Colorlines Celebrates Successful Year; Announces New Bloggers

By Rebekah Spicuglia Mar 01, 2011

NEW YORK, March 1, 2011–Colorlines.com is thrilled to celebrate a remarkable year and plans for growth. Since launching as a daily news and analysis site in mid-2010, the site has grown exponentially, expanding audience by ten-fold, building vibrant community in social media and playing an active role in mass media discussions. All of this allows Colorlines.com to achieve its core mission: introducing a mass audience to new ideas and solutions for bringing about racial justice.

As part of Colorlines.com continued growth, three crucial voices have been added:

Publisher Rinku Sen on 21st century racial justice and the ideas and solutions that drive it in Movement Notes. A noted thought leader, Rinku has long weaved journalism and organizing to further social change.

D.C. Correspondent Shani O. Hilton on the Beltway. The 112th Congress will host crucial debates, from attacks on birthright citizenship to implementation of economic and health care reforms.

Akiba Solomon on gender through the lens of race and culture in Gender Matters, recently covering the attacks on Planned Parenthood. Akiba has a long history facilitating tough conversations for a mainstream audience at The Source, Essence, and "Naked: Black Women Bare All About Their Skin, Hair, Hips, Lips, and Other Parts."

Colorlines.com is produced by a multiracial team of writers covering politics, immigration, education, economy, youth and pop culture. Recent accomplishments:

  • Increasing number of partnerships: Texas Observer reprint of Seth Freed Wessler’s investigation into the shocking deportation of a Forth Worth resident; Julianne Hing and Channing Kennedy guest blogging for TheAtlantic.com’s Ta-Nehisi Coates and American Prospect; Kai Wright on several NPR programs.

  • Media outlets following Colorlines.com’s lead to Drop the I-Word ("illegals") as a dehumanizing and biased term that doesn’t represent objective journalism and leads to stigmatizing of immigrants.

  • As member of The Media Consortium, partnering with Public Insight Network to amplify voices of communities of color in database of 100,000+ knowledgeable sources for journalists.

  • On every major racial justice story of 2010: historic Oscar Grant murder trial, Arizona’s SB 1070, jobs crisis, mid-term election race-baiting.

Colorlines.com is guided by editorial director Kai Wright, who transformed a 12-year-old distinguished print magazine into a hard-hitting daily news site, published by the Applied Research Center (ARC), a racial justice think tank using media, research, and activism to promote solutions.

CONTACT: Rebekah Spicuglia, 415-290-2970, [email protected]