by Special Correspondent Fatemeh Fakhraie I know, I know. If you’re looking for socially conscious rap or hip hop, you don’t go to Busta Rhymes. But this still surprises me: Maytha from KABOBfest has highlighted Rhyme’s song “Arab Money,” which has some disgustingly racist lyrics. Maytha brings up some great points about this video, namely, that it is a blatant example of the acceptability of anti-Arab racism. Let me highlight some of Busta’s rhymes: Women ...

by Guest Contributor Marisol LeBron, originally published at NACLA (North American Congress on Latin America) Political pundits have celebrated president-elect Barack Obama’s sweeping and historic victory as evidence that the United States has taken an initial step toward a “post-racial” or “colorblind” society. In a recent Los Angeles Times Op-Ed, Shelby Steele provocatively asked, “Doesn’t a black in the Oval Office put the lie to both black inferiority and white racism? Doesn’t it imply a ...

by Guest Contributor Angry Asian Man, originally published at Angry Asian Man SAALT (South Asian Americans Leading Together) has been keeping track of an increase in xenophobic violence and rhetoric against South Asians in the weeks and months leading up to the 2008 elections, including assaults targeting immigrants who either supported or were perceived to support President-Elect Obama. Here are a few examples of recent violence against South Asians and other communities of color: Hardwick, ...

by Latoya Peterson As America fretted about Obama’s exoticism and he sought to calm the waters with speeches about unity and common experience, Michelle’s body was sending a different message: To hell with biracialism! Compromise, bipartisanship? Don’t think so. Here was one clear signifier of blackness that couldn’t be tamed, muted or otherwise made invisible. It emerged right before our eyes, in the midst of our growing uncertainty about everything, and we were too bogged ...

Jenn at Reappropriate has an interesting perspective on Palin and Bipartisan feminism. Angry Asian Man points us toward this Complex post on “When Hollywood Rips Off South Korea.” I agree with AAM, as a J.S.A. remake makes no freaking sense. I’m also kind of shocked at the My Wife is a Gangster remake with Queen Latifah. I’ll go borrow Hae’s copy of that one and try to put together a post on that. Safiya Outlines ...

by Guest Contributor Jack, originally published at Angry Brown Butch On February 12, 2008, Duanna Johnson was brutally beaten by a Memphis police officer after she refused to respond when the officer called her “he-she” and “faggot.” That night, Johnson became yet another of the countless trans women of color to be targeted and brutalized by police in this country. Two officers were fired after the attack; neither was prosecuted. Just to be trans, just ...

by Carmen Van Kerckhove Absolutely love this MadTV spoof of the white teacher in the ghetto movies.

by Guest Contributor Adele Carpenter Dear Friends, I am writing because I am disturbed by the string of articles, blog entries, and list serve threads that have come out in the last few days suggesting that the high turnout of African American and Latino voters for the presidential election was responsible for the passage of California’s proposition 8, which dealt a heavy blow to LGBT families by banning gay marriage in the state’s constitution. These ...

by Guest Contributor Joanna Eng The September 25 issue of Time Out New York (TONY) featured a list of their favorite 40 New Yorkers who have made an impact on the city in the past 13 years. I was appalled to see that out of the 40 cultural leaders that they highlighted, only three were people of color (Jay-Z, Derek Jeter, and Junot Diaz), two weren’t even human (Spider-Man and the MetroCard), and the other ...

Ta-Nehisi Coates - More on Prop 8 Dan Savage is pissed: I’m done pretending that the handful of racist gay white men out there–and they’re out there, and I think they’re scum–are a bigger problem for African Americans, gay and straight, than the huge numbers of homophobic African Americans are for gay Americans, whatever their color. Fair enough. I have no way of judging how much of a problem “gay racist white men” are for ...

A Racialicious Roundtable Alternet recently reprinted an article by James Kim (written for The Nation), reporting: If exit polls are to be believed, some 70 percent of African-Americans voted Yes on 8, as did 53 percent of Latinos and 49 percent of Asians; each of these demographics went heavily for Obama; blacks by a 94-to-6 margin. Los Angeles County, heavily minority, went 50-50 on Prop 8. These results have shocked gay activists, who knew from ...

by guest contributor Shawna, originally published at Islam On My Side A Letter to My Sons on the Eve of a Nation’s Great Change November 5, 2008 My Dear Sons, If I can indicate to you the significance of Barack Obama’s election as President of the United States of America in even the smallest way, I will have succeeded with this letter. You’ve seen that I’ve spent much of this day in silence and tears. ...

by guest contributor Tim Wise Tonight, after Barack Obama was confirmed as the nation’s president-elect, I looked in on my children, as they lay sleeping. Though they are about as politically astute as kids can be, having reached only the ages of 7 and 5, there is no way they will be able to truly appreciate what has just happened in the land they call home. They do not possess the sense of history, or ...

I published a piece in for the American Prospect, detailing “Five Ways We Talked About Race and Identity This Election:” Can we talk about race for a minute? I know — we’ve been talking about race since 2007, when Barack Obama formally entered the primary. The 2008 election has galvanized discussions of race (as well as class and gender) in America. Since Barack Obama’s “A More Perfect Union” speech challenged Americans to take the discussion ...

by Carmen Van Kerckhove Addicted to Race is New Demographic’s podcast about America’s obsession with race. Here’s a rundown of what you’ll find in this episode: Was Gwen Ifill a biased moderator because of her book on Obama and other young black politicians? How did Palin and Biden perform during the debates? Why hasn’t the mainstream media covered the recent chemical attack on a Dayton, Ohio mosque during Ramadan? And finally, does anyone still care ...

Thanks to the Toronto Asian Arts Freedom School for helping me figure out just why I have a hard time with Halloween, and for allowing me to share our strategies with Racialicious! I’m a Halloween party pooper. I do a dismal job of dressing up. My last costume consisted of a baseball hat with googly eyes and mouse ears. I’ve only given out candy once. Some years I’ve even hidden upstairs in the dark, ashamed ...

by Latoya Peterson Before I sat down to watch D. L. Hughley Breaks the News, I was skeptical of the whole project. D.L. Hughley doesn’t immediately come to mind when I think of a comedian that is well versed in politics and current events. The author of the NY Times article seems to concur, noting: For the last week Mr. Hughley, 45, has had to arrive every morning at his office at CNN in Manhattan ...

by Guest Contributor Jenn Fang, originally published at Reappropriate This past Sunday, former Secretary of State Colin Powell broke with the GOP ranks to endorse Senator Barack Obama for president. Citing in part McCain’s negative campaigning as part of his decision, Powell said of Obama: Sen. Obama has demonstrated the kind of calm, patient, intellectual, steady approach to problem-solving that I think we need in this country. As political analysts posted wave upon wave of ...

by Latoya Peterson This is Ashley Todd. According to the Smoking Gun: OCTOBER 23–Shortly before a John McCain campaign volunteer was reportedly robbed at knifepoint and had a “B” carved in her face after her assailant noticed that her car carried a McCain bumper sticker, the woman blogged last night that she was “Stubbornly searching for a bank of america to avoid ATM fees” and had somehow ended up “on the wrong side of pittsburgh.” ...

by Guest Contributor Angry Asian Man, originally published at Angry Asian Man Some racist news from abroad, spotted over at the Resist racism blog… In Wales, an Asian woman has accused a university of racism after she was apparently told that an accountancy course might not be suitable for “Oriental people”: University in ‘Oriental’ race row. Odgerel Hatenboer, who is originally from Mongolia, attended an open day at Glyndwr University in Wrexham, with the hope ...