EquityBlog

On Friday, March 2 in Los Angeles, the California Assembly’s Select Committee on the Status of Boys and Men of Color convened another hearing to discuss solutions and strategies for improving the lives of disenfranchised male youth across the state.

At the standing-room only event, Committee members heard from local legislators, policy leaders, and community and youth activists about innovative policies and programs that are helping to pave the way towards healthier, successful futures for California’s young men and boys of color.

Check out some of these great testimonies from the LA hearing:

Local youth activist Joshua Ham (Courtesy of Behind the Lens)

“Voices of L.A.’s young men” (Courtesy of Liberty Hill )

“Every Californian deserves the opportunity to thrive, including our boys” (Courtesy of Liberty Hill)

Equity summit 2011 was a success and we would like to share the experience with those who were unable to make and  with those who want to re-live the moments.

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A new report out from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office shows the really stunning rise in income inequality over the past 30 years. Seems like the folks Occupying our cities may be on to something:

The future of equity has never looked more adorable.

On Monday, PolicyLink released a new fifteen second public service announcement that will run on the Times Square Jumbo Tron (popularly known as the “David Letterman Screen”) in Manhattan until November 30th.

As part of our new multimedia series “America’s Tomorrow: Equity in a Changing Nation,” we’ve been tracking the country’s changing demographics and exploring what these changes mean for the future of America. This promo’s message is clear: by 2042, people of color will be the majority in America; by the end of this decade half of all youth will be of color. We must invest in their futures now – for the sake of our own and that of the entire nation.

Check it out below and tell us what you think!

UPDATE: Watch this cool behind-the-scenes look at the making of the PSA, as well as an extended thirty second version.

To download the video you can right click here and save to your desktop

Newly released Census data on race/ethnicity by age shows our rapid demographic transformation.

Nationally, 80 percent of seniors are white and only in a few counties are most seniors people of color. But the younger population looks vastly different: the majority of babies born in the last two years were nonwhite, and across the country—from our largest cities to suburbs, small towns, and rural areas—young Americans are increasingly people of color.

Today we released a new animated map illustrating this stark racial and generational divide. Please view the map, share it, and share in the comments what you think it means for our nation’s future.

Want more on “America’s Tomorrow?” Visit here to follow the entire multimedia series

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In the first video installment of the PolicyLink multimedia series “America’s Tomorrow: Equity in a Changing Nation,” PolicyLink Founder and CEO Angela Glover Blackwell spoke with Manuel Pastor about the breadth of the nation’s changing demographics and what it means for equity.

Today’s video features an interview with Angela and Fred Blackwell, who is executive director of the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency (SFRA).  In the interview, they look closely at the decline of African American populations in major metro areas like San Francisco, New York, St. Louis, and Chicago, and what it means for the future of America’s cities and communities.

Please watch their short conversation and tell us what impact you think these new demographic realities will have below in the comments section.

Last month, PolicyLink launched “America’s Tomorrow: Equity in a Changing Nation,” a new multimedia series looking at the changing face of America, and the leaders who are making a difference.

We kicked the series off with “The Map of America’s Tomorrow,” an interactive time-lapse map showing, for the first time, the growth of people of color from 1990 through 2042. The map struck an instant chord, receiving over 200,000 views across 135 countries in less than 48 hours.

Today we’ve released the first video installment of “America’s Tomorrow” featuring an interview with PolicyLink Founder & CEO Angela Glover Blackwell and Manuel Pastor to talk about the challenges and opportunities facing our nation now, and leading up to 2050 when people of color will be America’s majority.

Pastor – who leads the University of Southern California’s Program for Environmental and Regional Equity (PERE), and is co-author with Blackwell and Stewart Kwoh of Uncommon Common Ground: Race and America’s Future, spoke about the breadth of the coming demographic changes and what it means for equity.

Click up top to watch the full 4-minute interview. To follow the entire series, visit here.

And stay tuned over the next few months as we continue to explore these issues with some of the nation’s most exciting leaders who are doing their part to blaze the path towards equity.

Earlier this month, more than 100 people came out to The New School in New York City to engage in a real conversation about the coming demographic shifts…and what they mean for America.

USC professor Manuel Pastor and PolicyLink CEO Angela Glover Blackwell — two of the co-authors of Uncommon Common Ground: Race and America’s Future — helped guide the conversation.

You can watch the panel below:

In a very comprehensive and insightful way, Fair Food examines the problems of a broken food system, and puts forth bold – and doable – strategies to redesign a system that is healthy for people, communities, and the environment.

According to its author, Oran Hesterman, this redesigned system requires looking at bigger, systems-level solutions.  From providing healthier food in school cafeterias and creating farmers’ markets to demanding that policy makers and industry leaders work to provide affordable, nutritious food, Hesterman lays out a number of options to create a healthy, sustainable food system.

Fair Food is divided into three parts:

Part I introduces the current food system, how and why it evolved as it did, and the ways in which it no longer serves the nation well. Starting with the chapter that describes the system and its dysfunctions,  Hesterman takes the reader on a journey to understand the food system in its entirety:  from production, to processing, to distribution, to retail sales, to consumption, with the goal of understanding the lifecycle of a single crop – essentially, from field to fork.

Part II describes four key principles a redesigned food system should embody and offers examples of how various individuals and organizations have started to integrate these principles into their enterprises; all with the goal of providing inspiring new models for producers and consumers, businesses and communities. Chapters range from the benefits of multi-sector partnerships to the incorporation of green economy principles.

Lastly, Part III offers a practical guide to how citizens can participate in collective action to precipitate big changes in our food system, from the kitchen to the community; and at local, state and federal levels – or to put it plainly, from the state house to the White House.

Fair Food brings a wealth of insight into the way we can improve the health and well-being of our nation.  It is, indeed, an impressive – and achievable – roadmap.

• Read Advance Praise for Fair Food
• Check out Tour Dates
• Download Press Release

For additional information, go to www.fairfoodbook.org.

So, this is just great. In honor of First Lady Michelle Obama’s anti-obesity initiative, students at Harlem’s PS 161 were holding a Let’s Move flash mob and dancing to Beyonce’s “Get Me Bodied.” They got a lot more than they expected (the kids FREAK at the 1:35 mark):

h/t Gawker.