Applying Our Research
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ARC’s Good Food and Good Jobs report was released at a time when the future of food justice is in peril. The national organization Community Food Security Coalition recently announced they were closing their doors , and in California corporate agribusinesses are sinking millions to oppose Prop 37, a ballot initiative to label genetically modified organisms (GMOs). Now, more than ever, those most impacted by the inequities of our broken food system need to mobilize to maintain justice at the heart of our movement. ARC’s Senior Researcher Yvonne Yen Liu will present findings from the Good Food and Good Jobs report at two upcoming gatherings that work precisely towards this goal.
On Septem ber 11, Yvonne will lead a discussion at the Green Gulch Farm, a Zen meditation center affiliated with the San Francisco-based Greens restaurant. This conversation over food will also feature Gary Ruskin, the campaign manager of Yes on Prop 37 campaign.
From September 24-26, Yvonne will be at the Food + Justice = Democracy conference, sponsored by the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy. She will facilitate the Food and Labor People’s Assembly along with partners such as the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, the Food Chain Workers Alliance, and Center for New Community.
Contact Yvonne at [email protected] for more information on how to secure the future of food justice.
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Network News
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ARC’s racial justice leadership training program has been busy working with many groups around the country. One highlight was working with the Lakeshore Ethnic Diversity Alliance’s Summit on Race and Inclusion in western Michigan, where Terry Keleher served as a keynote presenter.
We recently conducted two webinars, including our newest, “Racial Equity Impact Assessments: A Prescription for Prevention,” along with “Challenging Racial Systematically.” If you missed them, recordings can be purchased online.
We’re very pleased to announce that Nayantara Sen has joined ARC’s racial justice training team. Nayantara has been working with ARC’s executive team for the past couple of years, prior to joining the training team. She has already been facilitating and moderating many ARC trainings and webinars this past year, so for many people, she is already a familiar face and voice. She’s been a trainer with Theater of the Oppressed methodology, active in the Occupy movement, and brings a strong background in Asian American, Women, Gender and Social Justice Studies.
For more information on ARC’s training and consulting programs, you can visit our website or contact Terry Keleher at [email protected].
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Colorlines.com Spotlight
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Election season kicks into full swing this week as the Republican and Democratic party conventions unfold, and Colorlines.com's electoral reporting has heated up as well. Investigative journalist Brentin Mock published last week the results of his months' long examination of True the Vote, a tea party organization in Houston that is rallying far right groups around the country for a voter intimidation campaign in November.
 Brentin's reporting has caused a stir already. He discussed the story on MSNBC's Politics Nation with Al Sharpton, and it was featured on the Rachel Maddow Show. Shortly afterwards, Ohio Secretary of State John Husted pulled out of a previously advertised True the Vote gathering. Among Brentin's most striking findings is True the Vote's relationship with election administrators.
Meanwhile, our reporter Aura Bogado joins a group of undocumented residents who are riding through the South en route to the Democratic National Convention, in a symbolic effort to show they're unafraid to engage the political process, even if they can't vote. Bogado leads a team of community journalists who are acting as eyes and ears in key districts for our coverage of voting rights and voter intimidation. It's all part of Voting Rights Watch 2012, a partnership between Colorlines.com and The Nation.
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President's Message
Before I had a conscious identity like girl, or Indian or able bodied, I was a reader. Few books have affected me like Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention, Manning Marable’s final gift to the social justice movements he loved so much.
For a time that was the Nation of Islam, and later it was a more traditional, orthodox Islam. Malcolm’s ability to be human, and humane, grew over time, as his politics, his study of his faith, and his spiritual conviction led him to deeper questions and new loyalties.
Reading the book before the anniversary of September 11 connected me to Islam, debates about authentic Muslim identity, and the connection between Muslims around the world. Malcolm X, perhaps more than anyone, made American Muslims visible.
Yet, half a century after his assassination, we are unable to integrate people of that particular faith into our collective national identity. The struggle to define that identity will take up this election season, and 9/11 will be used by some as an excuse to attack mosques.
I spend every September 11 with the people of the Restaurant Opportunities Center of New York, where the collective identity, born out of the first 9/11, embraces everyone. I spent six years with them reporting for The Accidental American, in which I describe the challenges ROC’s founders and early members faced. There were many: some generated outside the organization, and some generated inside.
Whatever our human shortcomings in building community across lines of race, religion, language and national origin, not to mention all the things I’m not mentioning, groups like ROC-NY keep making an effort, which sets them apart from most members of Congress. With Manning's book, I can see that they, and we, do our work in full view of Malcolm X’s legacy. He made so many mistakes. But he kept trying, and we must do the same.
Rinku Sen
President, ARC
Publisher, Colorlines.com
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