There are rumors that Robert Miller aka Meek Millz was to meet with President Donald Trump to discuss prison reform. The rumor is that JayZ reached out to Meek and advised him not to meet with the President. After doing research i found this on the reliable celebrity news site, TMZ i'm learning that:
Meek Mill bailed on a visit to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue Friday after a late-night call fromJay-Z ... TMZ has learned.
TMZ broke the story ... Meek agreed to travel to the White House to discuss prison reform.President Trump is hosting a Prison Reform Summit. Participants include members of Congress, various activists and, clearly, people who have become victims of the system.
We're told Jay called Meek Thursday night and made it clear ... meeting with Trump would be problematic for his image and for the cause.
We're told other high-profile African-Americans also called Meek and voiced serious concern.
Meek tells us, "I was originally scheduled to be part of a panel on Prison Reform at the White House to help shed light on the issues within the system. Unfortunately, the focus turned to the President and Myself which concerned me that it might take away from creating a positive result from today’s discussions." http://www.tmz.com/2018/05/18/jay-z-convinced-meek-mill-cancel-white-house-visit-trump/
I can understand Meeks' concern for the focus but we have to take those chances and turn the focus back on the concern. #Strategy This is a perfect example of a #RookieAdvocate move. There is a difference between advocating and lobbying. When we advocate to resist Trump, we are advocating against the enforcement of racist and harmful policies. When we advocate for the change we want, we have to prepare to meet with the opposition. The oppressor aka opposition is who we need to hear our concerns and build an understanding of our position. #CommunicationIsKey We then gain their support if we want to stop the conformity of #Colonialism. We are not lobbying support for Trump's agenda we are advocating for his administration to hear our concerns and make adjustments to these laws that are traumatizing our communities.
This occurrence with Meek is the perfect example of #RookieAdvocacy because they have a website with only their information listed. No way for you to contact them, or leave your contact info for them to inform you of what they are working on. So many working on the same issue in their own space. We need to bring these platforms together, understand our differences and purpose. #CommunicationIsKeyToSuccess
#FosterOrForgotten
We have organizations who help advocates build skills to get the change they want. Problem is these groups are few and not well known. In Philadelphia the Juvenile Law Center helps our youth advocate for their needs. Unfortunately most of the other advocacy organizations that i have encountered follow a political agenda and aren't grassroots organizing. Research the platforms and see how you can add your concerns to their platform without losing your demands. Actually your demands should be the same if not similar to the demands of the group. I'm working on publishing a book about advocacy, full of resources. If you can't connect with an organization then please look up Dr. Bernard Lafayette.
"See, the whole idea of marching, it's not just wearing out leather or rubber on your shoes, it's about being able to step together," said Lafayette. "It shows a sense of unity.
Lafayette is now a professor at Emory University and the chairman of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, an organization once led by King. He has spent the last five decades doing as King instructed, teaching non-violence at home and in 35 countries around the world, including to prisoners in California and gang members in Columbia.
He contemplated if King's idea of institutionalizing non-violence has happened in this country.
"No," it hasn't happened," he said. "You see, violence is a language of the inarticulate, when people don't know how to talk and communicated with each other."
Which is why he also went to Ferguson, Mo., to help a new generation find alternatives to violence and defeat those who hate. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/king-protege-moves-leaders-vision-of-non-violence-forward/
Take a Advocacy Course with Rev. Dr. Bernard LaFayette on Coursera
The Rev. Dr. Bernard LaFayette, Jr., an ordained minister, is a longtime civil rights activist, organizer, and an authority on nonviolent social change. He co-founded the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) in 1960, and he was a core leader of the civil rights movement in Nashville, Tennessee, in 1960 and in Selma, Alabama, in 1965. He directed the Alabama Voter Registration Project in 1962, and he was appointed by Martin Luther King, Jr. to be national program administrator for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and national coordinator of the 1968 Poor People’s Campaign. Dr. LaFayette earned his B.A. from the American Baptist Theological Seminary in Nashville, Tennessee, and his Ed.M. and Ed.D from Harvard University. He has served on the faculties of Columbia Theological Seminary in Atlanta and Alabama State University in Montgomery, where he was Dean of the Graduate School; he also was principal of Tuskegee Institute High School in Tuskegee, Alabama and a teaching fellow at Harvard University. His publications include the Curriculum and Training Manual for the Martin Luther King, Jr., Nonviolent Community Leadership Training Program, his doctoral thesis, Pedagogy for Peace and Nonviolence, and Campus Ministries and Social Change in the ‘60’s (Duke Divinity Review) and The Leaders Manual: A Structured Guide and Introduction to Kingian Nonviolence with David Jehnsen. Bernard LaFayette has traveled extensively to many countries as a lecturer and consultant on peace and nonviolence. Dr. LaFayette has served as Distinguished Scholar in Residence and Director of the Center for Nonviolence and Peace Studies at the University of Rhode Island. He is chairperson for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference’s Board of Directors and currently serves as an advisor to James Wagner, President of Emory University where he founded the Emory Center for Advancing Nonviolence (ECAN). A native of Tampa, Florida, Dr. LaFayette is married to the former Kate Bulls. https://www.coursera.org/instructor/~15786347
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