Click photo to watch our new video, "Mansimran"

From Breakthrough president and CEO Mallika Dutt:

Like a lot of teenagers you may know, Mansimran is a basketball-loving, Starbucks-drinking, robotics-studying all-American guy. It shouldn’t surprise you that he’s funny, grounded and charming. It should surprise you that sometimes, when strangers see his turban and the color of his skin, they lean out their car windows and call him a “terrorist.” It should surprise you, but it probably doesn’t. Because of course, Mansimran is not alone.

Where do young people get the idea that that kind of bullying is okay? Well, these days, it’s hard to miss. In the decade since September 11, South Asian, Arab, Muslim, and Sikh communities have become targets of race- and religion-based bullying — to say nothing of discrimination, racial profiling and unlawful detention and deportation and other human rights violations. And everywhere from policy to pop culture, mixed messages about who counts as a “real” American have created a climate of ignorance at best and fear at worst. Just last month, home-improvement mega-chain Lowe’s pulled its advertising from TLC’s “All American Muslim” after the Florida Family Association accused the show of subverting “American liberties and traditional values.” Ask Mansimran about his values — as a Sikh and an American — and this is what he’ll tell you: “If I call myself an American then I should be accepting to every culture there is. I should be welcoming to everybody, no matter what.”

Mansimran instinctively understands what so many others seem to miss. Dignity, equality and justice are American values. Our laws, leadership and culture should reflect that. And so should we. By bringing human rights values in to our smallest interactions and daily lives, we can help stop bullying. Mansimran takes it in stride, but it shouldn’t happen in the first place. We should take a page from Mansimran’s playbook by standing up against racial profiling and racially-motivated bullying, reaching out across differences, and treating everyone around us with respect. We are all on the same team, after all.

January 24, 2012 by Mallika Dutt
Tags: All-American Muslim, breakthrough, Bullying, discrimination, homepage, human rights, Mallika Dutt, Mansimran, Racial Justice, racial profiling, Restore Fairness, Sikh, Starbucks

Meet Mansimran.

He’s an all-American guy who likes Starbucks, hoops, and robotics. He’s a student, an older brother, and an active member of his Sikh religious community. Sometimes, when strangers see his turban, and the color of his skin, they lean out their car window and call him a “terrorist.” He’s not alone: especially since September 11, Sikh Americans and other communities have become targets of discrimination, racial profiling and bullying, human rights violations, and hate crimes. (One survey found that, even 6 years after the events of 2001, 75% of Sikh male schoolchildren in New York had been teased or harassed on the basis of their religious identity.)

How does Mansimran handle it? “My response is, ‘Come over here, sit down, I’ll tell you about Sikhism, I’ll tell you who I am,” he explains. In other words, he totally takes it in stride —- but it shouldn’t be that way in the first place.

We are all on the same team, after all —- and we should take a page from Mansimran’s playbook by standing up against racial profiling and bullying, reaching out across differences, upholding human rights, and treating everyone around us with the American —- and human-rights —- values of dignity, equality, and respect.

You can stand with Mansimran —- and against racist bullying —- by getting to know him and sharing his video.

How to ACT:

• Like this video on Facebook and Twitter to speak out for diversity and stand up against bullying.  Here’s a quick line to post: “We’re all on the same team. Share this video for the win.”
• DOWNLOAD and share the song “turBAN” by GNE.  (It’s in the video, it’s awesome, and it’s free!)

• LEARN about racial profiling and racial justice by visiting RestoreFairness.org and following the hashtag #rfair.

January 20, 2012 by crissy spivey
Tags: Bullying, discrimination, hate crimes, homepage, human rights, Mansimran, racial profiling, Religion, Restore Fairness, Sikh

photo courtesy of mattdesmond, http://www.flickr.com/photos/mattdesmond/

December 21, 2011 by crissy spivey

When I traveled to Arizona with Ishita to create Checkpoint Nation, I wrote:

For information on how to end this crisis on our border, visit Coalición de Derechos Humanos and No More Deaths.

VIDEO CREDITS: Directed, filmed and edited by Dana Variano with Ishita Srivastava; music by Denver Dalley; post-production audio by Hobo Audio. Produced by Breakthrough.

December 15, 2011 by Dana Variano
Tags: Arizona, border deaths, crisis, Derechos Humanos, desert, documentary, DRUM, homepage, human rights, human rights crisis, immigrants, immigration, International Migrants Day, Mexico, migrants, No More Deaths, U.S. Mexico Border, Vamos Unidos, video

Guestblogger: Chris Harley, National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum

Do you have a wish for this holiday season? I do. I wish that all families can stay together. That’s why I’m participating in
A Wish for the Holidays, a campaign to gather 5,000 letters from kids asking our nation’s leaders to ensure that families stay together.

For me, holidays all boil down to spending time with my large extended family. Honestly, I don’t know how we all crowd into my Gramma’s 2-bedroom, one-story home, but most holidays, we manage to all squeeze in and enjoy a crazy day full of laughter, teasing, eating, and sharing. Like that one Christmas, when an innocent game of White Elephant gift exchanging turned into a chase around the house as my Aunt attempted to reclaim a new movie from her nephew.

In total, there are roughly 60 of us, including grandparents, aunts and uncles, kids, and great-grandkids. We come from all different backgrounds, religions, political views, and walks of life. We’re also a uniquely mixed-race family full of boisterous personalities. And every time we get together, despite all of our differences, I know that we embody the value of what it means to be a family.

This is why it breaks my heart to think of families and children who will spend this holiday season missing those who aren’t there with them. Recently, the We Belong Together effort led a delegation of women leaders to Atlanta, Georgia. Our goal was to listen to the experiences of women and children in Atlanta who have been impacted by Georgia’s new “papers please” law. This law makes it a state crime for an undocumented immigrant to live in the state and allows law enforcement to ask for documentation of anyone they “suspect” of being undocumented. The overarching fear from this, and similar state laws, is the risk of widespread racial profiling and abuse. So we went to Georgia to hear what was happening, and the stories we heard were heartbreaking.

Alicia spoke about her daughter, who suffers from a condition that causes her to have convulsions since she was one years old. Since Alicia doesn’t have a driver’s license, she only risks driving when she must rush her daughter to the hospital. Can you imagine what it means to be a mother whose only thought is to make sure her child is safe, and the most dangerous thing she can do is to risk driving to the hospital because if she were to be stopped by the police, she could be arrested and separated from her child?

Another woman, Claudia told us about the extreme abuse that her husband subjected her and her son to. Once he even chased them around their neighborhood with a knife until a neighbor called the police. Yet, because Claudia doesn’t have the right documents, she was deported and forced to leave her son with his abusive father until she could make her way back into this country and reclaim him. Can you imagine her terror and her son’s fear during that year of separation?

Unfortunately, we now know that those stories are no longer isolated incidents. The recently released “Shattered Families,” report documents just how devastating the impacts of enforcement-only immigration policies have on families. There are now at least 5,000 children in the American foster care system who are being prevented from being reunited with their detained or deported parents and this number is expected to exceed 15,000 in just five (5) years. Moreover, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention obstructs the ability for parents to participate in Child Protective Services’ family unification plans, and can result in detained parents actually losing their parental rights.

Are these the “family values” that we want this country to embody? What happened to caring about the children– our future?

We need to tell our country’s leaders that these policies, that tear families apart and leave children alone, isolated, and separated from their parents – who only wanted them to have a brighter future -  that these policies don’t work. That’s why We Belong Together, has launched the “A Wish for the Holidays,” campaign where we are asking our kids, our future, to tell today’s leaders to keep families together! Our goal is to collect 5,000 letters that can be delivered on Human Rights Day, to elected leaders in DC and remind them that it’s the holidays, and families belong together.

Please help us collect letters from children and youth.  Go to WeBelongTogether.org/wish, pledge to write letters, and then get started using the tools available online.  Remember that letters need to be mailed in by November 30.

Thank you and happy holidays!

November 11, 2011 by crissy spivey
Tags: A wish for the holidays, b-listed, breakthrough, National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum, We Belong Together

Engendered, the NYC based transnational arts and human rights organization proudly announces their inaugural event in India, ROCK FOR RIGHTS (RFR), 2011, in collaboration with Delhi based organization Queer Delhi.  Breakthrough is a proud promotional partner of the event.

In solidarity with all gender, sexual and minority rights movements in South Asia, RFR is a historic live music concert and party on Nov 27, 2011 at the Lalit Hotel in New Delhi. The concert brings together some of South Asia’s most explosive musical talents crossing genres and nations - from Sufi to electronic, folk to rock, India to Pakistan, artists and bands who will come together with the power of music to create a platform to speak of human rights, choice, dignity and social justice.

Check out the line-up:

• Rekha Bhardwaj
• Zeb & Haniya
• Papon & The East India Co: Indie Rock act, Papon (Angaraag Mahanta)
• Ma Faiza
• Alisha Batth

Check out the Facebook page for more info.  We hope to see you there!

November 10, 2011 by crissy spivey
Tags: b-listed, breakhrough beat, breakthrough, Engendered, india, Lalit Hotel, New Delhi, Queer Delhi, Rock for Rights

Great resource from our friends at WITNESS!

If you’re interested in using video to make a difference, while saving time, money and resources  — because who doesn’t — check out WITNESS’ new Video Advocacy Planning Toolkit. It’s free!

What you get:
Step by step training videos (cool interface with a dapper fella), and how-to’s to help you develop your own plan for making videos.

How to get started:
Step 1: Visit http://VideoPlan.WITNESS.org
Step 2: Create an account and start your own Video Advocacy Plan
Step 3: Let them know what you think of the Toolkit

Bonus! Get a free FLIP if you’re one of the first to use the Toolkit and give constructive feedback.  Find out more HERE.

November 10, 2011 by crissy spivey
Tags: advocacy, because we found it, breakthrough, FLIP, Flip Video, video, WITNESS

What are your plans for the weekend?

Join Breakthrough from November 3-6th, for the play Yo Miss! Teaching Inside the Cultural Divide! at the popular Nuyorican Poets Cafe. Actor and writer Judith Sloan uses theater and music to remix stories from her extensive experience with immigrant/refugee teenagers and incarcerated youth. She interweaves their stories with her own, revealing the effects of the Holocaust on her family.

Following the Sunday, November 6th performance, join us for a discussion with Breakthrough’s president, Mallika Dutt, along with Queens City Council Member Julissa Ferreras, and Advocacy Director Jackie Vimo.

“‘Yo Miss!’ re-enacts and riffs on [Sloan's] experiences teaching teenagers from myriad worlds: refugee camps, struggling neighborhoods, prisons. It is a performance about performances, a story containing many stories.”

- The New York Times

Here’s the full info:

Thursday, Friday, Saturday, November 3, 4, 5 at 7 PM
Sunday, November 6 at 3 PM

Nuyorican Poets Cafe
Buy Tix: $20 general $15 students/seniors/groups 212-780-9386 (scroll to time and day of your choosing)

We hope to see you there!

November 1, 2011 by crissy spivey
Tags: b-listed, breakthrough, breathrough beat, hip-hop, Holocaust, human rights, immigration, Judith Sloan, nyc, theater, Yo Miss!

Photo courtesy of My Accidental Muse

Women and girls matter!  As part of the series of discussions “Women and Girls Matter: A series of discussions” for Media that Matters, please join our president, Mallika Dutt on panel: “Throwing Open the House: What’s Next for Women and Girls in Film and New Media?” They will evaluate the shifting landscape and explore solutions to breaking down more barriers for women and girls in filmmaking.

Here’s more info for Saturday, October 29th from 2-3:30!

Even as women have continued to make significant headway in other industries, the film business has remained a heavily male-dominated shop. Despite this reality, women filmmakers have not only persevered, but in recent years have been the driving force behind some of the industry’s most powerful feature and documentary films.
In what ways can female leadership impact gender norms in the film industry?  How are the values that women bring to the table informing not only what media we create but how we create it?  What can gatekeepers do to open doors and bring more women into the circle? What are the steps to engaging the interest and cultivating the talents of the next generation of girls?

Here’s full panel:
Beth Davenport, Women’s Institute Online Program Manager, Omega Institute for Holistic Studies; Director: Pushing The Elephant
Mallika Dutt, President & CEO, Breakthrough
Aina Abiodun, Film Futurist; Founder, Aina Media, Inc.
Moderator: Teresa Basilio, Director of Media In Action, Global Action Project

Hope to see you there!

October 26, 2011 by crissy spivey
Tags: breakthrough, filmmaking, girls, human rights, Mallika Dutt, media that matters, Women

Why are some Alabama parents pulling their children out of school? Why are some Alabama workers afraid to show up to their jobs? Why are some Alabama families fleeing the state altogether?

Please share this image far and wide: via Twitter, your Facebook profile and more!

Because last week Alabama began to enforce one of the harshest immigration laws in U.S. history. HB 56 requires local and state law enforcement to check the status of any person of whom they have “reasonable suspicion” of being undocumented, ostensibly encouraging racial profiling. The law also requires schools to check the immigration status of all new students.

HB 56 has triggered widespread fear among Alabama’s immigrant communities and set off nothing short of a humanitarian crisis. We need to stand in solidarity with the people of Alabama because when we deny human rights to some we put everyone’s rights at risk.

We will continue to update you as the news happens. We also need your voice in this conversation. Please follow us on Twitter and Facebook and share your news, views and stories about HB 56 with us.

October 7, 2011 by crissy spivey
Tags: Alabama, b-the change, breakthrough, HB 56, human rights, immigrant, immigration