The American Prospect – NAACP Takes a Stance Against Prop 8
The NAACP has been walking a tightrope on gay rights. Polls show that African Americans overwhelmingly oppose gay marriage, but much of the high-level leadership of the nation’s oldest civil-rights organization opposes legal efforts to deny gays the right to marry. Last week, the national [...]

Excerpted by Latoya Peterson
Over at Resist Racism, there are two excellent posts up discussing the damage racism does to white people.
The first talks about a loss of empathy:
I often think that one way racism does serious damage to white people is by stripping them of their empathy. Privilege has long taught them that white [...]

by Latoya Peterson
Here are a couple items I’ve come across in my internet reading.
Valleywag: Was an ‘Anarcho-Transexual Afro-Chicano’ Behind the IM Worm?

Yesterday’s ViddyHo worm, which spread over Google Talk and Gmail, has been linked by some to Hoan Ton-That, a San Francisco software developer. A very San Francisco software developer.
Ton-That owns the domain name [...]

Restructure turns an eye to “What PoC Do: Restrain Ourselves“:
The people who say these things appear to think that racism occurs rarely, and that when a non-white person complains about allegedly “trivial” instances of racism, it means that she is like a young child who hasn’t yet learned that not everyone in the world [...]

Compiled by Latoya Peterson and Fatemeh Fakhraie

Two items involving the KKK to lead this off. First, over at Rachel’s Tavern, Rachel posts a video of Klu Klux Klan member Owen Wilson discussing his apology to congressman John Lewis.

In two steps back news, Renee brings word that PeTA has decided to dress up like Klan [...]

Compiled by Latoya Peterson and Fatemeh Fakhraie
On Amreeka, a Sundance film that examines the lives of Arab Americans.

What distinguishes the film from others is its sense of humor. Laughter, not tragedy is the watershed of Munah’s life. “I wanted to tell a story that’s lighthearted,” Dabis said. “There’s a side to the experience that’s [...]

Complied by Latoya Peterson and Fatemeh Fakhraie
Sarah Jaffe writes for Global Comment about our Superhero President: The Commodification of Barack Obama
Obama has become something you have to have a piece of–a commodity for sale, sometimes on eBay to the highest bidder, other times for the bargain price of way too much for whichever tacky design [...]

by Latoya Peterson

Update: If you can, please leave a comment for regular contributor Tami. She’s published today on the Guardian site, and most of the comments are asking her to “get over it” and stop talking about race.
Appearances
I was on two radio shows this week.
On the Brian Lerher show, I was helping to promote [...]

Global Voices Online – Korea as a Multicultural Country

A daily newspaper, Hankyoreh, which is categorized as a progressive newspaper (or sometimes left-wing) introduced a series of articles, ‘Multi-Culturalism is Our Future.’ [KR] Korea, where one culture and one ethnic group are emphasized, currently has a population with only 2 percent foreign residents –1 million population. [...]

Kabobfest – First Poll on US Opinion on Gaza: Democratic Politicians Ignore Public Opinion
In one of the more interesting analytical writings on the American (non-)debate on the Israeli assault on Gaza, Glenn Greenwald considers how alarmingly out-of-step Democratic politicians are with their party’s rank-and-file views. He cites the first poll on American public views of [...]

The Angry Black Woman explains why The Dictionary is Not a Perfect Rhetorical Tool.
Bottom line: whipping out a dictionary definition during a discussion of complex issues is ill-advised at best. I would even go so far as to say it’s dumb. It doesn’t put you over on anyone else and it doesn’t win [...]

Shameless Promotion
This is a big month, readers.
First off, Nadra Kareem and I are in this month’s issue of Bitch Magazine (the Noir Issue #42).
Nadra wrote “Am I [Para]normal?” about the heroines in Lois Duncan’s novels and the relationship between teen coming of age stories and the supernatural. It’s an excellent piece, particularly in [...]

Richard Rodriguez is featured in a provocative interview for Salon on Why Churches Fear Gay Marriage:
You said recently the real issue behind the anti-gay marriage movement is the crisis in the family. What do you mean?
American families are under a great deal of stress. The divorce rate isn’t declining, it’s increasing. And the majority [...]

Ennis of Sepia Mutiny opines on What Obama’s Victory Means:
What does this mean for desis? Well, not much in some ways. We’re still a small group, and we’re not going to get singled out for ponies and party favors.
But I think, for the first time, we’ve been truly seen and recognized. Obama knows both South [...]

Reminder: Happy Hour in DC tonight at the Chi-Cha Lounge. Fun starts around 5:30.
Women’s eNews talks about the Global Gender Gap:
The economic, political and educational gender gaps have shrunk globally, with equality between women and men improving in more than two-thirds of 130 countries analyzed in the annual Global Gender Gap Index. The Nov. [...]