The Color of Happiness
When Race Becomes a Factor in Therapy
by Carrie Feibel

Janice Warner, a 67-year-old biracial social worker, will never forget the teasing she heard as a child on the playgrounds of her school in Albany, N.Y. White classmates taunted Warner, who is both white and Native American, claiming, "There's no Indians around anymore." Sometimes they would scream, "You're going to scalp me!" Full Story

'Slim Down, Sister'
Black Women and Obesity in Super-Sized Society
by Jennifer Smith

As Brynne Clarke prepares for her 40th birthday, she is haunted by what her future might hold. "I don't mind getting older," said Clarke, a black broadcast engineer at WNET, a New York public television station. It's her weight that's the problem. Full Story

Silent Treatment
Many Black Women Struggle With Depression on Their Own
by Cherie Black

Sixteen years ago, Sherry Morton's sister suggested she see a psychiatrist. One of 12 children, the then-29-year-old black woman from Flatbush in Brooklyn had seen two of her siblings die in two years. She was crying constantly, but thought it was just grief that would eventually pass. Full Story

Widening the Pool
When Black American Women Find African Mates
by Heidi Shrager

The last thing Talle Bamazi expected when he moved to New York City six years ago from Togo, West Africa, was to meet and fall in love with an American woman. Full Story

The Dating Game
Jewish-Iranian Girls Face Double Standard
by Shandray Mehdian

It was not a typical teen-age fight over a girl. The outraged student at Great Neck North High School in suburban Long Island was defending the honor of his Jewish-Iranian sister who had been smeared by what he deemed a vicious rumor. She had been accused of dating an American boy.
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The Marriage Question
Non-White Jews Wonder If They Will Find Spouses
by Shoshana Kordova

The first time an acquaintance set up Tashia Moore, 25, with a man 13 years older than her, she figured she would give it a try. It didn't work out. "I mean, he was old!" said Moore, an assistant account executive for a jewelry wholesaler.

She was even less excited when the same acquaintance, an Orthodox Jewish man she had met through her previous job, called again to tell her about a 37-year-old man who had previously been married and had a child living in Israel. "I kept thinking, why does this guy think I can date these older guys?" she said.

She has a point - one part-time matchmaker refuses to set up any man with a woman more than 10 years younger. "It's just very interesting who people set up with me," she said.
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Pressing On
New York's Black Newspapers Struggle to Matter
by Daren Briscoe

When Elinor Tatum was 13, she told her father that she thought he should run for mayor. "He told me 'I don't need to run for mayor. I have more power where I am,'" Tatum said. Her father, Wilbert A. Tatum, was then publisher of the New York Amsterdam News. Full Story

Seeing White
Black Faces Still Scarce in Publishing Industry
by Christian Red

Betty Prashker, during her more than 40 years as an esteemed book editor, has seen publishing in New York City transformed from a "glamour industry" into just another business worried about the bottom line.
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Black Prosecutors
Dealing With Race in the Criminal Justice System
by Emily Kopp

When New York City police officers fired 41 shots and killed the unarmed West African immigrant Amadou Diallo in 1999, Kenneth Montgomery knew they would go free. "I knew justice would not be served," he said. Full Story

Call to Prayer
Prisoners Converting to Orthodox Islam in Growing Numbers
by Sadia Razaq

Derek Johnson grew up in a Christian family and flirted with the idea of converting to the Five Percenters, an offshoot of the Nation of Islam, as a teenager. But it was not until Johnson was incarcerated in Comstock State Prison, serving an eight-year sentence for knifing a man in a soured drug deal, that he converted to Sunni Islam. Full Story

Classroom Racial Divide
Where Teacher Training Often Misses the Mark
by John Wolfson

Richard Miller has never forgotten what he learned the first time he taught his students the history of slavery. He can't forget. The same thing always happens. Full Story

Learning Race
Classroom Discussions in the New Urban School
by Kelly A. Feeney

At Urban Academy in New York City, students have no choice about whether they want to talk about race, especially if they are in Dickson Lam's social studies class. Race is simply a part of most discussions.
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Racial Rough Spot
How Skin Color Affects the Puerto Rican Community
by Jennifer Weil

Victor Ayala was only 9 when he realized that his black skin made him different. "That incident never left me," said Ayala, who was born to Puerto Rican parents in New York City and thus considers himself a black Nuyorican. Full Story

Tourism Jitters
As Revival Spreads, Is Harlem Becoming a Theme Park?
By Susana Seijas

Sunday in Harlem is not what it used to be. While tourists venture into America's most famous black neighborhood every day, Sunday is when the tourist crush peaks. Busloads of camera-clutching visitors flock to Harlem's churches to absorb the soulful sounds of gospel music. Full Story

Shades of Black
Personal Stories of Colorism and Privilege
By Kaomi Goetz

"A dark-skinned friend of ours came to our house and while we were talking, asked my wife if she was hired because she was light-skinned," said Kenneth Meeks, the managing editor of Black Enterprise magazine. "We thought it was the oddest question. We started talking about good hair versus nappy hair, and I thought: `Where is this coming from? Aren't we all black?'" Full Story

The Garinagu in New York
An unnoticed group flourishes in the shadows
By Angelica Medaglia

The doors of the buildings along East 149 Street were closed, but inside La Peña del Bronx music blasted one Saturday evening in early April. The setting could easily have been in Honduras, Guatemala or Belize. Black women, in long checkered dresses that matched their head wraps, chatted in Garifuna over chicken soup and beer. Full Story