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Racial Issues

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Menino, again

Plus: Latino gains, same-sex defeat, and a buzz for pot
At a time when Americans are racked by anxiety about the uncertain future of a weak economy, Boston voters handily returned Boston Mayor Thomas Menino to an unprecedented fifth term.
By EDITORIAL  |  November 04, 2009
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Holding his punches

The pundits think a desperate Michael Flaherty needs to throw haymakers at the mayor, but he insists steady pressure will win the fight
All year, Boston’s political observers have been watching for signs of an anti-Menino tipping point in the mayoral race.
By DAVID S. BERNSTEIN  |  October 21, 2009

Ask the Black woman: 'Good Hair' edition

Diverse City
Time to don the official robe and mantle of Black Representative, and answer a question of "blackness."
By SHAY STEWART-BOULEY  |  October 14, 2009

A child shall lead them

Balls, Pucks, and Monster Trucks
There's good news from Sanford: my hometown is experiencing a surfeit of leadership, and it's manifesting itself in a couple of areas.
By RICK WORMWOOD  |  October 07, 2009
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Desegregation Day

Southie: Ugly Crowds at the Trouble Spot
Southie: Ugly Crowds at the Trouble Spot
By TOM SHEEHAN  |  September 17, 2009
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Review: The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard

Idiotic, but not a total lemon
Cash for clunkers? Not completely.
By SHAULA CLARK  |  August 19, 2009

Ask the black woman

Diverse City
I've lived in Maine for seven years and been writing for this fine publication for about five, and during that time I've covered a wide array of subjects on the issue of diversity in Maine.
By SHAY STEWART-BOULEY  |  August 19, 2009
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The Gates case isn't about race

Doesn't Matter If You're Black or White Dept.
The weeks-long hubbub over the arrest of Harvard professor Henry Louis "Skip" Gates Jr. by the Cambridge Police Department has centered on race, understandably, for two reasons: 1) the African-American population has suffered inequitably in its relations with law enforcement across this country, and 2) a race story is easier for the media to tell — and to sell.
By HARVEY SILVERGLATE  |  August 05, 2009

Me, myself, and race

Diverse City
I have been told by many different people at many different times that I put too much thought into race, that perhaps I overreact and see race as a factor when it might not be.
By SHAY STEWART-BOULEY  |  July 22, 2009
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King, as in mayor

Another page from an optimist's agenda
To begin with, I'd like to set down the political and ideological frame of reference under which I try to live.
By TOM SHEEHAN  |  July 13, 2009
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Who's next?

What the Banner 's closure means for Boston's African-Americans
If Melvin B. Miller has his way, last week's shutdown of the Bay State Banner — the African-American-focused weekly paper Miller ran as editor and publisher for nearly half a century — won't be the end.
By ADAM REILLY  |  July 21, 2009

Moving Off the Plantation?

Rhode Island's identity crisis
Rhode Island, whatever its obsession with history, has only lately begun to come to terms with the darkest stain on its past: slavery.
By DAVID SCHARFENBERG  |  July 01, 2009
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Send in the clowns

The wacky worlds of Michael Jackson and Ozzy Osbourne
The New York Post got to resurrect its priceless "Wacko Jacko" headline. Barbara Walters scored Super Bowl-level ratings without having to lift a pretty little finger. And Michael Jackson, well, no matter how you slice it, he got screwed royally.
By MATT ASHARE  |  July 02, 2009
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Violet hour

The Color Purple is vivid on stage
The color purple describes both kids' icon Barney and a bruise. And sure enough, both child-friendly uplift and florid abrasion are wound into the sprawling, heartfelt musical based on Alice Walker's Pulitzer-winning 1982 novel about a beaten-down young black woman learning to value herself over the course of 40 years in the first half of the 20th century.
By CAROLYN CLAY  |  June 23, 2009

Right wing done wrong

Letters to the Boston editor, June 19, 2009
As someone who is Republican by party and conservative by inclination, I must take issue with your editorial “Right Wing Terror” on several fronts.
By BOSTON PHOENIX LETTERS  |  June 17, 2009

Judging the judge

Facing the facts of the Sotomayor nomination
Women may not yet have full equality, but Sonia Sotomayor's nomination to the US Supreme Court proves we can compete with the big guys now. It also means that women accepting patronage (and every political appointment is patronage) have an equal shot at getting pounded in the process.
By Mary Ann Sorrentino  |  June 03, 2009

As white as they come

Maine: The other white state
It seems to be Maine's turn again to be the least racially diverse state in the nation.
By SHAY STEWART-BOULEY  |  May 27, 2009
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Racism in real estate

Keeping the neighborhoods white
After more than a decade in the business, the real-estate agent knew that many landlords had very narrow ideas about whom they did and didn't want living in their apartments and houses. Most of them were fairly subtle about it. "I want the right people," they might say, being careful to couch their instructions in innocuous-sounding terms.  
By SEAN FLYNN  |  May 13, 2009
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Review: American Violet

Racism is bad
Arrested for a crime she didn't commit, Dee Roberts is enlisted by an ACLU lawyer (Tim Blake Nelson) to sue the county for racist intent and stop the DA from what is continually referred to as "terrorizing the black community."
By JASON O'BRYAN  |  April 28, 2009
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Wanted: Shitty jobs for shitty times

Big Fat Whale
Ethnic Stereotype Debunker, Royal Taco Eater, and more.
By BRIAN MCFADDEN  |  April 22, 2009
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Lawmakers to probe prison

Several investigations begin simultaneously
For years controversy has churned over the Maine State Prison's treatment of both inmates and correctional officers. For the first time, legislators have taken action.
By LANCE TAPLEY  |  April 08, 2009
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Blackballed

If Chuck Turner is innocent, why is he aligning himself with a coterie of disreputable African-American leaders?
Turner might want to avoid hitching his fortunes to those of such utterly disreputable pols as former DC mayor Marion Barry, ex-Newark mayor Sharpe James, and Dianne Wilkerson.
By CHRIS FARAONE  |  March 10, 2009
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Black power

Trinity Rep's powerful Raisin In the Sun
The centerpiece of George C. Wolfe's 1986 satire The Colored Museum is a scathing sketch called The Last Mama-on-the-Couch Play . A Raisin in the Sun is the über-mama-on-the-couch play
By CAROLYN CLAY  |  February 12, 2009
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Black like him?

Obama is, apparently, our first African-American president. But is that the identity he touted as a candidate?
Whatever your race — and whatever you think of his résumé, or his politics, or his yen for tax-cheating cabinet nominees — Barack Obama's arrival in the Oval Office is something to celebrate.
By ADAM REILLY  |  February 11, 2009

Mixed Magic's When Fate Comes Knocking

Living history
It's been said before and it'll be said again: the election of Barack Obama casts a new light on the Civil Rights Movement. Or, in Ricardo Pitts-Wiley's words, "We get to tell the story in a different way."
By JOHNETTE RODRIGUEZ  |  February 12, 2009
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A Raisin in the Sun at Trinity, Bad Jazz at Zeitgeist

Reviews of two plays
The centerpiece of George C. Wolfe's 1986 satire The Colored Museum is a scathing sketch called The Last Mama-on-the-Couch Play . A Raisin in the Sun is the über-mama-on-the-couch play.
By CAROLYN CLAY  |  February 12, 2009
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Review: Rebound!

The Celtics and the busing rift
According to Boston Herald writer Michael Connelly, the deep racial wounds opened up by the Boston busing crisis of the mid '70s first began to heal when whites and blacks came together to support the Boston Celtics' championship team of 1981.
By KEN BROCINER  |  February 13, 2009

Redskin redux

Balls, Pucks, and Monster Trucks
A couple months ago, when I wrote about the fact that the Sanford and Wiscasset high schools are the last remaining Maine schools using the mascot nickname “redskins,” Sanford principal Allan Young told me that if “redskin” critics called his students racists, he would support a change.
By RICK WORMWOOD  |  January 26, 2009
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Toxic talk: Hating Obama

Repugnant anti-Obama hate speech has dissipated for the moment. How likely is it to raise its ugly head again?
During and just after the 2008 presidential campaign, the antipathy of right-wing pundits toward Barack Obama reached remarkable, often repugnant depths.
By ADAM REILLY  |  January 19, 2009

Uh, race still matters, folks

Diverse city
In a few short days Barack Obama will go from being our first black president-elect to our first black president. Yes siree, the black guy is finally going to be in charge. We finally did it. Welcome to post-racial America!
By SHAY STEWART-BOULEY  |  January 07, 2009

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