Category: Politics/Public Policy

  • The President, the Census and the Multiracial “Community” Open Salon 2011-02-20 Ulli K. Ryder, Ph.D. What is the connection between Obama, the 2010 U.S. Census and multiracials?  Not as much as some may think. While it is tempting to look to Obama as a mixed race icon and to see the Census as publicly acknowledging…

  • Racial Paradox and Eclipse: Obama as a Balm for What Ails Us Denver University Law Review Volume 86, Special Issue (Obama Phenomena: A Special Issue on the Election of President Barack Obama (2009) pages 743-783 Camille A. Nelson, Dean and Professor of Law Suffolk University, Boston, Massachusetts I. Introduction The 2008 political season provided us…

  • Room For Debate: The ‘Two or More Races’ Dilemma The New York Times 2011-02-13 In Room for Debate, The New York Times invites knowledgeable outside contributors to discuss news events and other timely issues. Introduction An article in a Times series on the growing mixed-race population in the United States describes a debate over new…

  • Determining the (In)Determinable: Race in Brazil and the United States Michigan Journal of Race & Law Volume 14, Issue 2 (Spring 2009) pages 143-195 D. Wendy Greene, Assistant Professor of Law Cumberland School of Law, Samford University, Birmingham, Alabama Recently, the Brazilian states of Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, and Mato Grasso du Sol have implemented…

  • All Things Being Equal: The Promise of Affirmative Efforts to Eradicate Color-Coded Inequality in the United States and Brazil National Black Law Journal Volume 21, Number 3 (2009) 41 pages Tanya M. Washington, Associate Professor of Law Georgia State University The contrasted contexts of the United States and Brazil provide an intellectually fascinating framework for…

  • Counting by Race Can Throw Off Some Numbers The New York Times 2009-02-11 Susan Saulny, National Correspondent Race Remixed: The Pigeonhole Problem. Articles in this series explore the growing number of mixed-race Americans. The federal Department of Education would categorize Michelle López-Mullins—a university student who is of Peruvian, Chinese, Irish, Shawnee and Cherokee descent—as “Hispanic.”…

  • Dr. Rainier Spencer to be Guest on MSNBC NewsNation with Tamron Hall NewsNation MSNBC TV Wednesday, 2011-02-02, 19:00-20:00Z (14:00-15:00 EST, 11:00-12:00 PST) (Recheduled due to a White House news conference on the situation in Egypt from 2011-01-31.) Tamron Hall, Host Rainier Spencer, Director and Professor of Afro-American Studies; Professor of Interdisciplinary Studies University of Nevada, Las Vegas…

  • Why Do We Consider Obama to Be Black? New America Media Commentary 2008-10-25 Ronald Takaki (1939-2009), Emeritus Professor of Ethnic Studies University of California, Berkeley A historical look at the the persistence of the “one drop” rule. Editor’s Note: Historian and scholar Ronald Takaki uncovers the origins of the “one drop” rule that was key…

  • Remembering Mildred Loving, Unsung Hero of the Civil Rights Movement Counterpunch 2008-05-09 Mark A. Huddle, Associate Professor of History Georgia College and State University Fighting “Anti-Miscegenation” Laws On May 2, Mildred Loving died from complications of pneumonia at the age of 68.  The unassuming Mrs. Loving would have scoffed at the notion that she was…

  • Every mixed race marriage is building a better Britain The Independent 1999-03-04 Yasmin Alibhai-Brown Lynchings, imprisonment and social exclusion will never stop individual s breaking racial barriers WE HAVE looked, for a good many days, at the poisonous worms of racism as the Lawrence inquiry team turned over the soil. The coverage of this event…