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CNN Wants Latino Viewers and $ But Not When They Criticize

12:13 pm By Maegan la Mamita Mala · Media| TV| media justice · 2 Comments

16 Oct 2009

America’s Voice successfully raised enough money to produce and purchase on-air time for their Drop Dobbs television ad.

The plan was to pay the $16,000 it cost to place the ad during CNN’s Latino in America Series next week. Claro the show will be surrounded by Spanglish ads urging you to buy from Walmart with it’s horrible treatment of workers and eat McDonald’s with it’s horrible treatment of animals and your body. But air an ad that has something to say and is trying to sell a message of truth? Not CNN. They rejected America’s Voice money and ad.

I don’t have cable so I don’t watch CNN and I had no intention of watching the series, Latino in America. Given the criticisms I heard and read about the CNN series Black in America, I already had made up my mind that the show likely wouldn’t represent with any accuracy what the Latino experience was for me, my familia, my friends, and vecinos. The hypocrisy of a network that poses itself as a fair and balanced news leader,airing a series on Latinidad while paying the salary of a the hateful Dobbs, whose rhetoric gives both the government and individuals justification for hate crimes against Latinos, especially Latino immigrants, grows. As Nezua wrote, CNN doesn’t really care about what it really means to be Latino in America. Maybe it’s time not just to drop Dobbs but to drop CNN.

Those Crazy Gringos Videos

23 Sep 2009

Seems like racist white people in the media are getting alot of attention this week from various organizations and websites and some of that negative attention is well deserved. But negative, reactive pressure against some of these crazy gringos is only as effective as the values and goals behind them.

Our first video link is the latest edition of News with Nezua : Crazy Old White Guys.

News With Nezua | Crazy Old White Guys from nezua on Vimeo.

I already told you about the Basta Dobbs campaign. America’s Voice launched their own campaign aimed against Lou Dobbs. They are seeking donations to help buy ad space countering Lou Dobbs and his hate speech. (full disclosure: they have purchased ad space on VL).

Every weeknight, CNN airs one full hour of Hate TV — it’s called, “Lou Dobb’s Tonight.”

Voices Against Violence Zine

9:07 pm By Maegan la Mamita Mala · Justice| Media| Women| media justice · Comments Off

19 Sep 2009

Call out for Submissions

Voices Against Violence Zine is accepting submissions for our next issue. Please send in your essays, poetry, letters, personal accounts, artwork & photography to be included.

What is the Voices Against Violence Zine? A small zine-diy style, with work from people of color, indigenous folks, trans people & queer survivors of domestic violence, sexual violence and sexual assault. Included topics can be: healing from trauma, transformative words used as a healing mechanism, enabling healing, life after trauma, self-help guides/resources, self-healing, dancing as means to healing, healing through narration, forgiveness (do we need it?), & collective trauma.

Voices Against Violence zine is to be used as a community teaching tool, as a jump off for discussion and creative outlet and for conversations that need to happen.

Voices Against Violence is part of Café Revolución.

Send submissions in English, Spanish, tex-mex, spanglish or any combination* via email, either in text in the body of the email or attached in .txt format to noemi.mtz (at) gmail dot com.

In the subject enter voices against violence submission. Include a brief bio, your mailing address, website if any. Mention your zine or any upcoming projects you’d like. If you prefer to remain anonymous, let me know or include a pen name. Email any photos, artwork as an attachment.

deadline: Oct. 31st *translations would be cool but not necessary.

forward and repost! thx

Via / Hermana Resist

Another Campaign Against Lou Dobbs : BastaDobbs.com

9:54 am By Maegan la Mamita Mala · Immigration| Media| Politics| TV| media justice · 4 Comments

18 Sep 2009

DobbsWebPic La Macha already wrote about one campaign against CNN’s Lou Dobbs. Dobbs’ anti-immigrant/anti-Latino rhetoric works hand in hand with government polices that demonize and criminalize immigrants and latinos. It’s not just that Dobbs is hate monger, it’s that what he says is given validation by being broadcast on what is considered a top television news network, CNN.

Presente.og (who seem to have gotten rid of their website explaining who they are-hmm) has finally honed in on their focus with the BastaDobbs.com campaign. VivirLatino is an endorser of the campaign.

BastaDobbs.com exists to change how the media reports on Latinos and immigrants in the United States, starting with the worst offenders: Lou Dobbs and his network, CNN. We focus on Lou Dobbs because he, more than any other media personality, has obsessed about and given voice to the most extreme views about immigrants and Latinos. And yet, because CNN refuses to translate Dobbs into Spanish, too few Latinos and immigrants are even aware of the role he plays in spreading fear and hatred in our communities.

Our campaign targets the dangerous nexus between anti-Latino extremism and the media. At the same time that CNN profits from Dobbs’ brand of “news,” the network is courting Latino viewers by adding Latino talent and producing legitimate programming aimed at the Latino audience. BastaDobbs.com was created to shine the spotlight on this hypocrisy, and demand that CNN deal with its Dobbs problem once and for all. We are calling on Latinos and our allies to join us in telling CNN to stop Dobbs. Our dignity, safety, and self respect demand nothing less!

CNN claims to represent the “Hispanic” experience for “Hispanic Heritage Month” while having someone on their payroll who promotes hatred and violence against Latinos. CNN wants to accept the advertising dollars of companies who want Latino dollars and then puts that money into the pocket of Lou Dobbs?

I am curious to see how the multiple campaigns against Lou Dobbs work together and how they engage the wider Latino community.

What is 287(g)? : A Short Film

8 Sep 2009

I’ve written extensively on 287(g) and it’s recent expansion and how it is essentially presented as separate from the immigration reform debate, even by DC orgs and insiders, while clearly laying the groundwork for a Comprehensive Immigration Reform policy that criminalizes Latinos. Amigo Nezua from The Unapologetic Mexican made an amazing little film that breaks down the program and the problems with it. This film is part of a weekly series of videos featured over at la Frontera Times.

News With Nezua | Sept. 07, 2009 | 287g from nezua on Vimeo.

You can also see the video here (UMX), over the Xolagrafik Theater, or at la Frontera Times.

Netroots Nation : Invisibility and Identity in Progressive Spaces Part 2 (Immigration)

23 Aug 2009

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It’s been a week since I left Pittsburgh, pero drama from NN09, a mounting stack of bills, and la vida have prevented me from writing out this second part in a more timely manner.

The Movement is in the Messenging?
As I mentioned before, I was able to attend Netroots Nation gracias to a scholarship from America’s Voice because of my history of writing on immigration. Understandably, this was a decision that wasn’t popular with everyone since I am constantly pushing back on the beltway and their “progressive” supporters. Pero that is what I consider my job to be. I am not beholden to anyone except myself and my community which is why I think it’s really important to look at how the issue of immigration and the parties that claim to represent the issue in the real world and blogosphere are represented, specifically in the Netroots Nation ‘09 context.

Netroots Nation : Invisibility and Identity in Progressive Spaces Part 1

15 Aug 2009

I have been hesitant in many ways to write about Netroots Nation 09. As always, I am grateful to have the opportunity to come to these spaces, even if it ends up being an isolating experience. Trust me, NN09 is not like the Allied Media Conference, where while yes I faced challenges, as an activist rwoc blogger I didn’t feel so completely alone, so compelled to render myself invisible and confront that invisibility all at the same time. That has been my experience here at NN09.

I won’t get into the more personal ways I have been marginalized and forced to make myself invisible. I will write about that over at Mamita Mala, pero I want to write about how in these so called progressive spaces, women of color, specifically radical women of color who dare to question the way feminism is framed and the way struggles done in our name are framed, are forced to make a statement by their absence.

When sex workers aren’t white and beautiful

14 Aug 2009

NC Women Slain Remember the Craig’s List Killer? The one who was hiring women to perform sex acts, and then killing them? Remember what big news that was?

Today I read the news of a small town in North Carolina where at least 9 women who were sex workers have been murdered and/or are missing.

Since 2005, nine women who lived at the edges of the poor community in this small North Carolina city have disappeared. Six bodies were found along rural roads just a few miles outside town, most so decomposed that investigators could not tell how they died. At least one of the women was strangled, and all the deaths have been classified as homicides. Three women are still missing.

Police will not say whether they suspect a serial killer, but people in the community about 60 miles northeast of Raleigh do, and they’re impatient with law enforcement efforts to investigate the slayings.

This is a small town, so nine women gone is something that is noticed by a lot of people. As one of the women who used to work with the missing women said:

“I used to walk these streets and jump in and out of cars. But then when that first girl Melody got killed I stopped that because I knew he would kill another,” said Johnson, 41. “I hate for that to happen to her, but it probably saved my life. I have five babies.”

Counting the names on one hand, she added, “There’s probably five or six girls left around here that will jump in and out of cars. He really did kill the whole neighborhood.“

I knew without being told several aspects of the story: namely, the police didn’t really investigate what was going on until more women wound up dead. And even then, the families are frustrated because police don’t seem to really care. And the media isn’t really covering it all that much. And national pressure is non-existent, and money for body recovery is hard to come by.

And from what I can see, every single one of the women who are missing are black.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I don’t think that sex work is any safer for white women then it is for women of color–but I DO think that people *care more* when the women who are killed or missing is beautiful, young and white rather than old or older, a mother of multiple kids and black. How the media has covered these separate crimes is evidence of that. When the Craig’s List murder happened, the media was stalking the court rooms, running police images of the suspect, talking to the murder victim’s families, contemplating over and over again–what would make such a beautiful woman *do this* (i.e. sex work)? She had her whole life ahead of her! She could’ve done anything! Oh, the tragedy of women being forced to sell sexual acts so they can survive!

Compared to nine women black women now missing or dead–and ONE article about in the national news.

Whose lives does the media find important? Whose PUSSIES does the media find important? Whose neighborhood’s does the media find important?

While I’m not a fan of the netroots nation conference–the one thing I am really glad of is that la Mala is repping. We must ALL feel the emptiness of a table with women not there because of violence and erasure. And for some reason, I don’t see many people at the “nation” caring much about these women, unless somebody is there to “remind” the nation about who isn’t there.

NOI Summit Part II : The Art of Talking Past and Walking Over Immigration

14 Aug 2009

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A disturbing trend that I saw layed out at the NOI Summit and throughout various spaces here at Netroots Nation, is how blogging/pushing for Comprehensive Immigration Reform is being framed.

For us Latino bloggers who write about immigration as a part of our lives, not as a public policy issue, we do not have the luxury of waiting for there to be a CIR bill to pick apart pedazo por pedazo. At the NOI Summit it was asked of the “immigration bloggers”, how can white mainstream progressive bloggers write about CIR in a way that engages their readership and pushes for action. The way the question is presented puts immigration not as an issue of people’s daily lives, and in some cases deaths, pero rather as a way to define who are acceptable political targets on Capital Hill. Cuz for real, my vecinos in Corona, Queens, aren’t thinking about Congressman Schumer with his talk of illegals as their champion. They don’t want to be Luis Ramirez.
Read more…

NOI Summit Part I : The Art of Coming to the Table

9:37 am By Maegan La Mala · Blogs| Internet| Netroots Nation| Pittsburgh| media justice · 3 Comments

13 Aug 2009

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Gracias a America’s Voice I am in Pittsburgh for the Netroots Nation conference. After a almost full day here I have many thoughts on Netroots Nation and the role of independent activist bloggers within the wider blogosphere or netroots, if you will. Pero even before that, I was invited to be part of a summit hosted by the New Organizing Institute . The summit specifically joined LGBT and immigrant bloggers to sit at the mesa. The conversation included some people whom I consider not just co-luchadrores pero amigos as well.

The conversation was centered on how we can cross support each others’ efforts especially in the context of marriage equity and comprehensive immigration reform. Unfortunately, especially in the mainstream progressive blogosphere, these issues are still viewd as mutually exclusive, as if there are no gay undocumented families. DreamActivist talks on this intersectionality specifically.

What was more interesting for me personally, given my 16 year history of activism on various levels and in various mediums, was an issue of language if you will. Semantics. Word choice. It’s a theme that has reared its head here in Pittsburgh a few times. For example, is calling a legislator pushing for a specific legislation to be passed the moves of an organizer? Is that the activist thing to do? Is a desire to work with the Hill activist? What about this huge move towards list building as a strategy? Can activist bloggers also be wed to mainstream orgs and maintain legitimacy? Can you be both outsider and insider?

VivirLatino