Spare Change News

Category: Race

  • America’s Segregated Healthcare System

    America’s Segregated Healthcare System

    It has been almost 149 years since the American Civil War ended, and although progress has been made in the land of the free and the home of the brave, secession still has a peculiar way of revealing itself. The United for a Fair Economy’s (UFE) 11th annual State of the Dream report, entitled “Healthcare…

  • Power and Privilege in the Anthony Weiner Sex Scandal

    From looking at mainstream coverage of Anthony Weiner’s ongoing scandals, it would seem there are only two possible positions to take on the embattled politician. On one side are those who denounce Weiner’s sexting and lies as disqualifying him from office. On the other are those, mostly liberals and progressives, who argue that Weiner’s behavior…

  • Politics as Unusual: Mayoral Candidate Dan Conley’s Troubling Record of Clearing Cops Who Kill Minorities

    Word on the street is that the acquittal of George Zimmerman might catalyze a meaningful dialogue about race and power. In cities coast to coast, a conversation has already manifested, with the biggest protest crowds since Occupy uniting to express outrage and to honor the memory of Trayvon Martin. Around the Hub, it’s anybody’s guess…

  • Before Trayvon Martin

    “Fruitvale Station” directed by Ryan Coogler Significant Productions, 85 min., in theaters now The award-winning film “Fruitvale Station” shows the true story of 22-year-old Oscar Grant III on the day of his death. The timing of this movie could not have been better. Following the acquittal of George Zimmerman in the murder of Trayvon Martin,…

  • Mariama White-Hammond: Project Hip Hop

    Project Hip Hop was started in 1993 and is run out of Roxbury, MA. It is a youth-led organization that aims to re-connect a new generation with the values of the Civil Rights Movement, and to raise people’s awareness of the ongoing struggle against institutionalized racism. Project Hip Hop’s main goal is to teach young…

  • Remembering Gil Scott-Heron

    A powerful voice left us at a youthful age of 62 in late May of 2011 when long-term Harlem resident, poet and recording artist Gil Scott-Heron passed away. Scott-Heron was a rapper, poet and musician who was primarily known for his syncopated spoken words, harsh-blunt criticizing poetry performances in the 1970 ‘s and 1980’s expressing…

  • Voter Suppression: Millions of minorities and youth may be turned away on election day

    The disenfranchisement of democratic leaning constituencies (including low-income, working, welfare, African American, Latino and student populations) has become a major focal point breeding political negativity. This is along with corruption in the voting process as our national election between Republican Mitt Romney and the President Democrat Barack Obama looms approximately six weeks on the horizon.…

  • No Voto Latino

    Regressive voting laws pushed by Republican controlled legislatures in 23 states across the country could keep more than 10 million Latino citizens from registering and voting this year, according to a new study to be released Monday. The new report by the Advancement Project, a multi-racial civil rights organization, is the first state-by-state analysis of…

  • Cornel West: A Voice in the Wilderness

    Cornel West: A Voice in the Wilderness

    “I come to you tonight with a heavy heart,” Cornel West began. “I just buried my grandmother,” he continued at the crowd gathered at West Park Presbyterian Church in the New York, which caused a collective “ahhh.” Dr. West cancelled a number of speaking engagements in early March, pausing his whirlwind schedule to deliver the…

  • Race & Liberalism

    “Race” as an idea barely existed before the Enlightenment and the onset of modernity in the West. Today, many dismiss the race-concept as an illusion, arguing that “there is no such thing as race;” or in more universalist terms, “there is only one race: the human race.” Yet race continues to demarcate and stratify all…