Matthew Freeman Social Justice Lecture and Awards 2015 at Roosevelt University

The 2015 Matthew Freeman Social Justice Lecture and Awards at Roosevelt University in Chicago were given and presented this year on March 26, 2015. The lecture was given by Carlos Javier Ortiz. Mr. Ortiz is a highly-honored photographer and photojournalist, and his presentation was therefore much more visual than many previous lectures.  Based on the photographs from his book and gallery display “We All We Got”, the images and accompanying talk focused upon the lives of poor people of color in Chicago, particularly those of families of young people who had been killed, often as incidental victims. Ortiz developed long-lasting relationships with some of these families, and his photographs document that, even with these losses, life goes on.

But it does not go on smoothly or easily. Affixed to the back cover of his book is a fold-out list, by year, from 2007 to 2014, of the hundreds and hundreds of Chicago Public School students who have been victims of gunshots and stabbing deaths. In his talk, Ortiz notes that in more affluent suburban communities, such premature deaths are rare and often kept from young people, while on the south and west sides of Chicago grammar school classes may be taken to the funerals and wakes, such as that of Siretha White in 2006 pictured below. Diane Latiker and her husband are building a memorial, brick by brick, to young people lost to violence. Begun in 2007, it has more than 370 stones, and Ortiz tell us, is behind by more than 200.

We who are not part of these communities may see them as apart; indeed one mural depicts downtown Chicago as separated from their neighborhood by almost-impassable mountains (there are, in case you wondered, no mountains in Chicago). Our news media nationally cover tragedies involving the death of white young people as at Columbine and Sandy Hook; local news may cover the accidental killings of young Black girls such as Siretha White, but the deaths of young Black men, who may have been linked to gangs, is not news. But their families, and communities, suffer, as does our whole society which affords them no future.

This theme is tied to that noted by Richard E. Wallace, one of the amazing Roosevelt students to receive the Matthew Freeman Award. Wallace, who is a father and labor organizer while maintaining a straight-A average, works with day laborers. These people awake at 4am every day to be in line to be picked up so they can work for minimum wage doing tasks from backbreaking physical labor to shipping your Amazon packages so that they can provide at least minimal housing, food, and water for their families. With this life of constant work for barely subsistence wage, they have no hope of getting out or advancing, recalling the lives of ante-bellum slaves in the South. He is one of the founding members of the Stop Mass Incarceration Network at Roosevelt, and the professor who nominated him said “I have probably learned as much, if not more, from Richard Wallace as he has learned from me.  I think he is one of the brightest and best embodiments of the university’s mission that we have seen.”

 

Danielle Cooperstock, the other reward recipient, is also amazing. She “is majoring in Social Justice Studies with a minor in Women’s and Gender Studies. In 2012, Danielle connected with PIRG through a transformational learning course on educational and economic inequality issues. She continues to work with this community organization and many others to this day. For the past two years, Danielle has worked as a student disability and peer mentor at the Academic Success Center. Additionally, she is a crucial leader of two Roosevelt activist groups, RISE and RU Proud, both of which motivate other Roosevelt students toward social justice goals.”

These are two incredible young people, and I had a desperately-needed sense of hope and optimism on meeting them and hearing what they have done. And I thank Roosevelt University for its explicit social justice mission and its nurturance and support of students like these two. Should you have the capability, it is certainly worthy of your support.

Matthew Freeman Lecture and Awards, 2013

On April 1, 2013, Roosevelt University in Chicago presented the 2013 Matthew Freeman Lecture "What Works in Reversing the Cradle-to-prison Pipeline: System Change through Conflict and Collaboration", by Joseph Tulman, Professor of Law and Director of the Took Crowell Institute for At-Risk Youth at the University of the District of Columbia David A. Clarke School of Law. Prof. Tulman focused more on what he calls the "school to prison pipeline", discussing the depressing statistics on the probability of young people in certain communities ending up in prison, and the association of poor school experiences with this result. Most prisoners, he notes, have learning disabilities, not addressed in school, and he spoke about the ways in which he and others have  tried to help. His work is an important addition to a growing movement to address the mass incarceration of largely minority people in the US. 

I just returned from hearing Michelle Alexander, Associate Professor of Law at Ohio State, giving the Cleaver Lecture in Kansas City, on the topic of her book "The New Jim Crow". She points to the massive increase in incarceration over the last 30 years, with the quintupling of the prison population, 80% of whom are in for drug possession. She notes that this is a purposeful strategy pursued after the civil rights movement to create and maintain an "under-caste", where black men are more likely to be in the corrections system than in college; where in some cities and communities 80% of black men have a record. And felony records, often acquired before voting age, may prevent them from ever voting or even getting a job.

During the Jim Crow era, laws in the South institutionalized legal racism. The poor and working class white people, living in states that were often low-wage and non-union, could at least feel that they were superior to blacks. After the successes of the civil rights movement eliminated legal segregation, politicians seeking to mobilize the resentment of those same whites developed a "law and order" program, focused on the "War on Drugs" and targeted at people of color. Crime rates have gone up and down, but incarceration rates have only gone up. Drug use and sales are not significantly higher in minority communities, but arrests are. Felony convictions have decimated communities, and "kept them under control". One of my friends and colleagues notes that "If you're Paris Hilton or Lindsay Lohan, you can get away with virtually anything. If you're black or Latino, you get 5 to 10 years!" Indeed, you don't have to be Paris Hilton or Lindsay Lohan; if you are the right color and live on the right side of town, you can still go to college; if not, you probably will never get a job.

I would also like to congratulate the winners of the 2013 Matthew Freeman Social Justice Award, Nathan Lustig and Bailey Swinney.  Lustig, 22, a psychology major, Chicago resident and native of White Plains, N.Y., was selected for the award based on his commitment and engagement as an activist and organizer both on campus and in the community.

Swinney, 24, a sociology major, resident of Chicago’s Hyde Park neighborhood and native of Euless, Texas, received the award for her work in creating a conducive environment for Roosevelt students to teach reading skills to Cook County juveniles on probation.

It is clear that they are part of the solution.

Thank you, Professor Tulman, Professor Alexander, Nathan, and Bailey.

Nathan Lustig and Bailey Swinney

The 2012 Matthew Freeman Social Justice Awards

In my blog, “Alabama, “illegals”, and hate: We must take back the narrative” on March 11, 2012, I discussed some of the points made by Oscar Chacon, Executive Director of the National Alliance of Latin American and Caribbean Communities (NALACC), in his talk “Latinos and the Justice System: Challenges and Opportunities”, the 2012 Matthew Freeman Memorial Lecture on Social Justice at Roosevelt University on March 8. Chacon describes the purposeful development of a social narrative over the last 30 years that has served to demonize immigrants, and particularly those from Latin America.

In that piece, I note that this is part of a larger narrative that has been created affecting health, reproductive and women’s rights, and the substitution of belief for evidence. I also note that there is opposition. I mentioned the Occupy Movement, and I want to cite the work done by the two Roosevelt students who won the Matthew Freeman Social Justice Awards. On a smaller scale than “Occupy”, these two students, as those who have won in prior years, have done incredible work to help create a more just and tolerable world, the kind of world that we want to live in.

Daniel Smrokowski, an undergraduate journalism major, is the founder and executive director of the blog SpecialChronicles.com, for which he is the host and producer of the Special Chronicles podcast. He is a Special Olympics athlete and a global messenger (speaker) for Special Olympics Illinois. At WRBC:The Blaze, the student-run radio station at Roosevelt, he is the station director and an on-air personality. Daniel enjoys spreading the message to respect those, like himself, with intellectual disabilities.

Sarah Heeger, a graduate student in school counseling, has renovated and developed a program at Jones College Prep to guide undocumented students through the college planning process. By establishing relationships with college representatives and faculty, she has been instrumental in ensuring students receive the help they need to pursue their education. As a result of her advocacy efforts, and the creation of a nonthreatening environment, undocumented students are able to express their future goals and concerns and receive counseling, guidance, and support to pursue their dreams.

These are two amazing young people. I almost said extraordinary, and they are, but they are also, in the best sense, “ordinary”, regular human beings who are not “well-funded” by billionaires but who are motivated by caring and concern and love and respect for themselves and others. Missouri may be considering placing a bust of Rush Limbaugh (clearly someone who is bought and paid for) in their state Hall of Fame, but all for the rest of us there are Daniel and Sarah.

Congratulations, and may you continue your great work and be roles models for others across the US and the world.