Hello NIOT Community!
Since our last eNews, it's been busy here at NIOT HQ. We've had producers in Patchogue, NY, Watchung, NJ, Bloomington, IN, and Sacramento and San Francisco, CA. Yesterday we joined Gunn High School in Palo Alto, CA for the first day of their annual Not In Our School week.
In addition to filming, the NIOT team has been participating in discussions about hate crimes, community activism and new media. Our Executive Producer Patrice O'Neill spoke at Hate Crimes Awareness Week for the Suffolk County Community Colleges and met with Barbara Abrash and Faye Ginsberg at NYU in preparation for their Abu Dhabi talk, "Against Intolerance," with John Shattuck on April 21. Executive Director Jonathan Bernstein presented at the Greater Sacramento Area Hate Crimes Task Force meeting, NIOT.org editor Alicia Upano at the USF Interactive Media Summit, and our new School and Community Coordinator Will Paris at schools in San Francisco and Oakland, including Envision Academy for Arts & Technology and Head-Royce School.
In the edit room, we're working on a rough cut of our film NIOT: Light in the Darkness that will air on PBS this fall, and two new Not In Our School films in Queens, New York and Pepper Pike, Ohio.
Thank you for helping us stop hate. Together.
The Not In Our Town team
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Video: Interfaith Vigil Honors Two Sikh Elders After Attack
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 Residents of Elk Grove, Calif. came together for an interfaith prayer vigil on March 11 to honor 67-year-old Surinder Singh and 78-year-old Gurmej Atwal, victims of a shooting that the community fears was a hate-crime.
The two were gunned down during their routine walk through their neighborhood in a drive-by shooting that left Singh dead and Atwal in critical condition.
Concerned residents of Elk Grove feared the two Sikh men could have been mistaken for being of Muslim faith because of their dastars, the religious turbans the two men were wearing. One week after the shooting, Not In Our Town joined thousands of interfaith, interethnic community members who gathered for a candlelight prayer vigil to honor their elders. Watch the video.
Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg said that "any attack on one of us is an attack on all of us," and is declaring April 13th Sikh Solidarity Day. He urges civic leaders and community members to wear either a man's turban or a woman's Punjabi suit and chunni, or headwear, as a symbol of support.
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Exemplary Action by Law Enforcement in SF Hate Crimes
| In this clip from the March 2011 press conference following the arraignment of three individuals on hate-motivated assault charges in the beating of two Mexican nationals, two key law enforcement leaders express and address community concerns.
In this exemplary statement , both San Francisco District Attorney George Gascon and San Francisco Assistant District Attorney Victor Hwang speak to both victims and the larger community. The NIOT team has been following this case for a few months, as we put together a video profile of the lead prosecutor on the case, San Francisco Assistant District Attorney Victor Hwang, and explore the gap between hate crime incidents, their reporting to law enforcement, and prosecution of such incidents. |
Facing History Online Workshop Attracts 300 Teachers Worldwide to NIOT.org
|  Imagine teaching children from the earliest moments of their schooling that mean-spirited behaviors would never be ignored.
-Facing History Teacher
In early March, our education partners at Facing History and Ourselves hosted an online workshop that invited teachers to go through a five-day self-paced workshop exploring Not In Our Town and Not In Our School materials to address the larger question: How do we, as educators, address issues of intolerance and hate in our schools and communities?
The workshop was a huge success, attracting about 300 teachers worldwide. We received feedback on a number of NIOT.org resources, but particularly on Margaret MacDonald's "Three Guiding Principles When Confronting Hate: Lessons from Billings, Montana."
One teacher said, "Standing with the targeted people is, I think, the key. Unlike trying to punish bullies, which involves external control and may do little to address their underlying beliefs, standing with those who get hurt creates empathy, which is internal, and which can spread to others. Another key to McDonald's strategy is sending a message to the bulies that hate will not be tolerated. Gandhi had a word for this kind of approach - satyagraha, which is a combination of truth + firmness. It really means that you cannot be a passive bystander. You have to be persistent in holding up a mirror of shame to the bullies."
Another teacher connected existing Facing History resources with this message from the NIOT community, "I very much appreciate the three guiding principles -- and believe they could be used as guidelines for anti-bullying programs in elementary schools, middle schools, and high schools. Imagine teaching children from the earliest moments of their schooling that mean-spirited behaviors would never be ignored; that everyone's role is to respond to meanness or cruelty in a way that doesn't replicate it but does stop it; and that everyone's feelings and abilities to participate matter."
Thanks to all the teachers who participated, Facing History for such an incredible workshop and the Einhorn Family Charitable Trust for making our partnership possible.
If you've enjoyed this email, please pass it along, spread the word and connect with us on Facebook.
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Not In Our Town / The Working Group
PO Box 70232 | Oakland, CA 94612-0232 | Ph: 510.268.9675 | niot.org
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