Yearly Archives: 2020

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.

At San Quentin Prison on Saturday, Oct. 10, a demonstration and vigil hosted by No Justice Under Capitalism, California Prison Focus and KAGE Universal (Kings & Queens Against Genocidal Environments) will take place to celebrate the eighth anniversary of the Agreement to End Hostilities and recognize the ongoing history of prison resistance.

With love, light and mic, Mother Brown’s loves up the Bayview Hunters Point community. For years Mother Brown’s has been delivering free delicious homemade food to anyone who is hungry, accompanied often by the tunes of Maestro Curtis and San Francisco’s First Family of Song, the Curtis Family Cnotes – body and soul nourishment.

The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbates the U.S. capitalist oppressive impact of legal modern slavery on Black communities and shines an even brighter light on the disproportionate distribution of wealth, privilege and opportunity in society.

Incarcerated people are vulnerable to severe illness due to COVID-19, and the pandemic is spreading rapidly in prisons, jails and detention centers because of lack of health care and adequate access to basic necessities, such as soap and disinfectant.

Taking a look at the lens through which one might judge as anti-Semitic the view of the Israeli regime under Netanyahu and its treatment of the Palestinian people, Jalil Muntaqim argues that criticizing this corrupt government for genocidal, colonial and imperial behavior over, and its clear disdain for the Palestinian people is not anti-Semitic. Instead, it is the undeniable sense of human justice.