General

During Women’s History Month, we want to highlight three individuals that have dedicated their lives to social justice: Angela Davis, Dolores Huerta, and Helen Zia. Each has demonstrated their dedication to pushing for racial equity and inclusion in America.

The first woman we would like to highlight is Angela Davis. She is Distinguished Professor Emerita in the History of Consciousness and Feminist Studies Departments at the University of California, Santa Cruz.

As an educator, author, and revolutionary activist, Davis is highly regarded for her civil rights and abolitionist work. In 1972 Davis gave a speech at the Embassy Auditorium in Los Angeles after being acquitted of conspiracy, kidnapping, and murder charges. Davis stated, “Revolution is a serious thing, the most serious thing about a revolutionary’s life. When one commits oneself to the struggle it must be for a lifetime.”

True to her word, Davis has spent most of her life advocating for social issues pertaining to gender, race, class, and abolishing the prison–industrial complex. The prison industrial complex is the idea that imprisonment and policing are a solution for social, political, and economic problems. She is one of the founders of Critical Resistance, an organization that aims to dismantle and challenge the prison-industrial complex. As a Marxist feminist– a variant of feminism that extends Marxism to analyze the ways in which women are exploited through capitalism– she published a book in 1981, ‘Women, Race, and Class’, which examines gender, race, and class in the United States. She continues to be an active revolutionary author with recent releases such as ‘Freedom is a Constant Struggle Ferguson, Palestine, and the Foundations of a Movement’ which was published in 2015 and examines the concept of attaining freedom in contemporary world conflicts.

The second woman we would like to highlight is Dolores Huerta who is a prominent American labor and civil rights advocate and leader. Though she has had a distinguished career as a social activist and feminist leader, she began her labor activist career after seeing the farm children she taught in the 50s struggle in their studies due to hunger. She got involved with the Stockton chapter of the Community Service Organization (CSO), which led voter registration drives and fought for economic improvements for Hispanics.

In 1962, she founded the National Farm Workers Association– later changed to the United Farm Workers of America (UFW)– alongside César Chávez, a notable labor rights leader. Her time as a leader in the UFW included organizing the union’s grape boycott effort which forced grape producers to improve working conditions for migrant farmworkers.

Hailed as one of the most prominent leaders of the Chicano civil rights movement, she has worked to elect more Latinxs and women to political office and has championed women’s rights.

In 1972, Arizona’s Legislature pushed a bill that denied farm workers the right to strike and boycott during harvest seasons, effectively making it impossible for them to organize. She coined the movement’s famous slogan ‘¡Sí se puede!’ to rally Arizona’s farm workers in an effort to revive morale during unfavorable circumstances. The slogan was later adopted and translated to English as ‘Yes We Can’ by the 2008 Barack Obama presidential campaign. She is the founder and president of the Dolores Huerta Foundation which sets out to inspire communities to pursue social justice and she continues tirelessly advocating for the working poor, women, and children.

Our final figure is Helen Zia, an activist, award-winning author and former journalist. According to the Asian Pacific American Institute at New York University, “Zia has been outspoken on issues ranging from civil rights and peace to women’s rights and countering hate violence.” Throughout her career, she has advocated for LGBT and Asian American rights and has written multiple books on Asian American issues. In 1982, she came to prominence as an activist for Asian American rights after becoming the public spokesperson and getting involved in organizing a campaign that sought justice for the victim of a hate crime. Vincent Chin—a Chinese American man who was brutally murdered in a hate crime in Detroit, Michigan.

Recently, Zia spoke on the racism Asian American and Pacific Islanders have faced due to the fact that the Coronavirus disease was first identified in China. In a virtual discussion with students of the Taft School, a private Connecticut-based high school, she said, “The pattern of the way Asian Americans are treated in American society throughout history has been to blame, to scapegoat, to target, or to make Asian American and Pacific Islander people as though they are always the ‘other’—never belonging.”

All three of these powerful and courageous women have seen the injustices in their communities and have committed themselves to actively making a difference.

If you would like to learn more about these remarkable women, please visit:
Angela Davis
Dolores Huerta
Helen Zia

In California, many of us this week have received our ballots in the mail, all but ready to be marked with the voice of change. On this year’s ballot sit a total of 12 important propositions where Californians have the ability to mark either “Yes” or “No” on measures that will affect us all on a day-to-day basis. Feeling overwhelmed with all the choices? Not sure which proposition to support or oppose? No problem! Below you will find more information on Prop 17 and Prop 25, both on the ballot this year, and both causes that we here at A New Way of Life believe are in line with our fight for criminal justice reform. 

Yes on Prop 17: Free the Vote 
Restores the right to vote to individuals on parole and opens up opportunities to run for office

Proposition 17 will:

• Allow 50,000 Californians who have completed their prison term to fully participate in our democracy by restoring their right to vote. 
• Help Californians who are returning home from prison reintegrate into society and have a stake in their communities. 
• Help combat voter suppression among Black and brown communities, who are over-policed and subject to systemic inequalities within our criminal legal system 
• Make our communities safer as voting and civic engagement reduce the likelihood that people will be rearrested.
• Ensure California election laws are fair, inclusive, and in line with other progressive states.
• In Favor: ACLU California, League of Women Voters, California Democratic Party, Governor Gavin Newsom, Lt. Governor Eleni Kounalakis, US Rep Ro Khanna, Los Angeles Times, Black Lives Matter – California
  

For more information visit: freethevote2020.org

Yes on Prop 25: End Money Bail
Yes would uphold the contested legislation, Senate Bill 10 (SB 10), which would replace cash bail with risk assessments for detained suspects awaiting trials.

Proposition 25 will: 

• The bail reform law balances safety, fairness, and the rights of defendants and victims, and no one who is a safety risk can use bail to buy their way out of jail just because they are wealthy.
• The bail reform law creates a fairer system that doesn’t base freedom on the ability to pay but on the public safety risk of the defendant.
• There are roughly 46,000 people awaiting trial in local jails, costing the State of California $5 million a day. Many of the defendants are not a safety risk to the public.
• The $2 billion for-profit bail bond industry is designed to strip wealth from people and their families.
• In Favor: Governor Gavin Newsom, Congresswoman Karen Bass, State Senator Holly J. Mitchell, Anti-Recidivism Coalition, California Democratic Party, SEIU California, League of Women Voters of California

For more information visit: https://yesoncaprop25.com/

I sat down today with our Community Organizer, Amber Rose Howard, to talk about “Ban the Box,” officially known as the Fair Chance Hiring Ordinance. As its name suggests, the Fair Chance Hiring Ordinance is a policy that sets in place a procedure for employers to follow that would guarantee more fairness in the hiring process for people with conviction histories.

“The Box” refers to the question that is found on most job applications that inquires about conviction histories. Statistics have indicated that those who disclose conviction histories are 50% less likely to move forward for gainful employment.

“Those with conviction histories such as myself know that the application is going to be shoved to the bottom or thrown out because the past conviction is essentially an automatic disqualifier” says Amber Rose.

“Policy won’t change society. But policy forces a change in habit. A change in habit can influence attitude, and then we have an opportunity to change the hearts of people. I’m hoping that employers and people in general see that just because someone is formerly convicted does not mean that they are a bad person or that they are a risk. I hope that as society we start to welcome people with former convictions as normal human beings. We have a 60%+ recidivism rate in California, and it’s because people are not being welcomed back into the community. Not only are people being turned away from jobs, but there is a powerful stigma surrounding those with conviction histories.”

The Fair Chance Hiring Ordinance passed on November 30^th, 2016. The City of Los Angeles enforces the most progressive form of the ordinance – it’s illegal to inquire about a person’s conviction unless it comes after a conditional offer of employment in Los Angeles. Statewide, it simply bans the question on an application but doesn’t prohibit any inquiries during the interview process.

“I hope there is a psycho-social benefit to the passing of the Fair Chance Hiring Ordinance in addition to there being a fiscal, economic plus,” says Amber Rose. “Everybody deserves the opportunity to reach their full potential.”