Since 2010, a new meme has spread to dozens of states: Drug testing people who apply for safety net benefits. The goal is to change economic debates into a culture war over who does and does not deserve help.
The campaign's leader described how voters should feel while under the gaze of its observers: "Like driving and seeing the police following you." The right casts this as the real civil rights battle of our time.
Deporting 400,000 people a year means big business for the rural towns and private prison contractors that warehouse many detained immigrants.
Infographic
Interactive
Photo
Video
Deported Dad Begs North Carolina To Give Him Back His Children
by Seth Freed Wessler on February 14 2012, 10:38AM
Nobody argues whether Felipe Montes is a great dad. But the state doesn’t want to send his U.S. citizen kids to Mexico, so he may lose them forever. The Montes are among a growing number of families facing similar crises.
Topics: Immigration, Shattered Families
Infographic: What the New Digital Divide Looks Like
by Hatty Lee on December 6 2011, 10:21AM
The defining question of the information age is no longer whether you’re online, it’s how you got there. Here’s why your connection matters.
Topics: Media, New Digital Divide, Technology
How Big Telecom Used Smartphones to Create a New Digital Divide
by Jamilah King on December 6 2011, 10:19AM
The information age’s defining question is no longer who’s online, but how they got there. Consumers of color are closing the digital divide with smart phones. But they’ve surfed into a space where telecom has the right to do as it pleases with both users and content.
Topics: Media, New Digital Divide, Technology
U.S. Deports 46K Parents With Citizen Kids in Just Six Months
by Seth Freed Wessler on November 3 2011, 9:30AM
Data obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request reveals nearly a quarter of people deported in first half of 2011 were parents with U.S. citizen children. That’s a dramatic increase from the 10-year period before the Obama administration.
Topics: Deportation Dragnet, Immigration, Shattered Families
Thousands of Kids Lost From Parents In U.S. Deportation System
by Seth Freed Wessler on November 2 2011, 8:00AM
A yearlong investigation by Colorlines.com’s publisher, the Applied Research Center, found more than 5,000 children stuck in foster care because their parents were detained by ICE. One in four deportees have U.S.-born kids and face total loss of parental rights.
Topics: Deportation Dragnet, Immigration, Shattered Families
How the Right Made Racism Sound Fair—and Changed Immigration Politics
by Gabriel Thompson on September 13 2011, 9:33AM
GOP strategists have won the messaging war—and Democrats have conceded defeat. Gabriel Thompson tells the long, sad story of D.C.’s immigrant-bashing rhetoric.
Topics: Drop the I-Word, Immigration
Deadly Secrets: How California Law Shields Oakland Police Violence
by Ali Winston on August 17 2011, 9:54AM
A dramatic rollback in transparency laws five years ago left California residents with no way to monitor police misconduct complaints—and thus prevent future violence. A Colorlines.com investigation finds Oakland is one of the cities left most vulnerable.
Topics: Criminal Justice, Police Secrets
Don’t Call Them “Post-Racial”—How Young People Actually Think About Race
by Dom Apollon on June 7 2011, 2:41PM
A three-part series in which Dom Apollon breaks down the findings from a series of focus groups with Millennials on everything from Barack Obama to criminal justice.
Topics: Politics, Schools & Youth, Youth and Race
Why Fixing Schools in a Broken Economy Isn’t Simple Math
by Julianne Hing, Jorge Rivas, Hatty Lee on May 10 2011, 10:26AM
Julianne Hing spent the school year visiting families and educators in Los Angeles. She found them navigating a reality that bears little resemblance to today’s heated reform debate.
Topics: Schools & Youth
A Swamp of Predatory Lending Drowns Struggling Neighborhoods
by Kai Wright on April 11 2011, 9:44AM
A growing number of states are trying to regulate high-cost, small-dollar loans. But the industry, with Wall Street’s backing, is moving fast to evade new rules.
Topics: Economy, Wealth Gap
Where Are the Obama Youth? Busy Building Their Own Futures
by Jamilah King on October 29 2010, 10:58AM
Jamilah King asks Milwaukee’s crucial young voters what brings them to the polls. The answer isn’t a charismatic candidate.
Topics: 2010 Elections
Deportation Horror: A Journey From Texas to Bangladesh
by Seth Freed Wessler, Brian Palmer on October 7 2010, 4:59PM
Shahed Hossain describes his harrowing ordeal to ColorLines videographer Brian Palmer.
Topics: Deportation Dragnet, Immigration
How Immigration Reform Got Caught in the Deportation Dragnet
by Seth Freed Wessler on October 7 2010, 10:36AM
Shahed Hossain’s shocking story reveals why Obama will have to use his power to halt mass deportations for any reform to work.
Topics: Deportation Dragnet, Immigration
Race-Baiting the Gulf to Exploit Black and Brown Workers
by Brentin Mock on September 30 2010, 11:54AM
Keilen Williams doesn’t know where to direct his economic frustrations. Scapegoating pols and profiteering capitalists tell him and other workers to blame each other.
Topics: Economy, Jobs Crisis, Katrina Recovery
Working Together: Images from Point a la Hache, Louisiana
by Shawn Escoffery on September 30 2010, 10:00AM
The fishers of Brentin Mock’s investigation into race-baiting in the Gulf recovery effort.
Topics: Katrina Recovery
Race and Recession: No Recovery for Communities of Color
by Seth Freed Wessler, Channing Kennedy, Hatty Lee on July 8 2010, 2:00PM
Our original report examined the racial inequity that helped create the recession—and that the crisis has in turn intensified. More than a year later, little has changed.
Topics: Economy, Jobs Crisis
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
Selling Food Stamps for Kids’ Shoes
by Seth Freed Wessler on February 16 2010, 12:00PM
Unable to find jobs, kicked off welfare, women in Connecticut are forced to sell food assistance to buy basic necessities.
Topics: Economy
Her Crime? Sex Work in New Orleans
by Jordan Flaherty on January 13 2010, 12:00PM
With police charging sex workers as sex offenders, activists hope the city’s elections will pave the way for fighting the law.
Topics: Criminal Justice
by Julianne Hing, Seth Wessler, Jorge Rivas on October 22 2009, 12:00PM
ColorLines investigates the effects of deportation on families of color. Introducing a four-part series.
Topics: Immigration
Torn Apart, Families Struggle to Stay Together
by Seth Freed Wessler on October 22 2009, 9:44AM
This piece was co-authored by Seth Wessler and Julianne Hing. In recent months, the Obama administration has announced plans to expand the 287(g) program despite widespread abuses and racial profiling. It’s also pouring money into “Secure Communities,” a program that…
Topics: Immigration
by Julianne Hing on October 20 2009, 12:00PM
Deportees struggle to survive in an unfamiliar and unwelcoming place: the country of their birth.
Topics: Immigration
by Seth Freed Wessler on October 20 2009, 12:00PM
Families of color are punished twice by immigration and criminal justice systems that don’t provide equal justice.
Topics: Immigration
Take Action to Drop the I-Word!
Send a letter to the editors of the Charlotte Observer and ask that they drop the i-word today.
Popular Threads
Recent Comments