Category: Article

Shining a Light, A Concert for Progress in Race in America

Artists of different races and ethnic backgrounds will come together to perform once-in-a-lifetime duets and collaborations. The 2-hour special program will broadcast from the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles on Friday, November 20 at 8pm ET/PT across A+E Networks and 150 iHeart radio stations. The concert will raise funds for organizations and individuals (through a sponsoring organization) that are working for racial justice and reconciliation.

Lineup

Zac Brown Band, Eric Church, Andra Day, Jamie Foxx, Rhiannon Giddens, Tori Kelly, John Legend, Miguel, P!nk, Jill Scott, Big Sean, Ed Sheeran, Sia, Bruce Springsteen, Sting, Pharrell Williams & more

Click here for more info!

Take this Racism Test…

Click here for Test and Article

Until we better understand how to actually reduce innate bias, the best we can do is try to ensure our prejudices affect our decisions as little as possible, Greenwald says. For instance, he says, “blind auditions for musicians can work really well.” And taking the names off resumes can help ensure that hiring managers don’t choose candidates based on gender or race.

“Until our culture changes to the point where we don’t have these negative ideas about certain groups,” Greenwald says, “it may be that our implicit biases are probably here to stay.”

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Take this test to see how racist or homophobic you might be. This article addresses the ways in which some of us are more racist then we might think. By uncovering these biases, scientists have looked for ways to minimize our biases as a means to help end or aid in the end of racism. So far tackling the problem while we are sleeping seems to be the most helpful.

11 Types Of Racists

If there’s one thing to know about racism, it’s that racism (and race) is incredibly complex. Many people think racism means one group of people hates another group of people. However, racism manifests in all kinds of subtle and insidious ways. It operates on both a micro and macro level. For this reason, it’s so hard to talk about racism, or even recognize it when it’s going on.

So sorry, just because you’re not burning crosses on some black person’s lawn doesn’t necessarily mean you’re not part of the problem. It’s important that we recognize the different ways racism exists in the world, because being aware is the first step in fixing the problem. The fact of the matter is, there’s no one specific kind of racism or racist. There are many types of racists, and they come in all forms, from the blatant to to the inconspicuous. Below is a list of just a few of the different kinds….

Click here to read more.

New Zealand All Blacks

The All Blacks are New Zealand’s national rugby team and the most successful international rugby side of all-time. With a winning percentage of 76.4 over 526 Tests (1903-2014) they are noted as one of the most prolific teams across any sport. It’s interesting to see this wholly positive association with the color black. Also, the team just won the World Cup of Rugby today!

Click here to read more about the team.

Click here to see their fearsome Haka.

 

What We Mean When We Say ‘Race Is a Social Construct’

“In a world where Kevin Garnett, Harold Ford, and Halle Berry all check “black” on the census, even the argument that racial labels refer to natural differences in physical traits doesn’t hold up.”

Click here.

 

Delinquent. Dropout. At-Risk. When Words Become Labels

Sidney Poitier (right) and Glenn Ford (standing) in the 1955 film Blackboard Jungle.

Much of our recent reporting, especially from New Orleans, has focused on young people who are neither in school nor working. There are an estimated 5 1/2 million of them, ages 16 to 24, in the United States.

But what do we call them?

And does the nomenclature matter?

Click here.

See the Changing Face of American Marriages

Photo Credit: CNN Article
According to a TIME analysis of U.S. census data, mixed-race marriages are growing at rapid rates. Click here for an interactive graph tool that allows you to choose any combination of race and gender to see whether such marriages are on the rise or decline.
It’s interesting that they chose to include “non-white” (Hispanic, Black, Asian, American Indian, or Multiracial) as it’s own variable amongst the racial identities. It brought to mind the racial binary Professor Gordon writes about in Race, Biraciality, and Mixed Race — In Theory.

 

 

The Two Asian Americas

“What have I made of myself and my children? … We cannot exercise our rights. Humility and insults, who is responsible for all this? Me and the American government. Obstacles this way, blockades that way, and bridges burnt behind.”

The quotation above was excepted from the 1928 suicide letter of Vaishno Das Bagai, an Indian immigrant victimized by racist Anti-Asian legislation which stripped him of his citizenship, property, employment, and ultimately, his self-esteem in America. This New Yorker article looks at history and the experiences of people like Bagai to explore how systemic racism continues to influence the lives of Asians in America.  It describes the duality of the Asian American experience:

“There are now, in a sense, two Asian Americas: one formed by five centuries of systemic racism, and another, more genteel version, constituted in the aftermath of the 1965 law. These two Asian Americas float over and under each other like tectonic plates, often clanging discordantly. So, while Chinese-Americans and Indian-Americans are among the most prosperous groups in the country, Korean-Americans, Vietnamese-Americans, and Filipino-Americans have lower median personal earnings than the general population.”

Click here to read more.