Archive for October, 2008

Next Monday and Tuesday, the Foundation is sponsoring one of the call center sites for the National Campaign for Fair Elections, organized chiefly by the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights. Callers can find their polling places and ask other logistical information, as well as report any obstructions or inconsistencies at polling sites. Everyone should have access to the ballot on November 4th, and all votes should be counted! Spread the word about 866-OUR-VOTE!!

Now, I’m off to get married at City Hall.

Comic strip: Candorville, by Darrin Bell

Okay, I should’ve known this was coming when community organizers were maligned at the RNC convention.  I write this post with a nonpartisan spirit, knowing that increased voter registration and participation benefits and strengthens our democracy, as do efforts to root out voter suppression. But it angers and sickens me that a well-established and well-respected group like ACORN can be put in the line of fire for following the rules – yes, orgs doing voter registration drives must turn in ALL of the reg forms (details vary from state to state), even if Mickey Mouse is listed as the potential voter.

Fortunately, ACORN is no shrinking violet, and neither are its allies. People for the American Way ran this full page ad in the New York Times.  In this ugly campaign, we must continue to expose injustice and the real frauds – those who work to minimize and deny access to voting!

Last Friday, October 17th, I attended the Level Playing Field Institute‘s (LPFI) Annual Fairness Matters Gala event, which honored Dr. Tyrone Hayes and Justice Matters Institute for their work in creating opportunities for students of color within California.

A core grantee of the Mitchell Kapor Foundation, LPFI was founded in 2001 by Dr. Freada Kapor Klein and “promotes innovative approaches to fairness in higher education and the workplace by removing barriers to full participation.” Because the mission of LPFI resonates very well with our Black Boys College Bound Initiative work, each of our 11 BBCBI grantees were able to send one staff member and one young man from their programs to attend this event. It was a great opportunity for them to learn more about LPFI’s programs.

I was inspired by Dr. Tyrone Hayes’ award acceptance speech in which he highlighted significant moments in his history where he struggled with racism in spite of high levels of academic achievement. He talked warmly about various individuals who saw opportunity in him and scaffolded him even when he wasn’t performing at his best potential. I was also touched by one of the IDEAL (
Initiative for Diversity in Education and Leadership) Scholars who spoke of her personal struggles as a poor immigrant from Mexico who was able to transcend her economic status to be the first in her family to attend college through the support of LPFI and the IDEAL Scholars program.

The overwhelming message that I got from the event and all the speakers is that help can come from the most unexpected places. I am very grateful for all the educators and elders in my past who saw fit to encourage me and for the organizations like LPFI whose missions are to give that extra bit of support that can help change the lives of well-deserving and dedicated youth from low-income communities and communities of color.

Posing with 3 BBCBI program participants at LPFI Gala

The notion of a green economy is one of the hottest topics today. There have long been crusaders for humans to live more sustainably with Mother Earth—from Native cultures to Al Gore’s recent book & film, An Inconvenient Truth. But, there has been a notable shift in the movement towards ‘mainstreaming green’ such that things like sustainable buildings and composting aren’t only heard in the conversations of the elite. Nothing is more evident of this than when, during the second town hall style Presidential debate, a female, African-American college student and department of children’s services employee asks Obama and McCain what they would do to address climate change during their administrations, if elected. She was the only person to bring up environmental issues during that debate. A green collar economy is another facet of how this environmental conversation has become mainstreamed—so that all people regardless of status, race, or zip code can benefit physically and economically from green principles.

Right now, one of the most prominent voices advocating for this green economy is Van Jones, co-founder of the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights and founding president of Green For All, both Mitchell Kapor Foundation grantees. I just started reading Van’s new book, The Green Collar Economy: How One Solution Can Fix Our Two Biggest Problems. I’ve only read up to page 10 , but so far, my favorite line is on page 6 in regards to using corn as a source of fuel: “In a world full of hungry people, burning food should be criminally punished—not financially subsidized—by the U.S. government.”

Doesn’t that politically charged, social justice-oriented quote make you want to go out and get your own copy of this book?!? I know that I can’t wait to finish reading it to find out more about what kind of solutions Van has to suggest regarding green jobs and alternatives to our dependency on fossil fuels. If you want to find out more about this book, you can go to Van Jones’ site, or you can go pick up a copy at a bookstore nearest you!

Juliet Ellis of Urban Habitat invited me to attend the recent National Black & Latino Summit, held in Los Angeles earlier this week. The Summit, sponsored by PolicyLink and the William Velazquez Institute, was the initial gathering to set an agenda for building alliances between African American and Latino/Hispanic communities, capitalizing on the perhaps unprecedented levels of excitement and mobilization around the Presidential elections.

As you well know by now, ours are the largest ethnic groups of people of color in the U.S. (even though there are black Latinos, but that’s another story); together we’re projected to comprise nearly half of all Americans in the next 40 years. One could assume a natural connection between black and brown people, given that we face similar marginalization-based challenges around health, education, criminal justice and housing, but perceptions over lack of jobs, community safety, and resources have caused tension between the two broadly-defined groups. (Am I saying anything that you don’t already know?) Nevertheless, goodwill and shared accomplishments do exist, and I was quite moved by the connections across ethnicity and geography that I witnessed.

Angela Glover Blackwell, Founder and CEO of PolicyLink, presided over the Summit, directing the 500 plus attendees not to expect answers by the end of the short gathering, but to consider this the first step in many conversations and actions that will grow to include other allies as well.

Highlights:

• Robert Ross, President of the California Endowment, shared an introductory anecdote about Fish and Jazz Fridays with his black father and Arroz con Gandules and Salsa Sundays with his Latina mother, all under the same roof while growing up in the Bronx.
• Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa spoke about historical connections made by community organizers, most famously by Cesar Chavez and Martin Luther King, Jr., but also enacted by many others.
• Following a thoughtful performance by dance company CONTRA-TIEMPO, Tavis Smiley directed an interesting panel on the role of arts, culture, and activism in helping to unify and transform communties.

There were two large panel discussions on eight issues (criminal justice, immigration reform, education, workforce, transportation, health disparities, housing, and environmental justice). Each panel discussion was based on working policy briefs distributed in advance. Dr. Manuel Pastor outlined areas  of critical importance in workforce development, an especially sensitive issue in low-income Latino and black communities that view each other as competition for “unskilled” jobs. Dr. Robert Bullard, john a. powell, and James Bell made provocative remarks on educational challenges, environmental justice, and criminal justice, respectively (wish I could detail them more fully here).

I had mixed feelings about the small group “fishbowl” exercise that we participated in, but it provided a glimpse into a guided (and somewhat polite) all-Latino conversation about potential conflicts and connections with African Americans. This helped me to develop a starting point of sorts for understanding certain perspectives. Later I challenged our entire cohort of blacks and Latinos to take alliance building with us into everyday interactions by taking advantage of “teaching moments” and confronting bigotry, stereotypes, and xenophobia whenever possible.

This may sound Kumbaya to more skeptical ears, but such convenings are vital baby steps in a longer, larger race. I left the Summit with a terrific sense of hope that, as my favorite poet Nikki Giovanni once wrote, “all good people/could come together/and win without bloodshed.” Yes we can.

Someone asked me how the current economic crisis is impacting the Foundation. Great question! We’re very fortunate to have brilliant, social justice-oriented investment officers and money managers looking out for our best interests. They’ve devised a strategy that should enable our investment portfolio to weather this terrible storm pretty well (see an edited version of Mitch’s recent slideshow presentation to staff).

Speaking of investments, we’re working to further align the values that guide our grantmaking and investments, particularly around green jobs and businesses. As I understand it, our basic principle is to gain a high return for “positive impact” portfolio investments, which will further support our positive impact “investments” in community-based organizations through our targeted grantmaking. We seek to be as green and socially-responsible as possible. (But PLEASE do not take this as a call for portfolio investment pitches – heed the old saying: “Don’t call us…”)

At any rate, as we move through our 2009 budgeting process, we’re committed to supporting grantees, both new and continuing. The next round of grant requests is due on November 7th for consideration at our December Board meeting. So despite the economic turbulence, we intend to proceed steadily and deliberately.

Photo by Christopher Chan via Flickr.

Following up on the August 7th summit, Green Collar Jobs: Green Economy and Workforce Development – A Learning Agenda, that the Mitchell Kapor Foundation helped sponsor in Sacramento, local philanthropists came together on September 30th to recap the event, learn findings from months of research, and share strategies to continue advancing California’s green economy. Paloma Pavel and Carl Anthony from Oakland’s Earth House Leadership Center facilitated the discussion.

Since the project began, AB 3018, the Green Collar Jobs Act of 2008 (F. Nunez), has passed the state legislature and is now awaiting the Governor’s signature. This statute mandates a “Green Collar Jobs Council” that would — among other tasks — build public, private, and non-governmental partnerships to boost workforce development opportunities for Green Collar Jobs throughout the state. Not only does AB 3018 join a series of groundbreaking policies in California to curb global warming (like AB 32), it also recognizes that while California’s economy develops, it must also lift up the formerly incarcerated, emancipated youth, veterans, and others who’ve historically found barriers to employment.

As outcomes of the 9/30/08 meeting, those attending the meeting proposed:
• To join the Green Collar Jobs Council (still in formation) and to identify intersecting goals with the Environmental Justice Advisory Committee
• To meet with the Labor and Workforce Development Agency, Workforce Investment Board, Dept. of Education, and other agencies to facilitate implementation of the statute on regional and local levels.
• To fund collaborations regionally among green industry employers, local community colleges, and grassroots organizations for mutually beneficial school-to-career pathways.

CLICK HERE to read the Executive Summary on the August 7th Summit!

Photo by Brooke Anderson via Flickr; from Ella Baker Center for Human Rights and the Apollo Alliance rally for a green jobs corps in Oakland.