Cause for Celebration for our Enroot Community!

Dear Enroot Community,

I write to you again, deeply grateful that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris have secured enough electoral college votes to become our next President and Vice President.

I am encouraged that over 4 million more voters chose to support a candidate who

• recognizes the important contributions of immigrants to this country and seeks to advance, rather than hinder, their opportunities here

• understands the harm caused by systemic racism on a daily basis to millions of Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPoC), and that our approach to addressing it must also be systematic

• and is committed to the hard work of re-building the foundation for a more empathetic and unified country.

More people voted for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris than voted for any presidential ticket in US history.

While this news certainly gives many of us in the Enroot community cause for celebration, and we should take time to do so, I know I am not the only one feeling heartbroken to see how many millions of people still seem to accept the status quo of hateful rhetoric and exclusionary policy from the current administration. To me this underscores how important it is that each of us play an active role in our daily lives to confront racism and hatred in all of its forms, and to help expand our collective appreciation for humanity. Sadly, our country has taken some big steps backward over the last few years. We have a long journey ahead as we strive to fully live into our founding values. True progress will require each and every one of us who share a vision for a more welcoming, inclusive, equitable, and just country to recommit ourselves to its relentless pursuit.

I’m grateful to belong to a community, the Enroot community, where I can confidently declare such a vision with the knowledge that you not only share it, but are also committed to bringing it into reality.

With love and hope for our future, together,

Ben

Enroot Remains Committed in Our Pursuit of Educational and Racial Equity

Dear Enroot Community,

I write to you today as we all anxiously await the conclusion of the 2020 presidential election to express my love and appreciation for the role that each of you play in making the Enroot family so special.

Regardless of the ultimate outcome of this election, I want to reaffirm that Enroot remains more committed than ever to working shoulder to shoulder with our students, to celebrating the essential contributions immigrants make across our country every single day, and to advocating for equity and justice for immigrant families. Whoever our next president is, we all have a more important responsibility than ever before to speak our truth at every opportunity about the vital role immigrants play in our communities and about how grateful we are for all that immigrants add to this country.

Enroot continues to celebrate the historic candidacy of Senator Kamala Harris, who is the daughter of immigrants and the first woman who identifies as Black and South Asian to run as a Vice Presidential candidate for a major party. Her candidacy is itself a major milestone for this country and an inspiration for many millions of individuals, especially those who identify as Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPoC) and/or belong to immigrant households.

For many in the Enroot community and across the country, this election is about so much more than policy and politics. It is about who is welcome here, who truly belongs, who is included, and who is ‘othered’. It is about whose humanity is fully validated and valued. It is about whose lives matter, who feels safe, and who can access the resources required to lead a healthy, productive life. Ultimately, it is about our very identity as a country, and whether we remain committed to marching, step by step, closer to the day when we can say we truly live up to our founding ideals, that all people are created equal, and are therefore equally deserving of love, respect, liberty, and opportunity.

It is important to remain aware that each of us will be processing the election in a different way, based on our identities and those of our loved ones. As you care for yourself and other members of our Enroot community, please keep the following in mind:

• Many immigrant students and families may be experiencing especially high levels of anxiety and fear related to the election, based on how dramatically the outcome could impact the next few months and years of their lives.

• This anxiety is layered upon 4 years of increasingly common incidents of racism, xenophobia, and anti-immigrant rhetoric, in addition to stress caused by the covid-19 crisis, which has disproportionately impacted BIPoC, including millions of immigrant families.

• The prolonged uncertainty of the election outcome and possibility of election related violence may be triggering and re-traumatizing for some immigrant students and families who experienced similar situations prior to moving to the United States.

Given these and other considerations, it is especially important that we all, regardless of our own identity, make extra efforts to extend care and love to immigrant families in our community. This afternoon we will be holding sessions for our students, and then volunteers, to process the election as a community. I hope each of you will find a way to reach out to someone who might need your compassion in the days, weeks and months ahead.

Although I find my faith in our country’s collective sense of humanity shaken over the last 4 years, I’d like to share a quote that I hold tight in times like these. Following the conclusion of the Montgomery Bus Boycott in 1965, Martin Luther King Jr., paraphrasing the words of 19th century abolitionist minister Theodore Parker, said “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.”

Enroot will continue vigorously fighting for educational and racial equity alongside our amazing students and we remain deeply grateful for your partnership in this work.

With love and great appreciation,

Ben Clark

Make Your Voice Heard to Prevent Evictions of Enroot Families

*|MC_PREVIEW_TEXT|*

Dear Enroot Community, I’m writing today to draw your attention to an urgent issue impacting Enroot families and many others like them across the country, and to request that you call on your local, state and national leaders to address it immediately.  Many of you are aware that millions of families across the United States may face eviction soon as state and federal moratoriums expire. Due to the widespread loss of jobs and wages, nearly 30% of Massachusetts residents have not paid at least one month’s rent or mortgage since March. Here in Massachusetts, 120,000 renters face eviction upon the expiration of the current eviction moratorium on August 18th, according to a study by the Metropolitan Area Planning Council (MAPC). The overwhelming majority of these households are in communities of color, according to a new report by City Life/Vida Urbana and researchers from MIT. According to the authors, “The study suggests that this ‘eviction tsunami’ will affect Black and Latino communities the most, precisely those most affected by COVID-19. It is possible that informal evictions are particularly common in low-income immigrant communities, especially those where many residents are undocumented.” Many Enroot students and families faced housing insecurity even before the COVID-19 crisis. Over the last 10 years rents have risen significantly and outpaced the cost of living; many households now spend more than half of their income on housing. The extreme financial strains caused by COVID-19 have made it impossible for some Enroot families, and families like them, to pay rent. During the eviction moratoriums, several months’ worth of rental payments have been accruing. The unprecedented housing crisis that will unfold when moratoriums expire is compounded by the ongoing public health crisis. And if we do not take urgent action to ensure these families continue to have safe housing, it will no doubt exacerbate it. The report cited earlier goes on to state that “In Boston, immigrant communities from Asia, Latin America, and the Caribbean may be especially at risk of evictions without legal process. In one survey of renters in Boston’s Chinatown, 4 of 10 respondents said that they did not have a formal lease and nearly 8 out of 10 said they did not know where to access information about their rights as tenants. Of those in the survey who faced an eviction, nearly 6 out of 10 (59 percent) reported that the property owner or manager served the notice of eviction verbally, which does not comply with state law and leaves no record of displacement. Although court records are the best available data on evictions, they show only a fraction of the true extent of displacement and evictions.” Fortunately, some lawmakers and philanthropic leaders have jumped into action. Boston Mayor Marty Walsh is one of many prominent Massachusetts officials calling for Governor Charlie Baker to extend the current eviction moratorium beyond the August 18th expiration date. Massachusetts State Representative Mike Connolly is preparing legislation that would extend the eviction moratorium for an additional 12 months while providing mortgage deferment and financing for small landlords who lose rental income. Yesterday Senator Elizabeth Warren introduced The Protecting Renters From Evictions and Fees Act, which would extend eviction protections for nonpayment of rent for one year starting March 27, 2020. It would also expand the current federal eviction moratorium to include most renters. In a statement to Vox, Warren said “Renters who have lost their job or had their income reduced shouldn’t have to fear losing their homes in the middle of a pandemic. Housing is a human right and an absolute necessity to keep families safe during this crisis, and Congress must step in now to help keep people in their homes.” Additionally, several relief funds in Massachusetts are providing financial support to help those unable to make rent payments. These steps are encouraging, but we ALL need to use our voice to ensure our city, state and federal leaders are taking immediate action to address this crisis. Here are some steps we are urging all members of the Enroot community to take right away. Call Governor Baker, or your Governor if you live in another state, and ask them to extend your state’s eviction moratorium. Contact your state representatives and urge them to author or sign onto housing protection legislation like that put forward by MA State Representative Mike Connolly. Contact your Congressional representatives and urge them to sign on to eviction protection legislation like that introduced by Senator Elizabeth Warren. Contact your city’s elected officials and urge them to take additional steps to ensure none of your local neighbors are evicted from their homes. Support philanthropic efforts to provide financial assistance to families facing severe financial hardship. Mobilize your personal and professional networks through social media and email to help raise awareness and encourage more people to take action. The right to adequate housing is one of the most basic and fundamental human rights. Immigrants, and people of color more broadly, have been celebrated as the heroes of this pandemic, working on the front lines as essential workers in our hospitals and senior homes, and ensuring we have food on our shelves, while many of us shelter in the comfort and safety of our homes. It’s unthinkable that we would let these very same individuals lose their homes when they need them most. Please use your voice to demand your representatives apply every policy tool possible to address the pending eviction crisis. Thank you for taking action on this issue and for your steadfast support of Enroot students. With gratitude, Mahlet Aklu July 2, 2020 Letters To Our Community Re-envisioning July 4th as a Celebration of Our Future, Not Our Past Mahlet Aklu July 2, 2020 Letters To Our Community An Op-Ed by Enroot Executive Director, Ben Clark, originally published in the Cambridge Chronicle: This year on July 4th rather than celebrating our past, I will be looking ahead and celebrating our future. As a white man, I really struggle with what it means to celebrate a day marking a victory which applied exclusively to white men. In many ways July 4, 1776, was a day that actually further institutionalized inequality for what is today over 70% of the U.S. population. The utter hypocrisy of the Declaration of Independence makes it hard to enthusiastically celebrate its announcement. I hope reflecting on our first revolution will inspire many of us to apply a similar ferocity to our generation’s revolution, the racial justice revolution. This revolution gives us the chance to finally apply the ideals declared in 1776 to ALL people in our country. That would be a victory worth celebrating. The statues and flags coming down across the country signal a long-overdue honest reckoning with our history. We have a once-in-a-century opportunity to create permanent change as we dismantle systemic racism, anti-blackness and white supremacy. To truly seize on it, no symbol or tradition can be considered off limits from reexamination. Thomas Jefferson, who authored the Declaration of Independence, enslaved over 600 Black human beings throughout his life. This July 4th we must ask ourselves, on which days do we mark the independence of the other 70% of our population, and why don’t we celebrate those with the same vigor? Juneteenth is often referred to as “America’s Second Independence Day.” June 19, 1865, of course did not include an accounting for all the harm done to Black people in this country over generations of enslavement. Most of it remains unaddressed today, and the oppression of Black people remains enshrined in our legal system, even though it changes form each generation. But it did mark a fundamental change in our country and it is fitting that each year we celebrate Juneteenth just before we celebrate July 4th, so that they can be considered in concert. July 4th is also an incredibly important holiday for immigrants. Becoming a part of this country remains a dream to millions around the world and no holiday captures this more symbolically. As executive director of Enroot, I think a lot about how the lived experience of immigrants differs from their imagined experience prior to arrival. I consider the perspective of Black immigrants from Haiti, Senegal, Ethiopia, or Brazil, who recognize almost immediately that they are afforded less respect and less opportunity than white people. I consider the perspective of Central American immigrants, who see children, women and men pried apart and locked in cages for months at our border. I’m devastated that many wonder, “Is this really the country I set my sights on years ago?” During a recent conversation about racism and police brutality against Black people in the U.S., an Enroot student originally from Haiti said to me, “Before I came here I used to have a different idea of police. The idea was that they were good and would keep me safe. Now I feel like they are dangerous for me and I don’t feel safe when they are around.” His words symbolize an experience of disorientation and heartbreak that many immigrants, especially those who identify as Black, feel upon realizing that people who look like them don’t hold equal standing here. And that their physical security is less assured than it would have been back at home. And that the systemic racism surrounding them means their family’s prospects are not as promising as they seemed. In Frederick Douglass’ 1852 speech “What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?”, he said to his white audience, “This Fourth of July is yours, not mine. You may rejoice, I must mourn. What have I, or those I represent, to do with your national independence? Are the great principles of political freedom and of natural justice, embodied in that Declaration of Independence, extended to us?...What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July? I answer; a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim.” I’m ashamed that Douglass’ words have so much resonance today, since Black people and people of color still stand on such unequal footing in this country founded on equality. This July 4th, let our reflections on our first revolution inspire us all to join the racial justice revolution today. Let us apply the same courage and ferocity to today’s revolution, and let us ensure that this time no one is excluded. Ben Clark is executive director of Enroot, a Cambridge-based nonprofit that supports immigrant students to achieve academic, career and personal success.  Mahlet Aklu June 1, 2020 Letters To Our Community Letter To Our Enroot Community: Racism And Our Collective Responsibility To Fight It Mahlet Aklu June 1, 2020 Letters To Our Community Dear Enroot Family, Our community is reeling – especially the many members of our Enroot family who identify as Black. The brutal murders of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, Nina Pop, Tony McDade, and most recently of George Floyd, are devastating and enraging. And they are only the latest symptoms of systemic racism that our country has failed to honestly confront and dismantle for hundreds of years.  Racism in the police and criminal justice system means our students are more likely to be confronted, arrested, or even killed by police officers sworn to protect them. And those charged with a crime are far more likely to be convicted and sentenced harshly than a white person for exactly the same charge. Racism in our housing system means it is hard to secure safe and adequate housing, creating housing instability that upends the lives of Black communities, over and over. Racism in our healthcare system means our students and families receive substandard care, which translates to higher rates of illness, and unacceptably high rates of death from preventable illness. This is especially clear during the COVID-19 crisis. Racism in our school systems makes it harder for our students to get the support they need to thrive academically, harder to get appropriate guidance when preparing for post-secondary education, harder to get financial aid and other supports to succeed during college, and harder to even feel safe and respected within the walls of their school buildings. Racism in our employment system means our Black students and their families are not paid enough for the hard work they do everyday, playing roles in our community that are without question essential. And it holds so many of our alumni back from advancing during their careers to fully utilize and extend their many amazing talents. Over decades, it prevents wealth building and further widens the astounding gap between the net worth of white people and that of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC). Racism in our social norms sends constant messages of discrimination, othering, and hate to our students, which come often and cut deep. These examples only begin to capture how Racism acts as a self-reinforcing system, the layers of which are far too numerous to list here and the compounded impact of which is devastating for Black people.  Immigrants who identify as Black, especially, find themselves fearing for their safety on a daily basis. This moment, more than any other in living memory, has made many wonder “Am I safe in this country? Should I consider moving back?” A professional colleague of mine who immigrated from Ethiopia in grade school shared that their grandmother, who still lives in Ethiopia, wrote last week beckoning for her family to return home, where they may not have the same job opportunities but at least they would be safer. Can you imagine how re-traumatizing and heartbreaking it must be for millions of families to finally realize their dream of moving to the United States, only to find themselves feeling greater physical insecurity than they did at home before starting their journey? To arrive at the “Land of the free and home of the brave” and find that they are treated like an underclass, which must fear for its physical well being on a daily basis? We should be ashamed of this reality. But we should not feel helpless in the face of it. As an anti-racist organization dedicated to educational equity for immigrant students, Enroot is committed to standing by our students in the ways we always have. We are also actively working to expand the ways we support them directly, and to expand the ways we, as a staff and Board, fight systemic racism more broadly through advocacy. But our efforts will clearly not nearly be enough. In order to truly make progress in dismantling racism, we will need every single person in Enroot’s community to become active in directly confronting and eliminating it. It’s incumbent on all of us to dig deeply, reflect honestly on the roles you inadvertently play in perpetuating racism, and identify all the many ways you can become active in fighting it. We will also need all of you to recruit all of those you are close to in your personal and professional life to become active too. This is not the work of thousands; progress will require many millions of people engaged in collective daily action. And it is not the work of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC). Although all must be engaged, the responsibility for this change falls especially on white people, like me, who have the greatest access to power and privilege, and the greatest moral responsibility to insist on change.  Thank you for channeling the outrage of this moment to become active on a daily basis in combating racism all around you, and for continuing to support Enroot students.  Ben Clark Executive Director Newer Posts Older Posts Back to Top 99 Bishop Allen Drive, Unit 129, Cambridge, MA, 02139, United States6178765214info@enrooteducation.org contact us info@enrooteducation.org (617) 876-5214 99 Bishop Allen Drive, Unit 129 | Cambridge, MA 02139 newsletter © enroot education 2018 Ben Clark Executive Director

Re-envisioning July 4th as a Celebration of Our Future, Not Our Past

An Op-Ed by Enroot Executive Director, Ben Clark, originally published in the Cambridge Chronicle:

This year on July 4th rather than celebrating our past, I will be looking ahead and celebrating our future.

As a white man, I really struggle with what it means to celebrate a day marking a victory which applied exclusively to white men. In many ways July 4, 1776, was a day that actually further institutionalized inequality for what is today over 70% of the U.S. population. The utter hypocrisy of the Declaration of Independence makes it hard to enthusiastically celebrate its announcement. I hope reflecting on our first revolution will inspire many of us to apply a similar ferocity to our generation’s revolution, the racial justice revolution. This revolution gives us the chance to finally apply the ideals declared in 1776 to ALL people in our country. That would be a victory worth celebrating.

The statues and flags coming down across the country signal a long-overdue honest reckoning with our history. We have a once-in-a-century opportunity to create permanent change as we dismantle systemic racism, anti-blackness and white supremacy. To truly seize on it, no symbol or tradition can be considered off limits from reexamination. Thomas Jefferson, who authored the Declaration of Independence, enslaved over 600 Black human beings throughout his life. This July 4th we must ask ourselves, on which days do we mark the independence of the other 70% of our population, and why don’t we celebrate those with the same vigor?

Juneteenth is often referred to as “America’s Second Independence Day.” June 19, 1865, of course did not include an accounting for all the harm done to Black people in this country over generations of enslavement. Most of it remains unaddressed today, and the oppression of Black people remains enshrined in our legal system, even though it changes form each generation. But it did mark a fundamental change in our country and it is fitting that each year we celebrate Juneteenth just before we celebrate July 4th, so that they can be considered in concert.

July 4th is also an incredibly important holiday for immigrants. Becoming a part of this country remains a dream to millions around the world and no holiday captures this more symbolically. As executive director of Enroot, I think a lot about how the lived experience of immigrants differs from their imagined experience prior to arrival. I consider the perspective of Black immigrants from Haiti, Senegal, Ethiopia, or Brazil, who recognize almost immediately that they are afforded less respect and less opportunity than white people. I consider the perspective of Central American immigrants, who see children, women and men pried apart and locked in cages for months at our border. I’m devastated that many wonder, “Is this really the country I set my sights on years ago?”

During a recent conversation about racism and police brutality against Black people in the U.S., an Enroot student originally from Haiti said to me, “Before I came here I used to have a different idea of police. The idea was that they were good and would keep me safe. Now I feel like they are dangerous for me and I don’t feel safe when they are around.” His words symbolize an experience of disorientation and heartbreak that many immigrants, especially those who identify as Black, feel upon realizing that people who look like them don’t hold equal standing here. And that their physical security is less assured than it would have been back at home. And that the systemic racism surrounding them means their family’s prospects are not as promising as they seemed.

In Frederick Douglass’ 1852 speech “What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?”, he said to his white audience, “This Fourth of July is yours, not mine. You may rejoice, I must mourn. What have I, or those I represent, to do with your national independence? Are the great principles of political freedom and of natural justice, embodied in that Declaration of Independence, extended to us?...What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July? I answer; a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim.”

I’m ashamed that Douglass’ words have so much resonance today, since Black people and people of color still stand on such unequal footing in this country founded on equality.

This July 4th, let our reflections on our first revolution inspire us all to join the racial justice revolution today. Let us apply the same courage and ferocity to today’s revolution, and let us ensure that this time no one is excluded.

Ben Clark is executive director of Enroot, a Cambridge-based nonprofit that supports immigrant students to achieve academic, career and personal success. 

Letter To Our Enroot Community: Racism And Our Collective Responsibility To Fight It

Dear Enroot Family,

Our community is reeling – especially the many members of our Enroot family who identify as Black. The brutal murders of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, Nina Pop, Tony McDade, and most recently of George Floyd, are devastating and enraging. And they are only the latest symptoms of systemic racism that our country has failed to honestly confront and dismantle for hundreds of years. 

Racism in the police and criminal justice system means our students are more likely to be confronted, arrested, or even killed by police officers sworn to protect them. And those charged with a crime are far more likely to be convicted and sentenced harshly than a white person for exactly the same charge.

Racism in our housing system means it is hard to secure safe and adequate housing, creating housing instability that upends the lives of Black communities, over and over.

Racism in our healthcare system means our students and families receive substandard care, which translates to higher rates of illness, and unacceptably high rates of death from preventable illness. This is especially clear during the COVID-19 crisis.

Racism in our school systems makes it harder for our students to get the support they need to thrive academically, harder to get appropriate guidance when preparing for post-secondary education, harder to get financial aid and other supports to succeed during college, and harder to even feel safe and respected within the walls of their school buildings.

Racism in our employment system means our Black students and their families are not paid enough for the hard work they do everyday, playing roles in our community that are without question essential. And it holds so many of our alumni back from advancing during their careers to fully utilize and extend their many amazing talents. Over decades, it prevents wealth building and further widens the astounding gap between the net worth of white people and that of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC).

Racism in our social norms sends constant messages of discrimination, othering, and hate to our students, which come often and cut deep.

These examples only begin to capture how Racism acts as a self-reinforcing system, the layers of which are far too numerous to list here and the compounded impact of which is devastating for Black people. 

Immigrants who identify as Black, especially, find themselves fearing for their safety on a daily basis. This moment, more than any other in living memory, has made many wonder “Am I safe in this country? Should I consider moving back?” A professional colleague of mine who immigrated from Ethiopia in grade school shared that their grandmother, who still lives in Ethiopia, wrote last week beckoning for her family to return home, where they may not have the same job opportunities but at least they would be safer. Can you imagine how re-traumatizing and heartbreaking it must be for millions of families to finally realize their dream of moving to the United States, only to find themselves feeling greater physical insecurity than they did at home before starting their journey? To arrive at the “Land of the free and home of the brave” and find that they are treated like an underclass, which must fear for its physical well being on a daily basis? We should be ashamed of this reality. But we should not feel helpless in the face of it.

As an anti-racist organization dedicated to educational equity for immigrant students, Enroot is committed to standing by our students in the ways we always have. We are also actively working to expand the ways we support them directly, and to expand the ways we, as a staff and Board, fight systemic racism more broadly through advocacy. But our efforts will clearly not nearly be enough.

In order to truly make progress in dismantling racism, we will need every single person in Enroot’s community to become active in directly confronting and eliminating it. It’s incumbent on all of us to dig deeply, reflect honestly on the roles you inadvertently play in perpetuating racism, and identify all the many ways you can become active in fighting it. We will also need all of you to recruit all of those you are close to in your personal and professional life to become active too. This is not the work of thousands; progress will require many millions of people engaged in collective daily action. And it is not the work of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC). Although all must be engaged, the responsibility for this change falls especially on white people, like me, who have the greatest access to power and privilege, and the greatest moral responsibility to insist on change. 

Thank you for channeling the outrage of this moment to become active on a daily basis in combating racism all around you, and for continuing to support Enroot students. 

Ben Clark

Executive Director