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Thursday, January 21, 2021
Show HN: Shopify app for uploading images in bulk from Google Drive https://ift.tt/3o7yhwg
Show HN: Pluto in-browser VR spatial video chat https://ift.tt/393wR1v
Show HN: I did a little thing in V https://ift.tt/3qKhtgv
New post from the NAACP: NAACP Applauds Biden Administration’s Decision to Elevate Racial Justice to Highest Level by Austyn Ross
Washington, DC — Derrick Johnson, president and CEO of the NAACP, issued the following statement on today’s announcement by the incoming Biden/Harris administration on efforts to promote racial justice throughout the government:
“Our nation is facing an extraordinary crisis in racial justice. Coronavirus is harming Black and Brown communities at staggering rates due to longstanding disparities in healthcare and our economy. Police violence against Black people is at an epidemic level. And the Oval Office was just occupied by someone who championed white supremacy and bigotry.
This moment requires bold and meaningful action to end systemic racism. For that reason, we have called upon the Biden administration to create a Cabinet position to focus exclusively on racial justice. We can no longer afford a piecemeal approach or to address these issues solely through civil rights offices. We must identify strategies for coordinating and deploying all levers of the federal government to tackle structural inequality. That includes recognizing that institutional racism was once dictated by federal policy and determining how federal agencies are still reinforcing inequality and impeding progress toward meaningful opportunity for all.
We are elated that the Biden administration has appointed Dr. Susan Rice to lead this august challenge. From her position within the White House, she can formulate and coordinate actions among cabinet members to eliminate systemic racism, root and branch, from within the government and ensure racial justice is at the forefront of every agency’s agenda. Given this momentous task, Dr. Rice will require substantial resources and personnel to help her fulfill this critical role.
Addressing racial justice will be the most vexing challenge facing this new administration. It will require a herculean effort to eliminate the institutional barriers throughout the government that still perpetuate racial inequality. With this announcement today, the Biden/Harris administration is off to a strong start to transforming our nation into a more just, equal society. And it can count on the NAACP’s support every step of the way.”
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About NAACP
Founded in 1909 in response to the ongoing violence against Black people around the country, the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) is the largest and most pre-eminent civil rights organization in the nation. We have over 2,200 units and branches across the nation, along with well over 2M activists. Our mission is to secure the political, educational, social, and economic equality of rights in order to eliminate race-based discrimination and ensure the health and well-being of all persons.
In media attributions, please refer to us as the NAACP.
NOTE: The Legal Defense Fund – also referred to as the NAACP-LDF was founded in 1940 as a part of the NAACP, but separated in 1957 to become a completely separate entity. It is recognized as the nation’s first civil and human rights law organization, and shares our commitment to equal rights.
The post NAACP Applauds Biden Administration’s Decision to Elevate Racial Justice to Highest Level appeared first on NAACP.
Read more here.
New post from the NAACP: Black America Policy Recommendations for Biden Administration by Interactive Strategies
The strong and early plan and commitment by the Biden administration to elevate racial justice as a top priority has sent a powerful message about its importance and centrality within this administration.
As the nation calls for an end to structural disparities, the federal government has a duty to examine its own house to determine how it still perpetuates and fosters institutional racism.
The NAACP recommends the Biden Administration implement the following policies:
Racial Equity, Opportunity and Transformation
- Create a Cabinet-level position focused on Racial Justice. President Biden should create the position of National Advisor on Racial Justice, Equity and Advancement as an Assistant to the President with an office fully resourced and staffed to accomplish its mission. Read more.
Economic Empowerment
- Cancel Student Debt. President Biden should direct the Secretary of Education to cancel all student debt.
- Fully Cover Unemployment Insurance Through Federal Funding. President Biden should include funding for the establishment of a Federal Unemployment Insurance System in his first budget proposal.
- Implement a Federal Minimum Wage. President Biden can issue an Executive Order raising the minimum wage for all federal contractors to $15.00/hour, indexed for inflation.
- Implement Universal Paid Sick Leave. President Biden can call on Congress to pass legislation extending the paid sick leave benefits of President Obama’s Executive Order 13706 to all Americans.
- Increase Funding for Minority-Serving CDFIs/MCDFIs. President Biden should request a 40% increase in funding for the CDFI Fund for CDFIs and require 40% of all CDFI Fund awards be designated for minority-serving CDFIs.
- Institute a Direct Minority Business Contracting Requirement for all Federal Agencies. The Biden Administration should institute a direct minority business contracting requirement for all federal agencies of 20%.
- Reverse the Racist Housing Policies of the Last Four Years and Beyond. President Biden should direct the Housing and Urban Development Secretary to create a down payment assistance fund to increase homeownership rates for Black households and reverse the July 23, 2020 rule repealing the Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing Rule.
- Support Black Workers and Incentivize Diverse and Inclusive Hiring and Promotion Practices. The Biden administration should establish policies that close the wage gap between Black and white wage earners and give equal attention to addressing the gender pay gap.
Education
- Remove Police From Schools and Restrict the Role of Law Enforcement in Schools. President Biden should call for the reallocation of funding for school resource officers to intervention and restorative supports for children.
Environmental Climate Justice
- Prioritize Opportunities for Black Entrepreneurs in the Green Economy. President Biden should expand on the Environmental Justice Interagency Directive (Presidential Executive Order 12898) to ensure that racial justice is defined to include equitable distribution of quality access as we shift away from a fossil fuel economy.
- Moratoria on Energy Shut-Offs Should Not be a Stop Gap Measure. President Biden should direct the Secretary of Energy to impose a moratorium on energy shut-offs.
Health and Wellbeing
- Audit Federal Efforts to Promote Health Equity. President Biden should order a Cabinet-level audit of all federal agencies to strengthen their civil rights and health equity efforts in implementing federal policies and programs.
- Conduct Robust Vaccine Education and Ensure Equitable Vaccine Distribution. President Biden should order the Health and Human Services Secretary to develop and disseminate an education and outreach campaign and a vaccine distribution plan that provides clear, comprehensive, and culturally meaningful information about vaccines and therapeutics prior to their widespread distribution.
- Guarantee Health Care For All. President Biden should call for a guarantee of health care for all in his first Budget proposal.
Reconstructing Criminal Justice
- Accelerate Compassionate Release in Federal Prisons. President Biden should accelerate compassionate release consideration of all federal prisoners over the age of 60 and order the immediate release of as many people as possible.
- Address Racial Violence by Police and Impose National Accountability Standards. President Biden should call on the Attorney General to prohibit federal grants to police agencies without the policies, training, and databases in place.
- Boldly and Urgently Transform the Federal Judiciary. President Biden must develop and execute a vision and strategy for securing strong, diverse representation on the courts for decades to come that includes civil rights lawyers.
- Fully Resource Community Mental Health and Substance Abuse Programs. President Biden must call on Congress to fund local communities to respond to resident’s mental health and substance abuse needs.
- Reform Federal Prosecutorial Standards to Eliminate Racial Disparities. President Biden must direct the Attorney General to instruct federal prosecutors to refrain from engaging in practices that lead to higher sentences, such as seeking sentencing enhancements or life without the possibility of parole for young people.
Voting Rights and Election Reform
- Enhance the VRA. President Biden should encourage Congress to restore Section 4(b) preclearance provisions.
The post Black America Policy Recommendations for Biden Administration appeared first on NAACP.
Read more here.
San Francisco Launches Safety - It’s Your Turn Campaign
By Christine Osorio
In San Francisco, left turns are one of the top three crash factors in severe injuries and fatal collisions for people walking and biking. SFMTA is kicking off the new year with a city-wide education campaign designed to encourage safer driving behavior around left turns. The Safety - It’s Your Turn campaign will use multiple strategies, including grants to community organizations, to engage the public at different times and raise awareness about unsafe left turns.
Drivers especially will see the Safety - It’s Your Turn messaging on billboards and buses, hear about it on the radio, and read about it on social media and in newspapers. This community education program also accompanies the SFMTA’s Left-Turn Traffic Calming Project. Under that project, launched in October 2020, the SFMTA installed safety infrastructure at 7 intersections on the High Injury Network.
Community Grant Awardees
After a competitive application process, the SFMTA has awarded six grants to community organizations around the city to amplify the Safety It’s Your Turn campaign. Community organizations are closer to the communities they serve and are better positioned to develop culturally-responsive outreach programs and materials. In addition to sharing safe left-turn messaging, another objective of the grant is to reach communities historically underserved by transportation projects. For many of the organizations, this is their first-time developing Vision Zero messaging, and the SFMTA is pleased to be expanding its engagement with community stakeholders and leaders. The selected grantees include:
- Bayview Opera House
- Boys and Girls Clubs of San Francisco
- Lighthouse for the Blind and Visually Impaired
- People Organizing to Demand Environmental and Economic Justice (PODER)
- Self-Help for the Elderly
- South of Market Community Action Network (SOMCAN)
These community groups plan to share safe left-turn messaging directly to food-delivery drivers, hard-to-reach communities along the High Injury Network, teen drivers, and vulnerable road-users. Examples of the deliverables include map booklets for the visually impaired, teen driver safety kits, and art-inspired public service announcements.
Remember that 40% of traffic fatalities in San Francisco involve drivers making left turns. Drivers can make a safe left turn by yielding to pedestrians and bicyclists, taking it slow at less than 5 mph, and making their turn nice and wide.
Vision Zero
San Francisco adopted Vision Zero (www.visionzerosf.org)as a policy in 2014, committing to build better and safer streets, educate the public on traffic safety, enforce traffic laws, and adopt policy changes that save lives. The result of this collaborative, citywide effort is safer, more livable streets as San Francisco works towards the Vision Zero goal of zero traffic fatalities. San Francisco is engineering inherently safer streets, enforcing traffic laws more effectively, and targeting traffic-safety education to reach its Vision Zero goals.
Published January 21, 2021 at 11:30AM
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