Blog

Racial Passing and The Real Mitt Romney

...full text also available at Huffington Post and The Root

With Rick Santorum now out of the way it looks like the road is clear for Mitt Romney. That is, if anybody knows who he really is.


The Unboxing Experiment - Porn for Geeks or Something Else?

Is “unboxing” just porn for tech geeks or is something else going on here? I thought I’d try a little experiment to find out. See the unboxing of my new Macbook Air and leave a comment below to tell me what you think…




The Million Hoodie March: It’s About a ‘Right-or-Wrong Thing’

...full text also available at Truthdig and The Root


   

Thousands of protesters gathered in New York City’s Union Square on Wednesday evening (3/21/12) for the Million Hoodie March to demand justice and search for answers in the death of 17-year-old Florida teen Trayvon Martin.


Call for Submissions: "Mixed Race 2.0"

Call for Submissions

Synopsis
"Mixed Race 2.0: Mixing Race, Risk, and Reward in the Digital Age" is a project dedicated to examining the intersections of multiracial identities that lurk behind the scenes of everyday life in an increasingly networked world. In recent years, multiracial identities have seen increased representation in media, politics, art and activism. To explore these exciting transitions, Mixed Race 2.0 will pose questions and provide analyses that strike the core of what multiracial identities have meant, currently mean, and will mean to generations across the globe.



TIME to Think in Full Color About Race & Ethnicity

...full text also available at Huffington Post and Kirwan Institute's Race-Talk

 
TIME Mag 0224 cover Colorlines    
TIME Magazine's latest cover story (Feb. 2/24) is called "Yo Decido. Why Latinos will pick the next President." It reports that about 9% of all voters in 2012 will be Latino, up 26% from four years ago. While the Latin@ vote is definitely an important and interesting and game-changing political development, the most interesting thing about this story isn't the headline or the article's statistics. It's the cover (left).



Interracial Love Is No Societal Cure-All

...full text also available at Truthdig

 
IR Love    
A recently released report by the Pew Center is a belated Valentine’s Day gift to interracial and heterosexual families. The report indicates that intermarriage across racial and ethnic lines continues to be on the rise in the U.S. and the change is a sign that acceptance is growing. Although this is definitely cause for celebration and a reason to continue the fight for marriage equality everywhere, we should remember that a fuller and more accurate historical account of interracial sex and marriage in the U.S. should focus on social and legal constraints along with demographic patterns.



The FLOTUS and the Twitterverse

...full text also available at Truthdig

Michelle Obama joined Twitter today (12 Jan. 2012). For some this doesn't qualify as news in a world full of political and economic turmoil. For others, the First Lady’s first tweet -- “Hi Everyone, and thanks for the warm welcome. Look forward to staying in touch with you here. –mo” -- is part of a larger story about stereotyping and how it intersects with race, gender, nation and culture in the news.



The Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show and the Soundtrack of Desire

...full text also available at Sounding Out! and Cultural Weekly

 


Victoria's secret show 2008    
As a consumer, you’ve experienced desire: that longing for someone, that appetite for something more, that expectation of pleasure and satisfaction that comes from getting what you want. Whether what you want ranges from an ideal body type, to a cool technological gadget, to fashionable clothes or new cars, someone beautiful is out there selling it to you—beautifully.


Mixed Marriage Ban: Only In Appalachia?‏

...full text also available at Trans/Missions

Since the 1980s, news media have portrayed interracial romantic relationships as a persistently volatile fault line in America's racial divide. Other reports, in contrast, have suggested that the significance of race is declining, that religious practitioners are growing increasingly colorblind and that we've entered an era in which issues of racism are yesterday's news. Still, while national news media now report that attitudes toward interracial dating and marriage are becoming more liberal, the increasing likelihood of interracial romantic relationships continues to challenge the beliefs of some who are empowered at the local level to impose group sanctions in secular and religious circles alike.


Reassessing the #Cainwreck

...full text also available at Truthdig


   

It’s official: “The American people won't be raising Cain in 2012!” With these words, Herman Cain has pledged to suspend his candidacy in the race for the Republican nomination. Cain’s train was derailed Monday by Ginger White, who claims to have had a 13-year “inappropriate relationship” with the candidate. Cain denies the affair but can’t deny the impact this news had on this campaign.