By Rinku Sen, Communications Director. Recent coverage of Hurricane Katrina has shed a harsh light on the Bush administration's indifference to the well-being of African Americans. Now we need to beam that light onto the long-standing pattern of racism in President Bush's five-year record. Using the rainbow cabinet for cover, he has pursued a series of policies that punish and reward people on the basis of race.

By Tram Nguyen, Executive Editor, ColorLines magazine. It's a terrible time to be a refugee. Nearly 30 years ago, refugee policy provided a political weapon in the war against communism, as it does now in the war against terrorism. The difference is that today's government assumes that refugees are themselves the terrorists.