Op-Ed

Baltimore and the Dynamic of Racial Déjà Vu

Published

11 years ago

May 4, 2015

By Lee A. Daniels
NNPA Columnist

“It is one measure of the depth and insidiousness of American racism that the nation ignores the rage of the rejected – until it explodes … The wonder is that here have been so few riots, that [black Americans] generally are law-abiding in a world where the law itself has seemed an enemy.”

Those words weren’t written about the current crisis in Baltimore. They were written 50 years ago by the famed Black psychologist Kenneth B. Clark in his September 5, 1965 New York Times magazine article on the stunning Black uprising in the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles.

Clark’s article about what was then seen as a shocking event underscores this about the present: It seems like déjà vu all over again, doesn’t it?

Are we talking about what the “crisis” in Baltimore has revealed? Or, the crisis that was revealed a decade ago in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina? Or, the crisis revealed by the Watts rebellion in 1965? Or, that of Newark and Detroit and scores of other cities in 1967? And dozens more in 1968 after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.?

Are we talking about the culture of racist exploitation and violence that pervades the police department in Baltimore? Or, the police department in New Orleans? Or, Los Angeles? Or, Miami? Or, Cleveland? Or, Ferguson, Mo.? Or …. name a city or town.

Are we talking about our alarm at the sense of dispossession among Baltimore’s Black poor that Freddie Gray’s death in police custody exposed? Or, among the Black poor in New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina? Or, in the wake of the riots that swept parts of Los Angeles a quarter-century ago after the first Rodney King trial? Or, yes, back to Watts in 1965, and Harlem the year before that?

What the crisis in Baltimore has exposed once again is the continual “racial crisis loop” of American society. It’s that repeating dynamic that gives the sense of having seen this entire scenario before.

Of course we have – because it’s rooted in the age-old struggle over whether Black Americans should actually be allowed to exercise the rights of American citizens. For most of the four-century existence of Blacks and Whites on these shores, the answer to that question was: No.

The Civil War supposedly settled the issue of whether America would exist “half-slave and half-free.” But, as quickly became all too clear, Black Americans weren’t going to be allowed to exercise their rights of citizenship. In fact, precisely because they “proved” again and again they were more than equal to the responsibilities of citizenship, Blacks’ rights were under challenge, in the North as well as the South, all the way into the middle of the 20th century.

The civil rights victories of the 1960s and Blacks’ success in taking advantage of them didn’t end the dynamic of anti-Black exclusion. Instead, it provoked, along with the opening of mainstream America to Blacks, another round of efforts to deny Blacks their American rights. That’s why their ultimate political success – President Obama’s election and re-election – has provoked a fierce racist reaction championed by the Republican Party.

In fact, it’s vitally important to juxtapose both the personal and political reaction against Obama, on the one hand, and, on the other, both the current caught-on-video and the deeply researched revelations of police violence against Black citizens in Baltimore and elsewhere. For they’re among the voluminous evidence that reveal the fortunes of both well-to-do Blacks and poor Blacks are under siege. The institutional and political resources devoted to creating and maintaining a sizeable class of poor Black people whether in populous urban centers like Baltimore or small cities and towns like Ferguson become obvious at moments like this.

But we also shouldn’t forget that the striking success of Blacks playing “smart politics” with their vote – that fundamental marker of citizenship – is what provoked the Supreme Court conservative majority’s to strike down the most important clause of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 in order to encourage efforts in Republican-dominated state legislatures to block Black Americans’ (and other Democratic-leaning voting blocs) right to vote.

That’s another example of why today’s Blacks (and their allies) are right to have a sense of racial déjà vu at this moment – and why they’ve got to use that as inspiration to forge a successful response for the present and future.

Lee A. Daniels is a longtime journalist based in New York City. His essay, “Martin Luther King, Jr.: The Great Provocateur,” appears in Africa’s Peacemakers: Nobel Peace Laureates of African Descent (2014), published by Zed Books. His new collection of columns, Race Forward: Facing America’s Racial Divide in 2014, is available at www.amazon.com.

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COMMENTARY: The National Protest Must Be Accompanied with Our Votes

Just as Trump is gathering election data like having the FBI take all the election data in Georgia from the 2020 election, so must we organize in preparation for the coming primary season to have the right people on ballots in each Republican district, so that we can regain control of the House of Representatives and by doing so, restore the separation of powers and balance that our democracy is being deprived of.

Published

2 days ago

February 10, 2026

Oakland Post

Dr. John E. Warren, Publisher San Diego Voice & Viewpoint Newspaper. File photo..

By Dr. John E. Warren, Publisher San Diego Voice & Viewpoint Newspaper

As thousands of Americans march every week in cities across this great nation, it must be remembered that the protest without the vote is of no concern to Donald Trump and his administration.

In every city, there is a personal connection to the U.S. Congress. In too many cases, the member of Congress representing the people of that city and the congressional district in which it sits, is a Republican. It is the Republicans who are giving silent support to the destructive actions of those persons like the U.S. Attorney General, the Director of Homeland Security, and the National Intelligence Director, who are carrying out the revenge campaign of the President rather than upholding the oath of office each of them took “to Defend The Constitution of the United States.”

In California, the primary comes in June 2026. The congressional races must be a priority just as much as the local election of people has been so important in keeping ICE from acquiring facilities to build more prisons around the country.

“We the People” are winning this battle, even though it might not look like it. Each of us must get involved now, right where we are.

In this Black History month, it is important to remember that all we have accomplished in this nation has been “in spite of” and not “because of.” Frederick Douglas said, “Power concedes nothing without a struggle.”

Today, the struggle is to maintain our very institutions and history. Our strength in this struggle rests in our “collectiveness.” Our newspapers and journalists are at the greatest risk. We must not personally add to the attack by ignoring those who have been our very foundation, our Black press.

Are you spending your dollars this Black History Month with those who salute and honor contributions by supporting those who tell our stories? Remember that silence is the same as consent and support for the opposition. Where do you stand and where will your dollars go?

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Activism

Post Newspaper Invites NNPA to Join Nationwide Probate Reform Initiative

The Post’s Probate Reform Group meets the first Thursday of every month via Zoom and invites the public to attend. The Post is making the initiative national and will submit information from its monthly meeting to the NNPA to educate, advocate, and inform its readers.

Published

2 days ago

February 10, 2026

Oakland Post

iStock.

By Tanya Dennis

The National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA) represents the Black press with over 200 newspapers nationwide.

Last night the Post announced that it is actively recruiting the Black press to inform the public that there is a probate “five-alarm fire” occurring in Black communities and invited every Black newspaper starting from the Birmingham Times in Alabama to the Milwaukee Times Weekly in Wisconsin, to join the Post in our “Year of Action” for probate reform.

Reporter Tanya Dennis says, “The adage that ‘When America catches a cold, Black folks catch the flu” is too true in practice; that’s why we’re engaging the Black Press to not only warn, but educate the Black community regarding the criminal actions we see in probate court: Thousands are losing generational wealth to strangers. It’s a travesty that happens daily.”

Venus Gist, a co-host of the reform group, states, “ Unfortunately, people are their own worst enemy when it comes to speaking with loved ones regarding their demise. It’s an uncomfortable subject that most avoid, but they do so at their peril. The courts rely on dissention between family members, so I encourage not only a will and trust [be created] but also videotape the reading of your documents so you can show you’re of sound mind.”

In better times, drafting a will was enough; then a trust was an added requirement to ‘iron-clad’ documents and to assure easy transference of wealth.

No longer.

As the courts became underfunded in the last 20 years, predatory behavior emerged to the extent that criminality is now occurring at alarming rates with no oversight, with courts isolating the conserved, and, I’ve heard, many times killing conservatees for profit. Plundering the assets of estates until beneficiaries are penniless is also common.”

Post Newspaper Publisher Paul Cobb says, “The simple solution is to avoid probate at all costs. If beneficiaries can’t agree, hire a private mediator and attorney to work things out. The moment you walk into court, you are vulnerable to the whims of the court. Your will and trust mean nothing.”

Zakiya Jendayi, a co-host of the Probate Reform Group and a victim herself, says, “In my case, the will and trust were clear that I am the beneficiary of the estate, but the opposing attorney said I used undue influence to make myself beneficiary. He said that without proof, and the judge upheld the attorney’s baseless assertion. In court, the will and trust is easily discounted.”

The Black press reaches out to 47 million Black Americans with one voice. The power of the press has never been so important as it is now in this national movement to save Black generational wealth from predatory attorneys, guardians and judges.

The next probate reform meeting is on March 5, from 7 – 9 p.m. PST. Zoom Details:
Meeting ID: 825 0367 1750
Passcode: 475480

All are welcome.

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Activism

COMMENTARY: The Biases We Don’t See — Preventing AI-Driven Inequality in Health Care

For decades, medicine promoted false assumptions about Black bodies. Black patients were told they had lower lung capacity, and medical devices adjusted their results accordingly. That practice was not broadly reversed until 2021. Up until 2022, a common medical formula used to measure how well a person’s kidneys were working automatically gave Black patients a higher score simply because they were Black. On paper, this made their kidneys appear healthier than they truly were. As a result, kidney disease was sometimes detected later in Black patients, delaying critical treatment and referrals.

Published

2 days ago

February 10, 2026

Oakland Post

Sen. Akilah Weber Pierson, M.D (D-San Diego). File photo.

By Sen. Akilah Weber Pierson, M.D., Special to California Black Media Partners

Technology is sold to us as neutral, objective, and free of human flaws. We are told that computers remove emotion, bias, and error from decision-making. But for many Black families, lived experience tells a different story. When technology is trained on biased systems, it reflects those same biases and silently carries them forward.

We have seen this happen across multiple industries. Facial recognition software has misidentified Black faces at far higher rates than White faces, leading to wrongful police encounters and arrests. Automated hiring systems have filtered out applicants with traditionally Black names because past hiring data reflected discriminatory patterns. Financial algorithms have denied loans or offered worse terms to Black borrowers based on zip codes and historical inequities, rather than individual creditworthiness. These systems did not become biased on their own. They were trained on biased data.

Healthcare is not immune.

These biases were not limited to software or medical devices. Dangerous myths persisted that Black people feel less pain, contributing to undertreatment and delayed care. These beliefs were embedded in modern training and practice, not distant history. Those assumptions shaped the data that now feeds medical technology. When biased clinical practices form the basis of algorithms, the risk is not hypothetical. The bias can be learned, automated, and scaled.

For us in the Black community, this creates understandable fear and mistrust. Many families already carry generational memories of medical discrimination, from higher maternal mortality to lower life expectancy to being dismissed or unheard in clinical settings. Adding AI biases could make our community even more apprehensive about the healthcare system.

As a physician, I know how much trust patients place in the healthcare system during their most vulnerable moments. As a Black woman, I understand how bias can shape experiences in ways that are often invisible to those who do not live them. As a mother of two Black children, I think constantly about the systems that will shape their health and well-being. As a legislator, I believe it is our responsibility to confront emerging risks before they become widespread harm.

That is why I am the author of Senate Bill (SB) 503. This bill aims to regulate the use of artificial intelligence in healthcare by requiring developers and users of AI systems to identify, mitigate, and monitor biased impacts in their outputs to reduce racial and other disparities in clinical decision-making and patient care.

Currently under consideration in the State Assembly, SB 503 was not written to slow innovation. In fact, I encourage it. But it is our duty must ensure that every tool we in the healthcare field helps patients rather than harms them.

The health of our families depends on it.

About the Author

Sen. Akilah Weber Pierson (D–San Diego) is a physician and public health advocate representing California’s 39th Senate District.