The Brotherhood Crusade, SEIU 2015, SEIU 99, Community Coalition, the Black Worker Center, Broccoli City, Inner-city Struggle, CDTech, Power CA, and others join forces to hold a ­community discussion regarding Race, Equity, & COVID-19

May 07, 2020 

By Danny Bakewell, Jr. 

Executive Editor 

 

COVID-19 has brought America face-to-face with its pervasive inequities. The gaping divide in our education system, healthcare, jobs, criminal justice, technology, transportation, and economy, as well as the lack of a social safety net and voter suppression (due to the COVID-19 crisis), all speak to a broken system. But the most significant and most immediate inequity threatening communities of color came to light as data poured in from major cities all over the country, showing how vulnerable the Black and indigenous communities are due to underlying health conditions brought about by systemic racism.

These types of statistics are not new to us. Communities of color have long been fighting for equitable distribution of resources, education, criminal justice reforms, access to healthcare, housing, jobs, and other forms of systemic racism. COVID-19 is merely shining a light on what we’ve already known to be true.

“We all understand it is our job and responsibility to help protect and support the vulnerable Black, Indigenous, API and Latinx families we serve.  The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed and exacerbated the pre-existing conditions and the inequities our people have faced for decades. The People’s Assembly is a day for us to listen and learn from members of the community who are on the front line of this crisis,” stated Charisse Bremond-Weaver, president & CEO of the Los Angeles Brotherhood Crusade.

But let us also not neglect that fact that indigenous, Latinx, and undocumented families are also victims of the same system. In light of all of this, there has yet to be a response from this administration as to how it plans to address gaping inequalities Black and other communities of color have been experiencing for decades. This is unacceptable.

This is now a moment for our communities to educate ourselves, inspire each other through our stories of resilience, and advocate for one another by demanding policies that address social, economic, education, and health disparities, post the COVID-19 pandemic.

Over 10+ community-based organizations, unions, philanthropy, and artists are partnering to provide an engaging digital experience to deepen political engagement, empower, and educate. Through dialogue, art, music, panels, etc., we will be spotlighting the stories of heroes on the front lines and those impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic and onramp everyday people into campaigns that bring about real change for our most vulnerable communities.

WHEN:

Saturday, May 9, 2020 Time: 10am-1pm

WHERE: Stream Live

YouTube, Facebook Live, Twitter

May 07, 2020 

By Aldon Thomas Stiles 

California Black Media       

   

The Frederick Douglass Family Initiative (FDFI), an organization the social reformer and writer’s descendants founded to keep his legacy alive, commissioned the award-winning African American concept artist Nikkolas Smith to sketch a rendering depicting Frederick Douglass in a medical mask.

 

“Disease is cured by the right use of remedies,” Douglass’ quote beneath the image reads.

 

According to Kenneth B. Morris Jr., the co-founder and president of FDFI, the image is more than a fun image depicting a Black icon in a contemporary setting. To the FDFI, it is a powerful image about Black people's position in America and the lurking threat of the coronavirus crisis.

 

“The image – perhaps seen as cute, clever or even amusing – a simple juxtaposition of a historical figure and a contemporary challenge,” wrote Morris, who lives in Orange County, in a letter.

 

“While the message is open to interpretation,” he added. “FDFI looks at this very differently. The image and message are about how communities of color are affected and treated unequally, not surprisingly but predictably, during this pandemic.”

 

FDFI will allow organizations to use the image for free to raise awareness about COVID-19.

 

Despite being about 13% of the total United States population, nearly 20% of confirmed COVID-19 related deaths have been African Americans, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

 

Morris directly addressed his personal connection to this pandemic in a YouTube video posted April 14 addressed to FDFI supporters.

 

“Our daughter Nicole contracted COVID-19 several weeks ago. We're thankful that she has recovered, and we feel more compassionate than ever about helping those going through similar experiences,” Morris said.

 

Morris himself is a descendant of both Frederick Douglass and Booker T. Washington and FDFI serves to further some of the ideals of both of those famous Americans.

 

Founded by Morris, his mother Nettie Washington Douglass and Robert J. Benz, the FDFI focuses on education as a means to combat human trafficking, one form of modern-day slavery.

 

“When we work with students,” Douglass said on the FDFI website, “We can accomplish several things at once: provide an interesting narrative about an important period in our history that is often overlooked; inspire modern abolitionists; provide timely information that may prevent young people themselves from becoming victims and help create better world citizens.”

 

Morris spoke about how important this image is in the scope of Black struggles during a crisis.

 

“FDFI commissioned social justice artist Nikkolas Smith to create a COVID-19 portrait of Frederick Douglass to protest racial discrimination,” Morris said. “We will disseminate this image all over the country and draw attention to health disparities in Black and Brown communities. During this health and financial crisis, these disparities will become increasingly exposed.”

 

While Morris says that art is up for interpretation, he looks at this image with the lens of one who has witnessed a long history of oppression and inequality.

 

“Black people still struggle mightily under poverty, mass incarceration, disparities in health care, education and economic opportunity, racial profiling and police brutality,” Morris said. “One only must look at the astounding poverty rates for people of color in this country to realize that things are not exactly equal. We continue to pay the price for policy failures that have compromised our health and disproportionately impacted our educational and economic opportunities.”

 

Smith, the artist who worked on this piece, has designed posters and other artwork for companies like BET, Disney, Sony Pictures, Marvel Studios and many others.

 

He emphasized the impact of this piece in relation to the racial divide in infections during this pandemic.

 

“I was honored to take on this project. I really felt the weight of it,” Smith said. “This art piece is really a piece that symbolizes the combination of one very current and topical struggle joined with this ongoing struggle with racial justice that we are still fighting today.”

 

As for what Morris hopes this image will accomplish, he said, “I pray that Nikkolas Smith’s artwork inspires and motivates our people to heed my great ancestor’s call to ‘agitate, agitate, agitate.’”

May 07, 2020 

By City News Service 

 

In an announcement that will bring relief to business owners in the Southland and across the state, Gov. Gavin Newsom said today California's stay-at-home order will be eased later this week, allowing some “lower-risk” retail stores to reopen with restricted operations.

 

Newsom said the state on Thursday will release guidelines that applicable businesses will have to follow to reopen, possibly as early as Friday, and offer curbside pickup of goods.

 

“As early as the end of this week, you will have the capacity as a retailer with the modifications and the guidelines we set forth on Thursday to begin to reopen for pickup: clothing, book stores, music, toys, sporting goods stores, florists – with Mother’s Day coming up,” Newsom said.

 

The relaxed rules will also allow some manufacturing businesses that support the retail outlets to reopen, he said. The move will not apply to offices or shopping malls.

 

Newsom said the state will also provide some authority for individual counties to develop additional guidelines in conjunction with the state that could allow additional types of businesses to reopen, with appropriate operating modifications.

 

“Once that is done, we need active monitoring, surveillance, to make sure the disease is not spreading,” he said. “If it is, one of the criteria is a trigger to re-modify the changes, so we just want folks to know we need to toggle back and forth here on the basis of what's happening in those communities.

 

“... This is a very positive sign and it's happened only for one reason: the data says it can happen,” he said. “But we recognize as we begin to modify, behaviors modify, and possible community spread may occur. If that's the case and we do not have the capacity to control that spread, to trace that spread, to track that spread, isolate individuals when they've been in contact with COVID-19, we will have to make modifications anew.''

 

May 07, 2020 

By Jake Coyle 

AP Film Writer 

 

In the backstage hallways of Washington D.C.'s Capital One Arena, Michelle Obama walks arm-in-arm with her husband, Barack Obama. She has just finished the third stop on what would be a 34-city book tour of such unprecedented scale that it almost resembled a Beyonce concert tour.

 

Nadia Hallgren's camera is trailing them when Michelle Obama, perhaps looking for reassurance, asks the former president: ``Does it seem like a show that you'd like to see?''

 

Hallgren's documentary, “Be­coming,” is – more so than we've seen before – the Michelle Obama Show. It captures the former first lady, in settings both public and intimate, navigating her post-White House life, interacting with fans and generally fostering a spirit of positivity, self-belief and hope that few beside her husband are capable of inspiring.

 

“My life is starting to be mine again,” she says in the film. “There's another chapter waiting for me out there.”

 

“Becoming,” which debuts Wednesday on Netflix, is an extension of her 2018 best-selling memoir of the same name and a kind of authorized filmic portrait of Obama. It's produced by Higher Ground Productions, the film company founded by the Obamas.

 

Before now, Higher Ground has backed well-received, socially-minded documentaries about American labor (the Oscar-winning  “American Factory”) and the disability rights movement (the acclaimed Sundance-winner  “Crip Camp: A Disability Revolution”). It's been an auspicious, award-winning beginning for Higher Ground, the most ambitious post-White House dive into Hollywood of any former U.S. president. With “Becoming,” one half of Higher Ground now steps in front of the camera, too.

 

The movie, itself, was a secret until last week when Netflix announced is upcoming premiere. Hallgren typically worked with small crews or just by herself. Much of “Becoming” takes place either in arenas crowded with cameras or in private settings – the back seat of an SUV, the childhood home of Obama – so few would have spotted her.

 

“I think if people saw me, it probably looked very unofficial,” chuckles Hallgren.

 

Keeping “Becoming” clandestine still wasn't easy, though. “My closest friends had no idea what I was doing,” Hallgren says. “People were always like, ‘What are you up to?’”

 

Hallgren is a veteran documentary cinematographer (“Trouble the Water,” “Girl Rising,” “Trapped”) making her feature directorial debut. (She also worked on CNN Films' “We Will Rise: Michelle Obama's Mission to Educate Girls Around the World.”) The job, Hallgren believes, she won from her body of work and, as first gleaned in a high-pressure meeting with Obama, their similarities. “She's from the South Side. I'm from the South Bronx,” says the New York-bred filmmaker.

 

Unlike the interview-heavy Hulu doc-series “Hillary” on Hillary Clinton, Hallgren's approach is mostly fly-on-the-wall, mixing glossy onstage footage of Obama's talks with the likes of Oprah Winfrey, Reese Witherspoon and Stephen Colbert with more personal scenes offstage. Obama reflects on her eight years in the White House and the often racist-tinged response they engendered. “You hope people were more ready for us than maybe they were,” she says.

 

Obama doesn't analyze the 2016 election or the rise of Donald Trump except for one comment lamenting the turnout of African American voters. “That's my trauma,” she says.

 

But the main trust of “Becoming” is not just Obama's story but what she inspires – how one story begets others. Hallgren, drawing from the photography of Garry Winogrand, lingers on the faces in Obama's crowds, and in some cases takes a moment to follow their lives. “Becoming” may be part concert film but it's nearly as interested in the audience as it is in the showstopper on stage.

 

“Oftentimes when Mrs. Obama was on stage, I was not the main camera filming her,” says Hallgren. “So I had the opportunity to walk around. There was such an incredible energy in those arenas. The excitement that people had felt special. I thought: I want to capture this.”

 

The timing of “Becoming” is interesting not just because it captures a sense of community before people were forced into lockdown by the pandemic but because it comes in the middle of the presidential campaign. The Deadline review of the film isn't alone in maintaining: “If Michelle Obama wasn't so adamant that she isn't running for public office, the perfectly timed new Netflix documentary ‘Becoming’ would sure seem like a campaign launch.”

 

Michelle Obama, however, has steadfastly maintained she's not a political figure and hasn't before officially endorsed a candidate. (Barack Obama recently endorsed his former vice president, Joe Biden.) But many have advocated  for her to play a role in the 2020 election. The committee “Draft Michelle Obama” launched Monday, urging Biden choose her as his running mate.

 

Michelle Obama decline to be interviewed for this article but she released a statement when “Becoming” was announced.

 

“Even as we can no longer safely gather or feed off the energy of groups, even as many of us are living with grief, loneliness and fear, we need to stay open and able to put ourselves in other people's shoes. Empathy is our lifeline here. It's what will get us to the other side,” said Obama. “Let's use it to redirect our attention toward what matters most, reconsider our priorities, and find ways to better remake the world in the image of our hopes.”