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2012 May

Monthly Archives: May 2012

African American tobacco control experts unanimously support Prop 29

Tobacco-related diseases kill more Blacks than AIDS, violence and other non-tobacco related cancers combined. Over 160,000 African Americans will be diagnosed with cancer in this year alone. Whether it is from breast, prostate or lung cancer, The African American Tobacco Control Leadership Council urges all Californians to Vote Yes on 29!

Community photojournalist looking for community support

Malaika H Kambon has another chance to compete in the 2012 Amateur Athletics Union Tae Kwon Do National Championships! She medaled gold at the 2012 Amateur Athletic Union’s Pacific Coast State Qualifying Championships on May 12, 2012. This qualifies her to compete at the national level this year. Can you help her to get there?

Fly Benzo fights bans from Mendell Plaza and West Point

The restraining order barring DeBray (Fly Benzo) Carpenter from the Cahill construction site and the stay away order barring Fly’s presence at Mendell Plaza are SFPD examples of this nation’s conspiracy to mass incarcerate and control the lives and the deaths of the young, Black and male in America. A victory for Fly Benzo is a victory for us all. Pack the courtroom Wednesday, May 30, 1:30 p.m., at the San Francisco Superior Court, 400 McAllister St., Department 514. Occupy Fly Benzo’s courtroom for us all.

High five to Bayview Hunters Point

Bayview Hunters Point might consider investing Lennar's "community benefits" in a scholarship fund, a community development group, and a credit union that can pool the funds with residents’ own deposits and loan them for higher education, buying or improving a home, and founding or expanding a business to residents who have long been redlined and betrayed by banks.

Conversation with international film director Jean Pierre Bekolo

In the midst of the Dallas Film Society’s International Film Festival in April, Southern Methodist University hosted the 38th African Literature Association Conference that feted celebrated international film director Jean Pierre Bekolo. Inspired by Spike Lee, Bekolo says Lee “gave me the vision that I could do this thing, that I could film from the perspective of Africa.”

Poor can change the world via KPFA

“This is survival radio, without- it-us-po’-folks-might-die radio, police-harrassed-criminalized-and-under-attack radio. Welcome to Poor News Network; thats PNN, not CNN, people.” – Introduction to the Poor News Network show once heard regularly on KPFA’s old Morning Show, now heard occasionally on KPFA’s Morning Mix

Prisoners at Virginia’s Red Onion State Prison on hunger strike

On May 22, brave prisoners at Virginia’s Red Onion State Prison began a hunger strike. A recently released prisoner discusses torture at Red Onion: “having your fingers broken, being bitten by dogs, being strapped to beds for days, being forced to defecate on yourself – I mean all of this has led to these men demanding to be treated as human beings.”

Incarcerated, police harassed for being Black in Daly City

Lying to a cop or concealing the truth from one is the equivalent of assaulting a cop. Shaleem Tindle withheld his identity from cops for fear of the deadly consequences that face young men of color who encounter the police for even the smallest perceived or fabricated infractions.

Youth of color: Watched and shot

Trayvon Martin and Mumia Abu-Jamal. One is dead. One languished on death row for 30 years. They are separated in age by a generation, separated by different locations and different life-histories, but their stories of being under surveillance, watched and shot, intersect strikingly with each other and with many other people.

Federal judge sanctions confiscation of inmate’s book

The guard confiscated four items: 1) a document titled “So That We Don’t Fool Ourselves — Again: Study Notes on Secure Communication”; 2) an article titled “History is a Weapon! Black August Resistance,” by Watani Tyehimba; 3) an article from Prison Focus newspaper, which included a picture of George Jackson; and 4) the photocopy of “Blood in My Eye.”

Powerful poems from POOR

At POOR Magazine, where marginalized people come center stage to tell their stories, a crowd gathered in Mama Dee and Uncle Al’s Café in POOR’s headquarters for the Fifth Annual Poetry and Music Battle of ALL of the Sexes on Valentine’s Day 2012 to hear the powerful and passionate spoken words of many poets, including these first and second place winning poems.

Oakland police chief confronted and shut down at Justice 4 Alan Blueford townhall

OPD held a town hall meeting May 23 at Acts Full Gospel Church to try and calm down residents angry about the murder of Alan Blueford. As Chief Howard Jordan rattled off lie after lie, folks turned their backs to him. The church could not contain the outrage. The argument moved outside into the bright sunlight, where the police shuffled, anxious, like so many cave dwellers. Compare the response in Hunters Point when San Francisco Police Chief Greg Suhr attempted to hold a townhall on July 20, 2011, four days after police murdered Kenneth Harding, 19. See the videos.

Death row prisoner designs T-shirt

I’ve been held against my will in San Quentin for the past 20 years, awaiting my state sanctioned MURDER. I was never truly given the opportunity to prove my innocence. Because our people are still marching, standing our ground in order to let this corrupt system know that the fight will remain steadfast, this is why this T-shirt was made.

U.N. petitioner and hunger strike participant reports retaliation

I was moved by California Department of Corrections (CDC) Pelican Bay State Prison (PBSP) officials. This now separates me from my jailhouse attorney, so I won’t be able to continue with my cases. This move was retaliation; PBSP knew very well about my lawsuit against them and knew that by separating me from that unit they would make it impossible for me to proceed.

Prison liberation movement needs new kinds of thinking

The increase in hunger strikes in state prisons throughout the United States, inspired by the courageous examples of Ohio and California prisoners, show we don’t fear death or persecution, but minimizing losses is a part of wise strategy. We struggle to win. Unnecessarily losing some of our best minds to indeterminate isolation won’t help this purpose.

Protesting police murder of Alan Blueford and war on Afrikans

On Tuesday, May 15, the bereaved family members of Alan Dwayne Blueford eloquently addressed those members of the Oakland City Council who were present, seeking justice in a case that is looking suspiciously like a criminal assassination of the 18-year-old student in his senior year at Skyline High School. He was due to graduate in June.

Potential for mass movement grows

Not long ago, on Feb. 26, Trayvon Martin was just another unknown African American whose young life was tragically and brutally cut short. Today Trayvon Martin’s name has become a universal rallying cry for justice in every nook and cranny of the unjust U.S.

From the belly of the beast

When the leg irons were applied, four officers immediately began forcing me to the nearest wall, causing my head to slam against the wall once again. The impact caused my head to bleed profusely; blood drained down into my eyes, which obscured my vision. At this point I was drifting in and out of consciousness. I’m not afraid to say that I’m now suffering anxiety attacks.

Sanford Weill and Paul Kagame: Doctors of Humane Letters?

On May 12, Sonoma State University awarded honorary doctorates in humane letters to former Citigroup CEO Sanford Weill and his wife Joan, paid for with a $12 million “donation.” On the same day, William Penn University awarded an honorary doctorate in humane letters to Rwandan President Paul Kagame, despite his army’s atrocities in Rwanda and Congo.

Keep the Black liberation torch burning: Support the Bay View

I call on New Afrikans in the “belly of the beast” to help keep the Black liberation torch burning by donating or making a $5 pledge each month for a year and educate your families and friends about the Bay View newspaper and its mission. We need Bay View’s support and Bay View needs our support in return. Let the voice of the oppressed be heard.