This summer at New Tactics I'm doing a project to get to know human rights advocates, particularly in the twin cities area, a little bit better. It's not always an easy job, and the diversity of individuals that devote their time to struggling for human rights is incredible; the diversity of how they do that is no less impressive. So listen in, and get to know your human rights community; they've got a lot to offer.

Kristi Rudelius-Palmer, featured here, is Co-Director of the University of Minnesota Law School's Human Rights Center. In this interview she tackles some really tough questions that face all human rights advocates: personal motivations and challenges, burnout, ethical accountability, the importance and difficulty of collaboration, and more.

Photo: No Hate at 'Gate

"They were born to be slaves and serve White People. Bout time for them to start doing it again." 

"No nigger will ever rule the WHITE House". 

White-supremacist graffitis were found at Colgate University on the same day the United States elected its first African American president. It's been less than a week, and I am standing in front of an overflowing chapel on this all-American "Hidden Ivy" campus, with over a thousand people who have congregated here to denounce the symbols of a deep, ongoing strand of racism. The midday sun is as dim as the air is crisp, but the chill comes from elsewhere: the bigoted scribbles were part of hundreds of race threats and crimes committed around the same time across the US.

Education Watch Bangladesh was set up in 1998 by a group of like-minded individuals and organizations concerned about educational development in the country.