Two white men were found guilty and received life sentences for the murder of Stephen Lawrence, the black teenager stabbed to death by five white youths at a London bus stop in 1993. Nearly two decades on, the verdict may have brought some closure to a case that put a spotlight on racism and criminal justice in the United Kingdom. I was a teenager myself at the time and remember hearing a little about this case, but it wasn’t until I viewed the BBC film The Murder of Stephen Lawrence when I got the whole story of the case and how England is so not “postracial.”

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theGrio

by Talia Whyte

The holiday season is in full swing, and television and movie theaters are currently filling up with jolly films to get us into the spirit. However, it’s very rare to see holiday-themed movies starring black actors. Here are a choice few holiday films with black characters in leading roles that spread Christmas cheer.

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A couple of years ago, two black professors accused Emerson of denying them tenure because of their race.  Up until that time, Emerson College had only granted tenure to just three black professors in its 129-year history.   There have also been many claims by students of color over the years that they didn’t feel welcomed by their white counterparts on campus.

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With the advent of e-books, audio books, Kindles and other devices that make the art of reading a digital experience, many wonder with the declining number of bookstores, what will happen to public libraries.  For those of us who are lucky to live in places where a library exists, they are not only spaces to read and lend out books, but they also act as community meeting spaces.

However, the increase in digital media has also been compounded with the current economic downturn, which has contributed to the budget cuts and closings of many public libraries around the United States.  Even more unfortunate is that many of these endangered public libraries are serving marginalized populations in rural and inner city areas.

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So it was interesting when Occupy Boston activist Brian Kwoba got up during the discussion to ask the panelists what tips the current Occupy Movement could take away.  Panelist and Dudley Main Streets executive director Joyce Stanley said that unlike the Roxbury activists of the 1960s who organized around not allowing the I-95 to be built in the community, the Occupy Wall Street movement doesn’t have a clear agenda nor has it made any specific goals for their protest.

“If you don’t have clear goals when you are organizing a movement, eventually people start to lose interest in what you are protesting about,” Stanley said.

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NABJ Digital

By Talia Whyte

For the last few weeks, the Occupy Wall Street movement has taken over the headlines worldwide and put the future of the global economy up for discussion.  Based on the quickness this movement has grown in such a short amount of time, there are clearly strong feelings out there among the general population about the current financial system.

As a freelance journalist I not only find this to be a monumental moment in recent history, but it is also a great opportunity to practice mobile journalism.  As technology and digital tools to capture information on the go becomes more common, many reporters are spending more time on the ground, filing stories online and interacting with followers on their social networks.

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