Men Against Violence Research Collaborative

We at MAVReC have completed multiple things over the past summer. One of the things we did was a series of group discussions on various topics such as police abolition, Michael Pfleger’s comments on Chief Keef, what it means to be a person of color in Chicago, Kendrick Lamar`s song “Alright”, and whether reverse racism exists. We have also interviewed youth of color, including We Charge Genocide activist Fernando Romulo, and students in Austin, on police brutality and “stop and frisk”. While in Austin, we also attended a training on stop and frisk by We Charge Genocide member Page May, and learned about the consequences of stop and frisk, as well as how we could deal with the problem.

Aside from interviews, discussions, and trainings, we also put up flyers on business windows spreading awareness about a coming organisation, “RCAPS”. RCAPS was created to create strong communities and to provide an alternative to the CAPS meetings, which only represent the interests of rich white gentrifiers and police officers. RCAPS hopes to give a voice to the voiceless and to create a strong community that would make neighborhoods better and safer. Furthermore, we took pictures of the Uptown community and conducted interviews amongst ourselves on issues that affect us strongly.

In addition, on social media, we managed to update all of our social media accounts, creating blog posts, Facebook statuses, Tweets, and creating an Instagram account.

We also took film, pictures, and updated our YouTube with footage of our discussions. We also collaborated with an organization called Voice of the People to do an oral history project on gentrification in Uptown. We interviewed residents of Uptowns to try and get their story and their experiences with gentrification. Once an interview was completed we edited it down to a five minute clip with the major themes still present. We edited the interviews down to five minutes to appeal to all audiences and not lose them with long boring videos. We plan to continue the project into the future and create a people’s archive of stories in Uptown. We will begin to present our work and continue building on it, and to build community in the process.

Today at MAVReC, we looked at several speeches from the civil rights era that have relevance in the events that are happening in our world. One of the speeches we had listened to is "We Ain't Going" by Stokely Carmichael, later known as Kwame Ture, where he calls out racism in the media and police departments all across the Untied States. We all saw Stokely Carmichael as a really militant yet inspirational individual whose messages and ideas needed more publicity. Along with Stokely Carmichael, we had listened to Martin Luther King Jr's speech opposing the Vietnam War, as well as Malcolm X's famous speech "The Ballot or the Bullet".

Stokely Carmichael "We Ain't Going" Speech Civil Rights activist Stokely Carmichael riles up the crowd with his "We Ain't Goin'" speech. Excerpt taken from Great Speeches Volume 8 from Educational Vid...

Last week, we went out and distributed fliers to businesses as part of the RCAPS program

RCAPS is an alternative to the CAPS meetings that happen in Uptown. RCAPS aims to create a tightly knit community, especially among marginalized and oppressed people, to help solve issues that plague our community. We feel that CAPS meetings, which in theory are supposed to unite the community and keep it safer, only takes into account the voices of rich upper-class whites and police officers. The voices of oppressed people are not heard, and often they are the ones who bear the brunt of CAPS decisions. At CAPS meetings, people are encouraged to call the police at small infractions that do not need police intervention, and many times they aim to throw oppressed people of color from their communities. We aim to create a true community through RCAPS, and by putting up these fliers, businesses are expressing their support for a strong community. Strong communities make repressive state apparatuses obsolete. ALL POWER TO THE PEOPLE!

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Pics from MAVReC's interview with Prince Noble El long time resident of Uptown and community organizer. He dropped some serious knowledge on us!

Suuuuuure it wasn't edited
All those cars that disappeared magically during the video totally weren't edited

Texas officials say video of Sandra Bland traffic stop not edited The dashboard video camera of a traffic stop in Texas of a black woman later found hanging dead in her jail cell was not edited but efforts are being made to repost it, Texas officials said on

Rest in power Sandra Bland

Sandra Bland Drove to Texas to Start a New Job, So How Did She End Up Dead In Jail? Police claim Bland became combative after she was pulled over for a traffic stop. They arrested her, and two days later she was found dead in her jail cell. Bland’s family and friends suspect foul play. 

Hello! We are the Men Against Violence Research Collaborative. Our mission is to promote a counter space for youth who are marginalized, oppressed, and looked down upon by society, through Youth Participatory Action Research (YPAR). YPAR encourages these oppressed youth to work together to understand and spread knowledge of the issues that affect our communities. YPAR also encourages youth to prevent violence in their communities and to fight against the negative stereotypes of young people and people of color.

Currently our projects are covering two major issues: police brutality and gentrification. Police brutality is the use of any force exceeding that reasonably necessary to accomplish a lawful police purpose. Gentrification is the process of renewal and rebuilding accompanying the influx of middle-class or affluent people into poor neighborhoods that often displaces poorer residents.

Men Against Violence Research Collaborative’s hopes to accomplish our goal of spreading information about these issues through informative oral history and getting as many people as possible involved in our fight against these problems in our communities.

MAVReC Group Discussion 7/14: Michael Pfleger

https://mavrec.wordpress.com/2015/07/14/mavrec-group-discussion-714-michael-pfleger

MAVReC Group Discussion 7/14: Michael Pfleger Men Against Violence Research Collaborative discusses Michael Pfleger's recent comments calling out Chief Keef after the death of his friend Capo and 13-month-old, Dillon Harris.

Introduction to MAVReC 2015

https://mavrec.wordpress.com/2015/07/14/introduction-to-mavrec-2015

Introduction to MAVReC 2015            Hello! We are the Men Against Violence Research Collaborative.  Our mission is to promote a counter space for youth who are marginalized, oppressed, and looked down upon by society, thro...

MAVREC: Recruiting Youth Action Researchers

https://mavrec.wordpress.com/2015/06/10/mavrec-recruiting-youth-action-researchers

MAVREC: Recruiting Youth Action Researchers The movement to transform Chicago is alive and building. Men Against Violence Research Collaborative (MAVReC) is looking for young men of color who’s lives have been impacted by the city’s injustic...

Dennis Flores on Instagram: “#Copwatch #FilmTheCops #KnowYorRights” “ ”