Detroit: The forgotten center of crisis and hope

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...

September 1st, 2010 | Featured, Racial Equity | 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

North Carolina inmates allege bias, challenge death sentences

By Elizabeth Renter The Racial Justice Act, only the second of its kind in the United States, has given inmates sentenced to death in North Carolina a potential route to relief. As of today, 114 death row inmates there have filed motions asserting their sentences were tainted by racial bias. While the...

August 23rd, 2010 | Criminal Justice, Featured | Read More

Our justice system requires us to punish wrongdoers, what if there were a better way?

Image by PPCC Antifa via Flickr The banner says “No justice. No Peace.” We think we know what it means — that we who want justice are willing to fight for it. The words have a deeper meaning, of course. They are intended to remind us that that it is an impossibility to have a...

August 19th, 2010 | Criminal Justice, Featured | Read More

“Government-run” no longer defines the Indian health system

A single phrase is often used to define the Indian health system: “Government-run.” Add those two words to any discussion about health care or reform and most people reach an immediate conclusion about the merits of the agency. Now it is time for the phrase to disappear because it no longer accurately...

August 17th, 2010 | American Indians, Health, Politics, US | Read More

A case for nationalized standards in education

One of the laments frequently echoed from the halls of higher education is that students are too often unprepared academically upon entering college. Students who have successfully completed their high school curricula and exit exams frequently find themselves mired in semesters of remedial college preparatory...

August 17th, 2010 | Education, Featured | Read More

Katrina pain index 2010 New Orleans — five years later

It will be five years since Katrina on August 29. The impact of Katrina is quite painful for regular people in the area. This article looks at what has happened since Katrina not from the perspective of the higher ups looking down from their offices but from the street level view of the people...

August 10th, 2010 | Featured, Racial Equity | Read More

“Docs or Cops?” Domestic violence is a public health issue in Indian Country

WASHINGTON, D.C. – It’s trite to say, “everything is connected.” It’s a phrase that comes up in the context of family, the environment, or perhaps, philosophy. When the subject is reservation violence, however, that same notion could be rewritten as a blunt question: Docs or cops? Cops are...

August 3rd, 2010 | American Indians, Featured, Health | Read More

A Movement Rises in Arizona

Three months ago, Arizona Governor Jan Brewer signed into law the notorious SB 1070, a bill that put her state at the forefront of a movement to intensify the criminalization of undocumented immigrants. Since then, activists have responded through legal challenges, political lobbying, grassroots organizing...

July 31st, 2010 | Featured, Immigration | Read More

Judge weakens SB 1070, puts on hold law’s punching effects aimed at immigrants in Arizona

DISRUPTED EFFECT At least temporarily, SB 1070 is loosing its punching effects until the law has its day in court. Photo by Eduardo Barraza/Barriozona Ruling does not eliminate the entire SB 1070 law, rather prevents its most damaging provisions. Phoenix, Arizona, July 28, 2010 – As a threatening...

July 29th, 2010 | Immigration | Read More

Racial aspects of economy are significant for White House to address

After an intense and shameful week of poorly dealing with ex-USDA worker Shirley Sherrod and issues of race, the country is left trying to make sense of where we are and why issues of race seem so hard and intractable. There have been many editorials and stories – many of them very thoughtful. ...

July 28th, 2010 | Economics, Featured, Shirley Sherrod, US | Read More

Fourteen examples of systemic racism in the U.S. criminal justice system

The biggest crime in the U.S. criminal justice system is that it is a race-based institution where African-Americans are directly targeted and punished in a much more aggressive way than white people. Saying the US criminal system is racist may be politically controversial in some circles. But the facts...

July 26th, 2010 | Criminal Justice, Featured | Read More

The fight against SB1070

By now you’ve heard of Arizona’s recently passed law, set to take effect in a little over a week, that will give local law enforcement officers in the state the power to enforce federal immigration law. By authorizing police to look into a suspect’s immigration status as well as his...

July 20th, 2010 | Featured, Immigration, Politics, Racial Equity | Read More

The Haudenosaunee right of return

by: Steven Newcomb For some 30 years, the Haudenosaunee (People of the Longhouse), often known as the Six Nations Confederation, have been accustomed to traveling internationally from and back to North America on Haudenosaunee passports. Now, however, the United States government has evidently taken...

July 16th, 2010 | American Indians, Featured, Racial Equity | Read More