Opinion

Opinion: Oakland Needs A Jobs and Justice Budget

Published

9 years ago

June 23, 2017

In order to strengthen quality of life and opportunity for all of our communities in Oakland, we need to look not only at what we say, but also whether we put our money where our mouths are. When the Oakland city government adopts a budget, deciding which programs to expand, which to cut, which to eliminate and which to add, these actions show where our values really are.

We must adopt a City of Oakland budget that gives real priority to jobs and justice.

This means doing more to help support our homeless neighbors get the services and support they need, and protecting our vital career centers and job training programs from cuts.

It means that we should stop wasting so much time and money having police stop and search people – mostly Black people – for no particular reason – and instead devote these resources to programs that uplift and support our communities, and respond to growing problems of blight, potholes, and illegal dumping that disproportionately impact parts of Oakland.

This means cutting the extra police academy the mayor added, and putting the money towards stopping the rampant violence in our communities. For example, we must crack down on gun violence and illegal gun dealing.

However, the mayor’s proposed budget not only “does not include any additional resources for efforts to crack down on gun violence and illegal gun dealing,” it also does not renew the funding for the staff who are specifically assigned to this important task.

We need to keep and strengthen our tracking down of illegal guns and putting gun dealers out of business. And, we must build a future of jobs and justice by investing in youth summer jobs, and taking this program seriously.

During our summers, many young people are not provided safe and productive places to be. This can result in young people getting endangered by or recruited into crime.

And, when our young adults don’t have access to the jobs they need, this hurts their own immediate finances, the finances of their family, and their long-term job prospects.

For too long, the Oakland administration has treated this vital program as an optional charity case – instead of as a real, ongoing, staffed part of the City of Oakland budget, the youth jobs program has depended on the rise and fall of the inclination of the mayor for private fundraising.

And, last year, by failing to complete required paperwork on time, the Oakland Administration lost our community over $2 million in youth jobs funding from the Federal government – funds we will never get back.

We need to fund this program and make clear that we want it to have ongoing support so that our young people are provided better opportunities.

That is why Councilmember Brooks and I, along with Community Coalition, have submitted a budget proposal, “Community Coalition Budget,” based on these goals.

The Community Coalition Budget addresses all the above mentioned goals and values.

I hope the citizens of Oakland will also support our budget by coming out to the special City Council Meeting at City Hall in Council Chambers on Monday, June 26 beginning at 5:30 p.m. to speak in support of the “Community Coalition Budget”, to make sure the City funds these vital needs in order to create a prosperous and humane Oakland.

Oakland Post

Posts by Oakland Post

Related Topics:jobs Justice Opinion rebecca kaplan

Up Next

Former Native American CCC Professor, Lehman L. Brightman, Activist Dies

Don't Miss

Opinion: Resisting the Rise of Hatred in the Era of Trump

Oakland Post

Click to comment

Activism

Oakland Post: Week of June 17 – 23, 2026

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of June 17 – 23, 2026

Published

2 weeks ago

June 20, 2026

Oakland Post

To enlarge your view of this issue, use the slider, magnifying glass icon or full page icon in the lower right corner of the browser window.

Oakland Post

Posts by Oakland Post

Activism

Oakland Post: Week of June 10 – 16, 2026

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of June 10 – 16, 2026

Published

3 weeks ago

June 12, 2026

Oakland Post

To enlarge your view of this issue, use the slider, magnifying glass icon or full page icon in the lower right corner of the browser window.

Oakland Post

Posts by Oakland Post

Arts and Culture

COMMENTARY: Black Music is the Sound of Black Freedom: Let Us Reclaim Both This Juneteenth

Black Music Month started when Black Music Association members Ed Wright, Kenny Gamble and his wife, journalist and radio host Dyanna Williams were able to persuade President Jimmy Carter to establish the observation on June 7, 1979.

Published

3 weeks ago

June 9, 2026

Oakland Post

Robert Johnson (1911-1938) is thought of as the godfather of blues music, especially Delta blues. The 29 songs recorded by him during his short life have been of massive inspiration to guitarists and musicians over the last 80 years. Public domain photo.

By Wanda Ravernell

Black Music Month and Juneteenth are inextricably linked – Black music is the sound of our freedom.

From the plaintive moans of the enslaved Africans’ ‘sorrow songs,’ to the fields of Civil War battle where Black soldiers picked up abandoned bugles, to the upright piano played in juke joints on Saturday night and churches come Sunday morning, our ancestors’ innovation in the face of want, fear, degradation, and hopelessness has yielded genres of music imitated ’round the world.

In 2000, Congress made it official. In 2009, Pres. Barack Obama changed the name to African American Music Heritage Month and in 2023, Pres. Joe Biden changed it back to Black Music Month, two years after he declared Juneteenth a national holiday, the result of a movement led by Opal Lee.

Our ancestors battle for freedom over these last 400 years and the music that allowed them expression of their humanity deserved to be honored.

But we may be losing sight of the value of their sacrifices.

‘Sing a Song Full of the Faith That the Dark past Has Taught Us…’

Along with the long-known exploitation of Black musicians whose recordings were stolen by record companies, the commercialization of Juneteenth feels like another kind of theft.

I had never heard of Juneteenth until I moved to the Bay Area from my hometown of Philadelphia. I didn’t know it was one of many freedom festivals celebrated by descendants of enslaved people in the United States.

Emancipation Day was Jan. 1 in Pennsylvania, April 16 in Wash., D.C., May 20 in Florida, and Aug. 8 in Kentucky. But Juneteenth, June 19, has the most renown, known in Texas as the ‘colored peoples’ Fourth of July.’

It was marked by parades, beauty pageants, rodeos, backyard barbecues and church picnics.

Yes, church.

The formerly enslaved began the day praying in thanks for their freedom just as they had prayed for Jubilee – the day of freedom – when they had chains on their feet and hands. They ‘testified’ about their past suffering and how they had managed to overcome.

And they sang.

Although, we will not hold it this year, Omnira Institute’s Juneteenth Ritual of Remembrance recalled this part of Juneteenth with prayers in the languages of the African captives. In the middle of the ceremony, a soloist would lead us in singing “Many Thousand Gone” while we took turns reciting portions of the Emancipation Proclamation, the news of freedom that took more than two years to reach Texas – two months after the Civil War ended.

“Many Thousand Gone” was famously recorded by Black luminary Paul Robeson in 1947:

“No more auction block for me,

No more, no more

No more auction black for me

Many thousand gone.”

Other verses refer to the ‘pint of salt’ and the ‘driver’s lash,’ the realities of enslavement that they had survived.

‘Sing a Song Full of the Hope That the Present has Brought Us’

All of the genres of African American music have at their root songs like that, the essence being, as Stevie Wonder, wrote, “the joy inside our pain.” So Black music is not just music. It is our story, our history, our very strength.

During the Civil Rights Movement, which peaked 100 years after slavery ended, the people testified that it was the freedom songs – based on spirituals – that gave them the heart to march, face attack dogs, fire hoses, beatings, and shootouts with vigilantes.

The music reminded them that power was in the people. That music, our music, can do so again. We don’t have to accept the commodification of the products of our culture.

The power of those songs is showing a resurgence across the South as we battle again for the right to self-determination through the ballot box.

Those songs are the voices of our ancestors, voices forged in their blood, their sweat, their tears, joy and, above all, faith. Those songs, those prayers live in our blood and our very breath.

This Juneteenth, let us reclaim those holy voices expressed in Black music for ourselves. It is our birthright. It can neither be bought nor sold. No more. Never again.

Wanda Ravernell is the executive director of Omnira Institute, sponsor for 18 years of the Juneteenth Ritual of Remembrance and Oakland’s 11^th Annual Black-Eyed Pea Festival, which will take place on Sept. 12.