Get Involved - Be Like Barbara and Bayard
Think a new day is dawning? To paraphrase the President Elect-slash-One, change begins with you! Here are some suggestions to help make Barack Obama's job easier by getting involved in the SoCal area. This week's presidential election was milestone for civil rights, but as Operation Hope sees it, the real battle in ethnic communities is for "silver rights" - financial freedom and empowerment. Operation Hope was founded "immediately following the civil unrest of April 29, 1992 in Los Angeles[,]" and focuses on financial issues and working as a "facilitator, lender, advocate and educator for and on behalf of the other America." The HOPE Corps volunteer program is looking for "enthusiastic and compassionate volunteers/Heroes to provide financial literacy to youth."
A good deal of the agonized Prop 8 post mortem has focused on the statistically-challenged question of whether California's black population - all 6.7% of it! - was responsible for the passage of the measure. No matter how that math adds up for you (it doesn't for this woman), you likely do agree that the #1 victims of black homophobia in California are black gays and lesbians. The Barbara Jordan / Bayard Rustin Coalition (named after Civil Rights leaders Jordan and Rustin) works to help those "Black same-gender loving, lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender individuals and families in Greater Los Angeles" with various programs include Leadership Training and community conversations.
Speaking of Prop 8, Pixeltown blogger Ariel Fox wrote of how she followed anti-Prop 8 protests in cyberspace. The official NoOnProp8 website seems to have gone into parking mode post-election, but they do have an active twitter feed. As the feed puts it: "Can't keep it up-to-the-minute updated [on the site] as easily as on Twitter. "
For those of you interested in a art-weekend, the Silverlake Art Crawl starts Friday, November 7th, although politics is never far away this season. Word on the street/tweet has it that a Prop 8-related street action will be taking place at nearby Sunset Junction at about the same time.
Got a suggestion for how to get involved? Share it in comments
The image associated with this post was taken by flickr user victoriabernal. It was used under Creative Commons license.
