Let's Build a U.S. for All of Us

* Former U.S. Surgeon General Dr. David Satcher and colleagues calculated that

in 2002, 83,570 African Americans died who would not have if Black and white

mortality rates were equal. That’s 229 “excess deaths” per day: the equivalent of an

airplane loaded with Black passengers being shot out of the sky and killing everyone on board every single day of the year. (28)

*The Pima Indians of southern Arizona suffer one of the highest diabetes rates in

the world. One study found that 40% of Pima adults are afflicted, while, across the

border, fewer than 7% of the Mexican Pima had diabetes. (26)

*For American Indians and Alaska Natives, the prevalence of diabetes is more than twice that for all adults in the United States. (21)

*Racial and ethnic health inequities don’t just reflect income. More African American, Native American, Latino and Pacific Islanders are in poor or fair health than whites at practically every income level (although recent Latino immigrants report better health). (27)

*Racism has proven to be a factor affecting health “upstream” and independent of class…In fact, infant mortality rates among babies born to college-educated African American women are higher than those of white Americans who haven’t finished high school. (10)

*Examples of the negative impacts of institutional racism include: a lack of providers of color in hospitals and clinics; a lack of multilingual staff; a lack of culturally competent caregivers in communities; patterns of unequal diagnosis and treatment; and a lack of responsiveness by medical training institutions. (18)

*Many African American and Native American populations are less likely to reach

65 than people from Bangladesh or Ghana. African American males living in

Washington, D.C. have a lower life expectancy (57.9 years) than men in Bangladesh (58.1) and Ghana (58.3). (25)

* The prevalence of HIV infection among Blacks doubled in the last decade while

remaining stable among whites. (29)

*While Latinos account for just 13 percent of the U.S. population, they represent 20 percent of people living with HIV/AIDS. (4)

* On average, there are four times as many supermarkets in predominantly white

neighborhoods as there are in predominantly Black or Latino neighborhoods. (30)

• Patients who don’t speak English well, and who don’t have access to appropriate interpretation and translation services or health care providers who speak their language are at greater risk for misdiagnosis, poor understanding of their diagnosis and treatment plan, and medical errors than patients who experience no language barriers. (12)

* Although typically poorer, recent Latino immigrants are healthier than the average American. However, those who have lived in the U.S. five years or longer are 50% more likely to have high blood pressure and almost 40% more likely to be obese. (32)

*Latinos are the single racial/ethnic group most likely to report having no usual source of health care. (5)

*As a group, Latino immigrants are less likely to smoke than U.S.-born Latinos, and acculturation appears to have a particularly strong influence on the likelihood of smoking among Latinas. (7)

*More than 100 studies now link racism to worse health. Many people of color experience a wide range of serious health issues at higher rates than do whites, including breast cancer, heart disease, stroke, diabetes, hypertension, respiratory illness and pain- related problems. (8)

*Anxiety, anger, or frustration from racist experiences trigger the body’s stress response, which over time, creates wear and tear on the body’s organs and systems. (11)

*Interviewees also described how internalized racism, associated with a sense of

hopelessness and inability to envision a positive future, contributes to mental health problems among people of color, in particular depression among women, violence and suicide in men, and substance abuse. (20)

• African-American heart patients are less likely than white patients to receive certain kinds of care, such as diagnostic procedures, revascularization procedures, and thrombolytic therapy, even if they have similar patient characteristics. (13)

• African Americans are less likely to be put on waiting lists for kidney transplants or to receive dialysis. (33)

• Latinos with long-bone fractures are less likely to receive appropriate pain

medication than whites with the same types of fractures seen in the same

emergency department. (14)

*With respect to health status, data suggest that, for most causes of death and

disability, African Americans, Latinos, and American Indians suffer poorer health outcomes relative to whites with statistically equivalent levels of socioeconomic

position. (15)

*A recent Institute of Medicine report similarly found that racial and ethnic bias within healthcare institutions and among practitioners contributes to disparities. (19)

*******

(1-7)(http://www.racialequitytools.org/resourcefiles/jointcenter2.pdf)

(8-11)(http://www.unnaturalcauses.org/assets/uploads/file/primers.pdf)

(12-14,33)(http://www.racialequitytools.org/resourcefiles/opportunityagenda2.pdf)

(15-20)http://www.racialequitytools.org/resourcefiles/bell1.pdf

(21-24)http://www.racialequitytools.org/resourcefiles/opportunityagenda.pdf

(25-32)http://www.unnaturalcauses.org/assets/uploads/file/AmazingFacts_small.pdf

Recommendations

1. Eliminate disparities in access to health insurance. Expand public health programs such as Medicaid and work toward a universal health care system guaranteeing basic access. (1)

2. Improve health care in medically underserved areas, which are often communities of color. Support community health clinics that provide high-quality care to underinsured and uninsured patients. (2)

3. Develop health care institutions that are welcoming and respectful to people of different races and ethnicities.Improve access to quality care for people of color by minimizing financial barriers to patient/doctor communication, training staff in culturally appropriate care, and building a diverse workforce.(3)

4. Track racial disparities in health care provision. With proper data collection, health care institutions can be held accountable for eliminating these disparities and meeting high quality-of care standards for all patients. (4)

5. Provide medical interpretation services for all clinical encounters. Federal, state, and local governments, as well as insurers and health care providers, should fund language services as a medical necessity.(5)

6. Improve access to traditional and non-Western treatments. Insurers should be required to cover alternative and culturally appropriate health care. Health care providers should be provided training and access to research about alternative and non-Western medical practices.(6)

7. Adopt and enforce policies that promote safety and health. The adoption of worker protections and environmental standards are necessary to address root causes of health inequality.(7)

8. Include public health experts and community organizations in community development and planning processes. Health concerns must be at the forefront in discussions about housing, transportation, and economic development.(8)

9. Provide funding and support for improved nutrition, physical education, and health education in schools. School environments that emphasize health can lead to improved health outcomes and higher academic achievement.(9)

10. Support programs that incorporate cultural traditions. Connecting people to their cultural heritage can be an effective way to improve individual and community health. (10)

(1-10) http://www.arc.org/content/view/250/48/

Examples:

Community Health Promoters Program Esperanza created the Community Health Promoters’ Program (CHPP) in 1995 to build and maintain a comprehensive approach to health systems change and community transformation.  With our CHPP, Health has become Esperanza’s largest program area.  Esperanza trains bi- and trilingual low-income residents of our neighborhood to become community health leaders, known as Promotores. The Promotores have shared life experience to respond to patients’ cultural and linguistic needs appropriately, and Esperanza gives them the training they need to address areas of need where traditional public health strategies are neither suitable nor accepted. The Community Health Promoters Program has trained 334  residents of the Figueroa Corridor to become community health leaders, patient advocates and health educators. Esperanza’s CHPP also serves as a gateway for employment in the health and social services fields for our residents.  More than thirty-four public health agencies and nonprofit organizations in Los Angeles employ Esperanza-trained Promotores.

The central objectives of the CHPP are:

• to empower residents to lead the community towards improved health; • enhance community health by increasing residents’ access to health care and facilitating their use of preventive health measures; and • forge partnerships with health clinics, hospitals, non-profits, and public agencies to improve the system of medical care. (11)

*Tenant Workers Union: Healthy Community: Trains and educates community members to expand and improve uninsured access to affordable, culturally competent health care through  participatory research, organizing and advocacy. In addition, the project holds bimonthly health clinics at TWU offices and an Annual Health Fair where the community receives critical preventative care services such as glucose, cholesterol, and vision screening. (12)

(11) http://www.esperanzacommunityhousing.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1&Itemid=1

(12) http://www.tenantsandworkers.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=57&Itemid=70&lang=en

Organizations*

National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum: National

Kentucky Health Justice Network: Kentucky

Chinese Progressive Association: San Francisco, CA

Community Coalition for Environmental Justice: Seattle, WA

Environmental Health Coalition: San Diego, CA

Southwest Network for Environmental and Economic Justice (SNEEJ): Southwest

Padres y Jovenes Unidos: Denver, CO

South West Organizing Project: Southwest

PODER (People Organized in Defense of Earth and her Resources): Austin, TX

Make the Road by Walking: New York, NY

Esperanza: Building Hope with Community, Los Angeles, CA

Center for Health Justice , Hollywood CA

Intertribal Youth: Helping Our Youth Grow, CA

Center for Health, Environment and Justice: Falls Church, VA

South Asian Network: Artesia, CA

Portland Jobs with Justice: Portland, OR

Right To Health

First 5 LA: Los Angeles, CA

Jobs with Justice: Massachusetts

Jobs with Justice: National

Grassroots Global Justice: National

Right to the City: National

*These are examples of organizations doing work around this issue. They do not necessarily endorse this project

*In the past two decades, the number of people in prison in the U.S. has risen 400%. The system is filled with 68% people of color. (6)

*The imprisonment rate of Black American men is over eight times greater than that of European Americans. (1)

*Black men comprised 41% of the more than 2 million men imprisoned. (3)

* Native American women were admitted to prison at over 6 times and African American women at 4 times the rate for White women. (24)

* Latinos were admitted to prison at 2 times the rate for Whites. (25)

* The rate at which African Americans were on death row was almost 5 times the rate for Whites. (23)

* Youth African American rates of residential placement were over 4 times, Hispanic rates 2 times, and Native Americans 3 times those for Whites. (26)

*Rates of youth admitted to adult prisons were 7 times higher for African Americans and over 2 times as high for Native Americans as for White youth. (27)

* Native Americans were arrested at 1.5 times the rate for Whites, with higher disparity for certain violent and public order offenses. Probation and Parole (22)

*Percent of Montana that is Native American: 7%. Percent of Montana State Prison at Deer Lodge that is Native American:17%.Percent of women incarcerated at the Montana State Prison in Billings that are Native American: 40%. (16)

*Black and Latina women make up over 80% of women arrested in New York City, a significantly greater proportion than their representation in the general population. (9)

*In Chicago, African American women make up 52% of all prostitution related arrests, while only 16% of those arrested in connection with sex work are white women. (10)

*A study done by the Urban Justice Center in New York found that 66% of survivors arrested under mandatory arrest policies (for domestic violence calls) were Black and Latina women. (11)

*More than 60% of the people in prison are now racial and ethnic minorities.(12)

*On June 30, 2006, almost 5% of all Black men were in prison or jail, compared to

0.7% of white men and 1.9% of “Hispanic men”. More than 11% of Black men ages

25-34 were incarcerated. (2)

*One in three Black males born today will end up in a cage. (7)

*4 million former prisoners in the U.S. are left without hope or resources – barred employment opportunities, disenfranchised, and often prohibited from getting federal loans, applying for public housing, or getting services.(8)

*For Black males in their twenties, 1 in every 8 is in prison or jail on any given day. (13)

*In relation to the “war on drugs,” three-fourths of all persons in prison for drug offenses are people of color. (14)

*sixty percent of the 2.3 million people in prison and jail are African American or Latino (15)

*During the Bush administration, the Border Patrol nearly tripled, reaching more than 22,000 agents by the end of his term. (18)

*During the Bush Administration, the annual count of federal criminal prosecutions for immigration offenses more than quadrupled, while federal prosecutions of other crimes has substantially decreased. Nearly 80,000 immigration prosecutions were filed in fiscal year 2008, compared to 39,458 in the previous year and 16,310 in fiscal year 2001. Meanwhile, between 2000 and 2007, white-collar prosecutions fell by 27 percent, weapons prosecutions shrank by 21 percent, organized crime prosecutions fell by 48 percent, public corruption prosecutions dropped by 14 percent, and drug prosecutions declined by 20 percent. (19)

*Since 1992, the annual budget of the U.S. Border Patrol has increased by 714%, and the number of Border Patrol agents stationed along the southwest border has grown by 390%. Despite all this additional spending, the number of undocumented immigrants in the United States has roughly tripled from 3.5 million in 1990 to 11.9 million in 2008. (20)

*The mere suggestion that local police may have the authority to enforce immigration law, based on policies and programs like 287(g) and “Secure Communities”,  sends a chill through Latino and immigrant communities, resulting in decreased willingness to cooperate with law enforcement, to report crimes, or to come forward as witnesses. (21)

(1) http://www.ssc.wisc.edu/~oliver/RACIAL/Oliver%20Focus%202001.pdf

(2, 3, 5) http://criticalresist.live.radicaldesigns.org/downloads/BJS_06.pdf

(6, 7, 8) http://criticalresist.live.radicaldesigns.org/article.php?id=51

(9,10,11) http://www.incite-national.org/media/docs/5341_pv-brochure-download.pdf

(12-14) http://www.sentencingproject.org/template/page.cfm?id=122

(15) http://www.sentencingproject.org/clearinghouse/

(16-17) http://www.prisonpolicy.org/prisonindex/prisoners.html

(18-19)http://www.immigrationforum.org/images/uploads/SouthwestBorderSecurityOperations.pdf

(20)http://www.immigrationpolicy.org/sites/default/files/docs/Economic_Blame_Game_111909_0.pdf

(21)http://www.immigrationpolicy.org/sites/default/files/docs/Secure_Communities_112309.pdf

(22-27)http://www.nccd-crc.org/nccd/pdf/CreatedEqualReport2009.pdf

Recommendations

*Build safe and healthy communities, where the basics are provided, such as food, shelter, and self-determination. (2)

*Conferencing circles and mediation are increasingly being used to resolve disputes. Some organizations that work closely with survivors of sexual violence have begun to reject intervention by the police while developing their own community-based alternatives for safety and conflict resolution. Alternative schools have been established that provide practical alternatives to the juvenile justice system. (3)

*Stop Racial Profiling (4)

*Stop funding prisons (5)

*Implement a moratorium on prison construction and a fight against the War on Drugs, the War on Immigrants, the War on Crime, and the use of prison slave labor. (6)

*Ban the Box: Eliminate the question about prior convictions on public employment applications (13)

*Voting Rights for All: Develop and implement strategies that result in greater participation from prisoners and formerly-incarcerated people in the democratic process. (14)

*Clean Slate: Provide trainings on the legal remedies available to people with conviction histories. Disseminate information on resolution assistance to those who qualify for existing legal remedies. (15)

*Document violence by police, immigration officers, customs, drug enforcement agents, and the military against women of color and trans people of color using interviews, video, and other forms of participatory action research (7)

*Collectively resist violence by law enforcement agents through base-building and direct action (8)

*Organize to develop responses to violence in our homes and communities so that we do not have to rely on law enforcement (9)

*Provide effective legal representation at all stages of proceedings in school or court:  Students ought to have the right and access to effective legal representation at both administrative proceedings in the school system and in judicial proceedings in Youth Court or Juvenile Court. (17)

*End the abuse of children at the detention centers and training schools:  Notwithstanding a number of court decisions and the intervention of the US Department of Justice to end the abuse of children at detention centers and training school, corrections personnel continue to be accused of harming students physically and psychologically. (18)

Examples:

*We (Sylvia Rivera Law Project) continue to work in solidarity with many organizations and individuals to support people in prison, to reduce incarceration, to end the wars on Iraq and Afghanistan, and to create systems of accountability that do not rely on prisons or policing and that meaningfully improve the health and safety of our communities–especially redistribution of wealth, health care, and housing. (16)

*Southern Echo, in collaboration with coalition members, will continue to fight to end conditions at youth incarceration facilities that fail to protect the health, safety and welfare of the children.(19)

*Creative Interventions in Oakland, CA, and CARA in Seattle, WA, are working with communities of color to develop non-police responses to domestic and sexual violence. (10)

*In 2002, Sista II Sista, a collective in New York City led by young women of color, created a documentary on police sexual harassment of young women of color in Bushwick, Brooklyn, and screened the documentary on the side of the precinct building. (11)

*In 2001, thirty thousand protesters on the El Paso-Juarez border marched to bring attention to the rapes and murders of women on the U.S.-Mexico border. (12)

(1-5) http://criticalresist.live.radicaldesigns.org/article.php?id=51

(6) http://www.prisonactivist.org/about

(7-12) http://www.incite-national.org/media/docs/5341_pv-brochure-download.pdf

(13-15) http://www.allofusornone.org/

(16) http://srlp.org/fedhatecrimelaw

(17-19) http://southernecho.org/s/?page_id=258

Organizations*

For an extensive list of organizations go to: http://www.prisonactivist.org/sites/all/files/prisonersupportdirectory_June2009.pdf

The Real Cost of Prisons Project: National

Families and Friends of Louisiana’s Incarcerated Children (FFLIC): Louisiana

The Audre Lorde Project: New York, NY

FIERCE (Fabulous Independent Educated Radicals for Community Empowerment): New York, NY

Incite! Women of Color Against Violence: National

Queers for Economic Justice: New York, NY

Right Rides: New York, NY

Transgender, Intersex, Justice Project (TGIJP): San Francisco, CA

The Transformative Justice Law Project of Illinois: Chicago, IL

SRLP (Sylvia Rivera Law Project): New York, NY

American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) National Prison Project: National

Barrios Unidos: Santa Cruz, CA

Behind the Wire Prisoner Information Network: Salt Lake City, UT

Chicano Mexicano Prison Project: San Diego, CA

Coalition for Prisoners’ Rights Prison Project of Santa Fe: Santa Fe, NM

Colorado Criminal Justice Reform Coalition: Denver, CO

Critical Resistance: Beyond the Prison Industrial Complex: National

Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund: Berkeley, CA

Friends and Family of Idaho Inmates

PO Box 1376 Boise, ID 83701

National Indian Prisoner Support Network: Minneapolis, MN

Human Rights Coalition: Philadelphia, PA

The Jericho Movement: New York, NY

Justice Works!

PO Box 1489, Lake Stevens, WA 98258

Malcolm X Grassroots Movement: National

Middle Ground Prison Reform: Arizona

National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights: California

Native American Indian Inmate Support Project: Pennsylvania

Native American Prisoners’ Rehabilitation Research Project: Kentucky

The November Coalition : National

Pennsylvania Prison Society: Pennsylvania

Prison & Jail Project: Georgia

Safe Streets: New Orleans, LA

South Dakota Prisoner Support Group: South Dakota

Stopmax Campaign: American Friends Service Committee: Pennsylvania

Battered Women’s Justice Project; Minneapolis, MN

California Coalition for Women Prisoners: San Francisco, CA

Women and Prison: A Site for Resistance: Beyondmedia Education: Chicago, IL

Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders: Boston, MA

Out of Control Lesbian Committee to Support Women Political Prisoners: San Francisco, CA

*These are examples of organizations doing work around this issue. They do not necessarily endorse this project

*By 4th grade, Black and Latino students are on average nearly 3 years behind their white and Asian counterparts. (20)

*As immigration continues to transform many sectors of American society this country is falling far behind in building faculties that reflect the diversity of American students–44% of whom are now nonwhite–and failing to prepare teachers who can communicate effectively with the 20 percent of homes where another language is spoken as immigration continues to transform many sectors of American society. (3)

*One in thirty white students and less than a tenth of Asian students, but 40% of black and Latino students attend schools where 70-100% of the children are poor. (9)

* In California, 90% of students in overcrowded schools are children of color, two thirds of them Latino. (2)

*there are now only 56% white students and there will surely be a white minority of students nationally within a decade (7)

*In 2008 the Education Trust found that in high minority secondary schools (where over 50% of the student body is comprised of students of color), almost one in three classes is taught by a teacher trained in a different subject area, compared to one in five classes in a low- minority school. (1)

*In education, the No Child Left Behind Act has clearly failed in its goal of ending the racial and ethnic achievement gap in test scores. Its provisions that were supposed to alleviate the nation’s massive dropout crisis have been almost completely ignored. The gap in college completion, which is the key to secure middle class status in the contemporary U.S., remains massive. In 2006, 28.4% of white adults reported graduating from college, compared to 18.5% of blacks and just 12.4% of Latinos, including only 8.5% of Mexican-Americans, by far the largest Latino population. (4)

*Some school practices that lead to School to Prison Pipeline include: beating of students by administrators in the name of corporal punishment; putting students in detention or In-School-Suspension where little or no educational work is done; suspending students often or expelling students for up to two school years; and sending the students to Alternative School, where the educational opportunities often do not meet state standards under the law and regulations. (21)

*We now have a society where 44 percent of our public school children are non-white and our two largest minority populations, Latinos and African Americans, are more segregated than they have been since the death of Martin Luther King more than forty years ago. (5)

*Since 1968 when national statistics on Latino students were first collected by the federal government, there has been a continuous increase in the segregation of what is now the nation’s largest group of nonwhite students. That trend continues in the 2006 data. (6)

*Blacks segregated from whites do not find themselves attending Black, Afro-centric schools, but, on average, attend schools where there are more Latinos than fellow blacks. (10)

*Another complexity is added to the picture by the fact that 85% of the nation’s teachers are still white and little progress is being made in diversifying the nation’s teaching force. (11)

*54 percent of white suburban students are in schools that are 80-100% white, and only one-eighth of them are in schools that are less than half white (12)

*Of the 4.2 million whites living in small towns, 2.8 million, or 67%, are in schools that are 80 to 100 percent white. (13)

*White teachers teach in schools with fewer poor and English Language Learner students. The typical black teacher teaches in a school were nearly three-fifths of students are from low-income families while the average white teacher has only 35% of low-income students. (14)

• Latino and Asian teachers are in schools that educate more than twice the share of English Language Learners than white teachers. (15)

• The South has the most diverse teaching force of any region in the country, along with the most integrated students. One-quarter of southern teachers are nonwhite, and 19% of southern teachers are African-American. Early concerns about the loss of African American teachers at the beginning of desegregation in the South no longer holds. (16)

(1)http://www.racialequitytools.org/resourcefiles/spencer.pdf

(2)http://www.unnaturalcauses.org/assets/uploads/file/AmazingFacts_small.pdf

(3-13)http://www.racialequitytools.org/resourcefiles/orfield.pdf

(14-16)http://www.racialequitytools.org/resourcefiles/frankenberg.pdf

(17-19)http://www.educationequalityproject.org/who_we_are/history

(20) http://www.educationequalityproject.org/

(21) http://southernecho.org/s/?page_id=258

Recommendations:

*The ACLU believes that children should be educated, not incarcerated. We are working to challenge numerous policies and practices within public school systems and the juvenile justice system that contribute to the school to prison pipeline.(1)

*Parents and students needs to be actively engaged in the formation and implementation of programs to reduce dropout and maximize graduation rates. Effective school leadership and quality teachers are critical elements in the fight to reduce the loss of children from the education system. It will take organized community pressure to enable the state to appropriate sufficient funding to public schools to address these issues. (2)

*Teacher and administrator expectations for children at-risk must be equivalent to other students and their needs must be met.Relevant federal and state programs must be well-funded, well-utilized and fully enforced. (3)

*A Healthy Schools strategy focuses on creating an atmosphere of mutual respect among students, parents, teachers and administrators. Schools need to use research-based programs designed to provide the meaningful support students and teachers need to solve problems, rather than systematic punishment and exclusion of students as the primary response when students experience behavioral difficulties. Positive behavior intervention strategies, including teacher support teams and conflict resolution programs, build affirmative models for solving problems. Rigid enforcement of punishment policies, including beating students and putting them out of school and onto the street, teach students counter-productive lessons and inappropriate models. (4)

*The developing field of early childhood learning and care involves the creation of public policies and funding to address the growth and education needs of young children in the years before they attend school. Southern Echo is working with a team of consultants to develop research-based learning and care models that begin with pre-natal and extend through age ten that respect the history, culture and needs of children and families. (5)

*Shut down the pipeline from schoolhouse to jailhouse:  The pipeline from schoolhouse to jailhouse begins in schools.  (7)

*On the 55th anniversary of the landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision by the U.S. Supreme Court, EEP and a coalition of supporters gathered at the White House Ellipse to call for immediate steps to begin closing the achievement gap. Co-sponsored by The United Negro College Fund, The National Council of La Raza, the National Action Network, and EEP, the coalition and its speakers challenged its supporters to: (8)

-Ensure an effective teacher in every classroom, and an effective principal in every school, by paying educators as the professionals they are, by giving them the tools and training they need to succeed, and by making tough decisions about those who do not (9)

-Empower parents by giving them a meaningful voice in where their children are educated including public charter schools (10)

-Create accountability for educational success at every level-at the system and school level, for teachers and principals, and for central office administrators (11)

-Commit to making every decision about whom we employ, how money is spent, and where resources are deployed with a single-minded focus: what will best serve our students, regardless of how it affects other interests (12)

-Have the strength in our convictions to stand up to those political forces and interests who seek to preserve a failed system (13)

Examples:

*Southern Echo is working to build support for public policies that support appropriate models and to oppose strategies that are rooted in historic race and class biases. (6)

*In 2005, youth leaders from Alexandria United Teens began to identify systemic problems in Alexandria City Public Schools  (ACPS) that resulted in barriers to learning and opportunity for students of color. In collaboration with Professor Tony Samara at George Washington University and the Advancement Project, the youth developed a survey, researched the issues preventing students of color from graduating and developed a comprehensive solution–the Personalized Education Action Plan. They published their findings and recommendations in a report entitled, Obstacles to Opportunity. (14)

*Sisters on the Rise’s education organizing campaign encourages young women’s leadership and celebrates their strength, voice and tenacity.

Summer 2004 Updates & Accomplishment

June 2004 there were rumors that the school was taking another cut for the pregnancy courses track (p-schools). They were only going to serve the pregnant young womyn and deny other womyn who wanted to prepare for or learn about being pregnant.

We met with the assistant principals to gather accurate information on the changes.

We visited all four P-Schools and gathered 220 names and phone numbers of students

We contacted approxiatemly 85% of the students and established a dialogue with them concerning upcoming changes

Met with students and documented all concerns

We met with the superintendent of Alternative Schools, Mr. Gassaway and Dr. Lester Young, Senior Executive in July of 2004 to present an  agenda of concerns and desired outcomes.

The young women wrote letters, developed agendas, demands and facilitated meetings with the Board of Education.

We have established a strong relationship with Gassaway and Mrs. Johnson (the new Principal of all P-Schools).

18 centers have been established throughout the city to ensure that all young people are registered for this school year (2004-2005). High schools no longer have the authority to register students. Alternative schools can register students at the school. Parenting students that have delivered over the summer can re-register at their “P” School and young womyn with special circumstances. (15)

(1) http://www.aclu.org/racial-justice/school-prison-pipeline

(2-6) http://southernecho.org/s/?page_id=242#dropout

(7)http://southernecho.org/s/?page_id=258

(8-13) http://www.educationequalityproject.org/who_we_are/history

(14) http://www.tenantsandworkers.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=76&Itemid=88&lang=en

(15) http://www.sistasontherise.org/accomplishments.html

Organizations*

Southern Echo: Mississippi

Education Equity Project: New York

Tenants & Workers United: Northern Virginia

Padres y Jovenes Unidos: Denver, CO

Campaign Against Violence: Milwaukee, WI

Sisters on the Rise: Bronx, NY

POWER U: Florida

FFLIC (Friends and Families of Louisiana’s Incarcerated Children): New Orleans, LA

Project South: Southeast

Southwest Workers Union: Southwest

Teaching Indigenous Languages: National

The United Negro College Fund: National

The National Council of La Raza: National

Jobs with Justice: National

Grassroots Global Justice: National

Right to the City: National

*These are examples of organizations doing work around this issue. They do not necessarily endorse this project

*A predominately Black housing project in Chicago of 6,000, is surrounded in a 140-square mile ring made up of a chemical incinerator, a water and sewage treatment facility, steel mills, paint factories, scrap yards, and at least 52 landfills. The residents call the ring a “toxic doughnut. (4)

*Three out of the five largest commercial waste landfills (in America) were found in predominately Latino or African American communities. (1)

*People of color were 47% more likely than whites to live near commercial waste storage, treatment or disposal facilities (TSDFs) (12)

*Three of every five Blacks and Hispanics live in communities with toxic waste sites nearby. (2)

*It is noted that 57% of Whites, 65% of Blacks, and 80% of all Latinos live in areas with substandard air quality.(3)

*People have argued that the shipping of hazardous waste to a Third World country (Africa) is simply the continuation of a racist policy of the United States selecting communities of color as dumping grounds for hazardous waste. (5)

*Manicurists, predominately Vietnamese, often report health problems including headaches, asthma, chronic cough, dermatitis, runny or dry nose, and fatigue or depression from the overexposure to toxic chemicals in the salon. (7)

*In its first decade, Urban Renewal displaced 330,000 families (mostly Black).

Bulldozing, which many communities of color and working-class White

ethnic communities have been politically powerless to stop, have destroyed

homes and thriving commercial corridors. New highways also separate

communities from each other, literally walling off Black communities from

White communities. (14)

*In addition to the impact of coal on the natural environment of Black Mesa, twelve thousand Navajos have been removed from their lands due to the mining, the largest removal of Native Americans since the 1880s. John McCain authored the relocation bill, called the 1974 Navajo-Hopi Settlement Act. (13)

*The placement of coal-fired plants in the impoverished communities living on native reservations, with little or no access to healthcare, is seen by some environmental justice advocates as “blatant environmental racism and injustice” (8)

*The primary beneficiaries of coal mining and power generation are often not the native tribes who live on the land being used. In the case of Black Mesa, 80 percent of Navajo people do not have running water and 50 percent of people on the Navajo and Hopi reservations do not have electricity despite the fact that transmission lines cross the reservations to deliver electricity to the southwest and California, and the water aquifer has been extensively tapped to supply to former coal slurry pipeline. (9)

*In 2005, the Mohave Generating Station shut down as a result of a Clean Air Act lawsuit and because Navajo and Hopi tribes both passed resolutions ending Peabody’s use of the Black Mesa aquifer. According to the EPA, the coal plant was the dirtiest in the Western U.S., emitting up to 40,000 tons of sulfur dioxide per year. (10)

*In the 1980s and 1990s, states used federal mass transit dollars to help those

living in distant suburbs commute by train to the financial city centers, but did

not take care of the transportation needs of thousands of city center residents

(mostly people of color), abandoning them to wait on city streets for

overcrowded buses to get to their jobs. (15)

*About one in five immigrant Latino California farmworkers reported respiratory problems other than colds, the majority of whom attributed their condition to ambient dust, dirt, or chemicals while working in the fields. (16)

************

(1-5) http://academic.udayton.edu/Race/04needs/98jamies.htm#Shelton

(6)http://www.ienearth.org/docs/EnvironmentalJustice.html

(7) APEN Magazine

(8-9)http://www.ienearth.org/docs/EnvironmentalJustice.html

(10) http://www.ienearth.org/docs/BlackMesa.html

(11) http://culturechange.org/cms/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=336&Itemid=1

(12) http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/45/293.html

(13) http://www.ienearth.org/docs/BlackMesa.html

(14-15)http://www.centerforsocialinclusion.org/PDF/katrina_fact_sheet.pdf

(16)http://hia.berkeley.edu/documents/mig_hlth_wk.pdf

Recommendations for Change:

WE, THE PEOPLE OF COLOR, gathered together at this multinational People of Color Environmental Leadership Summit, to begin to build a national and international movement of all peoples of color to fight the destruction and taking of our lands and communities, do hereby re-establish our spiritual interdependence to the sacredness of our Mother Earth; to respect and celebrate each of our cultures, languages and beliefs about the natural world and our roles in healing ourselves; to insure environmental justice; to promote economic alternatives which would contribute to the development of environmentally safe livelihoods; and, to secure our political, economic and cultural liberation that has been denied for over 500 years of colonization and oppression, resulting in the poisoning of our communities and land and the genocide of our peoples, do affirm and adopt these Principles of Environmental Justice:

The Principles of Environmental Justice (EJ)

1) Environmental Justice affirms the sacredness of Mother Earth, ecological unity and the interdependence of all species, and the right to be free from ecological destruction.

2) Environmental Justice demands that public policy be based on mutual respect and justice for all peoples, free from any form of discrimination or bias.

3) Environmental Justice mandates the right to ethical, balanced, and responsible uses of land and resources in the interest of a sustainable planet for humans and other living things.

4) Environmental Justice calls for universal protection from nuclear testing, extraction, production and disposal of toxic/hazardous wastes and poisons and nuclear testing that threaten the fundamental right to clean air, land, water, and food.

5) Environmental Justice affirms the fundamental right to political, economic, cultural and environmental self- determination of all peoples.

6) Environmental Justice demands the cessation of the production of all toxins, hazardous wastes, and radioactive materials, and that all past and current producers be held strictly accountable to the people for detoxification and the containment at the point of production.

7) Environmental Justice demands the right to participate as equal partners at every level of decision- making, including needs assessment, planning, implementation, enforcement and evaluation.

8) Environmental Justice affirms the right of all workers to a safe and healthy work environment without being forced to choose between an unsafe livelihood and

unemployment. It also affirms the right of those who work at home to be free from environmental hazards.

9) Environmental Justice protects the right of victims of environmental injustice to receive full compensation and reparations for damages as well as quality health care.

10) Environmental Justice considers governmental acts of environmental injustice a violation of international law, the Universal Declaration On Human Rights, and the

United Nations Convention on Genocide.

11) Environmental Justice must recognize a special legal and natural relationship of Native Peoples to the U.S. government through treaties, agreements, compacts, and

covenants affirming sovereignty and self-determination.

12) Environmental Justice affirms the need for urban and rural ecological policies to clean up and rebuild our cities and rural areas in balance with nature, honoring the

cultural integrity of all our communities, and provided fair access for all to the full range of resources.

13) Environmental Justice calls for the strict enforcement of principles of informed consent, and a halt to the testing of experimental reproductive and medical procedures and vaccinations on people of color.

14) Environmental Justice opposes the destructive operations of multi-national corporations.

15) Environmental Justice opposes military occupation, repression and exploitation of lands, peoples and cultures, and other life forms.

16) Environmental Justice calls for the education of present and future generations which emphasizes social and environmental issues, based on our experience and an

appreciation of our diverse cultural perspectives.

17) Environmental Justice requires that we, as individuals, make personal and consumer choices to consume as little of Mother Earth’s resources and to produce as little waste as possible; and make the conscious decision to challenge and reprioritize our lifestyles to insure the health of the natural world for present and future generations.

Delegates to the First National People of Color Environmental Leadership Summit held on October 24-27, 1991, in Washington DC, drafted and adopted 17 principles of Environmental Justice. Since then, The Principles have served as a defining document for the growing grassroots movement for environmental justice. (1)

Example:

APEN, Earthjustice, Communities for a Better Environment and West County Toxics Coaltion joined forces to sue the City of Richmond for accepting the faulty environmental review that failed to disclose that the proposed expansion would allow Chevron to process a heavier crude oil, exposing the community to increased health and environmental impacts. The organizations claimed victory when the Judge tossed out the flawed Environmental Impact Report, and blocked movement forward for the planned expansion. (2)

*The Toxic Beauty Project was a collaborative project between CCEJ and the Environmental Coalition of South Seattle (ECOSS) that aimed to improve human health and the environment in nail salons located in low income communities and communities of color…. the majority of salon workers and owners are Asian immigrant women, so exposure tends to be disproportionate. We involved all individuals and groups in the process of promoting the use of safer practices and products, from consumer to business owner, salon employee to beauty industry. (3) *Using an environmental justice framework, Roxbury Environmental Empowerment Project (REEP) helps young people understand that the appearance of and the problems in their communities are not their fault, that they have the power to fight back, and that they are not alone in their struggle for clean, healthy neighborhoods. (4) (1) http://www.ejnet.org/ej/principles.html (2)http://www.apen4ej.org/blog/2009/06/apen-wins-chevron-court-case.html (3) http://www.ccej.org/campaigns.html (4) http://www.ace-ej.org/reep

Organizations*

Alternatives for Community and Environment (ACE): Roxbury, MA

Alaska youth for Environmental Action: Alaska

Appalshop: Kentucky

Ayudame a Realizar Mis Suenos: North Carolina

The Baltimore Transit Riders League: Baltimore, MA

Black Mesa Water Coalition: Arizona

Building Healthy Communities from the Ground Up: San Francisco, CA

Bus Riders Union: Los Angeles, CA

Communities for a Better Environment: California

Community Coalition for Environmental Justice: Washington

EJRC Environmental Justice Resource Center, Georgia

Grayson Neighborhood Council: California

Indegenious Environmental Network: National

Lakota Action Network: South Dakota

Laotian Organizing Project (and Asian Pacific Environmental Network): Bay Area, CA

Little Village Environmental Justice Organization: Illinois

MARTA-Moving Africans Rapidly Through Atlanta: Atlanta, GA

Pacoima Beautiful: Pacoima, CA

Movement Generation: Bay Area, CA

New York City Environmental Justice Alliance (NYCEJA): New York, NY

Southwest Network for Environmental and Economic Justice: New Mexico & Southwest

PODER (People Organizing to Demand Environmental and Economic Rights): Bay Area, CA

PODER (People Organized in the Defense of Earth and her Resources): Texas

Roxbury Environmental Empowerment Project: Maryland

Southern Echo: Mississippi

Transportation and Land Use Coalition (TALC): California

UPROSE (United Puerto Rican Organization of Sunset Park): Sunset Park, NY

Young Native Scholars: California

Youth United for Community Action: California

*These are examples of organizations doing work around this issue. They do not necessarily endorse this project

*Overall, 24% of Blacks and 21% of Latinos are in poverty, versus 8% of whites.

In the corporate world, we are seeing the highest executive pay and the biggest bailouts in history. CEO pay is 344 times that of the average worker.* The riches of the few mask the deepening recession in the working class and the depression in communities of color. (6)

*The Native American poverty rate is 26% compared to 8% for whites, even though more than half own their own homes. (18)

*Despite some income gains, African Americans own only 7 cents for every dollar of net worth that white Americans own; for Hispanics the figure is only slightly higher at 9 cents for every dollar. Even when middle-class accomplishments like income, job, and education are comparable, the racial-wealth gap is stuck stubbornly at about a quarter on the dollar. (2)

*Many American Blacks today are already experiencing a silent economic depression that, in terms of unemployment, equals or exceeds the Great Depression of 1929. Almost 12% of Blacks are unemployed; this is expected to increase to nearly 20% by 2010. Among young Black males aged 16-19, the unemployment rate is 32.8%, while their white counterparts are

at 18.3%. (5)

* 33% of African American children, 29% of Native American children, and 28% of

Latino children live below the poverty line ($20,650 for a family of four in 2007),

compared to 9.5% of white children. (3)

*Among employed Californians, Latinos are 11 times as likely as whites to live

in poverty. (4)

*Children born in the bottom 20% only have a 1% chance of reaching the top 5% of income earners. (11)

*People of color are more likely to be poor (24.5%), remain poor (54%), and move back into poverty from any income class status than their white counterparts. (13)

*In 2006, more than 68.6% of funds in government programs designed to increase

economic mobility were directed toward the top 10% of income earners. (12)

*Nearly 30% of Blacks have zero or negative worth, versus 15% of whites. (14)

*Only 18% of people of color have retirement accounts, compared to 43.4% of their white counterparts. (15)

*Let’s cut the cake by race. If you lined up all African-American families by the amount of assets they owned minus their debts and then looked at the family in the middle, that median family in 2001 had a net worth of $10,700 (excluding the value of automobiles). Line up all whites, and that median family had a net worth of $106,400, almost 10 times more. (16)

*The median Latino family in 2001 had only $3,000 in assets, and less than half own their own homes. (17)

*60% of Asian Americans own their own homes, compared to 77% of whites. (19)

*More than 105,000 city dwellers did not have a car during Katrina’s evacuation.  Nearly two-thirds (32.7%) of Black New Orleanians had no car to help get them out of harm’s way compared to less than 10% of Whites. (20)

*For black households, home equity accounts for 63 percent of total average net worth. In sharp contrast, home equity represents only 38.5 percent of average white net worth. (21)

(1) http://www.racialequitytools.org/resourcefiles/orfield.pdf

(2) http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?article=sub_prime_as_a_black_catastrophe

(3-4) http://www.unnaturalcauses.org/assets/uploads/file/AmazingFacts_small.pdf

(5-10) http://www.faireconomy.org/files/pdf/state_of_dream_2009.pdf

(10-15) http://www.faireconomy.org/files/pdf/state_of_dream_2009.pdf

(16-19) http://www.racialequitytools.org/resourcefiles/lui.pdf

(20) http://www.centerforsocialinclusion.org/PDF/katrina_fact_sheet.pdf

(21) http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?article=sub_prime_as_a_black_catastrophe

Recommendations

*Our economy should fully employ all people who are interested in and able to work.  (1)

*All people should be paid living wages and earn good benefits. Wages must support the cost of all life needs, including adequate food, water, clothing, housing, medical care, education, and leisure. The public sector has a responsibility to realize the right to adequate welfare benefits for any and all those who are unable to work for any reason, including: age, illness, mental or physical disability. (2)

*All people have a right to be paid equally for equal work, and to be paid promptly for any work completed. (3)

*All people are entitled to job security as long as they are willing and able to work. If, for any reason, people are laid off from their job, they should have a right to adequate unemployment insurance benefits, which enable them to continue living at an adequate standard of living. (4)

*All people have the right to work in a safe environment free from any hazards that threaten the physical, mental, and spiritual well-being of the worker. (5)

*All people – employed or not – have the right to education and training to advance their skills and prepare them adequately for the workforce. (6)

*All people have a right to unionize. (7)

*All workers’ rights, whether established by law or described in this document, should be extended to all immigrant workers, regardless of documentation.  (8)

*Our emerging economy must work to revitalize working class and low- income communities through quality job creation, career ladder training, and healthy, sustainable economic development. Communities most impacted by poverty should be most empowered to shape the emerging green economy.  (9)

*Eliminating corporate tax havens that currently allow corporations to lessen, and sometimes avoid altogether, their fair share of the tax burden would generate an additional $100 billion a year. (10)

*Congress should institute a wealth tax surcharge of no more than 3 percent on households with net worth over $10 million. These multi-millionaires realized huge gains from the manipulation of capital markets and the asset bubbles that created the current crisis. The small number of households with over $10 million of wealth currently control over 20% of the nation’s private wealth. (11)

*President George Bush rolled back the estate tax as part of his road to creating record deficits.  Implementing a progressive estate tax on estates over $2 million – $4 million for a couple – could generate $60 billion a year in the short term and much more in the future. (12)

*We must re- embrace affirmative action policies. Affirmative action has a successful history of making inroads for women, people of color, disabled and lower-income Americans. Throughout the world – from Finland to Brazil to India to South Africa and countless other countries – affirmative action polices for racial, ethnic, language, economic, gender, and other groups have been and continue to be effectively used to fight institutional and historic discrimination. (13)

*Capping the mortgage tax for  households with incomes over $200,000 would generate $20 billion a year. (14)

*To address the nationwide precipitous decline of wealth, a comprehensive national savings program is required. Matched saving programs like Individual Development Accounts (IDAs) and so-called “KidSave” accounts have, for years, been successfully tested on a small scale in the United States. (15)

Examples:

*BWFJ (Black Workers For Justice)  believes that African American workers need self organization to help empower ourselves at the workplace, in communities and throughout the whole of US society to organize, educate, mobilize and struggle for power, justice, self-determination and human rights for African Americans, other oppressed nationalities, women and all working class people whether employed or unemployed, union workers or unorganized. We work to build the strength and leadership of Black workers in the Black Freedom and labor movements. (16)

*Women Workers Project organizes Asian immigrant women working in the new and growing service sectors of New York City, such as domestic work, nail salons, and laundries. WWP also mobilizes Asian women workers to oppose racist immigration practices that tear communities apart, and promotes policies supporting human rights and dignity for all. (17)

*The Miami Workers Center helps working class people build grassroots organizations and develop their leadership capacity through aggressive community organizing campaigns and education programs.  The Center also actively builds coalitions and enters alliances to amplify progressive power and win racial, community, social, and economic justice. (18)

(1-9) http://urbanjustice.org/pdf/publications/RTTC_16july09.pdf

(10-15) http://www.faireconomy.org/files/pdf/state_of_dream_2009.pdf

(16) http://blackworkersforjustice.org/

(17) http://www.caaav.org/projects/wwp

(18) http://www.theworkerscenter.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogcategory&id=0&Itemid=49

Organizations*

Black Workers for Justice (North Carolina)*

CAAAV: Organizing Asian Communities (New York City)

Chinese Progressive Association (San Francisco, CA)

Coalition of Immokalee Workers (Immokalee, FL)

Community Voices Heard (New York City)

Cross Border Labor Organizing Committee (Portland, OR)

Direct Action for Rights and Equality (Providence, RI)
Domestic Workers United (New York City)*

Farm Labor Organizing Committee (Ohio, Michigan, North Carolina)

Fuerza Unida (San Antonio, TX)

Green for All (Oakland CA)

Jobs with Justice (National)*

Just Transition Alliance (San Diego, CA)
Kensington Welfare Rights Union (Philadelphia, PA)
Kentucky Jobs with Justice (Kentucky)
Labor Council for Latin American Advancement (Mass. chapter)
Labor/Community Strategy Center (Los Angeles)
Los Angeles Alliance For A New Economy (Los Angeles)

Make the Road by Walking (New York, NY)

Malcolm X Grassroots Movement (Oakland, CA)

Massachussetts Jobs with Justice (Mass.)
Miami Workers Center (Miami, FL)
Portland Jobs with Justice

Queers For Economic Justice (New York, NY)

SCOPE (Los Angeles, CA)

Southwest Network for Environmental and Economic Justice (Binational)

Southeast Regional Economic Justice Network (Southeastern US)

Southwest Organizing Project (Albequerque, NM)*

STITCH:  Women Organizing for Worker Justice (National)

Tenants & Workers United (Northern Virginia)

Tennessee Economic Renewal Network

United Electrical, Radio & Machine Workers of America (National)
United Students Against Sweatshops (National)*
USW Local 8-675 (Southern CA & Nevada)
VAMOS Unidos (New York, NY)
Vermont Workers’ Center (Vermont)

*These are examples of organizations doing work around this issue. They do not necessarily endorse this project

*We estimate the total loss of wealth for people of color to be between $164

billion and $213 billion for subprime loans taken during the past eight

years. We believe this represents the greatest loss of wealth for people of

color in modern US history. (3)

*In its 2006 survey of 25 cities, the U.S. Conference of Mayor found that the sheltered homeless population is estimated to be 42 percent African-American, 38 percent white, 20 percent Hispanic, 4 percent Native American and 2 percent Asian (30).

*According to federal data, people of color are more than three times more

likely to have subprime loans: high-cost loans account for 55% of loans to

Blacks, but only 17% of loans to Whites. (5)

*If subprime loans had been distributed equitably, losses for white people

would be 44.5% higher and losses for people of color would be about 24%

lower. This is evidence of systemic prejudice and institutional racism. (6)

*Homeownership rates for Blacks/African-Americans compared to Whites

are already starting to take back recent gains. At the current rate of

improvement (from 1970 to 2006), parity will not be achieved for another

5,423 years. (8)

*Nationally, according to a 2000 HUD study of cities across the country, landlords

and real estate agents favored whites seeking rental housing over similarly-

qualified African Americans 22% of the time, and over Hispanics 26% of the time.

Asian Americans and Native Americans also faced significant levels of housing

discrimination.  (18)

*Low-income African Americans are 7.3 times more likely than whites to live in

high poverty neighborhoods (those with 30% or more living in poverty)—a gap

that has increased almost 100% since 1960. (19)

*The National Commission on Fair Housing reported, based on hearings across the country during the 40th Anniversary of the Fair Housing Act, that there has been virtually no enforcement of the laws against housing discrimination despite the fact that this discrimination and segregation are rampant even in subsidized housing and is spreading steadily into growing sectors of suburbia (2)

*Households of color were more than three times as likely as white households to end up with riskier loans with features like exploding adjustable rates, deceptive teaser rates, and balloon payments. (27)

*African American and Latino homeowners are twice as likely to suffer sub-prime-related home foreclosures as white homeowners are. Foreclosures are projected to affect one in 10 African American borrowers. In contrast, only about one in 25 white mortgage holders will be affected. (28)

*HUD data show that African Americans, Latinos, Native Americans and Pacific

Islanders are more likely than whites to receive higher interest sub prime loans in

the vast majority of U.S. metropolitan areas. These racial disparities are higher

among more affluent borrowers than among less affluent ones. (20)

• White families have more than twice the wealth of African American families even when they make the same income; much of this gap is due to home equity and family inheritance. (21)

*Nationally, 1999 data from the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) show that only 47% of African American families and 45% of Hispanic families are homeowners, compared to 73% of white families. (23)

Housing and Hurricane Katrina

Evidence indicates that, throughout the Gulf Coast, displaced African Americans

seeking apartments have experienced housing discrimination, receiving significantly worse treatment than white apartment seekers. (12)

Before Katrina, New Orleans had the second-highest rate of African American concentrated poverty in the nation, with 37% of the city’s African American population living in neighborhoods of concentrated poverty. (13)

After Katrina hit, these racially and economically segregated areas bore the brunt

of the disaster. More than three-quarters of concentrated-poverty areas were flooded. (14)

*This study, involving housing complexes in seventeen cities and five states affected by the 2005 hurricanes, found that apartment complexes:

-Failed to tell African Americans about available apartments, but told white callers that one or more units were available.

-Failed to return telephone messages left by African Americans.

-Failed to provide the correct information, or any information, to African American

testers regarding the number of available units, rental price range, and security

deposits.

-Quoted higher rent and security deposit prices to African American testers. In one case, a white tester was told that her security deposit and application fee would be waived because of her status as a Hurricane Katrina victim, while an African American hurricane survivor had to pay both. (17)

(1)http://www.unnaturalcauses.org/assets/uploads/file/AmazingFacts_small.pdf

(2)http://www.racialequitytools.org/resourcefiles/orfield.pdf

(3-11)http://www.racialequitytools.org/resourcefiles/rivera1.pdf

(12-20)http://www.racialequitytools.org/resourcefiles/kirwan2.pdf

(21-25)http://www.racialequitytools.org/resourcefiles/erase.pdf

(26-29)http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?article=sub_prime_as_a_black_catastrophe

(30) http://www.nationalhomeless.org/factsheets/who.html

Recommendations

*Foreclosure Related Evictions. In the context of the millions of families across the country homeless and under-housed, continued foreclosure and demolition related evictions, of owners or renters in houses, apartments or public housing, is counter productive. We must put an end to foreclosure related evictions through campaigns of community and home defenses.  (1)

*Foreclosed Homes. After a vicious cycle of gentrification, which escalated housing prices and forced the removal of entire historical communities in the name of development, the foreclosure crisis has reached epidemic proportions. Perfectly good homes sit vacant, for years on end, the property of banks that already have been paid for them by the federal bailout. These homes must be filled with families in need of housing. (2)

*Vacant Buildings. As the homeless sleep in the streets, cars and parks, vacant buildings, owned by banks and local governments, dot the urban skyline and shock the moral conscience. These structures must be put to use for the benefit of people in need of housing. (3)

*Vacant Land. During the housing “boom,” local governments made publicly owned land available to politically connected developers at fire sale prices. Now that boom times are over, vacant land must now be returned to use for public housing and other public goods. (4)

*Public Housing. Even as the housing crisis intensifies, municipalities across the country are shedding public housing units through demolition, deliberate vacancy and privatization. In this time of great need, we cannot afford to loose one inch low-income housing. Public housing must be put to its intended use and controlled by residents and local communities.  (5)

*Right to Return. Whether through gentrification, public housing demolition or the combination of natural disasters and government actions, large numbers of people have been forced to leave their long time communities in order to make room for wealthier, often whiter, people. We must have the right to return to our historic communities and rebuild them for the benefit of all. (6)

*Better Regulation of the Real Estate, Mortgage Lending, and Finance Industries.

There needs to be a stronger national standard in home buying instead of the current complicated patch-quilt system of state and local regulations. A national standard would simplify the home buying process, thereby lessening costs of compliance. (7)

*Housing is much more than just a roof over one’s head and should not be reduced to something only to be bought and sold. (8)

*We define the term “affordable” to mean that people pay no more than 25% of their income on rent; people must be able to pay for the cost of their housing without it interfering with the attainment of an adequate standard of living. (9)

*All housing provided to communities must be high quality. All people should have adequate space which is free of any threats to their health, such as vermin, inclement weather, extreme temperatures, or any other hazard. (10)

*All housing provided to our community must be of a quality standard. (11)

*Developers have a responsibility to ensure that current and future housing is built and operated in a manner that is conscious of environmental and public health concerns. Housing must be built and maintained in locations with access to transportation, employment options, schools, health care facilities, child care centers, and other social facilities. (12)

*All people – regardless of their race, color, ethnicity, gender, abilities, religion, nationality, place of origin, citizenship status, sexual orientation, economic status, or HIV status – have a right to access housing and should not experience discrimination when applying for housing.  (13)

*All housing policy must be based upon the idea that land belongs to the people who live in a community. We believe in the investment of alternative community-based housing forms, such as community land trusts, housing cooperatives, and mutual housing associations. (14)

*All people facing eviction must have a right to counsel, and a right to an interpreter, as needed. Residents have a right to withhold their rent and/or sue their landlord in court for violating their right to a habitable apartment without retribution. (15)

*No property, whether publicly or privately owned, should remain empty in communities with clear housing needs. All empty units must be filled by people from that community. (16)

*Prevent the evicting of tenants without good reason; Housing Court judges must address repair issues raised in non-payment cases, and all cases involving repairs must be monitored until conditions have been corrected. (17)

Examples:

*The Take Back the Land movement asserts our right to the land in our community and to use public space for the public good- specifically, to house, feed and provide community space for the poor, particularly in low income black communities. As such, we are Taking Back the Land and empowering the black community, not the politicians, to determine how to use land for the benefit of the community.  Our struggle is fundamentally one of land, and control over that land. We take inspiration from and support our sisters and brothers across the globe engaged in similar struggles for control over land for the benefit of the people.(18)

*Community Voices Heard’s (CVH’s) public housing campaign has been fighting to save and improve public housing in New York City since 2006….CVH’s public housing campaign has been focusing on securing funds from our elected officials at all levels- city, state and federal- to ensure the stability of NYCHA for its low to moderate income residents. Leaders in the public housing campaign helped fight to secure $120 million from New York City in the 2006 budget, and fought to secure an additional $3.5 million from New York State in the 2007 budget, which was the first year since 1998 that the State has given public housing any operating funds. (19)

(1-6) http://www.ushrnetwork.org/sites/default/files/takebacktheland.pdf

(7) http://www.faireconomy.org/files/pdf/state_of_dream_2009.pdf

(8-17) http://urbanjustice.org/pdf/publications/RTTC_16july09.pdf

(18) http://takebacktheland.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=47&Itemid=54

(19) http://www.cvhaction.org/campaign

Organizations*

US Human Rights Network (USHRN): Atlanta, GA

Just Cause Oakland: Oakland, CA

Moratorium NOW! Coalition to Stop Foreclosures, Evictions, and Utility Shutoffs: Detroit, MI

Take Back The Land: Miami, Florida

Operation Welcome Home: Madison, Wisconsin

Picture the Homeless: New York, NY

St. Peter’s Housing Committee: San Francisco, CA

Dirty Dozen: New Orleans, LA

Olneyville Neighborhood Association: Providence, RI

New York City Aids Housing Network: New York, NY

Tenants & Workers United: Northern Virginia

Direct Action for Rights and Equality: Providence, RI

Community Voices Heard: New York, NY

Vecinos Unidos: Miami, FL

East LA Community Coalition: Los Angeles, CA

City Life Vida Urbana: Boston, MA

Right to the City: National

*These are examples of organizations doing work around this issue.  They do not necessarily endorse this project

*The near-tripling of U.S.-Mexico trade in the post- NAFTA period has been closely matched by a dramatic increase in undocumented immigration from Mexico to the United States, from an average of 260,000 per year during  the 1990-94 period to approximately 485,000 per year in the 2000-2004 period. (1)

*In addition, the rural poverty rate in Mexico has risen during the NAFTA years and real manufacturing wages are some 11 percent lower than when the agreement went into effect.  Overall, since NAFTA was signed, the wage disparity in Mexico has worsened. (2)

* Since 1992, the annual budget of the U.S. Border Patrol has increased by 714%, and the number of Border Patrol agents stationed along the southwest border has grown by 390%.  Despite all this additional spending, the number of undocumented immigrants in the United States has roughly tripled from 3.5 million in 1990 to 11.9 million in 2008. (4)

*Since the mid-1990s U.S. border policy has been focused on channeling unauthorized migration into remote and fragile desert areas. This has resulted in more than 5,000 deaths along the U.S./Mexico border and damage to protected wildlife habitat. (7)

*Deaths occurring along the Arizona and Texas segments of the border have increased ten-fold since the implementation of the concentrated border enforcement strategy. Border-wide, the probability of dying versus being apprehended by the Border Patrol has doubled since 1998. (8)

*According to the authors of Postville U.S.A., one year after the raid, Postville “lost 40% of its pre-raid population, the economy was in shambles, the city government teetered on the brink of financial collapse, and the future of the town’s major employer grew increasingly doubtful with time.” (6)

*In  one  of  the  most  egregious  examples  of  exploitation,  owners  of  the

Agriprocessors meat packing plant in Postville, Iowa, have been accused of a

range of labor‐law violations, such as sexual harassment, child labor (including

17‐hour  work  days),  and  abuse  (including  one  incident  in  which  a  floor

supervisor allegedly blindfolded an immigrant with duct tape, “then took one of

the meat hooks and hit the Guatemalan with it”. (5)

*Each year, one-sixth of seasonal agricultural workers are “newcomers,” working their first season in U.S. agriculture.   99% of newcomers self-identify as not work authorized. (9)

*Many of Napolitano’s (Homeland Security Secretary) critics are calling for increased immigration enforcement and stepped up deportations of unauthorized immigrants.  Although it might seem that subtracting 8.3 million unauthorized immigrant workers from the labor force would automatically improve job prospects for the 15.7 million Americans who are now unemployed, the fact is that employment is not a “zero sum” game.  Mass deportation is not the solution to the nation’s unemployment problem.  (10)

*In the 10 states with the highest shares of recent immigrants in the labor force, the average unemployment rate for native-born blacks is about 4 percentage points less than in the 10 states with the lowest shares of recent immigrants. (18)

*Deporting 12 million employees, consumers, and tenants would do further damage to our already ailing economy.  The Perryman Group estimated that the immediate negative effect of eliminating the undocumented workforce would include an estimated:

$1.8 trillion in annual lost spending

$651.5 billion in annual lost output

$8.1 million in lost jobs  (11)

*On average, Mexican immigrant men who work full time earn 45% less than native-born men, while Mexican immigrant women earn about 40% less

than native-born women (12)

*Under the current system, called the H-2 program, employers brought about 121,000 guestworkers into the United States in 2005 — approximately 32,000 for agricultural work and another 89,000 for jobs in forestry, seafood processing, landscaping, construction and other non-agricultural industries.  These workers, though, are not treated like “guests.” Rather, they are systematically exploited and abused. Unlike U.S. citizens, guestworkers do not enjoy the most fundamental protection of a competitive labor market — the ability to change jobs if they are mistreated. Instead, they are bound to the employers who “import” them. If guestworkers complain about abuses, they face deportation, blacklisting or other retaliation. (14)

“Twelve Guatemalan guestworkers claim they were held captive by agents for Imperial Nurseries, one of the nation’s largest wholesalers of plants and shrubs. The men had been recruited to plant pines in North Carolina, but after they arrived in the state, they were transported by van to Connecticut and forced to work nearly 80 hours a week in nursery fields. They were housed in a filthy apartment without beds, and instead of the $7.50 an hour they were promised, they earned what amounted to $3.75 an hour before deductions for telephone service and other costs (13)

*Concentrated in the most hazardous occupations in the country, Mexican immigrants account for over 40% of all immigrant workers in the U.S. who die from work-related injuries. (15)

*In a recent study of hotel room cleaners (who were 76% Latina and 85% immigrant), 75% of these workers reported experiencing work-related pain during

the previous 12 months. Of them, 31% reported it to management and 20% filed claims for workers’ compensation. Of those who fi led, 35% had their claim denied. (16)

*Operation Streamline: During the Bush Administration, the annual count of federal criminal prosecutions for immigration offenses more than quadrupled while federal prosecutions of other crimes substantially decreased.  Between 2003 and 2008, white-collar prosecutions fell by 18 percent, weapons prosecutions shrank by 19 percent, organized crime prosecutions fell by 20. (17)

*Over the past ten years, more than 100,000 parents of U.S. citizen children have been deported by our government. Four million U.S. citizen kids live in “mixed-status families” – families comprised of both legal and undocumented residents (20)

*The mere suggestion that local police may have the authority to enforce immigration law, based on policies like 287(g) and “Secure Communities”,  sends a chill

through Latino and immigrant communities, resulting in decreased willingness to cooperate  with law enforcement, to report crimes, or to come forward as witnesses. (21)

*During  May  2008,  83%  of  the  immigrants  arrested  by  officers  deputized  to  perform immigration enforcement duties in Gaston County, NC were charged with traffic violations. (23)

*There is a concern that police officers working in areas that have Secure Communities in their local jails may have an incentive, or at least the ability, to make arrests based on race or ethnicity, or to make pretextual arrests of persons they suspect to be in violation of immigration laws, in order to have them run through immigration databases once they are jailed. (24)

*More than 2 million refugees have arrived in the United States since the Refugee Act of 1980 was established, driven from their homelands by war, political change, and social, religious, and ethnic oppression. (28)

September 11, 2001

*Some violations of human rights included the secret incarceration of post September 11 detainees and immigration proceedings closed to the public; custodial interrogations without access to counsel; arbitrarily prolonged confinement, including detention without charge; and the deplorable conditionsincluding solitary confinementas well as the physical abuse to  which some detainees have been subjected.(25)

*The decision of whom to question [after the September 11, 2001 in relation to the World Trade Center] often appeared to be haphazard, at times prompted by law enforcement agents’ random encounters with foreign male Muslims or neighbors’ suspicions. The questioning led to the arrest and incarceration of as many as 1,200 non-citizens, although the exact number remains uncertain.  Of those arrested, 752 were charged with immigration violations.  (26)

*Since 9/11, 57 percent more people were deported in 2004 than in 2000.(27)

(1-3)http://www.immigrationpolicy.org/sites/default/files/docs/Security%20and%20Prosperity.pdf

(5)http://immigrationpolicy.org/sites/default/files/docs/Problem_Paper_FINAL_102109.pdf

(6)http://www.immigrationpolicy.org/sites/default/files/docs/Economic_Blame_Game_111909_0.pdf

(7)http://www.nomoredeaths.org/index.php/Press-Releases/13-humanitarians-to-be-arraigned-on-littering-charges.html

(8)http://www.migrationinformation.org/feature/display.cfm?ID=223

(9)http://www.immigrationpolicy.org/sites/default/files/docs/Farmworkers%20Fact%20Sheet.pdf

(4, 10, 11, 18)http://www.immigrationpolicy.org/sites/default/files/docs/Economic_Blame_Game_111909_0.pdf

(12)http://hia.berkeley.edu/documents/mig_hlth_wk.pdf

(13) http://revcom.us/a/083-special/guestworker-en.html

(14)http://www.splcenter.org/legal/guestreport/index.js

(15-16)http://hia.berkeley.edu/documents/mig_hlth_wk.pdf

(17)http://www.immigrationforum.org/images/uploads/

(20)http://www.causaoregon.blogspot.com

(21)http://www.immigrationpolicy.org/sites/default/files/docs/Secure_Communities_112309.pdf

(22-23)http://www.immigrationpolicy.org/sites/default/files/docs/Secure_Communities_112309.pdf

(24)http://www.immigrationpolicy.org/sites/default/files/docs/Secure_Communities_112309.pdf

(25-26)http://www.hrw.org/legacy/reports/2002/us911/USA0802.pdf

(27)http://www.fiacfla.org/reports/securingborders.pdf

(28)http://www.racialequitytools.org/resourcefiles/singer.pdf

RECOMMENDATIONS

Taken from Guilty by Immigration Status, National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (NNIRR). (1)

Guilty by Immigration Status urges a fundamental shift in immigration policies

away from the Bush-era politics of national security toward a human rights

approach that addresses human needs and community safety. NNIRR strongly

recommends that the Obama Administration and Congress take immediate action to address and remedy the longstanding problems that have plagued immigration services and enforcement, measures, practices, laws and policies for almost three decades. Given the uncertain schedule and provisions of a major immigration bill, we urge the Administration to act swiftly to:

• Restore due process rights and other Constitutional protections, while expanding

access to the Courts.

• End the practice of jailing persons solely for immigration status violations, except

where there is a particularized finding of high risk to public safety.

• Suspend all detentions and deportations, prohibiting high profile raids and

enforcement operations, investigate the abuses and place a moratorium on the

expansion of the immigration detention facilities.

• End the policies and practices of selective enforcement programs including

Operation Streamline and other programs that perpetrate the criminalization and

demonization of immigrants.

• End inter-agency and police collaboration with immigration authorities and end all local, county and state government and police participation and policy-making in immigration enforcement.

These steps are necessary to alleviate the trauma, family separation,

discrimination and undue fear facing immigrant workers and families. This is also important to reshape the current climate so that all immigrants can participate in programs to regularize their status as soon as Congress establishes such programs.  In developing workable policies and immigration reforms that restore and protect our labor and civil rights and guarantee equality before the law, NNIRR also urges Congress, with the support of the Obama Administration, to:

• Expand access and options to adjust immigration status for undocumented

immigrants.

• Increase and expand civil and labor rights protections for all immigrant and

native-born workers.

• Increase options to legal avenues of immigration, legal permanent residency and

citizenship.

• Expedite family reunification; end the backlog and shift resources and investment

from immigration enforcement to immigration services.

• Repeal employer sanctions and end the E-verify program; expand worksite

protections and enforcement of labor rights, including stopping the use of SSA

“no-match” letters and ending prosecution for so-called “ID theft.”

• Shift resources and investments from policing, detention centers, jails and prisons to services.

• Demilitarize immigration and border controls and end “prevention through

deterrence” policies, practices and strategies.

Finally, we urge policy makers to consider the root causes of displacement and

international migration and engage in responsible global engagement policies to support sustainable economic development and job creation in developing countries, addresses the growing crisis of climate change and its impact, and supports democracies not repression.

National Immigrant Solidarity Network Points of Unity (2) 1) No to anti-immigrant legislation, and the criminalization of the immigrant communities.
2) No to militarization of the border.
3) No to the immigrant detention and deportation.
4) No to the guest worker program.
5) No to employer sanction and “no match” letters.
6) Yes to a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants.
7) Yes to speedy family reunification.
8) Yes to civil rights and humane immigration law.
9) Yes to labor rights and living wages for all workers.
10) Yes to the education and LGBT immigrant legislation.

Examples:

*DRUM (Desis Rising Up and Moving) was founded in 2000 to build the power of South Asian low wage immigrant workers, youth, and families facing racial profiling, deportation, and economic injustice in New York City to win civil & immigrant rights and economic  justice for all. (3)

*Voces de la Frontera is a Wisconsin nonprofit that educates workers about their employment rights and organizes to protect and improve the quality of life for low-wage and immigrant workers. We promote grassroots leadership and community and workplace organizing as a strategy to achieve our goals. We operate workers’ centers in Milwaukee and Racine. (4)

(1) http://www.nnirr.org/resources/docs/GuiltybyImmigrationStatus2008.pdf

(2)http://www.immigrantsolidarity.org/cgi-bin/datacgi/database.cgi?file=Issues&report=SingleArticle&ArticleID=0928

(3) http://www.drumnation.org/DRUM/Home.html

(4) http://www.vdlf.org

Organizations*

See more organizations at Reform Immigration for America

And FIRM (Fair Immigration Reform Movement)

Latino Union of Chicago: Chicago, IL

Centro Presente: Boston, MA

Mujeres Unidos y Activas: San Francisco, CA

Olneyville Neighborhood Association: Providence, RI

Junta for Progressive Action: Connecticut

PODER (People Organized to Demand Employment and Environmental Rights): San Francisco, CA

Cross Border Labor Organizing Committee Portland, OR

Domestic Workers United New York City

Farm Labor Organizing Committee Ohio, Michigan, North Carolina

Fuerza Unida San Antonio, TX

People Organized in Defense of Earth and her Resources (PODER) Austin, TX

LA RAZA Centro Legal: San Francisco, CA

DRUM (Desis Rising Up and Moving): New York, NY

Coalition of Immokolee Workers: Florida

National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights: National

MEChA: National

South Asian Network: Artesia, CA

Padres Unidos Jovenes Unidos: Denver, CO

Voces De La Frontera: Milwaukee, WI

National Network for Arab American Communities: National

Center for Community Change: Chicago, IL

Korean Women’s Association (KWA): Washington

Boat People SOS: Virgina/National

TN Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition (TIRRC): Tennessee

*These are examples of organizations doing work around this issue.  They do not necessarily endorse this project