COLORLINES - Kai Wright

Kai Wright

Editorial Director
New York, NY

Kai Wright is editorial director of Colorlines.com and a reporting fellow of the Investigative Fund at the Nation Institute. His investigative reporting and news analysis appears regularly in The Nation, The Root and The American Prospect, among other publications, and he is a regular commentator on National Public Radio and in other broadcast media. His work explores the politics of sex, race and health. He has closely covered the foreclosure crisis and the ensuing economic collapse.

Kai is author, most recently, of Drifting Toward Love: Black, Brown, Gay and Coming of Age on the Streets of New York. He is also the author of two books of African-American history: The African American Experience: Black History and Culture Through Speeches, Letters, Editorials, Poems, Songs, and Stories, and Soldiers of Freedom: An Illustrated History of African Americans in the Armed Forces, which explores America's struggle with race as it has been dramatized by the need to staff a viable military.

You can follow Kai on Twitter at @kai_wright, or look for him in his Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn neighborhood. Check out Kai's media appearances here. For more information, check out KaiWright.com.

Making Sense of the Mehserle Verdict

by Kai Wright on July 8 2010, 8:48PM

How’d we get to involuntary manslaughter?

Topics: Kai Wright

Queer Blogger Roundtable: What’s the Future?

by Kai Wright on June 29 2010, 1:04PM

A virtual panel discussion on the community’s future, Obama’s politics, hypocrite pastors, rent boys, Tyler Perry and more.

Topics: Gender & Sexuality

Kagan Hearings: Thurgood Marshall Goes on Trial

by Kai Wright on June 29 2010, 12:02PM

Reports from Elena Kagan’s Senate confirmation hearings.

Topics: Elena Kagan

Ask ColorLines Editor Questions About LGBT Youth at NYT.com

by Kai Wright on June 28 2010, 12:14PM

I’m in the New York Times’ City Room blog all week, answering reader questions about LGBT young people. Chime in!

Topics: Kai Wright

ColorLines’ Fantasy Supreme Court

by Kai Wright on June 28 2010, 10:02AM

This spring, we asked our favorite court watchers for a list of people they’d love to see on the court—but who’d never be seriously mentioned as nominees.

Topics: Kai Wright

Farm Workers Dare Xenophobes to Take Jobs

by Kai Wright on June 26 2010, 10:14AM

But mind the fine print: It’s temp work with barely legal pay, perfectly legal overtime exemption and you’ll probably get heat stroke.

Topics: Kai Wright

Help Us Get Started… And Excuse Our Dust

by Kai Wright on June 25 2010, 12:28AM

We’re flipping over our new site. I just know you’ll love it, too!

Topics: Kai Wright

Will You Be Our Facebook Friend?

by Kai Wright on June 25 2010, 12:01AM

Join and we’ll help you show off how smart and well-read you are.

Topics: Kai Wright

Welcome to the New ColorLines

by Kai Wright on June 23 2010, 12:00PM

We’re re-making ColorLines as a more dynamic, fast-moving and hard-hitting news source than was ever before possible, by exploiting the opportunities of digital media.

Topics: The NEW ColorLines

Feds Target Oil Spill Workers in Immigration Probe

by Kai Wright on June 4 2010, 4:18PM

Federal officials have been targeting BP’s job sites in Louisiana in a hunt for undocumented workers who are risking their lives to clean up the disastrous oil spill.

Topics: Environment, Gulf Oil Spill, Immigration

Tea Party Fave Nikki Haley Not White Enough, After All

by Kai Wright on June 4 2010, 11:04AM

South Carolina state Sen. Jake Knotts has served up the latest in what will certainly be a rising chorus of racist gaffes as the campaign season heats up. Knotts guffawed on a political talk show that both President Obama and…

Topics: 2010 Elections

The Road Forward for Protecting Communities from Shady Lending

by Kai Wright on May 21 2010, 10:57AM

The Senate passed its financial reform bill yesterday with Sen. Chris Dodd’s consumer protection bureau intact. The contours of the debate over policing the products financial players push on communities didn’t change over the course of the drawn out fight….

Topics: Economy

States Can’t Lock Up Kids For Life, Says Supreme Court

by Kai Wright on May 18 2010, 10:46AM

The Supreme Court reined in juvenile imprisonment yesterday with a ruling that restricts states from locking up minors for life without parole for non-homicide convictions. The ruling expands on a 2005 decision that barred states from executing minors. CNN quotes…

Topics: Criminal Justice

White Wealth and Black Debt Shot Up in ‘Growth’ Years

by Kai Wright on May 17 2010, 3:22PM

The wealth gap between Blacks and Whites has grown by fourfold over the course of Generation X’s lifetime, exploding to $95,000, a study released today found. And the debt burden among African American families has nearly doubled. The study comes…

Topics: Economy

BP’s Spending on Its Spill is a Drop in the Bucket of Its Profits

by Kai Wright on May 14 2010, 1:22PM

When a big, relevant story breaks, it’s easy to get lost in the daily torrent of information. That’s no doubt been true for many people as we all try to make sense of BP’s Gulf Coast oil spill, which NPR…

Topics: Environment

Obama’s 2010 Drug Policy Tokes, but Doesn’t Inhale Reform

by Kai Wright on May 11 2010, 11:18AM

President Obama’s strategy for combatting drug use and trade is out, and it’s getting a welcome, if cautious, reception from reformers. As AlterNet’s Phillip Smith wrote yesterday, “While still heavy on the law enforcement side, the first Obama national drug…

Topics:

Seattle Cop: ‘I’ll Beat the F—-ing Mexican Piss Out of You Homey’

by Kai Wright on May 10 2010, 2:16PM

A freelance photographer’s video of Seattle police kicking a suspect in the head while hurling racial slurs surfaced last week, and is quickly drawing national attention. The video, shot on April 17, is certainly shocking. A group of officers from…

Topics:

Gov. Brewer: Immigrants as Drug Trafficking Thugs

by Kai Wright on May 10 2010, 12:02PM

Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer’s going all-in on making her name synonymous with SB 1070. This weekend, she shot back at President Obama’s opposition to the law with a new campaign ad. The ad’s a pretty bleak affair. It first rattles…

Topics: Immigration

America vs. the Census

by Kai Wright on May 10 2010, 12:00PM

The country’s 2010 effort to enumerate itself was more ambitious than ever—and may have been more consequential. But it’s complicated by the question it begs: Who does and doesn’t count?

Topics: Immigration, Politics

Kagan’s Harvard Hiring Record a Vision in White

by Kai Wright on May 10 2010, 10:41AM

President Obama pointed out this morning that Solicitor General Elena Kagan, his pick to replace Justice Stevens, was the first woman to lead Harvard Law School. He noted Kagan’s reputation for broadening Harvard’s faculty to include more conservative viewpoints, to…

Topics: Elena Kagan

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