Perceptions from the bay...

We had our HiA meeting with Mike Allen, our "San Franciscan Nick" who had already welcome us in his Oakland house for a briefing on Berkeley and San Francisco thanks to the documentary "Berkeley in the 1960S". So, we met him twice this week: first for a reception at the German Consulate and second in SF MOMA and Yerba Buena Gardens.
The reception opened with a very intersting note by Pr. Takaki who talked to us about the history of immigration in the US, namely on the Pacific coast, and on what was multiculturalism in the US. It was extremely interesting and lively. I think what Professor Takaki had been through found echoes in our own experiences: the opening chapter of his book relates a story of a cab driver who was surprised by Mr. Takaki's skills in English and continues on the fact that the driver seemed even more surprised when the Professor revealed that the secret to his skills was being American. I remember that during the core program, some fellows mentionned a few anecdotes like these that happened recently in their respective countries. So once again we thought about what it means to be an American, a German, a Dane, a Pole, a Dutch or a French. Pr Takaki used this nice linguistic image of epistemology, or "how we know what we know", for his demonstration and this is closely linked to our definition of an American or a Dane, how do we come to the fact that someone fits or not in our image of a Dutch? What kind of information shape our perceptions and assumptions to what a German should look like? to how a Pole should sound like? to how a French should behave? I confronted these questions 3 years ago when I first came to California: I was surprised by the Asian population and soon understood that most people were not Asian but Asian-American and I understood it through many clumsy (and certainly annoying) questions similar to the taxi driver's; and even though my parents had been asked the same thing in France..

Friday, we still very much focused on perceptions thanks to Matisse, whose works are exhibited at the Museum of Modern Arts. We saw the the way a same model was shown on a painting and on a scultpure, and the difference between both of them. Through an interactive tour, we also saw the different ways people reacted to it and how things like sensuality and depiction could be completely different from a person to another. This sounds obvious when it comes to a piece of art; whether it is music or a painting: people agree to disagree and accept the difference. Now, why isn't so obvious when it comes to people, communities, neighborhoods, religions, skin color?
We then went to Yerba Buena gardens to talk about the different feelings we had about Matisse and the other exhibitions and to plan the coming events. In the garden we were once again confronted to difference: a man was talking to himself right next to us and it seemed that he had a lot to tell to himself, and that he was not happy about himself. It gave us the opportunity to understand some of the comments made by one character of the documentary we watched at Mike's: some people in the Bay Area have uncanny behaviors BUT we should keep in mind that we refuse to fall in stereotyping and we should respect differenceS. However nobody can disagree on the fact that people talking to themselves are somewhat turning into a majority-minority category in this part of the Golden State..and maybe the reasons why these people end up doing this and living in the streets is a more interesting question to address.


It has already been 2 weeks since we all landed in San Francisco, time is flying and so were we yesterday riding down the hills of San Francisco! --It was another story when we had to bike up the hills... but that was awesome! Thanks Doreen, Julia, Gregor, Ingmar, Jedrek, Johannes and Pawel: it was so much fun doing this with you.
We crossed the Golden Gate Bridge and ended up in very nice Sausalito for lunch...I mean burgers, pizza and ice cream. ;-)

As we are HiA, we could not prevent to have a dicussion on the economic condition of Poland hoping that it would follow the Irish path, and on the reason why so many German people were studying in Warsaw..Neither the Germans or the Poles came up with a precise answer but we ended up on the thought that Poland's place in Europe was growing and that many people were interested in researching the numerous layers of this topic. Plus, German-Polish relations are far better than French-Polish ones...No comment.. I love Asia, Jedrek and Pawel and I am not even afraid of the Polish plumber!!

Soraya

Thursday, July 26: For Justice and HipHop!

Surprisingly, after two weeks we had finally learned to be on time. We made Matt’s day who didn’t miss Galen though. Our first speaker of the day was Veronica Eady who spoke the American fellows’ mind. She talked about Environmental Justice with focus on NYC. It was the first time we mentioned important environmental issues. The Europeans learned that environmental justice is not just an international problem of multinationals shipping off their waste to India, but of building schools on toxic grounds in the impoverished areas of NYC. Environmental justice in the US focuses mainly around the discrimination of race. The movement started in the 1980s growing out of the Civil Rights Movement. But even today, the battle has not finished yet. The New York Layers for the Public Interest (NYLPI) support communities in fighting against waste facilities in poor neighborhoods and for cleaning up contaminated soil. Even though Veronica tries hard she has not managed yet to make the Americans aware of the threatening environmental problems and to stop them from consuming too much.

Veronica’s colleges Cynthia Soohoo and Marianne Engelman-Lado working on the Campaign to Restore Civil Rights talked about the recent development in American courts and the drawbacks for human rights. According to our guests, the Supreme Court has interpreted the definition of discrimination very narrowly, which makes it very hard to prove discrimination in court. Moreover, individual states cannot be held responsible for civil rights violations. Highly motivated, they explained how conservatives do not preserve anything but are a great force of change and therefore do not deserve the label. The right wing judges have created an enormous gap between domestic and international human rights law. The last hope for human rights advocates is to fill loose state definition by international interpretations. In addition to creative legal strategies, Cynthia and Marianne have dedicated themselves to explain 55% of the Americans about the three government branches.

Next we welcomed increasingly pregnant Elena Cabral who promised us that we would learn how to look straight into somebody’s eyes but still write down every word he says. Although we doubt our multitasking abilities we appreciated her journalistic expertise. We are now ready to go out there and after a short but polite introduction of 20 words get the most amazing quotes. So, we ask: “Who else can we talk to?”

Nobody is perfect but we don’t talk about our failures. Although we haven’t seen the movie “about Wings and Roots”, we believe that it is very impressive. We will confirm so on Wednesday.

Off we were to the greatest show in town: The finale at the international National Dance Institute, which we had visited to teach Jumpstyle last week. We were taken on an artistic journey from Bali, through Mexico to NYC’s street culture. Rolling eyes and vibrating hands enchanted the crowd but imitations failed. Yet, Balinese dance can’t go with ballet, nor with tap, but with Mary Kennedy’s hip hop as demonstrated by kicking and pulling movements. However, we were really impressed by the talents. As they enjoyed the dancing, we enjoyed the show.

Even though we still really love each other, that night we split and didn’t decide on a common activitiy. However, we are sure everyone enjoyed the free night.

Pawel, Shauna & Julia

Evangelicals for HIA

We arrived bright in early at NYU on Monday, which trumped Packer with its comfortable chairs, air conditioning and free breakfast, not to mention its location right in the heart of the village (sorry Nick). The subject of the day was religiosity. We began with Randy Balmer, who defined evangelicalism for us:
1) The biblical text is taken literally and the text is seen as normative.
2) The concept of the conversion or experience in which one is “born again.”
3) The responsibility to evangelize or bring others into the fold.
We discussed how evangelism has become a force in politics, beginning (not, with Roe V. Wade) but with the election of Carter, a “born again Christian,” in the wake of the Nixon scandal. He also mentioned that as Churches grew that the three concepts of evangelism have been professionalized. Moreover, we discussed how evangelism has become a force for conservatism that has little basis in the three concepts. For example, we talked about how the movement that spearheaded some of the anti-slavery movements gained racist tendencies. We wondered to what extent the religious tenements really influenced the beliefs of the religious right. However, Balmer argued that the religious right is on the wane.

Next up was John Washburn. He spoke mostly about co-opting the support of evangelicals for the International Criminal Court.

Peter Skerry was next up, after a quick lunch break where most of got Indian food. He spoke about Muslims in the US, speaking mostly about how the situation of Muslims has completely changed since 9/11. We talked about Muslim American identity, and the prejudices of the American public.

Finally, we ended with Bill Eskridge, whose southern eloquence kept us all awake at 4:30 in the afternoon. Behind him he drew a detailed picture of the united states split into three regions (see below)



Region 1 was called the “benign” region, meaning that gays and lesbians are mostly accepted into society. In these states there are anti-discrimination laws, and in some cases same-sex marriage.
Region 2, are the “tolerable” states. They often tolerate gays and lesbians but they will not extend rights like marriage.
Finally, region 3 hold the opinion that gays and lesbians are “malignant,” they are the most likely to have statutes and regulations explicitly discriminating against gays and lesbians.

We talked about “no-promo-homo” laws, which are laws that discriminate against LGBT individuals. And we also talked about the historical progression that Eskridge sees.
Privacy Rights (such as sodomy laws) -> Anti-Discrimination laws -> Relations Laws

Since Lawrence V. Texas anti-sodomy laws have been struck down. The next step in Eskridge’s view is to push for anti-discrimination laws in the workplace. He feels that they are both achievable, important and palatable to the public. By allowing more gays and lesbians to feel comfortable in the workplace, they can pave the way for future rights.

Later that evening a few of us explored some of NYC’s best restaurants through restaurant week, yum.

(Kayla, Jendrek, Jason, Katharina)

Friday, July 27: We've got some questions?

On Friday morning, we returned to the debate over public education in New York City--a debate that is already controversial in this city, but might be even moreso within our group. Even the three of us find ourselves mired in debate over charter schools.

Here are some of the major questions that we have about charter schools: What policy reforms will Joel Klein, Chancellor of NYC Public Schools, and the City implement in public schools? Are charter schools permanant institutions in public education, or are they temporary stages in a broader, more equitable, public education reform? If competition and accountability are two of the most oft-spoken flashwords for charter school advocates, who is able to access information about charter schools and about public school performance? Does competition not always end in inequality? What are the implications of accepting inequality of educational opportunity, when we also speak about an equal right to equal education? Despite the differences in our opinions, we think that in general, we all share concern for the looming question, what is happening, and what will happen, to non-charter public schools? Similarly, most, if not all of us, have a strong concern for any for-profit charter schools because of the incontrovertible proof that private concerns inevitibly come into conflict with public goods and equality. Furthermore, every critic of public education has mentioned the teachers' union, but we have not had a chance to actually listen to anyone from the union. Critics of the union seem to have very legitimate concerns, but we just need to learn more about the union's own arguments.

We had the opportunity to listen to Mimi Corcoran (former executive director of the Beginning with Children Foundation, Inc.) and Ejim Dike (Right to Education Project) at the International Center for Tolerance Education. We joined high schools students who are also on fellowships at the Human Rights Summer Institute, hosted by the ICTE. HiA fellows will be mentoring the HRSI fellows on education topics over the next week, as the prepare for debate over school vouchers, charter schools, and No Child Left Behind.

In the afternoon, we had a visit from Shari Turitz from the Synergos Institute, about philanthropy along the Mexico-U.S. Border. Because of the fact that many of us had enormous double-bacon cheeseburgers from Five Guys in Brooklyn (especially Sean and Thomas), the post-lunch digestion lull really hit hard. But the role of the private sector in social change has been a repeated theme this summer, and our next speaker, Linda Rottenburg, raised this issue to the fore. Linda is the CEO and founder of Endeavor, a non-profit organization that provides business assistance to entrepreneurs in emerging economies.

Again, Linda's project raised some crucial questions for us, without many answers. For example, Linda told us about two Argentinian entrepreneurs who began an office supply company from scratch. Their company grew successfully--then, Staples bought it out, and one of the two founders is the regional manager of Staples in Latin America. Doesn't this simply allow U.S. corporations to save themselves from the risks of investing in emerging economies until people from these countries have grown their own successful businesses? Second, is this another "trickle-down" economic model of deveopment? That is, will producing another "crop" of successful business people in emerging economies actually benefit the poor? Alternatively, how can you help the poor without a strong economy? If Endeavor is really advancing progressive social goods, why does it happen that so many huge corporate CEOs are so interested in and excited about their work? Many progressives have a knee-jerk reaction to nearly anything from the private sector, but how can we engage in and with the private for progressive politics?

Again, many of us are undecided on the project of Endeavor. But we also see the good of, sometimes, "ending" with some questions. We are also asking questions about where our own perspectives and opinions come from. What historical, cultural, political, and economic conditions have given rise to our own perspectives? It is without a doubt that part of what has made our discussions so vibrant thus far is because of the wide range of diversity of our backgrounds.

At night, to ease our differences, we played a game of "Uno." (Thomas made the incredibly poor joke of a title, "Unoversal.") However, we quickly discovered that there are different ways of playing this game, which quickly devolved into disputes over the rules, and, ultimately, hilarity.

Love,
Soraya, Doreen, Thomas

Thursday, 7/19/2007

Today we left for Brooklyn in a rather different way than we normally
do, namely over the water. Although we had to wait for 30 minutes for
our boat to arrive, it was a worthwhile experience as we got to see
the skyline of the financial district from the top of the water taxi.
When we arrived back on the mainland we rushed over to the subway as
we were very late. After an interesting detour along the highway of
red hook, we were finally picked up by Matt who gave us correct
directions to the Red Hook Community Justice Center. The justice
center, an initiative from the an organization called court innovation
(www.courtinnovation.org), has had a major positive influence on the
highly criminalized community of Red Hook. Combining a criminal,
family and housing court the community justice center seeks to find
solutions for the many problems which used to be invested in the
community of red hook. Rather than punishing offenders of low level
crimes through incarceration, red hook tries to look at the underlying
problems which motivate many of the recurring criminal offenders. The
center has a clinic, social workers and offers legal aid to the
defendants, through which it tries to address the root of the
problems. After watching several hearings, many of us were highly
impressed by this almost 'commonsensical' alternative to the American
obsession with incarceration.


The wonderful wonderful thing that day of course was Herbert Sturz,
whom we met at his Vera Institute of Justice (www.vera.org). He
founded this institute together with Louis Schweitzer in 1961, soon
working with New York Citys government to improve the situation of
people in pretrial detention. Vera moved on, soon working on minority
rights with the Kennedys. The Vera website doesn't say so, just like
it is quite sure that Herbert Sturz concealed many more things. He is
such a humble person, despite having built more than 250 000 houses
for the poor of South Africa, despite Vera being involved with
virtually everything, from court system to housing to evaluating a
police in many countries all around the world. Many of our questions
for him began with "There seems to be a big problem with ..." and
ended with "Has the Vera institute been involved in something to solve
this?" Mr. Sturz answer always was 'yes'. Actually Nina constantly had
a big smile on her face listening to this elderly man who was
predestined to form to a mentor and inspiration in our heads.

A Beautiful Mess

Today, we were awoken by the raw power of a New York thunderstorm. We ended our day at Packer with lightning in the air.

Our first speaker of the day was lefty journalist Kai Wright, whose lecture on health and race focused on the issue of mortality in the black community. Wright’s lecture shook the group’s foundations by raising previously taboo subjects such as sex and drugs (though not rock and roll). After receiving instructions yesterday not to flirt, Wright’s talk added the combination of warmth and electricity that our group was sorely missing.

Wright’s honesty about his ideological leanings was refreshing, and his lecture sparked a passionate discussion about how we conceptualize choice in America. Wright questioned how conservatives have framed the issue of HIV/AIDS, arguing that the choices we make are a product of our circumstances. For example, prisoner’s decisions about sex, drug use, and tattoos are limited by prisons’ regulations regarding clean needles, condoms, and tattoos materials.

After Wright’s talk, we engaged in a discussion about discussion. Specifically, our discussion discussed the important (and sometimes undiscussable) discussion regarding the discussion of minority issues in America, and how they should be discussed. After a stormy discussion, we decided on a policy of two-finger raising. While we thought the storm had passed, we were in merely in the eye of the hurricane.

After our discussion, we watched Edward R. Murrow’s (of Good Night and Good Luck fame) Harvest of Shame (1960). Many were impressed both by Murrrow’s ever-present cigarette, as well as his willingness to cross journalistic boundaries to seek the truth. The film broke down racial boundaries, and was uniquely able to express the most compelling details of migrant workers’ personal narratives. While the group was disappointed that Aristide Zolberg decided to come in June, even without him we were able to have a good discussion about labor unions in the United States.

Our night ended with a social function at the home of Judith Goldstein. The wheels of the Humanity in Action machine were well oiled with gin and tonics, Carlsberg, wine, and Vodka. Alix viewed a video about Berlin, and decided her future was to spend her old age smoking cigarettes in this city with Edward R. Murrow.


Our night was further complicated by a steam explosion in New York City. One person was killed, but luckily, it was not a member of our group. While the alcohol improved the group’s function, our return home was quite dysfunctional. Due to a steam explosion near Grand Central Station, our travel arrangements home from Judy’s party were complicated, forcing many of us to take a taxi home.

July 18th was a day of mourning and explosions, from start to finish.

-Alix, Asia, Sean

Not LL Cool J, BUT......Neal!

This morning we stretched our legs uptown to Harlem as we recovered from a fiercely competitive, yet much needed, late-night soccer match. (The French were especially fierce, but no head-butts were reported. Soraya may have hit someone, but not with her head.) Strolling down the historic Malcolm X/Lenox Blvd, we peered into the window of a brand new apartment building that boasted advertisements for new apartments at "The Langston." "Join the Renaissance!" "Real homes for real New Yorkers," the sign reads, below a picture of two white parents, cradling their child, thoughts of Wall Street stirring their pocketbooks for the "steal" of an apartment in Manhattan for a mere $600,000. This is the reality of development in Harlem: Bill Clinton's offices, a new trendy "W" hotel, double-decker tour buses, and new apartment buildings surge uptown, eager to buy up Harlem's historic names and heritage and slap them on their advertisements, while many black people face a stark reality of sharp rent increases and high-priced lifestyles they cannot afford.

Neal Shoemaker is President of Harlem Heritage Tours, an alternative, community-based tour company he founded by accident several years ago. While taking us around historic sites such as the Apollo Theater, Hotel Theresa, and a statue of Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., he also brought us by his friends' hot dog and refreshment carts, waived and hollered at his neighbors, and poked fun at the tour buses that gave people a colonialist's gaze of his streets. Neal gave us a good sense of the issues that Harlem is facing: that the profits of economic "development" rarely stay in Harlem; that people are being forced out of their own homes, neighborhoods and histories; new charter schools that seem to provide some success for youths; a fractured black community failing to negotiate class divisions; and the growing urgency for community organization. Neal provided us with a lively, hilarious, and very human view into the neighborhood he, his parents, and his grandparents lived in, as well as a powerful voice for local tourism and its potential impacts for beneficial social change. Even as he expressed alarm at the changes in Harlem, Neal mixed charm, a small mustache, and some fine dance moves with his social commentary, reflecting a strong tradition among black Americans for bringing the light together with the heavy.

Our toes slapped Malcolm X Blvd to the impressive Schomburg Centre (http://www.nypl.org/research/sc/sc.html) , the most comprehensive collection of historical texts and documents on the cultures of the African diaspora in existence. As we viewed historical charicatures and stereotypes of black Americans, as well as a countering section of positive attempts at self-representation, we discussed contemporary representations that reflect the continuities of history. German stores still sell chocolate bars with an dark-skinned orientalist figure on the wrapper and France continues to drink Banania, a chocolate drink with a "big-lipped" black smile on the box. Many French and Germans ask for "nigger heads," chocolate-covered cream desserts served in bakeries. Colleges and universities in the U.S. have recently had several "blackface" incidents, in which white students painted their bodies and faces black. The colonialist roots of these representations somehow still echo in contemporary pop and consumerist culture.

After enormous portions of mouth-watering soul food at the world famous Sylvia's restaurant, we hit the subway downtown to Brooklyn. On the train, we reflected (quite seriously) on alternative ways of introducing a girlfriend or boyfriend. Partner? Signifiant other? Lover? A wink and a smile? Gregor made the incisive suggestion: "What about teammate?" We believe that we have come by successful progress in this endeavor.

Following this enlightening discussion, we met documentary film-maker Shola Lynch. After producing the award-winning Chisholm '72, about Shirley Chisolm, the determined and idealistic black woman to run for the presidency (people think it is a big deal that Hillary and Barak are running today!), she produced a short series on prisons for CNN. We could write pages about the plight of black Americans with regards to the prison system in the U.S.--their incredible overrepresentation, the private corporations reaping millions from government contracts to build more and more prisons, the racist outcomes of enforcing "tough on crime" laws, mandatory minimums and the "war on drugs," the disenfranchisement of the right to vote for thousands of black Americans who are convicted of felonies; prison labor, the cost to tax-payers, and the costs to prisoners' families. There is something incredibly insidious about the culmination of forces that allow some to profit off the violent regulation and management of very specific populations and there is something pernicious about American society's neglect for the very real needs of people living in poverty and people who cannot enter the society to which they have already paid debt. We are daunted by how deeply embedded punishment has been woven into this society, and are more than concerned at the recent spread of similar approaches to crime, poverty and the "integration" of racial minorities in France, Britain, and other countries.

After Doreen bought two raspberry coffees (she HATES raspberries!) from a deceptive street vendor, we moved on with heavy and tired shoes to the Rotunda Art Gallery in Brooklyn for the opening of an exhibit by artist and teacher Duron Jackson. He spoke eloquently about the effects of our prison system on his brother's life and is attempting to deal with the troubling 10-year sentence of a 17 year-old black high school student named Genarlow Wilson, from Atlanta, for consensual oral sex with a 15 year-old girl. We also learned about the difficulties of conveying the complexities and depth of our thoughts through creativity. Our group had mixed reactions to the exhibit, which consisted of a decentered black print of a naked body on a white page, a large picture of Genarlow, an abstract aerial view of a prison, and the thick smell of grass and dirt on the ground.

We are struggling to connect these events as well as the myriad other speakers and visits we have had the privilege to engage. But we do have questions about the relations between these issues. What are the relations between representations of black Americans and other minorities and such extraordinary incarceration and recivisim rates? What can we glean from Neal's wit, strength, and smile? How do we respond to systematic disenfranchisement and deprivation of minorities through creativity and thoughtfulness? Perhaps we can work through these questions in the alleged debreifing session tomorrow...

Soraya, Doreen, and Thomas