By Juleyka Lantigua

This summer, there’s good news for many Black and Latino youth around the country. The federal government has designated $1.2 billion of the $787 billion stimulus package for the creation and support of summer jobs for disadvantaged youth.

Nationally, unemployment for 16-to-19-year-olds is nearly 23 percent, more than double the 9.2 percent overall unemployment rate. But Black and Latino youth suffer disproportionately higher unemployment rates. As of May 2009, Latinos aged 16-19 faced a 31 percent unemployment rate. Black teens have to contend with an unemployment rate of 34 percent, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics latest report.

Though program requirements for federally funded summer jobs will vary from state to state, participants will largely come from low-income families, underserved areas and from groups who face greater challenges in accessing jobs, like the disabled, high school dropouts and those who have no previous work experience or training.

This seasonal focus on hard-hit populations will have a lasting impact on Latinos and Blacks, who tend to outpace the general population in undesirable categories like dropout rates, youth crime and poverty. Reaching out to young people who may already have one or two strikes working against them will have immediate economic and social impacts across communities in need. Providing job training, professional skills and mentorship for at-risk youth can create viable options for meaningful work, motivate them to continue their education, and help them feel valued and productive.

In New York City, which has large Black and Latino populations, the unemployment rate among 16-to-19-year-olds doubled in the past year to 22 percent, according to state estimates. This summer, $18.5 million in stimulus funds will help add 13,378 jobs, for a total of 51,000, which is 8,000 more than existed last year. Demand is so high that weeks before the May 15 deadline, the program had already received 81,000 applications, according to the Department of Youth and Community Development. Participants will earn $7.25 an hour, and also receive training in financial literacy and job skills.

Economically, teens are avid consumers, so much of their earnings will be funneled right back into the economy as they use their earnings to buy music, go to the movies, buy used cars, new clothes, and the status-defining electronics of the moment.

Stimulus dollars were distributed to all states, from about $3 million for Wyoming and South Dakota and other low-population states to $186 million for California, which is among the most populated states. The combined effect will be much greater than the billion-dollar expenditure may signify, as countless teens will have transformative experiences that can take them down entirely different paths, leading to college or trade school or full-time employment after summer ends.

The White House estimates that stimulus money will create 125,000 jobs for low-income youths this summer. The positive effect of all those teens hard at work will ripple out to their families, schools, communities and the whole country, positively impacting millions. That’s the type of stimulus we need to make permanent.

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Juleyka Lantigua is a writer whose work has appeared in books, magazines and newspapers around the world.

By Juleyka Lantigua

As you may know, taxpayers are about to own 60% of General Motors. So here’s our chance to get exactly what we want in our favorite mode of transportation. Personally, I am looking forward to annual meetings in which I can discuss my wish list at length with fellow stockholders.

A driver for over fifteen years, I have accumulated a list of improvements that I believe will make all our driving experiences more pleasurable. Feel free to add your own thoughts, fellow shareholder.

1.    How about 100 miles per gallon. We’ve been to the Moon and sent rovers Mars, but still can’t figure this one out?
2.    Standard built-in navigation systems for all models. Why should the rich be the only ones who don’t get lost anymore?
3.    Volume and tuning buttons standard on all steering wheels. The number of accidents avoided will stagger you.
4.    Remote control key for every car. There’s no reason a 2-cent battery in a plastic case should be turned into a luxury item.
5.    Different sounds for different warnings. Door open = three bells. Key in ignition = 4 pings. Headlights still on = 2 knocks. Those are just suggestions, but you get the point.
6.    Power-controlled seats on the driver and passenger seats; sometimes the driver is the passenger, and that’s an unpleasant surprise.
7.    Value retention, for real.
8.    Built-in technology that melds our techie lifestyles (iPods, cell phones, etc.)
9.    Roadside assistance service modeled after On-Star, connecting the car directly to the manufacturer and sharing performance data automatically, to keep you safe and the car running smoothly.
10.    Lastly: car designed so sleekly they make you want to get in and go fast.

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Juleyka Lantigua is a writer whose work has appeared in books, magazines and newspapers around the world.

By Juleyka Lantigua
The more I hear, read, and witness the reaction of many (mostly conservative) white people to the nomination of Judge Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court, the worse I feel for white people in general.

You know the feeling. That nagging sense of collective embarrassment (C.E.) some of us brown/black folks feel whenever “one of us” does something so outrageously unimaginable that we shrug our shoulders and brace for impact.

Examples:
    A Latino mayor of huge city admitting to cheating on his wife.
    A certain Black civil rights icon threatening to castrate a presidential candidate.
    A Black star athlete shooting himself in a club after strapping his gun to his sweatpants.
    A first Latino governor who can’t get confirmed for Cabinet because he’s so corrupt.

I don’t know for sure if white people ever get a serious outbreak of C.E., but I bet plenty of them are feeling a little rash-y right about now. The likes of Rush Limbaugh, Newt Gingrich, Bill O'Reilly and their ilk have spent the last week chomping at Judge Sotomayor, and trying to best each other for bottom-feeder status.

Among their most ignorant claims:
    She’s an immigrant fluent in “illegal speak.”
    She’s a racist who thinks she’s better than a white man.
    Her menstrual cycles will impact court rulings.
    She does not know the real America.

I’m not accusing all white people of sharing these incendiary views, not by far. But what I am aware of is that the rest of us non-whites are watching and listening carefully, because deep down in places we don’t talk about, we live with the fear that to some extent many more white folks see us in such radically warped ways as to render some of these statements .0000000001% true in their worldviews.

And that’s why I feel bad for white people right now. I feel bad for them because an almost measurable degree of doubt has been introduced to their relationships with the rest of us, because they have all become somewhat suspect in our eyes—just a tiny bit—because the most vociferous and dangerously ignorant among them have unleashed the type of venom that clouds the air for years.

I hope I’m wrong about this, and that this is merely a fleeting manifestation of some deep-set paranoia the immigrant, Bronx-bred, educated Latina in me harbors in a forgotten crevice in her mind.

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Juleyka Lantigua is a writer whose work has appeared in books, magazines and newspapers around the world.

By Juleyka Lantigua

Since AmeriCorps was founded by President Clinton in 1993, 540,000 members have served with thousands of nonprofit organizations, public agencies and faith-based organizations nationwide. Among many other things, members tutor and mentor youth, build affordable housing, clean parks and streams, and recruit, train and manage community volunteers, and coordinate after-school programs.

In exchange, volunteers receive a very modest monetary award they can use towards college or qualified student loans. During their term of service, volunteers are also provided training, student loan deferment, health care, and in about half the cases, a modest annual living allowance.

The bill that President Obama just signed contains a few important changes: it increases volunteers to 250,000 from 75,000 annually, and bumps the education allowance to match the amount given by a Pell education grant ($5,350). The areas of service will also be expanded to include education, veterans’ affairs, health care, and renewable energy.

More needs to be done, though.

According to AmeriCorps, 46 percent of members embark on careers in education, social work, public safety, government and military service. A way to modernize the volunteer organization is to create strong mentorship opportunities for volunteers to interact with high-level managers, executives and elected officials who can help them envision and shape careers in those fields.

But to fully mature AmeriCorps we need to create tangible career tracks that lead to lasting professions in service, civic entrepreneurship, and elected office. President Obama is a perfect example of how community-level experience can form a solid foundation for a life in service and leadership.

We should provide the same opportunity to others.

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Juleyka Lantigua is a writer whose work has appeared in books, magazines and newspapers around the world.

Matt Taibbi has a very interesting take on the economic crisis in the current issue of Rolling Stone magazine entitled “The Big Takeover where he goes on to say  that the global economic crisis isn't about money - it's about power and how Wall Street insiders are using the bailout to stage a revolution."

The article's opening line "It's over — we're officially, royally fucked," hooked us right in.

Thanks to Christophe for the lead.

More after the [ JUMP ]

The City Of New York and the New York City Transit Authority are looking to hire train operators.

WHAT THE JOB INVOLVES: Train Operators, under supervision, have direct responsibility for the safe, timely and proper operation of New York City Transit Authority multi-unit subway cars, subway service cars and trains in accordance with the rules, regulations and special instructions governing such operation. They operate trains in revenue and non-revenue road service, and in yard or terminal service; prepare trains for road service and switch cars in yards; in revenue road service, convey passengers over assigned routes; may open and close doors in stations and terminals; may make announcements; in non-revenue road service, operate work trains and revenue collection trains; in yards and terminal service, switch cars, prepare trains for road service and operate trains between yards and terminals; convey trains into barns and shops for inspection and repair, and through car washes for cleaning; wear a prescribed uniform; and perform related work.

THE SALARY: The current minimum salary is $26.9900 per hour. This rate is subject to change. In addition, you receive night and weekend differentials, paid holidays, vacations and sick leave, a comprehensive health plan and a pension plan.

APPLICATION FEE:
$60.00 Payable by mail by money order to DCAS (EXAMS) or payable online by credit card, bank card or debit card.

THE TEST DATE:
The multiple-choice test is expected to be held on Saturday, June 6, 2009.

For more info click on this link to download the full application instructions.

By Juleyka Lantigua
Happy Women’s History Month. We’re making it as we live and breathe.

Starting with First Lady Michelle Obama, prominent intelligent, educated and powerful black and brown women will inspire, validate, reassure and motivate young women who have lacked viable role models in key areas like politics, corporate America and social leadership.

As simple as it may seem, the example of a woman of color serving as a Senator, in a cabinet position or on a board of directors has an immediate mirror effect.

Countless little girls can easily see themselves in women like Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis, Avon CEO Andrea Jung, PepsiCo Chairwoman Indra K. Nooyi or U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice. The usual “when I grow up I want to” can now be filled in with “serve on the President’s Cabinet,” “lead a Fortune 500 company,” “work in international relations.”

Growing up in the South Bronx in the 1980’s I rarely saw important Latina and black politicians or public servants to inspire me to follow in their footsteps. My aspirations were set by watching successful men, and dreaming of one day being “a female something.” I thought that succeeding as a woman would make me an exception in male professions, almost regardless of the field. I thought about being a female lawyer, a female pilot, a female writer, a female university president, even a female Supreme Court judge.

That’s no longer the case.

Today, little girls everywhere will not need to think it’s exceptional that they can be corporate leaders, members of Congress, secretary of something, or hold a high post in the White House. Seeing women like EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson, Cecilia Muñoz, who heads the White House office of Intergovernmental Affairs, and White House Senior Advisor Valerie Jarrett opens up layers and layers of possibility.

On the corporate side, women of color represent 13.4 percent of the U.S. workforce, with more than five million holding managerial and professional positions. But in the Fortune 500 companies we only account for 1.7 percent of corporate officers and top earners (the five highest-paid employees in a company), according to Catalyst, a research firm.

Leaders like Xerox President Ursula Burns and former MTV President Christina Norman ignite curious young minds to explore the possibility of one day assuming those posts. They also give mothers and fathers role models to point to when their daughter comes home eager to reach for the stars.

So, during this women’s history month, please share these examples — or some of your own — with the young girls in your life.

Juleyka Lantigua is a writer whose work has appeared in books, magazines and newspapers around the country.

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By Juleyka Lantigua
Recently I was online filling out an application for a foreign affairs fellowship sponsored by a top government entity. After the usual who/what/where/when questionnaire, I was taken to a page with four essay-style questions.

In the interest of full disclosure, you should know that I have not written essay-like answers to anything, beyond winding personal emails from my closest friends, since I applied for graduate school ten years ago. But being a professional writer, I was unfazed by the prospect of some thought-provoking and intellect-tickling inquiry.

That is, until I came upon a question that, to summarize, went something like this: What conditions in the U.S. and Mexico have caused the immigration problem between the two countries, and how would you fix it.

REALLY? You’re asking lil’ old me? Gosh, I’m flattered. Here goes nothing….

“This is a large and complex issue that will require many large and small actions on the part of both governments over a long period of time. But some of the larger and immediate contributing factors that must be addressed include:
--the lack of viable employment for poor people in Mexico; the lapses in compulsory education—standard, higher and vocational—that leave millions without the proper training to pursue meaningful and lasting work in Mexico;
--the poorly regulated underground economy in the U.S., which makes it possible for millions of workers to be absorbed into exploitive work in the service and farming industries;
--and the unwillingness of the U.S. to establish a real and organized guest-worker program which allows seasonal workers to anchor their lives in Mexico while working in the U.S.

My first recommendation would be for both countries to establish a comprehensive guest-worker program, which encourages Mexicans to live, invest and thrive in their home country while earning a living in the U.S.

I would recommend that the Mexican government do more to create opportunities for training in forward-looking industrial sectors like alternative fuels, technology and health fields.

I do not believe that there is only one answer to this issue, but that a joint multi-prong approach is the best place to start.”

Ufff! That was a long breath. I hope that helps. Let me know if you have any other massive-scale issues you’d like me to tackle in 300 words or less.

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Juleyka Lantigua is a writer whose work has appeared in books, magazines and newspapers around the country.

Note: All pop-up content embedded into articles are selected by our site editors and not individual contributors. They are purely for informational and contextual purposes and do not constitute an endorsement by individual contributors to the Republica Update.

By Juleyka Lantigua
An environmental spark has been ignited in the South Bronx, a place usually associated with crime, poverty and all types of social ills. The point source for the flame is a statuesque and brilliant Black woman named Majora Carter, who is gaining national and international acclaim for her work in a forgotten corner of the world's most celebrated city.Majora Carter, 41, grew up watching buildings burn because of what she calls "the financial disinvestment" in her Hunts Point neighborhood in The Bronx. After graduating from Wesleyan, she returned home and became involved with local youth and arts groups, which led to community development and public arts projects.

She soon learned that New York City and New York State were planning to build a large waste facility on the area's waterfront to process 40 percent of the City's garbage. She started to make connections between the actions of the city and state governments and the ailing state of her community. "They were absolutely complicit in bringing on not just the economic disinvestment but also what it brought in: the environmental degradation of our community. They put it on poor communities of color, thinking they're not going complain too much."

Sustainable South Bronx (SSBX.org), the organization she helmed for seven years, started with the idea of building a South Bronx Greenway to include bicycle and pedestrian paths, open spaces, and waterfront access. When the restoration process began, the contractors would bring people in the work, even though the community had a 25 percent unemployment rate. So Carter started asking why they were not training locals to do the work.

Soon they were training people to work on reclaiming and rehabilitating the waterfront, wetland restoration, cleaning up contaminated land, and green-roof installation. "We effectively coupled poverty alleviation with environmental remediation so that we could work to make sure that people felt that they had the capacity to change the world and change their own lives at the same time," she explains proudly.

A tenet of the work SSBX does is the idea that environmental rights are civil rights. "It is the core of everything we do. Environmental justice means [certain] communities shouldn't have to have lots of environmental burdens and not enjoy environmental benefits," Carter says. She is unequivocal on this point. "Race and class are the ultimate indicators of where you're going to find the good stuff—like parks and trees—and where you're going to find the bad stuff—like waste facilities and power plants. And of course [there are] health effects associated with it."

In 2005, Carter was honored with a MacArthur "genius award" Fellowship in recognition of her work as "a relentless and charismatic urban strategist" as the foundation described her. But Carter, who has served on the Clinton Global Initiative Poverty Alleviation Panel, has always been very clear that the advocacy she practices is not about receiving charity.

"For us, it's about resource generation; it's about recognizing that there are assets here to produce even more resources. And that people are your ultimate resource…We're not expecting people to do this out of the kindness of their hearts…There will be many opportunities for people to participate in this," Carter says.

After years of focusing on improving the environment in her own backyard, Carter re-aligned the work of SSBX to parallel the growing economic needs of the area as well as the expanding demands of the burgeoning green economy. The aim is to develop an eco-industrial sector, a collection of businesses that use recycled materials as raw materials and has the potential to generate hundreds of local jobs. "I want to help make the South Bronx the center for green manufacturing in New York City," she asserts.

The Bronx is just the beginning. Carter is now transitioning out of her role as the head of SSBX to start her own organization, the Majora Carter Group. "My job will be to go around the country, and internationally, to help support other municipalities, business leaders, universities and community members so they can work together to unlock their green-collar potential." So far, she has received interest from Baltimore, Kansas City, Missouri, Miami, Milwaukee, and Detroit.

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Juleyka Lantigua is a writer whose work has appeared in books, magazines and newspapers around the country.

Note: All pop-up content embedded into articles are selected by our site editors and not individual contributors. They are purely for informational and contextual purposes and do not constitute an endorsement by individual contributors to the Republica Update.

By Juleyka Lantigua

“Give us your ideas, and we’ll give them to the president.”

That deceptively simple invitation lured me into the multi-layered change.gov website a few weeks ago—during a sleepless night, mind you. In case you don’t know, change.gov was set up by the Obama-Biden transition team as the preferred communication tool between the powers that be and the rest of us. There are many useful and many not-so-useful things on the site. (I’ll let you invest/waste your own time figuring out which is which.)

As I was saying, one recent winter night insomnia was tap dancing on my eyelids, so I logged on to see what people were saying. The set up was that you could vote for or against each post in order to move it up or down in the ranking, resulting in the best ideas getting the most votes and floating to the top, while the really bad ones sank to the bottom.

Allow me to summarize the more popular entries from the night I logged on:

--Withdrawing our troops from Iraq
--Free universal healthcare for everyone
--Ending our dependence on foreign oil
--Increasing our sources of sustainable energy

And so on. You get the picture; these are all BIG ideas that definitely need to be tackled, but that will take a loooooong time. So, in the interest of practicality, I decided to add some of my own ideas to the mix, just to see which would float and which would sink.

--Requiring that all public college/university graduates speak one foreign language fluently (starting with Spanish, Arabic, Chinese and Russian) in order to graduate
--Granting permanent resident status to any undocumented immigrant (w/o a criminal record) who has been in the country for 5+ years (and their kids and spouses)
--Forgiving 50% of all subsidized student loans for people who graduated in the last 10 years, so they can pump that money back into the economy
--Adding a community service requirement in order to graduate public high schools
--Establishing a guaranteed 2% interest rate for all first-time homebuyers with good credit who can put 10-20% down
--Cutting the payroll tax in half, so employers and employees get a cash infusion immediately
--Removing all vending machines from public schools

Needless to say, soon after I thrust my ideas into the public arena (much like a gladiator facing a packed Roman coliseum) I started to fret as people began to weigh in and rank them. Soon, I started to get very, very sleepy……

Juleyka Lantigua is a writer whose work has appeared in books, magazines and newspapers around the country.