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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.  

Assemblymember Dr. Shirley Weber (D-San Diego), chair of the California Legislative Black Caucus, gave an emotional speech June 3, at a press conference held at the California State Capitol. 

On Wednesday, June 10, one of Weber’s bills, ACA 5, co-authored by Assemblymember Mike A. Gipson (D-Carson), will be taken up on the Assembly floor.  If passed, ACA 5 would give voters a new chance to weigh in on affirmative action, which was banned when voters passed Proposition 209 in 1996. Supporters say ACA 5 would remove roadblocks to opportunities for women and people of color.

High profile acts of violence against African American men have been recorded and broadcast widely in recent weeks, including the death of a Minneapolis man, George Floyd.

USC experts share their expertise on how racial violence and recordings of these episodes intersect with history, law and health outcomes in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Even Ivy League degrees don’t protect African Americans

“A deathly disregard for black lives is the blood red thread stitched into the very fabric of our nation. As a historian of the black past, I am all too familiar with the litany of torture, lynchings, rapes, false imprisonment, peonage, convict leasing, mass incarceration and medical apartheid from 1619 to 2020.  As the mother of two black men, I live in fear of their injury, arrest or demise at the hands of a capricious passerby, contemptuous police officers, or uncaring physicians. The casual refusal by every level of government of black men and women’s right to breathe, bird or just be in their own bed or kitchen or car is soul crushing. 

“My three Ivy League degrees do not provide me with any more PPE against racism and white supremacy than Christian Cooper’s Harvard B.A. did in Central Park.”

Francille Rusan Wilson is an associate professor of American Studies and Ethnicity, History, Gender & Sexuality Studies at the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences and the immediate past president of the Association of Black Women Historians.

Contact: frwilson@usc.edu

Police racial violence should be every American’s concern

“The core concern of the #BlackLivesMatter movement from its very inception has been the indifference or outright hostility of state actors like police officers and prosecutors to the value of black lives. Unlike private individuals, when state actors attack and disrespect citizens, they implicate all Americans because they act in our name and on our behalf. When a police officer is killed in the line of duty, law enforcement representatives have been quick to assert that an attack on an officer is an attack on America.

“By the same token, when an officer unjustifiably brutalizes or kills a black person, that’s not just a private citizen attacking another private citizen, that’s America assailing that black man, woman, or child. Cops don’t get to be equated with America when they are victims but then reduced to ordinary private citizens when they are victimizers.”

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 or (213) 740-2559

The loop of videos takes a toll on kids

“My work has shown that when adolescents of color watch viral videos of police racial violence online, that exposure is associated with increased depressive symptoms and post-traumatic stress symptoms.”

“During the coronavirus pandemic, students’ classes and social lives are almost entirely online. Previously, young people had a traditional setting where they could find in-person social support if they are feeling overwhelmed by what they are seeing in digital spaces and not ready to share with members of their family. Now, young people may not have that buffer against poor mental health outcomes.

“We can’t underestimate the importance of touch and the ability to see the physical cues that someone is in distress. There is power in the in-person connections people make that we haven’t yet been able to replicate in the most common digital contexts.”

Brendesha Tynes is an associate professor of education and psychology at the USC Rossier School of Education. Her recent research has examined the association between exposure to violent racial videos online and mental health in African American and Latinx adolescents.

Contact: btynes@usc.edu

Images of racial violence can be exploitative

“To me, airing the tragic footage on TV, in auto-play videos on websites and social media is no longer serving its social justice purpose, and is now simply exploitative.

“Likening the fatal footage of Ahmaud Arbery and George Floyd to lynching photographs invites us to treat them more thoughtfully. We can respect these images. We can handle them with care.

“It’s time to revisit the relationship we have with cellphone videos and social media. Trauma is compounding for many African Americans, who are already fighting a separate, disproportionate battle against COVID-19.”

Allissa Richardson is an assistant professor of communication and journalism at the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism and the author of the book, Bearing Witness While Black: African Americans, Smartphones and the New Protest #Journalism.

Contact: allissar@usc.edu or (213) 740-9700

Stress from racism leads to poor health outcomes

“For African Americans, the most stressful part of experiencing discrimination is not knowing when it’s going to happen next. That’s the key. Widely-circulated videos of violence against black people add to this anticipatory anxiety.

“This has implications for African Americans’ health outcomes during the coronavirus pandemic. Chronic stress can alter the expression of genes that are involved in both the antiviral and the inflammatory response. Chronic inflammation is involved in a number of health conditions including autoimmune conditions, diabetes and obesity. There have been several studies showing higher inflammatory markers in African Americans, so it’s not surprising that this group is disproportionately impacted and dying at higher rates from COVID-19.”

April Thames is an associate professor of psychology and psychiatry at the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences. Her research has focused on how racist experiences increase inflammation in African American individuals, raising their risk of chronic illness.

Contact: thames@usc.edu