Obama!!!! 2008 was quite a year, to put it mildly. We feel like characters in a fairy tale who lived in a peaceful kingdom that was taken over by monsters and mad men. And now they are finally packing up to leave us in peace!

The election of an African American to the presidency of the United States has given many racial justice activists cause to rethink our work. Are we in post racial America? What do we do now? And how can we best work together?

We at EJS have been reflecting about this since we started entertaining the notion that Obama could win. After a series of conversations, we determined that five areas will require our attention in the coming year:

• Acknowledging and talking about the fact that we are not in post-racial America;
• Persuading activists to pursue multi-issue agendas and encourage ourselves to determine common strategies with shared and overlapping priorities;
• Talking about new ideas. The economic meltdown has proven Right-wing ideology about limited government and deregulation to be bankrupt. Progressives now have an opportunity to envision concepts such as government as a force for good and regulation as a protection against the incompetence and greed that is plaguing our economy;
• Determining how we can support and guide President Obama as he implements new forward-thinking policies and practices; and
• Recommending progressive attorneys and judges - and judges and attorneys of color - for appointment to the federal bench. If you have recommendations, please send them (with CV/bio and your reason for recommending) to us at judicialpotential@equaljusticesociety.net.

A SPECIAL THANK YOU AND REQUEST

On behalf of our board and staff, I would also like to express our deep and profound appreciation to our donors, allies, friends and supporters who have continued to give — both financially and otherwise — despite the tough economic times.

We would like to especially recognize the following individuals for their generous support:

Denise Abrams
William Alderman
Kathleen Barry & Robert Burnett
Nancy Blachman & David Desjardins
David Borgen
Robin Brandes
Harry B. Bremond
James Brosnahan
Amon Burton
Barbara Caulfield
Kirk Citron & Matt Haligman
John Crew
Quinn Delaney & Wayne Jordan
Kelly Dermody
Simona Farrise
James M. Finberg
Barry & Sandy Goldstein
Richard Grosboll
Constance & Jonathan Heller
James C. Hormel
Michael & Frances Kieschnick
Celinda Lake
David McClain
Raymond C. Marshall
Dale Minami
Joel Motley
Trenton H. Norris
LaDene Otsuki
Steven C. Phillips & Susan Sandler
Andrew Pierce & Margalynne Armstrong
Pamela Y. Price
Nicholas Pritzker
James Rucker & Heidi Hess
David A. Sanchez
Guy & Jeanine Saperstein
Rebecca Westerfield
William Wick & Barbara Maco
Merilyn Wong
Steven Zieff & Elaine Leitner
Richard Zitrin

EJS depends on donations from generous individuals like you to continue our cutting-edge civil rights work across the United States. A donation in any amount would be appreciated.

Many thanks again from all of us here at the Equal Justice Society. We look forward to working with all of you in 2009!

– Eva Paterson

In strong, clear language, the three-judge panel said an organization affiliated with Proposition 209 author Ward Connerly was wrong to claim that the Los Angeles Unified School District could no longer use the race of students as a factor in magnet school admissions. Race-based admissions were mandated in a 1981 court order that remains in effect despite Proposition 209, the appeals court said.

Although Connerly’s organization could still appeal to the state Supreme Court, an American Civil Liberties Union lawyer who took part in the case on behalf of the district said she thought the challenge was effectively over.

Read the full article here

Conceived by Sean Hetherington of West Hollywood, the day of protest is modeled after A Day Without Immigrants, which took place on May 1, 2006.

Individuals participating can call in sick and donate their time to a cause and buy nothing that day to show again how important the LGBT community is to this country. The organizers have FAQs here. And their Facebook event listing is here.

Read more about how EJS has been involved in the ongoing fight for equality.

As an organization involved with UNITY, it will be fascinating to see what the survey reveals.

It’s also the first time I’ve heard of the Sherman Oaks, Calif.-based The Loop, but I’m a new fan.

“The Loop provides in-depth analysis of economics and politics, plus black opinion, from across the nation. Our mission is to lead the debate on black progress in America by looking beyond the headlines to uncover how news affects the lives of people of color. The Loop looks at the problems that hold us back and highlights thoughtful ideas and solutions. In short, we tell you what the mainstream news doesn’t. And we want everyone to join the conversation. Issues thought of as ‘black issues’ — education, poverty, civil rights — are national issues that affect people of every race.”

UPDATE: Notes added below.

This call is the second in a series sponsored by the Rollback Campaign. The first was a call about messaging on affirmation action, marriage equality and immigration.

Eva began her remarks by highlighting the challenges we face — the delight and danger — in working with race issues in the Obama era, especially how we counter the notion that we’re in a “post-racial” America.

We begin with a pre-election perspective, she said. Eva and many of her peers were skeptical that America would elect a Black president; that in the end, the ugly side of our country would show. Many younger folks didn’t have that fear.

So in considering the different viewpoints, she asked herself if there’s something innate to the different generations that fueled the different perspectives. Did Obama run on or away from race and how the underlying rationales for that approach would factor into his governance.

She also mentioned the notion, which was told to Eva by someone else, that Obama’s approach to race in the campaign may have been fueled by the fact that he was not born from “slave blood” (his father being from Kenya). This question is not mention to challenge his sensitivities or understanding of our country’s slave history — Obama apparently gave one of his constitutional law classes a list of Blacks who were lynched after the end of slavery and had the class read details of the violent incidents — but to explore whether or not it factored into his approach.

What can we better understand about inter-ethnic relations based on the fact that Latinos, Asian Americans and indigenous peoples voted overwhelmingly for Obama. Eva posed this issue also in the context of how the media sometimes like to fan the flames of division.

The next thematic question posed by Eva was about asking ourselves how did this all happen, i.e. how did Obama get elected? Was it the fact that the Bush Administration created such a mess for our country this past eight years? Was it the result of America’s changing views on race? Was it the fact that Obama is such an exceptional leader? Or a combination of these factors?

Eva shared that Obama’s election has changed her views on how others see race. The fact that so many people of other ethnicities voted for Obama made her much more optimistic.

So what now, Eva asked. We need to fight the notion that we’re in a “post-racial” America — many, many people of color are still living in a world of hurt. Obama’s election has given us an opportunity to have a more meaningful dialogue on race.

We need to do our part to push administration appointments of people who gave progressive views on race as well as bring sanity back to judicial appointments.

We need to make sure that the Civil Rights Division in the Department of Justice advances civil rights rather than create problems on race issues. We may have the opportunity now to use Title VI without the “intent standard.”

Finally, we need to work collectively towards a common vision by getting out of our silos and picking a handful issues that we can all get behind initially. The Right was very good at talking about how bad government was, but the economic meltdown show how important government and regulation is. We have the opportunity to talk about ideology.

We’re in an incredible and remarkable time, said Eva. We may not win all the battles, but at least there are people in the administration who will listen.

Alan Jenkins of the Opportunity Agenda was up next.

Alan mentioned his organization’s work this year towards gearter and more equal opportunity — working on the ground in places like Iowa before the caucuses and Colorado before the Connerly anti-opportunity initiative — analyzing and deploying opinion research and media outreach. Our challenge is this, he said: for those people that we couldn’t convince of the need for more equal opportuntiy, how can we do it now with a Black president.

Alan shared with the call audience ten suggestions for talking about race.

1. Lead with shared values instead of dry facts and policies and rhetoric. Many of us have not internalized in our messaging the values of opportunity, community and equality. Leading with those values has proven in research and practice to be important. Alan also mentioned how Obama successfully used the values of opportunity and community during his campaign.

2. Frame issues thematically rather than episodically, showing the systemic barriers to opportunity rather than just the impact to individuals. Human stories are crucial, but we sould be more careful at picking stories that are better connected to broader causes, such as highlighting both the “enlightened insider” and the “change agent.”

3. Present solutions. Alan quoted Van Jones who likes to say that Martin Luther King, Jr., didn’t give a speech about “I have a complaint.” We need to be better that stating what we’re for and not just what we’re against.

4. Over-document the impact of bias and the benefits of equal opportunity. Let’s talk about systemic problems and back that up with data — “over-document” meaning that we need more info that what you think would convince people. We also need create social maps and translate numbers into something that everyday people can understand.

5. Appeal to subsconscious attitudes about race. Negative subconscious attitudes are more damaging than the conscious attitudes. Our opponents appeal to the fears of our subconscious and we need to counter that.

6. Combining partipatory and disciplined messaging. We can’t expect to provide polling and research data and expect that our allies will be able to run with that. We need to help people craft messages that relate to the research. We also need to be disciplined in how we do that by investing the time in not only communicating the right thing, but the same thing — not in words, but in broader messages.

7. Acknowledge our progress. Many of us woke up the day after the election and felt like we were in a better country. We need to acknowledge that and connect our history to the future. When we speak about injustices like slavery, the genocide of indigenous people, internment, etc., we need to show how those past injustices matter today.

8. Media matters. We need to continue our outreach to traditional media, but understand and use new channels of communication such as online outlets — and show information in innovative ways, such as through Google Maps (see http://www.healthcarethatworks.org).

9. Connect racial justice messages and solutions to other opportunties and issues. Racial justice is part of a larger agenda to achieve justice and opportunity.

10. Repetition, repetition, repetition. Our opponents have been successful at instilling notions of limited goverment, playing the race card and family values because they created a drumbeat of messages connected to shared values. We don’t need to imitate that strategy, but we should learn some lessons from it.

This is a moment for us to achieve structural change, finished Alan.

All of us at EJS want to thank everyone for attending our annual gala last night at The Regency Center in San Francisco. We’ll be posting more incredible photos (like the one above of Eva Paterson and the band Unintended Consequences) taken by Shu-Jon Mao.

Kudos to our event team of Eva Paterson, Miguel Gavaldon, Ginger Johnson, Lisa Wong and all of our collective staff members, consultants and vendors. Without their fantastic efforts last night’s event could not have been successful.

We were privileged to honor last night Kate Kendell, Executive Director, National Center for Lesbian Rights; William Kennedy and Mona Tawatao, Legal Services of Northern California; San Francisco Latino & Black Union Carpenters, La Raza Centro Legal; and philanthropist Alvin Starks.

A very special thank you to our gala sponsors: California Teachers Association; Kazan, McClain, Abrams, Lyons, Greenwood & Harley, PL; Morrison & Foerster;  Wilson, Sonsini, Goodrich & Rosati Foundation;  Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein, LLP; Quinn Delaney & Wayne Jordan; Arnold & Porter, LLP;  Pierce & Shearer LLP, Palo Alto Office; Price and Associates; Margalynne Armstrong and Andrew Pierce;NARAL; Minami Tamaki LLP; Joe Lucero & Vince Calcagno; Arlene Mayerson; Remcho, Johansen & Purcell, LLP; James Rucker & Heidi Hess;  Bingham McCutchen LLP;  Dorothy M. Ehrlich & Gary D. Sowards; and James C. Hormel & Michael P. Nguyen.

We also want to thank our host committee: Amy Everett; Banafsheh Akhlaghi; Brad Seligman & Sara Campos; Celinda Lake; Constance & Jonathan Heller; Dale Minami; Damu Sudi Alii; Dave Rorick; David Oppenheimer and Marci Kates; Rev. Diana & George McDaniel; Dick Grosboll; Dorothy Ehrlich and Gary Sowards; Drew Westen; Drucilla Ramey and Marvin Stender; Elaine Elinson & Rene CiriaCruz; Gary Greenfield and Reesa Tansey; Hector Preciado and Katerina Villanueva; James Finberg; Jamienne S. Studley; Jennifer Bell & William C. McNeill III; Jill Hanuer; Jon Davidson; Jon Streeter; Julie Dorf & Jenni Olson; Julie Su & Hernan Vera; Kamala Harris; Kate Dumbleton; Kelly Dermody; Kendra Fox Davis; Lateefah Simon; Ludovic Blain; Lyda Phillips; Marcus Shelby; Maria Blanco; Mr. & Mrs. James Thrasher; Norman Lear; Oren Sellstrom; Phil Hutchings; Robert Rubin; Rico Oyola; Shakti and Rick Butler; Shauna Marshall & Bob Hirsch; Susan Baronoff; Thomas A. Saenz; Todd Neece; and Van Jones.

EJS President Eva Paterson was profiled on the latest installment of the Emmy Award-winning “Profiles of Excellence,” hosted by Carolyn Johnson and produced by the ABC 7 Public Affairs Department to celebrate the cultural and ethnic diversity of the Bay Area. Mimi Kwan and Laura Kutch produce the series.