Apply for the 2009-2010 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.
Click here for the full application details and instructions
Special Thanks to Our Immigration and the Black Community Panelists and Links to Their Bios
I wanted to once again thank our co-sponsors, Black Alliance for Just Immigration, Latino Issues Forum, Greenlining Institute and Centro Legal de la Raza. I want to also give a special thank you to the students of R.I.S.E., who provide Spanish translation throughout the program.
I also wanted to thank the members of Lucha Unida for their work, their words, and to wish them well on their trip.
I would also like panelists both for participating, and for their dedication to these issues. In response to requests for additional information on the individuals and organizations that participated in the panel, here are links to their respective bios, that are either listed below, or can be accessed by clicking on their name.
Eva Paterson, President, Equal Justice Society
Rev. Phil Lawson, Black Alliance for Just Immigration
Prof. Bill Ong Hing, UC Davis School of Law
Nora Vargas (Executive Director, Latino Issues Forum)
Nora Vargas was most recently appointed as Executive Director of Latino Issues Forum (LIF), a state wide non-profit public policy and advocacy institute dedicated to advancing new and. innovative public policy solutions for a better, more equitable and prosperous society.
Ms Vargas is an accomplished public affairs and executive management professional, with over fourteen years of experience working with government entities, NGO’s, foundations, corporations and grass roots organizations. She is bicultural and bilingual in English and Spanish.
Prior to joining LIF, Ms Vargas was a public affairs and political management consultant for various successful State Assembly, municipal and community college campaigns based out of San Diego. Previously, she served as the Founding Director of the Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs for the City of Los Angeles. She also served as Vice President of Governmental and Political Affairs for Planned Parenthood of Orange and San Bernardino Counties.
Nora’s professional career has taken her from her hometown of San Diego, CA to serving in various capacities in Washington DC and in Sacramento as a political consultant.
Ms. Vargas is regularly invited to speak on the subjects of Latinos/as in politics and civic engagement, Mexicans voting in the U.S., Latinas and Reproductive Rights, Women in Politics and the nuts and bolts of political management and advocacy. She has served as an advisor and facilitator for the National Democratic Institute’s Political Party Trainers Program for Regional Party Renewal and the “Win with Women” project in Latin America.
Ms Vargas currently serves on the Boards of Hispanas Organized for Political Equality (HOPE) and the Parent Institute for Quality Education (PIQE).
Nora is a graduate of the University of San Francisco. She has completed graduate work in both Public Administration and Latin American Studies at San Diego State University and will receive her Master’s Degree from Claremont Graduate University.
Larisa Casillas (Director, Bay Area Immigrant Rights Coalition)
Larisa is the director of the Bay Area Immigrant Rights Coalition (BAIRC), a coalition of member organizations based in Oakland that works to advance immigrant rights by forging strong alliances between member organizations, advocating for just policies and raising public awareness about the rights of immigrants. She is a longtime immigrant rights advocate with more than a decade of experience in policy development, media advocacy, community education and coalition building. She is the former Policy Director of Services, Immigrant Rights and Education Network (SIREN), a leading immigrant rights organization in San Jose where she was responsible for the development and implementation of SIREN’s policy and advocacy efforts on federal and state legislation related to immigrant rights. Prior to joining SIREN, she was employed by the Partnership for Immigrant Leadership & Action (PILA) where she served as the Campaign Coordinator for the successful statewide “Mobilize the Immigrant Vote 2004 Campaign.” From 1995 to 1998, Larisa was the Director of the San Francisco-based Interfaith Coalition for Immigrant Rights. At ICIR she led a coalition of 200 organizational members to defend immigrant and refugee rights from a faith-based perspective. From 1998-2002, Larisa served as a Senior Policy Associate at Children Now where she conducted research on tax policy, child care and after school programs. A former member of the San Francisco Immigrant Rights Commission, Larisa has helped to direct electoral campaigns in the City and County of San Francisco. Larisa emigrated from Mexico City with her parents and was raised in Northern California.
Nicholas Espíritu, Judge Constance Baker Motley Civil Rights Fellow, EJS
Feedback on Immigration and the Black Community
I wanted to say thank you to our audience, panelists, and cosponsors for coming out last night. In the next days and weeks we are hoping to continue the discussion on these important topics, and will be providing additional information, resources and commentary. We really hope that as many people and as many different viewpoints participate in the debate and we encourage your participation. Please, let me know what you thought of the event, what was useful, what could have been done better, and what still needs to be talked about. Also, please stay tuned as in the next few days we will continuing with blog entries based on some of the discussions from the event, providing related materials, speaker’s bios, the audio recording, and much more.
Nico
Update I
We have been getting commentary that, while the event was an important first step, more needs to be done. On that note, we would really appreciate it if you could help us understand what the next steps should be. What format should they take? Who needs to be at the table?
7-year-old Gives to EJS
One of our attendees at the July 24 luncheon learned from her mother about the work of EJS and on her own decided to donate a dollar and change to us. She is our youngest donor to date!
Thank you for your support of our 2007 luncheon!
We’d like to thank the attendees, sponsors and luncheon co-chairs for supporting our 2nd Annual Constance Baker Motley Civil Rights Fellowship Luncheon yesterday.
We’d especially like to thank Morrison & Foerster LLP for their sponsorship and Dr. Shakti Butler for her incredible presentation on unconscious racial bias.
Visit this page for a link to photos from the event and to download documents related to the presentation.
Latinos, Military and Citizenship
Recently Eva Paterson asked about the relationship between the civil rights and the war in Iraq. I began to think about the complex relationship between Latinos, Military and Citizenship.
Military recruiters target Latino neighborhoods and schools. This is essentially a poverty and race draft, and is definitely a civil rights issue. There are troubling reports of undocumented Latinos being tacitly promised a path to legal status by recruiters. While there is a way for legal residents who already have the means to naturalize to speed up the process, there is no current path to legal status for undocumented folks based solely on military service.
However, the proposed DREAM Act does provide such a path, along with a path to citizenship for undocumented students who attend college. In truth, it is a piece of legislation that does not have a ton of hope of passing as is, and would likely have none without the military portion. This has led many advocates to have mixed feelings about the legislation, but upon the urging of the constituency most effected (undocumented young folks) and weighing the balance of the good vs. the bad, most immigrant advocates are fully supporting the bill. This is because the situation is so desperate for the growing population of young undocumented immigrants in this country, who have lived in the US for the majority of their lives, YET HAVE NO WAY TO GAIN LEGAL STATUS. This leaves these young people with no hope of ever escaping their de jure second-class status. This DREAM Act would provide an opportunity for many of this group to gain legal status, in a way that may garner sufficient bipartisan support.
However, there are vocal portions of the Latino community that oppose the bill. I feel that this is a mistaken move, and one that results from not listening to the community of folks effected. While I share their reservations about a law that will effectively target one group for military service, I do not place these concerns over what is being said by the undocumented students. In fact, to my knowledge most of the advocacy organizations and all the student organizations that specifically work on undocumented student issues support the DREAM Act.
Gary Sheffield, Baseball and Latinos
When Gary Sheffield recently made comments about MLB teams preferring players from Latin America to African Americans because the Latinos are seen as being less likely to stand up for themselves, many took it to be insulting to both Latinos and African Americans. However, King Kaufman has pointed out in his that Sheffield’s comments should be taken as an indictment about the way in which discrimination and exploitation relies on the ability to break minorities and other disadvantaged groups into areas where the ability to make rights claims are undermined by the disempowerment of another group. By pointing out that MLB teams prefer Latinos because they will not stand up for themselves because they are not aware of how they should be treated, and are afraid of the dire consequences if they get sent back home, Sheffield and Kaufmann are pointing to a much larger problem facing minorities in this country.
The laws in this country that were put in place to protect against exploitation and discrimination have been under constant attack, leading to situations where the precarious ability of one group to make rights claims (to not be discriminated against in the amount of money you are paid or in your workplace conditions, or to be able to go to court and claim what you are owed) means that everybody is harmed.
In recent years the Supreme Court has severely undermine the protections of workers. In Hoffman Plastic Compounds, Inc., v. NLRB the Supreme Court held that undocumented workers are not entitled to back pay (the only monetary remedy available) under the National Labor Relations Act when they are illegally fired for attempting to unionize and stop exploitative practices.
Further, just this year, in Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co. the new Court under the leadership of Chief Justice John Roberts, undermined the ability to bring claims of pay discrimination. In that case, Lilly Ledbetter, who worked her entire career at lower pay than men doing the same job, could not recover the money she was wrongfully denied because she did not complain about it at the time she was hired, despite the fact she probably did not know at that time she was being discriminated against.
It is precisely these issues that that create the atmosphere where Latino players are preferred over African American ones. From the standpoint of those in power, it is advantageous to keep those who you are seeking to maximize profit from as powerless as possible. It not only is it easy to keep those groups in control, but it also keeps groups who are relatively more empowered, but still vulnerable, in a precarious position.
When over a million people took to the street last year to demand to that undocumented people should be given legal status in this country, some legitimated this call on the basis that undocumented immigrants “do work that no one else is willing to do.”
In truth, Sheffield’s comments are closer to the mark. Essentially, his point exemplifies the reality that that it is undocumented immigrants, because of their legal vulnerability, are doing work under conditions that no one should have to put up with, for pay that is unjust, with little in the way of legal recourse or protection. This is a result of their de jure subordinate legal status, and the conservative retrenchment of the Courts who are dismantling a host of protections for vulnerable groups. Likewise, African Americans, who have long struggled against racial discrimination in the workplace and in other social institutions find their ability to make rights claims in a similar predicament. If they argue too much and demand their rights too vehemently, there is the reality that they could be replaced by another group that will not be able to “cause as much trouble.”
From Jackie Robinson to Mohamed Ali to the rhetoric that now surrounds the NBA and its players, sports have given us insights into our race relations. Now, Sheffield’s comments do the same in the context of changing racial demographics and global economic conditions, and what it means for the fight for social justice. Sheffield and Kaufman are on to something, that reveals the way in which the struggle for dignity and fairness is no longer a national issue, even in the context of our national past time. It for this reasons that the immigrants’ rights struggle is a struggle for all those facing discrimination. In fighting so that everyone working here and living here we ensure decent conditions for all.
