Monthly Archives: February 2016

A United Nations panel of human rights activists has urged the United States’ government to pay reparations to the descendants of Africans who were brought to the U.S. as slaves. The committee blamed slavery for the plight of African-Americans today. The U.N. Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent’s preliminary report follows a year of aggravated racial tensions in the United States that saw the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement.

U.S. U.N. Ambassador Samantha Power, U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, the U.S. State Department, the E.U. and Belgium have fiercely advocated for the deployment of 5,000 African Union troops in Burundi, whether Burundi agrees or not. Senegalese diplomat Ibrahima Fall, the African Union’s special representative to the African Great Lakes Region, told Radio France International that deploying AU troops without Burundi’s consent was “unimaginable.”

Dr. Frances Cress Welsing (“Isis Papers”) made her transition Jan. 2, 2016. She was 80. The psychiatrist who challenged white supremacists on what she called “The Cress Theory of Color Confrontation and Racism (White Supremacy)” to look at their own melanin deficiency for what it is, “envy,” stirred and continues to stir the waters. She always stated theoretically that “Black lives matter,” way before the #blm movement.

2015 was a historic political year for the African continent because one of the continent’s most radical anti-imperialist leaders chaired the African Union, and I am talking about President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe. I talked with Obi Egbuna, the U.S. correspondent for the Zimbabwean national newspaper, The Herald, about what President Mugabe accomplished leading Zimbabwe and the African Union in 2015. Here is what he had to say.

Clay Cane’s new documentary, “Holler If You Hear Me: Black and Gay in the Church,” is an emotional drive-by shooting. The gut-penetrating personal stories in the hour-long film will leave you ducking for cover to avoid being shot dead through the heart. You will not succeed. The film features nightmarish tales that create a reality for many young African Americans who identify as members of the LGBT community.

West Coast Hip Hop is going through a renaissance of new voices with people like Trill Youngins, Anderson Paak, Vince Staples, Nef the Pharoh, Cousin Fik and Oakland’s DB Tha General. I became aware of DB Tha General because the streets was talking, but I heard his music for the first time when my cousin Smock pulled up “Mac Blast” on YouTube and told me that this was one of the coldest battle/diss records ever produced from out of the Bay.

There are so many untold stories of how and why people become un-housed. Loss of a job, a partner, the onset of an illness or a crisis, but most of the time, in the Bay Area, it’s because of a greed-inspired landlord raising rent, evicting for profit so he or she can house the droves of 20-30-something wealthy, mostly white people streaming into town for the tech industry.

Rev. Edward Pinkney is the kind of preacher that Martin Luther King would have admired. Pinkney has for years advocated for his community, fighting for water rights, fair elections and social justice for the people of Benton Harbor, Michigan. Because of his political activities, he’s been targeted by the government, tried by the Michigan political machine before an all-white jury and, with no evidence, convicted of allegedly altering five petition dates!

It has often been said that one who has never known the pain of struggle can never truly appreciate the sweet taste of success. Denise Smith knows that struggle. Born in the San Francisco General Hospital and reared in Bayview-Hunters Point, the real estate entrepreneur has certainly experienced her share of ups and downs. Her new autobiography, “Rags to Real Estate: One Woman’s Journey to Empowerment,” inspired many.

After 2.5 years of foundation laying work, Willie JR Fleming of the Anti-Eviction Campaign has finally caught the attention of the international community. At his behest, the United Nations sent its Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent to Chicago to take first-hand testimony from people of color who have suffered and continue to suffer the effects of systemic racism and colonialism.

KEEP ON KEEPIN’ TO THE FAMILY OF THE LATE SAM AND RUTH JORDAN IN CELEBRATION OF THE 57TH ANNIVERSARY of the legendary SAM JORDAN’S Bar, located in the Bayview on Third Street, across from the Bayview shopping mall. PROUD the family continues in the tradition set forth by their parents, who passed several years ago. Sam’s is the OLDEST standing Black-owned club in the City. Doors opened in 1959.

In late December, CHOOSE1, a grassroots, non-profit organization, received approval to begin gathering signatures to have the Three Strikes Reform Act of 2016 placed on the November 2016 election ballot. The California Attorney General’s Office has given CHOOSE1 until June 17 to gather signatures from registered voters to qualify the initiative. The goal is 500,000 signatures to ensure enough are gathered to meet statutory requirements.

The San Francisco African American Historical and Cultural Society will launch the 2016 annual Black History Month kickoff in the Rotunda at City Hall on Friday, Feb. 5, 2016, at 12 noon followed by a reception in the South Light Court. John William Templeton, Oxford University Press historian, will address the national theme, “Hallowed Grounds: Sites of African American Memories.”

An African American man filed a lawsuit against his employer, Bay Bridge contractor Adams & Smith, Inc., for racial discrimination and retaliation just a little over a week after the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday. The complaint cited incidents in which a foreman lowered a hangman’s noose in front of plaintiff James H. Brown and a co-worker told him to wear the rope around his neck.

Some say, “Out of sight, out of mind,” but I know better and so do you. It takes more than fancy cars, a suit and tie slave gig or a house in a gated community to squelch the reality that too many thousands of Black fathers are missing from our communities. Yes, my brothers “inside,” you may not hear from us, the “straight johns” on the “outside” as often as you should, but I wanted to let you know that you are thought of and deeply valued.

I often visit the spot where they took you from us. I still can’t accept it. Although we didn’t know each other, I knew your spirit. I cried for you the day your light was dimmed. I never met you, but you were my brother, my father, my dear friend. Yogi, I’m afraid. I’m afraid because the same climate that dimmed your light is still here on this yard. The gatekeepers on this yard are still playing chess with brothers’ lives.