Gosh, ya donate to one or two non-for-profits and now everyone, from Planned Parenthood to Catholic Charities including my HS, undergrad, and graduate development offices, is hittin' me up for cash. Social cause solicitation is about 60 percent of my paper mail. I feel like I've created a tax-deductible monster or I unleashed the philanthropic beast. FYI: Bills, student loan consolidation offers, zero APR introductory credit cards, and the New Yorker (God bless the New Yorker) make up the other 40 percent.
Don't get me wrong, I was a Fresh Air Fund kid, my HS and alma mater were very generous with me, but gimme 15-20 years to get past the post-graduation/real world trauma, the soul-searching, graduate school, entry-level paychecks, and make a dent into my academic loans and I'll hook you up. But in the meantime, if I send you a check please, don't tell all your friends about me.
Wednesday, April 26, 2006
Monday, April 17, 2006
"Immigrants rights movement affecting African Americans"
By Karen Juanita Carrillo
Amsterdam News,
6 April 2006.
The nation's growing movement for immigrant rights is making some peopletake a second look at the current work and living conditions AfricanAmericans face.
With right-wing calls for deportation of immigrants, and amidst claims that immigrants are stealing jobs from U.S. citizens - which, in many cases means working class African Americans - some portions of the U.S.-born Black community have turned their anger at immigrants.
"But African Americans should join the immigrant rights movement. We're already part of it; we're intricately connected to it," claimed Councilman Charles Barron (D-Brooklyn). "We need to get our focus straight: Your enemyis not immigrants. Your enemy is white male domination, the white male power structure. What is stopping us from getting jobs is not immigrants. We should not settle for that divide-and-conquer tactic," added Baron, who is currently sponsoring the Voting Rights Restoration Act in New York City Council.
The Voting Rights Restoration Act would re-establish local voting rights for[legal] non-citizen immigrant residents who have lived in New York City formore than six months.
Barron points out that many of today's immigrants are from Africa and theWest Indies and that the current wave of immigrant fear could stem from the fact that so many immigrants are people of color.
"The problem is that the white power structure has more jobs than it shouldhave, and they have to be forced to open up opportunities for everyone," the councilman continued. "This was happening before immigrants came - beforethe Mexicans were here, we didn't have jobs, so don't fall for that storythat we were all happily employed before."
With a national budget of $2.7 trillion, a New York State budget of $112 billion and a New York City budget of $55.5 billion, Barron claims there's no reason for a lack of employment opportunities in this country.
"There are 2.3 million Black people in New York City and we're worried about some Mexicans?" he scoffed. "We'd better be worried about the Bloombergs and the Spitzers out there; those are the ones really affecting our lives!"
"I really believe that this whole issue brings up a larger question. It really reminds me of why we started the Black Radical Congress (BRC) in the first place. This is exactly the issue that emerged for us during the emergence of the move toward globalization. You have something like NAFTA[North American Free Trade Agreement], which disassembles the nature of workin a place like Mexico so that people have to find a way to feed themselvesand work and pay for their families," said Humberto Brown, a member of theBlack Radical Congress. "That leads them to come here, so now you have a situation where African Americans who have historically and today continue to be the most disadvantaged group in this 'wonderful' U.S. democracy, now they're faced with the question of whose rights should be fought for. Do labor rights, immigrant rights and the right to work supersede the rights of Black Americans? It's putting two oppressed groups, who are both victims of capitalism and globalization, against each other."
The immigrant rights movement is pressuring civil rights advocates to redefine what it means to be a citizen of any country, Brown added.
"Citizenship should not be defined by nation states anymore. Citizenship should be an element of your human rights - you're right to work, your rightto health care, and your right to stability and to a pension wherever you are living in the world. Since globalization has cheapened labor, it's corrupted the safety nets that so many countries used to offer. I think African Americans should join the immigrant rights marches to demand jobs for themselves, jobs for everybody. We should make sure that this economy works for everybody. It's a challenging issue, because we have to force global capitalism to provide equity for the people who produce its wealth. And that may be something it is unable to do," he said.
Included by permission of Amsterdam News. Voices C 2006, IPA, all rightsreserved.
Amsterdam News,
6 April 2006.
The nation's growing movement for immigrant rights is making some peopletake a second look at the current work and living conditions AfricanAmericans face.
With right-wing calls for deportation of immigrants, and amidst claims that immigrants are stealing jobs from U.S. citizens - which, in many cases means working class African Americans - some portions of the U.S.-born Black community have turned their anger at immigrants.
"But African Americans should join the immigrant rights movement. We're already part of it; we're intricately connected to it," claimed Councilman Charles Barron (D-Brooklyn). "We need to get our focus straight: Your enemyis not immigrants. Your enemy is white male domination, the white male power structure. What is stopping us from getting jobs is not immigrants. We should not settle for that divide-and-conquer tactic," added Baron, who is currently sponsoring the Voting Rights Restoration Act in New York City Council.
The Voting Rights Restoration Act would re-establish local voting rights for[legal] non-citizen immigrant residents who have lived in New York City formore than six months.
Barron points out that many of today's immigrants are from Africa and theWest Indies and that the current wave of immigrant fear could stem from the fact that so many immigrants are people of color.
"The problem is that the white power structure has more jobs than it shouldhave, and they have to be forced to open up opportunities for everyone," the councilman continued. "This was happening before immigrants came - beforethe Mexicans were here, we didn't have jobs, so don't fall for that storythat we were all happily employed before."
With a national budget of $2.7 trillion, a New York State budget of $112 billion and a New York City budget of $55.5 billion, Barron claims there's no reason for a lack of employment opportunities in this country.
"There are 2.3 million Black people in New York City and we're worried about some Mexicans?" he scoffed. "We'd better be worried about the Bloombergs and the Spitzers out there; those are the ones really affecting our lives!"
"I really believe that this whole issue brings up a larger question. It really reminds me of why we started the Black Radical Congress (BRC) in the first place. This is exactly the issue that emerged for us during the emergence of the move toward globalization. You have something like NAFTA[North American Free Trade Agreement], which disassembles the nature of workin a place like Mexico so that people have to find a way to feed themselvesand work and pay for their families," said Humberto Brown, a member of theBlack Radical Congress. "That leads them to come here, so now you have a situation where African Americans who have historically and today continue to be the most disadvantaged group in this 'wonderful' U.S. democracy, now they're faced with the question of whose rights should be fought for. Do labor rights, immigrant rights and the right to work supersede the rights of Black Americans? It's putting two oppressed groups, who are both victims of capitalism and globalization, against each other."
The immigrant rights movement is pressuring civil rights advocates to redefine what it means to be a citizen of any country, Brown added.
"Citizenship should not be defined by nation states anymore. Citizenship should be an element of your human rights - you're right to work, your rightto health care, and your right to stability and to a pension wherever you are living in the world. Since globalization has cheapened labor, it's corrupted the safety nets that so many countries used to offer. I think African Americans should join the immigrant rights marches to demand jobs for themselves, jobs for everybody. We should make sure that this economy works for everybody. It's a challenging issue, because we have to force global capitalism to provide equity for the people who produce its wealth. And that may be something it is unable to do," he said.
Included by permission of Amsterdam News. Voices C 2006, IPA, all rightsreserved.
The Merriam-Webster Word of the Day for April 16 is:
meliorism \MEE-lee-uh-riz-um\ noun: the belief that the world tends to improve and that humans can aid its betterment.
I love when the Word of the Days give me the precise words that match my current beliefs and thoughts. It's like a semantical-consciousness horoscope.
meliorism \MEE-lee-uh-riz-um\ noun: the belief that the world tends to improve and that humans can aid its betterment.
I love when the Word of the Days give me the precise words that match my current beliefs and thoughts. It's like a semantical-consciousness horoscope.
Wednesday, April 12, 2006
On Monday, I think I was waiting for there to be tumbleweeds rolling here in Queens. A "28 Days" sort-of thing. But no. Typical Monday. Cars to and fro on the Queens Blvd into Manjatan and out.
At home, I combed my apartment for a white shirt. Boy, was it difficult. I'm a New Yorker and plump Latina, who loves her colors. I ended up settling for sunglasses with white plastic frames for "peaceful visions," I told myself.
It was a little after four when I arrived at the rally. The corrals of protesters seemed like a carnaval. Flags, cheers, chants, costumes. Jesus, Mary, and the Romans. The Passion of the Inmigrantes. By this time the police were more permissive with pedestrian traffic than earlier, I learned. Yet at times, it seemed as if they were involved in a great, big game of human Tetris or Pacman: poring protesters of one corral into available space in another.
The morale of my protesting brethren was surprisingly pleasant considering it was almost hour three of the rally. Enthusiasm was channeled into shouting chants of "Bush escucha, la gente esta en la lucha." Maybe it was the Jesus with the cardboard cross or the constant standing, or simply the call-and-response but the march reminded me of a Catholic mass.
I left shortly after my hero Roger Toussaint spoke. I thought it was great that he still delivered a warm speech after having been sentenced to 10 days in jail earlier in the day.
That night and the morning after I realized that I took a souvenir with me from the march. I developed a cold! But it was worth it. I can only imagine the astonishment in Washington. Two million individuals coalesced to send lawmakers one huge check. A reality check, that is.
At home, I combed my apartment for a white shirt. Boy, was it difficult. I'm a New Yorker and plump Latina, who loves her colors. I ended up settling for sunglasses with white plastic frames for "peaceful visions," I told myself.
It was a little after four when I arrived at the rally. The corrals of protesters seemed like a carnaval. Flags, cheers, chants, costumes. Jesus, Mary, and the Romans. The Passion of the Inmigrantes. By this time the police were more permissive with pedestrian traffic than earlier, I learned. Yet at times, it seemed as if they were involved in a great, big game of human Tetris or Pacman: poring protesters of one corral into available space in another.
The morale of my protesting brethren was surprisingly pleasant considering it was almost hour three of the rally. Enthusiasm was channeled into shouting chants of "Bush escucha, la gente esta en la lucha." Maybe it was the Jesus with the cardboard cross or the constant standing, or simply the call-and-response but the march reminded me of a Catholic mass.
I left shortly after my hero Roger Toussaint spoke. I thought it was great that he still delivered a warm speech after having been sentenced to 10 days in jail earlier in the day.
That night and the morning after I realized that I took a souvenir with me from the march. I developed a cold! But it was worth it. I can only imagine the astonishment in Washington. Two million individuals coalesced to send lawmakers one huge check. A reality check, that is.
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