Stories by Kai Wright

Kai Wright is editorial director of Colorlines.com and an Alfred Knobler Fellow of The Nation Institute. His investigative reporting and news analysis appears regularly in The Nation, The Root and The American Prospect, among other publications, and he is a regular commentator on National Public Radio and in other broadcast media. His work explores the politics of sex, race and health. He has closely covered the foreclosure crisis and the ensuing economic collapse. subscribe to Kai Wright's feed

New Study Shows Condom Use Among Youth Has Decreased, Declined Especially Among Black Teens

Posted on: Jul 24, 2012, Source: ColorLines

America: Tailor-Made to Destroy Black People

Posted on: Mar 28, 2012, Source: Colorlines.com

We cage people, then call them animals. We starve people, then jibe them for being malnourished. We write laws that allow people to gun down unarmed children.

What Judge Cebull's Racist Emails About Obama Reveal About the GOP

Posted on: Mar 2, 2012, Source: ColorLines

84 Percent of San Francisco Foreclosures Fraudulent--Why are Bankers Still Getting Away with Crimes?

Posted on: Feb 19, 2012, Source: ColorLines

Someone broke the financial system, and evidence that the break was willful is now piled as high as banking execs’ bonuses.

Our Economy Has Failed -- Until We Admit That, We're Screwed

Posted on: Dec 30, 2011, Source: Colorlines.com

Industries, communities, natural resources, even sports leagues have collapsed as Ronald Reagan’s corrosive vision has become dominant.

Our Economy Was Built on Bull. Until We Admit That, We're Screwed

Posted on: Dec 22, 2011, Source: ColorLines

How Finance Vultures Feed off the Poor As They Fight to Climb Out of Poverty

Posted on: Dec 16, 2011, Source: The Nation

Poverty is the result of decades of political choices that first created ghettos and then left them prey to a still growing industry that profits from their existence.

Six Cities Where Black People Are Living in a Depression

Posted on: Oct 7, 2011, Source: ColorLines

The Long, Murderous Arm of the Law Has Killed Troy Davis

Posted on: Sep 21, 2011, Source: Colorlines.com

After a long delay from the Supreme Court, Troy Davis was executed at 11:08 PM Wednesday night, despite over a million people asking for clemency.

Bad Credit: How Payday Lenders Evade Regulation

Posted on: Apr 8, 2011, Source: The Nation

The $30 billion-a-year industry continues to fleece borrowers with high rates and shady terms.

Economic Troubles For Black And Brown Families Indicate Bank Predation Will Continue, Expand

Posted on: Sep 20, 2010, Source: Colorlines.com

More than a third of all black and Latino kids are growing up destitute. With numbers like that, how can we talk meaningfully about a future of any kind, let alone a better one?

Glenn Beck’s MLK Dream is Perverse, But What's Our Vision?

Posted on: Aug 26, 2010, Source: Colorlines.com

We know that Glenn Beck's hijacking of MLK's iconic moment is beyond wrong. But do today's progressives embrace King's challenge to create a just economy?

Why Democrats Should Pick A Fight On Immigration

Posted on: Mar 10, 2010, Source: The Nation

Democrats are served better by picking a fight with the GOP over immigration rather than running from one. Latinos nationwide are young, growing and increasingly ready to vote.

Why Do Mainstream Media Insist on Belittling Progressives?

Posted on: Jan 5, 2010, Source: TheNation.com

Guess parroting right wingers wasn't enough...

The 'Mortgage Meltdown' Was No Accident

Posted on: Jun 29, 2008, Source: The Nation

How the mortgage industry stole black America's hard-won wealth.

The "Colorblind" Attack on Your Health

Posted on: Jun 4, 2007, Source: Colorlines.com

Since the civil rights movement's close, blacks in particular have made no progress on what may be the most important measure of social well-being: living to see old age.

Upward Mortality

Posted on: May 23, 2006, Source: Mother Jones

Is racism slowly killing black Americans -- physically as well as systemically?

Fear, Loathing, and the AIDS Generation

Posted on: Jan 12, 2006, Source: The Nation

If you've paid passing attention to the news about gay men and our sex lives in the last year, you'd think we're all depraved, barebacking, bug-chasers. But that's not actually what's killing us.

Harlem's Toxic Nightmare

Posted on: May 2, 2005, Source: AlterNet

Black and Latino children are paying the price for the mismanagement that has many public housing projects saturated in pesticides and literally crawling with rats.

More Sex, Please

Posted on: Mar 31, 2005, Source: AlterNet

The gay rights movement has sacrificed sexual pluralism on the altar of civil rights. While legal equality is a worthy goal, it's also a goal that will remain elusive as long as we opt out of the sex wars.

Red, Black and Blue

Posted on: Nov 4, 2004, Source: AlterNet

Many progressive black voters entered this election in a jubilant mood, with increased engagement and high turnout in key states. But their effect was often countered by new evangelical voters – some of whom were African American.

Sarah Jones' Reality Theater

Posted on: May 31, 2004, Source: The Progressive

Sarah Jones is making a name for herself as heir to the feminist performance-art thrones of Lily Tomlin and Whoopi Goldberg, while her romance with unvarnished urbanity puts her closer akin to Spike Lee and Richard Pryor.

What Rainbow?

Posted on: May 20, 2004, Source: Out Magazine

Queer people of color have been reluctant to engage the in the gay civil rights movement's marriage battle. That's because we don't see what's in it for us.