From: Daniel HoSang <dhosang at ctwo.org>
Please forward
Dear friends:
Please take five minutes to help win fair treatment for low-income families and end racial discrimination in anti-poverty programs.
VISIT
http://www.progressiveportal.org/letters/justice
to automatically send a fax or an email to 30 leading Senators and their aides urging them to protect the civil rights of families on welfare.
The letter-writing campaign is sponsored by Grassroots Organizing for Welfare Leadership (GROWL), a project of the Center for Third World Organizing (CTWO).
The site is run by Progressiveportal.org
Background: The civil rights crisis within the welfare system.
The 1996 welfare laws, that Congress is ready to reauthorize in the next few months, gave individual states, counties and even caseworkers tremendous discretion over the types of opportunities and restrictions afforded to parents on welfare. As a result, racial discrimination and civil rights violations exist at the federal, state and local level.
FEDERAL DISCRIMINATION
In 1996, Congress barred lawful immigrant families 90 percent of whom are Black, Asian, or Latino - from receiving public assistance for at least five years after their date of entry.
The 1996 law also imposes a lifetime ban on welfare benefits for parents who have been convicted of felony drug convictions - a majority of whom are Black and Latino.
The law did not allow English as a Second Language classes to meet the work activity requirement or provide funding to states to ensure non-English speakers had equal access to benefit programs.
STATE DISCRIMINATION
Dr. Stanford Schram of Bryn Mawr College reports that states with higher percentages of African Americans on welfare are more likely to adopt full-family sanctions (eliminating benefits for the entire family because of a violation of welfare program rules), time limits, and family cap policies (restricting benefits to any children born to parents already receiving welfare).
LOCAL DISCRIMINATION
A Virginia Tech study by Dr. Susan Gooden documented that caseworkers were far less likely to inform black women on welfare about transitional services such as childcare and transportation assistance than white women.
A national study of 1,5000 welfare recipients by the Applied Research Center documented a pattern and practice of discriminatory and insulting treatment on the basis of race, gender, language, and national origin.
OPPORTUNITY FOR ACTION
The US Senate has a historic opportunity to ensure that welfare policy for the 21st Century includes fair treatment standards and civil-rights protections for low-income families.
These civil rights and anti-discrimination protections include:
1. A restoration of benefits for immigrant families 2. Expanding civil rights protections for parents on welfare 3. Reducing language discrimination against parents on welfare 4. Providing financial incentives for states that ensure fair treatment and equitable outcomes for all families receiving welfare benefits. 5. Ending the lifetime welfare ban for parents convicted of felony drug offenses 6. Collecting and publishing data about welfare outcomes that are reported by race
-- Grassroots Organizing for Welfare Leadership (GROWL) www.ctwo.org/growl
c/o Center for Third World Organizing (CTWO) 1218 East 21st Street Oakland, CA 94606 510 533-7583 x12 dwhosang at ctwo.org
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