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.
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.”
The Gulf: wait a millenium and try again
Twitter fans will appreciate Red Monkey’s fail whale graphic about BP’s Gulf Oil Spill. Its legend reads: The Gulf of Mexico is over capacity. Too many careless corporations! Please wait a millenium and try again.
Time lapse: watch European borders change over 1000 years
Watching country sizes and borders change is fascinating and the video is surprisingly short – at just a tad over three minutes long. What is now Poland was Lithuania for quite a long time … During a period of several hundred years, much of Europe between today’s France and Poland were very small but individual countries which have either expanded or been absorbed by other nations. Spain has mostly been a single country but changes color on this time lapse portrayal – I don’t know what that means in the context of changing national borders.
Emerging BCC Latino leaders share thoughts on debut development program
Four years is a long time in community college terms but it was so worth it to keep on working at bringing this program to Bergen Community College. I got to know so much about the college and campus organizing just by recruiting advisors, speakers and participants to the College Leadership Development Program. 2014 CLDP @ Bergen Cohort members are enjoying participation tremendously, and the speakers we’ve brought in are enjoying us!
Thanks to USHLI for dreaming up a really good program and providing us with guidance to get it off the ground, to our speakers, donors and advisors, to BCC for hosting our evening workshops and to Kimi Wei of The Wei for so much help.
~ Jorge Ivan Gomez Wei
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.
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?
Join Newark students in mass rally & boycott for local control on Mon. Nov 4
The Newark Students Union (NSU) organized a massive 1,000 student walkout last April and on Monday Nov 4, they will stage another mass boycott demanding that quality education be returned to Newark. The students want Gov. Christie to fund schools at court ordered levels and to repair school buildings, which are currently unsafe – two legal obligations which Christie has refused to honor. Spread the word about the rally and be there if you can. The social media hashtag is #npsboycott.
Boycott & Rally to Protest Gov. Christie’s Control of Newark Public Schools
November 4 2013 @ 9am
30 Clinton Street in Newark NJ
Issues, news and fact checking for NJ’s 2013 election season
THIS ELECTION VOTE YOURSELF A RAISE! Vote YES on the ballot referendum to raise the NJ minimum wage to $8.25/hr
Also in the 2013 election cycle, all of New Jersey’s state level positions are up for election including Assembly, State Senate seats and the governorship. Federal and state elected officials have the ability to make changes to improve, approve or eradicate the issues listed below. Your vote and your voice make them accountable so be sure to vote. (Download issues flyer).
- Protect the constitutional right of every US citizen to have one vote and get it counted
- Fund and enact The Amistad Act which calls for racially accurate history to be taught in NJ schools
- Food justice: eradicate urban food deserts and barriers to home & community gardening; ban of genetically modified foods (GMOs); make college food healthier and more affordable
- Reverse Citizens United ruling that gives corporations the status of personhood
- Take big money out of general elections (see rootstrikers.org)
- Save the open internet and protect it from takeover and control by corporate interests (see savetheinternet.com)
- Ban prison based gerrymandering which causes prison inmates’ families to lose government resources in their home states and counties
- Stop privatization of schools, prisons, nursing homes and food services
- Moratorium on foreclosures to protect 1 in 4 Black &Latino families who are in danger of losing their homes
- Hold banks accountable for wrongful foreclosures, charging Blacks and Latinos higher mortgage interest rates, refusing to renegotiate underwater mortgages; and failing to provide maintenance on foreclosed homes – which contributes to the creation of urban blight zones
- Lower US prison population. We incarcerate almost 1% of American citizens, about 2.5 million individuals, whom are mostly Latinos and African Americans
- Protect civil rights including: ban racial profiling, stop unfounded searches and halt incarceration of non- criminal undocumented immigrants
- Achieve diversity of court justices on every level of the judicial system
- Transition to a green economy and protect clean air, water and the environment. Prevent climate change.
- Provide help to families with homes in foreclosure, the unemployed and the hungry
- Protect women’s health, lives, career opportunities; and the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act
- Hold major corporation and government agencies accountable for diversity in hiring and the awarding of small business contracts
- Make minimum wage equal a living wage and protect American jobs. Vote yes to the NJ 2013 ballot referen- dum to raise min wage to $8.25/hr!
- Expand the scope of the new federal Consumer Financial Protection Bureau which offers important protec- tions including: financial institutions may not enact excessive credit rate hikes or provide misleading informa- tion about credit terms and fees
- Support for women and minority students wishing to enter STEM fields
- Protect Obamacare and fund affordable community health centers
- Continue the Deferred Action program & pass the DREAM Act for undocumented immigrant youth; enact comprehensive immigration reform
- Increase support for Historically Black Colleges and Minority Serving Institutions and protect public education
- End government subsidies to big banks and dirty fuel companies. Invest more in public education and health.
- Maintain affordable interest rates on student loans (impacts 140,000 NJ students) and lower college tuition.
- Increase the amount of Pell grant dollars available for low-income studentsTrack Congressional bills
FACT CHECK & OTHER USEFUL RESOURCES
Be vigilant in the twilight against oppression & loss of privacy
As nightfall does not come at once, neither does oppression. In both instances, there is a twilight when everything remains seemingly unchanged. And it is in such twilight that we all must be most aware of change in the air, however slight, lest we become unwitting victims of the darkness.
Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas
On 23 August 2013, UK’s Mail Online reported
Newly published top-secret documents show that the United States government has reimbursed tech companies like Google, Yahoo, Facebook and Microsoft millions of dollars each year for their participation in the National Security Agency’s clandestine Prism surveillance program that was made public earlier this year by NSA whistle-blower Edward Snowden.
Moms, instill manly values in your sons
I just like this budding author’s encouragement to single mothers:
2pac said it best when he stated “THUGLIFE” stood for the The Hate U Gave Lil Infants Fs Everyone! Single Mothers Bragging about Not Needing A Man but at the Same time Raising their Son to be Gay, or homosexual, a Non Productive Thug, a Gangster, a DeadBeat Dad, everything but a Man. Women, Overstand you have the Power To Produce and Birth Kings, Doctors, Entrepenuers, Scientist, Inventors, Young Gods. The First Teacher is the Mother, You cannot Teach him how to be A Man, But Instill and teach Him Manly Goals, Instill in him to be Strong and Warrior Minded. Because We are at War! Physically, Mentally, Spiritually against D’ Evils
Powerful reasons women should stop calling other women bitches
What is this trend, that even women refer to women as bitches? Stop doing this. Demand respect.
is generating quite a bit of discussion. Lady friend Marilyn admits that she uses this word, but in a popular language context (meaning, not with derogatory intent) and @Han Broekman points out that language mutates with time and across cultural lines. But a bunch of my Facebook friends say they’re glad I took a stand.
(BTW, if you’re interested in the Wonderwomn Poster, one of the twin sister artists talks about it here. And, they have an Etsy store where you can order a print.)
PBS & TED review the state of education today
The Chicago Tribune has a fabulous article on PBS’ TED Talks Education hour long show on May 8 2013, which brought
… together a diverse group of teachers and education advocates delivering short, high-impact talks on the theme of teaching and learning. You’ll also see Chicago’s Malcolm Xavier London performing a spoken word poem about the racial and class tensions he experienced … London, who just turned 20, is a terrific fit for TED — which stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design. The nonprofit organization bills itself as being devoted to ideas worth spreading and often features people who have taken unorthodox paths giving talks about what they’ve learned
Racist Mountain Dew goat series commercial pulled
Friend of a friend Sandi Baronvonsassypants Snipe summed this disgusting series of Mountain Dew commercial up much better than I can:
Uggg. I could go on and on about the many fuckeries this commercial promotes but then I would just cry.
Our mutual friend @bryanalexander posted this on Facebook with this note, “Here’s the full Mountain Dew goat commercial series. #3 is the killer. Wow.” And yeah, I found it not only racist, but quite unsettling.
What do you think?
Bergen CC NAACP screens Half the Sky today 4/29
Bergen Community College Chapter of NAACP in Paramus is sponsoring a screening of Half the Sky today 4/29 at 11:45am-2:15pm in Room A-104 (in the Student Center atrium), followed by a panel discussion on empowering women as full citizens across the globe and ending targeting violence against women. Please feel welcome to join.
Renée from Half the Sky organization is coming out from their New York office to tell us about the movement that has been sparked by the book and film, and as one of the discussion panelists I (Kimi Wei) will share my own perspectives as a widow, single mom, domestic violence survivor, sustainability advocate and Happiness trainer.