Independent since 2002 Issue No. 1102 Week of November 7, 2026 Get the free email dispatch →

Guest Commentator

Sonali Kolhatkar, Independent Media Institute

BlackCommentator.com Guest Commentator, Sonali Kolhatkar is the host and producer of Uprising, a popular, daily, drive-time program on KPFK, Pacifica Radio in Los Angeles and co- director of the Afghan Women's Mission, a US-based non-profit organization that works with the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA).

100 pieces

Guest Commentary

Zombie Tests: Is the SAT Back From the Dead?

By Sonali Kolhatkar, Independent Media Institute Guest Commentator

As some elite colleges resume SAT requirements in admissions, will we ever see an end to the outdated practice of weeding out prospective students on the basis of race, gender, and class?

When the COVID-19 pandemic began in 2020, higher education institutions throughout the United States started adopting a progressive standard of education that advocates had demanded for…

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Guest Commentary

Corporate Profiteering Destroyed the Baltimore Bridge

By Sonali Kolhatkar, Independent Media Institute Guest Commentator

The price of corporate compromising on safety is usually paid with taxpayer dollars and immigrant worker lives.

The collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore has sent shock waves throughout the United States. The bridge was not built to withstand a…

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Guest Commentary

The 2024 Election Is About the Rich Stealing From the Public

By Sonali Kolhatkar, Independent Media Institute Guest Commentator

A fight over extending provisions of Trump’s tax cuts is at stake in November’s election. Ultimately, the race is about money.

There are many issues on the line this election year but one that gets little attention is former President Donald Trump’s 2017 tax reform law that…

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Guest Commentary

Countering Corporate Propaganda

By Sonali Kolhatkar, Independent Media Institute Guest Commentator

We are steeped in the cultural glorification of capitalist exploitation. What if we rejected economic individualism and instead embraced ideas rooted in collective well-being?

Streaming television channels these days are increasingly inserting advertising into their paid subscriber content. Thus, I recently found myself sitting through several commercials that struck me…

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Guest Commentary

Cashing In on Racist Bail

By Sonali Kolhatkar, Independent Media Institute Guest Commentator

Cash bail is racist. No wonder the GOP loves it and is relying on expanding it as a cynical election-year ploy.

Most Americans have not considered “cash bail” as critical to equality and freedom. The term is an esoteric one but is increasingly central to the ongoing…

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Guest Commentary

Let’s Control All Drug Prices

By Sonali Kolhatkar, Independent Media Institute Guest Commentator

Pharmaceutical companies are resisting public scrutiny and suing over modest drug price regulations. It’s past time to regulate their profiteering.

Major pharmaceutical companies in the United States are battling with Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders over an issue that is at the heart of whether we value…

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Guest Commentary

We Can Have Either Billionaires or Democracy. Not Both

By Sonali Kolhatkar, Independent Media Institute Guest Commentator

The only way to steer American democracy to safety is to wrest money out of the claws of the wealthiest elites, who now control finances rivaling the economies of whole nations.

As we count down toward the 2024 general election, we should expect to hear from media pundits about candidates and their viability, swing states and the…

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Guest Commentary

Seeing Through the Economic Bait and Switch

By Sonali Kolhatkar, Independent Media Institute Guest Commentator

The values of the U.S. public are not the same as those of the wealthy and corporations. It took a UN official—an outsider—to point out the dissonance.

Olivier De Schutter, the United Nations special rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, recently issued a scathing statement about the shameful state of the United…

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Guest Commentary

Behind the Texas GOP’s Latest Attack on People of Color

By Sonali Kolhatkar, Independent Media Institute Guest Commentator

Conservatives, white supremacists, and billionaires have revived the ghost of Arizona’s “Show Me Your Papers” law, determined to dominate Texas politics in the face of changing demographics.

“Y’all don’t live in our f—kin’ skin,” said Texas Democrat Armando Walle in an angry outburst at state Republicans in late October 2023. Walle was confronting…

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