Original Body
pstrongA report on Upset the Set-up conference at Fremont High School/strong/p
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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 /
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