Reporting Fellow
New Orleans, LA
Brentin Mock is a New Orleans-based journalist who serves as Colorlines.com's Reporting Fellow on Voting Rights, covering the challenges presented by new voter ID laws, suppression of voter registration drives, and other attempts to limit electoral power of people of color. In his previous position as senior editor at The Loop 21, Brentin also covered electoral politics with a significant amount of reporting on voter ID issues.
In New Orleans, Brentin also works as web editor for the online, citizen-journalist driven blogsite Bridge the Gulf and helped launch the New Orleans online investigative news site The Lens. He previously worked at The American Prospect as a reporter and blogger covering environmental justice issues through a fellowship awarded by the Metcalf Institute for Environmental Reporting. Brentin also served on the staff of the national magazine Intelligence Report, published by Southern Poverty Law Center, investigating hate groups and anti-immigrant nativist extremists.
Brentin's professional career began in his native city of Pittsburgh, working as managing editor of the African-American community newspaper Renaissance News before joining the staff of the alternative newsweekly Pittsburgh City Paper. His work has been published in GOOD, The Root, The Daily Beast, Newsweek.com, The Grio, The Atlantic, Next American City, Truthout.org, Alternet, Vibe.com, XXL, The Source, and Religion Dispatches.
Follow Brentin at @bmockaveli.
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The Growing Debate Over the Voting Rights Act
by Brentin Mock on May 24 2012, 9:38AM
Section 5 is the ankle bracelet for certain jurisdictions on house arrest for repeated voting rights violations. Those areas now want courts to take the ankle bracelet off.
Topics: Brentin Mock, Politics
Rep. Clyburn: ‘Voter ID is Not a Problem’ … Really?
by Brentin Mock on May 22 2012, 4:00PM
Is the civil rights icon Rep. Jim Clyburn throwing in the towel in the battle over photo voter ID laws?
Topics: Brentin Mock, Politics
Congress Speaks on Voting Rights—and Mississippi Hollers Back
by Brentin Mock on May 18 2012, 9:56AM
The intersection between what congressional Democrats and state Republicans are attempting around voting shows a tragic collision in which democracy, citizens of color, and many living in poverty will be the casualties.
Topics: Brentin Mock, Politics
Is Black and Latino Voter Registration Threatened or Not?
by Brentin Mock on May 11 2012, 10:31AM
There may be some disagreement on the numbers but we should agree on one thing: While voter registration numbers may not be as bad as reported, that doesn’t mean it’s time to rejoice.
Topics: Brentin Mock, Politics
Voter Suppression Groups Plot a Million-Person Army to Swarm Polls
by Brentin Mock on May 10 2012, 9:07AM
The campaign’s leader described how voters should feel while under the gaze of its observers: “Like driving and seeing the police following you.” The right casts this as the real civil rights battle of our time.
Topics: Brentin Mock, Politics, Voter Suppression
A View From Inside the Tea Party’s Voter Suppression Confab
by Brentin Mock on May 1 2012, 10:17AM
The cabal of rightwing activists and elected officials who have worked so hard to create the myth of voter fraud gather in Texas to redouble their efforts.
Topics: Brentin Mock, Politics, Voter Suppression
People of Color Less Likely to Vote Due to Super PAC Influence
by Brentin Mock on April 26 2012, 9:20AM
Unjust Voter ID laws won’t solve the problem of a broken democracy, especially when fat-cat Super PAC donors aren’t subject to the same identification regimens.
Topics: Brentin Mock, Politics
ALEC Scraps Voter ID and ‘Kill at Will’ Task Force
by Brentin Mock on April 17 2012, 1:06AM
ALEC finally cuts loose its task force responsible for popularizing legislation that obstructs voting rights and allows gun owners to kill at will.
Topics: ALEC, Brentin Mock, Politics
How Gender Identity May Determine the Right to Vote in 2012
by Brentin Mock on April 16 2012, 9:06AM
Thanks to strict, new voter ID laws that have swept through states, transgender citizens and others whose gender identities don’t match the state’s declaration of it may not be ale to vote in November.
Topics: Brentin Mock, Gender & Sexuality, Politics
by Brentin Mock on April 12 2012, 3:40PM
Photo voter ID laws will have a disproportionate impact on women voters, who are more likely to have name and address changes.
Topics: Brentin Mock, Politics
AG Eric Holder Will Do ‘Whatever Is Necessary’ to Defend Voting Rights Act
by Brentin Mock on April 11 2012, 11:05AM
Attorney General Eric Holder gives unequivocal defense of voting rights at Sharpton’s National Action Network 14th annual convention.
Topics: Brentin Mock, Politics
Coke, Pepsi and Kraft Have Pulled Out of ALEC—Is That Enough?
by Brentin Mock on April 6 2012, 12:06PM
Coke and Pepsi said they were only in ALEC for the work around discriminatory food and beverage taxes. It would have been nice if they cited the discriminatory impact of voter ID laws.
Topics: ALEC, Brentin Mock, Politics
Latinos Accused of Voter Fraud Feeling the Willie Horton Ill Effect
by Brentin Mock on April 6 2012, 9:30AM
What we can see so far is that Republicans are ramming photo voter ID laws down states’ throats by drumming up fake scares about “voter fraud” caused by “illegal aliens” who are terrorizing the polls by voting and cancelling out the votes of legitimate voters. It’s all bunkum, but plenty of campign mileage miles are racking up off this racket by Republicans
Topics: Brentin Mock, Politics
Quite a Few Snags in Wisconsin Primary Despite ‘No Problems’ Reports
by Brentin Mock on April 4 2012, 12:13PM
Wisconsin local news outlets are saying there were “no issues” with yesterday’s primary elections. That’s not what we heard.
Topics: Brentin Mock, Politics
DOJ Hovers Over Today’s Wisconsin Primary to Protect Civil Rights
by Brentin Mock on April 3 2012, 10:58AM
There is far too much confusion going on in Wisconsin today spread between new redistricting laws, the on-or-off photo voter ID laws, and the lack of diligence in making sure military members and Spanish-speaking residents are able to vote.
Topics: Brentin Mock, Politics
Organized Confusion: Votes Killed, Destroyed, Stressed
by Brentin Mock on March 30 2012, 2:11PM
Voter ID suppoters rely on tricky language. Missouri didn’t fall for it.
Topics: Brentin Mock, Politics
Texas Has to Chill With War on Voting Rights Act
by Brentin Mock on March 28 2012, 11:41AM
The same “chill effect” that Texas attorney general Greg Abbot is concerned about is the same chill that protectors of voting rights are concerned about when it comes to photo voter ID law, especially in Texas.
Topics: Brentin Mock, Politics
Are Voter ID Laws the New Jim Crow?
by Brentin Mock on March 27 2012, 9:53AM
Photo voter ID laws are bad policies, and they have serious potential to suppress voter turnout for millions of people, mostly people of color, low-income citizens, elderly populations and college students. But this is not the equivalent of Jim Crow.
Topics: Brentin Mock, Politics
Hans Von Spakovsky’s False Conclusions About Georgia’s Voter ID Impacts
by Brentin Mock on March 23 2012, 1:42PM
Increase in Georgia’s minority voter turnout was due to large increases in voter registration and the excitement around the Obama campaign, *despite *the voter ID law, but not because of it.
Topics: Politics
Latino Support v Latino Access to ID For Voting Purposes
by Brentin Mock on March 21 2012, 5:00PM
Discriminatory impacts rely more on whether people of color can access something and almost not at all about whether they support it.
Topics: Brentin Mock, Politics
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