DemocracySpace.org

'Doing nothing' isn't an option

Even though everyone in Burlington, Vermont, wants the “same” thing for our children, Janice Fields, a facilitator for the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives, notes that “sameness means mixing it up.”

This is exactly what the Burlington Boys & Girls Club did on Thursday, September 11. Led by nationally renowned moderator Dr. William Hyman, about 50 community members representative of all ethnic and professional backgrounds participated, including youth, parents, non-profits, local government, grassroots organizers, law enforcement officials and the State’s Attorneys office.

The most impressive turnout was youth. In fact, Dr. Hyman said the representation was the best he’d seen in four years of working with the Boys & Girls Clubs, and he hailed the “wonderful blend of young folks and adults.” The youngest in the group were Joseph Baker and Brianna Sibley, each 11 years old.

Mary Alice McKenzie, director of the Burlington Boys & Girls Club, credited much of the high turnout success to Wanda Hines, director for the City of Burlington’s Social Equity Investment Project. The SEIP supports existing and emerging Vermont leaders from diverse backgrounds to help provide the necessary tools and training to be effective.

Dr. Hyman encouraged the Burlington community to develop a partnership with youth in order to answer, “What have we gotten into?” He said NOBLE’s primary goal is to help provide equity justice to the community, which means “uncompromising integrity and having the integrity to do the right thing when no one is looking.” He taught the group to identify partners, including among community police officers. “You have to help the police department, if you want quality of life for all youth,” he added.

Dr. Hyman, made reference to the “broken window” theory as he asserted, “Crimes tend to happen in dirty, ugly, run down places. When you show you care and question ugly behavior in the neighborhood. The ugly behavior will move to another ugly neighborhood.” Youth leader Ricky Stewart added, “Crimes do not have color.”

Earlier in the process, local television station WPTZ interviewed Mary Alice of the Boys & Girls Club. “We want one issue we can do something about and do something quickly,” she said. “So in 60 to 90 days, we want to see improvement. We have to be wise in the issue we pick and put together a realistic work plan to work as a group.”   

Divided into three groups, participants identified drugs as the number one issue. By consensus, the group created a three-point action plan to tackle the challenges. The Peers, Parents and Police action plan consist of 3 tiers:

•    Coordinated Community Response (CCR) will include targeting police patrol, neighborhood watches and increased sharing 
•    Peer Outreach Leadership (POL) will focus on youth teaching youth and parents teaching parents
•    Brochure specific to this community’s identified drug issue and the action plan.

So, what’s next? The Burlington Boys & Girls Club Peers, Parents and Police action plan committee will meet Wednesday, September 17, at the Club to recap the event, renew newly found partnerships and commence a journey united in vision. NOBLE facilitator Janice Fields articulated the community’s journey best, “We did not come over in the same boat, but we are on the same boat now.”

In closing, Burlington is a community “just like many across our great nation” and everyday I became more and more inspired by this one specific community embedded in the beautiful landscape of Vermont’s Green Mountains. Right now, I’m most enthused by the leadership of the Boys & Girls Club as they decided months ago that “to do nothing” is not an option.

Here's one video from last week's event, showing moderator Dr. William Hyman, Burlington Police Chief Michael Schirling and Chittenden County State's Attorney T.J. Donovan talking about how to engage the community against drug abuse. You can view more here, and click here to read an earlier post about the NOBLE meeting in Burlington.

Our youth: a NOBLE cause

“It’s important as a black person.  My voice will be heard and I will not be left out. Also, this is a way to get more people involved in the community and an opportunity to voice our opinions.”
- Maria Twitty (at right), Parent and Community Leader, Burlington, Vermont, speaking about this week's community engagement program on youth quality of life. Read on to learn more ...

When people think of Vermont, diversity isn’t usually what comes to mind. But Burlington, the state’s largest city, is in the midst of big changes. Already impacted by increasing ethnic and cultural populations, the city is a major refugee resettlement area, and Burlington High School
students speak nearly 50 native languages. About 20 percent of the district’s children are from communities of color, and half of the district’s pupils receive free or reduced school meals.

In the context of this rapid demographic change, the Boys and Girls Club of Burlington has received from the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives (NOBLE) a grant to conduct a community engagement process. The process is designed to help diverse community leaders identify an issue that is affecting the quality of life of youth. NOBLE’s mission is to promote a holistic community-wide approach to the reduction of crime and delinquency.

The much anticipated gathering – set this Thursday, September 11 - will include NOBLE’s introduction to community engagement planning, tools for building partnerships and solving problems, and strategic planning presented by nationally renowned moderator Dr. William Hyman.

As director of the City of Burlington’s Social Equity Investment Project, I was called in to be sure that this process would be responsive to and reflective of the current population. At SEIP, our goal is to identify and support leadership in the community to facilitate sustainable and effective social change. In all we do, we aim to showcase the value of building effective bridges across cultural barriers and challenges, and we believe the NOBLE event will be a big step toward making and strengthening those connections.

The 25 committed community members planning to attend the event include leadership from responsive and representative demographic changing populations, parents, youth, law enforcement, government representatives, business leaders, and local advocates who will work with an engagement specialist and identify the challenges facing impacted youth in our community and form a plan to effect positive change.  Here’s what a few of them – in addition to Maria, above - have to say about this opportunity:

“The engagement process will identify and support activities for youth who are at risk. Vermont is changing and people need to see that and so are our needs.” 
- Trista Miller: Parent and Imani Youth and Family Center, Director of Services

"I believe that this engagement process represents an opportunity to further community dialog about reducing crime and disorder and bringing specific focus to the ideas and experiences of one of our most important populations, our youth."
- Michael  Schirling, Chief of Police, Burlington

"The Community Engagement Process funded by the NOBLE grant is so important to our neighborhood, because we need to develop the tools to pull together to make our neighborhood safer and more welcoming for our youth and their families. We live and work in one of the most diverse areas of this city and yet we often don’t know how to talk to each other. We need to learn."
- Mary Alice McKenzie: Director, Burlington Boys and Girls Club

“The city of Burlington is at an increased ethnic and cultural population crossroad which all too often social transformation challenges accompany that change. The process will provide new and existing leadership the necessary tools to develop sound solutions to more effectively address the challenges and issues that impact all youth.”
- Wanda Hines: Director, Social Equity Investment Project 

“So the kids can get what they need. I’m hoping the process will help the police take crimes against black youth more seriously.”
- Pam Stewart, Parent and Community Leader

Talk about 'The Visitor'

Today marks the opening of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, destined to be one of this summer's blockbuster movies. Sometimes, you just want to see a fun movie, and Indy always delivers. But many of us also like movies that challenge and expand our ways of seeing the world. The Visitor is such a film, and its filmmakers are actively encouraging people to talk about it.

Made by the same folks whose previous films include The Station Agent and Sideways, The Visitor is the story of Walter Vale, a 62-year-old economics professor who is essentially sleepwalking through life until he meets a young immigrant couple living in New York City - living, in fact, in his long-neglected apartment. Walter lets the couple - Tarek, from Syria, and Zainab, from Senegal - stay with him while they look for another apartment, and they become friends.

The Visitor is really two stories in one as it traces the professor's midlife reawakening and examines the human consequences of the U.S. practice of detaining and deporting immigrants without due process. According to a fact sheet accompanying the film, about 283,000 detained immigrants, refugees, and asylum seekers are held annually in more than 400 detention centers and prisons at a taxpayer cost of about $95 per detainee each day - even though the overwhelming majority pose no threats to our communities.

The Visitor offers no easy answers. It admits that people can do the wrong thing: sometimes without knowing, often because, as one character says in the film, "After a while, you forget and you feel like you belong." It shows how people become dehumanized, and rehumanized. Its ending projects the possibility of future happiness for at least one character, yet it also leaves hanging the idea that people often face uncertain futures, sometimes in countries that have proven hostile to their families and loved ones.

Because the film lends itself to conversation, its producers have taken a cue from book clubs to provide discussion guides for people who want to watch the film in a group and discuss it afterward. The hope is that many people will also go on to take part June 19 in a "Night of 1,000 Conversations" to talk about due process and human rights protections for everyone living in America, whether here legally or not, and seek reform from the Department of Homeland Security to assure these rights. As one participant quoted at the Rights Working Group website notes, "These are basic human rights. You don't have these rights because you're a citizen. You have these rights because you were born."

Have you seen The Visitor? What did you think? I've posted all the discussion guide questions in the comments below. Please share your thoughts now if you've seen the movie - and if you haven't, think about catching it over the long holiday weekend, then contributing your ideas below.

Friday digest-open thread 5/2/08

Have you registered yet for "Making Every Voice Matter," Everyday Democracy's National Meeting, set for June 12-14 in Denver? There are only 10 days left to get the early-bird rate, good through May 12. (Until then, individual registration is $200; afterward, it's $230.) Team, youth, and single-day discounts are available. Registration includes meals, workshops, and a fabulous Friday-night Civic Fair. Click here to get much more information, and here to check out the preliminary conference program. We hope to see you in Denver!

Last Friday, three New York City police officers were acquitted of all charges in the shooting death of Sean Bell, an unarmed man who was killed in November 2006 in an incident in which the police fired 50 bullets. As seen on our website, New York Faith & Justice - a diverse group of churches, faith organizations, and individuals dedicated to addressing poverty-related injustice - called this week for NYPD  Commissioner Raymond Kelly and Mayor Michael Bloomberg to endorse the Conversations for Change project and mount a city-wide truth commission on police-related violence. The Conversations for Change aim to bring together citizens and police officers, using discussion guides developed by Everyday Democracy (formerly the Study Circles Resource Center). Pilot circles have taken place, and the project will culminate in a five-week community-wide series of up to 50 small group conversations between police and members of their communities this fall. Click here to learn more about New York Faith & Justice and here to see Everyday Democracy's tools for forging better police-community relations.

Our friends at Movement Vision Lab have gotten into the podcasting game, with portable interviews of leaders like Andy Stern of the Service Employees International Union, Gabe Gonzalez from the Center for Community Change, Burt Lauderdale of Kentuckians for the Commonwealth, and Emira Palacios of Sunflower Community Action in Kansas. You can access individual interviews or - better yet - subscribe to the podcasts via the link to iTunes from this page.

This week marked the fifth anniversary of President George W. Bush's declaration that major combat operations had ended in Iraq, and yet the war continues with no end in sight. As seen on the NCDD website, an organization called Vets4Vets is offering free weekend workshops all over the country where returning Iraq and Afghanistan veterans have a chance to share their stories and set up peer groups for continued support and conversation. More than 500 Iraq-Afghanistan veterans have taken part in 22 weekend workshops over the past two years, and local groups are meeting in eight cities across the U.S. with more forming every month. For more info, check out Vets4Vets' website.

What have you been working on this week? What's ahead? Share your comments below.

April books roundup

It's time for our monthly roundup of recent books of interest to people who are working, organizing, and educating for positive community change. This month's selections include Slavery by Another Name: The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II by Douglas A. Blackmon; Fight  Global Warming Now: The Handbook for Taking Action in Your Community by Bill McKibben and the Step It Up Team; and The True Patriot: A Pamphlet by Eric Liu and Nick Hanauer. You can get these books at your local bookseller, or online, or at the links offered below.

Slavery by Another Name tells how for decades after the Civil War, tens of thousands of African Americans were arbitrarily arrested, charged with outrageous fines, then sold as forced laborers to coal mines, lumber camps, brickyards, railroads, quarries, and farm plantations. The practice was finally given up due to government embarrassment over possible enemy propaganda about American racial abuse at the beginning of World War II. Blackmon, a white man who is Atlanta bureau chief for The Wall Street Journal, started writing nearly a decade ago about how U.S. Steel Corp. relied on forced black laborers in Alabama coal mines in the early 20th century. This book grew out of that reporting. (Order here.) Click here for more of Blackmon's writings on race, school resegregation (he attended Mississippi schools as they were integrated in the 1970s), baseball, and more.  You can also read an excerpt from the book and listen to a "Talk of the Nation" interview with Blackmon here.

Earth Day 2008 may be behind us, but many communities are eager to keep the momentum going. In Fight Global Warming Now, McKibben and his collaborators offer a hands-on, locally oriented guidebook for halting climate change. McKibben draws from the lessons of 1,400 Step It Up demonstrations held last spring, one of the biggest days of environmental action since the original Earth Day and one that came together in mere months. He pledges that proceeds from the book will go back into efforts to combat climate change. (Order here.) Another recent McKibben book - Deep Economy: The Wealth of Communities and the Durable Future - is recently out in paperback, and it's a good companion to Fight Global Warming Now. McKibben shares why, particularly in our current era of unequal wages and dwindling natural resources, "more" usually doesn't mean "better." He shows how communities around the world are building vibrant local economies where people work together to create more of their own food, energy, and even entertainment.

The True Patriot has been out for a few months, but it may be a good prism through which to view the rest of this presidential election year. "We believe all politics is fundamentally about morality," Liu and Hanauer write in the slim book's introduction. "What rules do we need to live a good life together? How should those rules govern the choices we make not only as individuals but as a community?" Written in the style of Thomas Paine's classic Common Sense, The True Patriot has a decidedly progressive philosophy but one that calls to conservatives as well by appealing to core American values, like sharing of sacrifice. In a radio interview, Liu said, "I think if you take these values seriously, you’re able to find a zone where people of both parties can come together and say, 'You know what? This is the essence of true patriotism: whether we are looking out for the next generation, whether we have a sense of obligation and responsibility, not just to ourselves but to those who are going to come after us.'" (Order here.)

What are you reading these days? What's next on your list?

Friday digest-open thread 4/18/08

It's time to announce the spring selection for our Everyday Democracy Book Club. Join us here at Democracy Space at 1 p.m. Eastern on Thursday, May 15, as we'll meet with Everyday Democracy senior associate Matt Leighninger to discuss his book The Next Form of Democracy: How Expert Rule Is Giving Way to Shared Governance - and Why Politics Will Never Be the Same. In the book, Matt - who also is executive director of the Deliberative Democracy Consortium - tells how communities all across the nation are seeing how officials and citizens can work together to address pressing issues.

This will be a great opportunity to share stories of "shared governance" and learn from other communities (and Matt's considerable expertise). Order the book from your local bookstore or online, and be sure to mark your calendar for May 15. And if you missed our last book club with Frances Moore Lappé, you can read the transcript here.

Speaking of the DDC, thanks to Joe Goldman for his tip on this recent article on Politico.com, in which e-democracy advocate Steven Clift asked this timely question: “Isn’t it interesting that the best-designed government websites are those collecting your taxes, while the worst sites are those giving you a say on how your taxes are spent?” The article tells how many other governments are way beyond ours in offering the public a chance to comment on legislation, submit petitions, and more. For example, write authors Andrew Rasiej and Micah L. Sifr, "In England, anyone can submit an e-petition directly on the 10 Downing Street website, and the most popular ones are featured on the site’s home page. More than 7 million people — one in 10 British citizens — have signed one of those petitions since the site’s launch in the fall of 2006."

Next week, Everyday Democracy will be holding the first of two Learning Exchanges for the nine communities involved in our Communities Creating Racial Equity initiative. Two important articles on this topic crossed our desks this week. Education Week had the bad but not unsurprising news that the academic achievement gap grows fastest for bright African-American children, particularly in schools with higher black populations, "where test scores are lower on average, teachers are less experienced, and high-achieving peers are harder to find."

Meanwhile, criminal injustice is in the spotlight in the current issue of the alumni magazine for Brown University, where economics professor Glenn Loury has been working to bring greater attention to the fact, as author Beth Schwartzapfel wrote, "that the number of black men incarcerated in U.S. prisons and jails—a number wildly disproportionate to their representation in the general population—reflects the social dishonor to which African Americans are still subject today, a dishonor with roots in U.S. slavery." Click here to read "A Nation of Jailers."

The good news is that many communities are proactively deciding to address racial inequity, often with the help of resources from Everyday Democracy. If you caught yesterday's water cooler, you learned how Lynchburg, Virginia, successfully held the action forum for its first round of "Many Voices - One Community" dialogues on race and racism this week, and how activists from New Haven and Stratford, Connecticut; Jacksonville, Florida; Syracuse, New York; and Memphis, Tennessee are being - and leading - the change they want to see in their communities.

Next week at DemocracySpace: We'll have news from communities walking the walk for Earth Day and two days of live blogging from the CCRE Learning Exchange. If you like what you read here, you can get it delivered right to your email box by subscribing via the link atop the right-hand side of the page.

Happy Passover to our Jewish readers!

YouthBuild, MTV team up

It's not every day that low-income youth get their voices heard in the nation's capital, but it's happening this week. Last night, nearly 500 youth held an "Our America" town hall at the Lincoln Theatre in Washington to unveil a "Declaration of Inter-dependence” informed by their life experiences. Today, about 100 of them are on Capitol Hill to advocate for change in six key areas of the declaration: the public school system, family supports, economic development in low-income communities, the justice system, the environment, and the role of young people in society.

Participants in the town hall included young people from 28 states who have had setbacks such as dropping out of high school, being homeless, having a teen pregnancy, or doing time in jail, but who are rising above such difficult challenges. The town hall was sponsored by YouthBuild USA, Think.MTV.com, and dozens of other national organizations with support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. MTV News correspondents Sway Calloway and Kim Stolz served as emcees.

“We have gathered in Washington DC to bring attention to the conditions facing young people in low-income communities, and to call upon our elected officials and presidential candidates to join with us in finding solutions,” explained Antonio Ramirez, President of YouthBuild’s National Alumni Association, and a speaker at the event.

“We wrote the Declaration of Inter-Dependence because we believe it is our responsibility as young leaders to think through the important issues facing our communities and our nation, and to make proposals that can lead to changes and improve these conditions," said Verondha Henry, another YouthBuild graduate. “We recognize that there is an interdependence between young people in low-income communities and the future of America. In the Declaration, we voice our views about the public schools, the justice system, the system of family supports, the economy of our local communities, and how to improve these systems to break the cycle of poverty.”

“This is a unique gathering of low-income young people whose voices are too often overlooked and have been absent from policy decisions on issues that directly impact their lives and futures,” said Dorothy Stoneman, president and founder of YouthBuild USA, a national nonprofit in which low-income youth work toward their GEDs or high school diplomas while rebuilding affordable housing for poor people. “Their leadership and commitment demonstrate that young people should be part of the conversation and they should be encouraged to take action to transform America’s most pressing problems."

To keep the momentum going, YouthBuild now has an "Our America" group page on ThinkMTV.com described as a place that's "open to ALL youth who want to amplify their voices and share ideas for tackling poverty in this nation." Elsewhere on the Think.MTV.com site, users can share their views on a wide range of issue-oriented forums, including poverty. Check out the full list here. And while you're on the MTV site, have a look at the Teen Hero Awards page for info on how teens you know can try to win grants for their charities of choice.

Friday digest-open thread 10/26/07

Welcome to this week's round-up of news and views. Your comments and additions are welcome!

Two weeks ago tomorrow, presidential candidate John Edwards called for a new Citizens Congress that would engage American in discussions of major issues. But young Americans aren't waiting: They're seizing opportunities to have their say now, including the Democracy 2.0 Declaration drafted by 47 youth leaders convened by Mobilize.org in Washington, D.C., earlier this month. You can read the declaration and sign on in support here. Thanks to Sandy from NCDD for passing along word of the petition.

Speaking of Edwards' proposal, Mica Stark published an op-ed in the Manchester (New Hampshire) Union Leader this week. Stark noted that although the war in Iraq, health care, the environment, and education are key issues in the 2008 elections, Edwards' call for a Citizens Congress ranks among "the more important speeches of the cycle thus far on the health and state of our democracy. ... While the merits of Edwards' proposal need to be debated, the issue of how the public can be more involved in policymaking and governance should be front and center during the primary, and voters should be pressing all the candidates, on both sides, for their specific ideas in how they see citizens participating and partnering with the next administration in solving our collective problems. ... After election day, most citizens are left on the sidelines as spectators with little opportunity to shape the decisions being made on their behalf." Read the full essay here.

As noted on the Study Circles Resource Center website today, a schools action team that grew out of study circles in the Mundelein, Illinois, area, is exploring ways - including blogs - to improve communication between the local schools and residents. Student study circles are planned soon, too. Read more here, and click here to see how your community can use study circles to work on education and other issues.

At least 1,800 Southern California homes have been destroyed in the wildfires that have swept across the state this month. Against that backdrop, it's some comfort to know that Habitat for Humanity's annual Jimmy Carter Work Project is in Southern California this year. Next week, thousands of volunteers - including former President Jimmy Carter and his wife Rosalynn - will build 30 news houses and repair 70 more in an event designed to call attention to the 1.6 billion people worldwide who need affordable housing. Here are stories from some of the families involved in next week's build.

The Georgia Supreme Court today ordered that Genarlow Wilson be released from prison, ruling 4-3 that his sentence of up to 10 years in prison on a teen sex conviction was cruel and unusual punishment. In a highly publicized case, Wilson, an African-American, was convicted in 2005 of aggravated child molestation for having consensual oral sex with a 15-year-old girl when he was 17. He's now 21. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported today that when Wilson was sentenced, his crime "carried a mandatory 10-year sentence with no parole. However, the law was changed in 2006 to make Wilson's crime a misdemeanor with a maximum 1-year sentence."

Here's an interesting essay by writer, researcher, and civic strategist Brad Rourke, who had the recent misfortune to send an email to an unintended recipient. Rourke raises intriguing questions about the balance between immediacy and accuracy in both private (emailed) and public (blogs and the like) online communication. Thanks to Molly for the tip on this.

And with that, this blogger hits the publish button on today's digest, hoping that everything here is fair and accurate - and knowing that one or more readers will let us know if it is not. 

Friday digest-open thread 10/19/07

John Mellencamp has a long history of addressing racism, in such songs as "Jim Crow," "We Are the People," and "Our Country." He's at it again with a new and very timely song called "Jena," which will be on his next CD but is already streaming at his website and on YouTube (click on the image below to play):

Here's Mellencamp's statement on the song:

"I am not a journalist, I am a songwriter and in the spirit and tradition of the minstrel, I am telling a story in this song. The story is not, strictly speaking, about the town of Jena or this specific incident but of racism in America.

"The song was not written as an indictment of the people of Jena but, rather, as a condemnation of racism, a problem which I've reflected in many songs, a problem that still plagues our country today.

"The current trial in Jena is just another reflection of prejudice in our nation. If the song strikes an emotional chord with people and if they examine it and interpret as they will, something will have been accomplished. The aim here is not to antagonize but, rather, to catalyze thought."

John Edwards' call last week for a Citizens Congress continues to draw attention. John Gastil, co-editor of The Deliberative Democracy Handbook, has an op-ed in the Seattle Times. He writes:

"At the present time, our elected officials record our sentiments through polls, talk radio, blogs, ad hoc public forums and the blunt instrument of elections. The public voice Washington hears is already thrice filtered, by special-interest campaigns, media frames and politicians themselves.

"Edwards proposes an alternative means of public expression in American politics. ... the immediate inspiration for Edwards appears to be the "21st Century Town Meeting" developed by the civic organization AmericaSpeaks. Edwards refers to this when he cites the 'citizen-centered projects' that have given ordinary people a voice in designs for the World Trade Center memorial, the redevelopment of New Orleans, [and] health-care reform in California. ...

"... Edwards' proposal is currently a 150-word sketch on a campaign Web site. At this stage, I find myself in the same position as a fan who discovered and adored a garage band before it went mainstream. Having studied deliberative reforms for 15 years, I hope that Edwards' proposal remains true to its roots. The Citizen Congress can satisfy this hard-core fan only if its final form is transparent, representative, deliberative, directive and influential."   

Read it all here. NCDD has a page featuring coverage of and reaction to Edwards' plan. Click here.

Words to ponder:

"What is democracy? The tedious, hard, perplexing, messy, and seemingly endless task of working through what kind of people we are going to be and what kind of communities we will live in. Politics is the work of democracy, and it encompasses practically everything that we can and must do together: how we educate our children, design our communities and neighborhoods, feed ourselves and dispose of our wastes, care for the sick and elderly and poor, relate to the natural world, entertain and enlighten ourselves, and defend ourselves. It also affects what values we seek to defend, what roles are chosen for us by virtue of our identity, and what roles we create for ourselves."

- Bill Moyers, from a 1997 essay, quoted in this column on study circles by Florida resident Mark Kaufman.

House hears Jena Six testimony

The president of the Southern Poverty Law Center told the House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday that because the federal government "has a strong interest in promoting racial harmony in our nation’s schools ... in some cases, this interest may require federal officials to investigate and prosecute hate crimes ..."

Richard Cohen's testimony came during an often-emotional hearing in which Democratic legislators and activists lambasted federal authorities for not intervening in the Jena Six case, in which six black students were accused of beating a white classmate after nooses were hung from a tree on their Louisiana campus.

But Cohen added, "We believe that the bulk of the federal effort should be aimed at preventing hate crimes from occurring in schools in the first place and at helping state and local officials to respond to the tensions that often occur in the aftermath of such crimes."

Cohen gave all the lawmakers a copy of a new brochure, "Six Lessons From Jena," created by the SPLC's Teaching Tolerance project. The brochure, written by Jennifer Holladay, also has been mailed to more than 50,000 educators. Its lessons include:

1. Don't ignore obvious signs of trouble.
2. Examine your school's climate.
3. Take bias incidents seriously.
4. Provide forums for meaningful discussion.
5. Use bias incidents as teachable moments.
6. Bridge divisions in the school - and the community.
   

As the web version of the brochure notes via a link to this article ("One Conversation at a Time"), the Study Circles Resource Center has long experience in helping schools examine racial issues and create more positive school experiences for all students. Learn more about SCRC's work to fight racism  and help every student succeed.

In his testimony (a full transcript can be found here), Cohen also reminded House members that "the problem of hate crimes and racial unrest at schools is not confined to the  South—the recent noose hangings at Columbia University in New York City and at the University of Maryland are examples of its widespread nature—and is not confined to tensions between black and white students."

Cohen said that although the Jena noose hangers were never charged with a crime, they probably could have been, but he added "we would never contend that the noose hangers should have been sent to prison, charged with a crime, or even expelled for that matter. Although we believe that the Jena 6 were seriously overcharged, sending white students to jail would be a poor way of balancing the scales.

“The federal government should be prepared to investigate and prosecute serious hate crimes that occur in our nation’s school when state and local authorities fail to take appropriate action. But the criminal law is a blunt instrument, and too many of our young people are already being pushed out of our schools and into our prisons,” Cohen said. “A far wiser course than increasing federal prosecutions would be increasing federal investment in services designed to soothe the racial and ethnic tensions simmering in
our nation’s schools and to respond promptly when hate crimes occur.

"Congress should consider mandating an increase in the staff of the Community Relations Service," Cohen added. "As our nation’s diversity has increased, the size of the Community Relations Service has decreased.”

For many years, Teaching Tolerance has offered its Mix It Up program as a way for students  to talk about racial differences in one of the most segregated places they know: the school cafeteria. This year’s Mix It Up at Lunch Day is coming soon, on November 13. Learn more here.