RISE Round-up: Race and Health Care Reform, the Digital Divide, a Children’s Protest, & more August 23, 2009

Every week, we post a round-up of RISE-relevant articles from around the internet.  Have something to add? Leave a comment. For a more up to the minute look at what we’re reading, follow us on Twitter.

Sorry for the late round-up this week, folks! To make up for it, we have a couple of extra links this week.

Resentment over Race and Health Care Reform On Racialicious, an open thread on the link between race and the healthcare protests.  The CNN segment they embed is interesting, but make sure you check out the comments too.  Common threads? That the view that social welfare programs “take resources from supposedly hard-working white people and give them to supposedly  lazy black people” is still pervasive, but that class is just as important if not more, and that resentment exists between minority groups as well.

Jails are the New Asylums A fascinating — if disturbing — article in the New York Times this week about mentally ill offenders in juvenile prisons.  As states cut their community health budgets and resources for the mentally ill become more and more scarce, thousands of kids are ending up in prisons ill-equipped to deal with them — not to mention rehabilitate them.

Growing a New Leaf We posted a while ago about an article on the potential of urban agriculture for reintegrating the homeless — here’s another story about the therapeutic value of growing things.  Also from the New York Times, this a slightly less depressing article about a farm in upstate New York that’s become a haven for recovering addicts, who divide their time between tending the farm and participating in more traditional rehab programs and activities.

Class, Race, and Digital Activism Leigh Graham at the Poverty In America Blog writes about a lack of focus on poverty at the recent Netroots Nation conference. In order to close the digital divide, Graham calls on activists to “incorporate our low-income neighbors into our on-line activism, or move beyond noble but limiting motivations like ‘help’ and ‘charity’ to ‘empowerment’ and ‘equity’.”

Lawsuit to Challenge School Harassment Policies The NYCLU has filed a federal lawsuit against the Herkimer County School District for failing to protect a gay high school student, identified in court papers as “Jacob,”  from the harassment of his classmates, which ranged from verbal assault  to physical abuse and threats of violence, with one student threatening the 14 year-old with a knife.  Catch the NYCLU’s own Karyn Brownson at the RISE, talking about working against adultism in adult/youth collaborations, and becoming an ally to youth like Jacob who so badly need them.  

Stop Stealing Children’s Smiles This is what 11 year-old Heidi Rubi Portugal said she wanted from the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office, which has arrested 264 immigrant workers in Pheonix since 2008. Portugal was a part of a children’s protest march calling for the release of the workers and an end to the raids, which have separated these children from one or both parents.