2007

by Summer Brenner

These days "exactly wrong" is an expression I employ way too often. But it has nothing to do with spatial dyslexia. It refers to policies that are profoundly consequential. They are not mistakes or accidents. They do not occur from entropy or indifference. On the contrary, they are precisely deliberated and financed -- and in my opinion, exactly wrong.

Here's an egregious example. President and Mrs. Bush entered Washington with education reform at the top of their agenda. From the beginning the logic of the No Child Left Behind Education Act (NCLB) was exactly wrong: reward schools that do well; penalize those that perform poorly.

The typical low-performing school in a low-income area lacks basic resources that only additional funding can rectify. Textbooks often have to be shared, and neither schools nor families can afford supplies. Underpaid teachers frequently use their own money in the classroom to buy necessities.

In one of the Bay Area's poorest neighborhoods, the local school district cannot fund school librarians. School libraries are closed; or hours highly restricted. The paltry art programs are funded through private grants. The schools are filled with students who speak English as a second language and require special tutors. Many children have illiterate or limited-English caretakers at home who can't help with homework or who work at night in the lowest-paying jobs. Under NCLB poor schools can only get poorer and poor children fall farther behind.

Recently, Santa Clara County (San Jose and environs) completed a "school readiness" inventory of nearly 20,000 public school kindergarten students: motor, social, and emotional development, communication and language usage, cognition and general knowledge, et al. The article states that household income is "more closely related to readiness scores than any other factor." (Dana Hall, "Ready or Not?" San Jose Mercury News, March 8,2005).

California just released rankings for its 8,329 public schools. Based on the Academic Performance Index (API) exams, the scores range from 200 to 1000 (or 1-10). A score of 800 (or 10) is considered "excellent," and real estate agents use these measurements to make their properties more attractive. Only 21.4% of all California schools achieved 800, slightly down from last year.

"As a general rule, a school's test-score success correlates to the family income of its student body. In Oakland, for example, where there is a high level of poverty, half of the 99 schools rank just 1. In Palo Alto, where family income is much higher, all but two of the 17 schools rank 10." (Nanette Asimov, San Francisco Chronicle, March 16, 2005).

Third grade is a watershed year: if a child does not perform at grade level in reading, it is predicted they will fail throughout their entire school career. Eight years old and already written off!

Schools and children are both penalized by NCLB for faring poorly. Under the former system, schools could set realistic goals for themselves; but NCLB requires that goals be met not only for the entire school but in various subset categories (according to ethnicity, income, etc.). If any of the categories fail to meet the standard, then the school is sanctioned (no matter how it's faring overall). If it continues to fail to meet these standards, sanctions increase and control of the school can fall to the state. There are no funds to mitigate the problems for these schools and their students, only bureaucratic impositions that demonstrate their failings.

Here's another shocker. California "graduates only 71% of its high school students -- not the 87% it claims"....and "just 50.2 percent of black ninth-grade boys received a diploma four years" after the study began (reported from the Harvard-based Civil Rights Project). The state Superintendent of Public Instruction (Jack O'Connell) "blamed the federal government for ordering California to change its method in 2003 to conform with the national No Child Left Behind Education Act. Under the national formula, California's graduation rate soared from 60.6 to 86.9 percent." (Nanette Asimov, San Francisco Chronicle March 24, 2005).

NCLB has made California's graduation rate look great on paper, erroneous or not. Fortunately, lawmakers are now questioning NCLB's effects. A bipartisan Congressional panel recently pronounced it "a flawed, convoluted and unconstitutional education reform initiative that has usurped state and local control of public schools" (Sam Dillon, "Report Faults Bush Initiative on Education," The New York Times, February 24, 2005).

What their indictment means for the future is uncertain, but the Bush solution for classroom accountability is exactly wrong.

*

Over the past few years, a coalition of elected officials and community groups (myself included) has worked to make bus fare either free or affordable to low-income youth who depend on public transit to get to school. While affluent school districts (few) may still hire buses (often subsidized by participating families), youth in many urban areas (across the country) have to pay to ride public transit to school.

No Child Left Behind takes on a different and literal meaning when you consider that some kids can't afford to get on the bus.

Picture this: low-income youth from a large, densely populated flatland (in Richmond, California) must ride two buses to reach a middle school in the distant hills. In these households there may be no car or family member available to drive kids to school. Nor is there always money to ride the bus.

You perhaps protest. Surely there's a jar of quarters lying around for bus fare. Take a single parent with four children and multiply the quarters on a daily basis. A monthly pass is designed to be more economical than paying for single rides. Currently, a monthly youth pass on AC Transit costs $15; San Francisco's MUNI $10; and San Jose's VTA $49. Now do the math. And check out the interview with Wu-Tang Klan's The RZA" ("Fresh Air," NPR, March 7, 2005). He grew up in New York City (one of eleven children) and estimates he missed 40 days of school a year, attributed in part to lack of funds.

In 2001 through the combined efforts of three elected officials (Aroner, Carson, Gioia), community groups, AC Transit, and public testimony, a two million dollar grant was awarded from the Metropolitan Transportation Commission to pilot a free bus pass program for low-income students in the East Bay (from Fremont to Richmond, including Oakland). Eligibility would be determined by the federally funded free/reduced lunch program. In the pilot, whoever qualified for the lunch program could qualify for a free bus pass.

At the public hearings, many teenagers testified about their plight: they might have money to get to school, but at noon they would have to choose between a $1 lunch or a bus ride home; the walk might be more than two miles; and the route traverse unfriendly, gang-infested neighborhoods. In addition, they not only needed bus fare for after-school activities but also after-school jobs. School counselors, teachers, district superintendents, and parents corroborated that at certain times of the month families had to make hard choices between groceries and bus fare.

School funds are calculated by the formulas of ADA (Average Daily Attendance); and schools are docked for student absences (even if it's an excused absence!). Here's the cycle: poor school districts can't afford to bus kids; poor families don't always have the means to insure their children get to school; when kids don't go to school everyday, the school loses ADA money and the kids lose learning opportunities; yet students are expected to achieve certain levels of academic proficiency; and when their test scores are substandard, their schools are sanctioned by NCLB.

In fall 2002, the free youth pass pilot program began. It met with the usual bureaucratic complications. However, at the end of the first year, over 25,000 middle and high school students carried a free bus pass.

However, the pilot program was grossly underfunded and although scheduled to continue a second year, AC Transit's finances could not support a free pass. Free rose to $15 a month for a pass. Hearings are currently underway to raise fares.

Surveys from an Oakland-based after-school program (Kids First) indicated that flexibility and access afforded by free bus passes were invaluable for low-income youth. Once the cost of fares rose, attendance in their program declined. A study from Transportation Studies (University of California-Berkeley) reported that although the free pass made no statistical difference in school attendance, a single year was insufficient time to draw conclusions.

Unfortunately, federal and state legal precedents do not require schools to provide transportation for their students to school or after-school programs (with the exception of "special needs"). Whilethe federal food programs may provide the only nutritious meal(s) a low-income child receives, there is no guarantee the child can get to school to get the lunch. Exactly wrong.

**

Let's turn to the spanking new renovation of the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Calculation of costs vary (from $425 million for reconstruction to $858 million for the capital fund). As John Updike observes, "Nothing in the new building is obtrusive, nothing is cheap. It feels breathless with unspared expense" (The New Yorker, November 14, 2004).

In "This New House" (NewYorkmetro.com), Alexandra Lange describes each floor of the renovated MOMA in detail. She writes, "Visitors will be greeted on the fifth floor by Rockefeller's [the owner] Paul Signac [the artist] portrait of Felix Feneon, collector critic, dealer....[Feneon was actually an anarchist and editor of radical journal; refer to David Sweetman’s Explosive Acts about art/anarchy at turn of the last century]....The painting, on loan for four months, brilliantly represents the nexus of art and money that is the basis of the modern and the Modern." [brackets – SB]

The view of the garden has also been enlarged and enhanced -- if you're inside the museum. Adrian Glover (for MSNBC) drools over the "indoor-outdoor spirit" where what could be more sublime than eating "diver scallop tartare while gazing upon Claes Oldenburg's Geometric Mouse."

Along with the expanded gallery space and sculpture garden, the price of admission has risen 60 percent to $20 per ticket. Protests and picketing have occurred over the entry fee.

When I was last in New York, shortly after the opening, I declined to visit the museum. I simply walked by the sculpture garden (excuse me, the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Sculpture Garden) which I first visited at ten (my family stayed at the Dorset Hotel since sold as part of MOMA's expansion project).

From the sidewalk on West 54th Street, you can barely see a thing through the tight grates of the high metal fence. It conjures art prison and insures that no one (by god) will (accidentally or otherwise) have even a sliver of experience without paying for it. So much for a world-class, tax-exempt museum for the tax-paying denizens of a world-class city.

A few years ago I escorted a lovely gentleman to the Museum of Modern Art in San Francisco. He was 55 years old and had never visited a museum. An intelligent, curious, semi-literate adult (bus driver by profession) who at the time confessed to me: "I don't know how to go to a museum."

Was he interested in art? Why not? He looked at each painting, read each title, date, and artist's name, and offered his opinion on what he liked and didn't. If he lived in New York, he might have walked by the new MOMA and caught a glimpse of LaChaise or Moore or Oldenburg through a transparent fence. He might have wondered about process, form, materials, and motivation; his intellect and senses aroused and expanded.

In planning jargon that's called "public access," a shrunken vision of the Commons but nonetheless recognized as the most vital element of urban life. It's about an accidental encounter with the marvelous. Without it, need I say -- exactly wrong.

by Linda S. and Mike Malecek

The crowded meeting room of the Peralta Community College Board of Trustees is hot and muggy. The many members of the community that have shown up create a background of noise that calms me down. Over the murmur of voices I hear children crying, and the ring of an old fashioned telephone from outside the room. I can still remember back to that day, when I got the call that saved me.

"Hello", I said.

�Hi, is Linda there?� a soft voice replied.

�Yes, speaking,� I said.

�Hi Linda. This is Jane from the Family Resource Center. I�m just calling to let you know that your name is next on our waitlist of applicants and I wanted to offer you immediate acceptance into our program,� said the caller excitedly.

I couldn�t even respond. The air left my lungs from the astonishment and excitement; I finally got in. My shoulders dropped in relaxation and relief, as if a two-ton barbell had been lifted off of them. Life had been hard enough being a single mother of a 2-year-old boy. I had to find places where he would be looked after while I worked to support us. I wanted to attend my local community college so I could work my way out of poverty by getting a degree, but the lack of childcare resulted in me dropping out. Being a single mother with no affordable childcare is overwhelming. At times it seems like there is no way out and that the abyss we are stuck in grows deeper by the day.

I�m wrenched back into the meeting room by the pounding of a gavel. The meeting is about to begin. I know what I have to do. I have to tell my story. As a lonesome tear runs down the side of my face, glistening in the fluorescent lighting, I realize what we are fighting for; and why giving up is not an option.

Family Resource Centers are usually created by other low-income parents who understand the dire need for affordable or free childcare, for low-and-no-income families trying to seek an education . Many poor single mothers and fathers find themselves struggling to survive because of the lack of affordable childcare available to them in this society. This lack of childcare also makes education inaccessible to poor families. This situation is just keeping the poor poor. If there were more affordable childcare and more funding for the existing family resource centers then parents would be able to support themselves and pursue higher education in colleges across the nation.

In California the situation is becoming critical. Many family resource centers are under attack and are not being adequately supported. This includes some being under funded with a few being at risk for closure or already closed. Currently, the infant and young Child Care center at Laney College in Oakland is already closed. It was closed two weeks before Spring 2006 graduation.

I have always had a fear of talking in front of people. Yet, it is my turn to speak, and I know that it is needed. The board members call me up and I give them my history as a previously homeless mother and a now low-income single mother. I tell them my dreams and my hopes after I get my degree. I have one year left at my college and now that the family resource center that provides me with childcare is closed, I don�t know what to do. I have come so far, and I refuse to be stopped here. As a low-income single parent I do what I can to help the fight to keep these places open. I talk. I tell people my story and how I could not have done what I have without the support of these organizations. The people I talk to listen to my story and I pray that they take it to heart in their decisions.

I step down from the podium and take my place in the sea of people. The sweat glistens on their foreheads from the summer night�s heat. The board calls up the next individual, and the process continues. I am not the only person who is in this predicament, but just one of the many. I feel my son�s soft hair against my neck as he bounces up and down on my lap. Looking down at him, I only can hope better for him in the future.

There is a massive action and press conference demanding that the Laney College Infant and Toddler Center be re-opened at 12:00 noon on Wednesday August 23rd in front of Laney COllege at 1220 Fallon Street. To get involved in the collaborative effort of POOR Magazine,LIFETIME, California Tomorrow, Parent Voices and Bananas Inc to save the Family Resource Centers at Community colleges state-wide call POOR at (415) 863-6306.

by Dee

Gollum the lazy vulture who had to go to flying school

By Stewart Payne

Gollum the idle vulture had no reason to fly. His meals were delivered by hand, so for four years he has simply furled his mighty 6ft wings�and hopped everywhere.

Chocks away: but Gollum still cannot get off the ground

Until yesterday, that is. In what might seem a rather dramatic attempt to make him to do what should have come naturally, his owner took him to a vertical wind tunnel in the hope that a powerful blast of air might awaken a dormant instinct.

Gollum, an African white-backed vulture born in captivity, at first just perched impassively on his owner's outstretched arm. But then some primeval call of the wild reached him. Gollum outstretched his wings and�well, that was about it.
Gollum

We have lift-off: Gollum is introduced to the wind tunnel

But for Steve Eales it was a breakthrough. Having tried everything he could think of to get his pet to fly, the wind tunnel was the last-ditch attempt. "He took his entire weight off my arm," he said. "I had to keep hold for his safety, but he was as close to soaring as you can get."

Mr Eales hopes that Gollum's brief flying lesson may be sufficient to encourage him to take to the wing without the need for a second visit to the Airkix wind tunnel at Milton Keynes, Bucks, which is used to train sky divers.

Mr Eales, 43, who runs Hawk on the Wild Side in Milton Keynes, which gives people a chance to get close to birds of prey, said: "Gollum simply never learnt to fly. He knows where his tea is coming from each day and clearly just thinks, 'What do I need to go up there for?' "

by Anna Kirsch/POOR Magazine Media & Poverty Studies Intern

"We are here today to activate that voice that our young people already have, to activate their dreams, and to activate their own power to make those dreams happen," the young Latina woman's soft voice came through the microphone with conviction and confidence. Raquel Jimenez, Program Director for Youth Together, who is also a mother, was speaking to a group of about fifty educators, parents, students, and the new superintendent of the West Contra Costa Unified School District (WCCUSD) under a clear blue sky and strong afternoon sun with the winds whispering in the leaves above her head in John F. Kennedy Park, Saturday August 5th.

It was the perfect day for what organizers had dubbed, Cook out and Speak Up, a multigenerational event and opportunity for community members to gather to meet and voice their concerns to the new superintendent of WCCUSD, Dr. Bruce Harter. Jointly organized by the community based research institute, Justice Matters, and a youth justice organization, Youth Together, the goal of the event was to create an open conversation between the community and Dr. Harter to jointly find solutions to the learning crisis occurring in the WCCUSD.

After speaking with over forty teachers and ninety families in the local community, Justice Matters learned that there were serious problems occurring in the education of local youths. "One of the biggest problems is the high school exit exam and the movement to privatize education," Jimenez says. "We're not asking for lower standards we're asking for better quality teaching and for schools that engage...and provide a meaningful education for students such as defined by them," she added.

As I sat there in the audience surrounded by concerned and supportive family members wearing stickers demanding "REAL SCHOOLS NOW," listening to the presentations, stories, and scholarship offered up by students and community leaders, my mind wandered back to my own high school days in Norfolk, Virginia. I had attended a multicultural diverse public high school and luckily had finished before the horrendous No Child Left Behind Act had taken effect.

I, therefore, wasn't the product of standardized test taking and ridged, unexciting curriculums. My schedule had been filled with orchestra, art, and foreign language classes and to this day I can't even fathom my development as a person without these important electives. I felt saddened by the stories of these students stuck in a system unconcerned with their development as people and a strong desire to stand and fight with these students came over me. Testing isn't what education should be about.

Diane Ponce, a community leader and mother of three, obviously shares this desire. She became concerned and involved with the WCCUSD when her youngest child, Angel Diez, a third grader at Downer Elementary, started losing interest in learning.

"My little one brought it to my attention when he said to me 'mommy we do the same thing everyday and if we don't we get in trouble,'" Ponce told me while shading the bright sun from her concerned, almond-shaped eyes. After doing her own research and classroom observation Ponce learned that that the rigorous academic curriculum her children were forced to undergo solely for the benefit of passing exams wasn't benefiting them at all.

"I felt that the teachers weren't teaching my children; they were programming them," Ponce, who voiced these concerns and more to Dr. Harter, told me. "I'm here today to show that people do care about education and I believe that today's event can bring us together and from one hand we can make one mighty fist and we will succeed," she stated adamantly.

Many parents, like Ponce, and students stood up and took the
microphone out of the administration's hands and into their own, sharing similar experiences and stories with Dr. Harter, who stood in the back of the audience listening attentively. One such student was Nadya Sanchez, a bright, outspoken and engaging senior at Leadership Public and member of Youth Together. She shared her scholarship and firsthand experiences in the classroom and discussed the problems with violence and the need to learn life skills in school.

"I want them (the superintendent and school board) to bring new things to the schools like more electives and to help us by bringing more events to stop the violence and racial tension," Sanchez said. "Right now we have two hour long classes that are only based on testing. I want to concentrate more on critical thinking and not only about topics that are going to be on the test," she told me after giving an informative and effective presentation on the Cycle of Violence in local communities.

While the smell of grilled hot dogs and hamburgers wafted through the air and the balloons and banners rustled in the trees, the audience looked on eagerly and attentively as Dr. Harter approached the microphone after being summoned for his response by Lisa Gray-Garcia, the Communications Director for Justice Matters (and editor of POOR Magazine). "Come up and tell the community what you see yourself doing to make change happen within our concerns," Gray-Garcia boldly stated through the mic.

With his casual attire, wire rimmed glasses and silver gray hair glistening in the sun, Dr. Harter stepped to the front of the group from his safe haven under the trees. With the curious eyes of many scrutinizing him, he began his response by thanking the organizers and community members. He continued by confidently speaking about change and commitments.

"As a parent myself, I understand that parents want their children to be ready to take the next step in life, they want them to have not only academic skills but also social skills, " he stated as many audience members nodded their heads vigorously in agreement.

He reassured parents that he's committed to the arts and a broad deep curriculum although he did note, "testing is a part of life." He continued by addressing the importance of reassuring students and giving them the confidence they need to succeed. "We have to tell them over and over, you can do it and that we are not going to give up on them ever," he added.

The biggest cheer let out by the audience came when Dr. Harter announced his pledge to be an antiracist leader in the community. "I started teaching in the inner-city of Detroit after the 1967 race riots. I've been involved in these kinds of causes and this kind of work for the last 35 years," he later told me individually when I asked about his qualifications.

Perhaps the most important moment of the day came when Dr. Harter was asked by Emma, a mother from Cesar Chavez Elementary, to sign a written pledge promising to meet with Justice Matters, Youth Together, and the community every three months for the rest of the year. Without hesitation, Dr. Harter agreed, checked the “Si” box and signed in permanent black marker for every one to see. Of course these are the types of promises this community has heard before, too many times to count now.

"This is just the beginning of the conversation," program director for Justice Matters, Olivia Araiza, said, "we still have a lot of collaboration to do." While carrying boxes of materials used for the event back to her car she spoke to me about the importance of the next step.

"Of course everything is great now and we are happy, but when he starts making serious decisions that's when we'll truly know what's going on with this administration," she said, her thin arms lugging a box full of literature about today's event. "He needs to come to the table with values and be willing to change agendas," Araiza said.

If Dr. Harter truly remembers the commitments that he made today to the local community and the insight he gained from listening to the people then maybe change will occur where its needed the most in the WCCUSD.

"I only made commitments that I feel in my heart are a part of who I am so it won't take any conscious effort to live up to the things I said I would do today because it's who I am and what I most deeply believe in," Dr. Harter said confidently when I asked him how he planned on staying true to his many promises.

I only hope, like so many of the parents, educators, and students that he's not only committed to the beliefs in his own heart but also to taking action and working aggressively for change in a community and country that so desperately needs it right now.

The new superintendent Dr. Bruce Harter can be contacted through email and phone. Bruce.harter@gw.wccusd.k12.ca.us and at (510) 231-1101. Let him know your concerns and ideas. To get involved in the ongoing work of Justice Matters in Richmond and San Pablo and the rest of West Contra Costa County you can call them at (415) 618-0993.

by Tiny

As chips of ice fell from the sky, my Mama, Mama Dee, African/Boricua-Taino/Roma orphan from the streets of Philly, passed on her spirit journey

Mama Dee, co-editor of POOR Magazine, Grandmama to Tiburcio, disabled artist, conceptualist and story-teller.

Mama Dee, corporate media critic and independent media producer, singer, and dancer to all rhythms.

Mama Dee, torture victim, fighter for social justice for mamas, children, families and folk locally and globally.

Mama Dee, mother of tiny for without whom there would be no me�

On the snow-laced San Francisco night of March 10th - Mama Dee toiled on a segment - for PoorNewsNetwork's monthly radio show at POOR Magazine's office. At 7:19 PM she called me to say she was going home to the tenderloin apartment we have shared ever since we stopped being homeless not so many years ago. We laughed together about what she called Dick Cheny's new scam to sell Amerikkka to Halliburton (i.e. the "Dubai" issue)

That was the last time we spoke. She died suddenly without feeling any pain while in a catnap on our couch at 8:45 PM

Mama Dee has been suffering for the last four years from a heart condition that she believed stemmed from her days as a child who was starved and severely beaten in a series of brutal foster homes. She has been suffering for as long as I can remember with psychological disabilities and fear from those years.

As a very low-income single mother she struggled through welfare, low-wage jobs and motherhood to earn her masters degree in Social Work so she could help children like she had been. Battling with conventional forms of "treatment" and service provision, she became a champion of Black psychology and other forms of non-western treatment modalities for poor mothers, poor families and folks of color

In her role as co-editor of POOR Magazine, she co-authored the WORK issue which explored unrecognized forms of labor including panhandling and motherhood, the MOTHERS issue which looked at the experience of poor mothers locally and globally and she launched COURTWATCH, an extremely innovative media advocacy project which stemmed from her own personal hell with Child Protective Services and their bedfellows The Juvenile Dependency Court. Through this project she helped countless low and no-income families of color who had been abused by this very racist and classist system.

She was also one of the lead artists on the fascinating Poverty Hero Project at POOR which incorporated her love of literary art, visual art and advocacy as well as countless other media projects. But the one that she would want me to mention beyond all others was her hilarious children's book series; The Po' Cats- A coupla low-income cats talk back! - for voice that's never heard. Through the allegorical lens of two felines, Hands and Lester the reader gets a critique of issues such as indigenous colonization, orphanages, eldership and more.

As her sole caregiver since 12 years old, her daughter, her best friend and her collaborator I have supported her in every way I can. As her collaborator I have had the privilege of making art, performance, video, and poetry through her lens. As her partner in dance and song I have had the privilege of learning how to dance, sing and see people, life and community with, through and along-side her brilliant world view.

A creative artist and innovative thinker in death as in life it was her clear wish to not be buried in the ground. Coming from a long line of poor women who didn't even have the money to buy a burial plot, it was her wish to be strapped to the top of a car and driven around for at least a year. Barring that option (which I did explore) and on the advice of close friends and fellow artists, Gerry A., Robin S., and Barry S, Mama Dee was cremated and her urn was strapped to the car in an interactive life-art installation.

The installation included a multi-media shrine in her honor with pictures, videos and mediaInAction performances that she created over the years. The installation departed on a road trip at 6:00pm on Friday, March 24th from UN Plaza in San Francisco - this was the the official Bay Area ceremony in honor of Dee.

Excerpts from the ceremony can be seen on channel 29's news broadcast throughout the months of May and June.

To hear some of Dee's incisive art and political commentary on issues of race, class, culture and consciousness as well as a poetic tribute from her POOR Magazine family you can listen to PoorNewsNetwork's March 20th radio broadcast on KPFA's morning show which you can access on-line any time by going to www.kpfa.org and clicking on the morning show for March 20th

by Adriana Diaz/POOR Magazine Media and Poverty Studies Intern

A new fashion has been made when a small set of sticky hand prints become permanently stamped on my new avocado green gaucho pants. “Ms. Adri… Ms. Adri,” a blue mouth lollipop eating Huckleberry mumbles, “did you know that Barry Bonds is one home run away from beating Babe Ruth?” This four year old going on 30 is one of the amazing young children at F.A.M.I.L.Y, a multigenerational program that teaches children ages 2-11 years old.

It is Tuesday, a day I look forward too. I am sitting in a “cris cross apple sauce” position, as the children will put it, at 1095 Market St., where my non-profit, grass roots,arts and social justice inspired internship at POOR Magazine is held. I am thinking about how blessed I am to come across such an important and eye opening organization.

I was so grateful to learn that POOR Magazine and Artistikal Revolutionary Teaching (A.R.T) was working towards something so powerful. POOR and A.R.T collaborated together to form F.A.M.I.L.Y.(Family Access to Multi-cultural Intergenerational Learning with our Youth). “Both POOR and A.R.T believe in honoring our ancestors, family involvement, providing quality education, interdependency models, and childcare support to families who are struggling with poverty,” said Jewnbug, one of the Co-mama facilitators for F.A.M.I.LY.

I had the privilege of being there on the first day. It is a place of learning for children, adults, and elders throughout the Bay Area. It has a unique yet powerful method for teaching. F.A.M.I.L.Y’s primary goal involves a “multi-generational model of eldership, ancestor worship, family involvement and respect” (F.A.M.I.L.Y Project Manifesto). In one room, low and no income, and homeless adults are taking courses towards awareness at POOR’s Media Education Institute classes (i.e.: Journalism, Publishing, Radio, Multimedia Production) and can receive access to free childcare/schooling for their children in the room next door.

The multi-generational learning model is a manifestation of the village. Dr. Wade Nobles, a full-tenured professor in the Black Studies Department with a PhD in social psychology at San Francisco State University said, “Everyone in the village is responsible for guiding, for directing, and for making sure that the next generation advances to the next higher level, the person of good character.”

F.A.M.I.L.Y’s other role is working with the parents. F.A.M.I.L.Y wants to make this form of teaching accessible for everyone, so it bases its tuition equally on a “REAL sliding scale”. For working poor parents, childcare would be free while those who can afford it can contribute to those who can’t. The Family Learning Project survives through internships, volunteers, donations, and a CO-OP with parents.

Being an adult intern for the F.A.M.I.L.Y Project, Jewnbug and Tiny, both Co-Mama facilitators, open the doors for me to express my teaching skills through various facets of art. The program runs every Tuesday during the summer from 4-8:30pm. There are three forms to this educational process that work toward creating this curriculum: social justice, art-based, and multi-media. “Children learn in an atmosphere where older children take on the responsibility of taking care of the younger children while all participate in the same lesson,” said Jewnbug. Education for our children is a key ingredient to see that steps are being taken toward eradicating struggles of ignorance, racism, discrimination, and segregation.

I had the opportunity to talk to Linda Montoya, a single mama trying to survive and thrive on welfare, who trusts in F.A.M.I.L.Y and believes in its goal. “My son Kimo and I have no family members…grandparents, aunts, and uncles or any support systems; so for Kimo it is important for him to socialize and explore his talents within a group of people that are caring,” said Linda Montoya. She also went on to express her gratitude and sense of relief that there is a place she feels safe enough to leave her child for a few hours while she goes out and spends that time finding a job to support her family.

"The launch of F.A.M.I.L.Y. is the manifestation of a dream, a dream borne from the core values of POOR Magazine," Co-mama Tiny explains to me, "POOR’s indigenous organizing model is a post-modern, neo-urban re-creation of the village as a direct response/solution/resistance to the effects of abusive systems like Child Protective Services(CPS), the Criminal Un-JUSTice, system and the Welfare system.Poor folks like me and my mama, end up at the mercy of these systems many times because we don’t have a village, i.e., support networks, family and community elders to watch over us and our kids, offer love and support, helping hands and resources."

Co-mama Tiny went on to explain that in collaborating with Artistikal Revolutionary Teaching, POOR was able to expand its teaching and learning model of social justice, arts, multi-culturalism,eldership and interdependence to children as young as two who learn along with and from, their 9, 10 and eleven year old "elders" as well as with and from their in-class parent and co-parent teachers, which is another resistance to state-sponsored school system models which are inherently based on separation and the fostering of independence.
"The grouping of people according to their ages is in and of itself another form of separation, just like a frontera / border,” Tiny added.

Tiny concluded looking into the distance," F.A.M.I.L.Y. is just the beginning of a larger dream inspired by my Mama Dee, the creation of Homefulness, a sweat equity co-housing project for homeless and formerly houseless families that includes a site for Jewnbug's larger vision of A.R.T and our collective ideas of the F.A.M.I.L.Y. Project, i.e., a school (for ages 2-102,) as well as a permanent site for POOR Magazine, and a performance and poetry space for the whole community, in other words a real long-term solution to homelessness and poverty.

The screams of laughter coming from the voices of little ones jumping around, banging on conga drums snaps me back out of the surreal and into reality. I am staring back into the almond roasted eyes of Huckleberry, who is still working on his lollipop and contemplating his next baseball trivia question he will throw at me. Huckleberry is just one of many students who inspire my quest to teach and my continuation to learn.

For More information on how to support HOMEFULNESS; the Equity Campaign go on-line to www.poormagazine.org or call POOR at (415) 863-6306

by Dee and tiny

"I am a member of the get-along club," the excited voice of 17-year-old Tamicka Baker, blasted through the phone. POOR staff had been referred to this powerful young woman by her mother, Anitra Baker, mentor, teacher and parent liaison at John Swett Elementary School.

John Swett is one of the schools slated for closure and then subsequent merger with John Muir Elementary School by a 4-3 San Francisco School Board vote. For the dedicated, involved and engaged family and friends who make up the innovative, multi-cultural, multi-generational mix that is John Swett, this decision came as more than a blow; this is the devastation of a community.

There are other words that come to mind for the closure of this majority African descendent school, located at ground zero of the Fill-no-mo�, from which 5,000 Black families and 200 Black-owned businesses were removed not so many years ago under the myth of �redevelopment� � more accurately described with words like Diaspora and discrimination and destruction.

As parent and grandparent of a 2-and-a-half-year-old boy, my worldview and that of Dee, my mother and co-editor of POOR, are informed by Afro-centric values, which means we are already feeling the struggle to be involved and stay involved in the lives and education of children once they enter a Euro-centric public school system. A system based on Western values of separation and independence, which inherently does not respect the direct involvement of parents and grandparents in the learning, teaching and mentoring process of a child while he or she is on school property is not based on respect for elders and interdependence. John Swett Elementary School is different � very different.

�We are on campus with the kids as paid parent liaisons,� said Anitra Baker. �I teach them dance; my husband, Dawayne, is a coach, yard monitor and mentor. And then we open our home to kids on the weekend to help them with their homework. The school is an extension of our home.�

After Dee read about the slated closure of the amazing John Swett, she was stunned. John Swett, Dee realized, was in fact an example of the Afro-centric �village� in action, complete with eldership and interdependence of families, children, teachers and community. The �village� that everyone refers to but never really understands � a village that is taking care of its people, its children, its families � this village is about to be dismantled.

�The older girls who graduated (from John Swett) act as mentors and tutors to the younger kids,� the dynamic Anitra Baker told Dee. Anitra and Dawayne Baker have seven children who are either attending school there or are alumni of the school and continue to act as mentors to the younger children in the Get Along Club, the Little Sisters with Soul and/or the choir that Anitra leads on campus.

�Eldership,� explained Dr. Wade Nobles in �The Nature of Mama,� an interview in POOR Magazine Vol. 4, �says that everyone older than you is responsible for your well-being and welfare. So it makes no difference whether it�s your 16-year-old cousin and you are 9. That person is responsible for looking out for you, for teaching, for guiding. Everyone in the village is responsible for making sure that the next generation advances to the next higher level, to a person of good character.�

�Closing this school is a crime,� declared San Francisco School Board member Mark Sanchez. In our search for answers about the closure vote, we sought out Mark, who, along with Sara Lipson and Eric Mar, voted to keep Swett open.

Mark outlined the stated reasons for the proposed merger of Muir and Swett elementary schools: �First, it�s overall budget cuts and the loss of several thousand students from the system. Second, it�s a proximity issue. There are two schools in the Western Addition: John Swett, a somewhat small school which has an 81 percent enrollment, versus John Muir, which is a large school which is under-enrolled with 55 percent capacity.�

Mark went on to describe another more problematic, highly controversial use for the John Swett School: Its proximity to San Francisco Unified School District headquarters makes it attractive for conversion to office space.

�If the proposed merger goes through, it would be very difficult to replicate the programs and teachers and community that exist now in John Swett. I know of at least one dynamic teacher who is not planning to move (to Muir),� Mark added.

Tragically �lost in the merger� would be Swett�s extremely innovative arts-based curriculum, which, unlike John Muir�s, is not based on the No Child Left (Alive) Behind scripted curriculum-inspired mandates that many conscious teachers and parents find harmful to students.

�Mergers are not the only way to deal with these kinds of issues. For example, Ortega and Sheridan were not merged, because they are going to pursue becoming K-8 schools,� Mark concluded. �A sustained amount of protest can urge the board to bring the school up for discussion.�

Looking further into the kinds of sloppy and uncaring education policy that could allow the devastating closure of Swett Elementary, I spoke to Susan Sandler, executive director of Justice Matters, a policy institute that works on racial justice in education,

�Schools have social capital. They can be communities where people build up trust for each other over years of knowing each other. They may be places where people have ownership and passion for a project or program they created that makes it come alive.�

�John Swett,� Susan continued, �seems to have created an environment where Western Addition parents embrace the school and are contributing their time and offering its students their gifts of love, wisdom and talent. That kind of presence can make a huge difference in students� educational experience.�

Reflecting on Susan�s words, I was drawn back to the original conversation with Anitra and her daughter, Tamicka. Almost simultaneously, they�d both said, in reference to what they do and believe about their school, its students and families, �It�s all about the love.�

Community, do not let this school be moved! Get involved with the fight to keep it open.
Call the School Board at (415) 241-6427 and ask them to reconsider and discuss the merger of John Swett. To support the parents and teachers of John Swett, call Dawayne Baker at (415) 424-6515.

by Leroy Moore/Illin'n chillin

Although I’m very ecstatic that Foxy Brown regained her hearing, I’m once again disappointed on the lost opportunity for the Hip-Hop industry to gain needed education around disability and the growing population of deaf/disabled artists. I was saddened when I heard last year, 2005, that Foxy Brown had lost her hearing. Trying to make it positive, I thought this would be the time that hip-hop would be forced to look at deafness and deaf artists in the industry. For the most part I was once again wrong. Throughout Foxy Brown’s deafness, I only saw news about her coming out and saying that she had lost her hearing and then the news just focused on her surgery to regain her hearing.

At least today, artists like Foxy Brown can voice their incidents, from a disabling event to court cases. I remember the media around Teddy Pendergrass, TP, and the car accident that left him physically disabled in 1982. His voice was missing and the media at that time had written him off as a Black, sexy stallion in the music industry and in the Black community. It took TP years to find a publisher to publish his book, Truly Blessed. Today I see some progress in the media when it comes to musicians’ trails of disability, but very seldom does the media go beyond the individual disability to the general environment of the music industry for newly disabled musicians.

Hip-hop has had many opportunities to go beyond the experience of artists on slot of disability to focus on the industry’s attitudes, physical landscape and inclusiveness. From MF Grimm, who is an old timer in hip-hop and who is a wheelchair user to many underground disabled hip-hop artists, the hip-hop movement is missing a great opportunity to be educated and to open their doors a lot wider. From my research and interviews, Deaf hip-hop is growing all over the US & UK. However, the mainstream media around Foxy Brown’s deafness didn’t expand to mention Hip-Hop Anansi, the first hip-hop play with a deaf and hearing cast, or The Helix Boyz, a deaf hip-hop group, or post production of "Lost For Words", a proposed movie about an internet love affair centering around the hearing-disabled hip-hop scene in New York by Kori Schneider. All of these received some press but not the amount they deserved.

It’s not up to Foxy Brown or any other artist to carry the mantel of their recent disability, especially in the early stages. It is up to our media and this hip-hop generation to go deeper into stories of an individual musician and their community past and present to put it in a broader context.

Now that Foxy Brown is back working on her new CD, I wonder, will she mention her experience of loosing her hearing in her songs, like MF Grimm has done in his recent Cds? Although Foxy Brown can hear now, the opportunity for the hip-hop industry is still at their doorstep. The question is will the hip-hop industry, its media and us ever open the door all the way to not only the disabled hip-hop artists, but also to do some Spring cleaning in the industry of attitudes around the marketability of disabled artists and other dirty laundry that makes it overwhelmingly inaccessible beyond the underground?

Like I said in the beginning, I am so very happy that Foxy Brown can hear now, however I would like to mention some incredible deaf artists who are living with their deafness every day and continue to do their art. Check it out:

Deaf Hip-Hop/Poetry

- The Helix Boyz, their new CD is called The H. www.soundclick.com/helixboyz

- Wawa Snipe, a Deaf Rapper who acted in the play, Hip-Hop Anansi.

- Ayisha Knight, a Deaf poet and photographer with her CD, Until. She is most proud of being the first Deaf person to appear on HBO’s Def Poetry Jam. www.ayishaknight.com

- L.Y.F.E, a Deaf hip-hop artist with solo CD: Southern Comfort. www.soundclick.com/lyfe

- Hip-Hop Anansi play, for more information about this play go to www.imaginationstage.org

AND A LOT MOORE…………..

by Lisa Gray-Garcia/PNN

“Si Se Puede!” (Yes we CAN!) Caramel, honey, white and dark chocolate arms and multi-lingual voices rose in unison as they marched down the rain-slicked streets of Richmond and San Pablo toward a school board meeting deciding on a landmark challenge to the California High School Exit Exam (CAHSEE).

On Monday April 10th, the West Contra Costa Unified School District (WCCUSD) voted no on a proposal brought forth by school board member Dave Brown which would have acted as an alternative to the California High School Exit Exam (CAHSEE). The proposal included granting high school diplomas to students in the district who successfully completed all of their high school requirements as well as a “Senior Year Demonstration” even if they did not pass the much-maligned California High School Exit Examination (CAHSEE).

Hundreds of students, parents, teachers and advocates spoke in favor of the proposal in the two hour packed meeting of the board, while only a handful of mostly white administrators, businesspeople and residents of other parts of the county spoke in opposition.

School board member Karen Pfeifer also expressed opposition. "We are not a diploma mill. We don't just give them away," she lectured. "You earn them."

Notwithstanding Pfeifer’s comments directed at the students present, which were peppered with references to the students’ future lack of employability as “janitors and plumbers,” the Senior Year Demonstration includes a rigorous combination of portfolios, research and presentations

According to Multiple Measures Approaches to High School Graduation published by the School Redesign Network at Stanford University, alternatives such as the proposed demonstration are currently being enthusiastically used by several states such as Oregon, Vermont, Washington and Maine. The Stanford Study stated that rather than being detrimental to student learning, alternatives such as the Senior Year Demonstration encourages an ambitious range of thinking and performance skills in students who participate.

“Teaching is Not testing, “ said Olivia Araiza, program director from Justice Matters, a research and policy institute that works on creating racially just schools for low-income students of color.

Olivia continued, “The only thing we know for sure that the exit exam is doing is that it is creating a state-sanctioned underclass by denying hard working, smart students of color their diploma.”

The demographic backgrounds of the youth of West Contra Costa County who have not passed the CAHSEE mirror the overall demographics of students across the state that have not passed the test. Statewide, 19% of low-income students, 31% of English language learners, 18% Latino students, and 20% of African-American students have not passed the CAHSEE.

"I had to take a test to graduate,” said Al Kirkman, coach at Pinole Valley High. Kirkman’s shirt and legs matched, emanating a monochromatic sheen of whiteness into the dimly lit meeting room. "You (Karen Pfeifer) had to take a test to become a nurse, and you (Charles Ramsey) had to pass the bar to become a lawyer,” He concluded by saying that students who do not pass should be held back.

“I have completed all my classes, I got good grades, and yet I still can’t get a diploma,” said Trina Montgomery, 17, a high school student in the district.

“The Exit Exam is a distraction that takes us away from the crisis that exists in student learning, which is what we need to focus on before we institute more tests ,” said Rochelle Spence, parent of children in the district.

“This is not about abolishing the exit exam,” said Dave Brown in his closing arguments. “It’s about creating multiple measures so students can demonstrate proficiency,” he said. “This is about preventing a crime against our students and the constitution of the U.S. having precedence over the government violating their own laws.”

“We are hard-working students, we have earned our diplomas, this is not just,” said Richmond High School student Ronald Gaydan.

As the final vote was taken, there were several references made by Board members Karen Leong Fenton and Charles Ramsey to “abiding by the law” in regards to State Superintendent’s Jack O’Connell’s threat of legal action made to any school district that does not enforce the testing requirement.

The room became silent. Only the voices of politicians filled the thick air. ”The proposal fails 4 to 1.”

Simultaneously they stood. Brown and black eyes burning with the conviction of students who fight for their rights, who spend time every day doing homework, while also caring for their sisters and brothers, hermanos y hermanas, mothers and fathers, abuelitos y grandparents. Simultaneously they left the room.

by Angela Pena/Prensa Pobre (POOR Magazine)

Como periodista, madre imigrante y luchadora, me interesa dar informaci�n a comunidades de color sobre servicios. Me involucre con la Asesoria Legal cuando me encontraba en una reuni�n con la Colectiva de Mujeres donde nos reunimos todas las semanas las compa�eras que trabajamos limpiando casas para hacer un mejor asesoramiento de nuestro trabajo. En ese momento nos dan la noticia que abran oportunidades para personas que quieran trabajar como asesores legales.

Mientras escuchaba la noticia pens� que esta es una gran oportunidad para mi. Al siguiente d�a recib� una llamada en la cual me preguntan si quiero participar en este trabajo. Mi respuesta es que si y contesto, "Me gusta mucho ayudar a las personas". Se me informa que este es un trabajo voluntario, pero esto no me preocupa en ese momento, y acepte. As� fue mi inicio a la asesoria legal.

"Me agrada mucho, dar informar a las personas de sus derechos legales".Toda persona que vive y trabaja en los Estados Unidos tiene que informarse de los derechos que tiene como trabajador. En especial los jornaleros y trabajadoras domesticas que viven abusos y ataques anti-inmigrante d�a a d�a. Empezando por los pagos por hora en California que son de $7.50 pero en la Ciudad de San Francisco es de $9.14 y en todo Los Estados Unidos es de $5.15. Este es el pago m�nimo por hora no importando el status legal.

La Asesoria legal de la Raza Centro Legal es un servicio que se encuentra en la comunidad. Durante una entrevista con La Dra. Hillary Ronen, asesora y fundadora de este programa, nos informo que los objetivos de ayudar a los jornaleros son de "�aumentar el poder individual para organizar, con los compa�eros para luchar por cambios sociales que beneficien a las personas sin recursos y de color". La Asesoria Legal facilita el uso de recursos y espacio para que los trabajadores se junten para poder compartir sus situaciones y resolver las violaciones de sus derechos como trabajadores.

Este tema me impacta en lo personal ya que he pas�por una situacion de abus� de parte de una empleadora. Cuando me present� ha trabajar en esta casa la empleadora me hizo trabajar muy r�pido, y limpiar los lugares mas sucios por termino de una hora. Cuando lo principal estaba limpio, me dijo que yo hab�a quebrado la refrigeradora y que mi trabajo no le habia gustado y me saco de la casa. Todo esto fue una excusa para no pagarme. No pude demandarla por que esta empleadora estaba en el processo de mudarse de casa y no sab�amos su nueva direcci�n, y hab�a dado un nombre sin apellido a la oficina. Esto me sucedi� en un 10 Mayo del a�o 2006, fue mi regalo del d�a de la Madre.

Al preguntarle a la Dra. Sobre las personas que est�n seleccionadas para recibir estos recursos ella me responde en tono de alcance que la ayuda es para "personas que no le caen bien ha George Bush. Todas las personas est�n seleccionadas pero sobre todo las personas que quieren luchar por un lugar mas justo". Esta instituci�n es gratuita para las personas que lo necesiten o hayan tenido alg�n problema en sus trabajos. En si la
Asesoria Legal da la oportunidad a trabajadores de aprender sus derechos para ejercer su poder y defenderse de patrones que abusan.

Nuestros derechos como trabajadores son atacados por empleadores, y por el mismo gobierno. Esta asesoria legal esta ubicada 474 Valencia y 16st.

Estos servicios se dan cada martes de las 5:30pm a las 7:30pm. En el cuarto 295. Esta atendida por gente como yo que somos voluntarios, que est�mos bajo la supervisi�n de abogados de California. Esta instituci�n se encarga de casos como:

* Recuperar sueldos por v�as favorables de mutuo acuerdo.

* Sueldos no pagados (Recuperaci�n de estos por v�as legales).

* Multas a los empleadores por no hacer sus pagos en sus determinadas fechas.

En el futuro el programa quisiera extender sus servicios al apoyar una ley que creara un fondo de compensaci�n para trabajadoras domesticas que se lesionan mientras trabajan en casas privadas. La visi�n de la asesoria legal y La Raza Centro Legal sigue expandi�ndose. Para el a�o 2008 el programa quiere desarrollar m�todos fijos de involucrar a clientes en forma de piqueteo, de campa�as para conseguir reformas verdaderas y justas. Por supuesto los trabajadores tomar�an posiciones de liderazgo en este proceso.

Para concluir, La Dra. Hillary al igual que esta escritora quiere mandar un mensaje a los empleadores. "Que los patrones abusivos deben de tener mucho miedo por que la comunidad jornalera esta organizada para luchar en contra de cualquier abuso de cualquier empleador.

Para recibir estos servicios consulte directamente a la Doctora Hilary Ronen al tel�fono (415) 553-3415.

Article in English:

As a journalist, immigrant mother and resistor, I am always interested in providing information about services that serve communities of color, which is why I got involved with an innovative legal advocacy program for immigrant workers. I heard about this program at the Colectiva de Mujeres where I meet every week with co-worker women who clean houses for a living, like me.

I am glad to inform people about their legal rights. Everyone who lives in the United States should be informed about their workers rights. It is especially important for Day Laborers and domestic workers who live with the day to day anti-immigrant attacks and abuses. Beginning with California, the hourly pay is $7.50, in San Francisco its $9.14 and in the entire US is $5.15. These are the different minimum wages that should be paid regardless of legal status.

The Legal Advisory program at La Raza Centro Legal is a community-based service. Doctor Hillary Ronen, who is a legal advisor and founder of the program, tells us that the objective of helping day laborers �is to augment the individual power to organize with co-workers to fight for social change that will benefit low income people and people of color�. The program facilitates the use of resources to workers so that they can get together to share their situations and resolve these worker rights violations.

Personally I have also been exploited by an employer. When I arrived to work to this house this employer made me work quickly by cleaning the dirtiest places in the entire house in under one hour. When that the main areas where cleaned, she told me that I had broken the refrigerator and that she had not liked the work I had done and proceeded to kick me out of the house. All of this was an excuse to not pay me. I was unable to place a full complaint because she was in the process of moving, she did not give us her new address and did not give the working agency a last name. This happened to me in May of 2006, on a mothers day: this was my gift.

When asking the Dr. about the people that she advocates for she responds, half-joking, that the help is for �people that George Bush doesn�t like. Everyone is selected especially those who want to fight for a just world�. This institution is free of charge for those who have encountered problems at work. Overall, the legal advisory program gives the opportunity to workers to learn their legal rights to exercise their power to defend themselves from abusive bosses.

Our rights as workers are constantly attacked by employers and by the government. Regardless of all the attacks there exists a light at the end of the tunnel that manifests it self at this legal advisory located on Valencia and 16th.

The services are provided by volunteers, like myself, who are under the supervision of Californian lawyers. This institution deals with legal cases involving: the recovery of salaries through mutual agreements, the recovery of salaries via legal means, and serves fines to employers for not paying their employees at a timely manner.

In the future the program would like to extend its services to support a law that would create a fund to compensate domestic workers who get hurt while working for private homes. The vision of the program and of La Raza Centro Legal continues to grow. By 2008 the program would like to develop concrete methods to get clients involved with actions such as picket lines and campaigns with real reform for justice. Of course, these efforts would be spearheaded by the workers themselves in leadership positions.

In conclusion Dr. Hillary states, �All the abusive employers should be very afraid because the day laborer community is organizing to fight against all kinds of abuse of any employer�

To find out more about this program contact Dr. Hilary Ronen at 415.553.3415.

Angela Pena is journalist and student with Voices of Immigrant Resistance. Voices of Immigrant Resistance is a bi-lingual media organizing project of POOR Magazine

by tiny/PNN

Before Mama Dee,an African Puerto Rican and Irish orphan from the north side of Philadelphia, had passed, she told me that she never wanted to be buried in the ground, she, coming from a long line of poor women who didn’t even have money for a burial plot. In fact, in a post-modern hindu-cum-chrisburden-cum-live-art performance, my mama wanted her body to be attached to the top of our car and driven around for a year.

The struggle to come up with a ceremony/tribute that would please my mama’s spirit was crucial as I, like my mama, ascribe to and follow indigenous family values of interdependence and collectivity rather than western capitalist notions of separation and independence, and actively practice eldership, ancestor worship and ancestor veneration. These beliefs mean that it is very important that one listen to the wishes of your ancestors and follow their instructions, as their contentment in this life is as important as their contentment in the next life.

After discussing mummification with Po’ Poet and Poverty Scholar, ‘Auntie’ Jewnbug, and other options with a few of my mothers closest friends I was convinced that my mama’s spirit would be ok with cremation as long as her ashes would be taken on a lengthy road-trip laced with art, humor and wild-ness befitting my wild and crazy, hella ghetto, artist/activist mama. I asked a family friend/metal artist to create a kinetic sculpture which incorporated all the wonderfulness of my mama and the things she would want to take with her to the Other Side to place her ashes in and attach to the top of our car. This was the Lucky Po’Cats Urn.

With the Urn finished we had the official San Francisco road-trip send-off at UN Plaza On March 24th.

The Launch at UN Plaza

The rain pounded down on the red brick floor of an eerily quiet UN Plaza at 6:00 pm. Subscribers, Community Support Members, Conscious Politicians, Poverty Studies Interns, Po’ Poets and Poverty Scholars alike huddled under a drooping blue tarp slightly affixed to the lift-back door of the POOR Magazine Van.

As befitting Mama Dee – it was a multi-media interactive ceremony, including some video clips from her powerful MedinAction pieces, spoken word and poetic testimonies from several of Dee’s students and men tees as well as words of solidarity from POWER members, and Po’ Poets. The night concluded with a song sung by me and Tiburcio in honor of my rhythm, music and song making mama.

The next morning we traveled to Sacramento to visit one of my mama’s best friends; Gerry Ambrose a mama, grandmamma, poverty scholar and San Francisco gentrification survivor, and her several children and grandchildren.

Other than a strange encounter on the way back with my son, a friends's son and Chucky Cheeses Pizza Palace, it was an uneventful and peaceful trip.

Espiritu de Dee Road trip – Part 2- The Los Angeles Journey

{Bee gee’s Stayin’ Alive}

Well, you can tell by the way I use my walk,
I'm a woman's man, no time to talk.
Music loud and women warm.
I've been kicked around since I was born.
And now it's all right, it's O.K.
And you may look the other way.
We can try to understand
The New York Times' effect on man.
Whether you're a brother
Or whether you're a mother,
you’re stayin' alive, stayin' alive.
Feel the city breakin'
And ev'rybody shakin'
And we're stayin' alive, stayin' alive.
Ah, ha, ha, ha,
Stayin' alive.
Stayin' alive.

It had been raining for 40 days and 40 nights. Drops of icy water glided down the soft windshield. The fleshy rubber wipers caressed its surface.

If you only looked once the 4 foot tall golden lucky cat urn that held mama dees carefully wrapped cremated
remains seemed to be gazing down from its mount on top of the POOR Magazine van.

It was 9:00 am Friday, March 31st, Cesar Chavez day, and me, Dee’s daughter, and tiburcio, her grandson
and friends embarked on El Espiritu de Mama Dee Road trip.

But to tell the now story I need to tell the before story- which began many years ago when my homeless
Mama and I drove Beverly hillbilly’s style up from La
to San Francisco with all our belongings on the top of
our car.

The original drive up from LA took 7 days and 7 nights. I heard once that it took seven days and seven nights to create the world. So maybe me and my mom were really re-creating the world instead of just driving to the Bay Area from Los Angeles.

It was in this trip that the Dee and Tiny myth began, i.e. life imitating art imitating life, tragedy becoming reality, becoming performance, becoming art, or maybe just a really long miserable drive. My mother hated driving, even if she wasn't the actual driver, she just hated being in the car for more than two hours at any time.

And then because we really weren't sure of our destination, and we had no home and no clear prospect of where to go my mother would consider each and every corporate California freeway stop as a possible town to reside in. One such town was Pea soup Andersons

"I wonder what life here would be like", she proclaimed one day, her spoon wading through a green pile of green mush.

"Where?" I asked, shocked that she could be considering a motel known for its pea soup and pea soup accoutrements as an actual home, which is why we included pea soup Andersons as a stop on the Espiritu de Dee road trip- which is also when things started getting strange.

Whether you're a brother
Or whether you're a mother,
You're stayin' alive, stayin' alive.
Feel the city breakin'
And ev'rybody shakin'
And we're stayin' alive, stayin' alive.
Ah, ha, ha, ha,
Stayin' alive.
Stayin' alive.

After we pulled into the pea soup store/restaurant motel conglomerate and sat down to consume a pea filled lunch my son jumped out of his chair and ran to see some random thing in the dining room – in the process he bumped his head on a chair and began bleeding profusely from his forehead. I rushed him to the bathroom where a nurse just happened to be standing with her adult daughter who proceeded to create a butterfly bandage out of paper towels and saved my son from an emergency room visit. After we sort of recovered from our Carrie movie experience at the pea soup store– The lucky cat urn and us re-entered highway five.

Within minutes on the highway we heard a knocking coming from the roof..(pop popop pop pop pop!!!) We looked up and suddenly a piece of the very securely fastened urn had jumped off of the roof of the car and hopped into the freeways middle grassy lane.

Mama Dee did always want to see how it would be to live in pea soup Andersons…

Further Down Highway 5

120 miles later down highway 5 as we coasted out of the grapevine – again we heard a deep scary sounding knock – this time it was coming from the engine…( knock knock knock)

we barely made it off the freeway into a town called Valencia. It was 5:55 pm on a Friday and we were supposed to be arriving in LA in one hour for Mama Dee’s ceremony on Venice Beach. It didn’t look good. Within minutes we found out the car as someone said was ”toast” irreparable – useless-over - and that’s when we met Sal in the parking lot of WALMART. Sal is– short for Salvador, which means savior in Spanish, “Hey guys he said as he approached the car – do you need help?

For no good reason at all except that he knew we needed help – Sal agreed to drive us the 45 miles to LA in his car so we could carry out mama Dee’s ceremony with a rented car in La - we found out later that Sal was a user friendly coyote – helping families and friends over the border just cause he thought he should help as many people in the world as he could muster- Sal was the kind of direct service provider my mama Dee would have loved…

Due to our midnight arrival in LA That night’s ceremony was canceled. After much debating about what to do and whether to abort the whole project. I realized I had no will in this process and again consulted with many of my mamas friends in La. They urged us to keep on going.

So at midnight with the help of Sal we attached the lucky cat urn to a rented car and drove to Venice Beach.

The next morning the sun was shining. The first day of sun after so many days of rain. Shining in the morning glare, attached to a budget rent a car –the lucky cat urn pulled into the Venice Beach parking lot where me and my mother had lived, housed and un-housed, made art and community for many years of her life.

The moral of the story; always listen to your ancestors wishes. You see – the night of the 31st I had invited a close friend of mine that mama Dee had always clashed with because she didn’t respect her mother or her elders. This friend was unable to make the Saturday ceremony due to a scheduling conflict…

...And of course my mama did need to take a car with her into the next life… …

Stayin' alive.
Stayin' alive.
Ah, ha, ha, ha,
Stayin' alive.

{ Ancestor worship in some cultures seeks to honor the deeds, memories, and
sacrifice of the deceased. Much of the worship
includes visiting the deceased at their graves, making
offerings to the deceased to provide for their welfare
in the afterlife. For instance, a toothbrush, comb,
towel, slippers, and water are provided by the coffin
so that the deceased will be able to have these items
after they have died. Spirit money (also called Hell
Notes) is sometimes burned as an offering to ancestors for the afterlife. In many Asian funeral ceremonies a car is given to the deceased to “take to the to next life”.

The living may regard the ancestors as "guardian angels" to them, perhaps in protecting them from serious accidents, or guiding their path in life.

In Shinto belief, "Ancestorhood" is a state of being
that everyone can attain upon death.

by Joseph Bolden

Family Crisis Pt. 1


Between weather induced ills, sudden demise of a former employer, and family crisis overseas…

My brain didn’t run on all it neurons.

All

this while finally finding a place to work maybe having if not a career at least steady income incase returning to school became an option again.


How events unfolded, unraveled, and reconnected again in a few weeks time.

My brother in Chicago calls Mama, she calls me.

Its about a well liked and loved aunt in the hospital with serious health issues.

My first words {I" don’t want to go, my life is here ,I’m working, volunteering and…"}



Doesn’t matter family is family and after talking to G.A,[General Assistance] worker and work assignment manager but not in the correct order I’m off to the city of my birth, New York."

It seems my brother while in New York had observed heard disturbing utterances from other family members that didn’t sound like worry from them but greed!




My Aunt (I’ll call Rhoda) had worked in a New York’s City Hospital many years and though she at one time lived near or on the property had saved, placed, in a bank, and other places sums of money that had gathered hefty interest over the decades.

My family, that being mama, young brother, and myself had moved to Oakland, California before the 1970’s began.

Before that Mama had married Aunt Rhoda’s brother.

There were family visits, and when older I believe may have visited but don’t remember much.

Family problems, soon Mama, instead of moving across the street, around the corner moved us all to California.

Years pass and we did go back two times.

So, ticket are bought, a plane flew with no mishaps and for two weeks we go to a residential hospital nearing the end of extensive remodeling.

Aunt Rhoda, in a wheelchair with tubes in her veins.

If it wasn’t for the old black horn rimmed glasses I wouldn’t have not recognized her.

Mostly black with streaks of gray hair, I remember her as slim just starting to gain weight.


She wanted to know if she needed a lawyer?
Solomon, my brother, mama, and I agreed she needed one to after financial and legal representation.

After what mama and my brother told me about our families problems it dawns why mama left to rebuild her life and ours in California.


She wasn’t staying to be executor of Aunt Rhoda’s Estate and myself being the oldest son and struggling with Welfare, Work fare, and G. A. over the years didn’t think I’m

qualified to be executor, or run the finances of my Aunt , I want her to
be out of her wheelchair, at home retired running her own financial affairs.

My mother and I in quiet car loving Long Island where roads were dirt and grass turning

dangerous wet or dry because the two narrow two lane roads weren’t brightly lit at night which causes more danger to pedestrians. End of

Crisis of Part I.

by Antonio William/PNN Youth in Media

"How can they talk about us standing on corners, using drugs, we are hard-working students trying to get an education," a Latina Richmond High School Student wiped tears from her eyes as she spoke into the corporate media lens. She was speaking outside a school board hearing in April on the California High School Exit Exam(CAHSEE).

Earlier this month two major legal challenges to the CAHSEE were heard and adjudicated on in California courts. The first one: Liliana Valenzuela, et al v. Jack O’Connell, which was fought by attorneys Arturo Gonzalez and Chris Young from Morrison and Foerster on the basis of the educational, due process and equal protection rights afforded to students under the California Constitution. We won this one. Alameda County Judge Robert Freedman decided on Friday May 11th to delay diploma denial for the class of 2006.

When issuing the injunction, Freedman said he was swayed by Gonzalez's argument that low-income of color students, English language learners in particular attend low-performing schools that do not prepare them adequately for the test.

Of the 46,700 seniors who have failed the test, 20,600 are designated as limited English learners and 28,300 are very lo-income. I am one of those 28,300 students.

We lost the second challenge. Brought on by Californians for Justice, represented by attorney John Afeldt from Public Advocates, It alleged that the California State Board of Education and State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell had violated a state education law which required them to study alternatives to the CAHSEE after initial administrations of the exam back in 2001 and 2002.

State education officials did not complete the study of alternatives
until March 2006, just a few months before graduation day and far too
late for the Legislature to have time to enact any alternatives in time
to benefit the class of 2006.

I am a 17 year High School Senior. I failed the Exit Exam. Due to the delay ruling of the first challenge I might have a chance to receive a diploma as I am in the class of 2006. But what about my younger brothers and sisters? This question brings me back to the April action in West Contra Cost County (WCCUSD).

The California High School exit Exam (CAHSEE) was being challenged by West Contra Costa School Board member, Dave Brown. The young woman I quoted and hundreds of other youth and community members who marched into the hearing that day were speaking to the media after the WCCUSD rejected a proposal which would have acted as an alternative to the California High School Exit Exam (CAHSEE).

Brown had worked for many weeks with members of the policy Institute, Justice Matters, who works on racial justice in education, as well as conscious youth activists from Youth Together, to create an alternative to the CAHSEE which included completing all of their high school requirements as well as presenting a “Senior Year Demonstration”.

According to Multiple Measures Approaches to High School Graduation published by the School Redesign Network at Stanford University, alternatives are currently being used by several states such as Oregon, Vermont, Washington and Maine. The Stanford Study stated that rather than being detrimental to student learning, alternatives such as the Senior Year Demonstration encourages an ambitious range of thinking and performance skills in students who participate.

So why can’t Jack O’Connell understand that? Or better yet why doesn’t Jack O’Connell listen to us, the students struggling with resource-poor, arts-poor and skilled- teacher poor schools. Struggling under endless test preps and no real teaching.

My editor, tiny, at POOR/PNN who also works as the Communications Director at Justice Matters encouraged me to watch, listen to and read all the Exit Exam coverage with a critical eye. Who is heard on this issue, and who is listened to, she queried, as those voices, as we have been taught at POOR, helps to frame the issue to society at large.

As I, a young African/Latino PoorNewsNetwork reporter watched the young Latina student of Richmond High School capture a corporate media minute in April and spit truth, I felt hope. As I, a young African/Latino high School student watched a young person of color question a stereotype to thousands of corporate media viewers, I felt possibilities. As I, a young brother of color who failed the exit exam watched resistance to the racist and classist Exit Exam. I didn’t feel like completely giving up. At least through the media lens, I felt like we were listened to. Maybe sometime in the future we will be heard.

by Anna Kirsch/Poverty and Media Activism Intern

"What do we want?"

"Education"

"When do we want it?"

"Now"

The voices of welfare mothers and their children boomed into the sky
above the Oakland Federal Building on Tuesday morning. Ten years after
the implementation of welfare these mothers, struggling to survive and
get an education, gathered to speak out to dispel all myths of welfare
reform

As I gazed at the colorful signs reading, "You Get an F" and "Welfare
Deform," my mind wandered to the past Saturday and the two young girls
who were adamantly coloring these posters. The sisters with matching
long brown hair, curious round eyes and bright lime green sandals
concentrated on their coloring while their mother Vivian Hain spoke
openly about her experiences on welfare. Above the chatter of
children's voices and the sounds of crashing wooden block toys, Hain
described her battle to come up and out of poverty through education.

She spoke on Saturday morning at a parent information meeting organized
by Low-Income Families' Empowerment through Education (LIFETIME) to
inform parents about the upcoming changes to the welfare deform system
(as it's known to any of those who have experienced it). Wearing a
bright red tee shirt reading "Don't Target Our Children," Hain told the
attentive crowd about how her life fell apart when she broke her leg
working at Wal-Mart.

"I didn't know what to do, so I got on welfare and I became homeless
for three and a half years," she stated honestly and unapologetically.

Hain, like many mothers trying to survive on welfare and get an
education, has long days. Starting around 6:30 a.m. everyday, she
juggles getting her three daughters to school, feeding them, going to
class and studying to get her B.A. in multimedia at Berkley City
College. She does all this while clothing, feeding and caring for her
three kids and herself on a welfare check of just $723.00.

Hain is just one of many mothers who might be denied an education come
October 1st when changes to the welfare to work system take a hold at
the state level. These changes, which focus on work and not education,
could prove disastrous for many low and no income families.

The maze that is welfare deform just got messier and even more
confusing. Now the federal government will be defining what is counted
as work at the state level and apparently education isn't important
enough to make the cut. After just twelve months of education, welfare
parent-students will be unable to attend school full-time and still
receive funding.

"We know that education and training are the best ways to get off
welfare, but education is not valued," Anita Rees, LIFETIME's associate
director and former welfare mother, told the audience. "You all have the skills in life, but now you just need the piece of paper to prove you have these skills." Now it seems getting that piece of paper is going to become even more difficult for these already stressed parents.

"These new work requirements are going to screw everybody. Most
low-income people have more barriers, like financial aid, childcare and
housing that impede them from getting an education and who can get an
associate's degree in one year with no assistance anyway?" Hain said.

Good question. The honest truth is that it's pretty much impossible for
anyone, even with the best circumstances, to get any sort of
meaningful education in one year. It should not come as a surprise that
the average number of years needed to complete a community college
program ranges from 3.2 to 3.5 for parents shouldering significant work
and family obligations.

“The problem now is that states will be penalized if welfare cases
aren't reduced. So case reduction, not poverty reduction becomes the goal,” Hain said, echoing the message of Rees. "There is a bigger influx of people in poverty as a result of this and people are just slipping through the cracks," she stated, shaking her head.

Diamond Williams, another full time student and mother trying to make
it on welfare, faces the same dilemma as Hain. Williams, who lives in West Oakland, majors in Africana studies and education at San Francisco
State University and hopes someday to get her PhD to teach college.
There's a chance she'll have to drop out of school in October because
she's already completed her allotted 12 months of education.

"They want you working at McDonald's or Wal-Mart for the rest of your
life and this is putting the American people in a bad situation,"
Williams adamantly stated. "What I heard today makes me want to take
action. I want to be knowledgeable about my rights."

Williams' day starts at 6:30 a.m. when she wakes up to pump breast milk
for her six month old and doesn't end until 10:30 p.m. after two or
three hours of studying. She's active in school and has been on the Dean's list several times. Williams, Hain and these other student-parents don't really fit the description of lazy welfare moms. An all too common misconception the public and politicians readily believe in.

The truth is that welfare mothers "work more than anybody else. They
work before, after and during their time on welfare," Rees, who speaks
from experience, stated. "Now we need to raise public awareness to let
people know that this (welfare) isn't working and that the people in
charge have failed us," she added.

As Hain stated, it's time to let the government know that "they need to
value education first because it's a pathway to a career, not a job;
because we want careers, we want medical benefits, we want a retirement
fund, and we want a better future for our children."

For more information about the changes happening to the welfare system
and support for welfare families, see LIFETIME's homepage:
www.geds-to-phds.org. For more work on issues of poverty and racism by
the low and no-income youth who experience it first-hand go on-line to
www.poormagazine.org.

by Janak Ramachandran/ PNN Community Journalist

On April 12, 2006, the man some have dubbed the John Wayne of South Indian cinema passed away. Rajkumar, whose given name is Muttaraj, was born April 24, 1929 in the small remote village town of Gajanur. Proud fellow villagers boast of the boy from the village, born in a dilapidated hut on the side of a dusty road, who grew to become a superstar. Encouraged by the example of his father, who was a dramatist, Muttaraj joined his father’s troupe, where he learned his initial skills as an actor and singer. He entered the film industry at a young age and, as Rajkumar (meaning Prince), starred in his first ‘big break’ film in 1954. Considered one of the most versatile actors in Indian cinema and with over 200 films to his credit, his character depictions ran the gamut from drama to action to comedy to romance and he had a penchant for choosing films with social messages addressing societal evils. Also an accomplished singer, Rajkumar won a national award for one of the many songs he sang in his films.

But fate had more in store for the self-titled Prince. Less than ten years back, Rajkumar decided he wanted to live the remainder of his life with his fellow villagers in Gajanur. Lauded not only for his superstar status but also for a personality given to simplicity, generosity, kind-heartedness, and peace-loving ways, his fellow denizens were happy to welcome him home. But, as India’s John Wayne returned to the new house built across the road from the hut where he was born, he was paid an uninvited visit by the man many of the villagers in the area praise as a modern day Robin Hood. Veerapan, known for sandalwood smuggling and poaching and hailing from the same village as Rajkumar, reportedly conveyed to Rajkumar’s wife, Parvathamma, “Please do not worry. We assure you we will never harm Rajkumar but we have some serious demands (of the government). We are compelled to use these means to make ourselves heard.” Veerapan then kidnapped Rajkumar.

When the state police chief was asked about the Robin Hood image of Veerapan and if the locals see him as a criminal, he retorted candidly, “…he is seen as a do-gooder. He helps the locals by paying for their marriages, renovating temples, helping poor people, getting a poor widow a square meal, and so on…” In the same breath, he continued that, “Everybody is afraid of him.” Since the villagers see themselves as aided by Veerapan’s actions, it seems unlikely that the ‘Everybody’ to which the state police chief refers includes them. More likely he means the wealthier interests and their governmental comrades who send the police to enforce those interests. Indeed, Veerapan has supposedly killed a number of police and other government officials in his pursuit of justice. In addition to his political motives on behalf of the poor in his area, Veerapan may be motivated by personal experience. His brother and sister both died in police custody.

So the day that Robin Hood kidnapped John Wayne, all of South India came to a standstill: neighborhood shops closed, distraught fans worried, and Bangalore, the heart of India’s Silicon Valley, ground to a halt for several days. After 108 days in captivity, Rajkumar was released by Veerapan when he was assured through negotiations that atrocities committed by government police and its Special Task Forces would be pursued and that efforts would be made to release those innocents detained under the Terrorist and Disruptive Activities Act. One of the negotiators for the team that included human rights activists and journalists opined, “Everybody knows how Veerapan became a big problem…the socio-economic factors played a major role in his rise.” Of the crimes attributed to Veerapan, he added, “Why do you accuse Veerapan alone? The guilty are living happily in our society. Why do you pardon them? What we want first is action against all those who…have committed atrocities on the poor villagers.” Detailing the evidence of 90 people in jail without access to trial, 60 women subjected to sexual assault, and more than 300 men handicapped by police torture, he called for action against those responsible in the government and concluded, “Action against Veerapan can be taken after that.”

For his part, Rajkumar, on his release, reported, “Veerapan did not harass me.” And in an earlier message, he declared, “I am being taken care of with great love and they are behaving with great trust.” When referencing that Veerapan and his group have a point of view, with which he agreed in many ways, Rajkumar stated, “There is actually much that we have to learn from them. Having lived with them like an elder brother to younger brothers, I have had a lot of opportunities to…understand them well. It’s my fate that I was abducted by Veerapan.”

And so it was that Robin Hood and John Wayne became brothers. Two men from the same village with very different life paths yet with a common devotion to the local poor who protected them. For those curious, Robin Hood Veerapan was eventually found dead with a bullet in his head—the police story of how he was captured and killed appears to contradict the circumstances of his death—and the evidence of the possibly execution style bullet in his head would not have been found had the police not been stopped from prematurely cremating his body. In any case, both Rajkumar and Veerapan are no longer with us. The question remains though, ‘Are we with them?’ Are we committed to a world where a rich success can meet a poor bandit and see his brother…his sister? If so, perhaps Robin Hood and John Wayne together can topple the King.

by Janak Ramachandran

A debate is currently raging in India regarding ‘caste-based’ reservations or quotas. Certain castes have historically been unable to receive the needed education to advance into higher paying professions and so, the government has proposed a system of affirmative action to remedy the situation. The debate has an obvious analog in the United States in the issue of affirmative action for women, African Americans, Latinos, and others of color who have historically been unable to receive the same university education as their white counterparts.

I decided to investigate the Indian issue to determine what commonalities it might have with the US debate; and whether the arguments have a cross-cultural ability to inform each country’s struggle with the issue. One argument, from Bay Area Indians for Equality (a local organization), responds to the Indian government proposal to reserve places in India’s universities for the less privileged castes. Protesting with signs that read “Respect merit, not caste” and other similar pleas for equal treatment, they voiced their opposition to the affirmative action proposal. At a similar protest in the US, we might have seen “Respect merit, not race.” I found myself agreeing with the basic premise of the slogan and so, I planned to research why the other side of the debate insisted on these caste-based reservations or what we might consider quotas here in the US. What I found was groundwork for the quota system was laid in the Indian constitution to address the inequality created by centuries of caste-based oppression. In actuality, those who claimed a ‘higher’ caste status had actively deprived those they perceived as ‘lower’ caste from obtaining education and jobs that paid well. In effect, the so-called higher castes had, for centuries, ‘reserved’ that privilege for themselves at the expense of the poorer castes—castes made poor by caste-based favoritism and not as a result of merit. So the slogan “Respect merit, not caste” now seemed to me a disingenuous call for equality by those who now benefit from a system previously created to oppress others.

In the United States and other western societies, a similar claim can be substantiated whereby slavery, Jim Crow, ghettoization, and the assassination of leaders who make a difference (e.g. Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, Robert F. Kennedy, etc.) has created a legacy of depriving education and opportunity to those in the ‘lower’ classes. Those who have gathered more money at others’ expense can buy more education and more opportunity; the opportunity to display merit is a privilege given to ‘higher’ classes as a result of generations of oppressing others whether they be seen as lower caste, lower class, or inferior race.

When faced with this worldwide historical record, I wondered how those opposed to reservations and quotas might respond. A protester with Bay Area Indians for Equality provided the following comment: “What the country (India) needs is a lot more engineers, a lot more doctors—reservations aren’t solving that.” He pressed for the idea that government should focus on improving elementary education for all children. Though not a response to the historical record of oppression, the stated goal of equal treatment seemed laudable. Perhaps, I thought, a society bent on progress could allow the ill-gotten gains of the privileged to remain in place—rather than seeking social justice through the reapportionment of unmerited wealth—while currently setting in motion a system of equal opportunity for rich and poor alike. Further reading and reflection revealed that, though the privileged opposed to affirmative action quotas (both in the US and around the world) endorsed equal education for all children, they were unwilling with tax dollars and otherwise to actually fund all children’s schools equally. Those who now had wealth and privilege largely created by generations of oppression wanted to spend that money disproportionately on their children’s schools—more for Beverly Hills, less for inner city LA…more for Palo Alto, less for East Palo Alto…more for the Marina and Pacific Heights, less for Bayview and Hunter’s Point and so on. So the privileged, through the government disbursement of tax revenue and services, still seem to favor depriving one group to benefit another, namely themselves. With the combination of the circumstance of this present reality with the historical record of oppression, the disingenuous “Respect merit, not caste (or race)” had seemingly turned into “Now that half the game has been played in our unmerited favor, we, the privileged, are neither interested nor willing to right the wrong through affirmative action or even level the playing field via equal treatment into the future for all.”

But, another possible objection of those opposed to affirmative action programs, I thought, might be the seeming injustice and adverse societal impact of depriving the more educated, regardless of how they historically obtained their status, of completing that education and winning the higher paying jobs. So I decided to inspect the Indian government proposal to see if the affirmative action the government was planning would disproportionately favor the so-called lower castes at the expense of the privileged castes. In concept (that is, without reference to the historical record of oppression or the present reality of inequality), it seemed reasonable that the government not reserve more for the historically oppressed castes than the percentage of the population they represented, even though historical justice might allow for disproportionately depriving the privileged of access to education and opportunity. It turns out the proposal provides for an increase in the number of seats reserved in Indian universities for the underprivileged castes from its current 22.5% to 49.5%. The population of the combined castes includes working class people, farmers, and aboriginal groups as well as those previously labeled untouchables (because the work traditionally performed by them involved sanitation and the like and was thus considered ‘polluting’). So-called untouchables refer to themselves as Dalits (meaning “depressed”). In total, these various castes comprise nearly 80% of the population. So 49.5% of the seats in universities would be reserved for 80% of the population. In effect, this also indicates that prior to this proposal, 77.5% of university spots were reserved for the approximate 20% that are already the most privileged and that now, 50.5% would still be reserved for this 20% privileged group.

Despite this disproportionate favoritism shown to the privileged concerning educational opportunity, opponents of affirmative action might still counter that, regardless of the individual and class-wide injustice, society benefits from those best qualified performing these jobs and being rewarded with the higher pay that cements their elite status, unmerited as it might be. In other words, the question becomes, “Who should be allowed to become a doctor, an engineer, or a business executive?” Not only does this question and its supporting argument fail to grapple effectively with the moral issue of historically and currently oppressing the ability of people to equally benefit from education and opportunity, it assumes that the narrow hurdle of academic excellence in a system rigged in favor of the privileged is the proper criterion with which to answer the question. The test and grade results that are a function of a privileged education are inadequate in measuring a potential doctor’s, engineer’s, or business executive’s attentiveness to bigger picture implications, ethics concerning the treatment of others and the environment, compassion in dealing with those who suffer and are oppressed, and pursuit of excellence by which an individual assumes responsibility for an ongoing learning and understanding of how his or her job is well done. I would argue that we would all rather be treated by a doctor who displayed these characteristics while earning a C average in medical school than the doctor who graduated at the top of the class in the hopes of making money. But these characteristics are not measured by school grades or standardized tests and are essentially eschewed by academic institutions as meritorious subjects to develop as part of a curriculum.

So who should be allowed to become a doctor, an engineer, or a business executive? In the final analysis, the question devolves to something even more basic: “Who should be allowed to join the ranks of the privileged?” In the background of any conversation regarding equality for all is a contradiction of capitalism revealed. Even the most conservative capitalist economists will acknowledge that, contrary to political rhetoric, everyone can’t be a millionaire; the system would crumble in an endlessly devaluing inflationary upward spiral. It is one of the principal reasons that the economic powers that be attempt to actuate fiscal and monetary policy that strives to keep some portion of the population out of work. The bottom line: in order for some people to be rich or even middle class, a much larger number of poor must be created and maintained. If these poor and working class groups are allowed to legitimately compete, they would be able to win back through the channels of capitalism, even as a rigged system, some education, opportunity, and economic benefit for their families and communities. As a result, the privileged would have less and so, a little more competition for a rigged system that has served them so well frightens them.

Looking hundreds and thousands of years into our human past, we see a legacy of enslaving and oppressing a large portion of humanity for the benefit of a relative few. Often the only criterion for this systemic abuse is that someone doesn’t look or act the same way as those who sought the power. In the case of India, the caste system has functioned for thousands of years from its inception to assign certain types of work to certain groups. Quickly, those with more privileged jobs became the more privileged classes. But the basis used by the original conquering Aryans of long ago to divide people into different occupations is lost in the word caste, which is a Portuguese translation. Tracing the etymology of the word back thousands of years reveals its original meaning: skin color.

by Gretchen Hildebrand/PNN L.A. Correspondent

"The stories you will hear tonight are not supposed to happen.” Parent and CADRE (Community Asset Development Re-Defining Education) member Naomi Haywood stood on the low stage at the front of the packed meeting room. The parents and students from the South Los Angeles community that filled the room mirrored Haywood's frustration and outrage. They exploded into applause for her and co-facilitator Linda Sanchez as they set the stage for last Wednesday's People's Hearing on the institutionalized "push-out" of children of color from the Los Angeles public school system.

"This is a human rights crisis," continued Haywood, engaging the almost entirely African-American and Latino crowd in rhythmic alternation with Sanchez, who spoke in Spanish. "students and parents - have a human right to dignity, education and participation!" The crowd responded with passion. Each seemed to have their own story of how District 7 schools in South Los Angeles had pushed their children out of public school, through the systematic application of punishments intended to humiliate and suspensions and "opportunity" transfers that often exile students from their own education.

Many in the crowd wore CADRE's bright green t-shirts, and had already come to this community organization with their struggles to obtain a respectful and meaningful education for their children. Haywood herself was one such parent. When her son was in middle school, partial blindness in one of his eyes was slowing down his learning. Despite this, his teacher made him sit far from the board and insisted that he was "just lazy."

Haywood was only notified of the situation when her son had already been suspended, after he had been disciplined several times by the teacher for acting out. When Haywood brought in a doctor's note describing her son's disability, her son's teacher brushed her off, saying she didn't care. Eventually her son missed two weeks of school before the administration agreed to meet her son's needs. "It wasn't til I went to CADRE that I learned that I have a basic human right to participate in my son's education. The school just treated us like WE were the problem.

Luckily Haywood's son is still in school, although she still worries about the threats of suspension and discipline that are leveled at him because of his disability. Beyond her concern, she is also angry that her son could be so easily denied an education by a system that prefers to punish rather than educate low-income students of color.

CADRE was formed in 2001 by low-income parents of color in South Los Angeles who believed that decent education for their children was a basic human right that was being systematically denied to them by the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD). While working to educate parents in their community about their right to be involved in their children's education, CADRE parents found they all had stories similar to Haywood's and often worse. And the results of the discipline procedures are what CADRE calls a direct path to poverty or prison.

The hard data collected by CADRE supports this theory. Public high schools in South LA have the highest suspension rates in the city. These schools also have the lowest graduation rates. For every 100 ninth-graders, as few as 24 receive diplomas, with the average graduation rate in schools like Fremont, Locke, Jordan ranging from 24% to 42%. This crisis is happening in districts that are primarily African-American and Latino. In nearby Whitney High School, in a district where Black and Latino people made up less than 20% of the census tract, the suspension rate was 0%, and the graduation rate 93%.

Many from the audience were there to share heartbreaking stories of the pain they and their children have experienced at the hands of this system. A shy woman in a long a flowing skirt told in Spanish of how her daughter had been suspended 5 times because the school felt that they couldn't stop the other children from hitting her. Even though she was the victim of other children's behavior, her daughter received no help in making up her work and is now so far behind that she may not graduate. Worse was that her daughter, who once loved learning, has "turned into a person full of resentment."

Another parent told the story of a CADRE member who tried several times to arrange a meeting with administrators and teachers to discuss her son's suspension. After being stood up twice, finally one teacher showed up to a third meeting. Instead of listening to the parent's frustrations at this treatment, the teacher called security to have her removed from the school. "If they don't want to deal with angry parents, they need to give us the proper respect, to let us know when a red flag goes up.

All outrageous, the parents stories have common themes, the sense that their children are being humiliated by their punishments, one parent told of her child being subjected to taunts while picking up trash in a courtyard. Parents also find themselves excluded from decisions made for their children, while schools show little effort to address the problems that may be interfering in their education, whether they are learning disabilities, behavior issues, or a lack of safety and support available in the school. The commonality between all these students was that they lost access to education when punished, and not given a chance to catch up – and many of them are encouraged give up.

In CADRE's recent report, More Education, Less Suspension, data on school drop-out rates is backed up with a survey looking to find out why students leave school before graduation. In a study of 120 such former students, CADRE found a systematic pattern of suspensions being extensively overused in the absence of other disciplinary techniques, which were applied in disregard to the impact on the child's education. Many of the students who left school did so after a series of suspensions and many were advised to leave by teachers and school administrators.

Parents and students who had undergone school suspensions were also interviewed, uncovering the mistreatment that many felt subject to in the public school system. Their children weren't listened to or respected in the discipline process. One of the students at the hearing told a story of a classmate being dragged in handcuffs to the dean's office because he wouldn't pull up his pants. Angry at this treatment, he made the point, "The principles of behavior and respect that they want us to use should apply to staff, too." Tellingly, the report also found that African-American students in particular were subject to a higher proportion of suspensions.

The implications are clear: low-income students of color are subjected to a system that denies them respect, and in many cases, an education at all. The "drop-out" crisis in their community is really a "push-out" crisis supported by these institutionalized disciplinary practices.

The parents of CADRE were present to stand up for their children's right to an education with dignity, as well as their right to be a part of decisions that impact their children. "We do not have to accept this, and nor do our children," insisted Haywood, "as primary stakeholders of our children's futures, we deserve to be a part of the process."

Will the LAUSD listen? Perhaps. One Board Member-elect, Monica Garcia from District 2, sat through several hours of testimony and then addressed the crowd, saying,"I'm listening." While she gave respect to CADRE and the students present, no specific promises were made. And in the absence of more official power in the room, most media outlets passed over the event.

But CADRE isn't waiting for promises, they are urging the LAUSD to pass a resolution implementing a Discipline Foundation Policy, now a draft bulletin at the Board, that would reshape the principles behind the school district's policy and implementation. Their demands are simply that the LAUSD commit to a policy preserving students human right to dignity, a right to education, and a right to parent participation and monitoring in discipline implementation. CADRE is in effect, demanding accountability from the system that prefers to blame students and their parents for its own failure. They will be at the LAUSD's next meeting on Tuesday, June 27th from 4:30- 6:30 (333 South Beaudry Ave.) to present their demands with parent power.

An insightful note did come from Board Member-elect Garcia, who insists, "I got it." She does seem to, as she noted that urban education in America has been underserved for centuries. To make a goal of 100% of kids graduating from high school in LAUSD schools, she added, is nothing short of revolutionary.

As one parent led the room in the chant "Parent - Power!" it was clear that there was revolution in this room, in the righteous and insistent voices of parents who have seen their children suffer and be denied enough and will not back down. And in the face of such staggering educational inequities, their movement will only grow.

by Adriana Diaz/PNN Community Scholar

I could feel the hot piercing sun beaming down, transforming my olive complexion to a golden brown. The ever so powerful words, “SI SE PUEDE,” Yes We Can, rolled off the tongues of demonstrators. The day was May 1st, Un Dia Sin Immigrantes, A Day without Immigrants. I was marching with thousands of peaceful supporters to downtown San Francisco’s city hall to support undocumented immigrant’s rights.

The hot sun and lack of water brought me back to a day I never want to relive.

It was my last year of college and I was sitting in my room starring blankly at the computer screen trying to concentrate. I had to write my final paper for my Theories of Media class on Cultivation Theory. All of a sudden the phone rang and the alarming sound shocked me. I felt as if I was back in high school sitting in 4th period, daydreaming, while the bell rings snapping me back to reality.

My best friend, Josie who I worked with at our neighborhood summer camp, called. Her words were coming out so fast I could barley grasp what she was saying. Josie was hysterical. “The Romero family was deported yesterday to Mexico….,” she said.

At that moment my heart left my chest and I dropped the phone. I remember again starring blankly but this time I was looking at my Janet Jackson poster I got from her 98’ Velvet Rope Tour. I wished that this was a nightmare and I would soon awake.

The Romero’s are beautiful, faith based, and hard working people. Jose was a cook at an Italian Restaurant in North Beach while Marisol worked two jobs 12hour days as a nanny and house keeper. Both shared with me their same frustrations: under paid, overworked, and unappreciated.

Jose and Marisol left their four amazing children (Christina, Miguel, Dominique, and Letty) at San Francisco’s youth summer drop-in program and in the care of my hands while they went off to work. I grew extremely attached to them and their story especially the eldest, Christina. I admired her courage to initiate the responsibility of her siblings during the hours her parents worked. A drive and passion to succeed in life pumped through the veins of this fourteen year old.

All four children are US citizens and both parents crossed over undocumented. Their savings they managed to conjure up was working towards getting their citizenship. I remember helping Marisol with her paper work and translating everything for her and Jose.

“Hello…hello, Adri you still there?” I could hear a muffled voice from a distance. I looked down and saw the phone. Tears strung down my cheeks I could feel the blood rush to my face and I could not grasp a single breathe I began to cry uncontrollably and feeling my stomach turning I had to throw up. It was not a dream and Josie was still on the phone. The news about the Romero family was true. I felt as if I let them down. I had to go back to school and leave them in San Francisco to struggle and now they were gone.

I am relieved when discovering my parched tongue is refreshed with a cool glass of water. . I am reminded why I am here in this nation wide event surrounded by thousands of Immigrant’s Right Supporters.

“The Mexican immigrants are providing a fairly adequate supply of labor…While they are not easily assimilated; this is of no very great importance as long as most of them return to their native land. In the case of the Mexican, he is less desirable as a citizen than as a laborer,” said the U.S Congress Senate in 1911. Although a great deal of time has passed, many would say that people do not think like that anymore. And I would have to question that statement; you see that is why I stand in front of city hall today. It is because “last December 2005, the Republican-controlled U.S House of Representatives passed a bill (H.R. 4437) making it a felony to be an undocumented worker” (www.getactive.com/ United Farm Workers e-activism campaign) as well as aiding or employing undocumented workers.

For a long time I hated the system. But as the year progressed I transferred that negative energy of hate to anger, with anger grew a passion for equality. As I look around at the many women, men, and children who come here in front of City Hall to protest I see a fierce fire in their eyes that will not burn out and with that I am hopeful.