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Understanding Affirmative Action: An Argument in Two Parts

The Fisher v. University of Texas case has put the debate over affirmative action front and center among discussions of racial justice…again. This debate has found its way into the spotlight repeatedly since the SCOTUS ruling on Bakke v. University of California made racial quotas illegal in 1978. I thought I’d reference that to remind us that racial quotas are, in fact, illegal.

There is much to say about the affirmative action debate. So much, in fact, that I’ve decided to respond in two parts. Part one is a discussion of some of the historical context for Affirmative Action. Part … Read more “Understanding Affirmative Action: An Argument in Two Parts”

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Supply Side Gun Control

 

There’s no lack of racial dimensions to the debate about guns. For instance, all it took was members of the Black Panther Party showing up with guns on the steps of the State Capitol for California to adopt tougher gun laws, and that’s not the only time images of angry Black people with guns has spurred reform on both sides of the debate.

There’s also a gender dimension to gun-related violence. As Meghan Murphy pointed out on Alternet, women are almost never mass murderers and are under-represented among murderers in general. Obviously our culture of violence affects people … Read more “Supply Side Gun Control”

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What We Talk About When We Talk About Racism

Ever notice that when we talk about racism, those of us who are racial justice advocates are often really mostly talking about ourselves? We speak out to demonstrate our knowledge. We signal that we get it, building community among like-minded people by using the right words and being in command of the right facts. We make the case for opposing racism with descriptions of how people of color suffer, often even to the extent to ranking oppressions and making suffering into a virtue.

At our best we don’t appeal to guilt as much as to compassion. But we don’t … Read more “What We Talk About When We Talk About Racism”

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Eugene Jarecki On Small Victories In The Drug War And What it Will Take to End It

Eugene Jarecki, director of Freakonomics and now The House I Live In a must-see documentary about the origins and impact of the war on drugs shares his thoughts about the drug war and how to end it in this terrific interview with ChangeLab friend, The Nation and GritTV’s Laura Flanders talks here about the drug war and what it will take to end it.

Jarecki challenges us to personalize drug enforcement. I found myself asking the question, if I found a joint on an 18 year old in my life, would I call the police, have them arrested and thrown … Read more “Eugene Jarecki On Small Victories In The Drug War And What it Will Take to End It”

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Why I Write What I Write

I’m often asked why I write a race blog. I get why folks ask the question. I would get more looks by writing about food justice or climate change, and I know a little something about those subjects, too. Yet I write about race. Why?

I grew up in rural Hawai’i. My childhood and young adult years were spent in a community that was almost entirely made up of people of color. White people owned most of the land and dominated the economy, but in little towns like mine, they were extreme minorities and treated mainly as outsiders.

When I … Read more “Why I Write What I Write”

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Legalizing Marijuana May Be A Good Idea, But It Is Not A Racial Justice Strategy

Ever since election day, liberal pundits and activists have been buzzing about the success of marijuana decriminalization ballot measures in Washington and Colorado. The general consensus is that these election victories and polls showing that a majority of Americans support decriminalization of marijuana is harbinger of better days to come, and not just because we may one day all be able to light up without legal consequences.

Among the most frequently made arguments for legalization is that it is a step toward ending mass incarceration resulting from the war on drugs. Many also argue that the cost of marijuana enforcement … Read more “Legalizing Marijuana May Be A Good Idea, But It Is Not A Racial Justice Strategy”

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The Unbearable Whiteness of Being GOP

This week on the National Review Online, NRO editor Jonah Goldberg and National Review’s Editor At Large John O’Sullivan had a discussion about GOP outreach.

“I see that the way we will get the Hispanics and the other groups, the Asians, as part of the Republican Coalition is to get them first part of the great American Coalition. Make them think of themselves, not make but, persuade them to think of themselves primarily as Americans. Restore the overarching, all-encompassing concept of an American identity, which we used to have, which we knew how to bring about and which in … Read more “The Unbearable Whiteness of Being GOP”

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We’re Not Over Overt Racism

 

I often hear political commentators and activists talk about how the Civil Rights Movement defanged overt racism as a politically and socially viable form of expression. Nowadays, folks claim, racists must speak in codes in order to mobilize white resentment.

I disagree. Yes, I get that things were once worse. I also agree that coded racism is a big problem. However, I don’t believe that overt racism is dead and buried. In fact, I think it’s making a comeback.

Here’s an example:

This picture appeared in a story in Jezebel criticizing the racism of these sorority members. Apparently higher … Read more “We’re Not Over Overt Racism”

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The Deserving Poor

This picture in the of a resident of publicly subsidized housing in New Orleans playing with an ipad sparked a hailstorm of responses. Among the most generous of them was this one,

“Not to rush to comment. I hope this is nothing more than someone gave him the iPad as a gift and he is using it for educational means or just playing games … I hope I am not over thinking this. I am not prejudice (sic) — this just did not look right.”

Putting aside the speaker’s imaginings of what the child could be doing with the ipad … Read more “The Deserving Poor”

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The Asian Fantasy of Charles Murray

After virtual silence in the mainstream media on the subject of Asian Americans during much of the campaign season, Asian American voters going 73% for Obama has gotten folks talking. Among the talkers is right wing racial theorist  Charles Murray, author of The Bell Curve and Coming Apart: The State of White America, 1960-2010. Regarding Asian Americans voting in such large numbers for President Obama, Murray argues:

My thesis is that the GOP is in trouble across the electoral board because it has become identified in the public mind with social conservatism. Large numbers of Independents and Democrats … Read more “The Asian Fantasy of Charles Murray”