Success can be paralyzing. At least it was for Kathryn Stockett (Jackson, 1969). The writer grew up in Mississippi, where she has set her only two novels. Of the first, The help (2009; Criadas y señoras in the Spanish edition by Maeva), she sold 15 million copies and it became an Oscar-winning film. Sixteen years later, she has published El club de les indomables (Columna), translated into Catalan by Núria Parés Sellarès. It has not been an easy process for her to write this story about a group of white women who do whatever it takes to survive during the Great Depression in Mississippi and titled The calamity club in English.

Amidst widespread shock in the United Kingdom over the death of young Henry Nowak, the House of Commons on Wednesday witnessed an unusual episode of unity against the far-right and against the politicization that Reform Party leader Nigel Farage has sought to make of the murder. Indeed, after a night of riots in Southampton, he went as far as to predict more violence if "a large number of white youngsters think the police are prejudiced against them." At the same time, both the government and police organizations and forces are questioning whether a review of law enforcement protocols is necessary.

Confronting hatred. With one year to go until the municipal elections and with polls increasingly confirming the polarization of society, the Table of Third Sector Entities is launching a campaign to combat discourses that attack minorities, from foreigners to Roma people, including the LGBTIQ+ community and retirees. The body warns that xenophobia and aporophobia have entered the most vulnerable neighborhoods at the hands of far-right figures offering false solutions for the increase in injustice and inequality.

Serious racist attack in Manresa. The Mossos d'Esquadra have arrested a man and a woman for assaulting a group of Muslim women while insulting them with racist comments and against their religion. It happened this Sunday around eight in the evening on Baixada dels Drets, a central point in the capital of Bages.

The life of Alberto Edjogo-Owono Montalbán (Sabadell, 1984) has always revolved around a ball. He defended the jersey of clubs such as Sabadell, Sant Andreu, Granollers, or l'Olímpic de Xàtiva, in addition to passing through Espanyol's youth football. He was also an international for Equatorial Guinea, his father's native land. He is now a television commentator for DAZN, where he broadcasts the best matches of the First Division. Edjogo has just published Heridas en la piel (geoPlaneta), a book where he reflects on racism in the world of football.

“Before, I wanted to change the world. Now I am aware that I cannot. What I can do, at least, is help a small portion of this unsalvageable world”, explains Quinny Martínez Hernández (Colombia, 1979), poet, activist and director of FILMIG, the Itinerant Migrant Book Fair, which celebrates its third edition from April 13 to 18 in Barcelona in various venues, such as the Casinet d’Hostafrancs Civic Center – where the fairgrounds are located – or the Gabriel García Márquez and Sant Pau-Santa Creu libraries. All the activities of the event, which include from discussions to film screenings or a closing concert, are free. The team has never considered charging admission, because they follow the principles of the social and solidarity economy.

FIFA has opened a disciplinary proceeding against the Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) after the racist chants produced in the friendly match between Spain and Egypt last week at Espanyol's stadium. “FIFA has initiated today a disciplinary proceeding against the Spanish Football Federation for the incidents that occurred during the friendly match against Egypt,” can be read in a statement. This is a preliminary step by the body that controls world football to decide on the sanctions imposed on the RFEF.

Racism is widespread. It will take the form of explicit xenophobia or emerge in daily microaggressions, but no society escapes it. Of course, neither does Catalan society, which thinks and lives in Catalan.But the racism in the stands during the Spain-Egypt match is theirs. In Catalonia we know it well. It is the product of Spanish nationalism, of a language and a religion ("Speak in Spanish!

The popular Tarragona neighborhood of Bonavista experienced an attempted provocation by Vox this afternoon, which ended in pushing and insults. The far-right party had called for a protest under the sloganNo to Islamization, no to mass immigration", which only gathered about sixty people. The demonstration aimed to reach the site where the neighborhood's Islamic community wants to relocate the mosque. There, however, in addition to a police cordon, some 250 anti-fascists were waiting for them.

She says she was a quiet child, but now, at 24, no one can silence her. Chayma Rachdi Mennana, born in the La Mina neighborhood, is the daughter of a Moroccan couple and has made the defense of diversity and human rights a personal and collective struggle, to the point of working professionally in various organizations. Currently, she is a technician for the Prometeus project, which promotes equal opportunities for teenagers from vulnerable neighborhoods to pursue higher education. She herself was one of those students they supported and motivated until she reached the humanities.

Top Chef It's the new baking competition on La 1, from the creators of MasterChefOn Wednesday, they proposed a game to the contestants that was full of prejudice.The jury presented the participants with exquisitely crafted desserts. They were delicious little cakes made with black sesame and currants, with golden touches.They were made by a pastry chef of Chinese origin, who wonderfully fuses French and Far Eastern pastry techniques.The suspicious "but" in the middle of the sentence already grated and foreshadowed the absurdity. As if the French touch were what truly elevated the pastry. They proposed that the contestants prepare the same desserts and announced:You'll have the help of the creator! Let's welcome the pastry chef who created these tarts!"But, to everyone's surprise, three Chinese women appeared on set, not one. Even more dismaying was discovering the reason:"We want to test your intuition. If you guess which of these three women is the creator of these Asian-fusion tarts, you'll have her help for one minute at a time of your choosing."They had to guess the correct Chinese character."The camera showed the three women, side by side. Numbers 1, 2, and 3 were pinned to their shirts, and they were given a clue: beyond the pastry chef, another was a violinist, and the third an extra. The last two were only there to mislead and create confusion in the "guess the correct Chinese woman" game. The test was reminiscent of the most racist games of The anthill.They asked the girls to show their hands. They eliminated the first one by having her play the violin, and ultimately, they were wrong in their choice. Up until then, they hadn't even bothered to announce the pastry chef's name or her professional qualifications, as they had done the previous week with a chef. They gave no professional background whatsoever on Tian Lu.The program implicitly activated a mechanism identified by multiple studies on racism: the supposed interchangeability of racialized bodies. The test reinforced the Western racist prejudice that all Asians look alike. It subtly played on the premise that it's difficult to distinguish between three Chinese women, stimulating a kind of perceptual challenge. Turning this bias into a game is to normalize it to absolutely unacceptable levels. The test wasn't based on culinary skill but on the ability to identify different faces. Furthermore, the idea amplified the exoticization of the pastry chef and obscured her professional competence. Would they have taken three French chefs and made them show their hands and play the violin? Would they have hired a Frenchman who was a bit of a showman just to throw people off the scent? With a French pastry chef, would they have simply stated his first name without acknowledging his expertise? Making racialized people lose their individuality is a way of dehumanizing them and turning them into mere tools at the service of the program. It is very serious that a public television station tolerates this.

Calling someone a "monkey" or a "fucking nigger," especially in front of others, is a hate crime. This was confirmed by the Supreme Court, which upheld a ruling by the Provincial Court of Valencia with the same verdict. The decision is a key step, as it establishes a legal precedent, a circumstance that should put an end to the existence of both acquittals and convictions for similar behavior.

Jesse Jackson, a historic leader and icon of the civil rights movement in the United States, has died at the age of 84. Jackson, a collaborator of Martin Luther KingHe was a prominent member of the movement and founded the Rainbow PUSH Coalition. Twice, in 1984 and 1988, he ran for the Democratic presidential nomination, becoming the first African American with a realistic chance of being a candidate in a national election. Jackson, a Baptist minister, grew up in Greenville, South Carolina, a southern state during the height of racial segregation. His death was announced by his family on Tuesday: "Our father was a leader and a servant, not only to our family, but to the oppressed, the voiceless, and the forgotten throughout the world," they said in a statement. "We shared him with the world, and the world became part of our extended family. His unwavering faith in justice, equality, and love uplifted millions, and we ask that you honor his memory by continuing the fight for the values ​​he championed." Jackson, who suffered from Parkinson's disease, was hospitalized in November after more than a decade of paralysis that affected his ability to walk and swallow.

Hamid Hmata has had to wait four years to see the real estate agency fined 10,000 euros from Mataró, who refused to rent him a home, even though his salary is above the Catalan average. In the end, more than money, it has been shown that it was a matter of surname and ethnic origin different from the hegemonic ones. This case is a textbook example of real estate racism, a sum of discriminatory practices that go far beyond individual behavior and that flow above all through laws and intermediaries who channel racialized people—foreigners but also Roma—towards housing of worse conditions.

Kesia Barranco arrived in Torre Pacheco more than two decades ago from her native Basque Country. She came with her partner, a Moroccan man, with whom she built her life in this small town in Murcia. Now 38, she is one of the leading voices in the demands of the Muslim community, especially after a group of men brutally attacked her 15-year-old son, Ismael, because of his physical appearance. This attack came two days after three young men of Moroccan origin robbed—and one of them assaulted—a 68-year-old man, Domingo, as he was taking a peaceful walk through the town. This incident prompted the far right will throw in the streets of Torre Pacheco.

A couple of kilometers from Torre Pacheco, about fifteen workers, all of them immigrants, harvest endives under the warm, restorative winter sun. On the other side of the field, another group toils to do the same with celery stalks. The tractors and trucks that will load the crates of vegetables destined for Europe are haphazardly parked on a dusty road. The seasonal workers repeat the movement cyclically, torsos bent over again and again to pull up the stalks. A movement repeated hundreds of times each day. Abdel is the foreman of the group hauling the endives. They are all from Morocco. He arrived 26 years ago in this Murcian municipality, where he lived in July 2025. some racist incidents Following the attack on a 68-year-old man, Domingo, by three young men of North African origin, the far right descended upon Torre Pacheco, "hunting" for North Africans. The ensuing nights of intense tension were only contained by a deployment of nearly 60 Civil Guard vehicles.

The Catalan government has issued its first sanction for racism against a real estate agency for allegedly engaging in covert discriminatory practices against Hamid, a Moroccan tenant in the Mataró neighborhood. He and his family, which includes two minor children, have been looking for an apartment for four years, but despite having the necessary income, agencies stopped calling them or refused to show them properties. They filed 13 complaints with the Mataró City Council, which dismissed them all after two years. After a four-year bureaucratic labyrinth involving the Catalan Housing Agency and the Catalan Consumer Agency, a complaint from the Catalan Ombudsman referred their case to the Catalan Government's Office for Equal Treatment and Non-Discrimination (OITND), which ultimately imposed the sanction on the Mataró agency. Along the way, Hamid has been accused of coercion for attempting to reach an agreement to avoid initiating disciplinary proceedings. "We've encountered a lukewarm public administration, passing the buck; agencies that don't assume ethical and legal obligations and prefer to attack," explained Miguel Ruiz, the lawyer in the case and a housing and urban development specialist at the Desca Observatory, at a press conference this Monday. This ordeal has resulted in 9 of the 12 complaints expiring, and of the three remaining cases, the Generalitat (Catalan government) has issued this first fine of €10,001—the lowest within a range that can reach €40,000. Now that proceedings have been initiated, the real estate agency can decide whether to file an appeal and pursue the matter through the courts. However, the Desca Observatory considers the evidence "overwhelming."

The guardians of the houseShirley Ann Grau's (New Orleans, 1929–Kenner, 2020) novel operates with the discretion of something that knows it is explosive. Grau doesn't shout: she manages silence, restraint, and a sidelong glance because she trusts that the reader will understand that the true drama is not the conflict itself, but its normalization. And therein lies its literary power: the novel doesn't denounce, it exposes; it doesn't judge, it reveals.

The Cacau i Negritud collective, which brings together "Black people from all the Girona regions united in our Blackness to combat racism," as they define themselves, is demanding that the Girona City Council ensure that no one wears blackface in the 2026 Three Kings Parade. "What we want is for no one to wear blackface. If they can't find enough Black people, then let there be white people in King Balthazar's entourage, nothing would happen, and if they want to wear makeup, they can wear whatever they want, even unicorns. But we believe that Blackness is not a costume," they wrote on January 5th. an article to the ARA in this regard.

Fights, moments of tension and violence due to surreal disputes in a demonstration formed mainly by Vox, which has made some chants directly racist. "No Moors, Spain is not a zoo" is a dehumanizing stretch previously only reduced to marginal xenophobic groups. But the far-right party continues its in crescendo and chanted it loudly from the party's official PA system, and the two hundred protesters behind the Vox banner echoed it. All of this was part of a lackluster march that wound its way down Barcelona's Passeig de Gràcia this Sunday, lacking in traction and filled with internal clashes. In addition to Vox, the PP (People's Party)—with Daniel Sirera and Nacho Martín Blanco—and the remnants of Ciutadans (Citizens) were also present. In total, it brought together 1,200 protesters, according to the Guardia Urbana (Urban Police), as well as two thousand dancers unrelated to the march.