By Solomon O. Smith | California Black Media

Hanukkah, one of the most visible holidays of the Jewish faith, is right around the corner.

As much as the public may be aware of Hanukah, many Californians don’t understand the basics of this holiday, which will be celebrated by millions around the world for eight days beginning the evening of Sunday, Dec. 18 and ending the evening of Monday, December 26.

Origins of Hanukah

Hanukkah began with a war and a miracle, according to Rabbi Isaiah Rothstein, a rabbinic scholar and Black Jewish leader in the Jewish Equity, Diversity & Inclusion program of the Jewish Federation of North America, or JEDI.

It marks the freeing of Judea by the Jewish freedom fighters called the Maccabee over the Assyrian-Greek occupiers more than 2,300 years ago. After recapturing the Holy Temple in Jerusalem which had been desecrated by the occupiers, the freedom fighters searched for oil to light the Temple menorah as part of the rededication of the temple. They found a single day’s worth of fuel, but it miraculously burned for eight days before being resupplied.

“So, there’s a combination of things in the holiday, which is really celebrating that the oil lasted longer, and also the War of the few against the many,” said Rothstein “And then, the over the last 15 or 20 years, many other themes have come into being, like light over darkness.”

By many, the holiday is referred to as the “festival of lights” and is celebrated on the 25th of Kislev on the Hebrew calendar. Because the Hebrew calendar follows the lunar cycle, the dates of Jewish holidays change from year to year according to the Gregorian calendar. As a result, the beginning of Hanukkah can range from late November to late December.

Although often compared to Christmas, Hanukkah is not one of the High Jewish Holidays, which are considered more core to the belief system. Hanukkah is closer to Thanksgiving in tone. It celebrates the rededication of oneself to God, the faith and family.

 The Celebration

The most visual part of the holiday is the lighting of the Hanukkah menorah, or “hanukkiah” in Hebrew. It holds eight candles, one for each day of the festival, and a helper candle or “shamash,” in the center which is used to light the others. It can be made of a wide range of materials and has become a symbol of the faith.

Many communities have large communal hanukkiah which are lit as part of an inclusive celebration. Washington, D.C. has a National Menorah and lighting festival, while New York claims the world’s largest Hanukkah menorah.

The tone of Hanukkah is not the same as Christmas which has traditionally become a holiday heavily focused on youth. Christmas gifts are ubiquitous in the United States and the eight days of Chanukkah have also begun to include gifts.

In other parts of the world, where Jews were persecuted a quieter less public observance took root. Many in Europe escaping Nazi persecution or Russian pogroms were raised to be cautious in their celebrations according to Rothstein.

Often the very act of displaying or lighting a hanukkiah could be dangerous. It led to the lighting of the menorah to be associated with rebellion against oppression.

Some of the concepts of the menorah and lighting its candles have even influenced other holidays like Kwanzaa, some religious and cultural observers say. For Hanukkah, each candle represents a day of the holiday; for Kwanzaa, each one stands for a life principle.

A custom associated with Hanukkah is playing games with the dreidel, a small spinning top. According to Rothstein the toy was used to fool the ruling authority and hide the study of the Torah.

Another Hanukkah custom is to give money (called Hanukkah gelt) to children. Hanukkah-themed chocolate coins wrapped in gold or silver foil are used as substitute to real money gifts.

Food is a big part of the holiday. Traditional Hanukkah recipes include foods fried in oil, to commemorate the original miracle of the oil. Fried donuts and potato pancakes or latkes are a favorite. Dairy products are also popular during Hanukkah.

The People

There are about 7.6 million persons who identify as Jewish across the country, with California containing 15%, the second highest behind New York at 21% according to the American Jewish Population Project.

There are a number of national organizations that help the public understand Judaism, including the celebration of Hanukkah.

The Jewish Federation of North America provides a range of services to the community and brings together over 300 different organizations according to Niv Elis, the communications director at the Jewish Federation of North America.

“So, the Jewish Federation we’re a system that encourages Jewish communities to flourish,” said Elis. “That’s our main thing is that we think of ourselves sometimes as the backbone of the Jewish community. We’re not the entirety of it, but we support all the different parts.”

The Jewish diaspora is widespread and crosses many borders, including race. In the United States some Black members of the faith can find it to be an isolating experience.

Robin Washington’s article for NPR about being the singular Black Jewish person left in Duluth, Minnesota is just one example. He points out that there are a lot of Black Jews.

There are at least 200,000 Black American Jews. There are biracial Jews with a Jewish parent like him. Some converted to Judaism, and some belong to Black Hebrew congregations that formed at the turn of the last century.

Rothstein and his organization are working to connect to African American members and address those feeling disconnected.

“We’re building community, like every single week,” said Rothstein. “We connect with different Black Jews and Jews of color from across the community, across the country.”

This California Black Media report was supported in whole or in part by funding provided by the State of California, administered by the California State Library.

On October 23, 2022, Positive Results Corporation (PRC) hosted it’s fifth Annual Purple Purse Tea Party & Gala at the beautiful Wallis Annenberg Building in Exposition Park, California.

They were honored to celebrate community partners who dedicate their lives to help heal their communities. The organization also celebrated the birthday of it’s Executive Director Kandee Lewis.

PRC would love to send out a special thank you to their guests and supporters. The organization could not do this work without them! Together, they all make the difference.

By Lue Dowdy | LUE Productions

LUE Productions Community Umbrella services in collaboration with the African American Health Coalition and the Northwest Project Area committee presents, “Christmas Carols for Seniors,” on Friday, December 23, 2022, from 4:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. The event is sponsored by Youth Build Inland Empire and the Southern California Black Chamber of Commerce.

We are still looking for singers. If you are interested, please text LUE Productions at (909) 567-1000. The next rehearsal date is Tuesday, December 20 at 7 p.m. at 555 N. Arrowhead Avenue in San Bernardino. No experience needed and all ages are welcome.

SAN BERNARDINO, CA – The City of San Bernardino has announced that City Manager Robert Field will be leaving his post on January 17, 2023. The announcement was made by Mayor John Valdivia at the start of the City Council meeting on Wednesday, December 7.

The Mayor and City Council will discuss a process to replace Field at a special meeting tentatively scheduled for Wednesday, December 14 at 6:00 pm.

“The City Council and I wish Rob Field the best in his future endeavors,” said Mayor Valdivia. “Our city experienced positive direction in the region and advanced capital investment projects forward under his leadership these past two and a half years.”

Field was named City Manager in September of 2020.

As City Manager, Field worked with the Mayor and Council to finalize San Bernardino’s Bankruptcy, enabling the city to re-invest in its parks, streets, libraries, police, and code enforcement. With a focus on economic development, a record number of building permits were issued in 2022.

His efforts at the state level helped to prevent sales tax revenue generated at San Bernardino’s fulfillment centers from being diverted elsewhere in the state, preserving millions of dollars in revenue per year.

The memorial services for Demetrius “Big D” Mayo will be as follows:

• Viewing: Tuesday, December 20, 2022, from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. at Community Memorial Chapel located at 738 E. Highland Avenue in San Bernardino.
• Funeral service: Wednesday, December 21, 2022, from 9:30 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. at Ecclesia Christian Fellowship Church located at 1314 Date Street in San Bernardino.

Following the funeral services, everyone will proceed to Corona Sunnyslope Cemetery located at 1125 Rimpau Avenue in Corona at 1:30 p.m. A Repast Dinner will be held at the church after the burial.

Please RSVP if you would like to attend to teliece12nv@yahoo.com.

By Eric Tucker, Matthew Lee and Zeke Miller

WASHINGTON (AP) — Russia freed WNBA star Brittney Griner on Thursday in a high-profile prisoner exchange, as the U.S. released notorious Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout but failed to win freedom for another American, Paul Whelan, who has been jailed for nearly four years.

The deal, the second in eight months amid tensions over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, secured the release of the most prominent American detained abroad and achieved a top policy goal for President Joe Biden. But it carried what U.S. officials described as a heavy price.

“She’s safe, she’s on a plane, she’s on her way home,” Biden said from the White House, where he was accompanied by Griner’s wife, Cherelle, and administration officials.

Biden’s authorization to release Bout, the Russian felon once nicknamed “the Merchant of Death,” underscored the heightened urgency that his administration faced to get Griner home, particularly after the recent resolution of her criminal case on drug charges and subsequent transfer to a penal colony. Griner, who also played pro basketball in Russia, was arrested at an airport there last February for bringing less than a gram of cannabis oil in vape cartridges into the country.

Griner is a two-time Olympic gold medalist, Baylor University All-American and Phoenix Mercury pro basketball star, whose arrest in February made her the most high-profile American jailed abroad. Her status as an openly gay Black woman, locked up in a country where authorities have been hostile to the LBGTQ community, injected racial, gender and social dynamics into her legal saga and brought unprecedented attention to the population of wrongful detainees.

The Russian Foreign Ministry confirmed the swap, saying in a statement carried by Russian news agencies that the exchange took place in Abu-Dhabi and that Bout had been flown home.

Biden spoke with Griner who was at an airport in Abu-Dhabi after she was greeted by U.S. officials. She was expected to be back in the U.S. within 24 hours, Biden said. U.S. officials said she would be offered specialized medical services and counseling but declined to go into specifics citing privacy concerns.

Both Russian and U.S. officials had conveyed cautious optimism in recent weeks after months of strained negotiations, with Biden saying in November that he was hopeful that Russia would engage in a deal now that the midterm elections were completed. A top Russian official said last week that a deal was possible before year’s end.

Even so, the fact that the deal was a one-for-one swap was a surprise given that U.S. officials had for months expressed their their determination to bring home both Griner and Paul Whelan, a Michigan corporate security executive jailed in Russia since December 2018 on espionage charges that his family and the U.S. government has said are baseless.

“We’ve not forgotten about Paul Whelan,” Biden said. “We will keep negotiating in good faith for Paul’s release.”

U.S. officials said they did not see an immediate path to bringing about Whelan’s release, saying Russia has treated his case differently because of the “sham espionage” charges against him. Still, they said they believe communications channels with the Russians remain open for negotiations for his freedom to continue — though it was not yet clear what cost would need to be paid to secure it.

“We didn’t want to lose the opportunity today to secure the release of one of them,” said Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

Whelan’s brother David said in a statement he was “ so glad” for Griner’s release but also disappointed for his family. He credited the White House with giving the Whelan family advance notice and said he did not fault officials for making the deal.

“The Biden Administration made the right decision to bring Ms. Griner home, and to make the deal that was possible, rather than waiting for one that wasn’t going to happen,” he said.

In releasing Bout, the U.S. freed a former Soviet Army lieutenant colonel whom the Justice Department once described as one of the world’s most prolific arms dealers. He was arrested in Thailand in 2008 and extradited to the U.S. in 2010.

Bout, whose deeds were featured in a Hollywood movie, was serving a 25-year sentence on charges that he conspired to sell tens of millions of dollars in weapons that U.S officials said were to be used against Americans. Biden issued an executive grant of clemency to free the arms dealer from a federal prison in Illinois to effect the prisoner swap.

The exchange was carried out despite deteriorating relations between the powers prompted by Moscow’s war against Ukraine.

Over the summer, the imprisonment of Americans produced a rare diplomatic opening, yielding the highest-level known contact between Washington and Moscow — a phone call between Blinken and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov — in more than five months.

In an extraordinary move during otherwise secret negotiations, Blinken revealed publicly in July that the U.S. had made a “substantial proposal” to Russia for Griner and Whelan. Though he did not specify the terms, people familiar with it said the U.S. had offered Bout.

Such a public overture drew a chiding rebuke from the Russians, who said they preferred to resolve such cases in private, and carried the risk of weakening the U.S. government’s negotiating hand for this and future deals by making the administration appear too desperate. But the announcement was also meant to communicate to the public that Biden was doing what he could and to ensure pressure on the Russians.

Besides the efforts of U.S. officials, the release also followed months of back channel negotiations involving Bill Richardson, the former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and a frequent emissary in hostage talks, and his top deputy, Mickey Bergman.

Griner was arrested at the Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport in February when customs officials said they found vape canisters with cannabis oil in her luggage. She pleaded guilty in July, though still faced trial because admitting guilt in Russia’s judicial system does not automatically end a case.

She acknowledged in court that she possessed the canisters, but said she had no criminal intent and said their presence in her luggage was due to hasty packing.

Before being sentenced on Aug. 4 and receiving a punishment her lawyers said was out of line for the offense, an emotional Griner apologized “for my mistake that I made and the embarrassment that I brought on them.” She added: “I hope in your ruling it does not end my life.”

Her supporters had largely stayed quiet for weeks after her arrest, but that approach changed in May once the State Department designated her as unlawfully detained. A separate trade, Marine veteran Trevor Reed for Konstantin Yaroshenko, a Russian pilot convicted in the U.S. in a cocaine trafficking conspiracy, spurred hope that additional such exchanges could be in the works.

Whelan has been held in Russia since December 2018. The U.S. government also classified him as wrongfully detained. He was sentenced in 2020 to 16 years in prison.

Whelan was not included in the Reed prisoner swap, escalating pressure on the Biden administration to ensure that any deal that brought home Griner also included him.

Inland Valley News coverage of local news in San Bernardino and Riverside Counties is supported by the Ethnic Media Sustainability Initiative, a program created by California Black Media and Ethnic Media Services to support minority-owned-and-operated community newspapers across California.

By Maxim Elramsisy | California Black Media

On Sunday, December 12, Karen Bass was sworn in as Los Angeles’ first Black woman and second Black mayor.

Vice President Kamala Harris, who has a home in Los Angeles, conducted the swearing-in of the new mayor. Though originally planned to be conducted at Los Angeles City Hall, rain moved the ceremony to the Microsoft Theater in downtown.

The ceremony was highlighted by several live performances by well-known celebrities, including 25-time Grammy award winner Stevie Wonder and the first National Youth Poet Laureate and Los Angeles native Amanda Gorman.

In her inaugural address, the former congresswoman set the tone for new office.

“Tomorrow morning, I will start my first day as mayor at our city’s Emergency Operations Center, where my first act as mayor will be to declare a state of emergency on homelessness,” Bass said.  “My emergency declaration will recognize the severity of our crisis and break new ground to maximize our ability to urgently move people inside and do so for good. And it will create the structure necessary for us to have a true, unified, and citywide strategy to set us on the path to solve homelessness.”

Homelessness was one of the major issues debated during the election. Bass and real estate developer Rick Caruso sparred over strategies of how to get people into housing in a city where, according the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics, residents spend 38% of their income on housing, compared to the national average of 34.3%.

“We know our mission – we must build housing in every neighborhood and the very best way for this to happen is by neighbors working together and deciding where housing should be built. We cannot continue to overcrowd neighborhoods that are already overcrowded. This is my call to you, L.A. – to welcome housing in every neighborhood.”

Bass made the point to elected leaders in attendance as well as Angelenos that she would be calling on them to work with her to contend with the homelessness crisis.

“Vice President Harris, Governor Newsom — my colleagues in Congress here today — look for me on your caller ID. If we come together and focus on solutions rather than jurisdiction, on linking arms rather than pointing fingers – if we just focus on bringing people inside, comprehensively addressing their needs, and moving them to permanent housing with a way to pay their bills — we will save lives and save our city – that is my mission as your mayor.”

Bass also spoke about her ambitions about addressing public health, the violent crime surge, the economy and the environment.

“Right now, there is a role for everyone,” Bass proclaimed. “If you are a Hollywood creative, I call on you to help me inspire people to help our city. If you are a tech entrepreneur, I call on you to help me make City Hall run smarter, faster and with more accountability. If you are retired, I call you to share your wisdom with our youth. If you are a community organizer, let’s organize our neighborhoods together. And finally, I call on you to come work for the city. Did you know L.A. City has hundreds of vacancies in the very departments that respond to community needs? If you want a good paying union job — you should literally come work for the City of L.A. I call on the people of our city to not just dream of the L.A. we want, but to participate in making the dream come true.”

Bass thanked and acknowledged the many national and local officials present. She also spotlighted women breaking barriers in government, including Vice-President Harris, California’s first female Lt. Governor, Eleni Kounalakis, the first female California Senate President Pro Tem Toni Atkins and the all-female Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors – Hilda L. Solis, Holly Mitchell, Lindsey Horvath, Janice Hahn and Kathryn Barger.

“We are all going to make so much history together in a state that has enshrined in our constitution a woman’s right to decide what happens to her body.”

Bass acknowledged outgoing Mayor Eric Garcetti for his 21 years of service to the city. Garcetti sat in the front row next to Gov. Gavin Newsom and California’s First Partner, Jennifer Siebel Newsom.

By Valeria Howard-Cunningham | Special to California Black Media Partners

Los Angeles City Councilmember Bob Blumenfield claims that I torture animals.

Blumenfield, the author of a motion that will ban rodeo and equestrian events in Los Angeles, says in plain English in a new ordinance in front of the City Council that I and people like me who participate in rodeo events practice “inhumane” treatment of animals.

He says in plain English that I and people like me “encourage aggressive behavior in animals and inflict injury, pain and suffering on animals.”

As a rodeo lover, I take these false allegations personally.

I do not participate in any of the activities harming animals that Blumenfield alleges.

Neither does Kanesha Jackson, a proud Black young woman who is a 5-time Bill Pickett Invitational Rodeo (BPIR) All Around Cowgirl Champion, an 8-time BPIR Event Champion, and mother of an upcoming rodeo champion named Kortney Solomon. She is also a farm owner who breeds championship horses.

Neither does Tory Johnson, a proud Black man, ranch owner, and one of our champion winners for many years. Or Krishan Adair, another proud Black woman and rodeo champion.

And neither did the cowhands in the Old West, where one in four were Black men. Nor Bill Pickett, the legendary Black cowboy, and namesake of my organization.

They, along with four generations of Black cowboys and cowgirls, inspire me and our audience to be part of the rodeo world. We have created a Black rodeo culture contributing to the history of the American West by practicing the sport of rodeo with affection towards the animals. For the cowboy and cowgirl, the animals are their best friends.

The BPIR has created a culture our community is proud of, one which keeps kids off the street, inspires hard work and goal setting, and helps people to connect with themselves and their emotions through animals.

Blumenfield’s proposed ordinance, rooted in lies and misinformation about rodeo, threatens to take all these positive activities away from the community in Los Angeles.

Excuse my directness, but I would ask: Is this what the Los Angeles City Council wants to do or intend to do, especially in the world we live in today?

The proposed ordinance is written so poorly that it would only allow some equipment to be used where the State of California specifically bans it to ensure animal safety. Although the confusion caused by this may help high-priced lawyers, it doesn’t help animals one bit.

In addition, the ordinance would ban the very equipment we use to train and assist our animals in the safest way possible, including lassos and flank straps – neither of which hurt animals in any way.

When you understand what the ordinance really does, you must ask why Blumenfield is pursuing it, after not bothering to obtain the facts and truth — or to understand how we care for our animals or how our equipment is used.

He did not ask the most diverse coalition ever created in Western Sports, formed to help educate lawmakers on a sport they’re not familiar with, about how we care for our animals daily. He didn’t ask our veterinarians, who are professionally dedicated to animal health and safety, about how all our rodeo equipment is used humanely all the time.

Blumenfeld’s actions of not educating himself to know the difference between truth and fiction lead me to ask, what the purpose of his agenda is, which is not the agenda of the majority.

The truth is often hard to find these days, and very few have regard for it. We implore the LA City Council to stand up for the truth and do what is right in recognizing they’re processing a harmful and unnecessary ordinance.

It is imperative that the City Council vote this ordinance down, or to make the changes outlined by the coalition for our elected officials, so that our community may continue to enjoy the culture and unifying sport of rodeo practiced humanely and aligned with California State law already on the books.

The City Council cannot ignore the will of the voters. Or the truth. Thank you for letting me speak it.

About the Author

 Valeria Howard-Cunningham is President of the Bill Pickett Invitational Rodeo.

Based upon the eponymous Universal film franchise written and directed by Malcolm D. Lee, the series will catch up with Harper, Robyn, Jordan, Lance, Quentin, Shelby, Candace, and Murch as relationships evolve and past grievances resurface in the unpredictable stages of midlife crisis meets midlife renaissance.

ABOUT THE SERIES:

• Premiere Date and Drop Cadence:December 22, 2022, all 8 episodes
• Cast: Morris Chestnut, Melissa De Sousa, Taye Diggs, Regina Hall, Terrence Howard, Sanaa Lathan, Nia Long and Harold Perrineau
• Creator of the Best Man Franchise, Co-Developed By, Writer, Executive Producer, Director, Co-Showrunner: Malcolm D. Lee of Blackmaled Productions
• Co-Developed By, Writer, Executive Producer, Co-Showrunner: Dayna Lynne North of Loud Sis Productions
• Executive Producer: Sean Daniel of Hivemind & Dominique Telson of Blackmaled Productions
• Produced By: Universal Television, a division of Universal Studio Group
• Directors: Malcolm D. Lee (four episodes), Charles Stone III, Robert Townsend and Stacey Muhammad
• Format: Limited Drama Series, 8 episodes x 60 minutes
• Filming Locations: New York City, Kearny, NJ and Dominican Republic

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

The California Task Force to Study and Develop Reparations Proposals for African Americans will be conducting its last meeting of 2022 on Wednesday, Dec. 14, and Thursday, Dec. 15, at Oakland City Hall Chambers located at 1 Frank H. Ogawa Plaza adjacent to 14th Street. The start time is 9:00 a.m., for both days, beginning with one hour of public comment. The meetings will be live streamed via the official Task Force website or ETM Media on YouTube.

Task Force chairperson Kamilah Moore says that the next meeting is of high importance “for a few reasons,” and will include an in-depth conversation about redress and repair.

“No. 1, we will begin to refine community eligibility standards (including residency requirements); No. 2, we’re inviting leaders from local/municipal reparations efforts from across the state to share their incredible work (i.e., Oakland, Los Angeles, Berkeley, Russell City, Palms Springs etc.),” Moore said in a Dec. 1 written statement. “No. 3, it will be the first-time task force members will collectively discuss and begin to determine what types of reparation proposals will be in the final report that will be released in June 2023.”

The task force’s two-year charge is scheduled to end in June 2023.

California’s AB 3121, signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom into law in 2020, created the nine-member task force to investigate the history and costs of slavery in California and around the United States.

The law charges the Reparations Task Force with studying the institution of slavery and its lingering negative effects on Black Californians who are descendants of persons enslaved in the United States.

From the information they collect the Task Force will develop reparation proposals for African Americans and recommend appropriate ways to educate Californians about the task force’s findings.

After the Task Force decided who would be eligible for compensation in March, the nine-member panel approved a framework for calculating how much should be paid — and for which offenses — to individuals who are Black descendants of enslaved people in the United States.

An expert panel reported to the panel in March that a “conservative estimate” of two million African Americans in California have ancestors who were enslaved in the United States. According to the US 2020 Census, there are about 2.6 million Black Californians out of a total state population of nearly 40 million residents.

The five-member expert panel, appointed by the task force, is quantifying past economic injustices African Americans faced in the state and elsewhere, and determining what or how much compensation should be for Black people living in California.

The expert panel includes Williams Spriggs (Chief Economist for the AFL-CIO and former Chair of the Department of Economics at Howard University), Thomas Craemer (Public Policy Professor at the University of Connecticut), and Dr. Kaycea Campbell (Chief Executive Officer for Ventana Capital Advisors and Associate Professor of Economics, Los Angeles Pierce College),  Dr. William A. “Sandy” Darity Jr., (the director of the Samuel DuBois Cook Center on Social Equity at Duke University), and Kirsten Mullen, (a writer, and lecturer whose work focuses on race, art, history, and politics).

All five experts participated on the first day of the two-day meeting held at the California Science Center in Los Angeles two months ago. Spriggs and Campbellattended the event in person, while the other three experts appeared virtually.

Campbell and her colleagues discussed with the task force the “models” to provide a “road map” that would determine how reparations would be “paid and measured.”

The experts presented “five harms or atrocities” down from 13 they originally proposed, that could be used to determine compensations.

Campbell said the five categories under review will not be “exhausted” until they have received enough data to complete the process.

“This is not to say that other harms and atrocities are not important. As soon as, or if we get better data or more recent data, then we can in fact go through the process of what these look like,” Campbell said.

The experts made “rough estimates,” of unjust property taken by eminent domain, devaluation of Black businesses, housing discrimination, the disproportion of mass incarceration and over-policing, and health inequities as the major harms.

Task Force member Sen. Steven Bradford (D-Inglewood) released the following statement as clarification to the public that the Task Force has not proposed that the State compensate descendants of slaves with direct compensation for historical housing discrimination.

Bradford said, “Since its formation a lot of misinformation and willful misrepresentation of the work from the Task Force has been released. The fact is that the Task Force has not completed its work and has made no formal recommendations to the legislature. It’s important that we be deliberative and get this right because the nation is watching and it’s more than likely ours will be the model for all to follow.”

Members of the community and media are encouraged to visit the Reparations Task Force website and subscribe to the task force’s mailing list for updates at: https://oag.ca.gov/subscribe or call or call (213) 519-0504.