PA's Juvenile Racial Injustice, Sanctuary Schools in Philly, Genocide in the US & Canada, Teamsters Target Amazon, and More!
This week the good, bad, and the ugly from Pennsylvania and beyond.
If you missed my latest podcast with Raging Chicken Media editor Kevin Mahoney, you can check it out HERE.
The State of the Nation
Pennsylvania offers evidence of systemic racism for any naysayers. This is the conclusion of a report by the bipartisan Pennsylvania Juvenile Justice Task Force.
“Serious racial disparities pervade Pennsylvania’s juvenile justice system,” the report stated. These disparities disproportionately affect Black youth, who were taken from their homes and prosecuted as adults for first-time and low-level offenses.
“Black youths represent 38% of cases in juvenile court, but 62% of the youths detained before adjudication and 47% sent to a residential facility,” as the AP noted in it’s article on the report. According to the Human Rights for Kids, Pennsylvania ranks among the worst in the nation for protecting children’s human rights in the justice system. PA “has made little to no effort to protect the human rights of children in the justice system and is likely in violation of international human rights standards,” the group’s 2020 State Rankings Report concluded.
Some good news! The Philadelphia school board unanimously adopted a “sanctuary schools” position Thursday that will protect immigrant students and their families from ICE, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported.
The district will develop an “emergency response plan” and afterward ensure training for school staff, contractors, and volunteers on the plan.
“In 2020,” as the Inquirer reported, “a pregnant mother from Honduras was detained by ICE after she dropped off her child at Kirkbride Elementary in South Philadelphia, sparking widespread panic in the immigrant community.”
School board member Mallory Fix Lopez said, “By assuring immigrant students and their families feel unconditionally safe in our schools, we are ensuring that they are given the opportunity to thrive and reach their greatest potential.”
Thank Juntos, the South Philly community-led immigrant rights organization which had been pushing for the sanctuary schools position for months
Allegheny County Common Pleas President Judge Kim Berkeley Clark published a letter on the court’s website calling out systemic racism in the criminal justice system, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported Wednesday.
Judge Clark wrote: “To truly achieve justice, the proverbial scales of justice must be balanced. We must take into account the uneven playing field on which racial and ethnic minorities, those who do not squarely fit into traditional gender roles, other disadvantaged persons, and the poor enter the justice system. The public must see members of our local judiciary and court staff working with urgency to attain this goal in equal solidarity with them, with other justice-related institutions, and with each other. The Fifth Judicial District must rise to this generational challenge.”
Don’t mess with the Teamsters! The 1.4 million worker union voted Thursday to put their solidarity into action by setting aside money and resources to help organize exploited Amazon workers.
“Amazon workers are calling for safer and better working conditions and with today’s resolution we are activating the full force of our union to support them,” Randy Korgan, the national director for Amazon at the Teamsters, told the AP
Korgan, in an article in Salon earlier this month wrote, “Building genuine worker power at Amazon will take shop-floor militancy by Amazon workers and solidarity from warehousing and delivery Teamsters.”
I am looking forward to seeing what this “shop floor militancy” will look like.
Having a Native American as Interior Secretary is already making a huge difference. The U.S. Department of Interior will investigate the deadly and genocidal consequences of our country’s federal Indian boarding school system, Interior Secretary Deb Haaland announced this week.
“This troubling history deserves more attention to raise awareness and to educate others about the atrocities that our people experienced, so that they can better understand our society today and work together to heal and move forward,” Navajo Nation President Jonathan Nez said in a statement.
This comes on the heels of the discovery of unmarked graves of "215 children, some as young as 3 years old", at the site of what was once Canada’s largest residential school for First Nations kids. Then on Thursday 751 unmarked graves were discovered at a cemetery near the former Marieval Indian Residential School in Canada.
Similar discoveries are expected in the U.S. as a result of the Department of Interior’s investigation and report.
"It brings to question now: How many of those kids that were taken away all came back? And are some still considered missing and where may some of these kids be?" Hopi Tribe Chairman Timothy Nuvangyaoma said to Indian Country Today.
More stories to read!
Saudi Operatives Who Killed Khashoggi Received Paramilitary Training in U.S.
US Military Training Manual Describes Socialism as ‘Terrorist Ideology’
Epidemic Response: The Legacy of Colonialism A review of Paul Farmer’s, Fevers, Feuds, and Diamonds: Ebola and the Ravages of History
The Growing Movement to End U.S. Complicity in Colombia's Human Rights Abuses
French executives face torture charges for selling spy gear to Libya, Egypt
Human rights due diligence legislation: New hope for victims of land grabs in Cambodia?
Thanks for reading! I look forward to your feedback and suggestions. And most importantly, keep organizing!