History in the Making

Move over Steve Lopez…

Hector Tobar

It is not my intention to make this blog the Hector Tobar fanclub, but all I can say is that his recent string of witty and truthful editorials on the current state of race relations and their impact on the economy, community building, and more are better than anything Steve Lopez has written since Nathaniel Ayers.

Just today he commented on the city of Duarte’s solidarity function. For those that are not aware, the City of Duarte is nestled in the San Gabriel Valley and has experienced a string of hate crimes. Specifically, the home of a Black family was totally destroyed with graffitti and more. The racial epitaths sprayed on this home were merciless. To come together as a community and provide a unified stance against hate, residents met at a park. Read more about it here.

The week prior, Tobar wrote about a young Latino policy student at U of Chicago who is struggling to find employment in the public education sector, and for that matter any job at all. I can totally empathize with his struggle and was shocked to see how his life’s journey into public service was dwindled down into foolishness, criminality, and ignorance by LA Times commenters. Sometimes, the comments are the juice of the paper. Anways, you can read about the article here.

My posted comments read as follows:

53. I applaud Mr. Tobar for initiating a new vibrancy to the editorial page. Every week I am enlightened about the city I have called home and charged into action on these important policy issues. As a Chicana graduate student of color in public policy, I empathize with Plascencia. Unlike other commentators who choose to be xenophobes, I cannot ignore the issue of the mismatch between the educational needs of the economy and current lack of well-educated and highly-skilled workers. Talent must be nurtured and unfortunately this economy is not at a place to do so, and as a consequence future SSA benefits and pension plans are in jeopardy.

Submitted by: Sonja Diaz

2:58 PM PDT, July 7, 2009

Hector Tobar is spurring the second coming of race relations

Hector Tobar has written two articles dialoguing about the state of race relations in the U.S. The first article discussed the relationships between Blacks and Latinos. Taking a surprising tone that is often silenced, Tobar asserted that the Latino community has a lot to thank to the Black community in terms of the gains made in the area of civil rights. More bluntly, Latinos must recognized the shared history of oppression and learn to build solidarity. As  simple as it seems, this is a powerful thesis within both the LA Times and Latino community, but much needed to heal old wounds through dialogue.

Today, Tobar wrote a second article that centered on institutionalized oppression and immigration. Tobar discussed the way that racism has evolved and asserted that it is still present. This is in direct opposition to what many have been callin gthe post-race society. Finally, a mainstream newspaper is discussing race, albeit in the editorial section. In reading the comments, the first reader complains about the lack appreciation to the white community ‘who created the civil rights blacks rely on now.’ Now, going through college, some professors catered to this ideology, that the white hand is what made civil rights possible (from white abolitionists, to white organizers in the 1960’s). This line of thought asserts that people of color cannot achieve civil rights on their own merit, and the white hand is what reversed oppression into the idlyic world we live in now. Ha!

My response to Tobar’s article was:

Thank you Mr. Tobar for reaffirming issues of race, identity, and oppression within the LA Times space.

Unlike what the comments of other readers may insinuate, the organizing and activism for civil rights included massive multi-ethnic coalition building and years of endless struggles (not the help of a lone white hand). I appreciate Mr. Tobar’s assertion that these struggles of the past shed light on issues of today. Let’s remember that the key message of these past two articles is to assert that 1) racism is still omnipresent although it has evolved into different forms and 2) relationships are strained despite the lessons from past movements that illustrate distinct commonalities and subtle differences.

I hope that this dialogue continues, as it is beneficial for all readers to experience editorials on subjects of utmost importance to Angelinos and more broadly, the global community.

Villar

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa bowed out of the 2010 gubernatorial race today. Despite his asipirations for the position, Villaraigosa revealed that he will be staying in LA to address the city’s major issues (e.g. fiscal, political, social).

All I have to say, its lets go Newsom. Brown v. Newsom–> 2010.

Poll I

LAUSD

 

Los Angeles Students' Day of Action 5/15/09

Overcrowding.

 

Teacher Shortages.

Bureaucratic Inefficiency.

________________________________

Student power amidst pink slips and chaos. 

The battles rage forward as the financial crisis sneaks home and youth are taking to their communities to advocate for their right to a equitable and high quality education.

3x’s the charm? I hope not

 

Photo Courtesy of the LA Times

Didn’t we learn that these things don’t get any traction. Remember the millions of taxpayer’s money funneled into the special elections of 2005? The bills to require parental notification for abortion and a bunch of other nonsense…

 

Well again, I guess the Governor’s staffers didn’t get the memo. We are in a budget deficit of grand proportions, yet the public is targeted as the cause and the one’s who can fix most of it ‘with their vote.’ The Governor’s people wanted us to think that if we couldn’t vote with him then our teachers would suffer. Those thousands of pick slips would transgress into bright talent lined up at the unemployment office. 

The public received no transparency throughout this budget deficit, just to be ware and to be the ones to blame. President Obama came through in the clutch with $30 billion dollars. This is great, this is needed, but how long will this last with the incompetence that is leading our state in Sacramento? Our UC and CSU and community college systems are in dire straits, public education has been on a downward spiral ( I mean we are ranked right next to Mississippi), health care is out of reach and out of touch, and jobs are nowhere to be seen.

Now the Governor playing on our fears made voters feel responsible for this mess and that if we didn’t vote his way our social services would dry up like the Los Angeles River. Well it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to decipher the main policies that underline President Obama’s stimulus package: community health care centers, public education, green jobs, the list goes on. So Gubernator, who were you trying to save? Because it didn’t work and we are still paying. 

So can we get some consensus and say no more special elections from the Governor? Or is three the charm?

Bringing it back to the Community: Feminist Style

Just for kicks, thought I would share this photo with you from Judy Chu’s campaign site. Two powerful politicians and policy-makers collaborating on legislation. Growing up in an Asian and Latino multi-ethnic society, I can’t think of a better way to encapsulate the promise that these two distinct ethnic communities share than this photo of our leaders.

Judy Chu Takes It! The Runoff will be a Breeze…

Everyone I have spoken to about the 32rd Congressional District race knows I supported Chu from the get go. As someone who is extremely familiar with the district, and its myriad of ethnic intricacies, Chu was the best person for the job. Now I get to celebrate her victory and my bet with some micheladas!

One thing LA has yet to remember is that identity politics can only take you so far when the Latino male politicians throughout the past four decades have robbed our communities out of equitable policy, budget transparency, and public works projects that were inclusive and effective. I am not including Cedillo in this category, but I do want to drive the point home that representatives from ethnic communities do not always represent ethnic communities well. We can name names another time… but most of them start with ‘A’s.’

The 32nd CD is a Latino and Asian ethnic epicenter. Where the top Chinese and Vietnamese restaurants this side of the Western Hemisphere post up. Where high schools have nothing short of an Asian and Latino student body. This is the future of the country, and Chu is well positioned to follow the amazingness that Congresswoman Solis’ in providing much needed social services and structural policy changes than any of her counterparts in this race.  One more thing: it is far more important to have APAC on the Hill more equipped to represent Asian and Pacific Islander’s interests than to add another male into the divisive and ineffective Congressional Hispanc Caucus. Just saying… Let’s build people, and when building, all communities need to be at the table and we need to empower each other. 

So to Chu, thank you for being a woman of color role model who will move us forward into the 21st century in the same direction that Secretary Solis’ has done for the past two decades.

Photo Courtesy of Francine Corr, LA Times

Quick Thoughts on Swine Flu

 

Photo: LA Times

West Nile Virus. 

Killer African Bees.

SARS.

Mexican Swine Flu.

Please recognize the pattern, connections,  & trends. 

This epidemic of massive proportions (thank you mass media for your ‘frame’), has truly encapsulated California and the whole North American landscape for the past two weeks. It has proceeded to integrate itself into every media platform imaginable and even has transcended tourist souvenirs in the form of ‘I went to Mexico and all I got was lousy Swine Flu.’ We can dig deep there, but the main point is that non-Western countries have been defined as ‘others, inferior, and backwards’ by scholarly and non-scholarly texts for centuries. This emergence of viral diseases supposedly stemming from these ‘other’ countries and entire regions for that matter, e.g. Mexico, Asia, West Africa, is nothing new but something massive due to the hysteria that plays off of centuries old racism and xenophobia. The fact that the swine flu is not as big of a threat as the common flu does nothing to reduce these quelms. 

In fact, thank you swine flu for brining immigration and Mexico’s political solvency back into the gaze of majoritarian US politics. I am thankful that DF really held its own and has sent a message that amidst the drug chaos, is able to handle national emergencies effectively and rapidly. Pay attention US and recognize the strategic planning and processes underway that shut down the world’s second largest city. Now, please turn your attention to separating your xenophobic thoughts that are confusing immigrants with swine flu. We need comprehensive immigration reform devoid of cost-benefit analysis that do not include the societal and economic benefits that immigrants usher into the U.S.’s global economy. Dig deep…