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What the Housing Crisis Can Tell Us about Racism, Sexism and Homelessness

If we choose to view each of these problems and its race dynamics as separate issues, then we are guilty of ignoring the points of origin which connect them all together. According to Max Rameau, an organizer with the Center for Pan-African Development in Miami, Florida, the root problems of gentrification in the 2000s are the same as the root problems of segregation in the 1960s: people of colors' lack of power and control over land, and white supremacy.

Uh-Obama: Racism, White Voters and the Myth of Color-Blindness

The extent to which Obama's white support has been directly related to his downplaying of race issues simply cannot be overstated, as evidenced by the kinds of things many of these supporters openly admit, possessing no sense of apparent irony or misgiving. So, consider the chant offered by his supporters at a recent rally-and frankly, a chant in which whites appeared to be joining with far greater enthusiasm than folks of color-to the effect that "Race Doesn't Matter, Race Doesn't Matter," a concept so utterly absurd, given the way in which race most certainly still matters to the opportunity structure in this country, that one has to almost wretch at the repeated offering of it.

Black Lawmakers Urge Bush to Restore Urban Youth Program

he Congressional Black Caucus has appealed to President Bush on behalf of the National Urban League's Urban Youth Empowerment Program, which is set to be slashed from the budget of the Department of Labor next week. The funding, which enables the program to provide much-needed services to young people to reduce recidivism and to help them complete their high school education and to find jobs, will be terminated this week.

Will Richmond, Ca, Stand up To Chevron?

Richmond, Ca - on July 15th the Richmond City Council has a chance to make history. On that day it could be the first city in the U.S. to decide to protect the health of its residents and stand up to the Chevron Oil Company and impose a cap on their plans for further expansion. To do that the Council will have to turn down Chevron Richmond's proposed "Energy & Hydrogen Renewal" project to process thicker-dirtier crude oil. On the other hand, if the council approved it, it would expand some of Chevron's refinery's most polluting processes.

Racial Profiling: Now as American as Apple Pie

The AP () reported today that the Justice Department is "considering" (and by "considering" they mean "we're totally gonna do this") allowing the FBI to initiate terrorism investigations of Americans based on their "travel to regions of the world known for terrorist activity, access to weapons or military training" and of course, a person's race or ethnicity. In addition, the FBI will have the authority to ask "open-ended questions of Muslim- or Arab-Americans, or investigate them if their jobs and backgrounds" match "suspect" trends in an effort to "root out terrorists before they strike."

Harper's apology to First Nations puts pressure on Bush

Canada's residential-schools apology has opened the possibility that U.S. President George W. Bush may do the same in his final months of office, says Republican Senator Sam Brownback. In an interview with The Globe and Mail, the senior senator from Kansas said Canada's apology has increased the pressure on Washington, and he expressed hope that Prime Minister Stephen Harper will raise the issue directly with the President. Mr. Brownback has already secured the support of his Senate colleagues for a historic, broadly worded apology to native Americans. The three-page apology was added as an amendment in February to legislation dealing with Indian health care. It now must be approved by the U.S. House of Representatives and then ultimately the President.

Fear of a Black President

I like being white. Generally speaking, it's the easiest color in America to be. It's so easy being white that when someone discriminates against me because I'm white, it's called "reverse" racism. My racism has its own special name -- that's how cool it is to be white. I can walk into any store without being followed; hail the cab of my choice; and there's not a country club that wouldn't welcome me, so long as I was clad in the requisite slacks and collared shirt.

Why Should White People Fight Racism? Take Three

Continuing where I left off with my earlier posts discussing why white people should fight racism, here's another reason for doing so: White people should fight racism because allowing systematic racism to continue undermines and cheapens our own individual achievements. Think about it: how often has Clarence Thomas spoken about the resentment he feels at the implication that because of affirmative action he has not earned his position in life on his own merits, that he got into Yale Law School "just because he's black" and later got appointed to the Supreme Court for the same reason?

Racism and the Calculus of Comparative Suffering

Disasters bring out the best and worst in people. On the one hand, millions of folks respond to the suffering of their fellow human beings with compassion, concern, and even significant financial assistance when needed. Be it a hurricane, an earthquake, tornadoes or the recent massive flooding in the Midwestern United States, the hearts, minds, and often wallets of large numbers of the nation's people are with those in need. And on the other hand, there's Rush Limbaugh, who has decided to use the flooding in Iowa not to demonstrate compassion, but as an opportunity to make derogatory statements about poor black folks: specifically those caught by the flooding in New Orleans after Katrina in 2005.

How can white people join the anti-racist discussion?

That's the question I tackled today on Anti-Racist Parent in response to this letter from a white parent of white children.

Why can’t NYC companies retain employees of color?

New York City is one of the most ethnically diverse cities in the country, yet many companies here are still doing a poor job when it comes to diversity. In this week's issue, Crain's New York Business has a special section on diversity in the workplace, and the statistics it cites are depressing: * "In a city that is 25% black, only 2.5% of employees making over $100,000 at the 16 [advertising] agencies examined are black" * "In the securities industry, minorities make up about 22% of the workforce but are clustered in the lower ranks" * "A third of law firms in New York don't have any black or Hispanic partners"

The Moment Men’s Fashion | The New Black

Italy is not a country that is known for its tolerance or its embrace of multi-culturalism, and yet, all of a sudden the runways in Milan are crowded with black models. (I say black and not African-American because most of them were in fact recruited from France and England.) The news of an entire "black issue" of Italian Vogue photographed by Steven Meisel is still fresh in the American press. Both Guy Trebay and our own New York Times fashion critic Cathy Horyn have gone far to bring to our attention the lack of ethnic diversity on the fashion runways, in advertising campaigns and in editorial pages of magazines.

Death of Pr. George's Suspect Is Ruled a Homicide

The death of a 19-year-old man who was found unresponsive yesterday in a jail cell less than 36 hours after he was charged with killing a Prince George's County police officer has been ruled a homicide, sources familiar with the investigation said today. Jail officials have said White was in solitary confinement and was last checked by a guard 15 minutes before he was found on the floor of his cell, not breathing and with no pulse. The FBI has opened a civil rights investigation into White's death, said FBI spokesman Richard J. Wolf.

Makers of Racist Obama Monkey Would Like to Transcend Racial Bias

Photo: thesockobama.com We were happily cruising around the Internet yesterday when we stumbled upon a link on Andrew Sullivan's blog that gave us one of those moments Dave Chappelle joked about in Killin' Them Softly: "Have you ever had something happen that was so racist that you didn't even get mad? You were just like, 'Goddamn, that was racist." That's how we felt when we saw TheSockObama.com, a Website peddling an "Obama" monkey doll.

Popular Hip Hop Site Gets Hacked By Tech-Savvy Racists

Hate 2.0. As of right now, hip hop website SOHH.com is down. This is all well and good, because you probably didn't want to see what was on it earlier. The site was attacked by a group of very anti-SOHH, anti-black, anti-Jew hackers, who infiltrated the forums, splashed racist and anti-semitic pictures on the homepage, and changed all headlines to things like, "Jews Did 9/11″ and "Enjoy This White Wimmenz, N*gger." The group, which gets no publicity here, tried to blame the disturbance on comedy site ebaumsworld.com. [