Apply for the 2009-2010 Motley Fellowship
The Equal Justice Society is accepting applications for its 2009-2010 Judge Constance Baker Motley Fellowship, named after the first African-American woman to serve on the federal bench. Applicants for the one-year paid fellowship should be recent law school graduates with zero to five years of work experience after law school. The application deadline is December 16, 2008.
Download a PDF of this announcement
The Equal Justice Society (“EJS”) is a national strategy group heightening conscious on race in the law and popular discourse. As heirs of the innovative legal and political strategists of Brown v. Board of Education, the organization broadly models its programmatic efforts after the late Honorable Constance Baker Motley and the Brown litigation team. Using a three-prong strategy of law and public policy advocacy, cross-disciplinary convenings and strategic public communications, EJS seeks to restore race equity issues to the national consciousness, build effective progressive alliances, and advance the discourse on the positive role of government.
Motley Fellowship applicants should demonstrate experience in civil rights advocacy and a strong commitment to racial justice. The Fellow will work under the supervision of staff attorneys for a twelve-month period. During the fellowship period, the Fellow may lead new research, advocacy, coalition building, and public education efforts related to transforming anti-discrimination law and policy. The Fellow will be a full participant in office events and activities, including staff meetings and strategic planning sessions.
Fellowship Location: San Francisco, California
Fellowship Period: October 1, 2009 – September 30, 2010 (flexible)
Application Deadline: December 16, 2008 (Application must be received in our office by the date listed.)
Fellowship Application:
To be considered for the Judge Constance Baker Motley Civil Rights Fellowship, please send a COVER LETTER, RESUME, list of FOUR (4) REFERENCES, and a WRITING SAMPLE (on a racial/social justice topic) to info@equaljusticesociety.org with the subject line “Motley Fellowship Application”
OR
Mail to:
Motley Fellowship Applications
Equal Justice Society
220 Sansome Street, 14th Floor
San Francisco, CA 94104
Please use either email or postal mail for applications, not both. Applications must be received in the office by the date listed above.
Requirements:
Applicants should be recent law school graduates with 0-5 years of work experience after law school. Bar passage is not required. Candidates will be evaluated based upon criteria including:
· Demonstrated commitment to racial and social justice.
· Demonstrated interest in civil rights law and policy.
· Excellent research and oral /written communication skills.
Race in the Presidential Race on Meet the Bloggers
From Robert Greenwald: Since the race-baiting and fear-mongering from the McCain campaign have intensified in recent weeks, we have escalated our campaign to end the politics of hate. This week on Meet the Bloggers, we will discuss race in the presidential race with special guest Rinku Sen, executive director of The Applied Research Center and author of the recently released book, The Accidental American: Immigration and Citizenship in the Age of Globalization.
Watch Rinku Sen on Meet the Bloggers at 1pm ET: http://meetthebloggers.org/?utm_source=rgemail
Joining Sen will be bloggers Adia Harvey Wingfield (Racism Review), Joshua Busch (Double Take 08), and Liliana Segura (AlterNet). All three have written extensively about this topic, as you can see from the material below. Check out their articles, and join them in the live blog discussion today at 1pm ET/10 am PT at Meet the Bloggers.
- White Progressives Don’t Get It — Rinku Sen, Applied Research Center
- Reject the Hate in ’08! Don’t Fall for Racist Tactics — Joshua Busch, Double Take 08
- Backlash: Six Challenges to McCain’s Racist Fearmongering — Liliana Segura, AlterNet
- How White Privilege Works — Adia Harvey Wingfield, Racism Review
- Tell McCain to End the Politics of Hate — Brave New Films
George Will: Country Eager to “Feel Good About Itself” by Voting for a Black Man
Sam Stein on HuffPo today writes about George Will’s comments on the Powell endorsement of Obama.
There will be “some impact,” Will declared. “And I think this adds to my calculation — this is very hard to measure — but it seems to me if we had the tools to measure we’d find that Barack Obama gets two votes because he’s black for every one he loses because he’s black because so much of this country is so eager, (a) to feel good about itself by doing this, but more than that to put paid to the whole Al Sharpton/Jesse Jackson game of political rhetoric.”
Jim Brosnahan: A Debate With Myself on Proposition 8
Bradley vs. Facebook Effect
Newsweek’s Howard Fineman seems to have boiled down the presidential contest to a battle between the Bradley Effect and the Facebook effect.
“But this year there is another force at work: young voters, especially those under 30. Most of them are more or less oblivious to race in their political thinking. They have grown up in an integrated world. Or, if they do take race into account, they like the fact that Obama is a mixed-race African-American with an international background.”
The Facebook effect is also related to race. So, add Fineman to the list of MSM folks saying that race will be the deciding factor in this election. And an important reason why analysis and correction of poor or malicious race-related coverage of the election is so critical.
An example is a TPM article that Prof. Camille Charles pointed out to us this morning. A Virginia GOP mailer is suspected of aligning Obama’s face with Osama bin Laden’s. The article has photos and explains how.
Bradley Effect? The Boogey Man is Under Your Bed
Allow me to get irritated for a minute. The first article below (first link at the bottom) is an example of inciting unnecessary fear.
The so-called “Bradley” (a.k.a., Wilder, a.k.a., Dinkins) effect, of which there is sparse evidence, has been assigned to Obama for one reason: because he’s an African American candidate (and race and drama go hand in hand). Polls by their very nature are “retrospective” (snapshots of yesterday) not “predictive” (forecasts of tomorrow).
Most in the media who are talking and writing about a possible Bradley effect with Obama have very little theoretical understanding of survey research methods, polling, or research on racial attitudes in America. Moreover, there are plenty of times when black candidates run and there is no pre-election poll versus outcome discrepancy (see 2006, with Swann, Steele, Ford, and Patrick).
Read more
Rafael Olmeda Elected President of UNITY: Journalists of Color
Rafael Olmeda, immediate past president of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists (NAHJ), has been elected president of UNITY: Journalists of Color, Inc.
Mr. Olmeda was chosen by UNITY’s board of directors at its fall board meeting last month. Barbara Ciara, president of the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) was elected vice-president, Michaela Saunders of the Native American Journalists Association (NAJA) was elected secretary and Jeanne Mariani-Belding, president of the Asian American Journalists Association (AAJA) was elected treasurer. Their two-year terms begin on January 1, 2009.
Read more