Ai-jen Poo: Organizing Labor—with Love

Talk to Ai-jen Poo about her work and it won’t be long before you hear language you don’t often hear in the midst of intense social movement campaigning. For one, she does not shy away from talking about “organizing with love.” A 37-year-old organizer based in New York City, Poo is founder of Domestic Workers [...]

Gaming: Tool of Pedagogy or Oppression?

Last month, a trailer for a new video game, Slavery the Game, was released on YouTube and instantly went viral. It also elicited worldwide outrage and indignation, as well as racially abusive rhetoric in the YouTube comments section from those who must have eagerly awaited a game that invites players to take on the roles [...]

My Story; Our Story

As an immigrant, a woman, a social worker and a professor who teaches about the immigrant experience in the United States, I feel very connected to other immigrants throughout this country on many levels. And so I am keenly aware of the effects of restrictive immigration policies such as HB 87 in Georgia, HB 497 [...]

Don’t Ignore LGBTQ Immigrants’ Needs

Immigrants are often scapegoats for all kinds of societal ills: a lagging economy, dangerous reproduction, even environmental degradation. Thankfully, there is a strong and growing immigrants’ rights movement that counters these attacks and highlights the real problems: xenophobia, racism and an out-of-touch immigration policy. All too often, however, immigration is portrayed as heterosexual and male. [...]

1.5 Million Plus: The Wal-Mart Decision’s Undocumented Victims

Isabel was paid only $2.00 per hour for her seven-hour shifts at a restaurant, and the owner confiscated her tips. He also made her and his other women employees purchase “schoolgirl” and “military girl” outfits to wear during night shifts. Elena’s supervisor made her sit on his lap and kiss him on the cheek when [...]

Click! Doing the Dishes and My Rock n’ Roll Dreams

It was the 1980s. I was an oddball. I loved Tina Turner, Pat Benatar, Cyndi Lauper, Eurythmics, U2 and the Rolling Stones. I was dreaming of becoming a rock star. My father wanted me to do the dishes. If you’d ask me back then whether I was a feminist, I would probably tell you to [...]

This Thanksgiving, Remember the Migrant Hands That Feed You

There will be an unexpected guest at Thanksgiving this year, one you’ll barely notice. You only know her by her hands, which pick, process and package that rich feast your family will enjoy. And it’s easy to overlook what her mind and body endures each day to put food on tables, yours and hers. Building [...]

BREAKING: U.S. Poised To Send Salvadoran Woman Back to Her Abuser

The fate of Irma Medrano, the woman seeking sanctuary in the U.S. from her abusive husband in El Salvador, hangs in the balance. Yesterday, the Board of Immigration Appeals dismissed her motion for a stay of deportation. The 44-year-old Medrano fled El Salvador in 1995 to live with her sister in California after years of [...]

Irma Medrano: Don’t Send Me Back to My Abuser

In 1995, Irma Medrano fled El Salvador after being subject to horrible abuse at the hands of her husband. For years he had routinely beaten her, strangled her with a leather belt and threatened to kill her. Every time she complained to the Salvadoran police she was told that they would not intervene in a [...]

Frat Boys, Misogynist Geeks and Homophobes: Editors’ Picks, 10/3-10/9

From ColorLines: Yesterday Oprah, whose 1987 program “AIDS in America” was groundbreaking, got schooled on HIV and had her own aha! moment. Her interviewee, a woman who sued her ex-husband after contracting HIV from him and won an unprecedented $12 million, corrected the daytime host when she referred to Magic Johnson as the poster child [...]

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