All posts in Racial Justice
Social Media as a Tool to Mobilize Communities of Color
How can social media tools be used to engage and mobilize low-income communities of color?
As the world of social media continues to grow, more and more community-based organizations are seeking answers to this question.
Having recently attended a free social media training for non-profit organizations in addition to speaking with some of our grant recipients about their use of new media, I have found a growing number of groups establishing a voice and space within the social media sphere. Furthermore, some groups, like the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law and ColorofChange.org, two Kapor Foundation grant recipients, are figuring out creative ways of using new technologies to engage and organize communities of color around voter participation.
The Shift of Race and Class in the SF Bay Area
The latest volume of Race, Poverty, and the Environment: the National Journal for Social and Environmental Justice published by Urban Habitat is an important must-read of the month. It includes a wealth of information on some of the most pressing issues affecting communities of color locally and nationally.
In this issue you will find discussions on the changing landscape of race and class within Bay Area cities and suburbs, the increasing wealth gap, local job creation and redevelopment plans, and what all of this means for social justice organizing in the Bay Area.
Many Kapor Foundation grant recipients contributed to the journal, including: María Poblet of Causa Justa :: Just Cause who writes Challenging the Wealth Gap with New Majority Organizing; and Andrew Dadko and Rui Bing Zheng of the East Bay Alliance for a Sustainable Economy (EBASE) who write The Fight for Good Jobs and Clean Air at the Port of Oakland.
Tomorrow: Occupy Wall Street West
Tomorrow, members of the Occupy movement will take to the streets to mark the 2nd anniversary of the landmark Citizens United. Among those demonstrating will be Kapor Foundation grant recipients, POWER, PODER, Coleman Advocates, Chinese Progressive Association, alongside other members of the Progressive Workers Alliance. From POWER …
Join us in the Streets!
January 20, 2012 marks the two-year anniversary of the infamous Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission decision, where the Supreme Court held that corporations are “people” with campaign finance rights to “free speech.” While the Court bends over backwards to give extra, undeserved privileges to corporations, our communities are being stripped our most basic rights. In protest of this gross contradiction; PWA joins Occupy Wall Street West’s call for a mass day of action.
Claiming the Promise of Health and Success for Boys and Men of Color in California
This Friday the Assembly Select Committee on the Status of Boys and Men of Color welcomes all educators, students, parents, and community members to an informational hearing: Claiming the Promise of Health and Success for Boys and Men of Color in California. If you want to know what initiatives are being put in place to help young men of color in your community, then this is an event you do not want to miss.
Friday, January 20, 2012
1 p.m. to 4 p.m.
First Floor Auditorium
1515 Clay Street
Oakland, CA 94612
Please click here to register (SEATING IS LIMITED)
Wrap Up of “The Word on Election RAP: Why It Matters and How We Can Engage”
This past Wednesday, the Kapor Foundation hosted “The Word on Election R.A.P.: Why It Matters and How We Can Engage,” a briefing about the importance of election reform, administration, and protection (RAP) issues on low-income communities of color in California.
Held at the Public Policy Institute of California, the event included the perspectives of leaders from community-based organizing, civil rights and “good government” groups, as well as elections administration officials. Panelists and moderators included:
Remember
I know you are asking today, ‘How long will it take?’…Somebody’s asking, ‘When will the radiant star of hope be plunged against the nocturnal bosom of this lonely night…How long will justice be crucified, and truth bear it?’
I come to say to you this afternoon, however difficult the moment, however frustrating the hour, it will not be long, because ‘truth crushed to earth will rise again.’ How long? Not long, because ‘no lie can live forever.’
How long? Not long, because the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Speech from the steps of the state capitol
Montgomery, Alabama
March 26, 1965
The Word on Election R.A.P.: Why it Matters and How
This week we’re gearing up for and looking forward to our upcoming briefing, The Word on Election R.A.P. (election reform, administration and protection): Why it Matters and how we can Engage, happening this Wednesday in San Francisco.
The Word on Election RAP: Why It Matters and How We Can Engage will be an opportunity to define and discuss the impact and importance of election reform, administration and protection issues on low-income communities of color, particularly in California. This briefing brings together community-based organizing leaders with leaders from civil rights and “good government” groups as well as election officials to explore the possibilities, challenges and needs of communities of color to monitor, influence, and provide leadership around how elections are run.
Changes in the New Year
Like many, I’ve looked at the arrival of 2012 with a sense of unease, knowing that the turbulence of a potentially nasty election season will soon begin in earnest. Then I had the good fortune to read a blog post by author and ideas man Seth Godin, The Chance of a Lifetime (thanks for the tip, Shawn Dove!):
A friend asked me the other day, “…given the sorry state of so much in the world, what’s possible to look forward to?” The state isn’t sorry. It’s wide open. Interest rates are super low, violence is close to an all time low, industries are being remade and there’s more leverage for the insurgent outsider than ever before in history. The status quo is taking a beating, there’s no question about it. That’s what makes it a revolution...
So stop thinking about how crazy the times are, and start thinking about what the crazy times demand. There has never been a worse time for business as usual. Business as usual is sure to fail, sure to disappoint, sure to numb our dreams. That’s why there has never been a better time for the new. (Read more here).
I’m excited by “the new” in 2012 here at the Kapor Foundation! We’re shifting some of our program priorities to better align with other areas of work underway at the Kapor Center; namely, we’re exploring how to better support information technology that will “accelerate or positively disrupt” mission-driven social change work. And riding off of the heels of Mitch’s appearance on CNN’s Black in America IV last November, we’re also getting positioned to play a role in diversifying the startup industry. Read more about our goals and 2012 priorities here.
Protecting “the Lifeblood of Our Democracy”
Yesterday, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder gave a speech at the Lyndon B Johnson Library and Museum on the right to vote – as he described it, “the lifeblood of our democracy” – in the face of recent legislative voter id attacks. It was a reassuring commitment to act from the Justice Department (read the speech here, watch it here).
It comes amidst other encouraging election and voter protection news and efforts.
Cedric and I heard about many of these efforts at the Funders’ Committee for Civic Participation‘s annual winter convening, where we had the privilege of moderating a session on the topic with presenters Judith Browne-Dianis of the Advancement Project, Eric Marshall from the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law and Biko Baker of the League of Young Voters Education Fund.
And here, we’re pleased to share Color of Change’s new campaign targeting the source of much of the voter suppression legislation: (more…)
Occupying My Mind
For the past two weeks I’ve vacillated between glee, optimism, overwhelmedness, and disappointment around the Occupy movement.
I firmly support (my interpretation of) Occupy’s core tenets – holding financial institutions accountable for their role in exacerbating the economic meltdown, establishing a more just system for generating revenues that will support our domestic well-being, and disentangling corporate and private wealth from their stranglehold on our democracy. Those things are no-brainers.
Yet, as with many blossoming social movements, there are certainly nuances around Occupy’s strategy and tactics that need clarifying. How can those who can’t strike, who can’t (or won’t) camp out, or can’t sign online petitions participate in what could become the defining movement of a generation? How do we channel the rage (or opportunistic anarchy) into a disciplined, accessible, provocative force for change? It burned me up to watch the enormous goodwill and community-spiritedness of Occupy Oakland’s high points be vandalized and tear-gassed before the eyes of the world.
What are we going to do??
I’ve certainly learned a good deal from some of our key partner organizations that have played a vital role in Bay Area Occupy movements: APEN, Ella Baker Center, Causa Justa:: Just Cause, and EBASE. And next week, Van Jones will speak to a group of local funders about philanthropy’s role in supporting social movements. I certainly look forward to learning from his expansive vision and experience.
These are questions and issues that must be addressed. Occupy’s autumn vs. Occupy’s fall lies in the balance.
