Anderson@Large

Cost of Freedom App Demo Day

On Valentine's Day, I participated in a panel discussion on how advocacy groups, civil rights organizations and ordinary citizens are using social media to protect the right to vote.

I did a demo of the Cost of Freedom web app.

And a live demo of the text app.

In the coming weeks, I will chronicle the Cost of Freedom Project as we prepare to launch on April 4. In the meantime, I want to share an excerpt from a post written by Brittany Papalia, an intern with the National Women’s Law Center:

Faye Anderson stole the attention of the attendees with colorful commentary and excitement on how she was going to keep these laws from passing, saying “I don’t like to fight, but I don’t like to back down from a fight either.”

That's true. Or as I like to say, if you don't want no mess, don't start no mess.

Papalia notes that strict voter ID requirements have a disparate impact on women:

So how do these new laws affect women? Well, if 34% of women lack proof of citizenship, then that may make attaining a photo ID more difficult since most DMV’s require some sort of proof, typically a birth certificate. Not to mention women who get married and change their last name and address! If their state is following a stricter system, then they will be unable to change their address at the poll without proof of their new address. As Faye Anderson joked, “she finally put a ring on it, but she can’t find the damn license!”

While voter ID is no joke, to motivate citizens to get in the arena, voting rights advocates must move beyond studying and talking about the problem.

To get involved with the Cost of Freedom Project, powered by We the People, please visit us at Facebook.com/CostofFreedom.

Happy Valentine's Day

If you love democracy, please view the livestream of a panel discussion on social media and voter ID TODAY from 3pm to 5pm EST. I will demo the Cost of Freedom App. You can join the conversation via Twitter using the hashtag #CAPVoterID.

For info about the Cost of Freedom Project, visit us at Facebook.com/CostofFreedom.

Race Still Matters

I am a doer or in the jargon of programmers, a problem-solver.

So it is an honor to be named one of the “Top Ten Race & Civil Liberties Bloggers on Twitter.” After all, in the age of Obama, race still matters.

DePaul law professor Terry Smith, the author of the forthcoming “Barack Obama, Post-Racialism and the New Politics of Triangulation,” writes:

Among other race-baiting, presidential candidate Newt Gingrich has referred to the nation’s first African American president as a “food stamp president,” and someone who engages in “Kenyan, anti-colonial behavior,” a coarse reference to President Obama's African father and a nod to “birtherism.”

Not content merely to demean the president, Gingrich has said that poor black children lack role models and a work ethic - a broadside against millions of black, working-poor parents who each day serve as shepherds for their children and instill in them work and other ethics.

Yet the only person who has responded more passively to the former speaker’s racialism than his Republican rivals has been President Obama himself. The irony of having a black man in the White House is that he is disarmed from responding to white opponents who flirt with a revivification of the Republican Party’s Southern strategy. Indeed, Obama has been disarmed, or has unilaterally disarmed himself, from sustained engagement with questions of race during his first term.

The concern on Obama’s part appears to be that middle-of-the-road white voters will not tolerate a black politician focusing on race, even if his purpose is to upbraid someone like Gingrich for making racially inflammatory comments. This concern is not unfounded, yet in succumbing to political reality, Obama has simply reinforced a different iteration of white racial intolerance.

Read more: Abetting inequality in post-racial U.S.

Philly’s Shame

By a vote of 15-1, the Philadelphia City Council passed a stricter curfew bill that will sweep minors from the streets during curfew hours. Councilwoman Jannie L. Blackwell cast the lone vote against the bill.

The bill’s sponsor, Councilwoman Blondell Reynolds Brown, admitted there is no data to show curfews are effective in stemming youth violence. Still, the 99 percent will be penalized for the random acts of a few knuckleheads.

The vote was greeted with chants of “Shame! Shame!” by Occupy Philadelphia and the Philadelphia Anti-Curfew Action Committee.

It was an ironic end to this chapter in the criminalization of black youth. Evelyn “Champagne” King was 17 when she recorded the disco hit “Shame” in Philly, her adopted hometown.

The curfew will deny today’s 17-year-olds, as one witness testified, opportunities to “flourish in this city.” And that’s a low down dirty shame.

Still No Love for Black Youth in Philly

Last Thursday, Philadelphia’s City Council was expected to pass an enhanced curfew law. However, no vote was taken due to a “procedural glitch.” The bill’s sponsor, Councilwoman Blondell Reynolds Brown, said she has the votes.

If Council passes the bill, it will not be the end of the story; rather, it will open up a new chapter in the fight against the criminalization of black youth.

In the meantime, I want to share my post about the curfew bill published by Race-Talk, a project of the Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity:

I live in Philadelphia in Center City, ground zero for a series of attacks dubbed “flash mobs” by the media. Since 2009, small groups of black teens and young adults have committed 11 such attacks at random times and on random days of the week.

In a fiery speech before Mount Carmel Baptist Church, Mayor Michael Nutter acknowledged that “less than one percent” of black youth were engaged in the attacks:

I want to apologize to all the good, hardworking, caring people here in this city, and especially our good, young people here in Philadelphia. But I have to tell you this morning that I am forced by the stupid, ignorant, dumb actions of a few -- and we will announce tomorrow actions that we will take that unfortunately will affect many here in our city.

Indeed, the 99 percent are presumed guilty. Nutter dusted off a decades-old law and imposed a “temporary curfew” that sweeps minors from Center City and University City after 9 p.m. on Friday and Saturday.

The curfew was scheduled to end after Labor Day but under the Mayor’s emergency powers, it has been extended indefinitely. The demonization of black youth stands in stark contrast to how the police handle random acts of violence and property damage committed by white youth in Center City when, for instance, the Phillies won the World Series.

Study after study shows that curfews are ineffective at stemming youth violence. But they are effective in keeping black youth out of sight. The October 2011 newsletter of the South Street Headhouse District, where some of the “flash mobs” took place, includes this call to action:

The South Street Mini-Station has enforced the citywide curfew to great success. If you have noticed an improvement in the District due to this curfew please email your positive feedback and request for continuance of the curfew to Deputy Mayor Everett Gillison.

I mentioned this “great success” to Harvard Law professor Charles J. Ogletree Jr. when he was in town for a book signing and discussion at the African American Museum. The author of “The Presumption of Guilt: The Arrest of Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and Race, Class and Crime in America,” Prof. Ogletree told me: “America always looks better when we are swept from the streets.”

Read more: Black Youth are Presumed Guilty

Day Tripping at Occupy Wall Street

On the one-month anniversary of Occupy Wall Street, I went to Zuccotti Park to see what was going on.

The half-acre public space has been transformed into Liberty Square, a self-contained encampment of unemployed 20-somethings, homeless, progressives, anarchists and aging hippies “veteran leftist activists.” There is also a garden variety of nuts and thieves.

While it’s messy, the park has not been trashed. I was expecting a scene out of “Hoarders.” Instead, OWS is organized chaos with a “Good Neighbor Policy.”

Don’t even think about trampling the flowers:

Keep it clean. This plaza and these flowers are important to the community. Our ability to uphold the beauty of this park well represents our commitment to a better world.

There’s a kitchen that serves healthy and free food.

They were serving breakfast so I helped myself to scrambled eggs, hash browns and a bagel.

The Occupiers have everything one would need in an encampment that never sleeps, including a cellphone and laptop charging area, generator, Health Care and Comfort stations, and Sanitation Department.

They even have some kitchen sinks.

The encampment is surrounded by the NYPD. If Mayor Michael Bloomberg gave the order, the police could clear out the tent city in, well, a New York minute.

Right now, OWS is the place to see and be seen. It’s the latest tourist attraction in Lower Manhattan. A Quinnipiac University poll found overwhelming support among New York City voters.

Maurice Carroll, director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute, said in a statement:

It’s a free country. Let them keep on protesting as long as they obey the law, New Yorkers say overwhelmingly. Critics complain that no one can figure out what the protesters are protesting. But seven out of 10 New Yorkers say they understand and most agree with the anti-Wall Street views of the protesters

Meanwhile, a Gallup poll found most Americans have no opinion of the Occupiers:

Given Americans’ apparent lack of knowledge about the Occupy Wall Street movement, it is not surprising to find a minority of Americans describing themselves as supporters (26%) or opponents (19%) of the movement. A majority, 52%, say they are neither supporters nor opponents, with another 4% not having an opinion.

Until the Occupiers figure out what their goals are, it is an open question whether it’s a moment or a movement.

As Occupy Wall Street celebrates its one-month anniversary, it remains a collection of grievances. If and when the General Assembly adopts goals, there is no plan to achieve them.

As the unwashed body count rises, the temperature drops and media coverage fades away, the General Assembly will be asked: Why are you still here?

Vote for Me

All souls to the poll. Voting is open for the 2011 Women’s Media Center Social Media Award.

As a founding member of the Election Protection Coalition, I would warn voters to “be careful how they vote” because stuff happens. For this election, you have the right to stuff the ballot box because I’m “built out of stuff like that.”

So please vote for me. And then tell your friends to tell their friends to “do it, do it.”