If You Care About Immigrant Rights, Learn Black America’s History Too

by Rinku Sen on February 3 2012, 9:43AM

This month, our Drop the I-Word campaign is urging immigrants and their advocates to join a virtual book club discussing Isabel Wilkerson’s “The Warmth of Other Suns.”

Topics: Drop the I-Word, Rinku Sen

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How East Haven, Conn., Became Synonymous With Racial Profiling

by Seth Freed Wessler on February 2 2012, 10:22AM

Even if the town cops’ lawlessness is fixed, questions remain that go far beyond East Haven’s city limits. The issue was not just that racist local cops wanted to deport immigrants; it’s that federal immigration authorities obliged them.

Topics: Criminal Justice, Dispatches, Immigration

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Why Black Union Workers Matter In This Year’s Super Bowl Showdown

by Jamilah King on February 2 2012, 9:51AM

Indiana’s unionized workers have found an unexpectedly loud ally in the NFL’s players association.

Topics: Arts & Culture, Economy

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The Tragic, Craven Undoing of Susan G. Komen for the Cure’s Noble Mission

by Akiba Solomon on February 1 2012, 10:01AM

Whether they like it or not, defunding Planned Parenthood’s breast health programs makes Susan G. Komen Foundation look anti-choice. And of course, poor women of color will suffer most.

Topics: Akiba Solomon, Gender & Sexuality, Health, Planned Parenthood

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The Prison Industrial (Retirement) Complex, by the Numbers

by Hatty Lee on February 1 2012, 9:14AM

After decades of indiscriminately locking people up and throwing away the key, states are discovering yet another consequence of over-incarceration: rapidly aging prison populations.

Topics: Criminal Justice

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Why Microsoft’s So-Called ‘Avoid Ghetto’ App Is Really American

by Jamilah King on January 31 2012, 9:20AM

Microsoft’s controversial new mapping technology would direct users away from supposedly violent neighborhoods. But it is based on faulty assumptions about violent crime that are a rooted in a long history of racist ideas about black communities.

Topics: Media

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Young Activists Plot the Future of the LGBT Rights Movement

by Shani O. Hilton on January 30 2012, 9:00AM

Over 2,000 people showed up at the annual Creating Change conference in Baltimore to talk about building an inclusive agenda for queer activists and allies.

Topics: Gender & Sexuality

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Why is Hollywood So Afraid of Black Women? [Reader Forum]

by Channing Kennedy on January 30 2012, 9:00AM

Colorlines.com readers discuss The Help’s place as a good vehicle for black actresses and a bad vehicle for accurate history.

Topics: Media

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Muslim Americans to NYPD: Enough Already, the Commish Must Go

by Seth Freed Wessler on January 27 2012, 9:48AM

This week’s revelation that NYPD leaders lied about their participation in an anti-Muslim film that was then shown to 1,500 trainees was just the latest in a growing string of evidence that the department is systematically profiling the city’s Muslim residents.

Topics: Criminal Justice, National Security

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How San Francisco Organizers Rewrote the Rules to Save Minimum Wage [Video]

by David Zlutnick on January 27 2012, 9:04AM

Thanks to an innovative multiracial organizing campaign, San Francisco’s minimum wage is the first in the nation to pass the $10/hr mark. Colorlines.com’ video team speaks with the organizers about how they did it and what’s next.

Topics: Economy

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