California Black Media

Opinion: California Ethnic Media Celebrates Its Purpose — And People

Are ethnic media outlets like the Oakland Post simply providing information? Or do they represent a de facto social justice movement in California? Those were the existential questions posed when hundreds of ethnic media journalists and publishers from around the state gathered last week in Sacramento. At the very least, we all need help.

Published

4 weeks ago

September 11, 2024

Oakland Post

(Left to Right) This column’s author, Emil Guillermo; Sandy Close, founder of Ethnic Media Services; Regina Brown Wilson, Executive Director of California Black Media; and Pamela Anchang, Editor of Chief of Immigrant Magazine at the Ethnic Media Awards in Sacramento. Photo Courtesy of EMS.

By Emil Guillermo

At the very least, we all need help.

To that end, Regina Brown Wilson, Executive Director of California Black Media (CBM), the event’s co-sponsor, closed out the Ethnic Media Expo and Awards with reassurances.

“We’re working and fighting to make sure you have the resources you need,” Brown Wilson said to member organizations including the Oakland Post.

The conference provided access to state leaders like Attorney General Rob Bonta, State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond, and State Treasurer Fiona Ma.

Still, the conference was about more than access, said co-producer Sandy Close of Ethnic Media News services, who stood next to Brown Wilson. Close’s group brought in attendees from Asian, Latino, LGBTQ, Native American media.

“We will support each other,” Close said. “We may have conflicts, but we’ll never be able to call ourselves a coalition without events like this conference.”

It’s not easy. I’ve known Close since the 1990s’ when she asked me to host the first awards program recognizing the best in California’s ethnic media.

More than 30 years later, even the White ethnic media is having problems staying profitable and relevant. That makes coalition-building among the mom-and-pop ethnic new media outlets more than a strategy, but a matter of survival.

If there’s a way to leverage our audiences into a real “movement” it may be in fighting hate.

One conference session discussed the “StopAAPIHate” campaign, how it was funded with more than $250 million for three years, but how its funding runs out in 2026. After the pandemic, the instances of Asian hate have decreased. From a peak in 2021, case numbers decreased by 43% in 2022.

NO JUSTICE?

In California, home to the largest AAPI population in the nation, 1,970 hate crimes were reported in 2023. Only 5 went to trial, according to data from the California Attorney General’s office. In 2021, at the peak of the crimes against Asian, just one case went to trial, according to a story by Ethnic Media Services.

We can do one thing right: make people aware through ethnic media and community services. But now with no permanent funding even that’s endangered, including the hotline available with care coordinators in 200 languages at 833.8NO.HATE, or 833.866.4283.

Andy Wong of Chinese for Affirmative Action in San Francisco, a leader in organizing and gathering the funding for “StopAAPIHate, mentioned during a panel that Blacks are the No. 1 group victimized by hate. That fact almost stopped everyone cold.

“We know that the African American community is subject to more hate than any other community,” said Wong. “Why are we not animating and mobilizing and bringing folks together to champion that?”

One Black publisher, Wallace J. Allen IV, of the West Side Story newspaper in San Bernadino agreed.

“We need to do it together,” said Allen.

About the Author

Emil Guillermo is a journalist and commentator. See him on YouTube.com/@emilamok1 Contact: www.amok.com

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California Black Media

Study: UC 4-Year Grad Rate Doubles That of CSU

Graduation rates at the University of California have increased by 10 points over the last ten years putting the college system on track to achieve its 2030 graduation goals, according to a report on college completion in the state released by the Public Policy Institute of California. Recent data indicated that the UC system has a graduation rate of 73% for four-year students and a six-year graduation rate of 86%, according to the institution’s data. The system will increase the four-year graduation rate to 76% and the six-year rate to 90% by 2030. However, students at California State University are lagging behind with a graduation rate of 36% for four-year students and a 62% for six-year graduation rate. The graduation rates for students in the UC system are more than double that of students at CSU. Consequently, it is unlikely that CSU will meet its graduation goal of graduating 40% of four-year students and 70% of six-year students by 2025.

Published

6 days ago

October 1, 2024

Oakland Post

iStock Photo

By Bo Tefu, California Black Media

Recent data indicated that the UC system has a graduation rate of 73% for four-year students and a six-year graduation rate of 86%, according to the institution’s data. The system will increase the four-year graduation rate to 76% and the six-year rate to 90% by 2030.

However, students at California State University are lagging behind with a graduation rate of 36% for four-year students and a 62% for six-year graduation rate. The graduation rates for students in the UC system are more than double that of students at CSU. Consequently, it is unlikely that CSU will meet its graduation goal of graduating 40% of four-year students and 70% of six-year students by 2025.

The report revealed that nonprofit institutions have relatively high completion rates compared to a high number of for-profit and private colleges that have lower graduation rates.

Researchers stated that longstanding equity gaps in college completion persist indicating that Black and Latino students graduate at lower rates of 52% and 64% The data is varied in comparison to White and Asian students who graduate at higher rates of 75% and 83%, respectively.

Nonetheless, the report showed that Black students in the UC system graduated at a rate of 78% in four years, nearly double the graduation number of Black students in the CSU system with a rate of 47 percent.

“Campus and regional disparities are stark,” the report stated regarding the varying graduation rates at the different college locations.

“Despite progress, equity gaps at UC remain nearly as large as they were in 2018. At CSU, gaps have widened over time; however, many campuses have made progress in closing them,” the report stated about the equity gaps in the college systems.

The state has set a goal to achieve a graduation rate of 70% by 2030.

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Bay Area

State of Black California: Oakland Tour Stop Rescheduled

The 2024 State of Black California Tour stop in Oakland has been rescheduled from Sept. 28 to Dec. 13, at the Oakland Museum of California. Registration for the event is closed after reaching maximum capacity, according to CBBF’s website.   Registration for the Oct. 5 tour stop in Moreno Valley is closed as well. Al Sharpton will be a guest speaker at that event.

Published

6 days ago

October 1, 2024

Oakland Post

At the State of Black California event in Sacramento on Sept. 14. From left to right: Asm. Corey Jackson (D-Moreno Valley), Asm. Chris Holden (D-Sacramento) and Asm. Mia Bonta (Oakland).

By Bo Tefu, California Black Media

The 2024 State of Black California Tour stop in Oakland has been rescheduled from Sept. 28 to Dec. 13, at the Oakland Museum of California. Registration for the event is closed after reaching maximum capacity, according to CBBF’s website.

Registration for the Oct. 5 tour stop in Moreno Valley is closed as well. Al Sharpton will be a guest speaker at that event.

The series, co-hosted by the California Legislative Black Caucus (CLBC), has made stops in San Diego, Santa Barbara, Fresno, and Sacramento.

The State of Black California series creates space for Black Californians to engage the public and policymakers on the issues that impact the Black community. It will also provide conversations about the status of reparations legislation.

The CBFF is a five-year, $100 million measure to ensure that Black power-building and movement-based organizations have the sustainable investments and effective resources needed to remove systemic and institutional racism. CBFF was the benefactor of $3.5 million in state funds last year, distributed to various Black networks in the state.

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California Black Media

Sen. Laphonza Butler Helps Secure Nomination of Central California Federal Judge Michelle Williams Court

Last week, U.S. Sen. Laphonza Butler (D-Calif.), a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, helped to secure the nomination of Judge Michelle Williams Court as Judge for the Central District of California with a vote of 49-44. In her new role, Court became the third Black woman and fifth in the court’s history to serve as an Article III Judge in the state’s Central District. Since 2012, Court worked for the Superior Court of California in Los Angeles County.

Published

6 days ago

October 1, 2024

Oakland Post

Judge Michelle Williams Court. File photo.

By Bo Tefu, California Black Media

In her new role, Court became the third Black woman and fifth in the court’s history to serve as an Article III Judge in the state’s Central District.

Since 2012, Court worked for the Superior Court of California in Los Angeles County.

In 2023, she was a supervising judge in the court’s civil division. Before being a judge, she worked as an attorney, then later became the vice president and general counsel at Bet Tzedek Legal Services, a nonprofit law firm specializing in human rights and poverty justice.

Court dedicated her career as a lawyer to civil rights and social development. She led and contributed to several projects at the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development and the American Civil Liberties Union in Southern California. The judge earned her Juris Doctor in 1993 from the Loyola Law School at the Loyola Marymount University, and she received her bachelor’s in 1988 from Pomona College.

“The Central District of California serves roughly seventeen million people, making it the largest federal district by population in the entire United States. The judges who serve these Californians are currently facing an unprecedented number of filings, making the need to fill the court’s vacancies all that more urgent. It is commonly said that ‘justice delayed is justice denied,’ and at this moment the people of California’s Central District are indeed being denied justice as a direct result of these judicial vacancies,” said Butler in her statement on the Senate Floor urging her colleagues to approve Court’s nomination.

Butler also praised Court’s commitment to justice and track record of serving the state of California.

“Her nomination is an important step towards building trust in our legal system by ensuring that our federal courts reflect and represent the diversity of the people it serves,” he said regarding Judge Court’s career serving in the state’s justice system.