All posts in Social Justice
Legacies of Organizing
colorlines.org
With a lot of Bay Area pride, I read about SF’s minimum wage adjusting to $10.24, the highest in the nation. Lost on me was the role of community organizing groups and labor to have earlier pushed for the law that made this possible.
Given the work I do, I should have researched this more. But, instead, I went along with just knowing the reality and not the history of things. And so, I’m grateful to Colorlines, as well as Jaron from POWER and Shaw San from the Chinese Progressive Alliance, both Kapor Foundation grant recipients, for telling the story so well.
Like any dollar, $10.24 feels worth much more when you know how it was earned.
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.
FREE “Black History Month Celebration Through Film Series”
The Bay Area Community Is Invited To A FREE “Black History Month Celebration Through Film Series”
What: Oakland Vice Mayor Desley Brooks, Rocky Seker, and Black Cinema At-Large are holding Black Independent Film screenings at City Hall in Council Chambers every Friday in February in celebration of Black History Month. These are films that haven’t been distributed nationally and are normally only accessible on the Black Film Festival Circuit. A reception will be held before each screening, and there will be an engaging Q&A with either the producers or directors at each film screening to encourage an exchange from the audience.
When: Every Friday in February — February 3rd, February 10th, February 17th, and February 24th from 6 PM to 10 PM.
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.
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.
Youth Speaks Annual Bringing the Noise for Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Youth Speaks Presents:
The 15th Annual Bringing the Noise for Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Monday, January 16, 2012 @ 7PM
Herbst Theatre – San Francisco
Every year, Youth Speaks gathers the community to celebrate the ongoing life and legacy of Dr. King. Our celebration—Bringing the Noise for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.—is not a reenactment of speeches, a slideshow, or a polite revue of well-honed platitudes. It is a showcase of young people from throughout the Bay Area who have written, in their own voices, original works that grapple with the thoughts and work of the man, who are working to demand—in their own voices, in their lifetimes—huge leaps into possibility, an ongoing commitment to love like a consuming fire. The event creates a safe space—a beloved community—where our young people can—in the presence of many—give voice to realities that must be understood, embraced, and integrated into our common lives if we are to survive.
Click HERE to buy your tickets!
Cost:
Regular Adult – $16
Youth Under 24 – $6
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.
