News & Features

Are You Really Dead Until You Are Dead on Facebook?

Sandip Roy

From New America Media and FirstPost: In the old days it was standard (if a slightly morbid) practice in major newsrooms to prep obituaries of famous persons. Elizabeth Taylor famously outlived her own New York Times obituary writer Mel Gussow by six years. … In the age of social media, obituaries have turned into a string of tweets.

After Recall, Arizona Considers More Humane Treatment of Immigrants

Valeria Fernandez

From New America Media: Now that the architect of Arizona’s harsh anti-immigrant bill (SB 1070) has been recalled by voters and no longer represents Mesa, a group of citizens wants to take the immigration issue up a notch. They propose that the city adopt guiding principles that focus on keeping immigrant families together and enforcing the law in a humanitarian way.

The Need for “Zero Tolerance” of Police Brutality

Behrouz Saba

From New America Media: The recent pepper spraying of Occupy protesters at the University of California, Davis, went a long way to exposing an ethos of privilege, arrogance and contempt for students that is all too common among the top university administrators and campus police.

Has Western Media Exaggerated Divide Between Egypt’s Religious Groups?

Suzanne Manneh

From New America Media: A good amount of the media coverage before and during the first round of parliamentary elections -- some Egyptians have referred to it as their country’s “first free election” – has focused on religious tensions, both real and perceived, between the country’s Muslim majority (90 percent) and Coptic Christian minority (10 percent).

The Global Revolt of 2011

Roger Burbach

From New America Media: “Shut It Down,” “No More Shipping for the 1 Percent” and “Death to Capitalism” proclaimed some of the banners near me as I joined thousands of demonstrators who converged on the Port of Oakland, Calif., on a sunny afternoon. This city is part of a global movement that has changed the terms of the political debate, stealing much of the thunder from the Tea Party movement and shaking governments around the world in a way not seen since the 1960s.

Majority of People Living With HIV in the U.S. Are Not in Successful Treatment

Michael Lavers and Kai Wright

From New America Media and Color Lines: Less than a third of people living with HIV/AIDS in the United States are in successful enough treatment that they will remain healthy and reduce the likelihood of transmitting the virus to their partners, according to the the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Health officials believe they must dramatically boost that number in order to control the epidemic, which has ravaged black communities in particular and is still growing among black gay and bisexual men.

Mitt Romney's Diversity Problem

Earl Ofari Hutchinson

From New America Media: Romney’s record on diversity as Massachusetts governor gives a strong hint of what his White House would look like. When it came to appointing minorities and women to judicial posts, his record was atrocious. The Massachusetts Women’s Bar Association repeatedly lambasted him for his near-exclusive white male state house. Romney, partly in response to the public pounding and partly with an eye on a presidential run where he knew his state record on diversity would be closely scrutinized, made a slew of appointments of minorities and women to the state bench in his last year in office.

 

The North Korean Capital Gets a Surprising Facelift

Young-jin Kim

From New America Media and Korea Times: Brand new apartments, theaters and parks are popping up as has, apparently, a new department store hawking Chanel and Armani. Sidewalks are bustling with activity and, at last, the final touches are being applied to the exterior of a massive showpiece hotel. This is clearly not the Pyongyang of old.

The American Dream and Ideology in the Road Runner Cartoon

Nicholas F. Palmer

The premise of the Road Runner/Wile E. Coyote cartoon is that of a nature show, an organism attempting to satisfy its biological needs. Struck with hunger, Wile E. Coyote goes out into the world, tracks and chases down his food. However, he does not possess the proper physical attributes to catch his prey, the Road Runner. But rather than taking this cartoon as mere entertainment for the family, it also raises important issues lying in the heart of the unease in our culture. 

Violence and Chaos in Cairo Plague Arab Spring

Behrouz Saba

From New America Media: The Tahrir Square of today is a place of rampant violence and sexual assault, perpetrated by the state terror apparatus and street thugs alike. The recent toll: 40 dead, 2,000 seriously wounded and countless others intimidated, beaten and raped.  Women risk their dignity and personal safety by going to Tahrir, a place where rapists roam freely and assault at will. One of the more vocal and prominent victims among them is Egyptian-American journalist Mona Eltahawy, who had her left arm and right hand broken before being sexually assaulted by Egyptian riot police.

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