![so-treu:
Georgia town allegedly diverting sewage to black neighborhood
Rochelle, Ga. made national headlines recently when Wilcox County high school held its first-ever integrated prom last weekend.
Now, nonprofit environmental law organization Earthjustice is targeting the town for another instance of racial discrimination: its sewage treatment.
According to Earthjustice, “White residents of Rochelle live on the south side of the city’s railroad track. African-Americans live on the other side.” The city maintains pipes in the predominantly white neighborhood, but not the African-American side. “As a result,” writes Earthjustice, “untreated sewage backs up and overflows into the streets and the yards of residents on the north side of the tracks.”
“Sewage overflows my pipes and flows under my house. It’s time somebody did something about it. They [the white community] live comfortably and I want to live comfortably, too,” said Rochelle resident Rufus Howard.
Howard is one of nine Rochelle residents represented by Earthjustice, who will file a lawsuit under the Clean Water Act if the city does not resolve the issue in 60 days.
see, this is why i just kept it moving with that prom story. b/c one, the integrated prom shit happens EVERY year, like i saw Morgan Freeman’s doc about that one school in MS having it’s first integrated prom back in ‘09, so i really, just, outrage fatigue at the prom thing. (and because i mean how many segregated proms happen across the country just by dent of schools being being more segregated TODAY than they were in 1960? everyone wants to point at the South and be like “oooh backwards” and let the rest of the country and the education system itself off the hook)
and two, integrated proms, hell integrated anything, DOES NOT STOP shit like this. THIS is what white supremacy looks like. THIS shit is structural. THIS is what determines whether black people live or die, or at least have wellness and health.
like, FUCK your prom.
The same sort of situation described in OP is happening Detroit:
The documentary takes a look at how residents on the blocks intersecting Pleasant and Leibold Streets were affected over a two-year period by Marathon Oil’s daily shipping of over 3,000,000 gallons of waste water from its newly expanded tar sands oil refining facility, through the public water main running under Pleasant Street and to Detroit’s Waste Water Treatment facility.
The easiest indicator as to where pollution is/will go (as in new factories built, etc) is where communities of color are. It’s why we need environmental justice instead of buying better products. We can not shop our way to justice.](http://24.media.tumblr.com/d5d36477d580c661f5a468c7bbb0e1ff/tumblr_mmajpj5OBx1rny7o1o1_500.jpg)
Georgia town allegedly diverting sewage to black neighborhood
Rochelle, Ga. made national headlines recently when Wilcox County high school held its first-ever integrated prom last weekend.
Now, nonprofit environmental law organization Earthjustice is targeting the town for another instance of racial discrimination: its sewage treatment.
According to Earthjustice, “White residents of Rochelle live on the south side of the city’s railroad track. African-Americans live on the other side.” The city maintains pipes in the predominantly white neighborhood, but not the African-American side. “As a result,” writes Earthjustice, “untreated sewage backs up and overflows into the streets and the yards of residents on the north side of the tracks.”
“Sewage overflows my pipes and flows under my house. It’s time somebody did something about it. They [the white community] live comfortably and I want to live comfortably, too,” said Rochelle resident Rufus Howard.
Howard is one of nine Rochelle residents represented by Earthjustice, who will file a lawsuit under the Clean Water Act if the city does not resolve the issue in 60 days.
see, this is why i just kept it moving with that prom story. b/c one, the integrated prom shit happens EVERY year, like i saw Morgan Freeman’s doc about that one school in MS having it’s first integrated prom back in ‘09, so i really, just, outrage fatigue at the prom thing. (and because i mean how many segregated proms happen across the country just by dent of schools being being more segregated TODAY than they were in 1960? everyone wants to point at the South and be like “oooh backwards” and let the rest of the country and the education system itself off the hook)
and two, integrated proms, hell integrated anything, DOES NOT STOP shit like this. THIS is what white supremacy looks like. THIS shit is structural. THIS is what determines whether black people live or die, or at least have wellness and health.
like, FUCK your prom.
The same sort of situation described in OP is happening Detroit:
The documentary takes a look at how residents on the blocks intersecting Pleasant and Leibold Streets were affected over a two-year period by Marathon Oil’s daily shipping of over 3,000,000 gallons of waste water from its newly expanded tar sands oil refining facility, through the public water main running under Pleasant Street and to Detroit’s Waste Water Treatment facility.
The easiest indicator as to where pollution is/will go (as in new factories built, etc) is where communities of color are. It’s why we need environmental justice instead of buying better products. We can not shop our way to justice.
(via robot-heart-politics)
Detroit — Two of the 100 Detroit Public Schools students suspended for walking out of school to protest district-wide downsizing and demand better conditions started a “Freedom School” on Friday, across the street from their high school.
Raychel Gafford and Freddie Burse, students at Western International High School, were both suspended for five days after they and 98 other students walked out of school Wednesday and into nearby Clark Park in southwest Detroit.
The students say they were protesting the impending closure of nearby Southwestern High School and inequitable conditions at schools, including overcrowded classrooms, inadequate textbooks and supplies, and what they describe as “low expectations” from teachers.
Gafford said the Freedom School is for all suspended students and will offer courses on several subjects, including social justice, hip-hop music and poetry workshops taught by community members, including a pair of university professors.
“We were kicked out for fighting for our own school, and we’re sticking to what we are fighting for,” Gafford said Friday, standing in Clark Park with a few students and a small group of community members.
Gafford, a senior, said she is continuing the fight because of how students were handled by DPS police, school security guards and staffers during and after the walkout. She said cellphones were taken and searched, and some students later found numbers erased.
Elena Herrada, a Detroit school board member, said Thursday students’ cellphones were taken from them and security officers went through messages and numbers.
“It’s the whole DPS system. The way we were handled during the walkout,” said Gafford, who was ticketed for “screaming” during the walkout. “This is our education, and you aren’t giving us what we need.”
DPS spokesman Steve Wasko said claims of phones being searched and numbers erased are untrue.
“Students who stay focused on school are getting an outstanding education at Western,” he said in an email.
“To the claims about overcrowding and lack of supplies: Untrue. Students have ample supplies, books and technology and are using new Netbooks daily.”
John F. Royal, president of the Detroit and Michigan chapter of the National Lawyers Guild, sent a letter Friday to Western Principal Rodolfo Diaz, saying he was concerned about how the students were treated and how they’ve been disciplined.
“I feel obligated to raise the potential liabilities faced by DPS,” Royal said in his three-page letter, saying the students have constitutionally protected rights.
Royal asked the district to rescind the suspension and remove any reference to the discipline action from student records.
Wasko said no one is questioning the students’ free-speech rights.
“The discipline is for the most basic tenet of a student code of conduct, here or in any school district, that is, that students are expected to be in class during the school day. In fact, it’s a state law,” he said in an email.
“For a district that has worked hard to ensure students attend classes every day, all day, throughout the school year, to have adults encouraging students to skip school is irresponsible and pathetic,” Wasko said.
Herrada said Friday morning at least four uniformed DPS police officers stood outside Western, keeping students inside.
At Clark Park, Hare Krishna members taught students yoga, and then sat down to chant.
“The students have tremendous community support,” Herrada said. “This is what creates leadership — the crisis.”
Rick Sperling, founder of the Mosaic Youth Theatre of Detroit, was at Clark Park with the students Friday to offer moral support. He said they were following in the footsteps of Detroit students from 1966 who walked out of Northern High.
“The students in 1966 created a Freedom School at a church and got professors to teach,” he said. “They have five kids here today. The question is can they create the momentum from ‘66, when 2,000 students walked out?”
jchambers@detnews.com
(313) 222-2269
“What We Need to get there & What You Get by Supporting By donating you will be helping to raise $5000 that will go towards sending 60 youth leaders to attend the AMC, developing their leadership. By donating you will be supporting DFY youth to stay at the Wayne State dorms for all three nights of the conference, forging life lasting relationships. By donating you will be a catalyst for the message of Detroit youth getting heard by those attending the AMC and beyond. You will be supporting the DFY curriculum mixtape launch, that is not just the media and workshops created by these youth, but a glimpse into what our city and world could be like if youth were at the center of its transformation.
Every dollar that you donate will be matched, therefore your contribution will be doubled dollar for dollar! By donating you will receive some amazing perks that reflect the hard work and brilliance of the DFY network’s participants. These include a ticket to attend a youth organized skating party, DFY stickers and t-shirts, DFY gift baskets with items representing each of the 12 organizations in our network, and the exclusive premier copy of our curriclum mixtape which serves as a comprehensive guide to youth led media organizing. Check out the side bar for more in depth descriptions of each perk item. Keep checking this page out for new perks we will reveal soon… And in case you didn’t know: The youth organizing campaign project for a strong youth presence at the 2012 AMC is completely youth led and youth driven. From the campaign strategy to the video development, youth are the entire brains behind this project!”
—
Detroit Future Youth: Road to the Allied Media Conference — Indiegogo
oooh, look at all those sweet prizes u can get!!!!!!
SUPPORT YOUTH FUNDRAISING AND MEDIA MAKING!!!!
(via iinventedeverything)
Today is the day we have been waiting for! Detroit Future Youth has just launched its Indiegogo campaign page. We have been working hard all month to put together this campaign and we need YOUR HELP! Help us in anyway you can by donating as much as you can. Visit our campaign page at the link provided: http://www.indiegogo.com/detroitfutureyouth?a=576330
Everyday life in #detroitfuture-
The role of media makers is to uplift and hold onto community memories!
Everyday life in #detroitfuture-
There is plenty of room for our grandest work…
Everyday life in #detroitfuture-
youth paint the world to change the world…
(via themianikole)
[video]
Everyday life in #detroitfuture-