Monthly Archives: October 2020

Rope, bullet or knee. Rand Gould gives us a clear and present opportunity to digest the story, the players and the possibilities, to take charge, to identify and build our communities to join the movement and feel the strength of unity to actualize the change we demand.

Gov. Gavin Newsom talked like he cared about all Californians having affordable quality healthcare in his 2018 campaign. Unfortunately, even the COVID-19 pandemic hasn't moved the needle in Newsom's rhetoric as we see the healthcare options statistics are even more shameful than we might have realized.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has the power to grant clemency to 76-year-old David Gilbert having served 40 years of a life sentence. Jerome Wright, now 12 years paroled, supports and promotes clemency for David Gilbert, whose mentorship inspired Wright towards a path of purpose in promoting something other than his own delinquent self.

AfroComicCon brings real and actual kicks this Saturday, Oct. 24 to comic fans old and new, young and old. Virtual this year due to COVID-19, the annual event started in 2017 by the Oakland Technology & Education Center, will be held for free – a day full of live and pre-recorded programming – sponsored by the NNPA, the Oakland A’s and Pixar Entertainment.

Bayview, San Francisco – At Third and Palou, Nube and Malik interview Rasta V aka Vertis about living in the hood, his late mother, staying safe in COVID and getting out the vote!

Nine months ago, a panel of UC experts headed by Dr. John Balmes released a review of radiation retesting procedures for Hunters Point Shipyard Parcel A, finding them “appropriate.” At a Jan. 28 public meeting, Dr. Ahimsa Sumchai challenged Dr. Balmes’ independence, recalling he was paid by developer Lennar for reassuring the community of the safety of the dust generated by developer Lennar’s grading in 2006-2007.

Endlessly bombarded by the triple slam of the capitalist corporate installed food desert, poverty and government refusal to take responsibility for the toxic remains of the Hunters Point Navy Shipyard wedded to developer greed and other shenanigans, Bayview Hunters Point community continues to take the steps necessary to claim a healthy environment.

November 3, 2020 being probably the most critical election of this country’s history is stimulating aggressive solicitation towards particular sectors of voters. To be sure, the Black woman holds a sweet spot for politicians’ attention in this election.

DDDDC ingredients for Hunters Point Bayview horror story mystery cake: Navy paid Tetra Tech subsidiary hundreds of millions of dollars for botched cleanup – busted for fraudulent radiation testing – scapegoat the fraud on “rogue employees” – another subsidiary of Tetra Tech previously accused of similar shenanigans at the Industrial Excess Landfill in Ohio – “We now know what they [the EPA] did to us and how they did it.” Bake at 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit for at least one decade.

MAAFA 2020 weaves ritual, honoring, spirit, drumbeat, heartbeat, veins and bone marrow in dance, joy, tears and love through the very essence of the fabric of African descendents in the infinite circle of rememberance with footthrob on Ocean Beach, absorbing the 401-year history, blood and pain of the Old Fort Comfort English Slave Trade – not forgetting 100 years prior, the slave trade brought by the Spanish.

The Bay View is serializing the introduction to “Annotated Tears, Vol. 2,” by Talib Williams, who is currently incarcerated in Soledad, California, and has written the history of that storied place. In the spirit of Sankofa, we learn the past to build the future.

Two Black former executives, Lawrence Parks and Timothy Simons, are suing the Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco for breach of contract over a racial discrimination settlement, along with a racial discrimination claim. The claim stems from systemic, inequitable treatment of Black people – including Parks and Simons.

Gov. Gavin Newsom can choose to step up to avoid the increasingly popular idea of renaming all the state prisons, jails and detention centers after him. The governor’s failure to respond to the citizens’ demands to use his authority to save lives in the face of the COVID-19 tragic impact on helpless people in cages leaves him fair game for ridicule and deep criticism.

Racism reaches its ugly tentacles into any crack available to it, as proven on multiple levels by the COVID-19 pandemic ravaging the U.S. Forced to resort to technology with apps like Zoom to communicate with each other and enable some form of education for our children, it is increasingly evident that racism via “Zoombombing” against Black people has emerged nationwide.

Union Square, San Francisco – Oct. 14, 2020. Local 39 stationary engineers and craftspeople strike for better wages and healthcare from Macy's!

"When life gives you lemons, make lemonade." COVID-19 has dug in its heals and igniteded the creative juices of entrepreneurs like Jerry Mixon and Yolanda Lewis to join forces in combining their already-established tech entities to light the fires of opportunities for a much broader spectrum of systemically excluded Black, Brown, and other marginalized communities.

Nine months gestation birthed what? The review by the UC expert panel about retesting procedures for Parcel A and Parcel G in Hunters Point Shipyard, nine months after the report’s release, seems to have resulted in a stillbirth as there is no evidence of benefit to the parent Bayview Hunters Point (BVHP) community. Foul play is suspected.

This November 2020 election needs you, educated and determined. More than ever in the history of this country possibly, it is crucial that we as the collective citizenry step up and vote with heads and hearts united. The fight is real and all kinds of trickery is being lambasted upon us to confuse and manipulate in the effort to keep the system of oppression in place. Vote No on Proposition 20.

The roofless condition has grown to such proportions that the settler colonizers are designating it out of control. Tiny Garcia walks us through herstory and draws a clear picture of what is truly out of control and why the horrors of Columbus have been replaced by the honor of Indigenous Peoples Day.

Over 2,500 Black-owned Victorian homes were destroyed and tens of thousands of Black people were displaced out of the Fillmore district during Urban Renewal under Justin Herman’s tenure. The City gave housing vouchers to people whose homes were demolished with the promise they would own in the new and improved Fillmore.