Monday, March 18, 2024
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Tags Willie and Mary Ratcliff

Tag: Willie and Mary Ratcliff

Judge upholds gag order on SF Bay View editor

It is clear that even though a person may have served their time in prison, release from prison to a halfway house does not provide freedom. One might be “allowed” to work, but may not be allowed the tools, or Constitutional Rights, necessary for the work allowed. The penal system prevails in unrelenting oppressor control and punishment against captive people, our Black and Brown community members.

The battle to free San Francisco Bayview Editor Malik Washington

The appetite of capitalism demands every dollar be extracted from the resource object, in this case, your new community advocate and editor of the SF Bay View Newspaper, Malik Washington, is the commodity, the enemy and still a prisoner in the grip of the multi-billion dollar GEO Group that runs the Taylor Center halfway house/private prison in the Tenderloin. Free Malik Washington!

The heritage of our fathers

“Our power comes from the fact that we create the wealth. Wealth is power; we have the ability to withhold that power.” – Boots Riley, filmmaker and activist, Juneteenth 2020 ILWU shutdown Port of Oakland

The joys, and CRIMES, of Juneteenth

As WE commemorate Juneteenth Freedom Day(s) again this year, it is always necessary to OVERstand the real Lessons in the Blessings (as my beloved God-Mother ELIZABETH ELIZANN OAKS-ARMSTRONG would often say). While Juneteenth is possibly the oldest and largest commemoration of the “official” ending of the murderous war of enslavement, many of our people have never grasped its true origins and significance.

Bay View Voters Guide: VOTE 100%! Make BVHP known for ballots,...

Why do Black folks catch more hell in San Francisco than just about anywhere else? Why has a larger portion of the Black population been pushed out of San Francisco than any U.S. city? We detect the reason is Black Power, which used to be wielded skillfully by community leaders back in the day. With London Breed, a Black woman born and raised in the projects – someone who understands us as we understand her – leading the mayor’s race, this election is our opportunity to rebuild our Black Power by making up our minds to VOTE 100%!

SFHDC celebrates 30 years in affordable housing with Power in Numbers...

Marking its 30th year of providing affordable housing services in the City this spring, the San Francisco Housing Development Corporation is centering its annual gala and awards dinner around a theme demonstrated by influential civic actions taking shape across the nation. SFHDC’s 30th Anniversary Gala and Awards Dinner, will take place Friday, May 11, at the California Academy of Sciences. The Bayview-based SFHDC is a nonprofit community organization that has provided affordable housing, financial empowerment, supportive services and economic development to low-income communities of color since 1988.

‘WE are the Bay View’: Kevin Jones-Bey and Sundiata Acoli salute...

I am not a world-renowned freedom fighter. In fact, I contributed to the destruction of lives and communities. In spite of this ugly truth, Willie and Mary Ratcliff and the Bay View family have given me opportunities when no one else would. I am not unique. The Bay View is THE voice of countless Sisters and Brothers. Indeed, WE are the Bay View, and if we are not for ourselves, who will be for us? Twenty-four dollars is a paltry sum. The San Francisco Bay View is priceless.

Troy Williams: I am stepping down as Bay View editor

It is with deep regret that I announce I am stepping down as editor of the SF Bay View newspaper. I stepped into the position with a great vision, no financial support and a host of challenges. Primarily speaking, without financial support there is very little that could really be done. I exhausted my personal savings as well as allowed my own production company and sole means of financial support to nearly crumble. The toll on me has been more than financial. It has been emotional.

Expressing gratitude

As I complete this column, the situation in our continental African nation of Zimbabwe is growing evermore intense. Our Elder, Baba, Freedom Fighter and President Robert Mugabe has been forced to “resign” – and removed from his democratically-elected office by that nation’s military and the Zimbabwe African National Union – Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) leaders – in an apparent coup.

Welcoming Troy Williams, new Bay View editor

My name is Troy Williams. On Monday, Juneteenth, Black Liberation Day, I agreed to be the editor for the Bay View newspaper. It is with great honor, respect and much consideration that I step into this position. I recognize that over the past 40-plus years the Bay View has been a voice for the people. Simply put, we speak truth to power, logic to the illogical, from the perspective of those who seldom have a platform to speak from. The time has come for us to stand together and share our insights in a manner that will continue to strengthen our voices and move us beyond the pitfalls that came before or lie ahead.

Mutope: Because the Bay View was there for us, the world...

We, the people, have to realize that our current contradictions are not just about economics, but instead are about being able to speak truth to the powers that be. Case in point, if we hadn’t been able to express in great detail what we prisoners were suffering from while being held in solitary confinement and have our letters published in the Bay View, then our voice would have never been heard. But because the Bay View was there for us, the world came to our defense.

To all the brothers on the yard: Help us help ourselves

The San Francisco Bay View is an African American newspaper based in San Francisco, California. For over four decades, its progressive liberation journalism has been championing human right issues nationwide, especially on behalf of the thousands of men and women being warehoused inside one of the hundreds of dungeons dotting the national landscape of America. The owners of this newspaper, Willie and Mary Ratcliff, have been uncompromising in their support for prisoners. We owe them not only our support but our appreciation for being our spearhead in advocating for a variety of prisoners’ rights issues.

‘I Am San Francisco: (Re)Collecting the Home of Native Black San...

You are invited to the opening reception on Saturday, Dec. 12, 2-4 p.m., in the African American Center of the San Francisco Main Library of “I Am San Francisco,” a major exhibit that tells the personal stories of Black San Franciscans at a time when the Black population has been almost entirely forced out and includes a display of historic copies of the San Francisco Bay View, back to 1994, with the headline “We Shall Not Be Moved.”

Institutionalized racism and censorship are relatives

The only defense that can protect the people is to assemble the power of the people. We are our only defense. We have suffered enough injustice at the hands of a very evil system – CDCr and PBSP – and it is time that we prisoners express that pain and suffering by all means at our disposal, because CDCr and PBSP are censoring SF Bay View in order to censor prisoners, because we are exposing cruel and unusual treatment of prisoners. We collectively commend and value the courage and commitment as well as the principled stand that the SF Bay View is taking to speak truth to power.

Stop the swiftboating of KPFA board member Tracy Rosenberg!

There’s more mischief underway at community radio station KPFA. KPFA subscribers will soon be receiving ballots in the mail asking them to vote on whether media activist Tracy Rosenberg should be recalled from her seat on the KPFA board. This swiftboat-style attack on the station’s hardest working board member must be defeated!

Publishers of San Francisco Bay View newspaper to be feted at...

Wright Enterprises and LaHitz Media present “Our Media Matters” Theater Night in honor of Willie and Mary Ratcliff, publishers of the San Francisco Bay View newspaper, at the Lorraine Hansberry Theatre for their premiere of “REJOICE!” a wonderful nativity play, 7 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 29, 2011. To purchase tickets, call the Lorraine Hansberry Theatre Box Office, (415) 474-8800, with the code “WE.” Treat your family and friends to a joyous evening and support the Bay View!

Do the right thing! Elect James Keys District 6 Supervisor

District 6 Supervisor Chris Daly, champion of the have-nots in San Francisco for a decade, has passed the torch and endorsed James Keys, his longtime legislative assistant and campaign coordinator, to be his successor. “James was by my side through my toughest battles,” Daly said.

A journalistic critique of the Chauncey Bailey Project

The Chauncey Bailey Project was never about honoring and continuing the work of the late journalist Chauncey Wendell Bailey Jr. and answering questions regarding his death, as it claims on its website. The project and the Oakland police seem to have more of a lynch mob mentality in their investigation.