"The white people have theirs, and the black people have theirs. It's nothing racial at all."

Mindy Bryan; Ashburn, Georgia 

Segregation is often seen as a default, a natural order, the way things just sort of fall into place when people with differences exist near to one another.  Ms Bryan’s sentiments are often echoed in defenses of segregation—it doesn’t come from racism or any maliciousness, but it’s just sort of the way things are, because they’re the way things have been for so long.  But this ignores inequity and inequality, the main reason that “separate but equal” was found to be a myth in Brown v. Board of Education. 

Turner County High School, in southern Georgia, just held its first-ever school-sponsored integrated prom.  For decades, parents had been organizing their own proms for the kids, one which Black students attended, and one which white students attended.  From the article, it seems that the impetus behind the integrated prom came from the student government, which is encouraging—the change came from the students themselves, rather than being thrust upon the student body by adults. The prom was generally regarded as a positive step, but there were some who were skeptical or downright hostile to the idea.  A parent, Valerie McKellar, said "'That's just like you're cooking a half-baked cake, putting the icing on it, and when you cut the cake, the cake ain't no good. That's how this prom is.'”  Additionally, one student said that some of her friends’ parents “didn’t agree with” the idea of an integrated prom.

You cheered with them when they took on Taco Bell and Yum Brands.  Now, the Coalition of Immokalee Workers has done it again!  For the past 2 years, the CIW has run a campaign to expose the dismal conditions and treatment farmworkers who supply McDonald's receive.  Today, McD's and suppliers have agreed to the following as a result of the campaign:

1. A penny more per pound to workers harvesting tomatoes for McDonald's;
2. A stronger code of conduct based on the principle of worker participation;
3. And a collaborative effort to develop a third party mechanism for monitoring conditions in the fields and investigating workers' complaints of abuse.

Yay CIW!  And we can't forget the important role students played in supporting the campaign, through the spearheading organization Student/Farmworker Alliance, that works in solidarity with the CIW.

The Truth Tour is still on though!  This weekend, organizers, students, workers, and even some celebs will gather in Chicago to demand the dignity and just treatment of farmworkers.

Right now, University of Michigan students are staging a sit-in to end the use of sweatshop labor for university licensed apparel.  The students are demanding that the administration accept a Designated Suppliers Program and Code of Conduct for its licensees, that will actually reward factories for adopting fair and humane labor standards for its workers—thus reversing the “race to the bottom” trend, into a “race to the top.”  The best part of this plan, developed largely by United Students Against Sweatshops (USAS), is that the Workers’ Rights Consortium, in cooperation with the local union or union-like entity, monitors and evaluates their places of employment for compliance with the Code of Conduct.  Workers can request that the factory be taken off the list of Code-compliant factories if violations occur.

Call, e-mail or fax the University of Michigan president, Mary Sue Coleman, now!  Tell her that you support the students sitting in and want the University of Michigan to be an example to other schools committed to the dignity of workers everywhere.  College apparel is a multi-billion dollar industry, and this plan has the potential to make real change.