Applying Our Research
|
|
In his acceptance speech for the prestigious Hillman Prize, awarded for his "Shattered Families" investigation, Seth Freed Wessler commented: "Deportees' stories have a way of evaporating…Colorlines.com is committed to gathering these traces, to foregrounding the stories of people who are most ignored and to investigating the ways institutions even if often without meaning to perpetuate racial inequality."
Shattered Families has had an enormous impact in many areas.
- Two pieces of legislation are moving forward in California -- and advocates in numerous other states are pushing for similar bills.
- ICE now includes standards for transferring people to family-related state court proceedings in their recently released Operations Manual – ICE Performance Based National Detention Standards.
- ARC has had conversations with federal child welfare officials about the problems uncovered in the report and solutions to these problems.
- 20,000+ people took action in a Presente.org petition to protest the separation of Felipe Montes from his children.
- Widespread media attention from national outlets in both English and Spanish, including Associated Press, MSNBC, LA Times, Democracy Now, CNN Espanol, Univision, LA Weekly, and many others.
|
Network News
|
ARC continues to engage many different types of organizations in racial justice training. ARC’s interactive trainings provide participants with practical tools and tips to sharpen their analysis, skills and strategies for addressing structural racism.
Unlike “diversity trainings” which primarily focus on interpersonal relations and cultural awareness, the racial justice trainings focus on systemic racial inequality and the development of proactive proposals, messages, strategies and alliances for advancing racial equity.
In recent months, ARC has been busy facilitating a lot of trainings and consultations with a variety of organizations. Some of the groups we have had the pleasure to work with include:
- Active Transportation Alliance (Chicago)
- Boston Public Health Commission
- California Association of Food Banks
- Konopka Institute for Best Practices in Adolescent Health (Univ. of Minnesota)
- MoveOn.org
Also, ARC has presented at recent conferences such as:
- W.K. Kellogg Foundation’s American Healing Conference
- Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity’s Transforming Race Conference
- White Privilege Conference
For further information about ARC’s training and consulting services, visit our website.
To book ARC keynote and panel speakers, including Rinku Sen, contact [email protected].
|
|
Colorlines.com Spotlight
|
|
When President Obama announced his evolution into believing same-sex couples should have the right to marry, MSNBC’s Melissa Harris-Perry tweeted that the president must have watched her series on the politics of sex, race and gender. We think so, too! Colorlines.com editorial director Kai Wright joined those riveting MHP Show discussions, helping to shape a more meaningful conversation about LGBT rights in America.
Kai articulated why LGBT rights are a crucial part of racial justice during a speech at the North Star Fund’s Community Gala last week, where he was among the grassroots funder’s 2012 North Star Award honorees.
As Kai explained, at Colorlines.com we believe in “both/and,” not “either/or.” People’s lives aren’t separated into discrete boxes of race, gender, sexuality and class; those identities coexist in the same way that we must work together on all fronts to create a just world.
Also last week, Colorlines.com contributor Kenyon Farrow wrote a must-read essay highlighting the hidden victory in North Carolina’s marriage vote. “While the passing of Amendment 1 may seem like a big blow to same sex-marriage activists, the grassroots organizing that came together to fight it may actually be the most important win,” Kenyon wrote. The multi-racial coalition that fought the amendment was unprecedented, and it flies in the face of absurd predictions that black Americans will disavow the president for supporting LGBT people.
|
|
President's Message
It’s that time of year where seeds planted last fall have grown into beautiful blooms and students who have spent years sharpening their intellect cross the commencement threshold. I spend a good deal of my time speaking to college students, whose enthusiasm and idealism I love, and was honored to give a commencement speech this season. My key message to new graduates, and to everyone committed to racial justice, is to safekeep and maintain their enthusiasm for this vital work.
There's plenty to do intellectually and physically, but there's a strong emotional element to this work that young people pursuing structural solutions need to understand too in order to stay engaged. Racial justice work is not easy. Our analysis is often dismissed. We are often criticized. Tragic events take place that affect us and the people around us. Some fights we lose. Dealing with race is emotionally challenging, and we need to build our capacity to stay in the struggle and not withdraw.
One important commitment is to let yourself feel whatever you feel, to deal constructively and straightforwardly with these challenges. If you’re angry, hurt, irritated, joyful, triumphant, whatever it is, you want to engage those feelings rather than avoid them – just as we want people to engage rather than avoid race in general. It’s not productive or healthy to let unresolved feelings create a block inside you. That block is always tender -- when anyone pokes it, even lightly, it flares up in a way that's often disproportionate to the incident and causes us to react blindly. Better to process those feelings when they first occur; that’ll help us stay in the mix rather than running away to protect ourselves.
But positive feelings and reactions have to be processed too. No triumph is permanent, all victories have to be defended. If we get too attached to our happiest reactions, the downsides of the work can have a devastating impact.
A friend recently sent me four lines from a Rilke poem that I found such a helpful reminder:
Let everything happen to you
beauty and terror
Just keep going
No feeling is final
No grief is final; no joy is final either. Everything changes, including our own emotional state. So, feel what you feel, feel it all the way, and then feel the next thing. You’ll be better off for it, and so will the movement.
Rinku Sen
President, ARC
Publisher, Colorlines.com
|
