22 minute read
From The Editor “Shot of Faith”
T"he fears are paper tigers. You can do anything you decide to do." This quote from Amelia Earhart begins the 12th chapter of Simone Biles' 2016 New York Times bestselling autobiography "Courage to Soar: A Body in Motion, A Life in Balance." Biles could not have had a better year in 2016 as she won individual gold medals in the all-around, floor and vault competitions, as well as a U.S. team gold medal at the Rio Olympics. Prior to the Rio Games, she became the first female gymnast to win three consecutive all-around World Championship titles. Biles had cemented her legacy in gymnastics as the GOAT, or Greatest of All Time, heading into Tokyo this summer with a total of 30 Olympic and World Championship medals, but when she pulled out of the team and individual all-around finals, her fiercest critics believed she had succumbed to paper tigers. In the minds of many, the GOAT isn't allowed to have an off-day, especially not on the global stage. Watching Biles just before her dismount stumble at the end of her vault routine, the pensive look on her face was an indication that something didn't feel right with her. She did not display the confident, gorgeous smile we've grown accustomed to seeing as she has dazzled us with difficult, stunning moves named after her by the International Gymnastics Federation. When Biles cited mental health issues as the reason for her withdrawal from competition, the country was shocked with bitter, polarizing reactions. Many folks were quick to condemn her on social media as "selfish," "a quitter" and "a national embarrassment." Some piled on even more vitriol, declaring that Biles and her generation are "soft" and claiming that they don't have the grit or gumption to tough it out when things aren't going their way. First, pretty much all of Biles' Twitter haters don't have the glorious distinction of being the best in the world at their craft and have never been elite gymnasts with the breathtaking skillset to defy gravity and nail a Yurchenko double pike vault. Secondly, the fact that so many dismiss mental health concerns as trivial pouting by young people is also troubling. Biles has shared in past interviews that she takes anti-anxiety medication. Not being in the right state of mind while competing in Tokyo could have resulted in a serious injury to herself, and she would have hindered her teammates who have also worked tirelessly to showcase their talents at the Olympics. Reading that Biles felt she had the "weight of the world" on her shoulders as the Olympics got underway, I thought about how she has referenced her faith as a rock of support in both good and bad times. In a 2017 CBN News interview, Biles talked about how her grandmother, Nellie Cayetano Biles, taught her how to pray and to acknowledge that God is the one who directs her life. "Some obstacles that we've had always work out for the better because God knows that without those you would not be as strong as you are," Biles said while reflecting on her disappointment in not making the U.S. Women's World Gymnastics team in 2011. I can't imagine the depth of distress Biles felt in making the decision not to continue in the all-around, but she centered most of her remarks to the media on the wellbeing of her teammates and not wanting to "risk the team a medal." Biles' comments were not surprising because in "Courage to Soar" she mentions how she has always prayed for the success of her teammates and that their Olympic dreams would come true. This is not the makeup of a selfish athlete. Biles' fans were holding out hope that she would compete in the individual event finals. I was really looking forward to seeing her floor exercise, my personal favorite, and her uneven bars routine. However, if Biles decides to call it a career, it is obvious that she does not mind passing the torch to the next rising gymnastics star. She'll be ready for the new chapter in her life, and as she continues to lean on her faith in God, paper tigers don't have a chance.
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Dr. Jessica A. Johnson is a lecturer in the English department at Ohio State University's Lima campus. Email her at smojc.jj@gmail.com. Follow her on Twitter: @JjSmojc.
From the Editor
ll of us have heard them–the reasons why
Asome of the people we know refuse to get vaccinated against the COVID-19 virus that has killed upwards of 600,000 Americans and is now entering a deadly fifth wave in L.A. County. Let’s recall just a few of them. My favorite is that the government is planting some kind of tracking system inside of us. Well, those of you who are worried about trackers shouldn’t be using cellphones, because that’s the easiest means the government has of knowing exactly where you are every minute of the day. They don’t need the vaccine for that. There are those who believe the vaccine is yet another medical experiment, the physical consequences of which may not be safe and have lasting and perhaps even deadly repercussions, much like the Tuskegee Study, which tricked 600 Black sharecroppers with the promise of free medical care only to never provide it in order for the U.S. Public Health Service and the CDC–to study how Syphilis would progress in untreated black males. The problem with that hypothesis is that doctors and health care professionals lined up first as did President Joe Biden, Vice-President Kamala Harris, the leadership of the CDC and many of those trusted celebrities and messengers you look up to. Even Trump, who made the vaccine a political nightmare with his missteps and misinformation about masking up as well as getting the vaccine, got the shot for himself. Not to mention the fact that rich white people were beating it down to Kedren in South L.A. to be among the first to take the shot, doing whatever they could to jump the lines. My personal favorite are those people who say they question what’s in it. All of a sudden everyone’s a doctor. Those same people don’t question what’s put in their bodies if they’re rushed to the hospital after having been in an accident. The truth of the matter is that something as simple as aspirin is deadly to some and in fact, more dangerous chemicals can probably be found in what we eat, which is the source of the cancer, hypertension and diabetes that is killing our people almost as much as COVID. In fact, the people who said they didn’t want the vaccine because they didn’t trust what was in it, don’t seem to care what shot they have to take when they’re hospitalized with COVID and are about to be put on a ventilator. At that point, what’s in the vaccine is inconsequential to them. All they know is that they wish they’d had the vaccine only to be told by attending medical professionals, it was too late for them to get it. In one of the saddest COVID outcomes I personally am aware of, a very talented friend of mine in his early fifties lost his life to COVD after his son–who has unknowingly been infected with COVID-19 returned home from college only to pass it on to his sister his Mom and tragically, his Dad. But the story doesn’t end there. In the months that followed, the son committed suicide and I can’t imagine the heartache that mother felt to have lost her husband to COVID and her son to the burden of guilt his Dad’s death brought. If only a vaccine had been available to them. Unfortunately, my friend died in the early days of the pandemic before any of the vaccines were approved for emergency use. The latest projections are that the current surge could last through the fall–peaking in mid-October accompanied by a hard-hitting flu season, with more and more children and young adults among those being hospitalized and dying. Last week, two of the people I know were among the latest fatal statistics. The sad part is their deaths were totally preventable. Over the last three months, I have been privileged to have been part of the “Shot of F a i t h Campaign” which partnered with faith leaders to do town halls across the state to answer the questions of those who were hesitant and or reluctant to become vaccinated. What we found was that many people just needed more of their questions answered and to know more about how the vaccines were developed and just how safe or effective they truly are. The bottom line is not getting the vaccine is far more dangerous–and deadly–than getting vaccinated as proven by the most recent numbers revealing that 99% of the recent COVID-19 deaths and hospitalizations are among the unvaccinated. If you haven’t been vaccinated, I urge you to get your questions answered so that you can make a more informed decision and consider safeguarding your loved ones as well as those around you who may be medically unable to get the vaccine or are more vulnerable to the COVID-19 virus. For the rest of you, perhaps mandates are the answer to ending this nightmare and a spiraling health crisis that is creative havoc and impacting nearly every facet of our everyday lives. Be careful out there and… Keep the faith. LISA COLLINS Publisher
Secretary of State Shirley Weber Urges Californians to Vote in Upcoming Recall Election
ANTONIO RAY HARVEY
CA Black Media
California Secretary of State Shirley Weber says all registered Californians should vote in the special election to recall California Gov. Gavin Newsom. It is scheduled for Sept. 14. “This is an extremely important election,” said Weber, who said she comes from a family of sharecroppers in Arkansas. Her family migrated to California when she was three years old. “My grandparents on my father’s side never had a chance to vote because they died before 1965 when the Voting Rights Act was passed,” she said. “We understand why it’s important to vote but we also understand what happens to communities when they don’t vote. We have to understand the positives of voting and also the negative impacts of not voting.” Weber is California’s first African American Secretary of State and the fifth Black person to serve as a constitutional officer in the state’s 170-year history. She said working as president of the San Diego Board of Education and serving four terms in the state Assembly after that showed her how elected officials can dismiss communities when they know that they don’t vote. Weber was speaking at a news briefing organized by Ethnic Media Services last week. During the virtual news conference, Weber shared details of how her office has been planning for the special elections, including making sure that every Californian will be mailed a ballot. Counties across the state will start sending them out in mid-August. On the day of the special election, Weber said, polls will open at 7 pm and close at 8 pm. Voters will also be able to track their ballots via email or text messages by registering at wheresmyballot.sos.cagov. Weber said the recall election ballot will ask two questions: Do the voters want to recall Newsom, and if so, who do they want to replace the governor. If 50% or more of voters cast no votes on the first question, Newsom stays on as governor. If 50% or more say yes, then he will be recalled and replaced by one of 46 candidates on the ballot who has the most votes. Weber said planning the special election has been challenging, but her team has been effective and thorough. “What I inherited in the Secretary of State’s office is a group of people who really know elections,” Weber told California Black Media. “I’ve just been in awe of what they do. They have a system and they have it down pact. The last election was a good training ground for them to deal with absentee ballots, ballot boxes, and things that we’ve known would work but could never implement because people we’re hesitant about it. That is one thing that I know for sure that takes place in the Secretary of State Office: We know elections.” Along with its elections duties and to safeguard the state’s official documents, including the constitution and Great Seal, and the state archives, the Secretary of State office also registers businesses, commissions notaries public, and manages state ballot initiatives. Each of California’s 58 counties oversees its own elections but Weber’s office sets the stage and regulations to ensure the counties have the tools to function properly and efficiently. Weber meets with each county Voter Registration and Elections office each month. She learned when she took office in January that local election officials have been ahead of the process. Weber said, “this whole reality of elections is their life” and not something is done one time each year. “They were prepared for the recall before the recall was called,” Weber said during the virtual news conference. “They are not the type to sit around and wait until July 1 and jump up and say we have to have an election. They have been preparing all along in terms of staffing, what they would do, and their plans to implement the election,” she added. “They are in the process of setting up voting centers, polls and mailing out the ballots. They know it’s (recall elecWeber continued to page 20
Waters Demands Probe Into L.A. Sheriff’s Dept Executioners’ Gang
ongresswoman Maxine Waters, Chairwoman of the House Committee on Financial Services, is calling on U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland to take immediate action in directing the U.S. Department of Justice to look into the reports of a rogue, violent gang of law enforcement officers, who call themselves the “Executioners,” and operate within the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department (LASD). In a letter directed to Garland, Waters wrote: “I write to ask that the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) take immediate action to address the reported existence of a rogue, violent gang of law enforcement officials, who call themselves the “Executioners,” operating within the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department (LASD), specifically the LASD Compton station. “…an LASD deputy provided sworn testimony identifying more than a dozen deputies with matching tattoos symbolizing their association with the Executioners gang… Deputies at the LASD Compton Station reportedly “chase ink”, a slang term for a deputy who attempts to win favor with the Executioners by committing violent acts in hopes of receiving the group tattoo denoting gang membership.”
“The gang allegedly sets illegal arrest quotas, threatens and harasses fellow deputies, and holds parties after shootings, called ‘998 parties,’ which are in part a celebration that a new deputy will be inked by the gang,”
Waters continued. “The tattoos worn by the police gang reportedly feature Nazi imagery… In disturbing evidence of the violence perpetrated against the Los Angeles community by the LASD gang, the whistleblower identified the two deputies responsible for the death of Andres Guardado, a Gardena, California teenager killed by police on June 18, 2020, as members of the Executioners…The killing of Andres Guardado is not the only example of the LASD’s excessive and brutal tactics in the Los Angeles community. On August 31, 2020, LASD deputies fatally shot Dijon Kizzee in South Los Angeles.” Waters said that her concerns extended beyond the Sheriff’s Department, but to a troubling pattern of police associating with militant groups nationwide, citing four San Jose police officers who were suspended after participating in a racist Facebook group and an Orange County officer caught wearing patches affiliated with a white supremacist group. “There exists a clear pattern and practice of LASD deputies affiliating with white supremacist, militant police gangs, with the Executioners being the only the latest example,” Waters asserted. “According to ABC News, right wing extremist police gangs that have operated within LASD and other Los Angeles County law enforcement agencies include: the Executioners, the Vikings, the Regulators, the Jump Out Boys, the 3000 Boys and the Banditos. Since the 1990s, there have been dozens of cases… related to [LASD deputy gangs that have led to nearly $55 million in court judgements and settlements.” Attorney John Sweeney–who won a $7 million lawsuit against L.A. County for the family of Donta Taylor, a 31-yearold Black man fatally shot by sheriff’s deputies in 2016–has been trying to raise the alarm on violent cliques in the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department for decades. “These deputy gangs do exist. My goal was to expose it to the world,” Sweeney told L.A. Focus in March. “And I knew that some decent people within the sheriff’s department would come forth and corroborate what I’ve been trying to prove for years.” Despite numerous allegations of deputy gangs revealed in the CBS report and various investigations, Sheriff Alex Villanueva has repeatedly denied the extent of a gang problem within the department, but at the same time says he has zero tolerance for deputy gangs. “Any employee who aligns with a clique or subgroup, which engages in any form of misconduct, will be held accountable. I do not want you joining these alleged cliques anymore,” Villanueva said in a video on the LASD’s website. His comments drew sharp rebuffs from Attorney Carl Douglas, who told L.A. Focus earlier this year that Villanueva is deliberately misleading the public about the troubling pattern within the L.A. County Sheriff’s and its welldocumented deputy gang problem. “Anyone who denies the existence of gangs within the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department, like Alex Villanueva, is presenting false information to the public for his own self-interest,” Douglas said. “He knows in his heart that gang culture is a serious problem
L.A. County COIVID Rates Continue to Soar Delta Variant Rages
Cases of COVID-19 continue to soar in L.A. County across the U.S., with more than 2,361 new cases reported at press on August 2 and the highly transmissible Delta variant accounting for increase. Hospitalizations have quadrupled since last month with 600% higher case rates among the unvaccinated than for those who are vaccinated. In introducing a motion last month to mandate vaccinations for all city employees, L.A. City Councilmember Mark Ridley-Thomas said, “Plain and simple - vaccinations are the only way out of this pandemic, and the City of Los Angeles must lead by example. Vaccines are the most effective way to prevent transmission and limit COVID-19 hospitalizations and deaths. If we want our economy to fully recover, if we want our children to be able to go to school without masks on, and if we want the most vulnerable members of our community to not end up in the hospital, we must all do our part. Voluntary efforts have proven to be insufficient to move beyond this pandemic, so it's time to think differently about our approach, and the City must lead as an example of what can and should be done.” The move signals a growing trend that officials fear could prolong the pandemic and the economics consequences that come with it. “Too many people have chosen to live with this virus,” California Gov. Gavin Newsom said. “We’re at a point in this pandemic where individuals’ choice not to get vaccinated is now impacting the rest of us, and in a profound and devastating and deadly way.”
White House Says $44 Billion Still Available to Avoid Evictions
STACY BROWN
NNPA Newswire House and Senate Democrats are looking to the White House to immediately act to stop evictions after the federal moratorium expired on July 31. But President Joe Biden said a recent Supreme Court ruling means the administration cannot unilaterally extend the moratorium. For his part, the President has called on state and local governments to resolve the problem. The White House said the American Rescue Plan provided $47 billion in rental assistance earlier this year, but states and localities have used just $3 billion. “We as a country have never had a national infrastructure or national policy preventing avoidable evictions,” American Rescue Plan Coordinator Gene Sperling responded in a White House briefing on Monday, August 2. “State and local governments must do more to help,” Sperling asserted. It’s not currently known just how many Americans face eviction, but leaders in the House and Senate have urged the White House to act. Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) said she believes about 11 million families are affected. “As they have called upon the American people to mask up, to be vaccinated and to take other public health precautions, it is critical, in recognition of this urgency, that they extend the eviction moratorium,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) stated in an August 2 letter to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “Putting people on the streets contributes to Evictions continued to page 20
Activists Running Out of Time In Efforts to Stop Crenshaw Mall Sale KISHA SMITH Staff
Pastor William Smart of the SCLC, Downtown Crenshaw co-founder Damien Goodmanand a host of other community leaders and groups have just a matter of days to stop the sale of the Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Mall to the Harridge Development Group in a deal that is set to close in mid-August. If successful, it would be the third time the community has thwarted the sale of what is a beloved cultural landmark. “We, the community, believe in our own self determinism,” said Pastor William Smart, President of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) Los Angeles. “We want to determine who builds in our community. We have the capacity to develop and operate this development. We say no to the current Baldwin Hills Mall bidder, Schwartzman. If he prevails, that mall, in the heart of the Black community, will be out of our hands.” “This is a community effort,” Smart continued. “The community does not want this deal. We want the sale stopped” For the last sixteen months, the mall has been the target of numerous outside white developers seeking to gentrify the Crenshaw community. The latest offer to purchase the mall comes from the Beverly Hills-based Harridge Development Group, led by CEO David Schwartzman, who Goodman maintains has a troubled history, and whose financial backer–a Sovietborn oil tycoon– has ties to Donald Trump and Vladmir Putin. “This is the third one–and the worst one,” Smart said of the latest development deal. “At a time when most businesses, sports and entertainment entities and governmental agencies are working towards improving diversity, equity and inclusion in their operations, Harridge Development Group appears to be moving in the opposite direction,” said Pastor William Smart, President of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) Los Angeles. “I am appalled by the lack of diversity at the Harridge Development Group and shocked that the bid to purchase the Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Mall had no Black ownership as part of the bid team's effort.” In their quest for self-determination, Downtown Crenshaw worked in tandem with the community to raise the funds necessary to make a competitive bid. “We submitted a fully financed offer and we’ve technically raised over $115 million which we’ve confirmed is higher than what Harridge has offered,” Goodman revealed. “The reason they don’t want to give us the opportunity to close is they’re not looking at this as a financial transaction. This is plain old systemic racism. At no point in this have we been treated fairly. Bottom line, it’s a group of white men who don’t want to see a Black group be in charge of the biggest development project in the city of Los Angeles.” At a recent press conference held, Just one week after having qualifying for the California recall ballot, conservative talk radio show and political firebrand, Larry Elder was leading the pack of 41 candidates seeking to replace Governor Gavin Newsom, should voters reject him on September 14. That’s according to a UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies survey co-sponsored with the Los Angeles Times, which found that 18% of likely voters favored Elder. "Larry Elder's entry into the recall election has increased interest and added an unexpected twist. Obviously, it is because of his huge name identification among conservatives and Republicans,” said Kerman Maddox of Dakota Communications, one of the city’s most respected public affairs consulting firms. “But this week, a senior citizen African American couple, who are lifelong Democrats, told me they were voting for Larry Elder. Democrat defections like this coupled with a low turnout and a lack of enthusiasm among some Democrats could make this election much closer than pundits think." Despite shelling out big bucks on TV ads, businessman John Cox and former San Diego Mayor Faulconer, tied at 10% behind Elder. Just 3% of those polled supported Caitlyn Jenner who made headlines when she announced her bid for Governor in April. Forty percent of those polled had not made up their minds about who they would vote for. The survey found that 47% of likely voters supported the recall while 50% opposed it. While the margin of support was higher among registered voters (51% to 36% to retain Newsom as governor), turnout will be key. Ballots will be mailed out on August 16 and are composed of two parts. The first–and most important–will ask voters to vote yes or no to the recall. If more than 50% of those who vote, say no, Gavin Newsom remains as Governor. The second question on the ballot is who voters select as a replacement for Newsom in the event that more than 50% vote yes to the recall. In that case the highest votegetter becomes the next governor of the state of California. And as Maddox points out, one doesn’t have to win by much. “People need to remember that any one of these candidates seeking to replace the Governor doesn’t have to get a certain threshold of votes. one could win the state’s highest elected office by the slimmest of margins, which is why it’s so important for people to be part of the process and vote.”
Crenshaw Mall continued to page 20
Larry Elder Tops List of Candidates Vying to Replace Newsom In September 14 Recall
