VOICES
Challenger Community News • t hec hallengernews.com •November 4,2021
Can We All Just Get Along? Urgent: Buffalo Public School Student Transportation - A Crisis We Can No Longer Ignore! I am writing in support of a wonderful and vigilant community Organization in Buffalo (NY) called "We The Parents", which is co-chaired by longtime Upstate Western New York community activist Samuel Radford. Mr. Radford, is also the past president of District Parent Coordinating Council [DPCC}, another pro-parent/pro-student Issues support network component and Concern. I, myself, am the Special Projects Facilitator at We Are Women Warriors, which is yet another community-focused Organization targeting quality-of-life Issues impacting the minority community in Buffalo, and in Erie County. The Warriors Organization is (also) based in Buffalo. What has driven us to reach out in advocacy, is the current crisis taking place in Buffalo, in which upwards of 500 students EACH AND EVERY SCHOOL DAY, are not being picked up and driven to school by the student transportation contractor currently charged with the provision of that crucial public service. It is a given that when those "neglected" students are left standing at their assigned bus stops each and every day, their parents must then find the ways and means to get their child//children to those pupils' educational institutions. This is a disaster circumstance that must need be addressed and resolved, and quickly! If the U.S. State Of New York must deploy this State's National Guard servicemen and servicewomen, to effectively solve this dilemma, Governor Kathy Hochul needs to take the necessary steps to do so. A significant number of inner-city Buffalo households, who are the families most impacted by this unforeseen problem that they themselves did not cause, are very low-tomoderate income. These parent-individuals can ill afford to risk arriving late to their jobs due to having to suddenly and necessarily become student transportation designees. Moreover, many of these parents lack a private vehicle and they (then) have to resort to utilizing public transit. The fact of the overarching problem being further exacerbated by the latter reality is both undeniable and obvious. The Issue of the problematic performance and implementation of Buffalo Public School Student Transportation should be at the top of this community's Quality-Of-Life Issues Agenda. Parents in the City Of Buffalo need the assistance of our governor, at this very urgent time! The We Are Women Warriors Organization stands in support of these families, and we stand in support of the diligent community-focused Organization(s) serving them. What is needed, right now, is for City Of Buffalo residents, and, indeed, residents of Erie County, to contact New York State Governor Kathy Hochul, in support of the parents of Buffalo Public School students. Please call (at Extension 1) or write our governor, at the following points-of-contact. Thank you: Contact By Phone: (518) 474-8390 | Office hours: 9:00am to 5:00pm Contact By Mail: The Honorable Kathy Hochul Governor of New York State, NYS State Capitol Building Albany, NY 12224.
The Votes are In and Council President Pridgen Calls for Peace and Calm in the Community
Common Council President Darius Pridgen exhibited true leadership a few days before the election when he acknowledged the divisive, negative nature of this year’s mayoral election between Mayor Brown and India Walton and called on the community to stay calm. Councilmember Pridgen, who is also Pastor of True Bethel Baptist Church, also noted President Pridgen that he did not endorse either candidate in the election, and allowed both to display their campaign signs on his private property. He told the News that in his opinion the race had “horribly divided” this community at times. He made it clear, and we agree, that the sky will not fall no matter who wins. Now that the election is over his call for calm holds even more urgency in a neglected, shortchanged community that still has a lot of issues to resolve.
VIOLENCE IN ROCHESTER SCHOOLS AN AFROCENTRIC PERSPECTIVE continued from page 2
mind, which is most indicative of the majority of the Executive Staff of RCSD, who spout the rhetoric of Black independence, but whose practice represents the mentality of the colonizer in Black face. This neo-colonial mentality is what we are struggling against, and the task can prove to be daunting, but one in which we can not afford to quit, our children's future depends on us not quitting nor compromising on demanding what our children deserve. The task before us is to create the means and mechanism to make RCSD transparent and accountable to the community, and ensure the Village is included in any decision-making process that affects the growth and development of our students. Jalil Muntaqim, is Community Organizer, Education Committee Citizen Action of New York, Rochester Chapter jmuntaqim@citizenactionny.org
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A Mayoral Win And A Community's Loss
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his writer believes that if there had not been a Write In campaign, Kimberly Beaty would have won the Erie County Sheriff's race. When one team is only focusing on the Write In or Stamp In campaign and are only advising the voters to focus on one candidate, the other candidates in the community lose. Buffalo, being divided in the mayor's race, caused Erie County to miss electing the very best sheriff's candidate we will ever have. And Byron Brown's failure to endorse Kim publicly, sent a dog whistle to his supporters and also to Garcia's people, especially when literature was passed out that showed Garcia and Brown together. It is no secret that South Buffalo went overwhelmingly to Byron Brown. South Buffalo has a heavy enrollment of Democratic voters. I don't t have to see the ballots to know that they also went 'hard' for Garcia. I am sad about India's loss in the mayor's race but sadly, the fearmongering the Brown campaign directed against the Walton campaign found its way into the suburbs by supporters of John Garcia and Stefan Mychajliw. We saw political ads calling Kim a radical socialist when in fact, she is more conservative than most people I know. Byron Brown's intent might have been to demonize India but in the process, White supremacists used those Brown political ads to destroy Kimberly's chance to win the election last night. And even with all the attack ads and a Black newspaper columnist calling Ms. Walton a Hood Rat in his article, India Walton still managed to win the majority of voters Buffalo's east and west sides and the young and Latino voters! I want to thank former NYS Senator Antoine Thompson. His expert leadership in the waning days of the campaign had a tremendous positive impact on India's winning in Byron Brown's home turf and Masten District base. However, the Brown campaign's win at any cost, write in effort, was successful as Byron Brown was re-elected. I also want to thank the courageous, local and national elected officials, who put principle over politics and did the right thing in this very contentious election. But at what cost did we pay to appease his vanity and self interest? I say the price we paid is a divided community, the loss of a chance to elect a great sheriff and the empowerment of White supremacists and racists in Buffalo and Erie County, for years to come. Tuesday t night was not just the loss of a mayor's election or a sheriff's race, it was the validation of a process where winning is everything regardless of the means or methods used to achieve that win. It is indeed a sad day for Buffalo and for Erie County.
Plans For Educational Reform In How Black History Is Taught In America NEWSONE --According to the New York Post, City schools Chancellor Meisha Ross-Porter introduced the new Black studies curriculum Wednesday at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in Manhattan. “If we’re serious about addressing racial justice, we have to look at what our students learn every day,” Porter said while joined at the center by city legislators, academics, and nonprofit organizers. “And not just Black children, but all children.” “Our children have to see and experience themselves every single day in the curriculum,” she continued. “They have to see their value and worth because they have seen so many other messages that say different.” The main focus of the new curriculum appears to be creating a departure from the Black history we’ve traditionally been taught in K-12 schools, which, for the most part, begins with slavery and ends with Martin Luther King Jr. “Why did I have to go to the movies to learn that Black women played a significant role putting America on the moon,” Black Edfluencers United President Shango Blake rhetorically asked during the meeting. “Why didn’t I learn that at school?