immigrant communities

Elinam Agbo 5-09-2022

Brown Girls, by Daphne Palasi Andreades / Random House

WHISPER NETWORKS. The Greek muses. Immigrant aunties. Women, in groups, are loud and gripping storytellers. Daphne Palasi Andreades’ debut Brown Girls confirms this. In eight immersive sections, the novel chronicles the coming-of-age of the titular brown girls, mainly second-generation immigrants raised in the “dregs of Queens” (N.Y.).With the first-person plural narration, we follow a chorus that aims to reclaim the voices they lost at various junctures in their lives. After all, what demands a shout if not systemic silence?

The brown girls experience erasure early. Their teachers mistake Michaela for Naz, Nadira for Anjali. They snap at Sophie who is Filipino, but call her Mae, who is Chinese. To mold themselves into girls who are worthy of visibility, the brown girls begin to erase themselves. They lighten their skin. They quiet their rage. After middle school, education takes some of them away from Queens. They wrestle with the changes it brings. “Dutifully, we reposition our tongues,” they tell us. “Even in song, we become fluent in the language of our colonizers. Our English, impeccable. Our mother tongues, if we were taught them at all, become atrophied muscles, half-remembered melodies.”

Katie M. Logan 2-15-2017

Image via RNS/Marvel Comics

During the first few weeks of the Trump administration, we’ve seen increased pressure on Muslim and immigrant communities in the United States.

In the face of these threats, which Marvel superhero might be best equipped to defend the people, ideals, and institutions under attack? Some comic fans and critics are pointing to Kamala Khan, the new Ms. Marvel.

Andrew Simpson 8-08-2011

I admit it: A few years back, when I first heard about the E-Verify program, I thought it sounded reasonable. The program was described to me as a way for employers to voluntarily verify the U.S. citizenship of their employees by cross-checking their information with the online databases of the Department of Homeland Security and the Social Security administration. I knew that there were flaws in the system, which sometimes misidentified workers as undocumented even when they were not. However, I thought, what employer doesn't deserve the right to check the employment eligibility of his or her workers?

Maryada Vallet 3-14-2011
As the world is watching Libya, I am keeping close watch and prayers over the sea.
Sheldon Good 12-02-2010
This Advent season, "waiting" has new meaning for hundreds of thousands of undocumented immigrant students.
Eugene Cho 5-20-2010

I know that there are many of you that are engaging, debating, learning, and wrestling with the issue known to most as immigration reform or known to others as, "What the Arizona?" And these debates and discussion will continue with more and more incidents like

Jeffrey Buchanan 9-02-2009

This will be the first year congressional leaders and President Obama won't travel to the Gulf Coast to honor the anniversary of our nation's largest disaster.

Julie Peeples 8-03-2009
Two contrasting images recently brought into focus a growing chasm: a forty-something man in jeans and T-shirt squeezing the microphone at a community forum on immigration, face tight with anger a
Edward Gilbreath 7-06-2009

You can't do church in the 21st century without a vision for cultural diversity, says author and theologian Soong-Chan Rah.

Bill Mefford 6-17-2009
As things begin to heat up on the immigration debate in Congress, the role of the church will be significant.
Soong-Chan Rah 5-22-2009
Last month, in an issue of Newsweek, Jon Meacham describes what he perceives to be "The End of Christian America." Meacham asserts that "Ch