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Post-Racial Voting? Think Again
The NAACP Legal Defense Fund's (LDF) Political Participation Group, has released "'Post-Racial' America? Not Yet," a report that details why voting rights continue to be an important issue, despite having President Barack Obama in the White House.
The report does three things in particular. First, it questions the "post-racial" argument being made among groups that challenge the Voting Rights Act, particularly Section 5, which protects voters against voting discrimination. These groups are challenging Section 5 because apparently, now that we have a black president, racism for everyone in the United States has ended. I don't think most of us need to look far to see occurrences that question the sanity of those that claim they're residing in a post-racial world.
Second, the report shows the progress and continued limitations of race in politics since President Obama's election. It points out that white folks were the only group not to cast a majority of votes for Obama. This may not be particularly salient, but in the larger context of communities that continue to hold onto a foundation built into white supremacy, these are troubling results. In particularly racially polarized states, such as Alabama and Louisiana, the percentage of white voters who voted for Obama are very low -- under 15 percent. The report concludes what many of us already know -- that Obama's victory was a result of an increased number of voters of color and an increased number of white voters who voted in areas not covered by Section 5.
Overall, the report does something indirectly through its efforts: it reminds young people that we should all be wary of thinking that there is no work to be done in voting activism. Protection against voter discrimination remains fragile and is so frequently challenged. It's important for young people to be aware of the communities in which people of color are getting intimidated, personally and institutionally, from voting the way they want. There continues to be a huge racial gap in certain communities and for many of us living in liberal cities, we forget that. Young people of color shouldn't have to turn 18 only to find out their right to vote is being compromised.
"'Post-Racial' America? Not Yet" is available here.
Stupak Ammendment Sacrifices Women's Health
(Originally posted at Empowher)
It was a big day Saturday, as the United States House of Representatives passed a healthcare bill that would be a foundational step for people all over the country who don't have access to health insurance. It was a sad day, too, because they did it on the backs of women's reproductive health.
The Stupak Amendment was attached to the bill, and passed in the House, thanks to 176 anti-choice Republicans and 64 anti-choice Democrats. What a great day for women. Not.
What did the amendment say? The provision, put forth by Democratic Congressman Bart Stupak of Michigan, would prohibit public money from being spent on any healthcare plan that covers abortion even if it was paid for with private dollars. The amendment would restrict women's abortion coverage in the private health insurance market because many of the insurance providers will stop offering abortion coverage.
This is a devastating and dangerous blow to the reproductive health of all women, but specifically low-income women and women of color, who are the likeliest candidates to depend on the public option or federal subsidies for reproductive health.
Though the healthcare bill that passed is a step forward in some respects, it's not fair to categorize it as a victory. It's terrifying to think that there is even a possibility that the Stupak Amendment will make it to the final health care bill, though some have said that the amendment will probably die in committee.
Reproductive justice, in the words of the leaders of the Sistersong Conference in D.C., is simple to understand: It's the right to have a child, the right not to have a child, and the right to parent a child.
Who doesn't deserve this right? Stripping away our access to safe and affordable healthcare simply because we are the category of humans capable of reproduction is disgusting and unfair. We need our rights furthered, not taken away even more.
You can access sites such as NARAL and Planned Parenthood to see what you can do to help the movement towards getting rid of the Stupak Amendment and restoring our rights.
NAACP Goes After the 'N'-Word Again
Here's the latest news item to stir the controversy over whether the NAACP is still relevant.
Back in 2007, NAACP leaders held a highly publicized event where they buried the "N"-word. Now they're calling for a ban on books that use it.
In Charlotte County, Florida, the organization has taken up the issue of books taught in schools that contain the "N"-word. Members took a list of books including The Great Gatsby, The Catcher in the Rye, Their Eyes Were Watching God and other texts to the school board.
They claimed they don't want the books banned, but to make the board aware of the content.
But will encouraging a ban on such books eradicate racism? Of course not. It's never a question of what's being taught as much as how it's being taught.
It was important for the NAACP to bring up the texts to the Charlotte County board because school administrations need to be reminded of the gaps in their curriculum. Literature is often peeled away from its historical context, and students aren't taught racist literature in the context of slavery, colonialism and the oppression of communities of color.
Another question, of course, is how teachers and schools should deal with the use of racial slurs in text. Even in college, I had professors reading racial slurs out loud, never stopping to note how it may sound out loud for others.
I once asked a white professor if she would have felt as comfortable repeatedly reading the "N"-word out loud if she had any black students in her class. "I definitely would have thought about it more," was her response.
We need to shift the thinking of what is considered required literature in schools. And we need to teach young people how to talk about race and racism in fiction so that they can learn to talk about it in their own lives.
Beware Black Women: Don't Cut in Line
In honor of Halloween around the corner, here's a story that might scare the hell out of you.
Heather Ellis, a young, pre-med honor student, was waiting in a Wal-Mart store in Kennett, MO three years ago with her cousin. When her cousin found a shorter line and Ellis went to stand there as well, she was accused of cutting.
When Ellis refused to sign a plea agreement for charges including disturbing the peace, trespassing and assaulting a police officer, she was slapped with felony charges. Now she could be facing 15 years in prison if she is sentenced.
Members of the community and members of the KKK have protested and attempted to intimidate Ellis and her family.
Ellis' horrifying experience reminds young people of color that the things they do often run the risk of having far more extreme consequences as a result of racist communities around them.
It's completely absurd and difficult to swallow, but it feels like the only way to go unnoticed by a legal system that is still influenced and guided by racism is to act perfectly all the time -- even when agitated, frustrated, angry or humiliated. Reacting to those feelings has a much higher price for people of color in some communities.
All I can say is be careful where you cut in line if you're a young black woman. You may be doing something children do all the time in school lunch lines, but you could wind up in prison.
You may have someone waiting in line and be joining them, like people do every day, but you could end up being charged for assaulting an officer as a result. You may be on your way to medical school, but you're still going to be risking your future if you shop at a racist Wal-Mart. You may be in the United States hoping that justice will be on your side, but your family may still end up getting threatening letters from the KKK. You may be supposedly living in the post-racial world, but that world is still going to look pretty racist and hateful.
Sign the petition to help Ellis here.
1 in 7 Girls Pregnant at Chicago High School
Though teen pregnancies are on the rise throughout the country, word of a high school in Chicago has been circulating in the media for its high birth rates. Of 800 girls at Robeson High School, 115 of them are pregnant or have had a child.
There are a number of factors that may contribute to the school's one in seven teen pregnancy rate, but a lack of access to sexual health education and reproductive health resources top the list. Reproductive health resources are not easily available in communities of color and low-income communities. The principal of Robeson adds that absentee fathers may also be a factor.
At least Robeson is a school in which young women are not being thrown out or transferred to other schools. Principal Morrow says the school is, "looking at how we can get them to the next phase, how can we still get them thinking about graduation?"
So often the blame is turned towards pregnant girls, their parents and the neighborhoods where they live. But Robeson's numbers are a product of a much larger institutional problem -- poor reproductive health education in low-income communities.
Educational classes and centers need to be set up that normalize and encourage the use of birth control methods and distribute condoms. People from within the community need to address the importance of protected sex so that it becomes more accepted among families. A teen health center is being built across the street from Robeson, which is a step in the right direction.
But funding needs to be poured into the creation and maintenance of centers such as these so that teenage pregnancy rates go down. And programs need to be created that support young women who are already parents.
In the midst of trying to protect unintended pregnancies, we have to build safe spaces for young girls facing the stigma of being pregnant. The health of young women of color needs to be addressed directly so that they aren't struggling to raise children or give birth while trying to graduate from high school.
When Intolerance Reinforces Intolerance
It's been emailed and blogged about, and I'm even seeing the link pop up on my Facebook account, but it's too important for me not to mention. Louisiana Justice of Peace Keith Bardwell, after refusing to perform an interracial marriage, has attempted to defend his decision.
Not only does he not consider his decision racist, he claimed he was against performing interracial marriages because biracial children often face rejection by their families. He didn't want to contribute to that.
I attended a baby shower years ago and will never forget an older woman tell my mom how much she hopes the couple's first baby doesn't "turn out to be gay." Not because she was homophobic, she huffed, but because gay people face so much discrimination later on that it makes the life of the person harder.
In the midst of trying to protect children from intolerance, people end up sounding pretty intolerant.
It's still a risk, years after the 1967 Loving decision, to be in an interracial relationship. Bardwell's refusal to marry a couple in Louisiana came only a few days after an interracial couple was gunned down in Arizona. There's still a fear in areas around the country, where couples cannot live in peace together.
If the law isn't prohibiting them from being together the way they choose, then individuals, community members and culture are.
The anxiety that pervades our communities about difference in race, gender, ability or sexual orientation is dangerous and reflective of how hard it is to truly be who we want to be.
We have lenses that teach us how to love and who to love, how to dress, who to marry, how to raise children. What we need is hope that these sorts of disgusting attitudes of intolerance will disappear.
Lacking that, can we at least hope that these attitudes will not result in the death of people or in their inability to have legal privileges as a married couple? It's so disappointing that that is too much to ask.
Court Rules Shackled Childbirth is Cruel
It's hard enough having to deliver a baby when you're under the watch of a health professional, in a space where you feel as safe or comfortable as you can. Imaging giving birth to your child while someone tries to shackle down your legs.
Six years after Shawanna Nelson was shackled to her hospital bed while giving birth, a federal Court of Appeals held that the United States Constitution does protect incarcerated women from cruel and unusual punishment, including being bound during labor and childbirth.
There's something particularly disturbing about the image of a woman of color (who, by the way, was incarcerated for credit card fraud), bound down in a hospital by guards, denied the right to safely give birth to her child.
Beyond the cruel treatment and jeopardy the act had on Nelson, it is much too symbolic of just how institutional racism and sexism have created the prison industrial complex and how it endangers incarcerated people and future generations.
As with all instances of racial and social justice, there's a lot of pain and struggle that goes into fighting for the rights of our bodies and selves.
There's not much more to say about this momentous win, except I hope readers will go to RH Reality Check, where they detail the long journey Nelson has made to find some kind of justice for an unsafe and tragic act.
In a time where reproductive justice is crucial to fight for, we must be reminded of how reproductive rights are too often stripped from incarcerated women every day.
A few months ago, I wrote about a study that reported on the needs of incarcerated mothers and how best to provide childcare services and safety for these women and their kids.
Nelson vs. Norris highlights that the rights of incarcerated mothers must include the ones they may be stripped of during their delivery. Isn't it time that we allow all mothers to have the right to a safe and respectful labor, childbirth and opportunities for childcare?
Diverse Barbies Remain Idealistic Bombshells
Our favorite Barbie doll company has come out with a "So in Style" line, which aims to portray black women in a more realistic light than it has since the doll first launched in the 1960s.
On one hand, this is a genuinely fair and worthwhile aim -- to take a product that is presumably not leaving popular culture's toolkit for young girls any time soon and make it more relate-able for women of color. On the other hand, it frustrates me overall that Barbie continues to be in this toolkit -- that mainstream media and culture continue to thrust Barbies at young women.
The dolls maintain their super skinny size and unrealistic proportions, spreading the message that Barbie has for years -- that women can do anything, if they're super hot and feminine looking.
I and other South Asian women felt similarly conflicted in 2006, when Mattel released Diwali Barbie -- a South Asian Barbie doll specifically geared towards the traditional Hindu holiday.
The original text Mattel used to sell Diwali Barbie is what really had my eyes popping out of my head.
"The most important and magical festival celebrated in India is Diwali. Homes are decorated with marigolds and mango leaves, thousands of oil diyas or lamps are lit as auspicious symbols of good luck, and everyone enjoys sweets to the sound of firecrackers and revelers. Diwali Barbie doll wears a traditional teal sari with golden detailing, a lovely pink shawl wrap, and exotic jewelry. The final detail is a bindi on the forehead -- a jewel or a mark worn by Hindu women to indicate that they are married. Doll cannot stand alone."
I know, I know. "But this is to diversify for all the brown children who need a Barbie to look up to!" Actually, if we wanted little Indian children running around and worshiping a disproportionately tall woman whose skin is unnaturally white and lives up to the standards of the "exotic" in the West, we could just point them to real-life models and actresses.
I think the thing that kills me is how white looking she is. Her skin is so pale and she's letting her buyers feel like they can never live up to true Indian beauty standards.
What's most ironic is that the "doll cannot stand alone." Thank you, Barbie, for reminding us that at the end of the day, no woman should really be able to stand alone.
Saying "Namaste" Will Not Make Me Want to Date You
A quick rant to start off the hump day.
About once or twice a month while I'm exiting a grocery store, or getting on BART, or being introduced to my father's fellow yoga classmates, I encounter an individual who feels the need to fold their hands together, bow ever so slightly, and leak out the word "Namaste."
Putting pronunciation issues aside -- most people who have appropriated the word tend to butcher the pronunciation -- this sort of assumed greeting makes me pretty angry and flustered. In a time where the world is getting smaller, cultures are becoming hybridized and new styles of music and artwork are being created. But there's also the "melting pot" component of this sort of globalization.
Dominant cultures view the world as a melting pot, feeling entitled enough to access and appropriate practically any part of another person's culture. Though the word "Namaste" has been a South Asian greeting for centuries, now every yoga student, celebrity and creepy guy trying to hit on an Indian woman thinks it's fine to use it as a way of saying "hey" or "I'm so in touch with what it means to be worldy and spiritual." It's been appropriated, along with cultural and religious Hindu icons, saris, yoga, and Bollywood films, with no credit or recognition to the violent history of colonialism and context from which these things derived.
The presumption that I would feel flattered or respond in kind to the "Namaste" greeting is infuriating as well.
After hundreds of years of British colonialism enforcing English as the dominant language in South Asian government and schools, trying to erase the many facets of culture and history that mark the region, I'm supposed to feel flattered that the dominant culture I live in now wants to start using some sort of "authentic" greeting that doesn't even have anything to do with them? And as a second-generation Indian-American, I'm also perturbed that people assume anything about by my relationship to "Indianness" in the first place: I've used "Namaste" only a handful of times, with South Asian elders who I've never met before.
When majority culture wants to start adopting the exotic, everyone is supposed to just come along for the ride. My mom and I wince a little when we get asked to be the voice of Indian authenticity -- it may be a well-intentioned attempt to appear culturally sensitive, but to me, hearing "Namaste" from complete strangers will always be appropriating and a little racist.
5 Ways to Prevent Activist Burnout: Part II
(See 5 Ways to Prevent Activist Burnout: Part I.)
I can't reiterate how important self-care is for people working hard, particularly activists who often feel that there is always more work to be done, and prioritize struggles for justice over their physical and emotional health. Continuing on, here are three more ways you can prevent activist burnout:
3. Learn to Say "No": I'll defer to a lovely excerpt from Angry Black-White Girl's post on self-care and burnout, where she reminds her readers to learn to say "no" sometimes:
"I think we activists need to a.) stop treating activism like it's a competition, b.) trust each other to do the work and live our politics in our own ways, which fit the amount of resources (time and money) we have instead of expecting each other to bend over backwards to go to every vigil and meeting because otherwise how will we ever be effective at creating change in the world? We need to create an activist culture where we actually support each other in setting boundaries and sticking to them instead of just talking about it."
4. Disconnect (at least part of the time): This is an especially hard one for me. As a blogger and internet addict, I constantly check my feed reader, e-mail and newspapers online. While it allows me to take in a lot of information about issues ranging from childcare to healthcare, racial justice activism to LGBT activism, it makes me feel like I can never take a break from the news. While it's important to educate yourself about what's going on in your local and global community, don't forget that news -- and acts of injustice (and justice) -- will never stop. Disconnect yourself, even for a couple of hours, everyday. If it's one in the morning, don't feel like you need to reply to that work e-mail right away. When you sit and ask yourself the question, "Do I really need to do this right now?" you'll be surprised how many times the answer may actually be "no." Watch a movie! Go to a park. Read a book. And be sure to...
5. Find (and use!) Support: When I was in college and involved in a lot of student activism, I found that my work and my social life blended together. People I loved and wanted to be with did similar work that I did, which was great. But sometimes we'd get together for dinner and talk about work. We'd take a coffee break and vent about work. Having a space to vent and learn from others' experiences is very critical because it makes us feel less alone in struggles that often feel daunting. But a wonderful support system can also allow you to have fun and be silly. Family and friends can be wonderful because they may see you moving towards burnout even if you can't.
Communicate with each other, affirm one another and remind yourself that activism and justice are, among many things, also about love and compassion. Combined with rest and a little time to yourself, you'll be a better activist for taking care of yourself along with your community.
5 Ways to Prevent Activist Burnout: Part I
The last month has been crazy for me. My freelance work has me with my eyes glued to a screen for 50 hours or more a week. I'm grateful for the opportunity to be employed but creating balance in my life has been a struggle. I'm working, blogging and have recently joined the Young Women's Leadership Council in order to become more involved as a reproductive justice advocate.
I feel myself getting burnt out.
Then I check Facebook and Gmail statuses of all the young people of color I know who are teachers, organizers and bloggers and they are burnt out as well. With those individuals in mind, I wonder how young people of color can find the balance between staying invested in the work we do everyday, while making sure we take care of ourselves. Activist work, when we are personally affected by the issues at hand, can suck us dry of our energy and well-being. Does avoiding burnout mean avoiding work that aims for racial and social justice?
I don't think it has to.
Since we can't all go to the spa and take relaxing vacations to help us recover from the day-to-day grind, I've put together five of the most basic ways to avoid burnout without avoiding the issues you care about.
- Sleep well. I might be starting off with the hardest one. Getting a good night's sleep can be difficult depending on where you're living, how you're living and what you're living with in your life. You may finally get yourself into a bed but it's important to allow your brain to unwind a little, lest you end up having dreams about worst-case work scenarios.
Take care of your body before you rest (brush your teeth!) and avoid looking at work-related things right before you go to bed. There are going to be times where you work long hours and burn the midnight oil -- but make sure you don't let that happen every night! The very last thing you do before sleeping should help you to relax -- a bath? Caffeine-free tea? A quiet conversation? And of course, aim to go to bed on the earlier end.
- Find creative outlets. I firmly believe that young people of color must find a way to document their stories. Whether it be painting, writing, blogging, singing or performing -- we need creative outlets to allow us to reflect on the work we are doing and where we are in our lives. But we must also find time to do something outside of our work. Even a few minutes to jot down the things we're mulling over can help us make the things that seem overwhelming more manageable -- a kind of meditation, if you will.
I don't want to burn you out with too long a post so I'll continue my list of ways to avoid activist burnout on Wednesday. Until then, rest up and brush the dust off that old journal you got as a gift but never opened! And remember that taking care of others and being able to do important work relies on taking care of ourselves.
Race and the Soda Pop Tax
I think most of us can think of a commercial for Pepsi or Coke faster than we can think of any advertisement for fruits or vegetables. That's because the $115 billion dollar soda industry has done a lot to create sugary, addictive beverages that are available to everyone just about everywhere. So when a group of researchers released an article in the New England Journal of Medicine proposing a tax on sugary beverages in order to reduce obesity, you can imagine the kind of stir that was created.
On one hand, the tax seems to tackle some important problems: It discourages people from consuming large amounts of soda, in the same way that cigarette taxes have been used to cut back on smoking. It also seems to be an indirect way of tackling health issues in the country.
It confronts obesity by raising the prices of products that are lacking in nutritional value. And finally, the tax could provide money for healthcare reform. Hey, that all sounds great to me.
But there are also people who are questioning who will be the most affected by this tax: presumably, those that consume a lot of soda, i.e. people suffering from obesity, i.e. a huge number of poor people of color. Now this tax is starting to look more like a punishment against groups of people who are victims of larger systems of inequality.
The Center for Disease Control and Prevention reports that the majority of people suffering from obesity are African Americans and Latinos.
These populations are therefore disproportionately at risk of "increased health-care costs, reduced quality of life... premature death... heart disease, hypertension and stroke, type 2 diabetes, and certain types of cancer." Will placing a tax on soda be the best solution for addressing these issues? How long will it actually take for people to buy less soda, let alone stop drinking soda? Has a cigarette tax stopped people from smoking entirely?
No, but it's helping. And that's a pretty big step in itself.
There is a larger question of race and class being raised with this issue: how can we offer equal access to nutrition, fresh produce and health education for low-income communities and communities of color? The solution lies in a combination of normalizing healthier lifestyles in these communities through a lot of local organizing, providing better access to healthier living and food options, and fighting against the targeting of marginalized communities by food and beverage lobbyists.
Until these needs are addressed directly, with race and class at the forefront of the conversation, a soda tax doesn't sound like the miracle solution.
Confronting Race and Second Wave Feminism
This year the Omega Institute held another Women and Power Conference, with the theme of "Communicating Across the Generations." Thanks to a notice at Feministing, I got word that Omega was giving out scholarships to attend and I was one of the lucky recipients. I went in being pretty sure that it was going to be three days of hugging, possible hand-holding and trying to re-energize the second wave feminist movement for every generation of woman. And guess what, readers? I was right.
I don't want to get critical before pointing out that there was a lot to be taken away from the range of influential women that spoke at the conference. Gloria Steinem, Isabel Allende, Liza Donnelly, Sarah Jones, Helen Thomas and the Feministing staff were just a few of the names there.
And they all provided something valuable in a larger conversation about the importance of empowering women, continuing to fight for feminist justice in the U.S. and around the world, and finding ways to support one another through that kind of struggle without attempting to "save one another."
I think Steinem was why so many of the women were there, and I can understand that. But I couldn't help but cringe when she started talking about how race didn't exist and that's been proven by biology. While she isn't wrong, she's ignoring that race has been created through social construction and centuries of oppression.
Steinem also pointed out what I, as a 23-year-old woman of color, had forgotten: to call the second wave feminist movement a white, middle-class movement is unfair because there were women of color and lesbian women involved in that work as well. To call it a "white, middle-class" movement is to ignore and silence the work of those women.
Then I remembered why I thought of the second wave the way I did. I looked around the room. I looked at the majority of speakers. Though Steinem called out the work of women of color and queer women, that was about all that was done. No discussion of the intersections of race and gender. No real mention of LGBT activism and its overlap with feminism.
All the work of women of color and queer women didn't matter enough to actually delve into the work of those communities. Real mentions of racial justice and its intersections with feminism were few and far between. A mere mention was apparently enough. I wonder how many other people felt similarly to me -- a woman in her 50s sat with me at lunch to tell me how upset she was that gay marriage wasn't mentioned once.
A young queer activist compared the conference discussions to a tour of a zoo: "There's the work of woman of color over there and gay activism there. But there's no interaction." They both planned to write a letter to Omega. I'm not sure if it will help.
Food and Justice: Shereen D'Souza Serves the Facts
Every day we see signs of communities of color and low-income communities being disproportionately affected by everything from the economy and healthcare to pollution and education. One of the many components in fighting for racial justice is taking care of our health and ensuring that everyone has access to quality food that is both nutritious and beneficial for the community and body.
I interviewed Shereen D'Souza, director of the Berkeley-based California Food and Justice Coalition (CFJC), about the work she and her colleagues are doing to achieve justice in the food system.
WT: Can you talk a little bit about the current campaigns and policies the California Food and Justice Coalition is focused on and the kinds of work you specifically are involved in?
CFJC: CFJC recently launched our newest campaign, Grow Local (PDF). The goal of the campaign is to increase access to land and resources and to rebuild local food systems by shifting relevant local-level policy. CFJC and Grow Local prioritize the needs of low-income communities and communities of color. The benefits are numerous, including a strengthened local economy, green collar jobs, increased access to healthy food [and] decreased greenhouse gas emissions, to name a few.
CFJC is a statewide coalition of mainly grassroots organizations working for justice in the food system. Our member groups have created innovative and effective programs that address the various food system ills that exist in their communities. Their projects include garden-based education programs in under-served schools, community gardens for WIC recipients, and farmers markets that accept EBT.
Because these programs work, we feel that policy should reflect and replicate them, instead of undermining them. What if all the vacant lots in our neighborhoods were used as community gardens? What if the permitting process to install a greywater system was accessible to everyone, as opposed to cost-prohibitive? What if all city institutions increased the percentage of locally-grown food they purchased? If our cities adopted these types of policies, our food system would be a lot healthier, and we would be healthier as well.
As a justice organization, one of the problems we see with policy change is that the process usually excludes most people. Only "experts" get to participate in policy conversations. That does not lead to long-lasting change.
So, a major focus of Grow Local is training community leaders and grassroots organizers on understanding the role policy can play in supporting their efforts and how to advocate for the policies they want to see for their communities.
WT: All around the country, low-income urban areas and communities of color seem to be disproportionately affected by health issues and a lack of access to fresh foods and nutritional education. Are there any specific policies or efforts that have facilitated this disparity in California?
CFJC: There are many policies that have created these types of inequities. One that I feel is particularly insidious is our government's commodity subsidies program. Through the Farm Bill, farmers who grow "commodity crops" -- including corn, wheat, soybeans, oats, rice and cotton -- are eligible to receive payments from the government that guarantee a certain price minimum for their crop.
It may sound harmless, like farmers being guaranteed a livable income regardless of the price of their crop on the world market, but the reality is that these subsidies encourage over-production of these crops because recipients know they will get paid for their product no matter what the market demand is. Also, the biggest recipients of these subsidies are large agribusiness producers -- the more you grow, the more subsidies you can receive. We're not talking about small, family farmers here. We're talking about multi-national corporations.
As a result of these subsidies, it costs more to grow grains than to purchase them. Concentrated animal feeding operations (the factory farms that keep way too many cows, pigs, chickens, etc in appalling living conditions) take advantage of these cheap grains to fatten their animals for slaughter faster, making their meat cheaper.
We also see the low cost of commodity drops in the widespread presence of high fructose corn syrup and partially hydrogenated oils in highly processed foods. Sadly, foods containing these unhealthy ingredients are usually cheapest and most readily available in low-income neighborhoods. Many people argue that commodity subsidies are directly related to the diet-related health inequities most prevalent in low-income communities, including diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, etc..
WT: The slow food movement and other sustainability efforts seem targeted towards upper middle class, predominantly white communities. How can we apply these movements to wider audiences and make them more accessible?
CFJC: A tiny part of the work CFJC does is to engage with movements like slow food and other sustainability efforts to make them more accessible to all and to encourage them to adopt a justice focus. But, the truth is, I feel that we already have our alternative to the mainstream: the burgeoning food justice movement, a movement that prioritizes both people and the environment, is strong enough to create the change we want to see by prioritizing the food and farming needs of those who are most vulnerable.
When I think of the food justice efforts in my neighborhood, they contain the same elements that have made slow food so popular: good food, community and health. Since we already have our own home-grown version of slow food, I don't feel the need to focus much energy on engaging with that movement. I think it's more important to strengthen what our communities have developed.
WT: Any leads or advice for young people trying to take action towards rebuilding local food systems and bringing better food options into their communities?
CFJC: This is a movement led by young people, and the opportunities to get involved abound. If there are existing food justice organizations in your area, that would be an easy point of entry to this work. If not, I think the first step is to start talking to your neighbors. Decide together about what the most pressing issues are, what a viable solution would look like and where you want to focus your energy. Once you've decided on an issue, do some research into the existing models that are out there.
There are many amazing food justice organizations, led by youth and young people. Here are a few of the ones that I really like: Rooted in Community, Real Food Challenge, Oakland Food Connection and Urban Tilth.
Turning Young People Into Leaders
I've always been interested in the work that the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights has been doing for Oakland communities, so I contacted Abel Habtegeorgis, Media Relations Manager at EBC, to get more information about their current efforts to seek justice for young people. Here's what he, and others at EBC, had to say about the organization and its work.
WireTap: Can you talk a little bit about the campaigns the Ella Baker Center is focused on -- Heal the Streets, for example -- and the kinds of work the organization is involved in?
Crystallee Crain, Director of the Heal the Streets campaign: The Ella Baker Center is training young people to be leaders in their neighborhoods and within the city of Oakland.
We recognize a need for structural and systemic change in order to create a pathway for violence prevention work to make an impact and really change communities. Engaging young people to create and advocate for policy is one of the ways Heal the Streets is creating change.
WT: What are some of the campaigns you're focused on and how did these campaigns begin?
Hayes Morehouse, Director of Technology: We created the Close Preston site to bring attention to the abuses going on in Preston Youth Prison -- and to give people a way to take action to shut it down. We also wanted to give voice to people who are directly affected by Preston and other youth prisons, so we've been making a series of short videos of families and young people coming out of the youth prisons.
Our strategy is also to bring together our most cohesive arguments for why the prisons should be closed. To this end, we recently released our "Report Card" study that details how the prisons have failed to meet even minimal standards, although it's been five years since they were ordered to reform by a judge.
WT: EBC founded the state's first network for families of incarcerated youth -- Families for Books Not Bars -- can you talk about how this program started and why this particular model of support is important for young incarcerated people and their families?
Jennifer Kim, Associate for Books Not Bars: Books Not Bars was launched back in 2004 when the Division of Juvenile Justice ("DJJ," formerly known as the California Youth Authority) had a youth prison population of over 5,000 youth.
Currently, the youth population has dropped dramatically to less than 1,700. Books Not Bars was formed in order to transform the nation's most expensive and least effective juvenile justice system.
The Families for Books Not Bars component provides the grassroots organizing element an opportunity to organize family members of incarcerated youth to advocate together as a collective force. The family members serve as the eyes and ears of what is happening in the youth prisons.
Their particular insight in the youth prisons provides the raw materials for the policy work that we do. By sharing with us the issues their children face, we work together to bring about policy changes that impact all of the youth.
WT: What kinds of work needs to go into revitalizing low-income communities and communities of color? Are there certain issues that need to be prioritized? Any leads or advice for young people trying to take action towards justice in their communities?
Young people can volunteer at local organizations like the Ella Baker Center that are at the epicenter of identifying the problems of inner-city America and then finding the solutions. It's important for young people to be engaged and responsible for the communities around them. The change they seek can be found in them, they just need the tools to realize that.
Nina Jacinto is a freelance blogger living in the Bay Area whose writing focuses on issues of race, gender, and media representation. She's a graduate of Pomona College and loves South Asian diaspora narratives, bargain shopping, and the Internet.