Monthly Archives: March 2011

As people of faith, we know that the road to democracy and justice is not an easy one. These years of enforced exile have been painful – not only for you and your family, but for the people of Haiti. We join the call from all over the world for this exile to end.

I am writing to give clarity and to correct the misinformation that you have been hearing for the past three months from some of KPFA’s paid staff. John Hamilton has not been "laid off." Brian Edwards Tiekert bumped John to take back his job.

Would you feel like a full citizen if most of your civil and human rights were denied you? If the privileges afforded to community members were withheld from you, would you feel like a welcome member of the community?

Women’s History Month and the 100th Anniversary of International Women’s Day March 8, 2011 – what a great month to toast the New Year. The name itself is an action, a call to action: MARCH – Move!

In 1910 there were over 1 million African-American farmers, and today there are fewer than 17,000. Now, an emerging movement is sweeping across urban areas to reclaim abandoned lots, under-serviced public parks and vacant lots to grow fresh food for the people.

The legendary rap group dead prez will be coming to the Bay Area to perform at Yoshi’s in San Francisco this Friday, March 4. Their free mixtape, “Revolutionary But Gangsta Grillz,” was one of the dopest albums dropped in 2010.

March 2 is the deadline for new and returning community college students to apply for a Cal Grant for the 2011-2012 academic year. Cal Grant awards of up to $1,551 can be used to help students pay for fees, books, supplies and sometimes even rent while attending a California community college.

What would happen if 34.5 percent of White men did not have jobs? According to new U.S. Bureau of Labor statistics, joblessness for 16-to-24-year-old Black men has reached Great Depression proportions – more than three times the rate for the general U.S. population. Some African Americans are asking: “Will it take a revolution to spark economic change in Black America?” “All eyes are on the uprisings playing out in Egypt and Tunisia, yet America systematically turns a blind eye to the oppression in its own backyard.”

In this new documentary short, released to coincide with the seventh anniversary of the 2004 coup d’etat in Haiti, independent filmmaker Paul Burke asks Haitians what they would say to President Obama about the return of former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide to Haiti.

On Feb. 23, I attended a San Francisco Police Commission hearing to oppose arming the San Francisco Police with tasers as well as handguns and said, "I’m here ... because the culture that we impose on other parts of the world is something we create right here."

The Black population in San Francisco drastically declined when urban renewal, Redevelopment and the gentrification of the Fillmore/Western Addition started in the ‘60s, bulldozed the hearts of African Americans, many forced to move out of the City.