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Presidential Candidates Must Address White Supremacy, Says #BlackLivesMatter Activist
On the eve of the one-year anniversary of Michael Brown’s death, Mara Jacqueline Willaford and two other members of Seattle’s Black Lives Matter chapter captured national media attention when they interrupted presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders’ rally in Seattle and demanded the microphone.
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After moments of arguing, Sanders eventually conceded the microphone to Marissa Johnson, Willaford’s colleague, who addressed his supporters over the boos and jeers launched back at them in return.
In an interview with the Post, Willaford explained that, “Actually one of the great things that came out of this action was that it did shine a spotlight on (Seattle) and on all the racism that is very rampant in our city.”
“We actually have a lot of the reforms that other cities are currently fighting for,” said Willaford, pointing to Seattle’s Community Police Commission (CPC) and housing affordability policies—two issues that Oakland activists are currently fighting to improve.
“It hasn’t worked,” she said.
In the moments the activists were on stage, Johnson welcomed Sanders to Seattle, characterizing the city as a place riddled with police brutality, disparate school suspension rates for Black students and intense gentrification. The group ended the action with a four-and-a-half minute moment of silence in commemoration of Michael Brown.
As several in the crowd continued their disapproving chants throughout the remembrance, tears ran down Willaford’s face as she kept her eyes shut and a Black power fist raised in the air.
According to Willaford, Seattle’s Black population continues to face massive displacement from gentrification because “a lot of housing affordability efforts are pretty colorblind” while the changes to policing recommended by the CPC go un-entertained by Seattle Mayor Ed Murray.
While many subsequently questioned and criticized the actions of Black Lives Matter for targeting Sanders, who is widely considered the most progressive presidential candidate in the race, notable changes were made to Sanders’ campaign within days after the protest.
Willaford pointed out that not only are Sanders’ staffers now more active about meeting with Black activists across the country, the action actually played a role in pushing the candidate to alter his platform.
“(Sanders) adding the racial justice component to his platform is huge. The stance that he’s taking against the privatization of prisons is huge,” said Willaford, referring to the new additions that Sanders made to his campaign after the Seattle rally.
“All of that being said, for us it was never about Bernie Sanders,” she said. “I think the platform changes are positive, but I’m much more interested in the conversations that the nation is now having. I think those are much more significant than any one particular political candidate.”
The small Seattle action helped spark a national dialogue around respectability, electoral politics and race in the United States that greatly impacted the platforms and language of every candidate in the presidential race.
While their triumph has become clear after weeks of letting the media dust settle, the question remains about what made the chemistry between Marissa Johnson, Mara Willaford and Bernie Sanders such an effective recipe for igniting a national conversation.
“I think it really hit a nerve for the nation to see two young, extremely femme Black women take power away from and completely assert power and authority in a space that we’re really not even supposed to be in,” said Willaford.
She cited the responses that the action received from Republican presidential candidates, who were “very fixated on the masculinity of Bernie Sanders and what we did to his masculinity” as a result of interrupting his speech.
According to Willaford, by organizing at the forefront of the Black Lives Matter movement and asserting their power, Black women are destabilizing the country’s traditional power structure and forcing the nation to question its own framework.
This threatened power structure was caught on camera, for example, when the nation witnessed a Waller County police officer—a white man—violently arrest Sandra Bland—a Black woman—after she refused his order to put out her cigarette.
“The phrase ‘All of us or none of us’ is so powerful because it speaks to the reality of this movement,” said Willaford. “And the reality is that Black women, Black trans folks and especially Black trans women are on the front lines, and they’re holding it down.”
When asked why Black Lives Matter seemed focused on Sanders, Willaford explained, “Bernie Sanders, at the time that we did this action, made much more sense than Hillary Clinton because he’s her quote-unquote radical opponent.”
“He’s to the left of (Clinton). So if he’s refusing to talk about race and if he’s cancelling meetings with Black Lives Matter activists, then I don’t think she would have had any need to respond,” she said.
Meanwhile, Willaford believes targeting Republican presidential candidates would have the opposite effect of what Black Lives Matter wants, potentially invigorating the Republican voter base.
She likened focusing on Republican candidates such as Donald Trump and Jeb Bush to the recent battle to remove the Confederate flag from the South Carolina state capitol.
“People like to fixate on the Confederate flag the same way people like to fixate on the Republicans,” she said. “I think we’re doing ourselves a huge disservice by fixating on obvious symbols of white supremacy to the exclusion of everything else about this country.”
Rather than directly challenge that which is furthest from its shared ideologies, Black Lives Matter seems to prefer questioning the status quo of what is generally considered progressive in order to force people to reassess their political perceptions.
Last week, for example, members of Black Lives Matter’s Cleveland chapter disrupted a Hillary Clinton campaign event demanding her to “divest from private prisons, invest in black trans women.”
In a statement released on Wednesday, the organization stated the reason they targeted the candidate with this demand was, “Since Hillary Clinton makes equality for women a critical tenet of her campaign, we demand that Clinton—and our movement for Black lives—center the Black transgender women so often left out of conversations about gender and racial equality.”
As previously mentioned, however, while impacting platforms has been positive for the Black Lives Matter movement, it is the outcome of these conversations that Willaford and many others are more interested in advancing.
“The question that I’d like folks to ask themselves is do we, as Black people, need Bernie Sanders or any other candidate,” said Willaford. She explained that she supports “Black self-determination and Black folks working to change the system whether it is in a reformist or revolutionary way.”
“In our country we’re very fixated on electoral politics,” she said. “We’re so colonized in the way we think that it’s very hard for people to think outside the box and to really envision a different world beyond just voting.”
“I think unknowns really scare people,” said Willaford. “And there’s a lot of unknowns in getting free.”
Arts and Culture
Rise East Project: Part 3
Between 1990 and 2020, Oakland lost nearly half of its Black population due to economic and social forces. East Oakland, once a middle-class community, is now home to mostly Black families living in poverty.
The Black Cultural Zone’s Pivotal Role in Rebuilding Oakland’s Black Community
By Tanya Dennis
Between 1990 and 2020, Oakland lost nearly half of its Black population due to economic and social forces. East Oakland, once a middle-class community, is now home to mostly Black families living in poverty.
In 2021, 314 Oakland residents died from COVID-19. More than 100 of them, or about 33.8%, were Black, a high rate of death as Blacks constitute only 22.8% of Oakland’s population.
This troubling fact did not go unnoticed by City and County agencies, and the public-at-large, ultimately leading to the development of several community organizations determined to combat what many deemed an existential threat to Oakland’s African American residents.
Eastside Arts Alliance had already proposed that a Black Cultural Zone be established in Deep East Oakland in 2010, but 2020’s COVID-19 pandemic galvanized the community.
Demanding Black legacy preservation, the Black Cultural Zone (BCZ) called for East Oakland to be made an “unapologetically Black” business, commercial, economic development community.
Established initially as a welcoming space for Black art and culture, BCZ emerged into a a community development collective, and acquired the Eastmont police substation in Eastmont Town Center from the City of Oakland in 2020.
Once there, BCZ immediately began combating the COVID-19 pandemic with drive-thru PPE distribution and food giveaways. BCZ’s Akoma Market program allowed businesses to sell their products and wares safely in a COVID-compliant space during the COVID-19 shutdown.
Currently, Akoma Market is operated twice a month at 73rd and Foothill Boulevard and Akoma vendors ‘pop up’ throughout the state at festivals and community-centered events like health fairs.
“Before BCZ existed, East Oakland was a very depressing place to live,” said Ari Curry, BCZ’s chief experience officer and a resident of East Oakland. “There was a sense of hopelessness and not being seen. BCZ allows us to be seen by bringing in the best of our culture and positive change into some of our most depressed areas.”
The culture zone innovates, incubates, informs, and elevates the Black community and centers it in arts and culture, Curry went on.
“With the mission to center ourselves unapologetically in arts, culture, and economics, BCZ allows us to design, resource, and build on collective power within our community for transformation,” Curry concluded.
As a part of Oakland Thrives, another community collective, BCZ began working to secure $100 million to develop a ‘40 by 40’ block area that runs from Seminary Avenue to the Oakland-San Leandro border and from MacArthur Boulevard to the Bay.
The project would come to be known as Rise East.
Carolyn Johnson, CEO of BCZ says, “Our mission is to build a vibrant legacy where we thrive economically, anchored in Black art and commerce. The power to do this is being realized with the Rise East Project.
“With collective power, we are pushing for good health and self-determination, which is true freedom,” Johnson says. “BCZ’s purpose is to innovate, to change something already established; to incubate, optimizing growth and development, and boost businesses’ economic growth with our programs; we inform as we serve as a trusted source of information for resources to help people; and most important, we elevate, promoting and boosting Black folks up higher with the services we deliver with excellence.
“Rise East powers our work in economics, Black health, education, and power building. Rise East is the way to get people to focus on what BCZ has been doing. The funding for the 40 by 40 Rise East project is funding the Black Culture Zone,” Johnson said.
Alameda County
Help Protect D.A. Pamela Price’s Victory
Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price is asking supporters of the justice reform agenda that led her to victory last November to come to a Town Hall on public safety at Montclair Presbyterian Church on July 27.
By Post Staff
Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price is asking supporters of the justice reform agenda that led her to victory last November to come to a Town Hall on public safety at Montclair Presbyterian Church on July 27.
Price is facing a possible recall election just six months into her term by civic and business interests, some of whom will be at the in-person meeting from 6:00-9:00 p.m. at 5701 Thornhill Dr. in Oakland.
“We know that opponents of criminal justice reform plan to attend this meeting and use it as a forum against the policies that Alameda County voters mandated DA Price to deliver. We cannot let them succeed,” her campaign team’s email appeal said.
“That’s why I’m asking you to join us at the town hall,” the email continued. “We need to show up in force and make sure that our voices are heard.”
Price’s campaign is also seeking donations to fight the effort to have her recalled.
Her history-making election as the first African American woman to hold the office had been a surprise to insiders who had expected that Terry Wiley, who served as assistant district attorney under outgoing D.A. Nancy O’Malley, would win.
Price campaigned as a progressive, making it clear to voters that she wanted to curb both pretrial detention and life-without-parole sentences among other things. She won, taking 53% of the vote.
Almost immediately, Price was challenged by some media outlets as well as business and civic groups who alleged, as she began to fulfill those campaign promises, that she was soft on crime.
On July 11, the recall committee called Save Alameda for Everyone (S.A.F.E.) filed paperwork with the county elections office to begin raising money for the next step toward Price’s ouster: gathering signatures of at least 10% of the electorate.
S.A.F.E. has its work cut out for them, but Price needs to be prepared to fight them to keep her office.
In a separate sponsored letter to voters, Price supporters wrote:
“We know that you supported DA Price because you believe in her vision for a more just and equitable Alameda County. We hope you share our belief that our criminal justice system has to be fair to everyone, regardless of their race, gender, ethnicity, religion, or socioeconomic status.
“The Republican-endorsed effort is a blatant attempt to overturn the will of the voters and a waste of time and money. It is an attempt to silence the voices of those who want real justice. We cannot let these election deniers succeed.
“Will you make a donation today to help us protect the win?
“Please watch this video and share it with your friends and family. We need to stand up to the sore losers and protect the win. Together, we can continue to make Alameda County a more just, safe and equitable place for everyone.”
For more information, go to the website: pamelaprice4da.com
or send an e-mail to info@pamelaprice4da.com
Bay Area
Oakland Teachers Walk Out
After negotiating late into the night and months of fruitless bargaining with the Oakland Unified School District, Oakland teachers went out on strike Thursday morning. “Our (50-member) bargaining team has been working for seven months working, making meaningful proposals that will strengthen our schools for our students,” said Oakland Education Association (OEA) Interim President Ismael “Ish” Armendariz, speaking at press conference Monday afternoon.
OEA calls unfair labor practices strike after 7 months of negotiations.
By Ken Epstein
After negotiating late into the night and months of fruitless bargaining with the Oakland Unified School District, Oakland teachers went out on strike Thursday morning.
“Our (50-member) bargaining team has been working for seven months working, making meaningful proposals that will strengthen our schools for our students,” said Oakland Education Association (OEA) Interim President Ismael “Ish” Armendariz, speaking at press conference Monday afternoon.
“OUSD has repeatedly canceled bargaining sessions, has failed to offer meaningful proposals or counterproposals at a majority of the bargaining sessions and has repeatedly failed to discuss certain items,” Armendariz said.
“The days (of bargaining) have been long, and after hours of waiting, the superintendent finally showed up on Sunday night at 11:00 p.m.to meet with our team (for the first time),” he said. “(But) the district continues to come to the table unprepared, and this is unacceptable.”
“This is illegal, and OEA has filed an Unfair Labor Practice charge with the state Public Employment Relations Board (PERB). Under California law, OEA has a right to strike over unfair labor practices,” he said.
OEA represents 3,000 teachers, counselors, psychologists, speech pathologists, early childhood educators, nurses, adult education instructors and substitute teachers, serving 35,000 Oakland public school students. Other labor groups representing school employees include SEIU 1021 and construction unions.
In a press statement released on Tuesday, OUSD said it has been trying to avert a strike.
“The district will remain ready to meet with the teachers’ union at any time and looks forward to continuing our efforts to reach an agreement with OEA … We will continue to do everything possible to avoid a work stoppage.”
“Our children’s education does not need to be interrupted by negotiations with our union, especially given the major offer the District made on Monday,” other district press statements said. “We are committed to continuing to work with our labor leaders to discuss their salaries and support services for our students without the need for a strike.”
OUSD’s latest salary proposal, released this week, includes a 10% raise retroactive to Nov. 1, 2022, and a $5,000, one-time payment to all members.
OEA’s recent salary proposal asked for a 10% retroactive raise to all members, a one-time $10,000 payment to members who return for the 2023-2024 school year, and increases from $7,500 to $10,000 to salaries, based on years of experience.
In addition to pay demands, OEA is making “common good” proposals that serve families and the community, including protecting and enhancing special education programs, putting the brakes on closing schools in flatland neighborhoods, shared school leadership, safety, and support for students.
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