Welcome to Respect Existence & Expect Resistance (RE&ER)! Thank you for taking 5 minutes out of your day to learn about the injustices that are happening in our nation.
Editorial
The purpose behind RE&ER is to educate the broader American public on race-, class-, and gender-based current events. We want our readers to gain awareness on a range of topics including court cases, education, law, and immigration, and learn about ways they can get involved from their own homes.
Table of Contents
COVID-19 & Racism
The dICEy Reality: The Medically Vulnerable in ICE Detention Centers
DeVos CARES about the Wealthy: Redirecting CARES funding to private schools
What the Bill (1437)?: Amending the Felony Murder Rule
“This is Home”: DACA and the upcoming Supreme Court Decision
R.I.P. George Floyd: What can you do to help?
Justice in the News
COVID-19 & Racism
America’s Fear of Black Men: Be sure to take a look at the section “How America can fight this fear.” A White woman calls the police on a Black man when he politely asks her to leash her dog in Central Park.
Why are residents of America rioting?
The Wave of COVID-19-related evictions: States like Texas and Oklahoma are resuming enforcement of eviction orders. Even renters in states like Massachusetts, who have eviction moratoriums, are being kicked out of their homes.
Hate Crimes Against Asians Rise: Includes happenings in Alameda and Santa Clara County.
Police Brutality in Action (Hayward, CA): Police officer fatally shoots man in his 20s. This is the eighth deadly officer-involved shooting in the Bay Area since Easter.
Ongoing Court Cases
The dICEy Reality
What you should know about this case:
There were 15 (originally 16) medically vulnerable people in 6 different ICE detention centers in Louisiana, Alabama, and Mississippi
Due to the unsanitary and overcrowded nature of detention centers, it was impossible for detainees to maintain social distancing
The staff do not wear gloves or masks; these are also not provided to detainees
What the petitioners are suing for: The emergency release of only these medically vulnerable individuals to stay with their friends and family in the US; they can be lawfully deported but cannot be detained again unless they violate a condition of release
Medically vulnerable ICE detainees are suing Dianna Witte, among others, for life-threatening and unsanitary living conditions at detention centers
Just recently, on May 23, 14 of the 15 detainees were released including:
Suresh Kumar, a 37-year-old Indian refugee, who has been diagnosed with Hepatitis C and liver infection
Taluta Helen Dada, a 40-year-old mother, who suffers from Graves disease among other health conditions and moved to the U.S. from Nigeria 8 years ago
Griselda Del Bosque, a 57-year-old Mexican citizen, who has asthma among other health issues
Hasan Saleh, a 62-year-old Jordanian national, who suffers from diabetes, hypertension, and high cholesterol
Aracelio Rodriguez, a 61-year old citizen from Cuba, has not been released, even though he suffers from severe asthma and is considered high-risk for COVID-19 due to his age and asthma. The judge did not grant him release because there are currently no reported cases of COVID-19 in his detention center, Jackson Parish Correctional Center; at the same time, there has been no testing conducted at this center.
Learn more about the standard of living in ICE detention centers.
Education
DeVos CARES about the Wealthy
On March 25, Congress passed the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, which allocated more than $30 billion for education institutions.
What you need to know about this Act (with regards to education):
$14+ billion in aid for higher education
$13.5+ billion in aid for K-12 schools
$8.8 billion for child nutrition programs
Federal student loan payments are put on hold
Education Secretary Betsy DeVos wants:
CARES Act funding (intended for schools with low-income students) to be dispersed to all schools regardless of the low-income student population
To prioritize funding to small colleges (including private and religious schools) over larger, public schools that also have significant unmet needs related to expenses associated with coronavirus
Expected Outcome: Low-income students in public K-12 schools will receive less aid and large public universities/community colleges will not receive the aid they need to serve their low-income populations and operate at optimal capacity.
Currently, district leaders from big cities, such as Chancellor Richard Carranza from New York City, have voiced concerns over predicted budget downfalls. Because of this, there are expected to be ~275,000 teachers laid-off from just 76 school districts within the urban communities!
To learn more about how you can help public funding be allocated to public schools that serve low-income students, check out the National Coalition for Public Education.
Law
What the Bill (1437)?
On January 1, 2019, the California legislature enacted Senate Bill 1437, which was signed into law by Governor Brown in September 2018.
What you need to know about SB 1437:
Bipartisan bill authored by Senators Skinner (D) and Anderson (R)
This bill amends the previous felony murder rule which charged an individual for first-degree murder if they were a bystander to murder
The felony murder rule (prior to SB 1437) disproportionately affected youth of color and women
SB 1437 in Action: Shawn Khalifa (31) went to prison at the age of 15 and this past February, 16 years later, he was released for a murder he did not commit. In 2004, he and three other teenagers broke into a lady’s home; Khalifa stole some chocolates but was convicted of first-degree murder because he was seen as an accomplice, even though he never touched the lady who was murdered by his peers. The California Supreme Court upheld the new law which is going to make it easier for previously wrongly convicted felons to seek a new sentence.
Currently, bills like SB 1427 only exist in 6 states: Hawaii, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Michigan, Ohio, & California.
Food for Thought:
Does prison help American companies get cheap labor?
Why are companies lobbying politicians to vote against bills like SB 1437? (Find out what industries your company has lobbied for)
Wrongfully convicted incarcerated people can’t get years of their life back, but people like you can propose bills like this one to your local representative! Campaign for causes you care about, educate yourself on state politicians and their platforms, and learn your rights!
Immigration
“This is Home”
Imagine growing up in the United States, attending US public schools, working for US corporations, buying US homes, paying US taxes, yet, the law says you don’t belong. Your livelihood is on the line every two years and you have no idea what the future holds. This is the reality for 800,000 undocumented immigrants who come to the US as children.
DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) was introduced in 2012 by President Barack Obama, as a stopgap measure to protect young undocumented immigrants from deportation (To be completely transparent, President Obama also deported more than 5 million undocumented immigrants). DACA status is renewable, yet temporary, only lasting two years at a time. DACA does not provide a pathway to citizenship.
What you should know about DACA:
DACA provides recipients with work permits and protection from deportation
Two-thirds of DACA recipients are 25 years or younger
200,000+ DACA recipients are working on the front lines of the COVID-19 response
President Donald Trump vowed to terminate DACA back in September 2017. Federal district courts in individual states have kept the program alive, shielding 670,000 immigrants from deportation. Any day, the Supreme Court will be making a decision on DACA but by the upcoming election, nearly one-in-five DACA recipients will lose their protections.
Expected Outcome (if Trump ends DACA):
Nearly 650,000 people will be at risk for deportation
Loss in DACA recipients’ fiscal and economic contributions: $8.7 billion in tax payments, $24 billion in spending power, and $2.9 billion in mortgage and rental payments
Group Spotlight: Brown Issues
Latinx activist group Brown Issues launched an unprecedented call-to-action in California’s state capital to defend DACA in Fall 2017. Still relevant today, a DACA student vocalizes his struggle in this short documentary on the demonstration:
“I want America to know that I’m not different. My skin color, my tone of voice, my accent, my heritage just describes a part of me. I wasn’t born here but I grew up here. I went to the same schools your kids went to. I played in the same playgrounds your kids went to. I want America to know that I’m human.”
*photo credits to @ashlukadraws
Call-to-Action
R.I.P. George Floyd
Last week, Minneapolis Police fatally suffocated George Floyd while he was in their custody. He was already in handcuffs on his stomach on the ground, but his arresting officer killed him while three other officers and bystanders watched and filmed his death.
This act of police brutality is horrifying, unjust, and unacceptable. This is not an isolated event—the US has a history of police brutality and anti-blackness.
Want to help? If you have…
30 seconds: text ‘Floyd’ to 55156 to demand that the officers responsible be charged (so far, the officer that pinned him down has been charged with murder)
1 minute: Go to https://www.justiceforbigfloyd.com/#petition and sign the petition.
2 minutes: Post on Facebook, re-share posts on Instagram, and/or retweet on Twitter.
5-10 minutes: Go to https://www.justiceforbigfloyd.com/make-calls and call based on the instructions!
$ for a good cause: https://www.gofundme.com/f/george-floyd-bigfloyd and/or the Black Visions Collective
Want to ensure protestors are safe?: Become a legal observer
REST IN POWER GEORGE FLOYD
*photo credits @shirien.creates
Written by: Namrata Subramanian, Daniele’ Evans, Daisy Flores, & Jacob Neel
We welcome your feedback and comments below! Please share with friends and family.
Nammu, Heartwarming to see you doing some great work! -Ganz
Hey! I appreciate your hard work in putting all of this information together. I just subscribed and look forward to staying abreast of the issues. I am not so sure including the video of George Floyd's death is helpful, however. It is good we have it as evidence, but I am hesitant to share this newsletter, as I wanted to, because I do not want to share this traumatic video. Rest in power, George Floyd.