https://www.dreamdefendersfight.com/home daily 1.0 2020-10-05 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dd5a176d6b6cd284c89a3dc/1580862715403-RNZDGQ6TW2QVRZR3OIII/Copy+of+DSC_1002.jpg Home https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dd5a176d6b6cd284c89a3dc/1601906206138-OCQKJG6M3Z6HV48ZQXQS/DSC_0144-2+%282%29.jpg Home https://www.dreamdefendersfight.com/for-bernie daily 0.75 2020-01-08 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dd5a176d6b6cd284c89a3dc/1578429394832-ZB41338A2N5PADDALS3Y/teaser+1.jpg Endorsement Statement https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dd5a176d6b6cd284c89a3dc/1578350261424-MHH3CU5L90KVC9B6W4UM/Screen+Shot+2020-01-06+at+5.37.18+PM.png Endorsement Statement https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dd5a176d6b6cd284c89a3dc/1578429418726-KXA7IYVJW7I7KXXOP3TP/Artboard+2.jpg Endorsement Statement https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dd5a176d6b6cd284c89a3dc/1578429486064-B89WR3CYX0U90GC6UOVU/Screen+Shot+2020-01-07+at+3.37.51+PM.png Endorsement Statement https://www.dreamdefendersfight.com/bernieswithus daily 0.75 2020-02-12 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dd5a176d6b6cd284c89a3dc/1581642701053-WQ5SL2IR0EA3XY3IQ3RG/launch+0.jpg AntiRacism https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dd5a176d6b6cd284c89a3dc/1581479827572-KPTLUR30ZP67NDTMXJZT/launch+0.jpg AntiRacism - BERNIE’S WITH US What would Bernie’s presidency mean for Black people? It would mean cancellation of our debt, closing the racial wealth gap, housing for all and getting our people out of jail. But there’s been a common talking point, pushed by the media, that Bernie doesn’t care about us as if policies that support basic rights for the working class don’t benefit us. Please . Here’s our deep dive into Bernie’s policies and what they mean for Black people and our futures. As much as we’ve been told that we can’t have these things, we can and we deserve them. #BerniesWithUs #DDforBernie https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dd5a176d6b6cd284c89a3dc/1581474066332-7NQTIUUDU6K86JN96PIW/post+2.jpg AntiRacism Why does pursuing a college degree weigh us down into forever debt? College should be free! We shouldn’t be forced to join the army just to pay for school. Bernie is the only candidate who plans to eliminate all student debt and make college free. We deserve to experience higher education as an enrichment of life, not a gamble of whether or not we’ll be able to make ends meet with some degree – despite being hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt. #ThisIsTheYear we make a choice to say goodbye to the $1.6 trillion that holds us back, and vote for a candidate that makes that choice with us. #BerniesWithUs #DDforBernie https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dd5a176d6b6cd284c89a3dc/1581474154947-6MGCFM0BCGZ86X2RQOC9/post+1+b.jpg AntiRacism We’ve been told all of our lives that going to college is the only way to get ahead. But now, Black people are graduating college with more debt and less job prospects than our white peers. And still, we’re expected to pay back these exorbitant loans. So we’re defaulting. This means you can’t buy a house or a car, you can’t get a credit card, and the government can garnish your paycheck and tax refund. Student loans are stifling generations of black people. Bernie’s listened to our stories and understands that no shortcuts should be made when it comes to securing our future. Under a Bernie presidency, all of us with student debt will have it cancelled. All. of. It. Not just some $50K. When we eliminate student loan debt, the racial wealth gap between white and Black people will be cut in half! This is what racial justice looks like. #DDforBernie #BerniesWithUs https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dd5a176d6b6cd284c89a3dc/1581474104996-RMUKOL0C0P7SZWAHGXB7/post+1+a.jpg AntiRacism We’ve been told all of our lives that going to college is the only way to get ahead. But now, Black people are graduating college with more debt and less job prospects than our white peers. And still, we’re expected to pay back these exorbitant loans. So we’re defaulting. This means you can’t buy a house or a car, you can’t get a credit card, and the government can garnish your paycheck and tax refund. Student loans are stifling generations of black people. Bernie’s listened to our stories and understands that no shortcuts should be made when it comes to securing our future. Under a Bernie presidency, all of us with student debt will have it cancelled. All. of. It. Not just some $50K. When we eliminate student loan debt, the racial wealth gap between white and Black people will be cut in half! This is what racial justice looks like. #DDforBernie #BerniesWithUs https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dd5a176d6b6cd284c89a3dc/1581474081732-TJ7G3VLC1FVPS6FV1LHG/post+3.jpg AntiRacism When they tell us we don’t have money for that, we call BS. The United States spends more money locking us up than giving us education. They spend 8 times more on war on education. They got a vested interest in keeping us uneducated and disenfranchised. Trump’s tax cuts for the ruling class alone costs us $2 trillion every year. That’s enough money to cover our student debt and then some. We are not asking for anything we haven’t already paid for. In the richest country in the world, paying the taxes we do, not having free education and no student debt isn’t a pipe dream. It’s our right. Bernie Sanders has supported our vision to have #FreedomofMind, and has plans to wipe out our student debt and make public colleges and universities free. #DDforBernie #BerniesWithUs https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dd5a176d6b6cd284c89a3dc/1581474129477-69YGH2YWAVFCXY4YQOPW/post+4+a.jpg AntiRacism We’re taught that if we work hard we can achieve “the American Dream”: home ownership, financial stability, retirement, and a nice 401k that allows us to enjoy leisure time as an elder. We know better, and even if that dream was made for us… we couldn’t afford it anyway! Creditors behave as gatekeepers of what we can and can’t have access to: jobs, apartments, insurance. Companies like Equifax, Experiean and Transunion rake in $10 Billion every year charging us for our scores. Meanwhile, we’re paying bills using our credit cards because we can’t afford to live. Bernie’s Fair Banking for All puts credit companies in their place and directly addresses the issues we face. Bernie’s plan will make access to our credit scores FREE, stop healthcare debt from affecting our score, and stop scores from being used to rent an apartment, get a job, or access insurance. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dd5a176d6b6cd284c89a3dc/1581474074474-BRWH4ZU56R305FRJ8HEN/post+4+b.jpg AntiRacism We’re taught that if we work hard we can achieve “the American Dream”: home ownership, financial stability, retirement, and a nice 401k that allows us to enjoy leisure time as an elder. We know better, and even if that dream was made for us… we couldn’t afford it anyway! Creditors behave as gatekeepers of what we can and can’t have access to: jobs, apartments, insurance. Companies like Equifax, Experiean and Transunion rake in $10 Billion every year charging us for our scores. Meanwhile, we’re paying bills using our credit cards because we can’t afford to live. Bernie’s Fair Banking for All puts credit companies in their place and directly addresses the issues we face. Bernie’s plan will make access to our credit scores FREE, stop healthcare debt from affecting our score, and stop scores from being used to rent an apartment, get a job, or access insurance. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dd5a176d6b6cd284c89a3dc/1581474170270-M2S03AKJQ17BSK16O6MM/post+5+a.jpg AntiRacism Between actualizing the Green New Deal, expanding healthcare and our education system, we got sh*t to do. Guaranteed jobs are not a pipe dream, but a potential reality. Our Earth is being ravaged by corporate greed and Bernie’s platform isn’t just about taxing the rich; he has a plan to restructure our society guaranteeing jobs and a healthy world we can all live in. White families make 10x more than Black families, and Black folks face twice the unemployment rate than white folks. Signing onto the Green New Deal means a whole new job sector in sustainable infrastructure and millions of secure job opportunities. His plan includes creating hundreds of thousands of jobs for educators, guarantees their pay at $60k a year,, and prioritizes care for the elderly, an underfunded and neglected sector that needs more support. #BerniesWithUs https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dd5a176d6b6cd284c89a3dc/1581474133861-X4AJEYPQQ8YXGEWRH78M/post+5+b.jpg AntiRacism Between actualizing the Green New Deal, expanding healthcare and our education system, we got sh*t to do. Guaranteed jobs are not a pipe dream, but a potential reality. Our Earth is being ravaged by corporate greed and Bernie’s platform isn’t just about taxing the rich; he has a plan to restructure our society guaranteeing jobs and a healthy world we can all live in. White families make 10x more than Black families, and Black folks face twice the unemployment rate than white folks. Signing onto the Green New Deal means a whole new job sector in sustainable infrastructure and millions of secure job opportunities. His plan includes creating hundreds of thousands of jobs for educators, guarantees their pay at $60k a year,, and prioritizes care for the elderly, an underfunded and neglected sector that needs more support. #BerniesWithUs https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dd5a176d6b6cd284c89a3dc/1581474093723-UJ7YGEVISBYA1P5DZHR0/post+6.jpg AntiRacism In 2018, we wrote the #FreedomPapers declaring the values we need to enact for our people to be free. Bernie’s Housing For All recognizes that by virtue of being born, it is our absolute right to decent, affordable housing. 50% and the lack of affordable housing in this country has left us with a shortage of 7.4 million affordable homes for low-income renters. Enough is enough with rent hikes, gentrification, and malevolent landlords that push all the cultureout of our cities. With Bernie we will have an infrastructure that will invest $400 billion into mixed-income zoning putting an end to the segregation that we have been experiencing since the inception of this country. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dd5a176d6b6cd284c89a3dc/1581474144780-VFDPXKYLTOXAB8PG7D1M/post+7.jpg AntiRacism We’ve had it with Black folks being the ones having to sit through this shi*t the longest. The cash bail system affects us the harshest. We get captured by police at higher rates and then are put on bonds that are on average $10,000 more expensive than white defendants. We make up the largest slice of the pie when it comes to people sitting in jail, all because we don’t have money to spare. Bernie Sanders as President will free up 600 thousand people reducing our prison population by a whole third. Mass incarceration cannot end until we end cash bail. Bail and bonds is a billion dollar industry that our people cannot afford to participate in, especially when it’s our loved ones having to pay the price. 2020 is the beginning of a new chapter for us. Bernie’s plans are the most transformative for our communities. We’ve been shoved around and beaten for far too long. It is about time we got to eat the fruits of our labor. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dd5a176d6b6cd284c89a3dc/1581474180439-4PFY7UUUIOYNDEY658PZ/post+8.jpg AntiRacism The police have never been on the side of the people. They have stood against movements in every struggle for freedom. They escalate tension and leave us with more than 1,000 family members to bury every single year. We deserve an alternative to the police, and Bernie knows it. He has a plan for a non-law enforcement alternative response system.. In this plan he will fund EMT, counselors, social workers, and trained mental health professionals to be the first responders. This is the difference between life and death for black people all over the country. The police will also have thorough training on de-escalation and be held to a national standard. No more cops investigating cops. We fought for this in Florida, but Bernie will bring this to our people everywhere. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dd5a176d6b6cd284c89a3dc/1581474101603-WVGII8W0Q83QFO4ZNGYU/post+9.jpg AntiRacism Our public schools should be safe spaces for our children to grow, learn and be nourished, but too often they are treated like a trial-run for jails and prisons. From pre-school and up, Black students are nearly 4x as likely to be suspended than white students, putting them at greater risk of falling behind in schoolwork, failing classes and getting caught up in the system. Bernie’s plan to Treat Children like Children will ensure that kids aren’t jailed or imprisoned for misdemeanors, prosecuted in adult courts, or kept in adult prisons. This plan will decriminalize school-based disciplinary charges and invest in school nurses, counselors, and teachers; $5 billion would also be invested to provide more school counselors and services. Locking up our children doesn’t make us safe, investing in their mental health does. #BerniesWithUs https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dd5a176d6b6cd284c89a3dc/1581474070648-AI44IP5LPYW1GYS1BT9C/post+10+-+feb+17.jpg AntiRacism When we look at statistics we are always the minority but the majority in a prison cell? As Dream Defenders we believe in a transformative world. Bernie Sanders will make this transformation possible. He has a plan to legalize AND decriminalize marijuana. He has a plan to free our people from prison for the harsh sentences that came with the “War on Drugs”. Many of our communities were left in shambles after the War on Drugs traded our little resources for funding for police and building dozens of new prisons. This is not the world any of us can thrive in. Bernie is ready to invest in our communities that were destroyed to profit from racism. We see the bigger picture and so does Bernie. This election cannot be won without your help! https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dd5a176d6b6cd284c89a3dc/1581474056794-7KMC71NUWSO2EPUFDJEV/post+11+a+-+feb+19.jpg AntiRacism A President who wants to decrease the amount of people locked in cages? Come thru Bernie In 2018 a National Prison Strike rose up around the country. Incarcerated people demanded an end to prison slavery, an end to truth-in sentencing + mandatory minimums, a free education, and abolishing the death penalty. Bernie read these demands and built a whole plan around them. He is also the only presidential candidate who believes people who are incarcerated should vote. We do too. We know how much incarceration and overpolicing have harmed our people. Our people inside and outside of cells deserve humanity and dignity. Bernie not only talks about this openly, but he rocks with us. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dd5a176d6b6cd284c89a3dc/1581474089844-FPBVY6IZO54CMWLPQ8BH/post+11+b+-+feb+19.jpg AntiRacism A President who wants to decrease the amount of people locked in cages? Come thru Bernie In 2018 a National Prison Strike rose up around the country. Incarcerated people demanded an end to prison slavery, an end to truth-in sentencing + mandatory minimums, a free education, and abolishing the death penalty. Bernie read these demands and built a whole plan around them. He is also the only presidential candidate who believes people who are incarcerated should vote. We do too. We know how much incarceration and overpolicing have harmed our people. Our people inside and outside of cells deserve humanity and dignity. Bernie not only talks about this openly, but he rocks with us. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dd5a176d6b6cd284c89a3dc/1581474160208-S32B5HO6QYBDMY3LFCUA/post+12+-+feb+21.jpg AntiRacism The decision to keep fundamental rights away from people who are in prison wasn’t a moral one, but a racist, calculated, profit-driven one from the Jim Crow era. Once slavery ended, the white power structure found ways to keep us enslaved, in control and away from democracy. Y’all saw “13th” by @ava. This is the same fight. The more of our people in jail and unable to vote, the more they can control our lives. 1 out of every 13 black citizens in this country cannot vote because of these old, racist laws. Bernie is the ONLY candidate that will restore voting rights for the 9Million people who are currently incarcerated/under probation and parole, just like he did for his people in Vermont. We deserve a free, flourishing democracy. All our people deserve a voice. Period. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dd5a176d6b6cd284c89a3dc/1581474182068-ZBSWT03ANFI78EN5LLDK/post+14+-+feb+26.jpg AntiRacism Our current healthcare system is one of the most ineffective and expensive systems on the planet. It’s a scam and our people are paying for it with their lives. How many of us don’t go to the doctor when we should? How many black mothers and babies are we losing during childbirth? How many of our fathers and uncles have spent years or decades without seeing a doctor? How many of our family members have we seen die when we knew more could have been done? Medicare for All is not a pipe dream, it’s a life line. We deserve to rewrite how our community feels about and sees healthcare. We deserve to be treated with dignity and respect by our healthcare providers. We deserve to not go broke trying to be healthy. Every single person deserves free, quality healthcare. And this country has made so many of us believe otherwise. We’ve got a chance to get what we deserve this year. Our vote for Bernie is a vote for our people! Help us throw down for Bernie! https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dd5a176d6b6cd284c89a3dc/1581474086442-RLG1KA48SJY7LG2NN4ON/post+13+-+feb+24.jpg AntiRacism They keep telling us that we don’t have enough to go around, that we have to live with this debt up to our necks because that’s just how it is. What they don’t tell us is that we shouldn’t be charged for this in the first place. Things are about to be real different with Bernie’s policies. Cancelling medical debt means better health for our people. Nearly a third of us have past-due medical bills that stop us from applying for loans to start a business or buy a house. We are more likely to be contacted by collection agencies and end up having to borrow money to pay healthcare costs while white folks can tap into savings much more easily. A visit to the doctor shouldn’t follow us in a trail of debt! Bernie is tired of our health being a for-profit business and so are we! This is why we’re getting people out to vote! https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dd5a176d6b6cd284c89a3dc/1581474177980-PN7RPAOP5LJRLRJ5K0ZM/post+15+a+-+feb+28.jpg AntiRacism Our mamas loved and cared for us When the time comes for us to take care of them we shouldn’t have to compromise their health to keep the lights on. Not only does Bernie have a plan for Medicare for All but he also has a whole plan for disability rights and elderly care. When Bernie is talking about a living wage for all he really means it, including our caregivers. Our elders will be able to choose who their home support staff is knowing that they will receive the attention they deserve. With Bernie as President we will have access to better care for our elders and not be restricted by income and asset limitations.. With Bernie’s plan we can rest easy at night knowing that a trained professional will be taking care of them. Bernie has plans for our elders and folks with disabilities to be able to choose their caregiver. They will be required by law to be informed by disability rights advocates and labor unions to ensure that they are getting paid what they deserve. With Bernie we will live better and so will our mamas. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dd5a176d6b6cd284c89a3dc/1581474169216-TQO6ZL9M6AEJEI29OJ4W/post+15+b+-+feb+28.jpg AntiRacism Our mamas loved and cared for us When the time comes for us to take care of them we shouldn’t have to compromise their health to keep the lights on. Not only does Bernie have a plan for Medicare for All but he also has a whole plan for disability rights and elderly care. When Bernie is talking about a living wage for all he really means it, including our caregivers. Our elders will be able to choose who their home support staff is knowing that they will receive the attention they deserve. With Bernie as President we will have access to better care for our elders and not be restricted by income and asset limitations.. With Bernie’s plan we can rest easy at night knowing that a trained professional will be taking care of them. Bernie has plans for our elders and folks with disabilities to be able to choose their caregiver. They will be required by law to be informed by disability rights advocates and labor unions to ensure that they are getting paid what they deserve. With Bernie we will live better and so will our mamas.