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A Mind Is a Terrible Thing to Waste—Except in Ohio?

...versions also available on The Women's International Perspective and Truthdig and Diverse: Issues in Higher Education

    

Kelley Williams-Bolar, an aspiring teacher and mother of two in Ohio, spent nine days in jail earlier this year and was placed on three years’ probation after a felony conviction for falsifying official documents. The basis of her offense? Sending her children to school in a district in which they did not live.


Tom Burlington and the N-Word Game

...full-text also available on The Root

Here we go again. From "Kramer" to Dr. Laura, the debate over the six-letter word is never-ending. Now a former local Fox TV anchor is taking the matter to court. Will we ever find consensus?


10 Reasons Why the Slurs Should Stay in ‘Huck Finn’

...full text also available on Truthdig and on The New Haven Advocate

   

It’s not surprising that the latest edition of Mark Twain’s paired classics, “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn,” will remove all traces of nigger and Injun from its pages when our leaders confuse books with bars, Charles Dickens’ words with Leo Tolstoy’s, and omit slavery from Confederate History Month. Our leaders obviously aren’t reading. So why should we care about an old book like Twain’s? Here are 10 reasons.


Racism: Our National Default Mechanism

...full text also available on Truthdig

   

The latest racial gaffe regarding our president came late last month from Rep. Steve King of Iowa. By way of a little background, King’s comment concerned Pigford v. Glickman, a massive class action lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Agriculture alleging racial discrimination in its allocation of farm loans and assistance to black farmers between 1981 and 1996. The USDA settled out of court in 1999, admitting to widespread racial discrimination against black farmers in its loan programs. About 15,000 farmers were paid a total of more than $900 million in the settlement, but tens of thousands of farmers filed claims after the deadline, and many charged that the government’s outreach had been insufficient and that they had incompetent legal counsel, causing them to miss their opportunity. In February 2010, President Barack Obama and Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack promised an additional $1.15 billion to cover the remaining claims, which was appropriated by Congress in December 2010.



Sept. 11 Happened to Us All

...full text also available on Truthdig

   

FRANKLIN, Tenn.—Tensions are high in Tennessee, as they have been all over our nation, in anticipation of the ninth anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks. Controversies abound. Mosque-building, book burning and threats of violence are making it increasingly difficult to separate what pastor/author Rick Warren is calling “church and hate.”


Everyone Looks a Little Bit Asian

...full text also available on Truthdig

   

Like many other Hispanics, I am a member of Generation E.A. (ethnically ambiguous). Over the years I’ve been mistaken for just about every racial or ethnic combination—from Eurasian to Afro-Irish to Arab-Native American. This guessing game is something members of Generation E.A. are used to in discussions with acquaintances, classmates, co-workers and curious passersby.


Taking "Superman" to School

...full-text also available on Truthdig and The Huffington Post

The greatest thing about public school is that it is, in fact, public. Anyone can attend and everyone has the opportunity to achieve. I have been a public school student and educator and I’ve had the privilege of encountering learners of all kinds: from brilliant artists, math whizzes and persuasive communicators to those who can barely read or need calculators to figure out the answer to 1 x 9. As a result, I think my experience in public education is similar to that of many of my dedicated colleagues across the nation: both highly rewarding and deeply depressing.


The Powers and Problems of Passing as a Boy

...full-text also available on The Huffington Post

While conducting research for my forthcoming book on passing-- the fact of being accepted, or representing oneself successfully as, a member of a different group--I came across the amazing story of Ellen and William Craft. The Crafts were an enslaved couple who escaped when Ellen passed as Mr. Johnson--a wealthy, white, disabled master--who was attended by William, his slave in 1848. After a series of harrowing encounters aboard, trains, boats and carriage rides over the course of four days, the Crafts arrived in Philadelphia and ultimately escaped to London. The Crafts became what we might now call “reality stars” as they gained media attention from antislavery and mainstream press. They told their story in the book Running a Thousand Miles for Freedom, and donated the proceeds to further the abolitionist cause.


Making Missippi A Little More "Mixed and Happy"

...full text also available on The Huffington Post

Last week, Nettleton Middle School was forced to drop its 30-year policy of race-based selections for school government and homecoming positions. The selection rules were brought to light by Brandy Springer, a mother of four multiracial children in Nettleton, Mississippi. Springer, a recent transplant from Florida, said her daughter was told the office of sixth-grade class reporter at Nettleton Middle School was available only to black students this year. "My daughter came home from school telling me that she wanted to try out for the school reporter, but it is only open to black students... They told her she should run for class president, [but] that was open to only white students."


The State of Our Interracial Unions

...full text also available on Truthdig

By now it’s common knowledge that Dr. Laura Schlessinger left her long-running radio show recently after an N-bomb-dropping tirade. Basing her choice of words on unnamed “black guys” and “bul-lack comics” on HBO who “say it all the time,” the host instructed caller Jade to toughen up when it comes to issues of race and racism—even when they’re happening at home.