tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20439748063330094162024-02-08T08:04:13.304-08:00SF Freedom SchoolKathy Emeryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04038518567566419311noreply@blogger.comBlogger207125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2043974806333009416.post-16719314761341034312022-01-28T11:50:00.005-08:002022-01-28T12:15:27.335-08:00Traveling in TexasWe
spent a day in San Antonio visiting three missions -- The Alamo,
Concepcion and San José. The following were my reactions:<p>Our
conversation with the docent at the Alamo was very interesting. He
was very well informed, articulate and passionate. He was a retired Lt
Colonel (fought in Iraq), then taught 6th grade math, now
volunteered as docent at the Alamo. His thesis was that the defenders
of the Alamo were "fighting to defend the Mexican Constitution of 1824
-- for democracy". The Texans were "trying to bring democracy to
Mexico just like they tried to do for Afghanistan" But you just
can't get "peons to vote" <br /></p><p>He said Santa Ana made a good
devil because he was ruthless and politically astute and when in power
curtailed the rights of citizens -- so easy to organize rebellion
against him. The docent said that the importance of the Alamo, at least
for Texans,
was that it represented the little guy (the individual) fighting
against the big guy (federal government).</p><p>He called himself a RINO, and thought the Trump supporters were crazy
and that people shouldn't want to deny unpleasant history (like some
of the Texans from the US brought slaves with them and that slavery
was a "very small part" of the cause of the war.). One should learn
the unpleasant facts and move on. I suggested that perhaps we could
learn from the past so we don't make the same mistakes? He agreed to
that. <br /></p><div>What was so interesting about his version of the history was <b>t</b><u><b>he lack of context.</b></u> There was no mention that the battle of the Alamo <u>was part of the campaign </u>of Santa Ana to RETAKE the Mexican garrisons (<b><i>plural</i></b>)
that the Anglo Texans had seized after declaring independence from
Mexico. That the defenders of the Alamo were expecting reinforcements
that never came because of political infighting among the newly declared
Texan government. That the most important "right" that the Texans were
fighting for was the right to hold slaves, which the Mexican
Constitution had abolished. <br /></div><div><br /></div><div>The literature
re the Missions put out by the national parks was equally problematic.
Quoting from National Park Service pamphlet, <i>San Antonio Missions:</i></div><div><br /></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0px 0px 0px 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;"><div>Imagine
life as a hunter gatherer...survival depends on the mercy of the
wilderness...this was the world of the Native Americans of South Texas
before the arrival of Europeans. The Coahuiltecans, rich in tradition,
were people of survival, in harsh harmony with their environment. The
arrival of Europeans brought devastating diseases and irreversible
change, threatening American Indian lifeways. Mission living offered a
chance for survival, <i><b>which these people seized.</b></i>.(my emphasis)...Mission leaders
introduced stationary, year-round community living......</div><div><br /></div><div>.......Franciscan
friars aspired to teach community harmony through Catholic
sacraments....Trusting in the united group and learning specialized
skills, the mission inhabitants protected, sheltered, fed, and
clothed each other. By combining these efforts, they achieved a sense
of
security they had lost. But they also paid a price.</div><div><br /></div><div>Upon
entering the mission, Coahuiltecans were expected to give up their own
religion, culture and traditions -- even their names. They were
expected to become Spanish. Despite this, elements of their native
lifeways blended with Spanish and Catholic cultures. Today this blend
comprises the rich cultural heritage of San Antonio.</div></blockquote><div><br /></div><div>A few of the plaques mentioned that the Spanish military helped to "pacify" the Indians. <u><b> but no mention of how or why and by what means. </b></u></div>Kathy Emeryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04038518567566419311noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2043974806333009416.post-35978812202593638322021-01-07T17:30:00.003-08:002021-01-07T17:30:29.284-08:00Kendi and Tufekci on the January 7th attempted coup<p class="MsoNormal"> These are the two points made by two of several guest
speakers on NPR’s Here and Now today. These are two of my <i>very, very, very</i>
favorite academics ever. </p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;"><b><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-language-override: normal; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span></span>Zeynep Tufekci: Yesterday was an attempted coup. It
failed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Will they try again?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That depends on what each of us do next.</b></p><b>
</b><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;"><b><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-language-override: normal; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span></span> Ibram Kendi: Is American exceptional?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Was yesterday exceptional?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>No. If you think so, you don’t know American
history very well.</b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Today on NPR, Ibram Kendi and Zeynep Tufekci were interviewed
about their reactions to yesterday’s demonstration and invasion of the capitol.
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I have written on FB already about <span style="color: #cc0000;"><b>my
irritation with Biden</b></span> who keeps speaking of “we” and “our” as if American is
one nation, one people with one soul – it is not.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I had a partner once who always interrupted
me when I started a sentence with “we”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>She would say abruptly, “who’s, ‘we’ white woman?”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Kendi addresses this issue in reference to yesterday’s
events.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">I also wrote yesterday about <b><span style="color: #cc0000;">my irritation with the CNN
coverage</span></b> of the attempted coup that happened yesterday.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I always HEARD the criticism of 24-hour news
stations.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They turn serious events into
entertainment, however morbid or frightening the nature of the entertainment
was. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I had never watched them do this.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They did that yesterday by blowing the coup
attempt out of proportion.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Tufekci
argues that the key take away yesterday was that 138 Republicans voted to
overturn the PA election. This was lost in the mayhem of reporting yesterday.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Of course, this doesn’t make for compelling TV.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Compelling TV distracts most viewers from
what is really serious (Tufekc might say, “mistaking the ridiculous for the serious).
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I was pleasantly surprised to hear a lot
of commentary about the double standard on clear display between how police
treat white people v people of color. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But even that tended to get buried by the
looping video of protesters breaking windows and wandering around the House and
Senate floor as well as by the competition among the pundits to say the scariest
thing. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But that is what the audience
wants.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If a car seems like it is going to
crash (and fortunately, it didn’t yesterday), then we definitely want to be
there to see it happen <b><i><u>live</u></i></b>, yes?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And while we are watching for hours-on-end to
see if it happens, we need to be entertained, an unenviable job.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">From <a href="https://www.npr.org/podcasts/510051/here-x26-now">HERE AND NOW, January
7, 2021</a></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><u>Interviewer: </u>Comparing the storming of the capitol with what
happens in Third world countries – we are better, we are above devolving into
chaos?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What are you thoughts on this?</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #cc0000;"><b> </b></span></p><span style="color: #cc0000;"><b>
</b></span><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #cc0000;"><b><u>Ibram Kendi:</u></b></span> It’s ahistorical. To read American history, to
remember American history, is to remember coup attempt after coup attempt,
whether political or economic.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I am
thinking, of course, about Tulsa, Oklahoma, or about all sorts of attempted or
actual coups during the Reconstruction era, or even the Civil War itself. Or,
even in the last year, what happened at the US capitol, has happened at state
capitols. And as a result, particularly of people violently opposing shutdowns
in their states as a result of Covid 19, or even plotting to assassinate sitting
governors.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is America.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>People need to recognize that.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>[when people argue that] This is not a third
world country<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>[they are not acknowledging
this history].</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><u>Interviewer:</u><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>is this
chaos a sign of progress against the yearning for regression?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Is this a by-product of what happens during great
progress or is this just truly a devolvement of our democracy?</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #cc0000;"><b><u>Kendi:</u></b></span> I think it is a fundamental clash, and <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/11/americas-two-souls/617062/">I
wrote about this recently the Atlantic</a>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Historically, American has had two forces<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>-- the force of justice and the force of
injustice.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And certainly when the forces
of justice have advanced, the force of injustice has tried to stop that
advance. Often times, violently.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Americans need to recognize that both forces are inherent, have existed
historically in this country.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">--------------------------------------------------</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><u>Interviewer</u>: what did you see yesterday?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Was it a coup?</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #cc0000;"><b><u>Zeynep Tufecki:</u></b></span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><span style="color: #cc0000;"><b> </b></span>
</span>It was an attempt to steal an election….maybe not very competently, but
an attempt…so it was some sort of coup attempt.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><u>Interviewer:</u> [given that you grew up in Turkey and
experience many kinds of coups], did this feel familiar?</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><u><span style="color: #cc0000;"><b>Tufecki</b></span>:</u> absolutely, and, in fact, when you see that
picture of the insurrectionists sitting at the Senate and the House…..and
basically yelling “Trump won!”, it is intimately familiar…..the President of
the United States was attempting to steal the election by falsely asserting
that he won it, and trying to mobilize all the extra-legal forces he could
muster from his office to try to get them to overturn the election in his
favor.</p><p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><u>Interviewer:</u> and you were making it clear (in your article a
while ago) that this was happening long before yesterday…what role you think Republicans
and Trump’s allies had in helping him get to this point?</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #cc0000;"><b><u>Tufecki:</u></b></span> of course, the key thing here is, is that
people are mistaking ridiculous with not serious.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There are a lot of things going on that are
kind of ridiculous, for example the President tweets with all sorts of
punctuation errors.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Some people yesterday
wearing hats with horns. It looks ridiculous, but it is not unserious.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s important to realize that even after the
mob disrupted the certification process, The majority of the GOP caucus in the
House, 138 representatives voted to overturn the results of the Pennsylvania
election. Even the PA representative who was just elected with those votes
voted against that election.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These are
not normal hiccups of a transition.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>These are attempts to steal the election.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There are a lot of ridiculous coup attempts
around the world too!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A lot fail the
first, second or even third time and then they succeed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I have to say that the vote in the House and
the Senate, trying to throw out perfectly legitimate votes, that should scare
us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Even the armed men and women
breaking into the capitol<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>did not alarm
the Republican legislators enough for them to say, fine, this is it, we’re
stopping this.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><u>Interviewer:</u> You said <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/12/trumps-farcical-inept-and-deadly-serious-coup-attempt/617309/">in
your December article</a> “what often starts as a farce may end in a tragedy”
Do you still think that after yesterday?</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #cc0000;"><b><u><span style="text-decoration: none;"> </span></u></b></span></p><span style="color: #cc0000;"><b>
</b></span><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: #cc0000;"><b><u>Tufekci:</u></b></span> it depends on how we react.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A line has been crossed….it’s how we react
that determines if they try again.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>….next
time it might be more competent…. This is an alarm for a potential 5 alarm fire.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>…we need to focus on the crucial need to
unite as a country and react.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is
not a partisan issue.</p>
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{margin-bottom:0in;}</style></p>Kathy Emeryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04038518567566419311noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2043974806333009416.post-37254750151599361672021-01-06T17:20:00.002-08:002021-01-06T17:24:27.772-08:00Local Lynching Stories and their relevance to activism today<p> These two recent videos tell the stories of a lynching in 1885 and in the 1930s. The details of specific stories like these are excellent entry points for people to understand the reality of lynching and then to understand how lynching was a tool to reassert white supremacy after the First Reconstruction (1867-77). Thanks to Amy and her friend for sharing the video links with me.<br /></p><div><span style="color: #cc0000;">BURN: The Lynching of George Armwood</span></div><div><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://youtu.be/kERIFEu_cyE&source=gmail&ust=1610041626142000&usg=AFQjCNExYqkH2ZUK-gQTC4lqViFMFmWEVQ" href="https://youtu.be/kERIFEu_cyE" style="background-color: #b8eab8;" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/kERIFEu_cyE</a><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><span style="color: #cc0000;">Outrage in Rockland</span></div><div><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://youtu.be/mRmxRC4Te8o&source=gmail&ust=1610041626143000&usg=AFQjCNHApkcs2QJp2gB0EZ-S9-3xtaPfPg" href="https://youtu.be/mRmxRC4Te8o" style="background-color: #b8eab8;" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/mRmxRC4Te8o</a></div><div> </div><div>Lynchings were not about punishing a black person because he or she committed a specific "crime." The purpose was to terrorize a population, it was about power,
about systems and not about individuals. Most white people today think
racism is not systemic -- that is the hurtle that needs to be jumped
today.</div><div><br />These are excellent videos to show how widespread
and deep lynchings have been. They become "family affairs" as a way to forge a
white community bonded by the belief that black people are not human -
their lives don't matter. Fear is fundamental and expressed through hatred, anger, arrogance and condescension. Until whites confront their fears, guilt
and ignorance, they will continue to act to suppress black humanity. <br /></div><div><br /><div><span style="color: #cc0000;"><u><b>The Armwood video: </b></u> </span>would allow people to explore how Maryland was an<u><i><b> upper </b></i></u>South state -- compare it with the state and federal governments' responses to lynching in the <u><i><b>deep </b></i></u>southern
states. A good discussion of the politics of the different state
reactions would lead to an understanding of how the Southern Freedom
Movement (SFM) evolved its tactics from 1955-65, and why SFM (aka civil rights movement) morphed
into black power/black studies. </div><div><br /></div><div>It is essential to the Armwood lynching in its historical context of lynching. One can do this by starting with <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://withoutsanctuary.org/&source=gmail&ust=1610048895924000&usg=AFQjCNHiaxZ9CFZD03JSTvnNGvnnzeIKZg" href="https://withoutsanctuary.org/" target="_blank">James Allen's "movie" of postcards of lynchings</a>. <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.powells.com/book/they-say-ida-b-wells-the-reconstruction-of-race-9780195160208&source=gmail&ust=1610048895924000&usg=AFQjCNEjQ_lMmcm82nNNY3hok8sYPy6fFQ" href="https://www.powells.com/book/they-say-ida-b-wells-the-reconstruction-of-race-9780195160208" target="_blank">"They Say" </a>is a very good book to accompany Allen's movie. Then move to a bigger lens: The First Reconstruction and formation of KKK; The end of Reconstruction and the creation of Jim Crow with lynching as enforcement; then the formation of the NAACP (out of earlier organizations and campaigns) and it's anti-lynching campaign (including the failure of the Dyer Bill, and the <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/23016760?seq=1" target="_blank">NAACP's failed campaign against Birth of a Nation</a>)<br /></div><div><br /></div><div>To bring this incident up to date: <u>the mob left Armwood's dead and burned body in the street for a long time </u>-- like the police did to<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/24/us/michael-brown-a-bodys-timeline-4-hours-on-a-ferguson-street.html" target="_blank"> Michael Brown's body in Ferguson</a> The police<u> forced Armwood to confess.</u> The "<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/04/opinion/exonerated-five-false-confessions.html" target="_blank">Exonerated Five" have recently written an op-ed piece </a>in which they call for support for a NY State bill to tape all the interviews, not just the one leading to a confession. The video ends with a plea: unless this story is talked about, recognized by whites today, this local history
remains a "stab in the heart" to the local black community. I would add, that because there was a clear pattern to these lynchings, it was systematic, we need a federal <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2014/06/the-case-for-reparations/361631/" target="_blank">reparations </a>commission
to make sure white Americans are confronted by lynchings and other
crimes against humanity.<br /></div><div><br /></div><div><b><u><span style="color: #cc0000;">Outrage in Rockland,</span> </u></b>actually
provides some of that historical context missing in the Armwood video as well as really offering an access point to discussing the <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://docs.google.com/document/d/1n-fcID7P--X-Z5gKtmyPyDKF6qt21JE6HpV3aNg5eYE/edit&source=gmail&ust=1610048895924000&usg=AFQjCNEegudj3MjyY_IjGd27ynUyAi49-Q" href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1n-fcID7P--X-Z5gKtmyPyDKF6qt21JE6HpV3aNg5eYE/edit" target="_blank">importance of infrastructure.</a> No current story illustrates the importance of infrastructure to the success of political goals than the one involving Stacey <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/03/us/politics/georgia-democrats-black-women.html" target="_blank">Abrahms and many more</a> (it takes a village). Over the last 15 years, they created the
infrastructure leading to yesterday's Democratic win in the Georgia US Senate races (yes, building infrastructure is hard and tedious and takes a long time (which is why it is mostly women who do it?). Without the proliferation of local civil rights organizations that
developed before 1910, there would never have been an NAACP. What
happened in Rockland was repeated throughout the South. The Churches and
local civil rights organizations provided the infrastructure for the "Second
Reconstruction" of 1955-65. <br /></div><div><br /></div><div> I love and hate the
intimacy that these two videos. Both the heroics of individuals and the depravity of the mob are riveting. It is really the only way to generally connect people to the larger context, which is more abstract and harder to grasp. This is where most education fails, the inability to make connections betwee the personal and the political. And leads people to have no faith in their ability to change things. That Johnson was able to raise money
and have a track record of legal successes meant he was a serious threat
to white supremacy. Whites believed that the black community needed to be put on notice -- blacks might win in the courts, but would not win in the world. This
is about power ("justice" v "law"). This is why both legal and nonviolent direct action are required for social movements to succeed.<br /></div><div><br /></div>The <a href="https://www.baltimoresun.com/features/retro-baltimore/bs-fe-retro-united-mutual-brotherhood-of-liberty-20200221-20200228-mpvdrlevrvgofmcq2d7owfexxm-story.html" target="_blank">Brother of Liberty's</a> legal wins described in the video: RR car, MD bar admission and others I am sure) certainly
provoked backlash that including lynchings? The main goal of Ida Well's research was to expose <u>as a myth</u> that black men were lynched because they had raped (or otherwise threatened white womanhood) as justification for lynching. She had hard data
to prove it was not the case. The truth was that white men were raping black women systematically. The deeply rooted and prevalence of the myth suggests that white men projected their barbarity onto black men. <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/23019225 ">The apparent arbitrary nature of the targets </a>chosen by mobs conveniently terrorized the entire black community. This terrorism was part of an entire toolkit used to eliminate the civil rights gains of the First Reconstruction and reassert white supremacy. Again, the strategy to appeal to federal courts (get
it out of state courts) presages the strategy of the Civil rights
movement, of the NAACP. But, again, you can win at the Supreme Court
(Brown v Board) but not win in reality (southern states shut down public
schools and created private white only ones). This then required the
use of nonviolent direct action in concert with legal action.</div>Kathy Emeryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04038518567566419311noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2043974806333009416.post-48884272665886524632021-01-03T12:31:00.005-08:002021-01-03T12:31:57.307-08:00Testing, Meritocracy and Inequality<p>I am now retired and have time to begin to write a bit.</p><p>Here is my first foray -- letter to NYT <a href="https://nyti.ms/3pMJcwT" target="_blank">re their editorial on Betsy DeVos</a><br /></p><p>Dear Editors,<br /></p><p> I continue to be amazed at our bedrock assumption that test scores
are a measure of learning despite the fact that they can never be so.<br /></p><div><br /></div><div>During
the first 16 years after graduating from college, I taught high school
history at Groton, and then at three NYC independent schools - was fired
three times and then blacklisted, so I moved to San Francisco and got
my PhD in education. I then became a community organizer around school
reform in San Francisco and co-founded the SF Freedom School. This led
to a job at SF State University teaching political science. I taught at
SFSU for 13 years. During the last four years, I helped to revive the
Experimental College (became its first director) and am now just retired
at 65. During my entire educational career, standardized tests have
been my nemesis.<br /></div><div><br /></div><div>While teaching U.S history
to rich kids in NYC, I refused to make history boring, a mere
recitation of dates, the names of white, rich men, and battles. I wanted
them to see history as crucial to their lives as active citizens. I
got in trouble for being good at that. The constant complaint from
administrators and parents was, I "wasn't preparing my students for the
test" -- the US History Achievement and US History Advanced Placement
tests. So, when I entered my PhD program at UC Davis, I was particularly
interested in my Educational Testing and Policy courses. I learned
how standardized tests scores have been misused by policy makers and the
media and that business leaders have always driven educational policy.
I have tried (and failed) to persuade teachers and parents that
standardized tests CREATE the achievement gap so they can NOT be used as
a tool to reduce it. I gave up this fight around 2007, totally
defeated. I had hoped by now that, at least, there might be some
question about the role of standardized tests in measuring educational
quality if not learning. Your editorial disabused me of that notion.<br /></div><div><br /></div><div>Of
course, I wonder why? The only answer I can come up with is that
standardized testing is inextricably intertwined with basic American
mythology. Simply, it goes like this:<br /></div><ul><li><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/nov92/vol50/num03/On-Deming-and-School-Quality@-A-Conversation-with-Enid-Brown.aspx&source=gmail&ust=1609791468790000&usg=AFQjCNH-VFi8AEdLcDPS75ugW2spIVMp3Q" href="http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/nov92/vol50/num03/On-Deming-and-School-Quality@-A-Conversation-with-Enid-Brown.aspx" target="_blank">Learning should never be measured or ranked.<br /></a></li><li><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/04/business/economy/social-mobility-south.html&source=gmail&ust=1609791468791000&usg=AFQjCNFyoURiHOWq4O0-x8qdbTFBfBhsog" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/04/business/economy/social-mobility-south.html" target="_blank">Legitimacy of social and economic inequality relies fundamentally upon the myth that the US is a meritocracy -</a> more merit, more money.</li><li>Education is believed to be key to gaining merit and money.<br /></li><li>But to maintain inequality, we need to measure learning.</li><li>Hence, standardized tests (<a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/schools/interviews/popham.html&source=gmail&ust=1609791468791000&usg=AFQjCNHAtcQSxfUaot03Gw0WzF-8LR7DmA" href="https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/schools/interviews/popham.html" target="_blank">designed on purpose to create the widest possible point spread</a>) are used to distribute privilege and prestige to those who "deserve" it.<br /></li></ul><div>We
often speak of a third rails in the political system. But standardized
tests seem to be the engine that drives the system. Never to be
questioned or seen for what it is.</div>Kathy Emeryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04038518567566419311noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2043974806333009416.post-1834902060031583822016-06-02T09:42:00.000-07:002016-06-02T09:42:37.697-07:00Wazir Peacock RIPWazir Peacock died this year. He will be missed.<br />
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/rcBfHAdtM4Q" width="560"></iframe><br />
<br />
We in Bay Area Veterans of the Civil Rights Movement (BayVets) were
privileged to work with Wazir, and learn from him. In the South in the
1960s, his Freedom Movement brothers and sisters usually referred to him
as "Peacock," but here in NorCal in the late '90s and after we used his
self-chosen name "Wazir."<br /><br />"So many Willie's in the world," he
told us. "For awhile, I came to Islam right after SNCC around 1966, and I
was given the name. It means essentially one who shares with the
people. One of the persons who translated the Koran into English -- he
said that the best meaning was one who worked on behalf of the people
for God, for Allah. A servant of the people in its truest sense."<br /><br />Wazir
was one of our founding members when we first came together in 1999. He
became an important guide and contributor to our Civil Rights Movement
Veterans website (<a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&q=http://www.crmvet.org&source=gmail&ust=1464971130452000&usg=AFQjCNGKwi6meozZHodyY5JElNIQWOknDg" href="http://www.crmvet.org/" target="_blank">http://www.crmvet.org</a>).
Most of us had been active in the Movement in Alabama and Mississippi
from 1963 on, so he was our link to the early pioneering days when young
students were first stepping up and, "daring to stand in a strong sun
and cast a sharp shadow."<br /><br />We originally formed BayVets around the
idea of finding ways to help our Movement sisters and brothers who had
fallen on hard times -- the "walking wounded" as we called them. It was
Wazir who showed us that we whose boots had been on the ground in the
hard and dangerous days of the freedom struggle were all of us walking
wounded ourselves. All of us were carrying hidden scars and emotional
wounds that only others who had shared similar experiences could help
heal. That healing became a vital part of our BayVets work.<br /><br />Wazir
loved to speak about the Freedom Movement to community groups,
churches, and most definitely school kids. He had a special affinity for
reaching the younger children in elementary school with whom he could
talk about what it was like growing up as a child in segregated, Jim
Crow Mississippi. And he loved -- and they loved -- being able to share
with them the freedom songs of the Freedom Movement.<br /><br />Recently,
Milton Reynolds of "Facing History" wrote to Wazir: "I appreciate the
fact that we have had the opportunity to connect as colleagues in the
struggle, but also that I've been able to share your work and your
beloved community of freedom fighters with hundreds of students. I can
only tell you that they are inspired, and moved to action by your life
of dignity and purpose."<br /><br />For six years, Wazir was a primary
resource expert for the San Francisco summer Freedom School program that
worked to bring the lessons of the Movement to today's teachers and
students. And until he fell ill, he was a regular guest speaker in San
Francisco State University history and political science classes.<br /><br />Professor
Kathy Emery of the S.F. Freedom School and S.F. State said, "I can't
tell you how much my students miss your semester visits to San Francisco
State University. Your guest speaker visits have become legend.
Veteran students have told new students that you used to come to class
and tell compelling stories of growing up in Mississippi; running away
to protest your father's decision to move you all to the plantation; why
you changed your name to Wazir from Willie B. (they are particularly
outraged by the doctor naming you Willie B when you were born)... You
gave your life to the movement and your stories have inspired hundreds
of my students to participate in social justice action today..."<br /><br />Two
years ago Wazir recorded a video oral-history titled, "Stand For
Freedom: The Life and Times of Willie B. Wazir Peacock" which is now
available on You Tube (<a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&q=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v%3DrcBfHAdtM4Q&source=gmail&ust=1464971130452000&usg=AFQjCNFvh2B-Y_tHo4b_e20X0ZgrFUT_OQ" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rcBfHAdtM4Q" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/<wbr></wbr>watch?v=rcBfHAdtM4Q</a>).
He took great pride in being able to share his legacy with those who
are picking up the freedom torch today. A transcription of an earlier
oral history is also available on the CRMVet website (<a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&q=http://www.crmvet.org/nars/wazir1.htm&source=gmail&ust=1464971130452000&usg=AFQjCNEaAKMz51nDk-Yr0ZbkObcGdtAEcA" href="http://www.crmvet.org/nars/wazir1.htm" target="_blank">http://www.crmvet.org/nars/<wbr></wbr>wazir1.htm</a>).<br /><br />Bruce Hartford and Chude Allen<br />For BayVetsKathy Emeryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04038518567566419311noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2043974806333009416.post-11708308313342061422015-12-10T12:35:00.002-08:002015-12-10T12:35:33.380-08:00downsizing of city college sf<span style="font-size: 18px;"><strong><em>An Open Letter to Guy Lease, Chancellor Lamb and the City College Board of Trustees</em></strong></span><br />
<strong><span style="font-size: 18px;">Stop Hemorrhaging Enrollment at City College:<br />
End the Racist Payment Policy</span></strong><br />
<br />
<div style="color: #505050; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14px; line-height: 150%; text-align: left;">
Activists
with Save City College and the student Solidarity Committee (composed
of Asian Student Union, Black Student Union, MECHA,
P.E.A.C.E.--Pilipinos for Education, Arts, Culture and Empowerment) are
writing to ask you to place an item on the Board of Trustees agenda
ASAP: the current harsh payment policy that was initiated in October
2013, with the first wave of students being evicted from the college
during enrollment for spring 2014.<a href="https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?tab=cm#15185470267c5d6b__ftn1" name="15185470267c5d6b__ftnref1" style="color: #336699; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline;" title="">[1]</a><br />
<br />
This policy puts pressure on already-enrolled students to immediately
pay fees and back debts, before financial aid arrives. Students who
can’t pay, are pressed to take out a loan from the predatory student
loan company Nelnet.<a href="https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?tab=cm#15185470267c5d6b__ftn2" name="15185470267c5d6b__ftnref2" style="color: #336699; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline;" title="">[2]</a> Those who do not set up a loan, are robo-dropped from all their classes.<a href="https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?tab=cm#15185470267c5d6b__ftn3" name="15185470267c5d6b__ftnref3" style="color: #336699; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline;" title="">[3]</a> Information about a waiver for people whose financial aid is pending is buried in the fine print of the college website.<br />
<br />
<strong>Over only four semesters, 9124 enrolled students have been
robo-dropped from all their classes, with less than half (4284, or 47%)
ever managing to re-enroll, and 4840 (53%) simply gone missing—in the
middle of an enrollment crisis at the college!</strong><br />
<strong>Our goal is that the Board would direct Chancellor Lamb to place
a moratorium on the current harsh payment policy, and to push back
deadlines <em>before</em> the next wave of robo-dropping students, which could happen as soon as mid to late December, for spring semester.</strong><br />
<br />
Student organizers from the Solidarity Committee at CCSF call this “the
racist payment policy” because of the many reports they have gotten from
Black, Pacific Islander, Latino, Asian and low-income students about
the impact of the payment policy on pushing students out of City
College. The impact is heaviest on non-AB 540 undocumented students and
out of state students, who may find themselves pressured for immediate
payment of thousands of dollars, with new charges piled on top regularly
by Nelnet.<br />
<br />
<strong>In October of 2013, the College’s announcement of the new policy featured a statement to the <em>SF Chronicle</em> from a vice chancellor: </strong><br />
<strong><em>“We are in a serious transition to right-size the college.”<a href="https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?tab=cm#15185470267c5d6b__ftn4" name="15185470267c5d6b__ftnref4" style="color: #336699; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline;" title="">[4]</a></em></strong><br />
We believe that the current policy fits within a larger corporate agenda
aimed at downsizing our college, worsening the already-devastating loss
of one out of three students since 2008.<a href="https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?tab=cm#15185470267c5d6b__ftn5" name="15185470267c5d6b__ftnref5" style="color: #336699; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline;" title="">[5]</a> <br />
<br />
<strong>Here is an example of how the policy works: Renata owed City
College $129. She was sent to wait in two long lines to see a financial
aid specialist for help filling out her financial aid forms, and finally
gave up. Next she received a threatening letter from City College
saying that her tax refund might be intercepted. As she scrambled to
pay the rent, BART, books and her debt, suddenly the college dropped
Renata from all of her classes. Her carefully planned work schedule was
thrown into chaos. </strong><br />
<br />
Every time a full-time student is pushed out, the college loses up to
$4676 in state appropriations. Yet the average debt to City College is
only $256, <strong>so the college loses far more than it stands to collect.</strong>
The new policy only makes sense if the real goal is downsizing our
public college, bringing in revenue for the for-profit colleges and
student loan companies, and allowing asset stripping of College land by
real estate developers. If the overarching goal is to rebuild
enrollment, the policy is utterly counter productive.<br />
<br />
We have confirmed with college attorney Steve Bruckman that the current
payment policy was a local decision by the administration, so it can and
should be immediately overturned. There was a Board resolution
authorizing a contract with Nelnet on May 23, 2013 (Action V-F). Very
briefly, Mr. Bruckman said that state law requires colleges to collect
fees from students, but how that is done is up to the college
administration. <br />
<br />
City College’s previous policy was to allow students to continue adding,
dropping and taking classes while they arranged payment—only
transcripts were frozen. It is our understanding from other colleges,
that a “pay up front” payment policy is very disruptive for low-income
students if financial aid advising and accurate information are not
readily available —for example, if students lack crucial information
about the waiver for students who have financial aid pending. We know
from the presentation at the October Board meeting, that financial aid
advising is understaffed, mainly available at Ocean, and not available
in multiple languages. We also know that the enrollment website gives
exceptionally obscure instructions about the waiver for students who
have financial aid pending.<br />
<br />
<strong>Before thousands more enrolled students are dropped, the
administration should put a moratorium on the current payment policy and
overhaul it in line with the principles below:</strong><br />
<strong>1. The BOT should ask Institutional Research to prepare an Equity Impact Report on the current payment policy</strong>.
It should include the demographics of students who have been
robo-dropped, including their ethnicities, ages, zip code and
information that might highlight special impacts on undocumented
students. How many of the pushed-out students were actually eligible for
fee waivers if they had been provided with proper advising? How many
students have been pressured into signing up with Nelnet?<br />
<br />
<strong>2. </strong>Information on the current payment options must be <em>immediately</em> changed so that the <strong>payment policy waiver for students who have financial aid pending, </strong>is <strong><em>clear and prominent</em></strong>.
On the enrollment website, for example, Option 2 is now buried in fine
print, and presented in bureaucratic gobbledegook as “Third Party
Payer/Self Exemption.” Very clear and prominent notices should be
posted wherever students enroll and throughout college communications,
and of course on the enrollment web page.<br />
<br />
<strong>3. A moratorium should be placed on the current policy at least
until City College has enough financial aid advising at all sites in in
multiple languages,</strong> making it possible for students to get
timely assistance in obtaining BOG, Pell, Cal Grants and other real
assistance (versus loans), shielding them from being robo-dropped. The
College must follow financial aid professional association guidelines on
the recommended ratio of students to advisors. <br />
<br />
<strong>4. The administration can and should adjust deadlines so that payment is due AFTER financial aid arrives, not before.</strong> If deadlines are pushed out, far fewer loans will be required.<br />
<br />
<strong>5. The tone of over-the-top hostility and threats in correspondence</strong>
from the college to students, and on the college website, must be
corrected immediately. Again, this tone is self-defeating if the goal
is to re-build enrollment.<br />
</div>
<ol>
<li style="text-align: left;" value="6">The administration or Board should contact Mayor Ed Lee and get <strong>swift follow-up on the fund to assist undocumented students, </strong>discussed
by the Mayor over a year ago with zero concrete progress. The Board
should set a deadline and make a back-up plan. We quote from a letter
sent by Supervisor David Campos to Ed Lee on 2.7.14: </li>
</ol>
<ol>
<li style="text-align: left;">“Undocumented students that were dropped
because of the current payment policy should be able to register while a
more equitable solution is created;</li>
<li style="text-align: left;">The emergency relief fund to be created by
the Mayor’s office must support all undocumented students, including
both AB540 and non AB540 students;<a href="https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?tab=cm#15185470267c5d6b__ftn6" name="15185470267c5d6b__ftnref6" style="color: #336699; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline;" title="">[6]</a></li>
<li style="text-align: left;">Provide in-state tuition for undocumented
students that have graduated from a high school in the US and have lived
in California for a year and one day. (CCSF currently grants in-state
tuition to out-of-state students so long as they can prove they have
lived in California for a year and one day);</li>
<li style="text-align: left;">Engage both AB540 and other undocumented students in the discussion on how best to address this problem.” </li>
</ol>
<div style="color: #505050; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14px; line-height: 150%; text-align: left;">
<strong>7.</strong> <strong>Un-freeze accounts:</strong>
If students have accounts in arrears, they must still be able to add
and drop classes, with only transcripts put on hold. The policy of
totally freezing accounts sets students up to run afoul of the Academic
Progress policy if they need to drop, but cannot.<br />
<br />
8. <strong>End the contract with predatory Nelnet Business Solutions and develop an equitable payment plan based on student income. </strong>An
in-house payment plan, run by the financial aid office, should
emphasize retention and support for low-income students. If financing
can’t be handled in-house, an arrangement could be made with a local
credit union.<br />
<br />
December 8, 2015<br />
<strong><em>On behalf of the Save City College Coalition and the Solidarity Committee </em></strong>(Asian Student Union, Black Student Union, MECHA, P.E.A.C.E.--Pilipinos for Education, Arts, Culture and Empowerment)<br />
Michael Adams (Save City College, community member)<br />
Tarik Farrar (Save City College, *AFT 2121 and the *Department Chairs Council)<br />
Allan Fisher (Save City College and *AFT 2121)<br />
Jon Gausman (Black Student Union)<br />
Lalo Gonzalez (MECHA)<br />
Wendy Kaufmyn (Save City College and *AFT 2121)<br />
Win-Mon Kyi (Asian Student Union)<br />
Claire Warren (P.E.A.C.E., Pilipinos for Education, Arts, Culture and Empowerment)<br />
<br />
<br />
* Asterisk indicates other affiliations for identification purposes only<br />
</div>
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<a href="https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?tab=cm#15185470267c5d6b__ftnref1" name="15185470267c5d6b__ftn1" style="color: #336699; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline;" title="">[1]</a> The policy was also presented by VC Samuel Santos at the October, 2015 Board meeting, available on video at <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_350219186" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ">3:24:00</span></span>, <a href="http://ccsf.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?view_id=2&clip_id=557" target="_blank">http://ccsf.granicus.com/<wbr></wbr>MediaPlayer.php?view_id=2&<wbr></wbr>clip_id=557</a></div>
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<a href="https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?tab=cm#15185470267c5d6b__ftnref2" name="15185470267c5d6b__ftn2" style="color: #336699; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline;" title="">[2]</a>
A US Department of Education audit revealed that from 1993 to 2007,
student loan companies had set up an elaborate scam to over-bill the
federal government for interest on student loans—to the tune of $600
million in taxpayer dollars, $278 million for Nelnet alone. Nelnet has
made multiple court settlements for fraud, kickbacks, and improper
inducements to colleges and universities (Sources: Washington Post and
Collinge, <em>The Student Loan Scam</em>)</div>
<div style="color: #505050; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14px; line-height: 150%; text-align: left;">
<a href="https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?tab=cm#15185470267c5d6b__ftnref3" name="15185470267c5d6b__ftn3" style="color: #336699; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline;" title="">[3]</a>
Oddly enough, the policy only applies to students who have planned
ahead and enrolled in classes in advance. Once classes have started,
state regulations prevent students from being dropped. </div>
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<a href="https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?tab=cm#15185470267c5d6b__ftnref4" name="15185470267c5d6b__ftn4" style="color: #336699; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline;" title="">[4]</a>
October 25, 2013, statement by the then vice chancellor of student
development. This was no doubt considered a communications slip, since
the downsizing policy is mainly discussed off mike and obliquely. </div>
<div style="color: #505050; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14px; line-height: 150%; text-align: left;">
<a href="https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?tab=cm#15185470267c5d6b__ftnref5" name="15185470267c5d6b__ftn5" style="color: #336699; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline;" title="">[5]</a> The corporate agenda to downsize City College informs ongoing coverage by the<em> SF Chronicle, </em>which
since the beginning of the crisis has repeated scores of times the
message that City College is “a vast college,” “a behemoth,” and must
change from being “a bloated, slow-thinking system of nine campuses into
a lean, sharp-minded institution of higher learning” (translation: a
much smaller college that will “no longer need all its campuses,” which
may be better used for luxury condo development schemes such as those
led by the Chronicle’s corporate owner, the Hearst Corporation, along
with Forest City Enterprises. See <em>Supes OK big SoMa project, $1 billion development planned at 5<sup>th</sup> and Mission, SF Chronicle</em>
11/18/2015. The huge multi-site development project is centered one
block from Downtown Campus. Will Downtown Campus go the way of 33 Gough
and Civic Center Tenderloin Campus?)</div>
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<a href="https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?tab=cm#15185470267c5d6b__ftnref6" name="15185470267c5d6b__ftn6" style="color: #336699; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline;" title="">[6]</a>
Under the California Dream Act, AB540 students must have graduated from
a California high school or GED program, and have attended high school
in California for three or more years. </div>
</div>
Kathy Emeryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04038518567566419311noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2043974806333009416.post-44956645827154559322014-09-21T15:24:00.001-07:002014-09-21T15:27:24.717-07:00The Common Core in it's historical perspectiveHere's a very very brief outline of <a href="http://educationanddemocracy.org/Emery_dissertation.html">my PhD dissertation</a><br /><br />1. business LEADERS have always determined what educational policy is -- business leaders fundamentally alter schooling to meet their needs to sort and socialize the work force. When the nation's economic structure alters, the school system's structure has been changed by business.<br /><br />2. fundamental education reform has happened 3 times in U.S. history: <br /><ul>
<li>1848 -- creation of standardized, hierarchical public school system</li>
<li>1890's -- creation of comprehensive high schools and tracking system using standardized tests (working class tracked into vocational education; middle class tracked into college prep courses).</li>
<li>1989 -- creation of high-stakes testing (attaching High stakes to the standardized tests that have been in use since 1890s)</li>
</ul>
<br />3. these three transformations of the public school system match the three major transformations of the U.S. economy.<br /><ul>
<li>1840s' -- transition from agricultural to manufacturing society</li>
<li>1890's -- transition from manufacturing society to industrial</li>
<li>1980's -- transition from industrial to service economy</li>
</ul>
<br />4. beginning in 1990's <a href="http://businessroundtable.org/about">the Business Roundtable </a>engineered a coalition of business groups and educators to pass "high-stakes legislation" in all the state legislatures. By 2000, only 16 states had passed high stakes testing:<br /><ul>
<li>a. state content standards</li>
<li>b. state mandatory standardized tests</li>
<li>c. rewards and sanctions connected to test results</li>
</ul>
<br />5. so, frustrated at the state level, the BRT went to Washington D.C. and lobbied Dems and Republicans to rewrite the 1965 Elementary and Secondary Education Act to reflect high stakes testing policy. the result was NCLB, in the hopes that lobbyists could use NCLB as LEVERAGE to get the recalcitrant state legislatures (those resistant to HST) to pass HST legislation. Many more states came on board during the next 10 years.<br /><br />6. NCLB was set to expire in 2007. It was SO UNPOPULAR that congress didn't want to touch it with a ten foot pole, in spite of heavy lobbying by the BRT inspired coalition to reauthorize the law. In 2008, Obama campaigned to rewrite the law to respond to criticism. When in office, he hired Arne Duncan ( the NEA has recently called for Duncan to resign) who essentially replaced NCLB with Race to the Top. This has been equally widely unpopular. <br /><br />7. Business CEO's, frustrated by teacher, parent and student sabotage of high stakes testing have now settled on a "common core" set of standards to once again, be enforced by standardized tests. <br /><br />What is the purpose of HST/Common Core? The top CEOs want to increase the number of college graduates in STEM fields -- to increase the supply far beyond the demand, so as to lower their wages. HST failed to do that, so Gates et al got Congress to expand the H1B visas to bring in foreign born "knowledge workers" at half the price of native bred STEM. also, majorly outsourcing computer programming et al to India and China and anywhere where they were cheap.<br /><br />Top down education reform doesn't work. it doesn't get the willing participation of those who are actually implementing it. and the more administrators threaten, cajole teachers, the more teachers resist in any way they can. Teachers had different goals for their students than business leaders have. the clash of goals in schools and in the classroom frustrates everyone.Kathy Emeryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04038518567566419311noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2043974806333009416.post-16171364981968922502013-11-23T15:02:00.001-08:002013-11-24T14:47:08.292-08:00Activism: Then and Now (event at USF)<div class="tr_bq">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-vi5Q_QS4NCU/UpE0TnFDCuI/AAAAAAAAAyg/JPrH0XenegA/s1600/usf+flyer+valle.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-vi5Q_QS4NCU/UpE0TnFDCuI/AAAAAAAAAyg/JPrH0XenegA/s400/usf+flyer+valle.jpg" width="308" /></a>I was delighted to work with <a href="http://www.linkedin.com/pub/victor-valle/45/315/667" target="_blank">Victor Valle,</a> a student at the University of San Francisco, in putting on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/586731508060090/" target="_blank">this event</a>. I met Victor when I went to <a href="http://www.usfca.edu/facultydetails.aspx?id=4294969798" target="_blank">Marilyn DeLaure's </a>Rhetoric of Social Movement's class. Marilyn was, briefly, a board member of the SF Freedom School. She invites community groups to present options for community service during the first weeks of her course (as part of the community service requirement of her course). After I presented, Victor contacted me to ask if he could work with "<a href="http://educationanddemocracy.org/sffreedomschool/" target="_blank">the SF Freedom School</a>" to put on a panel that would include current day activists and <a href="http://www.crmvet.org/vet/speakers.htm" target="_blank">a veteran of the Civil Rights Movement</a>. I suggested several current day activists of which two were able to participate --<a href="http://theguardsman.com/category/featured/student-trustee-talks-budget-cuts-accreditation/" target="_blank"> Shanell Williams</a> and <a href="http://vimeo.com/user7320669" target="_blank">Javier Reyes</a>. I ask Phil Hutchings, a former field secretary and program director of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Student_Nonviolent_Coordinating_Committee" target="_blank">SNCC</a>, veteran of the <a href="http://www.venceremosbrigade.net/" target="_blank">Venceramos Brigade</a> and, currently, a senior organizer for <a href="http://www.cjjc.org/" target="_blank">Causa Justa/Just Cause </a>and the <a href="http://www.blackalliance.org/" target="_blank">Black Alliance for Immigration Reform.</a><br />
presented to Professor </div>
<br />
On November 14th, at the University Center at USF, around 30 people attended the event. Victor had arranged for food to be served and moderated the panel. Phil, Shanell and Javier took turns presenting.<br />
<ol></ol>
Victor moderated the presentations in such a way that he encouraged a spirited interaction among the panelists as they responded to each other's presentations. The questions from the audience also provoked discussion among the panelists.<br />
<br />
<b><a href="http://foghorn.usfca.edu/2013/11/if-you-dont-have-haters-youre-doing-something-wrong/" target="_blank">SEE USF FOGHORN ARTICLE </a>FOR GOOD SUMMARY OF CONTENT OF PRESENTATIONS/DISCUSSIONS</b> <br />
<br />
Phil, as part of his presentation, read the last three paragraphs from Julian Bond's essay, <a href="http://monthlyreview.org/2000/10/01/sncc-what-we-did" target="_blank"><i>SNCC: What We Accomplished</i>,</a> published by Monthly Review in 2000.<br />
<br />
<blockquote>
Throughout its brief history, SNCC insisted on <a href="http://www.fteleaders.org/blog/entry/Single-Leader-Centered-vs-Group-Centered-Leadership/" target="_blank">group-centered leadership </a>and <a href="http://www.crmvet.org/docs/6410_sncc_miller.pdf" target="_blank">community-based politics</a>. It made clear the connection between economic power and racial oppression. It refused to define racism as a solely southern phenomenon, to describe racial inequality as caused by irrational prejudice alone, or to limit its struggle solely to guaranteeing legal equality. It challenged U.S. imperialism while mainstream civil rights organizations were silent or curried favor with President Lyndon Johnson, condemning SNCC’s linkage of domestic and international poverty and racism with overseas adventurism. SNCC refused to apply political tests to its membership or supporters, opposing the red-baiting that other organizations and leaders endorsed or condoned. And it created an atmosphere of expectation and anticipation among the people with whom it worked, trusting them to make decisions about their own lives. Thus SNCC widened the definition of politics beyond campaigns and elections; for SNCC, politics encompassed not only electoral races, but also organizing political parties, labor unions, producer cooperatives, and alternative schools. <br />
<br />
SNCC initially sought to transform southern politics by organizing and enfranchising blacks. One proof of its success was the increase in black elected officials in the southern states from seventy-two in 1965 to 388 in 1968. But SNCC also sought to amplify the ends of political participation by enlarging the issues of political debate to include the economic and foreign-policy concerns of American blacks. SNCC’s articulation and advocacy of Black Power redefined the relationship between black Americans and white power. No longer would political equity be considered a privilege; it had become a right. <br />
<br />
A final SNCC legacy is the destruction of the psychological shackles which had kept black southerners in physical and mental peonage; SNCC helped break those chains forever. It demonstrated that ordinary women and men, young and old, could perform extraordinary tasks. <br />
<br />
They did then and can do so again.</blockquote>
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Kathy Emeryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04038518567566419311noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2043974806333009416.post-33341340901254140082013-10-15T11:41:00.002-07:002013-10-15T11:41:21.669-07:00Civil Rights History event - November 9thNovember 9th, <a href="http://www.laney.edu/wp/chris-weidenbach/extra-credit-opportunities/">Daughters of the Civil Rights Speak </a>in Oakland.<br />(and more East Bay events)Kathy Emeryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04038518567566419311noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2043974806333009416.post-83086736019673672962013-08-17T14:37:00.002-07:002013-08-17T14:37:59.487-07:00segregated SF (and segregated U.S.)<a href="http://demographics.coopercenter.org/DotMap/index.html" target="_blank">An amazing map of the United States.</a> I zoomed in and took the following picture of SF. <br />
<br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-XnIusZqMd8U/Ug_sxiF5d2I/AAAAAAAAAr0/2pm-1bvAgPI/s1600/Screen+shot+2013-08-17+at+2.30.35+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="465" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-XnIusZqMd8U/Ug_sxiF5d2I/AAAAAAAAAr0/2pm-1bvAgPI/s640/Screen+shot+2013-08-17+at+2.30.35+PM.png" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />Kathy Emeryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04038518567566419311noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2043974806333009416.post-71302002093196885902013-07-19T13:03:00.004-07:002013-07-19T13:08:19.180-07:00Music (Art) for Freedom -- how to grow a movementI have been trying to convince members of the <a href="http://www.saveccsf.org/" target="_blank">SaveCCSF coalition</a> to do more singing and less chanting....with a smidgen of success so far. I think some of the obstacles have been the lack of song leaders as well as the lack of practice within a modern culture that doesn't sing much anymore.<br />
<br />
During each of the campaigns of the Southern Freedom Movement (e.g., Montgomery, Nashville, Albany, Greenwood, Birmingham), momentum was fostered, sustained and increased at regular "mass meetings" in the evenings. These meetings were part fundraisers, part strategy sessions, part information dissemination, part faith building and part dress rehearsal. The dress rehearsal part was regular singing, before, during and after the agendized meeting.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.crmvet.org/info/fsongs.htm" target="_blank">The Southern Freedom Movement was a singing movement </a>(and for good reason)<br />
<br />
Song leaders and even singing groups would begin the songs but the congregation would immediately join in and often offer lyrics to additional verses. This was crucial <i>learning and practice</i> for the picket line or march or sit in the next day.<br />
<br />
From <a href="http://www.folkways.si.edu/voices-of-the-civil-rights-movement-black-american-freedom-songs-1960-1966/african-american-music-documentary-struggle-protest/album/smithsonian" target="_blank">Voices of the Civil Rights Movement:</a><br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<a href="http://media.smithsonianfolkways.org/audio/samples/smithsonian_folkways/SFW40084/SFW40084_2_08.mp3" target="_blank">DOG, DOG</a>, Los Angeles, CA, August 1963, SNCC Freedom Singers led by Cordell Reagon.This satirical song, written by Movement activists James Bevel and Bernard LaFayette, <i><b>was spread throughout the South by Movement organizers-especially Reagon, who here leads the original SNCC Freedom Singers</b></i>. The song became a mainstay in the repertoire of both the first and second groups of freedom singers. Using rhythm and blues motifs, the song tells a parable of two boys who lived next door to each other but could not play together because of the color of their skin. Their homes were separated by a fence, but the dogs could slip under the fence to play. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<a href="http://media.smithsonianfolkways.org/audio/samples/smithsonian_folkways/SFW40084/SFW40084_2_12.mp3" target="_blank">NINETY-NINE AND A HALF (WON'T DO)</a>, Birmingham, AL , 1963 , Alabama Christian Movement Choir led by Carlton Reese "99½ Won't Do" is <i><b>based on the gospel tune</b></i> popularized by Mother Katie Bell Nubin, mother of Rosetta Tharpe, famed gospel singer of the 1940s and 1950s. <i><b>Reese, who leads the singing, rearranged the song and inserted new Movement phrases.</b></i><br />
<br />
<a href="http://media.smithsonianfolkways.org/audio/samples/smithsonian_folkways/SFW40084/SFW40084_1_02.mp3" target="_blank">THIS LITTLE LIGHT OF MINE</a> , Selma, AL , October 1963 , Led by Betty Mae Fikes This rendition is led by Betty Mae Fikes with the Selma Youth Freedom Choir and is accompanied by piano. <i><b>The song maintains enough of its traditional structure to allow for full participation by the congregation</b></i>. The gospel influence is evident in Fikes's statement of the initiating line. One of the strongest song leaders to come out of the Movement, Fikes uses her unique and signature call to initiate each new verse halfway through the last line of the old verse. The gospel change in melody is picked up and maintained by the full congregation.<i><b> Song leaders often localized songs by adding lyrics peculiar to their immediate situation</b></i>. Many of these songs from Selma, Alabama, used names of local personalities. For example, Fikes sings "Tell Jim Clark" (sheriff of Selma) and "Tell Al Lingo" (Head of the Alabama State Troopers), calling their names as symbols of what the Selma Movement was fighting. Movement leaders were also named in the new lyrics. Spontaneous cheers and clapping greet Fikes's lines, recognition of her skill as a songleader and on-the-spot chronicler of the mood of the congregation. </blockquote>
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<span style="font-size: small;"> Below are some more recent hopeful examples of the use of song to build community, hope, maintain sanity, and express a vision for the future.</span></div>
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/kS709ZyZ_YU" width="560"></iframe></div>
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/SPh1G5N2VuE" width="560"></iframe><br /></div>
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"> </span>
Kathy Emeryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04038518567566419311noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2043974806333009416.post-43611436997296796792013-07-03T11:08:00.000-07:002013-07-03T11:08:15.338-07:00The Wizard of Oz Will Save Us?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-hUkumb2QpXM/UdRnh0StzrI/AAAAAAAAAos/r-GccvqXNq0/s317/images-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="100" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-hUkumb2QpXM/UdRnh0StzrI/AAAAAAAAAos/r-GccvqXNq0/s200/images-1.jpg" width="200" /></a>I watched <i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oz_the_Great_and_Powerful">Oz the Great and Powerful</a></i> on the plane last weekend. After being appalled by Milas Kunis' horrible, nails-on-a-blackboard screeching after she turns into the green-hued Wicked Witch of the West (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_Hamilton">Margaret Hamilton*</a> must be turning over in her grave), my biggest complaint about the movie is the moral of the story -- only a charismatic showman can inspire a people to fight successfully against evil. (I don't want to even get into the grotesquely apparent sexism of an audience expected to be emotionally engaged in the process of three women's obsession with a doofus male.)</div>
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-hBuUJ9l2SRE/UdRnqO-MjrI/AAAAAAAAAow/4mdT4_q8WRo/s275/images.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-hBuUJ9l2SRE/UdRnqO-MjrI/AAAAAAAAAow/4mdT4_q8WRo/s275/images.jpg" /></a>
<br />
Anyone, like myself, who is trying to persuade others of the power of the people, the power of nonviolent direct action, must be constantly annoyed at a dominant culture that continues to promote the myth that only a leader (who, in James Franco's role, doesn't even have to be "great") can make history. And this movie rubs your face in that myth.<br />
<br />
Just as Salmon Rushdie <a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=Rq46IH1nWb8C&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false">deconstructed</a> the classic, 1939 <i>Wizard of Oz</i>, I wish someone would do the same with Oz the Great and Powerful. James Franco's (Oz's) motivation to avoid commitments of any kind makes as much sense in his movie as Judy Garland's desire to go home does in hers (As Rushdie points out, why would Dorothy want to go home to poverty and dysfunction when she had grown up into a independent, courageous woman with a loving community/family in Oz?)<br />
<br />
While this latest remake of Baum's original stories will never be a classic (i.e. not well done) and is, therefore, probably not worthy of further attention, it is, nevertheless, part of the larger pattern of hero worship that leaves little room for the truth as chronicled in more prosaic works such as <a href="https://cup.columbia.edu/book/978-0-231-15682-0/why-civil-resistance-works"><i>Why Civil Resistance Works</i> </a>and <i><a href="http://www.aforcemorepowerful.org/">A Force More Powerful</a></i> and in more entertaining works like Bruce Hartford's science fiction story,<i><a href="http://www.wwwriters.com/tgr.htm"> The Gandhi Ring.</a></i><br />
<br />
The Truth? "History is a choice" (Bayard Rustin); good is more powerful than evil (Gandhi); and social movements take "intellectual rigor and collectivity" (Phil Hutchings). Ordinary people like you and me, acting collectively, have been the engines of social justice throughout history, not great men like Oz, Iron Man, Obama, Winston Churchill, or even Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
During the Freedom Movement of the 1960s, <u><i><b>we</b></i></u> did not protest simply to vent to our anger and alienation. <u><i><b>We </b></i></u>took action to change society. <u><i><b>Our</b></i></u> sit-ins, Freedom Rides, and mass marches were grounded in an analysis of political reality that led to the strategy and tactics of Nonviolent Resistance as a means of winning actual changes. As the Freedom Movement evolved, so too did our analysis of political power — an analysis that is relevant to this day. <u><i><b>We</b></i></u> understood that the injustices we opposed were deeper and more complex than just some bad people with racist ideas. Beneath the surface of segregation and denial of voting rights lay a "white power-structure" of wealthy individuals, powerful corporations, and influential politicians who derived significant economic and political benefits from systemic racism, and therefore they used their power to establish, extend, and maintain the Jim Crow system. Which meant that in order to change that system, <u><i><b>we</b></i></u> had to understand what political power is, where it comes from, how it is generated, and how it can be used to change society. (Bruce Hartford in <a href="http://www.crmvet.org/info/nvpower.htm">Nonviolent Resistance and Political Power</a>, 1968)</blockquote>
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<br />
<u><b>* fun fact from the Wiki article:</b></u> "In 1939, Hamilton played the role of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wicked_Witch_of_the_West">Wicked Witch of the West</a> . . . creating not only her most famous role, but one of the screen's most memorable villains. Hamilton was cast after <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gale_Sondergaard">Gale Sondergaard</a>, who was first considered for the role, albeit as a more glamorous witch with a musical scene, declined the role when the decision was made that the witch should appear ugly." My view is that only really, really, really good actors can pull off evil well. Why am I not surprised Alan Rickman never worried about appearing ugly as Snape or the Sherriff of Nottingham?Kathy Emeryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04038518567566419311noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2043974806333009416.post-19641474661801826682013-05-30T10:28:00.002-07:002013-05-30T10:28:44.855-07:00Firefighters versus Police in Spain - a division within the regime?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-o96HKeaf9P0/UaeDIbg8O2I/AAAAAAAAAnw/voI1aa-q_6A/s1600/o-FIREFIGHTERS-RIOT-POLICE-AUSTERITY-PROTEST-570.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-o96HKeaf9P0/UaeDIbg8O2I/AAAAAAAAAnw/voI1aa-q_6A/s320/o-FIREFIGHTERS-RIOT-POLICE-AUSTERITY-PROTEST-570.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
The picture of <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/29/firefighters-riot-police-austerity-protest_n_3353851.html">firefighters skirmishing with riot police in Spain </a>made me think of the effectiveness of widespread and DIVERSE civil disobedience. See where I made the connections below in boldface.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.ericachenoweth.com/research/wcrw/">Chenoweth </a>and Stephan conclude in their study of nonviolent (v. violent) movements (<i>Why Civil Resistance Works</i>):<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
In all cases, nonviolent campaigns have succeeded in generating mass mobilization, whereas violent campaigns have relied on smaller numbers. People who sympathize with violent opposition movements often express reluctance to participate because of fear of regime reprisals. Although participating in a nonviolent campaign is frequently quite dangerous, ordinary citizens perceive it to be safer than participating in a violent campaign.<br />
<br />
<i><b>The<span style="color: #cc0000;"><u> diversity</u></span> of participants has been as important as the numbers of participants. </b></i> Some violent campapigns, like the Philippine insurgency, mobilized tens of thousands of members. However, most of these participatnts were young men who rallied around the Marxist ideology, thus exluding those who found that ideology unattractive. Perhaps more important from a strategic perspective, the reliance on a single opposition ideology cut the Marxist insurgents off from the opponent regime. <i><b>More diverse campaigns, which include multiple age groups, class, occupations , ideologies, and genders, are likelier to have links to members of the regime, such that opportunities to create divisions within the regime become more ubiquitous.</b></i><br />
<br />
. . . In the [Iranian Revolution, the first Intifada, and overthrow of Marcos] the nonviolent campaigns applied sufficient pressure to begin dividing the regime from its main pillars of support. <i><b>One of the most visible outcomes of this strategy was loyalty shifts among security forces</b></i>, an outcome that would be difficult to imagine if the campaigns had been violent. Once security forces refused to obey the regime, the state was forced to capitulate to the campaign's demands...... </blockquote>
<br />
And this reminds me of a great movie, <a href="http://wwwmcc.murdoch.edu.au/ReadingRoom/film/dbase/1998/children.htm">Children of the Revolution</a>, in which Joe strategically focuses on recruiting the police as part of his successful revolutionary activity. You can apparently watch this movie for free online. I highly recommend it -- it has a Monty Python like satiric story line with a killer cast (Judy Davis, Geoffrey Rush, Sam Neill, F. Murray Abraham). It is funny and serious at the same time....much like <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monty_Python%27s_Life_of_Brian#Political_satire">Life of Brian as a good critique of leftist ideologues.</a> <br />
<br />
<br />Kathy Emeryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04038518567566419311noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2043974806333009416.post-63882323273332905672013-05-28T17:45:00.001-07:002013-05-28T17:45:45.489-07:00Peter Ackerman on Syria<a href="http://www.nonviolent-conflict.org/index.php/officers-and-staff/76-dr-peter-ackerman-founding-chair">Peter Ackerman </a>and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_DuVall">Jack Duvall </a>are co-authors of <a href="http://www.aforcemorepowerful.org/book/excerpts/index.php">A Force More Powerful,</a> case studies (stories) of how people power prevails over violence and oppression.<br />
<br />
excerpts from <a href="http://www.dw.de/tyrants-worst-nightmare-people-power/a-16797002">A Tyrant's Worst Nightmare: People Power</a><br />
<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
. . . . Conventional wisdom has said that oppressed people have two choices: either accept the status quo or mount a violent insurrection. My dream is that the day will come when people in all parts of the world will turn to civil resistance rather than rely on armed revolt. . . <br /><br /> The Syrian example <br /><br /> As an example, just consider the effects of the two phases of the Syrian conflict: First, a campaign of civil resistance was waged from March to September 2011, during which the Assad regime was weakened more than at any other time over the previous 40 years - and fewer than 3,000 people died from its repression. <br /><br /> That campaign's success emboldened a large part of the Syrian military to defect, joining impatient activists to form the Free Syrian Army (FSA). Tragically, in the next phase of the conflict, civil resistance was marginalized because many falsely believed that "nonviolence doesn't work," and violence against the regime intensified. <br /><br /> Now, with 70,000 more fatalities and no end in sight to a war of mutual destruction, Assad's opponents have proved just the opposite - that violent insurrection doesn't work. . . <br /><br /> . . . Armed struggles aim to kill anyone in power without discrimination, but effective civil resistance distinguishes between the relatively few power-holders in a society and the larger coterie (bureaucrats, military, business) who obey those in power. <br /><br /> With tactics such as strikes, boycotts, and mass demonstrations, civil resistance spurs defections among those supporters and can force changes at the top. This strategy of dissolving an oppressor's capacity to use power is more likely to work against a well-armed dictatorship than a strategy of mutual annihilation. Civil resistance is also more likely to produce a democratic outcome. . . <br /><br /> Most analysts argue that certain structural conditions which a movement can't control - such as a ruler's willingness to use repression, the degree of digital freedom, or whether the society has a middle class - determine the outcome. <br /><br /> My research and that of others have found that there is no correlation between such conditions and the outcomes of nonviolent conflicts. Just the opposite: a movement's choices - its strategy, messages, discipline, tactics, coalition-building, and other actions - are far more influential than the perceived initial impediments. . . . <br /><br /> Since I wrote my doctoral dissertation on this subject 35 years ago, I've witnessed dozens of breakthroughs by home-grown, nonviolent movements organized by people who refused to tolerate repression any longer. Many times I've seen how an organized, disciplined movement can develop strategies of mass resistance to put intolerable pressure on brutal power-holders and dissolve their legitimacy. <br /><br /> The international community must stop being mesmerized by the false choice of accommodating or attacking tyrants and should pay attention to history's verdict: <br /><br /> The very people who are oppressed, if they know how to use civil resistance, can win their rights through their own initiative. The violence they have feared does not require violence to end it. The freedom they crave, they can have - if we help them obtain the knowledge of how to do so.</blockquote>
Kathy Emeryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04038518567566419311noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2043974806333009416.post-71729472410263203772013-05-24T15:11:00.000-07:002013-05-24T15:11:41.155-07:00Citizen Journalists, Video and the Internet - A NEW PROJECTA new internet video project announced on the<a href="http://advocacy.globalvoicesonline.org/2013/05/21/irrepressible-voices-a-new-human-rights-video-website/"> Global Voices Advocacy website:</a><br /><blockquote class="tr_bq">
In recent years, few major catastrophes have taken place without being captured through video, pictures, or tweets by ordinary citizens. Citizen journalists have reported on everything from <a href="http://www.rferl.org/content/syria-war-reported-by-citizen-journalists-social-media/24630841.html">the civil war in Syria</a>, to natural disasters such as the 2011 tsunami and nuclear disaster in Japan, to<a href="http://storify.com/adbusters/police-brutality"> incidents of police brutality at Occupy protests</a>. <br /><br />This kind of raw documentation brings new complexity to the information landscape. It has created new avenues for news dissemination, and as more mainstream media outlets include citizen media in their reporting, it has changed and enhanced their coverage. <u><b>However, there still is a gap between the mainstream media, with their large audiences, and these citizen journalists that must be bridged. </b></u><br /><br />The newly launched project<a href="http://www.irrepressiblevoices.org/"> Irrepressible Voices</a> (IV) aims to fill this gap by creating a platform that will connect online activists, bloggers, and citizen journalists with the mainstream media as well as with policy and decision makers.</blockquote>
This video is a one minute "call to action" by citizen journalists, asking people to upload videos of human rights abuses to their cite.<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/Gx-R2lfg9UI" width="560"></iframe><br />
<br />
<a href="http://youtu.be/txIDa6qD9ls">WATCH SAMPLE VIDEO HERE</a> about the Philippines.Kathy Emeryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04038518567566419311noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2043974806333009416.post-88974559810117439882013-05-20T11:16:00.000-07:002013-05-20T11:16:01.591-07:00Rebecca Solnit post on Tomdispatch - what comes after hopeTom introduces <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog//175701/">Rebecca's post</a> by saying, "Rebecca Solnit... taught me how to hope in a world that seemed dismal indeed . . . . Like Studs [Terkel, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/156584937X/ref=nosim/?tag=tomdispatch-20">Hope Dies Last</a>], she taught me that <u><i><b>acting, even while not knowing, is a powerful antidote to despair.</b></i></u>"<br /><br /> <a href="http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog//175701/">Rebecca writes</a><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
If you take the long view, you’ll see how startlingly, how unexpectedly but regularly things change. Not by magic, but by the incremental effect of countless acts of courage, love, and commitment, the small drops that wear away stones and carve new landscapes, and sometimes by torrents of popular will that change the world suddenly. To say that is not to say that it will all come out fine in the end regardless. I’m just telling you that everything is in motion, and sometimes we are ourselves that movement.<br /><br /> Hope and history are sisters: one looks forward and one looks back, and they make the world spacious enough to move through freely. Obliviousness to the past and to the mutability of all things imprisons you in a shrunken present. Hopelessness often comes out of that amnesia, out of forgetting that everything is in motion, everything changes. We have a great deal of history of defeat, suffering, cruelty, and loss, and everyone should know it. But that’s not all we have. <br />......<br />Not long ago, I ran into a guy who’d been involved in the Occupy Wall Street movement . . . . He offered a tailspin of a description of how Occupy was over and had failed. But I wonder: How could he possibly know?<br /><br /> [What I know is that] <b>Occupy began to say what needed to be said about greed and capitalism, </b>exposing a brutality that had long been hushed up, revealing both the victims of debt and the rigged economy that created it. This country changed because those things were said out loud. . . . <b>I know people personally whose lives were changed,</b> and who are doing work they never imagined they would be involved in, and I’m friends with remarkable people who, but for Occupy, I would not know existed. . . . . <b>there was great joy</b> at the time , the joy of liberation and of solidarity, and joy is worth something in itself. In a sense, it’s worth everything, even if it’s always fleeting, though not always as scarce as we imagine.</blockquote>
Kathy Emeryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04038518567566419311noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2043974806333009416.post-45464764701778459762013-05-15T12:26:00.003-07:002013-05-15T12:26:55.315-07:00Labor Chorus Performance May 16th 7 pm CCSF<i>THE GREAT MIGRATION, MOTOWN AND MICHAEL MOORE</i><br />
A Performance Piece performed by the Labor Heritage/Rockin’ Solidarity Chorus on<br />
<br />
<u><b>Thursday May 16 at 7:00 pm</b></u>. The location is City College of San Francisco, Creative Arts Building, Room 133. There will be a pot luck dinner served at 6:30. <u><b>Admission is free.</b></u><br /><br /> The Great Migration was the biggest under-reported story of the twentieth century. Over the span of six decades, around six million African-Americans left Jim Crow behind and started over in northern and western cities. In the process they transformed this country.<br /><br /> The chorus tells the story in words and songs, including some reworkings of classics from Motown, a record label built by children of the migration. This presentation will be a slightly shorter version of the complete script which will be presented at Labor Fest on July 26. However, there will be a lot to enjoy and think about on Thursday. Please come .<br />
<br />
<br />Kathy Emeryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04038518567566419311noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2043974806333009416.post-47626456430213954962013-05-13T10:39:00.002-07:002013-05-13T10:39:21.892-07:00James Lawson: causes and accomplishments of Civil Rights Movement<br /><a href="http://sffreedomschool.blogspot.com/2013/02/sfsu-civil-rights-history-course-drop.html"><b><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/iW-bdXuOKVY?rel=0" width="420"></iframe></b></a>Kathy Emeryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04038518567566419311noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2043974806333009416.post-25221680760792811632013-04-21T11:29:00.000-07:002013-04-21T11:45:24.589-07:00Flamenco Flash Mobs in Spain occupying Banks<a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-22110887">From the BBC</a><br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/iop2b3oq1O0?rel=0" width="560"></iframe>
Flamenco flash mobs - seemingly spontaneous dance and song performances - have been taking place in banks not just in Seville, but all over Andalusia, causing short, if amusing disruptions to the working day Some involve just one or two dancers, performing silently in front of bemused customers and clerks. Others can be made up of several dozen bailaores clicking their fingers and stomping their feet to recorded music. The flash mobs are staged by an anti-capitalist group known as Flo6x8 to express anger and frustration at the economic crisis<br />
<br />
. . . . Talk to many people involved in flamenco today and they will tell you that there is nothing political about the music. Yet look back at the history of flamenco, and a different picture emerges. Far from concentrating on love and passion - themes that one might expect from such an explosive art form - the lyrics sung in the late 18th and early 19th Centuries were largely about poverty, suffering and the hardship of everyday life.<br />
<br />
. . . . The Spanish government is clearly rattled - after a Flo6x8 video (see
top of story) got over a million hits on YouTube they changed the law to
make it much more difficult for the bank flash mobs to be carried out,
and none has happened over the past year. Instead it has gone international. Flamenco flash mobs have been taking place, not only in
Spain, but across Europe, in Milan, Rome and the UK, though it has
become harmless fun, rather than a political act.<br />
<br />
LYRICS:<br />
The character & the will/ you have changed,my friend/ the character
and the will/ since that you have money/ you have turned unbearable/
those are things of brand new rich man <br />
Don't you bustle me anymore, Rodrigo (RATO-wikipedia: ex economy
minister, exbankia and FMI director)
because thanks to your bad head, we'll finish as furtives. I've looked
for 2 jobs to pay the mortgage. U get into troubles, u fire me/send me
out to the street because there is no money <br />
ay bankia (x6) for u 6 lungs, for me not even a gill (x2). Am not gonna
love u, not gonna want u, not even if u take my interest rate away, not
even if you reduce my interest, is that i dont want u, Bankia i dont
want u, no way! ay bankia bankia... 4 u 6 lungs, 4 me not even a gill <br />
<br />
<br />Kathy Emeryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04038518567566419311noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2043974806333009416.post-66845455583048154932013-04-19T11:24:00.001-07:002013-04-19T11:24:14.655-07:00People Power in Nebraska saying NO to Keystone XL Mary Pipher wrote an op-ed piece in the New York Times this week (April 17, 2013 -- <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/18/opinion/the-keystone-pipeline-fight-is-not-over.html"><i>Lighting a Spark on the High Plains</i></a>) in which she talks about "ordinary heroes" combatting the Keystone XL pipeline. She does a superb job in explaining how <a href="http://www.crmvet.org/info/nvpower.htm">people power</a> starts to grow.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>Newly minted activists organized potlucks, educational forums, music
benefits, tractor pulls, poetry readings, flashlight rallies, wildflower
drops in Capitol offices and pumpkin-carving protests. Grandmothers
created the Apple Pie Brigade and arrived every Monday at the governor’s
mansion with small gifts and letters opposing the project.</i> </blockquote>
She points to the potential radicalizing role that non-profits can play in creating "newly minted" activists (in spite of their participation in the <a href="http://www.classism.org/the-plague-of-the-nonprofits">nonprofit industrial complex</a>)<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>Groups like Audubon Nebraska, Bold Nebraska, the Farmers Union, the National Wildlife Federation and the Sierra Club worked together to educate and activate our citizens. The League of Women Voters and college students joined to stop what we called the Keystone Extra-Leaky </i></blockquote>
And how the <a href="https://docs.google.com/file/d/1FRbiyvHb_15TjnnnfW1wq2FRG72fmFgAfZDCpkEi7Ku4Q0TBWzjskTPJj-1y/edit?usp=sharing">importance of community</a> as a foundation for an incipient social movement.<br />
<blockquote>
How <i>did this amazing set of alliances ever happen? In part, our unity came from our shared history and geography. Many of us are the relatives of homesteaders and modern farmers and ranchers. Whatever our politics, we all believe in the sanctity of home. In the Beef State, we understand the importance of water, especially today, when every county in Nebraska suffers drought conditions. . . .Many of our citizens had seen their parents or grandparents struggle to
hold on to family land, and they weren’t about to give up their rights
without a fight. . . . .</i><i> </i></blockquote>
<a href="http://www.organizetrainingcenter.org/">Mike Miller</a> has always argued that you opponents will inevitably hand you an issue around which to organize people.<br />
<blockquote>
<i> TransCanada made the mistake of bullying our fiercely independent farmers and ranchers. Landowners say the company threatened to take their land if they didn’t cooperate and warned them that later offers of money would be much smaller if they delayed. TransCanada also insisted, landowners say, that they sign papers agreeing not to talk to the press or anyone about their agreements. </i></blockquote>
Many <a href="http://www.crmvet.org/nars/narshome.htm">Civil Rights Veterans talk about</a> the transformative effect their work in the movement had on them. Here is Mary Pipher's take on that effect:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>Today, we still don’t know what will happen with this pipeline. But we do know what has happened to us. Our coalition allowed us to transform our feelings of sorrow, fear, anger and helplessness into something stronger and more durable. We became agents of our fates and joined together in what the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. called a “beloved community.” We became a state of ordinary heroes who decided that money couldn’t buy everything and that some things were sacred. </i></blockquote>
And that Freedom is a constant struggle:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>The great global skirmishes of this century will be fought over food, energy, water and dirt. Our remote, conservative, flyover state seems like an odd place to make a stand for clean water and fertile land, but we will be at the heart of those battles. We are fighting not only for ourselves but for people all over the world. And we know that everywhere, in their particular places, people are fighting for us. The campaign to stop the Keystone XL is not over. It won’t be over until we give up, and we aren’t giving up. </i></blockquote>
Mary Pipher, a psychologist, is the author of “The Green Boat: Reviving Ourselves in Our Capsized Culture.” Kathy Emeryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04038518567566419311noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2043974806333009416.post-78838019854071179622013-03-22T18:27:00.000-07:002013-03-22T18:27:20.889-07:00social media and the dearth of stories of people power in moviesFrom <a href="http://www.nonviolent-conflict.org/">ICNC</a> newsletter:<br />
<br />
<div>
<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 1.3;"><a href="http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?e=001_HHdDwcsMeVMN4SIS1jDjRrkL21aTRQ3P6CP9XBDXej_MZKcxud89F9X96j3f9L9lk4CWJrcYdvXIYTmELMc2GIsGgFzGvZSzlGKCEQcfEO8hfGDDxVGRmmGQuZVrhNbPG54xXcbZE8=" shape="rect" style="color: #49728a; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Palestine: Cameras and human rights in the West Bank</a></span></div>
<div style="font-size: 9pt;">
<em>By: Rebecca L. Stein, MERIP, March 20, 2013</em></div>
<div style="font-size: 9pt;">
In the West Bank today, cameras are
ubiquitous, as is the usage of social media as a means of online
witnessing. Both are deemed nothing less than political necessities,
the sine qua non of political claims in the networked court of public
opinion. According to one Israeli soldier, "A commander or an officer
sees a camera and becomes a diplomat, calculating every rubber bullet,
every step. It's intolerable; we're left utterly exposed. The cameras
are our kryptonite."</div>
<div style="font-size: 9pt;">
</div>
<div style="font-size: 9pt;">
<div>
<a href="http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?e=001_HHdDwcsMeVqZSLAJPxbdiuy2d3t-nRo-FN1JGpG0kzSXzj4rVuN_FxWMlNJ9qYzR22tk3G3MZ34bsxV8AO2NHOP20rWyv9BHQZkU6TJFkS6luJmwAmpvsTepbXZsbNwcXkV9vEbBD0POFwW8RgcxSbaaUmZDFlpVM6iHpgTSb_f5TrrcNE_9L486ymgqdR_vAXGXHDogArGzrrDlT_s5o9Y9c65RYvoDfIw0jivB5E=" shape="rect" style="color: #49728a; font-size: 14pt; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Chile's 'No' campaign: What the movie doesn't tell us</a></div>
<div style="font-size: 9pt;">
<em>By: Emily Achtenberg, North American Congress on Latin America, March 22, 2013</em></div>
<span style="font-size: 9pt;">The Academy Award-nominated film "NO"
re-opens a window on a moment when Chileans used the ballot box to bring
down the dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet in a 1988 plebiscite.
Genaro Arriagada, the Christian Democratic Party tactician who directed
the "NO" campaign, says the movie ignores the reality of extensive
organizing work by Chilean popular movements, unions, and political
parties, over several years. Pinochet planned to foster violence, annul
the plebiscite, and reassert dictatorial powers if he lost (which was
only hinted at in the film. The self-coup plan was thwarted when the
other members of the military junta refused to back Pinochet.</span> </div>
Kathy Emeryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04038518567566419311noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2043974806333009416.post-16381631023990041142013-03-15T16:23:00.001-07:002013-03-15T16:23:50.564-07:00Video of CCSF Rally March 14th - We Are City College<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/pzoQX_3v5iw?rel=0" width="560"></iframe><br />
<br />
Hopefully, this is the beginning of a movement in SF and the Bay Area for <span style="color: #990000;"><b>fully funded schools that are centers of community energy, empowerment, health and spiritual growth.</b></span><br />
<br />
The organizers of the event probably benefited the most from this event (as it should be according to <a href="http://www.crmvet.org/info/nvonion.htm">Bruce Hartford's Onion Theory</a>). They certainly developed better leadership skills; organizing skills; public speaking skills; media and outreach skills. (learning by doing!). The problem continues to be defined in an ongoing organic fashion, through rallies and lots and lots of smaller meetings.<br />
<br />
We Are City College!Kathy Emeryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04038518567566419311noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2043974806333009416.post-53218429022086534592013-03-07T18:05:00.000-08:002013-03-07T18:05:31.517-08:00Thursday, March 14th Rally at Civic Center<i> [This could be the beginning of something new in SF]</i><b><br /></b><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-gQT9tT3PdLs/UTlFxszNukI/AAAAAAAAAmc/8SOC8v3U2nI/s1600/Screen+shot+2013-03-07+at+5.52.58+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-gQT9tT3PdLs/UTlFxszNukI/AAAAAAAAAmc/8SOC8v3U2nI/s320/Screen+shot+2013-03-07+at+5.52.58+PM.png" width="200" /></a><a href="https://sites.google.com/site/fightbacktosaveccsf/home">Coalition to Save City College of San Francisco</a><b> </b></span><br />
<br />
<b>1 pm Walk Out</b> at CCSF, Ocean Campus<b> </b><br />
<b>2 pm March </b>starting from CCSF, Mission Campus<b> </b><br />
<b>4-6 pm Rally,</b> Civic Center <br />
<br />
"City College of San Francisco (CCSF) is widely acknowledged to be one of the best community colleges in the country. The current crisis is largely the joint creation of two groups: first, the accreditation commission (ACCJC), an unaccountable body that has close ties to for-profit colleges and the student loan industry; and second, interim administrators who have no long-term commitment to the school. Both are abusing the accreditation process to downsize the college, funneling students into private and online schools that will saddle them with crushing debt. This is an attack on tens of thousands of Bay Area residents, particularly from low-income, people of color, and immigrant communities. We, the people of San Francisco, want to save our school and reverse the cuts to classes, programs, staff, and teachers. Join us on March 14 to call on the city’s elected officials to take immediate action. City Hall must ensure that Prop A funds are used for education — as the voters intended. We call on City Hall to fill any extra budget gap by advancing funds to the college. And we urge City Hall to call on the US Department of Education to stop the ACCJC’s unjustified “show cause” sanction against CCSF."<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-yewJ_HdQtk8/UTlFv_kTbkI/AAAAAAAAAmU/WENsQxN4ucY/s1600/PropAsmall.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="505" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-yewJ_HdQtk8/UTlFv_kTbkI/AAAAAAAAAmU/WENsQxN4ucY/s640/PropAsmall.png" width="640" /></a></div>
Kathy Emeryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04038518567566419311noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2043974806333009416.post-45132705591562496202013-03-02T11:07:00.004-08:002013-03-02T11:07:42.687-08:00Civil Rights Act of 1965 and MississippiDo we still need the Voting Rights Act of 1965? Yes, but we need more than that! Below are excerpts from an article from the NYTimes and some maps of various Mississippi election results. The Media and mainstream history focus on the laws and national leaders. But it is the people who make change, ordinary people like you and me. Without us, there is no change.<br />
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I would highly recommend watching the movie <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0213668/">Freedom Song</a> if you are interested in the history of the voting rights campaign in McComb -- a nice case study of the role of ordinary people in making change. While most commentators reporting on the recent Supreme Court's debate over the constitutionality of the 1965 Voting Rights Act have identified John Lewis as "coordinating SNCC in Mississippi," <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Parris_Moses">I would argue that Bob Moses was the actual coordinator in MS</a>. He is portrayed by the character, Daniel Wall, in Freedom Song...which is amazingly historically accurate. McComb was a pillar in the foundation of the movement that broke apartheid in Mississippi and in the Deep South.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.crmvet.org/tim/timhis60.htm#1960sncc">From crmvet.org site</a>:<br />
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"In July, [1960] ... Bob Moses comes to Atlanta to work with SCLC. But there is little happening, and he begins helping Baker and Stembridge at the SNCC desk. Baker asks him to go down into Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana to recruit for a SNCC strategy conference scheduled for Atlanta in October.<b> He leaves in August on a journey that will, in time, transform SNCC from a loose association of independent student groups to an organization of organizers fomenting social revolution in the Deep south. "</b></blockquote>
<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/02/us/politics/a-divide-on-voting-rights-where-blood-spilled.html?ref=todayspaper">NY TIMES: A Divide on Voting Rights in a Town Where Blood Spilled </a><br />
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McCOMB, Miss. [PIKE COUNTY]—. . . . The McComb project, as it was called by civil rights workers in 1961, was one of the early battles in a long and bloody war for voting rights in the South, <i><b>a crucible for future leaders of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee </b></i>who drilled black residents to pass the constitutional literacy tests and in return for their civic engagement were shot at, jailed and beaten. Most people here, whites and blacks, agree that that was a very bad time. They also, generally, agree that things are much better now. But on the more specific question on the necessity of Section 5, which requires nine states, most of them Southern, to submit voting changes for federal approval, opinions begin to separate. And by and large, there is a relatively easy test here to tell what a person is likely to think, and it comes down to the person’s skin color. .. ...<br /><br /> “I have to agree that it was very bad,” said Hollis Watkins, 72, a leader of the McComb project who sang spirituals to his fellow civil rights workers as they languished in jail in 1961. “But based on where we are now, and understanding their way of camouflaging things, <i><b>instead of it being very bad, it’s bad,”</b></i> added Mr. Watkins, <i><b>who is still active in civil rights work in Mississippi. ....</b></i>.... “Rather than the literary tests and poll taxes, the problems we
have now are different,” Mr. Dowdy said. “There are long lines in
certain neighborhoods, there are voter ID requirements. And those kinds
of problems are not restricted to the Southern states.” . . . . <br /><br /> With a black population of 37 percent, by far the largest in the country, Mississippi did not have a black representative in Congress until 1986. As recently as 1990, only 22 out of the 204 members of the Mississippi State Legislature were black. While no black statewide official has been elected, there are now a black congressman and 49 black state lawmakers. </blockquote>
The McComb project seemed to fail at the time. But it's success was in the learned lessons that were used in the voter education project of 1962-3 and then during Freedom Summer of 1964. <br />
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The maps that I put together below attempt to show a correlation among <b>1964 MS Freedom Democratic Party voter registration centers, majority black counties and their gradual transformation into majority democratic voting counties today.</b> My theory is that the 1964 MFDP campaign resulted in <span style="color: #990000;"><u><i><b>grassroots community organizations and local leaders </b></i></u></span>who were able to leverage the 1965 voting rights act to steadily register critical masses of black voters <span style="color: #990000;"><u><i><b>over the last sixty years. </b></i></u></span> Is the struggle over yet? Hell no! but fundamental progress has been made. <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Freedom-Constant-Struggle-Mississippi-Movement/dp/0226020436"><i>Freedom is a CONSTANT STRUGGLE</i></a>---we cannot rest on the laurels of others. By the way, Pike County (PI), where McComb is, went for Obama (it's on the bottom, bordering Louisiana) in 2012. RED = Republican BLUE = Democrat<br />
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<br /> <br /><br />Kathy Emeryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04038518567566419311noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2043974806333009416.post-7480098070109791782013-02-22T08:30:00.000-08:002013-02-22T08:30:02.064-08:00Sit-In at City College! And so it begins?<i><b> </b></i>From: Save CCSF <<a href="mailto:saveccsfpetition@gmail.com">saveccsfpetition@gmail.com</a>><br /> Date: Thu, Feb 21, 2013 at 9:13 PM<br />
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<i><b>......nearly fifty participants have held the space in the [Ocean Campus] admin building for a solid seven and a half hours, and will be holding the building until the morning</b></i>!</blockquote>
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If people want to stop by for the night or just show their support and share their story about city college, feel free to come to the administration building, Conlan Hall, at the Ocean Campus.</blockquote>
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<u><b>Students Demand that Chancellor Thelma Scott-Skillman: </b></u><br />
<ol>
<li>Call on the Board of Trustees to reverse all cuts to classes, services, staff and faculty. Stop downsizing the mission of CCSF and promote equity.</li>
<li>Organize town hall forums at all campuses so that students can have their voices heard. </li>
<li>Make a public statement calling for Prop A funds to be used for education as voters intended. Call on City Hall to give CCSF a bridge loan until Prop A and Prop 30 funds become available. </li>
<li>Speak out against CCSF being put on “Show Cause” without prior sanction. Call on the Department of Education to take action to stop the ACCJC’s misuse of the accreditation process</li>
</ol>
Invite your friends to the event: <a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/332160063557033/">https://www.facebook.com/events/332160063557033/</a> <br />Contact us at <a href="mailto:info@saveccsf.org">info@saveccsf.org</a> if you would like to get involved in the movement! <br /><a href="http://www.saveccsf.org/">www.saveccsf.org</a> - #saveccsfnow - <a href="http://www.facebook.com/saveccsf">www.facebook.com/saveccsf</a><br />
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<br /><a href="http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=news/local/san_francisco&id=9001443"><u><i><b>FROM KGO NEWS </b></i></u></a><br />Thursday, February 21, 2013<br />The chancellor's office says she will not meet protesters. We spoke with one of them a few minutes ago who told us they're deciding how long to stay in Conlan Hall. <br /> (Copyright ©2013 KGO-TV/DT. All Rights Reserved.) Kathy Emeryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04038518567566419311noreply@blogger.com1