On Wednesday, July 6th at 6 PM EST, TheLoop21.com’s Chloe Hilliard will be kicking off the League’s “YOUNG VOTER LIVE: Summer Chat Series.” The Former Managing Editor of Vibe Magazine and former writer at the Village Voice will be talking with a group of young leaders from the WI-LYVEF’s Summer Leadership Cohort via Ustream. A long time friend and ally of 99problems.org and LYVEF, Hilliard will share special insights on her own personal leadership style, the state of urban journalism and she will also share professional advice from a young person’s perspective.

Make sure you check in as Chloe Hillard, who moonlights as a comedian in New York’s comedy circuit, is sure to be edutaining.

The event will be broadcasted via Youngvoterlive.com and will be open to the public. Also, make sure you save the date for Wednesday, July 16th, when Jasiri X will be hosting the next YOUNG VOTER LIVE: Summer Chat Series

After the jump, there is a video of Keri Baby teaching Ms. Hilliard how to “clap clap.”

I’m Sayin w/ Chloé & Hills: Season 2, Ep 1 – Bilal from Chloe Hilliard on Vimeo.

Everyone wants to be a journalist but very few know what the real job of a journalist is. It’s not about two hour lunches, corner offices or red carpet events. Calling yourself a journalist isn’t all about entertainment journalism or blogging about your favorite rapper.

Journalism is a thankless job. You will not make millions, no one really knows your name nor will they value your work.

Everyday around the globe a journalist is killed, kidnapped, tortured or exiled for doing their job. Right now, two American journalists are sitting in a North Korean prison, sentenced to 12 years of hard labor for – of all things – crossing into the country’s border with an assignment.

Laura Ling and Euna Lee work for former Vice President Al Gore’s San Francisco-based Current TV media venture. North Korean guards arrested Ling and Lee near the China-North Korean border on March 17. The two were reporting about the trafficking of North Korean women at the time of their arrest, and it’s unclear if they strayed into the North or were grabbed by aggressive border guards who crossed into China. A cameraman and their local guide escaped. Details of their arrest are sketchy since the media of North Korea is government controlled. Monday, after a five day trial, the two women were sentenced to 12 years of hard labor for “hostility toward the Korean people.”

You may be thinking, 12 years for that?

In order to understand the absurdity of North Korea’s verdict, you need to understand the country that is the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. Following World War II, Korea was split into two occupied zones. The north was occupied by the Soviet Union. The South as occupied by America. In 1950, the two sides began a war for total control of the region resulting in the Korean War. Three years later, a truce was drawn, but on May 26, 2009 North Korea withdrew from the truce.

North Korea is a loose cannon. It is a communist dictatorship masked as a democratic state. It’s current leader is Kim Jong-il, the son of the country’s one and only president Kim Il-Sung who passed away in 1994 but was proclaimed the “Eternal President”. Freedom of expression is outlawed in North Korea including culture, religion or speech. Anyone who speaks out against Jong-il and the government is swiftly imprisoned and never heard of again.

Here’s an interesting look at life in North Korea:

src="http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docid=-3742145385913859804&hl=en">

Some are hinting that the imprisonment of Ling and Lee isn’t just about the ladies crossing a border. It’s no secret that Americans in foreign land are highly prized chess pieces. Usually, American politicians go over and mash out a deal to release the Americans or get a lighter punishment. There’s no word on who, if anyone, President Obama plans to send over and work thing out.

The Taliban has captured Americans in an attempt to get people released from Guantanamo Bay. Earlier this year Somali pirates held and American captain ransom. There is a possibility that Ling and Lee’s sentence was so severe in a passive aggressive attempt to stick it to South Korea and its ally the United States, which are pushing for U.N. sanctions to punish North Korea for its latest nuclear blast and barrage of missile tests.

In case you didn’t know, North Korea hates America and all countries that associate with us. For years, they’ve been illegally building nuclear weapons and recently started testing them. By hell or high water, North Korea’s goal is to become a dominate world power.

Political ploy aside, should these two women who were doing a job they love have to suffer for this? Would you want to be a journalist if it meant every story you covered lead to your possible death or arrest? Would you rush to the comments section of your favorite website if you know your views would be held against you by the government? Well, the growing popularity of citizen journalism and blogs in oppressed countries is resulting in just that.

Journalists needs to receive the same respect as a firefighter, solider, cop, doctor. A journalist has the ability to saves lives, make change, heal wounds. Dare I say it, being a journalist, a real journalist is one of the hardest jobs in the world.

- CH

Peep the Rousing Applause

I know more about Sonia Sotomayor than I do my next door neighbor. Since being announced as Prez Obama’s pick to replace retiring Justice David Souter of the U.S. Supreme Court, her life has been plastered all over the media. The last time I took note of a Supreme Court nominee was Clarence Thomas, whose hearings regarding his tryst with Anita Hill made him a household name.

It’s safe to say the reason why Sotomayor is getting so much coverage is because she is Latina and grew up poor. Period. End of Story.

Don’t believe it? Check the headlines:

• “Sonia Maria Sotomayor rose from the projects”
• “Sotomayor seen through filter of ethnicity”
• “Sonia Sotomayor: a Role Model for Kids with Diabetes”

Why, after the historic election of President Obama, are we still awe struck by accomplished folks of color? The focus on Sotomayor growing up in the projects (for the record she only lived there for a few years before her family moved to a co-op), her parents being from Puetro Rico and her being diagnosed with child diabetes is touching, but should that matter? Is that more important than her stance on abortion, gun control, civil rights and employment discrimination?

Then there’s the flipside to her nomination, or shall we call it the race card.

Manu Raju writes on Politico.com:

Republicans may face a backlash if they’re seen as charging too hard against a nominee who’s both a woman and a Hispanic. Red-state Democrats will be under pressure from the right, which will make sure that their conservative-to-moderate constituents know all about Sotomayor’s most controversial views. And some GOP Senate candidates may find themselves on the horns of an unhappy dilemma: Do you play to the conservative base or to Hispanic voters who could play a huge role in their 2010 races?

While Republicans and Democrats plot political gains from Sotomayor’s nomination to the Supreme Court, what will it mean for the rest of us?

Black people of America thought Clarence Thomas was going to do major work on our behalf once he was appointed to the Supreme Court but haven’t heard as much as a peep out of him.

There is no denying that Sotomayor is a success story. She’s the result of a single mother household who received a world class education, from attending private school to graduating from Princeton and Yale Law School. Prez Obama spoke so highly of her during this week’s press conference stating that Sotomayor is more distinguished than any current Justice was when they were nominated. Talk about a diss to the sitting judges. But that got me to thinking about something my parents always told me, “In order for you to compete in society you have to work twice as hard just to be acknowledged.” It’s true; it takes a lot of work and accomplishment for folks to see past your skin color so why are we focusing on Sotomayor’s pigmentation and not her platform?

Forgive me for not judging a book by its cover.

]]> http://99problems.org/2009/05/here-comes-the-judge/feed/ 0 http://99problems.org/2009/04/x-facther-somali-pirates/ http://99problems.org/2009/04/x-facther-somali-pirates/#comments Tue, 14 Apr 2009 14:12:43 +0000 Chloe http://99problems.org/?p=1415

Once again American forces have saved the day, popping up in the Indian Ocean to body the four Somali pirates that held U.S. cargo ship captain Richard Phillips captive for five days. Now all the European countries that had been punked by the water thugs for the last couple years are rallying on the heels of America to punish the pirates.

No doubt, more blood will be shed and the already frail country of Somalia—a country that hasn’t had a solid government since 1991, no economy and watches helplessly as mafia run shipping companies dump toxic waste on it’s shores—will be further devastated by those who want to punish it instead of help it.

The pirates vilified by the media are no more than fisherman, who made a living by selling fish and seafood caught off the shore of Somalia, dubbed the Horn of Africa. Left to their own devices they banded together and created a network that manned the shores and waters. Frustrated by the dumping and the damage to their livelihoods they began to tax and hold for ransom boats that entered their territory.

Their mentality: “You not just gonna up in my hood and f*ck my land up. You got to pay!”

Does this sound familiar?

If you live in any hood across America, you have witnessed something similar. Impoverished neighborhoods treated as dumping grounds and its people as pawns. Children attend schools with no windows and cracked roofs, no supermarkets or chain stores will build on the underdeveloped lands, mass transit is sketchy, business are forced to close, homeowners are beaten over the head by inflated mortgages.

Yet, on this side of the pond, what is the hood doing to change the situation?

Where is the grassroots mobilization, the community within the community that says, “we understand you don’t respect us but we respect ourselves enough to keep what money we have in this community, to create jobs, teach ourselves, etc…”

The Black Panthers did it and were quite successful…for a period of time.

Ask young black or brown kids living in the hood what’s the problem and their response:

“We killing each other.”

“We hungry, tryna eat.”

“It’s hard in these streets.”

Americans have no idea what hunger and poverty is.

Life in Somalia: Personal stories

Eight residents of Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu, tell us what the new government’s priorities should be and how they have survived 13 years of anarchy.

Mahamut: Scrap metal worker

“I smash the foundations of the US embassy wall to get steel rods to sell”

Halima: Refugee

“I am too busy looking for food to think about the peace process”

Abdi: Refugee

“I see a dark future for my children. There are no schools or health services”

Gangs here fight with each other over turf, small time drug trade and egos. Nothing is done to better the community. There is no structure or hierarchy or goal outside of selfish ones. This isn’t to say that the people of Somalia aren’t the victims of gangs who are taking advantage of the country’s weak state.

Let’s not even call them pirates anymore…the community activities of Somali saw their people dying and their land being raped and did something about it.

They are really starving.

They are really trying to eat.

They are really fighting the man.

Can you say the same for the goons who claim to run your hood?

- CH

I haven’t been food shopping in over a month.

I should grow my own food, but don’t. Jay-z said “dig a hole” and maybe I should. Fill it with some seeds, sprinkle with water and some TLC. I’ll be feasting on next season’s dinner in no time.

Seriously, I would love to eat fresh, organic produce every day. A while back I came across this documentary about eight UK adults picked to live in the monkey section of a zoo and eat the exact same diet as monkeys—all fresh and raw fruits and vegetables. One man never saw cauliflower before. In the end they all lost weight, felt better, had improved some of their medical conditions and vowed to each healthier. There is even an American documentary out about the same sort of thing.

Don’t know about you, but I’m not trying to live in a cage in order to eat right nor am I willing to go broke buying overpriced organic produce. This leaves me with another option: urban farming. As part of 99problems.org, I’m always looking for solutions to problems facing the urban community. Perhaps bringing farming to the hood will end the on-going battle for quality supermarkets and fresh produce in poor communities as well as educating people about the power of Mother Earth.

Living in the big city means more concrete than grass. Where would I plant my seeds? Martha Stewart broke down how to create your own compos heap but I’m not trying to be labeled the funky neighbor hording banana peels and potato skins in a box.

During my weekly radio show, the topic of eating healthy was raised. This got me to wondering: At what point in society did we transition from farming our own foods to living off of processed foods, McDonald’s and High Fructose Corn Syrup?

You’d have an easier time finding bin Laden than you would a boxed/canned or bottled food that didn’t have high fructose corn syrup in its list of ingredients. Fun Fact: the higher up in the list of ingredients something is on the label, the more that product contains it. (i.e. If you pick up a bottle of apple juice and apple juice is the last thing on the list, put it down! Buy a bag of apples and juice them yourself.)

Perhaps farming in the hood would catch on if it was marketed right. Folks would house their mini-gardens on their window sills. Dudes on the block would start selling 100% Columbian dirt. When a fella asks if you’ve seen his hoe, he really means a hoe. Seed packages would be sold in corner stores and 7 Elevens and endorsed by Hip Hop celebs with great taglines:

Jay-Z Apple Seeds: One Jay-Z apple a day keeps the hate away

Lil Wayne Zucchini: It goes with everything, and makes bread too!

Beyoncé Butternut Squash: So pretty, so yellow, so smooth

Notorious B.I.G. Eggplant: Black and ugly as ever…however good for you.

I’ll rope up the ox and you grab the seeds

- CH

For the last seven years, Chloé A. Hilliard has been a culture/entertainment journalist, writing for the Village Voice, Essence, Vibe, King, and The Source. In addition to writing The X Fact(her), a hip hoppers humorous look at politics, she co-hosts I’m Sayin’ Radio, a weekly talk show, and aspires to be a vegan. Learn more about her on chloehilliard.com.

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The problem: LGBT people are not allowed the same rights to marriage as heterosexual people. Some watchdog and religious groups have spent millions to get Prop 8 passed. Now, the thousands of LGBT couples who rushed to the altar to marry when they had the right to do so in the state of California are unsure of where their union stands.

Benjamin Manson and Sarah White waited 23 years before their marriage was deemed legal and honored by the United States of America. Their formal yet non-binding wedding ceremony in 1843 while enslaved is one of the few documented. Today, it’s viewed as a testament to the injustices of slavery and the heart wrenching tale of love conquering all. After their wedding, they returned to their respective plantations to work for their masters, spending most of their “marriage” living apart.

On April 19, 1866, 23 years, nine children and one Civil War later the two were officially acknowledge as man and wife.

Ninety-two years later, Mildred and Richard Loving eloped in Washington D.C. to avoid prosecution. She was black, he was white. Under their home state of Virginia’s Racial Integrity Act they could not marry. The Jim Crow era was in full effect. Their marriage wasn’t legal in Virginia. The two were arrested one night while they slept. Someone tipped off the local police about their nuptials. They were found guilty of being married and sentenced to either one year in jail or extradition from the state. It took a decade and a Supreme Court ruling to overturn the laws.

Today, thousands of LGBT couples, families and their supporters will take to the steps of San Francisco’s City Hall to announce the Civil Rights March to Sacramento, a 5-day march from San Francisco to Sacramento to call on the Supreme Court to overturn Prop 8.

They are walking for what they feel are their rights, not as men who love men or women who love women, but people who love people.

The Solution:

Benjamin and Sarah were people in love. Over time they were allowed to marry.

Mildred and Richard were people in love. Over time they were allowed to marry.

Raymond and Byron are people in love. Over time they will be allowed to marry.

We’re going to feature videos and interviews from Power Shift all week long, but the real news at 99Problems is the announcement of a weekly column from Chloe Hilliard

We’re so excited to have her on the site, we set up her own page as a platform for the voice and intelligence that has made her a regular in The Village Voice, Essence, The Source and many other leading sites. We’re psyched to have her collaborating with 99p.

Here’s her bio:
For the last seven years, Chloé A. Hilliard has been a culture/entertainment journalist, writing for the Village Voice, Essence, Vibe, King, and The Source. A native of Brooklyn, Chloé holds a bachelor’s degree in Journalism from New York University and certificate from the Columbia Publishing Course. Most recently, she was a staff writer for The Village Voice, America’s largest weekly newspaper. Since joining the staff she’s chronicled lesbian thugs, BET’s transformation and eminent domain in Brooklyn. Prior to the Voice, Chloé served as News Editor at The Source magazine for two years. There, she focused on keeping Hip-Hoppers abreast of politics, culture and trends. For her expertise on Hip-Hop culture she’s appeared on CNN Headline News, ABC News, Our World with Black Enterprise and local news broadcasts on ABC 7 and CW11. Her work is also featured in The Best African-American Essays:2009, a non-fiction collection of written works that examines African American concerns in the Obama era.