Here’s a schedule of Eric Garner #icantbreathe protests happening around the country. Attend one or add your own to the national protest list.
Found via Daily Kos
#Afterthoughts: what disenfranchisement does
Friends share #afterthoughts in the days following #Ferguson and #EricGarner.
Analilia Mejía, on Facebook
Analilia Mejia
07 Dec 2014 at 08:42
Watching a White Christmas for the first time this morning and all I can think of is that this exemplifies the economic disadvantage forced on people of color.. There are no black soldiers in the 151 Division, in fact no black characters asides for the AA car porter (whom at the time would have been discriminated against in employment, advancement and pay). All of the happy GI’s who created comfortable lives (enough to drop everything and head to Vermont) did so through their access to higher Ed, a growth in professional jobs and their ability to build equity in a newly created suburbia. Blissfully ignorant (or directly complicit) to the denial of the same benefit to AA GI’s. Redlining prevented home purchases and neighborhood covenants kept them out of suburbia (and its schools). Racism denied (and denies) equal access and advancement into more lucrative jobs and careers. The American Legion and VFW routinely denied claims of African Americans in pursuit of higher education, and those who did access it where barred by racist policies in many universities, or limited to increasingly strained HBCU’s and even then faced the hurdles of an inferior preparation by Jim Crow segregated AND unequal k-12 schools.. This all led to a wealth gap passed on through generations. Your comforts today are DIRECTLY influenced by your grandparents owning a home, generations of superior education impacts how well YOU did (much less if you went). This inequity is exacerbated today by the foreclosure crisis that disproportionately dismantles POC communities thanks to predatory lending. All of this didn’t happen centuries ago and hence we are past it. This systemic racism has tentacles that reach back into times of slavery, peonage re-enslavement, Jim Crow, the struggles of the civil rights era and into today with the subsequent dismantling of that dream through continued inequity in education, mass incarceration, an unjust justice system to name a few.. But much like those soldiers and Bing in that movie, most of white America is OBLIVIOUS to all of this. Insulated or intentionally blind. Lucky them, they get to dream about a White Christmas while black mothers are mourning their sons and WE continue to lose our belief in the system this holiday season…
Add your solution to Ferguson Next
No justice, no peace, what now? Join the conversation with #FergusonNext and at FergusonNext.com and add your solution.
Please share it with us here too.
Free press defender Joe Torres speaks at BCC Oct 2
There are times in history when the story of current events – what we know as news – enters a state of flux. New voices emerge to tell the stories of people and our world that are happening in real time. Today, we see this with YouTube, blogging, social media, community radio and TV. Periods of change can also be times of danger. People’s right to know must be protected and reporters must hold themselves responsible for present facts and truth without embellishment as far as they are able to discern them … in other words, the principles of expository journalism must be upheld.
J4J report shares important data about attacks on public ed – Death by 1000 Cuts
The Journey 4 Justice Alliance has issued an important new report entitled Death By A Thousand Cuts which includes the number and location of school closings not previously gathered together by any major organization or media portal. It discusses the racist motivation of the misnamed “education reform” movement; the injustice that investor-based charters represent – institutions which are publicly funded but privately controlled; and is a must-read for any person interested in education equity.
How equity differs from equality
Equality and equity may once have been completely interchangeable terms but in law and as pertains to social justice matters, they are not the same any longer. Equity speaks to making allowances for handicaps created by historic, economic or racially based lack of access in order to level the playing field for everyone. Equality is the goal of equity considerations: by giving a leg up to the underserved, we hope to become a society where all are truly equal.
Oxford Dictionary defines equity as “A branch of law that developed alongside common law in order to remedy some of its defects in fairness and justice, formerly administered in special courts.”
How Koch Bros’ $25M gift to United Negro College Fund can hurt us
A friend posted this on Facebook about the $25 Million gift given to the United Negro College Fund by the Koch Brothers:
If this money comes from sincerity (their heart) it is a blessing, but if it comes with “strings attached” the Koch brothers will have not surprised us. They will show us as usual their true colors! Win-win situation either way!
My thoughts are different:
Not necessarily, Maria. The insidious multi-level strategies that typically accompany gifts by the rich and powerful are designed to have subtle, but long-lasting and far reaching effect. First we should ask, what is being asked for as a direct trade for the gift? We may never know everything that was bargained away behind closed doors but we do know that two Koch Brothers designees will sit on a scholarship decision committee of three that will decide which students get that blood money. Right out of the gate, it’s clear that the money was not given with an open hand.
Dems don’t offer Blacks enough support but GOP is worse
Friend Bryan Alexander reminded me tonight that Dems take the Black vote entirely for granted. He’s so right. This is probably one of the big reasons that communities of color aren’t getting the help they expected with fighting public school takeovers by charters (Philly) … schools being just closed down (Chicago (where 49 schools were closed in one day – by Dem mayor Rahm Emmanuel) and Newark) and why Dems supported the devious Governor Christie’s 2013 re-election bid instead of getting behind Democratic Party candidate Barbara Buono – a progressive with a long, strong record of promoting excellence in public education, and transparency and accountability in the realm of public service and politics.
An evening with Cornel West and POP in Newark
The People’s Organization for Progress and the Bethany Baptist Church Board of Deacons presents a special Black History Month event: An Evening with Cornel West!
This special event will take place at Bethany Baptist Church, 275 West Market Street, Newark on Wednesday, April 2 at 6:30pm (rescheduled due to ice storm).
Dr. West will discuss ‘The Importance of Organization Building in the Struggle for Racial, Social and Economic Justice.’
Cornel West has written 19 books, including his best seller Democracy Matters. He appears regularly on the Bill Maher Show, The Colbert Report, CNN and CSpan. He can be heard on a weekly basis on the popular public radio show, Smiley and West, co-hosted by the critically acclaimed Tavis Smiley. The show airs locally on WBGO-FM/Jazz 88 (88.3FM) on Saturday mornings at 6am.
CLDP @ BERGEN students thank our sponsors!
We’re fundraising to cover the cost of food served at the five College Leadership Develop Program (CLDP) workshops we just completed … and hopefully, we’ll receive a few thousand more dollars to get to the USHLI National Conference in Chicago. Participants in the inaugural CLDP at Bergen Community College are invited as USHLI’s guests!
The CLDP @ BERGEN students and The Wei Team which organized the CLDP @ BERGEN workshop series thank our awesome sponsors for helping us enjoy great food during our sessions. We also thank our advisors Gene Calderón and Johanna Heule and the beautiful speakers who brought words of enlightenment, hope and knowledge to this project and all of its participants.
CLDP program motivates & inspires Bergen Community College Latino students
BCC students Jorge Ivan Gomez Wei and Ari Lopez Wei brought an exciting college completion and student engagement initiative to Bergen Community College this winter of 2014, one which promises to boost Latino student success. The Wei Development Team supports the program with pro-bono technical assistance and BCC provides the venue for most workshops. College staff members Gene Calderón and Johanna Heule serve as advisors and the United States Hispanic Leadership Institute (USHLI) is the program’s conceptual creator.
“White feminists” want to determine what feminism is
Fabulous post by Betty Mamzelle on the white privilege of “White Feminism”.
This, in a nutshell, is about how white people feel they own the right to dominate a conversation (or a movement) and tell other people what can and cannot be discussed; who’s in and who’s out; what topics are allowable and which are not; and what’s important v. what is not … and how those beliefs extend to the battleground of feminism.
Even though feminism is supposedly about protecting women from other-abuse, “white feminists” feel perfectly comfortable browbeating or excluding women who don’t fit their concept of what feminism is supposed to be. Betty says,
Black Bruins say UCLA admits just a small number of Black students – for sports wins
A Yale Daily News reporter provides the essential background for this video decrying the starkly racist policies of UCLA, one of the United States’ largest colleges.
Last week, Sy Stokes and 11 other black male students from UCLA uploaded a YouTube video of a spoken word poem called “The Black Bruins.” The poem attacks the university for its lack of racial diversity, specifically its incredibly small percentage of black male students. Overall, only 3.3 percent of the male population of UCLA is black. Of the 2,418 entering male freshmen, only 48 were black.
Bob Braun explores relationship between Christie and NJ violence
Lots of things Bob Braun says are way too important to only be seen on Facebook. Like his thoughts on the relationship between Christie’s ranting/abuse and youth shootings motivated by a desire for “respect”:
If the governor of the state can suggest that someone should “take a bat” to a woman, why should we be surprised that a child shoots people because they “disrespected” him?
We live in a state in which the governor prides himself in bullying, misogynistic behavior, someone who shows his displeasure with threatening gestures and who refuses to defend gun restrictions in court. We live in a state whose voters re-elected this bully and elected as US senator a man who, as Newark mayor, laid off cops and presided over the worst carnage in almost a decade. We live in a state where the busiest interstate crossing can be held for political ransom despite the threat to public safety.
Make battle for Newark Public Schools visible with #saveNPS hashtag!
These days, every important cause needs a hashtag to be visible in the world of social media, and with the Christie administration announcing its intention to close 15 more schools in Newark as the next step in its attack on public education in urban communities, cause visibility is greatly needed.
A hashtag is the # symbol when it’s used in tweets or Facebook posts. Short hashtags are great because Twitter gives you only 140 characters to express whatever you want to say. #saveNPS is not actively being used for any other campaign, so how grabbing it for the Save Newark Public Schools Campaign?