The Diversity Projekt
Empowerment for All People of Color
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New Chapter for New Beginnings
A passionate advocate, a “pesky” reporter and a few blog posts, and the Bensalem Township School Board decided to “reconsider” it’s ruling to cut the New Beginnings Program at Bensalem High School. The trade off – 700 service hours in the upcoming fiscal year instead of 1000.
I learned something new today about Patti’s program. Not only are these young parents graduating from high school at phenomenal rates, but many go on to lead incredible lives. Two of her former students addressed the Board tonight – one is graduating community college and will soon enroll in a nursing program, and the other is currently working at Jefferson.
Well done! Thank you for your comments (on and off site) and your prayers!
The School Board will most likely need to re-address funding issues surrounding New Beginnings sometime during the new fiscal year. Seeking alternative funding streams is most likely going to be a necessity, since the long-term repercussions of tonight’s cut in capacity will not go unnoticed by the community in need of these services.
ACTION ITEM! Please keep your eyes open for private (or government) grants that will fund direct services and/or advocacy for teen pregnancy/parenting.
On a side note – tonight was the first time in years that I really felt a part of a community. Perhaps it was the mission-orientedness of it all. My hunch, it was the people. Several Wellians came out in solidarity and support of Patti and her kids. Some of us went to Rita’s afterwards to celebrate. Yeah, Evan – I finally had Rita’s after more than 7 years.
Top Down Problems With Top Down Solutions – Do We Ever Learn?
I am not an economist. I don’t even claim to be particularly good at crunching numbers. In fact, statistics was the only subject where I consistently earned abysmal grades. Nevertheless, I am astute enough to recognize that throwing money at poverty, particularly in a top down scheme, does not solve this problem. Remember Reagan-era TRICKLE DOWN economics? It’s like deja vu! The various bail-out strategies essentially award those individuals responsible for the financial meltdown we find ourselves in. This yet again leaves those of us who live paycheck to paycheck to either sink or swim.
While the media has focused on the scores of Americans who have or are on the verge of losing their jobs, pension plans, life’s savings and homes, there is an even bigger storm on the horizon. This financial crisis is transforming the scope and character of poverty in ways many Americans have not seen in their lifetime, certainly not those of my generation. For the most part, Millenials have lived in an environment of economic prosperity. Most of us were too young to comprehend the the economic pumps of the mid/late 1990s.
Nevertheless, recent graduated are faced with mounds of school debt and few, adequate job prospects,
The average debt of students graduating with loans in 2007 jumped to $20,098 – up from $18,976 for those graduating in the previous year, according to the Project on Student Debt, a Berkeley, Calif., advocacy group that tracks student loans.
This year’s graduating class might owe even more as they and their parents borrow more to supplement falling values in their savings plans.
Meanwhile, starting salaries for last year’s graduates haven’t kept pace, growing only 3 percent over the previous year.
While the Federal Government has attempted to reassure students and parents of the availability of credit to pay for school tuition, little effort is put forth to establish fair and reasonable repayment schemes, particularly considering the current job market.
Faces of Poverty
Poverty is an ongoing epidemic plaguing millions of Americans in rural, suburban and urban communities even prior to this economic crisis. Yet, now that an increasing number of middle class Americans are joining the roll call of homeless and welfare seekers, it is worthy of front page news.
“Why is no one helping our struggling middle class?” I have CNN running most days- background noise if you will, and this question has been posed a total of five times today alone.
Does poverty and financial strife among our mostly suburban, middle class hold more currency than the lack of housing, adequate food and nutrition, access to health care, mental health counseling, clean clothing, etc., experienced by millions of Americans prior to the present financial meltdown?
Millions of children across this country live without health care, quality education opportunities, and are forced to live in conditions comparable to those in the third world. Yet, it has taken the deterioration of the quality of life for the American middle class for the country to truly wake up.
Local and state governments have failed for decades in adequately addressing issues of adequate housing and health care services, as well as quality education for much of the nation’s working and non-working poor. These existing conditions are exacerbated by the credit and mortgage crisis, as well as an annual job loss that has far exceeded the 1 million mark. Over 4 million homeowners are behind in their mortgage payments. If conditions continue to deteriorate, over 5 million may lose their homes between 2008 an 2010. The current procedures and processes of loan modifications are fundamentally useless for those who lose jobs or have mortgages that are under water.
Rescue missions and soup kitchens across the country are bursting at their seams. Food banks are seeing record crowds and are unable to service all those coming to them for help. They are finding it more difficult to find donors due to the financial crunch. Shelters are unable to house the many families who lose their homes due to foreclosure or job loss. Families are separated as shelters dedicated to maintaining family units reach and exceed capacity.
Leslie Kaufman recently reported on the plan to reduce New York shelter capacities in all of its burroughs:
The city has a massive municipal shelter system that houses roughly 6,500 homeless individuals every night. But it also has a much more ad-hoc system for street homeless who are highly resistant to institutionalized settings.
That alternative system is composed of eight drop-in centers, which have showers and seats but no beds. From there, homeless men can find one-night beds in churches and synagogues – or, if they can show they’ve been on the street for more than nine months, they can use city-run safe-haven beds. But each night, more than 500 hundred people, on average, end up sleeping in the chairs at the drop-in centers – some by choice and some because there are not enough beds in the faith-based centers.
While we are all feeling the crunch, those of us who are employed can help in several ways that are not overly burdensome to our own wallets.
- donate unused canned goods from your cupboard to a local soup kitchen
- donate your time to a local food bank of soup kitchen. This is also a great family building activity.
- set out non-perishable food donation box at your place of employment or church (Our office allowed everyone who donated a canned good to wear jeans to work the following Friday.)
Diversity Projekt In The News
I initially posted the Rum Bar Watch Party on a few LiveJournal groups, but never thought that it would trickle along the media circuit.
I was pleasantly surprised when several people mentioned the posting on several local and regional sites. If you come across any additional listings, please do let me know.
Someone told me that we were listed in USA Today, but that seems rather unlikely.
PBS “Germans in America” – The Desirable German Narrative
PBS aired a re-run of the entire Germans in America series the other night. I was able to see the entire series for the first time, instead of taking it in piecemeal. This four-part series examines German settlers who came to America in the early 18th Century, particularly how they adjusted to life in America, their experiences in moving and settling westward, and the ways that their descendants have maintained aspects of German culture today.
While I understand the representation of early German settlers is quite ethnically homogeneous, the exclusion of multi-ethnic Germans in the last segment is disappointing. It provides a fundamentally distorted and inaccurate representation of German populations in America today, particularly taking into account German-American relations since the Second World War. Nevertheless, this inaccurate portrayal is right on par with the way diversity in German society continues to be represented in the Motherland. Or, is it the Fatherland?! Regardless, this series once again recounts the history of white Germans in the United States, while ignoring any degree of diversity among Americans of German descent or recent immigrants from Germany.
Germans in America is primarily funded by Goethe Institute USA, German Originality and German Information Center USA, organizations that are major players in funding German cultural projects, both contemporary and historical. In funding such projects as this, these organizations are perpetuating exclusionary practices and attitudes about what does and does not constitute German identity. As the documentary traces the histories of various German American families from the 18th Century to the present, including representations of multi-ethnic Germans in that generational narrative would not create unwanted disjointedness. In fact, it would only add to discussions of ethnic diversity throughout the German diaspora.
Afro/Black Germans are still largely absent from the the contemporary narrative of Germans in America and in Germany. A considerable portion of us have either made America our permanent home or lead transcontinental lives. Also, more than 10% of the German population consists of immigrants and migrants, 3% or 2.7 million of whom are of Turkish background, and 6% are of Afro and Indo-Asian descent. Recent data shows that 30% of Germans aged 15 years and younger have at least one parent born abroad. Nevertheless, this is rarely evident in the ways in which government or government sponsored and academic entities have chosen to represent Germany’s cultural and ethnic demographics.
Save for a few indie documentaries such as the May Ayim story, there are little to no films about People of Color in Germany. More books by and about Afro Germans are published and enter the market every year. I hope that this translates into an increase in representations beyond the written word as well.
Update: New Miss Switzerland Gets Racist Attacks
As I previously reported, there was much controversy around Whitney Toyloy winning the Miss Switzerland pageant. Several critics questioned her preparedness for the role and responsibilities under the crown due to her age. Others questioned whether a bi-racial woman could actually represent Switzerland, that she did not reflect what it meant to be Swiss.
Several news reports indicate that she has received racist attacks, but the statement from the National Swiss Party – Langenthal is particularly direct. I can translate the entire article if there is a demand for it, but I would like to draw your attention to one particular segment of the report:
Obwohl wir in der Schweiz zahlreiche Schweizerinnen mit eidgenössischen Wurzeln haben, treten Jahr für Jahr Frauen mit Migrationshintergrund an, welche dann immer die multikulturelle Schweiz repräsentieren wollen.
Although we in Switzerland have numerous Swiss women who have native roots, year after year more women with migrant backgrounds appear, who always want to represent multicultural Switzerland (emphasis added).
and further….
So haben wir auf dem ersten wie auf dem zweiten Platz je eine Person, die keine Schweizer Wurzeln hat. Und diese Personen sollen die Schweiz repräsentieren? Sie verkörpern nicht die Schweiz – sie verkörpern die Welt.”
So, we have–in first as well as in second place–a person without Swiss roots. And these individuals are supposed to represent Switzerland? They do not embody Switzerland – they embody the World.
and one more time….
Nein, sie verkörpern nur das Geschwür, welches die freie, unabhängige Eidgenossenschaft bereits am Auffressen ist.
No, they only embody the ulcer that the free, independent Confederation is already devouring.
Clearly, antiquated notions of what Europe should look like are clashing with what Europe actually DOES look like, and the “natives” are getting restless! What makes these attacks even more ridiculous is that Switzerland is composed of a plethora of cultures.
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