The Google Policy Fellowship is now accepting applications in North America. 2015 will mark the eighth summer of this program, which places undergraduate and graduate students at key tech policy think tanks and NGOs. Applications are open now through March 12, 2015.
Please help recruit top talent to this program! Our blog post has details about the program and application process that you can share with friends, alumni networks, and anyone else who is interested. Note that while Google facilitates the program and sponsors the fellows, we do not participate in the selection process. Host organizations choose their fellows directly.
This program has been great way to grow the next generation of tech policy advocates and build relationships with them at an early stage. In fact, a large number of Google Policy Fellows have become full time policy staff at their host organizations. Program alumni also have gone on to work for regulatory agencies, in academia, and at start ups.
If you have friends who are interested in the program and have questions beyond what is covered on the site, please feel free to connect them directly to [email protected].
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Last summer, students from all over the US and Canada gathered to explore pressing questions at the intersection of technology and policy. Whether working on data security standards at the National Consumers League or innovation economy issues at the R Street Institute, students gained hands-on experience tackling critical technology policy questions.
2015 is just beginning, but these issues show no signs of slowing down. We’re excited to announce the 8th annual Google Policy Fellowship, which connects students interested in emerging technology policy issues with leading nonprofits, think tanks, and advocacy groups.
Applications are open today for North America, and students of all levels and disciplines are welcome to apply before Thursday, March 12th.
This year’s organizations include: American Association of People with Disabilities American Enterprise Institute American Library Association Center for Democracy and Technology Center for Data Innovation Electronic Frontier Foundation Engine Future of Music Coalition Georgetown Center on Privacy & Technology Global Network Initiative Internet Education Foundation Internet Keep Safe Coalition Mercatus National Consumers League National Hispanic Media Coalition Open Technology Institute, New America Foundation Public Knowledge R Street Institute Samuelson-Glushko Canadian Internet Policy & Public Interest Clinic TechFreedom Technology Policy Institute The Citizen Lab US Hispanic Chamber of Commerce
More fellowship opportunities in Asia, Africa, and Europe will be coming soon. You can learn about the program,application processandhost organizations on the Google Public Policy Fellowship website.
Who will be the next class of organizers in San Diego? SEJ Fellows are the current and future leaders in the fight for social and economic justice.
Help spread the word to passionate college students interested in fighting for social and economic justice!
Overview
The Students for Economic Justice (SEJ) summer fellowship will be an intensive 6-week program that will give committed student activists organizing experience in a current campaign for economic justice. College students will receive organizing skills training and will be engaged in educational discussions on various topics. The goal of this program is to build the next generation of young leaders and community organizers who will effectively push forward social change and economic justice in San Diego. Students receive trainings from various community and labor leaders throughout San Diego and will finish the program with a better understanding of the social and political landscape of the region. These are some of the trainings and hands-on experience that will be provided during the summer internship program:
Organizing Skills
Doorknocking, Phonebanking, and Turnout 101
Understanding Power / Choosing Your Strategy
Coalition Building
Communications and Using the Media
Organizing and Taking Action to Win Change
Political Education
Accumulated Struggles: A History of Economic and Social Movements
Understanding San Diego’s Regional and Political Landscape
Current campaigns for economic & social justice in San Diego
Ideal candidates First, second, and third year college students are encouraged to apply. If you are a graduating senior, we highly recommend for you to apply for the SEJ Assistant Coordinator part-time position.
Commitment The SEJ fellowship is an intensive full-time program. It is not recommended that fellows hold other jobs or attend summer school at the same time. Exceptions may be negotiated. Fellows are also expected to stay involved after the program is over and to hold SEJ info sessions at their respective schools.
Dates of Program Monday, June 29, 2015 - Friday, August 7, 2015 (six weeks). It will be up to 40 hours a week. Some evenings and weekends may be required but not mandatory.
COMPENSATION
This is a paid fellowship at a living wage ($14/hr). CPI makes the effort to ensure that interns are compensated fairly for their time and that financial challenges do not inhibit students from participating in the program.
Requirements All applicants are required to fully complete this application form and also submit (1) a separate page with answers to two essay questions, (2) a resume, and (3) one letter of recommendation.
Applications Due Date 5:00 pm, Friday, February 27, 2015. Applications should be submitted via email to [email protected].
QUESTIONS If you have any questions, contact Trinh Le: 619-584-5744 ext. 24 or [email protected].
The Center on Policy Initiatives is proud to be an affirmative action employer. People of color are strongly encouraged to apply.
So into this amazing lady! @ellosteph thank you so much for interviewing me today. You are so awesome! #mediababesrock #ilovela #lgbtpride #allies #lgbtvoices #sexwork #cuties
There are people who like to make others feel worthless. Some of them use the language of social justice to get away with it.
Often, this comes in the form of proclaiming to hate allies and then demanding unbounded deference from allies. This is typically conflated with accountability, but it’s not the same thing at all.
Hatred and accountability are different things. Accountability as an ally means, among other things:
Listening to the people you’re trying to support instead of talking over them.
Making good-faith efforts to understand the issues involved and to act on what you learn.
Understanding that you’re going to make big mistakes, and that sometimes people you’re trying to support will be justifiably angry with you.
Accepting that your privilege and power matter, not expecting others to overlook either, and taking responsibility for how you use both.
Facing things that are uncomfortable to think about, and handling your own feelings about them rather than dumping on marginalized people.
Being careful about exploitation and reciprocity, including paying people for their time when you’re asking them to do work for you.
Understanding that marginalized people have good reason to be cautious about trusting you, and refraining from demanding trust on the grounds that you see yourself as on their side.
When people use the language of social justice to make others feel worthless, it’s more like this:
Telling allies explicitly or implicitly, that they are worthless and harming others by existing.
Expecting allies to constantly prove that they’re not terrible people, even when they’ve been involved with the community for years and have a long track record of trustworthiness.
Berating allies about how terrible allies are, in ways that have no connection to their actual actions or their actual attitudes.
Giving people instructions that are self-contradictory or impossible to act on, then berating them for not following them.
Eg: Saying “Go f**ing google it” about things that are not actually possible to google in a meaningful way
Eg: Simultaneously telling allies that they need to speak up about an issue and that they need to shut up about the same issue. Putting them in a position in which if they speak or write about something, they will be seen as taking up space that belongs to marginalized people, and if they don’t, they will be seen as making marginalized people do all the work.
Giving allies instructions, then berating them for following them:
Eg: Inviting allies to ask questions about good allyship, then telling them off for centering themselves whenever they actually ask relevant questions.
Eg: Teaching a workshop on oppression or a related issue, and saying “it’s not my job to educate you” to invited workshop participants who ask questions that people uninformed about the issue typically can be expected to ask.
More generally speaking: setting things up so that no matter what an ally does, it will be seen as a morally corrupt act of oppression.
Holding allies accountable means insisting that they do the right thing. Ally hate undermines accountability by saying that it’s inherently impossible for allies to do anything right. If we want to hold people accountable in a meaningful, we have to believe that accountability is possible.
Someone who believes that it’s impossible for allies to do anything right isn’t going to be able to hold you accountable. If someone has no allies who they respect, you’re probably not going to be their exception — they will almost certainly end up hating you too. If someone demands that you assume you’re worthless and prove your worth in an ongoing way, working with them is unlikely to end well.
If you want to hold yourself accountable, you need to develop good judgement about who to listen to and who to collaborate with. Part of that is learning to be receptive to criticism from people who want you to do the right thing, even when the criticism is hard to hear. Another part is learning to be wary of people who see you as a revenge object and want you to hate yourself. You will encounter both attitudes frequently, and it’s important to learn to tell the difference. Self-hatred isn’t accountability.
Tl;dr If we want to hold allies accountable in a meaningful, we have to believe that accountability is possible. Hatred of allies makes this much harder.
As a 26 year old multi-romantic asexual, I’m so thankful to the older biro-bisexuals who’ve been seeing the parallels between the treatment of ace and aro individuals with the treatment of bi individuals, even when they’re not on the aro or ace spectrum themselves, and actually saying something about it.
There’s a lot of biphobic and panphobic arguments concerning the exclusion of aces and aros, but you’re not even stopping there but talking about how arguments against aces and aros are almost word-for-word with your own lived in experiences with biphobia, and I really, really appreciate your allyship.
Being an ally is a lot like being a fan of a sports team.
You’re there to support them, you spend money on their merchandise, you identify yourself as such so that your team feels the love and the world knows you’re there, you cheer for them, you tell others about them, you gush about why your team rocks to anyone interested in sports (and maybe a few who aren’t), and you jump in if someone’s talking trash about your team or your sport.
You bring a megaphone and a big foam #1 glove, and maybe if you’re good at what you do, you lead the bleachers in a cheer or two and get a few seconds on the JumboTron.
But you’re not part of the team. You don’t get your name on the roster. You don’t hang out in the locker room. You don’t sit in on the strategy sessions. And if someone from the team is doing a press conference, you fucking sit down and give them the microphone.
I am writing to you because it has gotten just that bad. I have found myself telling too many people about the advice given to me years ago by the late composer Herbert Brun, a German Jew who fled Germany at the age of 15: “be sure that your passport is in order.” It’s not enough to laugh at Donald Trump anymore. The rhetoric about Muslims has gotten so nasty, and is everywhere, on every channel, every newsfeed. It is clearly fueling daily events of targeted violence, vandalism, vigilante harassment, discrimination. I want you to know that it has gotten bad enough that my family and I talk about what to keep on hand if we need to leave quickly, and where we should go, maybe if the election goes the wrong way, or if folks get stirred up enough to be dangerous before the election. When things seem less scary, we talk about a five or a ten year plan to go somewhere where cops don’t carry guns and hate speech isn’t allowed on network television. And if you don’t already know this about me, I want you to know that I was born in this country. I have lived my whole life in this country. I have spent my entire adult life working to help the poor, the disabled and the dispossessed access the legal system in this country. And I want you to know that I am devoutly and proudly Muslim.
I am writing this in response to a non Muslim friend’s question about what she can do. Because there is much that can be done in solidarity:
If you see a Muslim or someone who might be identified as Muslim being harassed, stop, say something, intervene, call for help.
If you ride public transportation, sit next to the hijabi woman and say asalam ‘alaykum (That means ‘peace to you.’). Don’t worry about mispronouncing it; she won’t care. Just say “peace” if you like. She’ll smile; smile back. If you feel like it, start a conversation. If you don’t, sit there and make sure no one harasses her.
If you have a Muslim work colleague, check in. Tell them that the news is horrifying and you want them to know you’re there for them.
If you have neighbors who are Muslim, keep an eye out for them. If you’re walking your kids home from the bus stop, invite their kids to walk with you.
Talk to your kids. They’re picking up on the anti-Muslim message. Make sure they know how you feel and talk to them about what they can do when they see bullying or hear hate speech at school.
Call out hate speech when you hear it—if it incites hatred or violence against a specified group, call it out: in your living room, at work, with friends, in public. It is most important that you do this among folks who may not know a Muslim.
Set up a “learn about Islam” forum at your book club, school, congregation, dinner club. Call your state CAIR organization, interfaith group or local mosque and see if there is someone who has speaking experience and could come and answer questions about Islam and American Muslims for your group. They won’t be offended. They will want the opportunity to do something to dispel the nastiness.
Write Op Eds and articles saying how deplorable the anti-Muslim rhetoric has gotten and voice your support for Muslim Americans in whatever way you can.
Call your state and local representatives, let them know that you are concerned about hate speech against your Muslim friends and neighbors in politics and the media, that it is unacceptable and you want them to call it out whenever they hear it, on your behalf.
Out yourself as someone who won’t stand for Islamophobia, or will stand with Muslims—there is an awful lot of hate filling the airways, and there are an awful lot of people with access to the media and/or authority stirring the pot about Muslims. Please help fill that space with support instead. Post, write, use your profile picture or blog to voice your support.
Ask me anything. Really. Engage the Muslims in your life. Make sure you really feel comfortable standing for and with your Muslim friends, neighbors, coworkers.
I can tell you that in addition to the very real threat to their civil and human rights that Muslims are facing, we are dealing with a tremendous amount of anxiety. While we, many of us, rely on our faith to stay strong, we are human. This is not an easy time. What you do will mean everything to the Muslim Americans around you. Thank you for reading and bless you in your efforts. Share freely.
The actual reason I was Florida last week was to visit my Mom, who, because of the pandemic, I haven’t seen in 3 years. It was such a wonderful time!! And I was so happy to see her and hug her and meet her Incredibly Vibrant and cool neighbor Sheila!!!! And they even threw a birthday party for Becky while we were there!! #family #community #transwoman #queerlove #allies #florida #saygay #reunion #newfriends (at Bradenton, Florida) https://www.instagram.com/p/CbquDVGOb7m/?utm_medium=tumblr
I’m omnisexual, I’m bigender, and I am in love with my STRAIGHT, CIS, WHITE BOYFRIEND
Does this offend you ? Does the fact that a very queer person can date someone that isn’t a minority ? If it does, I think you may be part of the problem.
It’s okay to be a minority. It’s also okay to not be. We’re being given crap all the time, why would we give crap to people who didn’t do anything wrong either ?
You’re a straight ally ? I love you
You’re a white ally ? I love you
You’re a cis ally ? I love you
You’re not a minority in any ways and you’re privilleged af , but are an ally to PoC and LGBTQ+ people? I love you.
Okay, here’s the problem with the idea that oppressed groups can “alienate allies” by not being nice enough:
You shouldn’t be an ally because oppressed groups are nice to you. You should be an ally because you believe they deserve basic human rights. Hearing “I hate men” shouldn’t make men stop being feminist. Hearing “fuck white people” shouldn’t make white people stop opposing racism.
Your opposition to oppression should be moral, and immovable. Your belief that all humans should be treated with equal respect shouldn’t be conditional based on whether or not individual people are nice to you.
Benito Mussolini kept a personal archive, also sometimes called the Handbag Files, throughout his rule as Italian National Fascist Party leader and later head of Hitler’s puppet government, the Italian Social Republic. By early 1945, Mussolini was incredibly paranoid about how he would be viewed historically and began making plans to keep his personal records hidden.
With the Allies bearing down, however, Mussolini’s plans did not come to fruition, and his files fell into the hands of the U.S. Army, which immediately began translating and copying files to be used for intelligence. In 1950, the Historical Division of the Department of State transferred copies to the @usnatarchives, making a once private archive now available to anyone.
U.S. Army Com. Sgt. Maj. Patrick Kelly, with Observer Controller Team Mustang, Joint Multinational Readiness Center, talks on the radio during Exercise Swift Response 16, June 16, 2016 in Hohenfels, Germany. Exercise Swift Response is one of the premier military crisis response training events for multi-national airborne forces in the world.
trans women are women. trans men are men. us sexy other bitches are whatever the goddamn hell we want to be. we are all exactly what we were always meant to be
“But the question is, Did John Brown fail? He certainly did fail to get out of Harpers Ferry before being beaten down by United States soldiers; he did fail to save his own life, and to lead a liberating army into the mountains of Virginia. But he did not go to Harpers Ferry to save his life.
“The true question is, Did John Brown draw his sword against slavery and thereby lose his life in vain? And to this I answer ten thousand times, No! No man fails, or can fail, who so grandly gives himself and all he has to a righteous cause. No man, who in his hour of extremest need, when on his way to meet an ignominious death, could so forget himself as to stop and kiss a little child, one of the hated race for whom he was about to die, could by any possibility fail.”
Frederick Douglass, 30 May 1881, oration on the fourteenth anniversary of the raid on Harpers Ferry
The skull of a white-tailed buck skull waits patiently to be revealed under the full moon tonight, a suitable time, as July’s moon is often referred to as a full buck moon. And this one is going to be a doozy, being the longest blood moon eclipse this century. Also auspicious, as this skull had been reddened before being wrapped to be symbolically reborn and consecrated to his new station.
At some point I intend to do an in depth post on the whole process of reddening, rebirthing, consecration and binding a sacred object to oneself.
{Deer skull was found by another in the forest, after dying a natural death}
