Category: Politics/Public Policy

  • The author presents a comparative analysis of the histories of racial/color categorization in American and Brazilian censuses and shows that racial (and color) categories have appeared in these censuses because of shifting ideas about race and the enduring power of these ideas as organizers of political, economic, and social life in both countries.

  • Morgan Freeman: No Black President For U.S. Yet Tell Me More National Public Radio 2012-07-06 Michel Martin, Host Oscar-winning actor Morgan Freeman joined Tell Me More host Michel Martin to discuss his new movie, The Magic of Belle Isle. But the prolific actor, famous for his roles in films such as The Shawshank Redemption, Million…

  • Brazilian ethnoracial classification and affirmative action policies: Where are we and where do we go? Social Statistics and Ethnic Diversity: Should we count, how should we count and why? 2007-12-06 through 2007-12-08 Montreal, Quebec Canada September 2007 12 pages José Luis Petruccelli, Senior Researcher Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística, Brésil Brazilian society is characterized…

  • What I’ve learned from living with HIV The Melissa Harris-Perry Blog 2012-07-01 Macalester College Ed. note: This is a guest column by our guest today, Christopher MacDonald-Dennis, the Dean of Multicultural Life at Macalester College. Chris normally tweets this essay out every December 1 to commemorate World AIDS Day, but was kind enough to allow…

  • From Edward Brooke to Barack Obama African American Political Success, 1966-2008 University of Missouri Press 2012 272 pages 6.125 x 9.25 Hardcover ISBN: 978-0-8262-1977-0 Dennis Nordin In 2008, American history was forever changed with the election of Barack Obama, the United States’ first African American president. However, Obama was far from the first African American…

  • Using Brazil’s Racial Continuum to Examine the Short-Term Effects of Affirmative Action in Higher Education The Journal of Human Resources Volume 47, Number 3 (Summer 2012) pages 754-784 Andrew M. Francis, Assistant Professor of Economics Emory University Maria Tannuri-Pianto, Professor of Economics University of Brasilia In 2004, the University of Brasilia established racial quotas. We…

  • Slavery, Race, and Reunion: The NY Times White Washes the Rape of Michelle Obama’s Ancestors (Again) We Are Respectable Negroes 2012-06-18 Chauncey DeVega Why would any person honor rapist’s blood? In an effort to write the Obamas, who are de facto American royalty, back into a larger post-racial narrative that ostensibly makes some white folks…

  • Bodies with Histories: The New Search for the Biology of Race Boston Review May/June 2012 Anne Fausto-Sterling Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology and Biochemistry, Program in Women’s Studies, and Chair of the Faculty Committee on Science and Technology Studies Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island Richard C. Francis, Epigenetics: The Ultimate Mystery of Inheritance. W.…

  • How Racist Are We? Ask Google The New York Times 2012-06-09 Seth Stephens-Davidowitz Barack Obama won 52.9 percent of the popular vote in 2008 and 365 electoral votes, 95 more than he needed. Many naturally concluded that prejudice was not a major factor against a black presidential candidate in modern America. My research, a comparison…

  • Performance Studies: Interracialism: Performing Mixed Race (H42.2090) New York University Department of Social & Cultural Analysis: American Studies This course will survey the emergent field of  ‘critical mixed race studies’ with a particular emphasis on the black experience in the Americas. How have people of African descent been alternately excluded from and incorporated into discourses…