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| Not in Our Town Northern California:
When Hate Happens Here |
A new documentary produced by KQED and The Working Group profiles communities taking action against hate
San Francisco, CA --- California prides itself on diversity. Immigrants from all over the world make their homes here, many of our leading elected officials are people of color, and the state is at the vanguard of the battle for gay civil rights. Still, we are far from immune to hate-based violence.
Not In Our Town Northern California: When Hate Happens Here (www.kqed.org/niot), a co-production of KQED Public Television and The Working Group, looks at five local communities over a five-year period as they take action when their neighbors are targets of intolerance. Premiering on Friday, April 8, at 9:00 p.m. on KQED Public Television 9, Not In Our Town Northern California will also air on KQED digital channels.
Not In Our Town Northern California is the newest production in The Working Group's Not In Our Town series, a media-based national movement that encourages community response to hate crimes. In Not In Our Town Northern California, "ordinary" people come together to take action when their neighbors are targets of bigotry. From the state capitol to the center of San Francisco, from the shadow of Mt. Shasta to the suburbs of Silicon Valley, community leaders and citizens have found new ways to see through controversy and difference to create a safe place for all residents.
The stories and communities include:
- After transgender teen Gwen Araujo is killed by local youth in the Silicon Valley suburb of Newark, the town's residents and civic leaders must acknowledge and deal with this brutal and preventable crime. Through their local high school production of The Laramie Project, the students and Newark residents become aware of the parallels in their own community.
- Sacramento mobilizes after the worst anti-Semitic arson attacks in the California capitol's history.
- Redding citizens find new strength in diversity after a prominent gay couple is murdered.
- Residents of the Shasta County town of Anderson join forces to make their values clear when a cross is burned on an African American family's lawn.
- The San Francisco Public Library turns the mutilation of gay-themed books into an opportunity for creative community action.
The Not In Our Town campaign has grown to become one of the country's leading resources for community organizations seeking to prevent and respond to hate crimes. Providing tangible, practical tools to stimulate dialogue in town hall meetings, classrooms, churches, union halls, and training sessions for public policy makers and law enforcement officers, the Not In Our Town events encourage and guide communities by learning from each other. To enhance the reach of Not In Our Town Northern California and build community awareness and participation, KQED Public Broadcasting and The Working Group are working with an extensive network of partner organizations to offer community and educational outreach and a content-rich Web site tied to the program.
Events will include the following:
- A series of Alameda County premiere events, screenings, and organizing efforts in Newark, Fremont, Oakland and Hayward working with the Alameda County Human Relations Commission, City of Newark, Newark Unified School District, Oakland Film Commission and East Bay Community Foundation
- Two KQED Teacher Workshops for Bay Area Teachers
- Novato screening and facilitated discussion sponsored by United for Safe Schools
- San Francisco screening and panel discussion at the Main Public Library coinciding with the national "Choosing to Participate" exhibit
- Santa Rosa Rialto Theater community screening and discussion sponsored by the Sonoma County
- Sacramento screenings with the Hate Crime Taskforce and the Interfaith Coalition
In addition, KQED Education Network (EdNet) and The Working Group will partner with Facing History and Ourselves, a national nonprofit organization promoting the teaching of citizenship, to develop Educator Guides in both online and print formats. The activities and lesson plans target students at the middle and high school levels but can also be used at the elementary level. All content aligns with the California State Standards for Social Studies and English.
On the companion Web site (www.kqed.org/niot), visitors can find out more about what constitutes a hate crime, how to report one, and standard recourse for citizens. Users can also connect with local resources through the directory of various Northern California county human rights commissions, anti-hate organizations, monitoring groups and law enforcement agencies. The site also includes stories from city and community leaders in Anderson, Newark and Contra Costa County, in particular, who share their communities' unique responses to hate crimes. Additional site features include an interview with an East Bay transgender media activist, Shelly Prevost, who has been documenting the events around Gwen Araujo's death. In early Spring 2005 additional components will be added to the site such as curriculum guides, classroom activities, a discussion guide, an outreach event calendar and digital stories produced through EdNet.
Community and education outreach partners for Not in Our Town Northern California include: Facing History and Ourselves; San Francisco Public Library; San Francisco Chronicle in Education; Amnesty International; GLSEN San Francisco/East Bay and North Bay; Frameline; Anti-Defamation League; LGBT Alliance of the Jewish Community Federation of San Francisco, the Peninsula, Marin and Sonoma Counties; PFLAG San Francisco and Newark; Alameda County Human Relations Commission; Fremont Human Relations Commission; Sonoma County Human Rights Commission; East Bay Community Foundation; ACLU; California Council of Churches; United for Safe Schools Novato; Greater Sacramento Taskforce on Hate Crimes; Newark Unified School District; City of Newark; and the Interfaith Coalition of Sacramento.
Major funding for this program has been provided by Ambassador James C. Hormel and Timothy C. Wu. Additional support has been provided by the Evelyn and Walter Haas, Jr. Fund, Columbia Foundation, R. Gwin Follis Foundation, Glenn Perry and Eric Knudtson, Jennifer Essex and Steve Marcus-the 2004 Robert and Carole McNeil KQED Volunteer of the Year Award Winners, John Logan and Kevin Woodward, The Bernard Osher Foundation, and the KQED Campaign for the Future Program Venture Fund.
Not In Our Town Northern California is a co-production of KQED-TV and Oakland-based production company The Working Group, producers of the Not In Our Town films and the www.pbs.org/niot website. This new hour-long documentary is the first regionally-focused episode in the Not In Our Town series.
KQED Public Broadcasting operates KQED Public Television 9, one of the nation's most-watched public television stations during prime-time, and KQED's digital television channels, which include KQED HD, KQED Encore, KQED World, KQED Life and KQED Kids; KQED Public Radio, the most-listened-to public radio station in the nation with an award-winning news and public affairs program service (88.5 FM in San Francisco and 89.3 FM in Sacramento); KQED.org, one of the most visited station sites in Public Broadcasting; and KQED Education Network, which brings the impact of KQED to thousands of teachers, students, parents and media professionals through workshops, seminars and resources.
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