Opinion

Malcolm and Martin Got Nothin’ on Momma: Reflections on Resistance

Published

8 years ago

December 3, 2017

By Diamond Raymond

As we near the one-year since President Trump was inaugurated, I reflect on what resistance means to me. This year marked the first time I’ve marched for justice—a lifelong dream that seemed out of reach due to my intense struggle with anxiety. But the urgency of the moment, and memories of my mother, steadied my feet.

Like so many of us, the story begins at home, with my mother. As a child, I can remember listening to “King: From Atlanta to the Mountaintop” on the radio every Black History Month. It was a radio program that chronicled the civil rights movement in America and featured an amalgam of narration, music, poetry and speeches. We listened to it every year at the behest of my mother, so by the time I was sixteen I could almost quote and sing every part just like one of my favorite songs.

I loved most when the narrator began talking about Malcolm and Martin. In his silky deep voice, he referred to two men–who were as iconic as Superman and Batman in my house–by their first names like they were all old friends. As he described each man leading the masses in their time, over the record “Shotgun”, my eyes would glaze and retreat from reality, my feet – always too big for someone my age- tapping to the beat, and my heart and soul promenading down the streets right next to Malcom, and then right next to Martin.

My grandfather and great uncle marched with Martin Luther King Jr. and it always felt like the greatest sin to me that I had been born too late to join them. As a little girl I yearned to be a warrior for justice, yet sadly as I grew older, my anxiety outpaced my passion and any attempts to stomp the streets with my peers were often crushed by my overwhelming fear and crippling anxiety. Needless to say, when I called my mother and told her my job was funding me to attend the March for Black Women in Washington D.C she was shocked, and proud. The little girl rocking to “King: From Atlanta to the Mountaintop” had finally grown into her feet.

As much as my childhood dreams of marching like Martin and Malcolm fueled my desire to attend the March, it was thoughts of my mother’s everyday courage that made all the difference. I remember her telling my teachers her expectations of how I was to be treated. Being one of two Black girls at my school she knew the dangers of my intelligence and passion being overlooked. Any and all attempts to hold me back, pass me along, or otherwise treat me any differently than my peers were promptly nipped in the butt!

I recalled every time a landlord, bill collector, or overworked government employee would talk down to her and tell her what she HAD to do and my mother would smile her Eartha Kit-like feline smile and tell them what she was going to do. I’ve never met a person my mother couldn’t put in their place.

I’ve spent much of my life marveling at the woman who had her first child as a teenager, in the heart of LA on 107^th and Denker. A teenager who then went on to work with Maxine Waters to establish a program for teen parents in the LA Unified School District. A girl who became a woman who ran a comprehensive Black History Month Program at my school because they only every discussed MLK and Rosa Parks. A woman who is also a single mother of three girls.

Martin and Malcolm led and inspired many, many people but my mother changed the world for me and my sisters. And that’s why I attended my very first march in the name of my mother, Leslie Hampton, and every Black mama out there who has fought to the bone to change the world for their children by surviving and fighting like hell to thrive every day. I marched for the aunties who shared in caring for our tears while they shed their own. I marched for every daughter like me that knows their mother has always deserved better. I pushed through the pain of a tightening anxious chest because that moment was about holding up all of us.

As I look ahead to three more years of this administration, I suspect that my first march will not be my last. Like every Black woman I know I’m tired of hearing reports of my sisters’ deaths. I’m tired of watching those we love be ripped out of this world by Black and white bullets. I grow weary at the increasing time it takes to #SayHerName. The news of the decimation to title IX happened to hit me on a day when the smile of a little Black girl who looked like she could be mine sent tears for Charleena Lyles streaming down my face once again. I’m outraged at the ongoing attacks on Black women’s access to abortion, contraception, and prenatal care, even as Black women’s maternal death rates are ignored.

The push of my mother’s example and the pull of injustice brought me into the streets for the very first time. I video-called my mother during the March and watched as her smiled widened and eyes teared at me and those around my chanting “No peace, no justice!” and “Black Women Matter!” Like I do, she knows we still have an incredibly long way to go, but she also knows, and has taught me that there is nothing in the world like the power of a Black woman.

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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

6 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

6 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

6 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.