Civics 5/21

Tuesday, May 21, 2024

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Artists Jo Cosme (left), Stephanie Silva, Natalia Bosques-Chico, and their friend Gaby Torres pose with Juan Dalmau after his lecture at Seattle University School of Law. Juan Dalmau Ramírez, who is running for governor with the Puerto Rican Independence Party, recently visited Seattle to appeal to members of the diaspora who can influence their relatives on the island to back his campaign, as well as those who are eligible to vote for him in Puerto Rico during November's general election. Photo by Chloe Collyer for palabra.Can US Boricuas shape Puerto Rico's future?: When was the last time you heard of a candidate traveling nearly 4,000 miles to meet members of their diaspora community during an election campaign? During this election season, palabra. spotlights Juan Dalmau Ramírez, the Puerto Rico Independence Party (PIP) candidate for governor, who did that very thing last month when he made the trek from the Caribbean island's capital of San Juan to visit the Seattle University School of Law to get out the vote for his gubernatorial bid. His game plan? To engage members of the Puerto Rican diaspora who are registered to vote in the island's November elections and appeal to those who have some influence over how their relatives will vote. 

“I believe that there is a great political force in the diaspora that favors independence and sovereignty and the defense of our Puerto Rican nationality, our own identity,” Dalmau said in an interview with palabra.Puerto Rico, a U.S. territory since 1917, has been largely self-governing for the past century. Despite this, its territorial status has left it heavily dependent on U.S. finances and subject to federal laws without having a vote in Congress. The Puerto Rico Independence Party recognizes that its diaspora, nearly six million people with voting privileges in the U.S., is a vital force in advocating for the island's self-determination and eventual decolonization. 

>>> Read more here

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Employees at 1199SEIU, one of NYC’s most powerful unions, are organizing for their own staff union: Staff members at 1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East, an influential union in New York City, are currently advocating for their own union, Documented reports. Despite their crucial role in securing union protections for thousands of New Yorkers, these staff members have not enjoyed the same level of protection themselves. The campaign to form their union, led by Newsguild-CWA Local 32035 and AFL-CIO, began in January and was made public on March 1. 

The unionization effort aims to cover over 250 1199SEIU staffers across the East Coast, including many immigrant workers. These staff members are hoping that forming a union will improve their salaries, benefits and give them a say in 1199SEIU's day-to-day operations. 

But in the months since staff members initially gained recognition of their union, they tell Documented that their employer has tried to thwart their organizing efforts by retaliating against staff leaders. One union organizer who worked for the organization for more than a decade tells Documented that he was abruptly fired by management last Friday.  >>> Read his story and more here.

‘We are reporting on a genocide through emojis—what does this mean for journalism?’: If you’ve been getting your news from social media lately, you might have noticed journalists using emojis like skulls and watermelons to discuss the war on Gaza. In an essay for Prism, journalist Anna Lekas Miller highlights the struggle to report on the current humanitarian crisis on platforms like Instagram and Facebook. 

In many of these social media dispatches, content creators and journalists are using skull and watermelon emojis to represent mass killings in Gaza and call attention to Western media’s hypocrisy around coverage of the violence. (Watermelons, with their red, black, and green colors, represent resistance to Israeli bans on public displays of the Palestinian flag since 1967.) 

This tactic is used to avoid being censored on Instagram, which labels terms like "death," "murder" and “killing” as "violent and graphic content." She writes that even though some of her video content on the platform went viral, including one that contextualized the increasing famine in Gaza, a report published by Human Rights Watch uncovered that Meta (Facebook and Instagram) had flagged and removed nearly 1,100 posts originating from over 60 countries related to Palestine and the use of the Palestinian flag as terrorist content. 

Miller writes, "As a journalist, I find this deeply alarming. Not only must we create content to capture an audience with an attention span that lasts just a few seconds, but we are also forced to normalize a form of censorship that prioritizes pleasing the algorithmic gods over engaging in honest conversations about important social justice topics, such as white supremacy and settler colonialism." 

This begs the question of how the current censorship of reporting on Gaza impacts the future of hard-hitting journalism on the platform. >>> Read the full story in Prism.

VP Kamala Harris encourages more Indian Americans to run for office: At last Wednesday's ‘Desis Decide’ summit organized by Indian American Impact, an organization that works to mobilize Indian and South Asian American representation at every level of government, Vice President Kamala Harris celebrated the achievements of the community and urged those present to become more engaged in politics, pointing out that Indians and South Asians’ political presence doesn’t reflect their growing population in the U.S. “It really is extraordinary. I wanted to..say especially to those who have run for office or aspire to run for office, that you must run.” >>> Read more in AsAmNews.

Check out our Currency of Impact dashboard, a new tool designed to revolutionize media buying conversations and put community impact on the foreground. Dive into our impact tracker and case studies highlighting demonstrated impact from across the URL Media network. This project was co-produced with Reynolds Journalism Institute. Visit it here.