MINISTERS CHAMPION AGAINST HOSTILE CLIMATE AT UNIVERSITY OF NEW MEXICO

On Tuesday, November 22, 2011, community leaders will gather to announce plans to ameliorate the racially hostile climate at the University of New Mexico (Albuquerque campus). The Minister’s Fellowship of Albuquerque and Vicinity (MFAV), a 70-year old organization of pastors dedicated to providing religious and community service, have joined with the local NAACP branch to highlight proven injustices against African American UNM employees.

Complaints against UNM include documented cases of the following:

1) Hostile Climate for African Americans;

2) Compensation Disparities;

3) Adverse impact of policies upon African Americans that reduce the number of role models, reduce quality of healthcare, and reduce the same service delivery; and

4) Inequitable distribution of federal funding for minority healthcare research.

A press conference will be held at New Hope Church, 1901 Pennsylvania Avenue NE at
10:00 am, Albuquerque, New Mexico. All members of the press are encouraged to attend as representatives from the Minister’s Fellowship and NAACP will announce the filing of its Title VI Civil Rights complaint against UNM. Additionally, cases of injustice will be shared as well as plans to redress them. The time is overdue for the University of New Mexico to rectify policies and procedures that result in unfair disparities and reduction of service delivery to the African American community. The Minister’s Fellowship and NAACP, along with other community allies will work toward ending the institutional racism at UNM.

For more information contact Bishop David Cooper at 505/881-7780.

Short Reflection on Occupy

This is a brief set of thoughts on the current political impulse.

My main question is how do we make direct action, community organizing, and electoral work build upon each other?

We know that a more open approach to politics will make things better for many people. It will not be the solution, but will move things forward. As an example, there have been Mayors who make sure that police do not attack strikers and demonstrators. There are also elected officials, Senator Sanders as an example, who believe in many things that the 99% organizers believe.

We can move beyond "either/or" and get to "all and." This means that we will have to learn to listen to each other. We have to learn to communicate differently. To reach out and check in more often.

We'll make mistakes. And it is OK because this is the time to learn to be gentler with those fighting for social justice. We tend to be very hard on each other. It is time to move beyond that.

We have the opportunity now to discuss lots of things. Who has the privilege to camp, be arrested, travel to demonstrate, etc. And how to use that as an advantage. We have the chance to have conversations about class, race, gender and more with people have not had those conversations with.

We have the opportunity now to talk beyond individual issues. We have the opportunity to discuss changes in the systems and rules. Systems change after the rules change. You don't get different people at the table as long as you need to be a millionaire to buy a ticket. We get different policies by the combination of pressure and more representative decision-makers. We have had one good discussion at Camp Coyote about long-term electoral politics. Something beyond the current "progressive" approach. We need to have many, many more of those conversations.

We have the opportunity now to take many movements and turn it into movement! Many communities have been screwed by capitalism for many years. Like many problems now that it is impacting the white and middle-class it is a "crisis."And in many real respects it is a crisis for all of us.

This is a great time to be alive and working for social justice!

Albuquerque Youth Health Summit 12/4/10

The Albuquerque Youth Building Health Communities project held their Youth Health Summit today. Representatives of La Raza Unida, Young Women United, SWOP and other groups were there to discuss health from a youth perspective and also talk about solutions.

The group will continue to process the information and look for a project to follow through on. It was very exciting to discuss health from a social justice perspective. These youth may truly be the future!

Voter Fraud Hysteria

Former House majority leader Dick Armey, who now heads the tea party funder Freedom Works, recently said on Fox News, without any substantiation, that Democratic voting was up during early voting — because that’s when it’s easier to commit voter fraud.

Yet law enforcement statistics, reports from elections officials and widespread research have proved that voter fraud at the polling place is virtually non-existent. The motivation for ginning up this bogeyman is often to intimidate certain groups of voters and, ultimately, make it harder for minority or disadvantaged groups to exercise their right to vote. It is no accident that these operations have repeatedly focused on minority communities.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1110/44478.html

11/2/10

Our way of life is one where all children are all our children; where we want everyone to have enough; and where we are willing to take a stand for each other. Vote, organize, and live THOSE values and we'll be better off!


We need to outvote the extremists! Go vote today!

Economic Impact of Racial Inequalities

Because we can't just seem to do things because they are the right things to do we need to add economic analysis. Racism costs - go figure!