MEDIA NEWS
| From Playaz to Leaderz Race & Racism (News) May 1st, 2009 By Tomas PalermoFormer gangsters help a Bay Area organization use people power to transform communities block by block.It's 11:30 a.m. on a sunny Monday at San Francisco's Yerba Buena Gardens. On this Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday, United Playaz (UP) is gathering for their annual march for justice and members are out in full force. Vibrantly dressed tweens, skulking teens, young mothers pushing strollers and tough looking 30-something dudes walk toward a meeting spot at the downtown King Memorial Fountain. Young and old alike sport a distinctive black T-shirt or hoodie emblazoned with the letters "UP" and white script that reads: "It Takes the Hood to Save the Hood." For the past 15 years, United Playaz has lived their motto, uplifting ... |
| Holder: U.S. 'a nation of cowards' on race Race & Racism (News) May 1st, 2009 By Associated PressWASHINGTON - Eric Holder, the nation?s first black attorney general, said Wednesday the United States was ?a nation of cowards? on matters of race, with most Americans avoiding candid discussions of racial issues.In a speech to Justice Department employees marking Black History Month, Holder said the workplace is largely integrated but Americans still self-segregate on the weekends and in their private lives.?Though this nation has proudly thought of itself as an ethnic melting pot, in things racial we have always been and I believe continue to be, in too many ways, essentially a nation of cowards,? Holder said.read more |
| More Charges Linked to 'Racial Profiling' in San Jose Race & Racism (News) May 1st, 2009 By Raj JayadevEditor?s Note: The high arrest rate of Latinos in San Jose isn?t limited to public intoxication charges. It turns out that the problem is more systemic. Data obtained from the Department of Justice shows that Latinos and blacks are also disproportionately charged with resisting arrest and other offenses in which police officers have greater discretion. Raj Jayadev is the director of Silicon Valley De-Bug and is a member of the new public intoxication task force in San Jose.SAN JOSE, Calif. -- The night she was arrested, Maria Castillo fit the description. A petite, 49-year-old grandmother and home healthcare worker, Castillo is Latina in San Jose ? and that ethnicity, in that city, makes her the most likely person ... |
| Black, Brown and Going Green Race & Racism (News) May 1st, 2009 By Kristia CastrilloOne environmental justice advocate contends that before communities of color go green, they must confront the trauma of white privilege. Last fall, there was a Slow Food Nation event held in San Francisco. The city's Civic Center was turned into a temporary show-and-tell community garden and vendors sold overpriced organic foods. People spoke on the importance of learning to grow our own food and cook it fresh, leaving the world of microwaves and processed foods behind. At one point, my mom and I walked past a middle-aged white man speaking to a small crowd about meat recipes. He lectured on how they needed to learn to use the entire animal, leaving none to waste. My mom laughed and said to me in Tagalog, "Chinese and ... |
| AC Transit riders' claim of funding bias tossed Race & Racism (News) May 1st, 2009 By Bob EgelkoA federal magistrate has dismissed a suit by AC Transit riders who accused the Bay Area's transportation funding agency of racial discrimination by steering state and federal money to trains with a relatively higher proportion of affluent white riders and away from buses that carry more poor and nonwhite passengers.read more |
| Report Challenges Negative Image of Immigrant Elders Race & Racism (News) May 1st, 2009 By Paul KleymanEditor?s Note: Six million older immigrants live in the United States, a figure projected to triple by 2030. Advocates for these elders have set out to bring their voices ?- and new respect for them as community contributors ?- to the public and agency decision makers, who often dismiss them as mere clients seeking benefits.If treated as partners, rather than mere users of public services, immigrant elders can help cash-strapped agencies solve problems in their communities, according to a new report.read more |
| There's No Random Violence in the Hood Race & Racism (News) May 1st, 2009 By YO! Interns, Beat Within InternsMainstream media is quick to cover extreme or sensational acts of violence but many youth live with similar threats continually.Young people from the Bay Area's toughest neighborhoods respond to the recent violent rampage across the nation ? 53 murders in the past few weeks ? of mostly "random" shooting deaths. But when violence is a part of your everyday existence, what exactly does "random violence" mean?read more |
| Nationally, community groups "merge" in opposition to AT&T's proposed takeover of T-Mobile, Letter asks FCC and DOJ for review The MAG-Net Blog The day before the House Judiciary subcommittee hearing on the proposed merger between AT&T and T-Mobile, the Center for Media Justice and an unprecedented fifty community-based social justice organizations from across the country, sent a letter to the Federal Communications Commission and Department of Justice calling for a thorough review of AT&T’s proposed acquisition of T-Mobile. |
| National Hispanic Media Coalition To Oppose AT&T's Acquisition of T-Mobile The MAG-Net Blog By Jessica Gonzalez |
| Is Bay Area diversity all it's cracked up to be? Race & Racism (News) By Joe RodriguezA few years ago, Laurie Jones Neighbors wanted to know whether the Bay Area's rich cultural diversity was reflected on local boards and commissions, the sort that deal with apartment rents, public buses, air pollution and other realities of everyday urban life."There was very little representation of people of color and low-income people," she said after canvassing dozens of agencies. "We're not going to arrive at a just society that way."read more |
| How community access television is meeting the information needs of communities: Beyond the Future (of Media), and Back to the Knight (Commission) Reclaim the Media - Newswire Beyond the FCC's Future of Media inquiry, the focus of my earlier posts, I'd like to go back to last year?s Knight Commission on the Information Needs of Communities in a Democracy and its original question: What are the information needs of communities in a digital age? In a section titled "Envisioning and Measuring Success and Failure," the Knight Commission Report says: In a perfect world, citizens could reliably measure their information needs and gauge their satisfaction.Read more. |
| A New Media Era for Social Change and Civic Engagement? What Does Media Policy Have to Do With It? The MAG-Net Blog By Betty Yu “Everything from revolutions to the environment and health is shaped by how we connect, document, and change our lives.” -Mission Statement of the New York Life Symposium on the New Media Era |
| FCC?s Mignon Clyburn Vows To Fight for Mobile Users The MAG-Net Blog By Jamilah King | Reposted from colorlines.com Over the weekend, thousands of media reform activists and journalists met in Boston (including the Colorlines.com crew). One key moment was when FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn told the audience that she would be “super-vigilant” of the wireless industry. That vigilance will be tested, given recent moves by House Republicans and two of the nation’s largest telecommunications companies to block the commission’s new open Web rules. And particularly so given that mobile broadband is a crucial way in which users of color are slowly bridging the digital divide. “In considering all of the factors relating to America’s minority and lower-income citizens, and ... |
| United States Is An Outlier In Its Tolerance Of Hate and Racism ? But Why? The MAG-Net Blog |
| OMG Comcast! Pick on Someone Your Own Size The MAG-Net Blog By Malkia Cyril and Craig Aaron (reposted from Huffington Post) Last week the public was dismayed and disgusted by news that FCC Commissioner Meredith Attwell Baker was leaving her government job to lobby on behalf of the Comcast-NBC colossus whose merger she had just approved. |