Legal Activists of Color

Critical Concepts of Race Privilege

2011-10-08T15:31:00.001-07:00

Critical Concepts of Race Privilege1

In the mid-1980s, two sociologists affiliated with Ethnic Studies developed and promulgated the

theory of racial formation, which explains that race is a social construct, a concept that people impute

with evolving meanings as societies change historically.2 The theory of racial formation is foundational to

understanding the centrality of race and racism in the United States and offers a significant challenge to

other paradigms of race, including those that are biologistic or based on constructs of ethnicity, class, or

nation.

A few years later, some feminist scholars adapted critiques of patriarchy to extend critical

understandings of race in the United States. They conceptualized white privilege—the sometimes hidden

yet significant motivation for the continued subordination of minority social groups in the United States.3

By the early 1990s, feminist legal scholars had extended critical knowledge about race and racism by

naming the transparency phenomenon—a key component of white privilege that explains why most

people who are socially constructed as white tend not to think about how race affects their daily lives but

instead think of race as something that other people have.4 Race is a colored thing; race marks some

people’s differences from the (putative) norm.5

Responding to these ideas about race and racism, critical race theorists critiqued and supplemented

the concepts of white privilege and the transparency phenomenon to extend critical comprehension of the

social construction of whiteness and the maintenance of white supremacy in the United States.6 One of their

several important insights is that the transparency phenomenon incompletely explains white privilege:

throughout the United States’ racial formations, law has naturalized the constitutive privileges of racial

whiteness. By statute and judicial opinion, legislators and judges reified the social construction of racial

whiteness as a biological reality that is confirmed by everyday common sense.7

These critical concepts can help people who are dedicated to effecting social justice better

understand the current era of “colorblind constitutionalism”8 promulgated by the Renquist Court and to

intervene against this aspect of the neoconservative project (shared by the Federalist Society), which

directly supports the United States’ racial hierarchy. Additionally, developing critical understanding of how

race has been socially constructed to privilege the white social group by subordinating all social groups

defined as non-white and dubbed minorities may help people of good will work together successfully

across the diverse categories of social difference to which we are all subject, e.g., age, dis/ability, gender,

race, sexuality, etc. Developing such critical understandings is a project of critical race praxis and

interracial justice.9

1 Prepared by Marc-Tizoc González for the “Race Privilege Town Hall Meeting,” held on Wednesday January 26,

2005 at the U.C. Berkeley School of Law (Boalt Hall) and hosted by the Center for Social Justice as part of its Spring

2005 “Privilege Series,” with minor revisions on October 11, 2006 for the “Introduction to LatCrit Theory:

Scholarship and Practical Applications” panel of the Tenth Annual National Latina/o Law Student Conference.

2 MICHAEL OMI & HOWARD WINANT, RACIAL FORMATION: FROM THE 1960S TO THE 1980S (1987).

3 See e.g., Peggy McIntosh, White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack, in Working Paper 189: White

Privilege and Male Privilege: A Personal Account of Coming To See Correspondences through Work in Women’s

Studies (1988), available at http://www.utoronto.ca/acc/events/peggy1.htm.

4 See BARBARA J. FLAGG,WAS BLIND, BUT NOW I SEE:WHITE RACE CONSCIOUSNESS & THE LAW (1998); STEPHANIE

M. WILDMAN, ET. AL., PRIVILEGE REVEALED: HOW INVISIBLE PREFERENCE UNDERMINES AMERICA (1996); Stephanie

M. Wildman, with Adrienne D. Davis, Language and Silence: Making Systems of Privilege Visible, 35 SANTA CLARA

L. REV. 881 (1995); Barbara J. Flagg, “Was Blind, But Now I See”: White Race Consciousness and the Requirement

of Discriminatory Intent, 91 MICH. L. REV. 953 (1993); and Trina Grillo & Stephanie M. Wildman, Obscuring the

Importance of Race: The Implications of Making Comparisons Between Racism and Sexism (or Other-Isms), 1991

DUKE L.J. 397 (1991). Professor Wildman was the first director of Boalt’s CSJ. She now teaches at the University of

Santa Clara School of Law where she directs its Center for Social Justice and Public Service.

5 See Angela Harris, Race and Essentialism in Feminist Legal Theory, 42 STAN. L. REV. 582, 604 (1990).

6 See e.g., IAN F. HANEY LÓPEZ,WHITE BY LAW (1996).

7 Id. at 160-64.

8 See Neil Gotanda, A Critique of “Our Constitution is Colorblind”, 44 STAN. L. REV. 1 (1991).

9 See Eric K. Yamamoto, Critical Race Praxis: Race Theory and Political Lawyering Practice in Post-Civil Rights

America, 95 MICH. L. REV. 821 (1997); and Eric Yamamoto, Rethinking Alliances: Agency, Responsibility and

Interracial Justice, 3 ASIAN PAC. AM. L.J. 33 (1995).

ALABAMA MANIFESTO

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ALABAMA MANIFESTO

The United People of Color Caucus (TUPOCC) of the National Lawyer's Guild (NLG) is an alliance of law

students, legal workers, attorneys and other people of color within the NLG community. The necessity of

such an organization is borne from the historical context of the capitalist United States where economic

prowess is dependent on the furthered and continued subjugation of people of color, women, the poor,

queers and other oppressed people. We are dedicated to fostering and supporting the growth and

empowerment of all people of color, particularly within the organization of the NLG. We believe that

meaningful social change and actual justice can only be attained when people of color and all other

beleaguered communities are more than mere afterthoughts. Equality must be woven throughout the fabric

of the organization. We seek to further educate ourselves and inform the larger NLG community about the

issues that affect us and investigate the relationship of these issues to social justice. We strongly believe

that this work cannot be done unaided, and we encourage support from our allies throughout the NLG in

furtherance of our goals. We wish to provide all people of color opportunities in support of these goals, and

when such opportunities are not available, to work with our associates and allies to create them. We seek to

unite ourselves, represent our communities, achieve our potential, and function as a powerful force within

the NLG, our chapters, schools, communities, the United States of America and the global population.

The United People of Color Caucus (TUPOCC) of the NLG has a multi-point strategy that we shall use to

advance our mission:

1. Elect students of color and people of color into leadership positions within the NLG

2. Demand that white and privileged Guild members take accountability for their racism and other

oppressive behaviors by joining us in examining and effectively changing the culture of the NLG.

Together we believe that we can accomplish this goal by:

a. Meeting as people of color regularly to deal with oppression and other issues we uniquely

experience as people of color

b. Encouraging all members who are not of this caucus to regularly attend meetings of the Anti-

Racism Committee, or preferably, to join such committees.

c. Institutionalize an anti-racist agenda by creating policies in favor of and beneficial to

eliminating racism and other oppressions. (e.g. making anti-racism an active and prioritized

component of the National Convention)

3. Alter the focus of the NLG by learning how to be accountable to the communities that it seeks to support

and protect.

Membership

Membership is open to all members of the NLG community who self-identify as people of color. There will

be no arbitrary exclusion from membership on the basis of sexuality, religion, gender, gender presentation or

identity, sexual orientation, disability or age. All other members of the NLG are invited to work with and

support TUPOCC as allies in the pursuit of true justice.

READING LIST FOR TUPOCC DISCUSSION GROUP AT 2011 NATIONAL LAWYERS GUILD CONVENTION IN PHILADELPHIA, PA.

2011-10-08T15:11:00.000-07:00

READING LIST FOR TUPOCC DISCUSSION GROUP AT 2011 NATIONAL LAWYERS GUILD CONVENTION IN PHILADELPHIA, PA.

TUPOCC Alabama Manifesto

Marc-Tizoc Gonzalez, “Critical Concepts of Race Privilege”

Andrea Smith, “Heteropatriarchy and the Three Pillars of White Supremacy: Rethinking Women of Color Organizing” in Color of Violence: The Incite! Anthology (Incite! Women of Color Against Violence eds., South End Press 2006)

Julie A. Su and Eric K. Yamamoto, “Critical Coalitions: Theory and Praxis” in Crossroads, Directions and a New Critical Race Theory (Francisco Valdes, Jerome McCristal Culp, and Angela P. Harris eds., Temple University Press 2002)

Francisco Valdes, “Outsider Scholars, Critical Race Theory, and 'Outcrit' Perspectivity: Postsubordination Vision as Jurisprudential Method” in Crossroads, Directions and a New Critical Race Theory (Francisco Valdes, Jerome McCristal Culp, and Angela P. Harris eds., Temple University Press 2002) [redacted]

Mari Matsuda, “Chapter 7: Standing Beside My Sister, Facing the Enemy” from Where is Your Body (Beacon Press, 1996)

FURTHER READING BY THEME

We thought we'd make available to you this list of the other articles we considered for discussion; and for your convenience, we grouped them by theme. It by no means represents a definitive reading list on the themes listed.

Racial Formation/Theories of Race

Michael Omi and Howard Winant, Racial Formation in the U.S. (1986)

Ian Haney López, White by Law: The Legal Construction of Race (NYU Press 1996)

Ian Haney Lopez, "The Social Construction of Race" 29 Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review 1 (1994)

Cheryl Harris, “Whiteness as Property,” 106 Harv. L. Rev. 1709 (1993)

Devon W. Carbado and Mitu Gulati, “The Fifth Black Woman”, 11 J. Contemp. Legal Issues 701 (2001)

Devon W. Carbado and Mitu Gulati, “Working Identity”, 85 Cornell L. Rev. 1259 (2000)

Intersectionality, Multidimensional Analysis, Coalitions

Lisa Kahaleole Hall, "Compromising Positions" in Beyond a Dream Deferred: Multicultural Education and the Politics of Excellence (Becky W Thompson and Sangeeta Tyagi eds., 1993)

Herb Green, "Turning the Myths of Black Masculinity Inside/Out" in Names We Call Home: Autobiography on Racial Identity (Becky Thompson and Sangeeta Tyagi eds., 1996)

Kimberle Crenshaw, "Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex: A Black Feminist Critique of Antidiscrimination Doctrine, Feminist Theory and Antiracist Politics" 1989 U. Chi. Legal F. 139 (1989)

Adrien Wing, "Brief Reflections towards a Multiplicative Theory and Praxis of Being, in Critical Race Feminism: A Reader 27 (Adrien Wing ed., NYU Press, 1997)

Francisco Valdes, Queers, Sissies, Dykes and Tomboys: Deconstructing the Conflation of "Sex," "Gender" and "Sexual Orientation" in Euro-American Law and Society, 83 Cal. L. Rev. 1 (1995)

Francisco Valdes, "Legal Reform and Social Justice: An Introduction to LatCrit Theory, Praxis and Community" (2003), available at http://www.latcrit.org/latcrit/publications/monographs/lcfvenglish.pdf

Role of Lawyers, Legal Activists, and Academics

Sumi Cho & Robert Westley, “Historicizing Critical Race Theory’s Cutting Edge: Key Movements that Performed the Theory”, in Crossroads, Directions and a New Critical Race Theory 32 (Francisco Valdes, et al. eds., 2002)

Kimberlé Crenshaw, Neil Gotanda, Gary Peller & Kendall Thomas, Critical Race Theory: The Key Writings that Formed the Movement (New Press 1996)

Mari Matsuda, "Looking to the Bottom: Critical Legal Studies and Reparations" 22 Harv. C.R.-C.L. L. Rev. 323 (1987)

Richard Delgado, "The Imperial Scholar: Reflections on a Review of Civil Rights Literature" 132 U. Pa. L. Rev. 561 (1984)

Derrick A. Bell, Jr., "Serving Two Masters: Integration Ideals and Client Interests in School Desegregation Litigation" 85 Yale L. J. 470 (1976)

TUPOCC Stipend Awardees

2011-10-08T15:09:00.000-07:00

Dear friends:

We're writing to all of you - awardees of the TUPOCC travel stipend for 2011 - to send our warm greetings, and to begin a conversation that we hope to continue with you next week at the NLG Law for the People Convention in Philadelphia.

First, thank you for reaching out to participate in this convention and to share with us your commitment to organizing and eradicating oppression. You represent a group of diverse legal activists of color - law students, legal workers, and recent graduates - from different parts of the country and the world, engaged in organizing and solidarity work in immigration, education rights, self-determination and indigenous rights, human rights, criminal defense, international law, juvenile justice, civil rights, racial justice, LGBTQIA rights, environmental justice, prisoner rights, labor and employment - the list goes on. We are very excited to meet with you at the convention and to give all of you an opportunity to connect with each other and with TUPOCCers who are involved in the same kind of work that you are. Before then, please don't hesitate to reach out to us if you have any questions about the Convention, TUPOCC, or the Guild.

Building a Stronger, More Accountable Movement

As you know, part of the travel stipend process this year involves engaging in thought and discussion prior to the Convention about anti-oppression principles to which TUPOCC, as a caucus of legal activists of color in the National Lawyers Guild, is committed. TUPOCC formed as a caucus within the NLG in 2005 at the annual convention in Birmingham, Alabama. At the time, legal activists of color came together out of a pressing need to address racial justice and anti-oppression within the NLG. In other words, the NLG, like other organizations in the Left, must work actively to ensure that the anti-oppression principles we fight for in the courts or on the streets are reflected within the movement and within our organization

The TUPOCC travel stipend is part of changing the fabric of the Guild. Encouraging TUPOCCers to run for positions of leadership is another part of that process. Ensuring that anti-subordination principles are internalized at the national leadership level, during our convention, and in the work that Guilders do is another important part of that movement.

Another very important part of TUPOCC's work involves creating a space for legal activists of color to come together. On Saturday, October 15, from 9 to 12, TUPOCC will be convening our annual TUPOCC session for legal activists of color. During that time, we gather to organize as legal activists of color to connect and heal with each other, build skills that we can use in movement and organizing work, and create a sense of unity amongst each other, so that we can rely on each other, as a network, as we move forward in this work together.

This year, our session is entitled "Critical Race Theory and Community-Based Activism: Building a Stronger, More Accountable Movement." The goal of the session is to help all of us take a closer look at the ways in which we can strengthen our activism through an anti-oppression analysis and practice.

Max Rameau - Take Back the Land
We are very honored to have Max Rameau join us as a presenter and comrade for the TUPOCC session on Saturday morning! Max is a Pan-African theorist and organizer. In the summer of 2006, in response to the severe housing and gentrification crisis impacting low income communities, Max helped form what would become Take Back the Land (http://takebacktheland.org). The organization took over a vacant lot in the Liberty City section of Miami and built a full urban shantytown, housing 150 otherwise homeless people in all, until a suspicious fire burned the settlement to the ground. Afterwards, Take Back the Land shifted attention to vacant government owned and foreclosed homes, "liberating" them and moving families in, without permission from the government.

In 2008, Max authored Take Back the Land: Land, Gentrification and the Umoja Village Shantytown, recounting the experiences and political theory behind the action. In 2009, organizations from across the country began expressing interest in Take Back the Land style actions and the organization went national.

Max will spend time with all of us at the TUPOCC session to discuss his experiences in organizing as an activist of color, with reflections upon the importance of the movement being led by impacted communities.

Critical Race Theory and Critical Coalitions

In addition to hearing and learning from Max, TUPOCCers will also facilitate, in the same session, a discussion of core principles of Critical Race Theory and related movements that have been developed by scholars of color to help identify, examine, and dismantle manifestations of racism and subordination in the legal profession and in the communities that we serve. The core principles, perspectives and tools that we are going to examine during our session include (1) identifying manifestations of white supremacy, (2) the importance of working in critical coalitions, and (3) organizing around intersectionality and multidimensional visions of justice.

These tools lie at the heart of what it means to organize for justice as a radical legal activist of color. They apply to the ways in which we read and dissect the "law" and interact in the legal "profession," the ways that we listen to and receive direction from those we represent, the ways that we identify and develop legal strategies to reflect the needs and leadership of the communities we serve, and the ways that we engage in the movement.

Reading Materials and Resources

In advance of the convention, we ask that you take the time to read the following attached materials. Each of these address, in some way, the principles we highlight above. Also attached is the Alabama Manifesto, TUPOCC's founding document drafted after the Birmingham convention when TUPOCC formed. You'll notice that TUPOCC was committed from its inception to organizing along principles we identify here. We also hope to send to you, in the next few days, some excerpts from Max's writings that also highlight these principles.

These materials are, by no means, an exhaustive list of resources- but they begin a discussion that we will expand upon at the convention. While reading these materials, please think about what they mean to you - jot down thoughts, ideas, or questions. Please feel free to respond to this list with thoughts or ideas about the readings, and to begin the discussion ahead of the convention with your comrades. As always, please feel free to contact us ahead of time with questions!

We will be in touch again as we lead up to the convention, with additional information about how you can connect with other Guilders and TUPOCCers engaged in movement work.

Until then, and in solidarity,

Ranya Ghuma and Malika Chatterji
TUPOCC Co-chairs

APR 30 MAY DAY PARTY (Fundraiser for TUPOCC)

2011-04-11T12:06:00.001-07:00

APR 30 MAY DAY PARTY (Fundraiser for TUPOCC)

Date & Time: Saturday April 30, 2011 doors open 6pm, program starts 7pm, party goes to midnight

Location: Space Lounge located at Saturn Café, 2175 Allston Way, Berkeley, California

Suggested donation: $15 (please donate more if you can afford to, NOTAFLOF)

Description:

TUPOCC will host a party and fundraiser in honor of May Day and in commemoration of what is known as International Workers Day. The event will feature musicians, performers, artists, and speakers on the theme of May Day, racial justice, immigration, and workers. There will be DJs, dancing, beer, and kombucha on tap. Raffles for great prizes from local businesses and organizations throughout the night.

About TUPOCC:
Proceeds from the event go to the United People of Color Caucus (TUPOCC). TUPOCC was founded in 2005 by a small group of diverse NLG law students of color. We are dedicated to fostering and supporting the growth and empowerment of all people of color, and particularly
legal activists of color inside and outside of the NLG. We believe that an injury to one is an injury to all, and to this end, believe all forms of oppression need to be dismantled before any of us can
reach true liberation. Since 2005, we’ve grown to hundreds of members.

The NLG was founded in 1937 as an association of progressive lawyers created as an organization working in the service of the people and committed to the concept that human rights are more sacred than property interests.

Solidarity with the UC San Diego Black Student Union and the March 4 Strike to Defend Public Education

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With social struggle erupting repeatedly in California, it seems vital for TUPOCC -- The United People of Color Caucus of the National Lawyers Guild -- to step up our organizing of people of color with "left, radical, progressive" (you name it) political principles and commitments to become lawyers and other legal workers who truly "serve the people."

What are the distinctive qualities, sensitivities, skills, etc. that people bring to lawyering when they come from a subjugated community -- whether it be a community shaped by race, gender, sexuality, ability, age, national origin, citizenship, religion or some other salient dimension of social power and identity?

How can our identities help us become the best, most impactful and empowering social justice advocates and community-based lawyers?

How can our identities, imagined and practiced in principled ways that strike against "every possibility of oppression" and cultivate love, joy and community for all our people, help us resist becoming incorporated into the larger system that apportions social justice in for-profit "civil rights" lawyering or the "non-profit industrial complex?"

These are the questions that TUPOCC has been posing for six years now, and 2010 is the time for us to get down in ever more serious ways -- primarily by getting to know ourselves and each other better, so we can share the trust necessary for any meaningful collaboration.

Local TUPOCC gatherings from now until late June, are a must. Our proud beautiful sisters and brothers in the UC San Diego Black Student Union, who have been resisting another outburst of old-style white supremacy, are showing us that we need to get down locally and regularly.

Similarly, all our relations across (and beyond) California, who have marched, rallied and protested vibrantly today against the ancien regime and its myriad vested interests, in order to call for solidarity across the many social differences that divide the people and to demand that the state prioritize our fundamental rights to dignified labor, education, healthcare, liberty and welfare, are calling us to organize ourselves more deeply and thoroughly than ever.

In June 2010, the US Social Forum will gather gente de corazón y conciencia (people of heart and awareness) across the United States of America. We will gather in Detroit -- Motown, Motor City baby -- in order to know each other better and build principled, powerful multi-dimensional social movements for justice.

TUPOCC must be there. What say you? Digame (talk to me).

How to vote for Teague as Exec. VP of NLG

2009-11-02T08:56:00.001-08:00

UPDATE

The National Office is in the process of sending post cards (not mail ballots) to current NLG members who did not vote at the Convention. The postcards contain instructions on how to vote online, or to request a mail ballot if preferred.

Many of us voted at the plenary in Seattle, but with the Executive Vice President election being contested, voting goes to all membership to be completed by mail-in ballot. Only current, dues-paying NLG members are eligible to vote. If you haven't received your ballot in the mail yet, you should receive it from the NLG National Office by November 17. If you believe you are a current, dues-paying member and have not received a ballot by mistake, please contact the National Office at nlgno@nlg.org.

It's hard to find an exact description of how this election-by-mail works, but here is the appropriate excerpt from the NLG By-laws:

Section 8.3 Mail or Electronic Ballot Voting Procedure
The following voting procedure * * *
(a) Mail or electronic ballots shall be mailed or electronically posted within 30 days of the last day of the National Convention to current dues paid members at their last address, electronic mail address (email) on record at the National Office (NO), or posted on a secure section of the NLG website created for voting purposes by the NO.
(b) Ballots cast must be returned to the NO by First Class U.S. Mail postmarked not later than the 21st day after the date the ballots were mailed to the membership or when
electronically posted to email or on the NLG website. The ballot shall prominently specify the date by which it must be postmarked returned or replied to the NO to be counted.
(c) The NO shall be responsible for vetting ballots to ensure they were cast by current dues paid members only.

¡En La Lucha! Endorsement of Teague Briscoe for NLG Executive Vice President

2009-11-02T06:39:00.001-08:00

Greetings comrades:

¡TUPOCC is endorsing the candidacy of Teague Briscoe and calling on all allies to do the same!

TUPOCC endorses Teague Briscoe for the following reasons:

Teague has the experience, passion and intelligence to lead the Guild in the second decade of the 21st century. President of the SF-Bay Area NLG Chapter, the largest staffed NLG chapter, for the past year, Teague has proven her dedication, strength of character, and ability to lead. Teague has national experience, having already served two years on the NEC--and on its Executive Committee--as Student National VP (SNVP) from 2005-07. The year before her election as SNVP, she raised $8,000 as the Law Student Vice President of the NLG-SF. As NLG-SF president, she helped raised $20,000 in foundation grants for her chapter's strategic planning process.

Appealing broadly to a diverse array of constituencies, Teague has the charisma, coalition-building skills and know-how to make the NEC, and its EC, become the cooperative efficient collective that we need at our highest leadership in the Guild. She has the vision to grow new membership in innovative and principled coalitions that will realize the relevancy of the NLG in the 21st century, helping us chart its way to truly become the legal servant of a massive people's movement working towards the eradication of injustice and the liberation of us all.

In deciding on candidates, you may hear discussion about "experience" and "ability." Teague brings both to the table. She has spent two years as part of a strategic planning committee: first raising funds and then selecting a consultant. With that consultant, she has spent a year contemplating the relevancy of the NLG. Where are we? How have we gotten here? Where do we want to go? Teague believes we need to ask these questions at every level of the organization. The skills and lessons she has learned as president of the NLG-SF chapter can and need to be applied at the national level.

We urge you to also consider her creativity, passion and commitment to people's movements. She is active in the San Francisco Immigrant Rights Defense Committee, was part of coalition to stop cut to welfare in Alameda County, was one of the first members of the Oakland City ID Card Coalition which saw Oakland City Council pass legislation so that all its residents can carry identification, and sits on the San Francisco Homeless Rights Project with the ACLU, Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights, Bay Area Legal Aid, East Bay Community Law Center, and the Coalition on Homelessness.

Finally, we ask you to consider the principles to which this organization has committed itself as it moves towards supporting and developing young leaders of color in the NLG. Teague is part of a movement of young, radical legal activists of color coming from the community and serving the community. She is a dedicated member of TUPOCC. She believes in the power of a radical, legal activist organization standing in solidarity with sisters and brothers who oppose injustice, and that belief and love shines in everything that she does!

Teague's candidate statement is below. Please join us in supporting her candidacy!

In solidarity,

Karen Jo Koonan, past NLG President, Past Legal Worker VP*
Barbara Dudley, past NLG President*
Marjorie Cohn, past NLG President*
Russell Bloom, NEC member/NLG Executive Vice President*
Tory Gavito, NEC member/TUPOCC Co-Chair*
Marc-Tizoc Gonzales, NEC member/TUPOCC Co-Chair*
Renee Quintero Sanchez, NEC Member/Far West Regional Vice President, LA-Chapter Board Member, Founding TUPOCC Co-Chair*
Ranya Ghuma, NEC Member/ Mid-Atlantic Regional Vice President, Maryland NLG Chapter Co-Chair, Founding TUPOCC Co-Chair*
James M. Branum, NEC Member/ Texoma Regional Vice President, Military Law Task Force Co-Chair
Carl Williams, NEC Member/Northeast Regional Vice President*
Azadeh Shahshahani, NEC Member/Southeast Regional Vice President & International Committee Co-Chair*
Dan Spalding, NEC Member/National Vice President, Former Legal Worker Representative, Midnight Special Law Collective Member*
Michael Flynn, NEC member/Anti-Racism Committee Co-Chair *
Garrett Wright, NEC member/Anti-Racism Committee Co-Chair*
Aliya Karmali, NEC member/Anti-Sexism Committee Co-Chair, NLG-SF Board member, Former Law Student Vice Present (NLGSF)*
Stephanie Morin-Taylor, NEC member/Anti-Sexism Committee Co-Chair, NLG-NY Board member*
Nikhil Shah, NLG-LA Board member*
Steve Bingham, NLGSF Board member*
Brenna Bell, Former NextGen Co-Chair*
Ashlee Albies, Former NextGen Co-Chair*
David Waggoner, NLG-SF Vice-President member, Former NEC member/National Queer Committee Co-Chair , Former co-Student NVP*
Anne Befu, Former NEC member/National Queer Committee Co-Chair, Former TUPOCC Co-Chair, Former NLG-SF Chapter Board Member*
Matt Nelson, Former NEC member/Past TUPOCC Co-Chair, incoming NLG-SF board member*
Zafar Shah, Former NEC member/Past TUPOCC Co-Chair*
Sara Sturtevant, Former NEC member/Past National Queer Committee Co-Chair*
Robert Bloom, NLG-SF chapter member*
Maunica Sthanki, Former NEC member/Past Student National Vice President, Founding TUPOCC member*
Kerry Mclean, Former NEC member/Past Anti-Sexism Committee Co-Chair, Africa SubCommittee Founder and Chair, NLG-NY Board member*
Christina Alicia Varner, past NLG-SF board member*
Christine Stouffer, NLG-SF Immigration Committee Co-Chair, past NLG-SF board member*
Katy Schuman Clemens, Former NEC member/Past Queer Caucus Co-Chair*
Laura Raymond, Past NLG National Student Organizer*

*For identification purposes only.

Teague Briscoe, Candidate for Exec. VP of National Lawyers Guild

2009-10-31T09:52:00.001-07:00

Teague Briscoe, Bay-area Chicana Activist/Lawyer and former NLG Student VP, is running for Executive Vice President of the NLG. Below is Teague's candidate statement.

"At the risk of seeming ridiculous, let me say that the true revolutionary is guided by a great feeling of love. . . . We must strive every day so that this love of living humanity will be transformed into actual deeds, into acts that serve as examples, as a moving force." – Che Guevara
Sisters and Brothers:
I humbly submit my name as a candidate for the position of Executive Vice President of the National Lawyers Guild. I do so out of a space of great love – love for the struggle, love for those who oppose injustice, and love for the NLG’s history. I believe in the importance of a national organization of legal advocates embodying that struggle by challenging and inspiring ourselves to be better advocates and activists. My commitment to you is to honor the past, present and future of the NLG by approaching the EVP position with perspectives informed by my experiences as an activist and with an eye towards promoting solidarity amongst our members, so that we may advance in our mission to work tirelessly as the legal arm of the movement.
I currently serve as President of the NLG’s San Francisco Bay Area chapter, the country’s largest staffed chapter. I was instrumental in securing $20,000 in foundation grants for strategic planning. Our chapter has embarked on a process that brings members across generation, class, and race together.
As President, I work closely with executive director, Carlos Villarreal, to advance our deficit reduction plan. Like the national office, the NLGSF chapter is experiencing the effects of a depression economy. At Finance, CLE, Strategic Planning, membership, and Board meetings, Carlos and I abide by the principles of effective meetings. In doing so, we foster a board culture that is productive and non-hostile. I look forward to bringing these skills to the NEC.
During my presidency, I worked diligently at assembling a diverse board. Prior to serving as President, I was Vice-President of the chapter from 2007-2008 and Secretary from 2006-2007. My NLGSF EC experience has taught what an EC can accomplish as a strong unit, embodying the diversity of communities that are resented in our organization. I also bring to the table experience representing the interests of NLG students at the national level. From 2005-2007, I served on the NEC EC as National Law Student Vice President. In 2004-2005, I was Law Student President for NLGSF. That year, I won Board approval to raise $8,000 to send students to the convention.
If elected, I will continue to increase and broaden our membership and ally our organization with other folks pushing for radical, progressive change in the law. I will promote and foster communication and solidarity on the EC. I will assist in efforts to raise money for, and awareness of, the NLG. And I will always remain mindful of why we are here: to act, and struggle, with love, in the service of the people and towards the elimination of all oppression.

Back from Seattle

2009-10-22T07:01:00.000-07:00

It was uplifting to meet up with so many legal activists of color as the NLG Law for the People Convention went down last weekend. Among others folks, I ran into Loyola New Orleans law student Adrienne Wheeler, who researched race and social movements while doing her masters degree. Adrienne dug up this short bibliography on the topic. "There are a number of sociological studies on race and social movements," she says. "There are compelling arguments that [people of color] put energy into local activism and that white folks put energy into 'saving the world.'"

Here's a mid-decade list:

Brown-Nagin, Tomiko. 2005. “Social Movements, and the Law: The Case of Affirmative Action.” Columbia Law Review, 105(5), 1436-1528.

Cable, Shery and Tamara L. Mix. 2003. “Economic Imperatives and Race Relations.” Journal of Black Studies, 34(2), 183-203.

Chong, Dennis and Reuel Rogers. 2005. “Racial Solidarity and Political Participation.” Political Behavior, 27(4), 347-374.

James, David R. 1988. “The Transformation of the Southern Racial State: Class and Race Determinants of Local-State Structures.” American Sociological Review, 53(2), 191-208.

Jenkins, J. Craig, and Michael Wallace. 1996. “The Generalized Action Potential of Protest Movements: The New Class, Social Trends, and Political Exclusion Explanations.” Sociological Forum, 11(2), 183-207.

McVeigh, Rory and Christian Smith. 1999. “Who Protests in America: An Analysis of Three Political Alternatives—Inaction, Institutionalized Politics, or Protest.” Sociological Forum, 14(4) 685-702.

Polletta, Francesca and James M. Jasper. 2001. “Collective Identity and Social Movements.” Annual Review of Sociology, 27, 283-305.

Tsutsui, Kiyoteru. 2004. “Global Civil Society and Ethnic Social Movements in the Contemporary World.” Sociological Forum, 19(1), 63-87.

Winant, Howard. 2000. “Race and Race Theory.” Annual Review of Sociology, 26, 169-185.

Seattle's DJ Daps1 will be breaking it down at our Breakin' Bread party 10/16

2009-10-13T15:45:00.000-07:00

Big update on the TUPOCC Breakin' Bread event, scheduled for this Friday, Oct. 16, starting at 8pm. With the help of Prison Law Project's Ian Head and the generous support of the Hidmo restaurant, we will have DJ Daps1 on hand to make sure the night is fabulous.

To cover the cost, we will ask that everyone in attendance donate $5.

TUPOCC administrative matters will be squeezed into 8-9 PM. After 9, friends and allies are more than welcome to party down.

More info on the location and the event below.

You can check out Daps1's summer mix here.

TUPOCC Breakin' Bread, Friday 10/16 8pm

2009-10-12T17:08:00.001-07:00

Each year at the NLG Convention, TUPOCC holds an "administrative meeting" where we vote for a new co-chair and discuss "administrative" matters pertinent to the committee. This year, we are doing things a little differently.

It's the five-year anniversary of the United People of Color Caucus. This Friday, as the NLG Convention really hits its stride, we are coming together not just to vote for a new leader to join the inestimable now-senior co-chair Tory Gavito, but also to really break bread together -- to have a great time in solidarity and companionship. We'll talk about what we really want to do five years after the birth of this project. Where is our mission going, how far has our vision come.

There will be cheap drinks and great food, as well as a local Seattle hiphop deejay (TBA!) on the decks. The locale is Hidmo restaurant on 2000 S. Jackson Street, accessible by bus (15 minutes) or cab (4 minutes). See map below.

View Larger Map

Also, updated TUPOCC Seattle Highlights schedule (download PDF from Google)

Where will the color be in Seattle?

2009-10-07T08:11:00.001-07:00

As TUPOCC gets set to convene at the National Lawyers Guild convention in Seattle, we also mark our committee's fifth anniversary and the tenth anniversary of the "N30" WTO demonstrations in Seattle. We have the most opportune moment to re-examine questions that many of us, both whites and POCs on the left, were asking about anti-capitalism movements at the beginning of this decade.

Four months after N30, the anti-capitalism movement reconvened in Washington, D.C., on April 16, 2000. ColorLines magazine asked, "Where was the color at A16?"

While Seattle is a relatively white location, D.C. promised a far better opportunity to mobilize people of color: its majority African American population has a long history of international action and other large East Coast populations of color are nearby.... Indeed, a significant number of people of color participated in the D.C. actions, as they had in Seattle. Still, A16 was probably proportionately even whiter....

Writing for the Village Voice, Andrew Hsiao captured the erupting class/race tension after N30 and A16, as the Republican National Convention loomed.

While the demonstrations electrified activists across the country, the fact that the ranks of protesters were overwhelmingly white has itself sparked protest. As radical black scholar robin d.G. Kelley, puts it, 'the lack of people of color involved in these demonstrations is a crisis.' *** [S]ome have groused that activists of color are missing the global point, or that their complaints are based in an identity politics that has been transcended by the all-inclusive politics of economics. Framing the issue this way, however, misses what's distinctive about new activism in communities of color.

I marvel at how that framing -- race politics doesn't get it -- continues to thrive. We saw it last fall, at the Detroit convention, when NLG members formed an ad-hoc "Marxism and the Law" committee. Following a pattern identified in Hsiao's July 2000 article, the predominantly white organizers of the "Marxism" committee never reached out TUPOCC -- or the Anti-Racism Committee, Anti-Sexism Committee, or Queer Caucus, for that matter. Why would they bother reaching out to the "identity politics" contingent?

For TUPOCC, coming into this convention, we can intuit that unless POCs raise the problematic issue of whiteness in anti-capitalism movements, it is doubtful our white "Marxist" allies will examine it. My doubts are not entirely borne of cynicism. "Where was the color" was a question never fully answered with respect to Seattle and the demos that came afterward. Bush v. Gore happened. September 11, 2001 happened. The invasions of non-white nations happened. Out of necessity, we shifted the object of the "where was the color" examination from anti-capitalist activism to anti-war activism. With the election of an African American president, neo-liberal corporate welfare and war continue to escalate. One cannot but assume that these trends add a certain myopic substance to the argument that "race politics doesn't get it."

If anything, this year's national convention should demonstrate that "race politics" does get it. TUPOCCers and other activists of color already know that race consciousness and class analysis have never been distinct politics. We also know that institutions that espouse anti-capitalism and other class analyses operate within immutable structural racism that only handcuffs their capacity to address economic justice issues. Often we only hope that our allies "get" these realities. At some of the events at the Seattle Convention, we will have the opportunity to speak to these realities concretely.

The TUPOCC/ARC training Racial Justice and Equity will set the stage for a true reckoning between anti-racism and color-blind marxism as we establish an institutional assessment of racism in the NLG and work toward new visions for the NLG's anti-racist work.
The major panel Police Occupation of Communities of Color also presents an opportunity to speak to the value of race conscious political organizing.
The "hot topic" event Post-election Crisis in Iran: What Role for the U.S. Left? will likely explore the tension that arose this summer when anti-imperialist critics took issue with Iranian Americans' support for the reformist movement.

TUPOCC at the Seattle Convention: highlight schedule

2009-10-04T08:26:00.000-07:00

Before you get to Seattle for the Law for the People Convention, be sure to download this PDF flier of TUPOCC's convention highlights.

TUPOCC Seattle Highlights (download PDF from Google or print from Scribd below)

You can download the full NLG Convention schedule and annotated schedule here

Announcing the People of Color Travel Stipend for the Seattle Convention

2009-08-26T12:24:00.000-07:00

The annual NLG Law for the People Convention is coming up in October. The Seattle Chapter welcomes Guilders back to the sites of the 1999 WTO protests -- and now, as then, it's important for people of color to be there in numbers that truly represent our collective role in social movements. For that reason, the NLG and TUPOCC are happy to begin the application process for the 2009 POC Travel Stipend for the Seattle convention.

You can find the online application at http://bit.ly/travelstipend09 -- please share the link with anyone who might be interested. Every year we meet folks who had no idea there was a stipend available to help them attend the convention. Let's get the word out!

The stipend covers transportation costs only and is open to legal workers of color, law students of color and recent law grads of color. Is that unfair to white people who need funding, too? The NLG has recognized that it is problematic that, historically, so few people of color participate in the convention. The stipend is one way of changing that problem and plays a significant role in the NLG's commitment to ending institutionalized racism in this organization.

Some self-mockery for "Independence Day"

2009-07-01T13:27:00.001-07:00

At the moment, POC friends and TUPOCC allies are passing along this zinger from someecards.

"Independence day reminds me how fortunate we are to live in a country that eschews violent street protests in favor of snarky blog commentary."

For many folks who have family abroad, for folks whose memory of a life outside the US is hardly faded, the "snarky blog commentary" (and snarky e-cards) probably don't elicit too many laughs. At the end of the day, most of our engagement with episodes of upheaval lies in confrontational debate and raising of correct positions. The past week of exchanges about the legitimacy of popular movement in Iran and Honduras have demonstrated one thing quite clearly: others of us have a far more personal stake.

Often perceived as unamerican and even disloyal, those of us with "rooting interets" may find July 4th evocative of a question long unanswered. Why, for so many nations, does independence and self-determination hinge on how Americans are feeling at any given time?

The US ties to the military coup in Honduras

2009-06-30T08:26:00.001-07:00

Start with the fact that each central american nation has repudiated the overthrow of the elected Zelaya. The Organization of American States has condemned the coup as an unacceptable return to form for the region. Then, appreciate the fact that Romeo Vasquez, the military ringleader of the coup, is formerly a student of the US government's School of the Americas. What is the degree of American interest in the fall of Zelaya's left-friendly regime?

Elizabeth DiNovella at The Progressive writes:

Let's hope that when the story behind the coup emerges, taxpayer dollars, through groups such as USAID, are not found to be supporting the coup plotters, like it did in Venezuela. President Obama has said he was "deeply concerned" and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Zelaya's arrest should be condemned. At least Obama did not endorse this ill-fated coup, unlike the Bush Administration's immediate diplomatic recognition of coup plotters in Venezuela in 2002. But Obama could do more.

And sources from Institute of Public Accuracy:

GREG GRANDIN, professor of history at New York University:

"Obama needs to align his position with the rest of the American republics, and not just express 'concern' about events in Honduras, but repudiate the coup and its plotters, and demand the restoration of Manuel Zelaya to the presidency."

JUAN ALMENDARES, president of the Honduran Peace Committee: "What we are looking [at] now is, we are going back to [a] repressive situation. Some of the advisers of the [new] government have been perpetrators, torture perpetrators, of the 1980s. Some of these people think like Pinochet, and they are comparing Zelaya with Salvador Allende. And we have here in Honduras a different situation. We have a government who were doing not a referendum; they were doing just a survey, a simple survey, to ask people whether they want to have a constitutional reform. But we have an alliance between the very powerful class in this country [and] the military."

Report back from NYC solidarity rally

2009-06-25T07:21:00.000-07:00

Yesterday at Union Square in New York, people rallied in solidarity with the demonstrators in Iran. Here's a report back by TUPOCC member Adrienne Wheeler:

There were a couple hundred people and a sea of green in Union Square. The general tenor was a call to stop the killing (in Farsi and in English). There was also a common childhood song from Iran about kids sticking together when the teacher is beating one with the alphabet stick. (My friend translated; I dont speak Farsi.)

Some signs were about the elections. Many held signs that read "I am Neda" or some variation. Neda also means voice in Farsi.

Framing the protests in Iran

2009-06-24T12:04:00.001-07:00

While the MSM spin machine churns a dazzling array of images and angles regarding the protests in Iran, the Institute for Public Accuracy released these contextual insights from Reese Erlich and Eileen Clancy.

REESE ERLICH, author of "The Iran Agenda: The Real Story of U.S. Policy and the Middle East Crisis":

This isn't a 'Twitter Revolution.' That description trivializes the broad mass movement that has swept Iran. It is not just the affluent of northern Tehran who are protesting. It's poorer people from southern Tehran -- who organize by plain old phone calls and word of mouth.

The movement has gone beyond protesting election fraud and now challenges the system. Some protesters want a more moderate Islamic government, others want a return to a parliamentary system that existed in the early 1950s under Prime Minister Mohammed Mossadegh. Mossadegh headed the last democratic government in Iran, which included freedom for political parties to organize, free press and freedom of religion. It was overthrown in a CIA coup in 1953. That's why the government is cracking down so hard; it is threatened to its core.

There's a big controversy in the U.S. about President Obama's statements on Iran. But they are largely irrelevant to the people of Iran. Given the long history of U.S. meddling in Iran, it's best that the U.S. not further intervene and [instead] let the people of Iran deal with their own government. The U.S. has a long history of sanctions [and] supporting terrorist attacks against Iran that bolster the rightwingers in Iran. The U.S. cannot and should not try to intervene in Iran's upheaval; anything the U.S. does would be counterproductive. It's much more important that Iranians receive people-to-people support in the form of rallies, marches, etc. from American grassroots groups.

EILEEN CLANCY, founder of I-Witness Video:

Protesters in Iran are managing to get some video out to the broader world that challenges the official Iranian government narrative. We've seen similar efforts to expose government repression using cell phone video and the Internet in several countries including Egypt, Turkey and Burma.

While it's fashionable right now for U.S. politicians to stick up for the peaceful protesters and citizen journalists in the streets of Iran, those sentiments ring hollow. In the U.S., protest events are typically deemed marginal events by the news media, even when extraordinary things happen there. In 2004, 1,800 people were arrested at the Republican National Convention in New York City; 90 percent had charges dismissed; the city's legal bill to date is $8.2 million and hundreds of lawsuits are pending.

In 2008, the Republican Convention was the most repressive I've ever seen in the U.S.; police were using concussion grenades. I-Witness Video members were followed by undercover police and we were raided twice, once with guns drawn. It was clear that there was an effort to disrupt people who could get video to the broader world. Local reporters were swept up and charges were later dropped. We were actually told by the police that they were tracking us in real-time using geo-location data from our cell phones. Twitter was key for us doing our work.

What the U.S. should learn from the high cost of protest in Iran

2009-06-24T06:42:00.001-07:00

Azadeh Shahshahani is a member of TUPOCC and the chair of the NLG South regional chapter. Today she published this guest column on the struggle for religious freedom among Muslims in the U.S.

Religious freedom unkept vow in U.S.
By Azadeh Shahshahani
Wednesday, June 24, 2009

I have been watching with interest and apprehension the movement reverberating in my birthplace over the past few weeks. The cries of "Azadi" by the people who have poured out in the tens of thousands into the streets of Iran to demand greater freedom have defied the distance between us.
I was born in Iran four days after the 1979 revolution. My name, Azadeh, means free-spirited, signifying the great hopes that my parents and the many other parents who named their daughters Azadeh that year bore for the revolution.
Their hopes were soon dashed, however, as the oppressive regime of the shah was replaced by a theocracy where rules governed every aspect of people's lives in public, and even private, spaces.
In this system, advancement in professional and especially official ranks depends in part on the extent to which one chooses to profess religiosity, as dictated by the regime.
With this background, one of the freedoms that was most appealing to me when I came to the United States at age 16 was the right, free from governmental interference, to practice religion — or no religion at all.
I learned that this right is among the most fundamental of the freedoms guaranteed by the Bill of Rights. In my trips back to visit family and friends, I often boasted about the guarantee of religious freedom in the United States.
This fundamental right has been increasingly denied, however, to Muslim-Americans in the years after Sept. 11, tarnishing America's reputation as a beacon of religious freedom.
Last week, the ACLU released a report demonstrating how American Muslims' right to practice zakat, or charitable giving, has been violated.
Zakat is a religious obligation for all observant Muslims and is one of the five pillars of Islam. Given annually and in a calculated amount, zakat is a proportionately fixed contribution collected from surplus earnings of Muslims.
The ACLU report shows that U.S. terrorism finance laws and policies have had a chilling effect on Muslim charitable giving by creating an atmosphere of fear.
These laws have authorized executive branch officials to target charities based on secret evidence — without notice, charges, an opportunity to respond or meaningful judicial review.
Closer to home, I recently joined Lisa Valentine and her husband before the Georgia Committee on Access and Fairness in the Courts.
Valentine testified about the experience she faced at a Douglasville courthouse, where she was made to choose between her right to free exercise of religion and her right to access the court.
Valentine, also known by her Islamic name, Miedah, spoke about the experience of being denied access to the courthouse on Dec. 16 because she wore a head scarf, or hijab.
She found herself in handcuffs and in jail with her hijab removed after Douglasville Municipal Court Judge Keith Rollins sentenced her to 10 days in jail for contempt.
Valentine and other Muslim women were denied access to the Douglasville Municipal Court, even after they expressly conveyed to court officials that the wearing of the head scarf is an expression of their faith.
Muslim-Americans, like all people in the United States, should have the right to express their religious beliefs free from discrimination.
As eloquently stated by President Barack Obama in his Cairo speech last month, "freedom in America is indivisible from the freedom to practice one's religion."
The president acknowledged the right of Muslim women and girls to wear the hijab and recognized the adverse effect of terrorism finance laws on Muslim charitable giving.
The administration and governments on the state and local levels need to follow up on this premise by ensuring that our laws, policies and practices are in fact consistent with American values of due process and religious freedom.
These freedoms are too important to be violated, as evidenced by the willingness of people in my birthplace to risk their lives to secure them.
Azadeh Shahshahani is the National Security/Immigrants' Rights Project director for the ACLU of Georgia.

The gift of an "empty box" -- Senate passes hollow apology for slavery and segregation (S.Con.Res.26)

2009-06-18T17:34:00.000-07:00

Press release from the office of U.S. Representative Bobby L. Rush (IL-01), on the meaning of the Senate's passage of S. Con. Res. 26, "A concurrent resolution apologizing for the enslavement and racial segregation of African Americans":

[T]hough today the U.S. Senate adopted a resolution offering a formal national apology for slavery and the era of “separate but equal” Jim Crow laws that followed, the legislation stops drastically short at helping to repair the “centuries of economic and social damage” to generations of African Americans.

Rush said because S.CON.RES. 26 does not include the force of law, the gesture may fall on deaf ears when so many African-Americans remain trapped in systemic poverty and suffer from acute health problems due to a lack of access of quality health care. “Blacks in this country have suffered centuries of economic and social exploitation and while this resolution is noted for the spirit in which it was drafted, it falls short in addressing the systemic issues impacting African American communities as a direct result of racial segregation and economic injustice due to racism.

“The resolution further adds insult to injury by including a disclaimer against reparations, “he said. “This can be likened to a child unwrapping Christmas present only to find an empty box.” The non-binding resolution, which does not have the force of law, includes a disclaimer stating that the measure does not authorize or support reparations for the descendants of African slaves brought to the United States before the Civil War.

Also, today, Congressman Rush released a letter to President Barack Obama days before the president will travel to Ghana in what will be his first trip to sub-Saharan Africa since being elected the nation’s highest officer. “I strongly encourage you to expand the commitment of the United States with Sub-Saharan Africa,” he wrote. “Our interest should far transcend the humanitarian concerns that have frequently underpinned U.S. engagement with the continent. Economic development, natural resource management, human security, capacity building and global stability as well as traditional humanitarian assistance are inextricably linked.”

Arizona legislators want unlawful presence to be a felony crime

2009-06-18T12:01:00.000-07:00

From an interview with Jennifer Allen, executive director of Border Action Network, on legislative developments in Arizona.

Arizona’s ‘False Leadership’ on Immigration Policy - New American Media

What would the Illegal Aliens Enforcement and Trespassing bill entail?

It has two components to it. The first part is that the bill would prohibit any city, country or town of the state of Arizona to adopt any kind of policy that would limit the enforcement of federal immigration laws to the full extent permitted by federal law.

In the legislature, they’ve been talking about this as trying to attack these so-called sanctuary cities in the state of Arizona, of which there are none. At all. We have a couple of police departments around the state, Tucson, Phoenix, Chandler, that have police policies that provide protections to victims and witnesses of crimes, that if they are undocumented, immigration will not be called.

The other piece of the bill – I think it would be the first one in the country – would say that anyone who is on public or private land in the state of Arizona could be charged with a felony, with criminal trespass, if they cannot prove that they are in the country legally.

Essentially it would become this statewide racial profiling law, where law enforcement sees somebody who, completely based on their appearance, they think may not be in the country legally, they can go up and ask them to prove their lawful presence in the country. And if they can’t prove it, the state can then charge them with criminal trespass.

What are the arguments behind this bill?

There are two really disturbing and shameful statements. One is that Russell Pearce thinks that the Border Patrol is simply too effective. They pick people up, and then they’re so promptly deported that they never serve any time in the state of Arizona. So he wants people to be picked up and sent off to Joe Arpaio’s tent cities or other county or city jails, and then handed over to immigration. And last year, the Phoenix Police Officers’ Association had said that they liked this bill because it would give them “preventative police powers.”

SB 1175, as grossly unconstitutional as it seems -– I mean it kind of destroys the notion of probable cause for stopping and questioning people -- this bill is moving quickly through the legislature. It was heard in Committee on the 10th, and by the 15th it passed the entire Senate and was passed over to the House.

United States to South Africa: white supremacy lingers

2009-06-17T18:05:00.001-07:00

Lingering White Supremacy In South Africa Sounds Much Like United States
by Robert Jensen

I learned that even with all the differences in the two countries there are equally important similarities, and as a result the sense of entitlement that so many white people hold onto produces similar dodges and denials.

Those similarities: South Africa and the United States were the two longstanding settler states that maintained legal apartheid long after the post-World War II decolonization process. The crucial term is “settler state,” marking a process by which an invading population exterminates or displaces and exploits the indigenous population to acquire its land and resources, with formal slavery playing a key role at some point in the country’s history. Both strategies were justified with overtly racist doctrines about white supremacy, and both required the white population to discard basic moral and religious principles, leading to a pathological psychology of superiority. Both of those settler strategies have left us with racialized disparities in wealth and well-being long after the formal apartheid is over.

The main difference: The United States struggles with its problem with a white majority, while South Africa has a black majority. But what I found fascinating his how little difference that made in terms of the psychological pathology of so many white people. So, as is typically the case, my trip to South Africa taught me not only about racism in South Africa but also in the United States, which reminded me that perhaps we travel to observe others so that we can learn about ourselves.

First plans for NLG Convention in Seattle

2009-06-15T12:59:00.001-07:00

The annual National Lawyers Guild Law for the People Convention will be held in Seattle October 14-18, 2009. We just received a tentative schedule, including two workshops co-sponsored by TUPOCC. We are working with our comrades to present Deportation Defense: Representing Immigrant Detainees in Bond Hearings (co-sponsored by TUPOCC, NLG San Francisco Immigration Committee, and National Immigration Project of the NLG) and Women and Migration (co-sponsored by TUPOCC and the Anti-Sexism Committee).

Here are some highlights of the tentative schedule:

FRI October 16
8:30-9:45AM Workshops I
Comprehensive Immigration Reform

Out of Africa
Counter Recruitment Strategies

1:30-2:45PM Workshops II
Representing Immigrant Detainees in Bond Hearings

SAT October 17
1:00-2:15PM Workshops III
Immigrants and the Military
Transgendered and Incarcerated

2:30-4:00PM Major Panels

Mass Defense: Police Occupation of Communities of Color

SUN October 18
10:45AM-12:00PM Workshops IV
Responding to Immigration Law Enforcement Abuse

Gaza
Women and Migration
Enhancing Right of Workers to Organize

New online political platform for latina/o unity

2009-04-28T06:19:00.000-07:00

Presente.org just launched. It's still hard to tell who is behind it -- there are no affiliations or contacts listed in the "about" section of the new site.

We seek to bring together Latinos of all backgrounds, generations, and regions, with allies from all races. We are from the East, the West, and everywhere in between; we are residents, recent immigrants, and US Citizens. While we are diverse and won't always agree on every issue, we do have a common goals and vision: to build our communities, provide for our families, and enrich the country where we live-all without being denied the basic rights afforded to others. Protecting and promoting those goals are the focus of Presente.

We also recognize that there are numerous organizations doing important work to strengthen Latino communities and advocate for our interests. Our aim is to magnify their efforts, not replace them. We'll build a sustained, national movement that changes the public conversation, holds leaders accountable, and impacts policy, helping community and national organizations be more effective in their efforts.