Back to school--but not for California's incarcerated youth

Joaquin DiazDeLeon, of the Ella Baker Center, rocks the bullhorn

By Melanie Tom, Field Organizer

As families struggle to send their loved ones back to school, families of incarcerated youth in the California youth prison system are painfully fighting for simple improvements like clean food, medical treatment and dignity. Instead of stocking up on pencils and scoping out new shoes, last week family members gave up their weekend and traveled hours to rally at the Ventura youth prison in the city of Camarillo. They came with stories of attempted suicide, untreated broken noses, and solitary confinement.

My weekend with the Fresno Brown Berets

by Melanie Tom, Field Organizer

I once had a friend disparagingly refer to Fresno as the "armpit" of California because it was supposedly smelly, sticky, and gross. Why would anyone want to go there, he asked? All the pollution from the coastal cities blows inland and sleeps over the city. And it's dangerous! Haven't you ever seen Ganglands on the History Channel?

Like every other city or neighborhood that has a disproportionate number of poor people of color, Fresno has an uphill battle with its image--to say the least. Urban elitism and rural conservatism adds another layer. As for my perception of the city, I hadn't given it much thought--until this past weekend where I found myself completely inspired.

Modern day "Help" still facing hard times

by Tavae Samuelu, Grassroots Fundraising Coordinator

I have to confess that when I first saw the trailer for The Help, I turned to my best friend and said, “I’d watch it.” The release date loomed near and my roommates and I made plans to watch the movie. In an effort to remain relatively unbiased, I avoided all of the reviews that had piled up since the movie’s inception. I entered the theater with red vines, an icee, and a willingness to like the film. I didn't.

The book, the movie, the countless efforts to get me to cry were all in vain. I walked out of the theater feeling indifferent and glad that I only paid five dollars to see it. Both of my roommates gushed about the tear-jerking scenes and the characters that they loved. At some point I fell asleep for nearly fifteen minutes. When I closed my eyes, Emma Stone was speaking in her most subtle of Southern accents and not as freakishly tall as the book had promised her character would be. When I opened my eyes, the Black womyn were still oppressed, the white womyn were still oppressive, and the men were still nowhere to be found. Needless to say, I didn’t miss a thing.

Ground-breaking health curriculum serves gender non-conforming, trans community

At the intersections of reproductive oppression, societal negligence and medical inequality lie the bodies of trans and gender non-conforming (GNC) people of color (POC). Despite being a fundamental human right, finding quality health care and advice in a country with a history of tumultuous and exclusive health care practices can be daunting. Add to that identifying as a POC GNC or trans person and your options are even less adequate. Discriminatory barriers to healthcare access or substandard care plague these communities who often experience harassment, violence or denial of service for both basic and specialized health care needs.

Our friends at The Brown Boi Project looked high and low for a health curriculum that centered on the needs of these communities and when they didn’t find it - they created it. Freeing Ourselves: A Guide to Health and Self Love for Brown Bois establishes a health module that highlights critical health care regiments for GNC MoC (Masculine of center) and trans Brown Bois.

Youth program celebrates ground breaking pilot program for young men

by Melanie Tom, Field Organizer

Last week, I caught up with Amanda Wake to download the latest updates on the youth organizing program. She had just returned from a weekend retreat with the two young women's program and summer pilot young men's program. Between rolling up borrowed sleeping bags and jetting to a youth program meeting, Amanda sat down and shared some of the highlights of this historic summer program:

Congrats on breaking new ground! Share with us the historic first's for this summer.

The young Asian men's pilot program made this summer incredibly special for me, one that I will never forget. This program has been a dream of mine of the past year and a half and to finally see it happening feels like a huge accomplishment. We hired our first male staff, Jack DeJesus, who was supported by a School of Unity and Liberation intern, Meng Vang. The program talked about what makes it hard to be a young Asian man growing up in Oakland--how young Asian men face demasculization, a lack of role models and divisive stereotypes that pin Asian men as either kung fu masters or nerds. They shared the immense responsibilities they have at home to provide for their families and make them proud. They experience pressures to have sex with women and encouraged to be homophobic to put other males down. They don't have a place to share their emotions or feelings.

This summer saw the largest number of young people participating in our program! We had a little over thirty self-identified young Asian women and about fifteen self-identified young Asian men. Our young people come from immigrant families or are immigrants themselves, most identify as low-income and all attend school in Oakland.

What happens when you bring Asian youth together to talk about gender and sexuality?

By Mai Doan, SAFIRE Program Coordinator 

This past weekend, SAFIRE young women and the Young Men’s Program gathered at the Occidental Agricultural Retreat Center for an overnight retreat as part of this summer’s program focusing on Gender, Bodies, Sex and Sexuality. Overlapping across a span of 3 days, our programs came together in an effort to build a bridge that brings support, understanding and empowerment among young Asian women and young Asian men in Oakland.

Why should people come to the end of summer youth celebration?

What the debt deal means to women--it's not good

Ouch. You don't need to be an economist to understand that the deal struck earlier this week is going to hurt the most vulnerable (the poor, the young, the old, women, people of color). Times are hard, and for some generations--the hardest they've ever been. And now, folks can expect it to get worse.

The debt ceiling deal is a blow to everyone in, but it especially hurts women. This press release by National Organization for Women (NOW) articulates just why that is. (A perfect, quick analysis.) And this article from Alternet beefs up the economic viewpoint, just a bit, for those looking for some numbers.

What’s the real problem? Unexamined assumptions

This week’s blog carnival as a part of NLIRH’s Latina Week of Action for ReproductiveJustice has sparked conversation around the scapegoating of immigrant women begging the question, what’s the REAL problem?

 

The scapegoating of immigrant women can be largely attributed to unexamined assumptions about the existence of immigrant life in America. Assuming something about any demographic of people and not investigating leaves so much room for error which can be not only damaging but dangerous. 

Assumptions are often defined as something taken for granted or the act of supposing but another, less discussed definition is the act of taking possession of something. Through demonizing language, xenophobia and accusatory judgments we’ve taken possession of the livelihoods of immigrant women.  

The assumption that immigrant women are not experts in their own immigration experience often leaves them out of conversations around policy that directly affects them and their family. It is also easy to point blaming fingers at low-income, immigrant women of color in difficult economic and social times like these, assuming they have nothing to lose.

Over the last year, ACRJ initiated a story collection process as a part of our Strong Families initiative where stories from families of color who put women at the center and identify as immigrant families are highlighted. In these stories you can hear the lived experiences of people whose immigrant mothers, daughters, sisters, aunts, grandmothers and friends have been strengthened despite the unexamined assumptions made about their lives.

Debt ceiling pushes some graduate students to consider sex work

Reia Chapman, MSW student at Savannah State University

By Shanelle Matthews

During her enrollment in nursing school from 1955 to 1958 my Nana gave blood, shined shoes and mended people’s clothes to pay her way through. Back then the cost of tuition hovered around less than $100 a semester. Today the average student can expect to pay, at minimum, around $5000 a semester for an undergraduate education.

Among the many aspects of the new Debt Ceiling Deal introduced by Congress on Tuesday, it will scrap subsidized student loans forcing graduate students to pay interest on the principle balance of their loans while enrolled in school.

SAFIRE youth speak out about scapegoating

By Shanelle Matthews

This week marks the second annual Latina Week of Action for Reproductive Justice hosted by NLIRH.  Centering on justice for immigrant women they posed the question “What is the REAL problem regarding the scapegoating of immigrant women?”

The scapegoating of immigrant women is woven into the condemnatory fabric that blankets this country's legislation around immigration policy. In 1875 when immigration to the United States no longer economically benefited the American capitalistic agenda, policy that separated naturalization and citizenship from immigration law was shaped to censure those coming to America to make a better life for themselves and their families.

To give some context to the lengthy history of anti-immigration reform against immigrant women, note that the result of the The Page Act, the first immigration law enacted by Congress, was the debasement of sex workers from Asia who participated in prostitution to feed their families. White westerners accused Chinese women of defiling the sanctity of marriage and monogamy in the U.S. and called for legislation banning Asian, immigrant women from entering the country. (No doubt the tarnishing of matrimonial holiness couldn’t be blamed on the righteous White man – Chinese women alone had to be responsible for the failing fidelity in U.S. marital culture.) Even though it was the male Chinese laborers “taking” jobs from White workers, it was somehow finagled that women were the root cause of economic and moral problems during the mid-19th century. Go figure.