May 21, 2020

By Manny Otiko

California Black Media 

 

California is home to an estimated 11 million immigrants and many of them are Black — from Africa, Latin America, the Caribbean, Europe and other parts of the world.  

According to the Black Alliance for Just Immigration (BAJI) at USC, immigrants make up 6.5 percent of California’s Black population. That figure has doubled since 1980. 

From Silicon Valley engineers and Hollywood celebrities to medical professionals, small storefront owners, ride share drivers and hotel housekeepers, Black immigrants are as diverse as the general population in California.  

They live in small clusters in inland valley towns and in larger ethnic enclaves in San Diego, San Francisco and Los Angeles — or they blend into suburban communities across the state, according to data collected by California Black Media to support its Census 2020 awareness mapping.  

But many Black immigrants have been uniquely affected by the coronavirus crisis. Like all Californians, they are dealing with the dangers of the disease and the economic and social uncertainties it has caused across the Golden State. At the same time, they are worried about how the the global pandemic is affecting relatives back in their homelands.  

Across the United States and in California, large numbers of immigrants work in the healthcare field. Many more are other essential workers, toughing it out on the frontlines working in the service industry or in medical, transportation and sanitation jobs. 

In California, 35% of all healthcare professionals are immigrants, according to the Migration Policy Institute.  

Mawata Kamara, who is originally from the West African country Liberia, works as an emergency room nurse in San Leandro, a suburb east of the San Francisco Bay in Alameda County. She said that her hospital currently sees about two to three COVID-19 patients a day. 

According to Kamara, she gets confused trying to keep up with the government’s guidance regarding  the pandemic. For example, she’s currently reusing N95 masks, which used to be forbidden, she says. She also gets a stream of emails with constant updates — sometimes conflicting news — about the virus itself, safety changes or how to treat the disease. 

“The general feeling of unpreparedness is everywhere,” said Kamara. 

As an African immigrant, Kamara says she sees the unique challenges that Black people, both immigrants and American-born Blacks, face in dealing with COVID-19. One of the reasons the disease has affected the Black community is because many people live in multi-generational families, Kamara says. This makes it very difficult to self-quarantine. Kamara said one of her African co-workers faced this situation when she contracted the disease and didn’t want to take it back home where she lived with several relatives. 

“Self-quarantine is a luxury most people can’t afford,” she said. 

Kamara has taken to changing her clothes in the garage and cleaning her shoes before she enters the home she shares with her daughter. 

“I don’t think anyone wants to go to work and bring it back home,” said Kamara. 

Kamara is also concerned about her native country, Liberia, which has been affected by the disease. The country currently has more than 210 COVID-19 infections. About half the patients have survived. Twenty people have died from the disease. 

Liberia, which has a underdeveloped healthcare system, was devastated by the Ebola pandemic which started in 2014 and resulted in more than 11,000 deaths. Kamara has advised family members who were visiting the country to return to the United States so they can have access to better quality health care.

Although coping with the challenges of COVID-19 is grueling for Black immigrants in California like Kamara who are naturalized citizens or have Green Cards, it is even more difficult for those who are undocumented. They did not qualify for the federal $1,200 stimulus payments the federal government has been sending out.  

There are an estimated two million undocumented immigrants in California.  

Earlier this month, Gov. Newsom announced a new $75 million California state program that will provide disaster relief to undocumented immigrants in payments of up to $1,000 per household. The program will begin on Monday May 25, and the money will be awarded on a first-come, first-serve basis. See the list below for organizations that will be distributing the money.  

In Los Angeles, Lyndon Johnson is publisher of CaribPress, a publication that covers West Indian news and events in Southern California, around the United States and in the Caribbean. He is originally from Jamaica. Johnson said the disease presents a unique danger to people from his country because many of them also work in the healthcare field.  

Johnson says some of them are his family members. “One of my sisters is scared to go to work,” he said.   

Johnson said he recently participated in a Zoom meeting with members of the Jamaican diaspora who connected to talk about how COVID-19 is affecting them. 

The island of Jamaica has also changed its rules to deal with the disease. Jamaica currently has more than 500 infections and nine deaths. Johnson said people coming in from certain countries are automatically quarantined.  

The Jamaican economy, Johnson says, relies heavily on tourism, but COVID-19 has brought travel to his home country to a halt. According to the Caribbean Journal, Jamaica earned some  $3.3 billion in 2018 from tourism.  

Johnson said the Caribbean Comedy Series, one of the largest West Indian cultural events held in the Los Angeles area, had to be canceled this year. It was supposed to be held in March.  

Many Caribbean community organizations in California and around the country organize annual health missions, where they return home and perform healthcare checkups. Those have all been canceled as well, said Johnson. 

In San Diego, Chuol Tut, executive director of the South Sudanese Community Center in San Diego, said there are about 4,000 Sudanese (from both South Sudan and North Sudan) living in the San Diego area. He said they are attracted to the area because of the climate, which is similar to their homeland.  

South Sudan is the world’s youngest country. It gained its independence in 2011 after years of conflict with Sudan, a country that is 97 percent Muslim. South Sudan is predominantly Christian. 

Tut said the community has been impacted by the coronavirus outbreak because many of them work in front-line jobs such as drivers, healthcare, casinos and housekeeping. Currently, many of them are out of work. 

Tut said the center, located in East San Diego, is assisting some of them apply for unemployment benefits because some of them struggle with speaking English. 

“We try to help them as much as we can,” he said. 

COVID-19 has also affected the nation of South Sudan. According to Tut, there are currently more than 230 cases and one fatality. Also, the country is a major trading hub with a lot of visitors coming in from neighboring countries such as Kenya, Uganda and Ethiopia. Now the government has established a quarantine zone that stops anyone from coming into the East African county.  

Back on the frontlines of the crisis in California, Kamara says she believes we are not over the worse of the pandemic.  

That’s why she is discouraged by protestors who are demanding businesses reopen. Kamara said too many Americans don’t realize the dangers of  COVID-19 because of misinformation.  

“Until that’s addressed, people won’t take it seriously,” she said. 

Undocumented Black immigrants who want to apply for California’s coronavirus emergency assistance program should contact the following groups representing their area:

 

Northern California:

California Human Development Corporation

(707) 228-1338 www.californiahumandevelopment.org/

Covering Alpine, Amador, Butte, Calaveras, Colusa, Del Norte, El Dorado, Glenn, Humboldt, Lake, Lassen, Mendocino, Modoc, Napa, Nevada, Pleasure, Plumas,

 Shasta, Sierra, Siskiyou, Solano, Sonoma Tehama, Trinity 

 

Bay Area:

Catholic Charities of California

Alameda and Contra Costa: www.cceb.org

Marin, San Francisco, San Mateo: www.catholiccharitiessf.org/ Santa Clara: www.catholiccharitiesscc.org/

 

Central Coast:

Mixteco / Indígena Community Organizing Project (MICOP) www.mixteco.org/drai/3

Santa Barbara: (805) 519-7776

Ventura: (805) 519-7774

Community Action Board Santa Cruz

(800) 228-6820 www.cabinc.org/

Covering Monterey, San Benito, San Luis Obispo, Santa Cruz

 

Central Valley:

United Farm Workers Foundation (UFWF)

(877) 527-6660 www.ufwfoundation.org

Covering Ash, Kern, Kings, Wood, Merced, Tulare and Mono

California Rural Legal Assistance Foundation (CRLAF)

(877) 557-0521 www.crlaf.org/drai

Covering Mariposa, Sacramento, San Joaquin, Stanislaus, Sutter, Tuolumne Yolo and Yuba

 

Los Angeles and Orange County:

Asian Americans Advancing Justice

(213) 241-8880 www.advancingjustice-la.org

Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights (CHIRLA)

(213) 201-8700 www.chirla.org

Los Angeles Central American Resource Center (CARECEN) (213) 315-2659 www.carecen-la.org/

 

Inland Empire:

San Bernardino Community Service Center

(888) 444-0170, (909) 521-7535 www.sbcscinc.org Covering Inyo, Riverside, San Bernardino

TODEC Legal Center Perris

(888) 863-3291 www.TODEC.org

Covering Inyo, Riverside, San Bernardino

San Diego and Imperial County

Jewish Family Service of San Diego Imperial County: 760-206-3242 San Diego County: 858-206-8281

May 14, 2020 

By Antonio Ray Harvey 

California Black Media  

 

It could be the high-profile deaths of African American cultural icons like Little Richard, Andre Harrell or Betty Wright, who all left us within the last week. Or it could be the delayed news of a heinous hate crime murder victim like Ahmaud Arbery in Georgia. Maybe, it’s the peaceful passing of a well-known local activist or the sudden death of close family member. COVID-19 has changed the way death hits us, and the ways we mourn and memorialize people we respect and love.

 

Funeral homes across the United States and here in California are taking extraordinary steps to maintain the safety of their staffs, mourners and the general public. They are also going an extra mile to console families having to deal with the loss of a relative, while accepting the grim reality of not being able to hold a traditional funeral — all the while doing everything they can to keep their businesses profitable.

 

In Los Angeles, at popular entertainment promoter Roland Wirt’s funeral on May 1, hundreds of  mourners and well wishers drove by the Angelus Funeral Home on Crenshaw Boulevard to pay their final respects.

 

Due to COVID-19 restrictions on public gathering, they saluted the family and honked from their cars, a final act of respect to honor the man they remember as the “Godfather of LA Nightlife.” Wirt, 68, who was the mastermind behind a number of prominent African-American events in Southern California, died from a heart condition unrelated to COVID-19.

 

The community raised $13,000 to contribute to Wirt’s burial and even put up a billboard to bid him farewell.

 

Wirt didn’t die of COVID-19. So, although his family could not organize a traditional funeral, they could still say goodbye to him in a way more dignified than how most families whose relatives die from the deadly respiratory disease can. 

 

“My husband wasn’t embalmed. They put him in a plastic bag and then put him a casket,” said Margo Rose Brunson, a resident of Sacramento, who lost her husband, Charles L. Brunson, a veteran of the U.S. Air Force, to COVID-19 on April 13.

 

Mrs. Brunson said she understands that there was nothing the funeral home or the cemetery could do to accommodate the end-of-life arrangements she had planned for her husband. Mr. Brunson, who died at 76, was also fighting pneumonia as well as recurring health complications due to stroke and hypertension.

 

“Those are the rules,” she shrugged, sharing her experience with California Black Media (CBM).

 

CBM attended the funeral and burial which was held 30 miles west of Sacramento in Dixon at the Sacramento Valley National Cemetery. The service, handled by Morgan Jones Funeral Home in Sacramento, lasted no more than seven minutes, and the 10 people who attended the burial stayed in their cars.

 

The Brunsons were the co-founders of the Sacramento Branch of the Black Panther Party (BPP), which was in operation from 1968 to 1970. They were also good friends of Bobby Seale, the well-known political activist, Oakland 1973 mayoral candidate, and co-founder of the national arm of BPP with Huey P. Newton.

 

“In the African-American community, there are so many rituals we all know when it comes to funerals — to burying our people, family members and friends we love,” says Mark McKay, owner and operator of McKay’s Mortuaries in Southern California.  He says, so far, he has handled several cases of COVID-19 deaths. McKay’s has locations both in the Los Angeles area and in the Inland Empire.

 

“It is difficult. People are taking this hard. Imagine crying and having to look in the other direction because you’re making these unusual home going service plans,” he said.  For some families whose relatives die of COVID-19, there are “no services, no prayers. They take them straight from the hospital to the cemetery and put them in the ground – or they go to a crematory and burn the bodies.”

 

“At McKay’s, we take two photos if there is no funeral. We mail one to the family with the death certificate and keep one for the record,” he said. “We try to support and encourage them and tell them they can have a proper memorial when the emergency order is lifted.”

 

Most Black funeral home owners say they have seen sharp dips in their revenues since most of their customers no longer need auxiliary services like limousine rentals and other costs associated with funeral services.

 

McKay says, during this crisis, mental health of mourners should be taken seriously. His team spends a lot of time helping people deal with grief. There have been two cases he has dealt with, McKay says, involving people who died worrying about the pandemic. One was a 71-year-old Black woman who died from stress. 

 

Funeral homes across California have adopted technologies like Zoom and other streaming services to allow families to watch funeral services remotely online.

 

“People in the business are embracing technology. It is becoming more popular, a necessity,” says the Rev. Ray Turner, pastor of Temple Missionary Baptist Church in San Bernardino. “It will become an integral part of our future.” Turner also invests in several funeral homes in the Inland Empire.

 

For families everywhere in the world, the coronavirus crisis has complicated dying, grieving and and funeral services. Across the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that people keep a safe distance of six feet between them to avoid spreading or contracting the virus. The state has ordered that no more than 10 people can assemble for a public gathering.

 

In California, there are 66,680 confirmed COVID-19 cases, according to the California Department of Public Health. So far, the disease has caused the deaths of 2,657 people. More than 260 of the deceased are Black Californians.

 

“Oh, it’s horrible. Its horrible and its hectic. One of the worst experiences I’ve had in my 55 years of being in the funeral business,” said Albert Tillman, another African-American funeral home owner and operator. His business is Tillman Riverside Mortuary, located in Riverside.

 

Tillman says he approaches funeral services with a sense of duty, but he constantly has to steel his nerves because he’s always thinking about the safety of his 19 employees and guests who attend viewings at this funeral home.

 

“We sanitize all the time. We follow CDC guidelines. We wear masks,” says Tillman, who does not embalm any bodies of people who died from COVID-19. He says he tells families who want their loved ones’ bodies preserved to go to Snyder Mortuary in Rancho Cucamonga, the one funeral home he knows of in the greater Los Angeles area that embalms bodies of people who died from COVID-19 complications.

 

“What scares me most is the unknown,” says Tillman. “We just don’t know enough about this virus, that’s why I don’t make decisions that might endanger my staff and the community.”

 

Most cemeteries across California remain closed to the public and only open their gates for burials. When they do, most of them allow between five to 10 guests only, including pall bearers and the funeral home staff.

 

The California Department of Public Health and the Cemetery and Funeral Bureau of the California Deparment of Consumer Affairs both provide information for funeral establishments and the general public on their websites. They include guidance for making funeral arrangements; COVID-19 embalming and burial procedures; and the safe handling of infected bodies.

 

Morgan Jones Funeral Home in Sacramento follows the safety directions of the National Funeral Directors Association (NFDA) COVID-19 guidelines established by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

 

Morgan Jones Funeral Director Shirley White says that the new safety rules strip away some of the solemnity that we’ve become accustomed to experiencing at funerals.

 

“It’s difficult and it’s hard adjusting,” White told CBM. “But we’re going to take care of our families. We’re going to get stuff done. We just have to follow the rules and do the best we can do for them.”

May 14, 2020 

By Aldon Thomas Stiles 

California Black Business  

 

Two weeks ago, Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp drew sharp criticisms from African Americans across the country.

 

Black politicians, social media commenters, and others blasted the governor, saying his decision to lift his state’s month-long stay-at-home order by first opening businesses like barbershops, nail salons, sneaker stores, tattoo parlors, gyms, and bowling alleys put the lives of Blacks at risk. Those are businesses African Americans frequent, his critics pointed out.

 

But unlike Georgia, California Gov. Gavin Newsom said businesses like barbershops, beauty shops, and nail salons will not be allowed to begin servicing their customers again until the third phase of the Golden State’s reopening plan.

 

“Phase three is not a year away. It's not six months away. It's not even three months away. It may not even be more than a month away,” Newsom said at his daily press conference Friday.

"We just want to make sure we have a protocol in place to secure customer safety, employee safety, and allow the businesses to thrive in a way that is sustainable.”

 

On May 8, California started the second in a four-stage process of reopening business and public spaces shut down during the COVID-19 crisis on a category-by-category basis. Businesses in industries such as retail, manufacturing, logistics, and others that fit certain safety requirements opened Friday, still maintaining recommendations for wearing masks and gloves, and maintain a social distance of six feet between people.

 

Now, smaller businesses like salons and barbershops that require closer contact between people  — and that have been hit hard in the pocket by coronavirus-related shutdowns  —  are calling on the California governor, state legislature and other politicians to allow them to return to work.

 

The Black Small Business Association of California (BSBA) wrote letters to Sacramento Mayor Darryl Steinberg and Gov. Gavin Newsom urging them to consider allowing barbers and cosmetologists to safely resume their business.

 

“While we understand the need to prioritize public health and safety during this unprecedented crisis, the economic devastation of this moment cannot be overstated,” the letter read. “This loss of income is compounded by the limits of California’s safety-net services and has left too many barbers and cosmetologists without assistance during this difficult time.”

 

The BSBA claimed that many of the protections federal and state officials promised to small businesses did not reach barbers and cosmetologists.

 

“For example, many of these individuals have applied for Unemployment Insurance, but were denied,” the letter read. “Others applied for the federal Paycheck Protection Program and Economic Injury Disaster Loans through the Small Business Administration and were denied access to these funds as well. In addition, few if any have received access to information about local emergency funding options when these funds have been made available.”

 

In addition to those letters, the BSBA, along with the Mixed Cosmetology School, several barbers and cosmetologists wrote safety guidelines to serve as a model for how these specific businesses could begin reopening sooner rather than later.

 

Those guidelines include the implementation of personal protective gear, mandatory temperature checks, symptom questionnaires, and extensive disinfection.

 

Robert Brown, a barber at Another Look Hair Salon in Sacramento, highlighted some of the unique issues facing barbers and beauticians during the pandemic.

 

“Many African American owned salons didn't qualify for the PPP loan because we rent booths to our stylists and barbers,” Brown said. “We didn't have the payroll numbers to give banks to qualify.”

 

The Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) is a federal government stimulus loan program under the CARES act that provides cash to small businesses to cover payroll. The federal government ­forgives the loan if 75% of it is used to keep employees hired.

 

California joins several other states in reopening businesses after months of closures in the midst of this pandemic. But due to the size of the state, Gov. Newsom says, the reopening process has been based on the needs of different counties.

 

Kathryn Barger, a member of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, detailed how Los Angeles County will cooperate with the governor's reopening plan.

 

“[Los Angeles] County is in conversations with our state partners and wants to ensure any restrictions we ease are in the best interest of the health of all of our residents,” Barger said. “What's best for other counties may not necessarily be right for Los Angeles County as we are the most densely populated county in the state, our guidelines will certainly look different than others.”

 

Dave Charles Presley Jr., a Rialto resident, and barber for 28 years had to move out of his apartment due to all of the revenue he has lost since the COVID-19 pandemic began.

 

“It's been an absolute nightmare,” Presley said. “I'm looking at all of these politicians with these fresh haircuts, yet our businesses are suffering. I know they didn't cut that themselves.”

 

Presley also claims that he has waited for over a month to receive the unemployment benefits that he applied for after the governor issued his stay-at-home order.

 

Lorenzo Griffin, CEO of Laran Products, has been trying to help barbers like Presley as Laran Products only sells their merchandise directly to salons and barbershops.

 

“The beauty industry, the barbershops, and the beauty salons is the second-largest social institution in Black America, second only to the church,” Griffin said. “It's vital that we open but it is absolutely vital that we stay safe when we open.”

 

Some have expressed concern about Black people returning to certain jobs during this reopening process. Dr. Melva Thompson-Robinson, Executive Director of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) Center for Health Disparities Research, spoke about the many challenges Black people have been facing during the COVID-19 pandemic.

 

“For the African American community, this has been something that has been centuries in the making in terms of the inequality and the racism that African Americans, in particular, have experienced,” Thompson-Robinson said. “As far as the African American community, they are often working in positions where they'd be considered essential workers. Not just as a doctor or nurse, but they are part of the janitorial staff or other essential staff.”

 

Thompson-Robinson also expressed her concern about the inherent racial bias in the medical community and explained how African Americans can combat that bias without coming across as hostile.

 

“You can advocate for yourself by having someone who can go with you, who can advocate on your behalf, or if you can't have someone go with you, have someone put together a list of questions that have to be answered by the doctors so if you're there by yourself, your issues and concerns aren't being overlooked,” Thompson-Robinson said.

May 14, 2020 

LAWT News Service 

 

The Board of Supervisors unanimously approved the creation of a one-year pilot program to reduce the number of failures to appear in the County of Los Angeles’ courts, directing the Public Defender and Alternate Public Defender to utilize a technology-based solution to communicate information to clients to help ensure their appearance in court.

 

Acting on a motion by Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas, the goal of this pilot is to make courtrooms and courthouses safer and keep the jail population down in an effort to prevent the spread of COVID-19, while ultimately producing better outcomes for justice-involved individuals.

 

Piloting a low-cost text message-based communication and engagement tool can help low-income clients appear in court and at mandatory appointments, preventing technical violations leading to the issuance of bench warrants and resulting in costly warrant execution and incarceration.

 

“We must take advantage of the readily available, cost-effective, emerging technologies to help reduce failures to appear and, at the same time, continue doing all that we can to keep individuals safe during this crisis,” said Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas. “This is an important long-term goal in criminal justice reform and promoting alternatives to incarceration, and increasingly important given the pandemic and high volume of upcoming court dates.”

 

Due to the risk of COVID-19 spreading rapidly within the crowded jails, the jail population has been reduced from 17,000 to less than 12,000, a release of over 5,000 incarcerated individuals. Many of the individuals recently released have pending court dates as early as June; this expected increase in court dates adds to the urgency in reducing failures to appear, especially for those defendants from low-income communities. Moreover, reducing failures to appear is essential to avoiding re-arrests and the likely spike in the jail population that would result, which could undermine the County’s efforts to contain the virus.

 

“The approved pilot is a proven tool to get Public Defender and Alternate Public Defender clients back to court on time,” said Los Angeles County Public Defender Ricardo Garcia. “Supervisor Ridley-Thomas’s, and the Board of Supervisors’, prospective thinking will help reduce “failure to appear” warrants, decrease the number of arrests and prevent re-filling the jails with our indigent clients during the COVID-19 pandemic.”

 

Other jurisdictions that have utilized similar technology have seen substantial reductions in failure to appear rates, with one study finding that text message reminders contributed to a 36 percent decrease in the failure to appear rate in New York City. Additionally, the savings associated with preventing failures to appear should prove to be considerable for Los Angeles County.