Stories Civil Rights & Ethnicity

An Open Letter to Obama on Racism in Denmark

  December 4, 2008

Two popular Danish writers and provocateurs, Jakob Holdt and Rune Engelbreth Larsen, have created a video letter to president-elect Barack Obama asking him to do something about the growing amount of racism against Muslims in Danish politics and media.

On the Fence with Richardson

  December 4, 2008

American minorities are on the fence with President-elect Obama’s decision to appoint New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson as Secretary of Commerce. On the other side of the fence, Mexican Americans are lauding the appointment.

Armenian Bloggers Hail Power Return

  November 30, 2008

While most people know Samantha Power as an Obama adviser who has called Hillary Clinton a “monster,” many genocide awareness and prevention activists consider the Harvard professor a hope they can believe in. The Associated Press has noticed that Power, who officially resigned from Obama’s campaign during the Democratic primaries, is on US President-elect Obama’s transition team. This news has encouraged several Armenian bloggers who now feel assured that the author of “A Problem from Hell: America and the Age of Genocide” (2002) will remind President-elect Barack Obama to keep his promise of officially recognizing the WWI Armenian Genocide committed by Ottoman Turks.

What if Obama was African?

  November 19, 2008

Suppose Barack Obama was running for elections in an African country, would he have become president? Mozambican author Mia Couto raises the question, and bloggers from Mozambique and Angola respond. Paula Goes translates their reactions from Portuguese.

France: “Diversity” Boosted by the Obama Effect?

  November 12, 2008

“The Obama effect,” the new set phrase for change French-style, from economics to sports to nearly every area of life, is shaking up the literary as well as the political communities. Whatever the agenda displayed by those concerned, diversity – meant as the contrary of discrimination in jobs, society, politics,...

Rising Voices Bloggers on Obama's Victory

  November 8, 2008

Bloggers from around the world, including those trained in Rising Voices outreach projects, have been penning their reactions to President-Elect Barack Obama’s victory in Tuesday’s election in the United States. David Sasaki brings us the story.

Cameroon: A Discreet Pride

  November 7, 2008

Rather than wax ecstatic on Obama's victory, the collective blog 20mai.net [fr] from Cameroon has chosen to go out in the streets and tape short interviews of young Cameroonians on yesterday's victory. In this video [fr], we learn that Obama is a bantoo name and that Cameroon knows how to keep its African pride and hopes in check, publicly.

Kenya Celebrates Obama's Victory

  November 7, 2008

Kenyans stayed awake and celebrated Obama victory. Senator beer got more famous! Others wondered why Kenya spent so much money marketing the country while all they needed was one famous man, and now everybody knows about Kenya.

The Arab World Reacts to Rahm Emanuel's Appointment

  November 7, 2008

It was announced this morning that President-Elect Barack Obama had selected Rahm Emanuel as his Chief of Staff. Emanuel, who served as a top adviser to President Bill Clinton and is now a member of the House, is known in the U.S. for his aggressive determination. His service to the...

Fourth World Voices: We Can Too

  November 7, 2008

African-American politician Barack Obama’s White House victory is seen as their own triumph by many in the world. But what does the marginalized and invisible world – the Fourth World – think of America’s first multicultural president? Indigenous peoples offer watchful hope for change; many adopt the spirit of “Yes we can.”