We will not be Silenced

pstrongA report on Upset the Set-up conference at Fremont High School/strong/p pDIV align="left" TABLE cellpadding="5"TR VALIGN="TOP"TDIMG SRC= "../sites/default/files/arch_img/499/photo_1_supplement.jpg" //td/trTR VALIGN="TOP"TD/td/trTR VALIGN="TOP"TDTR VALIGN="TOP"TD pby Isabel Estrada/PoorNewsNetwork Youth in the Media intern/p pWalking into Fremont High School on Foothill and High Streets in Oakland,br / I couldn't quite grasp what was off about the environment. Then I realizedbr / that the tall, dimly lit, stark walls made me feel lost, as though theybr / belonged to a factory, constructed for the purpose of molding loads of kids. Thebr / long, drab, brown tables seemed to beg me to lay my head on top of them andbr / fall asleep. However, the young people surrounding me were completely atbr / odds with their solemn environment, anything but dulled by convention, theybr / ran around, talking and organizing, as if propelled by a hidden energy. /p piUpset the Setup/i, the third annual youth conference centered aroundbr / uniting youth against juvenile injustice was just getting started. The groupbr / that organized this event, the Youth Force Coalition, is dedicated tobr / fighting the Prison Industrial Complex. Their member organizations includebr / the ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union) Youth Advisory Committee as well asbr / others representing Asian, Filipino, Jewish, Homeless and Queer communities. /p pI cautiously let myself into the auditorium where a young woman, Rosabr / King, from Youth Speaks was reciting poetry dedicated to those who had diedbr / on September 11, 2001. I was hyper-conscious of my role as reporter. Ibr / leaned against the wall at the back of the auditorium and quickly took outbr / the little notebook I had bought just for the occasion. I was nervous asbr / hell and hid my insecurity about being in a room filled with unknown peoplebr / my own age by taking on the role of reporter. I scribbled things downbr / constantly and with an air of importance. I'm Latina and am always hearingbr / other kids of color complain of feeling uncomfortable around white adults,br / well my problem is more with people of my own age. How was I going to go upbr / to them and get the information I needed for my article? /p pLooking around, I began to relax. There were people of all ages andbr / colors. From the middle and high school-aged kids who were attending thebr / conference to the twenty-somethings facilitating or reporting on it—br / everybody was being taken in by Rosa's words. Her poems spoke to thebr / discrepancies in California's priorities, "Number one in prisons, number 41br / in education," she pointed out, and continued in the same vein, "A systembr / where knowing your rights isn't a right‚" The crowd began to cheer. Youbr / could start to see the disgust in people's faces as they were once againbr / reminded of the hypocritical standards so often embraced by the United Statesbr / government. /p pNext up was Kiwi, the rapper. The little man with a big voice. Thebr / moment he stepped up he was gliding across the stage, the potency of his wordsbr / knocking us in the chest. He was singing about United States-sponsoredbr / sweatshops and the ever-expanding juvenile "justice" system. "If you're notbr / down with the lockdown let me hear you say ‘HELL NO’," he shouted out to thebr / throbbing beat. Everybody's arms shot up with the music and the crowdbr / responded with "HELL NO." We continued to support Kiwi as he belted out hisbr / socially conscious lyricsiIt's hard to be an optimist in the unemploymentbr / office‚ A battered women leading a life of silence/i./p pWe filed out of the auditorium, while the teachers attended strategybr / sessions to organize against juvenile injustice, as well as to find methods tobr / put an end to war, it was time for the high schoolers to move on to thebr / workshops. Discussions in the workshops ranged from the role of juvenilebr / justice in the prison industrial complex to the effects of globalization. Other themes were homophobia, sexism, racism, adultism and the usebr / of art as a tool to create change./p pIn the workshop “Unlearning Oppression”, led by Samuel Banales and Christinebr / Cherboonmuang, we learned about three types of oppression: Institutionalized,br / Interpersonal and Internalized, and saw how all three work together tobr / bring people down. I recognized that I have internalized some oppression inbr / the sense that I often feel uncomfortable about how I look as a female and Ibr / also sometimes feel as though I may be thought to be a bad influence onbr / others just because I am Latina. Most likely anybody who knows me wouldbr / think it ridiculous for me to be insecure in these ways. As a matter ofbr / fact, I think it's ridiculous. /p pHowever, it seems that even though I am awarebr / of the tricks that the media can play on people—especially young adults—br / I am not immune to them. In this workshop I became aware that internalizedbr / oppression can often lead one to interpersonal oppression. So, because Ibr / have my own ridiculous insecurities I may attempt to rid myself of them bybr / judging someone else based on the same media-made standards that have hurtbr / me. Institutional oppression only serves to bring out people's differencesbr / even more. It can be a vicious cycle. In order to cure our society of thisbr / disease, both the oppressor and the oppressed must fight the system thatbr / attempts to put each in his or her role./p pToward the end of the day I listened in on a particularly interestingbr / workshop about the inequities within the juvenile justice system. Apparently, inbr / San Francisco, youth who are arrested have a chance to go to eitherbr / Community Assessment Referral Center (CARC) or Youth Guidance Center (YGC).br / Though CARC seems to yield the best results in terms of rehabilitating theirbr / members, only 25 percent of those arrested are sent there. The other 75 percent are sentbr / to YGC, a center known to provide few rehabilitation programs; where, thoughbr / the crime rate has seemed to drop in the last few years, there seems to be anbr / ever-increasing amount of inmates. /p pAccording to our facilitators frombr / Youth Making A Change (YMAC), one out of every three inmates at YGC are doing "deadbr / time". This means that they are either waiting to be sentenced or, in somebr / cases, have already completed their sentence but are being kept illegally inbr / the facility. This is to say that instead of using the allotted money tobr / build more rehabilitation programs, a great deal of it is going towards YGCbr / for kids who should not even be there. /p pMost horrifying to me personally isbr / the fact that there are no laws that dictate where a juvenile detainee mustbr / go; it is completely at the discretion of the arresting officer.br / Essentially, the officer is given the power to decide the fate of thebr / detainee, either subjecting him or her to a chance at rehabilitation or abr / cycle of repeated incarceration. This obviously leaves much room for racialbr / profiling and other forms of unfair judgment, simply based on the officer'sbr / whim. /p pHow can an officer be expected to know if a criminal he or she hasbr / never met before is likely to commit an illegal act again? They are left nobr / chance but to judge by a person's appearance or immediate behavior, which maybr / in fact may be incongruous with the person's actual intentions. This isbr / incredibly dangerous. The thought that the fate of any kid who commits abr / crime could be in the hands of an incompetent police officer makes mebr / shudder. It is imperative that YMAC and other similar organizations gain thebr / support needed to combat incarceration in favor of rehabilitation./p pWe ended this long, vigorous day with the voices of Prophets of Rage—br / the hard beats grinding into our souls and the challenging lyrics making usbr / bounce with indignity. It seems clear that the system is trying to pound itsbr / youth into the ground through institutionalized oppression, throughbr / television images of perfection that can never be attained and throughbr / unfair treatment in what is supposed to be the justice system. However, it isbr / also clear that when we want to be, we're too strong, we're too intelligent,br / we're too energetic, and we will not be silenced.br / /p/td/tr/td/tr/table/div/p