ColorLines

Last updated
Colorlines
EditorCharlene Sinclair
Former editorsToccara Castleman

Akiba Soloman

Aura Bogado

Kai Wright
CategoriesRace and Politics
FrequencyDaily
Publisher Race Forward
Founded1998
Country United States
Language English
Website www.colorlines.com
ISSN 1098-3503

Colorlines is a digital media platform that seeks to build a political home for everyday people and activists. The platform creates accessible multimedia to power its vision of a just multiracial democracy where all thrive. [1]

Contents

History

Colorlines was founded in 1998 as a print publication published jointly by the Applied Research Center (now Race Forward), and the now defunct Center for Third World Organizing, a training center for community organizers of color. [2] Founded by Bob Wing and Jeff Chang, Colorlines worked to popularize a race-centered cultural and political analysis and bring attention to contemporary race justice issues and movements in the United States. [3]

In 2010, Colorlines became an exclusively digital publication featuring investigative reporting and news analysis from the perspective of communities of color. [4] For over a decade, Colorlines published award-winning journalism and articles that ranged from essays, investigative reports, think pieces, opinion columns, and cultural criticism. The publication's shift to digital publishing resulted in national recognition and an annual readership of over 20 million.

Under the leadership of Dr. Charlene Sinclair, Chief of Staff at Race Forward, Colorlines restructured in the fall of 2022 to meet the demands of the political landscape and grew into a digital multimedia platform. Today, Colorlines creates accessible media to power its vision of a just democracy where all thrive. It relaunched in January 2023. [5]

Notable Impact and Awards

In 2011, Race Forward and Colorlines launched a pledge campaign to drop the usage of the word “illegal” in reference to undocumented immigrants. On November 15, 2011, Drop the I-Word called on the Associated Press to remove “Illegal Immigrant” from Stylebook. In April 2013, the Associated Press announced the change via a Blog post. The New York Times and USA Today also announced the consideration of discontinuing its use. The L.A. Times followed suit on May 1, 2013.

In November 2011, Race Forward and Colorlines published the “Shattered Families” report after a yearlong investigative reporting by Colorlines. [6] The investigation discovered that more than 5,000 children were stuck in foster care because their parents were detained by ICE. One in four deportees have U.S.-born kids and face a total loss of parental rights.

The report, along with a series of investigative articles, received an exclusive on ABC's Nightline, revealing the truth that parents were being separated from their US citizen children due to deportation.

In May 2012, Colorlines journalist, Seth Freed, received the 2012 Hillman Prize for Web Journalism. [7] The journalism prize is awarded annually to journalists, writers, and public figures who pursue social justice and public policy for the common good. This award was for the Shattered Families yearlong investigation on kids lost in the U.S. Deportation system.

In 2015, Colorlines and Race Forward published Race Reporting Guide, providing critical language and story framing to reflect ethical and rigorous journalistic standards that affirm the dignity and human rights of people of all races.

About the Publisher

Race Forward publishes Colorlines. Race Forward (formerly known as ARC - Applied Research Center) was founded in 1981 to bring systemic analysis and an innovative approach to complex race issues to help people take effective action toward racial equity. Gary Delgado founded the Applied Research Center (ARC) as "the racial justice movement’s national home for media, research and activism" [8] and an analytic resource for community organizations of color in the Center for Third World Organizing (CTWO) network. ARC published Colorlines, a quarterly print magazine, starting in 1998. [9]

ARC was rebranded as Race Forward in November 2013. Race Forward merged with the Center for Social Inclusion (CSI) in 2017. Race Forward then became and is now the home to the Government Alliance on Race and Equity (GARE), a national network of local governments working to achieve racial equity and advance opportunities for all, it publishes Colorlines, and presents Facing Race, the country's largest multiracial conference on racial justice.

The Center for Social Inclusion (CSI) was founded in 2002 by Maya Wiley and Jocelyn Sargent to catalyze community, government, and other institutions to dismantle structural racial inequity and create equitable outcomes for all. CSI worked to link research and advocacy to build capacity in communities of color and to forge links with others to increase our understanding of structural racism, and how it operates, and to develop long-term strategies to dismantle it.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Redlining</span> Systemic denial of services to some areas

Redlining is a discriminatory practice in which financial services are withheld from neighborhoods that have significant numbers of racial and ethnic minorities. Redlining has been most prominent in the United States, and has mostly been directed against African-Americans. The most common examples involve denial of credit and insurance, denial of healthcare, and the development of food deserts in minority neighborhoods.

Miscegenation is marriage or admixture between people who are members of different races. The word, now usually considered pejorative, is derived from a combination of the Latin terms miscere and genus. The word first appeared in Miscegenation: The Theory of the Blending of the Races, Applied to the American White Man and Negro, an anti-abolitionist pamphlet David Goodman Croly and others published anonymously in advance of the 1864 presidential election in the United States. The term came to be associated with laws that banned interracial marriage and sex, which were known as anti-miscegenation laws. These laws were overruled federally in 1967, and by the year 2000, all states had removed them from their laws, with Alabama being the last to do so on November 7, 2000. In the 21st century, newer scientific data shows that human populations are actually genetically quite similar. Studies show that races are more of an arbitrary social construct, and do not actually have a major genetic delineation.

Mulatto is a racial classification that refers to people of mixed African and European ancestry only, beginning in the United States of America. Its use is considered to be outdated and offensive in some countries and languages, such as English with the exceptions of some Anglophone Caribbean or West Indian countries and Dutch, but it does not have the same associations in languages such as Spanish and Portuguese. Among Latin Americans in the US, for instance, the term can be a source of pride. A mulatta is a female mulatto.

Investigative journalism is a form of journalism in which reporters deeply investigate a single topic of interest, such as serious crimes, racial injustice, political corruption, or corporate wrongdoing. An investigative journalist may spend months or years researching and preparing a report. Practitioners sometimes use the terms "watchdog reporting" or "accountability reporting".

The term "person of color" is primarily used to describe any person who is not considered "white". In its current meaning, the term originated in, and is primarily associated with, the United States; however, since the 2010s, it has been adopted elsewhere in the Anglosphere, including relatively limited usage in the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, Ireland, South Africa, and Singapore.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Race and ethnicity in the United States</span>

The United States has a racially and ethnically diverse population. At the federal level, race and ethnicity have been categorized separately. The most recent United States census recognized five racial categories, as well as people who belong to two or more of the racial categories. The United States also recognizes the broader notion of ethnicity. The 2000 census and 2010 American Community Survey inquired about the "ancestry" of residents, while the 2020 census allowed people to enter their "origins". The Census Bureau also classified respondents as either Hispanic or Latino, identifying as an ethnicity, which comprises the minority group in the nation.

White Hispanic and Latino Americans, also called Euro-Hispanics, Euro-Latinos, White Hispanics, or White Latinos, are Americans of white ancestry and ancestry from Latin America. It also refers to people of European ancestry from Latin America that speak Spanish natively and immigrated to the United States.

Pamela Cytrynbaum is an American journalist who teaches and specializes in investigative reporting and restorative justice. She is the executive director of the Chicago Innocence Center and a restorative justice practitioner.

Multiracial Americans or mixed-race Americans are Americans who have mixed ancestry of two or more races. The term may also include Americans of mixed-race ancestry who self-identify with just one group culturally and socially. In the 2020 United States census, 33.8 million individuals or 10.2% of the population, self-identified as multiracial. There is evidence that an accounting by genetic ancestry would produce a higher number.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rinku Sen</span>

Rinku Sen is an Indian-American author, activist, political strategist and the executive director of Narrative Initiative. She is also the co-president of the Women’s March Board of Directors. Sen is the former president and executive director of the racial justice organization Race Forward and publisher of ColorLines.com and Mother Jones magazine.

MediaJustice is an American national non-profit organization based in Oakland, California, established in 2008. Until 2019, MediaJustice was known as the Center for Media Justice. It was founded by Malkia Cyril and its current executive director is Steven Renderos. The organization's mission is "to build a powerful movement for a more just and participatory media and digital world—with racial equity and human rights for all".

Autostraddle is a queer and trans-owned online magazine and social network for lesbian, bisexual, and queer women, as well as non-binary people and trans people of all genders. The website is a "politically progressive queer feminist media source" that features content covering LGBT and feminist news, politics, opinion, culture, arts and entertainment as well as lifestyle content such as DIY crafting, sex, relationships, fashion, food and technology.

Societal racism is a type of racism based on a set of institutional, historical, cultural and interpersonal practices within a society that places one or more social or ethnic groups in a better position to succeed and disadvantages other groups so that disparities develop between the groups. Societal racism has also been called structural racism, because, according to Carl E. James, society is structured in a way that excludes substantial numbers of people from minority backgrounds from taking part in social institutions. Societal racism is sometimes referred to as systemic racism as well.

The Center on Race and Social Problems (CRSP) at the University of Pittsburgh School of Social Work was designed to address societal problems through research, intervention, and education. It is the first center of its kind to be housed in a school of social work and it is unique in both its multidisciplinary approach and its multiracial focus. The mission of CRSP is to conduct solution-oriented social science research on race, ethnicity, and color and their influence on the quality of life for Americans in the 21st century. CRSP has identified seven major areas of race-related social problems: economic disparities; educational disparities; interracial group relations; mental health practices and outcomes; youth, families, and the elderly; criminal justice; and health.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anti-racism</span> Beliefs, actions, movements, and policies adopted or developed to oppose racism

Anti-racism encompasses a range of ideas and political actions which are meant to counter racial prejudice, systemic racism, and the oppression of specific racial groups. Anti-racism is usually structured around conscious efforts and deliberate actions which are intended to create equal opportunities for all people on both an individual and a systemic level. As a philosophy, it can be engaged in by the acknowledgment of personal privileges, confronting acts as well as systems of racial discrimination and/or working to change personal racial biases. Major contemporary anti-racism efforts include the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement and workplace anti-racism.

Racial biases are a form of implicit bias, which refers to the attitudes or stereotypes that affect an individual's understanding, actions, and decisions in an unconscious manner. These biases, which encompass unfavorable assessments, are often activated involuntarily and without the awareness or intentional control of the individual. Residing deep in the subconscious, these biases are different from known biases that individuals may choose to conceal for the purposes of social and/or political correctness. Police officers have implicit bias, regardless of their ethnicity. Racial bias in criminal news reporting in the United States is a manifestation of this bias.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Race Forward</span> American nonprofit racial justice organization

Race Forward is a nonprofit racial justice organization with offices in Oakland, California, and New York City. It defines its mission as "[helping] people take effective action toward racial equity."

Biracial and multiracial identity development is described as a process across the life span that is based on internal and external forces such as individual family structure, cultural knowledge, physical appearance, geographic location, peer culture, opportunities for exploration, socio-historical context, etc.

Multiracial feminist theory refers to scholarship written by women of color (WOC) that became prominent during the second-wave feminist movement. This body of scholarship "does not offer a singular or unified feminism but a body of knowledge situating women and men in multiple systems of domination."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rachel Hardeman</span> American public health academic

Rachel Renee Hardeman is an American public health academic who is associate professor of Division of Health Policy and Management at the University of Minnesota School of Public Health. She holds the inaugural Blue Cross Endowed Professorship in Health and Racial Equity. Her research considers how racism impacts health outcomes, particularly for the maternal health of African-Americans.

References

  1. "About Colorlines". Colorlines. Colorlines. Retrieved 22 November 2022.
  2. ""Help Us Celebrate as the Applied Research Center Turns 30" Colorlines.com". Archived from the original on 2013-08-15. Retrieved 2022-11-22.
  3. "Speak Out : Biography and Booking information". www.speakoutnow.org. Archived from the original on June 29, 2013. Retrieved 2022-11-22.
  4. Riese (10 November 2013). "Colorlines' Applied Research Center Races Forward By Becoming "Race Forward"". Autostraddle. Retrieved June 26, 2017.
  5. "About Colorlines". Colorlines. Colorlines. Retrieved 22 November 2022.
  6. ""Thousands of Kids Lost From Parents In U.S. Deportation System" Colorlines.com" . Retrieved 2020-11-18.
  7. ""2012 HILLMAN PRIZE FOR WEB JOURNALISM" www.hillmanfoundation.org" . Retrieved 2022-11-18.
  8. Riese. "Colorlines' Applied Research Center Races Forward By Becoming "Race Forward"". Autostraddle. Autostraddle. Retrieved 22 November 2022.
  9. Riese. "Colorlines' Applied Research Center Races Forward By Becoming "Race Forward"". Autostraddle. Autostraddle. Retrieved 22 November 2022.