Activism

Gov. Newsom Signs Sen. Steve Bradford’s Ebony Alert Bill into Law

Black women and girls are at increased risk of being harmed and sex trafficked. A recent report on human trafficking incidents across the country also found that 40% of sex trafficking victims were identified as Black women. The county of Los Angeles reported that 92% of girls in the juvenile justice system identified as victims of sex trafficking are Black, according to the Congressional Black Caucus.

Published

2 years ago

October 14, 2023

Oakland Post

Oakland District 7 City Councilmember Treva Reid and State Senator Steven Bradford (D-Inglewood). Photos courtesy California Black Media.

By Antonio Ray Harvey | California Black Media

Gov. Gavin Newsom signed the “Ebony Alert” bill to help locate missing Black youth and Black women in the state of California, on Oct. 8.

Senate Bill (SB) 673, authored by Sen. Steven Bradford (D-Inglewood), provides a notification system to address the often ignored or lack of attention given to Black children and young Black women who are missing in California.

“I am signing Senate Bill 673,” Newsom said in a statement. “I thank the Legislature for highlighting this important issue, addressing well-documented disproportionality in the number of children of color who go missing every year.”

SB 673 authorizes a law enforcement agency to request that an Ebony Alert be activated if that agency determines that it would be an effective tool in the investigation of a missing Black youth or a young Black woman between the ages of 12 and 25 years.

The U.S. population is 14% Black. Black children are disproportionately classified as “runaways” in comparison to their white counterparts who are classified as “missing” and, therefore, many Black children do not receive the Amber Alert.

“It’s very important to have the Ebony Alert because far too often when Black women and children go missing there is little to no publicity which hinders the effort to find them,” said Kellie Todd Griffin, CA Black Women’s Collective Empowerment Institute.

“I applaud Senator Bradford for bringing this forward and the Governor for signing the Ebony Act into law. Now we have to be diligent to ensure it is implemented effectively into practice.”

According to the Black and Missing Foundation Inc. (BAMFI), 38% of children reported missing in the U.S. are Black. BAMFI is a non-profit organization whose mission is to bring awareness to missing persons of color. It provides resources and tools to missing persons’ families and friends and educates the minority community about personal safety.

AMBER – the moniker that stands for America’s Missing: Broadcast Emergency Response – was created as a legacy to 9-year-old Amber Hagerman, who was kidnapped and murdered while riding her bicycle in Arlington, Texas.

Similar to Amber Alert, California has an existing law that authorizes the issuance and coordination of a “Silver Alert” relating to a person who is 65 years of age or older, developmentally disabled, or cognitively impaired who is reported missing.

The “Feather Alert,” relating to an endangered Indigenous person who has been reported missing under unexplained or suspicious circumstances, is also on the books.

Newsom did note “broader concerns” he had with SB 673 and expressed them to Bradford. His administration questioned standards in the bill and stated that they “do not align with the criteria in existing alerts,” specifically the Amber Alert, Endangered Missing Advisory, Feather Alert, and Silver Alert.

“Our emergency alert system is dependent on people not being fatigued by it and thus ignoring it,” the Governor wrote. “Our challenge is to achieve balance between the imperative to notify the public quickly in cases of missing persons or dangerous situations, but to not desensitize that same public outcry by sending too many notifications.”

‘“When someone who is missing is incorrectly listed as a runaway, they basically vanish a second time,” Bradford said in a statement after he introduced the bill on the Senate floor in March. “They vanish from the police detectives’ workload. They vanish from the headlines. In many ways, no one even knows they are missing. How can we find someone and bring them home safely when no one is really looking for them,” Bradford stated.

Earlier this year, community advocates in Oakland announced a “state of emergency” in response to 10 attempted abductions and kidnappings of Black girls and women.

Oakland City Councilmember Treva Reid of District 7, announced in May that of the 1,500 missing person cases reported in the city, 400 were Black women. In 2022 alone, 20% of missing cases went unsolved.

Reid supports SB 673. On May 30, the Oakland City Council unanimously voted in favor of her resolution endorsing the alert system statewide.

“A troubling number of our daughters, sisters, aunts, and mothers go missing throughout our community and they must be protected and safe in our city,” Reid stated. “It is critical that state and local jurisdictions have access to the best enforcement tools and resources to swiftly respond to the crisis of kidnappings and attempted abductions in Oakland and across California.”

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Activism

The Best Advice for Raising Children: Discipline That Makes Sense

In his book Developing Positive Self Images and Discipline in Black Children, Dr. Jawanza Kunjufu suggests that primary aims for socializing Black children should be: establishing goals related to God and the church; familiarizing children with religious texts like the Bible or Quran; educating them of Black culture like Khemetic (Egyptian) Civilization; enlightening them about Black leaders like Malcolm X and Sojourner Truth; and teaching them to strive to be employers, not employees.

Published

1 day ago

May 13, 2025

Oakland Post

Headshot of Dr. William A. Thomas. Photo courtesy of Dr. William A. Thomas.

By William A. Thomas, Ph.D.

In many African societies, the primary aim of socialization is to raise children to be socially responsible and eventually provide economic support to their parents and extended families. Ghanaian philosopher Kwame Gyekye taught that children are raised to be respectful of the wishes of their parents and extended adult family members.

In his book Developing Positive Self Images and Discipline in Black Children, Dr. Jawanza Kunjufu suggests that primary aims for socializing Black children should be: establishing goals related to God and the church; familiarizing children with religious texts like the Bible or Quran; educating them of Black culture like Khemetic (Egyptian) Civilization; enlightening them about Black leaders like Malcolm X and Sojourner Truth; and teaching them to strive to be employers, not employees.

Effective disciplinary strategies appropriate to a child’s age and development teach them to regulate their behavior; keep them from harm; enhance their cognitive, social, and emotional executive functioning skills; and reinforce the behavioral patterns taught by their parents and caregivers.

Below are some specific guidelines for disciplining children.

Listen to what children are talking about with interest and show them you understand their feelings. Remember, children mirror and learn about their emotional selves by hearing their feelings reflected back to them. Staying on target also means avoiding labels. When children fail to do what is expected, discussing it is helpful rather than saying how stubborn, lazy, dumb, or bad they are. By the same token, more positive labels can be helpful.

Dependability is another essential component of the discipline process. When parents are dependable, their children learn what to expect and are helped to feel secure. When parents are consistent, children learn to trust, that is, predict their parents’ behaviors with certainty. A child thinks, “When I spill something, I will always be asked to wipe it up.” A child thinks, “If I use foul language, I will always be corrected.” A child thinks, “If I take something that doesn’t belong to me, I will always have to give it back.” The ability to predict with certainty leads children to rely on their parents and the village/community in which they live. Children feel safe when they know what to expect.

Conclusions

It takes a village/community to raise the divine gift that is the Black child. Parents look to therapists for guidance concerning a variety of parenting issues, including discipline. Keep in mind that evidence suggests that corporal punishment is both ineffective in the long term and associated with cognitive and mental health disorders. When parents want guidance about the use of spanking, a child therapist can explore parental feelings, help them better define the goals of discipline, and offer specific behavior management strategies. In addition to providing appropriate education to families, the Bay Area Association of Black Psychologists (Bay ABPsi) can refer them to community resources, like parenting groups and classes.

About the Author

Dr. Thomas is a licensed clinical psychologist with a private practice in the SF/Oakland Bay Area and Beaumont. He is a member of Bay ABPsi, a healing resource committed to providing the Post Newspaper readership with monthly discussions about critical issues in Black Mental Health. Readers are welcome to join us at our monthly chapter meetings every 3^rd Saturday via Zoom and contact us at bayareaabpsi@gmail.com.