By Thea Lim

Reader Ray tipped us off to this musical currently playing at the Edinburgh Theatre Festival: Mercy Madonna of Malawi.
Putting an African spin on the story of four-year-old Mercy James who was adopted by the original Material Girl earlier this year, Mercy Madonna of Malawi is an upbeat musical that takes stock of a [...]

By Guest Contributor Ben Powless, originally posted at rabble

(Above: Police arrive with heavy reinforcements to forcefully remove demonstrators PHOTO: Thomas Quirynen)
The rhetoric was sharp enough to cut down Amazonian hardwoods. Yesterday, Sunday June 7th, after a number of ministers had been paraded out Saturday and the day before, Peru’s el Señor Presidente, Alan Garcia decided [...]

A Racialicious Roundtable, compiled by Latoya Peterson and Thea Lim

On April 22, the Supreme Court will hear arguments in the case of Ricci, et. Al, v. DeStefano, et al., a case brought by seventeen firefighters who claim that they were discriminated against by the City of New Haven after the City decided to throw out [...]

by Latoya Peterson

Representative Betty Brown of Texas made waves yesterday by requesting that Asian voters “adopt a name we could deal with” when voting and filling out identification forms. The “we” specifically means meant Americans – but obviously, in Brown’s world, there are no Americans of Asian decent.

The Houston Chronicle notes:
“Rather than everyone here [...]

by Latoya Peterson

Joined by Phil Yu (Angry Asian Man), Jay Smooth (Ill Doctrine), and Kety Esquivel (NCLR and Cross Left), I moderated a panel at SXSW called “Can Social Media End Racism.”
We organized the panel over email (and one lively dinner discussion) and came up with the main outline for the session.
We began by playing [...]

by Latoya Peterson

Yes, you read that right. According to friend of the blog Allison:
For many years, Beacon Press–a nonprofit book publisher since 1854–has had the privilege of publishing Octavia Butler’s “Kindred,” the story of a modern black woman transported through time to the antebellum South. Octavia Butler died tragically in 2006; those familiar with [...]

by Guest Contributor Angry Asian Man, originally published at Angry Asian Man

There was a lot of uproar last month when it was announced that M. Night Shyamalan’s movie adaptation Avatar: The Last Airbender would star a lot of pretty white people, with no Asians in sight. The animated Nickelodeon show takes place in an Asian-inspired [...]

by Guest Contributor M. Dot, originally published at Model Minority

Oakland haunts me.
Last week, I started trying to convert my essays on the crack epidemic into a memoir and the above sentence came to mind.
As many of you know, on early New Year’s day , the BART police killed an unarmed man, Oscar Grant.
I felt my [...]

By Special Correspondent Nadra Kareem

Herrington, Alexander and Collins. 
It’s unlikely that these names ring a bell, that upon hearing them a knot will form in your stomach as often happens to those who hear the names of another trio—Goodman, Schwerner and Chaney. The latter threesome received worldwide recognition after a lynch mob executed them in [...]

by Special Correspondent Thea C. Lim, originally published at The Shameless Blog

From Daily Kos:
Muslim Children Gassed at Dayton Mosque After “Obsession” DVD Hits Ohio

On Friday, September 26, the end of a week in which thousands of copies of Obsession: Radical Islam’s War Against the West — the fear-mongering, anti-Muslim documentary being distributed by the [...]

by Latoya Peterson

So, I’m currently reading an advance copy of Tricia Rose’s new book, The Hip-Hop Wars: What We Talk About When We Talk About Hip-Hop – And Why It Matters. I’ve already flagged pages to post as part of the “Quoted” series, as well as planning a few arguments around Rose’s ideas to [...]

by Guest Contributor Tariq Nelson, originally published at TariqNelson.com

Presidential Vice-Presidential Candidate Governor Palin and former Presidential candidate Rudolph Guiliani lampooned community organizers and the important work they do in their communities. Are they so out of touch that they do not realize that teachers, PTA members, football coaches and non-profit volunteers also have “actual responsibilities” [...]

Renee dropped me an email to forward this message from Incite! Women of Color Against Violence:

Dear INCITE! friends and supporters,
On the eve of the 3 year anniversary of the devastation wrought by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita and subsequent government criminal negligence and assaults on the low income [...]