COLORLINES - Channing Kennedy

Channing Kennedy

New Media Producer / Community Manager
Oakland, CA

Channing Kennedy is the new media producer for Colorlines.com, tending the site's community and social media presence while managing larger social media campaigns. He's responsible for most of Colorlines' original video content, working with reporters, researchers, advocates, and community members to tell the human stories behind the news — from net neutrality, to the Asian model minority myth, to Detroit's foreclosure crisis, to racial profiling by police. Channing is also an enabled media-analysis junkie; he's written for Colorlines on the agendas of right-wing pundits and the politics of anti-racist internet jokes.

In 2010, he co-wrote and edited the half-hour TV special "Colorlines: Race and Economic Recovery," which met with viewer acclaim and which still airs on stations across the country. Channing came to Colorlines from the world of no-budget guerilla art — making videos, running a record label, and performing in touring bands, while using existing technologies to criticize art's role in society and to explore new methods of artist-audience interaction.

Channing served in Americorps*NCCC in 2000, where he and his team worked hands-on with housing, education, and environmental projects. He trains nonprofits on how to use social media and video in strategically goal-oriented campaigns, and has written at length on the need for a proactive approach to cultural privilege in the internet's still-forming status quo. He enjoys exploring the intersection of nerd culture and social issues, in comics, video games, and comedy.

Channing has written for the American Prospect, and has been a guest on the PostBourgie podcast; his work has also appeared on The Root, Alternet, and Feministing.

Channing is @thatssochanning on Twitter, and is the human behind @colorlines.

Why Didn’t Florida’s Stand-Your-Ground Ethics Apply to Marissa Alexander? [Reader Forum]

by Channing Kennedy on May 21 2012, 8:57AM

Readers discuss the race politics of Alexander’s 20-year sentence for firing a warning shot at her abusive ex-husband.

Topics: Trayvon Martin

Life’s ‘Lowest Difficulty Setting’: John Scalzi Explains Privilege to Nerds

by Channing Kennedy on May 18 2012, 9:00AM

Science fiction can be a tool for social justice — or it can sneak the status quo back in. John Scalzi talks about holding other straight white dudes accountable, and how his genre is evolving.

Topics: Media

At San Francisco’s Latino Comics Expo, Artists Create Their Own Heroes

by Channing Kennedy on May 15 2012, 8:40AM

Confessionals about family and tattoos? A Mesoamerican answer to Game of Thrones? E.T. in a sombrero? These comic artists are doing it all, and doing it for themselves.

Topics: Arts & Culture

What Will Be The Legacy Of Obama’s Embrace of Marriage Equality? [Reader Forum]

by Channing Kennedy on May 14 2012, 9:00AM

The Colorlines.com community reacts with mixed feelings to Obama’s historic statement.

Topics: Gender & Sexuality, Marriage Rights

How is Occupy Los Angeles Working With Communities of Color? [Reader Forum]

by Channing Kennedy on May 7 2012, 9:09AM

Colorlines.com readers talk about how immigrant rights groups and Occupy Los Angeles came together on May Day.

Topics: #Occupy

Hey Ashton Kutcher and PopChips: Brownface is Still Racist [Video]

by Channing Kennedy on May 2 2012, 4:39PM

A new Youtube campaign shows bad judgment from the Two And A Half Men star.

Topics: Arts & Culture, Media, /NOW Blog

Are You a ‘Revolutionary Patient’ like Kuttin Kandi? [Reader Forum]

by Channing Kennedy on April 30 2012, 9:43AM

The Colorlines.com community talks fat-phobia, medical professional bias, and journeying toward real health.

Topics: Arts & Culture

Understanding Hipster Racism: Lester Bangs’ 1979 “White Noise Supremacists”

by Channing Kennedy on April 27 2012, 4:30PM

The late rock critic took his scene, and himself, to task for “racist chic” back in 1979. His message and analysis is sadly relevant today.

Topics: Arts & Culture, History

Colbert Shows Anti-Immigrant ‘Environmental’ Group’s Ties to Hate

by Channing Kennedy on April 26 2012, 1:55PM

A new ad running on MSNBC claims undocumented immigrants are destroying the environment. Guess where their data comes from?

Topics: Environment, Immigration, /NOW Blog

Illinois’ African Women Entrepreneurs Fight For Their Right to Braid [Video]

by Channing Kennedy on April 25 2012, 3:01PM

A new video shows how Illinois’ professional hair braiders worked with legislators to defeat a racially skewed licensing law.

Topics: Arts & Culture, Economy, /NOW Blog

Another 6-Yr.-Old in Handcuffs? Harry Belafonte on Child Incarceration

by Channing Kennedy on April 24 2012, 8:29AM

In light of Florida kindergartener Salecia Johnson’s classroom arrest, here’s more from our interview session with Harry Belafonte, in which he discusses his fight to end child incarceration.

Topics: Criminal Justice, Harry Belafonte, Schools & Youth

Did Sweden’s Racist Cake-Cutting Scandal Accomplish Anything? [Reader Forum]

by Channing Kennedy on April 23 2012, 8:43AM

Or was it another case of exploitative politics packaged in shock-value art? Colorlines readers discuss.

Topics: Arts & Culture, Global Affairs

What’s the Saddest Thing About Mary J. Blige’s Fried Chicken Ad? [Reader Forum]

by Channing Kennedy on April 9 2012, 8:48AM

Burger King has taken down an ad in which the singer a ‘healthy’ new menu item. But that’s not stopping the conversation.

Topics: Media

Nichelle Nichols Throws Vulcan Signs with Obama in the Oval Office

by Channing Kennedy on April 5 2012, 11:11AM

The actress who played Star Trek’s Lt. Uhura pays a visit to one of her fans.

Topics: /NOW Blog

Why Do Social Justice Nerds Love The Hunger Games? We Ask ‘Em

by Channing Kennedy on March 30 2012, 8:57AM

We’ve heard a lot about the racist tweets complaining about black actors being cast in The Hunger Games. But the series also has a devoted fanbase of folks with smart race politics. We ask them what they like.

Topics: Arts & Culture, Hunger Games

What Does Real Justice For Trayvon Martin Look Like?

by Channing Kennedy on March 26 2012, 8:51AM

Colorlines.com readers come together to discuss the path forward from the tragic murder of Trayvon Martin, and the long history that brought us here.

Topics: Criminal Justice, Trayvon Martin

Kony This: ‘Ghana ThinkTank’ Turns the Tables on White Saviors

by Channing Kennedy on March 22 2012, 9:21AM

This multi-year global art project puts poor nations in charge of solving so-called first-world problems—then implements those solutions in first-world communities.

Topics: Global Affairs, Kony 2012

Women Bombard Anti-Choice Governors with Ladyparts Questions

by Channing Kennedy on March 21 2012, 6:56PM

What to do when your governor acts like you can’t make decisions about your own body? Agree with them — over and over and over again!

Topics: /NOW Blog

Is It American Idol’s Job to Shame Contestants With Warrants? [Reader Forum]

by Channing Kennedy on March 19 2012, 9:25AM

Is this yet another case of corporate power exerting ownership over the fates of black men, to make a buck? Or is it personal foolishness beyond sympathy?

Topics: Media

Celebrate Pi Day with Mathematician Euphemia Lofton Haynes

by Channing Kennedy on March 14 2012, 6:16PM

Did you know? The first black woman with a Ph.D. in Mathematics was also a civil rights champion, overseeing the desegregation of her own high school.

Topics: /NOW Blog

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