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

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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

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Kony 2012’s Success Shows There’s Big Money Attached to White Saviors

by Jamilah King on March 14 2012, 9:40AM

Despite its attempt to respond directly to criticism, Invisible Children’s Kony 2012 campaign puts the focus on all that’s right—and wrong—with online advocacy.

Topics: Global Affairs, Kony 2012, Media

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The Politics of Immigrant Scapegoating: Not Just an American Pastime

by Michelle Chen on January 23 2012, 9:13AM

No savvy politician would highlight the widening gulf between poor people on one side and the elites seeking their votes on the other. Instead, from South Carolina to France, they focus on the traditional dividing line between Us and Them: the border.

Topics: Global Affairs, Immigration

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The Israel Lobby Finds a New Face: Black College Students

by Seth Freed Wessler on January 18 2012, 9:01AM

Supporters of Palestinian rights have charged that Israel is an apartheid state. In response, the country’s staunchest U.S. lobby group is recruiting black college students to say there’s no way Israel can be racist.

Topics: Global Affairs

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U.S. Somalis Can’t Support Families During Famine, Thanks To Anti-Terror Laws

by Channing Kennedy on December 16 2011, 9:42AM

A single small bank in Minneapolis has been the only way for many U.S. Somali immigrants to send money home. Now, community organizers like Hassan Warsame are fighting to keep its program running.

Topics: Global Affairs, National Security

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It’s NAFTA x3 as Free Trade Deals Sweep Through Congress

by Michelle Chen on October 17 2011, 9:33AM

For years, fair trade advocates stalled three trade deals that they say harm workers and the environment in both the U.S. and abroad. But President Obama and congressional Republicans passed the deals last week. Now what? Michelle Chen reports.

Topics: Global Affairs

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Africa and the International Criminal Court: Is Global Justice Blind?

by Michelle Chen on October 3 2011, 11:10AM

Applying a global standard of justice seems near impossible for crimes that stem from vast inequalities in wealth and power, particularly when judgement shades into race and gender. But the ICC has tipped the scales, slightly, toward a collective moral gravity.

Topics: Global Affairs, Global Justice

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As U.N. Debates Palestinian Statehood, Palestinian People Still Ignored

by Michelle Chen on September 23 2011, 9:02AM

The Palestinian Authority has set in motion a diplomatic frenzy over its citizens’ right to self-determination. But something obvious remains lost in the maneuvering between the White House, Abbas and Israel: The Palestinian people.

Topics: Global Affairs, Global Justice

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Political Power Struggle Overshadows South Africa’s Broken Promise

by Michelle Chen on September 16 2011, 9:19AM

The African National Congress’ political inheritance is all but spent. Now, a new generation of activists must forge their own struggle.

Topics: Global Affairs, Global Justice

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The Legacy of Steve Biko’s Fight Against South African Apartheid

by Hatty Lee on September 14 2011, 9:59AM

We take a look at how his activism inspired a movement.

Topics: Global Affairs

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In a Precarious Revolution, Libya’s Endgame Is Only Beginning

by Michelle Chen on September 13 2011, 9:52AM

The Libyan freedom struggle has been ruptured by infighting and pressure from foreign forces that have their own designs. Yet viewed from a wide angle, the revolution has cracked open a window for a new political vision.

Topics: Global Affairs, Global Justice

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New Dutch Game Show Has Immigrants Compete to Reveal Unjust System

by Jorge Rivas on September 7 2011, 1:06PM

Last week’s winner took home a cash prize. The loser got a bullet proof vest.

Topics: Global Affairs, Immigration

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The Deadly Labor Behind Our Phones, Laptops and Consumer Gadgets

by Sophia Cheng on September 1 2011, 9:30AM

The world’s largest consumer manufacturer has drawn global outrage for a string of worker suicides in its factories. But the problem is rooted in Western consumer markets, not Chinese sweatshops.

Topics: Economy, Global Affairs, Technology

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U.S. Gov. Secretly Infected Thousands of Guatemalans with STDs

by Jorge Rivas on August 30 2011, 12:33PM

Government scientists infected 5,500 Guatemalans with syphilis and gonorrhea between 1946 and 1948 to study the effects of penicillin, according to recent findings of a U.S. presidential panel.

Topics: Global Affairs

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Ghana’s Growing Gay Pride Faces Now-Familiar Evangelical Backlash

by Frankie Edozien on August 30 2011, 9:43AM

Throughout sub-Saharan Africa, evangelical Christianity’s growth has prompted political leaders and media to incite fear of increasingly open gay communities. Ghana’s burgeoning community is the latest target.

Topics: Gender & Sexuality, Global Affairs

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To Stop Corruption, Fight the Power, Not the People

by Michelle Chen on August 26 2011, 9:09AM

The global discussion of corruption too often confuses the behavioral symptoms with the structural cause: too much power concentrated in one place.

Topics: Global Affairs, Global Justice

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After the Riots, “Broken” Britain Grows Still More Fractured

by Michelle Chen on August 18 2011, 10:44AM

Lost amid all the racialized, anti-youth invective is the story of youth on the margins, whose voices go ignored until they explode in collective rebellion. Michelle Chen explores what happens next for London’s fractured neighborhoods.

Topics: Global Affairs, Global Justice, London Riots

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Dispatch from London: A Night Bus Ride Through the Riot Corridor

by Sean O'Neill on August 18 2011, 10:02AM

On this bus, you can see the exhaustion that often comes with low-wage labor in the birthplace of capitalism—and with being the cultural scapegoat for the increasing anxieties of the British middle class.

Topics: Dispatches, Global Affairs, London Riots

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Quick Retribution in London Threatens Due Process for Thousands

by Bryan Gerhart on August 12 2011, 3:52PM

Prime Minister David Cameron has vowed to ignore “phony concerns about human rights.” The courts appear to be eagerly taking his cue.

Topics: Global Affairs, London Riots

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