"Fresno: How I Love Thee"- A local organizers take on disparities and call to action

Fresno: How I love thee
Local organizers take on disparities and call to action
BY ERNESTO SAAVEDRA

Oh Fresno…

“I love Fresno.”

This rarely leaves the lips of Fresno residents or visitors. Shame of our city hovers thickly holding hands with the smog that never wants to leave.

For over two decades, I have witnessed the over investment in north Fresno (i.e. River Park). Simultaneously, low income people and people of color are pushed south of Fresno, stuck in a quick sand of abandonment, faulty investments (i.e. the Metropolitan Museum), police brutality and system-inflicted poverty.

According to the 2008 report The Enduring Challenge of Concentrated Poverty in America: Case Studies from Communities Across the U.S., over 23% of Fresno residents live below the poverty level, nearly double the state average of 12%. In West Fresno, 51% live below the poverty level. This is over 4 times the state average. Who lives in West Fresno? Low income people and people of color.

The ‘haves’ and ‘have not’s’

If you grew up in Fresno you knew that north Fresno was [or is considered to be] ‘”the good side of town” and all the statistics above did not apply. There are the small pockets of concentrated poverty on ‘that side of town’ but they are out of sight, rarely mentioned, like that “bad” relative you might not talk about or want people to see. Nonetheless, these disparities do exist and one can look no further than our Fresno public schools.

According to 2007-2008 statistics from the CA Department of Education Black and Latino/a youth drop out at a rate of 26-30%. This is above the rate of white youth at 20.5% and above the states average of 23.9%. Out of all the public high schools in Fresno Unified, Bullard High has the lowest drop out rate at 9.4% compared to McLane, which has the highest drop out rate at 28.1% (CA Dept. of Ed. 2007-2008).

Demographically, according to their 2008-2009 School Accountability Report Card, Bullard reported 47.2% white and 30% of its students are socioeconomically disadvantaged. McLane reported 57.2% Latino/a, 9% African American, 24.1% Asian, with 100% being socioeconomically disadvantaged. Is this a coincidence? I think not.

Pushed out: Suspensions, Expulsions, and On Campus Police Officers

In October 2009, Californians For Justice and the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California submitted a Public Records Act request to Fresno Unified to examine school discipline and the role of law enforcement on campus. Here are some key findings:

• In Bullard, Edison and Fresno Black students that dropped out, were suspended, and were expelled are disproportionately high as compared to the number enrolled, while the number of students that graduated is disproportionately low. For example, at Edison, 24% of the student body is Black, yet Black students account for 59% of expulsions, 45% of suspensions, 35% of dropouts, and only 22% of graduates.
• In 2008-2009, FUSD spent more than $950,000 to employ 8 full-time police officers and 8 full-time county probation officers to be on-site at the 9 high schools in addition to the maintenance costs for two police patrol cars.

There is an obvious pattern of racial profiling and it seems like Fresno Unified would rather spend nearly $1 million to militarize our schools instead of on quality resources and teachers.

It’s all LOVE

I expect to ‘step on some toes’ and possible claims that I am making this a race and class “thing”. Well, I am because it is a race and class “thing” as well as a gender, sex, and sexual orientation “thing” brought about by our institutions, our schools and belief systems dictated by the mainstream media and those that oppress us.

All is not ‘well’ when youth you organize with on a daily basis are being pushed out and oppressed because they were born into a society that looks down on you if you are not male, white, rich, and heterosexual.

THIS IS A CALL TO ACTION!

The more we unite, hold our local decision makers accountable, and take more risks the more pressure there will be and the more likely change will come…but it has to come from the bottom up; from US, the oppressed. Let’s fight for a better Fresno!

Oh, Fresno, the “Belly of the Beast”, how I love thee so.

**Ernesto Saavedra has lived in Fresno for over twenty years. A graduate of Fresno State, he is a Youth Organizer with Californians for Justice, a grassroots, statewide organization that works for racial justice in California public schools. He can be reached at Ernesto [at] caljustice.org