Colorlines Magazine articles from September 2007

Colorlines Magazine archives from September 2007

On the horizon.
September 1, 2007... AS WE PUT THIS ISSUE TOGETHER, we've had a foot in both the past and the future. In the span of a week this summer, immigration reform fell apart in the Senate and the Supreme Court dealt a blow to school desegregation. All you need to do is...

Reader's corner.(Lisa Moore)(Brief article)
September 1, 2007... LISA MOORE WAS FIRST INTRODUCED to ColorLines while working with Teaching for Change, a multicultural resource center in Washington, D.C. The ColorLines subscription was a popular resource there among teachers. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] ...

In focus: taking sanctuary.(Haitian refugee)(Brief article)
September 1, 2007... WHEN: May 9, 2007 11:14 a.m. WHERE: Roman Catholic Church of St. Paul the Apostle, New York City My family and I are taking sanctuary because my husband made a mistake almost 20 years ago, and the immigration laws will never forgive...

LAPD gentrifies Skid Row: as the affluent take the city, poor Black residents are pushed out with force.(NEWS)(Los Angeles Police Department)
September 1, 2007... FOR DECADES, A 50-BLOCK AREA in downtown Los Angeles known as Skid Row has been a hub for shelters and social services for homeless and extremely poor people, the majority of them Black. Now, amid rapid-fire gentrification of the downtown area,...

Court rules in favor of guest workers.(NEWS)(Daniel Castellanos-Contreras, Oscar Ricardo Deheza-Ortega and Rodolfo Antonion Valdez-Baez)
September 1, 2007... AFTER NEARLY A YEAR OF COURT PROCEEDINGS, a United States District Judge based in New Orleans ruled recently that "nonagricultural" guest workers are entitled to the same rights as all U.S. workers under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act....

The cost of sending money home.(NEWS)(value transfer system)(Brief article)
September 1, 2007... EACH YEAR, IMMIGRANTS across the United States send money to family in their homelands. Money transfer companies charge about $18 to send $300 a month--although it only costs a company $3 for a single transaction. Where does all the money go?...

FEMA cash for white childcare only?(GULF COAST UPDATE)(Federal Emergency Management Agency)
September 1, 2007... MISSISSIPPI SENATORS Trent Lott and Thad Cochran announced a FEMA award earlier this year of $1.53 million to a parish in their home state. The money was earmarked to rebuild St. Thomas Life Parish Center that had been destroyed by Hurricane...

Green should not equal white.(TO THE POINT)(racial attitude towards environmental issues)
September 1, 2007... IN RESPONSE to mounting ecological crises, the United States is going through its most important economic transformation since the New Deal. Unfortunately, the vital process of change along more eco-friendly lines is moving ahead with...

Full-court bias.(READING BETWEEN THE HEADLINES)(more fouls on black basketball players)(Brief article)
September 1, 2007... AN ECONOMICS PROFESSOR at the University of Pennsylvania and a Cornell University graduate student found that white referees called fouls on Black players at a higher rate than on whites. The academic paper concluded that the refs' racial bias...

Reality bites.(READING BETWEEN THE HEADLINES)(The Bachelor's Andy Baldwin)(Brief article)
September 1, 2007... ABC'S THE BACHELOR star Andy Baldwin rounded out his romance with finalist Tessa Horst by proposing to her with a diamond engagement ring--and by calling her a "mutt." "I've always said that mutts are the most exotic and beautiful," he joked of...

Hollywood white-wash.(READING BETWEEN THE HEADLINES)(white actors playing colored people)(Brief article)
September 1, 2007... FROM WHITE ACTORS in blackface to Elizabeth Taylor as Cleopatra, whites have portrayed people of color since the dawn of the film age. Those days, unfortunately, are not over. In the film A Mighty Heart about slain journalist Daniel Pearl,...

Black colleges beware.(READING BETWEEN THE HEADLINES)(rise of white students in black colleges)(Brief article)
September 1, 2007... APPARENTLY, IT'S NOT ENOUGH to ban affirmative action in three states. Now the white kids want the Black schools, too. In the last year, the white student population at historically Black colleges and universities has hit the 10-percent mark...

Stamp out hunger.(READING BETWEEN THE HEADLINES)(food stamp challenge)(Brief article)
September 1, 2007... A FEW MEMBERS of the U.S. House of Representatives took on the "Food Stamp Challenge" to bring media attention to a House bill that would increase funding for public nutrition programs by $20 billion over a period of five years. Congress...

I want my Jengo TV.(READING BETWEEN THE HEADLINES)(Brief article)
September 1, 2007... At last, LGBT people of color don't need to strain to see themselves on cable TV or in reruns of Will & Grace. Jengo TV, an online media network that was founded last year, provides original content, entertainment news, short films and...

Black radio in South Carolina.(READING BETWEEN THE HEADLINES)(Promotheus Radio Project set up radio station in Greenville)(Brief article)
September 1, 2007... While lawmakers were revving up this summer to introduce legislation that would allow community groups to run their programs on low-power FM radio, more than 70 activists arrived in Greenville, South Carolina to do just that. Led by the...

Day laborers unite.(READING BETWEEN THE HEADLINES)(Mamaroneck, New York charged guilty for racist tactics)(Brief article)
September 1, 2007... The village of Mamaroneck, New York was found guilty of discriminating against Latino day laborers and has agreed to pay half a million dollars in legal fees to the workers. The town has also tentatively agreed to prohibit police from asking...

Rev. Alexia Salvatierra: a church leader of the new sanctuary movement talks about immigrant rights and how sanctuary is set to take off in 50 more cities nationwide.(Q & A)(Interview)
September 1, 2007... How does sanctuary actually work? Networks of congregations and interfaith coalitions contact us. Local councils of churches or interfaith coalitions call us, and we help them through the steps; they find an appropriate family, provide legal...

Genetic drift: the study of human genes has sparked a resurgence of debate about the true nature of race.
September 1, 2007... EVER SINCE SCIENTISTS DISCOVERED "the secret of life" embedded in our DNA a half century ago, the study of human genes has sparked debate about the nature of race. The question seemed to be settled in the early 1970s when biologist Richard...

Reproductive racism: gender selection technologies target Asian communities.
September 1, 2007... NOBEL PRIZE-WINNING ECONOMIST AMARTYA SEN speaks of "missing women." Other experts call the phenomenon "gendercide." They refer to gender selection, a practice that is thriving in South Asian societies in the United States and abroad, thanks to...

The rebirth of a nation: glorifying eugenics in a cult classic for our times.(300)(Critical essay)
September 1, 2007... 300 IS ARGUABLY THE MOST RACIALLY charged movie since D.W. Griffith's The Birth of a Nation. In true post-9/11 form, Zack Snyder's film turns brown into the new Black; Persians are depicted as bloodthirsty savages thwarted in the Battle of...

The rise of the ghetto-fabulous party: across campuses, white students are donning blackface, drinking 40s and playing at being undocumented immigrants. Just another stupid racist joke--or is it the culmination of two decades of conservative politics at colleges?(FEATURE)
September 1, 2007... IN JANUARY, STUDENTS at Clemson University in South Carolina and a number of other institutions of higher learning opted to mark Martin Luther King Jr. Day with what were called "ghetto-fabulous" parties at which white students dressed in...

Living on the backstretch: immigrant racetrack workers and their families fight for fair housing.(FEATURE)(Arlington Park)
September 1, 2007... THE THOROUGHBRED HORSES AT ARLINGTON PARK Racetrack in the Chicago suburbs have much more spacious, comfortable living quarters than the 1,200 mostly Mexican immigrant grooms and "hot walkers," who exercise horses and tend to their needs....

Keeping it in the family: a Los Angeles campaign organizes against state policies that put kids into foster care.(REPORT)(Community Coalition)
September 1, 2007... GRANDMOTHERS AND OTHER RELATIVES caring for foster children in South Los Angeles, where 98 percent of residents are people of color--mostly Black and Latino--have garnered new rights and benefits after taking their demands statewide. Their...

Live from death row: as Mumia Abu-Jamal's case reaches a new turning point, prison activists reflect on his significance to the reform and abolition movements.(FEATURE)
September 1, 2007... HALF A LIFETIME AGO, Mumia Abu-Jamal was sentenced to death for killing a rookie cop on the streets of Philadelphia. In the decades since, the former radio and print journalist has authored five books and written and recorded hundreds of...

One mother's fight for her son: police took away Bernice Hatfield's boy and for the next decade, the Black mom learned just how the prison system is set up for what she calls "the legal kidnapping of my child.".(EXCERPT)(Stick)
September 1, 2007... EARLY ON A THURSDAY MORNING in 1992, just before that year's long Independence Day Weekend, a dozen officers from the San Bernardino and Los Angeles County Sheriff's Departments and the West Covina Police kicked in Bernice Hatfield's front...

Spotlight: Chaz Maviyane-Davies; Graphic design for justice.
September 1, 2007... When the controversial president of Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe, announced in 2000 that elections would be held with just a month's notice for the opposition party to launch a campaign, graphic designer and Zimbabwean exile Chaz Maviyane-Davies...

Trauma, politics and heroes: a new comic book paints kids of color as superheroes with powers from Islamic knowledge.(CULTURE)(The 99)
September 1, 2007... I'M BIASED AGAINST COMIC BOOKS. I have refused to read them ever since I walked into the comic book store in my little hometown in New Jersey and saw page after page of white men with superpowers and tiny black eyes aiming fire at each other. I...

Wily, witty and whimsical: one American Indian artist takes to the canvas with colorful critiques.(PROFILE)(Bunky Echo-Hawk)(Interview)
September 1, 2007... AN INDIAN MAN LOUNGES with cigarette in hand, wearing only a traditional headdress and crisp, white underwear. On his face there's a look of strained cheer, as if he were posing for an ad. Well, that's the point. Painter-provocateur Bunky...

The invisible mountain: the year is 1971. The Uruguyan government has become increasingly repressive and has secretly been receiving torture training from U.S. Officials. Salome has been active with the Tupamaros, a clandestine guerilla movement, for three years. She has just been arrested. She is 19 years old.(FICTION)(Excerpt)
September 1, 2007... THE DAYS BLED TOGETHER. Her blood bled together. She could no longer tell which body parts had leaked which stains on the cement floor. She could no longer tell whether it was day or night, hell or death, blood or spit wetting her blindfold,...

The road less traveled: a white man tackles white power.(Tim Wise)
September 1, 2007... Affirmative Action: Racial Preference in Black and White and White Like Me: Reflections on Race from a Privileged Son [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] IN 1989, JACKIE OLIVE, now an intern with the Independent Television Service, was completing...

Unequal Under Law: Race in the War on Drugs.
September 1, 2007... UNEQUAL UNDER LAW: RACE IN THE WAR ON DRUGS By Doris Marie Provine The University of Chicago Press, 216 pages THIS SLIM VOLUME of six, tightly-organized chapters is packed with insights about America's race dilemma. Specifically,...

Marked: Race, Crime, and Finding Work in an Era of Mass Incarceration.(Brief article)(Book review)
September 1, 2007... MARKED: RACE, CRIME, AND FINDING WORK IN AN ERA OF MASS INCARCERATION By Devah Pager University of Chicago Press, 256 pages AT FIRST GLANCE, Princeton sociologist Devah Pager's first book seems superfluous. The growth of the...

Tribal Policing: Asserting Sovereignty, Seeking Justice.(Brief article)(Book review)
September 1, 2007... TRIBAL POLICING: ASSERTING SOVEREIGNTY, SEEKING JUSTICE By Eileen Luna-Firebaugh University of Arizona Press, 149 pages BETWEEN 1995 AND 2000, the number of tribal police departments in Indian Country increased by 67 percent. In...

The Girl From H.O.P.P.E.R.S.(Love and Rockets comic books)(Brief article)(Book review)
September 1, 2007... THE GIRL FROM H.O.P.P.E.R.S. By Jaime Hernandez HUMAN DIASTROPHISM By Gilbert Hernandez Fantagraphics Books, 2007 THE LOVE AND ROCKETS COMIC BOOK first appeared in 1982 and revolutionized the genre, influencing writers...

Patti Smith: Twelve (Columbia).(Sound recording review)
September 1, 2007... DESPITE A LACK OF SIGNIFICANT CHART SUCCESS, Patti Smith has carved out a 40-year career that has found her at the center of conversations regarding the creative possibilities and motivations of modern rock music. Alternately deified and...

Liquid Soul: One-Two Punch (Soul What/Telarc).(Sound recording review)(Brief article)
September 1, 2007... The Grammy-nominated Liquid Soul continues to deliver its genre-defying stew of jazzy, danceable horn-driven funk. Working on One-Two Punch between a grueling international touring schedule, saxophonist Mars Williams leads the band through 14...

Lura: M'bem di fora (I've Come From Far Away) (Lusafrica/Four Quarters Entertainment/Times Square Records).(Sound recording review)(Brief article)
September 1, 2007... A veteran performer with five releases under her belt at age 32, Cape Verdean singer Lura (born Maria de Lurdes Pina Assuncao) has been a popular performer in Africa and Europe since 1996, coming to wider attention through relentless touring...

Tim Dillinger: The Muse (Icons Pen Media).(Sound recording review)(Brief article)
September 1, 2007... Reading Nashville singer-singer songwriter Tim Dillinger's bio, one would think that any project he was involved in would collapse under the sheer weight of his influences and inspirations; many artists before him have tried the...

Testing my worth: I beat myself up over standardized tests until I learned something unexpected.(TRANSFORMATIONS)(living with dyscalculia)
September 1, 2007... I WAS ALL TOO YOUNG THE FIRST TIME mathematics beat me down. I learned multiplication not by using times tables but by counting my index fingers. I never spoke loudly to begin with, but in math class my tears always came across louder than my...