Tag: Black New World Journalists Society

Are we aware the economy is in free-fall? During the COVID-19 pandemic quarantine, health has been a central topic, but what about financial health? With the stock market being stunted and the government doling out trillions of dollars to individual citizens, small businesses and corporations, we need to know what is happening with our finances.

A firearm can be used as both a tool and a weapon. Being Black in America should already make you want to own a gun for protection. If you’re Black, female, and/or short, I think it’s even more necessary to learn how to safely use a gun.

It’s experiential. My 90-year-old grandfather had gotten sick during the COVID-19 pandemic, and my uncle. who is a nurse, gave the family new rules that we had to follow to keep us as safe as possible from the invisible biological killer. In the past, I took my uncle’s occupation for granted.

The silver lining is always part of a disaster or tragedy – even the COVID-19 pandemic. Many have experienced this phenomenon with the emergence of innovation, new Black businesses, and new business leaders popping up as the silver lining of the 2020 shelter in place.

Government mandate that children return to school via the internet has bred an experimental system called “distance learning.” The educational system, already ravaged by the COVID-19 shelter-in-place-order by Mayor London Breed on March 12, 2020, now faces new challenges with education via internet.

Aug. 8, the day after getting the news that Kali O’Ray, director of the San Francisco Black Film Festival, passed away, came the news that my cousin’s cousin “Cuban Pete” was murdered in Oakland in a different incident, and my comrade Chester from the Black Panther Commemoration Committee was also shot in a separate incident still. This was in addition to a dreaded text from a life-long friend that her sons had been shot.

The founder and CEO of Heart and Soul Communities, Ericka Tillis, is a pioneer in the senior-assisted living industry in Oakland and San Leandro. That pioneering vision has kept her facilities and residents unscathed by the COVID-19 epidemic while the virus has been running unbridled through the senior community and the Black and Latino communities of Alameda County.

Rebellions, protests and racial tension have consumed the COVID-19 summer of 2020 following the police executions of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd. The San Francisco Black Film Festival (SFBFF.org) film selection “American Dream” presents a relevant 19-minute short by French born filmmakers Nicolas Polixene and Sylvain Loubet dit Gajol.

“Steven was a 33-year-old San Leandro resident. At the time of the incident with police, Steven was struggling with homelessness and mental health. He was experiencing a mental health crisis in Walmart when the police were called, when Steven Taylor was murdered on April 18 inside Walmart, at 15555 Hesperian Blvd in San Leandro.”

“No Lye: An American Beauty Story” is one of the best documentaries on Black history this year. It gives a definitive history of the Black hair care industry and how it paralleled Black political movements. It presents historical accounts of early Black entrepreneurs who were pioneers in the Black cosmetics trade, the Black press and who created a lobbying group in Washington.

History teaches us that the people who govern the United States have no regard for the health of Black people and in this case Black children. The Oakland Unified School District faces the looming ‘20-‘21 school year, beginning Aug. 10 and Black parents are rightfully terrified for their children’s safety faced with the federal push to carelessly open schools amid COVID spiking in Alameda County and new lockdown orders.

The East Oakland Youth Development Center aka EOYDC is a deep anchor in the Deep East Oakland community, helping Black and Brown families navigate the uncertainties of the historic COVID pandemic. Regina Jackson and staff have sustained this community lifeline and shined a light on the creative choices possible when critical disruption occurs.

DeBray “Fly Benzo” Carpenter, well-known community activist from Hunters Point, is helping people get their stimulus checks by signing them up with his pop-up help clinics happening every Saturday from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.

The U.S.is in a frenzy behind the coronavirus pandemic and TV and media want us to believe that the federal, state and local governments are doing everything possible to curb the spike in infection numbers. If California was a country, it would be fifth in infections, following only the U.S., Brazil, India and Russia. As California approaches the 4 million mark we surpass New York as the nation’s hotbed of infection.

The stories of veterans do not get told often despite all the things they did for this country. I am an advocate for human life, so I am against wars of aggression. It is still important to recognize these veterans because the country would be different without them.

Black people in the racist U.S. are typically the last people hired, first people fired. We have the biggest population infected with COVID-19, and we are the most likely to die from the virus or its complications.

TreeMoon Cannabis Fashion is busy rebounding after having its production line interrupted by the COVID-19 quarantine. It's estimated that up to 60 percent of Black-owned businesses will not survive the extended COVID quarantine and national rebellions of 2020. Our Black community must step up our support for Black business at this critical juncture in history.

“We’re just tired and fed up with people calling 911 for non-emergencies. Any action with law enforcement can get Black people and people of color killed. And that abuse has to stop.” – San Francisco District 10 Supervisor Shamann Walton

“I for one believe that if you give people a thorough understanding of what confronts them and the basic causes that produce it, they’ll create their own program, and when the people create a program, you get action.” – El Hajj Malik Shabazz aka Malcolm X

“Bit” is a 34-minute short comedy, directed by Morgan Mathews, about a young Black tech entrepreneur, Houston, and his ambition to create a start-up around his trivia game app, “Jambo.” The film, set mostly in downtown Oakland, is on the post-racialism fringes of the ever-growing Silicon Valley.