Race Relations

Bali Ha'i and South Pacific Are Calling at Theatre Under the Stars

Bali Ha'i and South Pacific Are Calling at Theatre Under the Stars

MLK Oratory Contest Remembers, Opens Doors

MLK Oratory Contest Remembers, Opens Doors

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Uncovering a Sometimes Uncomfortable History About Houston's Black-Jewish Relationships

By S.L. Wisenberg
Dec 7, 2021

There’s no story here. Eight years ago when Allison Schottenstein was communicating with scholars and Jewish Houstonians about mid-century Black-Jewish relations, they told her she was wasting her time. Nothing there. She was in Houston to find a topic for her University of Texas dissertation in Jewish history. Houston had...
Rice University Breaks With Tradition in Naming its Next President

By Margaret Downing
Nov 11, 2021

Reginald DesRoches will be president of Rice University after David Leebron steps down next June — becoming the first Black, first immigrant and first engineer to hold the top post at a university originally established for white students only. The private university with only a 9 percent acceptance rate and...
GOP-Drawn Texas Congressional Map Gives Wesley Hunt A New Red Seat For The Taking

By Schaefer Edwards
Sep 29, 2021

When the GOP Texas Senate on Monday unveiled its proposed new district maps for Texas’ seats in the U.S. House of Representatives, the likely impact on greater Houston’s slate of congressmen and women was pretty clear. Local red districts would get redder and blue districts would get bluer under the...
Black Children In Harris County Are Seized By CPS 3.5 Times More Often Than White Kids

By Schaefer Edwards
Jun 28, 2021

Renequa Burch still wonders why exactly Child Protective Services moved so quickly to take four of her five kids away from her in the summer of 2018, but she’s convinced the fact that she and her children are Black had something to do with it. A social worker and mother...
Texas Democrats Hoped George Floyd's Murder Would Make Major Police Reform Possible. They Were Wrong.

By Schaefer Edwards
Jun 10, 2021

After the murder of Houstonian George Floyd by former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, Texas Democrats and police reform advocates were optimistic the tragic killing would be enough of a wake-up call about systemic racism and corruption within law enforcement to garner the widespread bipartisan support needed to really overhaul...
A Trio of Texas Authors Take on the Many Myths of the Alamo

By Bob Ruggiero
Jun 8, 2021

It is, likely, the most cherished and entrenched story in Texas history. How in late February/early March of 1836, heroic Texas defenders including marquee names like Davy Crockett, Jim Bowie, and William Barret Travis fought a pitched but losing battle inside an old Spanish mission against a bloodthirsty and overwhelming...
How Soon is "Too Soon" for TV Comedy to Address Tragedy and Trauma?

By Bob Ruggiero
May 17, 2021

Tragedy Plus Time: National Trauma and Television Comedy By Philip Scepanski 280 pp. $50 University of Texas Press On September 29, 2001, just a little over two weeks after the terrorist attack on 9/11, the New York Friars Club and Comedy Central went ahead with a planned “roast” of Hugh...
Derek Chauvin Found Guilty of Murder in Killing of Houstonian George Floyd

By Schaefer Edwards
Apr 20, 2021

After deliberating for around ten hours, a Minnesota jury Tuesday found former Minneapolis Police Department Officer Derek Chauvin guilty of murder in the killing of former Houstonian George Floyd. The 12-person jury’s decision on Tuesday capped-off one of the highest-profile trials in recent memory, in a case that caught the...
Local Leaders Hope Texas Southern Clinic Will Boost Racial Equity In COVID Vaccinations

By Schaefer Edwards
Feb 11, 2021

On Thursday, Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner and U.S. Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee gathered at Texas Southern University to celebrate the launch of the school’s new coronavirus vaccine clinic. The vaccination center on TSU’s campus is being managed by St. Luke’s hospital with the hope that it’ll become a local leader...
Fargo Season 4, Gives Us a Crime Story About America and Race

By Jamil David
Nov 10, 2020

Fargo Season 4 is ambitious. It is a crime story that has big ideas about the American dream. Set in 1950s Kansas City, the series pits an Italian crime family the Faddas against a rival black crime family the Cannons. Both families are seeking legitimacy while consolidating their power as...
Seeing Unicorns: Meet the Black Veterinarians Beating Down the Barriers in Houston

By Anna Ta
Nov 9, 2020

A few years ago, Dr. Aziza Glass was getting the cold shoulder from her professors — most of them white — at veterinary school, avoiding eye contact with her almost all-white classmates, and feeling the pressure of being one of the only people of color in the room. “It was such...
Political Infighting Doesn't Spare Harris County’s Asian American Community Even as Its Voter Turnout Doubles

By Anna Ta
Nov 2, 2020

“I am Vietnamese-American and I support VP Joe Biden and Sen. Kamala Harris. I'm sticking my neck out by doing this and I fully expect my family to react badly to this.” That’s how Victor Nguyen began his Facebook post announcing his support for Biden’s bid for president. As election...
Months After George Floyd, Black Lives Matter Houston Keeps Fighting For A Better Bayou City

By Schaefer Edwards
Oct 5, 2020

By any measure, 2020 has been one of the worst years of all time. It’d still rank high on the list of most awful years if it were only for the still raging coronavirus pandemic that’s killed over a million people globally and the plethora of natural disasters that have...
Reviews For The Uneasily Quarantined:
The Trial Of The Chicago 7

By Pete Vonder Haar
Oct 2, 2020

Title: The Trial of the Chicago 7 Describe This Movie In One "Book Revue" Quote: THE WOLF: You can't do this to me! I'm a citizen, see! Brief Plot Synopsis: Incarcerated radicals struggle to become free. Free radicals. Is this thing on? Rating Using Random Objects Relevant To The Film: 3 [Pentagon]...
With Barely a Break For a Tropical Storm, Rice Students Continue to Protest Willy's Statue

By Anna Ta
Sep 28, 2020

As Tropical Storm Beta approached Houston, a handful of Rice University student protestors weathered the rain outside in the school’s main quad, huddled under umbrellas and by the towering statue of the university’s founder, William Marsh Rice. While the students abided by the flash flood warnings and took the next...
Alley Theatre Embraces Hispanic Heritage Month With Virtual Bilingual Programs

By Margaret Downing
Sep 23, 2020

An outreach initiative to the Hispanic community in Houston, one started by the Alley Theatre a few years ago that was kind of in stall mode thanks to other intervening events, has been reinvigorated recently, partly because of the pandemic conditions the area is in right now. Since the Alley...
HPD Chief Acevedo Releases Video of Fatal Police Shooting of Nicolas Chavez, Fires 4 Officers

By Schaefer Edwards
Sep 10, 2020

On Thursday, Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo was joined by Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner to unveil body cam footage from the fatal police shooting of Nicolas Chavez, 27, on April 21. Acevedo announced that he had fired four of the HPD officers who were involved in Chavez’s killing, calling their...
Houston Ballet's Planned Performance of La Bayadere Comes Under Fire

By Margaret Downing
Sep 8, 2020

A Hindu rights activist based in Nevada is accusing the Houston Ballet of cultural insensitivity and is urging it to cancel its upcoming performances of La Bayadère, scheduled for February, saying the ballet set in India "trivializes Eastern religious and other traditions." La Bayadère, a ballet originally performed in Russia...
Basketball, Baseball Facing Racial Injustice Head On

By Jeff Balke
Aug 31, 2020

On Sunday, the Astros postponed the final game of their three-game series against Oakland, but not for the reasons you may have thought. After an A's player tested positive for COVID-19, teams called off the game as part of MLB protocols. You would be forgiven if you thought the cancellation...
Port Neches-Groves High's Cheerleaders Yell "Scalp 'em!" While Others Call Foul

By Schaefer Edwards
Aug 11, 2020

Cindy Reeves grins from ear to ear as she strikes a proud pose in front of the hazy purple backdrop. She is decked out in her drill team best: bright white boots and gloves, a cute white and purple blouse and a pleated white skirt. It isn’t just the colors...

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