Reading Recommendation from a JCA Member
Dave Zarkin asked us to post his review of The Slick Boys: A Ten Point Plan To Rescue Your Community By Three Chicago Cops Who Are Making It Happen:
Hope in the face of poverty and despair is offered by three Chicago cops, who are also rap artists, in their book, The Slick Boys, a 10-point Plan to Rescue your Community.Education, jobs, job training, chemical dependency rehabilitation, hope and understanding are themes repeated in real life stories narrated by Eric Davis, James Martin and Randy Holcomb, three police officers who made arrests, mediated gang warfare and befriended children in crisis in Chicago’s turbulent housing projects.
These resourceful cops use music and humor that children understand to provide hope and redirect them away from gangs into responsible lives. Problems of gangs, drugs and crime cross community lines from inner city to suburbs. Community involvement and spending more time with their children is the message that Davis, Martin and Holcomb repeat throughout this quick read.
Readers will find the helpful organizations listings useful. Some of the entries include the Center for Democracy and Citizenship at the Humphrey Institute, University of Minnesota; B’nai B’rith Youth Organization, Washington, DC; Jewish Big Brother and Big Sister Association of Greater Boston; and National Center for Youth with Disabilities, University of Minnesota. Much of this information we already knew or we could find in books by noted scholars, but coming from three hardened Chicago cops it grabbed my attention.
-Dave Zarkin
Hope in the face of poverty and despair is offered by three Chicago cops, who are also rap artists, in their book, The Slick Boys, a 10-point Plan to Rescue your Community.Education, jobs, job training, chemical dependency rehabilitation, hope and understanding are themes repeated in real life stories narrated by Eric Davis, James Martin and Randy Holcomb, three police officers who made arrests, mediated gang warfare and befriended children in crisis in Chicago’s turbulent housing projects.
These resourceful cops use music and humor that children understand to provide hope and redirect them away from gangs into responsible lives. Problems of gangs, drugs and crime cross community lines from inner city to suburbs. Community involvement and spending more time with their children is the message that Davis, Martin and Holcomb repeat throughout this quick read.
Readers will find the helpful organizations listings useful. Some of the entries include the Center for Democracy and Citizenship at the Humphrey Institute, University of Minnesota; B’nai B’rith Youth Organization, Washington, DC; Jewish Big Brother and Big Sister Association of Greater Boston; and National Center for Youth with Disabilities, University of Minnesota. Much of this information we already knew or we could find in books by noted scholars, but coming from three hardened Chicago cops it grabbed my attention.
-Dave Zarkin
posted by Jewish Community Action Staff at 8:44 AM
2 Comments:
The underlying message in this book is that individual actions do make a difference so don't let the enormity of the problem overwhelm you. The three authors speak from the perspective of African Americans who have lived in the projects and at least two of them were former gang members. It's all been said before but needs repeating and their observations on racial stereotyping are extremely relevant. Corruption in Washington and the Iraq war are distracting us from povery, which a major threat to democracy.
CHICAGO -- Tune out the deadly drumbeat of the daily news and get involved now with a national network of progressive Jews who are supporting social justice efforts of poor people from Camden, NJ, to Oakland, CA to help themselves and address challenging urban issues.
The total scope of this national Jewish progressive effort was brought into sharp relief Dec. 4-6 at National Community Organizing Training hosted by the Jewish Council on Urban Affairs (JCUA) in Chicago. I attended this training with 15 other Minnesotans to sharpen our skills in recruiting other progressive Jews into an exciting adventure to address poverty. Respecting a request from the Hotel Employees Union, we marched with them to protest unfair working conditions at the Congress Hotel in Chicago.
Rian Wanstreet, director of advocacy and public policy for JCUA, serves on the Coalition to Protect Public Housing (CPPH). There is no plan now to relocate families displaced by the redevelopment of the housing projects and compounding the problem is the relocation of jobs to far-away suburbs that create transportation problems for inner city poor.
Wanstreet and the coalition helped get state legislation for emergency funding for housing and a provision that 15% of new developments have affordable housing. A successful lawsuit initiated by the coalition prevents the destruction of housing project buildings until replacement units are provided... JCUA also provides rabbinical interns to work with the coalition, organizing the project tenants and making them aware of their rights. Wanstreet recruits the rabbinical interns and places them with housing projects and labor unions. JCUA helped low income African Americans who will be displaced form their homes with a human rights campaign, filing a complaint as refugees with the United Nations and the Organization of American States.
JCUA volunteers provide help where needed, whether it's picketing at a labor action, writing letters to the editor and making financial contributions. There are countless other roles for volunteers in local communities.
Like JCUA the Minnesota Jewish Community Action seeks to involve volunteers in support of the issues surrounding poverty and urban family disintegration. The problems seem overwhelming, but once you learn more about these issues you can see how you can play a useful role in what is becoming America's biggest challenge.
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