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July 18 18,, 2022 - July 24, 2022

Vol. 49 No. 29• The Journal For Community News, Business & The Arts • insightnews.com

WAIN MCFARLANE

AT DAKOTA JAZZ CLUB Wain McFarlane holds court Tuesday night July 26th at Dakota Jazz Club in downtown Minneapolis. Check out the KFAI-90.3FM Conversations with Al McFarlane broadcast interview with Wain from his live sound check at 1pm earlier in the day. The interview includes a chat with television personality, Justin Hartley, star of NBC’s critically acclaimed, award winning series, “This Is Us.” Hartley joins to promote in upcoming Twins Cities concert by superstar, Gary Clark Jr., sponsored by REVEL spirits.

Courtesy of Wain McFarlane

Page 2 • July 18, 2022 - July 24, 2022 • Insight News

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Insight News • July 18, 2022 - July 24, 2022 • Page 3

Insight News

INSIGHT NEWS IS AUDITED BY THE ALLIANCE FOR AUDITED MEDIA TO PROVIDE OUR ADVER TISER PAR TNERS WITH THE HIGHES T LEVEL OF MEDIA ASSURANCE.

July 18 18,, 2022 - July 24, 2022

Vol. 49 No. 29• The Journal For Community News, Business & The Arts • insightnews.com

EXPLAINER:

Chauvin’s federal prison future in Floyd’s death

By Steve Karnowski Associated Press

maryforhennepin

Mary Moriarty

Hennepin Attorney candidate Mary Moriarty: Look at racism Columnist

By Brenda Lyle-Gray Mary Moriarty’s career has been dedicated to ‘seeking justice and changing the system’.

She began her ‘making a difference’ journey as a public defender in Hennepin County in 1990 working her way up the administrative criminal justice ladder to serving as the county’s Chief Public Defender for six years and leading the second largest public law office in Minnesota. Working with 120 lawyers gave her an opportunity to be a leader. She was also chair of the behavioral health committee for six years. Her

stepsister died of an accidental overdose having taken some medication while also drinking alcohol. That’s been a particular issue of the candidate, that of concern for people who struggle with mental illness and also substance abuse. An independent evaluation found the county office to be one of the most effective and highly regarded public law offices in the country.

“For the first 20 years of my 31-year tenure at the county, I tried criminal cases.

And unfortunately, in doing so, I represented a lot of young Black men. I learned about their social histories and about the trauma they had suffered before they got into the system. Our office realized if we had intervened at some earlier time in their lives, they might not have been sitting next to me. I also watched how some people were harmed who were victims. I was a victim

of a violent crime myself, but I watched how they were treated in the system which was not very well.” She probably could have remained longer in that position had it not been for backlash that came about after her bold but true comments at a forum she had attended with former police Chief Arredondo.

There was a white prosecutor on this pretrial bail panel I attended. He kept referring to the people being held as ‘thugs’ and he continued saying it over and over. My friends of color who knew me well looked at me. I knew as a white person I’d be perceived as complicit if I just sat there and said nothing. So, I asked for a microphone during the question and answer closing segment. I tried to think of a way to say what I wanted to say so the prosecutor would not misunderstand my intentions.

He was like the GOP today. He,

‘they’ would never understand the impact of decades long oppression of Black Americans, and most didn’t care.” She goes on to describe how she asked him to rethink his use of the word ‘thug’ because it is very racially charged. The panelist absolutely ‘lost’ it and it took a member of the foundation to grab a microphone and ask him to take a deep breath and calm down. During the break, the man came up to me again and began screaming until others close by intervened. “There were no consequences for his behavior. I was accused of calling a ‘justice partner’ a racist in public. That was used against me, so I have this history of calling it as I see it; doing the right thing for the right reason, but often at great personal and professional liability,” she said.

What white people

MORIARTY 4

Judge strikes down many of Minnesota’s abortion restrictions

By Steve Karnowski Associated Press

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — A judge declared many of Minnesota’s restrictions on abortion unconstitutional on Monday, including the state’s mandatory 24-hour waiting period and a requirement that both parents be notified before a minor can get an abortion.

Ramsey County District Judge Thomas Gilligan also struck down Minnesota’s requirements that only physicians can perform abortions and that abortions after the first trimester must be performed in hospitals. His order took effect immediately, meaning the limits can’t be enforced.

The abortion rights groups behind the lawsuit said the ruling came at a crucial time, just over two weeks after the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that struck down the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, which legalized abortion across the country. Providers have been preparing for a surge in patients from neighboring upper Midwest states, and

photo/Wikipedia

Erin Maye Quade, advocacy director for Gender Justice. even farther away, where abortion has become illegal or is expected to become restricted.

“It underscores that Minnesota has the need to serve as a leader in providing abortion care to millions that will need it across the country, especially those in our region,” said Erin Maye Quade, advocacy director for Gender Justice.

Removing those “onerous barriers” will lead to even more people coming to Minnesota for abortion care, she added.

photo/Renée Jones Schneider

Ren Wischmann, 23, of Carver, holds a sign while chanting during a University of Minnesota student led protest in Minneapolis, Minn., after the Supreme Court overruled Roe v Wade on Friday, June 24, 2022.

Gilligan ruled that the state’s restrictions were unconstitutional under a landmark 1995 Minnesota Supreme Court ruling known as Doe v. Gomez, which held that the state constitution protects abortion rights. The judge called that case “significant and historic” and said it’s unaffected by the recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling striking down the

Afrodescendientes Change for life

PAGE 5

1973 Roe v. Wade decision.

“These abortion laws violate the right to privacy because they infringe upon the fundamental right under the Minnesota Constitution to access abortion care and do not withstand strict scrutiny,” Gilligan wrote.

Physicians were required at the start of the 24-

MN ABORTION 4

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin is about to swap solitary confinement at Minnesota’s only maximum security prison for an unknown future at a federal prison where, despite his national notoriety for killing George Floyd, he’ll probably be safer.

Chauvin was sentenced Thursday in U.S. District Court in St. Paul to 21 years on federal civil rights charges, following his guilty plea in December.

He’s already serving 22 1/2 years for his conviction in state court on murder and manslaughter charges.

He will serve the sentences concurrently in federal prison.

Inmates qualify for parole earlier in the Minnesota prison system than they do in the federal system, so while the federal sentence may appear shorter, it means Chauvin will spend nearly three more years behind bars than he would have for the state murder conviction alone. But his plea agreement allowed him to avoid the life sentence he faced on the federal charges, and gave him the potential for a safer environment with a bit more freedom.

Chauvin, who is white, killed Floyd by pinning the unarmed Black man to the pavement with his knee for 9

photo/POOL via AP

FILE - Former Minneapolis police Officer Derek Chauvin addresses the court as Hennepin County Judge Peter Cahill presides over Chauvin’s sentencing at the Hennepin County Courthouse in Minneapolis, on June 25, 2021.

1/2 minutes, despite Floyd’s fading pleas of “I can’t breathe.”

Floyd’s killing in May 2020 sparked protests worldwide and forced a national reckoning over police brutality and racism.

WHERE IS CHAUVIN NOW? For his own safety, Chauvin, 46, has been held in “administrative segregation” at the state’s maximum security prison at Oak Park Heights.

He’s been largely confined to a 10-by-10-foot room, which he’s been allowed to leave for an average of one hour a day for exercise.

CHAUVIN 4

photo/J. Scott Applewhite_AP File

U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn speaks, as U.S. Reps., from left, Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass., and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., listen, during a news conference at the Capitol in Washington, July 15, 2019. A federal judge sentenced David George Hannon to three years of probation and a $7,000 fine for sending an email threatening to kill Omar and the three other congresswomen after the news conference.

Florida man sentenced in death threat to Minnesota Rep. Omar TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — A federal judge sentenced a former Trump supporter to three years of probation and a $7,000 fine for sending an email threatening to kill Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota and three other congresswomen.

David George Hannon, 67, also must undergo mental and substance abuse treatment and have no contact with Omar or Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, according to a report in the Tampa Bay Times.

Hannon, who pleaded guilty in April to threatening a federal official, sent the email after the four Democratic lawmakers held a news conference in July 2019 in response to criticism from former President Donald Trump, who said they should “go back” to the “crime-infested places” from which they came.

“He was doing that because Trump told him to,” his daughter, Elizabeth Hannon Dillon, told the judge during the hearing on Wednesday.

“He was a Trump supporter and now he regrets it.”

This threat was “heinous and inappropriate in every regard,” U.S. District Judge Kathryn Kimball Mizelle said. “This sort of behavior has no place in our society.”

Sentencing guidelines

called for about 10 months in prison, but Mizelle noted that a probation officer recommended against prison time, along with Hannon’s expressions of remorse, lack of prior trouble, his age and health problems.

“I’m very, very sorry and very remorseful about my behavior that night,” Hannon said as he stood before the judge, stooped and trembling.

Hannon emailed Omar’s campaign with a subject line that read: “Your Dead You Radical Muslim,” writing that Omar should get more security or she and the other women would be “six feet under.”

Omar’s staff immediately notified federal agents, but the FBI didn’t visit Hannon at his Sarasota home until 19 months had passed and Trump was out of office.

Hannon admitted that he disparaged Omar’s Islamic faith, but the judge declined to apply a hate crime adjustment to Hannon’s sentence, which could have increased the sentencing guidelines.

“I do have remorse that I did target Ms. Omar,” Hannon said. “But I don’t have any hatred toward anyone whether their race, creed, color or nationality. This is the United States of America and whatever people do and say, they have a right to do that. But I had no right to write that email.”

I2H

Biden admin: Docs must offer abortion if mom’s life at risk

PAGE 6

Page 4 • July 18, 2022 - July 24, 2022 • Insight News

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Restoring trust in our public safety system is going to take a collaborative effort Ryan Winkler, House Majority Leader and Candidate for Hennepin County Attorney I am honored to have the opportunity to share my thoughts in this publication that has been such a pillar in the Minneapolis community. If we have not had an opportunity to meet each other, I’d like to share a bit about why I’m writing here.

I’m running to be the next Hennepin County Attorney.

People in our communities deserve to feel safe in their homes and neighborhoods, regardless of what part of Hennepin County they reside in. My job will be to work with you to build safety and justice in every community in our county by leading a team of the best prosecutors in Minnesota.

We’re in a difficult place. Gun-involved violence has been a generational problem in our cities, but in recent years, it has increasingly claimed the lives of many of our youth.

Children should not be unsafe in our communities, and parents

Moriarty From 3 won’t accept is that this country was built on the backs of Black people who were brought here against their will. The impact of that trauma carries on through generations. We have a huge problem in acknowledging that we white people still benefit from enslavement here. I also think we have the resources to have a positive impact in disenfranchised communities.

We need to stop falling into the trap of pitting people against

Chauvin From 3 His attorney, Eric Nelson, wrote in a request for a 20-year sentence late last month that Chauvin still “spends much of his time in solitary confinement, largely for his own protection.”

Nelson speculated that Chauvin may never be placed in a prison’s general population because of the risks of him becoming a target due to being a former officer and the “intense publicity surrounding his case.”

But outside experts say he’ll probably mix with other inmates at some point.

THE FEDERAL SYSTEM

Attorney’s office devotes too many resources to non-violent drug offenses, and not enough to violent crimes and sex crimes, which are much bigger threats to public safety.

People who have been pushed aside in Minnesota, including people

of color and members of the LGBTQ+ community, are disproportionately prosecuted for non-violent drug offenses while also being disproportionately victims of crime. This must end.

Creating a new model of public safety is my first

priority on Day One. We’ll build a system where violent criminals face consequences; one with a corrections system capable of delivering rehabilitation; one where all families are no longer afraid–of criminals or law enforcement.

For this to work, the

each other, she said.

When asked how she would assess the condition of the community, of our society, of our country, and how the overturning of Roe. Vs. Wade is just one of the bellwether issues pertaining to respect of freedom and the protected rights of individuals, especially women, she said we’re in a very critical time at so many levels. “We have a U.S. Supreme court that has taken a big step in removing the right to legalized abortion, but the right to abortion was based on a right to privacy and there are a bunch of other individual rights founded on that same premise.

We’ve been warned by the dissenters

and those who made the recent decision to control a woman’s body that they’re coming after our other rights, too, including contraceptives and same sex marriage. The gutting of the Miranda decision preventing illegal search and seizure went under the radar of other major decisions. The only right not under attack is the second amendment.”

She said Minnesota’s constitution protects abortion, but that could change if justices get challenged in elections and we get a Republican governor.

“As county attorney, I will not prosecute anyone for seeking reproductive health. I will not prosecute anybody who comes

here from another state. Attorney Keith Ellison and I both take the position that if somebody comes here from another state, we will not assist another state in having them go back to face any kind of prosecution or lawsuit.”

In addressing the subject of police accountability, Moriarty cites from the Human Rights report that prosecutors were having a hard time prosecuting cases because of the behavior of the police. “It’s imperative to be able to prosecute violent crimes when police do a good job investigating. I have an advantage having served as a public defender, having watched body cam and video, and police behavior for years. I’ve worked

with police. There are good police and then there are others who shouldn’t be on the force.

Several years ago, at a procedural justice training sponsored by an Obama national initiative, Moriarty sat with 20 police officers split among several discussion tables. She said, “the Chief Public Defender wanted to understand what police were doing and assess whether it was working or not.

There were three tables and right before the session got started, she was shocked to hear the highest-ranking officer said, ‘This is f_____b.s. and a waste of my f____ time.’ He attempted to sabotage every small table exercise the group

was assigned to do. At the end of the day, the facilitators asked the police, what are your goals for next year? The Lieutenant stood up and stated unapologetically, ‘I want to maintain the warrior mentality because that’s why I became a cop!’”

“We have an opportunity to define values around criminal issues. After the murder of George Floyd, we have an urgent call for change.

We must end the cycles of mass incarceration that have decimated communities of color and broken up far too many families,” Moriarty says.

The Bureau of Prisons determines where to send federal prisoners. Judges can make recommendations. But the decision about an inmate’s final placement and the appropriate security level is up to the bureau, which runs prisons across the country ranging from low-security camps to one “supermax” for the most dangerous offenders.

Bureau spokesman Scott Taylor declined to comment on Chauvin’s case specifically. But he said “a number of factors” go into placement decisions.

“Some of the factors include the level of security and supervision the inmate requires, any medical or programming needs, separation and security measures to ensure the inmate’s protection, and

other considerations including proximity to an individual’s release residence,” Taylor said.

Nelson wrote that Chauvin “has been preliminarily diagnosed with heart damage and is, therefore, like many exlaw enforcement officers, at greater risk of dying at a young age.”

But that’s just one factor the bureau could consider.

Another is the length of his sentence. Experts speculate that he’s likely to start in at least a medium-security facility.

“I’ve been in several federal prisons, including prison camps, and they are not country clubs,” said Mark Osler, a professor at University of St. Thomas School of Law. “But I would see it as every unlikely that he would initially be imprisoned at a camp or a ‘low’

classification prison. He’s much more likely to end up at a ‘high’ classification or a ‘medium.’”

There are gangs, for example.

And police officers just don’t do well there. Those risks are reduced in a federal prison.”

State prison populations are heavy on violent offenders, including people convicted of murder, robbery and rape, Heffelfinger said. Federal prisons also hold inmates with violent backgrounds, he added, but they’re more likely to house nonviolent drug dealers, whitecollar criminals and the like.

Assuming the bureau decides Chauvin is safe enough in the general population, he’ll have more chances to move about, to work and to participate in programming.

Those opportunities would vary with the security level and the individual facility.

Former South Carolina police Officer Michael Slager is serving a 20-year sentence for killing Walter Scott, an unarmed Black man who ran from a traffic stop. Slager, who is white, pleaded guilty to a federal civil rights charge for shooting Scott in the back five times in 2015 after stopping him for a broken brake light in an incident that, like Floyd’s death, was captured on widely seen bystander video.

Slager’s state murder charge was dropped as part of the federal plea deal. His lawyers said at the time that Slager wanted to be in federal custody where he felt he would be safer than in state prison.

Slager is serving his time in a low-security federal prison in Colorado.

Ryan Winkler

MN Abortion

INSIGHT NEWS www.insightnews.com Insight News is published weekly, every Monday by McFarlane Media Interests.

Editor-In-Chief Al McFarlane Publisher Batala-Ra McFarlane Associate Editor & Associate Publisher B.P. Ford Culture and Education Editor Dr. Irma McClaurin, PhD. Associate Editors Afrodescendientes Jesús Chucho Garcia Mestre Yoji Senna DaBahia Columnist Brenda Lyle-Gray Book Review Editor W.D. Foster-Graham Content & Production Manager Sunny Thongthi Yang Distribution/Facilities Manager Charles Royston Receptionist Lue B. Lampley Intern Naomi Thomson Photography Uchechukwu Iroegbu

African American community must be at the table from the very beginning when we are creating policies for the future of public safety. Too often, the African American community has been overpoliced and excluded from decisions that impact their lives.

I’m committed to unraveling these racist practices.

We must have activists, clergy, educators and parents not only at the table when making these plans, but on my team helping to inform my day-to-day decisions and their impact. That is how I have led for the last 16 years as a public official, and how I’ll continue to lead.

If we truly want safety for all, it will take leaders who make the effort to step outside of the four walls in downtown Minneapolis and actually hear from and listen to the people we represent. It’s the only way to build a community that feels safe, and I’m already working to build those partnerships across Hennepin County. I am asking you to be a partner in creating the community we want, and for your support in the August 9th primary.

should not have to fear for their children each day.

As we struggle to find answers for what we’re seeing in neighborhoods all across our county and particularly in Minneapolis, we are also dealing with systemic issues in our justice system – the system that is supposed to keep us safe.

We have so much work to do to break down the barriers of generational prejudice in our justice system.

Since 2019, as Majority Leader of the Minnesota House of Representatives, I have built a coalition of legislators, racial justice advocates, and local officials to pass a historic cannabis legalization bill through the state House, which included a nationleading criminal expungement policy for non-violent cannabis offenders. I’ve also strongly supported legislation to fight racial discrimination in our criminal justice system, promote public safety, and improve police accountability.

Minnesota has among the worst racial disparities in the nation. We can change these disparities by changing who is in charge. The County

Lou Michaels Roy Lewis - Washington D.C. Artist Donald Walker Contact Us: Insight News, Inc. Marcus Garvey House 1815 Bryant Ave. N. Minneapolis. 55411 Ph.: (612) 588-1313 Fax: (612) 588-2031 Member: Minnesota Multicultural Media Consortium (MMMC), Coalition, Inc. (MBPCI), National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA) Postmaster: Send address changes to McFarlane Media Interests, Marcus Garvey House 1815 Bryant Avenue North, Minneapolis,

From 3 hour waiting period to provide information to the patient about the risks of the procedure, the probable gestational age of the fetus, the risks of carrying the pregnancy to term, and fetal pain. The laws also required disclosure about welfare benefits that might be available for prenatal care, childbirth and

SAFETY ISSUES If Chauvin were in the general population of a Minnesota state prison, he’d be at risk of running into inmates he had arrested or investigated when he was a Minneapolis officer, said Rachel Moran, another law professor at St. Thomas. While he can’t totally escape his notoriety in a federal prison elsewhere, she said, he’s unlikely to encounter inmates with such a direct, personal grudge.

“It’s dangerous to be an officer in any prison,” former U.S. Attorney Tom Heffelfinger said. “It’s even more dangerous in state prison because of the nature of the inmate population. neonatal care, and that the father would be liable for child support.

The ruling means that no parental consent is needed for a minor to get an abortion in Minnesota. Gilligan noted that minors had been otherwise free to make their own reproductive and other health care decisions in the state, without notifying a parent.

Opponents of abortion rights condemned the decision as judicial activism. Speaking to reporters, Republican attorney

A POSSIBLE PRECEDENT? general candidate Jim Schultz called on Democratic Attorney General Keith Ellison to appeal the ruling and accused him of failing in his duty to aggressively to defend state laws that were adopted by the Legislature.

“They went about the defense of these statutes in a half-hearted manner because Keith Ellison, as always, puts his personal beliefs above Minnesota law,” Schultz said.

While Ellison is an abortion rights supporter, he

Become a Scholar Coach! bit.ly/ScholarCoachMN

acknowledged previously that his office had an obligation to defend the restrictions.

“My team and I are reviewing the 140-page decision and are beginning to consult with our clients about any next steps,” the attorney general said in a statement. “It’s clear Judge Gilligan, who has had this case for three years, has put much thought into this decision that he clearly did not take lightly.”

The state’s largest anti-abortion group, Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life, also condemned the ruling.

“The laws challenged in this case are common sense measures that support and empower pregnant women,” MCCL said in a statement.

“Today’s ruling striking them down is extreme and without a foundation in the Minnesota Constitution.

It blocks Minnesotans from enacting reasonable protections for unborn children and their mothers.”

But groups behind the lawsuit said the ruling will benefit patients from restrictive states who are now expected to come to Minnesota.

“With abortion bans in half the country set to take effect in the coming weeks and months, it is more important than ever to leverage protections in state constitutions like Minnesota’s,” Amanda Allen, senior counsel and director at the Lawyering Project, said in a statement. “Minnesota has the chance to be a safe place for people amidst this national public health crisis.”

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Insight News • July 18, 2022 - July 24, 2022 • Page 5

Afrodescendientes

Francia Marquez and Gustavo Petro

Change for life:

Insight News refreshes it multilingual, multinational outreach to the African diaspora with a new column by Venezuelan intellectual, diplomat author and activist, Jesús Chucho Garcia. Former Twin Cities technologist and Capoeira master joins the team translating the articles from Spanish to Portuguese. With the possibility of adding Somali, Yoruba and French translation, Insight News, through insightnews.com is exploring the idea of transending boundaries locally and globally in creating conversations that reflect the connectivity of African people worldwide.

AfroColombianos AfroColombians Reconstruir la esperanza Rebuilding Hope Por Jesús Chucho Garcia (Desde Bogota Colombia) Aqui, el próximo 7 de agosto el presidente electo Gustavo Petro y la vicepresidenta afrocolombiana Francia Marquez iniciaran un proceso de cambio en unos de los paise mas violento y racista de Suramérica.

Después de Brasil, Colombia es el país con mayor población de origen africanos subsaharianos de America del Sur. Se calcula que la población afrocolombiana están alrededor de quince millones de habitantes, los cuales en su mayoría están en pobreza casi absoluta. La mayoría de la población colombiana esta ubicada en el área del pacifico y del Caribe. La ciudad con mayor población afrocolombiana en el sector urbano esta ubicada en la ciudad de Cali.

La historia de las y los afrocolombianos, desde que fueron secuestrados de Africa para explotarles sus inteligencias y fuerza de trabajo, jamás han dejado de luchar contra las diferentes formas de opresión, racismo, patriarcalismo y discriminación a que fueron sometidos por el sistema capitalista colonial y contemporáneo.

El levantamiento del cimarrón Benkos Bioho y la creación de su palenque libre, conocido como Palenque de San Basilio, ubicado cerca de Cartagena de indias, fue el mayor ejemplo de irreverencia y luz de esperanza durante el siglo XVII en el antiguo Virreinato de Santa Fe. La participación afrocolombiana en el proceso de guerra de independencia, liderizado por Simón Bolívar con apoyo de Haiti, es indiscutible, pues sin su presencia no hubiese sido posible.

Es largo y sostenido el proceso histórico afrocolombiano, quienes lograron en el año 1993 la Ley de comunidades Negras de donde se desprendieron entre otros sus derechos a las tierras, sus derechos a tener circuitos electorales afrocolombianos para escoger sus candidatos y candidatas para el Congreso Nacional, Consejos comunitarios, entre otros derechos políticos.

Al cumplirse 20 años

de la Ley 70 de Comunidades negras, las y los afrocolombianos se autoconvocaron para un Congreso en la ciudad de Quibdo en el mes de agosto del año 2013 bajo el lema africano Bantu …

Ubuntu…¨soy porque somos¨.

Ese fue el Primer congreso nacional del pueblo afrocolombiano, negro y maizal (Caribe). La hoja de ruta de ese congreso afrocolombiano estuvo marcada por lo ellos denominan Consulta Previa, la cual es mecanismo legal frente a las decisiones del gobierno central que puedan afectar a las comunidades afrocolobianas.

El gobierno nacional debe hacer consulta previa para los proyectos de Ley de Tierra y desarrollo rural, Ley de corporaciones autónomas regionales, Ley del Código Minero y ley de acciones afirmativas. Hans transcurrido casi diez años de ese honorable Congreso Afrocolombiano.

Antes de ese Congreso, las y los afrocolombianos sufrieron muchos desplazamientos debido a los conflictos armados entre el ejercito nacional, el ejercito de las drogas y el ejercito paramilitar, el numero de líderes y ligerezas afrocolombianos se calcula en mas de 200 asesinados y desaparecidos.

Para las pasadas elecciones las y los afrodescendientes en su diversidad de movimientos y con la agenda del Congreso realizado en Quito en el año 2013, decidieron incorporarse al Pacto Histórico liderizado por Gustavo Pero, llevando como formula vicepresidencias a la afrocolombiana, activista y abogada, Francia Marquez Mina. Francia todos los medio de comunicación y redes sociales a nivel mundial, la señalan como una mujer combativa quien a sufrido atentado para asesinarla por oponerse a los proyectos mineros extractivos que han afectado las comunidades. En la reciente campaña electoral de Colombia, el sistema racista colombiano.e internacional la subestimaron pues su discurso era tan claro como el agua, recogía las aspiraciones de los ¨sin nadie¨, no solo de las y los afrocolombianos, sino también de los indigenas y blancos empobrecidos. La Ganadora del premio Goldman, una especie de premio Nobel ambientalista (2018).

By Jesús Chucho Garcia Translated to English

by Al McFarlane (Bogota, Colombia) –Here in Colombia, South America, this coming August 7, PresidentElect Gustavo Petro and Vice-President Elect, Francia Marques will begin a process of change in one of the most violent and racist countries in South America.

After Brazil, Colombia has the largest sub-Saharan Africa origin population in South America.

The Afro Colombian population is estimated at about 15 million, the majority of whom live in absolute poverty. Most are located in the areas along the Pacific and Caribbean coasts. The city of Cali has the largest urban Afro Columbian population.

The history of Afro Colombians, from when they were stolen from Africa for exploitation of their minds and their labor, is one of the never ending fight against oppression in its varying forms… the racism, patriarchy, and discrimination that they were subject to under colonial and contemporary capitalism.

The rise of the Cimarron Menkos Bioho and his creation of the free village known as Palenque de San Basilio, located near Cartagena de Indias, was the best example of resistance against the slave system, and, the light of hope in the old Viceroyalty of Santa Fe during the 17th century.

Afro Colombian participation in Colombia’s War of Independence led by Simon Bolivar with help from Haiti is indisputable. Without their presence it would not have succeeded.

The Afro-Colombian history of struggle is long and sustained, achieving in 1993 The Law of Black Communities, which led to rights to land ownership, rights to have Afro Colombian electoral districts for choosing local candidates and candidates for National Congress and community councils, among other rights.

In August 2013, 20 years after passage of Law 70 (Law of the Blacks/Ley de Negritudes) , Afro Colombians convened a congress in Quibdo under the Bantu African theme

“Ubuntu: “I am because we are.”

This was the first National Congress of Afro Colombian people, Black and Carib. The roadmap for the Afro Colombian Congress was guided by what was called Prior Consultation, which was a legal mechanism dealing with central government decisions that could affect Afro Colombian communities. The national government projects had to have prior review under laws which covered land and rural development, law regarding autonomous regional corporations, laws covering mining laws and the affirmative action law. Almost 10 years have passed since the highly regarded Afro Colombian Congress.

Before the Congress, Afro-Colombians suffered displacement due to armed conflicts between the national army, drug cartel armies, and paramilitary armies. It is estimated that between them, over 200 Afro Colombian leaders were assassinated and/ or disappeared.

In past elections, Afro Colombians in their diversity of movements and following the agenda of the Afro Colombian Congress established in Quito in 2013, created the historical pact lead by Gustavo Petro, who selected for his vice president running mate, the Afro Colombian activist and lawyer, Francia Marquez. Marquez brought media communications and social networks on a global level, signaling that she was a woman warrior despite suffering attempts to assassinate her because she opposed mineral extraction projects which have affected the community.

In the recent Colombian electoral campaign, racist Colombian and international systems underestimate Pero and Marquez even though their statements were as clear as water, transparent, reflecting aspirations that left no one behind… not only Afro Colombians, but also of Indigenous populations and poor whites.

Francia Marques was a 2018 Goldman Environmental Prize winner, a kind of environmental Nobel Prize awarded because she organized the Afro-Colombian women of her native La Toma to stop illegal gold mining.

AfroColombianos RECONSTRUINDO A ESPERANÇA Por Jesús Chucho Garcia Translated to Portuguese

by Mestre Senna DaBahia (Bogotá Colômbia) - Aqui, no dia 7 de agosto, o presidente eleito Gustavo Petro e a vicepresidente afro-colombiana Francia Marquez iniciarão um processo de mudança em um dos países mais violentos e racistas da América do Sul. Depois do Brasil, a Colômbia é o país com a maior população de origem da África subsaariana na América do Sul. Estima-se que a população afrocolombiana seja de cerca de quinze milhões de habitantes, a maioria dos quais vive em pobreza quase absoluta.

A maioria da população colombiana está localizada na área do Pacífico e do Caribe. A cidade com a maior população afro-colombiana no setor urbano está localizada na cidade de Cali.

A história dos afrocolombianos, desde que foram sequestrados da África para explorar sua inteligência e força de trabalho, nunca deixou de lutar contra as diferentes formas de opressão, racismo, patriarcalismo e discriminação a que foram submetidos pelo sistema colonial e capitalista contemporâneo.

A revolta do quilombola Benkos Bioho e a criação de seu palenque (quilombo)livre, conhecido como Palenque de San Basilio, localizado perto de Cartagena das Índias, foi o maior exemplo de irreverência e luz de esperança durante o século XVII no antigo vice-reinado de Santa Fé.

A participação afrocolombiana no processo de guerra da independência, liderado por Simón Bolívar com o apoio do Haiti, é indiscutível, pois sem sua presença não teria sido possível.

O processo histórico afro-colombiano é longo e sustentado, aqueles que alcançaram em 1993 a Lei das Comunidades Negras da qual, entre outros, seus direitos à terra, seus direitos a ter circuitos eleitorais afro-colombianos para escolher seus candidatos ao Congresso Nacional, Conselhos comunitários, entre outros direitos políticos.

No 20º aniversário da Lei 70 das Comunidades

Negras, os afro-colombianos convocaram um Congresso na cidade de Quibdo em agosto de 2013 sob o lema africano Bantu…Ubuntu…¨Sou porque somos¨.

Esse foi o primeiro congresso nacional do povo afro-colombiano, negro e maizal (Caribe). O roteiro desse congresso afro-colombiano foi marcado pelo que eles chamam de Consulta Prévia, que é um mecanismo legal contra decisões do governo central que podem afetar as comunidades afro-colombianas. O governo nacional deve fazer consulta prévia para os projetos da Lei de Terras e desenvolvimento rural, Lei das corporações autônomas regionais, Lei do Código de Mineração e lei de ações afirmativas. Quase dez anos se passaram desde aquele honroso Congresso Afro-Colombiano.

Antes desse Congresso, os afro-colombianos sofreram muitos deslocamentos devido aos conflitos armados entre o exército nacional, o exército do narcotráfico e o exército paramilitar, o número de líderes afro-colombianos e frivolidades é estimado em mais de 200 assassinados e desaparecidos.

Nas últimas eleições, os afrodescendentes em sua diversidade de movimentos e com a agenda do Congresso realizado em Quito em 2013, decidiram aderir ao Pacto Histórico liderado por Gustavo Pero, liderando a afro-colombiana, ativista e advogada Francia Márquez, como vice-presidente.

A França, todos os meios de comunicação e redes sociais do mundo, a apontam como uma mulher combativa que sofreu uma tentativa de assassinato por se opor aos projetos extrativistas de mineração que afetaram as comunidades. Na recente campanha eleitoral na Colômbia, o sistema racista colombiano e internacional a subestimou porque seu discurso era claro como água, refletia as aspirações do “João ninguém”, não apenas dos afro-colombianos, mas também dos indígenas. brancos empobrecidos. O vencedor do Prêmio Goldman, uma espécie de Prêmio Nobel ambientalista (2018).

Page 6 • July 18, 2022 - July 24, 2022 • Insight News

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SHOW ADDED BY POPULAR DEMAND! photo/Jose Luis Magana

Abortion-rights demonstrators shout slogans after tying green flags to the fence of the White House during a protest to pressure the Biden administration to act and protect abortion rights, in Washington, Saturday, July 9, 2022.

Biden admin: Docs must offer abortion if mom’s life at risk

By Zeke Miller Associated Press

1010 Nicollet Mall Minneapolis, MN

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration on Monday told hospitals that they “must” provide abortion services if the life of the mother is at risk, saying federal law on emergency treatment guidelines preempts state laws in jurisdictions that now ban the procedure without any exceptions following the Supreme Court’s decision to end a constitutional right to abortion.

The Department of Health and Human Services cited requirements on medical facilities in the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA). The law requires medical facilities to determine whether a person seeking treatment may be in labor or whether they face an emergency health situation — or one that could develop into an emergency — and to provide treatment.

“If a physician believes that a pregnant patient

presenting at an emergency department is experiencing an emergency medical condition as defined by EMTALA, and that abortion is the stabilizing treatment necessary to resolve that condition, the physician must provide that treatment,” the agency’s guidance states.

“When a state law prohibits abortion and does not include an exception for the life of the pregnant person — or draws the exception more narrowly than EMTALA’s emergency medical condition definition — that state law is preempted.”

The department said emergency conditions include “ectopic pregnancy, complications of pregnancy loss, or emergent hypertensive disorders, such as preeclampsia with severe features.”

“It is critical that providers know that a physician or other qualified medical personnel’s professional and legal duty to provide stabilizing medical treatment to a patient who presents to the emergency department and is found to

have an emergency medical condition preempts any directly conflicting state law or mandate that might otherwise prohibit such treatment,” HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra wrote in a letter to health care providers.

The department says its guidance doesn’t reflect new policy, but merely reminds doctors and providers of their existing obligations under federal law.

“Under federal law, providers in emergency situations are required to provide stabilizing care to someone with an emergency medical condition, including abortion care if necessary, regardless of the state where they live,” said Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Administrator Chiquita Brooks-LaSure. “CMS will do everything within our authority to ensure that patients get the care they need.”

For AP’s full coverage of the Supreme Court ruling on abortion, go to https://apnews. com/hub/abortion

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Insight News • July 18, 2022 - July 24, 2022 • Page 7

Aesthetically It

A Jamaican living in Spain

Novelist Zedde focuses on Black lesbian romance Sharing Our Stories

By: W.D. Foster-Graham Book Review Editor Femme Like Her

by Fiona Zedde In the lesbian community, there has been an unspoken expectation down through the years—as couples go, butches pair off with femmes. Butches don’t do other butches, and femmes don’t do other femmes. For this installment of Pride Month, Fiona Zedde’s Femme Like Her changes the dynamic.

Jamaican-born femme Nailah Grant is waiting for the axe to fall on her job at a healthcare company in Atlanta as a result of a corporate takeover. She is often dealing with best friend Pauline’s poor taste in girlfriends. Having been burned by her toxic love interest Raven and losing a friend in stud sistah Chance, she holds fast to the position “I don’t do femmes”—until she meets bi femme sistah Naima “Scottie” Scott, who takes charge and sweeps her off her feet in heated passion.

Their meeting is followed by texts and phone calls. Nailah is captivated

by Scottie’s confidence and assertiveness, qualities that she lacks. Their steamy first date, however, comes to an abrupt end

with Scottie ghosting Nailah, leaving her bewildered and hurt.

Nailah’s parents, though they accept and embrace her as a lesbian, are now wondering about her nonexistent love life to date; with her older brother Glen’s upcoming wedding, they are looking for her to bring a girlfriend as a plus-one.

Two months later, another chance meeting with Scottie while out lunching with Pauline reunites Nailah and Scottie, and their romance is hotter than ever. Nailah’s parents welcome Scottie. However, Scottie still has a few secrets up her sleeve…

Will Nailah recognize how she’s been blocking her pathways to true love and success? Will Scottie open up and allow herself to be vulnerable?

In addition to Nailah and Scottie’s love story, I

loved Zedde’s points about the importance of communication between partners. The message is clear: never judge a person before you get to know them.

Their discussion about the homophobic environment in Jamaica is poignant. I also loved her attention to scents and taste throughout the story, further engaging my senses as a reader.

Zedde was born in Jamaica and is currently living in Spain. She has published 30 novels, most about Black lesbian romance. Two of her novels, Bliss and Dangerous Pleasures, were finalists in the Lambda Literary Awards.

Femme Like Her is available through Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Red Hills Publishing.

Thank you, Fiona, for sharing your story and showing once again that, at the end of the day, love wins. Sometimes, it means getting out of own way.

Bestselling Books for May/June

By Troy Johnson, Founder & Webmaster, AALBC.com Paid subscriptions, book purchases, suggestions, engagement on the site, social sharing, advertisements, and feedback help support African American Literature Book Club’s (AALBC) mission of celebrating Black culture through books.

Here are excerpts from our AALBC.com eNewsletter – July 13, 2022 Issue #363 Our bestsellers list has been published continuously since 1998 and is the most visible list focused on Black Books in existence. Spread the word about our list; don’t let one or two lists, we don’t control, determine which books are important.

Fiction: Sales were led by preorders for Running to Fall: A Novel written by Kalisha Buckhanon and published

by AALBC Publishing (Sept 6, 2022) Essence magazine selected Running to Fall for their “18 New Books We Can’t Wait To Read This Summer” list.

Nonfiction: The Enneagram for Black Liberation: Return to Who You Are Beneath the Armor You Carry by Chichi Agorom was the #1 bestselling fiction book. It was followed by the 2022 Pulitzer Prize winning memoir, Chasing Me to My Grave: An Artist’s Memoir of the Jim Crow South by Winfred Rembert.

Children’s Books: Sailing Commitment Around the World with Captain Bill Pinkney is the top book in the children’s category. Written by Captain Bill Pinkney with illustrations

by Pamela C. Rice, the picture

book for early readers tells the story of Captain Pinkney’s historic solo sail around the world in 1990.

Poetry: Collections by Mariahadessa Ekere Tallie, Ai Ogawa, Langston Hughes, and Nikki Giovanni make our list this period and ensure there is poetry everyone can enjoy AALBC Book Review Under the Skin: The Hidden Toll of Racism on American Lives and on the Health of Our Nation by Linda Villarosa “Since the first African enslaved men, women, and children reached American shores, there has been a Blackwhite divide in who survives, how they live, and who dies, from birth to end of life,” the author writes. “Despite decades of social, economic, and educational progress and what

has unquestionably been the rise of a robust Black middle class, racial disparities have remained intact. Yes, something about being Black is creating a health crisis, and that something is racism. It is the American problem in need of an American solution.”

Dr. Freeman said to look deeper, and Villarosa does this to startling effect, beginning with the tragic fate of the Reif sisters, who were taken from their Montgomery, Alabama home in 1973 and sterilized by a government clinic. It didn’t matter that Minnie Lee Rief was 14 or that her younger sister, Mary Alice, was 12.

They couldn’t read or write.

The author further adds that about 100,000 to 150,000 poor women, mostly Black, were sterilized with government programs over decades.

Page 8 • July 18, 2022 - July 24, 2022 • Insight News

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