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The Terrorism Watch: Before and After October 6

The Editors — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 20:30:07 +0000

By Kenneth J. Cooper
Right after the news reports about a credible threat of a terrorist truck bombing on the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, I posted this as my status on my email account: "Sept. 11 is a feint. Americans be wary Oct. 6, anniversary of US invasion of Afghanistan."

England Struggles to Understand Causes of Riots

The Editors — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 17:43:11 +0000

By George E. Curry
England’s attempt to fully understand rioting touched off by a policeman’s fatal shooting of Mark Duggan, a 29-year-old black man, in many ways mirror the debate that followed the urban unrest that the United Statesunderwent in the wake of Dr. Martin Luther King’s assassination in 1968.

India’s Affirmative Action

The Editors — Tue, 12 Jul 2011 16:44:43 +0000

By Kenneth J. Cooper
Near the end of a new book on India, where I was a foreign correspondent for the Washington Post in the late 1990s, I read about a 2006 government report’s finding that Muslims had fewer jobs in the formal economy “than any other community.” That would include the former untouchables, Hindus now known as Dalits.

New Migration Needed for African Americans

The Editors — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 18:59:06 +0000

By George E. Curry
U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk thinks it is now time for a Third Great Migration, this one to far-flung cities around the world.

The Neo-Confederates’ German Sympathizers

The Editors — Fri, 10 Jun 2011 20:40:12 +0000

By Lee A. Daniels
These Germans express their pining for the white-supremacist days of old by clothing themselves as the heroic nineteenth-century defenders of white supremacy in the U.S.

On Black Women’s Beauty . . . and the Beast(s) Within

The Editors — Tue, 24 May 2011 22:05:45 +0000

By Stacey Patton My Dear Sisters, Over the past week or so I’ve read many tweets, Facebook postings, blog rants, and online petitions in response to Psychology Today’s posting of a ‘scientific’ study – “Why Are Black Women Less Physically Attractive Than Other Women” by Satoshi Kanazawa. The reaction to Kanazawa’s armchair psychobabble which was [...]

Bin Laden: Equal Opportunity Killer

The Editors — Tue, 03 May 2011 20:13:33 +0000

By Kenneth J. Cooper
Don’t cry for Osama.

Canada’s Racial History: Slavery, Tolerance, Discrimination, and Miscegeny

The Editors — Fri, 15 Apr 2011 20:35:31 +0000

By Janet Singleton
Canada too, the modest parallel universe above the United States, celebrated Black History Month in February. But that may surprise people who assume Canada is white and untouched by slavery.

Once Again

The Editors — Fri, 11 Feb 2011 22:13:00 +0000

By Lee A. Daniels
Once again, we have seen that, when the whole world is watching, the power of the yearning for liberty and opportunity – propelled by fearless action – can upend a repressive regime.

Egypt in Turmoil

The Editors — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 21:43:01 +0000

By Kenneth J. Cooper
Because I was often mistaken for Egyptian, I had my own brushes with police hostility, especially from the plainclothes officers, who seemed to be everywhere.

“These are Dark-Skinned People, Not … Like You and Me”

The Editors — Fri, 15 Oct 2010 21:05:29 +0000

By Lee A. Daniels
These are dark-skinned people, not … like you and me.”

There you have it. Brief and to the point. The words sound so familiar, so American.

But they weren’t spoken by an American.

Asking Forgiveness Rather than Permission: Déjà vu in Guatemala and Tuskegee Syphilis ‘Research’

The Editors — Wed, 06 Oct 2010 19:50:42 +0000

By TaRessa Stovall
When Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton apologized on Friday, October 1, to the nation of Guatemala for the United States government’s use of hundreds of their citizens as guinea pigs in the 1940s, millions of Americans—particularly African Americans—had a flash of déjà vu. And few were surprised to learn of common links between the two medical travesties.

Jack Greenberg on The Roma in Europe: One of the Gravest Humanitarian Crises of Our Time

The Editors — Sun, 03 Oct 2010 01:42:14 +0000

By The Editors
They’re a people who’ve endured centuries of enslavement, and even after their emancipation in the nineteenth century, endured decades of discrimination whose effects are visible and felt down to the present day.

In broad outline, those words describe the great part of black Americans’ history. But it also describes the history – and the present – of the Roma, an Indo- European people commonly and often derisively called gypsies.

First US Human Rights Report to United Nations Draws Mixed Reactions

The Editors — Fri, 10 Sep 2010 19:01:43 +0000

By TaRessa Stovall
Human rights in the U.S. came under new scrutiny on August 20, when the Obama administration submitted the nation’s first-ever report to the United Nations Human Rights Council.

AIDS-Ravaged Africa Now Offers Best Hope for the Future

The Editors — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 12:17:24 +0000

By George E. Curry Medical trials now underway in the very region most ravaged by the virus hold the best prospect of finally controlling the disease for which there is no known cure.

Science, Sex & Safety: Black Bodies as Proving Grounds, Battlegrounds

The Editors — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 02:49:24 +0000

By TaRessa Stovall A trio of new products designed to protect against rape and STDs, especially HIV/AIDS, raises questions about the gaps and conflicts between scientific progress, lifestyle logistics and human nature. These recent developments also call into question the age-old role of Black bodies as test sites for potential progress.

‘A Small Act’: HBO Documentary Spotlights Dilemma of Education Funding

The Editors — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 03:36:21 +0000

By Tarice L.S. Gray The Hilde Back Educational Fund is a small organization, with the mission of promoting educational development through sponsorship. The film documents their small yet significant impact in Kenya. But the tiny village in Kenya can be looked at as a microcosm for much of the rest of the world.

Dispatches from Moscow: Smoke and Roses

The Editors — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 17:47:59 +0000

By Jelani Cobb Moscow’s subways are a thing to behold. Designed to be functional museums, the stations have marble floors, massive stained glass panoramas and epic scale sculpture of revolutionary war heroes. But for several hours yesterday those floors were given over to a less noble task as the dead were pulled from the carnage of the south bound red line train and laid out to be counted and removed.

Dispatches from Moscow: Racism and Hope in Russia

The Editors — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 19:36:37 +0000

By Jelani Cobb Moscow is a city of contradictions. Some are obvious: streets where 18th century architecture of the tsarist era nestles against staid Soviet-inspired office buildings, which in turn contrast the post Cold War skyscrapers. Others remain below the surface but are no less complex.

Racist or Revolutionary: Cuba’s Identity is at Stake

The Editors — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 02:19:57 +0000

By Ron Walters The recent “Statement of Conscience” declaration from 60 well-known U. S. and Latin American black activists, scholars, artists and civic leaders to the Cuban government calling for the release of an imprisoned Cuban physician and human rights activists, Dr. Darsi Ferrer, and an end to racist practices in Cuba marked the first time such concerted criticism has been leveled against the Cuban government since Fidel Castro seized power in 1959.

Trees Crash, People Clash, But What (and Who) Do We Perceive?

The Editors — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 12:59:10 +0000

By Eisa Nefertati Ulen Trees crash in forests all the time, no one is there to hear, but they still make sounds. Protests happen all over the world, no one records the clashes with police on cell phones, but they still make sounds. They make cries. Yelps. They roar.