Listen to the Grandmothers at the Ink People October 29th

Two Feathers Native American Family Services,
Ink People Center for the Arts, and
The Humboldt County Domestic Violence Coordinating Council’s Prevention Committee
Invites you to:
A FREE community screening and discussion of
Listen to the Grandmothers

A documentary featuring interviews with Native elders who speak to the problem of violence against Native women. The film provides an historical overview of violence against Native women, traditional responses to such violence and an analysis of incorporating cultural traditions into contemporary responses to violence against Native women.

Date: Thursday, October 29th, 2009
Location: Ink People Center for the Arts
411 12th Street, Eureka
Time: 6:00 to 9:00 pm
~Free dinner provided~

RSVP to Karen at 441-5553.



If you are planning on attending please look at the guide that accompanies the video:

Listen To The Grandmothers
Video Guide and Resource:
Incorporating Tradition into Contemporary Responses
to Violence Against Native Women

The Public Option is NOT Dead

While I'm at home with what is assumed to be swine flu aka H1N1, I saw that perhaps the public option is still possible.

“Bright-Sided: How the Relentless Promotion of Positive Thinking Has Undermined America”

Last Tuesday, Author Barbara Ehrenreich was on Democracy Now speaking about her latest book, “Bright-Sided: How the Relentless Promotion of Positive Thinking Has Undermined America”

Responding to Hate - Standing for Justice

About two weeks ago, this letter was sent out from Rollin Richmond:

Memo from the President - Responding to Hate - Standing for Justice

The Anti Bias/Anti-Hate Subcommittee of the Diversity Plan Action Council asked me to transmit this e-mail message to you. Please know that it has my full support.

Rollin C. Richmond
President

Dear Campus Community:

This message is to update you on the university's ongoing response to the recent hate incident on campus. First, please know that the University is very concerned with this particular incident, other incidents of bigotry, and any efforts at intimidation. In this case, we are honoring the wishes of the person at whom the specific attack was aimed, first by waiting to release information to the campus community until that person made a decision whether to return to the University, and second by not releasing specifics of the event. We, the Anti-Bias / Anti-Hate Subcommittee of the Diversity Plan Action Council (DPAC), encourage the University community to recognize this incident not only as a violation of an individual but also as a human and social group violation. It is at that level that we can and should respond collectively.

In that vein, students, staff and faculty held a "stand for human rights" vigil in front of Harry Griffith Hall on October 1 to affirm the importance of human rights and to support diversity on our campus.

To continue this work of creating a community where all feel welcome, safe, and respected, the Anti-Bias/Anti-Hate Subcommittee has scheduled a "Responding to Hate – Standing for Justice" forum for Wednesday October 7, 5:00-7:00 p.m., in Goodwin Forum (Nelson Hall East 102). This Subcommittee is also working to implement a university-wide Rapid Response Team to address hate incidents and to ensure continued dialogue and education in order to improve campus climate.

To continue these critical dialogues, we encourage your participation in the upcoming 12th Annual Campus Dialogue on Race, November 1-8. This year's schedule will be available at: http://www.humboldt.edu/~dialogue/

Sincerely,
Anti-Bias/Anti-Hate Subcommittee
Jennifer Eichstedt, Co-Chair





I chose to leave my internship early to be able to attend this forum. I was very concerned when I learned of the incident on campus that caused a person to resign and want to leave the community. I felt it was important to attend this forum.

I was surprised about the low number of students in attendance and the lack of very many students of color. I was appreciative of the diverse university employees in attendance: President Richmond, Provost Snyder, university police, and a range of women's studies, ethnic studies, sociology professors. However, I was very disheartened by extremely vocal, antisemitic, racist person in attendance. It was very bizarre. It's one thing to see hate speech on television or somewhere removed, but it is another to be sitting five feet away from such HATE.

The man interrupted the opening discussions by challenging the speaker about the number of crimes perpetrated upon white people. He claimed that gangs of black people were killing white people across America. He continued with a diatribe about professors on campus teaching to hate whiteness and directed this at one of my social work professors who was not in attendance. He also focused on the Jewish agenda for several minutes. He went on for a bit attacking the professor and then moved on to some of the usual propaganda against Obama, challenging whether or not he is a citizen and calling him a socialist king, etc., etc.. Finally he desisted in his hate speech.

Then the discussion actually continued to ways the campus could become a more inclusive safe space for all. We then broke into small groups to address Anti-Bias Response Team and how to create a create more dialogue around diversity and inclusiveness.

I was hoping to leave the forum feeling better about the campus coming together over this bias/hate incident. Yet, I left feeling more dejected and less safe on this campus.

Unnatural Causes

Last spring the Social Work Student Association was able to partner with public health to bring several Unnatural Causes episodes to campus. I watched the series when it originally aired in the spring of 2008. I really enjoyed it and wanted to share it with the community. I saw an ad for the series airing again this October.


From the website:
UNNATURAL CAUSES is the acclaimed documentary series broadcast by PBS and now used by thousands of organizations around the country to tackle the root causes of our alarming socio-economic and racial inequities in health.

The four-hour series crisscrosses the nation uncovering startling new findings that suggest there is much more to our health than bad habits, health care, or unlucky genes. The social circumstances in which we are born, live, and work can actually get under our skin and disrupt our physiology as much as germs and viruses.



There are six episodes:
In Sickness and In Wealth (56 min.) How does the distribution of power, wealth and resources shape opportunities for health?

When the Bough Breaks (29 min.) Can racism become embedded in the body and affect birth outcomes?



Becoming American (29 min.) Latino immigrants arrive healthy, so why don’t they stay that way?

Bad Sugar (29 min.) What are the connections between diabetes, oppression, and empowerment in two Native American communities?



Place Matters (29 min.) Why is your street address such a strong predictor of your health?

Collateral Damage (29 min.) How do Marshall Islanders pay for globalization and U.S. military policy with their health?

Not Just a Paycheck (30 min.) Why do layoffs take such a huge toll in Michigan but cause hardly a ripple in Sweden?

Here are the times for the first two episodes:
Unnatural Causes: Is Inequality Making Us Sick?: In Sickness and in Wealth
Friday, October 9, 10:00pm
How health is linked to one's financial well-being.
Unnatural Causes: Is Inequality Making Us Sick?: In Sickness and in Wealth
Sunday, October 11, 3:00am
How health is linked to one's financial well-being.
Unnatural Causes: Is Inequality Making Us Sick?: In Sickness and in Wealth
Thursday, October 15, 11:30am
How health is linked to one's financial well-being.
Unnatural Causes: Is Inequality Making Us Sick?: When the Bough Breaks; Becoming American
Friday, October 16, 10:00pm
The infant-mortality rates of blacks and whites.
Unnatural Causes: Is Inequality Making Us Sick?: When the Bough Breaks; Becoming American
Sunday, October 18, 3:00am
The infant-mortality rates of blacks and whites.