Social Justice Blog

Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) June 15, 1962 Introduction: Agenda for a Generation We are people of this generation, bred in at least modest comfort, housed now in universities, looking uncomfortably to the world we inherit. When we were kids the United States was the wealthiest and strongest country in the world; the only […]

“We took the very basic idea of theater, which is a relationship between an actor and an audience, and expanded that to build community.”-Christopher McElroen, co-founder and executive director of Classical Theatre of Harlem–Beckett’s Waiting for Godot has been lauded by many as the play of our time. (A recent British National Theatre survey determined […]

“When wheat is ripening properly, when the wind is blowing across the field, you can hear the beards of the wheat rubbing together. They sound like the pine needles in a forest. It is a sweet, whispering music that once you hear, you never forget.”-Norman Borlaug-Norman Borlaug is credited with saving 245 million lives. That’s […]

Post contributed by George Wright of the Institute for Social and Economic DevelopmentToday’s posting contains two pieces of sobering news – both impacting refugees. A study out today – funded by the Ford, Joyce, Haynes, and Russell Sage Foundation – shows that lowest-wage workers in New York City, Los Angeles, and Chicago are routinely paid […]

“The door remains open for the regime to respect the wishes of the Burmese people and international community, and to step toward the path of engagement after so many years of isolation.”-United States Department of State-Aung San Suu Kyi, the visionary Burmese pro-democracy leader and Nobel Peace Prize laureate, was sentenced Tuesday to three years […]

“Studies have shown that up to 46 percent of women in developing countries have experienced at least one episode of sexual abuse in childhood. Most girls in developing countries live in a world completely devoid of safety. In a previous blog I talked about a World Bank study that found that as far as poor […]

This past weekend I took a crash course in the economy and inequality studies. My guide? Pathways Magazine, the brainchild of Stanford University’s Center for the Study of Poverty and Inequality, and two senior editors – David Grusky and Christopher Wimer (along with an editorial board of scholars from the nation’s top colleges and universities).Pathways […]

“Recently a group of Vermonters who work with refugees, asylum seekers and new immigrants have joined in a collaborative effort to ensure that Vermont’s torture survivors get access to all the medical, psychological, legal and social services they deserve. The group, called New England Survivors of Torture and Trauma, or NESTT, has been quietly working […]

“What we’re seeing is a modern incarnation of white flight…It should scare the hell out of us.” -danah boyd-danah boyd, a fellow at Harvard’s Berkman Center for Internet & Society, has spent the past four years studying, observing and analyzing how US teens use social networks. What she’s found is that high-school students began showing […]

“It’s almost like being back in law school in 1956, when there were 9 of us in a class of over 500, so that meant most sections had just 2 women, and you felt that every eye was on you. Every time you went to answer a question, you were answering for your entire sex. […]

“There has been a tragic loss of life and it is essential that an urgent independent investigation takes place to bring all those responsible for the deaths to justice…Violence and abuses from either the authorities or protestors is in no way justified.”-Roseann Rife, Amnesty International’s Deputy Director Asia-Pacific-Amnesty International today called on the authorities in […]

Dropping Knowledge, the Berlin- and San Francisco-based group founded in 2003 by Mindpirates, has launched a neat new e-postcard campaign. The group is dedicated to exploring how “provocative, challenging and entertaining questions, communicated by innovative multimedia, can inspire new thinking.”I think these images speak for themselves. Spread them around to start a conversation, or ask […]

The Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard always has a cool and informative lecture taking place.Today at 12:30pm, Ben Wikler of Avaaz.org, a 3.5-million member global online advocacy organization, will speak on how his organization is trying to expand its model of campaign organization via social media. To quote:“Now, we’re exploring ways to […]