A lot of people don’t realize that I’m Latina, which is fine. One thing about being Latina is that there isn’t one look that comes with the territory. I don’t expect people to know my cultural background just by glancing at me. I do, however, expect that when I tell people my family is from [...]

by Guest Contributor danah boyd, originally published at apophenia
A few weeks ago, Facebook’s data team released a set of data addressing a simple but complex question: How Diverse is Facebook? Given my own work over the last two years concerning the intersection of race/ethnicity/class and social network sites, I feel the need to respond. And, [...]

by Latoya Peterson

Reader Ilana tipped us to this Details article back in December – sadly it got lost in the holiday shuffle. But wow, is this article a winner:

Cheerleaders. Five-inch heels. Big, natural boobs. Those are merely the most obvious sexual fixations most men have, but there’s another undeniable one: ladies of the tribe. It [...]

By Special Correspondent Arturo R. García
For a review of Part 1, click here
No way around it: Latino In America was a failure.
At the very least, Thursday’s conclusion, “Chasing The Dream,” seemed equal parts melodrama and bait-and-switch, with the broadcast component weakened by a lack of questions that undercut even its’ more compelling segments.
For instance, [...]

by Guest Contributor Jae Ran Kim, originally published at Harlow’s Monkey

Patti Waldmeir with her daughter, Grace

This article comes via Financial Times (which in itself is interesting to me – a story about adoptees returning to their country of birth in a publication about the world of finance?).
I have several thoughts about this piece, some of [...]

By Special Correspondent Arturo R. García
Soledad O’Brien says she wants Latino In America to “start a conversation.” Unfortunately for viewers, the series’ message seems to be, what? Woe is us? Abandon ship? What did Brown ever do to you?
Grounded in depressing case studies and missed questions, the series’ first installment was less “Latinos In America” [...]

By Special Correspondent Arturo R. García

Seemingly lost amid the news of Disney’s acquisition of Marvel Comics was this post by Marvel Executive Editor Tom Breevort, where a question about non-American comic-book leads yielded this rather candid response:
Because we’re an American company whose primary distribution is centered around America, the great majority of our existing audience [...]

by Special Correspondent Fatemeh Fakhraie
At the airport bookstore, I immediately overlooked Bruce Willis’ and Emma Hemings’ smoldering stares on the cover of this month’s W. My attention went directly to the top left: “Meet the Neighbors: the Persian Conquest of Beverly Hills.”
Knowing the history of glossies and their historic portrayal of racial ethnicities more as [...]

By Special Correspondent Thea Lim

I was minding my own beeswax riding the subway when I stumbled across an ad in the free subway paper for “The Ethnic Comedy Show,” an July extravaganza of touring comics who, um, are all “ethnic”?
This Hour Has 22 Minutes star Shaun Majumder hosts an evening featuring an eclectic group of [...]

by Latoya Peterson
Long-time reader Jha tipped us that she is hosting the 3rd Asian Women Blog Carnival over at her place. The call for submissions can be found here.
Her email reminded me that I never got around to prepping the Link Love post for the second carnival, so I’ll take my late pass [...]

by Guest Contributor Sobia, originally published at Muslim Lookout

CTV News recently reported on a BC based study in which it was found that Canadians with English names have a better chance of getting a job than do people with non-English, specifically Chinese, Pakistani, or Indian, names. CTV News reports
In fact, after sending out thousands of [...]

by Latoya Peterson

These are the notes for “Do Web Interfaces Have Politics? A Japanese Social Network Site mixi and the Imagined Boundary of “Japan.”” The notes are from a paper by Ryuta Komaki, presented at the Texas A & M University Race and Ethnic Studies Institute’s Symposium exploring Race, Ethnicity and (New) Media.
This paper looks [...]

by Special Correspondent Fatemeh Fakhraie
When I went to college at the University of Utah, there was no box for me to check. There was no “Middle Eastern” and there was definitely no “bi- or multi-racial.” I’d like to think that the U of U has since updated their ethnicity data, but I can’t be sure.
When [...]

by Latoya Peterson

These are the notes for “Don’t Hate the Player, Hate the Game: The Racialization of Labor in World of Warcraft.” The notes are for the keynote presentation given by Dr. Nakamura at the Texas A & M University Race and Ethnic Studies Institute’s Symposium exploring Race, Ethnicity and (New) Media.
The full paper [...]

by Special Correspondent Thea Lim

A little over half a year ago, I wrote a fawning article about Russell Peters, trying to justify why I love him in spite of the fact that he could easily be criticised for making racist comedy.
I said that I loved Peters because his comedy is (unintentionally?) subversive: it highlights the [...]