Syphilis and Forced Sterilization: Righteous Anger and teaching adult BA classrooms about the legacies of an intersectional, institutional racism and sexism

I recently brought up the idea of righteous anger (bell hooks, among others) in the context of talking about the forced sterilization of women in Central America, in the South, of Puerto Ricans and Nicaraguans, of African and Native American women, especially during the rise of the eugenics period and Jim Crow and scientific racism, to a class of entering students at the small private B.A-finishing university where I teach. the students were shocked! And I keep rolling back what I assume they might know, or at least some of them might know. So I have to do a little background research .. but here is a recent article that describes a new development in the legal treatment of these cases:

http://edition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/americas/03/15/guatemala.syphilis.lawsuit/

Posted via email from Decolonizing Environmentalism

Asians aim for 'Ya es hora'-style citizenship push

Asians aim for 'Ya es hora'-style citizenship push

By Amy Taxinm Associated Press

San Jose Mercury News (March 19, 2011)

 

LOS ANGELES-Inspired by a highly publicized Latino naturalization drive, Asian Americans are fanning out to help immigrants across California-and eventually the country-become U.S. citizens.

Asian American advocates say getting more immigrants to naturalize is crucial to flex the political muscle of the state's fastest-growing ethnic group and give the community a louder voice. And it has become even more pressing since the country ramped up immigration enforcement, making citizenship a requirement to get more government contracts and to avoid deportation if convicted of a crime.

 

The task is daunting. In California-home to a third of the country's Asian population-dozens of languages are spoken, in addition to dozens of dialects, and myriad often-competing Asian-language media outlets reach diverse segments.

 

"Everything we have to do is multiple in terms of the amount of resources and effort," said Karin Wang, vice president of programs at the Los Angeles-based Asian Pacific American Legal Center, which is spearheading the drive.

 

The campaign-which starts next week with a workshop in the San Gabriel Valley's sizable Chinese and Vietnamese communities- is modeled after the "Ya es hora" citizenship campaign launched by a close-knit partnership between community groups, Spanish-language media giant Univision and the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials.

 

That program, which consists of in-person workshops broadcast on television, has helped nearly 40,000 people fill out their naturalization applications and nearly 100,000 get their citizenship questions answered via a bilingual hotline since 2007.

 

Since then, Wang said she has often fielded questions about why Asian-American advocates can't mount a similar campaign, which led her group to draft a plan to create a naturalization network.

 

Under the program, Asian-American advocates will host six large-scale workshops across California to offer free assistance in multiple languages filling out naturalization forms. The goal is to initially help several hundred immigrants apply for citizenship, and have local community organizations help hundreds more after getting training from immigration lawyers on how to process the paperwork, said Connie Choi, an attorney with APALC's immigrant rights project.

 

California is home to about 5 million Asians who account for about 13 percent of the state's population.

 

Advocates hope to eventually expand the effort to other states with large Asian communities such as Texas, Georgia, Nevada and Ohio, said Karen Narasaki, president of the Washington-based Asian American Justice Center, an APALC affiliate.

 

Asian immigrants are already more likely to naturalize than Latinos and more than 60 percent become U.S. citizens within a decade of getting a green card, according to 2005 statistics from the Department of Homeland Security.

 

But advocates say many still need help with forms that are closely scrutinized by immigration officials, especially older immigrants who may have difficulty with English.

 

Peggy Santis, a 59-year-old Thai immigrant who became a citizen last month, said having someone help fill out the paperwork makes a big difference. The insurance agent from Anaheim applied to naturalize last year after living in this country for decades when she realized she felt like an American.

 

"It is better to become a citizen," said Santis, who got help filling out the paperwork through a local citizenship program. "You work and you pay taxes and then you don't have a right to vote."

 

Janelle Wong, a political science professor at the University of Southern California, said once Asian immigrants naturalize, they are relatively high-propensity voters. They are also more likely to get involved in politics in other ways, for example, by contacting their elected officials.

 

One of the challenges to getting a naturalization or civic engagement campaign off the ground in the Asian-American community is that immigrants often identify more closely with their distinct ethnic background, and often care about different issues, she said.

 

"The more ground work that is done, the more of a voice they will have in future elections," Wong said. "The only issue is: what will that voice be saying? ... there's not necessarily a shared political agenda across every community."

 

Advocates say the children and grandchildren of Asian immigrants who arrived after immigration rules were relaxed in the 1960s have a stronger tie to the community beyond their ethnic group since they grew up here and many have married across immigrant groups.

 

Many immigrants, from all countries, are reluctant to apply to become citizens, fearing their English isn't good enough. Others are thrown off by the $680 expense-often more if they seek help from a lawyer.

 

Narasaki said Asian-Americans have led naturalization campaigns in the past. In the 1990s, advocates ran a program to help people naturalize when the country scaled back the public benefits available to immigrants.

 

But they didn't follow up to see what happened after people naturalized. In the California drive-which is funded by $250,000 in private donations-advocates plan to follow up with new U.S. citizens to make sure they are registered to vote.

 

Asian immigrants have shown a strong interest in learning how to become citizens, though many are skeptical about asking questions of the U.S. government. That's one of the reasons federal authorities rely on community organizations trusted by immigrant communities to help promote naturalization, said Jane Arellano, district director for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services in the Los Angeles area.

 

"That is how we reach our ethnic communities," she said. "They trust their leadership."

 

# # #

Posted via email from Decolonizing Environmentalism

EJ - Cali's Cap-and-Trade Program - Procedural FAIL!

~ this just rolling through my Inbox. :) Big decision! ~

NOTE: Many of these groups stopped a Chevron Tarsands refinery expansion recently

 PRESS RELEASE 

For Immediate Release Contact:

Adrienne Bloch, CBE (510) 484-6298 

March 21, 2011 Alegría De La Cruz, CRPE (661) 370-5775 

Bill Gallegos, CBE (323) 573-5310 

Caroline Farrell, CRPE (661) 586-2621 

Tom Frantz, AIR (661) 910-7734 

Angela Johnson-Meszaros, (323) 229-1145

ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE GROUPS WIN - CAP AND TRADE PLAN ILLEGAL! 

CALIFORNIA AIR RESOURCES BOARD FORCED TO REVISIT ALTERNATIVES TO UNJUST POLLUTION TRADING SYSTEM 

SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA - On March 17, 2011 a San Francisco Superior Court judge ruled that the California Air Resources Board violated the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) when it failed to properly consider alternatives to a "cap and trade" program in its plan to implement AB 32, the California Climate Solutions Act. Cap and trade is pollution trading that allows the worst polluters to continue or increase their pollution by buying "reductions." These polluters are disproportionately located in low income communities of color. Instead of reducing pollution and creating jobs in California, dirty facilities, like oil refineries, get to buy credits from often unverifiable projects in other states and countries. 

"Allowing the most entrenched polluters to increase pollution violates our environmental rights and is not the way to stop poisoning our air and slow catastrophic climate change," said Bill Gallegos, CBE's Executive Director. “ARB was dogmatic in its focus on cap-and-trade even though it is not effective in reducing greenhouse gases, increases pollution in heavily polluted low-income communities and communities of color, and misses the opportunity to create jobs in California. Now the ARB has a chance to do it right and consider real alternatives to pollution trading. We continue to be willing to work with the ARB to make the whole plan work for everybody." 

Environmental justice and air quality organizations have been fighting for years to get ARB to protect low-income communities of color in its efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. In 2009, these groups filed suit to enforce their rights under AB32 and CEQA. 

Judge Ernest Goldsmith’s ruling rejected ARB’s rationale for choosing a pollution trading scheme, stating that the law requires more than “a discourse on cap and trade justification.” The decision requires ARB to fully analyze alternatives to the cap and trade program, and stops all implementation of the program until ARB complies with the law. 

“ARB refused to do its job so we were left with no other choice but to sue to protect public health,” said Caroline Farrell, Executive Director for the Center on Race, Poverty & the Environment. “The court’s decision ensures that ARB fully understand how its decisions impact the most vulnerable of Californians and avoid unintended negative consequences as we move forward with this groundbreaking and transformative measure.” 

In addition, the court ruled that ARB violated a key CEQA protection when it prematurely moved forward with its plan before completing environmental review, stating that ARB “interpreted its regulation in a way that undermines CEQA’s goal of informed decision-making.” 

“ARB jumped the gun and failed to respond to the thousands of public comments it received before it approved and implemented its plan,” said Tom Frantz, President of the Association of Irritated Residents. “This ruling will compel ARB to fully consider those of us most affected by its decisions, and not just move forward in its haste to make major polluters happy.” 

Communities for a Better Environment represented itself and its members; the Center on Race, Poverty & the Environment (CRPE) represented Association of Irritated Residents, Coalition for a Safe Environment, Society for Positive Action, West County Toxics Coalition, Angela Johnson-Meszaros, Dr. Henry Clark, Jesse Marquez, Shabaka Heru, and Tom Frantz; Angela Johnson-Meszaros represented Martha Dina Arguello, Caroline Farrell, and California Communities Against Toxics. 

###

Posted via email from Decolonizing Environmentalism

Imagination and the Ability to Dream: On Markets, Capitalism and Proposed Solutions to Global Climate System Disruption

Why don't you like markets?

When i give my talk on how the global climate justice movement contains the knowledge and practices to save us from global climate chaos, and in fact are doing it already, environmental studies people often ask me, "You seem to have an aversion to markets, why?"

Thanks to Gopal Dayaneni, and the social movements, including the good folks at Global Exchange, this has been clarified for me - it's not all markets per se. It's capitalist markets and continued or increased penetration of the commodification of the sacred which the movements i work with and support are against, primarily because capitalist markets are fundamentally exploitative. It is possible to envision markets that are not fundamentally based on the commodification of nature, and on exploitative, unequal, unjust relationships, and i would like to see us collectively as a global society build on those solutions.

The problems with the continued or increased commodification of the sacred should be self-explanatory.

And then solutions? if not cap and trade and markets then what?

 

The Impoverishment of Our Collective Imagination and Political Will

The people who ask me, as if surprised, about what they perceive as my aversion to markets, are in fact misunderstanding: what I have is a deep and committed aversion to exploitation and injustice.

They also seem to believe that cap-and-trade is the only solution to global climate chaos that can work and they are hell bent on pushing - shoving - that policy down people's throats. What surprises me is the fact that so many environmental studies professors believe it. Unfortunately many of the so-called big environmental organizations and individuals have a fundamental conflict of interest. Many of these organizations stand to make money and profit off of a cap-and-trade and/or offsetting scheme.

In terms of mechanisms in the US that are based on some monetary incentive or penalty, but that do not increase the commodification of life and that hopefully do not create such perverse incentives such as the current options being debated at the UNFCCC proceedings, there are some more progressive solutions on the table (tax and dividend, e.g.).

 If in all of human history we have only had this particular kind of capitalist market system for less than 200 years why do we think that we can't do better and/or do different?

Why would anyone think that any one single solution could ever begin to solve a problem that is as complex, far-reaching, wide-ranging and path-dependent and diffuse as global climate disruption and chaos?

Even still - we can do better. We must. Given the amazing, powerful, creative and just minds and imaginations that we have as a global human society, I trust that we can: that alternative workable solutions that meet the scale of the problems we have created already do exist.

They will be many, they will be different, they will be context-sensitive and appropriate - and that will be their power. They already are (for more, see an earlier letter to 1Sky, "Grassroots Organizing Cools the Planet.")

We can do better than just leave it to a market to work its invisible hand.

 

The Killing Death Grip of the Invisible Hand

And, If you happen to be a community that has been on the sharp, killing end of that invisible hand's stick, or of the weapon of mass destruction that's in the other hand that killed your people that no one talks about, then you know that capitalist greed fueled:

the expansion of the transatlantic slave trade and the horrific, insane practices that made possible markets in their commodified bodies and the commodity markets in what was produced by their labor, including cotton and sugar;

the genocide and expropriation of native lands and colonization in general fueled and grew the commodity markets in gold and silver;

the trafficking of poor irish, italian, polish, portuguese women and of poor chinese and indian men across the pacific in the same slave boats that moved Africans across the atlantic fueled and exacerbated and the markets for their labor or what they produced: cloth, clothes, railroads, electronics, food;

the destruction of forests worldwide is the result of the growth in global commodity markets for timber and pulp and paper;

the extinctions and near-extinctions of beaver, manatees, sea turtles for their meat, furs and other commodity markets;

increased asthma and childhood developmental harm in particular (racialized, poor) communities for markets in energy;

the destruction of traditional farmers, their subsequent displacement into being farmworkers and exposure to the effects of deathly poisons for global agribusiness and the development of markets in foodstuffs-become-commodities like corn, wheat, rice, soy;

the ever-increasing wealth gap and its disastrous, perverse consequences ..

Really do i have to go on? 

This is why WEB DuBois, in 1910, wrote that the failure of the US democratic project was due to the combination of colonialism, racism and capitalism, and that its primary effects were felt on Black and Brown bodies and the natural environment. True then and still true now.

it is also why it is imperative that we look to the communities that have survived in these systems of domination and subordination, that have created solutions that uphold the sacredness of Mother Earth and of rights and dignity, because often, in those communities, the solutions and survival mechanisms are complex in their ability to tie and re-wind human individual and collective well-being with the restoration of the natural world.

 

Posted via email from Decolonizing Environmentalism