Racial Justice
National Cathedral Will Remove Confederate Flags From Stained Glass
The Washington National Cathedral says it will remove two images of the Confederate battle flag from the building’s stained glass windows. Then the church will hold a period of public discussion on issues of race, slavery and justice, and revisit the question of how to treat other depictions of the Civil War on the windows….
Recruiting to Fight Social Injustices
Michael Brooks recalls witnessing racism in Kansas City at a young age. Growing up at 37th and Benton Boulevard, a wealthy neighborhood “filled with doctors and lawyers,” the former councilman and senior pastor of Zion Grove Missionary Baptist Church said he started kindergarten in 1967 at then-affluent Sanford B. Ladd Elementary. Then, he said, it…
Back Into the ‘Underground’
During dress rehearsal Wednesday night, co-choreographer Tobin James of Storling Dance Theater’s “Underground” at the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts struggled to speak. Sick, exhausted, her voice shot, she breathed deep as she watched the final rehearsal from a dark corner offstage. Twenty rows back in the sixteen hundred seat auditorium, co-choreographer Mona Enna…
“It’s the right thing to do.”
During a press conference this morning, University of Missouri system president Tim Wolfe stepped down in an emotional speech after weeks of mounting pressure from students and faculty for the university to tackle race issues. “To our students…to our football players and other students, the frustration and anger I see is real. And I don’t doubt it,”…
NCLR takes on Latinos and the digital divide
The day before President Obama announced an initiative to expand high-speed broadband access to more families across the country, a panel at the National Council of La Raza Conference in Kansas City was talking about the exact same issue. The “Opening the Portal of Technology to Latino Families” featured three guest speakers: FCC Commissioner Mignon…
US Treasurer Rios calls for greater economic equality and opportunity
The poverty rate for Latinos is decreasing, but the continuing growth of income inequality is making economic advancement for Latinos difficult. That’s according to panelists speaking Sunday at the National Conference of La Raza (NCLR) in Kansas City. In a panel discussion titled “The Great Economic Divide, Why Inequality Matters,” the town hall meeting featured U.S. Treasurer Rosie Rios as keynote speaker.
Protest, disparity focus of annual KC civil rights summit
Since the death of Mike Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, last August, race relations in America have been a constant topic of conversation — on front porches, at bus stops, in bars and on cable news. And it was a big part of the agenda today at the 7th Annual Civil Rights and Fair Housing Summit,…
Define Yourself: The Iway Family, Part 4:
Doctors Olivia and Belino Iway came to the United States in 1974 from the Philippines on student visas, carrying $200 in their pockets and three young children to care for. After Belino completed his medical residency in New York City, where their fourth child was born, the family was invited to move to Elkhart, Kansas, to staff the small town’s fledgling hospital, where they spent over 30 years building its present capacity of several hundred employees with specialized units that serve patients from many of the larger surrounding communities.
Being Filipino: The Iway Family, Part 3
In this edition of Your Fellow Americans, the Iway family discusses what their Filipino culture means to them as the talk about dance, education, and finally understanding their parents. How does the American Dream look different for children and adults? Why does the United States put such an emphasis on doing what makes you happy? Is discipline undervalued as a means to ‘the good life?’ We want to know your thoughts.
Commentary | The Sky is Not Falling
The sky is not falling. It just seems that it is because we have an image and a video of a falling sky that shows up on our mobile devices. And on our favorite cable stations. Maybe our friends and family are even texting us, warning about the falling sky. Then there’s an abundance of…