By Liane Scott, on August 27th, 2013 
Cross-Posted from Free Speech Radio News (audio for this piece was provided by Grassroots DC Contributor Noelle Galos)
[audio:http://www.grassrootsdc.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/racial_profiling_feeder_to_march_on_washington.mp3]
Events marking the 50th Anniversary of the March on Washington are taking place across the country. Illinois State University students are organizing a series of performances to pay tribute to Bayard Rustin, an organizer of the 1963 march. In Detroit, where Martin Luther King, Jr. originally delivered a version of his “I Have a Dream” speech, thousands gathered for a march earlier this summer. Now, that energy is coming to Washington, DC, site of the historic march and rally. Several days of events kick off this weekend. Marchers will gather Saturday at the Lincoln Memorial to protest against a number of civil rights issues that persist: the attack on voter rights, racial profiling, poverty and discrimination. Local activists are organizing to have a share in the weekend’s events, and they hope to address racial profiling within DC law enforcement, which they say is part of the “New Jim Crow.” They are planning two feeder marches from opposite ends of the city, and hope to bring national attention to racial inequalities in the Nation’s Capital. Laura Lising, one of the group’s organizers, explained to FSRN why the group was formed and how they are plugging in their campaign to the March:
LISING: Well I think there has been a new life breathed into the march by the anger around Trayvon Martin’s murder and the acquittal of Zimmerman, despite the clear fact that he was the murderer. And so people are going to be going down there, not to just celebrate this event that happened 50 years ago, but to demand an end to continuing racist practices. And so we see ourselves in that spirit. Most of us, all of us who are involved in organizing were out for Trayvon, night after night after the Zimmerman acquittal happened… But we want to address local issues as well, and we bring the issue of racial profiling in DC to the national stage, and this is an amazing opportunity to do so.
The group of activists are united behind putting an “end to racial profiling.” They have been holding public meetings in neighborhoods across DC to share the findings of two studies published in July, one by the Washington Lawyers Committee and another by the American Civil Liberties Union. Both reports show a pattern of racial profiling by DC law enforcement. The reports look at overall arrest rates, and the ACLU’s study focuses on racial disparities for non-violent offenses, particularly marijuana arrests. The study revealed that African Americans in Washington, DC are eight times more likely to be arrested for a marijuana offense, despite near equal usage among black and white communities. Stuart Anderson, founder of the non-profit organization Family and Friends of Incarcerated People (FFOIP) said he began organizing when he himself was imprisoned.
ANDERSON: I started working with fathers in 1993, inside Lorton. When they closed Lorton, the onus of incarceration, the cost of incarceration was shifted from the city, from the state, or from the federal onto the backs of families.
Anderson said that creates a vicious cycle that weakens families and communities. His organization provides support and training to the children of those behind bars; children that Anderson says are at a higher risk of being incarcerated themselves.
ANDERSON: There are over 1.7 million children of people who are incarcerated in the United States right now today. And of those children, approximately half of them are under the age of 10.
Anderson’s group and other local organizations, are planning a rally for this evening, and will join the larger national contingent on Saturday to highlight ongoing problems with racial profiling. Other local leaders expressed skepticism that their voices would be included in the national program of events. Damian Smith, a DC artist and activist, echoed recent remarks by Cornel West that someone as outspoken as Dr. King would not be invited to speak at the march today.
SMITH: Martin Luther King would talk about extra-judicial assassinations. You know why I know Martin Luther King would talk about drones and extra-judicial assassinations? Because in his time when the war of his time was taking place he spoke at great risk to his own personal reputation about that war.
Like the organizers behind the original March in 1963, the coalition of local groups demands concrete policy change, including oversight of DC’s police department practices that criminalize African American youth. They plan to hold . . . → Read More: Local DC activists draw attention to racial profiling, incarceration ahead of March on Washington anniversary
By Grassroots DC, on July 26th, 2013 
Washington, DC – On July 22, 2013 Mayor Vincent Gray, along with a handful of aides and scores of reporters, paid a visit to Petworth with the intention of cracking down on synthetic marijuana and drug paraphernalia being sold at small businesses in the neighborhood. “That’s illegal, man. Can’t do that. That’s drug paraphernalia,” warned the Mayor. This isn’t the first time that Mayor Gray has posed as a law enforcement official in order to bust local shops, in his effort with the group Advocates for Drug-free Youth.
The visit took an unexpected turn, however, when Gray encountered an Ethiopian clerk who had trouble understanding English. “You don’t understand? How do you sell anything if you don’t understand? If somebody asks you for something, do you know what they’re asking you for?” Mayor Gray chided. At one point, visibly frustrated by the language barrier, the Mayor told the clerk “I don’t even, I really don’t know how you are working here if you can’t communicate with the people who come in here.” Despite criticism from NBC4 reporter Mark Segrave, the Mayor denied that his remarks could be considered insensitive and said that the language barrier was “irrelevant.”
According to federal and local laws, DC government must provide interpretation and translation when interacting with limited- and non-English proficient individuals. By asking for interpretation and having his request denied, the clerk was deprived of his right to “equal and meaningful” access protected by Title XI of the Civil Rights Act and the DC Language Access Act of 2004.
Over 85,000 DC residents speak a language other than English at home, according to the 2010 Census. The most common languages include Spanish, Amharic, French, Chinese, Korean, and Vietnamese. With these facts in mind and the law on his side, it is difficult to watch the Mayor tell the young clerk that his actions are illegal — not to mention while Mr. Gray himself is under federal investigation for corruption charges.
It isn’t the first time a PR move like this has gone wrong for the Mayor. Just this time last year, he brought a small army of city officials with him to Martin Luther King Boulevard in SE to demand that shop-owners stop carrying rolling papers and selling loose cigarettes. In many of the stores, Mr. Gray and the Director of the Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs (DCRA) Nicholas Majett also encountered language barriers. Then too, the City Paper’s Alan Suderman picked up on the Mayor’s disregard of language access laws:
It did not seem like many of the foreign-born clerks would be able to read the letters without some assistance, as they often appeared to have no idea what the mayor was saying. Majett said it’s a common ploy for immigrant clerks to claim poor English skills whenever dealing with the DCRA. “We always get that,” he said. And Gray said they were still getting the message. “They don’t speak English well, but they understand this is an enforcement visit,” he said.
Following the Suderman piece, the DC-based organization Many Languages, One Voice revisited the stores to get reactions from the owners, most of whom were Korean and spoke little English. MLOV also responded to the most recent incident in Petworth in a video made by English language learner youth in their student organizing program, S.M.A.R.T. (Student Multiethnic Action Research Team):
Lidya Abune, a former S.M.A.R.T. member was surprised by the Mayor’s actions, saying:
“The fact that he’s making fun of him, I don’t expect that from the Mayor. I really respect Vincent Gray, but this is really immature. And definitely in DC, we have the Language Access Act and we have to respect it. DC is very diverse. We have a large immigrant community and you will be respected if you respect someone’s language, culture…it’s really critical. It is someone’s identity…You have to show respect for the people that you’re serving.”
Laws are on the books for a reason. As progressive as the DC Language Access Act is, it is born partly out of the violence and bloodshed of the 1991 Mount Pleasant riots. Incited when police openly shot and killed a handcuffed Latino man, the riots catalyzed big changes in the way government worked with non-English speakers, and immigrants more generally:
Ultimately, government and community leaders realized that language barriers, discrimination, and unequal access to services in the Latino community had created the conditions . . . → Read More: Mayor Gray Must Understand, Our Language is Our Right
By Grassroots DC, on July 23rd, 2013 
The previous post, entitled “A Lesson in Systematic Racism: Stand Your Ground, the NRA, and the American Legislative Council (ALEC),” examined the connection between the untimely death of Trayvon Martin and the powerful lobbying groups that made laws like “Stand Your Ground” possible. This post expands on the previous one by highlighting ALEC’s connection to school closures and the privatization of education.
Arlington, VA – On Thursday, July 18, 2013, a coalition of faith, labor, education and anti-gun violence groups staged a rally at the newly relocated headquarters of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). ALEC gained notoriety last year after the revelation that it was instrumental in writing the “Stand Your Ground” law used in Florida and other discriminatory legislation. In light of the recent not-guilty verdict for George Zimmerman, the protesters demanded the repeal of Stand Your Ground (aka “kill at will”) in Florida, aiming to change the system that killed Trayvon Martin.
In addition to seeking justice for Trayvon, speakers at the event drew attention to the corporate influence ALEC has on government. By bringing together business leaders and state lawmakers to write laws before they are even passed, ALEC ensures the advancement of a corporate agenda at the state level. This affects everything from worker’s rights to safety net programs. Speakers at the event talked about how ALEC’s laws perpetuate school closures, low wage jobs, and gun violence.
Josh Horwitz, Coalition to Stop Gun Violence:
Josh Horwitz
“With the George Zimmerman trial we saw that now what was once murder is no more. Saving human life is not valued. That’s not Virginia values, that’s not American values, and that’s not legal values. Instead of sitting upstairs and drinking wine and eating snacks and celebrating their move to Virginia, ALEC and the corporations that support it should humble themselves and work as hard as they can to repeal the stand your ground laws before one more kid is killed.”
Brendan Fischer, Center for Media and Democracy (publisher of ALECexposed.org):
Brendan Fischer
“This is much more than ‘Stand your ground.’ It includes efforts to push voter ID to make it harder to vote. Efforts to prohibit cities from banning ammunition or banning dangerous machine guns. They’ve also pushed harsh sentencing laws like ‘three strikes you’re out.” At the same time that they were pushing private prisons, which, as more people were flowing into prison, the profits were increasing for private prison industries like Correction Corporation of America, which just happen to be ALEC members. Not surprisingly, these bills do have a disproportionate impact on people of color. And you are probably not surprised to know that many of the people who are in these ALEC meetings deciding to adopt these bills and spread them around the country, are White.”
Sabrina Stevens, American Federation of Teachers (AFT):
Sabrina Stevens
“When we look at organizations like ALEC, especially what they have done to our entire society, that comes into classrooms every day. So, whether it’s children who are tired because they are struggling to find a place to live with their parents who don’t get paid enough, whether it’s people who because of the three strikes laws and other that they’ve helped to pass that make it easier to incarcerate people than to let them vote. All of those things show up in our classrooms. And then, they exploit that perception of failure to create even more excuses to profitize and privatize schools. Those schools in turn don’t hold teachers or the companies accountable for actually tracking students, keeping track of where they are. They do make a lot of profit. And we end up with undereducated children who are fed right into the school to prison pipeline. We have to say no. We have to stand up to this.”
ALECexposed.org lists detailed information about how ALEC has led the fight to de-fund public schools and privatize education:
“Through ALEC, corporations, ideologues, and their politician allies voted to spend public tax dollars to subsidize private K-12 education and attack professional teachers and teachers’ unions by…promoting voucher programs…segregating students with disabilities…setting up low-income students for failure in college…[and] undermining teacher’s unions.”
We’ve seen this at the local level here in DC through past and current public school closures. At the national level, school closures are happening across the country in major cities like Chicago, Detroit, Philadelphia, and New York. It’s clear there is . . . → Read More: A Lesson in Systemic Racism, Part II: ALEC, School Closures, and the School-to-Prison Pipeline
By Grassroots DC, on July 15th, 2013 
Last week, the District’s most vulnerable residents organized to win two major victories in the City Council: the Large Retailer Accountability Act (LRAA), which would require big box stores to pay their employees a living wage, and which effectively prevented the expansion of six Walmart stores within the District; and the Driver Safety Amendment Act (DSAA), which grants the City’s 25,000 undocumented residents the ability to obtain a driver’s license without a mark indicating their undocumented status.
In the first hour of debate over the LRAA it was revealed that Walmart’s CEO Michael Duke made nearly $17,000,000 – a figure well over what his workers earn in a year. Despite this, Councilmembers bickered over whether the bill was a boon or a bust to DC’s low-income residents. The division was due, in large part, to Walmart’s recent threats to pull out of DC if the measure were to pass. At-Large Councilmember Vincent Orange argued that “DC has made it” and doesn’t need to cater to large retailers by accepting low wages. Councilmembers Alexander (Ward 7) and Bowser (Ward 4) decried the lost jobs and retail opportunities for the residents in their wards.
Meanwhile, taxpayers are the ones ultimately funding the financial incentives to lure these retailers into the District. Just this time last year, the city approved a tax incentive to the tune of $32.5 million dollars to headquarter LivingSocial in DC. Despite being located in one of the most rapidly gentrifying neighborhoods in the District, the DC-USA shopping center in Columbia Heights received $40 million for its development (See the Fiscal Policy Institute Article It’s Time To Stop Shopping For Supermarket Tax Breaks.) What’s worse, these taxpayer-funded incentives for large development projects or corporations often come with no strings attached–no requirement to pay living wages, provide job training, or engage meaningfully with the community and their concerns.
After heated debate, the bill ultimately passed 8-5 but still awaits the Mayor’s approval. If he signs it, large retailers must pay their employees a minimum of $12.50/hour, calculated to be a living wage in the District. This would be an increase from the current minimum of $8.50/hour.
Big box stores are not going to be the drivers of economic revitalization. In fact, Think Progress reported: “Walmart’s refusal to pay their employees a livable wage translates into a bigger burden for taxpayers. A Congressional report found that, “the workforce of a single Walmart store [can] consume roughly a million dollars in public benefits every year, relying on “safety net” programs like Medicaid, food stamps, school lunch, and housing assistance to survive.” On the other hand, mutually supportive networks of small businesses and households are known to create a more robust local economy. Low- and moderate-income people, together with small business owners, can help sustain each other, rather than expecting an ethically abysmal multinational corporation to bring in decent jobs or training.
Another important victory impacting the residents of DC is the Driver’s Safety Amendment Act (DSAA), which was passed unanimously in last week’s vote. In issuing licenses to undocumented residents, the Council (and advocates) hope to create safer driving conditions for everyone on the road by ensuring that undocumented drivers have the opportunity to pass road safety tests and acquire insurance for their vehicles. More importantly, the success of the “One City, One License” campaign marked a step forward in civil rights and equality.
Report on DSAA by Ben King for Fress Speech Radio News [audio:http://www.grassrootsdc.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/Ben_King_FSRN_Report-DSAA.mp3]
Advocates also say it will improve the economic prospects of many of the city’s low-income residents who couldn’t obtain licenses before. While it was being debated at the committee level, supporters of the bill packed the hearing room to share stories about the consequences of not having a valid drivers license. Many testified that without the opportunity to get a driver’s license and vehicle, they have difficulty commuting to jobs in places where public transportation is sparse or unreliable. Others said they became accustomed to paying unofficial taxi drivers to get around, many of whom would overcharge for rides knowing their passengers had little recourse. Elderly men and women described the physical toll of walking to and waiting at bus stops, especially during inclement weather.
Jose Alvarado Describes the Economic Benefit of DSAA [audio:http://www.grassrootsdc.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/Jose-Alvarado-Describes-Economic-Benefit-of-DSAA.mp3]
Aside from the benefits to public safety and economic security this measure provides, perhaps the bigger success of DSAA’s passage is that it does not identify the cardholder as undocumented. The Mayor’s original proposal would have created a two-tiered system marking the . . . → Read More: That’s How You Win Campaigns: What DC’s Progressive Community Did Right In the Final Legislative Session of 2013
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