Transforming Race Conference Provides Inspiration
The Kirwan Institute’s March 11-13 conference attracted over 400 social justice leaders, advocates, activists, scholars, and students of all stripes. The group gathered at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in downtown Columbus for Transforming Race: Crisis and Opportunity in the Age of Obama. The conference featured an incredible lineup of speakers including Glenda Eoyang, Drew Westen, Eunsook Lee, Celinda Lake, Maria Echaveste, and our very own john a. powell. Along with the vast array of speakers, workshops, and panels, Sarah Jones, Tony-Award winning Broadway performer, entertained in the Lincoln Theater. The conference inspired, motivated and educated attendees in innumerable ways, preparing them for the hard work towards the transformation of race.
Full video of many sessions is now available on the conference website.
http://transforming-race.org/archive.html
Kirwan-Recommended Student Assignment Plan Passed
After a year and a half of working closely with the Kirwan Institute, the Montclair Board of Education in New Jersey approved a student assignment plan designed by Kirwan. The plan considered five factors (the racial diversity of a neighborhood, the percentage of free and reduced lunch students, household poverty rates, median household income, and parental education levels) in the development of zones for the district. The plan will work towards sustaining and promoting racial and socio-economic integration throughout the district, providing children and students with new opportunities, all while complying with the requirements of law.
Kirwan Institute Meets with State Board of Education
Researchers at the institute recently met with the Ohio State Board of Education to facilitate the updating of the Ohio’s Diversity Policy, ensuring that it not only complies with federal law, but provides fair opportunities for all the state’s children. The team is engaged in a process of working with the board and educators throughout the state, providing updated reviews of the law and of social science literature, as well as recommending best practices in fostering diversity throughout the state.
Targeting Local Hiring in Cincinnati
The Kirwan Institute assisted the AMOS project and the Nehemiah Campaign in Cincinnati, Ohio, to promote local hiring at the county level through stimulus contracting. The institute researched and drafted a memo regarding the legality and constitutionality of "local hiring" by county authority in Ohio. The memo suggests that – because of the nature of competitive bidding – there is no reason why Ohio counties cannot form certain types of local hiring agreements with contractors. This insight is a launching pad for county reforms that can open job opportunities at this time of 10% unemployment.
Imagine 2042: Call for Submissions
Imagine that the year is 2042 and that surely, dramatically, and transformatively, the racial landscape of the United States has changed over the course of the century. The long-forecast end of the United States as a white-majority country in that year may or may not be an important part of the story. Race still matters, but operates now much more to unify rather than divide us. Many trace the change to the Obama era that ended a quarter-century earlier - not necessarily because of any big new federal policies implemented during that president's time in office, but also because of other social and institutional developments that took seed or began to flower then. Some social justice oldtimers recall that they wept when Obama, our first nonwhite president, first took office. They did not know that even more meaningful developments were just ahead. Call for Submissions
Kirwan Post-Doc Publishes Article on Migrant Workers
Angela Stuesse, post-doctoral researcher at Kirwan, recently published the article, What's "Justice and Dignity" Got to Do with It?: Migrant Vulnerability, Corporate Complicity, and the State, in Society for Applied Anthropology's journal Human Organization. In 2001, Tyson Foods, one of the world's leading chicken processors, was indicted on charges that it recruited undocumented immigrants to work in its plants across the rural United States. In response to the purge which took place shortly thereafter, a local campaign called for "Justice and Dignity" for those migrant workers. Stuesse’s article chronicles that localized struggle and its national aftermath, illuminating how differentially-positioned actors navigate and experience the neoliberal immigration and employment laws of the United States, while deepening understanding of the workings of the poultry industry, the recruitment of immigrant workers, and the anthropology of organized labor.
New Kirwan Brochures Released
The Kirwan Institute has released two new brochures, Building Successful Alliances Between African American and Immigrant Groups and The State of Black Ohio. The two brochures provide highlights of two Kirwan Institute studies. The State of Black Ohio brochure paints a picture of both current positives and challenges for Black Ohioans, along with future recommendations. The brochure about African American/immigrant alliances provides several case studies of how groups serving these two populations have collaborated for mutual benefit.
National Media Reference Kirwan's Reports
To draw attention to the inequitable impact of federal stimulus dollars to date, the Kirwan Institute recently released the report, ARRA & the Economic Crisis One Year Later: Has Stimulus Helped Communities in Crisis? which was compiled collaboratively with several partner organizations. This report received media attention in the Washington Post, on C-Span, and in The Chicago Tribune.
Monthly Race-Recovery Index Report Launched
To keep these inequities in the public eye, Kirwan has launched a monthly report, The Race-Recovery Index, which tracks both unemployment and federal stimulus contract spending by race.
Expert Panel Explores Corporate Personhood
An April panel discussion examined the legal and social implications of the recent Supreme Court decision in Citizens United v. FEC, exploring what the Citizens United decision means for social and racial justice. The discussion was sponsored by the Kirwan Institute. Insightful commentary came from john a. powell, executive director of the Kirwan Institute; Greg Coleridge, director of the Northeast Ohio American Friends Service Committee; and Cliff Arnebeck, chair of the Legal Affairs Committee of Common Cause Ohio and national co-chair and attorney for The Alliance for Democracy.
Kirwan wins PRSA Award
The Kirwan blog Race-Talk, overseen by Jamaal Bell, Media Relations Manager, was honored with an Award of Excellence at the Central Ohio Chapter of Public Relations Society annual Prism Awards April 22.
Mississippi Chicken Film to be Screened
A screening of Mississippi Chicken, a documentary which explores the perilous, fragile, and yet amazingly hopeful world of Latin American immigrants in a Mississippi trailer park situated next to a poultry plant will take place on Wednesday, May 12, at 7 p.m. at the Gateway Film Center. A panel discussion with filmmakers John Fiege and Anita Grabowski, as well as organizers from the Ohio-based Immigrant Worker Project will take place afterwards. Facebook Event.
Hector Aristizabal Visits OSU
Human rights activist, artist, and creative director Hector Aristizabal recently spent three days at The Ohio State University engaging scholars and students in a series of events titled Telling Stories to Change the World. Through a lecture, solo play and workshops, Aristizabal explored how theater and art can transform the political world. The events were sponsored by the Kirwan Institute, the Wexner Center, Center for Latin American Studies, Center for African Studies, and the Departments of History and Theatre.
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