Racial Justice

When Barack Obama rose to the Presidency, commentators eagerly concluded that America is done with racism and we are now in a “post-racial” society. At the same time, Americans are facing the most severe economic crisis that the nation has seen in generations. This crisis is hitting poor communities of color harder than others, diminishing further the scant resources they have. This is a rare moment in our country: a time of transformation to create a more just, equitable and healthier society for all Americans.

News and Views

5/12/09 - Homeownership Losses Are Greatest Among Minorities, Report Finds

3/15/09 - Job losses hit black men hardest - Some 8 percent of black men in the US have lost their jobs since November 2007, according to a recent study.

3/15/09 - An equal opportunity recession?

3/12/09 - Our House Is On Fire, Part 1: Now the Robber Barons Replace the Welfare Queens (and Rightly So)

3/11/09 - The Mirage Of Hispanic Job Growth

3/10/09 - Blacks, Hispanics at bottom of income ladder - In both Canada and the United States, the two groups face substantial economic inequities

3/8/09 - Illegal immigrants might get stimulus jobs, experts say

3/8/09 - At Least Somebody’s Doing Well In This Economy: Private Prisons

2/13/09 - Latino unemployment increases - The recession is having a severe impact on immigrants from Latin America, according to the Census Bureau.

1/16/09 - The State of Minorities: The Recession Issue - The recession has caused hardship for all Americans, but minorities have been hit particularly hard by these difficult economic times.

Learn More - Racial Wealth Divide - United for a Fair Economy

Today's Civil Rights

		Harry Belafonte Speaking Out For Justice In this fiery speech, Belafonte recalls a conversation he had with Martin Luther King during the civil rights movement, when King told him he believed they (African Americans) were integrating into a “burning house” and that one day they would have to become firemen.

		Latin Pulse: Immigration Reform and Immigrant Rights Latin Pulse investigates the role of ICE and its raid policies which the new administration is reviewing.

		Latin Pulse: The Immigration Issue The human face of immigration. Is illegal immigration a necessary evil? Or an impossible problem that has to be solved?

		Al Sharpton - An Even Playing Field Rev. Al Sharpton speaks candidly about how he thinks the media glosses over the complexity of racial politics in its coverage of Election 2008.

		Randall Kennedy: Barack Obama's Crossover Appeal Harvard Law Professor and controversial author Randall Kennedy discusses Barack Obama's crossover appeal with Christopher Edley, Jr. Originally presented on January 16, 2008 at the City Arts and Lectures in San Francisco, CA.

		Is Racism Dead? (ARC) After this election: people are saying we are a post-racial society...

Profiling, Stereotypes, & Policy

		Al Jazeera English - Witness: Border Crossing Gadi Schwartz is a young Latino studying journalism at an American university. He decides to travel to Mexico to examine his own feelings as he witnesses the realities of Mexican immigration first hand.

		Grand Prize Winner of Link TV’s “One Nation, Many Voices” Online Film Festival In December 2007, over 2,000 American Muslims were asked what they would wish to say to the rest of the world. This is what they said. A music video for Kareem Salama's "A Land Called Paradise."

		Tulia Texas A shocking look at the collateral consequences of America's drug war. In 1999, forty-three people in this tiny town, located between Lubbock and Amarillo were arrested in a drug sting conducted by a single undercover officer with no corroborating evidence. The majority of those arrested were African-American; the rest had connections with the African-American community.

		Global Pulse: The Undocumented Immigration views from around the world.

		Medical Racial Profiling (ARC) Generations Ahead's Sujatha Jesudason pushes back against bad science that ties racial genetics to certain health issues.

		Reel Bad Arabs Reel Bad Arabs is a groundbreaking book that dissects a slanderous cinematic history. The films examined here date from cinema's earliest days to contemporary Hollywood blockbusters that feature machine-gun wielding, bomb-exploding "evil" Arabs.

		ACLU Freedom Files: Racial Profiling Racial profiling may have fallen off the radar screen for the majority of Americans, but for those affected, it remains a serious problem.

		Death on a Friendly Border Death on a Friendly Border explores the difficulties faced by the thousands of migrants each year attempting to make the journey across the border.

The Language of Race

		“Merit”: Word Hijacks the Conversation around Racial Disparities (ARC) Todays WORD! is: "Merit". Do those who don't excel in life (incidentally often people of color and the poor) get what they deserve?

		Breaking the Code (ARC) Tammy Johnson discusses her dismay with President Obama's use of racially coded language in his speech to the Congress.

		"Nigger or Nigga? A Dialog On Race..." (Youtube) As part of the dialog around the upcoming performance at Laney College of "ColorStuck," a one-man play by Donald Lacy about race and color, Peralta TV has produced a hard-hitting, controversial documentary, which looks closely at questions of race and identity raised by the African American community.

Race and the Economy

		Race and the Recession: A Hidden Life Sentence (ARC) ARC's Seth Wessler sits down with Vincent, a Detroit native who finds himself unemployable because of a prison sentence he served 25 years ago

		A Green Economy is for Everyone (ARC) Ian Kim of the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights calls for advocacy groups to join forces to ensure that the stimulus money gets put into green-collar jobs initiatives at all levels of government, to strengthen our most vulnerable communities, and to create sustainable industries for our new century.

Global Racism

		Blue and Black Through a series of digital links, two black policemen, Sergeant Hendriek Mohale of the South African Police Service in Soweto and Sergeant David Van of the 23rd Police District in Philadelphia, explore how they are each coping with crime, the pressures of police work, and a legacy of racism on the job and in their lives in Vis a Vis: Blue and Black.

		All White in Barking This British doc probes the attitudes of a town's white residents toward their immigrant neighbors, exploring the shockingly unexamined prejudices about the newcomers' dress, religion, and strange cooking smells.

Read the Report!

Race and Recession is a report that tells the stories of people of color who are disproportionately affected by the recession.

The report, conducted by Applied Research Center in Oakland, California, was released on May 18, 2009 and uncovers root causes of long-term racial inequities that fed into the economic crisis. It proposes structural solutions to change a system that threatens future generations.

You can also visit arc.org/recession to watch the Race and Recession video.

The Compact for Racial Justice:

The Compact for Racial Justice offers concrete strategies and policy proposals to reverse racial disparities and move our society towards full equity, inclusion and dignity for all people. The Compact transcends talk of personal prejudice with compelling evidence of institutional racism and realistic proactive solutions. It seeks to engage a broad multiracial base of activists, opinion leaders and policymakers in making government and powerful institutions accountable for eliminating racial inequality in our schools, hospitals, courtrooms and workplaces.

Download PDF

GRITtv: Withdrawal from Conference on Racism Surprises Many

The Obama administration has decided not to attend the second international conference on racism in April. Many organizers and activists are disappointed, to say the least. More on this clip here.

		Tim Wise on the roots of White Privilege (ChallengingMedia) For years, acclaimed author and speaker Tim Wise has been electrifying audiences on the college lecture circuit with his deeply personal take on whiteness and white privilege.

		I'm Not a Racist An election update from the American South.

		Something Wrong With Being a Muslim? (MIR: October 25, 2008) On "Meet the Press"former Secretary of State Colin Powell crossed party lines and endorsed Barack Obama for President of the United States.

		Building Alliances ARC's Tammy Johnson and Asian Pacific American Legal Center's Karin Wang speak on the need for alliance-building between racial justice and LGBTQ advocacy groups.

		The Big Spin: Big Easy Big Empty In Big Easy to Big Empty, investigative journalist and author, Greg Palast, went to New Orleans to find out how the devastated city has fallen prey to land-grabbers.

		New Orleans for Sale This video was created by 2-cent, a group of New Orleans college students who collectively make projects aimed at inspiring change within the young generation.