Tim Wise: Perhaps it is President Obama who has internalized the idea that black people, even highly educated ones, are would-be malingerers, just waiting for a reason to go soft and “blame the world for trying to keep a black man down.”
Mentors, Not Tests, Move Young People Out of Poverty
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Mark Naison: Virtually everyone I interviewed who was able to move from a working class childhood to professional status had someone invest large amounts of time and energy in expanding their “cultural capital” by building their self confidence as well as their skills.
Pacifica Foundation Seeking Executive Director
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The Pacifica Foundation, the country’s oldest public radio network, comprising 7 business units, is seeking an Executive Director.
The Lowdown on Accidental Racism
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Bruce Reilly: The sensational buzz around country star Brad Paisley’s song “Accidental Racist” is perfect fodder for a Twitter blurb — but is this the extent of racial analysis we can muster in America?
The Atrophied Conscience of Apartheid America
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Mark Naison: What is daily life for young people of color who are poor is quite literally out of sight and out of mind, and thereby unimaginable, not only for middle class and wealthy residents of cities, but for the mayors of thoses cities.
Coalition Pushes LA’s DA Candidates On Mass Incarceration Issues
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Peter Laarman: With Public Safety Realignment now underway, the DA’s role becomes even more pivotal. What our chief prosecutor believes and does has a huge impact on incarceration levels.
Gabby Douglas and the Brown Paper Bag Test
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Sharon Kyle: Colorism gives unearned advantages to Blacks of lighter complexion and demeans and degrades Blacks of darker complexions. For white people reading this who are unaware of this practice, there is a test known as “the brown paper bag test” used to determine where your skin color placed you in the pecking order.
Gabby Douglas and White Man’s Privilege
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Unai Montes-Irueste: Bob Costas’ backhanded compliment of Gabby Douglas’ ability to overcome “imaginary barriers,” is undeniably a statement uttered by a rich white man, blinded by his privilege.
Will First Black Baptist President Push Anti-Gay Agenda?
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Rev. Irene Monroe: Rev. Fred Luter’s ascendency to the highest office of the nation’s largest Protestant denomination (and the world’s largest Baptist denomination) raises the query—is his post a symbol of honorific tokenism?
Stop and Frisk Policy Not Preventing Crime
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Bruce Reilly: The NYPD is stopping more Black and Latino people than actually live in the city, harassing nearly 700,000 people last year alone.Statistics show that the more you Stop and Frisk, the less crime goes down.
Fault Lines in the Plutocracy and the Police Harassment State
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Mark Naison: In gentrifying cities like New York, Chicago, and Oakland , police harassment greets young people of color wherever they turn, from the schools they attend, to the neighborhoods they live in, to downtown business districts, to the public transportation systems they use.
A (Long Overdue) People’s Guide to Los Angeles
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Randy Shaw: The book is as much a people’s “history” as it is a guide, as it provides ample background on key sites in the city’s struggles around race, sexuality, development and workers rights.
The Genius of Barack Obama: Why We Must Organize Independently to keep Hope of Change Alive
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Mark Naison: Together, the President’s actions cemented my conviction that he was one of the most brilliant politicians I have seen in my lifetime, equaled only by Lyndon Johnson and Ronald Reagan, and surpassing even his sometimes rival, sometimes ally Bill Clinton.
Seeking Unity Across Sex, Race & Class
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Diane Lefer: All women, she said, should be able to give their children what no one else can give, to have the right to stay home, if they want to, with their children up to the age of two or three without suffering loss of needed income.
Undocumented and Unafraid
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Janeth Silva: Not long after I started telling people I was undocumented and determined to go to college, I found out my friend Liz Soria was also undocumented and together we formed AB-540 Crew.
Old South vs. New South
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David Love: Haley’s policies, not unlike those of her predecessors, are the unjust laws that Martin Luther King discussed in Letter from Birmingham Jail.
Join Occupy, Jesse Jackson Tells LA’s Black Community
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Dick Price: Reverend Jesse Jackson urged the black community to get involved with the Occupy Movement, saying, “Whenever the Freedom Train comes to town, get onboard.”
Challenging Ron Paul’s Followers on Racism
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Mark Naison: Ron Paul’s presidential run, either as a Republican or an independent, cannot gain traction without gaining support from at least some people of color, leftists and liberals.
Black LGBTQ Community Doesn’t Support Its Own
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Rev. Irene Monroe: A lack of financial support from the black LGBTQ community has contributed substantially to all the print and online black LGBTQ publications folding.
Republicans to Veterans: No Thanks
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Hans Johnson: Provoking some of the growing anger against Tea Party Republicans is the tone of callousness toward people of color, women, and the sacrifice of veterans who voice frustration at the toll of cuts and barriers in the democratic process itself.
Mass Appeal: LA’s New Embrace of Public Transit
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Jackie Cornejo: The thing is, when you grow up poor, the idea of taking public transit is a no-brainer. I learned very early that driving was a privilege, and that taking public transit was the only way I would be able to go to school and eventually get to work.
The Death Penalty and #OccupyWallStreet
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David Love: Capital punishment operates under a pretense of justice, when in reality it represents pure vengeance and mob retribution, favoring expediency and finality over finding the real killer.
Transgender, Victimized and Black
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Rev. Irene Monroe: It’s not easy for any person of African descent to be LGBTQ in our black communities, but our transgender brothers and sisters might feel the most discrimination.
Blacks and Latinos Will Suffer When the Student Debt Bubble Bursts
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David Love: There is every indication that the bursting of the student debt bubble, like the housing bubble before it, is imminent. And when it happens, it will send shockwaves throughout the financial markets. People of color will be especially vulnerable.
Microaggressions and Stereotype Threat
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Jessie Daniels: Our prevailing mythology of meritocracy in the U.S. tells us that education is a path to achievement. To do provide that, we expect schools to be free from racism and provide an equal education to all.
California’s Death Penalty Prevents True Community Justice
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Aqeela Sherrills: The great irony, of course, is that while the state props up a failed system that discriminates against African-Americans and Latinos and anyone who is poor, it fails to provide justice to victims.
Provincetown’s Not Safe for Black Lesbians
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Rev. Irene Monroe: The sexual and homophobic harassment many of us LBT sisters endure from many of our heterosexual brothers of African descent back home in our communities, or imported from one of the Caribbean Islands has, too, become an inescapably reality at P-town.
Alabama Governor Signs Costly Immigration Bill
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Seth Hoy: Arizona has shown us that using a “get tough” immigration law to drive undocumented immigrants out of the state is not only costly, discriminatory and unconstitutional; it’s also ineffectual in actually addressing larger immigration problems.
Two Things We Need the NAACP to Do in the Midst of the Current Economic Crisis
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Bill Fletcher Jr.: The NAACP should consider reaching out to the forces that were involved, some years ago, in the Hip Hop Convention and directly engage them.
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