Greetings all,
On Monday, All About Race will relaunch with a brand new look. My friend Nezua is doing the design work and he creates beautiful environments. So for the next few days due to some transfer and technical issues, the site may be down from time to time. This is all temporary and I thank you in advance for your patience.
Have a good weekend and see you Labor Day.
Carmen D.

So this morning I awoke with a racial tension headache. It’s clearly a hangover from a couple of silly but annoying incidents yesterday.
The most annoying began when I stepped on an elevator with several Korean American (Korean?) college kids and one of them immediately started talking in some kind of “hoodspeak.” He was going on about how he wasn’t an “OG” although they were headed to the “LG”…that would be the “lower garage” level of the building we were in. He and another of his friends also went on, …

I had decided to let the debate about whether or not the brutal, stomach turning murders of Channon Christian and Christopher Newsom warranted a “hate crime” designation, roll on without any more comment from me. I was pretty clear in June when I wrote:
I am still not convinced that the torture and murder of Christian and Newsom is a hate crime in the most rigid definition of the term. I am not convinced that the race of the victims had much to do with how they were murdered. But, …

Contributor Andrew Padula has been in situations throughout his life where he has felt compelled to address racial issues from his unusual perspective. Andrew is a white, politically conservative, blues musician who has been teaching and touring the U.S. and Europe since 1993. He can be seen with blues legend Bobby Parker on B.E.T. Jazz Central as well as on Carlos Santana’s recent DVD release “Montreux Blues Summit”. His point of view adds plenty to our discussion, so I welcome Andrew and his column The Topsoil to Allaboutrace.com. As Andrew …

The 16th Erase Racism Carnival is Here! Click on over and you’ll find a host of great writers all putting their best words forward to tackle racism. All About Race is honored to be featured in the carnival as well.
Also there you’ll see more of Robert Shetterly’s Americans Who Tell the Truth Portraits.
Hats off to Alas, A Blog for doing such a terrific job putting the Carnival together this month.
Enjoy!
Carmen D.

Contributor Carole McDonnell’s short stories and essays appear online and in print, in speculative fiction, ethnic, and Christian publications. She lives in New York with her husband, two sons, and their pets. Wind Follower, published by Juno Books, is Carole’s first novel. Her voice adds plenty to our discussion, so I welcome Carole and her column Faith in Color to Allaboutrace.com.
I’ll be the first to say it: I am a pill. I mean…I’m a nice person and all, but I am a pill of the most nudgy persnicketty order. Time …

I wanted to call your attention to a traveling exhibit of portraits entitled: Americans Who Tell the Truth.
Americans Who Tell the Truth, which includes more than 100 paintings, was created as artist Robert Shetterly’s answer to the attacks of 9/11 and what he saw happening in America.
I began painting this series of portraits — finding great Americans who spoke the truth and combining their images with their words — nearly three years ago as a way of to channel my anger and grief. In the process my respect and love …

Looks like UNICEF’s latest campaign to support African children missed the mark. The campaign featuring white children with their faces covered in mud, has been pulled. No one would argue the fact that UNICEF does a lot of good work in a lot of forlorn places, but…

What were they thinking?
Hat tip to Black Women in Europe & Radar Online
READ the details.

As often as possible, it’s healthful to push past all the damning, screaming crime headlines to do a reality check: bottom line, juvenile crime is down in America.
Amid news stories that raise the specter of increasing juvenile crime, it is easy to lose sight of the fact that crime rates overall, particularly for violent crimes, are still near 30-year lows. The cries of alarm are reminiscent of those heard in the early 1990s, when a rise in violent juvenile crime and myths of superpredators helped transform a system that …

Contributor Andrew Padula has been in situations throughout his life where he has felt compelled to address racial issues from his unusual perspective. Andrew is a white, politically conservative, blues musician who has been teaching and touring the U.S. and Europe since 1993. He can be seen with blues legend Bobby Parker on B.E.T. Jazz Central as well as on Carlos Santana’s recent DVD release “Montreux Blues Summit”. His point of view adds plenty to our discussion, so I welcome Andrew and his column The Topsoil to Allaboutrace.com. As Andrew …

According to University of Louisville Professor Joanne Rowe,
Blue eyed people are better strategic thinkers than brown eyed people. And while Brown-eyed people succeeded in activities such as football and hockey, lighter-eyed participants proved to be more succesful in activities that required skills in time structuring and planning such as golf, cross-country running and studying for exams, the scientists said. Louisville University professor Joanna Rowe, who conducted the tests, said the results suggested an unexplored link between eye colour and academic achievement. Blue-eyed people better off, say scientists, news.com.au
Professor Rowe, …

Elvira Arellano was arrested outside a downtown Los Angeles church on Sunday afternoon and she has been deported to Mexico. She had been speaking out against separation of families and was on her way to speak at another church when unmarked U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement cars surrounded her SUV and took her into custody. It went down like this:
As Arellano, her 8-year-old son Saul and others headed in a sport-utility vehicle along Main Street toward another leg of their trip in Northern California, several unmarked cars swarmed the vehicle, …

Contributor Carole McDonnell’s short stories and essays appear online and in print, in speculative fiction, ethnic, and Christian publications. She lives in New York with her husband, two sons, and their pets. Wind Follower, published by Juno Books, is Carole’s first novel. Her voice adds plenty to our discussion, so I welcome Carole and her column Faith in Color to Allaboutrace.com.
Well it’s that time of year again. Unlike events I actually can control, this “time of year” usually has nothing to do with my planning. If it was up …

I believe we can change the world an action at a time. Some turns of events necessitate massive action by lots of people acting simultaneously in pursuit of a big idea. But, if we’re honest, most of us will only muster the resolve to modify our actions in “small ways.” That’s good. Aggregate a bunch of those “small ways” and you have something else. A movement, maybe?
These crayons rock! If you can, buy some for a kid you know or a school that could use them. At least pass this …

This case reads like an incomprehensible headline out of the poorest and most isolated war torn regions of another country. But it happened in Florida, about two months ago. Here are the details:
After dark on June 18, the police say, as many as 10 armed assailants repeatedly raped a Haitian immigrant in her apartment at Dunbar Village and then went further, forcing her to perform oral sex on her 12-year-old son. They took cellphone pictures of their acts. They burned the woman’s skin and the boy’s eyes with cleaning …