| Equal
Justice Society e-Newsletter - Issue 10 - Summer 2007 | |
|
SUBSCRIBE IN THIS ISSUE Letter from the President: From Imus to Virginia Tech to Berkeley to Mississippi Notes
on the Right: EJS Scholar Advocate Program Launches at Boalt and Hawai'i Law Schools Fall Symposium on the Impact of Prop 209 Immigrant Rights Marches Not a ‘New Beginning’ but Next Chapter in Civil Rights Struggle Framing Race and Class in the Wake of Hurricane Katrina A Triptych of Race, Rights, and Praxis: The Law & Social Change New Promising African American Landownership Initiatives National Conference for Media Reform intersects with Civil Rights EJS Rallies Against Hate Speech Interns Reflect on Experience at EJS $100,000 challenge gift launches Major Donor campaign; Ford Foundation awards two-year grant
Newsletter
Editors: |
From Imus to Virginia Tech to Berkeley to Mississippi Earlier
today I was told that a nominee to the federal appellate court had ruled that
calling a Black person a nigger was like calling someone the teachers' pet. My
jaw dropped. The Equal Justice Society since its inception has fought to resist
and refute such nonsense. The judge, who is on the state court in Mississippi,
was nominated by President Bush. A priority of EJS is to challenge the legal requirement
that racial animus must exist before racial discrimination can be proven. I am
certain that if asked this judge would have said that saying nigger was not evidence
of racial animus. This is further proof of the fallacy of this requirement. |
Notes
on the Right:
Since November
2006, when Ward Connerly scored his first state ballot initiative victory against
affirmative action in eight years with a lopsided 58-42 percent win in Michigan,
speculation has been rife over where he and his wealthy backers would next turn
their attention. | |
| EJS Scholar Advocate Program Launches at Boalt and Hawai'i Law Schools
On March 21, 2007, at the University of California, Berkeley, Boalt Hall School of Law, a team of emerging "Scholar-Advocates" translated critical legal theory insights about law and (in)justice into strategies for frontline advocacy. The panel in Berkeley was the inaugural event of the Equal Justice Society's Scholar-Advocate pilot program at the University of Hawai`i Law School, and was sponsored by the Thelton E. Henderson Center for Social Justice, Boalt Hall School of Law. The panel was moderated by EJS board member Professor Eric Yamamoto, the lead educator for the innovative Hawai`i program, and in Berkeley as the Henderson Center's Spring Scholar-in-Residence. | |
Fall
Symposium on the
EJS continues to demonstrate the need for equal opportunity policies by documenting the impact of institutional and structural racism. One way we're doing that in a post-Proposition 209 California is by participating in the California Coalition to Analyze the Impact of Proposition 209. This broad-based coalition of groups and organizations examining the impact of Proposition 209 is supported in part by grants from the Fulfilling the Dream Fund and the Akonadi Foundation. | |
| Immigrant Rights Marches Not a ‘New Beginning’ but Next Chapter in Civil Rights Struggle
Hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets on May 1 of last year, and tens of thousands this year, to protest oppressive immigration legislation. Those marches challenged one paradigm of social justice and led to some hailing the protests as representing a “new civil rights movement.” The demonstrations were not a new beginning, but a continuation of the original uncompleted and embattled original movement for civil rights in this country. The marches sparked debates over the commonalities and differences between the struggles of African Americans and newer immigrants. | |
| Framing
Race and Class in the
The issues of race, class and government action brought so forcefully into focus in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina provided a unique framework with which to analyze media coverage of these fundamental issues. In its long term effort to "put race back on the table" and reframe the public conversation about race and government accountability, EJS examined coverage by different kinds of media of this unique natural and unnatural disaster in an effort to understand how the story of Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath were being presented to American audiences. | |
| A Triptych of Race, Rights, and Praxis: The Law & Social Change
I recently attended three different conferences that brought
together three very different groups, and three very different perspectives on
the possibilities for law and social change. | |
| New Promising African American Landownership Initiatives
Thomas Mitchell, a law professor at the University of Wisconsin School of Law and a participant in EJS strategic workshops to address legal barriers to redress for discrimination, has conducted extensive research and written several articles raising the deeply troubling issue of Black land loss [link - in the last law review article I did way back, I included a few of Thomas' pieces in the roundup]. Racism, classism and exploitation of state property laws have deprived African Americans, low-income Whites and Native Americans of their rightfully owned property. | |
National Conference for Media Reform intersects with Civil Rights
I attended this past January the third National Conference for Media Reform in Memphis. The conference is organized by Free Press, a national, nonpartisan organization working to reform the media. Through education, organizing and advocacy, Free Press promotes diverse and independent media ownership, strong public media, and universal access to communications. | |
EJS Rallies Against Hate Speech By Keith Kamisugi | |
Interns Reflect on Experience at EJS
| |
| $100,000 challenge gift launches Major Donor campaign; Ford Foundation awards two-year grant
| |
| Read
more about our staff changes, and honors and recognitions bestowed on EJS board
members. | |
From
Eva Paterson
By
Lee Cokorinos
By
David Salniker
By Kimberly Thomas
Rapp
By
Nicholas Espíritu
By
Elaine Elinson
By Prof. Thomas Mitchell,
University of Wisconsin Law School
By Keith Kamisugi
By Danielle Tizol and Jenny
Lam
By
Miguel Gavaldón| The Equal Justice Society (www.equaljusticesociety.org) is a national advocacy organization strategically advancing social and racial justice through law and public policy, communications and the arts, and alliance building. Equal Justice Society, 220 Sansome St, 14th Flr, San Francisco, CA 94104, Ph (415) 288-8700 |