FALL 2016 Rethinking Justice Issue
The BCC Voice
Illustration by Ricardo Levins Morales
In the spring of 2016, the English Department at Berkeley City College sponsored a school-wide student essay contest calling for well-written, compelling essays offering a socially-responsible and original stance on the theme of "Rethinking Justice." First prize essay winner Louis Do was awarded an iPad, and second and third place essayists Violet Elson and Derek Wallace received Kindles. All three essays are published in this special edition of the BCC Voice.
Table of Contents Disability, Education, and Equality in the Modern World By Louis Do 3 Finding Justice in Tucson By Violet Elson 4 The All-Seeing Public Eye By Derek Wallace 5
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Louis Do
First Place Winner
When professors are enlightened to the different shades of disability, some are eager to embrace the process of equality and make their classrooms inclusive learning environments. Others are not so cooperative. They would say that ADA legislation does not allow for such accommodations. However, they conveniently forget the fact that the ADA is about twenty-six years old, and that the world has undergone many changes since July 1991. The ADA was written as a document to ensure equality going forward, rather than a snapshot in time. It is inherently unjust to twist the meaning of this powerful legislation to shirk one's duty. Beyond this fact, an accessible, inclusive environment is a right, not a privilege. All the high-tech gadgets in the world do not serve a purpose if people who need them are not allowed to utilize their benefits. Unfortunately, most disabled people never get the tools they need or reach the stage where they can advocate for their rights. Assistive technology is often prohibitively expensive. A Braille computer for the blind can cost upwards of $5000, and mobility devices for the physically disabled can be as expensive as $20,000, just to give a few examples. However, what is truly damaging is the school system's expectations for disabled children. By default, special education teachers may place their charges in lower division classes or special segregated classes, simply because they are disabled. They assume that these children would not be able to keep up with their “normal” peers. These kids are hidden away from the public eye and not taught necessary advocacy skills. If they reach college, they face further discrimination. Colleges are required by law to make their placement exams accessible to all students. Despite this, certain institutions have a record of being non-compliant, because these entities know that both federal and state governments will rarely enforce this law. The law speaks of justice in a theoretical manner, but when it comes to the reality of rectifying injustices, these theories are only empty promises. Society must stop cataloging the disabled for the things they cannot do, but instead help them discover the things they can do. This is the only way to unlock revolutionary potentials and reverse injustices. This is the ethical way to achieve equality for the future.
Disability, Education, and Equality in the Modern World
Louis Do is the Chief Fixit at Scottish American General Insurance Agency, which is just a fancy way of saying he is a problem solver in a growing company. When not tackling headaches to pay the bills, he can be found studying to finish up his education at BCC or indulging in his love for good music. Blind from birth, Louis delights in showing people around him how to see the world differently, for lack of sight is not lack of vision.
By Louis Do
Living in the Bay Area, we are faced each day with the sharp reality of injustice. We see people living on the streets, hear gunshots, and try to survive in cities where rents are sky rocketing into the thousands. There can be no justice while border walls and prison halls stand tall. There can be no justice in this country while children don’t have homes, where families can’t afford to eat three meals a day, where economic refugees are jailed. There can be no justice while Donald Trump has a platform for his hateful and racist rhetoric. But while we are realizing these dehumanizing facts, justice is waiting. Justice is a world without capitalism, without competition, without xenophobia. Justice is a world where we feed each other with food from our gardens, where we care for each other, where men are allowed to cry and women are seen as people, and differences between cultures are embraced. It is easy to dream of this world, of an Oakland where the buses are free and there are bike lanes instead of highways. But, I truly believe we have the capacity for being the change we want to see. For just a few months, I had the privilege of working with No More Deaths, a group providing desert aid on the US/Mexico border. It was there, living in a tent in the high desert during the biting cold winter months where I learned about the true cost of the injustices we have in our society. I also learned about what justice looks like, how everyday people can plant the seeds of change. The people who came through our camp were often young Mexican, Guatemalan, and El Salvadorian men looking for economic opportunities. They faced life and death in the unregulated and violent desert, crossing in the cover of darkness, relying on Mexican cartel members to guide them to safety. The No More Deaths volunteers alternated between putting gallons of water and cans of beans throughout the harsh desert terrain for migrants to find, and maintaining a functional medical clinic where lost and injured people could receive medical aid, water, and rest. On Christmas Eve, I was helping a young man call his family in Guatemala. Through the other end, I heard the high-pitched laughter of a little girl and then watched her father break down into tears. I thought about how cruel the world is, forcing a man to pick between starvation and separation from his family, culture, and land. I thought about the volunteers I was working with, how their lives were focused on breaking down borders and creating an anti-capitalist community based on respect and sharing out in the middle of Arizona. While prisons stand tall and border walls stand even taller the only justice we can hope for is the justice in community. We must rely on each other to create the world we want to see. A neighborhood, a school, a church – places that foster a sense of community and a sense of safety can be pivotal. Places where we trust each other, where we can rely on others for support are few and far between! The No More Deaths camp is exactly that. It is a location in the harsh desert landscape where trust and respect are givens. All people, regardless of their skin color, immigration status, and education are cared for. The violent and racist reality of immigration is pushed to the wayside for just a few days, in such a small corner of the earth. We rely on volunteers who are actively working to change the dominant paradigm but ignoring hateful rhetoric and providing basic human rights for a marginalized and abused portion of the population. We can have that sense of change and justice in our everyday lives. We must speak out against hate, against abuse, and fight for the basic human rights so many people are lacking. We must be the justice in the world. We, as individuals, as mothers, daughters, sisters, brothers, fathers, as people living and breathing in the capitalist United States, have to be the change. A justice driven world is one where we don't have a preconceived notion of others and where we as people aren't pitted against each other for survival – where we are able to have communities based on mutual love, respect and sharing.
Finding Justice in Tucson
Violet Elson is a Bay Area local, who has lived in Oregon, Spain, Mexico, and finally Oakland. The time in Mexico was spent studying social movements, primarily in indigenous communities. It was deep in Chiapas' jungle where the fire of justice and political activism were sparked. In her free time she can be found bicycling around Oakland, hanging out in libraries, and over-caffeinating.
By Violet Elson
Second Place Winner
Derek Wallace
Justice comes not from the barrels of guns, at the ends of batons, via the electrodes of Tasers, through the nozzles on canisters of tear gas, nor from inside the confines of prison cells. No amount of expensive body cameras, time-consuming Freedom of Information Act requests, Sisyphean citizen oversight committees, or protracted courtroom battles bring forth true justice. When last-resort measures such as these are required, the grand social contract has been broken. Humans required to carom from one injustice to another just to defend their inalienable rights are forced into lives of reaction versus volition. Can it honestly be said we are masters of our own destinies acting of our own free wills? As long as “they” (rampant criminals, abusive police, corrupt politicians) continue to guide our responses in life, peace shall elude us. We've heard it said, “No justice, no peace,” but have we considered the alternative: “No peace, no justice”? Maybe it is beyond our control to achieve peace on Earth, at least instantly, but what about inside our own hearts? For souls not at peace often seek revenge over justice, and this too we must guard against. Perhaps you may have also heard it said that “The price of freedom is eternal vigilance.” You may not have heard the flip-side of that coin: “The price of justice is eternal publicity.” Technology increases at an ever faster rate, and now most of us have the equivalent of mobile television production studios in our pockets. Smartphones with cameras and video capability have solved the ancient riddle of the Roman poet Juvenal, “Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?” (often translated as “Who watches the watchmen?”). The answer? A resounding “WE DO!” “Surveillance” (French for “watching over”) monitors activities/behavior from up above, but “sousveillance” (“from below”) is recording of an activity by a participant involved in said event, as shown by Black Lives Matter, the Occupy movement, and the Egyptian Revolution. Only when the current alienating eye-in-the-sky methods of surveillance are transposed with the community-building of our now prevalent “captured personal experiences” may “equiveillance” (“equilibrium”) be achieved, which is vital to empower citizens to build their own news stories and legal cases from evidence they gather themselves and collaborate on together. Going deeper than short Youtube clips of criminal activity/abuse by authorities or Livestream feeds of protest marches/political rallies, this turns all of us into the world's next ABC and CBS and CNN. It has been said that there are four types of justice: distributive, procedural, restorative, and retributive. I believe there should be a fifth type: transpersonal. Now we all have the ability to be journalists and with that great power also comes greater responsibility to use it for good. Everyone can connect with fellow truth-seekers through their schools, jobs, neighborhoods, and churches to make a lasting communal difference. We must all realize our potential as forces for positive change in this often negative world. We should be the “All-Seeing Public Eye” which tells the stories that mainstream media either distorts or ignores altogether. If we are really going to “rethink justice” we must realize hero worship abdicates us of personal responsibility, so we must avoid expecting our personal political champions to do the hard work for us. Without our votes at polls, they don't get into office. Once elected, without pressure from us, their constituents, candidates invariably forget they serve our interests, not corporate ones. Without our video clips, mainstream media has nothing to work with but what they produce for a much higher cost (when staff, vehicles, gas, equipment, etc. are factored in). Because we are a global leader, the world is depending on us to step up to the plate. So, we’d all better start taking film classes/workshops to learn how to get the best footage and sound possible for the stories we will need to tell to change the narrative established power structures have been in control of and fear losing. We shouldn’t watch the skies for Superman to save us with outdated “help from above.” Rather, we should transform into Clark Kent citizen journalists who supply the “help from below” to save ourselves. That is how true justice is realized. We're in turbulent times, so stay safe out there, but fear not, as the power is literally in our hands!
The All-Seeing Public Eye
By Derek Wallace
Derek Chartrand Wallace is a returning student in the Extended Opportunity Programs & Services (EOPS) department, U.C. Berkeley-bound to major in Wildlife, Fish & Conservation Biology with a minor in Video Journalism. A park Ranger in-training who believes in justice for humans and animals, you can follow Derek on social media where he aggregates stories highlighting the synthesis of such diverse topics as citizen journalism, social betterment, technological breakthroughs, nature interpretation, and pop culture.
Third Place Winner