Yearly Archives: 2021

LaTroya Hester, without judgement or solicitation, honors the skepticism and lack of trust for many Black and Brown people about receiving COVID-19 vaccinations. Here, she provides opportunities for people to dive deeper into the process and people who created the vaccines, a number of whom are Black people who played important leading roles. At the very least, more in-depth information is available.

With relentless focus on honor and respect for justice and healthy, satisfying lives for all people, Baba Jahahara Amen-Ra Alkebulan-Ma’at notes poignantly our devasting COVID-19 loss of life, the travesty of political prisoners, appreciation for the sis-stars’ leadership and contributions, the people’s work on H.R. 40 and S. 40 Reparations Proposals, and congratulates Queen Warrior Mama Akua Njeri and son Chairman Fred Hampton, Jr. for their work to save the Hampton Family House in Maywood, Ill, and more.

The limits of capitalism have been reached and the persistent, maniacal grab of the capitalist monster is causing fissures in the structure, like drops of water on the rock over time, and at the 50-year mark of relentless resistance to profits over people, the people are rising to take back what has been stolen.

Environmental justice is inseparable from racial justice, as expertly shared by Ahimsa Porter Sumchai about sometimes deadly impacts disproportionately affecting Black, Brown and other people of color resulting from unregulated energy players and what is necessary to keep people safe – and who is being brought into policy-making to do what is necessary.

These crushing personal accounts of lives living, lived and lost on Treasure Island, are a clear indictment against the white supremacist, racist, capitalist, profits-over-people developers, the U.S. Navy and government entities, which intentionally continue to withhold information and refute any danger and harm to residents suffering and dying from extreme toxic conditions of their harmful living space.

Sister’s Circle Women’s Support Network (SCWSN) is zeroing in on the very basic real needs of women, addressing a broad spectrum of in depth healing recovery, empowerment and supportive uplift within the circle.

As we continue to mourn the brutal assassination of Malcolm X, Zayid Muhammad earnestly erases any doubt that the lies persist even with impunity from the deathbed, carefully designed to be revealed only after death, Wood's cowardly written words, perpetrator and agent of evil attempting to exonerate himself in his last breaths spewing lies. As Muhammad states: “It is an absolute insult to the intelligence of all of us.”

Through Black labor, Black love, Black life and Black presence, Wanda Sabir presents jewels for honoring, learning, enjoying and discovering, by enticing our exploration in this month of Women’s History Day, International Women’s History Month, the still unfolding of story of Malcom X and struggle for liberation and self-determination through writers like Walter Mosley, theater from Oakland Theater Project, a cross-country experience with the Diamano Coura West African Dance Company and more.

Unconscionable, inhumane, violently genocidal is the reality this story by Victoria Law for Truthout informs with reports by women incarcerated at FMC Carswell about what clearly is deliberate indifference to deadly conditions putting residents’ lives in danger, validating the consideration so stated: ‘If they can’t take care of us, release us.’

Cousin Mell Monroe lovingly remembers San Francisco’s beloved icon in red, Rochelle Metcalfe, who left no stone unturned in her vibrant exploration, discovery and fully lived life. Rochelle Metcalfe’s loving legacy stands as an iconic pillar in San Francisco’s herstory. Rest In Peace and Power, Rochelle Metcalfe.

Love, creativity and determination direct renewed and expanded energy into communities hit hardest by ongoing calamity avalanches like Bay View Hunters Point. The leadership baton at Mission Neighborhood Centers is passing from retiring Santiago “Sam” Ruiz to new non-profit veteran Richard M. Ybarra.

Bayview, San Francisco – Editor Malik Washington interviews Tai Seals-Jackson, granddaughter of Bayview Hunters Point's late, beloved community activist Espanola Jackson, about bringing jobs to D10.

Emerging from the fertile earth of the Black community, seedlings begin to sprout as Mayor London Breed and Supervisor Shamann Walton present the Dream Keeper Initiative with a hefty commitment redirecting $120 million from SFPD for investments in the African American community.

Treasure Island residents live surrounded by deadly radiation and chemicals in the soil and groundwater around their homes. The illnesses they cause can continue and even kill after the families leave the island. Two weeks ago, this beautiful 10-year-old was diagnosed with a brain tumor. Now his mother sits beside his hospital bed praying he survives.

With stories so deeply compelling and told at great risk of retaliation, another of our caged community members describes the deliberate indifference to the safety of prisoners during COVID-19 in CSP-Solano prison, with no protocol, no common sense, no humanity, no recourse. Taxpayer dollars support this shame.

There’s a ‘tude’ that often comes with cops “responding” to a neighborhood complaint like vandalism or whatever, that reads, ‘there’s one, take him, game over, next? . . .’ – another Black man dead. Another father, husband, brother, son, uncle murdered. Cell phone looked like a gun, uh huh – makes sense since guns and cell phones are pretty much interchangeable with police, DAs and police unions. Another day . . . of pain and suffering for our communities. Stephon Clark – “He didn’t have to die.”

Under contract with San Francisco, the historic Compton’s Cafeteria, now signed as 111 Taylor St. Apartments, has been operating as a private prison aka halfway house run by the multi-billion-dollar multinational corporation GEO Group, which like the ICE detention centers GEO runs, has been infested with COVID-19 due to deliberate indifference to the wellbeing of those under their thumb.

We receive hundreds of letters a month, from all over the country – many detailing devastating human and civil rights abuses. Here, I ask you to write Brian Holliday and tell him you care and hope he's okay.

Hope and purpose illuminates the work that The Adachi Project and Keith “Malik” Washington are doing to lift the burden of pain and suffering from the shoulders of those marginalized, dehumanized and oppressed, to expose the injustices of modern slavery being perpetrated on the people by the racist, capitalist oppressor and GEO Group.

W.E.B. Du Bois’ book ,“Black Reconstruction in America”, reviewed by Monica Hill, tells the historical truths, which were warped and twisted from the beginning when told by the white settler and taught in the schools as part of the strategic plan to solidify the permanence of slavery on which to build the capitalist imperial regime.