High Stakes Testing: Not So Hot
Last week friend of the blog, Dan McGowan at GoLocal, asked: Everyone agree that “teaching to the test” is a bad idea, but it makes no sense to get rid of standardized tests that could determine whether a student is eligible to graduate… Why not continue to test, but also offer the right interventions that [...]
It’s Black History Month and the Sankofa Bird Speaks
History is a clock that people use to tell their political and cultural time of day. It is also a compass that people use to find themselves on the map of human geography. History tells a people where they’ve been and what they’ve been; where they are and what they are. History tells a people [...]
Philadelphia-based Feminist Media Activist Group Led By Providence Native, Nuala Cabral, Launches Campaign Supporting Ethnic Studies in Arizona
Click here to check out my recent interview with Nuala Cabral and Denice Frohman of FAAN Mail, a Philadelphia-based media activist group that has launched a social media campaign (on Twitter, primarily, #WishiLearnedinHS), “Wished I Learned in High School,” in response to policies in Arizona restricting ethnic studies programs. Cabral is graduate of Moses Brown [...]
Imagination, Collective Struggle, and the Inclusion of Artists and Ordinary People: Angela Davis Speaks at RISD in Providence
PROVIDENCE, RI – Click on the image above to hear a short podcast with Dr. Angela Davis. It is from a brief interview I conducted with her after a keynote address she gave on Monday, June 23, 2012 at Rhode Island School of Design. More information about her talk is below; in the podcast/interview, I [...]
Racial Profiling Prevention Act
Have you or anyone you know ever been racially profiled? Sick and tired of police abusing their power? Well the Providence Youth Student Movement (PrYSM) has been working very hard on the Racial Profiling Prevention Act since last fall. To gather support, the Racial Profiling Coalition is holding a press conference on this Wednesday, Jan. 25th at 3:00pm inside [...]
Understanding The Intersection of Race, Music and Politics
(RHODE ISLAND, MASSACHUSETTS) – If I were to describe some of the events I have coming up as political, I’m sure someone would ask me, “hey Reza, what is political about an event featuring spoken word poetry and world rhythms?” This is the type of question I love to answer, though, sadly, few seem to [...]
Remember MLK’s Legacy this Weekend by Supporting Civil Rights Struggles in AZ!
Rhode Islanders have a special opportunity to express solidarity with young people and educators in Tuscon, AZ who are standing up to their state’s xenophobic and racist laws. On Sunday, January 15th, feature length documentary, Precious Knowledge, will be screened at Renaissance Church located at 77 Reservoir Ave in Providence. Precious Knowledge, which will be [...]
The Weapon of Memory: A Brief Reflection
“You say, ‘I haven’t left anything in Africa.’ …you left your mind in Africa!” — Malcolm X With legitimized trepidation in each painful step, their soiled and bloodied feet, shackled with rusting iron at the ankle, marched from maritime prisons into a new reality — indeed a prison of sorts. This alternate reality entailed not [...]
The Passing of Robert L. Carter, and School Desegregation in the Metropolitan North
I was saddened to hear of the death of Judge Robert L. Carter yesterday, at the age of 94. The passing of this great generation of civil rights reformers (Fred Shuttlesworth and Derrick Bell are gone too) was of course inevitable — Dr. King would be in his 80s, if he were still with us. But studying [...]
Hegemony of Narrative: “The Help” as Freedom Myth
“Naiveté is often an excuse for those who exercise power. For those upon whom that power is exercised, naiveté is always a mistake.” ~Michel-Rolph Trouillot “Ideology is a representation of the imaginary relationship of individuals to their real conditions of existence.” ~ Althusser What is required for an empire to maintain the subjugation, if not [...]
Achievement First Secret #4 – Nothing Says 21st Century Education Like Segregation
Do charter schools have to teach all kids in the community equally? As they find them, as they are? This blog post from Wait, What in Connecticut, looking at the enrollment data of several charter schools, including Achievement First schools, argues no. Perhaps most disturbing of all is the fact that despite Connecticut’s urban areas [...]
New National Report Highlights RI Public Defender
Back in February I posted about the fact that underfunded Public Defenders are a smokescreen for the real issue: underfunded prosecutors and courts cannot handle the number of crimes coming at them. A new report by Justice Policy Institute, System Overload: The Costs of Under-Resourcing Public Defense, continues the one-sided argument- although making some excellent points. The latest [...]
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