Ella Baker Center Op-Eds
This is the Ella Baker Center Op-Eds page. Here you can find opinion pieces that we have written about our work.
The Oakland Tribune (September 8, 2010) — The Green Collar Jobs Campaign Lead Organizer Emily Kirsch explains the amazing opportunity Oakland has to be a worldwide leader in equitable climate action.
Mercury News (June 8, 2010) — Despite costing more than $436 million annually to warehouse only 1,300 youth, DJJ fails 72 percent of the time — meaning that 72 percent of the young people are rearrested soon after release.
California Progress Report (May 19, 2010) — The California State Department of Education recently released student performance rankings based on standardized tests.
Calitics (September 17, 2009) — California is facing financial ruin. Its schools have been forced to make devastating cuts that could put a whole generation of children at a competitive disadvantage -- and at higher risk of turning to crime. By refusing sensible reforms to save money in our corrections system, more children may lose their health care, more teachers may be laid off, and more health and safety programs may be cut.
The Oakland Tribune (January 2, 2009) — Silence The Violence director Nicole Lee explains the epidemic of violence in Oakland in 2008 and the continued disproportionate affects of crime on the same people year after year.
San Francisco Chronicle (December 10, 2008) — Dec. 10 marks the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. As we call on our global leaders to renew our commitments to universal justice and dignity, Sumayyah Waheed explains how Californians must examine how we treat our youth.
San Jose Mercury News (August 5, 2008) — The closings of DeWitt Nelson Youth Correctional Facility and El Paso de Robles Youth Correctional Facility - two notorious youth prisons - are welcome news for the youths and their families who have been permanently scarred by California's abusive youth prison system. A youth prison system that has crippled California's Budget and darkened California's future.
Oakland Tribune (April 21, 2008) — The Ella Baker Center for Human Rights was acknowledged in a recent Oakland Tribune op-ed written by Unites States Congresswoman Barbara Lee this Earth Day 2008.
Oakland Tribune (February 22, 2008) — The statistics in Oakland are grim: 21 homicides in the first 42 days of 2008 (almost double the number from this time last year). In a single weekend earlier this month, 13 reported shootings in five days claimed eight lives.
In the face of this senseless violence, it's easy for a lot of us to pretend that we're removed from it all, that it has nothing to do with us as individuals. We shake our heads at the problem while keeping it at arm's length. But now more than ever, we must turn toward our young men and women caught in the crossfire, not away from them.
Huffington Post (May 17, 2007) — "Green" is taking off. In business. In culture. In politics. But it's not all clear sailing for the green movement. In fact, it's in danger of setting up a catastrophic — but wholly preventable — populist backlash if it does not work hard to end the enduring perception that it is solely the playground of a white, affluent "eco-elite." Sound crazy? In California, it has already begun.
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