Private Sector meets Social Justice

Hello Veron Family,

This morning we had the pleasure of being toured around Harlem by Ron Moelis of L+M Development Partners as he showed us one of his mixed income housing developments. We got an interesting perspective and learned a great deal about rentals/affordable housing vs condos sold at market rate. He also discussed how aware he was on how his work impacts the community. L+M Development Partners' mission is not just about doing well, as far as profit margin, but also good. It is more common for developers to take the city up on its offer of tax exemptions and other perks only to produce 20% of affordable housing while the rest are at market rate to meet their bottom line. Ron's company was one of the first to take a balanced approach at 50/50. Affordable housing is a major issue in New York City worth tackling but there is also money to be made in the condo market. So with this double bottom line in mind, the company takes on highly profitable ventures and projects that may not be as profitable but have a great social impact. There are challenges that surface with this approach but organizations do have their limitations. One example he used was creating a number of affordable housing units on land provided by the city and having to host a lottery due to the large number of applicants. In cases like this, preference is often given to community residents to reduce the social injustice of displacement but it occurs nonetheless. Additionally, the community preference approach is being challenged as discriminatory by community outsiders who believe the practice is denying others from living in a community that already has an established demographic. Also, partnerships seemed to be a reoccurring theme in the business of development to achieve the goal of good work. Taking over NYCHA housing that was being poorly managed proved to be an opportunity. Residents were worried at first about the privatization of this project. However, realized the benefits after renovations and the creation of senior and community centers. Also, the work the developers do with local nonprofits (Street Squash).

I’m interested in what were your top three takeaways from this morning’s session?

Also, many students at John Jay have goals of landing a career in public service. More often than not it means a position in the non-profit or government sector. I challenge you all, similar to Ron, to explore for-profit companies and their missions. Which ones would you consider working for? In what capacity? How could this role impact the social justice issue you care about most?

Lastly, we all have spent a great deal of time at our respected agencies. We have a pretty good idea of how they operate, where they do a great job of performing and where they might need some improvement. Many organizations face obstacles preventing them from achieving their mission as effectively as they might want to. If you all were given the responsibility for using the resources of a social impact bond to improve your agencies, how much do you estimate it would take? Where would you allocate the money? Why?

Would you increase salaries to employees take their jobs more seriously? Upgrade office technology? Provide clients with certain resources? Start a new program within your agency? Etc

The “Problem” with Social Justice 

Hello, fellow Verons!

This week, Mr. Thomas Giovanni engaged us all in a deeply perceptive discourse as we toured the Manhattan Criminal Court. We had the chance to learn more about the criminal justice system in New York City by observing first-hand how arraignments are processed in courts and defendants are treated, as well as being informed on specific technicalities that affect the defendants and their families as they go through the system.

Among the many topics that came up during the day are the holistic treatment of the defendants, racial and economic disparity (between the population of the defendants and the prosecutors), and economic inequality (which pervades much of the process and outcome of legal proceedings). The last two are seen being the “elephant in the room.” Well, “elephants in the tent,” I’d rather say, as one of my professors tweaked the phrase.

 Furthermore, we were again made to realize that in a justice system that supposedly honors the culture of evidence and not on forcing confessions out of the defendants, one’s moral principle of integrity can become compromised when facing charges. To elaborate, it was the essence of the little “quiz” that Mr. Giovanni had us think about, whether you would confess your guilt to a crime that you know you did not commit in the face of two choices:

 • If you commit to preserving your moral integrity and plead not guilty, you risk yourself to facing the burden of proof and fighting your way through the legal proceeding while remaining in jail all the while (keep in mind the fact that you can not only lose your job, but your future prospects of employment becomes seriously affected), and;

• If you plead guilty, the tendency could be that you will serve a shorter sentence (or get ordered to attend some programs) and eventually get out jail on a much quicker pace.

As we can see, it becomes a lose-lose situation, an instance where we can say that a defendant is forced (due to having been a victim of structural violence) to choose between the lesser of two evils. Regardless, the defendant’s chances of getting a fair trial to prove innocence or guilt are significantly compromised. The way the system works then paints the people as both the suspects to blame and convict and the victims to admonish for feeling “victimhood.”

This way, we see how the system is flawed. Although it is not true for all times and situations, it appears as though the system exists to serve itself instead of the people. For young social justice advocates like us, the vision that we could effect a significant reform becomes somehow blurred and our hope can sometimes falter, given the seemingly formidable hurdles in the system/s we work in.

With these thoughts in mind, here are some questions I have for you:

Please remind us once again: what is the most significant social justice issue for you? With that issue in mind and the movement or efforts to combat it, identify one thing that you consider the most difficult obstacle to overcome within “the interlocking systems of injustice.” Put simply, what is it that sometimes challenges your belief that the reform/change you want to effect can eventually come into fruition? 

Considering that the question may be too broad, as an alternative, I suggest considering your experience at the agency of your respective placements thus far. As both observer and active participant in the agency, what have you seen and identified as being a factor that still makes it difficult for your clients overcome the problem that they have when they come to your agency? I ask these questions to help us look through the system we’re currently working with. What works? What doesn’t? What would you suggest as a move to help alleviate the problem that you see? 

I am of opinion that vigilance is the key to staying aware and focused on the causes that we rally ourselves behind.

With that little mental note, let us all do some detective work! I look forward to hearing what you think!

Intersectionality and Poverty

Hello Everyone!

In this weeks class you did a great job of really living a situation we see often, and you successfully portrayed the ideas and personas of the characters you were given. We discussed the ideas found in Oscar Lewis's The Culture of Poverty and Daniel Moynihan's The Tangle of Pathology, in The Negro Family: The Case For National Action and we were posed with the questions:

Is there really a culture of poverty that gets transmitted generationally and is inescapable?
How does society demonize the poor, specifically people of color living in poverty?
How does gender and gender identity play a role in poverty?

I was thinking about these three questions last night trying to come up with characteristics of poverty (and a good question to begin discussion) when I started thinking about my previous internship at the Center on LGBTQ studies. When I think poverty,  I tend to think of the stereotypical woman of color with three kids, or a two parent heteronormative family involved in drugs. It's not because I think these are the people that represent the poor, but because the media has led me to internalize images of what the poor are supposed to look like.

Relating back to my placement, these aren't the images of the poor in the narratives I am reading, or the research I and doing.

So my questions to you all is:
How do you think someone becomes trapped or predisposed to a cycle of poverty? Do you think gender, gender identity, and sexual orientation play a role in perpetuating poverty? How does this relate to the clients at your placements?   

Language is Powerful!

Hey everyone!  In today’s class, we discussed the issues raised in “Politics and the English Language” by George Orwell and “Imperialism of Language” by Ngūgĩ wa Thiong’o in relation to our own writing and experiences.  Some of the points that we made during our discussion include but are not limited to language as a tool of oppression, the loss of cultural identity through the imperialism of language, the importance of meaning, using lofty language to prove one’s own abilities, and language as a tool for labeling and divisiveness.  I think we can all agree that reading Orwell’s piece challenged us to become better writers.  What I liked most about his piece, however, is that Orwell doesn’t simply criticize others for their poor writing, but also provides tips and advice to improve one’s writing such as avoiding overly-used metaphors, using the active instead of the passive voice, etc.  From our discussion in class, it seems that many of us identify with the themes and points that Ngūgĩ includes in “Imperialism of Language”.  Some of our experiences with being forced to learn and speak English or feeling compelled to use fancy words to keep the status quo is an indication that the imperialistic elements of language still exist today.

Towards the end of his piece, Ngūgĩ notes the possibility for the emergence of a universal language.  He writes, “A language for the world!  A world of languages!  The two concepts are not mutually exclusive provided there is independence, equality, democracy, and peace among nations” (Ngūgĩ, 1993, p.40).  Because we already discussed elements of imperialism in our respective agencies and lives in general, my prompt is as follows:

What are the costs, benefits, and/or risks of having a world language?

 And in your opinion, what are some characteristics of a "good" world language?

In addition, because we didn’t have the time to talk about our visit to Vera last week, I think we should briefly mention what we thought about it.  (Which panelist spoke to you the most? What points or issues made during our visit resonate with you?)

Personally, I was most inspired by Ryan’s story about her trajectory and how she overcame adversity as a homeless teenager to obtain an education, and eventually, earn her PhD.  Although I have never experienced homelessness, I understand as an individual from a lower-middle class background the everyday struggles that arise from financial instability.  In addition, I was really captivated by Ryan’s point about how the negative/aggressive responses of corrections officers to defendants is the officer's own trauma being brought to the surface (maybe PTSD, etc.).  From spending time at Central Booking, I have observed the differences in the ways police and corrections officers treat defendants, and how corrections, generally, tends to be more aggressive.  As a result, Ryan’s perspective helped me understand possible reasons for the more aggressive behavior/responses of corrections officers.

Sources:

wa Thiong’o, N. (1993). "Imperialism of Language": English, a Language for the 
     World? In Moving the Centre (Studies in African Literature) (pp. 30-41). 

Orwell, G. (1946). Politics and the English Language. 

We are all Herb Sturz

Hello my fellow Verons!
Yesterday after our first tour we received so much information from departments within Vera as well as a few of the spin off agencies, which most of us have had the opportunity to work with. What impressed me were the range of issues that were being discussed at the table: juvenile justice prison reform, substance abuse work and mental health, a restorative justice program to create harmony after a crime has been committed, and reforming how the prison system works in terms of segregation and pathways to education.

What really impressed me though is the way that everyone at the table was able bring their own unique past experience to contribute to their work.

We are still at the beginning of our Vera journey but as I have come to know all of you I know that we are all passionate about social justice but for many different reasons. Recently too some of our views have been challenged when we have read and discussed the Limits of Charity and Why the Peace Corps is an Affront to the Poor.

So the question I pose to you is this: Using your own unique experience, passions, and knowledge, and taking what we have learned in these last few weeks, what social justice program would you create to tackle any social justice issue of your own choosing?

Granted I know that the question is so large, enough to be a year long project for many companies! For this blog I would just like you to tell us the social justice issue you would choose to work on, why this issue is of importance to you, and provide us with the mission statement and a short plan of action as to how you would approach the issue.

I look forward to hearing what you all have to say!