'll pay off in the long run: here's one for the critics who needed a financial reason to invest in education.(TO THE POINT)
November 1, 2007... FOUR PROMINENT ECONOMISTS sat down this year to run a cost-and-benefit analysis on education. They eschewed the usual talk of how educating kids is good for America in theory and instead focused on the hard numbers. That is, how much more money...

The Jena 6.(READING BETWEEN THE HEADLINES)(Jena, Louisiana students' case)(Brief article)
November 1, 2007... AFTER WHITE STUDENTS hung nooses from the "white" tree at their high school in Jena, Louisiana, several fights ensued, culminating in one where six Black kids beat a white student after he taunted them with racial epithets. The "Jena 6" (as the...

Targeting taco trucks.(READING BETWEEN THE HEADLINES)(home-cooked food sellers)(Brief article)
November 1, 2007... POLITICIANS IN JEFFERSON PARISH, a suburb of New Orleans, have banned the "taco trucks" that sell home-cooked food as health hazards, although state records don't show any violations. The crackdown has included laws requiring any mobile food...

Fatal stereotypes.(READING BETWEEN THE HEADLINES)
November 1, 2007... CNN BROADCAST A REPORT earlier this year that brought to millions the news that the second highest cause of death among Asian American women ages 15-24 is suicide. One of the reasons cited by experts is the pressure that comes from the...

Help kids in blackface.(READING BETWEEN THE HEADLINES)
November 1, 2007... UNICEF GERMANY apparently thought it was helping African children in need of education with an ad campaign featuring white children in blackface. The posters depict kids with brown mud smeared on their faces and bear slogans like, "In Africa,...

It's not a secret anymore.(READING BETWEEN THE HEADLINES)(Secret Asian Man)(Brief article)
November 1, 2007... "SECRET ASIAN MAN" HAS BECOME the first nationally syndicated comic strip featuring an Asian-American lead character. The strip has gained a loyal following since its 1998 debut in independent publications. Comic-world behemoth United Features...

Welcome to the singhs.(READING BETWEEN THE HEADLINES)(World Sikh Organization)(Brief article)
November 1, 2007... FOLLOWING PUBLIC OUTRAGE by the World Sikh Organization, the Canadian government reversed a 10-year policy that had banned anyone with the popular Sikh surnames of Singh and Kaur from immigrating. The policy forced Sikhs to change their popular...

Here's to healthy children.(READING BETWEEN THE HEADLINES)
November 1, 2007... DEFYING PRESIDENT BUSH'S VETO threat, the Senate overwhelmingly voted 68 to 31 to expand a program that would provide healthcare coverage to more than 9 million low-income children. An increase in tobacco taxes would provide an extra $35...

Going my way?(READING BETWEEN THE HEADLINES)(RightRides)(Brief article)
November 1, 2007... THREE YEARS AGO, Consuelo Ruybal and Oraia Reid started giving rides to women and transgender people in Brooklyn who found themselves stuck at a bar without a safe way to get home or who couldn't afford cabs when they got off at a subway stop...

Etan Thomas: the NBA star talks about why he took a stand against the war and what kind of athlete he aspires to be.(Q & A)(Interview)
November 1, 2007... In 2005, you gave an anti-war speech that inspired a lot of people. Have your own thoughts about the war changed since then? That was a great experience, one I will remember for the rest of my life. I have spoken at many anti-war rallies, but...

Killed by the cops: in a joint national investigation, ColorLines and The Chicago Reporter found that Blacks are overrepresented and Latinos a rising number of those fatally shot by police.
November 1, 2007... This project was conducted with research assistance by Aliza Appelbaum, Beandrea Davis, Erin Dostal, Lynne Nguyen, Marine Olivesi, Julianne Ong Hing, Brittany Petersen, Alena Scarver, Seth Wessler and Shelley Zeiger. OUR INVESTIGATION of...

Unequal protection: even with the change in administration and a drop in crime, the number of people killed each year by the NYPD remains steady, and the victims continue to be overwhelmingly people of color.
November 1, 2007... EARLY IN THE MORNING of Jan. 24, 2004, Timothy Stansbury Jr. and his friend Terrence Fisher were enjoying a birthday party in a friend's apartment when they left to retrieve additional compact discs (Fisher was the party's DJ). They took to the...

Why so high? The Phoenix metropolitan area, with the highest rate of fatal police shootings among the 10 biggest U.S. cities, is also the most dangerous in the nation for Latinos.
November 1, 2007... IT WAS HOT AND QUIET IN MESA, Arizona, as a crowd gathered outside the headquarters of the police department on Aug. 25, 2007. On this day in 2003, the parents of 15-year-old Mario Madrigal Jr. called the police in a panic because their oldest...

Missed signals: The Chicago Reporter found that 45 percent of Chicago police officers named in wrongful death suits have had multiple lawsuits against them but receive minimal internal discipline.
November 1, 2007... THE ACCOUNTS OF BOTH SIDES converged only at the end: the death of Dantwan Betts, who was shot and killed by Chicago Police Officer Richard Doroniuk. Before that point, much differed. The story told in the complaint filed in the Betts...

From Missouri to Arizona: Connerly targets the ballot box in five more states.
November 1, 2007... WARD CONNERLY MAINTAINS he has simple reasons for campaigning to end affirmative action. "I'm not just fighting to end racial preferences--I'm fighting to alter the way people still see Black people as weak and lazy," says Connerly, a Black...

Rape and the reservation: a legal maze allows sexual predators to attack American Indian women with impunity.(FEATURE)
November 1, 2007... AUTUMN GERTZ, a resident of the Standing Rock Sioux reservation in South Dakota, didn't think of it as rape when she was forced to have sex against her will by her former boyfriend. Rape was rarely discussed openly in the community and even...

Whites against white supremacy: a new generation of activists takes on the challenge of organizing white people for racial justice.(FEATURE)
November 1, 2007... WHEN LILIA GARCIA BROUGHT her Latina mom and her white partner along with her to a July 2007 event introducing a relatively new group of white anti-racist activists, she was looking to introduce her loved ones to a space where they could...

If they'd been black ... would justice have been served for the Duke lacrosse players if they were not white and well-off?(FEATURE)
November 1, 2007... PERHAPS WITHOUT KNOWING IT, the country witnessed a very rare event this year: Mike Nifong, the ex-county prosecutor who charged three white Duke University lacrosse players with raping a Black woman last year, lost his license to practice law....

Cracking the American comfort zone.(SPOTLIGHT: WAFAA BILAL)(confinement)(Brief article)
November 1, 2007... In his most recent installation, Domestic Tension, Iraqi-born artist Wafaa Bilal created a living room at Chicago's Flatfile Gallery and confined himself to the space for 31 days. The world could see him via webcam, and people could also shoot...

The elusive concept of Blackness: through photography and film, artist hank Willis Thomas explores what it means to be black today.(PROFILE)
November 1, 2007... YOUNG BLACK MEN have the highest homicide-victim rate of any group in the United States. The statistic hit home for Hank Willis Thomas seven years ago, when his cousin Songha Willis was shot to death over a gold chain on a February night...

Inner peace: as more Americans take to the mat, Black teachers use yoga to uplift their community.(TREND)
November 1, 2007... TIRED FROM WORKING at my education reporter job all day, I could feel my impatience building as the underground stop in downtown Philadelphia remained empty of trolleys. Before I knew it, however, something unexpected happened: I took a deep...

In search of Caridad: in 1968, Daniel arrives in New York looking for work but finding love.(FICTION)(Excerpt)
November 1, 2007... IT WAS STILL DAYLIGHT when Daniel arrived in New York City. He was one of the lucky few whose suitcase arrived with him. He had 20 dollars in his pocket and a piece of paper torn out of his brother Tadeo's notebook with a name and address of a...

Sporting culture: two authors start at the same place--race and sports--and end up with very different conclusions.(Welcome to the Terrordome: The Pain, Politics and Promise of Sports)(Book review)
November 1, 2007... TERRORDOME: THE PAIN, POLITICS, AND PROMISE OF SPORTS By David Zirin Haymarket Books, 258 pages SOULED OUT? AN EVOLUTIONARY CROSSROADS FOR BLACKS IN SPORTS By Shaun Powell Human Kinetics Publishers, 320 pages DAVE...

The End of Tolerance: Racism in 21st Century Britain.
November 1, 2007... THE END OF TOLERANCE: RACISM IN 21ST CENTURY BRITAIN By Arun Kundnani Pluto Press, 240 pages RACISMS HAVE specific cultural and historical trajectories. With its heavy legacies of slavery, North-South tensions on migration and new...

Ex Mex: From Migrants to Immigrants.
November 1, 2007... EX MEX: FROM MIGRANTS TO IMMIGRANTS By Jorge G. Castaneda The New Press, 224 pages JORGE CASTANEDA, a former foreign minister of Mexico and currently a professor at New York University, has written a highly accessible book that is...

Blue-Chip Black: Race, Class and Status in the New Black Middle Class.
November 1, 2007... BLUE-CHIP BLACK: RACE, CLASS AND STATUS IN THE NEW BLACK MIDDLE CLASS By Karyn R. Lacy University of California Press, 281 pages IN BLUE-CHIP BLACK, sociologist Karyn R. Lacy provides an enriching ethnography of Black middle-class...

Chops: Virtuosity (GoodVibe recordings/Vocab Records/available on iTunes).
November 1, 2007... GIVEN THE TENDENCY FOR MAINSTREAM HIP-HOP REVIEWERS to ignore most of the work of artists not fortunate enough to have promotional budgets to purchase front-and-center advertising and heavy radio rotation, it's rather amazing that Chops' first...

Somi: Red Soil in My Eyes (world village).(Sound recording review)(Brief article)
November 1, 2007... Colored by her experiences as the child of Rwandan and Ugandan expatriates, Somi has with this sophomore recording released an album that is a refreshing, eclectic and subtly powerful mix, moving effortlessly from African hi-life to jazz to pop...

Peter Kater: Faces of the Sun (Silver Wave records).
November 1, 2007... A three-time Grammy nominee with 40 albums and 100 film and television credits during a 25-year career, Peter Kater has had as long and varied a career as any instrumental musician. Despite a lack of name recognition among consumers of...

LA Bruja: Brujalicious (de la Luz records).(Sound recording review)(Brief article)
November 1, 2007... A fixture in the New York City spoken-word scene and well-known from her appearances on HBO's Def Poetry Jam series, La Bruja's varied talents as an artist, actor and activist are brought to the fore in Brujalicious' mix of spoken-word and...

Writing in netantla: a celebrated Chicana author goes to the border.(TRANSFORMATIONS)(Ana Castillo)(Interview)
November 1, 2007... YET ANOTHER VOICE is weighing in on the fate of la frontera these days--but it's a poet, not a pundit. In her latest novel, The Guardians, the multi-genre writer Ana Castillo takes a look at life on the U.S.-Mexico border with sensitivity and...