Detroit: The forgotten center of crisis and hope

Featured, Racial Equity — September 1, 2010 at 10:24 am

By Austin C. McCoy, Many Americans tend to forget that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. first articulated passages from his famed “I Have a Dream” speech in Detroit a few months earlier than the one he performed at the March on Washington. Dr. King addressed a crowd of 125,000 demonstrators after leading a march down Woodward Avenue. Referencing the city’s residential segregation and employment discrimination,...

Detroit: The forgotten center of crisis and hope

September 1st, 2010 | Featured, Racial Equity | Read More

Another false ending: Contracting out the Iraq occupation

Another false ending to the Iraq war is being declared. Nearly seven years after George Bush’s infamous “Mission Accomplished” speech on the USS Abraham Lincoln, President Obama has just given a major address to mark the withdrawal of all but 50,000 combat troops from Iraq. But,...

September 1st, 2010 | Featured, Middle East | Read More

Should social media sites like collect information about users’ race and ethnicity?

So, apparently Facebook has figured out a way to predict user race/ethnicity. Which raises the question: Is this a good or bad thing? There’s a school of thought that the best strategy for dealing with the problem of racism is to stop paying attention to race. The argument is basically that by...

September 1st, 2010 | Featured, Talk About Race | Read More

Canadian government apologizes to Inuit for the past, while screwing Barriere Lake Algonquins in the present

During the 1950s, the Canadian federal government enacted policies to relocate Inuit families from their homes in Inukjuak, located in northern Quebec, to the remote High Arctic areas of Resolute Bay and Grise Fiord. Their traditional homeland provided all they needed to sustain, including plenty of...

August 31st, 2010 | Politics, Racial Equity, World | Read More

God made me do it

Originally published on Center for American Progress blog Race and Beyond, So now we know what the Tea Party stands for and who stands behind it. Until this past weekend, the various factions of what’s collectively known as the Tea Party struggled to define who they are and what they represent....

August 31st, 2010 | Featured, Glenn Beck, Talk About Race | Read More

Direct talks: Five myths

Originally published on the Mosaic Blog Direct talks between Palestinians and Israelis are scheduled to commence in Washington on September 2, a decade after the last real final-status talks, and nearly two years after the last direct talks. Mahmoud Abbas and Benjamin Netanyahu will come face to face...

August 30th, 2010 | Featured, Middle East | Read More

Something positive is happening in race relations west of the Missouri River in South Dakota

It was a scorching hot day at this year’s Central States Fair until dark clouds drifted slowly over the Black Hills and brought the temperatures down. It was a special day for Native Americans because a man named Roon Jeffries and his assistant, Dixie Holy Eagle, took the challenge of the Year of Unity...

August 30th, 2010 | American Indians, Featured, Talk About Race | Read More

Dr. Laura, meet Omar Thornton

Dr. Laura (Getty) Over the past few days, I have been intrigued by the aftermath of Dr. Laura’s racist rant. What’s been most interesting to me is the way that Dr. Laura and her supporters have transformed her from culprit to victim, claiming that her first amendment rights have been taken away....

August 30th, 2010 | Talk About Race | Read More

Glenn Beck’s Attempt to Bastardize Dr. King’s Dream

Rewriting history is one of the many offenses that political conservatives are constantly accusing liberals of committing. But no one is guiltier of this transgression than conservatives themselves, who have a particular fondness for rewriting the history of the civil rights movement, especially their...

August 27th, 2010 | African Americans, Featured, Glenn Beck, US | Read More

A fast year: Lessons from the Indian Health System

A year goes by fast. Way too fast. Thirteen months ago I plunged into my “year-long” exploration of the Indian health system. It’s been fascinating because there has so much activity: Congress enacted the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and included with that bill the permanent authorization...

August 26th, 2010 | American Indians, Featured | Read More

Resource Wars

Black raw diamond Flowing unchecked deep beneath Middle Eastern lands Will be the end of us Addicted to the pleasures Of easy living, not thinking about the Price paid in sweat, tears and Blood Like heroin, crack cocaine Attracts users laying their souls bare Before the lure of temporary pleasure A sure...

August 26th, 2010 | Creative Writing, Culture | Read More

Caribbean Black Isolated in White Suburbia

Caribbean black living Isolated in white suburbia, My white neighbor smiles But not with her eyes Hides so as not to speak; I accept Why? To be accepted, To be liked To be respected To be liked? Yet I am rejected, Sincere smiles, conversations, Emotive hand-waves saved for Those who look Like her; she...

August 26th, 2010 | Creative Writing, Culture | Read More

Four reasons why Americans should oppose Zionism

By Steven Salaita Originally published on the Foreign Policy Journal Israel has been subject to some bad publicity recently. In 2008-09, it launched a brutal military campaign in the Gaza Strip that killed over 400 Palestinian children. In May, 2010, bumbling Israeli commandos murdered nine nonviolence...

August 24th, 2010 | Featured, Middle East | Read More

America’s forgotten founders

No one can deny the starring role that James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson and other leading lights played in America’s constitutional founding. They launched history’s greatest project in democracy and will forever be remembered for setting alight the path to liberty. So...

August 24th, 2010 | Featured, US | Read More