To Ease Reentry, Help the Hosts Who Offer Couch Hopping

When Carlos first came to live with us he was about 16. A friend of my son’s, he had a long history of family and housing instability and had been recently kicked out by his mom. As his informal host, I thought I did everything “right.” We already had a strong relationship; I met with his mom, laid out house rules and talked about his plans for the future. 

What I didn’t take into account was the influence of all the systemic factors he battled on a daily basis. As a black woman, I understood the impact of racism, poverty and the other oppressions Carlos had to navigate. Understanding alone doesn’t prevent us from experiencing the harm.

As a young black man, there were concrete ways these frames played out in Carlos’ everyday life. He couldn’t get a job due to his felony, and even though he had a roof over his head and food in his belly, that wasn’t enough to prevent him from making money the way he knew how. Carlos also battled mental health issues due to childhood trauma; aside from anger management classes, there were very few resources for young black men to engage in healing. Finding housing was just the beginning of the support he needed. 

Carlos stayed with us on and off for a few years. I heard rumors he had been getting in trouble and didn’t want to bring any negative traffic to our house. So, without giving me a lot of details, he decided it was time to move on. A few months later he was arrested for a robbery, and after a few probation violations and some new charges, served a couple of years in prison. He would call periodically. I thought of him often. 

When Carlos was preparing for his release from prison, he struggled with finding a place to go. He paroled to a relative’s house and almost immediately showed up on our doorstep. He said, “There was too much going on over there Mama Stacey.” We hadn’t communicated as much as we would have liked while he was gone, but there was no way we were going to have him on the streets.  Continue reading here:

Machine Learning and Ethical Risk Management

By Jody S. Johnson, JD.

"The application of an ethical risk management framework is vital to the accurate assessment of the liability we expose ourselves and agencies to when operating within collaborative efforts."

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In the first chapter of Lewis Carroll’s 1865 classic, “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland,” Alice follows the White Rabbit into his burrow, which transports her to a strange, surreal, and nonsensical world of Wonderland. When it comes to risk management and the finding of liability, the rabbit hole can seem “strange, surreal, and nonsensical.” This can be true whether one is trying to avoid liability or trying to figure out who to sue. In this brief article, I will analyze a real-world case study as it pertains to ethical risk management and introduce an ethical methodology I have coined the 1+1=4 Approach. Although this ethical framework has multi-disciplinary applications, which will be discussed in future publications, this article will focus primarily on its application within the field of machine learning and the race to find a vaccine for COVID-19.

To read the rest of this article click here.

The Power of Now

By Tanisha Dozier

“It’s important that youth understand their voices matter …”

Sydney Butler, RAGE Media Coordinator

[Image of Black man in pink shirt holding video camera (Unsplash: Skye Studios).]

The Power of Now is a youth led docu-series powered by The Race and Gender Equity (RAGE) Project. Located in Sacramento, CA, The RAGE Project harnesses the power of individual and collective transformation through healing, education, advocacy and research. The Power of Now will focus on youth activism and leadership. It is coordinated by some of Sacramento’s youth leaders, including myself. We lead this group with an objective to uplift Sacramento’s youth to promote change within their community.

According to RAGE Media intern, Kiarah Young “the docu-series is important because realizing my power as a youth of color changed the direction of my life in the last two years. I want other youth to be inspired and realize that the sacrifices made during activism are worth it in the end.”

The students participating in the project will be interviewing Sacramento youth activists that have played a part in impacting the community in their own significant way. A major goal intended to be achieved by the interviewees is for them to be able share their experience as activists while empowering the youth around them. Those sharing their stories have grown up in Sacramento, allowing them to be able to relate to what still happens to a lot of the students as far as unjustified acts of violence or intensified racial profiling.

In the words of another RAGE Media intern, Eric Wright, "if you want to make a change, stand up, and fight for what you believe in. However big, or small, each day, you can inspire change"

We realize that the upcoming youth need to be woke when it comes to what’s happening a block away from where they reside or where they attend school. Hence the name, “The Power of Now”! This video docu-series is intended to advocate by empowering youth now; advising them to speak NOW, to be heard NOW, and most importantly to take a stand NOW ... because if not now then when! We hope that giving young people access to stories of events that have been led by other Black youth will enhance their knowledge of what they can do.

Stay informed about The Power of Now at www.rageproject.org; or on Instagram @rageproject. Series release - May 2020.

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Tanisha Dozier is a RAGE Media intern originally from Sacramento, California. She recently moved to Hayward, California where she attends CSU East Bay, majoring in Multimedia Journalism.

Ms. Dozier has been involved in community work, specifically a group called BMAD (Blacks Making A Difference) since she was about 12 or13 years old. At first the involvement was very minor, for example she hosted community breakfasts on Saturdays to feed parents, children; really anyone who wanted to come didn’t matter the age.

[Image of young Black woman in blue jacket]

As Tanisha grew the amount of involvement did too; by her Sophomore year of high school she was putting together Board presentations to talk to the Superintendent of the school district advocating for black youth.

Now that Tanisha is in college she has received exposure to what her options are and found her fit. Ms. Dozier states, “I am going to be a journalist that will produce articles that put an emphasis on the problems that happen on a daily basis. I am also interested in using my platform to brainstorm ideas to empower those impacted or influenced. My initial goal is to continue to empower the generations that are after me, after them and so forth. As long as I am able to shed light on those who haven’t realized they can impact their community. I will.”