This essay first appeared in the Mississippi Chicken DVD insert. Reprinted with permission of the author and filmmaker. By Steve Striffler, Professor of Anthropology and Geography, University of New Orleans Mississippi Chicken is a true gem. By letting us into the lives of immigrant poultry workers in Mississippi, this documentary captures much of what defines [...]
Continue reading …By Jeffrey Cohen, associate professor, Ohio State University Governor Brewer’s signing of Arizona law SB1070 late last month has shifted the debate concerning immigration reform in our country and changed the very environment into which migrants (legal and extra legal) now live. The law, which at its most basic seeks to “deter the unlawful entry [...]
Continue reading …By Josiah Heyman, Professor of Anthropology, University of Texas at El Paso The Border Network for Human Rights (BNHR) is an immigrant community based organization working for human rights in the El Paso and southern New Mexico area of the U.S.-Mexico borderlands. It consists of a small central staff and a large set of local [...]
Continue reading …From Special Guest Race-Talk Editor, Angela Stuesse This week the film Mississippi Chicken makes its Ohio premier: Questions of race, workers’ rights and exploitation form the crux of this intriguing documentary about Latin American immigrants living in rural Mississippi, where poultry plants promise jobs but little else. In the 1990s, poultry companies in Mississippi and [...]
Continue reading …The state has become a failed immigration laboratory at the expense of brown people, legally in the country or not. The likely outcome will be economic boycotts against the new 1070 law.
Continue reading …WE ARE SERENADED and handled by sociopathically-skilled master paraders. The Good Cop/Bad Cop dynamic shuttles us from room to room eliciting the desired confession and appropriate gratitude. Meanwhile, the People dance and still struggle, while the sun turns Glen Beck’s tears into blood diamonds. THERE WILL BE NO MEANINGFUL IMMIGRATION REFORM. Not this year, and [...]
Continue reading …I did my patriotic duty a week ago and filled out my census form. Well, my boyfriend Robert filled it out for me when I was at work. Well, he filled out most of it for me. I know what you’re thinking. What part did a person you live with not know about you? He [...]
Continue reading …The days of openly supporting the educational ambitions of students of color are gone. More and more institutions of higher education continue to feel the threat of lawsuits and speculations of color consciousness if they uphold programs that specifically reach out to students of color. Prior to the 1960’s these programs, scholarships, and opportunities were [...]
Continue reading …By Nezua, Creator of The Unapologetic Mexican I am Joaquín. When I was eight years old, I changed my name to Jack. I didn’t intend it as a political statement, of course. I just wanted to fit in with everyone else. With everyone else in the suburbs of Maryland, that is. That’s where my second [...]
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