A debate rages on in neighboring Maryland over the Dream Act which, if passed, would allow undocumented immigrant students to qualify for in-state college tuition. Some documented immigrants have come out against the measure, although they represent a minority of the state’s immigrants who are mostly Hispanic and come from mixed-legal status families, The Washington Post reports.
“Everyone wants to get an education, but you can’t just come to this country illegally and think everything is free. You have to be patient and legalize yourself,” said Josephine Beyam, 33, a nursing student. She arrived from the Philippines in 2008 as a full-fledged resident after waiting at home for four years, apart from her American husband, as the law required. Since enrolling, she said, she has been paying off her student loans every month.
“We have been through thick and thin,” Beyam said of her reunited family. “This country is a blessing, and the government is very generous. If you are not born here, you have to start from the beginning, but I accept that, because you can still pursue your dreams.”
Read more at: www.washingtonpost.com
Central Union Mission has been a Logan Circle institution for 28 years, but the homeless shelter is preparing to relocate to downtown. Borderstan interviewed the organization’s executive director David O. Treadwell about how the neighborhood has changed and what the area’s homeless will do after the organization moves.
“Back in 2000 we observed the gentrification. It began earlier than that but by 2000 it was becoming intense. We could see the writing on the wall, and we felt like eventually this would no longer be a poor neighborhood. We weren’t priced out since we own our building, but we wanted to be where the people who need our services were.”
Read more at: www.borderstan.com
Thanksgiving is nearly here, and no doubt that children around the country have been learning the traditional Thanksgiving story of how pilgrims broke bread with Native Americans. These early settlers are celebrated in American culture, from school plays to Charlie Brown specials. But how do early European pilgrims differ from today’s undocumented immigrants? That’s the provocative question raised by this week’s New Yorker cover, which depicts a group of early pilgrims illegally crossing the U.S.-Mexico border.
“Too often in politics, very complex subjects are being turned into sound bites, so it’s easy to take them apart,” says Christoph Niemann, this week’s cover artist. In “Promised Land,” he says, “I draw a parallel between current immigrants and early settlers—the hope is that it will provide context, to help keep things in perspective. Cartoonists, not politicians, should be the ones who condense political discussions into simple images.”
Read more at: www.newyorker.com
People purchasing homes in many D.C. neighborhoods are buying them for more than the asking price, a sign of D.C.’s robust housing market, Washington Business Journal reports. One such neighborhood is Anacostia, where some fear displacement of low-income and black residents.
Increasing home values fuel gentrification. With such a tight housing market, the option to sell becomes enticing to homeowners, particularly those who bought their homes years ago for much lower prices. Longtime homeowners may walk away making money, but neighborhood income diversity could decrease as only wealthier people can afford such home prices.
The median sales price in D.C. in October was $400,000, down from $413,000 in October 2010. Neighborhoods that saw sales price gains compared to a year ago included Anacostia, Hillcrest, Capitol Hill Northeast, Chevy Chase, Penn Quarter, Shaw and Sheppard Park, according to Long & Foster.
… Citywide, sellers got more than 97 percent of their asking price in October. In Columbia Heights, Mount Pleasant, Southwest and Waterfront saw median sales prices of more than 100 percent.
Read more at: www.bizjournals.com
Washington Post reporter Tim Craig tweeted from an Occupy DC rally at McPherson Square about racial and gender preferences when calling upon reporters. The “progressive stack policy” is typical at Occupy movement events. “For those of you unfamiliar, progressive stack just means encouraging people from marginalized communities to speak more often,” tweeted @OccupyKSt. Washington City Paper reporter Lydia DePillis pointed out, however, that such a policy relies upon visual markers.
What’s your take: do you think this method compensates for a lack of voices from marginalized communities? Is it an unfair to have such preferences over which reporters get first access? Should journalists not be bound by this policy, since they strive to be neutral news gatherers? Sound off in the comments below.
Paul J. Richards / AFP/Getty Images
The U.S. Census form first asks respondents whether they are Hispanic or Latino and then asks about race.
By A.C. Valdez
Asking someone “Where are you from?” may seem simple enough, but it’s actually a tricky question, particularly for mixed-race Latinos. For instance, before asking your race, the U.S. Census form asks whether you are Hispanic or non-Hispanic. What if you identify as both?
My father is a genealogy buff, and although I’ve generally been uninterested by it, I do owe it to him that I know at least a bit about where I come from. My ancestry is quarter German, quarter Irish and half Chicano. My father grew up in South Texas, an area heavily populated by Latinos. For many Americans, that would seem to indicate that most residents are immigrants who recently settled in the area. But going back far enough, it’s likely that my ancestors have been around since Texas was first colonized by Spain. In other words, the border crossed us, not the other way around.
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There are a number of ways to refer to immigrants living in the United States without proper authorization, such as undocumented immigrants, illegal aliens and unauthorized immigrants. But which term should be used by media organizations that want to remain objective and avoid the appearance of bias? Our sister blog Multi-American lays out the arguments in the debate over immigration and terminology.
In a recent style update, the Associated Press clarified that it did not sanction the use of “undocumented,” which is frequently used. The AP clarified that it did not use “illegal alien,” “an illegal,” “illegals” or “undocumented,” but that “living in the country without permission” was an acceptable variation.
In response, the magazine ColorLines, published by the social justice think tank the Applied Research Center, had a petition going last week to urge readers to contact the AP directly as the news organization sought input for its 2012 AP Stylebook.
Read more at: multiamerican.scpr.org
With Thanksgiving only a few days away, a number of D.C. individuals and organizations are giving away turkeys to folks in need. Convenience store owner Ephrame Kassaye gave away 375 turkeys to Ward 8 residents during a weekend block party. “Without the people who live in the community, I am nothing,” Kassaye told The Washington Post‘s Theola Labbé-DeBose. “I just want to tell them thank you. They deserve this.”
The third annual giveaway was a cheerful moment for an area of the city with pockets of poverty and attention-grabbing crime, such as the homicide last month of a gas station attendant. Police said the attendant was shot across the street from Kassaye’s store by a patron who had taken a gun to the store.
… Ronald Requilman, 59, who came out early Sunday to help Kassaye with the setup, looked around at the smiling children and orderly line and said he was proud to assist. The four police officers on the scene for crowd control had little to do.
“Southeast does have some good things happening, and this is one of them,” Requilman said.
Read more at: www.washingtonpost.com
Nicholas Kamm / AFP/Getty Images
Occupy DC protestors march to the Key Bridge in Washington, D.C. on Nov. 17 during a day of protests in a show of force by the Occupy Wall Street movement.
By Bridget Todd
Originally posted on Racialicious, republished with permission.
People often tell me that I don’t look like your average Occupy protestor. I was initially drawn to the Occupy movement for several reasons. As an educator, anything that gets young people paying attention to the world around them is something that I feel the need to support. As an activist and organizer, I generally believe in the need for all citizens to engage in this kind of political discourse. As a black woman, I feel any conversation about economic inequality is incomplete if it doesn’t also address racial inequality as well. The various occupations across the country present spaces for such conversations to take place. I’ve found plenty of reasons to support the Occupy movement, but does the movement support me?
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Check out these haunting images from TIME magazine, captured by German-based photojournalist Joakim Eskildsen. He traveled around the country, from Native American reservations in South Dakota to post-Katrina New Orleans, photographing Americans struggling in the current economy.
Although Eskildsen didn’t take photos of people in D.C., he very well could have; about 1 in 5 District residents live below the poverty line, although that number could actually be higher under a new government measure.
Eskildsen was also surprised by how pervasive poverty is in America. “Once you start digging, you realize people in poverty are everywhere, and you can really go through your life without seeing them before you yourself are standing in the food stamp line,” he says. “So many people spoke about the disappointment of the American Dream—this, they said, was the American Reality.”
Read more at: lightbox.time.com
