by Carmen Van Kerckhove
Back in 2004 when I first started speaking and blogging about race, I was invited to facilitate a phone discussion with a group of parents who had adopted children from outside the United States.
One of the mothers in the group was white and Jewish. She adopted her son from an African country, [...]

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 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 Jessica Yee
It’s no secret that many Native American reservations and Aboriginal territories seem like far off, remote, out of reach places to the general population and society. I suppose that when the mainstream news media does report about our communities it often suggests that these are all immensely impoverished, violence infested, alcohol [...]

One quiet evening, my boyfriend broke the relative silence in the living room by reading aloud:
Remember a long, long time ago – it almost seems like a recession and a half ago – when Barack Obama first came (via Kenya, of course) to power?  Remember how certain hope-doped commentators predicted that his election would [...]

By Sexual Correspondent Andrea (AJ) Plaid and Guest Contributor Fiqah
Fiqah:All right, full disclosure. I loathe Birth of a Nation. L-O-A-T-H-E, my friends. In my short time on this planet, I have been forced to endure two (!) viewings of the flick–twice the Recommended Lifetime Limit for Black people. The last time I watched this film [...]

By Special Correspondent Arturo R. García

Scenes from a Roundtable Conversation
Mahsino (before watching the show):Am i the only one troubled by the new NBC show the Philanthropist? I’m seeing a lot of “white guy saves defenseless colored folks” in the promos.
maybe it’s just the Heroes announcer that’s making me suspicious, maybe I’m just itching’ to snark [...]

Excerpted by Latoya Peterson

In a January 2006 article published by the Village Voice, Jon Caramanica ended a largely celebratory piece on reggaeton with a somewhat sudden, cryptic remark: “Fuck a Slim Shady,” he quipped, “Hip-Hop’s race war begins here.” Caramanica thus suggests that the most prominent “racial” tensions around hip-hop are not between African [...]

by Guest Contributor Jehanzeb Dar, originally published at Broken Mystic

Over the past week, my friends and I have been playing on a new roller hockey court that isn’t too far from my house. Prior to that, we’ve been playing on a relatively unused basketball court (pictured above) for months, which has been fun for [...]

by Latoya Peterson
In the April/May issue of Audrey Magazine, Susan Soon He Stanton takes a look at the decline of Hawaiian family-run restaurants in her piece “The Closing of Tradition.”
The article opens on a sad note:
A disappointed woman shakes her head as she reads the out-of-business sign in the window of the Flamingo [...]

Hosted by Special Correspondent Arturo R. García
And back we are, with the new hotness! Our table meets up once again to discuss:
* Our least-favorite guest-star
* Where the revamped series should go from here
* Why Uhura Matters, regardless of timeline
And much more!
Arturo: so, everybody catch the review thread?
Andrea: yaaaay!@
Mahsino: yup
Diana: yep
Andrea: ya did good, arturo!
Arturo: What [...]

by Guest Contributor Deesha Phillyaw, originally published at the Bitch Magazine Blog
A few years ago, I found a book-length literary magazine, Conditions:Five, amongst the discarded and donated books on the shelves in a local coffeehouse. I skimmed through it that day, just long enough to finish my cup of chai, before placing it back [...]

by Latoya Peterson
I am officially a hip hop curmudgeon. After a weekend spent in Houston listening to “Da Stanky Leg” and “the Halle Berry” on local radio, I am officially declaring myself one of those annoying ass old heads who is always waxing about the good old days. Notice here, I’m not talking [...]

by Guest Contributor Geo, originally published at Prometheus Brown

by Guest Contributor Neesha Meminger

A couple of weeks ago I had the Toronto launch of my novel, Shine, Coconut Moon. I prepared myself in the usual way, going over what I would read, how I would introduce myself and the book to the guests, and anticipating audience questions during the Q&A. This Q&A, however, threw [...]