FEATURES

An Unjust Silence: The Omission of Katrina from the United States CERD Report
By Clare Bakota, Advancement Project

This past April, the United States submitted a long overdue report on the state of domestic racial and ethnic disparities in this country. Nowhere in the report does the State Department mention Katrina nor the racial disparities that turned the natural disaster into a chaotic humanitarian crisis. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has published a shadow report critiquing the State Department’s analysis. However, the ACLU report alone will not resolve the problem of the State Department’s inability to honestly and justly report on race in America. To read the entire article, click here.

If It Ain’t Broke, Don’t Fix It: Why the U.S. System of Justice is in Urgent Need of Repair
By Crystal N. Hill, Advancement Project

Based on the deluge of recent media reports about unfair sentencing practices, unreasonable jail and prison terms, inequities in levying the death penalty, and other means of discrimination, it is evident that the U.S. justice system is in need of repair.  An unfolding situation in Jena, La., presents us with a textbook example of how institutionalized racism has become so pervasive in the U.S. justice system that the one thing that is most difficult to attain for people of color is the very thing the system purports to provide for all people—justice.  To read the entire article, click here.

Forced Strength
By M. Aurora Vásquez, Advancement Project

Race-based ironies inevitably draw two responses from me: A disquieted sigh and a simultaneous sense of relief for all the justice advocates and leaders I have ever met—without whom the paradoxes would run rampant. Take for example the group of people who came together at the recent Summit on Crime Policy hosted by Rep. Bobby Scott (D-VA). Not only did the Summit draw a full house throughout the day, it also served as a platform for people with frank ideas on the many facets of incarceration, its consequences, and the dire need for change. And while I did not leave the Summit with a ready-made plan for resolving what haunts us, I did leave with a renewed sense of inspiration and of course, urgency. To read the full article, click here.

 

NEWSMAKERS

Who Exiled New Orleans’ Poor?
By Judith Browne-Dianis, Co-Director, Advancement Project

Nearly 4,000 families remain displaced from New Orleans public housing; these people's lives are in limbo, but not because of Hurricane Katrina. As residents of public housing watch the city attempt to come back, they want to know when they, too, could return. Although they knew the government had failed them during the evacuation, they did not imagine that the next federal insult would be locking them out of their homes. To read the full article, click here. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/16/AR2007051602396.html

How to Destroy an African-American City in Three Steps—Lessons from Katrina
By Bill Quigley, Human Rights Lawyer and Law Professor, Loyola University New Orleans

Step One. Delay. If there is one word that sums up the way to destroy an African-American city after a disaster, that word is DELAY. If you are in doubt about any of the following steps—just remember to delay and you will probably be doing the right thing. To read the full article, click here. http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/06/28/2154/

POINTS OF INTEREST

The Intersect of Educational Justice and Immigrant Rights
By Padres and Jovenes Unidos

Much of the recent conversation about improving public education has centered on the need to better prepare our children to compete in the global economy. We believe, however, that access to high quality public education is about much more than economics—it is a question of human rights. Education is the key in developing a next generation able to think critically and participate fully in civic and political life. To read the full article, click here. http://www.advancementproject.org/pdfs/cjrc/07-07/PJUArticle.pdf

ARC Responds to Supreme Court Ruling on School Desegregation
By The Applied Research Center

The Applied Research Center is dismayed by today’s decisions from the United States Supreme Court to overturn lower court rulings allowing the districts of Seattle, Wash., and Louisville, Ky., to use race in making school assignments. This decision is especially disappointing, given that the majority of the Court affirmed race as an important factor to consider in educational equity and school integration. To read the article, click here. http://www.arc.org/content/view/522/99/

How not to Build Racial Unity and Counter Racism in New Orleans
By Dr. Lance Hill, Executive Director, Southern Institute for Education and Research

Recently, the Louisiana Chapter of the Sierra Club honored the St. Bernard Parish Council President with their “Legislative Leadership” award, despite the fact that he has a long and un-apologetic history of publicly using racial epithets and took the lead in passing the “blood relative rental law” last October that effectively prevented Blacks from renting in St. Bernard Parish.  Hill argues that the fact that a putatively liberal organization like the Sierra Club can countenance racism by honoring a man with a long history of open bigotry is a sign of a serious problem that begs for a community-wide dialogue; and it’s a case study in how not to build racial unity and counter racism. In this commentary, Hill discuses the role that structural racism has played in race and class issues in New Orleans post-Katrina. To read the full commentary, click here. http://www.southerninstitute.info/commentaries/?p=39

FUNDING RESOURCES/EMPLOYMENT

This updated list provides information about a few of the funding resources and job opportunities are available to community justice practitioners. We plan to update this resource periodically as we learn of new opportunities. Please contact us with any opportunities of which you know and we will add them to this new resource. This list includes programs with upcoming deadlines as well as a few opportunities with rolling deadlines.

Click here to view Funding Resources >

Click here to view Fellowships/Employment >

CJRC CALENDAR

Check out our updated calendar with information on voter registration deadlines and primary and caucus dates! Please email us at cjrc@advancementproject.org with information on events of interest.

Click here to view the Calendar >

MAPPING THE LITERATURE

We encourage you to visit our updated bibliography (partially annotated) of recent publications and articles of interest to racial justice advocates. This bibliography features a dynamic array of publications spanning several exciting topics.

Click here to view the bibliography >

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