Here to Lead

Tafari Lee: Why education equity has to start with ethnic studies

Here to Lead · March 8, 2021 ·

Northern California

“Civic engagement is an opportunity for anyone to be pushing for any sort of change — whether it be big or small. It means that anyone from any community can get engaged, whether it’s going to a school board meeting or pushing the Council to do the things you’re asking for.”
Tafari Lee

Tell us about your work and why you do what you do?

I am civically engaged today because I was able to learn more about my own heritage. In eighth grade, my mom forced me into Fillipino cultural dancing classes. This was the first time I became interested in a history lesson; the class taught me a lot about my own history and culture. I began to be more self-aware about how one’s background can shape their environment, and that they have the power to shape their community’s future.

Currently, I am involved with various civic engagement initiatives at the city and local level through Little Manila Rising in Stockton. As a grantee partner of the California Funders of Boys and Men of Color, the organization was recently selected as one of 12 grantees to lead the education equity blueprint work for the Sacramento / San Joaquin Region. The goal isto ensure that boys and men of color have the supports they need to access quality education and pathways to a career that fuels their spirit, and their futures. Being part of this organization continues to drive my advocacy for education equity, ethnic studies and the wellbeing of my community.

In 2018, as part of my work with Little Manila, a group of students and I presented at the All-American City Awards about what makes Stockton, and its youth, so special, diverse and unique. I also participated in the Filipino American Youth Leadership Conference, a national conference that brings together Fillipino youth to develop their leadership skills, and the Pilipino Youth Conference (PYC), which focuses on getting youth in touch with our history and culture. And, most recently, I met with Governor Newsom, Michael Tubbs, community based organizations and youth about the current state of our city, what we want to see, and, more specifically, what police reform can look like — how we have a statewide police standard for oversight and a set curriculum and how we hold people accountable. The Governor was shocked that someone as young as I am is talking about police reform.

Tell us about the community you live in. What are some challenges, opportunities or attributes that make it unique?

I grew up in the middle of Stockton, but went to school in Lodi. When I was younger, I didn’t notice much of a difference. It wasn’t until I looked around and realized there were more students of color than white kids, that I knew I had to advocate for an ethcnic studies curriculum. To me, ethnic studies is a history class for everyone. For those who are learning about their own ethnicity, it is a gateway to the history and culture that makes up their story and heritage. For others, it’s a way to learn about other groups of people and understand their perspective and life experience better. From that, I went to the Capitol to talk to state representatives to push what is now the AB 331 bill to make ethcnic studies a requirement as a standard in high schools across the state.

What does civic engagement mean to you and why, particularly in this moment, is it so important?

Civic engagement is an opportunity for anyone to be pushing for any sort of change — whether it be big or small. It means that anyone from any community can get engaged, whether it’s going to a school board meeting or pushing the Council to do the things you’re asking for. Community members speaking up is so important right now because the people who are making decisions need to hear from the people they are representing. You can’t just complain and not do anything about the change you want to see.

What does leadership mean to you and how does that show up in your work? Why do you feel like it’s important to support the leadership and voice of boys and men of color?

A leader is someone who is able to be both firm and flexible at the same time. They are in the front, taking feedback and understanding the strengths and weaknesses of everyone around them, seeing the best in everyone. It’s so important for boys and men of color to be in leadership roles because then they become mentors for someone else. I didn’t have role models that looked like me growing up.

How do you define education equity, and why is it important?

Everyone deserves equal access to schools and quality education, no matter if you’re able to afford that or not. It shouldn’t matter if you’re from an affluent or low-income part of town. Students who attend schools that are underfunded deserve to shine as bright as those who attend schools that have access to a lot of resources. Students should also feel empowered through things like ethcnic studies that teach them about their history. I truly believe if people are empowered with information and are learning about their ancestors, they will feel empowered to be more engaged in activism and advocating for the change they want to see.

What would your call to action be to policymakers and leaders to call for education equity, particularly for boys and men of color?

Make ethnic studies a high school standard nationwide. I’m lucky to live in Stockton, which is the most diverse city in the United States, and know about so many cultures. Through ethnic studies, other students will learn about their own identity and the culture that they are not exposed to. If ethnic studies was standard nationwide, it would be a major change for what we consider common knowledge across the country.

Tafari Lee is a senior in Lincoln High School and an activist for a statewide curriculum for ethnic studies as part of Little Manila. He was part of the All-American City presentation for Stockton in 2018 to talk about how young people are making his hometown the unique and diverse place that it is.

RESOURCES:

Alejandro Galicia Cervantes: Why We Need Systems Change to Achieve Education Equity

Here to Lead · December 16, 2020 ·

Our society needs to shift the blame from youth to systems.

As a child, I moved around a lot, living in Los Angeles, parts of Southern California and San Fernando Valley until I was 14. When I was in seventh grade, the home we lived in was within reach of gang violence. Our neighborhood was constantly targeted by the LAPD. The environment I was in was pushing me into vocational school and away from higher education. While there is nothing wrong with that route, I learned early on how the influences and environment that surround you can provide a clouded picture of what you can actually achieve.

When my family moved to a different community in South Sacramento, the school I attended had one of the highest expulsion and suspension rates. I watched as my friends took different paths than me. That struggle within myself — was I guilty or proud that I had turned out differently — had a profound impact on how I experienced education. I felt like school was a shackle on one leg, and my culture was a shackle on the other. I was ashamed of speaking Spanish, and never thought of school as a gateway to a better life, just a means to graduate.

What changed my outlook was mentorship — having supportive adults who were able to guide me to what I could become — and having the encouragement to dream. I was given multiple opportunities, room to fail and, ultimately, grow. This allowed me to transform my dreams into achievable goals and accomplishments, which would not have been possible without my mentors.

While I was lucky to have my family around, I didn’t have consistent adult support. My parents worked day and night. This was just the system in which we live in — parents not being able to spend time with their children because they’re too busy working to put food on the table, or not being able to plan for a future because they were too busy worrying about the present. It’s the same for education equity. Our society needs to shift the blame from youth to systems. Disparities in our education system exist because of income inequality. Right now, there is no national leadership around how to continue with school during a pandemic. We see that those who are able to afford education and have access to resources are not impacted, but what happens to the rest of us? Those of us systematically less able to adjust to remote education. The assumption is that we’re all going through the same thing, but kids like me are being punished for having to support our family during a global pandemic.

Because of my experience, my work centers around education on a state and local community level. As a Board Member for the Mentor of California Affiliate of the National Mentor Partnership, I focus on programmatic expansion and drumming up support (funding and geo political) for mentoring programs across the state. On a local level, I tutor and mentor youth as part of the My Brother’s Keeper (MBK Collaborative) and support the 1300 Campaign, which launched in Sacramento to increase the number of boys and men of color going to college. I am also the Chairman of ASUCD’s DREAM Committee that provides basic needs resources for undocumented students on campus, including textbooks and supplies. Finally, my personal brainchild is the Dream STEM Initiative, funded by the Donald A Strauss Foundation, a virtual boot camp where young people and AB540 folks can learn coding skills from Undergraduate and Masters students.

It is imperative for youth to have a voice. There is a disconnection happening in that we are creating public policy around youth without their voice or input. A lot of the time, we, as youth of color, are involved with systems that negatively impact us, and are victims to punitive punishments and biases because of our skin color. If we are to get youth to college, we need to shift the responsibility from the youth, who are under the burden of a system not built for them, onto the system for removing the barriers to college. By becoming a mentor or joining the 1300 campaign, we can make this a reality.

Alejandro Galicia Cervantes is a Junior at UC Davis double majoring in Economics and Political Science and minoring in Community Regional Development, with an ultimate goal to end up in Congress.

RESOURCES

Corey Jackson: Dismantling the School-to-Prison Pipeline in Riverside County

Here to Lead · December 8, 2020 ·

Southern California

I grew up in the Inland Empire and founded SBX Youth & Family Services to dismantle the barriers that are preventing young people from succeeding. While our goal was, and continues to be, youth mentoring, in 2014, we made the decision to get involved in systems change and advocacy work.

At the time, we were seeing kids getting pepper sprayed and put in handcuffs on campuses at all ages and knew it was time for a change. It was time to eliminate law enforcement from school campuses and dismantle the school to prison pipeline. Our society has gotten away from our ancestral roots and the idea of “your child may not live with me, but your child is my child.” Because of that, we even see parents of color internalizing racism and speaking the language of the oppressor when they say it’s ok to lock up other children. If we don’t intervene, we’re going to pay for that destruction and suffer the consequences for our inhumanity towards our children.

Anyone who makes an argument in favor of law enforcement is ignoring the facts and the data. Police in schools do not make our children safe and, more specifically, they criminalize Black and brown youth. As a result, we are condemning our young people to a life of poverty, trauma, and a path to prison.

That’s how we got involved in fighting the school to prison pipeline. With the Alliance for Boys and Men of Color, the ACLU and NAACP, we filed our first successful lawsuit to start reforming the juvenile justice system. The lawsuit focused on reimagining what safety on school campuses looks like and resulted in cutting the number of police officers in half on campuses across the county. By suing the County of Riverside on behalf of the students, we argued that the county’s Youth Accountability Team (YAT) program spent millions of dollars funneling children into an unconstitutional probation system that denied them their due process rights and subjected them to oppressive, invasive policies. Through a historic settlement, the County now no longer has the right to enroll young people in the probation program for adolescent, non-criminal behavior. Instead, we can ensure that youth receive due process protections and positive incentives instead of punitive restrictions.

Our goal now is to completely eliminate any form of law enforcement on campus. We, as a society, have been conditioned to think that law enforcement prevents crime, when all they do is respond to it. And, whatever they do respond to, all too often turns into racial profiling. All of these things can be prevented if adults do their job on school campuses. Everyone knows when a fight is about to start or a kid is being bullied. We are not being preventive, nor are we giving young people mental health support to live and think healthier. More affluent communities have these supports because they don’t allow their children to be criminalized, but we have zero tolerance policies that do nothing but destroy the most marginalized young people. Instead of asking them what they need, we criminalize them.

There is no way our nation and California will be able to create a healthy society for everyone if boys and men of color are forced to head in the wrong direction. We need to uplift boys and men of color and dismantle the systemic racist barriers that restricts them from living a productive and healthy quality life.

It takes courage to speak up, be consistent, and not be afraid to get into good trouble. Right now, we have to have courage to reimagine and to dream what safety could look like. In this moment, we have the opportunity to reclaim the power that each of us have and use it to create a world that allows everyone to be more prosperous and healthy. If you’re a young person, the time to fight for the future you want is now. The future is not for someone else, it’s for you. Young people have a unique opportunity to transform society into the one they want to live in. My call to action to them is: step up; you have nothing to lose; this is your time.

I want to repeat the wisdom of John Lewis: “step up, have courage, get in the way, speak out, the time is now”. I believe this is the second Civil Rights Movement. I know that, at this moment, I am doing everything I can. When we look back on history, we tend to ask “why didn’t they do this?”. Now it’s your turn to do something.

Corey Jackson is the CEO of SBX Youth & Family Services, a nonprofit organization focused on breaking the cycle of poverty and violence through mentoring, education and organizing.

Resources:

Sam Martinez-Tran: There are so many different ways to be trans

Here to Lead · November 10, 2020 ·

Northern California

“In fifth grade, a teacher shared that he was gay. It was the first time I’d heard about someone being gay or queer.”

“I’ve always known I was different, and thought I liked people of the same gender, too. I assumed I must be a lesbian, since there seemed to be only two options, straight or gay. But the label never really fit.

“When I told my friends I was a lesbian, they took it badly. I thought, I’m disgusting; an awful person.

“I needed support, and as a freshman I signed up for my high school’s GSA chapter, a space for LGBTQ students and their allies.

“Being around people who were not afraid to share their identity, I started to feel proud of who I was. I felt safe and understood. I got more involved and they introduced me to the GSA Youth Council. At the Council, they taught queer and trans history and I learned about the trans community.

“I was 14 and for the first time in my life I thought, that sounds like me, but I didn’t tell anyone. I didn’t want to associate myself with being trans because of the labels and stigma.

“At the end of my freshman year, our GSA chapter was asked to lead a social justice assembly. I decided I had to accept myself for who I was, and I was ready to come out, to myself and to everyone in the whole school.

“The day before, I told my friends. They were proud of me, but sharing my trans mascule identity with them overwhelmed me. But my friends kept telling me, we love you, we accept you, why didn’t you tell us before?

“So I did it – I came out the next day at the assembly, in front of 2,000 people.=

“But there was one person who still didn’t know: my Latinx father, who raised me on his own. At first, my dad assumed I was telling him that I was gay, and he told me, I love you, you’re amazing, no matter what.

“I explained that I am not a girl, sharing that I was trans masculine and that I wanted to explore steps to be able to transition. He was angry– confused and anxious about what this meant for my future. I was so hurt and upset, trying to explain myself to him, to prove why I needed the hormones and the support to transition.

“Finally, he understood. I wasn’t doing this because I ‘wanted’ to –I was doing this because I had to.

“My dad taught me: people are learning with you. You may know everything about your identity and what that means to you, but that doesn’t mean everyone around you will know how to react to your truth.

“Even as I am more comfortable now being out as trans masculine, I worry our communities can get too caught up in labels. From the Latinx to the LGBTQ community, I hear people say there’s one way to be a man – whether you’re a cis man or a trans man. You can’t cry, you can’t dress like this, you can’t act like that.

“I am on a lifelong journey to understanding my own identity. But it’s not authentic to me to dress a certain way or behave the way people think I’m supposed to. I am going to live my life, I am going to dress how I want.

“Sharing our stories not only of coming out, but of living our lives, is so important. Otherwise, our histories get lost, since we are not included in schools or in textbooks. Yet, knowing our histories is the only thing that can give us hope.

“And, I am hopeful. Both because of living through what I’ve lived through, and from learning about the stories of other trans youth as well as elders in their own voices.

“Through GSA, I got involved with TRUTH (TRans yoUTH) where we publish trans stories, by trans youth for trans youth. I also attended gatherings where I heard directly from trans elders, including trans women of color. I learned that trans women of color are under constant attack.

“I want to support young people, Latinx men, queer and trans people of color – everyone – to be who they are, whoever that may be. And I want to make sure we’re not further harming already marginalized people in our communities, including trans women of color.

“We’re all in a process of learning and becoming. We have to show each other as well as our loved ones and communities all of who we are. There are so many different ways to be trans –there are so many different ways to be. I hope we can keep walking the road together, learning together, and being with each other.”

Sam Martinez-Tran is a GSA Youth Council leader in Northern California.

Resources

TRUTH 9 point platform

Denzel Tongue: Health for All — Change Systems to Save Lives

Here to Lead · November 10, 2020 ·

Northern California

“When I was a child, my mother was diagnosed with a rare nervous system condition that left her hospitalized. Luckily, my aunt Michelle, with aid from my father, was able to take care of me during this trying period. While my mom was eventually able to recover, I would soon come to realize a stark reality – that Black people live shorter, sicker lives.”

“A few years after my mother’s recovery, I would lose my aunt at age 40 to preventable heart disease. Losing my aunt – a caretaker, a third parent, a friend – was devastating. I was upset, confused and unsure of how I would move forward. As time passed, I looked around my community and saw that Black people – folks who looked like my family members – are more likely to experience poor health outcomes. Data shows that African Americans in Alameda county live for roughly seven years fewer than the county average. Good health is the foundation to thriving. Chronic illness often prevents people from successfully carrying out key tasks such as working or excelling in school. Preventable chronic illnesses can often be an impediment to social mobility which can in turn limit opportunities for future generations.

“In addition to facing high levels of chronic illness, Black communities often face disproportionately high levels of violence and poverty. People caught in these circumstances often struggle to find a way out. I personally saw this with my own cousin Kiante who lost his mother at a young age to cancer. My uncle struggled to raise him and provide stability in his life. Unfortunately, he didn’t have the same opportunities that I had, and he was set on a different path. In 2013, he was shot and killed at a First Friday event in Downtown Oakland. His loss hit me hard. I knew that if I did not have the opportunities that were afforded to me, my life could have taken a similar path.

“The loss of my aunt and cousin made me realize that I had to do something. I have made it my life’s goal to ensure that everyone, regardless of their race, income, or immigration status has access to quality healthcare, economic opportunity, and safety. Even if my work doesn’t directly save lives, I want to change systems to make it possible for everyone to live and thrive. Especially those who have been historically marginalized.

“In 2017, I joined Greenlining Institute as a Health Equity Fellow, encouraging local and regional health employers to hire people directly impacted by the criminal justice system, which disproportionately affects young men of color. I also got involved in state and local efforts to improve the lives of young men of color by acting as a leader within my local Alliance for Boys and Men of Color chapter. Further, I submitted a public comment letter to the California Future of Health Workforce Commission, urging them to integrate young men of color and other marginalized communities into the state’s health workforce.

“During my tenure as a Health Equity Fellow, I met staff from the California Immigrant Policy Center (CIPC). I saw that CIPC was leading a campaign to expand health care access to undocumented immigrants. In the past, I saw how important it was for my mom to have health coverage as she struggled with illness. I figured that the next step in my journey should be to work to expand coverage to vulnerable communities to ensure that they don’t have to face the devastation of losing a loved one prematurely, as I had.

“I chose to move to Los Angeles and work for CIPC because I recognize that every community needs full healthcare access, no matter who they are or where they’re from. As the Health and Public Benefits campaign coordinator, I coordinate a statewide health advocacy coalition, engage with coalition partners, and meet with legislators and their staff.

“Early in my time with CIPC, I attended a meeting with a state senator in Riverside. An elderly community member, from our coalition member TODEC Legal Center, shared her story in Spanish about the serious illness that is threatening her life, and how urgently she and so many others like her require full healthcare access.

“The senator was moved and agreed to co-author a bill to expand healthcare access to undocumented elders. It was clear that the years spent organizing and educating the senator and his staff produced this change of heart. Powerful moments like these keep me going, even when I feel worn down from reading the news or seeing what’s happening in our communities. When we come together to identify solutions to the problems we face and work with our policymakers to turn those ideas into reality, we can win.

“Earlier this year, we were part of an even bigger victory when Governor Gavin Newsom announced his 2019-2020 budget will include $98 million for extending Medi-Cal to low-income young adults previously excluded because of their immigration status. CIPC and countless other organizations have been tirelessly advocating for this inclusion for years. The expansion will cover an estimated 90,000 undocumented young adults in its first year.

“While I continue to work with CIPC, I recently moved back to Oakland to be closer to my community and family. I am now applying to graduate programs in public health and policy. I seek to build upon my experience fighting for positive change in my hometown. I want to build toward a healthier Oakland that shows the world what I already know – Oakland is full of amazing people doing incredible things to uplift the community. I only seek to make their lives easier by ensuring that they have access to the resources necessary to thrive: good health, safety, and economic opportunity.

“We need to transform the actual systems people live in. My aunt and cousin didn’t live to see that transformation, but I believe if we keep doing this work, we can make a better life possible for so many others.”

Denzel Tongue is the Health and Public Benefits Campaign Coordinator at The California Immigrant Policy Center in Oakland. An Oakland native, he was previously a Health Equity Fellow at Greenlining Institute and an Urban Leaders Fellow with the offices of Mayor Libby Schaaf and Assemblyman Rob Bonta.