The following is a news release from the National Latina/o Law Students Association

DATE: May 17th, 2010

May 17, 2010 marks the 56th Anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka (1954), the landmark Supreme Court decision that prohibited racial segregation in public schools. Brown laid the foundation for shaping future policies regarding civil and human rights by recognizing the adverse psychological and social impact of racial discrimination. Brown’s legacy is now in jeopardy. The growing sentiments behind Arizona’s immigration enforcement bill (SB 1070) and the recent curtailment of ethnic studies programs in Arizona (HB 2281) are a direct assault on the civil rights of undocumented immigrants, the Latino community, and all minority students.

The National Latina/o Law Student Association is run exclusively by and for Latino law students. As such, we recognize the importance of continuing the fight for racial integration in higher education. In honor of Brown’s legacy, NLLSA joins the efforts in support of the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act (DREAM Act). The DREAM Act is a bill that would give immigrant students the chance to become legal residents if they came here as children, are long-term U.S. residents, have good moral character, and attend college or enlist in the military for at least two years.

The need to remember and reclaim Brown’s legacy could not come at a more urgent time. Currently, an estimated 65,000 undocumented students graduate U.S. high schools each year, but a large number of these students are unable to pursue a college degree because their legal status disqualifies them from receiving publicly funded financial aid. Many are honor-roll students, valedictorians, and community leaders, not to mention aspiring lawyers, teachers and doctors. Without access to educational financing and a path to citizenship, these talented students are barred from fully contributing their talents and potential to our society and communities.

In coalition with United We Dream and other student group activists, NLLSA encourages congressional members and community organizations to support the DREAM Act before the end of this summer. We urge our members, alumni, and supporters to sign the online petition as a first step: http://dreamact.com/?p=56 and to join our fellow activist students in support of the DREAM Act.

MORE INFORMATION ON NLLSA:
National Latina/o Law Students Association (NLLSA) is a tax-exempt section 501(c)(3) not-for-profit corporation serving as a conduit for Latina/o law student voices. Founded on principles of social, ethnic, racial, gender and sexual equality, NLLSA is focused on advancing Latina/o academic success and commitment to community service. NLLSA is fueled by a progressive coalition-building approach to addressing the legal issues affecting Latinas/os around the nation. For more information, please visit http://www.nllsa.org.

USC Journalism Professor Sandy Tolan, author of the The Lemon Tree and producer of dozens of radio productions, is teaming up with Intersections: The South Los Angeles Report and the new online news site, Patch.com.  The course is called “One Square Mile” and it will assign a team of reporters to devote all of its focus on a single square mile of South Los Angeles, Watts, Compton or Inglewood.  A team of students will identify one square mile in the community, and within those confines will tell stories (for TV, radio, print and online) about politics, arts, culture, crime, oral history, migration, hopes, and dreams.  For each team, the square mile in question might have, for example, a 99 cent store, an old cafe, a police precinct, a halfway house, an art gallery, an urban garden, a city hall, a retirement home, a community theatre.  Each team will document the stories within that square mile, in video, audio, print, slideshows, blogs, and social media.

We would very much like your help in suggesting candidates for a square mile where both issues of concern in South Los Angeles, as well as untold stories on politics, culture, the arts, and history could be explored by a team of young journalists for a multi-platform journalistic project.  We want to help students see that stories are everywhere, right in front of us, and that we pass by countless stories every day.  By focusing in on a single square mile, an entire world will come to life.

We want to invite your participation in this class, especially in two areas:
1)  Send us your ideas for a specific square mile within South Los Angeles that the class might focus on.  Please include any details that would help us understand why this square mile would be a good one to focus on.  Also, tell us if you’d be willing to talk to the class about this at some point.

2)  Please also send us any ideas about community leaders, South LA journalists, issues experts and others, who could talk to the class about the issues facing the community, and specific story ideas the reporters might pursue.

If you have suggestions, please email The South L.A. Report at southla[at]usc.edu

In light of the passing of the immigration bill in Arizona, Phoenix Suns owner Robert Sarver is making a statement by having players wear “Los Suns” jerseys at tomorrow’s game, The Arizona Republic reported.

It’s nice to know that the organization is using the popularity of the team to show their fans that they are against the political move. With many people boycotting the state of Arizona, it would be difficult to root for a team that said nothing about the issue.

The small gesture of the three-letter word is meant to spark some discussion about the bill and to celebrate diversity in Arizona and in NBA, the owner said.

In 1998, Tupac Shakur released his a single Changes. The song is about the rapper’s view of the world as an entertainer and as an African American man in South Los Angeles.

This past weekend, as an Intersections mentor, I used the song to help teach a workshop on cultural identity and broadcast journalism.

Students from the Urban Media Foundation had a discussion about how music, religion, and their cities define who they are as individuals. Using Tupac’s song as an example, we spoke about how he used his success as a rapper to talk about issues in the community such as race and class.

I felt like this related to our broadcast exercise because it allowed the students an opportunity to have an open discussion about how they view themselves and how they view others based on what school they attend, the city they live in and the clothes they wear. By talking about cultural identity, we were able to better understand what stories are important to us and important to our communities.

There were about a dozen students at the Urban Media Foundation workshop—a smaller group because of the SAT—all from different high schools in Los Angeles. In the second half of the session students were taught how to use video cameras for interviewing. They took turns asking questions and created short video clips where they discussed cultural identity.

Posts will be up this week in High School Notebook.