Youth – Page 6 – RI Future

March 12, 2015

Ending life imprisonment without parole for juveniles

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Rep. Chris Blazejewski introduced House bill 5650, sparking a debate in the Rhode Island House Judiciary Committee hearing as to whether or not juvenile defendants should be subject to mandatory life sentences without parole. The American Bar Association, Amnesty International and the ACLU are just three highly regarded civil and human rights groups who have called for an end to this practice.

Juan Méndez, the United Nations special rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment or punishment, said, in a recent report, “The vast majority of states have taken note of the international human rights requirements regarding life imprisonment of children without the possibility of release.” And, “life sentences or sentences of an extreme length have a disproportionate impact on children and cause physical and psychological harm that amounts to cruel, inhuman or degrading punishment.”

According to Amnesty International, in written testimony submitted at the hearing, “The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child expressly prohibits life imprisonment without the possibility of release for crimes committed by people under 18 years of age. All countries except the USA and South Sudan have ratified the Convention. Somalia just recently ratified the treaty in January 2015 and South Sudan has already begun the process to become a signatory to the Convention.”

What a terrible place for the United States to find itself as an outlier.

The United States Supreme Court has been evolving on this issue for a decade. In 2012 the Court ruled in Miller v. Alabama that “mandatory sentences of life without the possibility of parole are unconstitutional for juvenile offenders,” yet stopped short of issuing a blanket ban. Judges are simply required to consider the defendant’s youth and the nature of the crime when determining a sentence.

Rhode Island has a historical claim to judicial sentencing temperance, having eradicated the death penalty in 1852. Yet on the issue of life sentences for juvenile defendants, our state is lagging behind. Al Jazeera reports that, “Fourteen states and the District of Columbia have banned life sentences without parole for juveniles.”

Recognizing the potential for rehabilitation, especially of juvenile defendants, is one of the hallmarks of a civilized society. Attorneys general in other states are getting behind similar legislation, according to testimony from Steve Brown of the RI ACLU, yet Attorney General Peter Kilmartin opposes the bill currently under consideration.

Speaking against the bill, Joee Lindbeck, who heads the AG’s Legislation and Policy Unit, brought up the specter of Craig Price, who committed four murders in 1989 while under the age of 16. Reacting to Price’s crimes, the General Assembly “passed a law in 1990 to allow the state to prosecute as an adult any juvenile charged with a capital offense.” Lindbeck maintains that keeping this law on the books prepares us for “worst-case scenarios” like Price.

From a prosecutors point of view, having draconian sentences on the books is important because of the leverage they provide. A kid who committed a crime is much more willing forgo a trial and plead out to a 10 or 20 year sentence if the AG has the power to potentially ask for life without parole. This brings up a question: Should we be empowering the AG with tools to intimidate, or tools to render justice?

Threatening defendants with life destroying sentences seems to save money in the short term, but in long run we have learned that such “cheap justice” is neither.

January 20, 2015

Groups call for reversal of Dept. of Education high-stakes testing plans

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A number of community and advocacy organizations, including the American Civil Liberties Union of Rhode Island, are calling on the Council of Elementary and Secondary Education to promptly overturn guidance issued by Commissioner of Education Deborah Gist that advises school districts they can use the PARCC exam as a high-stakes test graduation requirement as early as 2017, three years before the 2020 starting date the Council had originally proposed.

The Commissioner issued this guidance in a “field memo” Friday despite the fact that just last week the Council tabled a RIDE proposal that would have given school districts the 2017 testing option. In addition, without any public discussion, the Commissioner’s field memo also told superintendents they could begin using students’ PARCC scores as a component of their school grades—and could do so starting in the next school year.

In a letter sent to the Council, the American Civil Liberties Union of Rhode Island, R.I. Disability Law Center, R.I. Legal Services, R.I. Teachers of English Language Learners, and five other community organizations raised serious concerns about the guidance and urged the council to bar school districts from using PARCC as a high stakes testing requirement until 2020 and from using the test’s results as a factor in students’ grades.

Our letter stated: “We would expect that before allowing PARCC to be used for such consequential and punitive purposes, RIDE would be spending the coming five years monitoring the test’s implementation to ensure there was adequate teacher preparation and curriculum development, equitable computer training and access for all, and fair implementation for English Language Learners and students with disabilities. Instead, the Commissioner’s memo is encouraging school districts – many of whom, by RIDE’s own standards, failed to meet basic accountability standards with the NECAP – to be demanding accountability from the students (not themselves) on this new test in a manner that can only be described as exceedingly premature.”

We also noted that the Commissioner’s unilateral decision to allow school districts to establish their own high-stakes testing requirements for graduation and for grading is “extraordinarily significant” and creates a two-tiered system for students based solely on their address.

You can read the full letter here and learn more about high-stakes testing and students’ rights here.

December 22, 2014

Voices and video from Saturday’s forum on racism

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Saturday’s forum, Racism, State Oppression, and the Black Community Ferguson Beyond, held at the Southside Cultural Center on Broad Street here in Providence, was packed, with the crowd at its peak reaching nearly 200 people.

City Councillor-elect Mary Kay Harris emceed the event, keeping the panelists and commenters from the audience mostly on point. The panelists were Globe (Jonathan Lewis) of the Positive Peace Warrior Network, Erroll Lomba of roots.media, Monay McNeil, a student at Rhode Island College, Prof. Matt Guteri of Brown University and Steve Roberts, a recent graduate of Rhode Island college and one of the PVD7, arrested November 25th for allegedly trespassing on the highway during a Ferguson protest here in Providence.

The size of the crowd and the resurgent interest in civil and human rights is a welcome counter to what many perceive to be a rising tide of government overreach and police militarization. The links between social and economic inequality are becoming ever more clear, as both panelists and commenters pointed out. We are still in the early days of what seems to be a new civil rights movement poised to oppose the drug war, the prison industrial complex and the “New Jim Crow,” and we are starting to see signs of what this movement is and what it hopes to accomplish.

The event was hosted by the Mount Hope Neighborhood Association, Inc., the Providence Youth Student Movement (PrYSM), the Providence Africana Reading Collective (PARC) and OneVoice RI, in collaboration with Shanna Weinberg of the Center for the Study of Slavery and Justice at Brown University.

i-LK5DTQQ-X2 — Monay McNeil (c)2014 Rachel Simon

As usual I have a ton of video from the event, including the entire 2 hours and 20 minutes as one video (scroll down to the bottom of the page). Photographer Rachel Simon supplied the still pictures for this post.

Errol Lomba, of roots.media, was interested in the questions brought up by nationwide reactions to the incidents in Ferguson and New York, but he also wonders about the answers. “What does a solution look like?” he asks, “How do we win?”

Monay McNeil reflected on the media reports about the Mike Brown homicide. When the shooting was fist reported, news media were taking their cues from social media, and we learned that Mike Brown’s death as a tragic loss: he was young, he was a college student. Soon, the narrative changed, as the media moved to defend the police. Now, Mike Brown is a thief and a thug.

Globe is a student of Martin Luther King and nonviolence. He mused on the divide between the youth driving the recent protests and the older activists who seem to be out of touch with their methods and style. The youth are “not saying they don’t want to learn from you,” says Globe, “they’re asking, ‘What are you going to do for us?'”

Nobody talked longer than Steve Roberts, who is full of ideas on hip hop culture, the history of the civil rights movement and the philosophy that seems to be driving the current unrest. When examining history, says Roberts, “you get this sanitized, dry, boring version of civil rights… People tend to discredit the more radical elements of protest efforts.”

This one is well worth a watch for people interested in understanding what’s really going on.

Professor Matt Guteri of Brown University was quick to give up his academic privilege when joining the conversation. “Just call me Matt,” he said, but he made some important points. “Any crime is used as a justification for death,” said Guteri, explaining how the police and the media blame the victims for violence done to them. he also made some important points about the role of social media in recent events. In the build up to the Iraq War, says Guteri, the media ignored the peace protests, but because of social media, the media is having a more difficult time ignoring the protests that have come in the wake of Ferguson.

After the public commentary, the panelists were given some time to wrap up their thoughts.

“We live in a society where in Detroit, they shut down the water, and old people are walking around with buckets. And it’s not because there’s a drought, it’s because they want more money, because the rich want more money…”

This speaker talked about working within the system to effect change, and he surprised the audience with a big reveal…

“In order for this movement to successful it has to be lead by the most oppressed, and right now I believe it’s the black transgendered youth…”

“Until we have a conversation about racism in this country and the white supremacy that these officers are fighting/uplifting, we’ll never truly find a solution…”

“We have to see the way in which we get punished for speaking out and fighting back. So a modern day example would be how he (Steve Roberts) got punished and tried to be ‘put in his place’ and essentially a call to all the white supremacists to go find him was publishing his address in the Providence Journal. That seems very much like the fugitive slave act…”

Servio Gomez is one of the PVD7. “On the issue of the firefighter getting reprimanded, we need to understand that as a worker issue. We need to understand that a worker was showing solidarity, and they got reprimanded as a worker, using state mechanisms, because the state was their employer, and that’s just how it goes. Workers need to be able to determine how they express themselves on the job and how to best develop themselves…”

Maria Cimini is finishing up her second term as State Representative, after being essentially pushed out by a Democratic leadership that didn’t like her Democratic Party positions. She will be returning to the fight for social justice as an activist. At the forum, she defended the idea of working within the system, at least in terms of being active in state and local politics, in order to achieve social justice goals.

“I’m 21 years old and it took me 21 years to understand my own blackness and understand that I was black as an Afro-Latina…”

Carolyn Thomas-Davis of OneVoice RI wonders if everyone “really understands the reason we are here, today? Do you understand the issues over police brutality? And do you understand how we got to where we are?”

Shannah Kurland is an activist lawyer working as the defense for five of the PVD7. “I want to ask every one of us to show some love for the PVD7, those brave young people who put their lives on the line… they did that for all of us. In terms of older people looking to younger people for knowledge and inspiration, I know they’ve given me some and I know they’ve given a lot of us- by putting their bodies on the line, by putting their safety on the line…”

“Currently have the NBA and the NFL as one of the most lucrative businesses for black and brown people, yet it’s also being used as a [way to control us] by white owners…”

Randall Rose warned the audience not to get too comfortable with social media. It can become a tool with which to identify the troublemakers and oppress us.

Here’s the full video:

Support Steve Ahlquist!

June 23, 2014June 25, 2014

“Criminal Street Gang” legislation is the wrong direction for Rhode Island

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Well meaning but dangerously inept legislation has a bad habit of passing in the General Assembly in the eleventh hour and this year is no exception as both the House and the Senate passed an amendment to the general laws that adds “up to ten years of extra jail time for any person convicted of a felony (which now includes a third offense of graffiti), if that person is subjectively determined to be part of a ‘criminal street gang,’ or three or more people who have an identifiable sign, color, or symbol.”

The actual language of the bill defines membership in a street gang subjectively, giving judges and juries wide latitude in determining membership, which might entail an additional decade of jail time:

Criminal street gang” means an ongoing organization, association, or group of three (3) or more persons, whether formal or informal, having as one of its primary activities the commission of criminal or delinquent acts; having an identifiable name or common identifiable signs, colors or symbols; and whose members individually or collectively engage in or have engaged in a pattern of criminal gang activity.

Further, one does not have to be a member of the “street gang” for these penalties to apply. “Any person” convicted of a felony that is “ knowingly committed for the benefit, at the direction of, or in association with any criminal street gang or criminal street gang member” can be subject to these increased penalties. The ACLU concludes that “As a result, the bill’s greatest impact could be on young people coerced into engaging in criminal conduct on behalf of a gang.”

This bill does nothing to reduce the number of young people who voluntarily join or are coerced into joining a gang. It’s hard to imagine a kid, aged 12-17, being dissuaded from gang violence because of this legislation. All this legislation does is further criminalize the difficult lives of urban youth, predominantly youth of color. This bill was part of a package of bills coming out of Attorney General Peter Kilmartin’s office and the subjective nature of the definition used in determining gang membership will certainly lead to abuse at the hands of state prosecutors.

We don’t need more penalties. We need more intervention. Too often the General Assembly tackles a problem through expensive, wasteful and dehumanizing incarceration rather than through humanistic intercession.

We can be better than this legislation. We can tackle the problem of gangs and gang violence without destroying lives in our most vulnerable communities.

I am urging Governor Chafee to veto this legislation, so that the General Assembly can go back to the drawing board and craft an appropriate response to the problems of gang violence. Please join me in sending a clear message to the Governor and our legislators. We want legislation that helps, not hurts, our kids.

Call him:
(401) 222-2080

Email him:
governor@governor.ri.gov

Annoy him on Twitter:
@LincolnChafee
@ChafeeNews

May 15, 2014

Stop making #BringBackOurGirls about you

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In case you’ve been living under a rock for the past month, Nigeria based terrorist group Boko Haram has been holding almost 300 Nigerian girls hostage with plans to marry them off for a sum of $12 a pop to various members and sympathizers of their organization. You can read more about this here and here. I won’t waste your time rehashing details you are likely familiar with.

What I am here to say is that #BringBackOurGirls is an extremely important campaign and one that needs laser-point focus. We need to promote #BringBackOurGirls for the health and welfare of these young Nigerian girls. Period. Derailing to highlight what you consider to be an important cause is a cheap shot at best. For examples of derailing, please see here and here. Let me highlight one that came through on RI Future’s own Steve Alhquist’s blog about Friday’s Bring Back Our Girls rally in Providence.

Dear Ryan,

While I sympathize with your…. Actually you know what? No. I’m not going to be nice about this.

Dear Ryan,

Allow me to educate you on derailment, although you seem to (unconsciously?) be an expert at it. Derailment is when you take away from a cause to bring the point back to yourself and your opinions on something unrelated. See what I’m getting at here? I mean really, Ryan? Guantanamo Bay?
I get your outrage. I really do. I too take issue with Guantanamo Bay and the treatment of prisoners there. I understand that while I care about this issue, I can also (at the very same time!) care about what happens to over 200 innocent girls in West Africa. The focus in this very moment needs to be on how we can help bring back these girls from the grips of terrorism. This is an urgent situation that requires more than commenting upon. It requires action.

So, Ryan. I am asking you a favor. I feel like I can do that now.

Now is not the time for statements about how you think Boko Haram might “feel” about the US. Now is the time for action and support of the Nigerians who are actively fighting to bring the girls home.

Here’s some things you can do. Yes you, Ryan.

1. Follow the Official Twitter Page of #BringBackOurGirls here. Tweet when they ask and signal boost for them.

2. Sign the White House Petition asking for further action and supporting UN efforts in Nigeria.

3. Stop conflating what you feel with actual facts. These are the facts: There is almost nothing we can do to help these girls besides signal boosting the activists on the ground and supporting the work of US groups with ties to Nigeria, like the Nigerian Community of Rhode Island. These are the people who know the situation best. Let’s help them spread the word.

4. Keep these girls in the forefront of discussion. Every day until they are returned to their families.

Remember: These are not just human rights we are philosophizing about here. These are innocent girls who were trying to get an education when they were forcefully and brutally kidnapped. Their schools were burned. People are dying. Let’s do something, anything to help fight these acts before more people are affected.

March 10, 2014

ACLU report shows record high racial disparities in school discipline rates

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A report issued by the ACLU of Rhode Island today shows that Rhode Island’s public schools last year disproportionately suspended black students at the highest rates in nine years, while white students were suspended at record low rates. Like black children, Hispanic students remained severely over-suspended, with these disparities reaching all the way to the lowest grades. In addition, students generally – including elementary school children – were given out-of-school suspensions at alarming rates for minor disciplinary infractions.

The report, “Blacklisted: An Update,” is a follow-up to one the ACLU issued last June, which examined eight previous years of suspension data. That report also documented and explored the dangers of out-of-school suspensions and the disproportionate impact of suspensions on black and Hispanic youth, but the latest statistics demonstrate that the inappropriate and discriminatory use of out-of-school suspensions – even at the elementary school level – continues unabated across Rhode Island.

Among the findings from a review of data from the 2012-2013 school year:

Black students were suspended from school 2.19 times as often as would be expected based on their school population. This is a record high suspension disparity for black students over the nine years the ACLU has studied. Hispanic students were suspended over one-and-a-half times as often as expected. White students, in contrast, were suspended just 0.64 times what would be expected, a record low.

Twenty-five school districts disproportionately suspended black students. Twenty-six school districts disproportionately suspended Hispanic students.

Suspensions remained endemic at the lowest grades, and continued to disproportionately affect minority students. Nearly 1,400 elementary school students – and 147 first grade students – were suspended last year, and black elementary school students were suspended more than three times as often as expected based on their representation.

Despite nationwide efforts to promote the use of out-of-school suspensions only in extreme circumstances, over 60 percent of the suspensions for Rhode Island students last year were for low-risk behavioral infractions.

One-third of all suspensions were served for the vague infractions of “Disorderly Conduct” and “Insubordination/Disrespect.” In fact, thousands more suspensions occurred for “Disorderly Conduct” and “Insubordination/ Disrespect” than for assault, bomb threats, breaking and entering, possession or use of controlled substances, fire regulation violations, fighting, gang activity, harassment, hate crimes, hazing, larceny, threats, trespassing, vandalism or weapon possession combined.
More than a quarter of elementary school suspensions were for “Disorderly Conduct” alone. Despite making up one-third of the elementary school population, black and Hispanic students constituted two-thirds of the elementary school students suspended for “Disorderly Conduct” or “Insubordination/Disrespect.”
Although the total number of suspensions overall was down from previous years, that reduction can be attributed almost exclusively to implementation of a law passed by the General Assembly in 2012 prohibiting out-of-school suspensions for attendance infractions. In fact, while overall suspensions decreased, the number of suspensions for low-risk behavioral infractions increased by more than 400.

The report concluded: “Rhode Island’s students deserve an education system that seeks to promote rather than punish them, and efforts by educators and the legislature in 2014 can make that possible. Swift action by Rhode Island’s leaders can ensure that another cohort of children does not find themselves the subject of increasingly grim statistics, and instead finds them granted all the educational opportunities we have to offer them.”

In finding little change from the eight years’ worth of statistics analyzed in its last report, the ACLU reiterated a series of recommendations for policy-makers to address this serious problem. Among the ACLU’s recommendations this year: the General Assembly should approve legislation limiting the use of out-of-school suspensions to serious offenses; school districts should examine annually their discipline rates for any racial or ethnic disparities, and identify ways to eliminate them; schools should ensure that punishments are clearly and evenly established for various offenses; and the state Department of Education should investigate and promote the use of alternative evidence-based disciplinary methods.

February 26, 2014

National experts testify in support of halting NECAP graduation requirement

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National education experts are now joining students, parents, education and advocacy groups and the RI ACLU in urging the Department of Education to end its mandate requiring students to pass the NECAP test in order to graduate.

Three national education experts are submitting written testimony to the House Health, Education and Welfare Committee today in support of legislation that would delay or halt the state’s “high stakes testing” requirement for high school seniors.

The experts say, among other things, that high stakes testing requirements increase dropout rates, narrow curriculum, and disproportionately impact minority students and students with disabilities. In fact, according to the latest RIDE statistics, almost 1,600 seniors remain at risk of not getting a diploma because of the testing requirement.

Here are brief excerpts from their written testimony:

Linda Darling-Hammond, professor of Education at Stanford University, director of the Stanford Center for Opportunity Policy in Education, and education adviser to Barack Obama’s 2008 Presidential Campaign:

“The preponderance of research indicates that test-based requirements for graduation do not generally improve achievement, but do increase dropout rates… Studies have raised concerns about reduced graduation rates, especially for African American and Latino students, English language learners, and students with disabilities; reduced incentives for struggling students to stay in school rather than drop out or pursue a GED; increased incentives for schools to encourage low-achieving students to leave school, especially when test scores are part of the state school accountability system, so as to improve the appearance of average school scores; narrowing of the curriculum and neglect of higher order performance skills where limited measures are used; and invalid judgments about student learning from reliance on a single set of test measures, a practice discouraged by professional testing experts.” (Full testimony)

Ron Wolk, founder of Education Week, the newspaper of record in American education:

“Despite hundreds of millions of dollars and countless hours spent on standards and testing over the past 25 years, student achievement has not significantly improved, and the gap that separates needy and minority students from more affluent white students persists. … [A recent RIDE report] reveals that over the past five years, reading and math scores in the 4th, 6th, and 8th grades have increased by about 4 percent—about 0.8 percent a year. Eleventh grade scores in both reading and math increased by an impressive 8 percent over the past five years. Since more than 25 percent of all Rhode Island students score below proficient in reading, however, and about 40 percent score below proficient in math, it could take roughly 25 more years to get all students to proficiency in reading at the current rate of progress, and as many as 40 years to get all students to proficiency in math. Most importantly, it is a serious mistake to equate test scores with learning. Studies have shown that intense test preparation can raise scores, but the ‘learning’ is often transitory and temporary.” (Full testimony)

Lisa Guisbond, policy analyst for the National Center for Fair and Open Testing (FairTest):

“The ‘model’ exit exam state, Massachusetts, still has persistent, unacceptably large gaps in educational opportunity and achievement… In Massachusetts, disparities in dropout rates persist more than 10 years after the state adopted MCAS high school graduation tests. Latino and African-American students drop out at rates three to four times that of white students, and 11th and 12th graders who have not passed MCAS are more than 13 times more likely to drop out of school than those who have passed . . . Students with disabilities have been hit particularly hard and make up a steadily growing portion of Massachusetts students who don’t graduate because of the MCAS graduation test. Students receiving special education were five times more likely to fail MCAS in 2002-03; by 2011-12, they were 15 times more likely to fail.” (Full testimony)

The RI ACLU is also testifying in support of these bills and will continue to work towards the elimination of standardized test results as a graduation requirement.

January 22, 2014January 23, 2014

Why is reproductive and sexual freedom important to you?

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By Martha S.

Martha is a member of the Planned Parenthood of Southern New England STARS in Hartford, Connecticut. She is a senior in high school and has plans to study business and political science in college in order to prepare for a full-time job of making the world a better place.

The 41st anniversary of the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision reminds us it is important to remember the work that led to that landmark case, and the people who have worked tirelessly since then to keep abortion safe, legal and accessible. It’s also important to recognize we have a long way to go before the promise of Roe is fully realized. More than half the states have imposed new restrictions on abortion in the last three years, most aimed not at outlawing the procedure, but at making it almost impossible to get. In North Dakota, all abortions after six weeks are banned¹. In Oklahoma, 96 percent of all counties do not have an abortion provider². Many women* are not able to get abortions because of the restrictions and lack of abortion providers.

Abortions are only a small part of the reproductive and sexual freedom that has been challenged in the United States. Every day, women face legal and societal pressures to conform on reproductive and sexual issues. Women are forced to fit into a skewed version of society’s standard of sexuality, even when these standards are often contradictory. A woman who chooses not to have sex is considered a “prude,” and a woman who has too much sex (it’s not clear by whose measure) is considered a “slut.” Everywhere they turn, women are asked to conform to society’s pressures and there are social consequences for those who do not.

The anniversary of the Roe v. Wade case brings up questions not only about abortion rights, but human rights and social pressures. In what other ways are women not allowed their reproductive and sexual freedoms? While sometimes it is obvious, like not having the means to get an abortion, other times it is not so obvious. The oppression of reproductive and sexual freedoms can come from the inability to pay for birth control, or from the increasingly-popular belief that people who have been “friend-zoned” deserve sex because they have worked hard enough for it. Just as there are contradictory views on how women should behave, there are contradictory views on what it means to have reproductive and sexual freedoms. When I ask my friends for short quotes about what reproductive and sexual freedom meant to them, they have very different answers.

Reproductive and sexual freedom is important to me because it represents a concept that doesn’t deserve to become entangled in complicated legislation and political jargon. Ignoring societal boundaries and divisions, it unites human beings through one of life’s most simple and essential liberties: the right to control your own life, the only one you’ll ever know.

-Lucas M.

Sexual and reproductive rights are important to me because women have been silenced and controlled for too long. No man should make any decision for a woman about her body.

-Jasmine J.

Sex is one of the fundamental universals of the human condition. By promoting a culture in which individuals are afforded the right and responsibility to make informed personal decisions about sex, we promote our own humanity, and replace arbitrary taboos, shamed silence, and repression, with openness, communication, and liberation.

-Liam M.

Despite giving radically different answers, my friends’ ideas shared a common theme: choice. Of course, everyone mentions choice, because that’s the definition of freedom. However, our society and legislature creates bundles of pressures and dead-end, wrong-turn, no-way-through decisions and presents them to us as “choice.” Women can choose to have lots of sex, or they can choose to save themselves for marriage. They can choose to drive hundreds of miles and sleep in their cars to have an abortion, or they can choose to carry a child that they’re not ready to raise. They can choose to climb the corporate ladder, or choose to stay at home with their children, knowing that they will be criticized for either choice.

Unfortunately, the reality of our current situation is that “choices” are often contradictory or confusing. Even when they are clear, they might be blocked by societal pressures. So, to me, we have not achieved true reproductive and sexual freedom until everyone has the ability to make decisions about one’s body without pressures or fear of disapproval. I don’t claim to know exactly what this means, or how we will attempt to achieve this. Everyone’s ideas of reproductive and sexual freedom are different, and possibly contradictory. The idea is complicated, convoluted, and full of bad decisions and back-tracking. However, in order to get anywhere, we need to start somewhere, and the ability to control whether or not to have a child seems like a good place to start.

It’s hard for young people to get clear and accurate information on sex, sexuality, reproductive health and STIs. Planned Parenthood of Southern New England’s peer education program, Students Teaching About Responsible Sexuality, addresses this critical issue by recruiting and training young people to provide information and resources to their peers.

Martha is a member of the Planned Parenthood of Southern New England STARS group in Hartford, Connecticut. She is a senior in high school and plans to study business and political science in college in order to prepare for a full-time job of making the world a better place.

________________________________________________________________________

*When I use the word “woman,” I also intend to include males who could need an abortion or feel the same pressures that biological women feel.

1. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/special/politics/us-abortion-map/

2. http://www.cbsnews.com/pictures/abortion-19-states-with-toughest-laws/3/

September 18, 2013September 18, 2013

The myth-making generation

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Moaning about the succeeding generation is a pretty common pastime in America, with a long and storied history. But just because something already’s been done doesn’t mean it won’t be done again. Enter “Why Generation Y Yuppies Are Unhappy“, a new entry into the “Next Generation Sucks” genre; but with stick figures! It’s obvious, says the author, that Millennials have false expectations and “think they’re special.” Pictures of unicorns and flowers abound, just to really rub in the mockery.

But while there’s plenty to pick apart and criticize (Mother Jones reporter Adam Weinstein has a critique well worth reading), I want to focus solely on the claims about the G.I. or “Greatest” Generation:

Lucy’s parents were born in the ’50s — they’re Baby Boomers. They were raised by Lucy’s grandparents, members of the G.I. Generation, or “the Greatest Generation,” who grew up during the Great Depression and fought in World War II, and were most definitely not GYPSYs.

Lucy is the author’s fictional Millennial, and GYPSYs is the delightfully offensive term the author has cooked up for Lucy and her cohorts (I have my own acronym for the writer and their peers: Whiny Authors in Need of a Kick).

The so-called “Greatest Generation” is the recipient of a lot of rose-tinted glassed stares of longing these days. Apparently people dream of the time when men were men, women were meek, black people were free to be openly oppressed, and Indians were undergoing cultural genocide. But while the obvious flaws with the 1940s are well known, the idea that the Greatest Generation struggled through the Great Depression and stepped up at our hour of need to topple fascism and then build this country into a world superpower is a cultural touchstone.

Let’s get rid of that touchstone, because it’s a complete crock. All of those required massive government intervention, directed and conceived by the two generations before them, the Missionary and the Lost Generations. Without the leaders in Congress and the White House who ushered in the New Deal, the G.I. Generation wouldn’t have had work during the Great Depression. Without the re-implementation of the draft, not only would the G.I.’s not had work, but there wouldn’t have been a labor shortage that required women to enter the labor force. And without a war fought abroad that devastated all of America’s competitors while leaving U.S. industry unscathed, the G.I. Generation wouldn’t have found it as easy to sell American products to the world (and let’s not forget that servicemen were offered cheap homes and education/training after the war).

It’s important to look at the draft aspect of this, since much of the myth of the “Greatest” Generation is tied to its service in World War II. The Selective Service System reports that during the course of the war, over 10 million men were inducted into the military. Gen. William Westmoreland placed this number at about two-thirds of the military of World War II. Of those 10 million+ inductees, . In a tour of duty, the average World War II soldier saw 40 days of combat in the whole war.

Compare this with their children (the Baby Boomers) who fought in the Vietnam War. 1.8 million were inducted. Westmoreland put the figure of drafted soldiers at one-third of the military of Vietnam. Of all of the potential draftees (not those actually inducted), 100,000 fled the country. Finally, thanks to the helicopter, the average tour of duty exposed a soldier to 240 days of combat; many soldiers did multiple tours.

Currently, the entire military is volunteer, and the average tour of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan saw 310 days of combat, often tours of duty were extended. In case you’re unclear about what a “day of combat” is, it’s a day on during which the continuation of life is uncertain.

But Millennials suffer from false expectations and think they’re special. This isn’t about soldiers, this is about our poor deluded, entitled children.

I bring up the military comparison to show just how different the way each generation is perceived. The G.I. Generation saw the least amount of combat, was strong-armed by the government to serve, and today are hailed as heroes. The Baby Boomers stepped up, were exposed quite often to completely new type of war, and today are remembered as an army of unwilling draftees. The Millennials and Generation Xers who fought in Iraq and Afghanistan are praised for their service or touted by wannabe patriots, but are largely ignored otherwise.

The reality is that the Millennials have suffered through the most debt-leveraged time in American history, and one of its greatest economic crises. It is the most unequal time on record. Where American leaders of the past dealt with such crises with large encompassing platforms, with radical changes to the shape and fabric of American society, the simple fact of the matter is that the generations currently in power refuse to do what the grandparents and great-grandparents did before them.

When I see these articles that lambast my generation, I recognize them for what they are: expressions of guilt. It’s no secret that the Millennials and our successors are inheriting a country that is adrift. The economy is unrecognizable from the one Boomers and the predecessors grew up with. They’re hesitant and unwilling to act, thanks to a venomous orthodoxy that tells them government is bad, business is good. The very future of the world is uncertain.

It’s clear to me that Millennials cannot rely on their predecessors for assistance. We’re going to have to solve this world’s problem on our own; unlike the preceding generations, we can expect only diminishing assistance. And hopefully, when the next crisis hits, there will be enough of us in power that we won’t make the mistakes our predecessors did.

November 20, 2012November 20, 2012

Study: Young People of Color Have Political Power

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In the days since the election, there has been a renewed attention on our country’s changing demographics, given the overwhelming Obama/Democratic successes among voters of color. The increased margin of support for Democrats among Latino voters was significant enough to cause some GOP leaders to choke on their pretzels, and now it appears that a bi-partisan discussion of immigration reform is once again (thankfully) underway.

A report (pdf) issued last week by the Black Youth Project digs into several findings on the changing racial composition of our country’s electorate, and brings a particular focus to the key role of young people of color in Obama’s re-election.

As anyone who volunteered for the Obama campaign during this election could tell you, youth of color were an important element (along with women & union members) of the Democrats’ highly-energetic ground game. The study, however, focuses on their growing significance as a voting bloc — noting that the share of young voters of color in the overall electorate has continuing to grow over the last three Presidential elections. For the Democrats, it helped to make up for a fact that I found surprising: among white voters under 30, Obama actually lost to Romney.

That’s right — while 54% of young white voters supported Obama in 2008, according to exit polls only 44% voted for Obama in 2012. Of course, some of us graduated from the U-30 bracket in the intervening years, but that’s more of a discussion between me and my retreating hairline — and it doesn’t explain the turn towards Romney among those who “replaced” us in this demographic group. (This shift merits further analysis, to be sure.)

Here are a few other highlights from the report (the emphasis is mine):

Blacks and Latinos comprised an increasingly larger share of the voting electorate in each of the last three presidential elections. In 2012, young people under 30 years of age accounted for nearly 20 percent of the voting electorate, and Blacks and Latinos made up almost half of young voters. […]

People of color—and Blacks and Latinos specifically—comprise increasingly large portions of the voting electorate. Not only are people of color gaining numbers in the population (especially Latinos), but voter turnout among these groups is also increasing relative to whites…Since 2004, the proportion of white voters has decreased from 78 percent to 72 percent, while the proportion of Black and Latino voters has increased from 18 percent to 23 percent. […]

Overall, 60 percent of youth supported President Obama in the 2012 election, down slightly from 66 percent in 2008—but considerably greater than the 54 percent of the vote that youth provided John Kerry in the 2004 election. However, contrary to the idea of a monolithic youth vote, there is considerable variation by racial group among young people in whom they support for president [and] these differences have increased in recent presidential elections. […Because] of the increased percentages of young people of color that are voting, these populations have played an increasingly important role in selecting the nation’s president, and will continue to do so.

The Center for American Progress has a longer (pre-election) discussion of what I think is the bottom line here: any party or candidate that wishes to remain relevant to American politics must have a platform and program that speaks (and listens) to the concerns of young people as a whole, and young people of color in particular — or else be relegated to that proverbial dustbin of history.

August 21, 2012August 21, 2012

Jessica Ahlquist Honored at Touro Synagogue

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It sounds like the start of a bad joke: a Rabbi, an Imam, and an atheist walk into a Synagogue…

In this case, though, it is the story of a ceremony at Touro Synagogue in Newport – the 65th annual reading of George Washington’s Letter to the Hebrew Congregation. It was a celebration of Washington’s poignant 1790 letter eloquently stating to Newport’s Jewish community (what was left of it after the British occupation of Newport during the Revolution) that the new country would be committed to religious freedom, to being a nation where the government offers “to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance.” To a Jewish community used to being driven violently from country to country (including from England in the 1200’s, to be welcomed back somewhat reluctantly generations later,) these words meant that the religious tolerance they had found in colonial Rhode Island would continue in the new United States.

The invocation at Sunday’s reading of the historic letter, given by the Imam of a Providence Muslim community, and the benediction given by Touro Synagogue’s Rabbi, remind of us the breadth of this commitment: that the U. S. would be a country welcoming of Jews and Muslims (“Turks” in Colonial era parlance) as well Christians.

As was noted in the introduction of Jessica Ahlquist, the young atheist who successfully fought for the removal of a prayer banner from Cranston West High School, religious tolerance in Rhode Island applied not only to non-Christians but also to those who did not believe. And there were non-Church goers, and likely non-believers, in Colonial Newport along with Protestants, Jews, the occasional visiting “Turk,” and eventually Catholics.

Jessica was there to receive the Judge George Alexander Teitz Award, a non-monetary award from the non-sectarian Touro Synagogue Foundation that is given annually to “an individual or institution that best exemplifies the contemporary commitment to the ideals of religious and ethnic tolerance and freedom, expressed in President George Washington’s 1790 Letter.” Jessica joins the likes of the first recipient of the Teitz award, Senator Claiborne Pell.

She was introduced by Judge Teitz’ son, Andy, who reminded the audience of the threats and antagonism Jessica faced in Cranston for standing up for the Constitution and Separation of Church and State. In accepting the award, Jessica made perhaps the most meaningful statement of the afternoon’s proceedings. In talking about her experience with the Cranston school prayer banner, she said, in reference to this event at Touro, “This is what I wanted to happen, this is what I was fighting for when I did this…”

To see Jessica honored by a community that, while largely holding on to its belief in a supernatural “higher being” also sees the importance of Church-State separation, was a moving experience.

This post was written by Chuck Flippo, site manager at Loeb Visitors Center at Touro Synagogue National Historic Site, with small modifications and formatting by Steve Ahlquist.

Note: The Providence Journal covered this event with a small selection of photos yesterday, completely ignoring the fact that Jessica was honored with a prestigious award at this ceremony. As Chuck told me in correspondence:

[Not mentioning Jessica receiving the award] sounds like a deliberate slight. Though there were certainly other things to write about — the Imam giving the invocation, Sen. Reed’s speech — the award to Jessica was a significant part of the event. [It] should have been included. That’s really poor journalism.

July 20, 2012

RI Baseballers Win International Competition

Rhode Island teens win international baseball event in Cooperstown, NY.

In a dramatic comeback victory, the Rhode Island Baseball Club Under 14 AAU team took the title at an international competition, the Cooperstown Baseball World Tournament, this week with an 8-7 win in the bottom of the seventh inning against a team from Indiana.

After a scoreless first inning and giving up seven runs in the top of the second inning, the Rhode Island team got shutdown pitching from reliever Andrew Frey (two innings), and eventual game-winner Ryan Quirk; while chipping away at the 7-0 lead and tying it in the bottom of the fourth. Then in the bottom of the seventh, the RI team loaded the bases with three straight singles by Kyle Barbato, Nick Pietrantozzi and Andrew Frey before MJ Notorianni stepped up to the plate and hit a walkoff single, scoring Barbato and giving his team the championship.

In the first round of pool play, the Rhode Island team went 4-1, beating Israel 3-2 on a walkoff single by Jimmy Gianquitti in extra innings; losing to Colorado 4-1 in extra innings, and then beating New York 14-4, and Ohio 10-0 on a no-hitter by Liam Vetter, before ending pool play against Indiana with a 3-2 win.

By virtue of their 4-1 record, the Rhody team was the top seed and earned a bye in the first round before having to face the team they lost to in pool play, Colorado. However, they were up to the task, defeating the Coloradans 7-4 with Ryan Quirk earning the win in a game that Matt Sweeney started and starred offensively by knocking in three runs.

The team is made up of middle and high school players from throughout Rhode Island, Matt Sweeney, Matt O’Rourke and PJ Hazian from Western Hills Middle School, MJ Notorianni and Andrew Frey from Immaculate Conception, Tyler DiPetrillo and Jimmy Gianquitti from Bishop Hendricken, Kyle Barbato from Toll Gate, Ryan Quirk from La Salle, Liam Vetter from Portsmouth and Nick Pietrantozzi from Scituate. The team is managed by Mark Cahill with coaching assistance from Tom O’Rourke and Brendan Barbato.

July 19, 2012July 20, 2012

Chris Herren Talks About Substance Abuse Saturday

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Chris Herren in his Celtics playing days. (Photo from the Boston Herald)

Former NBA player, Chris Herron, will be the guest speaker this Saturday (7/21) as Rhode Island Sports Heroes holds their annual Summer Outing Event at Camp Westwood in Coventry from 9 am-3:30 pm.

More than 160 kids from various nonprofit groups throughout the state, including Big Sisters/Big Brothers, Seven Hills, Ocean Tides, Youth Rap, Adoption RI, Child and Family Services, Gateway Healthcare, Perspectives, and Davey Lopes, Sackett Street, have been invited to enjoy an old-fashioned fun day, participating in camp activities, canoeing, swimming and volleyball.

Herron, the subject of the ESPN documentary, “Unguarded,” will speak about his ordeals with substance abuse and educate the attendees on the consequences of drug use.

An all volunteer organization, RISH caters to groups statewide, striving to enrich the lives of “at risk” youth through their” involvement in all types of sports.The group uses the philosophy of “Spectate, Educate and Participate,” to engage youth in life enhancing positive experiences.

The event is free to all pre-registered RISH kids and lunch will be provided. To register, call Tom Bauman at Rhode Island Sports Heroes, 401—523-0786 or email: tbauman@risportsheroes.org

RISH is a 501C3 organization established in 2004 that services hundreds of local youths every year.

Please check out our promotional video here .

And our website at www.risportsheroes.org

April 27, 2012April 27, 2012

Millennials Will Be the Optimistic Generation

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The Great Recession, spiraling debt crises, suicidal austerity, roads falling apart, the war on women, Wall Street bailouts, anti-immigrant sentiment, greater political power to religious zealots, global warming, etc., etc. I look at these and think; I can’t wait for the future.

That’s because I’m a Millennial, and in case you don’t know, despite having the highest unemployment rate of any generation, we’re also the most optimistic. And we should be. We’re a Hero Generation.

There’s a whole generational theory that says each one views life through certain patterns. I haven’t the space to go into it now, but essentially, both the Millennial Generation and the G.I. Generation (aka. the “Greatest” Generation) have similar life events; born in a period of laissez-faire society (’20s & ’80s), come of age during a crisis where we learn teamwork (the Great Recession & Great Depression), and then go on to build great societal institutions. Between our two generations, we’re the most left-wing generations this country has ever had. The Silent Generation, the Boomers, and Generation X are all far more conservative in their outlooks and their politics.

My personal feeling is that this has to do with the Cold War. Think Glenn Beck or Allen West these days, railing against President Obama and the Democrats as believing in socialism or communism. This works for Boomers and Silent Generation types, even Generation X to some extent. Those generations all grew up in an era when the United States was in a global war against communism. Drills demanded that children hide under their desks in the event of nuclear attack (a completely useless measure). Contrast that with the Millennials, the oldest of which would’ve been eight (depending where you say the first Millennial was born) when the Berlin Wall was knocked down. The worn nuclear bomb shelter signs in my middle school were odd curiosities, as outdated as a transistor radio or pagers.

Without the threat of the Cold War, Millennials have been allowed to flourish ideologically. How different are our beliefs? If you ask Millennials about capitalism and socialism we have a slightly more favorable view of socialism. Every other generation is locked into this Cold War struggle. And for those saying Occupy Wall Street is totally socialist, guess what? Those who support Occupy Wall Street hold more favorable views of capitalism. In general terms, Millennials genuinely want government to do more. We believe it can. We have faith in it, a faith that just isn’t matched by older generations.

But that’s to sell ourselves short. It’s not even as simple as socialism vs. capitalism. That’s a Cold War mindset, something which Millennials are escaping from. What Millennials are waking up to is a whole set of ideas that veer away from that simple dichotomy. Copyright laws are running up against the impracticality of enforcement. The internet has shown us just how constructed rules are. Markets, government, etc., even these are socially constructed. Millennials are going to ask the question “why?” in ways which will be disturbing to older generations.

My generation is America’s great divergent generation. We’re the most diverse generation in U.S. history, we’re the most educated, we’re the most optimistic, we’re the most tolerant, we care more about being a good parent than having a successful marriage. But beyond that, we got into less fights with our parents, and we respect our elders more, two-thirds say that personally taking care of an elderly parent is a responsibility we have; far more than Boomer or the Silent Generation types who’ve long since shipped their parents off to assisted living facilities.

There is a generational struggle going on. On one side you have the Cold War Generations; fitfully trying to come to terms with a world in which there is no great enemy, no terrible threat of total annihilation. And on the other you have the Millennials; optimistic, happy, filled with new ideas. We will see the generations before us buried. But we’ll do our best to see that you have good lives before we do.

Consider this before you leave. Half of the recent college graduates in the Millennials are either jobless or underemployed. Interest rates on student loans is about to double (and we have on average over $24,000 in debt). So you’ve got well-educated people facing an enormous debt increase combined with a lack of resources to address that debt. Now think about the possible outcomes.

April 4, 2012April 4, 2012

No Red Carpet for Needy Families, Immigrants

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For years, a staple of talk radio hosts and budget hardliners has been the argument that Rhode Island public policy on welfare and public assistance has made the state a magnet for families, particularly immigrants, seeking its juicy benefits.

But the recent release of the Rhode Island Kids Count 2011 annual report pokes some neat holes in that meme.

Along with a comprehensive statistical analysis of issues including poverty rates of Rhode Island’s families with children, education, school lunch and breakfast eligibility and state aid (with emphasis on the urban core communities of Providence, Pawtucket, Central Falls and Woonsocket) comes an under-reported nugget from the 2010 Census: the number of R.I. children dropped 10 percent last year, from 247,822 to 223,956, the third-biggest decrease by state in the nation.

Couple that with the state’s 11 percent unemployment rate and high rental average, and the state’s not exactly a major draw for needy families who are seeking jobs, reasonable living costs and social services.

“That 10 percent drop is telling,” says Elizabeth Burke Bryant, executive director of RI Kids Count. “People tend to move because of extended family, or to be close to where the jobs are.”

“While there’s a significant decline in the caseload of children and families receiving assistance, it’s due to time limits and other indicators, and is not reflective of the number of poor children in the state,” she adds.

An Urban Institute state-by-state study of immigrant children from 1990 to 2009 also finds immigrant families, documented or undocumented, aren’t exactly flocking to Rhode Island.

From 1990 to 2009, the number of immigrant children in the state grew from 40,000 to 52,000, with the percentage of the state’s total number of children rising from 18 to 24 percent. That growth rate of 30 percent in raw numbers, however, ranked only 47^th in the nation.

The difficult housing market is another reason families requiring social services aren’t overwhelming the state, says Stephanie Geller, RI Kids Count policy analyst.

The average monthly cost of rental housing in the state has risen from $748 in 2000 to $1,150 by 2011, according to the Kids Count report, with about 25 percent of Rhode Island’s families spending 50 percent or more of their income on housing costs.

“There’s a feeling overall that the price of housing is going down, but there’s more demand for rentals because of people losing their houses. We’re one of the few states that doesn’t have a dedicated source of funding for affordable housing.” Geller says.

Some of the pending General Assembly legislation Kids Count is keeping an eye on, Geller says, includes increases in co-payments for child care assistance and cuts in dental care assistance for both young adults and adults 21 and over.

March 23, 2012March 25, 2012

Community Forum on Trayvon Martin Murder

Due to the egregious inaction by local, state and even federal authorities in Florida regarding the non-arrest of GEORGE ZIMMERMAN, the killer of TRAYVON MARTIN, and given the complex racial dynamics and their implications for Black males nationally, the Providence Africana Reading Collective (PARC) will host a community action forum.

We will discuss/plan how we might involve ourselves in action which will help pressure the powers-that-be to expedite a just resolution to this matter.

I’ve spoken with the Florida State NAACP President, Adora Obi Nweze, and the national communications director, Derrick Turner. They’ve detailed specific actions the NAACP is either organizing or coordinating with other Civil Rights and Black organizations on, both in Florida and nationally. I will report back this info to the community here in Providence this Sunday evening at the Providence Africana Reading Collective’s gathering.

I am also in conversation with other activist and community leaders here in Providence about the prospect of holding a Million Hoodie Protest March here in the city in solidarity and justice for Trayvon Martin and his family. This idea will be explored further at the PARC community forum.

Please come and bring your thoughts and voice!

Where: Tea in Sahara, 69 Governor St.

When: This Sunday (March 25)

Time: 6pm

Other: To augment the gathering we will read Thomas C. Holt’s essay: “Racial Identity and the Project of Modernity.” Those interested in reading the text may email me at marco.mcwilliams@gmail.com

March 7, 2012March 7, 2012

Racial Profiling, Vehicle Checkpoints Bills Heard Today

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Last week here on RI Future, I shared a short podcast about Racial Profiling in RI from the perspective of youth and community organizers working with Providence Youth Student Movement. Here is an extended series of excerpts from my conversation on Sonic Watermelons with Sangress Xiong and Yonara Alvarado, and Franny Choi.

Xiong, Alvarado, and Choi are among community members, law enforcement officials and members of the legislature who will gather today at the State House for a meeting of the House Committee on Judiciary; the Comprehensive Racial Profiling Prevention Act of 2012 (H-7256) is one of the bills to be discussed.

All of tonight’s agenda items deal with “Motor and Other Vehicles,” and most are about motorists driving under the influence. A couple other bills that might be of interest to RI Future readers include H-7222, which “would authorize a bail commissioner to order that a person’s license be suspended immediately upon the report of a law enforcement officer that the person has refused a chemical test for driving while under the influence of alcohol” and H-7203 which, if passed, would “bar checkpoints as a means to detect motorists under the influence.”

For more information about today’s hearing, click here. To read more about my interview with Xiong, Alvarado, and Choi, click here.

***

Hear Sonic Watermelons live every Wednesday
6-8 PM (EST) on www.bsrlive.com.

March 2, 2012March 2, 2012

Advocating to End Racial Profiling in RI

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PROVIDENCE, RI – On Wednesday, March 7 at 4:30 PM, community members and advocates are expected to show up en masse to share their views on racial profiling in RI at a hearing at the State House before the House Committee on Judiciary. But folks have been speaking out on the topic for years, including youth and adult advocates from Providence Youth Student Movement (PrYSM), an organization founded to support Southeast Asian Youth in Providence.

Hear more about their work here in this podcast of excerpts from my February 15 interview with PrYSM youth leaders, ?Sangress Xiong and Yonara Alvarado, and PrYSM staffer Franny Choi. It aired lived on my weekly program, Sonic Watermelons on Brown Student and Community Radio.

During the interview, Xiong, Alvarado and Choi talk about recent campaign actions, like the February press conference introducing House Bill 7256, the making of the local documentary called Fitting the Description, and other recent activities that they have participated in with PrYSM and the Coalition Against Racial Profiling. Alvarado (who is Latina) says she became passionate about the topic after being in the car and witnessing racial profiling when her uncle was stopped by an officer, and subsequently feeling less faith in whether officers are best serving the community; Xiong, who is Hmong (Southeast Asian), helps explain how a practice once known as “Driving while Black” has expanded to include not only the Latino/Hispanic community, but the Southeast Asian community in Providence as well – including friends and neighbors of his.

I also spoke with the three guests about the benefits and limitations of using digital media tools to collect stories from people who’ve been subjected to racial profiling, and for doing outreach about legislative efforts like the Comprehensive Racial Profiling Prevention Act that will be reviewed and discussed at next Wednesday’s House Judiciary hearing. The ten-page bill deals primarily with conduct during motor vehicle stops and searches, and among the provisions are:

Requirements for officers to document (in writing) the “reasonable suspicion” or “probable cause” grounds for conducting a search of any motor vehicle,
A determination that identification requested during traffic stops be limited to driver’s license, motor vehicle registration, and/or proof of insurance, and (unless there is probable cause of criminal activity) only asked of drivers
A mandate to create standard policies and protocols for police vehicles using recording equipment, such as documenting every stop that is made and prohibiting the tampering or disengagement of equipment.

In addition to collecting the probable cause information, the bill would require officers to collect data on race during stops – and departments to maintain and report this data at intervals over a 4 year period. Choi says collecting data is key to ending racially divisive practices, and – along with the ACLU in their work on the topic – points to a local, southern RI city for proof of its inclusion in the bill as being “effective legislation.”

In Narragansett, says Choi in the excerpts, the department began collecting information without the legislation, and found a drop in “racial disparities in stops” after instituting the policy. The ACLU also found recent actions and improvements in Johnston. At the end of the day, says Choi, “when you’re pulling someone over, have a reason to pull them over.”

***

To connect with PrYSM about their work on Racial Profiling, visit www.prysm.us or email franny@prysm.us. For more information about the Coalition Against Racial Profiling or next Wednesday’s hearing, contact Nick Figueroa of the Univocal Legislative Minority Advisory Coalition (ULMAC) by email at policy@ulmac.org. Anyone can attend the hearing and sign up to testify, but Figueroa highly encourages anyone who would be testifying for the first time to contact him in advance for information and tips on the process of giving testimonies and what to expect in the hearing. For example, four other bills are scheduled to be discussed on the same night and in the same hearing (meeting), so 4:30 may be the start-time for the hearing, but not necessarily when the Racial Profiling Bill is addressed.

Additional clips from the interview will be made available on VenusSings.com and IsisStorm.com, where you can also follow show updates about Sonic Watermelons, which airs live every Wednesday, from 6-8 PM (EST) at www.bsrlive.com.

February 3, 2012February 3, 2012

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 School in Providence, RI.

(PROVIDENCE, RI; PHILADELPHIA, PA; TUCSON, AZ) – When does learning about non-Europeans/non-Whites in the US constitute promoting resentment toward a race or class?

When does learning about the development of the US and manifest destiny and those who opposed such policies cross the line to become promoting the overthrow of the US government?

When did a class providing awareness about the societal and civic contributions of one of this country’s minority/ethnic groups become illegal?

These are some of the questions being asked by activists, students, and journalists all over the country, though the answer to number three might be more clear: it’s been over a year since the governor of Arizona signed into law House Bill 2281, “which prohibits a school district or charter school (in Arizona) from including in its program of instruction any courses or classes that promote the overthrow of the United States government, promote resentment toward a race or class of people, are designed primarily for pupils of a particular ethnic group, or advocate ethnic solidarity instead of the treatment of pupils as individuals.”

Yet it is recent events that have re-stirred up the questions, concerns, and heated debates on the topic: the final termination of the Mexican American Studies program in Tucson, Arizona – and the removal of corresponding books from Tucson schools that are now part of a list of banned literature.

Critics of the legislation say that the policies curtail teacher creativity, and call the law an attempt to further silence and marginalize people of color in a state becoming infamous for what many view as one anti-immigrant or anti-Brown policy after another. Supporters of the state law – and the recent move by Tucson officials – cite the Mexican American Studies program as an example of a program that promotes one racial/ethnic group over all others, and say that programs like these promote a victimization mentality.

But critics aren’t buying it, and they’re not standing by quietly. Two such activists are Nuala Cabral and Denice Frohman of FAAN Mail (Fostering Activism and Alternatives Now!), www.faanmail.wordpress.com. FAAN Mail is a media literacy/media activism project formed by women of color to promote pro-active audiences and creative alternatives.

Cabral and Frohman are based in Philadelphia, MA, but they’re not letting geography stop their actions. On the contrary, Cabral, Frohman and the FAAN Mail community have launched a social media campaign (on Twitter, primarily, #WishiLearnedinHS), “Wished I Learned in High School,” to collect and share stories from people who can speak to the benefits they’ve gained from Ethnic Studies programs and to the regrets they feel about not getting enough exposure to the stories of people of color, women, LGBT writers, and other voices in their K-12 years.

Cabral and Frohoman say they are outraged that racist/conservative ideology has prevailed over data on programs that have been proven to be effective for students of color (who are at more risk for dropping out), and bothered that what hasn’t been acknowledged is the idea that there are already preferential treatments built into the educational system – those that favor the stories, ideas, history and perspectives of wealthy, western, white men.

Click here to check out my audio podcast/interview with Cabral and Frohman, which was recorded and originally aired on Sonic Watermelons on bsrlive.com on Wednesday, February 1. Click here to see a short video about some of the on-the-ground student and community organizing.

Or check out the links below to learn more about the FAAN Mail campaign and the Arizona saga.

http://faanmail.wordpress.com/wishilearnedinhs-effort/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethnic_studies
http://www.thenation.com/blog/165989/challenging-arizonas-ban-ethnic-studies
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-moshman/did-arizona-ban-ethnic-st_b_816713.html
http://motherjones.com/mojo/2010/05/ethnic-studies-banned-arizona
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arizona_SB_1070

January 20, 2012January 20, 2012

Principles are Worth More than Political Awards

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You may have heard about our recent letter to General Treasurer Gina Raimondo requesting that she return an award from The Manhattan Institute, an extremist right wing group that promotes offensive, ignorant and hurtful positions towards the LGBTQI community, women, minorities, and our environment.

Marriage Equality Rhode Island was among a group of organizations that respectfully asked Treasurer Raimondo to return the award and condemn the hateful positions promoted by the Manhattan Institute. Instead of returning the award, she defended her association with the New York think tank by saying: “Accepting an award from any organization is never an across-the-board endorsement of its leanings.” But that just misses our point.

Organizations like the Manhattan Institute use awards programs for many purposes, including raising money and validating their positions on a range issues to a broader, mainstream audience. A cursory review of the Manhattan Institute’s website will, in fact, lead one to a number of articles and position papers that advance an anti-gay agenda and misogynistic agenda.

As LGBTQ people we know the power in who you will or won’t stand next to you. We know that standing for equality and fairness means refusing to stand next to ignorance and hatred. Raimondo’s close association with this organization could be interpreted by many as implicit acceptance of all their positions, not just those related to public pensions. We have advised the treasurer that those who aspire to political leadership are judged by the company they keep. Principles are worth far more than political accolades.

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