Race FilesScot Nakagawa is a political strategist and writer who has spent more than four decades exploring questions of structural racism, white supremacy, and social justice. Scot’s primary work has been in the fight against authoritarianism, white nationalism, and Christian nationalism. Currently, Scot is co-lead of the 22nd Century Initiative, a project to build the field of resistance to authoritarianism in the U.S.
Scot is a past Alston/Bannerman Fellow, an Open Society Foundations Fellow, and a recipient of the Association of Asian American Studies Community Leader Award. His writings have been included in Race, Gender, and Class in the United States: An Integrated Study, 9th Edition, and Killing Trayvons: An Anthology of American Violence.
Scot's political essays, briefings, and other educational media can be found at his newsletter, We Fight the Right at scotnakagawa@substack.com. He is a sought after public speaker and educator who provides consultation on campaign and communications strategy, and fundraising.
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The above interview was conducted by Laura Flanders of Grit TV and The Nation on the occasion of the release of the Pew Research Center’s report, The Rise of Asian Americans and my response, here, on Race Files.
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Above is an excerpt of an interview with me conducted by Laura Flanders of The Nation and Grit TV about how Real Rights Require Real Resources. The complete interview can be found here. Transcript on Truth Out to follow.
A South Asian friend of mine once told me that 9/11 broke her heart; that after 9/11, she felt life for her as a South Asian woman would never be the same. How life changed for her is part of a richer story of what 9/11 meant for South Asians that is at the heart (or at least serves as the hook) of Uncle Swami: South Asians in America Today, by Vijay Prashad.
Uncle Swami took me just four or five hours to read, a real plus for a slow reader with a short attention span. It opens … Read more “Book Review: Uncle Swami”
Thursday I taped a short interview with Tell Me More, a program that airs on National Public Radio. The segment aired last Friday. Give it a listen by clicking here. Tell me what you think. Be kind, these things are edited so I did actually say it (occasional cringe), but I also said a lot more.
My friends at Project South, a member of the South to South collaboration, shared this video with me, a project of the Brave New Foundation. Together, these groups are working toward shutting down the school to prison pipeline as part of their effort to lead a new Southern Freedom Movement. I hope you check it out.
As you do, consider this:
Rates of illegal drug use are consistent across race. Approximately the same percentage of whites and blacks, for instance, use illegal drugs. But there were 223.5 million white people and 39 million black people in the U.S., according … Read more “Our Turn to Dream Video Share”
Dear Readers,
Race Files started as an experiment. During the media blitz that followed the breakthrough performance of former New York Nicks basketball player, Jeremy Lin, I found myself mumbling under my breath about the exclusion of progressive Asian American voices in media and the almost complete absence of useful racial dialogue, particularly concerning Asian Americans. Soon, writing took the place of all that frustrated mumbling and Race Files was born, my small contribution to the discussion of race in the U.S. that I thought would be read by, at most, a few hundred friends and colleagues.
That was a … Read more “Brand New Race Files”
I get asked that question and various riffs on it like “why do Asians hate black people?” and “why do Asians only stick with other Asians?” all the time. While these questions may seem rude, I take them seriously, not least because they contain seeds of truth, even if they’re ultimately based on misinformation.
Before I get into what I meant by that, perhaps, confusing statement, let’s get real about racism. Racism is distinct from ordinary bias because it was created as the justification for and original blueprint of a society in which race and class were pretty much the … Read more “Why Are Asians So Racist?”
FYI, that’s not a picture of my family. It’s a picture that I cut and pasted off the site Stuff White People Like that seemed appropriate given the following bit of news.
A recent Reuter‘s report indicates that about 40% of whites and 25% of non-whites don’t have friends of other races. That’s a lot of people, but it also means that 60% of whites and 75% of non-whites do have friends of other races. I would have guessed that more than 40% of whites lived totally segregated lives so I actually thought this story was a mixture of … Read more “Some Of My Best Friends Are…”
The book Seeing Through Race: A Reinterpretation of Civil Rights Photography, by Martin A. Berger explores the dual role of Civil Rights Movement photojournalism in promoting and limiting the possibility of civil rights reform in the 1960s.
Berger argues that photos of civil rights protest – the unforgettable images of Bull Connor using attack dogs and fire hoses on peaceful demonstrators in Birmingham, for instance – too often told the story of the movement in terms that reduced black Southerners to one-dimensional victims.
Photos of white-on-black violence shamed Northern whites. But, those photos didn’t make them feel guilty, … Read more “Can We See Through Race?”
In Philadelphia, restaurateur Joe Groh experienced a 10 percent drop in business in June and another 15 percent drop in July when he changed the name of his restaurant to Joe’s Steakhouse + Soda Shop. Joe was also attacked on social media. His restaurant has been vandalized. Some old time customers have furiously vowed never to return.
Why did the name change piss people off so badly? Because it made a statement about racism. Used to be that Joe’s Steakhouse + Soda Shop was called Chink’s Steaks.
“Chink” was the nickname of the founder and former owner, Sam Sherman, … Read more “When No Good Deed Goes Unpunished”
