07 3 / 2013
24 12 / 2012
Boyle Heights Born, El Sereno Raised. East Side love.
14 12 / 2012
shit white “liberals” say
so i was working yesterday and was invited by my supervisor to get some grub at the reception. the lecture was on some random topic that apparently only white folks between the ages of 29-70 care about
i tried to be a wallflower, but got caught up with an old white guy who was a professor at a nearby university. he seemed liked a cool guy and genuinely knowledgeable about the public school system, then came along a white old women. they started going off on a tangent on how race doesnt matter anymore since there are many Latina/os who are light skinned yet are 1st generation students with “normal” English and there are also dark-skinned Latina/os who are 3rd generation with no Spanish.
i didnt speak up since i didnt wanna ruffle any of our “prestigious” attendants ( i was on the job) and then the white lady started talking about how shes come to believe that its cultures that are responsible for the success of people. in her opinion of being a student in “urban” areas, she sees that Asian parents push their kids to be smart and thats why Asians are smart. She sees Latina/os as being hard workers, and their hard work “ethic” is why they are getting better in school. 1) SHE DIDNT MENTION WHITE STUDENTS (normalizes and makes ‘whiteness’ invisible and hidden to criticism and finally 2) she says that African-American students are not succeeding since the culture doesnt encourage education or “push” kids enough
so many things wrong 1) legimatizes segregation, 2) perpetuates stereotypes around asians and latinos 3) blames the victim 4)ahistorical of minority circumstances 5)cultural deficit theory
and of course, like all racists, she said “I’m not racist…but..”
You know, i read about racism everyday, listen to peoples experiences, have close friends who have been racially profiled, but when you see peoples blatant and sincere prejudice and racism in front of your own eyes, it leaves you shocked. i cant believe it happened to me and of course they felt telling me about this since theyre in a “safe space” with a bunch of white people and a Mexican-American with fair skin who blends in with that kind of crowd.
This is why I am involved with the community and our plans, this is why I’m a Chicana/o Studies major, this is why I bring up race and ethnicity in everything I see, cause folks are racist as folks and it needs to be address. end rant/
19 10 / 2012
Text of Emanuel’s opening statement at DPSFV debate
Last night, Emanuel participated in the Mayoral Candidates Debate hosted by the Democratic Party of the San Fernando Valley (DPSFV). Emanuel, Wendy Greuel, Eric Garcetti, and Jan Perry all participated.
Here’s Emanuel’s opening statement, as prepared for delivery:
Good evening everyone. Thank you all for coming out, and thank you to the San Fernando Valley Democratic Party for hosting this event. Even in the middle of the Presidential Election, everyone here knows how important the next Mayoral election is for Los Angeles.
I’m grateful for the opportunity here tonight to speak with you about the City we all love, my home. We all know our City’s at a crossroads, and we need to decide where we want to be, and how we want to get there. Our current elected officials—some of them sitting on this stage with me tonight—tell us the City’s making progress on their watch. Reality is, that for many Angelenos, progress isn’t happening fast enough. Try telling the men and women still looking for a good-paying job here in Reseda and Arleta that we’re making progress. Try telling the victims of last week’s crimes in Van Nuys that the City’s never been safer. Try telling the residents of Pacoima that don’t have sidewalks or streetlights that the City’s making progress. Try telling our young people who are pushed out of our schools that there’s a City that cares about them and their future.
19 9 / 2012
FREE Deferred Action application drive and educational forum at the Los Angeles Convention Center.
Visit www.dreamteamla.org for more info on how to attend or to volunteer!
14 9 / 2012
FREE DEFERRED ACTION application drive & educational forum!
DREAM Team LA will be hosting its second Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) free community forum/application drive on Saturday, September 22nd from 9am-5pm at the Concourse Hall located inside the L.A. Convention Center. The address is 1201 South Figueroa St. LA, CA 90015.
For more info visit: www.dreamteamla.org
07 9 / 2012
07 8 / 2012
Example: All the “street art,” commissioned by Open Walls Baltimore (sponsored by PNC Bank), being strategically placed in areas undergoing gentrification so the white yuppies/punx/MICA students from suburbia can exist in a hipster bubble and pretend they’re living somewhere dangerous while they displace everyone and drive up rent.
Destroy all artists/hipsters/future yuppies.
Fuck street art.
If I get around to it sometime this week I think I’ll try to write something longer addressing how problematic, counter-revolutionary, and frankly, liberal, statements such as “Destroy all artists” and “Fuck street art” are. For now, however, I just want to say I’m really fucking tired of people equating artists with yuppies. Yes, some artists are yuppies but you cannot just negate the fact that art objects are still just commodities within the dictatorship of Capital. Also, equating all artists with yuppies only works as an erasure of the entire history of art which is inseparable from the entire history of human existence. Fuck PNC and all banks for that matter. But with the commodification of street art, shit like this is going to happen. The question that arises though, with art projects like this would you rather have a message of subversion against capitalism (and the gentrification created by the capitalist system) planted by the artist with this commodity of gentrification, or just another fucking boring mural?
Destroy all yuppies.
Destroy all banks.
Destroy capitalism.
Art, however, is and always will be inseparable from human existence.
Capitalism contains within it the seeds of it’s own destruction. The same theory applies to the art market as it does with all industries.
ok this is a little better but lol @ Tru Art being *~subversion~* of capital
i mean good point w/ all art (object or not) being “just commodities within the dictatorship of capital”
OP is dumb as heck but graffiti (“street art” being only a cultural position migration of the form) regardless of the whatever the artists program is, is always a reactionary aesthetic form, if only because of the medium
basically lefties need to quit with the fetishism of the idea and finally recognize that both program and aesthetic are important for ~~~revolutionary art~~~
spacebaw knows more about politicized aesthetics than like 99% of the people on Tumblr/that I’ve ever met
(Source: ourtropes, via le-kif-kif)
23 7 / 2012
Los Angeles remains homelessness capital of the US
July 24, 2012Los Angeles is known for Hollywood and glamorous celebrities, but it is also a city where many live in poverty and suffer from hunger.
Even if Southern California is home to several billionaires, the poverty rate in LA County is among the highest in the nation and the unemployment rate remains in the double digits, making Los Angeles the capital of glitz and homelessness.
From exotic cars to extravagant fashion, the rich and famous give Los Angeles a reputation of opulent prosperity, but just around the corner from this glamour is the Los Angeles of utter despair.
On Skid Row the homeless live in third world conditions and things they say are only getting worse.
“They feel like there is no hope for them. They’re afraid of the police,” said Mary Czrepuszko, a homeless Los Angeles resident.
Los Angeles remains the homeless capital of the US with more than 51-thousand people living in shelters, cars or in homeless encampments.
“Staying in a shelter, getting bit every day. Having scars and scratching, it’s really bad. I would rather just be on the street,” said Czrepuszko, who became homeless after losing her job as a nursing assistant.
While Mary Czrepuszko and her neighbors sleep on tattered blankets, just a short drive away are some of the wealthiest neighborhoods in America.
In this city of extremes, the celebrities and the super-rich enjoy pampered living on palatial, hillside mansions. Huge houses in exclusive neighborhoods give Los Angeles an image of glitz and glamour. Behind high security fences lay multi-million dollar homes with luxuries like Olympic size pools and a staff of maids.
The wealthiest rest safely behind their elegant walls, while some of the city’s poorest face another long night next to a warehouse wall.
A lavish mansion costing more than $50 million in Beverly Hills is unthinkable for most people in a city where 1 in 5 children live in poverty.
“It was 2 in the morning and me and my kids were sleeping on the bus stop. That was the first time we ever had to sleep on the bus stop,” said Antoine Hudspedth, a Los Angeles homeless resident.
After the real estate crash, Hudspeth lost his job as a mortgage loan officer and became disabled. Now he struggles to feed his wife and their three sets of twins.
“I don’t want to see them sleeping on the streets. I can’t have that,” said Hudspeth.
While Hudspeth and his family line-up for a sandwich, Los Angeles’ wealthy dine in pricey gourmet restaurants and inside the massive dining rooms of their sprawling estates
The startling gap between the haves and have-nots is seen in the growing number of families who cannot afford food and housing.
“We’ve had families who have stayed with us for over two years. Yes, that’s sad, but we’re still trying our best to give them the best we can give them and connect them with resources,” said Kitty Davis Walker from Union Rescue Mission Los Angeles.
As financial austerity looms, those resources are shrinking.
It will be those in lines for the soup kitchens, not the grass fed beef and organic arugula, who will feel the pinch of California’s belt tightening.
In this economic crisis, the rich in Los Angeles flaunt their high end lifestyle, while more families fall into poverty, making it likely the city will remain a place of fame and fortune but also of great financial anguish.
11 7 / 2012
IMG_6084 (by Buenos Aires or Bust)
reminds me of something from the film Do the Right Thing
