Opinion: My hijab is my hoodie
Editor’s note: Linda Sarsour is national advocacy director of the National Network for Arab American Communities and director of the Arab American Association of New York. Follow her on Twitter.
By Linda Sarsour, Special to CNN
(CNN) - I’ve been among the millions mourning the killing of Trayvon Martin, but I’m also mourning the fact that another recent killing has gotten little national attention.
Last week, a 32-year old Iraqi Muslim mother named Shaima Alawadi was found brutally beaten with a tire iron in her El Cajon, California, home and died three days later. A note reportedly left beside her said, “Go Back to your country, you terrorist.”
As an Arab-American Muslim mother of three, I instantly thought about myself and my family.
Alawadi's death put a mirror up to my face. I am 32, I wear a headscarf, like Alawadi did, and I live during one of the most hostile moments that the Muslim American community has ever experienced, especially in the decade since 9/11.
Blacks in America continue to face racism on a daily basis, from the workplace to interactions with law enforcement. And yet racism against African-Americans is publicly acknowledged as unacceptable.
Engage: Black actresses shine in ABC's 'Scandal'
Engage with news and opinions from around the web about under-reported, untold stories from undercovered communities.
Black women take center stage in ABC's 'Scandal' - National Public Radio
Feds stop payday lenders from preying on Native Americans - Denver Post
Vietnamese- and Cambodian-Americans sue BP for discrimination during Gulf oil clean-up - Courthouse News Service
Opinion: The ramifications of alienation on Oakland shooting suspect One L. Goh - Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund
Google's Marissa Mayer: Passion is a gender-neutralizing force
By Felicia Taylor, CNN
Mountain View, United States (CNN) - Google "Marissa Mayer" and the first key words that come up are "net worth" and "salary" - terms that reflect her fame as one of the world's most powerful women.
Mayer joined internet giant Google as a 24-year-old in 1999; one of the company's first 20 hires and its first female engineer. In 2010, she moved from heading up Search Products and User Experience to become VP of Local, Maps and Localization Services, the company's next key growth area.
Mayer prides herself on being able to pick trends, both on and offline. "Back in about 2003, I correctly called cupcakes as a major trend. It was a business prediction, but it's been widely interpreted as [that] I just like them. (Truth is, there's other sweets I like far more, like vanilla fudge)."
Opinion: GOP version of DREAM Act holds promise
Editor's note: Ruben Navarrette Jr. is a CNN.com contributor and a nationally syndicated columnist with the Washington Post Writers Group.
By Ruben Navarrette Jr., CNN Contributor
San Diego (CNN) - You may have heard that a group of Republicans in Congress - including GOP rock star and possible vice presidential pick Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida - are getting ready to introduce their version of the DREAM Act.You also may have heard that Democratic lawmakers and liberal advocacy groups despise the Republican alternative and derisively label it "DREAM Act Lite."
As someone who has written about immigration for more than 20 years and hammered Democrats and Republicans (including Rubio) when appropriate, I call the GOP approach to the DREAM Act something else: A common sense solution. It could break a stalemate and improve millions of lives. And it could only be opposed for ugly partisan reasons.
While it's not perfect - and no piece of legislation is - it is better than nothing, which is all the critics have been able to offer, even when Democrats controlled both houses of Congress and the White House.
Opinion: A mixed-race romance, a family rift
Editor's note: Elizabeth Mayo is a digital producer for CNN's "Early Start" and "Starting Point." All this week, "AC360°" airs its special series "Kids on Race: The Hidden Picture" at 8 and 10 p.m. ET on CNN. Thursday's installment will focus on interracial dating.
(CNN) - It all started on my second date with Alex. It was 1997 and on a whim we went into Manhattan to see the ball drop on New Year's Eve in Times Square. The closest we could get was 55th Street and Seventh Avenue. That's pretty far away, but we could still see the glittering ball touching the sky. He was 19, I was 17.
For him, I was his childhood dream girl: I'm tall, have curly brown hair and I play cello, so I was the real-life version of Sigourney Weaver's character in "Ghostbusters" (his favorite movie). To me, he was smart, doting and hilarious.
On what had to be the coldest night in the history of the ball drop, we shivered next to each other waiting patiently, with a few thousand spectators, to get one year closer to the millennium. At midnight, the ball dropped and the crowd erupted.
We looked at each other in anticipation and we kissed. Fireworks went off. Literally, behind us in Central Park fireworks set the sky ablaze to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the five boroughs constituting New York City. And when the heck did that saxophone player show up playing "Auld Lang Syne"? We took this only-in-the-movies moment as a sign from the universe that we were meant to be together.
There was one problem: Alex is half-black. I am white, half-Spanish in fact.
From Philadelphia streets to polo champions
Editor's Note: This is the second of two pieces on Philadelphia's Work to Ride program. Read the first piece, "Brothers from 'the bottom' find solace in polo."
By Sarah Hoye, CNN
Charlottesville, Virginia (CNN) - Last March, a crew of unlikely polo players made history for being the first all-black high school team to win gold competing in the one of the most exclusive sports.
This year they did it again in a nail-biting double overtime shootout during the Interscholastic Polo Championship held at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville.
About In America
What defines you? Maybe it’s the shade of your skin, the place you grew up, the accent in your words, the make up of your family, the gender you were born with, the intimate relationships you chose to have or your generation? As the American identity changes we will be there to report it. In America is a venue for creative and timely sharing of news that explores who we are. Reach us at inamerica@cnn.com.
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