Rania Khalek Dispatches from the Underclass

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Crossposted from AlterNet: Kindergartener A.J. Paches was kicked out of Brookside Elementary School earlier this year because his homeless mother used a friend’s address to register him in the wealthy district of Norwalk, Connecticut. After expelling A.J., Norwalk authorities charged his mother with first-degree larceny for enrolling her son under a false address, a felony […]

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This is my latest at AlterNet about Occupy Wall Street: As Occupy Wall Street protests spring up in cities across the country, authorities are thinking up creative ways to contain this peaceful and inspiring uprising. Although laws and municipal ordinances vary from city to city, there is a consistency in the tactics being used to […]

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Crossposted from AlterNet: Chances are that basketball fans cheering on the Orlando Magic’s star center Dwight Howard haven’t a clue they’re also supporting the radical right-wing ideology of the team’s billionaire owner, Richard DeVos. And when hockey fans root for the Philadelphia Flyers, they are likely unaware that the team’s war-mongering owner, Ed Snider, is […]

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Crossposted from AlterNet: Do you think you have what it takes to be a Blackwater operative? You can soon find out, thanks to the video game Blackwater, the latest addition to Xbox 360’s virtual warfare collection, set for an October 25 release. For just $50, Blackwater will provide gamers ages 13 and up the opportunity to join one of the world’s […]

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Crossposted from AlterNet: “Why, in a world that produces more than enough food to feed everybody, do so many – one in seven of us – go hungry?”  — Oxfam    Famine is spreading like wildfire throughout the horn of Africa. As 12 million people battle hunger, the UN warns that 750,000 people in Somalia face imminent death from starvation over […]

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This is my latest article at AlterNet: As the economy continues to tank in the wake of congressional budget showdowns and stock market crashes, stories of those hardest hit remain hidden from view. The unemployed and underemployed, the homeless and the hungry have all been relegated to the back pages of our local newspapers; that […]

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Check out my latest article at AlterNet: In the wake of the terrorist attack in Norway by right-wing Christian extremist Anders Breivik, conservative media pundits rushed to vilify anyone who brought up the underlying far-right ideology that fueled Breivik’s violence. The uproar that follows any suggestion that right-wing extremism is on the rise works to silence the […]

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This is my most recent article about the School to Prison Pipeline, originally published at AlterNet: A few months back, 18-year-old Tyell Morton was enjoying his senior year at Rushville High in Indiana. Today, he faces the prospect of being labeled a felon for the rest of his life for a harmless senior prank. Morton […]

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My latest piece at AlterNet: The US is at the forefront of an international arms development effort that includes a remarkable assortment of technologies, which look and sound like they belong in a Hollywood science fiction thriller. From microwave energy blasters and blinding laser beams, to chemical agents and deafening sonic blasters, these weapons are at the […]

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My latest piece at AlterNet: Over Memorial Day weekend this past May, residents of Miami Beach witnessed a horrific display of police brutality as 12 cops sprayed Raymond Herisse’s car with 100 bullets, killing him. The shooting provoked outrage in the surrounding community, not only because of the murder, but because of what the police did afterward. […]

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