Kibwe Chase-Marshall just started a petition to the Council of Fashion Designers in America and Vogue to It is time to address the systemic anti-Blackness of the fashion industry

It is time to address the systemic anti-Blackness of the fashion industry

Dear Friends,

I just started a petition titled “#BreakSilenceBreakCeilings: End Employment Discrimination Against Black Designers“

Black designers continue to face systemic employment discrimination within the mainstream fashion industry.This renders them generally incapable of landing upper management and executive roles, and—as evidenced by H&M’s “Coolest Monkey in The Jungle” hoodie photographed on a young Black boy—often allows for the irresponsible dissemination of insensitive, insulting, and exploitative depictions of Blackness within advertising.

I recently launched a social media campaign, #breaksilencebreakceilings to address just these issues. Attention around the campaign, resulted in me publishing a game-changing op-ed “Why Aren’t There More Black Designers”, last week in the Business of Fashion. Not content with merely listing complaints throughout the piece, I delivered actionable steps toward dynamic change, charging the Council of Fashion Designers of America and American Vogue to partner on initiating a 3-pronged plan to engage the fashion design and recruitment communities in greater transparency and more equitable hiring practices.

Join us if you believe relying on racism in fashion should be addressed before another racist campaign is produced.

The proposed initiative aims to reform an industry that has normalized the exclusion of Black professionals. Design and recruitment industry participants would be availed of comprehensive bias mitigation training and hiring-practice audits.

Will you sign the petition and forward this email to make sure your voice is heard? Add your name here.

By signing this petition, you will amplify this call-to-action directed at the CFDA and Vogue, organizations that have a responsibility to no longer turn a blind eye to the fashion industry’s marginalization of Black talent. Collectively, our signatures will #breaksilencebreakceilings, declaring that time’s up for employment discrimination against Black designers.

It’s time to take the racism out of fashion, tell the Council of Fashion Designers America and Vogue to stop combat anti-Blackness in fashion.

Thank you,

Kibwe Chase-Marshall

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Detroit plans to cutoff water for thousands. Tell them to stop!

07/11/2018 Nativegrl77

now Brightmoor

Friends,

We need your help today- please take 30 seconds to sign this petition in solidarity with the Brightmoor community in Detroit, Michiganas they fight to ensure Black families have access to clean water.

Detroit has implemented a city-wide water cutoff policy that will hit predominantly Black communities like Brightmoor the hardest.How bad is it? So bad the state of Indiana is issuing travel warnings urging their residents to get vaccinated for Hepatitis A before traveling to Michigan.¹ Yet folks in Michigan are being told not to panic and instead make sure they wash their hands and maintain good hygiene. This is cruel advice to people who are being denied access to clean and safe water. We have alredy seen a preliminary study conducted by the Henry Ford Global Health Initiative found, “patients who live on blocks that experienced water shutoffs were 1.55 times more likely to be diagnosed with a water-associated illness.”² Without any running water, how are the people of the city supposed to wash their hands, prepare sanitary food, or clean themselves? The city of Detroit denying its people water has already played a role in a growing Hepatitis A epidemic – instead of giving bad advice, the city needs to work quickly to give people clean water.

Having access to safe and clean water is crucial to the health and safety of any community, but instead of working to make sure the people of Detroit have the water they need to stay well, the city is still threatening to deny thousands of people water. Join us in telling the mayor and city of Detroit to stop playing games- don’t cut off water to communities.

Friends, over 30,000 people have signed on to tell the city to stop taking water from residents. Will you sign too?

Rev. Roslyn Bouier

P.S. Below is the email we sent a couple weeks ago:

References:

1. “Michigan officials speak on Indiana travel warning for hepatitis A virus” WNDU. April 24, 2018. http://act.colorofchange.org/go/48098?t=6&akid=11083%2E1174326%2EeJVsLU
2. “Experts see public health crisis in Detroit water shutoffs” Detroit Free Press, July 26, 2017. https://act.colorofchange.org/go/48104?t=8&akid=11083%2E1174326%2EeJVsLU

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Nearly 5 million people could be stripped of rights and freedoms

07/10/2018 Nativegrl77

In days, India intends to simply delete millions of Muslims off a list of “citizens.”They will eventually get marched off to prison camps! Sounds unbelievable, right?! But it’s true and we can stop it. Human rights experts are telling us to raise the alarm with a million strong petition to the UN now! Our signatures could activate the UN’s early warning systems and stop the crisis from exploding!

SIGN THE PETITION

Dear friends,

No home, no family, no country.

In days, India intends to simply delete millions of Muslims from a list of “citizens” and later march them off to prison camps. Sounds unbelievable, right? But it’s true and we have a narrow window to stop it!

We can stop this chilling Nazi-style bureaucracy with international attention. Human rights experts are telling us that a million strong petition asking the UN’s highest human rights body to speak up could do that ASAP. Our community’s global power is desperately needed now before India hits “delete”!

Sign this urgent petition and we’ll deliver it to top UN officials directly!

India is already expecting mass violence to erupt when it tries to make millions of Muslims illegal. That’s why the local government has called for extra troops to be stationed on the ground and started readying extra prison camps.

Nearly 5 million people could be stripped of rights and freedoms! The mood is ugly and anyone perceived to be a Muslim “foreigner” is in serious danger. Even elected Muslim representatives of the local parliament didn’t find their names on an earlier draft version of the “citizens” list.

But few people from the international or national media go to this part of India. So this brutal bureaucracy is at work without adequate scrutiny. If the UN Human Rights Council launches an investigation and sends a team to India right away this genocidal policy could be stopped before it starts.

Sign this urgent petition and we’ll deliver it to top UN officials directly!

Avaaz was built to respond rapidly as a global community to crises unfolding around us. We’ve stepped in to rescue a group of Rohingya people from a massacre but this time, we have a unique opportunity to actually stop one before it starts. Let’s act together to save lives and make sure our children don’t read another sordid chapter in humanity’s history.

With hope and determination,
Flora, Nate, Danny, Alice, Antonia, Melanie and the entire Avaaz team

More information:

As Assam counts its citizens, Muslims fear they may be left out (Al Jazeera)
https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/assam-counts-citizens-muslims-fear-left-180530080633948.html

Stateless in Assam (The Indian Express)
https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/national-register-of-citizens-5030603/

Assam CM: No fundamental rights for those failing NRC tests (Times of India)
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/assam-cm-no-fundamental-rights-for-those-failing-nrc-test/articleshow/62344296.cms?from=mdr

Indian or not? Muslims fret amid drive against illegal immigrants (Reuters)
https://af.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idAFKBN1ET06F

Assam seeks 150 companies of central forces ahead of next NRC publication (The Economic Times)
https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/assam-seeks-150-companies-of-central-forces-ahead-of-next-nrc-publication/articleshow/64394147.cms

They will eventually get marched off to prison camps! Sounds unbelievable, right?! But it’s true and we can stop it. Human rights experts are telling us to raise the alarm with a million strong petition to the UN now! Our signatures could activate the UN’s early warning systems and stop the crisis from exploding!

SIGN THE PETITION

Dear friends,

No home, no family, no country.

Sign this urgent petition and we’ll deliver it to top UN officials directly!

With hope and determination,
Flora, Nate, Danny, Alice, Antonia, Melanie and the entire Avaaz team

More information:

As Assam counts its citizens, Muslims fear they may be left out (Al Jazeera)
https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/assam-counts-citizens-muslims-fear-left-180530080633948.html

Stateless in Assam (The Indian Express)
https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/national-register-of-citizens-5030603/

Indian or not? Muslims fret amid drive against illegal immigrants (Reuters)
https://af.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idAFKBN1ET06F

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

So, tell me you and yours or countries closing their borders do not relate

07/09/2018 Nativegrl77

2018

ref·u·gee

noun: refugee;

plural noun: refugees

a person who has been forced to leave their country in order to escape war, persecution, or natural disaster.

“tens of thousands of refugees fled their homes”

UNHCR

Urban Refugees

More than half the refugees UNHCR serves now live in urban areas

Prominent Refugees

An A-Z of refugee achievers around the world.

synonyms:

émigré, fugitive, exile, displaced person, asylum seeker;

boat people

“collecting blankets for the refugees”

~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Wildlife …gone? 12 vaquitas left

07/09/2018 Nativegrl77

There’s only 12 vaquitas left, down from 30 last year! But it’s not just the vaquitas we’re losing — we’re seeing a sixth mass extinction, and it’s human-made. Top scientists are backing an ambitious plan to put half of the earth under protection so species can recover but we urgently need governments to get on board. A massive nature summit is happening RIGHT NOW — sign the global campaign for nature and Avaaz will deliver our call straight to the meeting!

SIGN HERE

Dear friends,

We just found out that vaquitas — the super-cute “mini-dolphins” that live off the coast of Mexico — probably won’t survive. We’ve been fighting for them, but there are now only 12 left, down from 30 last year!

It’s not just vaquitas being driven into oblivion. A sixth mass extinction is underway and humans are almost entirely to blame. Almost two-thirds of wild animals have disappeared in the last 50 years!

Scientists say the solution is to protect half the planet, letting nature recover and restore itself — but our governments are dragging their feet because this crisis, and its solution, isn’t at the top of headlines!

But we have a small window to change that: a key nature summit is happening RIGHT NOW in Montreal, where our governments will discuss the course of protection for the next 30 years! Sign the global campaign for nature — Avaaz will take our message to the summit and tell the story we need our leaders to hear:

Click to stop the extinction crisis

Overfishing, deadly pesticides, deforestation, poaching — you name it. Humans are putting every animal and plant in the world in danger. Including ourselves. A UN-backed panel of 550 scientists just confirmed that this massive loss of biodiversity can disrupt our global food system, our oceans, the air we breathe, and even our economies.

But it doesn’t have to be this way — if we can kick start a plan to live in harmony with nature, setting aside half the land and sea, and sustainably managing the other half, we can stop this slide to oblivion.

We need to start paying attention to this crisis now — Avaaz has already met with world leaders and each time they say “we need to see that people care, it’s not in the news!” But they said the same thing about climate change, until we rallied millions across the world and campaigned massively to make it the top of the headlines. The result was the historic Paris Climate Agreement.

Now we need to do the same for nature — let’s sound the alarm for our governments and make sure protection is at the top of their list. Add your name now for our plants and animals:

Click to stop the extinction crisis

Our movement has been at the front lines of environmental defense globally — just recently, 1.8 million Avaaz members pushed Brazil to protect a swath of the Amazon the size of Denmark, FOUR times we’ve helped create a new standard for the largest marine reserve on the planet to save our oceans, and much more. It’s time to unite again, to protect our fellow animals and plants who share this planet with all of us.

With hope and determination,

Diego, Marigona, Danny, Alice, Patri and the rest of the Avaaz team.

SOURCES:

Scientists call for a Paris-style agreement to save life on Earth (The Guardian)
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/radical-conservation/2018/jun/28/scientists-call-for-a-paris-style-agreement-to-save-life-on-earth

Only 12 vaquita porpoises remain, watchdog group reports (MongaBay)
https://news.mongabay.com/2018/03/only-12-vaquita-porpoises-remain-watchdog-groups-report/

Life on Earth Is Under Assault—But There’s Still Hope (National Geographic)
https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2018/03/ipbes-biodiversity-report-conservation-climate-change-spd/

Last male northern white rhino’s death highlights ‘huge extinction crisis’ (the Guardian):
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/mar/20/last-male-northern-white-rhinos-death-highlights…

Sixth mass extinction: The era of ‘biological annihilation’ (CNN)
https://www.cnn.com/2017/07/11/world/sutter-mass-extinction-ceballos-study/index.html

Could we set aside half the Earth for nature? (The Guardian):
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/radical-conservation/2016/jun/15/could-we-set-aside-half-the-earth-for-nature