If You Were A White Forbes Columnist Commenting On Black Kids… [Reader Forum]

by Channing Kennedy on January 2 2012, 9:36AM

Readers come up with excellent responses to Forbes writer Gene Marks’ much-mocked “If I Were A Poor Black Kid…”

Topics: Media

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All I Want For Christmas Is Change I Can Believe In

by Terry Keleher on December 23 2011, 9:29AM

Dear President Obama, I’m no longer expecting miracles. And I know it’s gonna take a whole movement to raise some real hope and change. But in the spirit of the season, I’m just making my wishes clear.

Topics: Politics

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Will Young Voters Steal the Show in 2012? Maybe, If Lawmakers Listen

by Jamilah King on December 22 2011, 9:56AM

Operatives from both parties will be courting young voters in 2012, but it’s crucial to understand what drives young people to political action in the first place.

Topics: 2012: What's Ahead?, Politics

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2011 in Review—in 90 Seconds [VIDEO]

by Jorge Rivas on December 22 2011, 9:30AM

From Troy Davis to Occupy Wall Street, Oprah Winfrey to the National Book Awards, the jobs crisis to the fight for humane immigration policy—we look back at 2011’s biggest stories. Watch Colorlines.com’s year in review.

Topics: 2011: Year in Review, History

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Our Economy Was Built on Bull. Until We Admit That, We’re Screwed

by Kai Wright on December 21 2011, 10:00AM

We have organized society around a misguided belief in unfettered growth and unrestrained capitalism. The question of 2012 must be how we begin building a society based on something different.

Topics: 2012: What's Ahead?, Economy, Kai Wright

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The 2012 Attack on Reproductive Rights Will Trade on Women of Color

by Akiba Solomon on December 20 2011, 9:57AM

2011 has featured a string of hard-fought, local battles to protect poor women’s access to reproductive health care. That won’t change next year, and poor women of color will again be in the crossfire.

Topics: 2012: What's Ahead?, Akiba Solomon, Gender & Sexuality, Health

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How Immigrants Forced Media to Treat Them Like Humans in 2011

by Mónica Novoa on December 20 2011, 9:45AM

This year we gained valuable allies in our fight to add humane language into the discourse on immigration. But there’s much more to come in 2012.

Topics: 2012: What's Ahead?, Drop the I-Word

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The Arc Is Bending Toward Justice. But That Doesn’t Make Our Work Easier

by Rinku Sen on December 19 2011, 9:43AM

Quiet as it’s kept, we’re making real progress toward a just society. So next year, writes Rinku Sen, I’m keeping three imperatives: avoid triumphalism, put an explicit racial analysis front and center in national debates, and fight like hell.

Topics: 2012: What's Ahead?, Politics, Rinku Sen

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5 Signs You’re Acting Like a White Guy (Or, How To Not Be Gene Marks)

by W. Kamau Bell on December 19 2011, 9:07AM

You need not be white or a guy to act a fool in public, says stand-up comedian W. Kamau Bell. So here are some warning signals that you might be “getting all Gene Marksy up in here.”

Topics: Media

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A Bronx Tale: How Racism Created Poverty, and Still Perpetuates It

by Kai Wright on December 16 2011, 10:20AM

The poverty in which millions of people of color live is not accidental. It’s the result of decades of political choices that first created ghettos and then left them prey to a growing industry that profits from their existence. The Bronx offers a uniquely clear example.

Topics: Dispatches, Economy

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