Category: Articles

  • The fiction of race hides the real source of racism and inequity in America today.

  • What President Obama’s historic week means for his legacy MSNBC 2015-06-28 Benjy Sarlin, Political Reporter Every occupant of the White House experiences more than one presidency. There’s their actual time in office, an experience characterized by constant political conflict, a drumbeat of unanticipated crises large and small, and a trudging slog towards policy goals. Then…

  • Driven by Love or Ambition, Slipping Across the Color Line Through the Ages The New York Times 2015-06-28 Rachel L. Swarns Clarence King, a Yale-educated white man who worked as a geologist in the 1800s and dined at the White House, lived a secret life as James Todd, a black train porter with a wife…

  • As a kid, I was biracial (and black). Today, I’m black (and biracial). The Washington Post 2015-06-24 Kristal Brent Zook, Professor of Journalism, Media Studies, and Public Relations Hofstra University, Hempstead, New York The box we check on census forms is only half the story. A recent Pew study, “Multiracial in America: Proud, Diverse and…

  • America’s largest multiracial group doesn’t think of itself that way Vox 2015-06-18 Jenée Desmond-Harris People who have both white and Native American heritage make up America’s biggest multiracial group. But they’re the least likely to embrace the label. This is one of the findings of a Pew Research Center study that took an incredibly detailed…

  • As South Carolina deals with its Confederate flag, one town in Brazil flies it with pride The World Public Radio International 2015-06-22 Bradley Campbell, Producer Descendants of American Southerners wearing Confederate-era dresses and uniforms dance during a party to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the end of the American Civil War in Santa Barbara D’Oeste,…

  • Texas woman discovers she’s white after 70 years KHOU Houston, Texas 2015-06-22 Marvin Hurst, Reporter KENS 5 TV, San Antonio, Texas Byrd with her adoptive family. (Photo: (Photo: Family Photograph)) The mere mention of Rachel Dolezal’s name sets Verda Byrd off like a stick of dynamite. “She lied about her race,” Byrd said. “I didn’t…

  • Brazil’s government has taken important steps to combat racial inequalities over the past two decades. Afro-Brazilian populations nevertheless remain socially and economically excluded, continuing patterns that began with legal slavery.

  • Why Rachel Dolezal Needed To Construct Her Own Black Narrative BuzzFeed 2015-06-13 Adam Serwer, BuzzFeed News National Editor In order to pass as black, Dolezal took advantage of the black community’s long tradition of inclusion regardless of skin tone. In 1895, when Justice Henry Billings Brown ruled that Louisiana’s law segregating train cars was constitutional,…

  • Joseph Emidy: From slave fiddler to classical violinist BBC News 2015-06-21 Miles Davis, BBC News Online Joseph Emidy led the Truro Philharmonic Orchestra The remarkable life of a former slave who became a pioneer of classical music has been commemorated. The “genius” violinist Joseph Emidy, from West Africa, was enslaved for two long periods of…