Category: Articles

  • How Obama’s unique background shaped his outlook on race PBS NewsHour 2016-12-21 Judy Woodruff, Co-Anchor & Managing Editor The Atlantic’s Ta-Nehisi Coates has criticized President Obama’s policies toward black Americans. Perhaps for that reason, he was invited to discuss such issues with Mr. Obama several times throughout the president’s second term. As part of a…

  • On Optimism and Despair The New York Review of Books 2016-12-22 Zadie Smith A talk given in Berlin on November 10 on receiving the 2016 Welt Literature Prize. First I would like to acknowledge the absurdity of my position. Accepting a literary prize is perhaps always a little absurd, but in times like these not…

  • Review: In New Biopic ‘Barry,’ The Real Obama Remains Hidden Newsweek 2016-12-16 Tom Shone While President Barack Obama decides on his future—a return to his roots as a community organizer? A de facto leader for the Trump resistance? More writing?—pop culture has stepped in to give him the Mount Rushmore treatment. First we had Southside…

  • Children’s and Adults’ Predictions of Black, White, and Multiracial Friendship Patterns Journal of Cognition and Development Published online: 2016-11-22 20 pages DOI: 10.1080/15248372.2016.1262374 Steven O. Roberts, Ph.D. Candidate Department of Psychology University of Michigan Amber D. Williams, National Science Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow University of Texas, Austin Susan A. Gelman, Heinz Werner Distinguished University Professor of…

  • How ‘Barry’ Gets Obama Right—And Wrong Newsweek 2016-12-21 Matthew Cooper, Political Editor President Barack Obama during a White House news conference in Washington, December 16. A new Netflix production, “Barry,” charts his college years in New York, when “Barry,” as he was known, wrestled with his racial identity. JONATHAN ERNST/REUTERS There’s less than a month…

  • New Book Confronts Colorism in 21st Century America NBC News 2016-12-21 Lesley-Ann Brown “The Masque of Blackness” (1605) is an early Jacobean era “masque” — a popular form of 16th & 17th century amateur dramatic theatre — and is quite possibly the first instance in English literature where the topic of skin color is not…

  • In the United States, all three are closely associated with the word “Brazilian.” Yet, although none of these things are linked to Latino identity, one of the questions that journalists frequently ask me is, “Are Brazilians Latinos?”

  • When my friend posted an adorable picture of her son with a black Santa in New York City, I was drawn to the idea of visiting a Santa who reflected my family’s skin tones. I’m black, and my 3-year-old son’s father is white. I am raising him as a single mom with the help of…

  • China Machado, Breakthrough Model Until the End, Dies at 86 The New York Times On The Runway 2016-12-19 Vanessa Friedman China Machado, the first non-Caucasian to appear in the pages of an American glossy fashion magazine and a model who broke not only the race barrier but also the age barrier, died on Sunday in…

  • Avoiding the One-Drop Rule The Harvard Advocate Fall 2016 Eli Lee This past January, I attended a concert at Philadelphia’s First Unitarian Church. The audience in the church’s dimly lit basement was tattooed, bedecked in social justice slogans and, like most punk show crowds, predominantly white. Two hours into the show, a local hardcore band…