In keeping with the tradition of “Making the Chair Fit,” Menah Pratt-Clarke asked Virginia Tech alumna and senior video producer for the Department of Defense, Juanisha Brooks, what her favorite chair was during a recent segment.

“The director’s chair, because not many Black women occupy that chair,” said Brooks, a 2008 graduate and recent addition to the university’s Alumni Board of Directors. She has served as a volunteer for the Black Alumni Reunion since 2014.

Pratt-Clarke, vice president for strategic affairs and diversity, hosts “Making the Chair Fit,” an entertaining and informational series. Through the series, she examines and highlights the many people and programs dedicated to serving underrepresented and underserved students, faculty, and staff.

As senior video producer for the Department of Defense, Brooks is part of an in-house multimedia production unit that produces documentaries and training materials, as well as interviews with military and high-level intelligence officials. Part of her daily responsibilities include serving as producer, editor, and director for a wide range of video productions for the agency’s internal and external media platforms. Because of the sensitive nature of much of her work, Brooks had to obtain top-level security clearance through a process that took more than seven months.

Growing up, Brooks thought she’d be in front of the camera as an actress. In high school she signed up for television production and found it both fun and powerful, so she chose to major in communication at Virginia Tech. She was selected as a fellow for the International Radio and Television Society, received the Steger Award for Undergraduate Poetry, was awarded the Virginia Tech NAACP Female Undergraduate of the Year Award, and was a finalist for Undergraduate Woman of the Year.

Brooks’ first big break in broadcasting came when she was selected — from a pool of more than 8,000 applicants nationwide — to be a part of the prestigious NBC page program. She then became a production assistant at the MSNBC headquarters in New York City. In 2012, Brooks was hired as media coordinator for the CNN Washington bureau, where she helped produce political coverage for the “Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer.”

Despite her successful career and high-level government clearance, Brooks recently fell victim to racial profiling. While driving home late one night, Brooks was stopped by the police, arrested, jailed, and charged with four crimes.

“It broke my heart to know that I could one day work in a role where the main mission is to support and defend, yet I was not treated with the same respect,” Brooks said. “The service didn’t matter, all that mattered was the color of my skin. The people who were assigned to protect and serve me did not, and that is something that has sat with me.”

When asked why she is speaking up about the case, Brooks quoted Audre Lorde, “Your silence will not protect you.”

“I could have lost my life. I could have lost my career,” said Brooks. “Black lives matter — but also, black livelihoods matter,” she added.

When asked what advice has been transformational, Juanisha replied, “My mother said that no matter what happens in life, keep going. Put one foot in front of the other and keep going. If you have that determination you can keep going.”

The incident has since been expunged from her record.

“Virginia Tech is where I initially developed a spirit of service and saw future military leaders in action through the Corps of Cadets,” she said. “No matter what path I take next, I will take valuable lessons of service with me.”

Looking ahead, Brooks – who chairs the communications committee for the Black Alumni Reunion, said, “I am passionate about connecting Black alumni, building community, and increasing engagement across decades. I am looking forward to the in-person reunion in 2022.”

By Antonio Ray Harvey | California Black Media

To ensure Black communities across the state voice their thoughts and concerns and provide input, the California Task Force to Study and Develop Reparations Proposals for African Americans is partnering with six “anchor organizations” to host public listening sessions.

Each organization will help the task force hear various perspectives of Black Californians as it assesses the state’s involvement in slavery and Jim Crow discrimination. The committee expects that process to inform the work they do when developing recommendations for compensating African Americans for past and ongoing race-based injustices.

The Coalition For A Just and Equitable California (CJEC) is one of the host organizations. A state-wide network of organizations, associations, and individuals united to push reparations for the descendants of enslaved men and women, the CJEC will participate in 12 sessions involving Black Californians from different social and economic backgrounds.

 “We’ve been at this since 2019. We worked hard for this assignment and it’s really a testament of waking up, networking, and organizing Black folks around the state,” Chris Lodgson, a founding member of CJEC, told California Black Media.

“What we are expected to do as part of that process is produce at least two listening sessions and the task force will support them. These sessions will allow Black Californians to think about what reparations should look like and how it should be implemented,” Lodgson continued.

Along with CJEC, the Black Equity Collective, Afrikan Black Coalition, Black Power Network, Congregations Organized for Prophetic Engagement (COPE), and Othering and Belonging Institute are the anchor organizations helping to plan the sessions.

Lodgson said CJEC will “coordinate” with the other five anchor organizations to prevent “doubling efforts” and provide a cross-section of opportunities and ideas from the sessions.

“At least two Task Force members are expected to attend each listening session,” Lodgson said.

“We really want to talk to people in our community that get overlooked the most,” Lodgson said. “People who are unhoused, formerly incarcerated, from the foster care system, street organizations, et cetera, are the people we want to hear from. Their thoughts matter, too.”

At its first two-day meeting of 2022 on Thursday, Jan. 27, and Friday, Jan. 28, task force members will explain in more detail the rationale and process of the listening sessions. The virtual meetings will begin at 9:00 a.m. both days.

During the upcoming meetings, task force member Dr. Cheryl Grills will highlight the task force’s “Community Engagement Plan, providing more information about the listening sessions.

The meeting will also feature testimony from experts during the “Discrimination in Technology,” “Community Eligibility,” and “Public Health” segments on Jan. 27.

During the task force’s second meeting last July, Grills introduced the idea of the listening sessions.

Black communities in the southern, northern, and central parts of the state (where many Black farmers reside) are expected to be involved in the process.

“Black folks exist in an ecosystem and the system includes a diverse, cultural base of people, social class, education levels, etc.,” Grills said. “So how do we make sure that those people, who are a part of the ecosystem, are impacted? They need to be at the table.”

Grills was appointed to the National African American Reparations Commission (NAARC) earlier this month. She is a professor of Psychology at Loyola Marymount University, former national President of the Association of Black Psychologists, and founder/director of a non-profit program evaluation organization called Imoyase Community Support Services.

NAARC is comprised of a distinguished assembly of activists, scholars, civil rights, human rights, labor, and faith leaders. The organization devised a 10-Point Reparations Program to serve as a guide and frame of reference for the growing reparations movement in the country.

“Dr. Grills has been amazing. She’s has done a great job in leading our community engagement effort,” Lodgson said. “She’s been largely responsible for looking for groups to be anchor organizations, bringing together resources, and facilitating the conversations.”

On Friday, Jan. 28, the California Task Force will hear testimonies from experts discussing mental health and physical health.

California’s Assembly Bill (AB) 3121, titled “The Task Force to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African Americans,” created a nine-member commission to investigate race-based inequity in education, labor, wealth, housing, taxation and more. The commission is also charged with analyzing the state’s involvement in slavery, segregation, and the historic denial of Black citizens’ constitutional rights.

Current California Secretary of State Shirley N. Weber authored the bill when she was a member of the State Assembly and chair of the California Legislative Black Caucus.

AB 3121 requires the task force to submit its recommendations to the legislature no later than 2023.

The January 2022 meeting will be the first of six meeting this year. The public is encouraged to join the meeting at https://primetime.bluejeans.com/a2m/live-event/ccajafkq

By Aldon Thomas | California Black Media

The COVID-19 winter surge has impacted different age groups in different ways, as caretakers struggle to take care of the elderly during this pandemic and parents remain wary of their children returning to in-person classes.

“It’s been here but it’s been everywhere for like the last 14 days,” said Los Angeles County resident Clarence Johnson whose wife, Tanesha Johnson, decided to shut down their daycare last year.

Across the United States, 1,099 children under 18 have died from COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). In California, the state Department of Public Health reports that 47 children have died of the disease.

This past December saw a four-fold increase of children admitted to hospital over the past year, according to the African American Wellness Project.

Tanesha Johnson, owner and director of the Sunshine Academy Childcare Center in Inglewood, made the choice to close her daycare after reflecting on her own concerns as a parent.

“When I started seeing how fast the COVID-19 virus began to spread, I had to now think as a mother and not just as a business owner,” said Johnson. “I said, ‘okay, if I did not own a daycare, would I feel comfortable sending my children to school at this time,’ and the answer was no.”

Johnson said she is still cautious about her children returning to school and hopes that kids will be required to test before returning.

Both the federal and state governments have been pushing for more tests in schools, with Gov. Gavin Newsom announcing each student in public school will get two at-home COVID-19 tests.

The Biden administration announced that they will be implementing initiatives that will increase the number of tests in schools by 10 million per month.

“These additional tests will help schools safely remain open and implement screening testing and test to stay programs. With the additional ten million tests per month, we will make available to schools more than double the volume of testing that took place in schools across the nation in November 2021,” read the press release from the White House.

In the US, only 27% of parents of 5- to 11-year-olds are in favor of vaccinating their children, according to a Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) survey.

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought about a number of challenges for the country’s aging population as well, particularly for African Americans and other minorities.

Only 7% of people ages 65 and older who received a booster shot are Black.

Earlier this month, retired Assemblymember Cheryl R. Brown (D-San Bernardino), who is a member of the California Commission on Aging, hosted a news briefing with journalists featuring caregivers discussing the difficulties of taking care of aging adults in the state. The virtual conversation was organized by St. Paul AME Church in San Bernardino, Black Voice News in Riverside and Ethnic Media Services.

According to Donna Benton, Research Professor of Gerontology at USC, caretakers of aging Californians, including family members, have also been impacted.

“The majority of care, elder care in our state, is done by family members,” she said. “We are an essential part of the healthcare system.”

Benton, who is also director of the USC Family Caregiver Support Center and the Los Angeles Caregiver Resource Center, said there are nearly 4.5 million family caregivers in California.

One caretaker, Ruth Rembert, who lives in the Inland Empire, talked about tending to her ill husband and how the pandemic puts him at greater risk.

“His immune system was compromised,” she said. “He has two strikes against him, number one is his age and also his medical issues.”

She also emphasized her support for more people being immunized.

“This pandemic has definitely been a challenge for me and for my husband,” she said. “We all wish this would be over, but it doesn’t look like it’s going to be anytime soon unless we take seriously the importance of vaccinations.”

The Rev. Noella Buchanan, Caregiver Coordinator for the Southern California Conference of the African Methodist Church Ministerial Alliance, said most elderly African Americans are people of faith and that plays a role in the way they approach their health care.

“We need to share with them that if God has opened up a way for someone to come up with a vaccine, we need to trust. And part of our trust comes from what we are seeing. We are seeing loved one die. And the loved ones that are dying are the one that have not taken the shot,” she said.

California Black Media’s coverage of COVID-19 is supported by the California Health Care Foundation.

By Antonio? ?Ray? ?Harvey? ? |? ? California? ?Black? ?Media?

Gov. Gavin Newsom says his administration is emphasizing combating drug addiction and mental illness as part of the state’s multi-year plan to solve California’s homelessness crisis – the worst in the country.

Newsom says focusing on those health needs of unhoused people is a component of his ongoing “Comeback Plan,” an effort launched last year to help the state recover from the economic and social impacts of the pandemic.

“This past year, California has been able to move 58,000 individuals off our streets and into the housing and treatment they desperately needed,” said Newsom, adding that it will require a multi-pronged approach to end homelessness because the housing, medical and social needs of unhoused people vary.

When Newsom presented his budget proposal for Fiscal Year 2022-23 on Jan. 10, he asked the Legislature to approve $12 billion to support his housing strategy. About $3 billion of that amount would be spent on behavioral health housing, creating 44,0000 new housing units and treatment opportunities for people who are mentally ill. Another $2 billion would go to local governments in the form of flexible aid for housing programs, he said.

 “The California Blueprint will double down on those efforts, focusing on clearing encampments, while also setting the groundwork for long-term systemic change with significant investments in mental health and substance abuse treatment to get vulnerable people off the streets.”

Black Californians are disproportionately homeless. Of the estimated 160,000 unhoused people in the state, more than 40 % are African American.

Newsom said, in addition to several other measures like securing housing for students and veterans, his administration is currently considering a plan to move the state toward conservatorship for people who are mentally ill. He did not give details about the program, but he said there is a possibility the state will begin entrusting the care of mentally ill people to individuals or institutions in the near future.

In 1967, when Ronald Reagan was governor of California, the State deinstitutionalized mentally ill patients after the Lanterman-Petris-Short Act (LPSA) was passed and signed into law. California was one of the first states to deinstitutionalize mentally ill patients.

The number of mental patients occupying mental hospitals in California reached its highest point at 37,500 in 1959 when former Gov. Jerry Brown’s father, Edmund G. Brown, was governor. It dropped to 22,000 patients eight years later, according to a report by Chauvet Public Relations titled, “The History of Homelessness and Why We Can Do Better.”

Supporters of LPSA believed the law would provide protections for mental health patients and eliminate “the inappropriate, indefinite, and involuntary commitment of persons (to mental institutions) with mental health disorders,” the language of the bill reads.

LSPA critics say it inappropriately empowered mentally ill people to make important health care decisions for themselves when many of them had neither the will nor ability to do so.

When Reagan became president in 1980, he used the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (OBRA) to repeal President Jimmy Carter’s Mental Health Systems Act, which funded federal mental health programs.

The OBRA gave mental patients the authority to make decisions about their treatment, including the options to seek care outside of a mental institution, get treatment at state-run clinics or the freedom to administer their own medication.

Last fall, the Newsom administration publicly let it be known that it is was leading the charge to provide solutions in the areas of low-income housing, mental health, and the state’s enduring homelessness problem.

In October, Gov. Newsom vetoed Assembly Bill (AB) 36, authored by Sen. Sydney Kamlager’s (D-Los Angeles) when she was an Assemblymember. The bill would have provided people experiencing homelessness access to health and social services outside the walls of a traditional medical clinic, including mobile clinics and shelter-based and other transitional housing-based health care.

According to Kamlager, AB 36 would have been the first law of its kind in the nation offering unhoused people Medi-Cal benefits without them having to share the cost.

Newsom’s letter explaining the veto says that the unhoused can already receive similar service through California’s Presumptive Eligibility program, which offers Medi-Cal and timely health care.

The bill was endorsed by 70 organizations and leaders across the state, including Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti. In L.A. County, where over 66,000 people are homeless, African Americans make up 34% of that number although the total Black population is nearly 8%.

People of color in California experience some of the highest rates of homelessness in the nation. For example, nationally, 55 Black people experience homelessness out of every 10,000. In California, that number is 194 out of every 10,000.

Pacific Research Institute (PRI) a San-Francisco-based research think tank released a report in April 2021 that specified decreases of homelessness in major metropolitan areas such as New York City and Seattle.

The report, “No Way to End California’s Homelessness Crisis,” says that “Clearly, California is doing something wrong” in terms of finding solutions.  Although the state makes up 12% (nearly 40 million residents) of the U.S. population, 27% of all homeless persons live in California, stated Kerry Jackson and Wayne Winegarden, the report’s authors.

According to Jackson and Winegarden, mental illness is one of the driving forces behind the California’s chronic homelessness problem.

But all hope is not lost, the researchers say.

“A new approach is needed. To cut through the state bureaucracy, California should rely on private efforts to minimize homelessness. Private organizations are typically better equipped than the government to make real differences in the lives of the homeless because they tailor programs to meet the specific needs of individual homeless and can adapt where the government cannot.”

By Lou Yeboah

There ain’t no other way to put it. Hear what Jesus says in [Mark 9:43-48]; If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter into life maimed, rather than having two hands, to go to hell…. And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life lame, rather than having two feet, to be cast into hell. And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye, rather than having two eyes, to be cast into hell fire where worms do not die, and the fire is not quenched.

I admonish you, detour off the road to Hell. Hell is a place prepared for the devil and his angels, not for you. How will you escape if you ignore God’s salvation? How will you escape His wrath? [John 3:36]; His condemnation? [John 3:18]; His word of banishment? [Matthew 26:41]. You will not! Detour off the road to Hell which the Bible describes as a terrifying and horrible place. “Eternal Fire” [Matthew 25:41], “Unquenchable Fire” [Matthew 3:12; Mark 9:44-49], “Shame and Everlasting Contempt” [Daniel 12:2], “Everlasting Destruction” [2 Thessalonians 1:9]. A “Lake of Burning Sulfur” [Revelation 20:10] where the wicked are “tormented day and night forever and ever.”

Sinking into Hell, hopeless and without excuse!

And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works. And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire. [Revelation 20:12-20].

“And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night…” [Revelation 14:11].

By Lue Dowdy, Lue Productions

Just because we’re in a pandemic, that doesn’t mean you can’t show off your skills. LUE Productions community umbrella services is looking for talented youth for its summer youth talent showcase scheduled to take place Saturday, July 30 in the beautiful City of San Bernardino.

This is a $500 competition so please let a talented youth know about this upcoming opportunity. All participants must be 19 and under to compete.  LUE Productions community umbrella services is a non-profit organization servicing the Inland Empire and beyond. Our goal for this event is to provide a platform for the talented, while bringing forth quality entertainment for the community to enjoy.

Registration forms can be located at http://www.lueproductions.org.The following talent performers in the following categories are encouraged to apply: singing, dancing, poetry, spoken word, bands, and musicians.  Groups are welcome.

By Antonio Ray Harvey | California Black Media

In keeping with its commitment to ending health inequities, the California Health Care Foundation (CHCF) released the first phase of a three-part study documenting how race and racism shape the health care experiences of Black Californians.

The report, “In Their Own Words: Black Californians on Racism and Health Care,” was written by health services researcher Dr. Linda Cummings. The study synthesizes hour-long interviews with 100 Black Californians conducted from June to August 2021.

According to Katherine Haynes, a senior program officer serving on CHCF’s People-Centered Care team, “The project is to understand the interactions between racism, health and healthcare. (The first phase) is in-depth interviews that are really designed to gain a deep understanding of Black Californians’ perception of racism in this state’s healthcare system and its impact on them.”

CHCF’s main objective is to advance meaningful, measurable improvements in the way the health care delivery system provides care to the people of California, specifically individuals who are financially challenged and whose needs are not well served in the healthcare system.

EVITARUS, a Black-owned Los Angeles-based public opinion research firm, is conducting the three-phase

Study for CHCF. The firm has extensive experience polling California’s diverse constituencies and maintains long-standing relationships with Black-led community organizations and media.

“Dr. Linda Cummings wrote the report and we did the research. We designed the study, performed the data collection as well as the data analysis that supported Dr. Cummings and her findings,” according to Shakari Byerly, EVITARUS Managing Partner. “It was a thorough recruitment process and screening and screening of those that indicated an interest in participation. The participants also received an honorarium (of $125) for their participation.”

Findings from the first phase cautioned that just having a Black physician did not automatically result in better care. Negative experiences with Black physicians and other health providers of color can be an obstacle to health care, too.

“It is the subtle, the microaggressions that happen within

the health care field. So, I am resistant to get help unless I feel comfortable with the person who may or may not look like me,” a 33-year-old Black woman from the San Francisco Bay Area stated. “But I also have been discriminated against a lot from Black physicians as well.”

Cummings wrote that more than half of the respondents said that, at some time in their lives, they had been unhoused, without a stable place to live, or stayed with a family member or friend because they did not have a place of their own.

Notably, the study highlighted that the participants took their health care seriously.

“The respondents really spoke about how they were taking action to pursue health, advocating for themselves, in the health care system and taking steps to protect themselves from harm in the health care system,” said Haynes.

Nearly all the respondents (93%) had some form of health insurance. The majority were covered through employer-sponsored plans at 40% or Medi-Cal at 26%, the study reports.

The mix of participants also reflected the ethnic diversity of Black Californians. The majority of respondents identified as Black or African American (83%), Black and multiracial (6%), African (5%), Afro-Caribbean (4%), Afro-Latino (1%), and Black-Native American (1%), Byerly said.

“Everyone identified as Black, but we recognize that people come from different backgrounds,” Byerly said.  “It supports our research design to make sure that we show a full range of our community in California.”

Byerly also shared that 62% of the participants said they have experienced “some type of discrimination” based on their background while getting healthcare for themselves. About 59% said they were treated unfairly while getting healthcare for a family member, she added.

Phase II of the Listening to Black Californians study examines “structural issues” in the health care system gleaned from focus group discussions with Black Californians and key health care stakeholders,” Haynes said.

The third and final phase of the study will be a statewide survey of Black California residents. It will be crafted to evaluate the extent to which the Phase I and Phase II findings are represented in the general Black Californian population.

“The second phase with 18 focus groups, was completed right before the winter holidays. The third phase, we hope, will have over 3,000 Black-Californian participants,” Hayes said. “The final report is expected in the summer of 2022.”

Read the full report.

New HIT Strategies poll shows that even older Black voters, typically stalwart supporters of Democratic party candidates, are falling off

a HIT Strategies feature

President Joe Biden’s job performance approval numbers continue to decline among Black voters, including now older Black voters, a traditionally stalwart constituency primarily responsible for his presidential win.

By Aldon Thomas | California Black Media

Voting rights was the central theme at a virtual breakfast the California Legislative Black Caucus (CLBC) held Jan. 12 to celebrate the sacrifices and impact of Martin Luther King Jr. on American life and politics.

“It is not enough to evoke Dr. King’s name on his birthday, post on social media and then take the day off,” said Sen. Steve Bradford (D-Inglewood), CLBC chair, reminding the audience of King’s activism and how his efforts led to the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Bradford said there are forces still attacking the rights of some Americans to vote, and more work needs to be done to make sure the voices of all Americans are heard and that all voters have access to the ballot box.

“His birthday should be about a day on, a day of activity in our community, of activism and continuing to push for real change in this country,” he continued.

California Secretary of State Shirley Weber, who is a former chair of the CLBC, said “the crisis of democracy is center stage, we are still fighting for our fundamental rights.”

“In 1965, we secured [the vote] and now we find ourselves debating the same issue over again and with great concern about the fact that we are faced with the rolling back of what we had thought was just old stuff that people would never go back to,” said Weber.

A day before the CLBC breakfast, President Biden and Vice President Harris visited Atlanta to emphasize the importance of protecting voting rights. Although, the House of Representatives voted a day later to pass the Freedom to Vote: John Lewis Act, the legislation is in jeopardy of not passing in the U.S. Senate as two Democratic Senators — Joe Manchin (D-WV) and Krysten Sinema (D-AZ) — refuse to change the rules allowing a minority of senators to block legislation.

Weber said there are about 400 bills making their way through state legislatures across the country that are attempting to restrict voting rights.

“Here we are now in this century, in this timeframe, in 2022, and we are talking about something that took place in 1965 in terms of the Voting Rights Act,” said Weber. “Dr. King told us, ‘I see governors with the words of interposition and nullification dripping from their lips.’ In other words, ‘I see Jim Crow laws. I see governors trying to overturn federal law with regards to what is right and what is just in this country.’”

Civil rights activist and friend of Dr. King, Rev. James Lawson, also spoke at the virtual breakfast and encouraged Black leaders to fight for their communities.

“Black elected officials must support the community of Black people all around the country, organizing continuous campaigns,” said Lawson who shared intimate details of his work with Dr. King and how much King’s ideas, strategizing and activism secured the human rights of all Americans.

During a press call on the same day, Director of the White House Office of Public Engagement Cedric Richmond spoke about the historical weight of the current voting rights standoff among lawmakers in Washington.

“Our democracy has faced defining moments many times in our history and this is one of those,” said Richmond. “This will be a question of what side you want to be on.”

Lawson called for community leaders to “dismantle plantation capitalism” and praised the work of other Black leaders that led to civil rights legislation during the Civil Rights Movement in the 1950s and 1960s.

“The greatest use of law and nonviolent tactic was the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Many movements were in it, and we must not forget Little Rock Nine, Jackie Robinson’s desegregation of baseball and so on. It helped the Black community come together,” said Lawson.