Text Thread W/ Deshae Lee: Featuring the Students of CFJ
This week, we spoke with Deshae Lee, a student activist in Fresno, CA. Deshae joined Californians For Justice 1 year ago as an incoming high school senior, and is already a central leader within our organization. Every week Deshae is in our Fresno office, setting up meetings with school officials, preparing to speak on behalf…
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Celebrating 5 Years of The Incredible Journey of The Student Voice Campaign
A legacy in the making turns 5 today— the Student Voice Campaign. Five years ago, the Student Voice Campaign transformed the perception and role of students as “essential” stakeholders in local decision-making processes in California’s public schools giving a voice to 4.5 million students. Today Californians for Justice celebrates an incredible historic victory in the…
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What does it mean to be Filipino American?
By Geordee Mae Corpuz (Organizing Director for CFJ Oakland) and Justine Santos (Lead Organizer for CFJ Oakland) October is Filipino American History Month. Three decades after Carlos Bulosan published his poem, his words still resonate. With over 4 million Filipino Americans in the United States this month is a call for us to celebrate and…
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Reparations, The Crown Act, & Youth Voice: A Summer in The Movement
This Summer our communities of youth activists, experts, and community leaders continued to build towards a more equitable and racially just education system. Students rose to podiums, experts used their platforms to speak about racial justice, and race in education made national headlines. Here are just a few of the highlights from this Summer behind…
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Why we need Integration for Liberation
Last month student leaders, elected officials, researchers, educators and community organizers from California and beyond gathered in San Jose to discuss “Integration for Liberation.” While our conversation was rooted in our schools, we quickly saw that transformation and liberation must also ripple out to our communities. Schools today in New York and California are more…
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An Activist’s Book List
To celebrate National Read a Book Day, we sent out a mass email to Californians for Justice staff and gathered a list of the most impactful books we’ve read. Here are our Top 15 books, and why we love them so much! Signed, your local activists. 1. Hunger by Roxane Gay This books is about…
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Dare to Lean on Love, Power & Strength in Spite of Fear
Starting the Conversation Why this work matters Violence has long been a fundamental part of the American experience for communities of color and immigrants, but the visibility and frequency has jumped dramatically since this president took office in 2016. And now, with this past weekend’s historic level of violence and the mass ICE raids we, like…
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Blackface incident is just the latest moment of anti-blackness & racism in Fresno Unified
The recent news of a Bullard High School student donning blackface and using the n-word on social media has hurt our community deeply. While the student’s actions are disappointing, the student’s ability to make that choice exists in an America where there is a long and toxic history of systemic racism and anti-blackness. Incidents like…
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CFJ Youth Leading Together with LBUSD to Interrupt Bias in the Classroom
This weekend CFJ youth leaders and staff led a powerful bias training for Long Beach Unified School District teachers and administrators. The session was a unique twist to traditional trainings that center conversations on adults rather than students. CFJ youth leaders led the space and trained LBUSD staff participants on the ways implicit biases show…
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