Women of Color
Can Sotomayor Help Reverse the High School Drop Out Rate for Latinas?
Published August 25, 2009 @ 01:49PM PT
August is upon us, and if you haven't been bombarded by back-to-school ads then you either live under a rock or the health care debate has caused you to chuck your TV out the window. While for most of us, back-to-school means new notebooks and shiny pencils, for others the story is quite different. Especially if you happen to be a Latina, since "41 percent of them do not graduate from high school on time with a standard diploma."
Not only do Latinas have a harder time making it to graduation, but Latinos in general are less likely to go on to pursue higher education degrees, according to the National Education Association. As the NEA article points out, "the consequences of a lesser-educated Latino population could be disastrous, especially in states where Latinos increasingly support tax revenues."
"This is not a boutique issue. This is everybody's issue. This is everybody's crisis," said Patricia Gándara, University of California Los Angeles professor and co-director of the Civil Rights Project/Proyecto Derechos Civiles at UCLA.
While it may be more of an immediate issue for those of us in Texas or California, this is an issue that affects all of us. We need to make sure young women of all colors and backgrounds graduate high school and know that college is a viable, affordable option for them. We all know the old adage, "Knowledge is power." And how do we gain knowledge? Through education, therefore "Education is power," right? In Spanish, this translates to "Educación es poder." The interesting thing to me is that "poder" means "power" but also "to be able to"; therefore, in Spanish, this cliché reveals another layer of meaning: it's not about the power to do extra, it's about the basic ability to do things. If you do not have education, you do not have the ability to accomplish your goals. Luckily, some good people are doing something to give Latina women this ability.
The National Women's Law Center along with the Mexican-American Legal Defense and Education Fund will soon release a report offering "a close look at the dropout crisis for Latinas" and what educators and policy makers can do about it. (You can pre-order your copy of Listening to Latinas: Barriers to High School Graduation now, if you like.) As a former teacher, the driving force in public school policy is parents. We teachers, although we are professionals and experts in our field, don't have the pull that the parents and the tax-paying community do. Even if you are not an educator, please take a look at this report, and use your influence to create positive changes in your school. And the timing couldn't be better.
Something happened this summer that should translate into huge good news for Latinas: we put one on the Supreme Court. Justice Sotomayor, like President Obama, is proof that ¡sí se puede!, that staying in school can be done, and that it pays off, even if you come from a non-traditional household (where your parents didn't grow up speaking English or your father is absent). That you don't have to be white to succeed in politics or an academic career; that there's somewhere for people of color to go besides the NBA, NFL or reggaetón scene.
Unfortunately the Supreme Court is not the same bully pulpit as the Presidency. We see President Obama in the media daily; now that Justice Sotomayor's confirmation is done, we won't see as much of her in the news - but this doesn't mean we need to hide her away. Teachers and parents need to use this woman to inspire those young Latinas.
Now, please don't accuse me of racism. All of us women need to celebrate Sotomayor's victory, as well as Justice Ginsburg's, and their hard work. But the fact that Sotomayor is a woman and a Latina from an underpriviledged background adds a layer to her story that we have not seen before, and we need to play up that angle. This will speak directly to Latinas, the demographic that is suffering from the highest drop-out rates at the moment, but it will also speak to girls of any skin color who come from underpriviledged backgrounds.
In our world of 24-hour news overload it's easy to go from one thing to the next and let our attention be captivated by the controversy du jour, but let's not forget this milestone. Barack Obama's campaign and victory took place during the school year, where smart social studies teachers could take the opportunity to watch history unfold in their classrooms and give the event the significance it deserved.
Sonia Sotomayor's confirmation took place during the summer, while teachers and kids were home, but that doesn't mean we need to shrug and forget it, moving on to the next item on the standardized-test agenda: let's relive the moment in the classrooms, let's bring back the debates, let's read her speeches, let's talk about the issues surrounding her confirmation, and let's celebrate her victory, especially with those girls who need to hear it the most.
Let's educate and inspire an army of Wise Latinas (of every race and nationality).
CRUDE: Women and Children Pay for the Real Price of Oil
Published August 20, 2009 @ 10:13AM PT
Coming to theaters next month is a documentary film called CRUDE, which chronicles the epic battle to hold oil giant Chevron (formerly Texaco) accountable for its systematic contamination of the Ecuadorian Amazon – an environmental tragedy experts call "the Rainforest Chernobyl."
Besides the basic fact that women and children often face disproportionate risk in cases of environmental contamination, there have been studies looking at the specific impact on women in the region. One study cited by Han Shan, a coordinator of the Clean Up Ecuador Campaign led by US-based NGO Amazon Watch, has demonstrated the presence of contamination by oil pollutants in communities close to oil fields, at levels high enough to cause alarm. It also provides some evidence of an increased risk of spontaneous abortions in women living in the proximity of the oil fields, after adjustment for other better-known risks common in developing-country settings.
It's heartbreaking to see how indigenous women in particular are marginalized by big business and an unresponsive government. The trailer below shows one mother calmly explaining that her young daughter has cancer in her liver:
The film opens in New York on 09/09/09, followed by openings in L.A., San Francisco and D.C. In order for the film to gain real national distribution, it must nearly sell out in those key markets. So if you get a chance, please support this important film!
Word-of-mouth is priceless for a grassroots film like CRUDE. There's lots you can do to help spread the word and get involved in supporting the campaign. Visit ChevronToxico.com and you can sign up for updates on the latest news about CRUDE here.
Will There Be A Happy Ending for "The Princess & the Frog"?
Published June 04, 2009 @ 06:13AM PT
New York Times media reporter Brooks Barnes talks about the controversies surrounding, Disney's upcoming film The Princess and the Frog in this week's Sunday New York Times. While it is the first animated Disney film to feature a Black princess, there are concerns that the movie may perpetuate stereotypes about African-Americans:
Like her predecessors, [Tiana] is a strong-willed songbird (courtesy of the Tony-winning actress Anika Noni Rose) who finds her muscle-bound boyfriend against all odds.
To the dismay of Disney executives - along with the African-American bloggers and others who side with the company - the film is also attracting chatter of an uglier nature. Is "The Princess and the Frog," set in New Orleans in the 1920s, about to vaporize stereotypes or promote them?
After viewing some photographs of merchandise tied to the movie, which is still unfinished, Black Voices, a Web site on AOL dedicated to African-American culture, faulted the prince's relatively light skin color. Prince Naveen hails from the fictional land of Maldonia and is voiced by a Brazilian actor; Disney says that he is not white.
"Disney obviously doesn't think a black man is worthy of the title of prince," Angela Bronner Helm wrote March 19 on the site. "His hair and features are decidedly non-black. This has left many in the community shaking their head in befuddlement and even rage."
ALSO under scrutiny is Ray the firefly, performed by Jim Cummings (the voice of Winnie the Pooh and Yosemite Sam). Some people think Ray sounds too much like the stereotype of an uneducated Southerner in an early trailer.
While in recent years Disney has attempted to bring diversity to their films--Mulan, Pocahantas, and Aladdin comes to mind - they will never quite escape the racist images of the black crows from Dumbo or King Louie from The Jungle Book, or even Song of the South . According to the article, Disney has done many focus groups and showings to African American audiences:
Few people outside the company have seen footage of the movie. Among them are consultants like Oprah Winfrey, whom Disney asked for input on the racial aspects of the film and was cast as Tiana's mother. (Movie theater owners and members of the N.A.A.C.P. have also been shown scenes, and the reactions, according to a Disney spokeswoman, were "extremely positive.")
Even though there has been lots of criticisms about the characters themselves and also New Orleans as the film's setting, some Black parents are hopeful about having a female Disney character that their daughters can enjoy:
Donna Farmer, a Los Angeles Web designer who is African-American and has two children, applauded Disney's efforts to add diversity.
"I don't know how important having a black princess is to little girls - my daughter loves Ariel and I see nothing wrong with that - but I think it's important to moms," she said.
"Who knows if Disney will get it right," she added. "They haven't always in the past, but the idea that Disney is not bending over backward to be sensitive is laughable. It wants to sell a whole lot of Tiana dolls and some Tiana paper plates and make people line up to see Tiana at Disney World."
The movie has not yet been released and while I understand some of the criticisms, I'm not sure if I'm ready to write off the entire movie as another racist depiction of Black life and culture. I would hope that Disney will have more individuals and organizations than Oprah and the NAACP watching the footage as it gets closer to completion. Given that it is set in New Orleans, I can only hope that the director and his team has spent time researching New Orleans culture and has incorporated that into the way they adapt the story of the Frog Prince to images of the city during the 1920s.
I also worry about the use of the "princess meme" in Disney stories and other stories we tell our girls. Sure, it's great to finally have a Black girl starring in an animated Disney film, but how positive can the image be if it's just another dainty, helpless princess waiting to be rescued? And finally, with Anika Noni Rose as the voice of Tiana, it'll be interesting to see how Disney tries to create positive image of Black girls and what that will look like to the movie going public.
Only time can tell whether The Princess and the Frog enjoys a happy ending in the eyes of critiques, parents and young children everywhere.
The Political Sexism Machine Strikes Again
Published May 30, 2009 @ 02:38PM PT
After the misogynistic treatment that Hillary Clinton, Sarah Palin, and Nancy Pelosi during their political trials it's really no surprise that Judge Sonia Sotomayor, the Obama nomination for Supreme Court Justice, is facing a similar reception from the peanut gallery. Yet again, we are seeing the well-oiled political sexism machine wind up it's gears and shift into overdrive with one goal: degrade Sotomayor publicly, assault her with gender based insults and then spit her out into political oblivion.
Check out this most recent hit reported by Ali Frick at Think Progress:
Yesterday on his radio show, conservative host G. Gordon Liddy continued the right wing's all-out assault on Judge Sonia Sotomayor. First, just like Tom Tancredo, Liddy slammed Sotomayor's affiliation with the civil rights group La Raza - and referred to the Spanish language as "illegal alien":
LIDDY: I understand that they found out today that Miss Sotomayor is a member of La Raza, which means in illegal alien, "the race." And that should not surprise anyone because she's already on record with a number of racist comments.
Finished with the race-based attack, Liddy moved on to denigrate Sotomayor's gender:
LIDDY: Let's hope that the key conferences aren't when she's menstruating or something, or just before she's going to menstruate. That would really be bad. Lord knows what we would get then.
Finally, Liddy disputed the entire idea that there's anything wrong with the paucity of women and total lack of Hispanics on the Court:
LIDDY: And everybody is cheering because Hispanics and females have been, quote, underrepresented, unquote. And as you pointed out, which I thought was quite insightful, the Supreme Court is not designed to be and should not be a representative body.
While the far right flank is failing to get the all of the conservative leadership on board with the racist and sexist attacks, it doesn't mean that their message is falling on deaf ears.
How do we stop the political sexism (and racism) machine from shifting into action every time a female or person of color is put into a position of power? How much longer will it take to end the gender war in politics and power?
