Tag Archives: slider

SAN BERNARDINO, CA—- The year 2020 marks the start of a new decade and it signals change.  More and more parents of Latinx high school students want their children to succeed and they seek the help of role models in their communities to aid their children to go to college. The 36^th Annual Inland Empire Future Leaders Program (IEFLP) aims to meet that need by offering leadership development, cultural pride, and educational awareness to Latinx eighth- and ninth-grade students from schools representing San Bernardino, Riverside, Orange, and Los Angeles counties.

IEFLP’s goals are to motivate Latinx students to graduate from high school, strive for academic excellence, become leaders in school, and in their communities, and eventually, earn a college degree.  In addition, participants will receive leadership training, financial literacy information and will learn communication skills which are emphasized in combination with cultural pride workshops.

115 Latinx eighth- and ninth-grade students are confirmed to participate in the 36th annual IEFLP conference. Amid the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic and in order to protect the wellness of the students, staff volunteers, and conference presenters IEFLP has deemed best to host the entire summer conference via an online platform. Students who do not have access to electronic devices and/or reliable internet connection will receive support from IEFLP. This year’s program will be held from June 17, 2020, to June 19, 2020. 

IEFLP seeks to create a meaningful and enduring virtual connection amongst the delegates (a name used to address the participants of the conference). Dr. R.C. Heredia, an alumnus of Colton High School, UCLA, and Pepperdine Univ. and chair of the IEFLP Board of Directors alongside with Vanessa S. Ibarra, Esq., an alumna of California State University, San Bernardino and Loyola Law School and this year’s IEFLP Executive Conference Director, acknowledge that “now more than ever, our community will need continuing education, guidance, and uplifting support from one another to persevere during this unprecedented difficult time.” According to Vanessa S. Ibarra, Esq., “IEFLP will empower the next generation of future leaders that will shape reforms to uplift our community.”

IEFLP will offer a network with IEFLP alum and college students throughout the country, provide exposure to role models, and allow students to connect with high school students throughout Southern California. Role models like the 2019 recipient of the IEFL Art Arzola Scholarship ($1500) Mariah Grajeda, 2019 valedictorian of Middle College High School and current student at UCLA. Grajeda, along with the rest of the 100% volunteer staff, has helped make IEFLP a special experience for all delegates. Rodolfo Monterrosa, Esq., is another conference participant from the 1988 IEFLP, currently a public defender and immigration attorney at Monterrosa Law. “Rudy” is a native of Bloomington where he was the valedictorian of the class of 1991. He graduated from Stanford University and Notre Dame Law School. The delegates will receive mentorship and guidance from successful Latinx individuals like them. 

In the past, delegates who benefitted from the experience have expressed their gratitude to IEFLP. Arturo Rodriguez, 2009 delegate said, “The program encouraged me to follow my dreams and never give up. It sparked my interest in becoming a public servant and serving the Latinx community in any way, shape, or form. This program gave me the necessary tools to become a leader in my community and strive for change.” Additionally, Dr. R.C. Heredia, a 1992 conference delegate, said, “Having experienced this program as a high school student, I learned the leadership tools that have helped me to succeed in high school, at UCLA, in graduate school, and in my career. The confidence in myself and the network that I developed from my experiences with IEFLP was instrumental for me in earning a doctorate degree.”

Over 4,400 students have participated in the program, which commenced in 1985. The program’s popularity and effectiveness among students, parents, educators, and community supporters can be shown from yearly surveys since 1990, which indicates that 99 percent of student participants graduate from high school and 90 percent attend college. For the past thirty-five years, Inland Empire Future Leaders has helped many of its delegates attend and graduate from: Harvard, Notre Dame, Pepperdine, Stanford, UCLA, USC, UCR, UCSB, UCSD, CSUSB and the list goes on and on. Many of the conference’s delegates have gone on to become: lawyers, teachers, doctors, professors, filmmakers, journalists, and even congressmen (U.S. Members of Congress Pete Aguilar and  Dr. Raul Ruiz)!

This year’s conference will be dedicated to Judith Segura-Mora, an alumna from the original IEFL conference in 1985.  Judith has volunteered her time and energy for the program since the 1980s and currently serves on the Board of Directors. Funding for the program is provided through individuals, community groups, businesses, foundations, school districts, and government agencies. IEFLP encourages you to visit our website at www.iefl.org, add us on Facebook at Inland Empire Future Leaders Program, and/or follow us on Instagram at ieflp. 

By Tanu Henry | California Black Media 

On June 12, the California Assembly voted 61-12 to approve AB 3121. 

The “reparations” bill calls for the creation of a task force to study and propose ideas for how African Americans in California can be compensated for slavery and its “after lives,” as the author of the legislation, Dr. Shirley Weber (D-San Diego), describes the Jim Crow laws and other forms of injustice and state-sanctioned discrimination that have existed in the United States from 1865 until now. 

“The bill would require the task force to recommend, among other things, the appropriate mechanism for redress as it pertains to California’s role in the enslavement of Black people,” Weber read in a statement at the bill’s hearing to her colleagues on the California state Assembly floor. 

The California state Senate is now reviewing the bill and is expected to vote on it by June 25. 

If the bill passes the Senate and Gov. Newsom signs it into law, the state will appoint and commission an eight-member task force comprised of people from different backgrounds. The team would lead the study that defines what reparations should look like and who would be eligible to receive compensation. 

“Until the end of the U.S. Civil War, California city and county law enforcement authorities enforced a contract labor system, allowing slave holders to effectively hold persons in bondage,” Weber said. “In other words, California state, county and city authorities actively supported the institution of Black slavery both within and beyond California.” 

In May, the Assembly Judiciary committee voted yes on the bill. Nearly a month later, the Appropriations committee passed it, too, before it moved to the Assembly floor for a full vote last week. 

“Its time we took an honest look at our history. This is not about pointing fingers. It’s about getting to the truth. African Americans have loved this country, and we have served it, and we have contributed to its might as much as every other American,” said Hardy Brown, the founder of California Black Media. 

“We are not making this up. The history is all there. City councils, state legislatures and the federal government crafted racist laws and adapted racially-biased public policies that deliberately excluded African Americans,” Brown continued. “They erected legal barriers that held us back and robbed us of economic opportunities that were afforded others for centuries — both here in California and across this land.” 

Standing with Weber, all the other members of the California Legislative Black Caucus co-sponsored AB 3121. They are Senator Steven Bradford (D-Los Angeles), the group’s vice chair; Senator Holly J. Mitchell (D-Los Angeles); Assemblymember Sydney Kamlager (D-Los Angeles), secretary; Assemblymember Jim Cooper (D-Sacramento), treasurer; Assemblymember Chris R. Holden (D-Pasadena); Assemblymember Mike A. Gipson (D-Los Angeles); Assemblymember Autumn Burke (D-South Bay, Los Angeles); Assemblymember Reginald Jones-Sawyer, Sr. (D- South Los Angeles); Assemblymember Kevin McCarty (D-Sacramento). 

“Justice requires that those who have been treated unjustly need the means to make themselves whole again,” Weber told her colleagues. 

Twelve of the 17 Republican members of the state Assembly voted no on the bill. They are Assemblymembers Frank Bigelow (R-O’Neals); Bill Brough (R-Dana Point); Steven Choi (R-Irvine); Jordan Cunningham (R-Paso Robles); Megan Dahle (R-Bieber); James Gallagher (R-Yuba City); Kevin Kiley (R-Rocklin); Tom Lackey (R-Palmdale); Devon Mathis (R-Visalia); Jay Obernolte (R-Big Bear Lake); Jim Patterson (R-Fresno); and Randy Voepel (R-Santee). 

The Assembly Republicans have not issued a formal statement opposing AB 3121. However, Joshua Hoover, Kiley’s chief of staff, has said that he believes a discussion about reparations for slavery should happen on the federal level.

By Assemblymember Dr. Shirley Weber, Chair of the California Legislative Black Caucus

One thing is clear this Juneteenth: change cannot wait. Today, not only do we commemorate Black liberation from slavery, we also commemorate victims of police brutality and the lives lost at their hands.

Our nation is witnessing an uprising of righteous self-expression onto our streets, onto our newsfeeds, and into our discourse. This includes expressions of anger, grief, exhaustion, but most importantly a desire to create real change. And change that is immediate.

The average Black family is financially 10 times worse off than the average white family. We protest economic injustices bolstered by systemic racism.   We protest the underinvestment in Black neighborhoods, the disparity in health outcomes, and the criminalization of Black bodies. We protest the killings of unarmed Black people and the systemic inequities legally written into this country’s fabric.

If I have one message for the inspirational people who have taken to the streets to manifest our demands, it is this: change is a movement and a process. And change will happen and is happening because we are making it happen.

So yes, we must voice our anger, and seize this moment to make our demands clear. We must also be conscious that change requires the continued participation of every single one of us.

Some of that energy must come from lawmakers. That’s the reason why I’ve put forward proposals to repeal Proposition 209 and study reparations to Black Californians. Across the country, we are seeing a wave of reforms to address police brutality, whose victims are overwhelmingly Black. Those are crucial legislative steps we must march to combat the impacts of racism and inequality.

And we’ve still got work to do.

To create true change, our civic and political culture needs to reflect and represent this movement’s gravity. Anyone who values justice and equality must be ready to organize, to advocate, to run for office – to vote.

Participating in the 2020 Census is one immediate action every Californian can take right now. Filling out a simple, nine-question form that only asks for basic information like your name, address, age, and race might not feel revolutionary. But, like filling out a ballot, participating in the Census is just as essential as protesting to the health of our democracy and the fight for justice and equity.

An accurate Census is foundational to our democracy and our communities’ growth because the data helps determine how much federal funding and political representation each community receives. Its influence on how dollars are spent in communities around the country means it can help reverse some of the structural inequities by bringing back to our neighborhoods what rightfully belongs to us. For Black Californians, this is one small step toward equality that only comes around every 10 years.

Black communities have been historically undercounted in the Census, dating back to the very first one in 1790.  In the 2010 Census, more than 800,000 African Americans were undercounted in the U.S. Totaling billions of dollars for programs for our children and seniors, ranging from health care to education, food programs to housing grants.  Participating in the Census alone may not be enough to bring the change our society needs – yet it is still an absolutely necessary component. 

We can’t afford to wait another 10 years.

We cannot deny the history of this country. We know this. We also know we must face it and fight it. And because there’s no one solution, we must be a united front and combat systemic injustice from all angles.

Protest, act, organize, vote – and count. Count now.

Special to California Black Media Partners From The San Francisco Sun Reporter

For Black Lives Matter co-founder Alicia Garza, the widespread global protests and activism that followed the murder of George Floyd, an unarmed Black man, by Minnesota police have been heartening — and they make her feel hopeful for the future.  At the same time, she said, “It’s bittersweet that it takes someone being murdered on camera to get to the point of conversation that we’re in.” 

“I was horrified,” Garza said of viewing the video of Floyd’s life being taken by a White police officer with his knee on Floyd’s neck.  “Every time a Black person is murdered by police there is something disturbing about it.”  She added, in this case, “Just the callousness of it; and him calling for his mother. There’s just so much in there that’s horrifying. It’s just a brutal reminder of how Black lives don’t matter in this country.” 

Garza, who lives in Oakland, is Strategy and Partnerships Director for the National Domestic Workers Alliance and Principal at the Black Futures Lab.   

Seeing Black Lives Matter (BLM) signs held by protestors in all 50 states, including in many small towns with few Black residents, Garza said, “It’s humbling to see it and to have been a small part of it.” She is heartened that people are awakening.     

“I got to take over Selena Gomez’ Instagram last week. It was awesome.” She said people are really hungry for information. “We’ve been doing a lot of work and talk about what’s going on.  When folks like Selena do that, it engages people in issues of our time. I plan to work with her through this election cycle”.

Garza said she will also be taking over Lady Gaga’s social media in the coming week.  “We’re really focused on transferring this energy into political power.” 

She said it’s important to change the people who are making the rules and those who aren’t enforcing the rules. She cited as an example the recent election in Georgia where voters in predominantly Black areas waited hours to vote. Movement for Black Lives is not just about police violence. It’s about how Black lives are devalued.  

Black Lives Matter is for an opportunity for us to recognize and uphold the right to humanity and dignity for Black people.  She said Black people also have to work “to remove the negatives we’ve internalized about ourselves.”  

“For people who are not Black, there’s also work to do.”  She said it’s not only about changing the rules, but also about a culture shift. “That’s what I think we’re seeing now.  It’s going to take all of us staying committed.” 

She said the millions joining protests following the murders of George Floyd, Ahmaud Auberry and Breonna Taylor were sparked by “a powder keg waiting to happen.”  “People are mad about a lot of stuff.  We’re all tender right now.  It’s an election year. We find ourselves in a global pandemic. The lack of human touch… and being able to gather.  Because of that we also have the expansion of an economic crisis.  Not only are people trying to stay healthy, they’re trying to pay their bills.” 

“What we can all agree on is that policing is not serving the people that they’re supposed to serve.  When we’re afraid of the police that’s not serving.  Whenever I see tanks, rubber bullets, and tear gas being used -we pay for that. Are we keeping people safe?  We’ve been defunding the Black community for a long time.”   

“Defund the Police” is a controversial slogan that has been held by some protestors.  Garza said that slogan comes from the Movement for Black Lives, a coalition that includes BLM.  “This work is something many organizations have been doing for many years,” she said.    

“It’s really about getting a handle on how we’re spending our money.” She cited the fact that education funds have been cut, the postal service is near bankrupt, and thousands of homeless are living on the streets.   

“We’re using police to deal with homeless. You don’t send a nurse to deal with a drug cartel.”  “We did the largest survey of Black America in 2018 – The Black Census Project.  The overwhelming majority said in the past six months they’d had a negative experience with the police.”   

She said what she supports is “limiting the size, scope and role police play in our communities. Police also need consequences when harm is enacted. Police unions are a huge, huge issue.  They block transparency for officers.”   Speaking of another campaign that’s getting national attention Project Zero’s “8 That Can’t Wait,” Garza cautioned, “We have to be wary of things that are a quick fix.”    

She said “8 That Can’t Wait,” s campaign that pushes proposals for police reforms, “doesn’t deal with the real issue here: nobody should be above the law.” 

“Public safety is not about bloated police budgets. It’s about expanding the safety net for Black people,” she concluded. 

By Tanu Henry | California Black Media  

Last week, Norman Pearlstine, the editor of the LA Times, sent a memo to staffers announcing that the publication will begin capitalizing “B” in the word Black in its articles when referring to a race of people.   

That move puts the publication with the largest circulation in California in line with the way the majority of the Black Press in California and around the country have referred to African Americans for decades since they retired “Negro,” beginning in the 1960s to the early 1970s.  Pearlstine also announced that the LA Times is taking steps to add more diversity to its newsroom by increasing the number of Black and Latino journalists on its staff.   

“Within the next two weeks we shall form a group to work on overhauling our hiring process,” Pearlstine wrote to employees. “The global pandemic and the global financial crisis constrain our ability to make a hiring commitment by a specific date. We can commit, however, that the next hires in Metro will be Black reporters, as we begin to address the underrepresentation.”  

In the wake of the brutal murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis and the violent protests that followed it, across America, more and more people have begun to point out, own up to, and apologize for abetting racism and anti-Blackness in all of their forms — explicit, subtle and systemic. Americans from all backgrounds have begun to publicly acknowledge how discrimination, over the years, have hurt and held back African Americans for centuries.   

Last week, other media organizations across the country, including BuzzFeed News, NBC News, MSNBC, Metro Detroit, and others, announced that they have made the decision to begin capitalizing the “B” in Black as well.  

The National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ), the country’s largest professional organization of Black media professionals and journalism students,  released a statement that said the organization has been writing Black with a capital “B” in all of its communications for about a year now.   

The NABJ is also recommending that “White” and “Brown” be capitalized, too, when referring to race.   “It is equally important that the word is capitalized in news coverage and reporting about Black people, Black communities, Black culture, Black institutions, etc,” the NABJ statement said.    

Sarah Glover, past president of the NABJ, wrote a letter to the Associated Press (AP).   “I’m writing today to request the mainstream news media begin capitalizing the “B” in Black when describing people and the community,” wrote Glover.   

“I’m also asking the AP to update its Stylebook to reflect this change, effective immediately,” Glover continued.  

“This book is the bible for working journalists and sets journalistic industry standards. The AP has tremendous impact as a wire service with more than 1,000 subscribers worldwide.”   

Larry Lee, the publisher and CEO of the Sacramento Observer, the oldest Black-owned news publication in California’s capital city said whenever he sees a lowercase “B” in Black, it feels like a “slap in the face.”   

I always felt that they were devaluing our community,” said Lee, who is a second-generation publisher of the Observer. He took the helm of the family-owned business from his father William Lee, who founded the newspaper in 1962 and passed last year.   

“This is wonderful. Its progress,” Lee continued. “I applaud other media outlets that are doing that. We thought it was important, in a journalistic sense, to recognize Black Americans and African Americans in the same vein that you stylistically recognize Hispanics and any other ethnicity.”  

Lee, who’s is 47, says for as long as he can remember, the Observer and other Black-owned newspapers across the country have capitalized the “B” in Black also to affirm the humanity of African Americans, evoke a sense of cultural pride,  and to align themselves with the 1970’s “I’m Black and I’m Proud” movement popularized in pop culture by James Brown and others.   

Lee says, for a while now, Black publishers have called on general market newspapers to adapt that policy, too.   Paulette Brown-Hinds, Publisher of the Black Voice News in Riverside, is also a second-generation executive of an African American, family-owned newspaper in California.   

“As a newspaper, we have capitalized the word Black for decades,” said Brown-Hinds, who took over the day-to-day operation of the paper in 2012 from her parents, Hardy and Cheryl Brown.   

“We have always shared a Pan-Africanist worldview, regarding Black as being more encompassing of people of the African Diaspora,” she continued. “I guess our counterparts, in what people call the mainstream media, are finally catching-up with something we’ve been doing all along.”  

In her letter, Glover said organizations moving to change their policy on capitalizing Black is a “good first step.”  

“This matters. It’s to bring humanity to a group of people who have experienced forms of oppression and discrimination since they first came to the United States 401 years ago as enslaved people. I ask for this change in honor of the Black Press,” she wrote.   

The New York Times, which adheres to its own style guide that is different from AP’s, also still uses Black with a lowercase B.

With 2020 unfolding as a year of reckoning for institutional racism, the Juneteenth holiday rises to new significance. President Donald Trump has rescheduled for this weekend a campaign rally originally set for June 19 in Tulsa, where a century ago, hundreds of Black Americans were killed and thousands were injured in a massacre that wiped out Black Wall Street. The president plans to accept the Republican nomination in Jacksonville on Aug. 27, which is the 60th anniversary of an attack on Black protesters in that city known as “Ax Handle Saturday.” USC experts discuss the significance of Juneteenth, a holiday on June 19 meant to celebrate the end of slavery in America.

The work that must be done

“What is the meaning of freedom? What are the contours of freedom and how is it an illusion? As a historian of anti-colonialism, Islam, and the Black freedom struggle, my research examines a number of mechanisms that Black people across the African diaspora have successfully used to challenge white supremacy including religion, protest, and legal and legislative mechanisms.

“In recent weeks, protesters have taken to the streets to demand justice for the victims of police violence and to insist on institutional change. On Friday, African Americans will celebrate Juneteenth, the commemoration of the official end of chattel slavery 2 ½ years after Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation. Ongoing protests make this Juneteenth significant and this year presents an opportunity to reflect on the notion of freedom and the work that must be done to sustain it.”

Alaina Morgan is assistant professor of history at the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences. Trained as a historian of the African Diaspora, Morgan’s research focuses on the historic utility of religion, in particular Islam, in racial liberation and anti-colonial movements of the mid- to late-20th century Atlantic world.

Contact: alainamo@usc.edu

Why was the rally originally set for Juneteenth?

“President Trump has chosen Tulsa, site of a terrible racial cleansing of African Americans from the early 20th century’s Black Wall Street to carry his message of bigotry and xenophobia to his voter base — and had originally chosen Juneteenth, the date on which African Americans in Texas celebrated emancipation from slavery.

“If he did so knowingly, it demonstrates breathtaking cynicism; if unknowingly, breathtaking historical ignorance.”

Ariela Gross is a professor of law and history at the USC Gould School of Law. Her research focuses on race and slavery in the United States and she is the author, with Alejandro de la Fuente of Harvard University, of Becoming Free, Becoming Black: Race, Freedom, and Law in Cuba, Virginia, and Louisiana.

Contact: agross@law.usc.edu

Struggle for freedom continues

“Juneteenth is an important remembrance and celebration of Black resistance and struggles for freedom and liberation. In the United States and elsewhere, Black people and others come together to commemorate the ancestors and social movements that upended slavery and who after its abolishment struggled against new forms and systems of racial violence, death, and injustice. It is a demonstration of Black joy; a celebration of Black family, community, and networks of kinship; and an altar to honor the people of past, present, and future whose sacrifices and resilience help mobilize and sustain us and raise our consciousness.

“What is ultimately important to recognize about Juneteenth is that it is not a celebration of the ‘freeing’ of Black people, but rather of Black people’s agency in rejecting and resisting dehumanization and terror. We were not freed. We have constantly struggled to free and liberate ourselves and others.”

Robeson Taj Frazier is an associate professor of communication at the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, and director of the Institute for Diversity and Empowerment at Annenberg (IDEA). He is a cultural historian who explores the arts, political and expressive cultures of the people of the African Diaspora in the United States and elsewhere.

Contact: rfrazier@usc.edu

The irony of Juneteenth as a celebration of freedom

“Juneteenth is set aside to celebrate freedom. The irony is that it marks a time more than two years after the end of the Civil War when Black people had not been given their full humanity and many did not yet know that legally, enslavement had ended. It also ushered in Jim Crow and continued segregation and dehumanization.

“The parallel with today is there has to not only be an announcement of change, but the action of change. This Juneteenth we should think about what was it intended to commemorate: What did freedom look like over the past 155 years? Freedom for whom? What is freedom? Have we achieved it?”

Sharoni Little is associate dean and chief diversity, equity, and inclusion officer at the USC Marshall School of Business. Her research and expertise centers on organizational leadership, strategic communication, and diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Racism affects “where we live, work, learn, and pray”

“Institutional and structural racism is something that lingers and lasts. Even if we were able to get rid of all prejudice, even if we were able to put something in the water tomorrow that had us all wake up and not feel any racial animosity towards anybody, we would still have neighborhoods that have crumbling schools.

“Institutional racism goes to what banks will loan what money to what customers, what neighborhoods they will make mortgage loans in. It goes to the fact that a lot of black neighborhoods are close to environmental toxins. That’s why black people have a higher asthma rate; a factor when it comes to coronavirus and making it more lethal. The legacy of racism is baked into our social and economic arrangements: where we live, work, learn, and pray, the quality of the air we breathe, the food we eat, the health care we get — it permeates every nook and cranny of our collective social existence.”

Jody Armour studies the intersection of race and legal decision making as well as torts and tort reform movements as the Roy P. Crocker Professor of Law at USC Gould School of Law.

Contact: armour@law.usc.edu

SACRAMENTO – Last week, Senator Steven Bradford (D-Gardena) and other California elected representatives gathered at the West Steps of the state’s capitol to pay tribute to the late George Floyd. 

“We knelt in silence, honor and respect for George Floyd’s life. But we also placed a collective knee on police brutality and racism in this country,” said Senator Steven Bradford. “Over the last fifteen days we have witnessed one of the most amazingly diverse peaceful protests across the world. We are sick and tired of being sick and tired of the cycle of the wash, rinse and repeat approach to racism and police brutality. Now is the time to stand up.”

Officials honored George Floyd by kneeling in front of California’s capitol building for eight minutes and forty-six seconds. Attendance at the solemn tribute included Senate pro Tem Atkins, Assembly Speaker Rendon, Lieutenant Governor Kounalakis, and representatives on behalf of the Los Angeles County Delegation, and Black, Latino, Jewish, API, LGBTQ, and Women’s Caucuses.

On May 25, 2020, Mr. Floyd was killed during an arrest where the officer knelt on his neck and back for eight minutes and forty-six seconds, ignoring cries that he could not breathe, while other officers did nothing. Four officers involved in the arrest have been charged with counts of second-degree murder and aiding and abetting second-degree murder.

Mr. Floyd’s death comes only six weeks after police in Louisville, Kentucky, fatally shot Breonna Taylor, a 26-year-old black woman, during a midnight “no-knock” raid on her home. It comes ten weeks after the killing of Ahmaud Arbery, a 25-year-old black man, who was chased down by a white father and son in a pickup truck as he jogged in his neighborhood in Glynn County, Georgia.

Washington (AFP) – Democratic lawmakers knelt in silent tribute to George Floyd in the US Congress on Monday before unveiling a package of sweeping police reforms in response to the killing of African Americans by law enforcement.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer were joined by some two dozen lawmakers in Emancipation Hall — named in honor of the slaves who helped erect the US Capitol in the 18th century.

They knelt for eight minutes and 46 seconds to mark the length of time a white police officer pinned his knee on the neck of the 46-year-old Floyd, whose May 25 death in Minneapolis unleashed protests against racial injustice across America.

The Democrats said their bill aimed to create “meaningful, structural change that safeguards every Americans’ right to safety and equal justice.”

The legislation seeks to “end police brutality, hold police accountable (and) improve transparency in policing,” a statement said.

Pelosi, who like other kneeling lawmakers was draped in a colorful Kente cloth scarf that pays homage to black Americans’ African heritage, spoke afterward of the “martyrdom of George Floyd” and the grief over black men and women killed at the hands of police.

“This movement of national anguish is being transformed into a movement of national action,” she said.

The Justice and Policing Act, introduced in both chambers of Congress, would make it easier to prosecute officers for abuse and rethink how they are recruited and trained.

Its chance of passage in the Senate, where Republicans hold the majority, is highly uncertain.

Donald Trump, who is running for re-election in November, has cast himself as the law-and-order president and accuses Joe Biden, his Democratic rival for the White House, of seeking to defund police forces.

“The Radical Left Democrats want to Defund and Abandon our Police. Sorry, I want LAW & ORDER!” he tweeted on Monday.

The former vice president has not made any public statements supporting the defunding of law enforcement.

His campaign spokesman Andrew Bates said in a statement that Biden “supports the urgent need for reform” including funding community policing programs that improve relationships between officers and residents and help avert unjustifiable deaths.

Biden, who has said he believes the nation is at “an inflection point” given the magnitude of the protests, was traveling Monday to Houston to meet Floyd’s family. – ‘We hear you’ –

The policing legislation, introduced by Congressional Black Caucus Chair Karen Bass and two black senators, Cory Booker and Kamala Harris, would ban the use of choke holds and mandate the use of dashboard cameras and body cameras for federal officers.

It mandates broad training reforms and would establish a misconduct registry to prevent fired officers moving to another jurisdiction without any accountability.

“A profession where you have the power to kill should be a profession that requires highly trained officers who are accountable to the public,” Bass told reporters.

Lawmakers expressed solidarity with the countless Americans who have taken to the streets in protest against police brutality and racial injustice.

“Black lives matter. The protests we’ve seen in recent days are an expression of rage and one of despair,” House Democrat Steny Hoyer said.

“Today Democrats in the House and Senate are saying: ‘We see you, we hear you, we are acting.”

SAN BERNARDINO, CA – Yesterday, Rep. Pete Aguilar announced that Riverside-San Bernardino County Indian Health, Inc has received $383,553 in coronavirus-response funding from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). The funding will allow the organization to increase staff and provide protective equipment to prevent further spread of the virus within the region’s tribal communities.

“Since the beginning of this pandemic, I’ve worked with my House colleagues to make sure Inland Empire communities have the resources they need to prevent the spread of this virus and protect essential workers and health care personnel. I’m proud to announce this funding, which will help our tribal communities overcome this crisis and will lead to better health outcomes overall,” said Rep. Aguilar.

“The grant award comes to us at a pivotal time in our battle against this COVID-19 virus. Due to the scarcity in public health infrastructure and emergency management amongst the tribes we serve, our Native American  patient population is dependent on Riverside-San Bernardino County Indian Health, Inc. to provide risk mitigation in times of crisis,” stated Riverside–San Bernardino County Indian CEO, Jess Montoya.

“This award will enable us to purchase essential equipment and supplies, hire additional support staff, implement appropriate technology, and strengthen our organization’s public health activities to thoroughly care for our patients and reduce the impact of COVID-19 in our tribal communities. We would like to acknowledge Representative Aguilar for his support to Indian County at this time for his assistance in funding this program. This will benefit our patients and clinic system immediately and down the road.”

Rep. Aguilar serves as the Vice Chair of the House Appropriations Committee, the committee responsible for allocating federal funding to agencies such as HHS.

Last week, African American activists confronted affirmative action opponents on a Zoom town hall a conservative Republican candidate organized. At least one Republican elected official attended the event that the Silicon Valley Chinese Association Foundation (SVCAF) supported.    

June Yang Cutter is an Asian American Republican running for State Assembly in District 77, which covers parts of northern San Diego and the nearby cities of Poway and Rancho Santa Fe, among others.  She is running against incumbent Brian Maienschein (D-San Diego). 

One major topic on the call was the proposed constitutional amendment ACA 5.  

ACA 5 would allow California voters a chance to uphold or overturn Proposition 209, a ballot measure that passed in 1996 outlawing the consideration of race in contracting, college admissions, employment and state data reporting in California.  

If voters approve ACA 5 in November, it would bring Affirmative Action back to the state of California. The state would then join 42 other states that provide equal opportunity programs that support women and minorities.?? 

Affirmative Action is an issue that has polarized some staunch African American opponents of Prop 209 and some avid Asian American supporters of it in California, driving a deep wedge that remains smack-dab at the heart of the relationship between those two advocacy camps.  

Last Wednesday, June 3, during a virtual town hall meeting organized to drum up opposition to ACA 5, participants made some comments Black activists said were misguided and demeaning.  

Some of the Black participants, who attended the digital town hall took offense when one of the speakers referenced a Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., quote to make the argument that Black people should get ahead by their own means rather than lean on affirmative action to access opportunities.  

“He had this immigrant story of how he had to pull himself up by the bootstraps,” said Chris Lodgson, a member of American Descendants of Slavery (ADOS). “(And he) started talking about how Dr. Martin Luther King would not be in favor of ACA 5 and Affirmative Action. That was sort of the tipping point. I told him that it was disrespectful for him to invoke the name of Dr. Martin Luther King. Taking away Affirmative Action has particularly hurt us.” 

Lodgson and other ADOS members, say the Zoom call moderators, dropped them from the meeting when they started speaking up, but they made sure they communicated to the group that  some of the comments made on the call were disrespectful and insulting to them. They also pointed out that the selective reference to King without providing context dishonored the memory of an African American icon who stood for equality for all.  

“We let them know,” Lodgson said. “The second point I made was that George Floyd was put in the ground in the middle of COVID-19, and you all out here trying to take (stuff) away from Black folks. It’s disgusting and you should be ashamed of yourselves. We told them just like that.” 

Last month, the California Assembly Committee on Public Employment and Retirement approved ACA 5, which Assemblymember Dr. Shirley (D-San Diego) Weber, chair of the California Legislative Black Caucus (CLBC), introduced earlier this year. It passed out of committee with a 6-1 vote.? 

Under current law, Prop 209 prohibits the state from discriminating against or granting preferential treatment to certain individuals or groups on the basis of their race, sex color, ethnicity, or national origin.? 

Many opponents of Prop 209 say the legislation puts an end to opportunities that were designed to level the playing field for minorities.?? 

If approved by voters in the November 2020 general election, ACA 5, also known as the California Act for Economic Prosperity, would remove the provisions of Prop 209 from the California Constitution.? 

ACA 5 has the support of various organizations and civic leaders across the state, which include the National Organization of Women, California Federation of Teachers, California-Hawaii NAACP State Conference, Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf, and California State Board of Equalization member Malia Cohen. 

 
Others supporters of the proposition are the Justice Society, California Black Chamber of Commerce, Chinese For Affirmative Action (an organization that protects the civil and political rights of Chinese Americans). 

San Francisco Board of Supervisors President Norman Yee also endorses the ACA 5. 

Although several prominent Asian American leaders and organizations support ACA 5, others remain bitterly opposed to it.  

Crystal Lu, President of the SVCAF, wrote a letter to members of the California Assembly urging them to vote no.  

“The 14th Amendment of the US Constitution clearly states that no state shall deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of its laws,” Lu’s letter read. “ACA 5 re-introduces racial preferences, still a form of racial discrimination, into the state law. Therefore, it violates the US Constitution. It will divide California and pit one group of citizens against another simply based on their race, sex, color, ethnicity or national origin.” 

Lu said the SVCAF has started a Change.org ?petition? that more than 22,600 people have signed.  

Dr. Mei-ling Malone, an adjunct professor at California State University, Fullerton, who has an African American father and Taiwanese mother, supports ACA 5.? 

Malone, an instructor of African American Studies, told California Black Media that Asian Americans have an unfortunate history of taking unfriendly positions toward African Americans that dates all the way back to the late 1800s and early 1900s.  

They did not come in chains like Black people, she said, referring to a group of Chinese immigrants as one example of an Asian American sub-group whose historical relationship with African Americans has been characterized more by conflict than agreement.  

 The need for labor on the Continental Railroad and other menial jobs at the turn of the 20^th century prompted the United States to relax immigration policies. Asians took advantage of it and emigrated in large numbers.   

“Asian Americans have had a long history of being anti-Black as their strategy to protect themselves,” Malone said in a telephone interview with CBM. “Say like in the early 1900s when the Chinese were immigrating to Mississippi, they were doing everything they could to prove to White Folks that they were not Black. They wanted to be more like White people.” 

Malone said the move to align themselves with White identity and interests in America has been about self-preservation for some Asian Americans. The White power structure, she said, was more suitable and advantageous.  

Malone said some Asian Americans still rely on that strategy to get ahead.  

Former Democrat presidential candidate Andrew Yang, who is Taiwanese American, says some Asian Americans have bought into an idea that America has sold them: That they are the most vaunted group among the country’s minorities.  
 

“Obviously, alternately, they could have been in solidarity. Asians and Black folks could have been fighting together,” Malone said. “But unfortunately, many Asians have a history of taking the fate of ‘we’re going to side with the White power structure.’ The model-minority myth helped tighten that strategy.”? 

The next round of voting on ACA 5 will be on the Assembly floor at the State Capitol on June 10. If the proposition passes that hurdle, it moves on to the California Senate for consideration.