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

Wolper’s ‘Mystic Warrior’ never became another ‘Roots’

David L. Wolper died last week at age 82. Many of you will wonder what the connection is between Wolper and Indian country. Wolper will go down in media history as the film producer who brought you the epic story of slavery with his award winning “Roots” which aired in eight parts on ABC in 1977. The...

August 16th, 2010 | American Indians, Culture, Featured | Read More

Racism in the elevator; misogyny in the video production room.

I just came across a video I’m pretty sure was intended as a statement of anti-racism. I’m also pretty sure its intention fails. More than that, I think it’s one huge step backwards. I hate writing anything critical of any attempt at anti-racism. It’s hard to put yourself...

July 15th, 2010 | African Americans, Culture, Featured, Pop culture, Talk About Race, Women | Read More

Joel Stein, we are not laughing: The South Asian legal community responds

Humor writer and journalist Joel Stein’s recent piece in Time Magazine, “My Own Private India,” has received a lot of well-deserved criticism. Indeed, one of the (only) good things to have come out of the fiasco of Stein receiving a public forum in which to express his “sense of loss and anomie”...

July 7th, 2010 | Pop culture, Talk About Race | Read More

Race is Sexy. Sex is Racy. Now “Get Lost”

Race is sexy. And sex is racy. Is it any wonder that our society seems fascinated, obsessed even, with their combination? Consider the latest photo shoot by Mikael Jansson titled Let’s Get Lost, in the current issue of Interview Magazine. The photos are edgy. They’re sexually charged,...

May 17th, 2010 | Culture, Pop culture | Read More

Héctor Aristizábal: Telling stories to change the world

By Dr. Alcira Dueñas This past weekend, I had the unique opportunity to attend a talk, a play, and part of a workshop by Héctor Aristizábal, a multiphacetic artist with a singular approach to life and a serious commitment to transform the vital experience of many around the planet. The way Héctor...

May 16th, 2010 | The Arts | Read More

What does an illegal immigrant look like?

A poem by Christy NaMee Eriksen An illegal immigrant Looks like a nickel Tails up On the sidewalk Fallen out of someone’s pocket. She looks like pressed bleached sheets On cheap beds Tucked tight A hundred of them Twelve stories high. I saw one like a mango Peeled and sprinkled with chili powder On...

May 3rd, 2010 | Creative Writing, Featured | Read More

Anita Blake and the Magic Negro

Move over Buffy Summers. If you’re on top of the latest vampire gossip, you already know that Anita Blake is the hottest vampire hunter in town. Be careful, Bella Cullen. If Anita Blake gets on the case, you might wind up dead…or in bed. One really can’t predict such things with...

May 3rd, 2010 | Culture, Pop culture | Read More

Are the fangs real? Vampires as racial metaphor in the Anita Blake and Twilight Novels

They’re physically powerful and move with an unusual combination of grace and speed. They’re sexually seductive, in a forbidden sort of way, and dangerous-even the well-mannered, law-abiding ones are, at their core, threatening. They’re monsters, ever ready to prey and feed...

April 12th, 2010 | Culture, Featured, Pop culture | Read More

Separate, Half-price, and Definitely Not Equal: Black Barbie Politics, Continued

It looks like the only way to discuss Mattel’s race politics is to forgo intellectual analysis for talking to these dolls in person. In a recent Root.com article, Black Ballerina Teresa talks back not about her new look or set of friends, but about the fact that she’s being sold at a radically lower...

March 31st, 2010 | Pop culture | Read More

Blanqueamiento: A poem by Adebe DeRango-Adem

The land that’s yours is mine, is shadows, which I see both dreaming and in the night when drums make our old selves dance, bring us to embrace those old ghosts weaving through. No one owns them or us, nor the fearful asymmetries of our lineage, of our Caribe we left for new callings, a new response from...

March 22nd, 2010 | Creative Writing, Culture, Featured | Read More

Putting this Year of “Firsts” in Perspective

I know the Oscars happened a week ago, but I’m still nagged by some of the larger implications of the event. The general controversy has been covered here and elsewhere. What I would like to do is highlight the limited scope of people of color throughout the history of the Academy Awards. My intent...

March 17th, 2010 | Culture, Pop culture | Read More

Ernesto Yerena: A rising grassroots artistic force

We are Human Fist: Collaboration with Shepard Fairey visit http://hechoconganas.com This “golden boy” of social art has already created historic images. And he’s just beginning. For the thousands of people who have participated in recent pro-immigration marches and demonstrations...

March 16th, 2010 | Culture, The Arts | Read More