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NPR News and Notes With Farai Chideya

Archive for April, 2007

30 Apr

Passing

You might find this naive, but until several days ago, I had thought I would never again encounter anyone passing. Passing is the term used to describe someone who denies his or her racial, ethnic or religious heritage to enjoy the privilege or favor of the larger more accepted culture. During Jim Crow, some light skinned black [...]

26 Apr

Scalpel or Sledgehammer?

I was disappointed with much of Bob Morris’ New York Times  article ‘When You Meet an Imus’. The article discussed the sometimes tricky predicament of confronting subtle or not so subtle racist comments and jokes one hears in the regular course of life. I know this is a hard one for many people. There is fear [...]

24 Apr

Remix: Racial Faux Paus - Deux

I am on the road for the next couple of days, so I thought I’d bring back a couple of posts you might have missed. New posts resume Thursday. Enjoy.
I was a youngster when the movie Serpico, starring Al Pacino, opened. The movie captured the true life story of Frank Serpico, an honest, undercover, New [...]

23 Apr

2007 - First Integrated Prom

Turner County High School in Ashburn, Georgia held its FIRST racially integrated prom, on Saturday. The prom was reasonably well attended, although many white students held a separate, private party a week later. Read about it here:
First Integrated Prom in Ashburn, Georgia

22 Apr

Weighty Matters

I came across this post about an experiment conducted in Belgium to study the correlation between the desire for money and the desire for food. In a nutshell, results demonstrated that poor people with a strong desire for money, unable to acquire money, will turn to food and instead, acquire calories. I have a few [...]

21 Apr

Erase Racism Carnival

YAY!  AllAboutRace.com has been selected to participate in this month’s Erase Racism Carnival.
The Erase Racism Carnival  is a collection of blog posts dedicated to creating a world free of racism. The Carnival is published around the 20th of every month.
So, head on over to Double Consciousness and enjoy the carnival!

20 Apr

The Play’s the thing

This post comes from contributor Dawn Comer Jefferson; read on. 
My name is Dawn Comer Jefferson and I’m an African American, married, mother of two.  I’m a writer.  I write for magazines, ezines, radio, television, features, anyone who will pay me.  I’d write the fortunes for fortune cookies if the check cleared.  Probably something like, “You [...]

19 Apr

In Good Hands…

This photo articulates my views about our interconnectedness better than a year of posts ever would. Thank you Andrew Padula for passing it along.
Does anyone know the full story behind this photo? If you do, please share your knowledge with us. I would like to find and credit the photographer. 
What do you see?

18 Apr

From the Usual Suspect

Contributor Andrew Padula obtained his AA in Mass Communications at Montgomery College and then went on to receive his BA in Media Arts from the University of Maryland. He tossed it, his words, to do post graduate studies at Musicians Institute of Hollywood (rock star school). Andrew has been teaching and touring the U.S. and [...]

17 Apr

Using Grief

I presume that we are all deeply saddened by the mass murder of Virginia Tech students and faculty. It was a savage and cowardly act. The gunman chained the doors to prevent his targets from having any real chance of escaping his rage. Then, he shot himself to would evade any justice this world could [...]

16 Apr

Gary - A Busing Story

Gary was my friend in fourth grade. He had big brown eyes, dark brown, bowl cut hair, and a little turned up nose, sprinkled with freckles. Oh, and he had a wide happy smile and dimples. Gary was one of the first friends I made at Calverton Elementary. In the search for educational parity, I [...]

14 Apr

If the accuser was…

I was feeling particularly affronted and aggressive when I wrote this. What I want us to think about now is how race affects our perceptions of the stories making news headlines. I want to look at the Duke Lacrosse news coverage in a slightly different way.  How do you think the media would cover a [...]

13 Apr

Playing to the Base

I took a step back yesterday in an attempt to see the trees in the forest of this latest cacophony of racial conflict. What I see is troublesome because the problem is not only about race, but also about the broader balkanization of America. The reason? I see more and more people ‘playing to their [...]

12 Apr

Crazy

I don’t know about you, but it’s been a crazy week for me. In the past six days, I’ve had about a dozen engaging, but exhausting conversations about race; two of these with strangers who asked me to explain the term, ‘nappy,’ and why Imus was in so much ‘trouble.’ On Tuesday, I was called [...]

11 Apr

If the accuser was white…

ABC News is reporting that all charges against the three white Duke Lacrosse players accused of raping a black dancer will be dropped. This is long overdue. Testimony was inconsistent, evidence flimsy and the DNA didn’t match up. Mike Nifong rode roughshod over the criminal justice system in Durham and that’s reprehensible.
Read the latest from [...]