WSSN Stories

By Aldon Thomas Stiles | California Black Media

Watching your tax dollars, elected officials and legislation that affects you.

It has been over 13 months since cops in Kentucky killed Breonna Taylor, and just shy of a year since Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin murdered George Floyd.

These high-profile deaths of African Americans, along with many others sparked global protests and resulted in politicians and activists on the political Left calling on their cities to and counties to defund their police departments. More precisely, many of are pushing their elected officials to reallocate money in police budgets to more social service-oriented interventions in efforts to reduce the number of violent police encounters.

But some cities in California — Sacramento, San Diego and Los Angeles — are planning to do just the opposite.

From 2019 to 2020, Sacramento’s approved police budget saw an increase of over $7 million. This year, California’s capital city will spend a record $165.8 million on police, a $9.4 million increase.

However, Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg says, by mid 2022, at least $10 million will be directed away from the police department toward the Department of Community Response.

“I’m not for ‘defunding,’” Steinberg told the Sacramento Bee. “There are some things that are part of running a city, like collective bargaining and binding arbitration, and genuine needs for the police department.”

“I’m not going to get pinned to the argument that the measure of whether or not we are investing in the community in an aggressive way is whether or not we’re taking the money directly from the police department,” he continued.

In San Diego, the city is planning to raise the police budget for the 11th year in a row.

San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria proposed a 3% increase for police spending next year, meaning that the police budget has ballooned by a total of 52% since 2008.

The city is introducing that increase with a decrease in library hours in an effort to offset those costs.

San Diego City Council President Georgette Gómez says that she planned to cut the police budget but former Mayor Kevin Faulconer would have vetoed that measure.

Gloria has expressed interest in reducing police spending over time also, but activists insist that more needs to be done.

In Los Angeles, after two reports from the Los Angeles City Council and the Los Angeles Board of Police Commissioners admonished the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) for their mishandling of several protests over the past year, the LAPD has announced that it wants a $67 million increase in its budget to contend with the costs of protest response reform.

During various protests in the summer of 2020, police made over 3,000 arrests with little to no accommodations for those arrested.

Police Chief Michel Moore admitted the protest response could have been handled better but asserted that most of his officers responded the way they did because of their training.

“While there were missteps and shortfalls in communication and command and control, especially from senior staff in the field, the vast majority of personnel performed admirably with their ongoing efforts to tirelessly serve the city, even in the face of antagonistic and violent crowds,” Moore wrote in a letter to the board of commissioners.

Training will be the primary focus of this proposed budget increase, according to Deputy Chief Dominic Choi.

Choi stated that much of the budget will be going towards salaries and overtime for extended training.

The Police Commission has not moved on the proposed budget and the LAPD needs the City Council’s approval before it can go into effect. However, Mayor Eric Garcetti has proposed a $50 million increase in the police budget, much to the dismay of members of the Los Angeles Black Lives Matter organization.

While a couple of these budget proposals are still being deliberated and wouldn’t fully go into effect until next year, they are far cries from defunding the police.

Despite a growing chorus of voices against it, more Golden State taxpayer money will likely go toward increased funding for “California’s finest.”

By Lou Yeboah

The prescription Jesus gives us is to stay awake at all times and pray. Watch and pray! Stay in step with the Holy Spirit, because a day is coming suddenly like a trap. For it will come upon all who dwell on the face of the whole earth. [Luke 21:34-36]. I tell you, there will not be time, as in the past, to get ready. If you do not respond swiftly and fiercely by repenting now, and receiving Jesus as your Lord and Savior, you will suffer massive loss of life. You see, a major war is coming soon, and it will be massive. The players are in place and this coming war will be the birth pangs of the Gog-Magog Wars as foretold by God to the prophet Ezekiel. I tell you, you must prepare and prepare NOW! The ‘End Times’ are here and you must choose a side: heaven or hell. Above all, understand that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires. They will say, “Where is this ‘coming’ he promised? Ever since our ancestors died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation.” “But do not forget this one thing: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. I say, and I say again, don’t be caught off guard!

I want you to know that the “End-Time Prophecies” intends to serve as a warning to all of humanity that things are about to end. It urges us to get out of denial, to wake up to the truth, and to look at our spiritual relations and actions. Speaking of this time, which is soon to take place, Jesus said, “And unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved; but for the elect’s sake those days will be shortened” [Matthew 24:22].

I want you to know that God’s chosen nation is now back in the land of promise. Understanding that country’s position in the arena of the Middle East and world affairs is critical to understanding all other geopolitical realities. [Zechariah 12:2-3]. Yeah, I know, some people think we should avoid the frightening images of what the Bible says will take place in the last days, yet how can we ignore such an important element of the Bible, and the need to be prepared? We cannot ignore the truths about the future as Jesus tells us.

This is a time to stay tuned and watch current events ever more closely. We have entered a different world. Peace and security will never be quite the same. As the apostle Paul tells us in [Romans 13:11], “now it is high time to awake out of sleep; for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed.”

‘But about that day or hour no one knows, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. Beware, keep alert; for you do not know when the time will come, in the evening, or at midnight, or at cockcrow, or at dawn, or else he may find you asleep when he comes suddenly. And what I say to you I say to all: Keep awake.’

As [Matthew 24:32-39] tells us, “Learn a lesson from the fig tree: When its branches become green and soft and new leaves appear, you know summer is near. In the same way, when you see all these things happening, you will know that the time is near, ready to come. I tell you the truth, all these things will happen while the people of this time are still living. Earth and sky will be destroyed, but the words I have said will never be destroyed. When Will Jesus Come Again? “No one knows when that day or time will be, not the angels in heaven, not even the Son. Only the Father knows. When the Son of Man comes, it will be like what happened during Noah’s time. In those days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving their children to be married, until the day Noah entered the boat. They knew nothing about what was happening until the flood came and destroyed them.  I tell you, don’t be caught off guard! The prescription, stay awake and pray!

By Antonio Ray Harvey | California Black Media

The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) is currently accepting applications to provide emergency assistance to restaurants and bars.

U.S. Congresswoman Barbara Lee (D-CA-13) was an original co-sponsor of the proposal to create the lifeline for restaurants and she advocated for its inclusion in the American Rescue Plan (ARP).

“Black and minority-owned restaurants and businesses, as well as women and veteran-owned restaurants and businesses, have been hit hardest by this pandemic,” Lee said in a written statement. “I’m pleased that the SBA will prioritize applications for restaurants in economically or socially disadvantaged communities in the first three weeks of the grant program.”

The $28.6 billion restaurant relief legislation was signed into law as part of President Biden’s $1.9 trillion ARP.

Just 7% of U.S. businesses before the coronavirus pandemic were Black-owned, according to data from compiled by the University of California Santa Cruz study last year. In contrast, about 13% of the United States population is Black, and about 13% of restaurant employees are Black, according to federal data.

The SBA relief fund portal began accepting applications on Friday, April 30 at 6:00 a.m., Pacific Standard Time. In preparation for the grant program’s opening, the SBA released detailed guidance for those seeking relief money through the restaurant revitalization fund.

The SBA has tapped Lendistry, a Southern California-based lending firm, to help administer the restaurant relief funds. The Black-led and operated firm is the largest minority-led firm that has been disbursing both federal and state COVID relief money in California.

The program will provide restaurants with funding equal to their pandemic-related revenue loss — up to $10 million per business and no more than $5 million per physical location. Recipients are not required to repay the funding as long as the funds are used for eligible purposes no later than March 11, 2023.

SBA Administrator Isabella Casillas Guzman stated that the visionary leadership of congressional Democrats “laid the groundwork” for the SBA to deliver targeted relief swiftly and efficiently to the millions of small business owners and workers in restaurants.

“We’ve designed the Restaurant Revitalization Fund program to ensure this relief is delivered with a focus on equity. America’s small businesses are the engine of our economy,” Guzman said. “If we’re going to build back better, we must ensure all of our nation’s entrepreneurs have the tools they need to bring businesses back, create jobs and grow our economy.”

Lee encouraged restaurant owners across California to submit applications.

“I encourage all business owners that need funding to cover food costs, payroll, or any other business expenses to apply for this grant,” Lee stated. “My office is here to help you through this process.”

For information about the Restaurant Revitalization Fund, detailed guidance, and how to apply, visit https://www.sba.gov/funding-programs/loans/covid-19-relief-options/restaurant-revitalization-fund

By Lou Yeboah

As ‘Mother’s Day’ approaches, words cannot begin to express the gratefulness and appreciation I feel for you, neither can they define the thanks that I would love to give you for everything you have done for me. Thank you for being the first and most influential role model in my life. Thank you for your selfless sacrifice, and your pure, unconditional and eternal love. Your affection, your protection, your maternal kindness and your daily love rocked my life, a treasure of inestimable value. By your life you taught me to trust God with everything. You confirm for me that no matter how big the problem may be, God is bigger. You live a life of trust, a trust that holds firm during the darkest night, a trust that hangs on in the roughest storm, a trust that keep climbing up the steepest mountain, a trust that refuses to give up, a trust that rejects defeat, and relishes a challenge, a trust that rushes to do God’s will, and a trust that replies on the Holy Spirit and rest in Jesus Christ. And for this example of trust, we, your children, and grandchildren, thank you. We thank you for your unshakable example of trust and devotion. A devotion we hope to live out.  Happy ‘Mother’s Day’ to you my dear, sweet, amazing mother, I will always admire, appreciate, and love you!

To mothers, both biological and adopted, connected by blood and by experience, torn apart by circumstance and sometimes by choice. To those who have given life both in birth and in formation, to those who have lost life before birth and before old age, to those who have done what only mother’s can do, to those who have been “the perfect mother,” and to those who live with regrets. To those who are close to their children, and to those who feel like they are a million miles away, we bless you always, not just on “Mother’s Day.” We would not be who we are and where we are if it was not for you. No, we haven’t always done a good job of honoring you, thanking you, appreciating you. We haven’t always loved you as you have loved us. For that we ask for your forgiveness and grace. But may we be people to honor and encourage and bless you from this day forward for whom God has made you. For “Many women have done excellently, but you surpass them all.” [Proverbs 31:10-29].

A woman of worth, who can find? She is far more precious than jewels. The heart of her husband trusts in her. She seeks wool and flax, and works with willing hands. She rises while it is still night and provides food for her household. Her hands hold the spindle, and all her household are clothed in crimson. She reaches out her hands to the needy. She opens her mouth with wisdom, and the teaching of kindness is on her tongue. She looks well to the ways of her household and does not eat the bread of idleness her children rise up and call her happy. Her husband, too, and he praises her. [Proverbs 31:25- 27].

Echoing the incredible words of Helen Steiner Rice and Abraham Lincoln ?

“A Mother’s love is something that no one can explain. It is made of deep devotion and of sacrifice and pain, It is endless and unselfish and enduring come what may for nothing can destroy it or take that love away. [Helen Steiner Rice]. ?

“All that I am and hope to be, I owe to my angel mother.” [Abraham Lincoln].

For these reasons I pray, Lord God, bless every mother with the finest of your spiritual blessings today. Bless them with the grace of Your presence, and the honor they deserve for their tireless work and love. Fill them with your peace and mercy. Grant forgiveness for mistakes, for we all make them. But let love cover all our memories with a blanket of compassion and joy. Confirm in her heart and spirit the work of her hands and the love that she has freely given to the children under her care.  Let her rest in knowing that she has done all she can and that those she loves truly belong to you. Let her joy be contagious; let her passion be pure; and let her life overflow with all the blessings she deserves—not just on special days, but every day of her life. In Jesus’ name. Amen and Amen!

Happy Mother’s Day to ALL Mothers!

By Lue Dowdy, LUE Productions

Smart, talented, gifted, and more: Jazzlynn Woods is a youth that brings along a light and positive energy when she enters a room, but please do not get it twisted because when she hits the floor for competition, the light turns into a flame, and that positive energy becomes competitive energy but still positive. I love, love, love her spirit, so let’s hear it! Below is more about this amazing young lady.

Jazzlynn Woods is 19 years old and is the daughter of Lawrence and Kimberly Woods. She has two older brothers, Tobias VanBuren Jr., 32, and Charles Smith 22. Jazzy has been a resident of the City of Rialto for her whole life. She graduated from Kucera Middle School with honors and was a Kucera cheerleader and also participated in a program at Kucera Middle School called ‘Shine Bright like a Diamond”, a Mentoring After School Program designed for girls. 

Jazzlynn graduated from middle school and the SBLD Mentoring program where she became a ‘Diva Ambassador’ of the program helping other young ladies. Jazzlynn attended Carter High School in Rialto. In her freshman year she was on the CHS Cheer Team. In her Senior year she participated in the nursing program.

Jazzy has been a cheerleader the age of five. She was a professional cheerleader for ‘California All Stars Cheer’ in Ontario and has won two National Champion Rings. She also cheered at ‘Prime Cheer and Stunt’ in Corona for two seasons as a flyer. Now that she has aged out to cheer, she is now training to become a cheer coach. Jazzy wants to become a registered nurse and is planning on attending a CNA school to become a CNA this summer. She will then attend a four-year college to become a registered nurse. 

Currently, Jazzy is helping her mom with her business Fabulous Chic Boutique in San Bernardino and working part time at Youthbuild in San Bernardino as she waits to attend her CNA school. 

I’m extremely proud of this young lady and all her accomplishments thus far. Jazzy is definitely a firework and someone to watch for. Until next week Folks. L’s!

By Aldon Thomas Stiles | California Black Media

Watching your tax dollars, elected officials and legislation that affects you.

The electoral process is foundational to the durability of America’s democratic structure.

And as the battle for fairer voting laws rages on, politicians and activists on the political Right claim they are responding to allegations of widespread voter and election fraud. Those on the Left say they are rallying to fight a coordinated political offensive to restrict access to the polls and increasing reports of voter suppression.

Recently, in some states, most notoriously Georgia and Florida, lawmakers have taken steps to restrict voting access and rights for many Americans.

But in California, policymakers and legislators are doing the opposite, making proposals to simplify the voting process and expand access to the polls.

Invoking the violent history of voter suppression in the South that her parents endured, which sometimes involved murders — California Secretary of State Shirley Weber says it is a priority of hers to “ensure the right to vote.”

“I tell people all the time that no number is good unless it’s 100% in terms of voter participation,” Weber told the Public Policy Institute of California. “Why didn’t 5 million go to the polls? We need to figure out where they are and what stopped them from going.”

In the California Legislature, an amendment to Senate Bill (SB) 29, which passed earlier this year, was one bill in a broader legislative effort to secure the right to vote in vulnerable communities.

Before that amendment passed, California law dictated that a ballot would be mailed to all eligible voters for the Nov. 3 statewide general election in 2020 as well as use a Secretary of State vote-by-mail tracking system to ensure votes are counted.

SB 29, which the governor signed into law in February, extended those requirements to any election “proclaimed or conducted” prior to Jan. 1, 2022.

2020 saw a record number of voter participation in California. Some political observers attribute that spike to the vote-by-mail system instituted last year.

“To maintain a healthy democracy in California, it is important to encourage eligible voters to vote and to ensure that residents of the state have the tools needed to participate in every election,” the bill reads.

Senate Bill (SB) 583, introduced by California State Sen. Josh Newman (D-Fullerton) would require the Secretary of State to register or preregister eligible citizens to vote upon retrieving the necessary paperwork from the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV).

Citizens who do not wish to be registered can opt-out of the process altogether.

Newman stressed the importance of access and simplifying the voter registration process.

“In our state there are an estimated 4.6 million U.S. citizens who are eligible to vote who have not yet registered,” Newman said. “Our obligation as the people’s elected representatives is to make the process simpler and more accessible for them.”

On April 27, the Senate Transportation Committee passed SB 583 with a 13 to 3 vote. The Appropriations Committee has set a hearing for May 10.

Senate Bill (SB) 503, introduced by Sen. Josh Becker (D-Menlo Park), proposes that if a signature shares enough characteristics with a previous signature from the same voter, then it would be recognized as official on voting paperwork.

Current law dictates that a signature has to match exactly for it to be considered valid.

Disability Rights California (DRC), a non-profit advocacy organization that

advances and protects the rights of Californians living with disabilities, has come out in support of SB 503.

“Studies have shown that signature matches disproportionately impact voters with disabilities,” Eric Harris, director of public policy for the DRC wrote in a letter.

“Voters with disabilities, including seniors, are more likely to vote by mail and would have to sign their name on their ballots,” Harris argued. “A voter’s signature changes over time and for people with disabilities, a signature can change nearly every other time one is written. Some people with disabilities might have conditions that make it difficult to sign your name the same way multiple times.”

For now, the Senate Appropriations Committee has tabled SB 503, placing the bill in what the Legislature calls a “suspense file,” where it awaits further action by lawmakers.

At the federal level, lawmakers have introduced two bills in the U.S. Congress to expand voting rights, the For The People Act of 2021 and the John L. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act.

The For The People Act, or H.R.1, proposes a three pronged approach to expanding election access: Voting, campaign finance, and ethics.

Hilary Shelton, Director to the NAACP’s Washington Bureau and Senior Vice President for Advocacy and Policy, compared the current voting rights battle to that of the Civil Rights Movement in a press conference about H.R.1 and the John L. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act.

“If you look at some of those 1960s shots of the C.T. Vivians of the world, of the Joe Lowerys and so many others that helped lead Americans to those registration sites, you’ll see them actually literally being beaten to the ground,” Shelton said, referring to well-known Civil Rights Movement activists.

The John L. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act of 2021, or S.4263, would amend the Voting Rights Act of 1965 to restore the powers it lost after the

Supreme Court’s 2013 ruling in Shelby v. Holder. In that case, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that laws requiring states and local communities to first clear any changes to voting their local laws with the feds, was unlawful.

“Well, we’ve become more sophisticated in our disenfranchisement,” Shelton continued. “We want to make sure that we stop that disenfranchisement all along the way and that’s why we’re convinced that a bill named for John Lewis and a bill that speaks for the people are bills that need to pass.”

Because, according to the Courts, there’s no such thing as racism. It doesn’t exist.

By Dr. G.S. Potter, Senior Editor of the b |e note

If we are talking about justice, we are talking about structural reform. If we are talking about structural reform, we are talking about policy. And if we are talking about policy, then we are talking about the Courts. 

And according to the Courts, there is no such thing as racism.

You’re rubbing your eyes, but you read that correctly. The closest thing we have to racism, under the law, is discrimination.  There are a number of communities that have been legally designated as a “class” of people. And race can qualify as a protected class, as can sexual orientation or disability or age.  But racism does not, legally, exist. Discrimination does … and barely, at that.

Discrimination in general wasn’t outlawed until Congress passed the Fourteenth Amendment in 1868 which reads …

No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

Yet, immediately following its passage, Jim Crow was allowed to take hold and lynchings soon entered their golden era.  Why?

The white supremacists in the South were given shelter for their efforts by the Supreme Court. Congress passed the Reconstruction Acts with the intent of preventing white supremacists from denying Black men and women their freedom.  SCOTUS responded by gutting the Fourteenth Amendment. 

In 1872, despite the fact that the first section of the Fourteenth Amendment starts with the phrase “No state shall”, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that the privileges and immunities clause only applied to federal institutions and not the state.  As Justia describes, the primary holding of the Supreme Court was …

The Privileges or Immunities Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment is limited to federal citizenship rather than extending to state citizenship.

As a result, we saw states and localities pass law after law abridging the rights and threatening the lives of Black Americans. Legally. For the next century.

In the 1950s, a Civil Rights Movement began in America and once again discrimination against Black Americans was pushed to the forefront of the nation’s politics.  This time SCOTUS and Congress fell in line to end segregation through Brown v. Board of Ed (1954) and pass the Civil Rights Act (1964) and the Voting Rights Act (1965).

But as the courts grew more conservative, their determination to, once again, provide shelter for white supremacists expanded. By 1976, SCOTUS was willing to go on the offensive against freedom from discrimination. They did so by formally attacking the definition of discrimination itself.

Again, there is no such thing as racism in the United States legal system. Racism has traumatic impacts on Black communities and communities that are otherwise not White.  Discrimination doesn’t. At least, in efforts to protect a white nationalist’s most powerful weapon, SCOTUS moved to legally redefine discrimination itself by eliminating the ability to use the impact of a policy as the standard to prove discrimination.  They attempted to set a precedent by which discrimination only exists if it can be proven that it was intentional. 

In the case of Washington v. Davis (1976), SCOTUS ruled that testing applied in the District of Colombia Police Department’s hiring process was not discriminatory even though it served to prevent Black applicants from being brought onto the force.  They ruled …

Though the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment contains an equal protection component prohibiting the Government from invidious discrimination, it does not follow that a law or other official act is unconstitutional solely because it has a racially disproportionate impact regardless of whether it reflects a racially discriminatory purpose.

According to the Equal Justice Society …

[B]ecause contemporary discrimination is frequently structural in nature, unconscious, and/or hidden behind pretexts (despite the fact that a tangible harm has resulted from their actions), the showing of “intent” becomes a near impossible burden for plaintiffs.

There are still fields of law where the intent standard is still applied.  Police misconduct and education are two examples.  We can see the fruits of that standard by watching the inequalities unfold in the criminal justice system and achievement gaps.  But Congress finally mustered the fortitude to push back when white nationalists were looking for SCOTUS to provide them cover in their efforts to disenfranchise Black voters. 

In 1980, the Supreme Court ruled in City of Mobile v. Bolden.  This case was a class action lawsuit launched on behalf of the Black citizens of Mobile. Rather that electing representatives for local districts, as is done with city councils nationwide, Mobile, Alabama deployed a system of local representation in which a three member commission was elected at large. This meant that a white majority would be able to dilute the voting power of the Black electorate.  The plaintiffs argued that this practice violated the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments of the Constitution, and the District court agreed. 

The Supreme Court, however, did not. They ruled …

(a) Only if there is purposeful discrimination can there be a violation of the Equal Protection Clause. And this principle applies to claims of racial discrimination affecting voting just as it does to other claims of racial discrimination.

(b) Disproportionate effects alone are insufficient to establish a claim of unconstitutional racial vote dilution. Where the character of a law is readily explainable on grounds apart from race, as would nearly always be true where, as here, an entire system of local governance is brought into question, disproportionate impact alone cannot be decisive, and courts must look to other evidence to support a finding of discriminatory purpose.

In other words, the results of a policy can be clearly racist, but unless it can be proven that the policy was written and applied with the intent to discriminate against a person or community because of race it does not violate the Fourteenth Amendment. The intended effects of this ruling was to establish a precedent in which intent, not impact, was the standard by which to analyze violations of voting rights. 

Congress took note and in 1982, they did their part to restore the right to vote by amending the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

The original text of the Voting Rights Act (1965) reads …

No voting qualification or prerequisite to voting, or standard, practice, or procedure shall be imposed or applied by any State or political subdivision to deny or abridge the right of any citizen of the United States to vote on account of race or color.

In response to the SCOTUS ruling in City of Mobile v. Bolton, Congress amended the passage to read …

No voting qualification or prerequisite to voting, or standard, practice, or procedure shall be imposed or applied by any State or political subdivision in a manner which results in a denial or abridgement of the right of any citizen of the United States to vote on account of race or color.

This amendment ensured that the disparate impact standard would be applied to cased involving the Voting Rights Act (1965).

SCOTUS is currently positioned to take another swing at giving the current generation of white nationalists and insurrectionists cover to deprive non-White Americans their right to vote with the case of Brvonich v Democratic National Committee, but Congress can and should be prepared to immediately pass legislation designed to formalize disparate impact as the official standard for all discrimination claims involving the right to vote. 

While they are at it, they should present legislation that removes the Intent Standard from cases of discrimination in all areas of Civil Rights. Congress can and should immediately present a new Civil Rights Act that restores our Fifth and Fourteenth Amendment Protections by updating the areas in which protection is secured and installing a disparate impact standard across the board. 

As a nation, we are in the throes of a new Civil Rights Movement.  We need a Civil Rights Act to match it. 

The Civil Rights Act of 2021 should ensure that disparate impact is not only applied to voting rights, housing rights, and employment rights. It should be expanded to also provide protection in education, health care, criminal justice, and environmental justice.  It should come with sharp teeth and devastating consequences for those that violate it.  And it should provide funding for lawyers for protected classes. 

There is no doubt that white supremacy is aggressively attacking our communities and institutions.  We need legal protections that are not only about us being equal, but provide better defense against those attacks. We need a new Civil Rights Act that closes the loophole of intent and gives us the tools to fight back against what is being done to our communities, whether a bigot admits it or not.  Congress has the power to give this to us.  And it’s time that we demand that from them. 

The news of Derek Chauvin’s guilty verdict in the murder of George Floyd has caused many to reflect on the seemingly endless challenges—and endless hope, fight and resilience—that the Black community has experienced and demonstrated, particularly over the past year. Chronicling “the year that changed the world,” ESSENCE—the leading and only 100% Black-owned media, technology and commerce company at scale dedicated to Black women and communities—today debuted its May/June 2021 issue cover as a striking visual interpretation that juxtaposes the challenges and triumphs of a community after an unprecedented year of heightened social and political unrest, police brutality, economic and health inequities, COVID-19 and more. The quilt artwork cover, created by contemporary artist Bisa Butler and commissioned exclusively by ESSENCE, is one-of-a-kind and the first-of-its-kind used by ESSENCE for a cover in its more than 50-year history.  Butler is widely recognized for her depictions of African-American identity and life in the American experience, combining portraiture and the highly skilled craft and tradition of quilting to deliver engaging pieces that spark dialogue.

ESSENCE assembled an array of notable voices—from activists, journalists, artists and writers—who shared their perspectives on witnessing history unfold, creating change and being champions for freedom. Guest contributors include: activist and author Tamika Mallory, who shared an excerpt from her upcoming book State of Emergency; CNN anchor Abby Phillip; journalist and scholar Clint Smith; Paris-based producer Robin Allison Davis; race, culture and identity writer Kovie Biakolo; writer/activist Kimberly Latrice Jones; activist Lynee Vanee Bogues; and more. The issue also features ESSENCE CEO Caroline Wanga’s debut column entitled “Plate Full of Parsley,” which accentuates power, equity and authenticity as key ingredients for a new kind of soul food for the sisterhood.

“Some events are so defining that they continue to transform generations long after they occur, and such have been the collective events of the past year,” said Latraviette D. Smith-Wilson, Chief Strategy & Engagement Officer, ESSENCE.  “Whether those sworn to protect us having no regard for our lives, health and economic disparities heightened under a global pandemic, violent attacks on the U.S. Capitol and American democracy and more, we have witnessed a deluge of inhumanity that has only been rivaled by the resilience of our humanity.  This is what our incredible team has captured throughout the pages of ESSENCE’s  May/June Issue and what we are so honored that Bisa Butler has visually interpreted through the colors, textures, fabrics and patterns of this amazing quilt artwork—the first of its kind for an ESSENCE cover. Each stitch tells the story of these times and threads together the narrative of the work left undone and the future of social justice and racial equity that we must create.”

ESSENCE’s ongoing focus on social justice, economic inclusion and equity issues will be highlighted this week in its upcoming airing of the 2021 ESSENCE Black Women in Hollywood Awards, on ESSENCE.com and ESSENCEStudios.com this Thursday, April 22. Building on its years of providing platforms to ensure Black creatives were recognized when others ignored them and that they continue to “receive their flowers” for their contributions to Hollywood and global culture, this year’s experience, with the theme “Mastering Our Stories,” will focus on the resiliency of Black women in Hollywood through the years—including during the unprecedented pandemic.

ESSENCE’s May/June issue will hit newsstands on Tuesday, April 27. For more on this issue, visit ESSENCE.com.

ABOUT ESSENCE COMMUNICATIONS, INC.

Essence Communications is the number one—and only 100% Black-owned—media, technology and commerce company at scale dedicated to Black women and communities. With a community of more than 31 million Black women, ESSENCE inspires a global audience through diverse storytelling and immersive original content rooted in Culture, Equity and Celebration. The brand’s multi-platform presence in publishing, experiential and online encompasses its namesake magazine; digital, video and social platforms; television specials; books; and signature live events, including Black Women in Music, Black Women in Hollywood, Street Style and the ESSENCE Festival of Culture.