A sobering analysis of the uproar over racism and the new Arizona immigration law from Daisy Hernández at Colorlines:

We don’t yell racism when Obama’s administration deports hundreds of thousands of men and women and even teenagers. We didn’t say anything of race in 2008 when Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, then Arizona’s governor, signed a law forcing employers to verify every employees’ social security number. We barely mentioned racism in the nineties when federal officials decided to beef up border patrol and force migrants to travel the Arizona desert, where they would either die or be easier to catch in the sweltering heat.

But put it on paper that race will explicitly be one reason why the cop is pulling over brown folks and we’re all screaming “racist!”  

Source: Colorlines 

Mexico's ambassador to the United States is covering all the bases and broadcasting the Mexican government's new travel advisory over Twitter. Just what destination is he warning against? You guessed it.

And sheesh, I can't be the only one with this song going through my head this week...

(Thanks, Minnesota Independent.)

For years, Roberto Vargas avoided white people altogether—he’d had too many collisions with racism and prejudice. In the new issue of Yes!, he urges the opposite path. “My invitation to you, as a reader who desires to increase fairness and respect among all people,” Vargas writes, “is to be a facilitator of courageous conversations about race and culture.” Check out his simple tips for starting your own dialogue.

Source: Yes!

Congratulations to Yes!, which was nominated for a 2010 Utne Independent Press Award for health/wellness coverage.

John Yoo is probably best known for his stint at the Department of Justice under George W. Bush, where he authored the infamous “torture memos” that provided legal justification for torture. Nowadays he’s teaching at Boalt Hall, the law school at the University of California at Berkeley—where on April 20, according to Gawker, the bathrooms were stocked with toilet paper bearing his name (“this toilet paper made possible by John Yoo, professor of law”) along with text from the UN’s Convention Against Torture.

The T.P. transplant was orchestrated by Los Angeles–based artist/prankster Matt Cornell. You can crack open a PDF of the toilet paper and watch a video of the installation at www.yootoiletpaper.com.

Source: Gawker

Our library contains 1,300 publications—a feast of magazines, journals, alt-weeklies, newsletters, and zines—and every year, we honor the stars in our Utne Independent Press Awards. We’ll announce this year’s winners on Sunday, April 25, at the MPA’s Independent Magazine Group conference in Washington, D.C., and post them online the following Monday. We’re crazy about these publications, and we’d love it for all of our readers to get to know them better, too. So, every weekday until the conference, we’ll be posting mini-introductions to our complete list of 2010 nominees.

The following eight magazines are our 2010 nominees in the category of political coverage.

The American Prospect reports on the day’s most essential issues, from immigration to workers’ rights, privacy to prison reform. By combining thorough reportage with deep analysis, it provides progressives with the intellectual and inspirational tools to engage in transformative politics and policy. www.prospect.org

Since 1976, the folks behind the investigative nonprofit Mother Jones have relentlessly and reliably delivered “smart, fearless journalism,” transcending the day’s political spin to unearth stories on everything from global climate change to torturous foreign policy decisions on both sides of the aisle. www.motherjones.com

Ms. has been at the forefront of feminist politics since 1972. In 2009 the editors shone light on a host of pressing issues, including the Obama administration’s abortion policies and the need for domestic workers’ rights. Featuring journalism that provokes action, this quarterly loves a righteous fight. www.msmagazine.com

The Nation has been a vital progressive voice for nearly 150 years, weighing in weekly on politics, arts, and culture via vivid features, incisive reviews, and convention-busting commentary. By bucking the trend against the slick and the glossy, The Nation helps to keep politics real. www.thenation.com

The influential, debate-fueling biweekly The New Republic chooses tough critical thinking over easy dogma, encouraging its writers (and readers) to be critical not just of their right-wing foes but also their fellow liberals. In a political landscape full of bluster, TNR’s cool rigor holds sway. www.tnr.com

The Progressive turned 100 last year, but this bastion of the liberal press is full of fresh energy and up-to-the-minute currency. Publishing analysis and reporting from leading thinkers, it never loses sight of the people behind the issues it covers. www.progressive.org

With hard-hitting reports on immigration, life on the border, education, prisons, and social justice issues, The Texas Observer has carved out a niche worth celebrating. Its unmatched reportage and analysis kneecaps those who traffic in malfeasance, corruption, and injustice. www.texasobserver.org

Washington Monthly forged ahead of the mainstream on many issues this year, from textbook revisionism in Texas to the subprime student loan racket, making it a must-read beyond the Beltway. Its reporting is unimpeachable, its analysis sound, and its reputation for sagacity well earned. www.washingtonmonthly.com

Want more? Meet our international, health and wellness, spirituality, and science and technology nominees.

Does the WikiLeaks video released this week, showing U.S. Blackhawk helicopter crew members boasting and congratulating each other as they gun down unarmed journalists and children, reveal that U.S. military personnel take glee in killing?

Well, if it doesn’t, these bumper stickers spotted on the Cherry Point and Camp Lejeune Marine bases in North Carolina—and posted on the right-wing blog One Man’s Thoughts—will help anyone with doubts round out the picture. If you don’t live near an armed forces base or socialize with soldiers, this is the noble and morally conscious military culture you’re missing out on:

 “Waterboarding Is Out So Kill Them All!”

“Interrogators Can’t Waterboard Dead Guys”

“U.S. Marines—Travel Agents to Allah”

“When in Doubt, Empty the Magazine”

“The Marine Corps—When It Absolutely, Positively Has to Be Destroyed Overnight”

“Marines—Providing Enemies of America an Opportunity to Die for their Country Since 1775”

 “Happiness Is a Belt-Fed Weapon”

“Artillery Brings Dignity to What Would Otherwise Be Just a Vulgar Brawl”

“A Dead Enemy Is a Peaceful Enemy—Blessed Be the Peacemakers”

“Marine Sniper—You Can Run, But You’ll Just Die Tired!”

“What Do I Feel When I Kill a Terrorist? A Little Recoil”

Let me be clear: I know people who serve in the U.S. military. I admire their resolve, their courage, and their sense of duty. They do not have stickers like this on their vehicles.

Source: One Man’s Thoughts

Hidden amidst the profit-seeking and selfishness of economic theory, Elinor Ostrom, the first woman to win the Nobel Prize for economics, found some hope for the future. She told Yes!:

I don’t see the human as hopeless. There’s a general tendency to presume people just act for short-term profit. But anyone who knows about small-town businesses and how people in a community relate to one another realizes that many of those decisions are not just for profit and that humans do try to organize and solve problems.

If you are in a fishery or have a pasture and you know your family’s long-term benefit is that you don’t destroy it, and if you can talk with the other people who use that resource, then you may well figure out rules that fit that local setting and organize to enforce them. But if the community doesn’t have a good way of communicating with each other or the costs of self-organization are too high, then they won’t organize, and there will be failures.

Source: Yes!