Posts Tagged ‘youth’
Gay Latino Teen is Prom Queen in L.A.
3:49 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · California|GLBT|Los Angeles|society|States|youth · Comments Off
1 Jun 2009It sounds like a script for the feel good movie of the year, but it’s a true story. An openly gay L.A. teen decided it might be fun to be a part of his high school’s prom court, but he didn’t want to be prom king — he thought prom queen would be more up his alley. And instead of being the target of bullying or ridicule, Sergio Garcia’s classmates at Fairfax High rallied around him and made his wish come true:
A few days before the dance and election, the contenders gave short speeches on why they deserved the crown.“At one time, prom may have been a big popularity contest where the best-looking guy or girl were crowned king and queen. Things have changed and it’s no longer just about who has the most friends or who wears the coolest clothes,” Garcia told the crowd of seniors. “Sure, I’m not your typical prom queen candidate. There’s more to me than meets the eye.”
The audience erupted in applause after his speech, and a group of his female friends spent the rest of the week wearing pink crowns and campaigning for him.
On Saturday night at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, wearing a charcoal-gray tuxedo and a black bow tie, he was named prom queen.
“I felt invincible,” Garcia said.
He’s among the first male students in Southern California to take the title usually owned by female high school beauties.
“It just shows how open-minded our class is,” said Vanessa Lo, 18, the school’s senior class president.
Congrats to Sergio and his classmates. We can only wish that the rest of high schools in America — or in California for that matter — were so cool. Viva Fairfax High!
Meanwhile, anti-gay marriage protests rage in Sergio’s home state.
Via / LA Times
New Study from NCLR Points to Inequalities in Justice System for Latino Youth
7:29 am By Maegan la Mamita Mala · Justice|youth · 1 Comment
22 May 2009
“What’s wrong with young people these days?” is a question often asked. We’ve written over and over again that the problem isn’t really with the young people in our communities but rather with the messages “the system” sends to them as to the value of their lives especially when it comes to the “justice” system.
A new study recently released by NCLR reaffirms what we already knew, that Latino youth are treated unjustly. America’s Invisible Children: Latino Youth and the Failure of Justice specifically looks at how Latino youth are charged and incarcerated as adults more so than other young people in the U.S.
On any given day, close to 18,000 Latino youth are incarcerated in America. The majority of these youth are incarcerated for nonviolent offenses. Most Latino youth are held in juvenile detention facilities (41%) and juvenile long-term secure facilities (34%). However, one out of every four (24%) incarcerated Latino children is held in an adult prison or jail even though youth in adult facilities are in significant danger of suicide and rape.
Latino youth are overrepresented in the U.S. justice system and receive harsher treatment than white youth. In order of rising disparities, Latino youth are: 4% more likely than white youth to be petitioned; 16% more likely than white youth to be adjudicated delinquent; 28% more likely than white youth to be detained; 41% more likely than white youth to receive an out-of-home placement; 43% more likely than white youth to be waived to the adult system; and 40% more likely to be admitted to adult prison. States with the highest levels of disparity of Latino youth in adult prison (rates over 5 times that for white youth) were California, Minnesota, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.
Nine out of ten (90%) Latino youth ages 10 to 17 live in states that permit the pre-trial detention in adult jails for youth prosecuted in the adult system. According to a study of 40 large urban jurisdictions, Latino youth prosecuted in the adult system are routinely incarcerated in adult jails. Overall, a higher proportion of white youth are released pretrial (60%) than any other racial or ethnic categories. Most (54%) of Latino youth prosecuted in the adult system were detained pretrial; of the Latino youth detained pretrial, 72% were held in adult jails.
Youths Deal with Government Enforced Separations
5:29 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · children|Immigration|Women|youth · 1 Comment
11 Sep 2008
From CNN comes the heartbreaking story of 13 year old, Julie Quiroz. Julie is a legal natural born U.S. citizen, but she was born to a mother who was in the country illegally. After ICE caught up with the family and deported Julie’s mother and two brothers, Julie wound up in Texas with a foster family and Julie’s family wound up in Mexico.
Julie’s plight highlights what happens to a whole slew of not just immigrant families and their children, but also U.S. citizens who are parents and must serve jail time. Children are often left at home alone after the arrest of their parent, and many times, police and social workers make no effort to find a child of an arrested parent, even if the parent tells officials of the child. I’ve heard stories of children living on their own for up to two months before concerned neighbors finally step in and call social services or invite them into their own homes.
I feel the same way about ICE enforced family separations as I do about prison enforced family separations. It is a human right to see your child, regardless of crime committed or nationality. I don’t care how complicated it is to negotiate the right for children and parents to be together, it must be done. And if our legal system can’t find ways to make it so that children and parents are together or at least have regular access to each other, than that system needs to change. Period.
via/CNN
Mexican celebs: Vote or shut up
5:01 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Celebrities|Marketing|mexico|Politics · 1 Comment
13 Jun 2006
With the Mexican elections just a few weeks away, the campaign to get voters out to the polling places — especially young voters — is heating up. “Tu Rock es votar”, an organization whose mission is to do just that has created a pretty compelling campaign online, on TV, on the radio and in print which relies on the power of celebrities to encourage young people to get out and vote. The tagline: “Si no votas, cállate” (If you don’t vote, shut up). The tagline is the main part of a larger message which says: “We all complain…how many of us vote? If you don’t vote, shut up. On July 2nd, don’t let anyone decide for you”.
More to Obesity…
5 Dec 2005
Despite its obvious sizzle, scapegoating junk food isn’t the answer; better school nutrition and less fast food is not the panacea for this public health crisis. A big part of the problem is that many children have very few options after school to do anything other than sit in front of television or computer screens or hang out on their neighborhood streets.
I’ll be the first to admit that it’s very easy to blame the fast food industry and junk food in general for the obesity epidemic that this country is facing. Perhaps there is more to the problem. Who would’ve thought that the socioeconomic condition of some children has a direct effect on whether they are obese and suffer from health illnesses later in their lives. Parents have to take some responsibility but how much is really deserved. Take for instance so called latchkey kids who are home alone because their parents are still away at work when they arrive from school. How can you really blame parents for that when they are trying to make ends meet.
Approximately 5 million children under the age of 12, most of them African-American or Latino, living in poor neighborhoods, spend their time after school home alone. The result is a host of potential problems that compromise their healthy development — social, intellectual, and physical — into adulthood. Among these problems is childhood obesity, which is of epidemic proportions among America’s African-American and Latino children, 9 million of whom are now obese.
Black and Gold Across the Atlantic?
22 Nov 2005
Immigrants make people nervous, especially after the fires of Paris. You would think that other European countries would take France’s example of police abuse and its consequences to heart when dealing with young immigrants and their children struggling to make ends meet. But no, it seems much easier for Spain to revert to the tried and true ways of using the
strategy for tackling the gangs that involves more rigorous policing of areas where members meet. Spain will expel gang members if prosecutors can prove they’re violent
There is a concern in Spain that Latino gangs ” may have committed three murders this year”. That big maybe is enough to link crimes to young people that are calling themselves the “Latin Kings” after the black and gold clad street organization that began in the prisons of the Midwest and moved across the United States.
Looking at how the anti-gang strategies led by police and federal agencies in the United States have failed to solve the problems of inner city youth of color and how the heavy handed policies of France also failed, why doesn’t Spain try a different approach?
Via / Hispanic Tips and Bloomberg.com
Big Tobacco out to target young Latinos
1:57 pm By Jennifer Woodard Maderazo · Activism|Health|Marketing · 1 Comment
18 Nov 2005
No, I’m not a pious ex-smoker. I still take a puff on occasion, especially when I’m outside of the U.S., where smoking isn’t villified as much. But like beer companies sponsoring scholarship programs for Latino youth (and I love beer, by the way), I’m not cool with tobacco companies targeting kids. Activists aren’t either:
The Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids is urging state attorneys general to investigate R.J. Reynolds Tobacco’s new “Kool be true” campaign and other industry promotional practices they say are covertly aimed at Hispanic youths.
Hola!
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