Bob Collins
It happened yesterday in beleaguered Ferguson, Missouri. A cop and a protester hugged. Read more →
MPR News Reflections and observations on the news
Tag: Race
In an interview with Oprah Winfrey this week, actress Raven Symonè started a meaningful national dialogue when said she doesn’t like labels and she considers herself “American, not African American.”
From the moment she said it, there was a fair chance she’d be misunderstood. And she was. Read more →
That’s the question to debate in the wake of Minneapolis police chief Janeé Harteau’s decision to pull out of a ‘listening session’ last night to address concerns by people of color in the city. Read more →
That was quite a PSA that ran during this evening’s MTV video music awards tonight. The network said it wanted to start a discussion on race among those who still watch it, which makes it hard to believe there wasn’t one already. But the PSA is part of a larger campaign called “Look Different.” “Eighty Read more →
Fifty-five years is an awfully long time to wait before giving an African-American man the diploma he was denied because he had a picnic in park that was off-limits to blacks. Read more →
Something different accompanies the start of the school year this year. For the first time in modern U.S. history, whites will be the minority. Non-Hispanic white students are still expected to be the largest racial group in the public schools this year at 49.8 percent, CBS News reports. But the National Center for Education Statistics Read more →
What comes to your mind when you read this description of articles of clothing, now banned at a Minneapolis bar? – Flat-billed hats – Large chains – Sleeveless under shirts – Long white T-shirts – Athletic apparel – Sports jerseys without collars – Excessively baggy clothing “You might as well say, ‘No black folks allowed,’” Read more →
As MPR cancels Tell Me More, can public radio, long linked with upscale white Americans, make significant progress in appealing to communities of color? Read more →
It was hard to tell the other night when Stephen Colbert was in character and when he was just being the real Stephen Colbert when he declared ‘I’m not a racist.’
He was reacting to the protests that popped up after his writers tweeted a joke he made on the show without any of the context that was evident in his Comedy Channel show’s episode. That prompted Twitter to take to the ramparts to urge that his show be canceled. Read more →
Some years ago, the Star Tribune sports department decided to stop using team nicknames that people might find offensive. Out were the ‘Indians’ and ‘Redskins,’ for example, and in was ‘the team from Cleveland’ or the ‘team from Washington.’
It lasted for about a season and then the policy quietly disappeared.
Should NPR consider following suit? Read more →
There’s a new argument for more mass transit — an easing of racial tension.
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Decisions facing parents of African American students, breaking the stereotype of hunger, Kiev is burning, the man who wouldn’t kiss his sister, and frozen Superiority. Read more →
Does giving presents make financial sense, Black Folk Don’t, why electricity rates are going up so fast, we live here for the pity, and nothing says ‘holidays’ like Nina Totenberg shaking it. Read more →
Duck Dynasty “patriarch” Phil Robertson’s racial and social views don’t square with A&E. Read more →
Republican legislators in Wisconsin have introduced a bill protecting race-based nicknames in the state’s school districts.
Read more →