September has been a busy time for young conservative leaders across American campuses. More onslaughts onto the freedoms of college students have been launched in hopes to turn more campuses in a pivotal election year more conservative. Several YP4 bloggers are documenting the damage:

Like millions of other Americans, I too, anticipated and watched CNN's Black in America. Prior to watching the documentary, my Ethnic Studies background provided me with knowledge on what the program attempted to address. In college, I was constantly reminded of how my undergraduate education would teach me how to "think critically." Similarly, my mom advised me to take all things with "a grain of salt." Consequently, I viewed the documentary from this framework. I knew even CNN's resources and "experts" would not be able to expose everything there is to know about the "black experience" (as if there was only one experience) into a two-part series, but only touch the surface.

A fellow scholar from my program informed us of the anniversary of integration of the U.S. Armed Forces, led by former President Harry S. Truman. With all the emphasis on Obama's race i.e. questions including, "Is the U.S. ready for a black president?" and great efforts to recruit minorities in ROTC programs without a comparable move to recruit them into higher education, I wonder, how far have we really come in terms of racial reconciliation?

THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary

For Immediate Release July 23, 2008

60th Anniversary of the Integration of
the United States Armed Forces

By the President of the United States of America

A Proclamation

I was at a church seminar this morning and had the opportunity to talk with a young man who confessed to coming from a "messy, broken background." I nodded my head, understanding and empathizing with his experiences.

I remember having mixed emotions about moving to Washington, DC two years ago. My father, who had lived in the East Coast for at least a decade before moving to California, warned me that not only would I have to get used to a concept known as "seasons," but also, East Coast culture, including the people, was different from the warm utopia of my Golden State.

Within two weeks of moving to Washington, I had made the switch from jeans, flip flops, and a tank top, to the three- piece suit. As I was walking down the infamous K Street, a young woman came up to me, asking me if I "had a minute for the environment." But, before I could respond, she proceeded to comment, "Let me guess where you're from... you look exotic."

Before Furgie switched gears and began singing about her "humps" and being "Clumsy," I had a deep appreciation for the Black Eyed Peas. A couple of years ago, BEP came out with the song, "Where is the Love?" One of the lines that struck me most was, "Overseas we try to stop terrorism, but we still got terrorists livin' here in the USA."

Jeremy Bearer-Friend, a YP4 Leadership Academy fellow currently with Justice Now, just posted to Feministing:

Prisons are bad for everyone--not just for the people in cages within them, not just for the children who have lost their parents to them, or the social programs who have their budgets cut because of them.

Prisons distract us from the root causes of violence and ultimately exacerbate the deeply entrenched challenges of racism, sexism and transphobia facing our communities.

In his book, Come Hell or High Water, Michael
Eric Dyson recounts how hundreds of thousands of people were left behind in the
Gulf Coast region to experience the after
math of Hurricane Katrina. Those left behind to suffer the destruction,
disease, and death were predominately the black poor. These people had no way
out of the city before the storm hit, and received inadequate relief after the
destruction was done. It is no secret that the people who were mainly affected
by the aftermath of Katrina were poor people of color. These people also tended
to be the largest group with the smallest voice in political matters. Is this
mere coincidence or part of an intricate hierarchy of oppression? During this

Multiculturalism
is a basic American concept. We value the beliefs, traditions, customs,
arts, history and folklore of the diverse cultures reflected throughout
our nation. All this is being put at risk in Arizona, where
last week the Appropriations Committee passed an amendment to a routine
homeland security bill, SB 1108 that would prohibit students at the
state’s public universities and community colleges from organizing
groups based on race (ie: groups such as MEChA, the Black Business Students Association, Native Americans United, etc.)

Please take action today. This bill could reach the Arizona House floor as early as this week.