Economy

Communities of Color Under Full Economic Depression (Attack)

Written by Jill Garvey

The housing market crash constitutes the largest loss of wealth to Black Americans in modern history. When I heard this last year it blew me away. I’m still trying to wrap my arms around the enormity of that fact. I think I even dropped it into a blog post hoping to receive alarmed exclamations from readers. This seemed to me a dire and largely unrecognized injustice – akin to watching poor residents of New Orleans abandoned during, and exploited after, Katrina.

I was reminded of this once more when I heard author Beryl Satter on the Tavis Smiley show yesterday. She was explaining how post-WWII Blacks in Chicago were discriminated against by… Read more

Pursuit of Perfection

Written by Ana Turck

My pursuit of perfection became much easier once I started school. Not only did I have tangible proof of my worth in the form of grades, but I also was able to spend time with Tata, since he was in charge of my educational support. I anticipated our studying sessions with a mixture of fear and happiness. Fear, because I knew that I would be slapped at least once or twice if I underperformed, and happiness because, even in this twisted kind of way, I had his full attention, no matter how brief our studying sessions were. My first encounter with Tata’s impossibly high standards was akin to hazing.

Politics

Health Care Reform: Help Get It Done

Written by Guest Blogger

by Kathleen Duffy

“The principal weapon of those who want to maintain the status quo is, as always, fear. Fear immobilizes. And fear of the unknown crushes the desire for change, even in the midst of conditions that cry out for change.”  – Robert Creamer, 7/30/09

In moving health care reform ahead, we are doing battle not just with the status quo, but with people who are willing to grotesquely distort the truth and outright lie in order to sway public opinion. When Sen. Boehner issues a statement saying that health care reform means that Democrats are trying to kill seniors, he knows that that is completely untrue. He knows, as you and I… Read more