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The Stop and Frisk Dilemma

Dilemma: (noun) [dih-lem-uh] a situation requiring a choice between two equally undesirable outcomes

The federal class action lawsuit, Flovd, et al vs The City of New York, et al, is giving Mayor Michael Bloomberg a major headache, or at least it should. That’s due to good organizing on the part of Communities United for Police Reform, and the brilliant legal minds at the Center for Constitutional Rights. As far as I’m concerned, those groups are heroes, not just of New York, but of every other community in the country plagued by racial profiling and stop and … Read more “The Stop and Frisk Dilemma”

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Repost – The Easy Death of Human Beings

Until the killing of Black men, Black mother’s sons

Is as important as the killing of White men, White mother’s sons…

…We who believe in freedom cannot rest

We who believe in freedom cannot rest until it comes

— Ella’s Song, Bernice Johnson Reagon

The following post was written by my friend Shana Turner, a resident New Orleans.

The strategy of gun safety advocates has lately turned upon using the shock and awe of mass murders of those who we don’t expect to see listed on police blotters to win tighter gun safety regulations. I agree that we ought … Read more “Repost – The Easy Death of Human Beings”

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Yuri Kochiyama

May is Asian Pacific American Heritage Month. Appropriately, the month is marked by the anniversary of the birth of Yuri Kochiyama, on May 19, 1921. I’m guessing neither the month, nor the anniversary, nor even Yuri Kochiyama is known to many of you.

For the uninitiated, Kochiyama’s life story is documented beautifully in an inspiring political biography by Diane C. Fujino entitled, Heartbeat of Struggle: The Revolutionary Life of Yuri Kochiyama.

Reading Kochiyama’s biography is an act of remembering that’s good for the soul. It reminds us that during WWII, without trial and without evidence of wrong-doing, … Read more “Yuri Kochiyama”

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The Confusion Era In American Politics


I often call this period in America the confusion era, a reference to the paradigm shifting post-WWII period of the allied occupation of Japan documented by art historian Mark Sandler. During this time, Japan, once distinguished from the rest of Asia by its extraordinary isolation, opened to the world and underwent dramatic, sudden, and disorienting change.

Today the global economy is growing more complex even as it is expanding. Massive population shifts are occurring as wars, environmental catastrophes, deprivation, unfair trade policies, and international debt drive millions to migrate, especially from the resource exploited Southern hemisphere toward the so-called … Read more “The Confusion Era In American Politics”

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Guest Bloggers

Jason Richwine & the Asian American dilemma

Jason Richwine

We’ve been hearing a lot about Jason Richwine’s racist views about Hispanics and immigration.  Richwine is the co-author of the widely discredited–even by other conservative think tanks—Heritage Foundation report and the author of the infamous dissertation in which he calls Hispanics stupid.  I’m not going to go into the  particulars of that argument because lots of other people have already done so and done it well.  It’s also well established that there is a sordid history of trying to link IQ and race in the service of racism.

What we haven’t been hearing so much about is … Read more “Jason Richwine & the Asian American dilemma”

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What Is White Supremacy, Anyway?

This Saturday, ChangeLab and OneAmerica are hosting an event in Seattle called The Past, Present & Future of Multiracial Solidarity. In preparation, I thought I’d offer my take on how white supremacy works, and some thoughts on what solidarity requires of us.

Just to be clear, by white supremacy, I don’t mean the KKK. I mean the set of ideas and beliefs that creates and enforces whiteness as the dominant norm.

No one has taught me more about white supremacy than Andrea Smith. Her scholarship led me to see not a single system of racial oppression, but what she … Read more “What Is White Supremacy, Anyway?”

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A Capital Idea: What We’re Talking About When We Talk About Race

The Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (APA) is described as “the style manual of choice for writers, editors, students, educators, and professionals in psychology, sociology, business, economics, nursing, social work, and justice administration, and other disciplines in which effective communication with words and data is fundamental.” One of the widely recognized goals of the manual is to suggest word choices that best reduce bias in our language.

Recently, the APA manual started suggesting that words referring to groups by race should be capitalized, as in, “Black” and “White.” They also say we should “avoid language that reifies race” … Read more “A Capital Idea: What We’re Talking About When We Talk About Race”

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Five Things You Should Know About Asian Americans

May is Asian-Pacific American Heritage Month. In honor of the occasion, here are five things that I think you should know about Asian Americans.*

1. We Don’t All Look Alike. In fact, most of us aren’t alike at all. When many non-Asians conjure a picture of “Asian American” in their minds, they see an East Asian person – someone whose roots can be traced to China, Korea, or Japan. But Asian America includes dozens of distinct and linguistically diverse ethnic groups originating from a region that encompasses much more than the Far East.

Moreover, we are immigrants or the … Read more “Five Things You Should Know About Asian Americans”

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What We’re Fighting About When We Fight About Racism

A few days ago the Q-Center, Portland, Oregon’s aspiring LGBTQ community hub, hosted a discussion about racism. The event was organized in response to a mostly-online fight that erupted over a local gay bar’s Facebook ad for a performance by white drag performer, Chuck Knipp.

Knipp’s bread and butter is the character, Shirley Q. Liquor, whom he describes as “an inarticulate black welfare mother with 19 children.” I’ll spare you video. The act is performed in black face and plays to damaging and hurtful stereotypes for laughs.

Hundreds weighed in on whether Shirley Q. Liquor is an example of racism, … Read more “What We’re Fighting About When We Fight About Racism”

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The Obama Paradox

I’ve gotten some grief lately over critical comments I’ve made about President Obama. Folks reference a piece I wrote a while back about why I was a supporter of Obama’s candidacy in the last election, calling on other racial justice advocates who were critical of his first term to join me. Why, folks now ask, would I so strongly support the candidacy of our nation’s first Black president, only to be so critical of his reign?

Here’s my answer. In politics, silence is often as good as consent.

We ought not stand mute in the face of human rights violations … Read more “The Obama Paradox”