2011 September Archive

Media Fail: Obama’s speech to Congressional Black Caucus wasn’t a lecture

If all you saw in the mainstream media about President Obama’s speech to the Congressional Black Caucus Annual Legislative Conference Saturday night was the AP story, then you are woefully misinformed as to what the President actually said.

As soon as the AP story, “Obama Tells Blacks to ‘Stop Complainin’ and Fight” hit the wire, the narrative that the president “lectured” or “talked down to” black people emerged. In reality, the President delivered a fiery campaign style speech with the purpose of igniting his base of supporters who have been frustrated with the high levels of unemployment and overall dismal pace of economic growth. The first half of the speech addressed what the administration has ...

By Vanessa • 12 years ago

NFL adds “sexual orientation” to anti-discrimination language

Too bad the NFL wasn’t super public about this change, but glad to see the news nonetheless. Amanda Terkel reports:

The NFL has removed a hurdle for professional football players who may be thinking of coming out as gay, banning discrimination based on “sexual orientation.”

The new language was quietly put into the 2011 collective bargaining agreement, ratified by the players on Aug. 4, and first noticed by Pete Olsen at Wide Rights.

The contract reads: “Section 1. No Discrimination: There will be no discrimination in any form against any player by the Management Council, any Club or by the NFLPA [NFL Players Association] because of race, religion, national origin, sexual orientation, or activity or lack of activity on behalf ...

Too bad the NFL wasn’t super public about this change, but glad to see the news nonetheless. Amanda Terkel reports:

The NFL has removed a hurdle for professional football players who may be thinking of ...

By Vanessa • 12 years ago

The L-Word’s Leisha Hailey kicked off of Southwest flight for kissing girlfriend

If you love Leisha Hailey from The L-Word like I do, prepare to fume. Southwest Airlines, the airline company that loves to discriminate based on size and what you’re wearing (not to mention harass some women in the process) kicked the actress and her girlfriend off of their flight yesterday for kissing, with the reason being that Southwest is a “family” airline.

After tons of tweets by Leisha demanding an apology and a ton of news coverage, Southwest issued a public apology claiming that the flight attendant was responding to passenger complaints “characterizing the behavior as aggressive,” claiming the actions made weren’t based on the fact that they ...

If you love Leisha Hailey from The L-Word like I do, prepare to fume. Southwest Airlines, the airline company that loves to discriminate based on size and what you’re wearing (

By Chloe Angyal • 12 years ago

Theatre festival highlights women playwrights of colour

Now in its twelfth year, the River Crosses Rivers II festival is one of the only events in America that highlights the works of women playwrights of colour.

“The goal, simply put, is to give these women the kind of exposure that is provided by Ensemble Studio Theater, whose goal is to nurture individual theatre artists and to develop new American plays,” the festival website says. “The River Crosses Rivers II is a stellar lineup of playwrights whose voices add richness and texture to the American Canon.” The American Canon has not traditionally made a whole lot of space for women playwrights, and it’s made even less room for women playwrights of colour. The River Crosses River festival is one ...

Now in its twelfth year, the River Crosses Rivers II festival is one of the only events in America that highlights the works of women playwrights of colour.

“The goal, simply put, is to give these women ...

By Samhita • 12 years ago

What we missed

The inimitable Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Wangari Maathai has passed away. May she rest in power.

The very brilliant Melissa Harris Perry wrote a brave piece about race, liberals and Obama. The responses ranged from rage to well thought out arguments. She defended her piece. I mentioned on twitter last night, what annoys me most about race conversations is that if race isn’t the 100% problem, you are only allowed to bring it up as 0% of the conversation–anything else is read as divisive. Perry takes issue with this assumption and some other ones.

An awesome essay about fighting against the inflicted belief that a woman in a wheelchair can’t enjoy sex.

If you are going ...

The inimitable Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Wangari Maathai has passed away. May she rest in power.

The very brilliant Melissa Harris Perry wrote a brave piece about race, liberals and Obama. The responses ranged ...

By Samhita • 12 years ago

Sakhi summit: Preventing violence, promoting justice

Rethinking the way that organizers handle sexual assault and domestic violence is not easy work. The tools that are given to us are often tools that can also hurt us, i.e. an over reliance on the criminal justice system. If this week has shown us anything it is that sometimes the criminal justice system can’t be trusted–especially when working with communities of color–so how do we create solutions to violence that don’t simply reproduce violence?

This is the question that is being asked at the first ever Sakhi for South Asian women’s “game-changing” summit:

Preventing Violence, Promoting Justice will provide the opportunity to explore the intersections among domestic violence, immigration, economic justice, philanthropy, health and other related movements for social justice and to ...

By Samhita • 12 years ago

What main street doesn’t know about Occupy Wall street

(pic via the Gothamist)

On September 17th, 2011 thousands of protestors marched on Wall street. Their demands were as diverse as their constituents, including everything from banning the death penalty to ending poverty. What seems to be missing from this rather dedicated action is any serious mainstream media coverage.

Fair asks, “What if Wall street was occupied by the Tea Party?,”

But you wouldn’t know much about any of this from the corporate media–outlets that seem much more interested in protests of the Tea Party variety.

The anti-corporate protests have been lightly covered in the hometown New York Times: One piece (9/18/11) largely about how the police blocked access to Wall Street, and one photo (9/22/11) with the caption “Wall Street ...

(pic via the Gothamist)

By Samhita • 12 years ago

Saudi women are granted the right to vote. Now what?

In an unprecedented move, King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia granted women the right to vote this past Sunday. Women in Saudi Arabia have been organizing on a variety of fronts, pushing for political representation, fighting for the right to drive and for more mobility in public since as of right now women have to be chaperoned when in public. While the right to vote is a marginal step forward and a great media opportunity in the face of a how terrible Saudia Arabia looks internationally on the issue of women’s rights. But the real question many activists are asking is, ‘will this actually make women’s lives that different?’

The NYTimes reports,

Even under the new law, it was unclear how many women would ...