Precious Knowledge: From Arizona to Milwaukee

Almost two years ago, Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer, signed the ‘papers please’ bill into law. Millions waited for President Obama to address national immigration policy, but nothing changed. The bill has continued to be challenged and will make its Supreme Court appearance this summer.

Something else happened soon after the immigration bill was passed. Another less visible, but equally destructive bill, was passed in the Arizona senate. House Bill 2281, known as the Ethnic Studies Ban, was targeted at a series of Chicano and Mexican-American classes in the Tucson School district. A fierce battle ensued with students and educators on one side, and the Arizona state government on the other.

You may not have heard anything about the months of protest, but one woman, Eren McGinnis, not only paid attention but filmed for an entire year in a high school. Through her documentary film, Precious Knowledge, we enter into the world of the forbidden class. In this film we get to see first-hand what all the fuss was about. It turns out that predominately Mexican and Latino schools discovered that by having Latino teachers, teaching students their history, arts, and culture improved the students grades, test scores, and confidence. When the high school seniors learned that they may lose the classes, they organized protests and publicly resisted the state’s attempt to eliminate their classes.

Hit the jump to watch the powerful trailer:

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Ife

#WordsOfWisdom: Develop the Habit of Leadership – Practice Integrity

“Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things” – Peter Drucker

Everywhere around us, we observe failures of leadership either where people in vantage positions fail to deliver leadership or where there is simply nobody in place.  Often this crisis of leadership is rooted in a lack of integrity.  Take the coach placed in a position of authority over players but who allows these players to be molested, repeatedly.  What happened?  He lacked integrity – presenting one face to the public and another to his players.  In public, he was a person of outstanding character whereas, in the locker room, he was a depraved individual.  Similarly, corporate leaders who cook the books and lie about their company’s financial status set their followers up for failure and abuse their authority.

Leadership demands integrity.  It demands that the person in a leadership position, be of good character whether in the public eye or in private.  The habit of leadership demands doing the right things whether popular or not.  How do you do this?

… Continue Reading

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Abi

Texas League Fellows: Young Activists in the Making

“Who makes words?”

“Get your weight up.”

“WE ARE SOCIETY!”

These are all phrases that could be heard at the February training for the Texas League in Houston. We came together to learn how make local change by empowering our peers and building smart campaigns.

Hit the jump for photos…

Posted by:

Terin

#UnF*ckDetroit: Detroit300 Declares War On Detroit Gangs For Killing Babies & Seniors

This is pretty deep! F*ck when a woman is fed up, when a community is fed up, there is nothing you can do about it!

“Today is the wrong day to be on the wrong side of the law” says the President of the “Detroit 300.”

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DJWillieShakes

Wiz Khalifa Tweets @ Me: Love Will Find a Way

When @realwizkhalifa tweeted at me to watch a video, I was very surprised. To be honest, I was expecting it to be one of two things: a spam message or a new club banger. However, I was absolutely wrong and the music video was about social justice and the lack of it. The video shared a story of the struggles of all people in society and the criminal acts that they encounter on a daily basis. However,  Lyrikill (the artist) has a solution to the problem: Love is the answer.

“Obama got Osama Bin, but our economy is rock bottom in … Should I vote or just say f@!# it? It’s like a President is just a puppet. One man can’t fix up all ‘em problems. Say all our prays hope  God will solve them … I look to the clouds to see a sign … Government and bank ties we see it… I believe love is the answer.”

Hit the jump to see the video…

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Lashunda