Tag: racism

Categories
In The News

Race On The Road, African Americans Relive Perils Of Travel

At a bus station in Durham, NC, in May 1940
At a bus station in Durham, NC, in May 1940 Jack Delano

ROCKVILLE — Her mom always smiled — except when the family made its annual summer drive to visit the grandparents in Magnolia, Arkansas. “The smiles were gone while we were traveling,” said Gloria Gardner, 77. It was the 1940s, and traveling to her parents’ hometown was not approached lightly after the family moved to Muskegon, Michigan, during the Great Migration. Stopping for food or bathroom breaks was mostly out of the question. For black families, preparing for a road trip required a well-tested battle plan in which nothing could be left to chance. There were meals to cook and pack […]

Categories
In The News

Italy’s Echos Of Fascism As Immigrants Blamed For Disease, Rape

A Forza Nuova rally in Rome in June
A Forza Nuova rally in Rome in June Andrea Ronchini/Pacific Press/ZUMA

At the epicenter of Europe’s migrant crisis, Italy is facing a new burst of blatant racism that comes with a whiff of fascist nostalgia from the country’s ugly past.

Categories
Geopolitics Ideas

Historical Statues And The West’s Ideology Of Self-Hatred

Empty pedestal after a confederate statue was removed in Baltimore on Aug. 17
Empty pedestal after a confederate statue was removed in Baltimore on Aug. 17 Shen Ting/Xinhua/ZUMA

MONTREAL — In the aftermath of Charlottesville, New York City mayor Bill de Blasio announced that he was considering taking down a statue of Christopher Columbus because it could be offensive to Native Americans. If you were to believe it, this statue risked arousing hate, like so many symbols associated with European expansion and American […]

Categories
Geopolitics Ideas Terror in Europe

Enemies Inside And Out, The Double Threat Facing The West

Vigil in Barcelona, days after the Aug. 17 attack on Las Ramblas
Vigil in Barcelona, days after the Aug. 17 attack on Las Ramblas Jordi Boixareu/ZUMA

What connects the violence in Barcelona and Charlottesville? Where have Western democracies gone wrong since the turn of the century?

Categories
Geopolitics Society

Attacks On Africans Unmask India’s Ugly Race Problem

Shadows of workers in Bangalore, India
Shadows of workers in Bangalore, India David H. Wells/ZUMA

DELHI — A disturbing video has gone viral in India. It shows a mob viciously attacking a Nigerian man at a suburban Delhi mall. The attackers kick, punch and hit him with steel trash cans, chairs, bricks — pretty much anything they can lay their hands on. The victim is 21-year old Nigerian student Endurance Amalawa — who is now lying on a hospital bed with bandages covering his head, arms and back. In the adjacent bed is his older brother Precious Amalawa. He has fewer injuries and is able to recount the ordeal. He remembers entering the mall, buying […]

Categories
In The News

Kebab Violence And Blatant Racism In Poland

Polish flag at a Nov. 11 march in Warsaw
Polish flag at a Nov. 11 march in Warsaw Anna Ferensowicz/Pacific Press/ZUMA

-Analysis- WARSAW — In Poland, hatred is clearly fueling violence. But after six racist attacks were registered in a four-day period, this was the reaction from the country’s Interior Minister: “”There is no racism in Poland.”” The victims of these attacks are foreigners from the Polish cities of Wrocław, Legnica. Lublin and Ozorków. Four kebab […]

Categories
Eyes on the U.S. Geopolitics

Welcome To The Town That Always Votes For White House Winner

The middle lane, Terre Haute, Indiana
The middle lane, Terre Haute, Indiana Artfields

The town in Indiana of Terre Haute is a mix of organized labor and university students, traditional values and growing immigrant communities. It has picked the president the last 15 elections.

Categories
Eyes on the U.S.

Dallas Police, A Model Of Improvement Was Targeted Anyway

In the aftermath of the killings in Dallas
In the aftermath of the killings in Dallas Paul Moseley/TNS via ZUMA

A sad bit of irony to the deadly assault on police Thursday night is that the Dallas police department had made great strides in reducing cases of excessive use of force.

Categories
Geopolitics Society

What Brexit Means For Those Polish Immigrants In The UK

A Polish shop in Bath, UK
A Polish shop in Bath, UK Andrew Parsons/i-Images/ZUMA

A decade ago, the “Polish plumber” became the symbol of British fears of immigrants coming in poorer Europe Union countries. After the UK’s referendum to pull out of the EU, uncertainty reigns for all.

Categories
blog

‘The World’s Most German Jew’ Takes On Neo-Nazis And Tinder Love

Author Shahak Shapira
Author Shahak Shapira Facebook page

BERLIN — Shahak Shapira is the Israeli-born son of a Holocaust survivor and Munich Olympic victim. But he’s also a proud Berliner, even though he’s been beaten up and insulted by neo-Nazis. Now he’s published a book that is more or less serious. How I Became the Most German Jew in the World is a […]

Categories
blog

French Soccer Stars Blame Racism For Euro 2016 Exclusion

MARCA, June 1, 2016 “Didier Deschamps has bowed to the pressure of a racist part of France,” French soccer player Karim Benzema told Spanish sports daily MARCA, less than 10 days before the beginning of the European championship in France. Benzema’s remarks echo comments made a few days ago by French soccer legend Eric Cantona, […]

Categories
Eyes on the U.S.

What Citizen Kane Tells Us About Donald Trump

Kane or Trump?
Kane or Trump? Octubre CCC/Gage Skidmore

Are there clues to Donald Trump’s rise in the celluloid figure of Citizen Kane? It may be that the Orson Welles classic also points to the limits of the billionaire candidate.

Categories
Geopolitics

Le Pen To Bernie: Anger Economics Drives Populist Surge

At a Bernie Sanders rally in New York
At a Bernie Sanders rally in New York Andy Katz/Pacific Press via ZUMA

Rising populism in the West can be traced to continuing fallout from the 2007-08 financial crisis. The responses — from both left and right — share certain fundamental arguments.

Categories
Rue Amelot Society

Rock, Rebellion And My Misguided Shame Of Brazilian Culture

Brazil-born Max Cavalera, frontman of heavy metal band Soulfly
Brazil-born Max Cavalera, frontman of heavy metal band Soulfly Jonas Rogowski/Worldcrunch

A South American writer rethinks the soundtrack of his teenage revolution, concluding that his aversion to culturally significant genres was a youthful indiscretion that deprived him of musical riches.

Categories
blog

‘Islamic Rape Of Europe’ Cover Sparks Outrage

Critics have lambasted the cover of Polish newsweekly wSIECI (The Network), which depicts a screaming white woman wrapped in the European Union flag being pulled at and fondled by six dark and hairy arms. “The Islamic Rape Of Europe” reads the cover line. In the lead article of the widely read magazine, writer Aleksandra Rybinska […]

Categories
Future Society

Google, Facebook And Beyond: Why Algorithms Discriminate

Google Images search for CEO
Google Images search for CEO Worldcrunch montage

Yes, technology can be biased, racist and sexist. That’s because the creators of algorithms are overwhelmingly white men, and the online results are becoming a huge problem in an increasingly digitized world.

Categories
blog

Charlotte Rampling On Oscars Boycott: ‘Racist Against Whites’

Charlotte Rampling in December 2015
Charlotte Rampling in December 2015 Prensa Internacional/ZUMA

PARIS — Invited on French radio Europe 1, British actress and Oscar-nominee Charlotte Rampling has weighed in on the controversy over the lack of diversity this year among Academy Award nominees, saying that filmmaker Spike Lee’s call to boycott the ceremony was “racist against whites.” The 69-year-old English-born actress, famous for her movies in three […]

Categories
Geopolitics Society

“Jihad,” The Belgian Play Leaving Audiences In Stitches

"Jihad," The Belgian Play Leaving Audiences In Stitches
Ismael Saidi's Facebook page

Even as Belgium has emerged as a hub of Islamic terror networks, a Belgian Muslim is the theatrical toast of the town as he tackles jihad, racism and culture wars with humor.

Categories
Society

Study Finds Link Between Homophobia And Mental Illness

At the Toulouse pride parade
At the Toulouse pride parade Guillaume Paumier, CC-BY

Though homophobia is not itself a mental illness, a new study finds that people who are prejudiced against gays and lesbians often do have mental disorders. But it’s unclear what we’re supposed to do with this insight.

Categories
Ideas Society

Germany Asks: Can We Even Use The Word “Race”?

Modern mosaic
Modern mosaic Andrei Prakharevich

One of the most controversial words in the German language is the focus of a conference in Dresden, a city that itself is filled with highly charged meaning, past and present.

Categories
Future

10 Misconceptions About The Theory Of Evolution

Galapagos tortoise at the Charles Darwin Research Station
Galapagos tortoise at the Charles Darwin Research Station Dallas Krentzel

Rich in counterintuitive observations, the study of evolution is often misunderstood. We focus here on widespread ideas that happen to be patently false.

Categories
Society

India’s Disturbing Obsession With Fair Skin

Screenshot from skin whitening Zyada ad
Screenshot from skin whitening Zyada ad Emami FairandHandsome

India’s entertainment industry casts people with dark skin as cursed and low class, an idea the culture has strongly, if sadly, embraced. The only winner is the cosmetics industry.

Categories
Terror in Europe

Charlie Hebdo, Jews And Muslims: A Double Standard For Freedom Of Speech?

Jan. 11 protest in Paris
Jan. 11 protest in Paris Kevin Couette

In France, the sacrosanct freedom of speech is cited over the offensive images of Islam’s prophet Muhammad. But the same standards have not always applied to anti-Semitism.

Categories
Geopolitics Migrant Lives

In British “Little Poland,” Where Anti-Immigrant Party Rising

Aylesbury, another British town with a sizeable Polish community
Aylesbury, another British town with a sizeable Polish community Cliff Hide/London News Pictures/ZUMA

A Polish reporter checks out sentiment in the heart of UKIP country after the anti-immigration party’s success in recent European elections.

Categories
Society

How Racism And Sexism Permeate Turkish Soccer

Istanbul's Türk Telekom Arena
Istanbul's Türk Telekom Arena LardoBalsamico

ISTANBUL — Racism and discrimination have become a constant in Turkey’s top soccer league. The latest reminder are tweets from Umit Cinarli’s, a leading referee from the Turkish Football Federation (TFF), on the second anniversary of the Uludere Massacre where Turkish fighter jet bombs killed 34 Kurdish smugglers: “Happy second anniversary of the Uludere incident. […]

Categories
Society

From KKK To An Italian Village, Was David Duke Plotting A Comeback?

KKK in Venas di Cadore?
KKK in Venas di Cadore? FROL/Worldcrunch montage

A visit to the tiny village in the Dolomite Mountains where the notorious U.S. politician and former Ku Klux Klan grandmaster was residing under a false name. He was deported last week.

Categories
Mondo

Quotes Of The Week: Depp, Mugabe, Assange… and MORE!

Take a tour of what the world has been saying this week…

Categories
Society

The Polish Obsession Of Britain’s Far-Right National Party

Nick Griffin at a BNP press conference in 2009
Nick Griffin at a BNP press conference in 2009 britishnationalism

LONDON – Police are investigating complaints about a British National Party (BNP) election leaflet depicting Polish people as monkeys campaigning for the Labor Party. This is just one of several recent controversies involving the BNP, an assortment of neo-fascists, nationalists and xenophobes, whose members have been accused of verbal and physical attacks against ethnic and […]

Categories
Society

Stereotyping The World, Chinese-Style

China in Chicago
China in Chicago Fuzzy Gerdes

-Blog- BEIJING – The world is big, and has all kinds of people. Given their various historical, cultural and environmental backgrounds, people from each country are naturally very different. Each nation is proud of its national character. And indeed, some people have a lot to be proud of, like those who pioneered science and democracy. […]

Categories
Society

In New York, Signs Of A Quiet Exodus Of Jews From France

Orthodox Jews at home in NYC
Orthodox Jews at home in NYC Rahaha

Last March’s killings at a Jewish elementary school in Toulouse shocked many, but French Jews have been feeling less secure for years. Some leave, though security isn’t the only reason.

Categories
Society

New Head Of Brazil’s Human Rights Commission Known For Racist, Homophobic Rants

O ESTADO DE SÃO PAULO (Brazil) Worldcrunch SÃO PAULO – The election of a new President of the Commission for Human Rights and Minorities in Brazil’s Chamber of Deputies typically wouldn’t make much of a splash. But the brand new President, Marco Feliciano, an evangelical pastor, happens to already be well-known for making racist and […]

Categories
Society

Uruguay Debates Whether To Clean Dictonary Of Racist Expressions

A Spanish dictionary
A Spanish dictionary Velaia (ParisPeking)

MONTEVIDEO – Racism and racist expressions are often ingrained in society. In Uruguay, they are also written in the dictionary. Last month, Vice-Minister of Culture and Education Oscar Gomez urged the Uruguayan Academy of Letters to remove racist and offensive expressions from the Dictionary of Uruguayan Spanish. It is part of a campaign launched on […]

Categories
Society

How A Nine-Year-Old Stirred Debate About The N-Word, Past And Present

Ishema Kane's letter and German versions of controversial "Tintin in the Congo" and "Pippi Longstocking"
Ishema Kane's letter and German versions of controversial "Tintin in the Congo" and "Pippi Longstocking" Facebook / Casterman / Oetinger

BERLIN – “I think it totally sucks that you think that word should be left in children’s books. You can’t imagine how it makes me feel to hear or read that word. It’s really really terrible. My Dad is not a ‘negro’ and neither am I.” That was written by nine-year-old Ishema Kane in her […]

Categories
Society

Indigenous Of Chile: Why Discrimination Against Mapuches Still Runs So Deep

The Mapuches represent about 6% of the Chilean population
The Mapuches represent about 6% of the Chilean population Idioma y Cultura Mapuche

-Editorial- SANTIAGO – In the morning on Jan. 4 in Araucania, a region in southern Chile where the Mapuche people live, a group of masked men attacked and set fire to the house of a local landowner and farmer who had spent years litigating with indigenous groups. The landowner, Werner Luchsinger and his wife were […]

Categories
Geopolitics

Apartheid In Italy? A Sicilian City’s Proposal For Immigrant-Only Buses

Like elsewhere in Europe, Italy has seen a steady rise in immigrants over the past two decades.
Like elsewhere in Europe, Italy has seen a steady rise in immigrants over the past two decades. e://Dantes

TRAPANI – After Pretoria until 1993, and Alabama through the early 1960’s, the Italian city of Trapani has discovered Apartheid in 2013. The cold bureaucratic language of Trapani City Council member Andrea Vassalo leaves little room for doubts: the head of the council’s urban territory commission cited the “frequent complaints of the indigenous” (using exactly […]

Categories
Society

In Germany, Where Neo-Nazis Meet The Ku Klux Klan

The German Branch Of The European White Knights Of The Burning Cross
The German Branch Of The European White Knights Of The Burning Cross Video screenshot

They appear out of the darkness, men and women moving across a field carrying flaming torches, white hoods covering their heads. After forming a circle, in broken English they swear allegiance to “white power” – to the white race and the nation. Then they light a cross as high as a man. This is a […]

Categories
Society

Twitter Bans Account For Nazism, But Only In Germany

DER SPIEGEL, HANNOVERSCHE ALLGEMEINE (Germany), FRANCE 24, AFP (France) Worldcrunch Twitter has agreed to block content from a neo-Nazi account at the request of German authorities. For the first time in its short history, Twitter has censored tweets in a specific country. The microblogging service has had the capacity since January 2012 to block tweets […]

Categories
Society

Back To The Classroom For Milan Elementary School With “Too Many Foreigners”

Giro giro tondo...
Giro giro tondo... Luigi Seust

MILAN – Some stories do have a happy ending. The most multiethnic school in Italy, Lombardo Radice public school in Milan, had a new batch of first graders again this week. Last year it wasn’t allowed to open to a new incoming elementary school class because it had “too many foreigners.” It had appeared to […]

Categories
Society

Michelle Obama Portrayed As Topless Slave On Spanish Magazine Cover

FUERA DE SERIE (Spain), LE MONDE (France) Worldcrunch Spanish magazine Fuera de Serie has sparked controversy by depicting the U.S. first lady as a topless slave on its new cover. The cover features Michelle Obama’s face pasted over a famous 19th century French painting showing a slave with one breast exposed. The image was designed […]

Exit mobile version