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The Movement Gets Moving
On Wednesday and Thursday Novemember 12 and 13, member organizations at the Generational Alliance Youth Policy Summit gathered in Oakland to strategize and plan grassroots as well as federal legislative action for the coming months and years. With a special focus on the first 100 days of the Obama presidency, various groups brainstromed and held breakout sessions to come up with winnable goals and a clear pathway to continue to bring change and empowerment to the nation's youth.
Representing all aspects of the youth movement, attending organizations included voting groups The League, Youth Voter Collective and Bus Federation, Repro rights activists from Planned Parenthood and Asian Committee for Repro Justice, research and policy experts from Greenling Institute, Demos, Drum Major Institute, Roosevelt Institute, and many awesome field training and orgranizers including Campus Camp Wellstone, NAACP Youth and College, Geraration Change, Hip-Hop Caucus, Ruckus Society, United States Student Association, Young People For and Green For All.
The energy and ideas bustling in the room was inspiring. Gathered were the next generation of great activists and leaders, planning to seize the moment and implement real institutional change on behalf of young people everywhere.
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E-Day Elation
We honked horns and waved signs on Crenshaw boulevard in LA, we danced to soul-disco classic "Ain't No Stopping Us" on 125th Street in Harlem and we partied in San Francisco from the Castro district to 19th and Valencia Streets to Divisadero, where crowds sung along to Bob Marley's "Three O'Clock Roadblock."
All over America, in big cities and small towns, citizens of all races, nationalities and political perspectives came out of their apartments and houses, party-hopped, shut down streets and diverted traffic to celebrate one of the most monumental elections in the country's history.
Several of my friends predicted that there would be metaphorical dancing in the streets. But the reality of people actually dancing, hugging, smiling and reclaiming their public streets was all the more sweet. It was a celebration lead by youth, and one well deserved, with some 66-percent of the youth vote cast for Obama. In San Francisco, as with many other city, first-time voters and Millennials filled the streets after Obama's acceptance speech. I felt lucky to be a part of their leap into civic activism.
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9/11 Millennials: Are We Smarter?
On the seventh anniversary of the attacks on the World Trade Center and The Pentagon, much of the media coverage tends to hover on the same question year in and year out: "Are we safer?" A simple Google search reveals that media outlets from the conservative Heritage Foundation, to CBS News to the progressive Huffington Post have been pondering this query every year consecutively since the tragedy. The question I don't hear being asked: "Are we smarter?"
To answer this question, we should look at the 9/11 generation, otherwise known as Millennials, and ask what the net result in seven years has been on their lives as Americans, and on their understanding of the world. The response will probably be different depending on if you talk to youth from domestically established families versus young people who are new immigrants or the children of immigrants. As a recent Colorlines article describes, the collective reaction to 9-11 sharpened the immigrant debate and many hard working Americans of color were objectified through a racial lens as neverbefore.
The mainstream national response to [September 11] sacralized it, relying on trusty, racialized archetypes of Americans as white and native-born, and foreigners as a dangerous, dark threat. The sacralization process, complete with racist stereotypes, merged with the immigration debate, pitting Americans and foreigners against each other and bolstering the idea that the United States should limit the entry of other people. These archetypes, so prominent in the post-September 11 political discourse, had a narrowing effect on the subsequent immigration debate.
Are young people smarter about immigration issues in America, or have we been fighting the same battles for equality and just reform for seven years? If you were to gauge your answer based on how little was said about the issue a the recent presidential conventions, you'd have to say there hasn't been much progress.
ICE Cold: A New Round of Raids As The Economy Sours
Immigration raids this week at a kosher beef processing plant in Iowa and earlier this month at 11 taquerias in San Francisco beg the question: are immigration control officers enforcing labor laws or dietary restrictions? Seriously, though, the Department of Immigration Control and Enforcement (ICE) raids come at a suspicious time for the US economy.
With a recession looming or in-progress (depending on who you speak to) it appears that federal government's plan to stimulate economic growth is to clamp down on low-wage workers. The intent seems to be to send a chill to potential migrant laborers and declare "Don't come to the US to work, we're hiring from within!"
In San Francisco, a publicly acknowledged sanctuary city, the timing surprised even long-time activists. As Bay Area Immigrant Rights Coalition's Evelyn Sanchez commented on May 2 after the taqueria raids:
"It was a gross violation of civil rights, and it's just unfortunate that this happened the day after May Day when literally thousands of immigrants throughout the Bay Area marched to have this type of activity stopped. It just goes to show we need new immigration laws. The raids and deportations divide our families, traumatize our communities and are a disaster for our economy."
In a show of rapid solidarity, on Cinco de Mayo, just three days after the raids San Francisco, activists mobilized marching to ICE's offices and demanding justice for the 63 detainees as detailed in the video below.
Elsewhere in the US, in towns big and small, the arrests continue. In April, poultry farms in five states were the target of raids.
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Rent Controlled
Are you fresh out of high school or almost done with college and renting your first solo crib, dive, flat or apartment while working two jobs and trying to have a social life? Yeah, I was there too -- young, poor, and a little naive about how to be independent and rent secure. I began thinking about my early renter life recently after a friend's next-door neighbor, a young art student, was kicked out of the building after only three months for negligent, derelict and completely preventable behavior. Having band practice in your apartment at 1 a.m.? That's sooo not a good plan. It made me wonder though, was I a "terrible tenant" in my 20s?
My first apartment was a charming beige stucco number, tucked into the asphalt armpit between LAX airport and the 405 freeway in Los Angeles. The building was at the far end of a dreary block, devoid of streetlights, with dangerous allies in front and back of the four-unit space. Our scenery included a resplendent view of the neon-lit Nude Nudes strip joint. My roommates at the time did a lot of drugs and kept a rabbit indoors as their pet. It was definitely not the cleanest place, just a space to lay my head after work, DJing and college classwork. I left after a few months as my roommates' behavior became more bizarre. They were eventually evicted.
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Do Good Things With Music
On October 16, 2007 New Jersey's Eyeball Records released Eyeball Awareness Volume 1, an indie rock music compilation that donated part of its proceeds toward To Write Love On Her Arms, a non-profit group that offers hope and help to young people struggling with depression, addiction, self-injury and suicide. The comp featured tight melodic tracks from Baumer, New Atlantic, Sleep Station, Jettie and others. While Awareness was by no means the only benefit collection released in '07, it capped off a renewed period of aural artist activism.
From Al Gore's Live Earth concerts to smaller events happening at local community and all-ages spaces around the country, to the myriad consciousness-raising albums and comps, bands and musicians are once again on the frontlines of social change making noise and being heard.
In that spirit comes The Green Owl Comp: A Benefit for the Energy Action Coalition, dropping April 8, with proceeds going to a collective that comprises more than 40 organizations from across the U.S. and Canada, founded and led by youth to help support and strengthen the student and youth clean energy movement in North America. New York-based Green Owl is run by musicians Ben Brewer (The Exit, The Appletrees), Ellenike Abreu (The Appletrees) and Stephen Glicken who aim to find ways to present art in a sustainable way. Yeah, it's for a good cause, but is the music hot?
Remembering A Reggae Human Rights Hero
On Thursday, October 18, South Africa's Independent Online News reported that world-renowned South African reggae artist Lucky Dube was killed in apparent carjacking. According to police, the incident took place in Rosettenville, Johannesburg as the singer was dropping off his children at a relative's. The BBC also confirmed the grim news.
The 43-year-old singer recorded 22 albums in Zulu, English and Afrikaans in a 25-year period and was South Africa's biggest selling reggae artist.
Johannesburg Police Captain Cheryl Engelbrecht told ION that the murder occurred at 8.20 p.m. when Dube was driving a blue Polo vehicle in the Johannesburg suburb. She said Dube was dropping off his son in the area when he was attacked. "His son was already out of the car. When he saw what was happening, he ran to ask for help."
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Members Don't Git Weary
Jazz drummer and percussionist Max Roach died Thursday August 16, 2007 in New York City, he was 83. Roach's career spanned over five decades and he successfully played live into his '70s.
Roach was to jazz drumming in the '40s-60s what Jimi Hendrix was to the guitar, a force like nothing that had been heard before, a sound that swept you away. Where Hendrix conjured up other-worldly noises from his Strat and played strings with his teeth, Roach bashed his cymbals furiously and skipped over the toms with African tribal dexterity. The African connection was all-important to Roach who incorporated African themes in his music, and was an active and vocal part of the American and global Civil Rights movement.
In 1960, Roach released We Insist! -- Freedom Now Suite (Candid), which indie online jazz music retailer Dusty Groove describes:
"One of the most righteous albums that Max Roach ever cut and a monumental jazz release from the heart of the Civil Rights era. There's a political bent to the record, served up in righteous lyrics penned by Oscar Brand Jr., and sung by Abbey Lincoln at her most biting. Roach gathered a special group of musicians for the record including regular partners Booker Little on trumpet and Julian Priester on trombone alongside surprising guests like Coleman Hawkins on tenor sax, Olatunji on percussion, and Ray Mantilla on congas. Absent of piano, the album stretches out with soaring horn passages next to the vocals, and plenty of percussion at the bottom to get things moving. Titles include "Driva' Man," "Tears for Johannesburg," "Freedom Day," "All Africa," and "Prayer/Protest/Peace."
As the titles reveal, Roach connected the struggles in America with those of South Africa, and, in general the still-colonized Africa of that era. Like today's G8/World Bank protesters in Seattle, Genoa or Germany, Roach connected the local with the global, economic justice with human rights, and his African roots with America's present.
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Golden Gate's gun violence targets teens
19-year old Jamar Lake should be enjoying his summer with family, earning money at the local youth center or playing a game of football with his homies. But he isn't doing any of those things. Lake was murdered Thursday May 24 at 10:30 a.m. on a bright, sunny morning outside a corner convenience store, not far from his home at the Buena Plaza East housing projects. Nicknamed "Big Bear," Lake was a popular senior at Mission High School where he had recently earned enough credits to graduate.
As a student teacher at one of San Francisco's oldest public high schools, Mission High, I got to know a lot of the school's diverse young students. I worked in an 11th grade English classroom this year, and a 12th grade classroom in '05-06. My pupils came from Palestine, Ukraine, Mongolia, Taiwan, El Salvador and Puerto Rico. Some had fled Hurricane Katrina and were rebuilding their lives in San Francisco. Listening to their hopes and struggles, I'm certain I learned as much from the kids as they may have from my teaching. But there are some experiences that I wish weren't so common for them.
A shrine for Bear
I walked into Mission High on Wednesday May 30 and immediately saw a shrine in the foyer that included twinkling candles, flowers, photos and other remembrances to Big Bear. Down both sides of the first floor hallway students wrote shout-outs and comments to their friend and classmate, many ending with "Rise In Power" or "Relax In Paradise." Although I hadn't known Bear personally, I knew many of his friends, and no-one could miss the large, smiling Lake sauntering to class surrounded by a crew of admiring boys and girls. I also learned that Bear was also warmly embraced by the school's principal and other administrators.
Ms. L (the master teacher I volunteered with) and I would talk often about our student's lives and their neighborhood issues. Perched on her desk was a photo of Raymon Bass, a student from 2004 who had been shot to death outside of a bar in San Francisco's Lower Haight neighborhood. As a resident of the Western Additon, a person of conscience, and DJ at the bar over the past six years, Bass's shooting was also personal to me. Big Bear's death last month was a stinging reminder of how little San Francisco has done to concretely deal with the causes of youth violence. A few measures -- beefed up police patrols or neighborhood rallies -- come and go in the wake of these tragedies. Then business goes on as usual.
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Two countries, two souls, one dream
A poor kid discovers Mohawk hair-dos, breakdancing and the keys to his future in the Mexico City. Making and losing millions on velvet paintings in Ciudad Juarez. An opera cafe florishes in Tijuana. How soccer replaced football in the slaughterhourse towns of Kansas.
These are some of the amazing stories captured by LA Times contributor and author Sam Quinones (True Tales From Another Mexico) in his latest page-turner, Antonio's Gun & Delfino's Dream. In the fast-paced, richly detailed book released April 1 on University of New Mexico Press, Quinones tells the incredible real-life stories of carpet-layers in Bell, CA, how campesinos from the tiny Mexican village Atolinga came to dominate Chicago's taco stands and restaurants, as well as the tragedy that accompanies the thousands who ambivalently leave their birth country and risk death in a scorching desert crossing to work in the meat processing plants that most American laborers shun.
Along the way, Quinones explores Mexican immigration and its mixed blessings for both the United States and Mexico. For instance, he details repeatedly how many who come to the States and do well enough to build homes back in their home villages rarely resettle in their places of origin. In turn, many Mexican villages have become entirely dependent on remittances from sons and daughters in the US, thus deflecting pressure from Mexican governmental agencies to reform and develop their domestic economy.
Quinones eloquently explains:
A Mexican saying goes: "Poor Mexico: so far from God, so close to the United States." Its message is that the closer Mexicans get to the United States and the farther they stray from Mexico's heart -- Mexico City -- the more they lose their souls. But far from losing their souls, Mexicans find themselves in the United States. "Farther from Mexico City, closer to God" is a truer assessment of the facts, and it is one of the themes of this book of stories about Mexican immigrants and the border.
Mexican immigration is much debated and little understood. Activists and ideologues dissect it looking for heroes or villains. But they miss its beauty, which is that the closer you get to it, the more it shatters pat answers and preconceived notions. Within each immigrant's life roil courage and callousness, cowardice, generosity, envy, mercy, common sense and irrationality. A great opera, I believe, can be mined from each immigrant's story. I hope the stories in this book reflect that.
Elsewhere in the book, explains how hard it is for Mexican immigrants to not only find acceptance in the States but also to shake the timid attitudes and low expectations ingrained by the 70-year dominant PRI political party. And then there's the raw matter-of-fact way the book describes racial disparities. Rey Ramirez, a star high school soccer player in a small Kansas beef town describes the inequalities between immigrants and locals this way: "Their parents own farms and cattle feed yards. Our parents work for their parents."
With another National Day of Action for Immigrants approaching on May 1, Quinones book is a reminder that behind every immigrant-staffed business are the same dreams for respect, visibility and fair treatment that we've enshrined in the US Constitution.
Cesar Estrada Chavez presente!
Cesar Estrada Chavez presente!
March 31st 2007 would have been labor leader Cesar Chavez's 80th birthday. The legacy of this Mexican-American civil rights icon, who passed in 1993, lives on in many real and visible ways. And that is exactly how Chavez lived his live and fought his battles - in public, in the fields, on the streets and at our dinner tables.
I can vividly remember the second grape boycott in 1984 when Chavez stood up to the horrors of pesticide exposure for field workers and consumers alike. In 1988 he fasted for 36 days to protest the chemical poisoning happening in Central California's farmlands, below the radar of most American's watch. I was in high school, and participated in actions outside of grocery stores, and with others, proudly wore my "No Uvas" (No Grapes) pin. Chavez's humanist movement reached out to my suburban community and welcomed us into the struggle.
Chavez's activism - co-founding the National Farm Workers Association (now the United Farm Workers) union, and spearheading immigration rights in the early 1970s - paralleled that of his peers Martin Luther King, Jr. and Mahatma Gandhi. Like all true peace campaigners, his movement was inclusive, and its strategies adaptable, so that a coalition of young, old and multi-racial folks could gather under one tent and help forge change.
This vision and blueprint is what Chavez has given to us, it's both a gift and responsibility. The gifts are days of remembrance like March 31, when most public schools and libraries in California and other western states are closed. The responsibility is Chzvez's call to make simple, daily changes to build an equal society for all.
In San Francisco, a boulevard formerly named for the Army now bears Chavez's namesake. Along it, day laborers from Mexico, Central America and Ireland line the traffic-clogged corridor and strive to earn a fair living. These workers are a testament to the work we still have to accomplish, the economic justice that needs to be achieved for those living in the margins, out of sight but very much a part of our lives. The day laborers are us, and we'll join their struggle, along with today's farm workers, so, that like Chzvez, we are visible, active and implementing change.
Tomas Palermo is the managing editor of WireTap.